“I told you the cord needed an extra wrap,” he said as he leaned out the van window and took the ticket from the dispenser.
“You did that on purpose,” Will accused.
“It’s not my fault your workmanship can’t withstand a bit of rough driving.”
“I’ll show you rough,” he said through gritted teeth as Cole parked the van.
Cole shook his head. “Yet another sex joke. It’s starting to get old.”
Will was caught halfway between the impulse to laugh and to punch Cole right across the face. He didn’t believe in solving all his problems with violence, though, especially not when those problems were an infuriating, supercilious, too-smart-for-his-own-good asshole like the man he was caught up in this thing with.
There was one surefire way to make Cole fall right off his high horse. Will got out of the van, walked right up to him, and wrapped his arms around Cole’s waist. “Baby.” He pressed a soft kiss to the edge of Cole’s mouth, then to his cheek. “You can’t blame me for wanting you so much, can you?” He nuzzled the edge of his jaw. “You’re just so damn pretty.”
There it was, the flush of red he’d been waiting for, crawling up Cole’s neck and across his ears. God, it was cute.
“I look pretty in a dirty painting uniform, right,” Cole snapped. “Do you ever stop lying?”
Had there ever been a harder man to compliment? Certainly not one that Will had been interested in. “You do,” he insisted. “You always look good, honeybee, no matter what you’re wearing. Not to say I wouldn’t rather have you out of it, but you’d tempt a saint.”
“Which you’re not.”
“Which I’m not,” Will agreed. “Good thing, too. We’d be having way less fun otherwise. C’mon.” He pressed one last kiss to Cole’s mouth, then stepped back to give him the space to find his equilibrium again. “Let’s go kick back for a while.”
Cole didn’t fuss this time, and Will internally congratulated himself on his expanding lexicon for the other man. Cole was a puzzle, no doubt, but Will was going to figure him out. He’d already learned a lot, and was surprised by some of the things they had in common.
For instance, Cole was also a man who valued contingency plans. That was a nice surprise. Will had always known the guy was meticulous, but especially here in New York he had access to all sorts of supplies that made their lives easier. Fake IDs, credit cards, cash, a new phone for himself with an online persona and a linked bank account—he wasprepared. Given that Alders was turning up the heat, something that plenty of their “acquaintances” were complaining about in numerous group chats, Cole’s preparation was a big part of why they were risking staying in the city right now.
He would probably hate admitting it, but Cole was honorable, too. Not just for a thief, either; he was resolute about taking responsibility and offering help if he thought someone needed it. Hell, he’d done it for Will the night the Puffin was stolen, and he’d had no reason to want Will anything but drawn and quartered at that point thanks to their mutual ex. It wasrefreshing to find someone like that, to be able to relax in Cole’s company because he was certain that no matter what, Cole wasn’t going to sell him out.
It was going to be hard to let him go after this.
No help for it. Don’t make things harder than they have to be.Will only had the space for one immutable emotional attachment, which was good because that meant he wasn’t going to be hurt when he and Cole went their separate ways.
It didn’t stop him from wanting to make the most of the time they had together now, though. As soon as they were back in their actual room, a floor-level bungalow with a tiny private garden in the back and lace curtains that did a great job of obscuring anyone’s view inside but let in plenty of light, Will pressed Cole up against the door as soon as it was closed and purred, “Now, what were we saying about rough?”
His tune changed as he took in the way Cole’s brow furrowed for a second with impact. “Or maybe we’ve been rough enough.”
Cole rolled his eyes. “I’m fine.” He shifted slightly. “Just a little sore.”
“’Fraid we need you fighting fit, baby. ” The way he was hardening up signaled he was interested, though, and Will was nothing if not flexible. “C’mon, you can fuck me instead.”
Both of Cole’s eyebrows lifted. “You—oh right, I guess you do like that.”
He must’ve been remembering walking in on Will with Marcus. Ugh. He could do so much better.
“I like a lot of things,” Will said.Including you. “Let’s get out of our monkey suits and I’ll show you just what I mean.”
“Painter’s overalls.”
“Same difference.” He had the feeling Cole would absolutely argue the etymology of the idiom if he gave him the space to, so he captured his mouth in a kiss instead as he walked them backward to the bedroom. He bumped into a solidly builtarmchair on the way and swallowed a curse when Cole chuckled again.
Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.
They’d been in and out of so many different hotel rooms lately that it was impossible to keep the layouts straight in his head. The only consistent point between them all was Cole himself, an anchor that kept Will from floating away in a daze. Cole was the only point of reference he needed right now.
Getting undressed took too long; Will couldn’t quite make himself stop kissing Cole while he was doing it. He expected the fastidious man to bitch—about their speed, about the way the clothes were crumpled on the floor, about Will’s distraction—but he didn’t. He just took it all, focused in on Will just as hard, spread his big, warm hands across Will’s back and pulled him in close before sucking a line of bruises down the side of his neck.
Will loved being marked. If they weren’t so incriminating, he’d have a dozen tattoos instead of just the one, but bruises were the next best thing. He lay back on the bed, pulling Cole with him, and wrapped his legs around Cole’s waist as lips became teeth. “Mm, you can bite harder,” he said, then amended, “Maybe not on my neck, though,” because hiding the hickeys was going to be enough work.
