I brushed the hair off his forehead. We’d arrived back in New York around noon, and we’d gotten home at a little after two o’clock. I’d walked in the door, slung Vail over my shoulder, and we’d been in my room fucking off and on ever since. I’d been waiting for the word to go talk to Sloan in person about everything that had happened in Florida, but so far it hadn’t come yet.
“It’s late, bug. Well after dinnertime, I expect.” I glanced at my phone on the bedside cabinet but snagging it just to look at the time seemed like too much work. “Ye go get some food in yer belly before that monster in there jumps out and tries to get me. I’ll get those cookies with ye another day. Maybe Rowen would still like to take ye.” I kissed his nose. “Ye flutter yer eyelashes and kiss him nice and he’ll go.”
Vail frowned and ran his hand along my side. He was never still, always moving, and I liked that much of what he was fascinated with when we were alone together was me. He ran his fingers over my abs absently. “Aren’t you coming downstairs to eat?” His eyes widened and he bounced on the bed. “It’s okay! Never mind! I forgot! Aspen was supposed to bring me candy and he said he did. You can have some of the key lime patties with me. Fallon will want to show you everything he worked on while you were gone. He was very diligent and did such a good job. You should go talk to him. Be nice to him because he missed you, too. I tell him I’m proud of him, but you know, he really wants to hear it from you.” He pecked a kiss on my cheek.
“I’m always nice.” I bared my teeth at him and nipped his chin.
He sighed, but my sarcasm didn’t ruin his mood, which I was thankful for. I didn’t want to hear from the others about putting him in a shite state of mind. More importantly, I didn’t want to be the cause of trouble for him.
“Bug, I promise to be nice to Fallon. I missed him, just needed some of yer loving first thing back. All right?”
Vail frowned at me and tickled his fingers over my pecs. He stopped to meander his fingertip around my nipple. “You’re in a bad mood, like when Fallon was hurt. Did something happen while you were gone?” His steady stare had me feeling about as tall as a brownie. Well, hell. You could say a lot of things about Vail, but he wasn’t stupid. His attention wandered, yes, but he often cut to the quick.
“It’s fine. Just the trip and the trouble of being away taking their toll.”
He smiled and nodded, cuddling closer. “Good. What were you doing?” His eyes sparkled.
“Not talking about it, bug. I’m sure ye picked up more than ye should’ve already because Rowen likes to talk out his worries. Wanna shower with me? I’ve been missing yer hands all over me wet body.”
He smirked, a wicked little thing that sent my pulse racing. “You had them on you all day, but I can be persuaded.” He tweaked my nipple, and I laughed, slapping my hand over his.
“Oh yeah? Naughty wee bug,” I growled and kissed his neck, nibbling on it until he laughed and shoved at me. “Will ye go with me? Or do I have to spank ye?”
He wriggled away from me, and we both let out groans as my cock slid free from his body. “I’ll do it, but because I missed you, not because you threatened me.” He winked.
“That wasn’t a threat,” I said with a laugh, following him off the bed. I loved looking at his pale, perky arse, and seeing the muscles bounce had me aching to be right back between them again.
He snagged my hand. “Can we go to Rowen’s bathroom? All my favorite soap is in there right now because no one else was home. Fallon and I just slept with him, and Fallon started stealing my shampoo, and Rowen says he doesn’t like us smelling the same, but I kind of like it. Isn’t that weird? I like him smelling like me.” He tipped his head to the side as if in thought.
“Mm. I like Fallon smelling like Fallon, and ye smelling like ye. Make him quit that.”
Vail chuckled and shook his head. I had no idea why, but the idea that all Vail’s and Fallon’s favorite things were tucked neatly in Rowen’s room took some of the newly returned wind out of my sails. They’d been cozy and sweet together while I was gone and going through hell with Aspen, and I didn’t want anything except the best for them, but it didn’t quite seem fair.
“Let’s go, if that’s what ye want.”
Vail frowned at me, but all I did was grab some of my clothes and follow him downstairs to Rowen’s bathroom. I held my breath on the way, hoping to avoid Aspen since I was naked, then felt bad about the direction my thoughts were headed—then got angry all over again. My insides felt like someone had taken a whisk and stirred them up and they didn’t know where they should settle.
Being angry felt good, though. Pure. I knew how to deal with it.
By the time I got into the bathroom, Vail was already fiddling around with the shower temp in the glass cubicle, and he let out a tiny happy sound when he got it exactly where he wanted it. Steam began to fill the air. I watched his slender, muscled body, the overhead light highlighting his skin with shadows as he bent to pick up a towel that had slipped off the rack and put it back. Cold fear slammed into me as love welled in my chest and I shuddered. We’d taken out Joaquin, and the Reyes Cartel would be formulating a brutal retaliation.
“Bug, I don’t want ye going on runs alone for a while. Maybe work out here with Fallon and me or make Rowen take ye.”
He glanced at me and frowned, holding out his hand, and I took it, allowing him to drag me into the shower. I sighed into the relief of the hot water loosening my tense muscles, and he patted my chest, making me back up farther under the water. “Why?”
“There’s some dangerous blokes likely to be around for a while.”
He laughed, and my stomach dropped to my toes. “Cillian, there are always dangerous men around.” He tapped my chest, then fluttered his eyelashes in my direction.
Huffing out a sigh, I picked up his shampoo bottle and turned to slide him under the water, which instantly darkened his hair until it was almost brown. The scent of apples danced through the air as I squirted some of the gel onto his head, then began to work it into his strands. I loved the suds that immediately sprang to life. “Not what I mean. Real bad men who want to shoot ye dead.”
He nodded, but the news of people looking to hurt him didn’t inspire quite the reaction I’d been hoping it would. I didn’t want to scare him—I’d thought he would at least promise to be careful—but this was Vail, and despite everything that had happened to him, he still tended to assume the best and discount the worst.
“Bug!” I angled him under the water to rinse some of the soap away and as soon as his eyes owlishly blinked open, he stared up at me.
“I heard you, Cillian, but I can’t panic every time someone wants to kill us.” The way he said that, so calm and put together, shook me. He wasn’t the same history professor—sorry, doctor—who’d come to stay with us back in September.
“Tell me ye’ll be careful.”
