Axel stowed his sedan next to Walker’s rental in the parking lot Fox had led him to. It seemed weird to think that Walker was staying in a motel in Hidden Creek. Didn’t the Company put their guys up in fancy places in downtown Houston?

He got out and moved to the trunk to fetch the servers. “Nice place,” was all he said when he followed Fox to the ground floor door.

“You’d be amazed how hard it is to find ground floor rooms around here after Harvey. I’ll take it.” Fox unlocked the door and held it for Axel once he was through. “Anywhere’s fine,” he said as he gestured to the servers.

Axel didn’t question the need for ground floor sleeping. He wasn’t too keen on staying places without a quick escape route, and he suspected that was worse for Fox after seeing his breakdown earlier today.

He placed the servers on one of the two double beds. The blankets were orange and brown like they had come here straight from 1977, but it was better than nothing.

Fox ran back out, and when he returned he had a messenger bag over his shoulder. “Okay. I gotta shower. I can’t work smelling like this. You wanna join me?”

Axel blinked at him.

Fox turned as red as his hair. “Uh. I meant, like.” He licked his lips, but that only made them more pink. “To freshen up. You can, if you want. Use the, uh.”

“Bathroom,” Axel supplied.

“But not necessarily at the exact same time as me. Not that you haven’t seen dudes naked before. I mean, you all showered together in the Army, right?”

Axel did what he could to keep a straight face, but there was no way he could stop his eyebrow from climbing an inch. “Right,” he deadpanned.

“Oh my God!” Fox threw his hands up and stalked away to the archway which Axel assumed led to the bathroom. There was a mirror in there, as well as a closet, but then Fox turned right and disappeared altogether.

The sound of water came a minute later.

Axel considered Fox’s offer. Despite the second-hand embarrassment it had led to, it wasn’t actually that bad an idea. They did both smell of smoke, and if Axel got stuck at the office all night it’d only get worse.

He grabbed Fox’s room key and slipped out to his sedan to get spare clothes from his trunk. Fox was right. It wasn’t like he hadn’t shared a locker room or even a shower. There wasn’t anything unusual about it. He’d done it for years, and while a motel bathroom wasn’t in the same league, it also wasn’t exactly an invitation to anything more than a wash.

Sure. If he kept saying it to himself it might become true.

Axel slammed the trunk and used Fox’s key to get back into the motel room, only to be confronted with the sight of a wet redhead wearing nothing but a towel.

He nudged the door shut with his ass and tried to think of something clever to say.

“Awesome! Pizza?” Fox laughed and stepped out of the way of the bathroom.

That shook the cobwebs free, and Axel snorted at his slender but very clearly defined abdomen. “Bullshit. You haven’t eaten a carb in forever. You’re not gonna start now.” He dropped his clothes onto the bed and strode past in an effort to minimize the amount of time he spent staring at Fox’s skin.

It shouldn’t have stuck with him the way it did. The sight of it lingered long after he shut the bathroom door, after he shed his clothes, and way after he stepped into the tub. Fox was lithe, sleek, with delicate red hair that stood out stark against his pale pink skin—hairs made all the more obvious by the wetness which darkened them and stuck them to his stomach and forearms. There were even a light smattering of them around his small, dusky nipples.

Axel was a details guy. It was what made him so good at his job back in SpecOps and what made him such a talented investigator now. Everything he looked at, he noticed. Every little thing, every hair out of place, every freckle and coy glance. So there was no way he could pretend he hadn’t taken in everything from the delicate blush to the way Fox’s fingertips lingered over the knot of his towel. Maybe to the guy’s face, but not in the bathroom.

His cock made it impossible to lie to himself. It strained toward the wall like it was screaming for his attention, and the tightness in his balls only added to his frustration.

Goddamnit, he’d have to take care of this. He couldn’t walk out there with a towel like a flag on a damn pole, waving his surrender all around the place. Fox might be full of smart-talk, but there was a smart brain behind it all and he’d notice. Then there’d be all kinds of assumptions: Fox would think Axel was into him, Axel would have to let him down gently, it would all get in the way of them working together.

Nah. They didn’t have time for that kind of shit, so Axel took matters into his own hands and closed his eyes as his fingers did all the hard work. He held his breath as much as he could to keep himself silent while one hand cupped and caressed his balls. The other slid along his cock, squeezing softly every time it reached the base, and he ended up biting his lip as the image of Fox’s beautiful body flickered into his imagination.

The orgasm was quick and brutal. It was like the moment he thought of Fox, nothing could keep him from coming, and he grunted before he had the wits to stop himself.

His body bucked. The force was unexpected. His breath rasped and he shuddered weakly in the wake of it all.

“You okay in there?” Fox called.

“Yeah,” he whimpered. He tried again. “Yeah. I just slipped, is all.”

“Okay.”

Just slipped. Axel snorted at himself as he struggled to open his eyes. The water ran down over his chest and fist. It tickled as it ran over his sensitive cock head and mingled with the cum which seemed to cover everything but in reality couldn’t possibly, and he gasped again.

He washed as quickly as he could with hands that still trembled, except he also had to make sure the wall and tub was cleaned of all evidence of his activity. By the time he was done, the glow of his orgasm was long gone and all that remained was regret and confusion.

What the hell had he done?

That wasn’t really the question, though, was it? No. It was a mockery of the real question.

Why had he done it?

Was he really so lonely, so desperate, that the sight of a wet, half-naked man was enough to push him over the edge?

He had to focus. They had work to do. Fox could have died today and that wasn’t good enough. Just the thought that Fox might have been roasted alive if Axel hadn’t been there to pull him out made him irrationally angry.

Axel sighed and dried himself off with a towel once he was free of the tub, and tried to look himself over in the mirror, but it was fogged up, and all wiping his hand through it did was smear the condensation around. Nothing got any clearer, least of all his own thoughts.

They were both okay, and that was what mattered. Fox was alive, and ready to get back to work despite the drama of their day. Axel had no reason to get angry, and it’d only interfere with his ability to do his own work.

He took slow, measured breaths as he ruffled his hair dry, until his fog lifted and his head was back in the game.

Then he realized he’d left his clothes out on the bed, and could have smacked himself.

Axel wrapped the towel around himself and lifted his head. Shoulders back, deep breath, act like nothing’s weird. When he was as ready as he’d ever be, he walked out of the bathroom like this was all totally normal.

Fox was already dressed, thank God, and surrounded by the carcasses of the servers as he sat cross-legged on his bed. There were wires and screws scattered around, and Fox had a screwdriver between his teeth as he wiggled a hard drive free from one of the soot-filled machines.

Axel frowned as he walked past. “You sure you should be doing that?”

Fox spat the screwdriver out, and it landed by his thigh. “Motherboards are screwed,” he sighed. “They’ve taken in too much crud. I don’t have time to fix ’em. I’m just gonna have to take the drives to the office and plug ’em in to new chassis. It’s a pain in the ass, ’cause without the original hardware I won’t be able to just boot and go, but it might work out better in the long run anyway—”

Axel coughed to interrupt, then chuckled. “Sounds technical. I already know you’re a genius, man, you don’t have to prove it.”

Fox blushed and laughed, then cursed as the drive he was waggling around finally broke free. He snatched a hand to his mouth and sucked on fingertips. “Stupid chassis,” he grumbled. “Cheap-ass shit. Who buys these to run a business?”

“Probably assholes?” Axel offered as he grabbed his bag.

“Assholes,” Fox agreed.

Axel chuckled and went back to the cubbyhole by the bathroom so he could switch into his spare clothes, and made a mental note that his stash of spare clothes needed replacing now that he’d used them. He stuffed the smoke-drenched suit into the bag and zipped it just as his cell rang.

“Phone,” Fox called. “It’s your auntie Dora!”

Ax flipped him the bird as he rushed to grab his cell and answer. “Ford.”

“Boss,” Dane said. Her voice was terse, which usually meant she had a point she wanted to get to fast.

“Go ahead.”

“Got a name for you. One of our perps let slip and tried to fudge it, but we got a potential match off the employee list at Hidden Creek Insurance. You want me to go pick him up?”

“No.” Axel shook his head. “Keep putting the pressure on, see if any of them crack some more. What’s the name?”

“Clive Marsters. Their IT guy. Not a whole lot on record, never been arrested or even charged. He’s a local. I’ll email you the address.”

Axel nodded faintly to himself. “Good work, Dane. I’ll let you know what I find.”

“Happy hunting, sir.”

He hung up and put his cell in his inner jacket pocket, then loaded up with keys and wallet. “Okay. I got a lead. You gonna be okay with all that?” He pointed to the servers.

Fox clicked his tongue. “Yeah, it’s just grunt work, that’s all. You don’t want me to come with you? I could put some moves on your guy, get him to open up…” He flashed a wicked grin.

Axel almost choked. The guy was a menace. “I’m afraid he’s a citizen. I’m gonna have to handle it. Let me know where you’re gonna be and I’ll catch up with you once we know more about this Marsters guy.”

“Sure thing.” Fox slipped from the bed and offered Axel his hand. “Thanks, Axel. You saved my life. Twice, now. Not that I’m keeping count.”

Axel took it and shook firmly, ignoring the zip of undefinable charge which shot between them the moment they touched. “Try not to let it get to a third time, huh?”

“Pinky promise.” Fox’s amber eyes gleamed with something more than just mischief, but it took Axel until he was out in the SUV to figure out what it was.

It wasn’t sorrow, not quite. It was more haunting than that, and it lingered after Fox’s smile had faded.

It was regret.

Axel shook his head and tapped the address from Dane’s email into his GPS, then pulled out of the parking lot as he tried not to work out what it was Fox had to be regretful of.