“We don’t have to be serious. Cap is serious enough for all of us.”
“Maybe,” he said, watching Quinn from the corner of his eye, unable to believe he was really interested. He could barely believe Caius was, and he had the mark to prove it.
When they finished eating, he took the plates to the sink, his heart skipping in surprise when he turned to find Quinn behind him. He took the offered hand and let Quinn lead him downstairs, into what looked like an entirely different house.
Where the upstairs was dark wood floors and walls alternating between rich greens and off-white, Quinn’s lair was light wood floors, with the back wall painted in a brilliant mural of the woods overlooking a lake at sunset. The walls on either side continued the motif with dense trees. The closer he looked, the more details he found—a deer grazing, a fox caught in a midair pounce, birds perched in the trees.
“Wow. Who painted all this?”
Quinn chuckled. “It was an expensive spell, but the scene came from me. This is where I grew up.”
Max turned in surprise. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, this part was.”
When Max stepped farther into the room, he spotted a nook with a large L-shaped desk filled with six monitors and three towers under it. “Are you a hacker?”
“Something like that.”
“Right.” He didn’t buy that at all. Not that it mattered. Hacking was usually one of the tamer crimes.
Quinn dropped onto a large leather sofa and propped a foot on the coffee table. “So, game? Movie?”
Max sank onto a knee next to Quinn and balanced with a hand on his shoulder, struggling to keep his breathing steady as nerves twisted in his gut. “It’s… not cheating if he agreed to it. Right?”
Quinn’s smile softened as he tugged Max closer, easily manhandling him until he was sitting across the shifter’s lap. He held Max steady with one arm around his waist and pulled his phone out with the other hand.
Max made a sound embarrassingly close to a squeak when he sawCapflash on the outgoing call. “What are you doing?”
“Shh.” Quinn pulled the phone out of reach when Max grabbed for it, chuckling when Caius answered.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, except I’m trying to seduce Max and he’s worried about cheating on you.”
Max groaned and buried his face in his hands. And now Caius was going to think Max thought they were in a committed relationship when Caius had certainly not said anything remotely like that. For all Max knew, this was just a fling or a multi-night-stand.
“Max,” Caius said.
He jumped at how close that sounded, lifting his head to find Quinn holding the phone near his ear. “Yeah?”
“Whether you sleep with Quinn or not, it won’t change anything between us. It’s your choice.”
Max wanted to ask if Caius was sure, but he settled for an “Okay” instead.
“We’ll be back in a couple of hours. Anything else?”
“Sushi for dinner,” Quinn said. “Thanks, Cap.” Then he hung up, cutting off Caius’ exasperated sigh and tossing the phone aside as he turned his full attention to Max. “Satisfied?”
Max shivered, his eyes flicking to Quinn’s lips. He’d wanted to kiss them almost from the beginning. “Fuck it,” he muttered, ignoring Quinn’s delighted laugh as he leaned in and kissed him.
He expected Quinn to take things slower than Caius did, but he was pleasantly surprised when Quinn gripped his hair in a tight fist and pressed his tongue past Max’s lips. Quinn kissed like Caius, like he expected to be in control, and Max was fine with that. With a moan, he gripped Quinn’s shoulder and hair and shifted to straddle his lap, grinding their hips together until Quinn finally broke away with a low growl.
His hazel eyes seemed to glow, but when he blinked, they were back to normal. “Bed,” he ordered, not waiting for Max to get up. Instead, he gripped Max’s ass and stood.
Max couldn’t help the needy moan as his stomach swooped with desire. “Hot,” he murmured, attacking Quinn’s lips again.
Quinn laughed into the kiss, carrying him across the room and kicking a door open before tossing Max onto the bed. He wasted no time in stripping Max of his pants and underwear, tossing them across the room like he was personally offended by their existence.
