by Abigail Roux
He finally looked under the kitchen sink, hunting through everything to find what it was Ty had hidden under there. He’d caught Ty once, when he’d lost his sight, rummaging through here. What he finally found made him grin from ear to ear: a box of Cuban cigars inside a fireproof, portable safe. He took one out and put the rest back where he’d found them.
The most shocking thing he found, though, was something he’d always known was there. In an armoire in the spare bedroom, Ty kept dozens of little boxes. Decorative boxes, old cigar boxes, leather jewelry cases. Zane had never asked about them, never looked in them. He’d always been just a little afraid to see what Ty kept in those boxes.
Ty managed to surprise him yet again. Inside he found trinkets Ty had collected over the years. Things he’d picked up and taken home for no apparent reason. Things from cases he’d worked. Things from people he’d known. In one box, Zane found a bottle cap from a Shiner beer, the kind he’d had in Texas. A poker chip. A purple crayon. A piece of the fake skin they’d used to cover his tattoo on the cruise ship. A dried flower.
Zane discovered that Ty was basically a squirrel.
After the initial shock of being alone, he started branching out further, trying to find out more about himself instead of Ty. He went to a few Orioles games alone, immersing himself in the intricacies and inches that had so fascinated him as a child. He started putting his knife skills and love of puzzles to good use and taught himself to cook.
He stood outside of a bar in Fell’s Point with dozens of others and watched the news as it was announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed. For the first time in over a week, Ty called him. They watched the same newscast, sharing it together, neither saying more than ten words.
He escorted Clancy to her sister’s wedding, pretending to be her very charming and wealthy boyfriend for her overly nosy mother in exchange for the honor of a few tangos. Clancy wasn’t a half bad dancer.
He helped Alston move out of his girlfriend’s condo, all the while dodging Alston’s possessions being chucked at them from the top of the stairs. They bonded over hot wings, discussing all the ways the job fucked up their relationships.
Perrimore got engaged, and Zane was shocked and slightly panicked when he asked Zane to be his best man. He had never planned a bachelor party, but when his mind turned to Ty, to the obvious person to ask for help, Zane pushed it away. He could do this.
He’d driven to Philadelphia to see Deuce, Livi, and their baby girl. Amelia Rose Grady had been born a few weeks before Christmas, and at five months old, she was already pulling Deuce around like he was on roller skates. She had her mother’s white-blonde hair, and her eyes appeared to be turning that particular Grady green that seemed to serve as nature’s warning to other creatures.
He had spoken to Ty every week.
It had been a good month. A good start. Zane was proud of himself, and he realized that he hadn’t been able to say that in a very long time.
He finished up his paperwork and packed it away. He was the last one in the office, and as he was walking to the elevator, he turned to look at the stairwell. He still wondered what the hell had happened a month ago. He believed Ty now when he said he hadn’t known that Burns was in Baltimore the night of Zane’s twenty-year party, but Zane knew he’d seen the man.
It frustrated him not to have all the answers.
His steps echoed in the empty parking garage. His leather jacket creaked as he slid his arms into it. It was times like this, times when he was alone, when the world was quiet, that he thought of Ty. It would be just like Ty to show up now, maybe sitting on his motorcycle with a smirk, reminding Zane that his birthday was in a few days. That was the type of entrance Ty would make.
Zane grinned at the thought. He found his bike sans Ty, but the thought still made the ride home a good one.
He parked in the backyard, behind the lovingly covered Mustang, and clomped up the steps to the door, humming to himself. When he stepped inside, he set his helmet down on the counter nearby and dumped his keys into the bowl next to it.
“Honey, I’m home,” he said wryly to the empty row house.
“It’s about damn time.”
Zane’s head shot up. Ty was sitting on the arm of the sofa, smiling. He was more tanned than he had been, and he certainly looked healthier. His hair was shorter, and the western style shirt he wore seemed to stretch across the taut muscles of his chest and arms.
“Ty,” Zane breathed.
“You look good.”
Zane took a few steps closer and Ty stood, his smile growing softer.
“You look really good, Zane.”
Zane lunged for him and wrapped him up in a hug. The smell of Old Spice permeated Zane’s senses for the first time in a month.
“How are you?” Ty asked as they hugged.
“I’m good,” Zane managed. He pressed his nose to the scar on Ty’s throat. “You?”
Ty nodded jerkily. He didn’t let go of Zane. “Are you ready for me to come home?” he asked, voice breaking.
“Yes,” Zane answered before Ty had even finished the question. He grabbed Ty’s face in his hands and kissed him, over and over until Ty was laughing and trying to fend him off.
At last, Zane took a step back to examine him. “How have you been? How’s Kelly doing?”
“He’s good. They sent him home, and I think his ex-wife plans to take care of him, so he’s desperate to get better so she’ll leave. My suspension’s been revoked. They’re letting me come back next week.”
Zane grinned. He grasped Ty’s hand and moved around the sofa to pull him down with him. “Tell me everything.”
Ty licked his lips, smirking.
Zane grinned widely. “And then I’ll show you the new sheets I put on the bed.”
Ty laughed and crawled onto the couch with him.
Zane wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into his lap instead. Ty straddled him, sitting back and cocking one eyebrow at Zane.
“What’d you do while you were down there?”
“I sang. I stayed with Kelly. With Ava gone, I was the closest thing to a relative Murdoch had left, so I took care of his estate.”
Zane frowned. “The bar?”
Ty bit his lip and nodded. “It’s mine. I uh . . . I closed it up. Looking into selling it. I’ll donate whatever it makes to one of the groups trying to rebuild. There was a kid who used to bartend there, had real talent with the bottle juggling and mixing and stuff. I saw him at Murdoch’s funeral. His boss is interested in buying it.”
“You don’t want to keep it?”
Ty shook his head. “It wouldn’t last long as it is, not without Murdoch and Ava there. Her voice was what brought them in. He was what gave it life.”
“I’m sorry.”
Ty shrugged it off and nodded.
“Did you ever get the curse lifted?” Zane asked.
“Yes. Yes, I did,” Ty drawled, but he frowned as he patted Zane’s chest.
“What’d the priestess tell you?”
“She told me I had dark days ahead.”
Zane didn’t want to believe in any of it—the voodoo, the mysticism, the incredible coincidences Ty said were fate. But the words made his stomach flip. “Do you believe her?”
Ty met his eyes. “Do you believe we met in New Orleans because we were meant to?”
Zane’s mouth went dry. “Yeah, I do,” he whispered.
Ty nodded, looking grim. He leaned forward and brushed his lips over Zane’s. “We’ll be okay.”
“More than okay,” Zane said. “We’ll be us.”
Ty smiled against his lips. Zane chased him when he pulled back, kissing him again. It grew more heated, needier, devolving quickly into two men who hadn’t seen each other in a month and desperately wanted to touch each other. Zane rolled Ty until they both tumbled off the couch and Ty was sprawled on the floor, Zane straddling him. “Have we caught up enough that I can start taking your clothes off?”
Ty laughed,
a carefree, boyish sound, and glanced to his side, distracted by what he saw. “You moved the rug.”
“I kitty-cornered it.”
“Why would you do that?” Ty asked, aghast.
“To see you lose your shit when you got home.” Zane leaned closer, grinning evilly. “There are other things out of order too. Books not alphabetized. Coffee mug handles facing different directions.” He lowered his voice to a whisper as Ty’s eyes widened in horror. “The closet isn’t color coded.”
“You’re just watching the world burn, huh?”
Zane laughed.
“God I missed you,” Ty said in a rush of breath.
Zane grabbed a handful of Ty’s hair and tugged, and when Ty’s head tipped back, Zane kissed him hungrily, not letting go of him. Ty’s laugh turned into a growl, and suddenly there was no space between them. No tears or lonely days, no secrets and no lies. Just Ty and Zane. On the floor of their row house. On a crooked rug.
Zane reached between them to unzip Ty’s jeans, and then began struggling with loosening his own belt.
Ty’s growl became a groan as Zane rose up onto his knees. Ty jerked Zane’s pants down to his thighs and sat up, kissing his stomach.
Zane’s fingers tightened in his hair. He watched, inhaling sharply as Ty wrapped his hands around Zane’s hips and dragged his teeth over Zane’s hip bone. He tugged Zane’s briefs down, grasping the back of one of Zane’s thighs.
“Jesus, Ty,” Zane managed. He wanted nothing more than to hold the back of Ty’s head right there by his hair and shove himself down Ty’s throat, but there was something else he’d been fantasizing about as he lay in bed alone, something he had to do now that Ty was back.
So he gripped Ty’s hair harder and moved off him. “Get on the couch,” he growled.
Zane grabbed the back couch cushions and tossed them to the floor. Ty began to laugh again, but he climbed onto the couch like he’d been told. He reached up to touch Zane, fingers digging into his hips. He thought Zane intended to fuck his mouth. He was ready for it, grinning.
Ty was too much to resist like that, and Zane leaned down to kiss him messily, settling between Ty’s legs to let their bodies rub together as he moved.
Then he pushed back up and unzipped Ty’s jeans the rest of the way, tugging at them. He didn’t pull them off, though, instead standing to kick out of his suit pants. Ty sat up long enough to pull off his shoes and socks and toss them to the floor, then shimmy out of his jeans and boxers.
“You gonna do this wearing the jacket?” Ty asked.
Zane closed his eyes as that image flashed through him.
“You should have kept that skull bandana, Zane, it was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.”
“Christ, Ty,” Zane snarled. He yanked his battered leather jacket off and tossed it aside, struggling out of the rest of his clothes. Once naked, he knelt on the floor and bent over Ty’s lap, taking him into his mouth to suck and tease, hands traveling up and down Ty’s thighs and gripping his hips.
Ty breathed Zane’s name as he arched his back. It was a sound Zane had sorely missed. He had missed everything about this: the easy teasing, the feel and smell of Ty’s body against his, the sounds Ty made when Zane touched him. Zane’s month alone had been a good one, but God was he glad to have Ty in his arms again.
Zane pushed off him and raised his head to kiss him again, tugging him close, wrapping him up. He stretched his hand down Ty’s body, soaking in the warmth, re-familiarizing himself with the hard muscles and pulling at Ty’s hip.
He wanted to maul him.
The muscles of Ty’s shoulders and back bunched as he reached for Zane. He licked and kissed at Zane’s ear. “What do you want?”
“I want you the other way,” Zane commanded.
Ty raised one eyebrow. “You sure?”
Zane nodded and grinned, his hands sliding over Ty’s skin. Ty kissed him one last time, then Zane was stretched out on the couch and Ty clambered carefully over him. Ty shifted back until his cock slid along Zane’s cheek. With a groan, he dropped his head and licked along the side of Zane’s cock.
Zane didn’t waste any time. He wrapped his hands around Ty’s hips and took Ty into his mouth, yanking so Ty would thrust down. He groaned appreciatively at the added stimulus of Ty’s tongue. Very little could get Ty hotter faster than a hard cock between his lips, but it had taken Zane a few years to accept that the same might true of him. This was one of Ty’s favorite things to do. Ty had told him that many times. So why the hell shouldn’t Zane enjoy it to the fullest?
Ty started moving his hips, tentatively pushing down into Zane’s mouth. Zane heard and felt Ty’s groan.
Zane let his hands roam as he sucked, shifting to push up against Ty’s tongue, pulling down to encourage Ty to thrust harder. It worked, and Ty finally gave him a firm thrust. He was supporting himself on one arm, the fingers of his other hand wrapped around the base of Zane’s cock to squeeze.
Zane went into sensory overload. With Ty’s mouth around his cock and his lips closed around the head of Ty’s, his ears began buzzing and pleasure built in his groin. He dug his hands into Ty’s hips, dragging his fingers along his skin, then raised one knee up and worked it under Ty’s arm so he could wrap his legs around Ty’s torso. Ty gasped, pulling his mouth off Zane to curse under his breath and moan desperately before sucking Zane onto his tongue again.
Even if Zane had wanted to say something, Ty was pressed too close for him to get his mouth free. Ty’s measured strokes began to grow erratic as Ty sucked Zane harder. His fingers dragged along the crease of Zane’s thigh and slide down to tease between his legs.
Zane hiked his leg up higher, writhing under Ty’s body and moaning loudly as Ty thrust into his mouth. It was only a few more strokes before Ty groaned desperately and pushed himself up on both hands, coming almost free of Zane’s mouth. “Zane,” he gasped.
“No, come back,” Zane breathed as he grasped Ty’s hips and raised his head to take Ty back to his mouth. He licked him up and down, then ran his tongue over Ty’s balls and sucked one of them into his mouth.
“Oh fuck.” Ty huffed and reached for Zane’s cock, wrapping his mouth around the leaking head and starting to suck again.
After giving each one of Ty’s balls thorough attention, Zane let them roll off his tongue and guided Ty’s cock back between his lips. Ty groaned and thrust down into Zane’s mouth, harder and deeper than before, and he sucked Zane as his fingers massaged Zane’s balls.
Zane couldn’t stop the shout, but it came out muffled as Ty’s cock filled his throat. He shoved his hips upward, knees squeezing at Ty’s shoulders. Ty’s needy noises came nonstop. Zane’s cock brushed along the back of Ty’s throat.
Zane reached down to drag his fingers over Ty’s shoulder in warning. The muscles shifted under his touch as Ty bent his elbow and lowered himself further, still sucking and now sliding Zane’s balls against his palm. Ty’s thrusts into Zane’s mouth turned short and quick and hard as he began to shudder.
Zane moaned nonstop, the stimulation coming from every possible direction. He dug his fingernails into Ty’s thighs. He was going to come, and he was going to do it down Ty’s throat. He wanted nothing more than for Ty to do the same to him.
Ty’s hips stuttered to a stop before he arched his back and started to spill over Zane’s tongue. Zane sucked and swallowed and moaned, burying his nose against Ty’s balls, loving that Ty’s cum was spurting down his throat and wondering how in the hell he had never tried this before. Ty slowly dragged his lips up, teeth grazing along the shaft of Zane’s cock.
Zane sucked and swallowed as his body twisted and he shoved his hips up, chasing Ty’s mouth, barely realizing he was doing it. His cock slid on Ty’s tongue, and Ty jerked and inhaled in a rush before shuddering and starting to suck again.
Zane arched his back and threw his head to the side, releasing Ty’s spent cock and dragging his teeth against the tender inside of Ty’s thigh. Ty groaned appreci
atively and Zane bit down as his orgasm washed over him, wishing like hell he could see what Ty was doing.
As the orgasm wound down, Zane’s death grip on Ty’s waist loosened, his teeth sliding against Ty’s thigh, and his body began to relax beneath Ty’s. His breaths were harsh and hard. After a long moment, Ty pushed himself to the side with a grunt and rolled off the couch to the floor. He sat with his back against it, his head coming to rest on Zane’s thigh.
Zane settled his fingers in Ty’s hair. “That was fun,” he panted.
Ty couldn’t comment. Zane’s fingers tightened in Ty’s hair.
“Why the hell couldn’t you have tried that when I could watch?” Ty finally gasped.
Zane began to chuckle, low and dark. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Either get back up here with me or go get me a bottle of water,” he muttered, still recovering from the full-body meltdown.
Ty’s low laugh turned into a hum of approval. He knelt at Zane’s side, leaning over to drop a kiss at Zane’s hip before hovering over Zane again, this time face-to-face.
“Why the hell didn’t you make me do that before?” Zane asked him. He claimed Ty’s lips for a torrid kiss that prevented Ty from laughing. But Ty was grinning when he pulled back.
Zane shook his head minutely, clutching Ty to him and shifting his shoulders until they were both on their sides on the couch. Ty sighed and closed his arms around Zane. Zane raised his chin so Ty could fit his head against his chest, and he held him as close as he could get him.
His familiar smell permeated Zane’s world.
“Who are you, Ty?”
Ty smiled against his cheek. “I was an assassin,” he whispered. “I’m a Marine. I’m the man who doesn’t miss. And I’m yours.”
Zane bit his lip on a smile.
“Who are you, Zane?”
Zane cocked his head. “I’m an artist. I’m a geek.” He felt Ty smile. “I am one badass motherfucker on a motorcycle.”
Ty began to laugh.
Zane dipped his head until they were staring into each other’s eyes. “And I’m yours.”
The next day, Ty drove Zane to work and went up with him to say hello to everyone. A celebratory mood hung in the air. Zane wasn’t the only one who had missed his partner.
