“We can toss a coin,” Cade said as he shifted from under Marlow. He swung his legs off the bed and kicked his shoes off. The bare span of his back, all sun-warm skin, freckles, and the taut bulk of muscle made Marlow’s fingers itch. He gave in to temptation and measured the span of Cade’s shoulders with his hands.
Muscles tightened under the skim of his palms and then relaxed as Marlow dug his fingers into the knots. Cade shimmied his trousers down over his thighs and off. Before he kicked them both away, he pulled a flat square out of the pocket of his trousers. He tore a corner of it off with his teeth, and the smell of strawberries was so strong it made Marlow’s teeth hurt.
“You came prepared,” he said.
“Fail to prepare, prepare to fail,” Cade quoted, with the absent cant of someone who’d learned the saying by rote. Then he rolled back and tumbled them both back into the sheets. Marlow ended up sprawled on his stomach, his tender cock pressed into the comforter and the heavy sprawl of Cade’s weight on his back. A kiss tickled the nape of Marlow’s neck. “Applies to fucking too.”
For a second, Marlow hesitated. This was a bad idea… for a lot of reasons. It wasn’t too late to listen to sense and back out. Too late for it not to be awkward, but a couple of minutes of embarrassment as he grabbed his clothes and he’d be done.
Go back to work. Clear his name. That was probably what he should worry about.
“What?” Cade asked, his breath warm and tickly against the back of Marlow’s ear.
Marlow took a breath and let the idea he might do the smart thing rest on the tip of his tongue for a second. It melted like cotton candy and left the aftertaste of strawberry in his mouth.
Fuck it. He wanted this. If he ended up in jail—or dead—he’d have plenty of regrets. This wouldn’t be one of them.
“It felt like the last chance to change my mind.” Marlow felt Cade start to shift his weight off him and reached to pull the wolf down. “I didn’t, but I like to think my bad ideas through.”
It took a second, but Cade’s weight relaxed, his cock hard and warm as it pressed against Marlow’s ass.
“I’m a bad idea?” he asked.
“Would you want to be anything else?”
Cade bit the back of Marlow’s neck, sharp teeth and enough pressure to make Marlow gasp, and then chuckled. “Good point.”
He ran a hand up the inside of Marlow’s thigh. His fingertips bumped Marlow’s balls and made him twitch.
“Careful,” Marlow reminded him. “I don’t want to have to Crate you.”
Cade laughed. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Marlow felt a twinge of curiosity at that. Before he could pursue it, Cade moved his hand and pressed a blunt thumb against his ass. Even coated with lube, the dull pressure made Marlow’s breath catch in his throat. He twisted his hands in the comforter, the cotton pleated between his fingers, and groaned as he pushed his hips back.
The sensation of being spread—wide and then wider as the thumb twisted and was then replaced with fingers—was sweetly familiar.
Okay, it had been a while. When you lived on a different schedule from the rest of the world, it wasn’t always easy to date. Not unless you wanted to dip into the company ink, and that was a bad idea. Nobody wanted the person they’d just cheated on—or fought with over who left an empty milk carton in the fridge—as their only backup against a moon-mad wolf. Still, his nerves tingled and twitched under his skin with expectation as Cade applied lube with slow, thorough self-indulgence.
“Maybe not spectacular,” Cade remarked as he finally slid his fingers loose. He hooked his hand around Marlow’s hip and pulled him up onto his knees. “But not a bad ass, all things considered.”
Marlow hesitated for a second as he tried to focus through the fog of heat and pleasure to decide whether or not he’d insulted. It was possible. Cade took a prickly approach to flirtation.
That nudged his memory, just as Cade cleared his throat as if he’d just realized how that sounded.
“You—”
Cheap liquor and cold tiles and the warmth of Cade’s skin under Marlow’s mouth.
“I remember,” Marlow said with a flicker of dry humor. “You should see Franklin’s. Like two muscular pigs wrestling in a sack.”
Cade nearly choked on a startled laugh. He gave Marlow a light slap on one ass cheek. It sounded harder than it felt, but it made Marlow squirm anyhow.
“Why?” Cade asked.
Marlow braced his elbows on the bed and grinned to himself. “Just because he’s a crooked bastard doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a great ass.”
“Better than mine?”
