“Oh, she knows.” Nolan shot Jace a look that said he was being stupid. “You must come home smelling like dive bars and sweaty sex.”
“I guess. Probably.” Jace speared his hands into his hair. “She’s never said anything about it. And besides, I told you it’s not like that between us.”
“But you wish it was.”
Well, shit. He couldn’t argue about that.
“I hate to break it to you, bro. The two of you, whether you have sex or not, are wed in the strictest sense of the word. You love each other. You do everything that soulmates do together—dream, make a life, survive every ordinary day. You’re partners. So I’m going to say this… I totally get that I am not an expert on the impact your pasts must have had on you, but Jordan pushes mental health hard on our team. Counseling is available to all of us as part of our benefits. Now that you’re in a position to get some help, I would ask Kennedy about setting up therapy sessions so you can get this worked out before you fuck up the best thing in both of your lives.”
Jace hated that Nolan was right so much that his survival instincts kicked in. He did what he did best and distracted himself from something that was too painful to consider, even if it meant he was shooting himself in the foot in the process. Dysfunction at its finest.
“And if I like raw, emotionless, consensual sex with hot men on the side?” Jace advanced on Nolan, shocked and a little thrilled when the big guy retreated a step and then another until the refrigerator stopped his backward progress in the small space.
He leaned in, smelling the faint sheen of sweat on Nolan’s neck before licking a line up it. His hands landed on Nolan’s pecs and he kneaded the muscles there. Jace knew a hell of a lot about turning guys on and how to please them. He employed every single bit of that knowledge when he seduced Nolan.
His fingertips glided down, down over their bodyguard’s ripped abs then along his sides until Jace slipped them into the waistband of Nolan’s shorts.
“Ah, fuck. I guess it’s not my place to tell you what you should do.” Nolan’s stare drilled into Jace’s as Jace fished for his cock. It was every bit as thick as these hellish exercise shorts had been promising for weeks now.
Jace wrapped his fist around it and hummed, using it as a handle to keep Nolan in place as he rose onto his tiptoes and crushed his lips to Nolan’s parted mouth.
He might have been the aggressor, but Nolan was eager to encourage him. His hips ground against Jace’s fist, thrusting his hard-on through Jace’s greedy fingers. Jace pinned Nolan to the refrigerator, his own erection rubbing against Nolan’s ripped thigh as he began to hump Nolan’s leg.
They made out, lashing each other’s tongues and swallowing each other’s moans and curses as they devoured each other. It seemed like Jace wasn’t the only one being driven to distraction by his two sexy roommates. As if having one off-limits gorgeous woman wasn’t enough, for the past couple of weeks he’d had two living, breathing temptations around every minute of the day.
And he was taking out every bit of that pent-up frustration on Nolan, his thick lips, and his fat cock. He stroked Nolan as they ground together, his hand trapped between their undulating bodies. It probably wouldn’t have been much longer before they were wrestling to see which one of them would end up bent over the stool at the kitchen counter if Laurel hadn’t stumbled from their room, rubbing her bleary eyes right then.
Was it because she was still half-asleep or because she couldn’t believe what she was seeing?
She froze but didn’t turn around, and certainly didn’t stop staring at the two men, locked in a very intimate and undeniable embrace that was exactly what it looked like.
Jace withdrew his hand from Nolan’s pants, though neither of their hard-ons were going to be difficult to spot. He wrenched away from Nolan, but was breathing so heavily he couldn’t even gasp out an excuse of some sort.
“Oh damn. I’m sorry.” Laurel slapped a hand over her eyes, then scurried past them toward the door while still in her thin cotton pajamas. It was a testament to how fucked up they were by desire and lack of blood flow to the brain that neither of them stopped her.
“I’ll give you two some space. Don’t worry, I’ll go next door to Devra’s or Hot Rides if she’s not there. Uh, enjoy.” Laurel kept her eyes on the ground as she snagged her coat off a hook by the door and stuffed her bare feet into the new boots the Powertools ladies had included in the bags of donated clothes they’d hooked her up with.
Before Jace could reset his brain, which was still short-circuited by lust, she had slipped out the door.
“Well, fuck.” Nolan rearranged his dick and balls, which were probably nearly as sore as Jace’s.
At least his boner wasn’t an issue anymore. His cock had deflated at the sight of Laurel fleeing and the dread that followed. One stupid move might have destroyed their relationship. “I did exactly what you were warning me not to do, didn’t I?”
“I’ll fix this.” Nolan stepped closer and kissed Jace again, this time with tenderness and caring that did more to rock Jace’s world than their passion had. Especially since it felt like a kiss goodbye.
“It’s not your fault.”
“Didn’t say it was, not entirely. But I think I can talk you out of it better than you can. Go get your head on straight and I’ll bring your girl back in a bit. Think about what you really want long-term, and if she gives you another chance, don’t fuck that one up.”
It was more than Jace deserved. The cramp in his chest made it obvious that Nolan wasn’t too far off the mark. The thought of losing Laurel had the power to wreck him. He couldn’t let that happen. Maybe it was time to come clean with her. “Thanks, man.”
Nolan nodded, then flashed his lopsided grin. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll make sure of it.”
Jace slogged into their room to mull things over while Nolan raced out into the cold after Laurel, still wearing only his paper thin shorts.
He’d be fine. If there was one thing Jace had no doubt about, it was that the man was hot as fucking hell. Jace, on the other hand, was screwed.
10
“How fucking stupid are you?” Nolan grumbled at himself. He welcomed the shock of the late winter air slapping him in his flushed cheeks, wrapping in icy tendrils around his pounding heart, and shrinking his package. As if messing around with two people with more baggage than an entire airport wasn’t dumb enough, they were clients, informants, and people he should be concentrating on keeping safe.
Worst of all, he would never forgive himself if he caused a rift between Laurel and Jace when they so obviously loved and needed each other. “Damn it!”
He spotted the swish of Laurel’s chestnut hair and the pure white of her faux-fur lined coat right before she disappeared into the neighboring house where Devra, Trevon, and Quinn—who also happened to be the manager at Hot Rides—lived.
Just what he needed, witnesses to his moronic life decisions. Especially since in their tight-knit community, of which Jordan was part, there was no way his boss wouldn’t find out about the lines Nolan had crossed. At the speed news traveled around here, Nolan might only have seconds before he was ratted out. It might be fucked up, but he loved what he did for a living. Maybe not the methods they had to use to make the world slightly less shitty, but the end result. And he didn’t think putting assassin on his resume would get him very many callbacks.