Blood & Thunder (27 page)

Dex lay on his back, running his hand up Sloane’s inner thigh, making him shiver. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for being stupid. We could have been doing this days ago.”

Sloane shook his head and leaned in to kiss Dex. “No. I was the one being stupid and stubborn.” God, how he’d missed this. The feel of Dex’s skin, the taste of him, his scent mixed in with the smell of his shampoo and shower gel, his firm body beneath Sloane’s touch. Sloane doubted he would last long, but he was practically vibrating with anticipation. He quickly lubed himself up, as well as his fingers before prepping Dex, watching enthralled as Dex threw his head back with a low groan, sweat beading his brow and his tongue poking out to lick his bottom lip. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

Dex’s eyes met his, a stunning smile coming onto his face, and his cheeks flushed. The affection in his eyes squeezed Sloane’s heart, and he brought their lips together again, doing his best to show Dex how he made Sloane feel through his kiss, even if he had trouble finding the words to go with it. He lined himself up with one hand and lifted Dex’s leg with the other before he tenderly pushed himself inside. His lover inhaled sharply and Sloane paused, allowing Dex to adjust around him. A heartbeat later, Dex nodded, and Sloane pushed through until he was buried deep, the tight heat both excruciating and exhilarating.

Sloane rocked against Dex, his muscles pulled and tensed as he moved, drawing out, and then pushing in. He kept a steady pace, his eyes never leaving Dex’s as he moved. Dex reached down between them to stroke his cock, and Sloane bucked his hips at the sight, making Dex gasp. With a wicked grin, Sloane pulled out, grabbed a pillow from beside Dex’s head and tapped Dex’s flank, receiving a naughty smile when Sloane slipped the pillow underneath Dex’s lower back.

“Hold on tight?” Dex asked with a knowing grin.

“Hold on tight,” Sloane growled playfully. He lined his cock up against Dex’s hole once again, thrusting inside him, and Dex clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle his cry, his other hand thrown up against the headboard. Sloane snapped his hips, thrusting hard inside Dex. He held Dex’s legs up against him, his arms around them as he fucked him, his breath ragged, and his pulse soaring.

“Oh God,” Dex moaned, arching his back. He took himself in hand, jerking himself off as Sloane snapped his hips and rotated them, hitting Dex’s prostate. Dex threw a hand out to his side, gripping a fistful of the sheets as the bed moved beneath them. Sloane closed his eyes for a moment, the feel of fucking Dex incredible. His abdomen tightened, and he let out a low warning growl. Dex shook his head. “In my mouth. I want to taste you.”

The thought almost had Sloane coming. He swiftly pulled out, rolled off the condom, and cursed under his breath when Dex got on his hands and knees in front of him, that gorgeous mouth swallowing Sloane’s cock to the root, sucking, licking, moaning with need.

“Oh God, Dex.” He put his hands to Dex’s head, thrusting his hips, a shiver going up his spine as Dex allowed him to fuck his mouth. “I’m gonna come.”

Dex hummed, and Sloane gritted his teeth to keep himself from crying out as he shot into Dex’s hot mouth, feeling Dex’s throat swallowing around him. He doubled over, his arms wrapped around Dex’s head as he let himself go completely, his body trembling. When Dex pulled off, Sloane pushed him onto his back to return the favor, loving the taste of Dex as he sucked his beautiful cock. He bobbed his head, licking and circling the head with his tongue, pressing the tip into Dex’s slit, enjoying the way Dex bucked his hips beneath him. He continued to suck Dex off, sliding his free hand up Dex’s chest to tweak one pebbled nipple.

“Sloane,” Dex warned, arching his back. Just as he finished saying Sloane’s name, Dex came, his muscles stiffening under Sloane’s touch. Around them, there was only the music coming from Dex’s tablet, and for a moment, everything was right with the world. He could close his eyes and pretend they were in Dex’s house, the last week having never happened.

Sloane laid his head on Dex’s flat stomach, smiling to himself as Dex stroked his hair, his breath steadying. “Can you stay?”

“Yes.”

As he lay there, enjoying Dex’s ministrations, feeling wanted, needed, and cared for, Sloane had a desperate urge to say “yes” to anything Dex wanted. But he knew he couldn’t, not while his past loomed over him, threatening to shatter everything. Now, more than ever, he wanted this. He wanted to experience what it would be like to truly
be
with Dex. What the hell was he supposed to do?

T
HE
NEXT
morning, Dex wasn’t surprised when he found his bed empty. Sloane’s side was cold, meaning he’d left some time ago. He hoped it was just his partner being cautious, but his heart was telling him he was kidding himself. With a sigh, Dex sat up and ran a hand through his hair. Coffee. Coffee would help his brain function. He stood and switched on the personal one-cup coffee maker the THIRDS equipped all the rooms with. He thanked his lucky stars he worked for an organization that appreciated java as much as he did.

While his coffee brewed, he dressed in his uniform, dragging his thigh rig off the desk and tossing it onto the bed. To his coffee he added sugar and milk from the small fridge tucked underneath the desk and sat on the edge of his bed to think as he sipped the heavenly nectar, hoping it might make him feel remotely not like crap. For a moment, he’d actually thought everything might go back to normal. Idiot. He might be a shitty liar, but he’d perfected the art of playing dumb. Sloane was getting scared. The reprimand, the fight, the fear at the mere mention of the word “boyfriend.” Although Dex believed Sloane when he said there was more between them than sex, that didn’t mean Sloane was ready to turn that something more into a relationship, and part of him wondered if the guy ever would be.

Securing his thigh rig to his belt and the straps around his leg, he left his room to head for the bullpen. Ash was standing outside his office chatting to Cael. “Hey. Have you seen Sloane?” Dex asked him, after giving his brother a welcome back pat on his ass.

“No. You look like shit.”

“I had a feeling I might, considering I feel like shit,” Dex muttered. “Thanks for confirming it, though.”

Ash held his arms out, his bottom lip jutted out. “Do you need a cuddle?”

“I’m too tired right now to come up with an appropriate response, so I’m going to pencil you in for later in the week. How’s Thursday work for you? I can tell you to fuck off properly then.” He let out a yawn and Ash chuckled.

“My week’s kind of full, but since it’s you, I’ll move some things around.”

“I appreciate it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some more moping to do. Tell Taylor I know he’s the one who ate my maple donut, and if he does it again, I’m going to shank him with a spork.”

“Whoa, that time of the month, Daley?”

Just his luck, Rosa and Letty were walking past. “Rosa, Ash is calling me a woman on my period. Crush him.” He strolled away to the sound of Rosa cursing Ash out in two languages. Then Ash made the mistake of accusing her of having PMS, and Dex felt marginally better, knowing the guy would soon find himself in physical pain.

Dex closed the office door behind him, tapping his security code into the panel, and setting the room to privacy mode. Might as well get some work done between moping and waiting to hear from Lieutenant Sparks. He initiated his desk’s interface and dropped down into his chair. “This sucks.” His cell phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out, his heart in his throat at the sight of Sloane’s grumpy face appearing on his caller ID screen. “Hey.”

“Hi. About this morning… I needed time to think.”

Wow. Straight and to the point. “Sure.”

“I know you’re probably wondering what the hell’s going on, and you deserve better than some vague answers and pathetic excuses. I shouldn’t have done what I did last night.”

“Oh.” Dex tried not to let the words sting, but they did. A horn honked somewhere in the distance, and Dex realized Sloane was offsite.

“Shit, that came out wrong. I don’t regret it. I don’t regret you. I’m not in the right frame of mind right now, and I shouldn’t have done what I did if I was going to be an asshole this morning.”

“You’re not an asshole. Most of the time.”

There was a chuckle on the other end before the line went quiet.

“You still there?” Dex asked, closing his eyes, inhaling deeply and releasing it slowly. He knew this feeling. This sense of impending doom.

“Yeah.”

“Are you… I mean, is this
the
phone call?”
Over before it began.
Was he really that surprised? A part of him was. Things weren’t great between them, not by far, but he’d expected the chance to work things out, to at least try to make something of whatever was between them. Had he been hoping for too much? Maybe Sloane wasn’t a relationship kind of guy. Maybe Dex was trying to make Sloane into something he wasn’t. He didn’t want that.

“I’m not that much of an asshole, Dex. I would never end things over the phone.”

“Good to know,” Dex muttered. Not that it made him feel any better. Something was up with Sloane, and it was more than the usual relationship insecurities.

“No, it’s not
the
phone call. I was calling to apologize. Again. And to tell you I’m taking a couple of days off. I know it’s going to sound cliché, but it’s not you, it’s me.”

“Is there something worse than cliché? Because if there is, that was it.” Were they really having this conversation? Why couldn’t Sloane come out and tell him what the hell was going on. “You know, if it’s not working for you, say so. I understand. We said we’d take things as they came, and I meant it.”

“No, Dex. I—I’m fucked up right now, so please, when I say it’s not you, believe me. It’s not you. It has nothing to do with you, or us.”

Sloane’s tone had Dex sitting up. Shit, something really was wrong. “What’s going on?”

“I can’t talk about it. Not right now. I feel like a dick for asking, but you and Ash are the only ones I can turn to. Can you not tell anyone I’m off sick? I told your dad I was out chasing leads. I need a couple of days. If Lieutenant Sparks finds out, she’ll start asking questions, and—”

“Done. And if you need me, you know where to find me. Is there anything else I can do to help?”

There was another long pause. “Wait for me?”

Dex’s heart fluttered. “You bet.”

“Thank you.”

Sloane hung up, and Dex returned his phone to his pocket, his mind racing. He was worried about his partner. It wasn’t like him to go off the grid like this. Whatever it was, it was serious, and Dex was sure it had something to do with the case. He hoped Sloane didn’t do anything rash, or attempt anything on his own. Lord knew the guy was pigheaded, worse when it came to asking for help. Dex would give Sloane the time he needed, but after that, he was going to make it clear to Sloane that he was no longer alone, and it was time he realized it.

W
HAT
A
nightmare.

Dex dropped down onto his couch with a groan. He’d had one hell of a day juggling his workload, along with the dozens of coworkers who came to him asking for Sloane. And to make things worse, before noon the switchboards lit up and emergency calls started flooding in.

All over the city, violence was erupting between Humans and Therians. At first, they believed it was random, until they watched surveillance footage from several businesses. In all the videos, the Therians fighting the Humans wore black masks and were dressed in military camouflage with military grade weapons. News stations hounded the THIRDS, demanding to know if the Therians were agents. It was a PR nightmare. Themis analyzed the footage and identified several of the Humans as being members of one of the Humans 4 Dominance forum. That’s when the theories started.

It soon became shockingly clear this new Therian group was drawing Isaac’s followers out of the woodworks, which was awesome, but they were doing it through violence, which was a nightmare for everyone involved. The last thing the city needed was a trigger-happy group of vigilantes. Unit Alpha was being stretched thin despite passing on some of their cases to other units.

He’d settled down for some vegetating in front of the TV when someone pounded on his door, giving him a start. What the hell? Dex got to his feet, edging cautiously to his front door, his gaze shifting momentarily to the baseball bat propped up in the corner beside it. It was well past midnight and he hadn’t been expecting anyone. He unlocked the door and cautiously opened it, his jaw dropping. Swinging the door open, he stared at his partner.

“Sloane? What the hell happened to you?”

The corner of Sloane’s lips lifted in a halfhearted smile, before it faltered and trembled, a laugh that was half a sob escaping him and breaking Dex’s heart. “You should see the other guys.”

“You got in a fight?”

Sloane’s smile faded. “Yeah. I don’t feel so well, Dex. Can I come in? You can say no. I deserve a ‘no.’”

Dex had no idea what was going on, but he couldn’t leave Sloane like this. He took hold of his arm and gently pulled him inside, closing the door behind him. “You feeling sick?”