I just froze. Why did I just freeze?

The guy—Hank—had pulled him into the closet without a word, and he’d gone along with it. Goddamn stupid. That shit could get him killed someday!

Kyle replayed it over and over—Hank growling threats about him, telling him he knew about his son, that if he told the cops a word, the fire would be the least of his worries…

And then Nic had come. But Kyle had frozen in the face of the hatred that twisted Hank’s expression into icy indifference.

For a second, he’d seen what Denver had seen. It terrified him to the core. Being left to die in the smoky ashes of the office building? Hank had no shred of humanity in his soul, Kyle was certain of it.

“Hey.” It was Nic, pulling him to the side. Kyle had just been standing, staring off into space while people moved, talked around him. The cops had taken the statement, and then he’d just been… standing here. “There you are. C’mon.”

He stumbled and walked with Nic. This was the man he could trust. He’d follow Nic anywhere.

“The cops are taking Hank away. He was already a suspect, and he confessed to them, too, just now.”

Kyle slowly relaxed. That meant they were safe, right? “He did?”

“Yeah.” Nic’s arm slid around his waist. “You all right?”

Kyle caught his breath and shook his head slowly. “But I will be now.” He followed Nic’s gesture and spotted Evie on the periphery of the action, talking to a police officer. “Shit. Kevin.”

Nic shook his head. “I already said we need a little more time, and we’ll take Kevin tomorrow.”

Kyle couldn’t find it in himself to disagree. Nic was right, again, about what he needed. He nodded slowly. “Thanks for… finding me.”

“Of course.” Nic squeezed him harder, his expression steely.

Kyle pressed his hand to his face and pulled away, rubbing as if the world would seem more real. So much had happened in a few short minutes and he wasn’t fully over it.

Hank, this coworker, had set the fire? But why? Kyle didn’t know him. Did he hate Nic?

The questions will come out later. He was in the cops’ hands now.

“Let me drive you home,” Nic murmured. “To my home. Our home.”

“My car’s… pretty picky.” Kyle didn’t miss the implication. He was going to follow up on that tomorrow. He trailed off when he remembered that Nic had picked up his car from the fire site. He knew it all already. “Yeah.”

Nic squeezed him around the shoulders and took him by the hand, leading him toward the elevator.

They had it to themselves, which gave him a minute to decompress before they reached the street outside.

There were a few cop cars, but Nic led him away from them and to Kyle’s car.

“I thought you were gonna kick his ass,” Kyle smiled weakly once they were driving. He closed his eyes, envisioning once more the way Nic had stormed in there, hauled Hank off him, and floored him in one quick move.

He’d never had someone protect him before. Nobody ever spoke up—nobody ever wanted to put their neck on the line for someone like him.

Nic had been about ready to slam Hank through the wall. God, that was kind of hot.

“I wanted to,” Nic admitted. “If I hadn’t been thinking more, I would have. But it doesn’t look good to kick the shit out of a guy in a closet before you call the cops.”

“Shame,” Kyle chuckled bitterly. “I would have done it myself.”

Nic nodded. “I know. You were just in shock at first.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I was,” Kyle murmured, his gaze dropping to his lap.

“It happens.” Nic reached out to squeeze Kyle’s knee, and that was all he said about it. Then, he started to chat about his day, telling Kyle about the programming work he’d done.

It was good conversation and Kyle didn’t have to answer, just nodded a lot.

His body was still tense, his thoughts racing from one thing to the next as he replayed those few minutes.

As he waited for Nic to unlock the front door, Kyle’s breath caught in his throat. He was going to be safe to go home now. The cops had Hank in custody, and no doubt they could find the other guy or guys who had been involved.

Everything’s going to be better.

So why the fuck did he still feel so tense?

Kyle barely waited until their shoes were off when they were in Nic’s apartment before he grabbed Nic by the waist, steering him for the bedroom.

“God, yes,” Nic moaned, but when he reached out for Kyle’s shirt, Kyle pushed his hands away.

Instead, Kyle pushed Nic onto the bed and undressed him first, taking only as much time as he absolutely needed not to rip his shirt off.

When Nic was naked, Kyle stripped himself in quick, brusque movements, tossing his clothes aside and grabbing lube. “I really need—”

“Yes. Please.” Nic was breathless, his hands running up Kyle’s sides to his shoulders.

That angular, strong body under his, the delicate thickness of his manhood between his thighs, already flushed and angling slowly upward, the rough texture of his hair when it was all pushed out of place… Kyle’s gaze dragged slowly up and down Nic’s body to take in every goddamn detail that he loved.

“As long as I can kiss you,” Nic added in a breathless whisper, which drew Kyle’s gaze again.

Their eyes locked, and he couldn’t look away.

Kyle braced a forearm next to Nic’s head and leaned down for a long, hard kiss. Their teeth and tongues and lips clashed, vying for control, or maybe in their desperation to each show each other how fucking much he needed him.

“Mmmph,” Nic moaned, rutting up against him so their cocks slid together, trapped between their bodies.

Fuck. As tempting as it was to get off with frotting again, sliding their manhoods together until they were hot and sticky and shaking with exhaustion, Kyle wanted—needed—to be inside Nic.

And Nic was already fumbling for the lube, his fingers sliding between his thighs. Kyle let him finger himself, casting an appreciative glance down.

“God, that’s hot. I should watch you get yourself off more often,” Kyle murmured.

Nic squirmed under his gaze and Kyle only stared harder. He felt so fucking possessive tonight. Nic was his, and his alone.

His protector, and his rock, and his dream, all in one. Here, under him, squirming and pulling his fingers out, giving him desperate eyes, waiting to be fucked.

Kyle bit back his whimper and kissed Nic hard, sucking on first the top lip and then the bottom, then running his tongue along it before pressing an open-mouthed kiss against his lips. All the while, he shifted until he was straddling Nic, their legs tangled and hands entwined.

How had that happened? Nic’s fingers slotted perfectly between his, his palms pressing against his as he pushed their hands into the bed on either side of Nic’s head.

“Nah!” Nic moaned sharply against his lips as he pushed against him, then inside. It took a thrust or two to get his hips angled right, but he was so fucking hard already—just one look at Nic was enough to have that effect on Kyle—that it was easy.

Everything was easy with Nic. And so damn right.

Kyle grunted in pleasure at the tight heat that wrapped around him, the friction as he pushed deep inside Nic’s body. He wanted Nic to forget everything except his name.

“Kyle,” Nic breathed out, his lips parting as he rolled his head back.

Kyle kissed up along his throat, savoring the burn of stubble on his lips as he worked along his jaw to his ear, then licked and nibbled the earlobe as firmly as he dared.

Mine.

Kyle pulled back slowly and pushed in again, keeping his first few thrusts slow and shallow to open him up and get him ready for him.

“Yes” and “fuck” were Nic’s most frequent refrains. He kept shuddering under Kyle with each thrust, especially since his cock bumped and ground Kyle’s stomach.

And how fucking hot was that? He’d felt it inside him, shallow but exactly what he wanted, the head just deep enough to tease his prostate but not grind it during his post-orgasm sensitivity.

Even better: Nic’s body wrapped around his as Nic’s muscles strained to pull them so tight together their skin burned; Nic’s desperate panting breaths in his ears; Nic’s tiny sounds of need and pleasure as he came hard; Nic erratically, quickly, wetly thrusting inside Kyle… every goddamn detail was burned into Kyle’s brain.

And Nic had trusted him enough to talk about what he wanted. Fuck, Kyle would be there for whatever the hell he had to do, and he’d love every inch of Nic along the way. The couple he had now, the couple more he was going to add… it was all part of him, and Kyle loved the package.

Love.

The word rang in his own ears, but he swallowed it and pushed hard into Nic, the bed shaking. It was fucking, screwing until he couldn’t think straight, but it was more than that.

He couldn’t stop kissing Nic, and though Nic’s eyes were half-closed, they weren’t breaking their gaze. They studied every second of each other’s pleasure, and Nic’s hands were tight against Kyle’s.

This was making love, hard and fast and raw.

Raw not because they’d foregone condoms lately after agreeing they weren’t fucking anyone else anyway, but because of something else.

Kyle felt like every inch of his soul was on display to Nic’s piercing gaze, and he liked it.

“Oh, God. I’m gonna come,” Nic moaned. The angle, his knees pushed up, was perfect for him to grind against Kyle, and that was exactly what he’d been doing with every thrust. “Hard, baby…!”

Kyle swallowed Nic’s moan with another hard, open-mouthed kiss as he slammed their hips together, sweat beading between their chests as their skin pressed and stuck to skin.

Nic caught his breath and choked for a moment, squeezing his eyes closed at last, and Kyle kept kissing his neck and shoulder and ear to give him every little extra bit of sensation he could.

“Fuck!” Nic’s hands shuddered in Kyle’s, his fingers trembling and arms jerking, and the rest of him was pushing up into Kyle, seizing up tightly, clenching around Kyle…

Kyle hit the edge of pleasure at the same moment, the hard squeezes around his sensitive shaft impossible to ignore. He couldn’t hold back.

“Yes…!” he moaned against Nic’s lips, gasping as heat rushed through him and into Nic’s tight, perfect ass. He kept their stomachs pressed together hard, grinding against Nic as they came. “Nic!”

Nic was whimpering his name, trembling under and around him, and all Kyle wanted to do was wrap himself around him and stay exactly like this forever—in him, their bodies locked together and burning with need for each other.

Forever.

Kyle barely remembered hitting the bed afterward, but Nic curled into him and wrapped all his limbs around him, and they didn’t need to say another word.