Page 72 of 72 Hours

“And three times sounds downright greedy.” His tongue slipped out and licked at my ear. I arched back against him, unable to do anything but respond. Unwilling, to be honest. “And that’s what I am... greedy. But not for breakfast.” He shifted carefully behind me, scooting down the bed. I imagined it was his turn for a foot or so to be hanging off the side. Then he started to lick his way down my spine, and I started to moan in earnest. My skin shuddered with each lapping stroke. I could feel his smile widening as my goose bumps sprang up against his lips.

When he got to my arse, he pushed my upper leg up, bending the knee and exposing me to his tongue... and his lips... and his hands, nestling around my painfully erect cock, slicking my own leaking pre-cum around me and pumping almost lazily. Damned fine, strong hands....

“And I got bagels.” I sighed in mock sorrow. He laughed softly and continued pumping. At the same time, his tongue licked slowly and languorously up and down between my buttocks, the sticky saliva dribbling down the inside of my thigh. He lapped a trail down to the irresistibly sensitive patch behind my balls, and then sucked one into his warm mouth, savouring it there for a while.

I was almost sobbing by now. “Fuck the bagels, Niall. No, wait, fuck me.”

His answering sigh made my balls shift and wrinkle against his chin and my cock jump in his palm. “Shut up, Tanner.”

I did. Remember, it’s not often I do what I’m told without any say in the matter.

His hands released my cock, leaving it quivering just this side of total agony, and they returned to my arse, prising my buttocks apart, stroking the flesh with his thumbs. His tongue flicked its strong tip at my entrance, softening it, lubricating it, stimulating the nerve endings around it. I was panting now. I could feel myself relaxing and contracting with his caress, the puckered skin peeling open, shamelessly anticipating more than such a teasing touch.

I bit my lip because my begging was getting far too common, however much he claimed it turned him on.

He tugged at my hips and brought me up on to my hands and knees, then wriggled himself into position behind me. He let go of me for a moment to stroke some lube along his cock, and nudged it eagerly between my cheeks. I dropped my head to the mattress. Maybe I was sore from a lively night already passed; maybe I felt well and truly used. But I was just as eager. My legs spread further apart and I reached for my own swollen cock to cajole it to another aching, spurting climax.

Like I said—comfort is overrated. At least in comparison to the joy of Niall’s body lying over my arched back, his hot breath grunting into my neck, and his hand tangling into my sleep-tousled hair, gripping me close to him as his cock slides into my hole.

Breakfast was looking even further away.

WE HAD AN EARLY LUNCH surrounded by neat piles of Niall’s paperwork. Things had been pretty quiet since that night Greg was caught, and we’d both been allowed some vacation time. Lots of it, really, if you considered the usual statutory allowance for the Team. Either Niall felt more guilty than I did, or he had a stronger sense of commitment to his work. Whatever the reason, he’d offered to carry on with some research work he’d started a few months ago and asked for the files to be sent over.

I’d sort of helped him, on and off. And then I took a call from Judith one afternoon and agreed to do some correspondence training for a few guys who were looking to take on a role like my own. Guess I was feeling my own sense of commitment stirring out of its laziness.

We were both reinstated, both back on the payroll. Niall had bought a new couch for the trailer to celebrate. I’d bought us some outrageous new sex toys, including something with a remote control that was fun to play with when I was in the kitchen and he was languishing in bed, indulging himself.

He didn’t complain.

Judith had also taken leave and was rethinking the Project Team. She’d come over to meet us yesterday to tell us she was suspending operations for a while. It had been a difficult conversation.

“The Team was seriously compromised,” she said. She looked very worn. Her confrontation with the powers above her couldn’t have been easy. But as she continued to speak, I thought I detected a relaxation in her manner. Maybe it had been a huge burden for her all this time.

“We should never have fallen prey to Greg. He played to our weaknesses and highlighted our vulnerabilities. From what you told me, he had some of the issues right. Maybe we were too arrogant.”

“We did damned good work,” I murmured.

“And we never suspected attack from within,” Niall protested.

“Then at the very least, we were appallingly naïve. The Team will be suspended for the time being. I’d like you both to stay on with the Department, of course, and you can be deployed on other work. Then we’ll review the situation in six months. Will you consider that?”

Niall looked at me, and we both turned back to her. He answered for us both. “We will, of course.”

“But you will promise to review the Team?” I sounded quite vehement. “You can’t deny the success we’ve had so far just because of one guy’s grievance.”

She smiled back at me then. “You and Niall have both suffered a great deal because of that one irrational young man. So have the others. I’m not sure that I can face risking that again.”

I grimaced. “But the Team has been one of the best things in my life, boss. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

She stared at me and sighed. Her smile was slow and her expression grateful. “Yes it does, Tanner. Joe will join me in the review, and maybe together we’ll make something stronger and safer next time.” When she went to leave us at the door, she shook our hands, then dropped them and hugged us instead. It was all kind of emotional, but I rather enjoyed it.

She went down my shaky steps with her minder keeping fairly innocuously to the side. I saw Junk standing outside his own trailer with a beaming smile on his face that wasn’t for us. I was embarrassingly pleased to see Judith go over to speak to him before she left.

WE’D TALKED ABOUT JUDITH’S visit at the time, but tonight I returned to it, as we lay together on the new, vastly more comfortable couch. We were listening to some traditional jazz on the new sound system that Niall had asked Phil to make up for me. The speakers were unbelievably clear and were reproduced in every corner of the trailer; the controls needed nothing more than a nudge to balance the sound beautifully. Niall even had it fixed up like I used to have it in my apartment, turning itself on as soon as we came in from outside.

“The Team will regroup again, I’m sure,” he said. “It just needs time. The internal investigation will take months, I expect.”

I nodded. “You heard from Simon and Brad since the first couple of weeks?”