Grace wrinkled his nose. “That would be rude,” he said, not having another word for it.
“That would be dishonorable,” she corrected. “And that is not the young man who has all but lived in my house since he was fourteen.”
Grace gave an embarrassed smile. “You’re very kind. You and Josh’s dad have been so kind to me. I… I don’t ever want to be unwelcome in your home.”
“Then continue to be the young man we’ve come to love,” she said, and they all paused as they boarded the elevator.
Grace heard the click of the coms in his ear. Hunter said, very quietly, “We’re boarding now. Think of me.”
And even though Stirling, Molly, and Josh all heard that, Grace still felt warmed down to his toes.
“Sure,” he said softly. “Fine. See you tomorrow.”
Hunter’s low laughter rumbled in his belly. When Grace climbed into bed that night, the strains of Romeo and Juliet singing in his ears, he closed his eyes and dreamed of a handsome prince who thought he, Grace, was everything he’d ever needed in another human.
When he awoke, Hunter was next to him, and his earbud lay on the nightstand next to Grace’s own.
Letters Home
HUNTER HAD drawn the blackout curtains before he slid in next to Grace, but Grace was apparently one of those rare animals who could sleep during a sunspot in a hurricane, so it possibly didn’t matter. After the muttering was over, he was out cold.
Not so much Hunter.
Hunter lay there, Grace’s body limp and unresisting next to his, the night replaying behind his eyes.
The trip to Seattle was quick and dirty—Josh, for all his pretty-boy smoothness, could sit in a hollowed-out cargo plane, eyes alert, like a trained soldier. When the plane landed, they’d followed the item—per Stirling’s tracker—when it was given to a messenger and driven down the coast to a two-hundred-acre stretch of privately owned land, complete with its own beach. Josh had texted the coordinates to Stirling, and he’d started the search to find out who owned the land. Then they’d driven past the compound itself.
And promptly given up the idea of having Josh steal the thing while Hunter worked backup.
“Oh dear heavens,” Josh said, sounding as old-fashioned and sweet as his blessed mother. “We’d need an army and a week to plan.”
Hunter’s scan revealed the place was bursting with sensors and electronics—and a simple glance showed them a fairly solid wall, complete with electric fencing at the top and guard towers overlooking the driveway. According to their tracker, the driveway was at least a mile long, and the electronic signatures of the house made those surrounding the property look like sewing thread.
“It’s enough we know where it is,” Hunter said thoughtfully. “We need Danny and Felix to figure out what sorts of ripples these deliveries leave and Stirling to figure out who this belongs to. We can plan from there.”
Josh—who’d been driving—gave him an eyebrow arch. “Back to Vancouver? We could always fly back home from here.”
Hunter grunted. “My favorite jacket’s back at the hotel,” he said.
“Yeah, Hunter. That’s what you’re missing.”
Hunter let out a breath. “We had a good day.” He wasn’t talking about him and Josh.
Josh nodded. “Excellent. Away we go.”
With that, he turned their rental around and got the hell out of Dodge before they ended up on someone’s Have You Seen This Mercenary? flyer for hanging out in one spot too long by the bad guy’s mansion.
They had one more day in Vancouver—he’d heard Artur and Julia both making their reservations—and this time they didn’t have a job or an op.
This time Hunter could grab Grace by the hand and take him someplace far away, with no earbuds, and they could play.
Hunter wanted more kisses. There hadn’t been enough. It had been a victory to have Grace gentle under his touch, to have him grow calm enough to talk to Hunter quietly, like a human, keeping his heart and mind in the here and now and not on the next shiny thing around the corner.
The day they’d spent shopping, talking, teasing had fired Hunter’s blood for more. The beautiful face, the tight body—that was sexy to look at, sexy to hold. But Grace’s unexpected conversation—that was sexy to know.
Hunter paused for a moment when he got back to Grace’s room, watching Grace’s eyes—they moved rapidly under his lids; his dreams apparently skittered as quickly as his brain did—and his mouth. Hunter smiled at the thought and undressed to his skivvies before sliding into bed.
Grace murmured in his sleep and rolled into Hunter’s arms, facing him and burying his nose against Hunter’s bare chest.
“Tickles,” he said succinctly, and Hunter chuckled.
“Real men have chest hair.”
Grace nuzzled him. “I must be an unreal man. My chest is smooth.” He grabbed Hunter’s hand and placed it, palm down, on his smooth-skinned, sleek-muscled chest. “See?”
Hunter let out a little sigh and kept rubbing. “Mm… yeah. I thought you were asleep.”
“I could hear you thinking. It woke me up.” Grace wriggled his hips, setting them groin to groin, Hunter in his boxers, Grace in what felt like silk briefs.
“That’s not what I think with, Grace,” Hunter murmured.
“It’s not?” Grace replied pertly. “Because my blood has been there all day, and then you… wait. You don’t have a key. How did you break into my hotel room?”
Hunter was going to roll his eyes, but Grace’s clever, nimble fingers brushed his nipple and he sucked in a breath instead.
“No answer?” Grace teased. “You must be a thief.”
Hunter arched his hips, aware that he was being seduced. “I’m the muscle,” he corrected. “You’re the thief. And apparently you want to steal my virtue.”
Grace laughed at him, and Hunter decided the time to kiss him was right now.
Ah!
Warm, tasting a little like toothpaste and a little like sleep, Grace’s lips parted for him immediately. Hunter gave a sigh of satisfaction and dove in. Grace yielded, so sweet, his reciprocation like fire in Hunter’s blood.
Hunter rolled them so he was on top and kissed down Grace’s jaw so he could nibble on Grace’s neck and earlobe and they could have themselves a sane conversation.
“We’re doing this,” he rumbled.
“Yeah, whatever, keep going.”
Hunter pulled back enough to give him the stink eye. “So glad I have your permission,” he said. “I can tell you’re really into this!”
“Shut up and kiss me!” And with that, Grace turned his head and took Hunter’s mouth, hard and begging, needy in a way that Hunter had never felt before.
And Hunter desperately wanted to give him what he needed.
He responded, dominating when Grace retreated, going back to his original plan of chewing on Grace’s neck and earlobes—delicately, of course—because the feeling of Grace’s body trembling could not be undercounted in its factor of arousal.
“What is this?” Grace asked, but breathlessly. “Why is this working? I don’t under—ah God! Why?”