Corbin glared at me. “Beggars can’t be choosers, boyo.” He sat his arse down on the floor between some metal racks, and Jamie flopped in the middle aisle while the man who’d been driving the truck closed the door and put us in darkness. It was hot, and I didn’t want to sit because my body ached. The light on Aspen’s phone turned on, and he glanced up at me, patting his lap.
Grumbling under my breath about the heat, I sat down on the floor right where I was instead, then peeled off my nitrile gloves and tossed them.
Jamie snickered. “Who’s callin’ the boss and telling him all about it?”
“Oh, feck it, I will.” I dragged out my phone.
Thankfully Sloan was in a good mood when I put him on speaker. “Three tigers escaped?” Sloan asked, absolutely delighted. “I hope they try very hard to search for the owner.”
“Christ, I almost pissed myself. They were massive,” Jamie said with a laugh. “I’ve never seen anything like that in real life.”
Sloan chuckled. “Tricky. An excellent deterrent for the men in the building. Very clever.” He sounded almost as happy as he was irritated. “I’m sure the handlers were the ones who could access the drugs.”
“Yeah, it was great,” Aspen deadpanned, and everyone, including Sloan, laughed at him.
We wrapped everything up when Corbin held aloft the glowing beacon of his phone and announced, “Hey, the tigers are already on the news, as is our police chase.”
“Good job,” Sloan said. The sound of ice clinking on his end made my throat ache for water. “Take the rest of the week as time for yourselves.” The line went dead, and I sighed, rubbing at my temples. About a half hour later we were delivered directly to the front door of the mansion, but I felt wobbly when I stood and almost fell on my face as I hopped from the truck to the ground.
“Let’s go out to celebrate tonight!” Jamie leaped down behind me without a problem.
“I’m knackered. No thanks. Tomorrow.”
“I could go for a pint,” Corbin said, that bland tone of his biting as ever. “Ya payin’?”
“Ack, ya cheapskate,” Jamie said, but he nodded and grinned. I stiffly went inside and up the stairs. I couldn’t hear Aspen following me as every step turned into agony, but I could sense his gaze on me, a heavy weight that had excitement churning in my stomach.
I stomped into my room and closed the door, but the latch didn’t click because Aspen was right there shoving it open again. I glared at a landscape on the wall of a beach at sunset framed between two palm trees.
“What’s yer problem, mate?”
Aspen said nothing in return, merely walked past me to my bathroom. Water thundering into a tub echoed off the tiles, and I sighed.
“Better not be hot.”
“It’s not. Cool but not cold,” he called back.
I went in and leaned against the wall. The oval-shaped tub was set in the floor, which would make getting in easier. The water filling the perfectly clean white marble had a mesmerizing effect on my tired mind, and I stared. An awkwardness settled between me and Aspen, and I stole glances at him as he slipped off his tan suit jacket and tossed it over a stool against the wall. He rolled the sleeves of his white dress shirt to his elbows, and heat sparked in my groin as his muscled forearms came into view.
When the decadent tub was full, he gestured at it. “In.”
“Can’t,” I murmured.
“Why not?” That caring tone tore me up. I wasn’t sure I could do this with Aspen. All our interactions lately were starting to feel more like a relationship and less like friends. I respected him and didn’t want him to see me this way, have him think less of me. Most of all, I didn’t want to lose him when this all went to hell. Our arrangement had been working for us for a long time. It was good.
Aspen stalked closer, and I had trouble meeting his gaze.
“Don’t think I can get me clothes off right now.”
Without a word, Aspen helped me undress. His fingers caressed along my throat as he undid my tie.
“I could’ve gotten that bit.” I chuckled, and his deep brown eyes glowed with his amusement. He didn’t say anything as he undid my shirt buttons. He slipped my suit jacket off, then the shirt. I hadn’t bothered with an undershirt because it was so bloody hot here, and he crept his fingers down over my chest. I stared at his face, but he focused on my belly, going for my belt buckle. The way he moved and the intensity in his expression had me thinking ofonething. I couldn’t control my cock or the way it punched at the front of my suit trousers. He carefully finished getting me naked, including taking off my shoes and socks—without touching my cock once—and by the time he was done, I was going mad from the soft caress of his fingers on my skin.
Neither one of us said a word about how my cock reached toward the ceiling or how the front of his suit trousers barely contained his bulge. I went to the tub and hissed as I stepped into the water, which felt like ice on my inflamed sunburn. He held my hands and let me hang on to him, lowering me down the rest of the way so I didn’t have to put weight on my body as I settled in. A smaller man never would’ve been able to handle my weight, and I panted through the pain. He brought the bottle of ibuprofen I’d left in here earlier, shook three out, and I gulped them down with a handful of bathwater.
Aspen sat at the edge of the tub and shook his head at me.
“It was a shite for brains move to fall asleep in the pool. Ye don’t need to call me aneejit, I already know.”
