AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I’m more of a faceless boogey man. I send reports up the chain, but it’s not like I’ve got a boss breathing down my neck. Hell, I’ve only talked to the King twice in my nine years with the GSD. And the other Princes—”
He snapped his jaw shut, cutting off his own sentence.
“It’s fine,” I assured him. “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I’m sure you guys have your own thing going and it’s none of my business.” I shook my head. “But…I thought my job was to get to the Prince. Now…what the hell am I doing here, Griffin? What’s the point of any of this?”
“Things are so tangled,” Griffin said. “The Feds took the case from Detroit Vice and sort of drafted you once I became Prince. But your original mission of intel and reporting still stands.”
“That’s not an answer,” I told him.
“It’s the best one I can give you right now.” He held up a hand to stop the argument he must have seen me about to voice. “I will get you real answers as soon as I can. For now, your job is going to be to take over as Duke when Eddie leaves.”
“I fucking hate being a soldier,” I grumbled.
“No you don’t,” he teased. “You were born for this. It’s why Detroit Vice pulled you from the academy and stuck you undercover as fast as they could. Every single thing you’ve done since high school has led you to this point.”
“You read my file?” I asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
“You’re my number one asset out here,” he said. “Of course I read your file. I know everything about you.”
“I thought you only knew what I told you?”
“Fine, maybe not everything.” He gestured around the apartment. “I certainly didn’t know about this.”
“You’ve got to let that go,” I said, laughing despite my frustration. “It’s an apartment, Griffin. I don’t care.”
“You deserve better than this,” he said softly.
“Who are you to decide what I deserve?” I asked.
“I’m your friend,” he insisted.
“Until two hours ago you were a faceless guy I flirted with on the phone once a week,” I reminded him.
“Only when you were drunk,” he admitted with a soft chuckle.
“Well, I’m not drunk right now,” I said, shifting to press the side of my thigh against his.
“I can’t,” he whispered.
“Why?” I challenged. “I assume that you’re going to tell people you’re fucking me anyway. Shouldn’t I at least get something out of that arrangement, too?”
“What makes you think I’d tell people that?” he asked, though he didn’t deny it.
“You said you’d come up with a cover story that I wouldn’t like.” I shrugged. “I figured that story would be that you’re using me. It might help if it were actually true.”
Griffin stared at me, and I couldn’t begin to imagine what thoughts were flying through his head, because his face was completely expressionless. Smooth as marble. Even his laugh lines disappeared. For the first time I knew I was seeing the mask that he’d worn for years. It was pretty similar to the one I’d adopted. It was easier to go blank when you needed to hide from people.
Had I miscalculated? As I played back countless phone conversations, I realized that while I’d always flirted with him, he’d pretty much avoided saying anything similar in return.
Oh God. Had I been crushing on, and hitting on, a straight guy for the last four years?
“Sorry,” I said, blowing out a chuckle as I shifted to put some distance between us. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Thanks for humoring me. On the phone, I mean. It helped me feel a little less isolated. Thinking that maybe one day we’d…” I swallowed around the lump that was rising in my throat. “My bad, Griffin. Really. Clearly I misread something. I’m sorry. I’ll—”
Griffin leaned forward and kissed me, cutting me off by sliding his tongue against mine. I moaned into his mouth, my arms wrapping around his neck as we twisted on the couch and he climbed over me, laying fully on top of me and grinding his rapidly hardening erection against mine through our clothes.
My head swam as all the blood in my body seemed to rush directly to my crotch and I fought to catch my breath between each fevered kiss Griffin pressed to my lips.
“This isn’t what I came here for,” Griffin admitted, pulling back to look down at me, his fingers smoothing hair off my forehead. “But make no mistake, Matt. I do want you. You weren’t the only one feeling a connection on those calls.”
