Six months later
Spencer loved DC, loved its history and unique energy, but as he made his way in his rental car to an unfamiliar Georgetown address, he mainly loved DC because it meant seeing his man again, meant a long weekend in the same city. They managed a fair amount of those, but Spencer wasn’t ever getting enough of Del, and to that end, he had a new plan he was desperate to tell him about. No, make that ask him about, because they made big decisions together now. His stomach wobbled at the thought that Del might hate his idea.
Spencer was in town chasing a story about the youngest and newest congressional representative, something he’d timed for when Del was at Little Creek for a round of sniper training on some new equipment. Del was driving up, and they were meeting up here at his friends’ apartment for dinner. Tomorrow, they were having brunch with Greg and his husband and some of Spencer’s other DC contacts, and as much as Spencer wanted Del to himself, he knew that this round of meet-the-friends was important too, another layer of merging their lives. But he was far less worried about Del meeting Greg and that crowd than he was about this more intimate dinner with Del’s friends, Wes and Dustin.
It was more than a little humbling, Del putting enough trust in him to let him meet the people he’d worked so hard to protect, trusting that he wouldn’t go after the story there. He found a parking spot a few blocks away and was juggling his gift of wine when he heard a familiar voice.
“Spencer! Might be nice if you answered your phone. I’ve been tracking you the last block and half.” Del jogged up. He was in civilian clothes—nice jeans and a thick colorful sweater Flor and Spencer had talked him into while shopping a few weeks back. The narrow stripes of color made his auburn hair gleam and blue eyes sparkle, and Spencer couldn’t resist sweeping him up in a hug.
Del grinned as he transferred the six pack to his other hand so that they could hold hands the rest of the walk to the historic redbrick building with lovely covered balconies that overlooked the canal. The door was opened by a blond giant of a guy cradling the fluffiest white cat Spencer had ever seen.
“Bacon! You made it!” The guy, who Spencer knew from pictures was probably Dustin, ushered them up to the second level of their condo. He accepted the wine and beer with a broad grin. “Awesome. One of these will go with what Wes is grilling, I’m sure. He’ll tell us whether it’s wine night or beer.”
“Beer. Always beer.” A laughing slim man emerged from a kitchen at the rear of the unit. “You guys can owe me your eternal gratitude that this one isn’t cooking. I’ve got him graduated to boiling water and assembling salad, but we won’t speak of the time he tried roasting a chicken.”
“Hey. It wasn’t that bad,” Dustin protested. “And LeeLoo enjoyed it just fine.”
Wes shook a spatula at him. “Of course she did. You can do no wrong by her.” To Spencer and Del, he said, “I’ve been hoodwinked, y’all. ‘Let’s just visit the adoption event,’ he said. ‘Let’s just play with kittens then go get some food,’ he said. And now look at him. Totally wrapped around that feline’s paw.”
“Maybe you need a cat, Spencer,” Del teased. “You travel just as much as Wes and Dustin. You could make it work.”
Spencer wanted all the domestic fluff that this couple seemed to have, but maybe minus the pet, so he made a noncommittal noise. If Del truly wanted a pet at some point, though, then a pet they would have. But first they needed to occupy the same zip code. And that brought him back to his plan, the one he was dying to discuss with Del. Alone.
“Who needs a drink?” Dustin set the cat down and fetched a bottle opener for the beer. After they each had a drink and were settled on the large leather sectional, he turned to Spencer. “I caught your segment on that podcast Bacon sent me last week. Really nice discussion of China’s rush to find aliens. That must have been a fun story to research.”
“It was.” Spencer liked that Bacon was sharing his work, and he shot him a private smile. Right now, a lot of his work was behind the scenes, helping Tanisha with the military book and the stacks of research and interviews they both had to sort through. She really was an amazing young writer, and Spencer couldn’t wait for her reviews to start rolling in.
“And he’s got a release date for the memoir he edited.” Del’s obvious pride made Spencer warmer than the beer. “You guys should come to the DC reading.”
Spencer loved Del making plans for the two of them, inviting his friends along, but what he really wanted was what these guys had—a shared place together, shared future, shared life. And that was coming. He knew exactly the direction he wanted his life to take, and his hand trembled on his beer bottle with how very much he wanted Del to agree. Fun as this was, Spencer couldn’t wait to get Del alone afterward, and really talk.
* * *
Del loved hanging out with his friends, but he couldn’t wait to get Spencer back to the hotel. Wes and Dustin’s happiness was contagious, and something about how right they were together made him even more aware of what a good thing he and Spencer had going too. He wanted to be like that a few years from now—all free and easy with inside jokes and a shared history.
Wes and Dustin were lucky enough to get to work together, but Del didn’t mind the separations from Spencer as much as he had at first. They had a good rhythm going now of saving up time off to spend together, and Spencer doing all his traveling while Del was deployed so that they could spend more time together. And he liked that Spencer had his own life, his own projects keeping him busy. Made it easier to focus in the field.
“You pick the best hotels,” he said happily as Spencer let them into their room. It was a swanky little place in Dupont Circle, not far from Wes and Dustin’s Georgetown condo. A large king-size bed dominated the space, which was decorated in shades of gray with pops of reds. “Reminds me of my truck. In a good way.”
“I aim to please.” Spencer pushed him in the direction of the small-yet-lavish bathroom, which had a cool glass-enclosed shower. “And you complained all last week about water pressure at the training site, so I figured you’d like this place.”
“I do.”
“Now, you enjoy all the hot water you want, and I’m going to—”
“I’d rather enjoy you,” Del growled, unbuttoning Spencer’s pale blue dress shirt. He loved all sides of Spencer, but Spencer in business wear might just be his favorite. And getting Spencer out of business attire was the most fun of all. “Come on, get wet with me.”
“Okay, okay.” Spencer gave up his token protest in favor of helping Del get naked. He hadn’t been lying about the water pressure and temperature being glorious, but it was Spencer pressed against him that was truly what he’d been missing. They kissed and jerked each other off until the water finally ran cold and then they wrapped up in the cozy bathrobes the hotel provided and snuggled in the bed while watching a late-night news program.
“This is perfect,” he said, kissing Spencer’s temple. “Nowhere else I’d rather be.”
“Good.” Spencer stretched so they could kiss for real, and already, Del’s cock was stirring, dreaming of round two. But then, Spencer added, “But speaking of places we’d rather be, I want to talk to you about something.”
Uh-oh. This sounded serious. A trickle of dread raced up his spine. “Yeah?”
“Well, I was going to just do this, but we said we’d talk about all big life decisions, right?”
“Right,” Del said slowly, still not sure whether he was gonna like where this was headed.
“I want to sell my LA condo, get one in San Diego, switch to being based out of there. It would mean we could see each other even more, not as many long drives.”
“I don’t mind the drive. It clears my head and that place was your parents’—I don’t like the idea of you letting it go for me.”
“I would be happy—delighted—to sell it for us. So that we could find something in San Diego we both like. Real estate in Los Angeles is ridiculous. If you really don’t want me to sell it, I suppose I could rent it, but Del, I really want to do this. I want a place that’s ours. A home.”
“Ours, huh? So like you want me to live there too?”
“If you want. If getting off-base housing permission isn’t too awful.” Spencer managed to sound indifferent, but Del could see in his eyes how much he wanted this. “I thought condo shopping together might be fun. You can weigh in on shower size and water pressure and I’ll handle checking out the kitchen.”
“Hey, now, I cook sometimes too. You liked the casserole I made you from Mom’s recipe.”
“I ate the casserole you made, yes. And far be it from me to say anything about one of your mom’s recipes.” Spencer laughed, but it was a little unsteady. “What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea?”
Del put him out of his misery. “Good idea. The best. I’d love coming home to you.”
They kissed then, a long, deep one full of promise and hope. Spencer pulled away, breathing hard. “So...how does getting permission for off-base housing work? Is it easier if we’re married? Because—”
“Spencer.” Del groaned.
“What?”
“You do not get to propose when we’re half-dressed, in bed after sex, and as a matter of convenience.”
“Sorry.” Spencer’s eyes were wide and hurt. “Too soon, right? Sorry—”
“No. Not too soon.” Del tackled him so that he was pinned to the bed, Del straddling him. “I’m just saying, Spencer, I need a better story for Mom. And our friends. You’re the romantic here. Give me some romance beyond ‘and the base might like it better.’”
“So that’s not a no?” Spencer was adorable when he went all hopeful.
“It’s not a no.” Del kissed him. “But I think we both deserve a real proposal.”
“Fair enough. So, if I ask sometime soon—in a suitably romantic fashion, Chief Picky—you won’t turn me down?”
“I won’t turn you down.” Del kissed him tenderly. “I might even write you a bad poem all about it.”
“I love your poetry.” Spencer returned his kiss. Del had finally let him see his notebooks, and Spencer had reacted with wonder, not laughter. It made Del love him all the more, feeling like he could share every part of himself with Spencer and it would be welcomed and loved.
“I want a future with you. A home. A big celebration with all our family and friends. I want it all.”
“I want that too. More than I can ever say.” Spencer stretched to kiss him, all need and hope and hunger. Del’s cock was starting to get hopeful too, and he was rocking against Spencer when he pulled away, laughing. “Tell me you don’t want one of those horrible public jumbotron proposals at a sporting event?”
“I want the one that comes from you. The one that comes from your heart.”
“You’ve already got my heart,” he said softly, looking up at Del with big eyes. “It’s all yours.”
And that right there was all Del wanted, all he could ever ask for. Sometime soon, Spencer was going to ask for real and he was going to say yes, and they were going to go condo shopping, but all that was bonus. All he’d ever wanted was Spencer’s heart, the whole thing, no holding back, and now that he had that, he knew the future was theirs for the taking.
* * * * *
To find out more about Annabeth Albert’s upcoming releases, contests, and free bonus reads, please sign up for her newsletter at
More books are coming in the Out Of Uniform series from Carina Press, including Rough Terrain, book seven, which will be Rooster’s book!