Reese hit play.
The video showed a preppy blond man wandering around the entrance to the garage in Chance’s building, then ducking inside. He was trying to act casual and failing miserably, his nerves obvious by the way his hands kept flitting in and out of his pockets and how he glanced over his shoulder constantly.
“This guy is an idiot,” Reese observed.
David nodded. “He’s surveilling McCormick Associates, for Christ’s sake. Either he has no idea who he’s dealing with, or he’s terrible at his job.” They watched the guy bumble around for a few more minutes. Then he jerked to a stop.
It was hard to be certain, but Chance’s techs had edited together every camera angle, and it looked like the man was staring at Reese’s car.
Fuck.
More damning still, perhaps, was that he immediately turned and left the garage, his phone pressed to his ear on the sidewalk as he joined the flow of pedestrian traffic.
“Do either of you recognize him?” David asked.
Mati shook her head. “I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
“Nor have I,” Reese said, dismayed and desperate to give the police and his investigators something to go on.Anything.
He refused to accept that all this could end up like it had five years ago—terror followed by nothing. No answers. No change. A quiet return to normal. He sure as hell would make surehedidn’t repeat what he’d done back then. He was never going to hide in his house again, and he needed only to look to his left for the two best reasons why.
David pushed his laptop toward Reese. “Go ahead and forward that to Hodges, in case he’s seen this man before.”
Reese did, trying to focus on what little information they could draw from what they’d seen. “I don’t think that was either of the men who broke into the house.”
“I agree,” David said. “Wrong walk, wrong build. The only thing the three seem to have in common is that they’re amateurs. That guy practically had anI’m casing this jointsign on his back, for Christ’s sake.”
Reese chuckled grimly. “Maybe I should be insulted I don’t draw better talent.”
David’s hand clamped on the back of Reese’s neck, his expression deadly serious as he towed Reese in close. “I’ll take these clowns any day if it means you’re safer.”
Reese stared into David’s dark eyes, his heart squeezing in his chest. He did feel safe, and it had nothing to do with the competency of the men who had broken into his house, or the idiot in that video. It was this man. It was his quiet confidence. His kindness. He made Reese feel foolish and aroused and brave, all at once.
Mati smiled like she could read the jumble of panicked happiness and hope pinging around Reese’s brain. He could only hope it was because she felt it, too.
The right words, sufficient words, escaped him, so he kissed David, then Mati, and hoped they’d understand even a fraction of what he felt. David seemed surprised, but Mati met his kiss with one of her own, her tongue stealing into his mouth and her hand carding through his hair, holding him close.
David’s thumb swept back and forth under Reese’s ear while his fingers traced sensitive skin over the vertebrae of his neck. “How about an early bedtime?” David asked, his voice rubbing over Reese’s skin as tangibly as his fingers.
“Yes,” Mati said. “That’s a wonderful idea.”
She was down the hall and into the bedroom before Reese could blink.
Need coursed through his veins like a drug.
David watched him like he could see into Reese’s head just as well as Mati could. He kissed Reese’s cheek. “Come on. We shouldn’t let her have too much of a head start.” He pulled Reese to his feet, his aching heart taking another tumble when David threaded their fingers together and towed him down the hallway.
Mati waited for them, kneeling on the bed, naked.
Reese felt as though his already shaky legs were swept out from under him. Then David stripped naked, too.
Fucking hell.
These unexpected moments, thesefirsts, kept sneaking up on him.
He wanted David so much ithurt, but some part of his brain was still shriekingthere’s a naked and erect man standing next to you,even while another part was singing the Hallelujah chorus.
David watched him carefully, which wasnotwhat Reese wanted at all. He was nervous, but not in any way interested in waiting, or going slow, or having his lovers think he needed to be handled with kid gloves.
