Not to mention, he remembered, that Cade didn’t drink coffee.
The offer hung in the air as Marlow tried to think of a way to rescue it. Cade turned the engine off and unclicked his seat belt.
“Actually, I thought I could get even,” he said as he leaned over into Marlow’s side of the car. “I’ve still not seen you naked, and you’ve seen everything I’ve got.”
Marlow tilted the corner of his mouth in a smirk. He could feel the warmth of Cade’s body as italmosttouched his. “At the time, I was trying not to stare,” he pointed out.
Cade plucked Marlow’s glasses off. “Tried and failed.”
The last few weeks of silence and unspoken grudges should have given Marlow pause, but whateverthathad been about, this was still easy. He hooked his fingers into the waistband of Cade’s trousers and closed the distance between them for a quick kiss.
It was a hard brush of dry lips, and there shouldn’t have been anything sexy about it. The promise of what was next prickled in it, though, and made Marlow’s breath catch in his throat.
“Never let it be said I needed an unfair advantage,” he said as he leaned back. Cade handed him his glasses, and he tucked them into the pocket of his jacket. “Come in, and we can level the playing field. I only wear underwear in bed.”
Cade laughed, a careless snort of amusement without any of the usual caution Cade brought to any emotion.
“That’s not going to work for me,” he said. “In bed is when I want you naked.”
They got out of the car and got two steps up the drive before Cade pulled Marlow back in for another kiss. His mouth was hard, rough with impatience, and he ran his hand down Marlow’s back to squeeze the curve of his ass.
“At least this time no one is going to overhear us,” Cade muttered as they stumbled toward the house. He glanced up briefly at the other houses on the street and amended his statement. “No one I care about, anyhow.
Marlow shrugged and grabbed the hem of his T-shirt to pull it off.
“Me either,” he said as he stepped backward.
Cade swore, soft and ragged, under his breath and didn’t wait for Marlow to finish stripping. The two of them stumbled backward up the step onto the porch, tangled in the T-shirt and each other. Marlow managed to drag his T-shirt up over his head, the night air cool on his skin, and leaned into the kiss. Cade’s hand slid down his back and tucked into the waistband of his jeans; his callused fingers just grazed along the curve of Marlow’s ass. The T-shirt draped over Cade’s shoulder, still tangled in Marlow’s hand, as he cupped the back of Cade’s neck to pull him down.
The broken board—the one that Marlow had gotten so used to sidestepping it didn’t seem worth the hassle to fix it—gave under his foot. He muttered a curse into Cade’s mouth and yanked his sneaker out of the hole. His laces got caught on a nail on the way out, and he had to hop in place for a second to catch his balance.
Not quite the seasoned Night Shift officer aura of cool competence someone might expect.
“You should get that fixed,” Cade told him. The curve of his mouth was smug under Marlow’s as he edged them both around the gap and pushed Marlow up against the door.
“Good idea,” Marlow deadpanned. He tilted his head back against the wood and looked up at Cade. “Amazing, I never thought of that.”
“I know a man,” Cade offered.
Marlow laughed, hooked his fingers into the collar of Cade’s shirt, and pulled him down for a tease of a kiss—a brush of lips and a quick scrape of his teeth over Cade’s lower lip. “If you’re looking to set a record, I have been dumped after a first date before.”
His brain caught up with his mouth a second too late, and Marlow felt his ears sting with sudden, embarrassed uncertainty. That wasn’t what this was. Not that either of them had actually discussed what “this” was in any sort of detail, but nobody had mentioned “dates” before now.
“Is that what this is,” Cade said. He nudged his thigh between Marlow’s and used his hips to pin him in place. This kiss wasn’t a tease. It was insistent, possessive, and sharp enough that Marlow tasted the tang of blood on his tongue. His or Cade’s, he couldn’t tell. When Cade finally lifted his head, his eyes dark and hard to read in the dim light, Marlow was breathless and hard enough to make him squirm. “A date? Most boys want dinner, not a shootout.”
Marlow reached back and twisted the knob that dug into his hip. He had locked it when he left this morning, but that was mainly just to discourage opportunistic kids who snuck up the path to rattle the door. The mechanism was old and loose. All you had to do was hold the knob all the way around and give the door a nudge with your knee. Or hip, this time. But it still worked.
The door swung open and they stumbled inside, clumsy as they traded kisses and pulled at each other’s clothes on the way through the living room. Marlow toed his Converse off and left one on the mat by the door and the other kicked under the bookcase. His T-shirt was tossed over the TV. Cade’s jacket was dropped on the floor, and his shirt ended up over the back of the couch as they fell onto it.
“Not how I expected the night to end,” Cade said as he sprawled on top of Marlow. He nudged Marlow’s head to the side and kissed his throat. “Not that I’m complaining.”
Marlow stretched out under Cade, their legs twisted together, and cupped the other man’s head in his hand. The curls were soft and thick under his palm. He tilted his head back against the couch cushion to bare more throat to Cade’s mouth.
“How did you want it to end?” he asked.
Cade laughed, his breath cool against damp skin. “Like this,” he said. “But sooner. I just didn’t expect it.”
Marlow’s cock throbbed in dull counterpoint to the eager ache in his balls as Cade shifted on top of him. It nudged insistently against Cade’s hip as he settled his weight. He slid his hands down Cade’s back to explore the long, taut straps of muscle under tanned skin.
