“How old were you two?” Hunter asked, a little jealous of Josh, who had known Grace since childhood and had all sorts of secret passwords that Hunter did not.
“I was eleven,” Grace said. He leaned his head back against the mirror and closed his eyes. “Josh was so hurt when Danny left. But then he started getting letters and postcards and secret visits. And it was exciting, and he shared.” Grace’s mouth pulled up at the corners. “I kept thinking that sometimes people don’t leave. That even if they’re far away, they can still care for you. That maybe, since Danny kept coming back to be Josh’s Uncle Danny, someone far away could care for me too.”
“Mm.” Hunter swallowed past a suspicious lump in his throat and moved on to Grace’s other foot. “But someone here cared for you.”
Grace nodded. “That’s why I didn’t get too jealous when Josh met his own friends. You’re a tough guy—Chuck too. You’ll take good care of Josh and his family.”
“And you too,” Hunter said softly.
Grace met his eyes directly, his gold-brown gaze suddenly not wandering into the past, not directed somewhere else, but boring right into Hunter’s soul.
“Nobody takes care of me. That’s not the way the world works. But some people will miss me when I’m gone.”
Hunter scowled back at him, not wanting to admit that his heart was feeling as scuffed as Grace’s feet, but knowing it just the same.
He didn’t answer for a moment, taking his time with the other foot, applying Neosporin and antibiotics to the stubbed toes, which made his ass clench looking at them. He wrapped everything with gauze and taped it, and let Grace have his foot back with a tenderness he hadn’t planned on.
“I would,” he said softly into the sudden bathroom quiet. Grace pulled his attention from smelling the soap and shampoos and stared at him.
“It’s not nice to mess with people’s brains,” he snapped, clearly annoyed.
Hunter stepped between his knees, spreading them a little with his thighs, leaning in close so Grace could see he wasn’t kidding. “I would,” he repeated. “I would miss you. And right now, when I say I’m coming for you, I’m coming for you. Not Josh’s friend. Not the thief in our outfit. That’s me, coming for you. I was afraid you would get hurt tonight, Grace. I wanted you to be okay.”
Grace’s full lips parted, and his pink tongue darted out to wet them—an unconscious invitation this time, Hunter was sure. He’d seen Grace do it plenty of times when he was flirting or trying to get Hunter’s attention—but that wasn’t what was going on now. Right now, in the stillness of this impersonal bathroom, Grace was nervous. The pulse in his neck fluttered, and his eyes rounded wide as he stared at Hunter, obviously thinking the same thing Hunter was.
Would one taste be enough?
“I’m always okay,” Grace whispered.
Hunter shook his head. “Then maybe I wanted you to be better than okay,” he whispered back. “Maybe I’d like to see you great.”
Grace wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth, probably to say something obnoxious and sexual and meant to dig under Hunter’s skin.
Too late.
Hunter leaned forward and silenced him with a kiss before he could extend his claws.
For a moment, they were static, lips to lips, before Grace sucked in a breath of surprise and let him in.
Hunter took advantage—that’s what men like him did. They saw their advantage and they took out their opponent.
In this case, Grace was his opponent, and Hunter swept his tongue through Grace’s mouth, eliminating all opposition.
Grace sighed and opened a little more, allowing Hunter full access, and Hunter got to taste him. Finally. He tasted sweet, like gum, which he chewed a lot, and earthy, like his absolutely dreadful sense of humor, and… and lost.
Hunter pulled back and sucked on his lower lip. “Play with my tongue back,” he said, almost puzzled.
“Oh, okay.”
Hunter plunged in again, and Grace met him, stroking back when Hunter stroked, taking over Hunter’s mouth when Hunter let him in. Ah, yes! An equal, a worthy opponent, a tender foe.
“Guys! Get in here. We need to talk.”
Josh’s barked command got Hunter’s attention, and he pulled back reluctantly.
“Almost done in here,” he said, inches from Grace.
Grace regarded him with sober eyes.
“He took good care of me,” he said, obviously for the coms.
“Yeah, well, Hunter’s good at that. Get out here ASAP, though. We’ve got some interesting shit to sort.”
“Hear you.”
But Hunter wasn’t moving yet. He raised a finger to Grace’s cheekbone and stroked gently. “You and me,” he said softly, “are going to finish this convo when we’re not mic’d. But I want you to remember something.”
Grace blinked slowly. “What?”
“I’m here to keep you safe. You. Dylan. Not Josh’s friend. Not the thief. You. Remember that. You’ll be less inclined to scare me if you do.”
Hunter finished cleaning up, but he held out his hand when Grace was about to hop down from the counter.
“I’ll get you,” he said mildly.
Grace just gaped at him. “You’ll wha—”
Hunter scooped him up, damsel-in-distress style, and carted him into the main room, where he deposited Grace on the bed and made sure he had pillows.
Grace leaned back delicately and eyed Hunter with open suspicion until Josh called everybody’s attention to the matter at hand.
“So what I understand is this,” he said before checking his computer. “Danny, Felix, you there?” He swung the laptop so Hunter could see the two men on Skype, because that had happened while they were in the bathroom too.
“We’re here,” Felix said. “Keep going.”
Danny grinned and waved, and Hunter didn’t miss the fact that Grace smiled and waved back, even though it was unlikely he would be spotted from his location so far back from the screen.
He’s never been somebody’s baby before.
The thought made Hunter rub his chest.
“So,” Josh said, focused wholly on the op. “Lucius here has been getting his R and D ideas ripped off once a quarter, but not by the same firm. He and his firm’s lead investigator—”
“Also known as the douchebag who shot at Grace,” Molly all but snarled, and Grace gave her an impudent grin.
Hunter could have hugged the girl.
“Yeah, that fucker,” Josh agreed. “Anyway, Mikey Jenkins, midfifties, very fit—”
“Fast,” Grace agreed.
“And currently missing.”
“What?” Hunter asked, irritated. As far as he was concerned, they couldn’t make enough of a deal out of shooting at Grace.
“Mom and Molly got to the exit from the stairwell while you were hauling ass after Grace,” Josh said. “The guy was gone. Anyway, Lucius claims he inherited Mikey as security from his father—”
“Which I did,” Lucius muttered from the office chair currently in the middle of the room. “The guy hated me, but I thought at least he was loyal to Dad’s company.” He let out a rather fractured sigh.