Hunter stood in the kitchen, watching the microwave as he rewarmed last night’s dinner for today’s lunch. Cal had been suspended without pay for six weeks for insubordination, something Hunter found particularly funny since technically Cal hadn’t had a boss. But whatever, he needed time to heal anyway.
As much as Hunter wished Cal would just quit so they could continue to play sex games, that wasn’t Cal’s heart. He needed to keep trying to work the system. It was admirable, even if Hunter worried Cal would get crushed.
Nah. Not his Cal. He was Superman.
But there was still one niggling detail Hunter felt they needed to address. It was the elephant in the room any time they weren’t fucking, and as much as Hunter enjoyed the fucking, he hated having a secret looming between them. Besides, there could be danger.
The microwave beeped. Hunter pulled the casserole from the machine, set it on the counter, and grabbed two forks.
“Hey, Cal,” he called. “Food’s ready!”
Cal appeared a few moments later, his dark eyes bright with anticipation of tasty leftovers. He’d been cooking a lot once his shoulder let him again, and he never seemed to be tired of opportunities to spend time with Hunter and Bruiser. The little Pomeranian followed Cal into the kitchen, tiny claws clattering on the tiles. He wore a lightweight navy cardigan that Cal had bought off the internet a week ago, and his peachy fur burst out around the neckline and pawholes. All the downtime had led to poor Bruiser getting gussied up way more than any dog could enjoy, although Bru didn’t seem to mind when Cal did it. He seemed happy to see him all day every day. He’d even learned some new tricks.
Trust Cal to turn his suspension into a training camp for the dog. It had been a self-defense training camp for Hunter too, but only in the good ways, at least once Cal’s physical therapy stopped wiping him out.
“I’m starving.” Cal reached for his fork around Hunter’s body, giving him a sideways squeeze while he was at it.
“Me too.” Hunter relaxed into Cal’s embrace and sighed happily. He picked around the broccoli to scoop up as much pasta and cheese as he could get without anything healthy getting on his fork. He was still a little sore from training the night before, but it was a good sore.
After a few bites, Cal tried to wrestle veggies onto Hunter’s fork as Hunter dodged them. He was such a drag. A delightful drag. But he took the daddy thing far. Maybe he’d relax some if he got back to work.
It seemed like Cal’s conversations with the FBI were growing more strained, but as far as anyone knew, Cal still had a job.
“So, back at it tomorrow, huh? No more lazy Mondays?”
Cal smirked. “It’ll be good for you to have some time to yourself again. I’m sure it’s been making you batty having me looking over your shoulder.” Cal raised a brow and then ate a mouthful of broccoli like the unreasonably good and responsible adult he was. He pointed at Hunter with his fork and added, “There’s some things you don’t want me to see, and that’s easier when I’m not in your back pocket all day long.”
“How do you know that?” Hunter raised his brow and smirked playfully. “I’ve let you see quite a bit, as I recall. I wonder where we left that speculum.”
An impulse buy online, one Hunter didn’t regret.
Then he sobered. This was probably the best and only time to get this off his chest. “Listen, Cal… About what Barnes has on me… I think you should know that I compromised some analysts.”
Hunter didn’t look at Cal, uncertain he could finish speaking if he saw Cal’s disappointed look. “Chad asked me to verify several names on a list as working for the FBI. It was slightly more invasive than a LinkedIn search, but since you’re going back…and not knowing why Barnes wanted those names… It may have been a random selection, or they may be sympathizers. I thought you should know who’s on it.”
“Wait, what?” Cal stabbed his fork into the food and looked at Hunter with a shocked, betrayed expression Hunter had hoped never to see again. “You what?”
Cal took a step back, shifting away from Hunter and staring at him as if Hunter had grown an extra head. “You outed FBI analysts to Weisse Drache?”
“Just their employment status. That’s how I gained access to Chad’s computer.” Hunter held up his hands in surrender after he dumped his fork in the dish. “Not field people, strictly desk workers. Like I said, they only got slightly more information than is listed on their resumes. And look, Barnes had access to all of that information anyway.”
Not that Hunter knew he’d would be giving the information to Barnes when he did it, but still.
“It was a test. I had to pass it to gain access. Barnes thought he had something on me, but it can’t be traced. Nothing has happened to those people. I flagged them, so I’d get a notice. If it had, I would’ve turned myself in.”
“Hunter…” Cal’s big brown eyes held tremendous hurt. He worked his jaw, but no sound emerged. His broad shoulders slumped, and then he shook his head slowly as if he couldn’t believe it. “I can’t—”
His expression crumpled, and he seemed to struggle for breath. Then he backed away, heading for the front door. He didn’t even stop for his keys or his phone, barefoot.
“Cal!” Hunter took a few steps after him, but after Cal waved him off, he stopped.
Shit.
Hunter grasped the counter, feeling sick to his stomach. He hated to disappoint Cal. He deserved Cal’s anger. Hunter had been so obsessed with his revenge that he’d betrayed Cal.
Well, not Cal directly, but the organization he worked for. The one he’d give his life for.
Arguably, the one that had suspended him for protecting lives, but that was just rationalizing the ugly truth. Hunter had been reckless and put lives at risk. And then he sprung that on Cal after the fact.
Cal slammed the door behind him.
Confused, Bruiser ran back into the kitchen where Hunter had slumped on the floor, braced against the cabinets. This time, when tears sprang to his eyes, he let them fall as he brought his hands to his face.
He’d messed up. Bad.
Bruiser tried to lick away Hunter’s tears as he sniffled. Hunter shouldn’t have told Cal. He probably could’ve lived their whole long lives without Cal finding out. His fingerprints were nowhere near the information. Even if Barnes accused him, there wouldn’t have been proof.
But then, Hunter hated to keep things from Cal. Even when he knew he should, he often told him or at least hinted. He knew Cal couldn’t do the same, but Cal was superhuman.
Hunter was just super…human. Smart as he could be, at times like this, he felt very, very young and inexperienced.
Cal deserved better. Hunter always knew that. There wasn’t any doubt in his mind. Hunter tried to be as good a man as Cal wanted him to be, but he wasn’t. That was clear.
He was flawed and maybe a little…what was the word Sam had used? Troubled.
Holding out his arms, Hunter gathered Bruiser to his chest and cried into his fur.
Wherever Cal had gone, Hunter was pretty sure Cal would be better off if Hunter wasn’t here when he returned. Hunter had destroyed his computer build once he’d been sure Sam had everything he needed evidence-wise. He hadn’t done much since rebuilding, preferring to spend his time with Cal, nursing him back to health and, well, probably not worth thinking about whatever else Hunter had just lost.
Releasing Bruiser, Hunter slowly stood. As Hunter struggled to his feet, the door opened and closed again with a bang, and Cal stormed in ranting.
“I can’t believe you, Hunter. I can’t believe you would…” Cal trailed off as he came into view, shaking one big hand in front of him, fisting and unfisting it like he wanted to fight. Of course he did.
Then he prowled straight at Hunter, making him brace for the worst. Would Cal ever lay a hand on him? He never had, but this was the worst thing Hunter had ever done, wasn’t it?
Before Hunter could figure out how to react, Cal carded both hands into Hunter’s hair roughly and dragged him into a sudden, searing kiss. Cal’s lips were bruising, demanding, and he licked his way into Hunter’s mouth without hesitation, claiming him completely.
Hunter clung to Cal, melting into his kiss as he vowed to do better. This felt like forgiveness, or at least a way to reconcile. Or maybe it was a goodbye fuck. Hunter didn’t know. He didn’t care right now. He just wanted to cling to Cal until he was made to stop.
“I love you,” Hunter mumbled against Cal’s lips. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I should’ve—”
Before he could finish, Cal caught him in another kiss as he backed Hunter hard against the counter. Cal crushed forward until his growing erection pressed into Hunter’s belly. That reassuring stiffness gave Hunter something to hold onto amid the turmoil, hope that Cal still wanted him. Hunter moved with him, arching into the pressure. Cal growled approval against Hunter’s mouth.
Maybe he was angry—strike that, Cal was definitely angry—but wasn’t that what brought them together in the first place? So many times, Hunter had spun Cal up, and Cal had turned his frustration into incredible sex. It was what they did. Cal had never been angry enough to walk out before, but he’d come back.
“Love you too,” Cal whispered as Hunter fought to catch his breath. “I’m so fucking angry, but I love you.” He looked into Hunter’s eyes from up close, their brows almost touching. Cal’s big body radiated fury and hurt, but his expression still shone with the patience and tenderness Hunter had come to expect.
Then Cal spun them, putting his own ass against the counter, and pushed downward on Hunter’s head, a clear signal of what he wanted.
Gratefully, Hunter dropped to his knees. Even injured, with fading bruises and skin mending, Cal was sexy. He was in his boxer briefs, indicating just how angry he was to go out in them. His hard cock tented the front.
Hunter ran both hands over the shaft and then curled his fingers inside the elastic. As he slowly pulled down the waistband, Cal’s cock leapt out, nearly purple, shiny at the tip. Steadying the base with one hand, Hunter licked away Cal’s precum and gave him Hunter’s sexiest smile. “I really am sorry, daddy.”
“You should be. You were a bad boy,” Cal grumbled but ruffled Hunter’s hair, willing to be mollified. All Hunter needed was that chance, and he could make things right. Cal had rage to vent, but Hunter had never minded soaking up that passion.
Cal’s mouth curved into a slight, feral grin. “Suck my cock, brat.”
Hunter didn’t need to be told twice. He covered his teeth with his lips and sucked Cal down in one gulp. He loved when Cal gabbed the back of his head and fucked his throat, reveled in the lightheadedness of having to control his breathing.
Instinctively, Hunter put his arms behind his back, clutching his hands together to give Cal full control. Cal always liked that.
Hunter gazed up at him, letting drool run down his chin.
“So good when you wanna be.” The quiet heat of Cal’s voice resonated with Hunter, reassuring after how wrong everything had gone. Cal caressed Hunter’s shorn scalp and fucked his face slow, deep, and rough, giving him just enough time to catch his breath between strokes. Even angry, Cal’s love bled through every touch. If he wanted to punish Hunter, Hunter was happy to be disciplined.
Cal’s cock throbbed against Hunter’s tongue, filling his mouth with the salty tang of his precum. Hunter swallowed greedily, watching Cal from behind his lashes, taking in the way Cal’s parted lips betrayed his pleasure, the way he tipped his face toward heaven and basked in Hunter’s attention.
Hunter had brought negativity into their perfect little world, and now he had to draw it out of Cal like poison from a wound, give Cal what he needed to purge the bad and leave only the good.
With a shudder, Cal pulled Hunter’s head back by the longer hair on top and dragged him to his feet, making Hunter rush to stand, legs weak with arousal. As Hunter complied, Cal pushed Hunter against the cabinets and bent him over the counter, one large hand splayed between Hunter’s shoulder blades to pin him and the other yanking down Hunter’s underwear. With Hunter’s cheeks bared, Cal stretched to grab coconut oil from beside the stove and opened the bottle with his mouth before pouring the slick, fragrant mess over his cock and between Hunter’s cheeks.
A moment later, the bottle thunked onto the counter, and Cal kicked Hunter’s feet wider, nudging them until Hunter’s stance was wide enough. Then he pushed two slippery fingers inside Hunter, breaching him and slicking him. Leaning over Hunter’s body, he reached around to squeeze his cock where it was trapped in his underwear, stroking it through the cloth as Cal bit Hunter’s shoulder. Before Hunter could do more than gasp, Cal withdrew his fingers, guided his cock against Hunter’s entrance, and thrust.
Hunter gasped at the sudden force, stretched wide. He buried his head under his arms, balancing on his elbows so he could thrust into the onslaught. God, it felt so good. Even amid the discomfort, that shock of sudden entry until he relaxed was a gorgeous reminder of their connection.
What if this was the last time?
No, it couldn’t be. Cal wasn’t wired like that. He wouldn’t fuck Hunter if he wasn’t going to forgive him.
Hunter pressed his cheek against the smooth marble. His breath steamed the reflective surface at each excited bellow as Cal hit that spot inside him. Oh, Hunter was desperate to give him everything.
The impact of their bodies echoed over the tiles, and Hunters tears dried on his face only to be washed away with sweat as Cal worked him. Depressed as Hunter was he’d upset Cal, he was also relieved nothing now stood between them.
As if reading Hunter’s mind, Cal brushed his lips against Hunter’s ear and whispered, “If anyone else had told me… I would never have believed them. And when I did, I would never have forgiven you.”
His flat, dangerous tone made plain how seriously he meant that, but now, as he bit Hunter’s neck and fucked his ass with powerful, needy thrusts, it was obvious Cal was trying to let go of his betrayal. He sucked a bitemark on Hunter’s throat, no doubt leaving bruises, and slid his hand inside Hunter’s underwear to caress him skin-on-skin. “Beg me. Beg daddy to forgive you.”
Hunter shivered at the touch even as he glowed inside that he’d done the right thing in confessing. Or at least as right as he could be now. With Cal getting so aggressive, Hunter pressed his hands onto the counter, steadying himself.
“Please, daddy. I’m so sorry. I should’ve…” Hunter groaned and nearly collapsed as Cal rammed into him. Shuddering, he struggled to catch his breath. “I know I shouldn’t have. I knew… it was wrong.”
Shit. Cal rammed into him in hard, destabilizing thrusts. Hunter’s body sang with the mixture of pleasure and pain.
“But you saved lives. You did the wrong thing for the right reasons.” Cal sounded somewhere between paternal and desperate—convincing himself as much as reassuring Hunter—but his voice was deep and firm. He groaned throatily as he buried himself in Hunter’s body and jerked Hunter’s cock, not gentle but conveying just how much he felt for him.
Consumed, Hunter surrendered to Cal, soaking up and glorying in Cal’s exoneration. The weight of his secret dropped away, replaced by his certainty that Cal forgave him.
“We’re a team.” Biting Hunter’s shoulder, Cal trembled, obviously on the verge of climax, breathing grown ragged. “You’re mine, Hunter. We’re a fucking team. Till the end. Say it.”
The tremble started in his shoulders, then raced down to his balls, his cock sheathed in the warmth of Cal’s hand. “Yours. All yours.”
And Hunter was. Even if Cal had walked out forever, Hunter knew no matter what, the person Hunter had become was Cal’s. Forever Cal’s. “We are a team.”
Hunter shuddered as pleasure took him under, releasing his guilt and need for vengeance. The lie between them was gone, and so was that small part of himself Hunter had kept from Cal, the part fueled by his rage at Chad. With a loud grunt, Hunter let it all go.
Cal held out only a few moments longer before he lost control and filled Hunter, his embrace tight and his teeth finding purchase again and again in Hunter’s neck as Cal’s big body ground against his, Cal’s balls crushing against Hunter’s ass as Cal strove to get as deep as humanly possible. He growled his bliss, as lost in the moment as Hunter, and pumped into him relentlessly until finally those brutal thrusts subsided into languid rocking.
By the time Cal pulled out, Hunter was wrecked and relieved. When Cal turned Hunter in his grasp to look at him face to face, there was nothing in his expression but the same exasperated affection Hunter always saw. Cal went in for a kiss, claiming Hunter’s mouth again and kissing him breathless before he stepped back. He didn’t say anything, seeming to wait for Hunter to break the silence. Bru panted at them happily in the quiet, making Cal facepalm and exhale heavily.
Chuckling to himself, Cal dropped to a squat and held out his hands to the Pomeranian, who rushed to Cal at once, excited to be noticed. Holding Bru, Cal looked up at Hunter, the two of them wearing identical looks of dark-eyed devotion as they watched to Hunter. Whatever else happened, they were his family.
If he weren’t all cried out, Hunter might’ve been tempted to tears of joy. He was so relieved. He traced the bitemarks on his neck as he smiled. “I really am sorry, you know. It was reckless. I get it.”
Hunter looked down at his bare feet, wiggling his toes on the hardwood. “I love you, you know. You really are the most important person in my life—”
His thought was broken as his phone sounded with Nikki’s ringtone.
Just before Hunter could answer the phone, Cal said, “I know,” in full Han Solo mode, gazing up at Hunter stoically. Then he cracked a smile and squeezed Bru before gesturing to Hunter to proceed. “Go on. Talk to her. Tell her I say hi.”
Hunter pulled up his boxers and then limped slightly into the living room where it sounded like he’d left his phone. This was not the optimal time for a phone call, but he hadn’t heard from Nikki in a couple of days.
He answered on their secure video chat app and smiled.
She took one look at him and asked, “Is this a bad time?”
“Um…” Hunter’s cheeks burned.
“You didn’t have to answer!” She giggled, shaking her head. It looked like she was outside on campus.
“You would’ve worried.”
He’d caught her up on everything shortly after the aborted rally—not all the details, obviously, but she knew he’d been in jail and that Cal had been shot. She’d come over to help in the beginning, calling it good practice for being a doctor, though she was very premed.
“You’re right.” She raised her brow at him. “I won’t keep you, I just wanted to show you something.”
She changed to the phone’s rear camera, showing the campus as Hunter had remembered it—bustling with activity, even on a weekend. People happy, engaging. Not a tiki torch or swastika in sight.
Hunter stared at the scene, feeling nostalgic and proud.
Nikki flipped the camera back to her face. “Thought you might like to see that.”
He nodded. “I do. But you should be studying.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Go finish ravishing your boyfriend. Love you, spaceboy.”
“Love you, too.”
Hunter closed the app and carried his phone to the bedroom where he found Cal lounging.
Bruiser stood on Cal’s chest like king of the mountain, his little navy cardigan slipping half-off as Cal ruffled his fur. He looked up and met Hunter’s gaze when Hunter joined them. “Everything okay in Nikki’s world? We need to scare off any more Nazis?”
“Nope. She called to report that the campus is happily Nazi-free. No Bat Signal tonight.”
Yeah, Hunter was still messy, but he backed up and then leaped, landing on his knees at the foot of the bed. Excited and a little surprised by the move, Bruiser jumped up, barked, and wagged his tail, smacking Cal in the face as he bounced on Cal’s broad chest.
Hunter laughed and crawled next to Cal, pulling Bruiser closer so he didn’t bother any of Cal’s tender spots. “Who’s a good crime-fighting dog? Who’s the best doggie hero?”
“Bruiser, is he talking about you?” Cal dropped his good arm around Hunter’s shoulders and leaned over to kiss his hair as Bruiser enthusiastically turned in circles and bugged out happily. Bru yipped at Cal and licked his little chops in agreement.
“Is Hunter talking about you, my baby?” Cal crooned, prompting another little yelp, and Cal laughed and turned his face to hide against Hunter. He whispered, “This is worth fighting to protect—even when it’s you I’m fighting with.” Then he lifted his head to look into Hunter’s eyes, his own dark and soulful, framed by ridiculous lashes that made him look almost as endearing as Bru.
Hunter’s pulse raced when Cal looked at him like that. He leaned in to kiss him, tasting their leftovers and that undefinable magic that was Cal.
“I’ll try to do better about not committing treason in the future.” Hunter gave an impish smile, but he meant it. He couldn’t promise to always follow the rules. It was part of his gig, but he would do it smarter. “I love you.”
“I’ll keep being the same Cal you fell in love with, stodgy as I am, but I will always love you, no matter what.” Cal closed his eyes, looking blissful, and took a deep breath. He let it out in a happy sigh, utterly relaxed, and then gazed at Hunter, one brow arched. “I might need to make you walk funny from time to time, but my love will endure. You have my word on it.”
Comforted as Hunter was, he also had to suppress the urge to test that boundary. He was, after all, the same Hunter Cal fell in love with.
He did like to think he was getting better at picking his battles.
“You can make me walk funny even when I haven’t been bad. Daddy.” Hunter nipped Cal’s lip and then smiled as they all settled in for their last nap of Cal’s suspension.
Tomorrow, things would change.
The End