Still groaning, Paolo fell forwards. Luis caught him but couldn’t stop fucking him, milking every drop of heat that flowed between them until sweat and shivers were all they had left.
He wrapped his arms tight around Paolo, ignoring the sticky mess between them. “I was worried it was your turn to run out on me. Never once did I picture you waking me up likethat.”
“Yeah, well, don’t expect it every morning.”
The implication that they had more mornings to spend together made Luis’s soul sing. He squeezed Paolo impossibly tighter, then let him go. “The police might come looking for me today, even if they don’t know I was there. They have to tell someone he got hurt, or get my probation officer on the case.”
“What about your mum?”
“He’d never give them her details. It’s not how we do. What time is it?”
“Early. My alarm hasn’t gone off yet. But I’ve been thinking about that.”
“What? Your alarm?”
“No. About work. I think you should come with me and carry on like none of this ever happened, any of it, not just yesterday.”
“You mean the weeks and weeks of my fuck-ups, not just this one?”
“Don’t be a prick. I meanallof it, which includes my fuck-ups too, like pushing you out of your job in the first place.”
“That’s not what—”
Paolo clamped his hand over Luis’s mouth. “Whatever. We can argue about that later. At work, where you’ll have been all day after spending the night with me.”
“You’re not lying to the police for me.”
“That’s not what I’m suggesting. I just think it’ll look better if it’s business as usual.Ourusual, not Dante’s.”
Paolo glared down at Luis before letting his hand slip away. Luis let his suggestion settle, turning it over in his mind. There was no way he was going to let Paolo tell the police he’d been with him all day yesterday or any other day he’d been elsewhere, but reclaiming his job at the cafe was more appealing than he could ever say. And Paolo’s theory made sense. It was a normal day, right? Whatever that meant. He nodded slowly. “Let’s go to work.”
They rose from their sex pit, showered, and dried off with the half of Luis’s towel they hadn’t cleaned up with the night before. Then they walked to work, side by side, hands brushing, and opened the cafe as if the last few weeks really hadn’t happened. Luis cooked while Paolo served and cleaned up. It felt so right, Luis didn’t know what to do with it, and if not for the two policemen who rocked up after lunch, he may well have believed it was nothing but a dream.
Paolo directed the coppers to the kitchen and took over the grill. “Be nice,” he muttered. “They seem friendly enough.”
“If you think that, then you don’t know coppers.” But Luis wiped his hands and plastered a friendly expression on his face all the same. If the night he’d spent with Paolo had taught him anything, it was that first times came when he least expected them.
He ducked into the kitchen. The policemen smiled in greeting.Case in point. “Afternoon, Mr Pope. Sorry to bother you at work, but I’m afraid we’ve got some not-so-pleasant news for you.”
“Okay... ” Luis frowned and leant against the counter. “Get it over with then.”
“It’s about your brother, Dante. He was injured by gunshot yesterday afternoon. Nothing life threatening, from what we understand, but he’s still in the hospital with severe injuries to his foot.”
“His foot?”
“Yes. It seems someone shot him there.”
“Wow.” Luis blew out a long breath. “Do you know what happened? I’m guessing it wasn’t a hunting accident.”
“Not quite. Do you have any idea where he was yesterday afternoon?”
“No. I make it my business not to know where he is.”
“When did you last see him?
“A few days ago? A week maybe? I went to his flat in Moss Farm to pick up some stuff he kept for me there when I went inside.”
“What kind of stuff?”
