“Am I late?” Rick appeared silently behind him and rounded the bench.
“Nope, Reese is just starting.” Saxon whispered. He gestured to the seat beside him and started to frown in disappointment when Rick shook his head and sat on the ground instead.
“Open,” Rick nudged at Saxon’s knees.
That gesture fixed the disappointment before it had time to do much more than swirl once in his belly. Rick settled himself into the spot Saxon’s widened knees offered him.
“Here,” Saxon held a beer down over Rick’s shoulder. “I got you one.”
“Thanks.”
“I—”
“My mother defected from Mother Russia when I was just a boy.” Reese’s rich voice spoke quietly, forcing the others to concentrate to hear him. “Her father worked in the Kremlin, and she was a Soviet spy based in Lebanon.”
This didn’t sound like any ghost story Saxon had heard before. He straightened as much as he could without disturbing Rick.
“My mother, she met an American while she was looking for information on a fuel plant Russia was hoping to buy.” Reese paused to take a sip of his beer, then continued. “You can guess what happened next.”
“When she defected from Russia, she took me with her into China, from there we went to the United States. One of my earliest memories is sitting in a room while four men questioned me.” Reese snorted. “I was five. I knew about crayons and cartoons, not spy games and war.”
“Is this a story?” Rick asked softly.
“I don’t know,” Saxon listened as Reese told of the horror of being separated from his mother. Of being sent to one foster family after another. Jesus, that poor kid. “But it doesn’t sound like it.”
Reese paused and pinned Saxon with a stare. “Oh but it is.” he told him. “It’s the story of the ghosts of my past. The ghosts which are going to come back and haunt us all.”
“Peanut?” Castiel called softly. “You aren’t that kid anymore. Now you are one of us. Our brother.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Reese got to his feet. “She is already wreaking havoc, and she wants vengeance. They told her we would stay together. They promised her a life of freedom if she told them her secrets.” He looked each man there dead in the eye and said, “They lied.” Then he turned around and walked off toward the beach.
“Fuck.” Saxon nudged Rick in the back. He would go after the idiot and bring him back.
“Leave him be,” Noble ordered. “He needs to figure this out in his brain.”
“You knew?”
“I knew.” Noble confirmed. “But it was his story to tell. It still is his story to tell. He’ll finish it when he is ready.”
One by one the men all slipped away, going to their own homes, soft laughter filling the air. There was a squeal of surprise from Max when Noble tossed him over his shoulder and raced for their house.
“It’s all so…” Rick trailed off. He didn’t know what to call it. He’d never seen anything like this before. He thought his team were tight, but fuck, Red Squadron were in a class of their own.
Sitting here with Rick, Saxon finally figured out what the disquiet in his soul meant. He’d been a fool, how the hell hadn’t he seen it. “I love you,” Saxon said the words aloud for the first time. It didn’t make the sky explode or the ground open to swallow him whole. Nothing bad happened. Why the hell had he been fighting this for so long?
Rick drew in a sharp breath, and lifted his face to look at Saxon, awe and wonder in his expression, as if that was the last thing he had been expecting to hear coming out of Saxon’s mouth.
“I love you,” Saxon repeated. “I want to know everything about you. I want to feel your heart beating next to mine when we wake up every morning. Your father’s son isn’t all you are. You’re so much more than that.”
Jesus, he’d cut right to the soul of the matter. Brushing aside any and all other excuses. Saxon had seen what others missed. That he didn’t want to be in any way similar to the man his father was.Holy Shit!Rick’s eyes flared, reflecting the light from the fire. “You love me?”
It ripped Saxon’s heart in two at how difficult it seemed to be for Rick to believe that. Man, what he wouldn’t give for ten minutes alone with Rick’s father. The things he could dream up to do to him for making Rick feel this way…
“I do. I’ve loved you for longer than I realized. You’ve been a constant presence in my life, Rick, since I met you that day in Germany.” He stroked his finger down one of Rick’s cheeks and he didn’t flinch or push it away. Saxon was taking that as a win.
“You’re mine.” Rick leaned his head on Saxon’s thigh and snuggled against his belly. “I’m yours too.”
Heat blazed along his skin. “Kneel up, I want to kiss you.” Saxon dipped his head and slowly captured Rick’s lips. He slipped his tongue along the seam of his mouth and pushed it inside. He caressed Rick’s tongue with his own, feeling him soften against him.
