The next morning, Jared laced up his sneakers and slowly pulled open Gideon’s front door, not wanting to awaken anybody else. He had gotten up earlier than usual, unable to stay asleep for thinking about what job lay ahead. Jared wasn’t so naive as to think Iris and the Prescotts showing up at Gideon’s meant anything other than an impending Renegade job, and a large one at that. Reese didn’t seem to be in any hurry to head out again, and all these people in one place after weeks of lying low told Jared something was coming soon.

 

The thought of attempting anything like what their father used to do intimidated the hell out of him. Declan and the others all had so much experience, and Rae could always handle whatever was thrown her way. But as a former rescue whose only jobs since being adopted had been fending off the rogue Agent here and there who decided to try and invade the rescue shelter he worked at, Jared couldn’t see what he would have to offer on a job that required several skilled Renegade runners and trackers.

 

Jared stretched his legs and hips on Gideon’s front porch, the humidity from last night's rain surrounding him with its cloying suffocation. The air was thick and heavy in his throat, and when he stepped onto the grassy path at the start of the drive to begin his run, his shoes sunk half an inch into the muddy ground with a wet plop. Jared looked down at the mud splashed onto his shins and sighed. Getting dirty and grimy wasn't part of his plan, and he was already sticky with sweat even though he hadn't even started his run.

 

Changing course, he jogged around to the back of Gideon’s cottage, veering onto the leftmost trail that led down to the pebbled shore of Hidden Lake. Jared toed off his shoes and socks and tossed his shirt up onto the grassy bank before stepping into the cool lake clad in just his running shorts. The water was just chilly enough to be refreshing, and when he had waded in up to his waist, Jared arced his arms over his head and dove in. Getting into the rhythm of swimming helped to clear his mind, and instead of insecurity and doubt, his thoughts drifted to desire and a pair of deep, stormy eyes.

 

Though his interactions with Reese had been relatively few, the addicting electricity sparking between them only made Jared desperate for more. The possessive way Reese's hand had wrapped around Jared's wrist, the smooth confidence that had been behind their first kiss; these had stirred up a new kind of wanting within Jared's soul. What had happened on the porch last night both terrified and intrigued him in its intensity. Reese Slater was sexy, confident, and worlds different than any man Jared had ever known.

 

Not that he'd known many, Jared acknowledged silently as he cut his body through the water with long, practiced strokes.

 

He had gone bar hopping with Rae and Declan numerous times over the years, and some of those nights had led to frenzied makeout and pat down sessions. Not too bad for practice, but the cursory nature of those experiences didn't do much for someone who had spent his whole life trying to fit into something meaningful. Strict rules fostered by overprotectiveness hadn't helped either.

 

Thanks to Rae's easy manner and sly interference, Jared had met a handful of guys that he'd been interested in spending more than one night with, but that had rarely panned out in his favor. He couldn't bang out one night stands like Declan, or enter into a short term benefit arrangement like Rae often preferred.  Rae fell in and out of love as often as she changed her hair color, and Jared was envious of the freedom that gave her. He had never been able to treat any relationship that casually, let alone a romantic one.  He'd fooled around plenty, but Jared could never seem to make himself to keep seeing someone that he just wasn't interested in or comfortable around.

 

Jared paused his laps and tread water, tipping his head back to the overcast sky above. Even when he had dated Corey, the only guy Jared had actually slept with, Jared never felt for him what he was starting to feel for Reese now.

 

But every slow touch, every almost kiss, every heated moment with Reese had Jared screaming to try again. There was an unexplainable magnetism, some primal pull drawing him towards Reese in hopes of fulfilling desires that Jared hadn't ever believed he could let himself have.

 

Jared pushed himself to the limit for several laps before swimming back to where the water was shallow enough that he could stand. Still immersed to just below his shoulders, he tipped his head just below the surface, enjoying the gentle ebb and flow of the lake massaging water through his hair and around his temples. Jared was just bringing himself back upright when he heard the loud crack of a breaking limb.

 

He whirled around and saw Reese, his hot hungry stare fixed on every visible inch of Jared's body.  Jared tossed his head to the side to get the hair out of his face, and to give himself a moment to recover. He tangled his fingers together beneath the water, nervously meeting Reese’s eyes. “I didn't think anyone was up yet.”

 

Reese stood at the edge of the shore, a tree branch laying cracked beneath a booted foot. “They aren't. I don’t sleep much before a job. Too much energy.”

 

Jared was right, then, about everyone being at Gideon’s for a reason. “You should try swimming." Jared wanted to dunk underwater and hide from how much that had sounded like a blatant invitation. Instead he swirled his arms through the light current to give his nervous energy somewhere to go while a loaded silence stretched out between them.

 

A slow grin spread across Reese’s gorgeous face, his eyes roving up and down Jared’s body again. "Maybe I should.”

 

Images flashed through Jared’s mind, of Reese’s strong, broad shoulders and muscled torso dripping wet with lake water. Before he could push them away, Jared opened his eyes to see that Reese had joined him in the water, having shed his shirt, shorts and shoes. He drew in a breath at the sight of Reese’s hard, naked chest, and the grey band of Reese’s black briefs, resting just below the sharp cut of his hips. Water swirled around Reese’s waist, and Jared was mesmerized, rooted to the spot. He parted his lips, but the words tumbling through his mind on just how beautiful this man was wouldn’t come.

 

The corner of Reese’s mouth lifted. “Something you want to tell me, Jared?” His hands found Jared's hips, pressing into Jared's skin with the faintest hint of pressure.

 

Jared nodded. “Yeah.” His pulse quickened, anticipation shooting through his body. 

 

Something in Reese changed, a new energy coming off his skin, so strong it seemed to crackle across the lake. Reese walked them deeper into the water, crowding further into Jared's space. “Well?”

 

Jared reached out, running his hands across Reese’s chest, his fingers brushing over the silver chain of Reese’s Renegade tag. "When I'm with you, I don’t feel like a useless rescue. You make me feel...” Wanted. Special. Jared shook his head. He couldn’t say that. “All the inner voices that hold me back, it’s like you make them disappear."

 

Reese caught Jared's hands in his and lowered them towards his waist, silently telling Jared not to hold back now. "Show me."

 

Jared dragged his lower lip beneath his teeth as he curled his fingers around Reese’s hips. Jared held his breath, his eyes drifting over the rigid muscles and flat planes of Reese’s taut body.

 

"You're welcome to look all you want sweetheart, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want those hands all over me again," Reese purred.

 

A new warmth bubbled within Jared, and before he could talk himself out of it he wrapped a hand around the back of Reese’s neck and pulled.

 

The kiss was raw, intense, and when Reese groaned against his mouth it made Jared feel powerful, like he finally had something someone wanted. He darted his tongue out to trace the line of Reese’s lower lip, and snuck inside the second Reese opened his mouth.  Jared pushed a hand into the thick hair he’d been dying to touch since the first time he saw it, angling Reese’s head down and slightly to the side so Jared could kiss him the way he wanted. Hard, desperate, with a promise for so much more.

 

He slid his hands down Reese’s magnificent torso, over the muscles of his chest that were as hard as granite and down a flat stomach dusted with a slim trail of dark hair that outlined the very path Jared wanted to take. His knuckles brushed the faint line of hair leading downward from Reese’s belly button. Jared curled hesitant fingers inside Reese’s waistband, desperate to get his hands on the heat he could feel just below.

 

“Show me,” Reese repeated huskily. “Show me you can take what you want.”

 

Jared slid a hand inside and wrapped it around Reese’s hard length, reveling in the moan it elicited. He pumped his hand in a steady rhythm that had Reese’s hips pulsing forward. “You want me?” Jared asked, both terrified and thrilled to hear the answer.

 

“Like I want my next breath.”

 

Jared smiled against Reese’s mouth. “You want me to touch you?”

 

“Fuck yes.”

 

Jared licked his way down Reese’s jaw, his neck, his chest. “You exhilarate me.” The words twisted in his throat but he pushed them out, his voice sounding positively guttural because of it. “Let me do the same for you.” He caught a glimpse of Reese’s wide-eyed gaze seconds before Jared took a breath and ducked underwater, fusing his lips tight around Reese’s dick.

 

Reese jerked forward into his mouth, and Jared gripped Reese’s hips as he swallowed him down, twisting his tongue around the head of Reese’s cock while sucking him like a vacuum. Jared’s eyes were squeezed shut, against both the lake water and the terrible fear that Reese would laugh, think him stupid for trying this, for thinking Jared could ever please someone like him.

 

But he could feel Reese trying to hold back from driving his hips forward, so Jared took courage from the darkness of the water and sucked harder, his thumbs digging into Reese’s hips to hold them both steady. In his last few seconds he opened his mouth and gave Reese the barest hint of teeth, dragging them ever so lightly along his cock as Jared retreated and resurfaced.

 

“Damn, sweetheart.” Reese hauled him up by his shoulders, crashing their lips together. “I told you that pretty mouth was gonna kill me.”

 

Jared was shaking with relief and with the need to feel Reese’s kiss become a part of him, to climb so deep inside this man that it would take a flashlight and a dozen maps to find his way out. Close wasn't close enough, and Jared lifted a leg up and onto Reese’s hip, a desperate whimper escaping his lips as Reese’s strong hands wrapped around his thighs to hitch him up further. Jared’s cock was hard and aching, and Reese slid his against it, the lake acting as its own source of friction as Reese grabbed Jared’s hips hard enough that he hoped he’d wake up with Reese’s handprint on his skin the next morning.

 

Reese pushed and pulled at Jared’s hips, thrusting them against each other like he was trying to start a fire. His other hand fisted in Jared’s hair, pulling Jared’s head back to ravage kisses along his neck in a slick move that Jared was coming to love. Jared moaned at the feeling of Reese’s hands on him, his arms surrounding him, his legs and hips and cock driving him.

 

“Gonna come, sweetheart, fuck, gonna-“ Reese tore his lips from Jared’s neck and breathed heavy pants against his mouth, his forehead pressing into Jared’s. “Tell me. Tell me what you need.”

 

“You,” Jared answered raggedly, gasping as Reese’s cock slid fast and slick against his own . He held onto Reese’s shoulders, reveling in the motion of Reese’s powerful muscles push pulling him towards release. “Just need you.”  The strength in Reese’s thrusts sent shocks of heady arousal through Jared, and he imagined what Reese would look like using that force to take Jared and fuck him like he was the only thing that could bring Reese to the edge of paradise and make him want to jump in.

 

“You’ve got me.” Reese drove them faster, harder, his nails digging into Jared’s skin. Jared reveled in the sensation, every nerve of his body attuned to Reese’s mouth, his hands, his cock.

 

Jared locked his legs tighter around Reese’s waist and shot forward, coming in long hard stripes onto Reese’s stomach. Even as he chased the aftershocks he snaked a hand down between their bodies, wrapping it around Reese’s length to pump along with his hips.

 

“Never, damn, never needed it this bad before.” Reese thrust hard into Jared’s fist, a ragged moan escaping his lips. “Don’t stop, sweetheart, don’t stop,” he whispered against Jared’s neck as he came, half into Jared’s hand and half into the depths of the lake around them.

 

Jared lowered his body off of Reese, both of them panting, Jared’s hands shaking as he dragged them along Reese’s torso. His let his head fall against Reese’s chest, soaking in the moment and the smell of Reese’s sweaty skin.

 

Now that it was over, everything inside Jared told him to back away, but he stayed where he was, fighting against the urge to brace for a rejection he still feared was coming.

 

Two strong hands wrapped around his lower back as Reese pulled him close, pressing soft lips and harsh stubble against his temple. Jared ducked his head, hiding his face in Reese’s chest. His fingers flexed on Reese’s hips and he held on tight, because somehow Reese kept him from falling into the pit of darkness within his soul that told him he was nothing.

 

When they dragged themselves away from each other and out of the water, Jared picked up his shoes, but his shirt had disappeared from where he’d left it. Casting an accusing look in Reese’s direction, Jared was stopped short by the smirk dancing across Reese’s face. “It’s a short walk back,” he offered casually, Jared’s shirt hanging loosely from his fingers. “Besides, you wouldn't want to get this all wet.” He caught Jared around the waist, fusing their mouths together in a heated kiss. “Not to mention you look gorgeous like that. All flushed and wrecked, with the look of me still on you.” Reese pulled back and handed Jared his shirt. “Wouldn't want to give your brother a heart attack when we get inside, though.”

 

Jared yanked his shirt from Reese’s hands and hastily pulled it on, talk of Declan instantly bringing Jared back to reality. He hated feeling like this was something wrong, something he shouldn’t have. It made Jared all the more angry at the man in front of him, at how badly Jared still wanted him. “You should lay off my brother,” he said, voice clipped. Frustrated at his own self-consciousness, Jared stalked ahead of Reese, heading back to the house.

 

“Hey.” Reese jogged up beside him. He caught Jared around the wrist, gentler than last time. “I’m sorry. I was just giving you a hard time.”

 

Jared stood in the middle of the trail, waiting for more.

 

“Look.” Reese blew out a breath. He placed his hands in his pockets and locked his arms, avoiding Jared’s gaze in favor of looking back out towards the lake. “I know you’re nervous about Jefferson.”

 

“You don’t know anything about me.”

 

“I know what it’s like to feel helpless.” Reese cut his eyes back to Jared, and Jared tilted his head, trying to find what was hidden beneath those stormy irises. “I don’t have your same life experience, but I know what it’s like to have shit happen around you and be completely powerless to stop it.” Reese took a step towards him. “Just, whatever happens, know that I have your back, okay? And Rae’s and Declan’s. I’m in this with you one hundred percent, yeah?”

 

Jared shifted his weight from foot to foot. “It’s a job,” he said, shrugging. “You’ve been on millions of those.”

 

“But not with you.” There was a vulnerability coming off Reese that Jared hadn’t noticed before, but rather than make him nervous, it elicited a need to comfort, to assure. It was gone as quick as it had come, though, and Reese morphed back into that aloof, cocky man astride a motorcycle that had glided up Gideon’s driveway some days ago. “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know. I mean, if it helps.”

 

Jared cocked his head and stared at him, trying to suss him out, and when he couldn't take the tension anymore he just nodded. “Thanks.”

 

“Come on,” Reese said, placing a hand at the small of Jared’s back. He resumed their walk back to the house. “I know you’re a mean cook. Let’s see if that translates to breakfast.”

 

The warmth at the base of his spine calmed him, and Jared walked alongside Reese, curling his fingers into his sleeves to avoid the urge to reach for the hand that dangled so close to his.