The Debriefing
Felipe sat in the armchair with his feet dangling over the armrest. The heat from the fire warmed the soles of his bare feet unpleasantly, but the sting kept him awake as he reread the original letter from the Aldorhaven case file and waited for Oliver to come back from meeting with Gwen in the library. If Felipe had only read the initial letter and not heard about the subsequent disappearances of the investigators from the New Jersey Branch, he would have taken the case in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, the missing investigators and the search party who fled after made it clear that whatever was in the town, whether it was of this world or not, did not want any of their kind there. Even if the head inspector only sent them to Aldorhaven to get the lay of the land before sending in a larger team, they would need to pack like they were going into battle, and Oliver wouldn’t like that.
Oliver. Felipe ran a hand across the stubble already sprouting along his jaw. He tried not to let his own strained relationship with his family color his feelings toward other people, but there had to be a reasonwhy his mother didn’t want her son being raised by her in-laws. It might have just been due to religious differences or perhaps his father’s family were too poor to afford another mouth to feed. There were a hundred reasons that weren’t necessarily nefarious, yet Felipe wanted to temper Oliver’s expectations without crushing him. Oliver, of all people, didn’t deserve to be treated poorly by people who didn’t truly know him. Hell, the entire family might be dead now for all they knew, which would be tragic but almost preferable. Dead people couldn’t hurt or disappoint you.
At the soft click of the apartment door opening, Felipe shimmied upright in time to see Oliver slip inside and kick off his shoes. His grey eyes slid over Felipe’s pajama-clad form with a smile before sweeping up to the new addition on the mantel. His mouth opened in silent surprise as he crossed the room and picked up the photograph.
“You framed my nana’s picture! I didn’t even see you take it.”
“Well, I wanted it to be a surprise. I thought we might put her picture next to Teresa’s.”
Setting the case notes on the end table, Felipe stood and wrapped his arms around Oliver’s chest as he stared down at the frame. His nana’s earnest yet no-nonsense expression was the same look he saw so often when Oliver was preoccupied with his work. Warmth bloomed in Felipe’s chest as he stared at his partner’s face. He had committed Oliver to memory in so many ways, but he wanted more. A photograph could be a dangerous thing in the wrong hands, but he wanted tangible evidence of their life together.
“One day we should get our portrait taken. I heard DeSanto is a budding photographer, and I’m sure he would be willing to give me the negatives.”
“I would like that.”
Felipe tipped his head up and caught Oliver’s mouth in a kiss. At the gentle press of Felipe’s tongue against his lips, Oliver’s free hand cinched around his partner’s waist. He had wanted to do this all day. When Oliver let out a low moan, Felipe pulled back enough to take the framed photograph from his grasp and set it on the mantle, facing thewall. Oliver raised a black brow, but before he could say anything, Felipe kissed him again but hard enough that Oliver staggered back. His lover’s eyes fluttered shut as he tightened his grip, pressing Felipe’s body flush against his own. The tether pulled taut beneath their hearts at the slip of Felipe’s tongue in his mouth and the slow slide of Oliver’s hand over his hips and backside.
Felipe pulled away to catch his breath when his eyes landed on the case file. A wicked grin crossed his lips at the frustrated noise that rose in Oliver’s throat as he stepped back. “I’ve been reading about the New Jersey case while you were gone.”
“Would it be terribly rude if I said I don’t care about the case right now?” Oliver replied as he struggled to unbutton his jacket with jittering fingers.
“A little,” Felipe whispered, rubbing his growing erection against Oliver’s hip as he kissed his shoulder and placed a soothing hand over his, “but only because I planned to tell you about it.”
“Now?”
“I don’t want to get distracted and forget.” Felipe lightly bit Oliver’s earlobe and was rewarded with a strained hiss. “I thought I could tell you what I know and see how far we can get before you aren’t paying attention to a single thing I’m saying. If you get through the whole thing, you’ll be rewarded. How’s that sound?”
“I— I don’t know if I canfocusfor very long.”
Felipe laughed against Oliver’s neck as he removed his tie. “We’ll see.”
Oliver shuddered at the brush of Felipe’s fingers over the buttons of his waistcoat. As Felipe slipped behind him, a wave of need so strong it caught his breath roiled between them. Felipe kissed along Oliver’s neck and shoulders, pausing at the pulsing hollow beneath his jaw. Oliver leaned into his touch, but when he tried to turn and reach for Felipe’s robe and pajamas, he lightly batted his hands away.
“Not yet, love,” Felipe said, wrapping a firm arm around Oliver’s middle to keep him in place. With the other, he untangled Oliver’s shirt from his trousers. “First, the case.”
Oliver let out a frustrated huff that turned into a gasp as Felipe skimmed his teeth along the tender flesh of his throat.
“Lewis Allen, the one who wrote to the Paranormal Society initially, owns an inn at the edge of Aldorhaven. If we go, he will put us up for however long we’re there. I don’t know if we’ll have one room or two, but if it’s two, I think we should still share a room for safety’s sake, among other things.”
“An inn. That’s far better than someone’s guestroom or having to drive in every day,” Oliver replied, his voice high and strained. “At least we’ll have some privacy.”
Flicking open the final buttons of Oliver’s shirt, Felipe drew the layers of fabric from his shoulders and tossed them onto the armchair. He ran an admiring hand over the pale planes of Oliver’s back and shoulders before kissing the length of his lover’s spine and mapping his ribs with the palm of his hand.His Oliver. In the months they had been together, Felipe had made certain to learn every inch of him. Even in darkness, he could recognize the veins of his hands or the crest of his hip, but the tether had given him so much more. To know the beat of his lover’s heart or the ebb and flow of his feelings was an intimacy few could fathom, yet now, he could hardly imagine a time when he wasn’t privy to Oliver’s inner world or to the taste and smell of his skin.
Standing nearly naked in the flickering hearth light, Oliver was achingly alive and all his. Felipe kissed and licked the sensitive skin of Oliver’s back in slow circles as he let his hand follow the trail of dark hair down his lover’s stomach and onto the front of his trousers. Oliver shuddered and trembled, biting back a curse at his touch. A sly smile crossed Felipe’s lips. Oliver was already so hard, and he had barely started.
“Mr. Allen also said that it wasn’t until the last few years that the dead had risen to go after people. They thought it was a one time thing, but when it happened again and then a third and fourth time even closer together, he grew worried and decided to reach out to the Paranormal Society for help since no one in town could stop it. It sounds like we are a last resort.”
“A one time thing!” Oliver cried. “The dead rising isn’t something you can simply ignore when—”
The words died in his throat as Felipe slid beneath Oliver’s waistband and wrapped a hand around his cock. “I know, love, but it is a murder town. There’s a different threshold for normalcy.”
Oliver bucked against his grasp but caught himself and flattened against Felipe’s chest when his hand stopped moving. Across the tether, Felipe could feel Oliver’s pulse pounding with desperation and want.
After a few long seconds, Oliver realized Felipe wasn’t going to stroke him again until he spoke. “What else did he say?”
“It was more what he didn’t say. It felt like he was holding back information, but I don’t know why. He mentions things happening in the graveyard, that they’ve sequestered the dead, and something called the Dysterwood, which I assume is a local name for the Pine Barrens, but he doesn’t elaborate on what was going on in either.” With his free hand, Felipe untied his bathrobe and let it fall open. “I expected the letter to be fairly specific as to what sorts of phenomenon they were dealing with, but the head inspector was right, I can’t tell if it’s a whole lot of nothing or a supernatural problem. Mr. Lewis said someone was ‘attacked’ but didn’t explain how. Same with the person who was killed.”
