“Me either.” Bending down, Wade pressed a kiss on Eli’s mouth. The kind that took possession in two seconds. That sparked in the heat and promised flames.
Eli let his hands travel up the back of Wade’s bare thighs as he lifted his mouth from Wade’s. “We’re okay?”
Wade nodded. “Shower with me before you head out.”
Eli thought about the cons and how the same old argument still hung between them. Then he ignored it all. Probably had something to do with the feel of Wade’s tight ass under his hands. “Of course.”
“And wait up.”
For a second Eli feared they’d circled around and hit the same brick wall again. “What?”
“I’m coming over tonight. To your place.” Wade dragged his thumb across Eli’s bottom lip. “We’re not sleeping apart.”
Relief crashed over Eli. This he could handle. This they did well. The subtle jockeying for control as they staked a claim on each other’s time, pushing out anyone else who might try to push in. “Look at you getting all demanding.”
A smile spread across Wade’s mouth. “Get your ass into the shower and I’ll show you what it means to be a power bottom.”
And Wade was that. Eli chalked it up to one more way they matched so well. “I love when you talk dirty.”
“Then the next ten minutes are going to be pretty fucking hot for you.”
Eli was counting on that.
Chapter Three
Wade still wasn’t clear why he had to be in the conference room. At least that’s what he thought it was. The large space had a rectangular table running down the center with blue leather chairs all around it. No windows. No shelves or papers or anything else he’d thought he’d see in an office. Not that he’d ever really worked in one.
Still, Tosh Industries, Gabe’s security company, wasn’t anything like what Wade expected. Even Becca talked about Gabe in hushed, respectful whispers. Eli described Gabe as quiet but not what he appeared to be. That description also worked for the building. A warehouse on the outside. A beige, boring reception room and a back section filled with surveillance equipment and offices inside. People buzzing around and constant activity.
The only person in the room with him was Eli. Wade’s gaze kept skipping to Eli where he sat at the end of the table and rocked his chair back and forth. Something had his nerves racing and Wade didn’t know what. They’d survived a potential blowup the evening before when Wade capitulated, going for sex and a night in Eli’s bed versus a fight over his continued refusal to move on from the past.
Wade thought about last night and the welcome he’d gotten when he walked in Eli’s door. That helped to dull some of his frustration. They’d barely slept, yet Eli sat there tapping his fingers against the table and shifting around. Watching him exhausted Wade even more. He bit back a yawn.
The creaking of Eli’s chair as he rocked cut off as he smiled. “Tired?”
“Wonder why.” Just thinking about what they did bent over the bathroom counter that morning had Wade sweating.
Eli shrugged, not looking one bit sorry. “You told me to wait up for you.”
“I didn’t think you’d—”
The door opened without any fanfare and Gabe walked in. He started talking without looking up or saying hello. He was too busy scanning something on his phone. “Thanks for coming in.”
Eli leaned back in his chair. “Why did we?”
That got Gabe’s attention. He glanced up as he came to a stop. He took the file tucked under his arm and dropped it on the table. “Natalie Udall.”
Eli glanced at it but didn’t make a move to pick it up. “I thought she was your job these days.”
Something close to a smile flashed across Gabe’s mouth, then was gone again. “Apparently.”
Wade bit back a groan. Just the mention of that woman’s name had a nerve ticking at the back of his neck. He owed her, but that didn’t mean he liked her.
Whatever her official title, Natalie had been Eli and Becca’s supervisor at the CIA. When she sided with them against higher-ups and bargained for their freedom from the agency, she put herself on a hit list. Bast had worked to cut her a deal, one that involved Jarrett and the club, though Wade wasn’t completely clear on the specifics. He just knew Bast wanted her protected for a period of time and had hired Gabe for the job, which seemed to have led them all to this point.
“Having fun with the assignment?” Eli asked.
Gabe dropped into the chair across from Wade. “She’ll be fine.”
Wade wondered how Gabe came up with that idea but didn’t ask. Not when he could sit there and watch Eli and Gabe go back and forth. Usually Eli engaged in limited communication and curt responses, but Gabe won that prize today. Jarrett had jokingly referred to Gabe as a hermit. With the dark beard and casual gray long-sleeve tee and gray jeans, the guy didn’t exactly come off as the friendly type. Fine in a scruffy too-bad-he’s-straight way, but scary.
“I was talking about how difficult she is.” Eli spaced out each word, as if choosing them carefully. “The personality made her good at her job but can be hard to handle outside of the company.”
“Understatement,” Wade mumbled.
“She’ll settle in.” Gabe cleared his voice. “I’m hopeful, anyway.”
“I’d like to see . . .” The end of Eli’s sentence trailed off as he stared in the direction of the door.
Before Wade could turn around and see what was happening, a male voice filled the room. “Unless you want to volunteer for watch duty, that’s not going to happen.”
“Andy.” The amusement left Eli’s face as he talked and his tone dropped even lower than usual.
This Andy guy walked over to Eli. Didn’t seem to notice anyone else in the room. Even laid a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Good to see you. It’s been a long time. Too long.”
Apparently this Andy wasn’t a fan of shaking hands. Wasn’t hard on the eyes either. Dark hair with a slightly less mountain-man look than Gabe. Tall. Trim, with a runner’s body . . . and that fucking hand on Eli’s shoulder.
Wade forced an introduction. “Hello.”
“This is Wade Royer.” Eli shifted in his chair as he spoke, turned just enough for Andy’s hand to fall to his side again, and looked up at him. “You’re playing bodyguard to Natalie, too?”
“Gabe is handling that.” Andy smiled, showing off a dimple. “I’m on the ground, checking intel, listening for movement.”
A fucking dimple. On top of that, Wade noticed Andy hadn’t moved to take a seat. No, he stood tight against Eli’s chair and looked half ready to drop down on his lap. Aimed a smile at Eli and never broke eye contact.
All told, the display was pretty damn annoying, but Wade refrained from saying so. “Are you former CIA?”
Andy snorted. “Hell, no.”
“We’ve worked together,” Eli said.
Now, that was interesting in a things-your-boyfriend-should-tell-you-before-the-meeting kind of way. Wade made a mental note to tie Eli to the damn headboard tonight and explain it to him. “Together as in you and Andy?”
Andy jumped back into the conversation without moving from his position plastered to Eli’s side. Just kept sounding amused and oblivious and far too excited about being in the same room with Eli. “The entire company. Tosh contracts out to the CIA.”
Gabe’s hand fell against the table with a smack, bringing everyone’s attention back to him. “That’s probably enough information.”
“Gabe here is limited in his use of words but big on keeping secrets.” Eli smiled as he said it.
Either he missed the tension spinning through the room or he chose to ignore it. Either way, Wade found it harder and harder to stay in his chair. He wanted to pace, punch a wall . . . grab Eli and get out of there. The peeks Andy kept sneaking in Eli’s direction begged for a beatdown.
Gabe lined up the edges of the file in front of him with the edge of the table. “Andy will be here for the duration of the assignment
.”
“And by that he means I’ll track any breaks in protocol or information leaks that might give away her position.” Andy shrugged. “My job, basically, is to watch and assess whether individuals at the CIA really are following through on their promises to stay away from her. If anyone puts a plan in motion, I’ll know. If there’s chatter, I’ll hear it. We’re hoping this is an unhealthy case of paranoia on our part and all will be fine.”
Eli’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Gabe. “Where will you be?”
“With Natalie.”
That got Wade’s attention. “Is she in the building now?”
She’d entered into the deal with the CIA but balked at the idea of a bodyguard. Last time Wade saw Natalie and Gabe together she’d been clear she had no intention of going easy on him for even one minute. Not that Gabe had acted all that concerned about her threats and denials.
“No.” That’s all Gabe said. No information or clues. Just delivered his answer, then stopped.
Wade didn’t know if Gabe had ever been in the CIA, but he sure as hell had the clipped responses down. Eli did that, too. Not Wade’s favorite thing.
Andy chuckled as he crossed his arms in front of him. “Which is Gabe’s way of saying her location is a need-to-know issue at the moment. He’s got it under control and she’s safe.”
Gabe shrugged, something he seemed to do a lot. “The details aren’t important.”
“Why are we here exactly?” Eli asked.
“Deep background.” Andy still hadn’t given up the prime space next to Eli and stared at him now. “You worked with Natalie. You know what we can expect, people who might come after her.”
Sounded reasonable to Wade, except that it really didn’t. “Can’t you ask her?”
“People in protective lockdown sometimes miss the big picture.” Andy made a face. “We often need outside sources to clear up questions and assist in dealing with the people under our protection.”
“Meaning?” Wade used to play the role of enforcer to Jarrett’s crime boss and still had no idea what anyone was talking about. This group talked in half sentences and cryptic code, which made Wade wish he’d stayed home. Of course, then he would have missed the Andy-and-Eli show.
“She doesn’t believe she needs protection.” Gabe shifted in his seat. The move trapped the file under his elbow and he realigned the edge with the end of the table again.
“Now, that sounds like Natalie.” She’d threatened him more than once, and that was not something that happened to Wade very often.
“She wasn’t exactly an open book back on the job,” Eli said with more than a little sarcasm in his voice.
Gabe frowned. “I’d hope not.”
Wade’s head started to pound. He glanced over at Gabe. “You aren’t a very talkative guy, are you?”
That half smile came back and disappeared just as fast. “Only when I need to be.”
Andy leaned against the side of Eli’s chair. “She provided intel, but she’s convinced the deal Bast cut for her isn’t going to hold. Her instinct is to run.”
Gabe nodded as Andy talked. “Which is smart.”
“I’m thinking you and Natalie are going to get along fine,” Eli said as he sat forward. The move shifted the chair and had Andy standing up straight again.
“Eventually.” Gabe’s gaze did a quick bounce between Andy and Eli but he didn’t show any reaction. “Until then we need to be ready for anything.”
“Not to keep translating Gabe-speak for you, but by ‘we’ he means he has to be prepared. We’re looking to you for help with that.” Andy switched his attention from Eli to Wade. “I have to be honest, I’m not a hundred percent sure why you’re here.”
Wade guessed “to beat you to death” was not the right answer. Though he was tempted to say it.
“Andy.” Gabe rubbed a hand over the scruff around his chin. “They’re together.”
Some of the color ran out of the guy’s face, but he didn’t say anything. Just nodded.
It looked like Andy finally got it, which was not a minute too soon for Wade’s liking. “Is that a problem for you?”
Eli jumped in as the tension ratcheted up to the point of suffocation. “Wade also knows Natalie. She spent a lot of time coming in and out of Holton Woods.”
After a few more beats of silence, Andy seemed to snap out of his sudden stupor. He stopped staring into space and turned to Eli. “Jarrett’s place? I have a meeting with him tomorrow in his office. We can meet after.”
“At the club.” Wade added that before Andy suggested an alternative location that might guarantee a broken leg. “For the record, I’ll be there, too.”
“But while you’re here, I have video and security feeds I need Eli to review.” Gabe stood up, taking the unopened file with him. “We can handle that now and get it out of the way.”
Eli nodded. “Whatever you need.”
That could wait. Wade stared at Eli. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“We’ll leave you alone.” Gabe walked around the table. He stopped to hold the conference room door open to the hall and gestured for Andy to go through first. “We’ll be in the viewing room.”
“It’s the room at the end of the hall.” Andy’s gaze moved from Eli to Wade. “Come down when you’re done.”
It took all of his control, but Wade waited until the door eased shut to let go of the harsh exhale trapped inside him. He slammed his back teeth together, grinding them back and forth, to keep the yell rumbling at the back of his throat from escaping in a flash of thunder.
After a few more deep inhales, he pinned Eli with a glare. “Anything you need to tell me?”
Eli rested an elbow on the armrest, but the stiffness never left his shoulders. “Gabe should be able to handle Natalie.”
He acted as if he wanted the battle. Wade stood inches away from giving him one. “I’m talking about Andy, and I’m pretty sure you know that.”
Eli froze. No part of him moved. He didn’t even blink. “What about him?”
The feigned ignorance bordered on insulting. With his elbows on the table, Wade leaned in as a harsh whisper rattled through him. “You can start with the part where you two have had sex.”
Eli started answering while Wade finished his sentence. “Before you. Long before there was an us.”
Motherfucker. “So I’m right.”
“Okay, wait.” Eli held up one hand, then both. “It’s long over.”
“Does Andy know that? The guy looked ten seconds away from licking you. Stripping his pants off and bending you over the table.” The memory of the heat in Andy’s eyes sent Wade’s temper spiking.
He had to get up. The energy pinging around inside him needed a release. He paced, hoping to work some of it off before it spewed out of him as a verbal attack. There was a part of him, a sensible part, the part with common sense and patience, that knew his reaction veered into overreaction. He couldn’t grab hold of that part long enough to tamp down on the rage boiling up inside him.
“Are we really going to fight about people we used to sleep with?” Eli’s chair squeaked as he shifted it from side to side. “God, Wade. We’d only been broken up for a few weeks last time when you let me think you were sleeping with an old boyfriend. I don’t think you have the high road in this.”
Last time? Fury rolled over Wade now. “That’s where you want to take this conversation?”
Eli grabbed onto the arms of the chair with a grip that had his knuckles turning white. “My point is we both have a past. This can’t be a surprise.”
“You know why this matters.” For the entire time they’d known each other Eli fought being gay. Even now he stumbled over the word. Sure, from the beginning Eli hadn’t cared who knew they slept together and didn’t show any signs of wanting to stop. That was positive, but he compartmentalized his life and acted as if sex existed as this separate thing that didn’t connect to him as a human being. Back when they informally lived together he bloc
ked any attempt at intimacy, even as he spent part of every night inside Wade.
The whole denial drove Wade insane. He got the issue of being damaged from a fucked-up childhood. His own father was a petty criminal with a God complex. A man who threatened to kill his only son because he had the nerve to be gay. Eli had him beat on the shitty father scale, what with the old man being a religious wacko who dragged his family around to impromptu tent revivals because he’d been turned away from preaching at every legitimate church. But both upbringings sucked.
That shit stuck with you. Pounded you from the inside out and stole a piece of your soul. Wade understood that, but he never got Eli’s insistence that enjoying sex with men didn’t mean he wanted to be with men. The argument struck Wade as complete nonsense. He also thought it took something away from their relationship, away from what they could and should have together. Demeaned it somehow.
Good news was it seemed as if Eli had started to turn a corner. This time around, except for the sleeping over part, he was more open and accepting. Their relationship didn’t consist solely of sex and fighting, like last time. They spent time together, touched without sex. But now they’d run headfirst into some random guy Eli had banged back when he’d bang anything. Wade had no idea what that would do to Eli but feared it could derail them.
Slow and steady Eli pushed up from his chair and faced Wade. “I never lied to you. You knew I’d been with both men and women before you.”
“But Andy wasn’t part of a job. Right?” No, Wade could sense that Eli didn’t have the excuse of sleeping with Andy on assignment. He’d done it because he wanted to, which was normal and fine but so unlike Eli, which is what made Wade nervous.
Silence bounced around the room after Wade’s question. It took almost a full minute before Eli coughed up an answer. “It still was about fucking. That’s it.”
“He’s looking to restart whatever the hell it was.” Every time he closed his eyes Wade would see Andy closing in on Eli, hovering right there. “The guy got a boner just from seeing you. At least be honest and tell me you know that.”
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