“It was important,” he said soberly.“Grace respects you, but you’re, you know, law enforcement.He wouldn’t reallytrustyou—not with me—unless he knew you were one of us.”
“Sleeping my way to the top doesn’t make me a criminal,” Liam said, sounding baffled.
“No, but it does make you… you know.”Josh kissed him again, briefly.“Bent.”Liam tugged at the hem of the awkward sweatshirt, and Josh ducked his head so it would clear.“And it means you understand what it’s like to be human.”
Liam’s hands, broad and work roughened, felt so good smoothing along Josh’s tender skin.Josh sighed and leaned into his chest, kissing the defined ridges of his pectorals reverently, wishing there was a light on somewhere so he could see if there were freckles heretoo.As he’d mentioned to Grace, he hadn’t even seen Liam completely naked yet, and he feltcheated.
He felt cheated now as Liam framed his hips with those hands and rested his chin on the crown of Josh’s head.
“Honest with me, Josh,” he said.“Scale of one to ten, how tired are we?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say “Four!Let’s go!”but honesty… to someone who’d been raised as a thief and a grifter, it was the gold standard of currency right there.
“Seven,” he sighed.He let out a breath.“And I’m going to have to be up in a couple hours to have some protein to counter those doughnuts.”
Liam shifted and rubbed Josh’s biceps under his T-shirt.“That’s a… lad.”
Josh snorted.
“I’m just saying, we can’t do this unless you’re honest.I won’t coddle you if I know I can trust you.You do understand that?”
“I do,” he promised.“Back in bed?”
“Sure, but will Grace be back?Does he have a key so we don’t have to let him in?”
Josh snorted.“He never has a key.He set pitons in the side of the building so he could scale it forfun, and the doorman knows him by now.You couldn’t keep him out of this place with a flamethrower.”
Liam chuckled, and Josh added, “But my phone’s on the charger—let me text Hunter.”
“I’ll get it,” Liam promised, kissing his shoulder.“Just, you know, settle in so I can settle in next to you.”
Josh did so, getting himself and his wretched shoulder comfortable while Liam texted Hunter.He grunted at the reply and continued to text and grunt as he climbed in after Josh.
“What?”Josh asked as Liam sat, bare-chested and dear, squinting at his phone in the ambient light from the windows.
“Hunter wants to know if you ate all the doughnuts,” he said.
“No!There were, like, a dozen,” Josh mumbled.
“He’s asking if Grace can come back and get the box.Apparently he was supposed to be getting doughnuts forthem.”
“The place is still open,” Josh said crossly.“Tell Grace to—”
At that moment they barely heard the door open, and then Grace’s stage whisper, all the way from the front of the apartment.
“I’ll leave some for you, Mr.Interpol Man.You can have sex now!”And then he was gone.
The gentle click of the door was barely detectable, and Liam set his phone in the charger with a huff.He turned toward Josh in the moonlight and said, “You’re a matched set, right?”
Josh nodded soberly.“Salt and pepper shakers.”
“Okay, then.Next time tell Mr.Pepper he gets one chance to break into a place I’m sleeping before I turn the alarms on.”
“That won’t deter him—”
“Okay, then tell him the truth,” Liam said gruffly.“Tell him, unless hereallywants to catch us having sex, he needs to respect some boundaries.”
Josh sucked wind through his teeth.“He’d wait until we were done,” he said.
