Flight of Fancy (19 page)

“Right. Sure.”

“I’m going to shower first. I’ll be quick.” Gavin waved and left him alone.

Aidan stared down at himself naked, the comforter at his feet, and wondered what the fuck he’d woken up to. Or was he still dreaming?

An hour later, he sat across the kitchen island and watched a peppy Gavin Caldwell munching on his bacon with gusto. “Great coffee, Aidan. I’ll have to try that blend.”

“Yeah.” He sipped his black brew and just stared at his lover.

“So what’s up for today?”

Aidan didn’t know what to do. “A write-up for Jack, I guess.”

“I did it the day after we got back. You were pretty messed up.”

Aidan drank more coffee, wondering how to bring up what he dreaded talking about.

Gavin beat him to it. “Just so you know, I didn’t say anything about what you did to those guys. You know, when they were trying to kill me.”

“Oh?”

“I know you did something to their minds. But you never talked about being able to do that, so I didn’t mention it. I think it’s fair for me to ask you, though. Exactly what did you do?”

“Hell if I know.” He wished he did; then maybe he’d have better luck not doing it again.

Gavin blinked and said nothing. Aidan had been good about staying out of Gavin’s head lately, but he wanted to know what Gavin thought. When he tried to look, to his surprise, he found himself blocked. The little geek had learned something after all.

Gavin grinned. “I felt that. Thank yourself for teaching me that nifty trick.”

“Christ, Gavin. I can’t tell you the last time I heard the word ‘nifty.’ Maybe in a forties flick?”

“Yeah, well, I grew up with my grandfather. He lived with us after my dad died. And he used words like
nifty
and
hell’s bells
and
golly
a lot.” Gavin’s dimple made him seem so much younger than he was. “Get used to it, Blondie.”

“Idiot.” Aidan snorted but couldn’t help his grin. He liked Gavin’s verve. For someone who used to feel bullied, Gavin seemed to have adapted to Aidan pretty quickly. Then again, he’d put his trust in Aidan not too long ago. It was probably still fresh. “Gavin, I have to say something.”

“Speak, freak, and speak freely.”

He frowned. “You’re a lot cuter with your mouth closed.”
Or around my cock
immediately came to mind. “About what happened in Mendocino. I’m sorry you walked in on that. I should have been there for you, not the other way around.”

“Huh?”

“It’s just, I was supposed to be in charge, and they took me by surprise. Then you had to deal with Kerr and his dickheads while my sorry ass was chained to a fucking wall.”

“It could as easily been my sorry ass.” Gavin shrugged, playing off his part in their rescue with a maturity and ease that surprised him. After all the shit Gavin had taken about screwing up, he should have been rubbing Aidan’s nose in his success.

“But it wasn’t. You saved the day. You didn’t screw up. I did.”

“Actually, Jack screwed up. The bad guys followed the money, because our financial data wasn’t secured the way it should have been. But Jack’s cleaned that up already.”

Aidan stared at him with new respect. “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

“Say what?”

“I’m sorry for thinking what I did about you. You’re a stand-up guy, Gavin.”

Gavin flushed.

My boy needs praise.
Gavin looked damn good getting it. “So I was thinking,” Aidan continued.

“Big mistake.”

He glared. “I was thinking we should continue your self-defense training. You did well against Kerr, but the other two had you by the balls. You just need to know where to hit them hardest.”

“The other two…the ones you took care of for me. Are we ever going to talk about that?”

Aidan sighed. “Yeah. Just not now, okay? Let me drink my coffee and get used to the fact I have time off. All those movies I was going to see and books I wanted to read—now I have time for them. I don’t know what to get to first.”

“You mean, while we wait for a psychotic killer who wants to drill you to show up,” Gavin added drily.

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“Great. I vote for the Shaolin collection you have in your cabinet.”

“I’ve seen those.” Aidan blinked. “But I suppose I could see them again.” Who knew Gavin liked martial-arts flicks?

They started talking entertainment. Movies, television, books, and before Aidan knew it, half the day had passed. They’d watched two movies back-to-back, then critiqued fighting styles. Which got Aidan thinking about a workout.

Gavin shook his head. “No way. Doc Cannon made me promise you wouldn’t be too active for a few days. You need to heal, Aidan. No training.”

Aidan fumed. “You’re not my nursemaid.”

“And I’m not your sub either. So quit bossing me around.”

That took Aidan aback. Had he been pushing Gavin in that way? “Sorry.”

Gavin shrugged. “Um, sure. You’re a domineering kind of guy. I get it. And it’s got to be killing you not to work out. You train every day, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” Even when he’d been working with Gavin before the mission, he’d spent at least a few hours lifting, running on the treadmill, or working on the heavy bag in his basement in the section not dedicated to his dungeon.

“You can’t do any of what you want to do.”

“How do you know what I want to do? You read minds,
boy
?” Aidan tacked on to tease. He loved watching Gavin’s cheeks turn red. And that thought brought his attention to Gavin’s tight ass.

“I don’t have to read yours to know what you’re thinking about right now. Not with that hard-on staring at me.”

Aidan chuckled. “You’ve gotten pretty good at shielding. What do you think about to hold it firm?” He’d been dying to know what Gavin used as a positive block to mental penetration. He had a feeling it wasn’t his mother.

“My secret. Just like
you
have secrets.”

Again with the veiled references to Aidan’s secret talent—scrambling people’s brains. “Come on, genius. Why don’t you do something constructive? Help me look over my financial portfolio.”

Gavin opened his mouth and closed it, like a fish out of water. “Oh man, I’d love to.”

* * * *

They spent the next few days feeling each other out. There were no repeat performances of that morning in bed. All of Aidan’s hard-ons went untouched by Gavin’s delightful mouth. Gavin, for his part, had a blast with Aidan’s financials and made several recommendations to expand his investment strategy that Aidan found useful. He also proved to be an entertaining houseguest. He cleaned up after himself and generally kept out of Aidan’s way. After warning him just once more to go easy, Gavin agreed to work out with Aidan.

Aidan scaled it down but returned to his fighting stances and practiced strikes. He didn’t lift weights or box, though. Too much strain on his core too soon.

He watched Gavin fight, saw his boy’s—partner’s—weaknesses, and tried to correct them, which wasn’t easy without putting his hands on Gavin. But if he did, Aidan worried he’d fuck the shit out of his little sub.

No matter how many times he told himself that part of his relationship with Gavin had come to an end, his body refused to believe it. When Gavin bent over, when he opened his mouth, when he gripped a bottle in a tight fist, Aidan wanted to fuck him. Any way, anyhow. He had a constant erection that thankfully Gavin ignored.

A few hours after they’d finished training and had showered and dressed, he growled, “I’ll be back,” and left the couch. Gavin didn’t acknowledge him, engrossed in one of the newest spy movies streaming on the television.

Aidan cursed a blue streak under his breath and found his cell phone in his bedroom. He called Avery, skipping Jack altogether.

“Yeah?” Nathan, Avery’s lover, picked up. Damn. Aidan heard laughter and noise behind Nathan.

“I need to talk to Avery.”

“Is it important?”

“Of course it’s important, or I wouldn’t be calling.”
Asshole.
“Put Avery on. It’s Aidan.”

“Hmm. Aidan who? Have we met?” Nathan asked.

“Don’t be a dick. You know it’s me.” Aidan hated talking to Nathan sometimes. He was such a smart-ass. He heard Avery in the background shout something to Nathan, who shouted something obnoxious back.

“Hold on,” Nathan said, all sweetness and light.

“Jesus, Nathan,” Avery said between laughter. The phone must have dropped and was picked up again, because Aidan heard, “You are such an asshole. Gimme my damn phone.”

“You work too hard. Besides, it’s only Aidan.”

Aidan waited with forced patience for the sane member of the partnership to answer the phone.

“Man.” Avery.
Finally.
“Hey, Aidan. Sorry. Had to deal with a princess with her panties in a twist.”

Aidan liked Avery. The former US Marine had a no-nonsense attitude and took no prisoners. He was mission essential, and he knew how to get the job done. “You seen anything else on our blond dude? Anything timewise? Sitting around on my ass is killing me. I need to get back in action.”

“Sorry, my friend. But no one said you had to wait forever. Why not come on over to Hallihans for a beer? Bring Gavin and lighten up a little. There’s plenty of backup here, so you can let your hair down. Speaking of which, you ever think of getting it cut? It’s kind of long. Not great when your opponent can grab on and bring you down.”

“Since when the hell do you care about hair? Hell. You’re letting Nathan get to you.”

Avery sighed. “Yeah. He’s such a girl about style. Sorry I mentioned it. Though from a defensive perspective, it makes sense. Why the hell do you think the military gives its grunts buzz cuts?”

“Yeah, sure.” Aidan shook his head. “About the bar, maybe another time. I don’t want—”

“Hold on.” Avery’s tone changed. “Hey. Your guy. He’s a big blond, right?”

Aidan sat up straighter. “Yeah, why?”

“One of Chloe’s dudes is talking about some guy that recently went to his mom’s clinic.” Chloe was in a relationship with a set of sexy twins, Xavier and Josh Cannon.

“Mom’s clinic? We’re talking Doc Cannon, right?”

“Yeah. She wouldn’t tell him anything about you, but that he showed his face is telling. Sounds like Samson Ruelle is in the area, and he doesn’t care who knows.”

“Good.” Aidan’s blood hummed with the need to do violence. “No word about Carl Kerr, though, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Anytime.” Avery paused. “You know, you don’t have to live like a hermit all the time.”

“What?” Would Samson come straight at them or take his time? Probably feel out the surroundings, figure out where best to attack from.

“I’m just saying. Next to Jack, you’re the most antisocial guy on the team. It helps if you mingle a little, have fun.” He cleared his throat. “And yeah, that’s Nathan’s influence again. But you tell him I said that, and I’ll kick your ass back to DC. Later, Viking.” Avery disconnected.

Aidan stared at the phone as he put it down. He’d never seen himself as antisocial. If anything, he’d kept away because most members on the team didn’t like him. He’d never been the “make friends” type.

“What’s up?” Gavin asked from the bedroom doorway. “You look weird.”

“I just talked to Avery. Seems Samson showed up at Dr. Cannon’s clinic asking about me.”

“So he’s on the way. Good. Then we can get back to normal.”

Before Aidan could stop himself, he blurted, “But what is normal?”

“For me?” Gavin moved farther into the room. “Sitting in my office, making sure Ian doesn’t break the bank. For some stupid reason, Jack put him in charge of purchasing. That’s like putting the crazies in charge of the asylum.”

“I thought you wanted fieldwork.”

“I thought I did. But I don’t.”

“You’ve gotten a lot better with your hand-to-hand training.” Aidan didn’t understand. “You’re not afraid of getting back in, are you?” Maybe the case had lasting psychological effects he hadn’t realized. Something he’d need to fix, because no way did he want Gavin suffering any lasting harm from the op.

“Thanks. You’re actually a good trainer.” Gavin smiled. That grin was so sweet, so full of joy. He seemed unspoiled by life, and that brightness drew Aidan like nothing else. “I think I wanted fieldwork more because I was told no than that I actually liked it.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, when you can’t have something, you want it more, you know? They kicked me out of the program before I could tell if it suited me or not. Dalton should have plugged me right back in. But he was a jerk about it.”

Not in Aidan’s opinion.

“In any case, I proved to myself I could handle it.”

“You did.” Aidan felt a resounding pride in his partner, as if he himself had solved the problem.

“And now that I know I can do it, I can step back and take a good look at what I really want.” The intense look he gave Aidan put butterflies in his stomach.

What the hell was that?
He coughed to hide his unaccountable nervousness and asked the tough question. “What do you want?”

“To be part of the team. People look at me differently now. You do.”

“Yeah, I guess.”
I look at you like you belong to me, and that’s a problem.

“I think I just needed confidence. You helped with that, and I’m grateful.”

“I don’t want you to be grateful,” Aidan growled.

“Then what do you want?”

“This isn’t about me. We’re talking about you.”

Gavin scowled. “Fine. I want to be the team’s accountant. Back to the way it was. Simple. Except now I’m not the geek who fucked up. I’m the geek who fucked Aidan Marshall.” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Aidan with challenge.

“You—
what
?”

“Yeah, you heard me. Ian’s been telling everyone that I’m ‘the man’ because I managed to top Aidan Marshall. But no one tops you. No one gets to make love to you. Even Mike only comes when
you
call. You’ve barely allowed me into your little world.” Gavin’s voice gentled. “It’s all on your terms, your way. Why?”

Aidan didn’t understand how this conversation had turned so completely. And where the hell did Gavin get off trying to
handle
him?