Axel said nothing as Fox drove them back to his motel.

What the hell was he doing?

He had a home to go to. Well, maybe not a home. He had a house that he rented to go to, but he’d be kidding if he claimed it felt like home. It was just a roof and a bed.

Fox’s was hardly any better. It was just a goddamn motel room.

What was he doing?

Did he think it was more efficient for them to spend the night in the same location? No. Not by a long shot.

Did he want to make sure Fox made it through the night in one piece? Maybe, but he knew that wasn’t really it.

He was giving Fox the chance to make a pass at him, and he hadn’t even worked out how he’d respond to that should Fox take him up on the offer that sat between them like a guilty secret.

It was stress, that was all. It happened in war zones all the time. Guys would do things with each other they’d never dream of doing back home.

Fox parked outside his motel room and Axel left the car.

Neither of them spoke.

He followed Fox inside and flicked the lights on.

“Oh man!” Fox rushed over to the discarded gyros and picked up the bag, his nose crinkled in distaste. “I forgot all about these!”

“Here.” Axel reached for the bag. “I’ll go toss them in the trash.”

“There’s—” Fox gestured toward the can under the desk.

Axel chuckled at him. “You wanna smell this first thing in the morning? Let me go throw it out.”

Fox nodded mutely as Axel took the bag, then handed him the room key too.

“Five minutes,” Axel promised.

“I can do a lot in five minutes,” Fox said.

Axel laughed and let himself out.

* * *

He came back in time to find Fox leaving the bathroom wearing only his boxer shorts.

Axel’s eyebrows climbed. His hand moved to lock the door without any real input from his brain.

Fox’s skin was pink, like a full-body blush, and it clashed with his bright hair.

“So a guy once told me,” Axel said, “that if I ever wanted him under me, all I had to do was ask.”

Fox blinked rapidly. The tip of his tongue wetted his lips, which only exacerbated the situation in Axel’s pants. “Really,” he said, sounding far less flustered than he looked. “He sounds wise. You should totally listen to him.”

“I thought so.” Axel peeled off his jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair. “Look, I don’t know about you, but I can’t get you outta my head. If it goes on any longer I’m gonna have trouble focusing on the task at hand. We should just…” He puffed out his cheeks, then unfastened his holster and placed it on the desk. “Get it out of our systems.”

Fox eyed the gun, then stared back at him. “You’re…” He touched his own chest, and Axel saw the flutter of Fox’s pulse at his throat. “You want to…”

Axel shrugged. “Only if you want to. I just figured we could put Syria behind us at last, you know?”

Fox pursed his lips and hooked his thumbs into the waist of his boxers. “You too, huh?”

He couldn’t be sure what Fox meant by that, so he let it slide and began to unbutton his shirt. “So, Agent Walker, I’m asking now. You wanna be under me?”

“Well when you put it like that, how could I say no?” Fox’s lips flickered into a smile and he peeked up through his eyelashes.

Fuck.

He was gorgeous.

Axel snorted. This was just a one-night stand. Nothing more. They’d get this over and done with, then all the flirting and kissing could stop and they’d go arrest Kennedy and then Fox would get moved away to wherever he was needed next.

Yeah.

That was how this would go.

He peeled his shirt off and tossed it over his jacket.

Where did they go from here? Axel was playing it like he knew what he was doing, but he really didn’t have a damn clue. It wasn’t like he’d done this before. Not with a guy.

How much difference would that make?

Fox stepped closer and brushed his fingertips across Axel’s chest. The contact was like a jolt, sharper than it felt, as though there were more to it than mere touch. It spread through him and made his heart race, his breath quicken.

His cock throb.

“How far do you wanna go?” Fox’s voice was no more than a whisper.

Axel couldn’t find an answer to that, so he placed his hands on Fox’s shoulders and held them tightly. Fox’s pale skin and slender body seemed so frail in his hands.

Fox laughed softly and leaned in to trace soft kisses along Axel’s collarbone. “How about I lead and you follow?”

Axel nodded. He felt suddenly useless, like a teenager trapped in the same space as his first crush. He couldn’t think of any words, and when he moved his hands down Fox’s arms he lost all sense of where to go from there.

Christ. He wasn’t a virgin.

But Fox made him feel like one.

Fox’s hands were on his belt, and they unfastened it, pulled it free with a swsshhh of leather against cotton. It fell to the floor, but Axel couldn’t worry about that because Fox was pulling his fly down.

Slipping his fingers into Axel’s pants.

Slowly rubbing his palm over the front of Axel’s briefs.

Axel groaned and traced his hands back up Fox’s arms. As though brought to life, he knew what he wanted now.

And how to get it.

Fox slid Axel’s pants down and Axel kicked them away. He leaned in and kissed Fox hard just as Fox snaked his hand into Axel’s briefs and gripped his cock.

His whole body was on fire, flush with life, with need. He invaded Fox’s mouth and their tongues clashed, and for every breath Fox stole, Axel stole it right back. Fox pushed Axel’s briefs down, and Axel felt his way to Fox’s boxers to return the favor.

They were a tangle of bodies, a hot and heaving mass which somehow made it to a bed in time for Fox to fall back onto it.

And then Axel was on him.

It was everything Syria wasn’t. Fox’s body was under him, so small that Axel covered it completely, except this time Fox’s lips were on his, and their cocks were pressed tight together.

Axel groaned at the sensation. The hardness. The way their balls nestled together. The way they seemed to be joined from mouth to chest to groin to toes as though they were one.

Fox slid a hand between them, and his fingers curled around both their shafts. He broke free of the kiss and gazed up into Axel’s eyes.

“Do it,” Fox moaned.

Axel nipped at Fox’s lip and began to slowly thrust against him.

God it was amazing! Fox’s hand kept him from slipping away, and the sensation of their cocks rubbing together was electric. It reached into his brain and took over. There was nothing else, nowhere more important.

Fox’s head fell back, and he gave a desperate moan. “Oh fuck, Axel. Yes! Fuck, yes!”

Axel grabbed Fox’s hips with one hand and his hair with the other. He drove harder and faster, and Fox’s moans became intoxicating, so Axel kissed him again so that he could share them.

“You like that?” Axel gasped against Fox’s mouth. “Yeah?”

“Fuck, yes,” Fox cried. “Oh fuck, fu—”

Axel stole the rest of the word with his tongue, and Fox wrapped his legs around Axel’s hips, pulling him closer.

Sweat trickled down Axel’s forehead.

Fox’s breaths became sharp, fast.

His moans were exquisite.

“Axel,” he cried. “Oh God, I’m gonna come!”

Axel grunted and thrust harder, driving against him, pushing them both toward the edge.

And then over it.

Fox bucked like a wild stallion. Their cocks pulsed together, beating with their hearts, spilling as one into the space between their bodies.

The orgasm tore through Axel and left him weak and helpless. He gave one final thrust and fell forward, doing what he could not to crush Fox beneath himself while his head spun and his muscles shook.

Fox’s last cry faded into heavy, rasping breaths.

They stayed there for some time. Axel had no idea how long. They were inseparable, their bodies connected and their flesh weak. He felt the quiver of Fox’s body beneath him, and responded to it with a tremble of his own.

Fox was the first to speak.

“You’re amazing.”

Axel laughed faintly. He barely had the strength for even that. Like Samson betrayed by Delilah, he was feeble and powerless, laid waste by the man in his arms. “No,” he murmured. “You are.”

Fox snorted and patted his shoulder. “We should clean up.”

Axel grumbled and finally managed to roll aside. Fox had a point. They couldn’t lie there all night, not like that.

But maybe together.

“You want me to be able to stand up?” Axel asked. “After that?”

Fox chuckled and gazed up at him. “I guess. I mean, unless you wanna sleep in the wet patch.”

Axel crinkled his nose. “Is that how this works?”

“Naw. But the look on your face was adorable.”

* * *

They showered separately because there just wasn’t enough room in the motel’s shower for both of them. And without so much as discussing it, they both ended up side by side in Fox’s bed, since the one they’d used earlier was kind of messy.

He held Fox in his arms and listened to his breathing.

How had this happened?

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Shit, he’d screwed it up, hadn’t he? This was supposed to make things better, not worse, but here he was holding a man in his arms like the guy was the most precious thing in all creation.

And maybe he was.

Axel scowled to himself. One day. One fucking day, and suddenly Fox was back in his life and had weaseled his way into Axel’s head.

And his heart.

There was no way they could go on, though. They’d wake up tomorrow and this would just be a hook-up, a night to work their frustrations and lust out of their systems so that they could get their heads back in the game.

Right?

Yeah. That was what he thought.

He was so totally screwed.