4-Bound By Danger (24 page)

When Clint came, sticky between their bellies, Jace didn’t stop, rode Clint through his orgasm before he allowed himself to spiral out of control. When he did pump inside Clint, he wasn’t sure what he said—his words tumbled out in an incoherent rush.

He lay sprawled on Clint, aware his body was probably a dead weight. But Clint didn’t complain—instead he rubbed Jace’s back slowly.

“You’re still hard,” Clint whispered. “Damned youth.”

“What’s your excuse?” Jace asked.

“Motherfucker,” Clint said, and Jace found himself flipped so he was on his back, legs spread with Clint inside him.

Jace hadn’t been sure he was capable of any more orgasms, but man, did he feel good, couldn’t remember the last time he was more relaxed. He lay on fresh sheets next to Clint as a movie rolled.

He’d gotten plenty of sleep, so he wasn’t worried that it was late. He’d drift off eventually, and then he probably wouldn’t see Clint again for months. Clint was leaving this time, but Jace would leave again soon, too, and his trips tended to last longer than Clint’s.

“I’ll wait,” Clint said.

“I didn’t realize I spoke out loud.”

“You didn’t, but you go tense all of a sudden. And since I leave in six hours—it’s a natural assumption that you’re thinking about us being separated again. What’ll happen afterward.”

Jace stared at him. “I’ll wait, too. You know that.”

“Let’s try to make it under six months.”

“And if it’s not?”

“I’ll still wait,” Clint said quietly.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Styx was in town for the day, and he met Clint at Jace’s house—although technically, Clint had moved in and never looked back. Jace had made him keys and said nothing when all Clint’s belongings began showing up in the house, in the closets and the kitchen. Said nothing when Clint began parking in the driveway.

“So you’re living together?” Styx asked mildly.

“I’m never home, so this was just easier,” Clint explained, but he knew that wasn’t it at all.

“You’re really in deep.” Styx leaned back with a small smirk.

“You’re enjoying that a little too much.”

Styx looked out the window—Law and Paulo had just pulled up. The three of them had been making their relationship work for a year now—as unconventional as it was, it was perfect for them. For Damon and Tanner, too, although he knew Damon worried about Tanner on his boy’s long missions away.

“You could both get out—work black ops together, if that’s what turns you both on,” Styx suggested. “Because you’re mooning around without him. “

Clint threw the empty soda can at Styx’s head. The man ducked and shook his head. “Man, you’ve got it bad.”

“Let’s just go with your boys to lunch, all right?”

Styx didn’t argue, but Clint knew it wasn’t the end of the conversation.

He’d been right, of course, but they gave him until after the meal was finished and they waited on coffee before really digging in.

Law threw out the first casual blow. “Business is really heating up—we could use a few more guys. Know anyone who’d be interested?”

“Subtle as shit, Law,” Paulo told his lover. “Just ask him.”

“I think you just did,” Styx pointed out.

Clint caught the way these men looked at one another—a combination of respect and love that couldn’t be faked, and man, they were lucky.

Maybe it was time for him to be lucky as well.

When Clint returned home hours later, the house was still empty. He checked his texts and there was nothing. He returned a call to his handler and got the man’s voicemail, and then he sat for a while and pondered the offer Styx and Law and Paulo had made him.

He’d always known that door was open to him, but they’d extended it to Jace as well. And for the first time in forever, Clint was willing to take this leap with Jace. He’d meant it when he’d told him so months ago, but he realized Jace might not be ready yet. He’d only been with the SEALs for six years, and getting out now would be difficult.

But Clint still planned on talking this through with the boy when he came home.

He’d started making something for dinner, since there was only so much takeout a guy could have, when he heard the door open. He walked into the hallway to see Jace come in, shoulders looking like they were in knots, face drawn with exhaustion. But he smiled when he saw Clint, and they kissed with the deep appreciation that only being alive—being survivors—could give them. Jace dropped his bag and hung on to Clint, and he knew if he let the boy have his way, they’d be fucking right here in the hallway. And after a couple months apart, it was definitely something that topped Clint’s list, but making sure Jace was all right came higher.

He pulled away, but Jace kept his hand on the back of his neck. “What’s wrong?”

“You.” Clint steered him upstairs toward the bedroom.

“I’m fine,” Jace protested.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Clint told him. “Let’s clean you up, get food into you. Then sleep and sex.”

“Sex, then sleep,” Jace said. “Maybe a shower first.”

“I’m more than glad to assist.”

He embraced the boy, felt the rough equipment Jace used, and then began to peel away the layers of the boy’s uniform carefully, piece by piece, until they were down to bare, albeit sandy skin.

Clint swore he could tell where Jace had been based on that clue alone, but he didn’t bother to ask. It didn’t matter. What did was that Jace was back and here, in his arms.

Still, Clint bit back anger at the contusions littering Jace’s chest and shoulders. Part of the job, the mission.

“I’ve already had medical treatment,” Jace said as if to stave off further inspection. “It’s nothing that won’t heal.”

Still, Clint traced a new knot in the boy’s back—he’d always had scars, but seeing the active markings made Clint realize how close he came to losing this man every time they left each other.

“I know. I’ve seen your grave,” Jace said quietly, reading Clint’s thoughts. “Price of the job, right?”

Clint leaned in and kissed him fiercely. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Jace fought the process a little but complied after Clint said, “Let me,” and prepped him for the shower so he could clean off the heat of the battle. Cleaning the memories of it away wouldn’t be that easy, but his boy was better able to handle what was happening both between them and in his professional life than he’d been months earlier.

He led Jace to the shower and massaged his shoulders lightly while the water heated, then stripped and got them both inside the large, clear glass-enclosed stall.

He’d watched Jace in here more times than he could count—it never failed to pull him inside, no matter how clean he already was.

This time, he carefully soaped the boy up, washed his hair and then took down the waterproof lube and worked his fingers against Jace’s ass as the boy groaned a little.

“Hang on to the towel rack,” he urged, and Jace did so, holding so tightly his knuckles whitened. “Maybe I should cuff you in here,” he continued as he pressed a slick finger inside of Jace as deeply as he could, and whether it was the words or the penetration that caused him to jump, Clint wasn’t sure.

But he was far from done. It was two fingers and then three, all while he talked dirty and watched Jace’s cock drip as the hot water bore down on them.

“Am I clean yet?” Jace asked finally, his voice slightly strangled.

“Enough for me to start getting you dirty.” He pushed Jace to the wall and entered him in one stroke, loving the way Jace took all of him with a cry of pleasure and Clint’s name on his lips.

“Missed. You,” Clint said along with his thrusts. “Missed. This.”

Jace nodded in agreement, his palms trying to gain quarter against the slick tile, his body rigid with pleasure.

“Come on, baby, let me see you come,” Clint told him, and Jace tensed and shot, come spurting up his stomach and chest.

Clint didn’t last much longer, saw stars as Jace’s tight ass contracted around him. He leaned his face into Jace’s wet back as the shower beat down around them, and when he could move again, he cleaned them off, then toweled Jace dry and tucked him into bed, because he was already half-asleep.

“I’m going to wake you up to eat, all right?” he whispered, and Jace nodded before closing his eyes completely.

Clint suspected that would happen, and he figured an hour would be more than enough time for him.

He dried himself the rest of the way off, tugged on a pair of jeans and went into the kitchen, finished the prep for the meal. He was about to wake Jace up when the phone rang.

“Hey, got some of the intel you asked about.” It was his supervisor, Pete, from the MC op, which was still in the process of wrapping up. The bust was happening soon, but it would be timed carefully.

“Tell me.”

“Jace is being watched over by the Feds.”

Pete’s words stopped him cold. “He’s in trouble?”

“The opposite—Jace is working with them.”

“For how long?”

“Coupla years. It’s some deal to get his cousin into WITSEC.”

Clint glanced at the kitchen door and saw Jace ambling sleepily down the stairs, sweats sitting low on his hips.

“Thanks for the intel, man. Gotta run.”

He managed to put the phone down rather than smash it against the wall the way he wanted to.

“Sleep well?”

Jace nodded as he rubbed his eyes with his palms. “Needed that.”

“Bet you did.” He couldn’t do this, sit through dinner and pretend nothing was wrong. If it was an op, yes, but this was as far from it as it could be.

“What’s wrong? Was that work?” Jace read his body language instantly.

“It was.” He paused. “Want to tell me about your work with the Feds?”

“The Joint Commission?”

“No, the Feds who promised Kenny protection if you cooperated and agreed to spy on the MC in return.”

Jace stared at him, neither confirming nor denying, but he paled a little and muttered, “Shit.”

“You didn’t think I’d find out?”

“I didn’t…look, I never asked you for any favors, did I?”

“That’s not what this is about, and you know it.” Clint heard his own voice, dangerously low, and Jace’s stance mirrored that, was equally as tense.

“It was something I started before you and I had to finish it. And I did finish it. I got out.”

“Without telling me?”

“Yes.” Jace stood firm, and Clint did throw the phone to the wall across from Jace, watched it smash into a million pieces.

“Why the hell not, Jace? And don’t tell me you forgot for a fucking year or couldn’t find the time or whatever other bullshit you’re going to justify this with.”

“Because you’d worry. And you’d try to fix it, and I don’t drag people into my problems.”

“Suppose I want to be dragged there? Don’t I get a say?”

“I didn’t want to blow your cover. Don’t you get it? The Feds think you were really killed. You could’ve gotten in deep shit with the CIA for being with me—you told me that yourself. I didn’t want there to be a hint of impropriety. And the Feds threatened me. Once I refused to give them any more intel and Kenny refused to leave town, I knew they could screw me. Big time. And I’ve been waiting for that shoe to drop.”

Clint paused at that, but he was too angry to look at it rationally. He was too pissed and this was too personal. “You could’ve really fucked with my op.”

“I just pointed that out,” Jace told him. “I haven’t used a single thing you told me. You can check with my handler. I’d never do anything to hurt you, on or off the job.”

“You just did, so how can I believe anything you say?”

“You seriously believe I’d use you for intel?”

“I think you’d use intel I had to get Kenny help. And I told you things.”

“I never asked—you told me to try to get out.”

“And you fed that intel—”

“I got that intel about the bust on the warehouse on my own, months before I left. Months before we slept together. The Feds waited too long to move on the warehouse intel. Check the dates if you want.”

“I will. And it was a stupid goddamned plan to ask the Feds to help you,” Clint continued.

“It’s none of your business,” Jace countered.

“Everything you do is my business,” he roared.

“Is everything you do my business?” Jace demanded. “Because I don’t understand your ever-changing rules that only seem to suit you and your needs.”

“Yeah, like switching subjects is going to throw me off the track,” Clint said. “You’re working with the Feds, and they don’t give a shit about you or your cousin.”

“I
was
working with them,” Jace corrected. “I don’t need protection.”

“Yes, you do. You have no idea.”

“I have every idea. I didn’t go into this lightly.” Jace yanked a shirt on.

“Right. You know what you’re doing. And when Kenny disappears and the club gets screwed and you disappear, they won’t make a connection?”