Koen

 

We were back in shitty motels with bad sheets. Jace and I had both petitioned Claire for something a little ritzier for our first night together, but it really didn't matter in the end. The scratchy cloth of the linens and covers might as well have been silk for all we cared as we lay beneath them, naked and covered in sweat.

 

“Goddamn I missed you,” I said as I stroked Jace's face. “Every night, every morning. I couldn't think of anything else.”

 

She leaned in, kissed me, and grinned. “I took up reading books on old wars to try and get you out of my mind.”

 

“Old war books, huh? Did General Sherman's march to the sea make you forget me?”

 

“Not for a second,” she replied. “Now, D-Day and the beaches of Normandy, though . . .”

 

I pulled her in and kissed her again, over and over. “How about now?” I asked between kisses.

 

As she laughed and squirmed in my grip, the room's phone began to ring from her side of the bed.

 

“Stop it, Koen!” she squealed under the barrage of my lips. “I gotta get the damn phone!”

 

I let her break free of my grip and roll over to pick up the handset. “Hello?” she asked.

 

My eyes traveled down the curve of her back, the swell of her hips. I was already getting hard again just looking at her, remembering how she'd felt moments before.

 

She put the phone against her shoulder. “It's for you, babe. It's Claire.”

 

I got up and padded around to her side of the bed, still completely naked. I put the offered phone to my ear. “Yeah, Claire?”

 

“There he is,” Claire said, her voice unusually chipper and upbeat, “the man of the goddamned hour. How you feeling? You guys enjoying yourselves, yet?”

 

I felt Jace's long fingered hand wrap itself around my length. I glanced down and saw her lick those full lips in their perfect cupid's bow as she slid across the bed and closer to my manhood. Apparently, she was ready for another round, too. “Uh huh,” I mumbled.

 

“Just calling to give you guys an update. We took the information with your statement up to our bosses, and they've authorized us to start putting together the information for a search warrant on the company that rig from last night belonged to.”

 

Jace was swirling her tongue around the crown, now, and I'd leaned back a little as the pleasure began to flood into me, muddling my thoughts. Still, though, I tried to focus on Claire's words without letting her know what we were doing.

 

“We're ninety-nine-percent sure that this is going to be it,” Claire said. “We'll put this fucker away with everything you two have given us.”

 

“Oh,” I said, my voice sounding ridiculous to even me, the owner, “that's real nice.”

 

“It's fantastic news! Don't you get that?” Claire asked. “Wait . . .”

 

I groaned low as Jace slipped her lips completely over the head, taking me into her mouth.

 

“Are you two . . .? Oh, Jesus fucking Christ. I'd say get a room, but for Chrissakes, Koen. At least don't do it while I'm on the phone.”

 

I cracked a grin. “Don't blame me, Agent McKesson. She started it.”

 

“Whatever. It's almost over, Koen. Talk to you soon.” She hung up the phone, crashing it down loudly in my ear. On purpose, I was sure.

 

“Good news?” Jace asked as she stroked me and beckoned me back into bed.

 

“Yeah,” I said as I crawled into bed with my woman, pinning both of her thin arms to the mattress. “We'll talk about it later, though. After.”

 

Despite the tenor of the conversation I'd had with Claire, and how confident she seemed, I was still secretly worried. I knew this wouldn’t be the end of Aleksey. Not by a long shot.

 

# # #

Jace

 

Koen explained to me what was all was going on, about the warrant, about the company they were now looking into. It all sounded great on the surface. A win for the good guys, even if we were anything but.

 

“You don't seem as happy as Claire did on the phone,” Koen said, stroking my cheek. We were still naked in bed, and I could feel the heat rolling off his body like a furnace cranked up to full blast. “You okay?”

 

I turned and kissed his fingertips, then sighed. It was so wonderful to be back in his arms, to be back in New Orleans. Even the smell of the place, which was fucking awful, seemed like a good thing. The river rising up, filling my nostrils. And the hot sun, with all the mosquitoes and muggy air, beat the Hell out of Seattle's drizzly weather day in and day out.

 

“No,” I said after a moment, “I'm happy that they might have a chance at getting him. That's good, you know?”

 

“But, still . . .” Koen said, pulling me into his arms.

 

“Still,” I agreed as I laid myself against his chest. “Tomlin's gone.”

 

“Yeah,” he said. holding me closer and tighter. “I know. Aleksey took a lot from both of us, didn't he?”

 

I turned my head, kissed his broad chest, took a deep breath of his skin and musky man smell.

 

“I love you, Jace Spears,” he said after a while. “I'll love you till the stars burn out, and the world ain't nothing but darkness.”

 

I smiled, tears forming up at the corners of my eyes. They were the same words he'd said the first time he confessed to loving me. I'd believed him way back then, but not quite as fully as I did now.

 

He brushed my long auburn hair with the flat of his hand, kissed the top of my head.

 

“We're gonna make everything right,” he said. “I promise you.”