“Our new bed.”
“I thought we were going to need a forklift for the mattress. It’s one of those memory foam ones.”
“How’d you get it up there?”
“I utilized some surprise resources. John English stopped by.”
“The Snake Eater? From Scotland?”
“Yeah, he had a few hours’ layover, stopped by. I’ll tell you about it later. He helped me move the bed in. I think we got it up there on beer fumes alone.”
Zane chuckled but stopped at the base of the stairs. He took their joined hands and kissed the tip of Ty’s ring finger. “I’ll never feel the same about these steps again.”
Ty laughed and closed his eyes. Zane’s lips brushed against the nape of his neck, and he turned his head to meet the kiss before Zane could pull away. Zane cupped his cheek to keep him in place for the fervent kiss he delivered next. It was hot and wet, and Zane eventually broke it to pant for air.
“You mentioned a bed,” he said breathlessly.
“It’s a really nice bed, Zane.”
Zane nodded and kissed him again. “Maybe we should test it to see how nice it is.”
“Come on.” Ty grabbed Zane’s hand and yanked him up the first step, but Zane pulled Ty back and then took the first couple steps alone. He turned around, mischief written all over his face, then went up another step backward and started unbuttoning his shirt, trailing his fingers over the material of Ty’s favorite suit.
Ty glared up at him as he put one foot on the bottom step. “I will catch you,” he warned.
Zane smiled and licked his bottom lip while moving up and back again, undoing another button.
“Fine then, be naked by the time you get up there, less work for me,” Ty told him, and took the next steps two at a time.
Zane laughed and hurried up a few more steps before turning toward Ty again and finishing with the buttons, leaving the shirt to hang open as he started on his belt. “C’mon, baby,” he drawled. “I’ve got some motivation for you.”
“Garrett,” Ty warned as he put both hands on the railings and pushed himself up two more steps with a grin. He swiped out for Zane’s feet.
“Grady,” Zane singsonged as he moved up out of reach, the ends of his belt dangling. His fingers moved to the button of his suit pants.
“I thought we were trying to test out the bed, not the stairs,” Ty whined as he watched Zane undress halfway up to the second floor. If he caught him before the bedroom, they’d be fucking where they landed. It was too big a day for them to mess around with such niceties as mattresses.
“We’ll get there,” Zane promised. He shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it over the railing.
Ty shook his head and peeled out of his blue suit jacket as Zane watched, tongue between his teeth. Then Zane turned and was gone, leaving Ty to hustle after him. By the time Ty caught him he was standing in their bedroom, pants discarded, the black fabric of his briefs stark against his skin.
Ty grabbed his hips as he sank to his knees and kissed Zane’s belly, starting at the ridge of his lowest rib and working down toward his hip. His fingers curled under Zane’s briefs as he nuzzled against his warm skin.
Zane moaned, sliding his fingers into Ty’s hair. “Aw damn. There goes my motivation to try out that brand-new mattress,” he muttered, angling his hips toward Ty’s mouth.
Ty tugged Zane’s briefs down, leaving the elastic to hug at Zane’s thighs as he bit the tender skin of Zane’s hip.
“Baby . . .” Zane exhaled shakily. Ty grinned up at him. He took an obscene amount of pleasure in doing this for Zane. His husband.
Zane could have anything he wanted as far as Ty was concerned. He climbed to his feet when Zane urged him to, and Zane’s hands wrapped around him, holding him close as they kissed and Zane turned them until Ty’s knees were against the edge of the new bed.
Ty sat hard, dragging Zane to him before he could get away. He kissed Zane’s belly and chest as he tugged him to stand between his legs. Zane settled his hands on Ty’s shoulders, then slid a finger under Ty’s chin and tipped his head back. As Ty looked up, Zane traced the lines of his face so gently his fingertips barely touched the skin.
Ty gazed up at him adoringly, the heat banking under the intimate caress. Zane’s fingers trailed down to his throat and the compass rose he wore around his neck before pausing.
“God, I love you.”
Ty pulled him down and kissed him. He let his lips just slide over Zane’s as he guided Zane back into the bed with him. Ty rolled them into the middle of the mattress, getting Zane under him. Zane stretched out, spreading his arms over his head and pulling one knee up.
Ty stared for a moment, entranced, and Zane closed his eyes and let his hand travel down his own body, palm sliding over his inner thigh as he arched his back.
“Memory foam,” Zane purred. He moved his hand from his thigh onto the mattress. “Interesting.”
“I’ll show you interesting,” Ty promised, and grabbed the bottle of lube from the bedside drawer.
His breaths were harsh and he was hard despite the fact Zane had barely touched him. He ran his fingers up the inside of Zane’s thigh, urging him to spread his legs wider, and then he kissed the inside of Zane’s knee. Zane whispered his name.
Ty hummed as he dragged his tongue up the inside of Zane’s thigh to his straining cock. “First time as a married couple. How do we want it?” he asked as he opened the bottle.
Zane breathed hard through his nose, laid his head back, and closed his eyes, so Ty pushed one of Zane’s legs to the side, stroking himself as Zane opened up for him. And then he gave Zane what he wanted, thrusting into him, past the clenching muscles and in deep despite the resistance from Zane’s body. Zane cried out in agonized pleasure, body bowing and writhing. Heat coursed through Ty, and he grabbed at the sheets above Zane’s head as Zane pulled both knees up and squeezed at Ty’s waist, laying himself open and letting Ty take complete control.
Ty worked his hips until he was buried inside his newly minted husband, and then he stretched out over Zane to cover his hands. They laced their fingers together. “I love you,” Ty breathed against Zane’s lips.
“If you knew half the things I want you to do to me tonight,” Zane managed through an overwrought groan.
“So tell me. But this won’t last long if you do. Good God, Zane.”
“It has to.” Zane pulled his knee higher and hooked his ankles at the small of Ty’s back.
With a grunt of effort, Ty flipped them over, and Zane wound up astride him, Ty’s hands grasping his thighs.
“Now, I want to see you jack off.” Ty emphasized his point by pulling up his knees behind Zane and using the angle to thrust into him.
Zane’s back arched as he rode Ty’s cock, rolling his hips and groaning. He slid his hand up his thigh to grip himself, eyes closing and head falling back as he stroked himself with Ty rocking deep inside him.
“Open your eyes, Zane,” Ty insisted as he gripped Zane’s hips.
Zane forced his eyes open and met Ty’s gaze, rolling his hips and whimpering. Zane’s hand continued to move as he lifted up and sat down again, knowing just how to get what he wanted. He slowed his hand, either trying to stave off the orgasm or torture Ty. Possibly both.
It was what Ty wanted to see and feel and hear, that inevitable snap of intense pleasure when Zane lost all control. Zane’s body trembled over Ty’s, muscles straining, his breathing coming in gasps and pants.
Ty had to fight with every ounce of control he had not to come inside Zane as he watched.
Zane maintained their gaze as long as he could, but he closed his eyes and cried out Ty’s name when the orgasm hit him, curling over as he jacked himself. Ty held on to him as the climax ripped through him, keeping Zane in place while he thrust his hips up over and over, fucking Zane through it, jutting into those pulsing muscles until he couldn’t stand it any longer and rolled Zane onto his back again. He fucked him hard and fast, forc
ing him into the mattress, hiding his face in Zane’s neck, until he was yelling as well, his body jerking in Zane’s tight embrace as he came in a series of loud and entirely gratuitous moans.
Ty collapsed against him once he’d spent himself. He was careful as he pulled out, kissing Zane so he could taste Zane’s gasp when he pulled free, then rolling sideways with a plaintive huff. Zane rolled with him, still panting as he kissed him desperately. Their lips mashed and tongues got caught between teeth, but they kept at each other like they’d been starving for it. Ty finally stopped it by catching Zane’s chin in one hand.
“It’s okay,” Ty said, still gasping for breath himself. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
Zane gave him a crooked smile, recovering still from the exertion.
Ty rubbed his nose and cheek against Zane, eager to just feel and smell him there so close. His husband. “I love you,” he said.
Zane kissed him again. “I will never get tired of hearing that. I love you too.” He drew Ty to him, not paying any mind to the mess of cum splattered between them.
They lay quietly for a while as their breathing calmed, and Ty felt Zane smile against his cheek. He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling, and then he rolled onto his side and pushed himself back against Zane to request he be cuddled. “Nice bed, huh?”
Zane shrugged and made an uncertain, almost negative sound as he wrapped Ty up in his arms. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? You know how much this thing weighs?”
“I’m just saying. I think we should check it out again,” Zane said innocently. “Just for some empirical data.”
“You fuckshits! How you gonna go get married without all your friends?” Digger shouted. At least, Ty was pretty sure that was what he’d said, because his accent was definitely getting worse as he ranted. “Couldn’t wait a day for us to get here? What are you, knocked up? I hope your mama whoops your ass.”
“That’s uncalled for,” Ty muttered. He glanced at Owen, who’d been sitting on the couch in the living room of the row house, drinking a beer and watching Digger for the last five minutes.
Owen met Ty’s eyes and shrugged. “Seems legit to me. We could have been here.”
“What, you were looking forward to more glitter at the bachelor party?” Ty asked.
Owen pointed a finger at him. “That . . . we agreed never to speak of that again.”
Zane chuckled as he settled onto the arm of the chair beside Ty and handed him a bottle of water. “Someday I’m going to hear all the Sidewinder stories and be traumatized for life.”
“Word,” Owen and Ty said simultaneously.
“Hey, when do O’Flaherty and the Doc get here?” Owen asked.
Ty cleared his throat, his smile fading. “Doc is flying in late tonight. I never got in touch with Nick.”
“Seriously?” Owen’s voice cracked with the word. Ty shrugged, and Owen arched his back and started digging in his pocket for his phone. “Come to think of it, he hasn’t returned any of my messages either. Not for like a week or two.”
“Yeah,” Zane added. “We’ve been playing chess with this iPhone app. He hasn’t made a move in so long our last game got forfeited. Ten days, or something like that.”
“You two play chess on your phones?” Ty asked.
“Yeah.” Zane shrugged, as if it wasn’t at all odd that he’d had more contact with Ty’s best friend than Ty had lately. “It’s fun playing someone who actually knows the rules.”
Ty harrumphed and settled back into his chair. “I know the rules. I just choose to think they’re stupid.”
“Where have I heard that before,” Owen said under his breath.
“Shut up. So that’s close to two weeks for both of you? No activity anywhere?”
Owen and Zane both nodded, glancing at each other with growing unease. They all looked to Digger, who was still muttering about Ty’s mother beating him for eloping on them.
Digger shrugged and pulled his phone out. “Sent me a text a while back,” he said with one last evil glare at Ty. “Said he was going fishing with a friend, and I’m supposed to feed his hamster if he doesn’t come back. It was . . . phone says twelve days ago, now.”
“Feed his hamster?” Zane asked, a tinge of dread in his voice like he wasn’t sure he wanted clarification.
Ty was frowning, but he tore his eyes away from Digger and glanced up at Zane. “Means he was going off grid, and if he doesn’t come back, Digger’s supposed to wipe his life clean for his family. His mom, you know . . .”
“Monty Python?” Zane asked with a fond smile.
“‘Your mother was a hamster,’” Owen said, not even cracking a smile. “Why would Nick go dark? I thought he resigned from the department.”
“He did,” Digger said with a careless shrug. “Well, he kind of did. He had a couple cases to clean up before he could go.”
“They wouldn’t let him leave?” Ty asked, preparing to be outraged.
“No, you know Nick. No unfinished business. But this ain’t work; it’s the same text he sends me whenever he leaves Boston. I didn’t think nothing of it. He’s convinced he’s going to die away from home.”
“Sounds like O’Flaherty,” Zane grumbled.
“So he’s not in Boston at all?” Owen asked. “Why would he go off grid and go out of town? Hold on, should we be worried?” He glanced between Ty and Digger. “Six, did you tell him on the phone that you were getting married?”
“Yeah.” Ty’s stomach turned with that same sense of unease he’d felt when he’d tried to reach Nick before the wedding. He’d attributed it to prenuptial nerves at the time, but now he wondered if it wasn’t more. “I left a message. Several, over the course of two days. I just . . . I kind of figured he was still pissed at me.”
“Nick would have called you back, man, I don’t care what he’s doing or how pissy he is. You call him and say you’re getting married, he’d call back,” Owen said. “We all would have. Jackass.”
“Yeah, if we’d been invited,” Digger huffed. “Has Doc heard from him?”
Ty shrugged, unable to shake that sense of dread. It even overpowered the minuscule amount of guilt he was starting to feel for eloping and not inviting Sidewinder. “I don’t know. We’ll ask him when he gets here.”
“Doc’s been on an adventure trek for three weeks,” Owen told them.
Zane cocked his head. “What’s that?”
“The camp he worked at,” Owen said. “They took in underprivileged kids, foster kids, and first-time delinquent offenders and taught them the ins and outs of survival, basically. Doc was a counselor there. His favorite thing was running these adventure treks, where he’d take the older kids out into the mountains and fake a disaster they had to solve. Lose their equipment, pretend to break his leg, that kind of stuff. I went with him once, it was fun as hell. We faked our food supply getting carried off by a bear.”
“Giving kids PTSD, that’s what it is,” Digger mumbled.
“Yeah, it’s great,” Owen said with a grin.
“Why the hell’s he doing it in winter?” Zane asked, aghast.
“He has some Ranger buddies who were planning a controlled avalanche. He took the kids to a safe distance, and he’s going to see how they handle the fake emergency.”
“That’s . . .” Zane shook his head, gaping.
“Awesome, right?” Owen said, his brown eyes sparkling. “So Doc’s still doing these treks while Irish is finishing his shit in Boston. But where he went, there was no service.”
“So he probably don’t know Lucky’s missing, just think he’s undercover or something. So . . . when Doc gets here, we might have to tell him,” Digger realized. “Not it.”
“Not it,” Owen added a split second later.
“Motherfucker,” Ty grunted. He glanced at Zane, and Zane put both hands up to ward him off.
“No way in hell.”
Ty rolled his eyes, but his stomach was turning over
and over. How long had Nick been off the grid? Twelve days? And more importantly, why had he gone dark and not called any of them for help? What the hell was going on?
Owen and Digger stayed for a few more minutes to make a game plan for the next week, but then they geared up to go out for dinner. “We’ll pick Doc up when his plane lands. Y’all stay in, fuck like bunnies,” Digger told Ty as he gave him a farewell fist bump.
“You sure you don’t want to stay and eat here?” Zane asked as he walked them to the door. “I’ll cook.”
“Nah, man, I’ve been craving those damn crab cakes since the last time we were here,” Owen said with an easy grin. He offered Zane his hand. “Congratulations, Garrett. Welcome to the family.”
Zane seemed surprised when he took Owen’s hand. “Thank you.”
Owen’s smile was still in place when his eyes hardened and his grip on Zane’s hand visibly tightened. “You hurt our friend, we hurt you.”
Digger clucked his tongue from behind Owen’s shoulder. “Oohrah, bitch.”
Zane laughed, albeit uncomfortably. He probably knew the threat wasn’t an empty one. “Understood.”
Owen threw Ty a wink, and then he and Digger stepped out into a cold drizzle, bundling up as they argued about who got to drive to the restaurant.
Zane turned on his heel and glared at Ty.
“Hey, I don’t control who or how they threaten.”
“Sure you don’t.” Zane threw himself on the couch, stretching his long body out with a sigh. He’d gotten up early for work, and though the evening had been a relaxing one with just Digger and Owen there, he was probably ready for bed.
But Ty sidled up to the couch instead and climbed on top of him, grinning. “Hey there, beautiful,” he said with a kiss to the tip of Zane’s nose.
Zane’s hands landed on his hips, a smile pulling at his lips. “Hey, yourself. Are you starting something down here?”
“Maybe.”
“Not on your fantastic new mattress?”
Ty grinned and raised an eyebrow. “Variety is the spice of life, right?” He kissed Zane gently, teasing at his lips and tongue, settling his body over Zane’s. There was nothing heated or hurried about it—just the two of them, enjoying an evening alone as a married couple. The thought made Ty smile into the kiss.