he choppy water lapped at the hull of Nick’s yacht, the sound rhythmic and deep, like Kelly could feel it in his chest as he lay awake in the main cabin. Nick was curled beside him, his breathing uneven, his body tense.
He was dreaming, and his restlessness made it impossible for Kelly to sleep. Nick tossed his head and murmured something, and as he moved, his fingers grazed Kelly’s arm. Kelly flinched, wincing in anticipation of Nick waking. The last time Nick had rolled into him during a dream, he’d startled awake and pinned Kelly to the mattress, his hand around Kelly’s throat, before Kelly could say anything to calm him.
Not that Kelly minded, because not only could he defend himself with ease, but also the way Nick apologized was pretty fantastically sweaty and naked.
That had been weeks ago, of course, in Kelly’s cabin in Colorado where Nick wasn’t quite as familiar with his surroundings. Nick usually slept easy, especially on his boat, and the more time that passed since his last deployment, the fewer issues he had. But on stormy nights, when the seas tossed the boat beneath them, when thunder crashed above them and the sounds of the sea infiltrated the hull, Nick was restless and quick to strike out when his nightmares were interrupted.
Nick murmured something in his sleep again, and Kelly finally gave up on trying to get to sleep himself and pushed the blanket off. He slipped out of bed carefully, not wanting to wake Nick as he headed for the salon upstairs.
Photos were scattered on the walls there, and the occasional knickknack sat around, but other than that the décor of the yacht was pretty sparse. It wasn’t Spartan or empty, though.
Kelly had spent plenty of time aboard the yacht since Nick had purchased it. He’d thought nothing on board was foreign to him, but when Nick had shown him the drawer full of sex toys beneath his bed, Kelly had been both shocked and incredibly turned on. He kind of wondered what else Nick had managed to hide away in spaces Kelly didn’t know were there.
The clouds hid the moon in the sky, and only the skyline of Boston provided light. Kelly closed the shades against it and threw the yacht into almost pitch darkness. He didn’t like the press of a big city so close to him.
He flopped onto the couch in the salon, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness and glancing around at the nooks and crannies where Nick stored all his personal belongings. Hardback books were piled everywhere, most of them on history, archaeology, or lost treasures and mysteries. That had always been Nick’s thing, though. Nick was one of the only jarheads Kelly had ever met who didn’t have a single gun magazine subscription or hang knives on his walls. Kelly wasn’t even sure where Nick kept his medals, because he sure as hell didn’t have them sitting out or displayed.
The coffee table was covered with files Nick had brought home from work. He’d intended to take vacation days, but Kelly had convinced him not to. He’d used enough of his vacation last year for emergencies; Kelly didn’t want him wasting more to stay home. He wanted him to take real vacations this year. Preferably somewhere warm. Preferably with him.
Over dinner Nick had mentioned a few details of the case he was working on, a robbery gone wrong that had ended up in murder. Then he’d apologized for bringing work home when Kelly was there to spend time with him, and he’d shoved the files away in favor of resting his head in Kelly’s lap as they watched a movie on Netflix.
Kelly smiled softly with the memory. Nick had swiftly drifted off to sleep, and Kelly had ignored the movie in favor of twisting his fingers through Nick’s curly hair.
The memory made the silent boat feel that much lonelier. Kelly fought past the tumbling feeling in his gut. He had two more weeks here. He wasn’t going to start getting melancholy about leaving yet, Jesus.
He stretched to flip on a lamp beside the couch so he wasn’t sitting in the dark like a creeper, and then absently flipped through the pages of Nick’s files on the table. Was it illegal for him to be seeing this information? He shrugged and scanned Nick’s handwritten notes. He loved the way Nick wrote; block print, no discernible quirks, only the slightest hint of a lefty slant. But the faster he wrote, or the more agitated he grew, the more beautiful the scrawl became. He lost the blocking and it took on a personality all its own, a hybrid of print and cursive with precise curves and flourishes. It was so telling of Nick’s personality, the hidden part of him only a few people got to see.
He must have written the notes in shorthand or some sort of code, though, because it read like nonsense. Kelly placed the notepad back where he’d found it and sighed deeply, then hunted for the remote. He might sleep if the television was going.
He found the remote resting on top of a book beside the lamp: Mysteries of the Golden and Rosy Cross.
Kelly frowned at the title. Nick liked adventure books, especially the ones that added a little historical mystery to the story. Maybe Kelly could read himself to sleep and he wouldn’t risk waking Nick with the sound of the TV.
When he opened the book, though, a sheet of paper fell out. Kelly scrambled for it before it could flutter to the floor or disappear into the couch cushions. It was the same kind of paper as in the Moleskine notepad Nick carried around. It had obviously been torn away, and on it were two grids, like tic-tac-toe boards, and two Xs, all with symbols in each empty space. A pigpen cipher: a simple substitution cipher that usually used dots instead of symbols. Kelly had taught the kids at the camp he worked at in Colorado how to do these, trying to get them interested in linguistics.
Kelly had his thumb in the pages the note had been stuck between, and on them he found the same sort of cipher, this time with the correct series of dots, and notes explaining how it was used. Not that Nick needed to look up a pigpen cipher; he was the one who’d taught Kelly how to do them.
Kelly flipped through the rest of the book. It wasn’t a novel after all, but a book about secret societies, specifically one called the Rosicrucians. Kelly had never heard of them. “What are you up to, Nicko?”
After a few more minutes of contemplating the cipher, which he couldn’t figure out because the symbols were foreign to him, it occurred to him that this might have to do with a case Nick was working on. He slipped the paper into the book and set it back where he’d found it.
A yawn caught him off guard, and he clicked the lamp off and made his way carefully below to the main cabin. Nick was still and silent, his nightmares no longer plaguing him. It was a relief to slide under the covers beside him and have him curl almost immediately around Kelly.
Nick’s hand was warm on Kelly’s bare stomach, his fingers curling against Kelly’s abs. Kelly carefully placed his hand over Nick’s, Nick’s eyelashes fluttered and his nose curled in his sleep. Kelly closed his eyes and rolled in Nick’s embrace until he had cuddled closer and Nick’s arms enveloped him.
Nick woke with a gasp.
“It’s me, babe,” Kelly whispered against Nick’s chest. “It’s Doc, you’re safe.”
Nick tightened his grip and pulled Kelly closer. “Hey,” he said, his deep voice even gruffer with sleep. “You okay?”
Kelly pushed his head back so he could see Nick’s face. Nick was still half-asleep, his eyes washed of their usual green in the darkness. His brow was furrowed. It wasn’t unusual for him to be concerned when he woke with Kelly in his arms like this; he could be cuddling, or he could be choking Kelly unconscious.
Kelly kissed his chin, then scooted up so he could reach Nick’s lips. Nick hummed into the kiss.
“I’m fine,” Kelly said. “Couldn’t sleep.”
Kelly rolled onto his back, pulling Nick with him. Nick curled around him in a way that still surprised Kelly, resting his head on Kelly’s chest and throwing a leg over Kelly’s hips. Nick was about as alpha top as a man could get, but when it came to cuddling, he had no compunctions about being held. Kelly wrapped his arm around Nick’s shoulder and squeezed him tight.
“Boat still throws you off, huh?” Nick mumbled against Kelly’s chest.
Kelly nodded as he ran his fingers through Nick’s hair. When they’d been discharged from the armed services, Kelly had gone home to Colorado and stayed there in a cabin he’d built with his own two hands and a very dedicated earthmover. He’d grown accustomed to the smells of pine and snow and earth, the sounds of the wind whispering through branches and animals skittering through the underbrush coming from his open windows.
The waves lapping at the hull near his head were a sound from the past he hadn’t thought he’d sleep to again. The hustle and bustle of Boston in the distance was completely foreign to him. All the times he’d visited Nick before, he’d always been too drunk by nightfall to care.
He stuffed his nose into Nick’s curls and inhaled deeply. Nick smelled of the sea, salty and cool. He always had, even in the middle of the desert with the hot sun pounding down on their backs or climbing the freezing shale mountains of Afghanistan. Or maybe the sea had always smelled of Nick. Kelly had a hard time deciphering which came first in his mind.
“We can get a hotel, if you want,” Nick offered. He was waking up, his voice becoming clear and strong even as he rested his head against Kelly’s chest. “You’re here for another two weeks, no point in you not sleeping the whole time.”
Kelly’s lips twitched on a sigh. “I’d rather be here.”
Nick rested his chin against Kelly’s chest, rolling over to his stomach and gazing up at him. Kelly stroked his hair, then let his fingers travel down his back, tracing hard muscles under bare skin. Nick shivered when Kelly’s fingers trailed over one of the long scars on his back.
“I need to get used to it anyway, right?” Kelly asked, but the question caused a flurry of butterflies in his stomach. He and Nick hadn’t talked much about their future. In fact, they’d only gotten as far as telling each other they were in it for the long haul, but they still didn’t have details worked out. Where would they go, what would they do? Would they compromise and move somewhere new, would one of them quit his job, or would they share time between both homes like they’d been doing? They hadn’t even begun to think of any of that stuff.
Nick had asked Kelly to marry him not long ago, but he’d been fresh out of surgery to donate a piece of his liver to his dying father, and so drugged that Kelly wondered if Nick remembered anything that had happened that day. He’d been told after Nick’s surgery that the surgeons had been forced to give Nick ketamine, which explained why Nick had hallucinated for a solid week after he’d gotten out of the hospital. He’d spent most of it rambling about killing an old colleague of theirs named Liam Bell and telling Kelly he was beautiful.
He’d never brought up being engaged, never even panicked about it. That was what really gave it away, actually. Nick was notoriously twitchy about commitment. He’d probably disappear into a puff of smoke that spelled out “nope” in the air if Kelly told him he’d proposed while drugged.
Kelly hadn’t brought it up again. Just knowing Nick was thinking permanently while high on Dilaudid and ketamine was sufficient to make him giddy, and he was willing to wait until Nick was comfortable enough to bring it up again. While sober. But hell, they were still living in two different states, thousands of miles apart. They had bigger issues than forgotten proposals.
Nick interrupted Kelly’s musings by pushing himself up, leaning his elbow on the mattress at Kelly’s side and placing his hand over the bullet scar on Kelly’s chest. “We both know you’d go nuts living on a boat all the time, Kels.”
Kelly swallowed hard, nerves swamping him. Nick really was going to talk about this, about them living together. “And you’d go stir-crazy in a cabin in the woods where you couldn’t see the ocean or meet new people every day,” he said with false cheer. “I’m Navy, baby, I was born for boats.”
Nick’s smile was genuine, but melancholy at best. “Liar. You need trees and grass.”
“So get me a bonsai tree and I’ll grow my weed on the flybridge.”
“Wrong kind of grass,” Nick said as he pulled himself closer and gave Kelly a slow, teasing kiss. He slid his fingers over Kelly’s cheek before clutching at his hair and resting his weight on Kelly.
Desire tore through Kelly like a wildfire. It always did when Nick touched him. This was his first relationship with another man, but the excitement and adventure had yet to wear off. He was certain that with Nick, it would never fade.
“I guess we need to talk about it, huh?” Nick murmured between kisses.
“Unless you want to keep going like we have,” Kelly said. “A week here, two there. A month apart. It sucks, babe.”
Nick nodded fervently and dove in for another kiss.
“But I know you and I know me,” Kelly managed to say through Nick’s kisses. “We’ll work it out. I’m good with it for now.”
“Well, I’m not.” Nick said before a long, tense silence. He flopped onto his back with a huff. “So let’s figure it out.”
“Now?” Kelly practically squeaked. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“We’re both up.”
Kelly gestured to himself emphatically. “Up is the appropriate word, yes.”
Nick laughed, the sound warming the cool cabin as it drowned out the waves beating at the hull.
Kelly huffed and rolled to straddle Nick, placing both hands on Nick’s chest and settling onto Nick’s groin, grinning over the fact that Nick was half-hard. Nick shifted beneath him, gripping his thighs. Kelly leaned far to his left to switch on the lamp beside the bed. They both winced away from its dim light, but Kelly was finally able to meet Nick’s incredible green eyes. Nick was gazing at him, indulgent and… smitten.
“I love you,” Kelly blurted, unsure of why he felt inclined to say it just then.
“Yeah, you do,” Nick drawled, grinning wider. His expression softened quickly. “I love you too.”
“Fuck first or talk first?” Kelly asked.
Nick pursed his lips, scowling in thought. “What if we go at it first, then fall asleep and forget to talk? Then it’s still a problem in the morning.”
“Valid. But what if we wind up fighting about it? We’ll miss out on the fucking.”
“There’s always makeup sex.”
Kelly pointed at him. “Ooh, and angry sex.”
Nick’s eyebrows rose higher, and he was obviously fighting a smile. “We’ve never had either. Might be fun.”
Kelly couldn’t keep from laughing any longer. He ran his hands over Nick’s chest. “Should I pick a fight?”
Nick’s hands rose higher, settling on Kelly’s waist. “Not just yet,” he murmured, giving Kelly a tug.
Nick sat up to meet him as Kelly leaned over him, and he wrapped his arms around Kelly as they kissed. He crossed his legs, getting more comfortable as Kelly settled into his lap.
“Thought you voted talk before fuck,” Kelly grumbled.
Nick kissed him again, nodding. His hands dragged down Kelly’s back. “I did. We’re talking.”
Kelly laughed. He put both hands on Nick’s shoulders and shimmied his hips, rubbing Nick’s hardening cock against his. “No, we’re not.”
“Good, then shut up,” Nick growled. The next kiss was a consuming one, clearly meant to silence Kelly’s habit of rambling when Nick was trying to seduce him.
Nick’s grip tightened, and before Kelly knew what was happening, Nick had wrapped him up and rolled them, pinning Kelly to the mattress with his head at the foot of the bed and his legs wrapped around Nick’s waist.
“Okay, that was fun,” Kelly gasped.
Nick shushed him, then kissed him and rolled his hips. They’d already taken care of these needs once tonight; almost as soon as their feet had hit the deck of the yacht, Nick’d had Kelly pressed against the hull, kissing him silly. But it had been almost a month since they’d seen each other, and Nick was finally fully healed from his surgery. Kelly had expected nothing less. In fact, he’d be a little pissed if Nick didn’t maul him a few times a day in the first week of his visit.
Nick’s cell phone began to ring as they kissed. The sound was muffled, like it was coming from inside something. Nick pushed up with an aggrieved curse. “I’m not answering that.”
“Aren’t you technically on duty?” Kelly asked.
Nick muttered something unintelligible and rolled toward the head of the bed. He fumbled under his pillow and came out with the phone.
“You keep your phone under your pillow?” Kelly asked with a laugh. This was the first time they’d shared a bed while Nick was on duty. “How does it fit beside your gun and your knife and the lube?”
“Shhh. This is O’Flaherty,” Nick practically growled when he answered. His eyes narrowed and he started toward Kelly as if he intended to continue what they’d started, but then his expression changed from predatory to alarm, his face softening, his eyebrows rising, his motion halting. “When? What happened? Were they attacked?”
Kelly sat up, scowling. He hoped this was work and not another distress call from one of their friends. The men of their former Recon team, Sidewinder, seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble. And no matter which one of them needed help or what kind of help they needed, Nick was always the first one any of them called.
“I’ll be right there,” Nick spat, then ended the call and tossed the phone aside. He clambered out of the bed and to the closet, talking over his shoulder as he pulled a shirt on. “I have to go. Come with me?”
“Of course.” Kelly scrambled to put more clothes on, but he took his cues from Nick, who didn’t even take the time to put real pants on. He just stayed in his sweatpants and slid his bare feet into a pair of plastic flip-flops as he headed for the steps. Kelly was still struggling to get a shirt on as he followed.
Nick broke a record number of traffic laws on the way to wherever they were going, but the small, portable flashing light on his dash seemed to make it okay. Was that legit? He’d been in a car with Nick a thousand times, though, and he wasn’t even compelled to hold on to the handle when they weaved through traffic or took a sharp turn. Nick was possibly the best driver Kelly had ever known. Sometimes it seemed ill-advised, but Kelly trusted him implicitly. In the driver’s seat, that was. The one time Nick had flown a helicopter was a different story. Their buddy Owen still refused to get into a helicopter after that trip.
When they arrived at a nondescript hotel, there wasn’t any hustle or bustle like Kelly had expected. No uniformed cops on the streets, no flashing lights, no panicking guests in the almost empty lobby. Nothing but a single man in uniform as they stepped off the elevator. Nick held up the badge on a chain around his neck as he walked by.
“He’s with me, he’s okay,” he said in passing, pointing at Kelly. Kelly nodded to the man, trying not to feel awkward. He had been special operations in the military and was extremely capable both in the field and in any situation stateside. He had medical training that could save a life under enemy fire, and he could break a man’s neck before they knew he was there.
But he wasn’t a cop. He didn’t know the first thing about investigating or the law. The only reason he was here was because he was trailing after his boyfriend. He didn’t like the feeling.
Nick headed for room 319, where another officer stood guard, a plastic chair near him against the wall. Nick showed his badge again, even though each man they’d passed obviously knew him by sight. When they entered the hotel room, a stocky man with silvering hair stood near the bathroom door, shaking his head at Nick.
“What the hell happened?” Nick demanded.
“He freaked. I don’t know. He won’t talk to me. I figured you have the rapport with him, he might respond.”
Nick nodded, frowning at the bathroom door, then glancing over his shoulder at Kelly. “Uh, Kels, this is Detective Alan Hagan, my partner. He’s useless when I’m supposed to have the night off.”
Kelly shook the man’s hand, introducing himself. He didn’t offer his relationship to Nick, though. That was Nick’s job, and frankly, Kelly didn’t know how sensitive the subject was for him. He knew Nick had come out as bi to basically everyone in his life not long after he’d come out to Kelly. How everyone had handled it, Nick had never said.
“You’re the boyfriend?” Hagan asked as he shook Kelly’s hand. “O talks about you all the damn time.”
Kelly flushed, clearing his throat and smiling uncontrollably. He glanced at Nick again. He wasn’t sure why he kept being surprised by how open Nick was about their relationship. He knew Nick hated secrets, hated having them especially. He should have known Nick wouldn’t hide him. Hide them.
Nick had his ear against the bathroom door. He knocked gently. “Hey, bud, it’s Detective O’Flaherty,” he called, keeping his voice low and soothing. “You okay in there?”
The response was muffled, but from the way Hagan raised an eyebrow and cocked his head, it was more response than he’d been receiving.
“Come closer to the door, we can’t hear you,” Nick called. He waited, holding his breath. There was a thump against the door and he moved away a little like he hoped the man was opening it.
“I’m sorry,” the voice said from the other side. “I’m sorry I freaked out. I just…”
Nick leaned his shoulder into the doorjamb. “Hey, it’s okay. You got every right to be freaking out, we all know that. If you feel safer in there, you go ahead and stay, okay? That’s all we want is for you to feel safe right now.”
Nick paused, and his eyes met Kelly’s. He smiled gently and winked. Kelly bit his lip to keep from smiling at such an inappropriate time. He’d seen Nick talk dozens of frightened young Marines down from panicking. He could be soothing, if he chose to be.
“I would like to know what scared you, though,” Nick continued. “Do you feel like telling me?”
“Do you have kids, Detective?” the man in the bathroom asked.
Nick frowned in confusion. “No.”
“I figured you might have toddlers or something. You’re talking to me like one right now.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed, and he gave the door an insulted frown. “Fine! So how about you get your ass out of the bathroom and we’ll talk like adults.”
Hagan inhaled sharply, and the guard on the door tensed. The man in the bathroom was silent. Kelly winced when it seemed like Nick’s tactic had backfired, but then they heard soft laughter through the door.
The lock clicked and the door edged open. Kelly had sort of expected a neurotic-looking little bald guy in glasses or something, but the man who peered out was maybe six feet tall, just an inch or two shorter than Nick. He was wiry and fit, with a healthy tan and shaggy blond hair that had obviously been bleached by time in the sun. His eyes were a blue that seemed Photoshopped. Fuck, he was kind of Nick’s type.
Nick was still leaning against the doorjamb, one eyebrow raised at the man. “Touché, Detective,” the blond man said.
Nick nodded, crossing his arms smugly.
The guy glanced at Hagan. “Sorry.”
“Hey, I get it. Don’t hurt my feelings any. People always like him better.”
The guy’s eyes landed on Kelly, and Kelly tried to offer him a comforting smile even though he still had no clue what was going on.
“JD, this is my partner, Kelly Abbott,” Nick said as he waved his hand in Kelly’s direction. “Kels, this is our witness who doesn’t know who he is.”
“Seriously?” Kelly whispered.
“I thought… I thought Detective Hagan was your partner,” JD said, frowning and looking between them.
“Partner,” Nick said gently, pointing at Hagan. Then he transferred the finger to Kelly. “Boyfriend. You want to sit down and tell me what happened?”
JD cleared his throat and nodded, glancing again at Kelly and Hagan as a flush rose to his cheeks.
“Guys, give us a minute, huh?” Nick said as JD headed for the beds in the hotel room. Nick stopped and took Kelly’s arm, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry, this’ll be a couple minutes.”
“It’s okay.” Kelly’s heart was still fluttering from the fact that Nick had so readily claimed him in front of anyone and everyone, from the possessive glint in Nick’s eyes. He would have sat out in the hall waiting all night just to see that glint in Nick’s eyes again.
He headed out of the room with Hagan, glancing back to see JD sitting on the end of one of the beds and Nick settling onto the dresser opposite him so they could talk. He looked very professional about it, if you discounted the sweatpants that were drenched at the bottom and the plastic flip-flops he was wearing.
The door fell closed and Kelly was left with the two cops in the hallway. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and bounced up onto his toes. “So!” he said cheerfully. “This is fun.”
“This guy’s a fucking basket case,” Hagan grunted. “Might be here awhile. Want some coffee?”
Kelly shook his head and leaned his back against the wall. He slid down to sit, propping his arms against his knees. If there was one thing spec ops knew how to do, it was sleep sitting up.
Nick kept crossing his arms and then forcing himself to stop, resting his hands in his lap instead. He didn’t want to give off body language that said he was irritated, impatient, or closed off. It was hard, though, when he was going on a few hours’ sleep and had been interrupted during what was supposed to have been an entire weekend alone with Kelly.
“What happened?”
“I had a dream,” JD said with a helpless shrug. “I woke up in a panic, bolted for the bathroom, and sat in the tub until I could breathe.”
Nick nodded, his expression carefully neutral. “You remember the dream?”
JD shook his head, wincing. He was wringing his hands, rocking a little. “I feel stupid. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry they called you down here.”
“Hey.” Nick leaned closer, lowering his voice. “People aren’t built for this kind of stress, all right? You handle it however you can, no shame in that.”
JD sniffed and laughed ruefully. “Have you ever woken up in a bathtub, Detective?”
Nick opened his mouth and then closed it fast, looking over JD’s head as the memory flashed through his mind. “Yes. But I was hungover and… not alone. My point, though, is that waking up and bolting for safety is nothing to be ashamed of. I wake up swinging all the time. I tried to kill my boyfriend with a TV remote one time, so… I get where you’re coming from. There’s no shame in fear.”
JD took in a shaky breath and rubbed a hand over his face.
“You still can’t remember anything?”
“I think I dreamed about the bookstore. I was there.” JD shook his head. “But then we knew that already, huh? All I remember is something about a book, I don’t know.”
Nick had his Moleskine pad out, jotting down notes. He nodded for JD to continue talking as he wrote.
“I think… I felt like I wasn’t in the right place, you know? Like I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there. I couldn’t get away though.”
Nick made an asterisk and wrote out the possibility that JD had been forced to accompany someone to the robbery. He glanced up to find JD rocking faster. It was a habit he was familiar with, and it usually signified it was time to switch topics. “Okay. Tell you what, bud, why don’t you try to get some rest tonight. Monday morning I’m hoping I’ll have some pictures to show you; we’ll see if they jog anything else loose.”
JD nodded.
“I’ve also got someone running down your prints, going through missing persons reports. By morning, those results should be back.”
JD tensed, glancing up to meet Nick’s eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“What if they come in and tell you I’m someone horrible?”
A pang of sympathy hit a little too close to home. It was one thing to struggle with your humanity. It must have been torturous to do so without the benefit of past actions or even past thoughts to back up your conclusions.
“I can’t imagine it will,” he offered gently. He leaned forward and patted JD on the knee. “Try to get some rest, okay? I’m going to call Hagan back in and—”
“You can’t stay, can you?” JD blurted. When Nick raised an eyebrow at him, he paled, looking shocked that he’d spoken at all. “I mean… he’s nice and all, but you’re the only person I’ve felt comfortable with. I…”
Nick had to fight hard not to groan. He always managed to pick up the strays somehow. He shook his head, feeling guilty for blowing off such a sincere request because he wanted to go home and fuck his boyfriend. “I’m sorry, we can’t just switch things up without reporting it and giving a compelling reason to do it.”
JD lowered his head, looking crestfallen. He nodded, though, and took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“You good for tonight?”
JD nodded again, more confidently this time. “I’m good.”
Nick sat with him for a few more minutes, letting him know he was merely a call away, that he’d be right back on the case on Monday, and there was nothing to worry about as long as he stuck with Hagan or one of the officers assigned to their door.
“I’m sorry I brought you out so late. Tell your boyfriend I’m sorry too; this must be weird for him.”
“We met in Recon,” Nick said.
“He’s used to weird.”
He stood and gave JD’s shoulder a last pat before heading for the door. When he stepped into the hall, Hagan was leaning against the wall, his head back and his mouth open as he snored. Kelly had fallen asleep sitting ramrod straight against the wall right beside the door.
Nick snorted and glanced at the uniformed officer, who was sitting in his chair with a cup of coffee and giving Nick a smirk. “Are you guys the cavalry?”
Hagan jerked and snorted, shaking his head as he woke. “I’m awake.”
Nick chuckled and nodded, stepping aside so Hagan could get back into the room. “I told him you’d call me if anything came up.”
“You got it, brother. You deal with this shit better than me,” Hagan said, and then stumbled toward his bed and flopped into it.
Kelly was still sitting with his back against the wall, blinking up blearily at Nick.
“You can fall asleep in under five minutes sitting in the hallway of a hotel, but you can’t sleep in my nice soft bed on my boat.”
Kelly licked his lips and reached up for Nick to help him to his feet. “Maybe we should sleep on the flybridge again,” he said as they headed for the elevators. “I slept like a baby up there on that pool float with Ty that one time.”
Nick snorted and jabbed at the elevator button. “We’re getting a hotel.”
“So, tell me about this case. The witness has amnesia?” Kelly asked in the car on the way back to the Boston Harbor Marina. He’d tried as long as he could to keep out of it, but he was just too curious.
“Yeah, he took a bullet to the back of the head. Doctors said it’s either physical damage or shock of some kind.”
“Kind of like that time I got kicked in the head by that goat.”
Nick burst out laughing. “Yeah, kind of like that.”
Kelly glanced at him, admiring his profile. He still owed Nick for that. They’d been on a mission when they’d taken cover in a gully that just happened to be sheltering several goats, including one territorial billy goat who’d taken a shot at Kelly’s head. He’d woken up as they’d been carting him back to camp, and Nick had convinced him he was a Bible salesman from Oklahoma who’d gotten fresh with the livestock and paid for it with a hoof. Kelly’d believed it for two whole hours before his memory came back. He still had trouble looking at goats without flashes of completely unwarranted guilt.
“Asshole,” Kelly muttered.
Nick very nearly giggled before he got himself under control. He cleared his throat. “Anyway. We don’t know if he has any solid information or not, we don’t even know who he is.”
“Could he be one of the robbers? Got knocked out at the scene and just pulled something out of his ass when he woke up rather than going to jail?”
“It’s a real possibility, yeah. That’s the other reason we’ve got him under protection.”
“Oh. Smart.”
“Indeed,” Nick drawled, throwing Kelly a sly smirk before he turned his eyes back to the road.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in detective mode. It’s kind of… sexy.”
Nick merely smiled. Kelly watched him, pondering the silence that fell between them. It wasn’t uncomfortable. It never had been, not from the first moment they’d met. It could sometimes be heavy, though, especially during the months after Nick had returned from his POW experience in Afghanistan.
This silence was something different. It was easy and light, devoid of expectation. Kelly liked it. But he could sense that Nick had more on his mind than the next few weeks with him.
“Hey babe, do you want me to go back home until you get this case wrapped?” Kelly asked. “I don’t want to be in the way.”
Nick glanced at him, eyes widened in alarm. “No. No, you’re not in the way. I never said that.”
“I know you never said it, but I also know how your brain works. You’re not going to stop mulling over the mystery, but whenever you do think about it and you think you should be spending time with me instead, you’re going to feel guilty for working.”
“Not true.”
“You are the shittiest liar in the history of lying liars.”
Nick laughed softly, reached over the console, and grasped Kelly’s hand. “Fine, you’re probably right. But I don’t want you to leave. Please?”
“Okay. So tell me more about the case. Can you?”
“Technically, no. But hell, I’ve told you national security shit you shouldn’t know either so what the hell.”
Kelly gestured to himself, tracing a circle in the air around his face. “It’s this beautiful mug right here. Like a puppy. Does this look like the face of a spy?”
Nick glanced sideways at him. “Yes.”
“Fair enough. But tell me anyway.”
“The robbery was in an antiquarian bookstore.”
“Antiquarian? That’s specialty stuff, not just used paperbacks, right?”
“Right. Rare books, expensive stuff.” Nick had to release Kelly’s hand to flip the turn signal on, which apparently pissed off the car behind them because it honked at them as it passed. Nick ignored it. “Shop was busted up like they were looking for something. Security system would have been easy to bypass even for a rudimentary cat burglar, but they took it out without leaving a trace.”
“So you think it was a professional team?”
“Probably.” There were more honks behind Nick and he peered into the rearview mirror. He muttered under his breath. “What are these fuckers doing?”
Kelly glanced behind them. “Isn’t that just how Massholes drive?”
Nick flicked on the police light on the dash. The honking stopped and the offending car slowed until more space was between them and Nick’s Range Rover.
Kelly turned back around in his seat. “I’m really enjoying the power trip that comes with fucking a cop.”
“That’s what they all say. Anyway. Pro crew hits rare bookstore. They take four books and two objects out of a display case, all possibly linked to the Revolutionary War.”
“What objects?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re not psychic, dude.”
“What about the shop owner?” Kelly asked.
“Dead. Killed on the sidewalk in front of the store along with one of the robbers. Reports say there were shots fired, witnesses are saying anywhere from five to a dozen. We haven’t recovered all the bullets or casings yet, but there were at least four. One of which clipped JD.”
“God. Who would kill for a handful of old books?”
“No clue.” Nick rolled his window down and slid his security key into the marina’s gate controls.
“What’re your off-the-wall theories you’re afraid to tell your partner ’cause he laughs at you?”
Nick grinned crookedly as he pulled into the marina parking lot. “You want my off-the-wall theories?”
“Give it to me.”
“You sure?”
“I want it hard, babe, come on.” Kelly offered him a cheeky leer.
Nick snorted. He threw the car in park, then turned it off and sat back, his hands on the wheel. “Intergalactic tea-loving time travelers trying to help the British win the Revolutionary War. Pissed-off historians in an attempt to liberate artifacts from their cages. Or treasure hunters out to find the missing Knights Templar library.”
Kelly laughed and leaned his head against the cool glass of the window, pointing a mocking finger at Nick. “Where do you get this shit?”
Nick smacked him in the chest. Kelly grabbed his hand and refused to let it go. “Can I play devil’s advocate for your theories?”
“No,” Nick grunted. He unbuckled Kelly and reached for him with the other hand, dragging him across the console. Kelly began to protest, but Nick kissed him almost brutally, his fingers tightening in Kelly’s hair, his other hand bunched in Kelly’s shirt.
“What happened?” Kelly panted. Nick had a habit of being turned on at the oddest times by the most random things. Kelly never knew when Nick was going to grope him. It made things interesting.
“We started something, I was thinking we’d finish it,” Nick growled, still tugging Kelly across the console.
The tone of his voice hit Kelly deep in the gut. “Not in the boat?”
“I won’t be able to walk to the boat, babe.” Kelly climbed the rest of the way over the console and into Nick’s lap. His elbow hit the horn as they kissed, and the Range Rover sat there screaming about how its occupants were making out until Nick reclined the seat. He shoved it all the way back, taking Kelly with him, and Kelly straddled him, laughing again.
“You’re fucking insane,” he gasped. He stroked his hand across Nick’s cheek to lighten the blow of the words. “What the hell turned you on this time?”
Nick reached for his neck, gripping it hard and pulling him down into another demanding kiss. He kept his hand on the back of Kelly’s head, refusing to let him sit up, refusing to let him break the press of their bodies. “Just you. Moonlight on your smile.”
“Romantic, but are you sure this isn’t just a history nerdgasm you’re having right now?” Nick smiled against his lips. “Revolutionary War, you’ve probably been hard since you heard those words.”
“So help me out with that.”
“I did earlier.”
“Then fucking do it again.”
Kelly shifted in his lap until his hardening cock rubbed against Nick’s through the sweats they both wore. Nick groaned and spread his legs further until he was able to prop his bare foot up on the dash beside the steering wheel. He raised his hips, shoving his cock against Kelly’s, and they both moaned between their kiss.
“Shrapnel in your thigh, bad knee. How are you this flexible still?”
“Motivation,” Nick said, and he was just breathless enough that it sent another jolt through Kelly’s body. He loved when Nick got so turned on he didn’t try to wait for a bed. Or privacy. God, he loved it.
He ducked to kiss Nick again, delving into his mouth, licking at his teeth, and finally sucking on the tip of his tongue as Nick’s hands tightened on him. The kiss went on and on, and Nick’s hand found its way under Kelly’s sweatpants to grab his ass. He dug his fingernails in. Kelly had never experienced this kind of possessiveness before he’d started fucking Nick, but now everything Nick did seemed to claim him.
There was a loud banging on the window right beside Kelly’s head. They both startled, but when Kelly tried to lift up, to react, Nick held him right where he was, trapped against the steering wheel, not breaking the kiss.
“Hey, you can’t do that out here!” their intruder shouted. Nick fumbled between their chests and found his badge, then slammed it against the glass, holding it there as the chain tapped against the window.
“Sorry, Detective,” the disgruntled security guard said. “Didn’t recognize you.”
Nick snickered as he dropped the badge to resume his hold on Kelly’s hair.
“That was fucking hot, man.”
“So are you,” Nick grunted. He raised his hips, his hard cock sliding along Kelly’s, the head jutting against the inside of Kelly’s thigh. He pulled at Kelly’s ass, ready to recommence as if they’d never been interrupted.
Kelly groaned and lowered his head, gritting his teeth. “Nick.”
Nick merely chased Kelly’s mouth with his own, kissing him fiercely, pulling his hair as the kiss consumed them both. Kelly’s hips started moving again of their own accord. Nick held him as if Kelly might try to get away from him.
“Let’s get to the boat,” Kelly gritted out. “I want you inside me.”
“Too fucking late, don’t stop moving,” Nick gasped against Kelly’s lips. He took in a deep breath as he writhed under Kelly. Kelly grunted his name again when he realized Nick was coming. Nick’s grip hardened. “Kels,” he whispered almost reverently. The way he gazed up at Kelly, the love and utter devotion in his eyes, was something Kelly saw every time they touched, every time they made love. He’d never seen Nick look at anyone or anything else that way.
Kelly nuzzled against his face, then bit his neck as he gave in to his own orgasm, gritting his teeth around Nick’s skin to keep from shouting out for mercy. Nick shouted for him, though.
“I love you.” The breathy gasp in Kelly’s ear sent shivers through his body.
Kelly kissed him as they both came down from the post-orgasm high. “Love you too,” he whispered. “Even if you do like hunting intergalactic librarians.”
Nick rolled his eyes, valiantly fighting not to smile. He popped the handle on the door, and Kelly went tumbling out of the Range Rover to the ground.
“It was intergalactic historians. Damn, son, get it right.”
The shower in the master berth wasn’t what one would call spacious, but Nick had still convinced Kelly to join him in it. They couldn’t move without touching each other, and that was just fine with Nick.
They had actually shared a lot of showers before they’d become romantically involved. Sometimes in the places they were sent with Sidewinder, water was scarce and sharing was practical. Sometimes it’d been time that was scarce, and sharing had been practical. Nick had worked hard not to make that practice even remotely sexual, no matter which teammate or random strange Marine he was sharing with. It had always been hardest with Kelly because the man had no sense of personal space and no hint of self-consciousness. But now Nick was completely at liberty to run his hands down Kelly’s sides, to press him against the tile and kiss his neck, to steal the water because he was a few inches taller.
Okay, that last one he’d always done.
When they were both clean, they crawled into bed. The sun would be coming up soon. He’d have to go back to work in twenty-four hours. Until then, however, he and Kelly could wrap up together under the covers and close out the world.
Nick was almost asleep, curled on his side with Kelly wrapped around him from behind. It didn’t matter how they started; Kelly always wound up the big spoon.
“What books were they?”
Nick startled back to full consciousness, inhaling noisily and blinking the sleep away. “What?”
“I’m sorry, I thought you were still awake.”
“What indicated that? Was it the snoring?”
“Shut up. What books were they?”
“Uh…” Nick rolled to his back and rubbed his face. “One was a firsthand account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Diary. Really rare. Another was something about English royalty. The last one was a book of maps.”
“You said there were four. What was the last one?”
“I… have no idea. Why?”
“Well, if they took the books, they’re obviously important.”
It wasn’t exactly a new concept to Nick, but he’d been concentrating more on the missing objects and assuming they were valuable. Not necessarily that they were important. He pushed up onto his elbows and looked at Kelly through the darkness. “Explain.”
“Okay, going with your treasure hunters theory.”
“Kels, I was joking about that. Intergalactic time travelers? Come on.”
“I know, but listen. They went for books, dude. Your average dead guy in the street can’t sell rare books on the black market, and pawnshops don’t deal with shit like that. Where are you going to get money for a rare book?”
“An antiquarian bookshop.” “Right, and you just fucking robbed it. So you’re not trying to make money off your haul. What are books good for?”
“Hitting intruders?” Nick mumbled. He rubbed his eyes again. “Doorstops. Insomnia. Special interrogation techniques. Silencing bedmates in the middle of the night.”
“All totally valid. But I’m talking about information. Books are good for information.”
Nick continued to rub the heel of his palm against his eye, ruminating on that. He finally looked up, seeing stars briefly before Kelly’s face swam back into focus. “You’re saying they weren’t after things to sell, but they’re looking for something in particular.”
Kelly shrugged. “Makes as much sense as robbing a bookstore, dude. How’d you know which books were stolen, anyway?”
“We recovered them at the scene.” Nick sat up, staring at the mirror that lined the closet across the cabin. “Huh.”
Kelly’s hand drifted over Nick’s bare back, tracing the lines of his tattoo and making him shiver. “What?”
“I saw someone that morning; I’d forgotten about it. I thought it was Garrett, even called out to him. But…”
“You thought you saw Zane? Do I need to be worried about this little zombie bromance you two have struck up?”
Nick huffed, too tired to offer Kelly a real smile. “Yeah, I’m fucking Ty’s fiancé on the side, Kels. Sorry.”
“I’m good with it,” Kelly said with a shrug. His fingers continued to trace the lines of Nick’s back. “So who was it you saw?”
“Do you remember me telling you about Ty and Zane and the CIA chasing them a few years back? Ty called from the road begging for me to pick them up in Philly?”
“Yeah, you fired at CIA agents and then got arrested to give Ty and them time to get away. That’s why there’s holes in your boat.”
“It still floats. Anyway, the dude they were trying to keep safe, his name was Julian Cross. He was an operator trying to make a break from the Company.”
“Yeah?”
“He looked a whole lot like Garrett. Maybe it was him I saw.”
Kelly laughed softly, his fingers gentle against Nick’s skin. “Was he nice? Did he say hi with a super-secret decoder ring?”
“I’m serious.”
“You always are,” Kelly drawled. He sat up, and the sheets pooled in their laps. “You think this Cross guy is behind the robbery?”
“First instinct is no. He really did seem like he was trying to break when he was on the run with Ty and Zane. He had his boyfriend with him, scared rabbit type.”
“Wow, that’s… judgey.”
Nick laughed weakly. “Well, he was. And Cross was a hitter. He didn’t do jobs like this.”
Kelly rested his chin on Nick’s shoulder, face so close that Nick couldn’t even turn his head to meet his eyes. Instead, they looked at each other in the mirror. It made Nick smile, and he tried to hide it by pressing his lips together hard.
“So, why bring him up?” Kelly asked before kissing Nick’s bare skin.
Nick shivered and closed his eyes. “He was there when he should be in hiding. He might know something. Might be involved.”
“How do you find him?” Kelly kissed him again, moving down Nick’s arm.
Nick grunted. “I don’t know. I’ll give Ty a call later, see if he has any advice. Actually… I’ll call Garrett; Cross and Ty didn’t get along very well.”
“Surprise,” Kelly sang, and he kissed the back of Nick’s shoulder a last time and then flopped to the mattress. “Okay, I’m sorry I woke you. Come here and keep me warm.”
Nick lay back down, sliding his body against Kelly’s and finally settling with his head on Kelly’s shoulder. Kelly’s fingers drifted through his hair, trying to soothe him to sleep. But Nick’s mind was whirring now. He kissed Kelly’s chest, humming.
“You want to go in right now and start working on this, don’t you?” Kelly asked, deadpan.
Nick raised his head. “Sort of. Do you mind?”
Kelly chuckled and shook his head. “My fault for waking the sleeping dog. Go on.”
Nick kissed him quickly and rolled out of bed to get dressed. “Call me when you wake up, I’ll come get you.”
“Get me for what?”
“I’m going to see if I can get the captain to hire you as a consultant on the case.” He hopped as he pulled his pants up and fastened them.
“What? Why?”
Nick grinned mischievously and crawled back into bed, his belt still in his hand. He kissed Kelly soundly. “Because I’m running with your treasure hunter theory and I’ll need you to back me up.”
“What?” Kelly sounded breathless and a little panicked. Nick headed for the steps, buttoning his dress shirt as he went. “That’s not my theory, it’s your theory!”
“Not according to the report I’ll be submitting!” Nick called back.
“Don’t you dare put my name to a time-traveling Knights Templar librarian, you crackpot!”
Nick laughed as he slid his feet into his shoes and headed for the door.