Page 13 of Bared

“Christ on toast,” Ozias muttered. “You two are peas in a pod.”

Fox snorted again. “Not every pod.”

“Dare I ask for an interpretation of that?” Brick charged.

Fox straightened, accentuating his tall frame. The guy reminded Brick of a sprinter, his lean but powerful muscles ready to activate at any second. “It means that we both like being the one in control,” he said. “Only you have more success with certain females than I do.”

“Which also means what?” Brick took a second to fortify his stance too. “Or should I now be asking…who?”

For the first time, Fox was outwardly discomfited. Though Oz sent the guy a reassuring nod, Brick began to wonder exactly what woman the guy had messed with. How deep of a hole was Jagger Fox in, that he was screening operatives in places like the Louvre’s main plaza?

The museum’s most famous resident, the Mona Lisa, had nothing on the mysterious glances department on this guy. It was even true in the moment he finally looked back to Brick, his irises like bronze daggers despite how he narrowed them from the impact of the sun.

“Ozias informs me that you are the proprietor of a notable kink society dungeon.”

Brick swung his bugged stare at Oz. “Well, shit. Sharing really is caring with you, mate.”

“Grab a chill, man.” The Aussie motioned to Fox with a jab of his head. “He’s good for the confidential. I’ll vouch right now.”

“He vouches,” Fox chimed in. “And I really am good for it.”

“Thanks. I feel so much better.”

A fresh scowl from Oz. “And now it’s really time you untwisted your knickers, flamin’ galah.” He pushed at the air, making it clear Brick would be next if he didn’t listen. “You think I’d openly rabbit on about you and Bastille to just anyone? For just any reason?”

“That’s rhetorical, right?” Brick riposted. “Or do you want to really know how your ‘rabbit’ can hop after you’ve had a few too many?”

“I probably deserve that,” Oz muttered. “Though not this time.”

“Because this time, he was under pressure,” Fox inserted before Brick could conceive a decent comeback. “From me.”

“He had to know you could be trusted with secrets,” Oz added.

“Huge secrets,” Fox embellished, before clenching his jaw taut enough to turn it into a right angle. “I found it hard to believe we might be able to get someone of your caliber on such short notice.”

Brick didn’t veer his gaze from Ozias. “You did give him the whole former black ops angle, right? About all those secrets?”

Oz nodded but shrugged. “Guess your discretion about all of Seattle’s kinksters means more in the long run.”

“I wish that didn’t make so much sense.” Brick wheeled his scrutiny back to Fox. “But I’m still in the bog about the rest of that. You’re ‘getting me’? For what? And on what kind of short notice?”

For a long moment, neither of the men spoke. They all stood there in the loose triangle, listening to the food vendor hum off-key to the song in his headphones. Nearby, teenagers laughed while posing for selfies, and a couple moaned while ramming their tongues down each other’s throats.

None of it seemed to matter to Oz, who stuffed his hands back into his pockets and splattered an affable grin across his lips. At once, Brick recognized what he was doing. Feigning a chat-up between two old friends, so anyone watching on the museum’s security cameras wouldn’t know anything different.

Hiding in plain sight.

“Right, then,” the guy finally murmured. “That ought to do us right for the watch cams for a while.” Without faltering his smile, at least across his lips, he nodded toward Jagger again. “You ready to do this, mate?” he asked.

“Ready to do what?” As Brick pushed out the demand through barely moving lips, Fox laughed as if he’d cracked a joke with a good zinger.

“Are you…familiar…with our royal family, Mr. Brickham?”

“Familiar?” He almost guffawed. Who in the civilized world didn’t know at least a little about Arcadia and its colorful evolution over the last three years? “Familiar enough to know the Cimarrons have helped put your little island on the world stage. King Evrest has led the way toward bringing your kingdom out of the Dark Ages. Thanks to him and his two brothers, you all are seeing great improvements in your lifestyle and external trade opportunities.” He forced himself to stop, noticing the proud uptilt of Fox’s strong smile. “Buuut you already know this, don’t you?”

“It is fun to hear others say it,” Fox assured. “I am proud to be an Arcadian under their leadership. I am even more proud to be a security lieutenant, directly reporting to Samsyn Cimarron himself.”

“A good man,” Oz inserted, garnering a new look from Brick.