NORTH
Walking into the house,I smell food cooking, and my stomach does a little flip when I see Leo carefully shuffling around the kitchen on his feet. It’s been two weeks of being together. Two weeks of domestic bliss that are probably coming to an end soon.
He’s healing quickly. His blisters are drained, and while there’s going to be scarring, it’s not nearly as bad as it might have been if he’d been in the fire any longer. And his pain is a lot less. I can see it on his face.
I want to be happy, but considering I’m here to tell him it’s time to walk through his house and sign off on the adjustor’s quote, it feels like one more minute on the clock counting down to when all of this ends.
I’m not foolish enough to think I was going to be able to keep this. It would be entirely unrealistic for the two of us to just move in together. To be some sort of happy family after two weeks of casual fucking in my bed.
It’s been too perfect.
The other shoe is going to have to drop, and that’ll probably be when we get around to telling Easton that Leo and I are a thing. Assuming that after he moves out, we’ll still be a thing.
Leo turns when he hears me coming in, and he opens his arms, allowing me to lift him onto the counter and kiss the shit out of him. Beside him, something’s simmering in a pot, and it smells like the chicken noodle soup he’s been trying to perfect.
“You’re early,” he says.
“Yeah. The adjustor came by the station to talk to your brother, and he wants us to meet him at the house in about ten minutes so you can do the walk-through and sign off on the paperwork.”
Leo stiffens in my arms, and I hug him tighter. He’s been avoiding his house like the plague, and I don’t blame him. He can probably save the structure, but there’s no saving what’s left behind. The house has been open to the elements for too long, and he’ll need to start from scratch.
God only knows what he lost from his former life, and he hasn’t spoken much about his husband, but I know there are things that belonged to him and Liam he’ll never get back.
“I’ll be with you,” I remind him.
“I know,” he says, sounding less tense than I expect him to. “Thank you.”
Pulling back, I help him down to the ground and watch as he shuffles from one foot to the other, testing the pressure of his weight. His feet are healing, but I know walking has been uncomfortable when he’s not in his thick slippers.
“Want to do dinner in bed tonight?”
He lifts a brow. “Aren’t you supposed to head back to the station after the house thing?”
He’s not technically wrong. This was supposed to be a twenty-four-hour shift, but I was able to weasel my way outof it. “Camilo let me have the rest of the week off. Special circumstances.”
Leo blinks at me. “I’m special circumstances?” When I bite my lip, he steps closer. “Does he know about us?”
“No. No one does. But, ah…he might suspect.”
Camilo has eyes and ears like a hawk. He sees things well before anyone else does, which is why he’s so good at his job, and why we’ll be fucked if he ever leaves this team. But he hasn’t said anything to me directly.
Not yet.
“You can tell him, you know. If you want. I mean, I know we’re not official or anything…” Leo trails off and turns back to the stove so he’s not looking at me when I wince.
We haven’t talked about what we are, or what this means, or where we want it to go. I’m too afraid to hear him say that it’s been fun, but it’s too much. That I’m not what he’s looking for.
And he’s been a little more distant the past few days.
I might not be very experienced, but I can read the writing on the wall, especially when it’s painted in big red letters.
“Come on,” I say, avoiding those thoughts. “Your soup can simmer while we get this over with.” Sliding my hand down his arm, I take his fingers and gently tug him away from the stove.
“I don’t want to burn your house down!” he says, pulling back.
I press him to the counter and kiss him while reaching over for the knob, and I turn it all the way down until the flame is almost nothing. “There.”
I catch one of his moans on my tongue, but I realize as he clings to me, he’s still shaking. Pulling back, I press my palms to the sides of his neck, and it’s there that I can feel his pulse hammering.
