"–could have just called."The whispered voice reached my ears. Aaron.
"Not good enough.”Naturally that was Merritt.“Missed you.”
His voice was a rumbled growl, and he still sounded like the gruff agent I met earlier, though I suspected that was only due to the late hour and him whispering. How he buried his face in Aaron’s neck and touched him tenderly made him seem like a totally different person.
Aaron wrapped his arms around the larger man and melted into his embrace. Just holding each other seemed so intimate and sacred. These two were totally what the whole ‘mates’ deal was supposed to be about.
I should stop eavesdropping on their private moment. Inching away, I froze when they began untangling themselves.
Aaron placed a hand on Merritt’s chest, rising up on his feet to brush a kiss over the other’s lips.“Welcome home.”
"Glad to be here."
"And safe travels."This time the kiss lingered, long enough that a blush rose to my face.
Merritt pulled away with obvious reluctance."Can’t stay."
"Yeah, duh. Just giving you a reason to return."
"Don’t need one besides you.”
“Get out of here, you sweet talker. Go catch the bad guys.”
Aaron locked the door behind Merritt and turned around towards my hiding spot. Shit, should I duck behind the couch or something? Which way held less embarrassment?
"Are you gonna come out or should I pretend you aren’t watching?"
Oh. Busted. The jig had been up for a while, I just hadn’t known. Yep, there was the embarrassment.
“Can’t sleep?” Aaron flipped on another light so we could see each other while I stepped into the kitchen. “Do you like tea or maybe warm milk and honey? I also have some hummus and pita chips for a late-night snack. Or some really old brandy a former mentor gave Merritt that neither of us know what to do with?”
He was like Chase. Both liked tackling problems they could solve. I enjoyed a nice cup of tea, but the really old brandy spoke to me instead.
While Aaron searched in his cabinets for appropriate brandy drinking glasses, I asked, “Is Merritt being gone so often tough?" I’d been in his home for days and this was the first I saw of him.
“Part of me is worried I’m enabling his natural workaholic tendencies and setting a bad precedent, but this is one of those cases that hits close to home. He has to see it through.”
Aaron slowly turned from the cabinets, hesitating and debating how much to reveal.
“Another DSA employee used their position to tarnish the agency Merritt devoted most of his life to. This person was also in league with a mage who performed horrific magic on werewolves in order to profit. He…they… okay, he’s a he.”
That described a dirty officer or agent broadly enough to explain Merritt’s dedication while still giving nothing away… except I happened to meet a man who fit earlier. The former assistant director.
“Instead of doing his job, he helped facilitate abductions, keep the mage hidden, and even provided the location of a target the mage was basically going to torment to death.” Yikes. For some reason that made Aaron smile ruefully as he set two glasses down on the counter. “This target is a really wonderful guy too. Merritt was protecting him and they ended up being future mates.”
Wow. So, him. The mage’s target had been him. The person Merritt worked to take down now had put Aaron in danger.
"He needs to see this one through,” Aaron repeated. “Being back in school doesn’t give me much time to miss him anyway.” Or at least it kept him busy and leftlesstime to miss his mate.
Aaron found glasses, poured us both a serving of brandy, and brought the glasses to the table. Oh… the glass did resemble a tiny brandy snifter with its bowl shape and wide circular mouth, except a lot bigger. He had poured the brandy into fishbowl margarita glasses. Even on the generous side, the amount he doled out looked like a mere dribble in the huge glass.
Face reddening, Aaron waved a hand and changed the subject. “What about you?"
"I’m fine."
"If you don’t want to talk, that’s alright, but I may be able to help."
"Did Chase ask you to talk to me?"
