Page 44 of Black and Brown

His heart raced, and his palms grew sweaty as heat spread through his chest.

Something intense and transformative was happening inside him.

A rush of yearning, desire, and arousal suddenly came to life, the reawakening of dormant feelings drowning him under a tidal wave.

Grace buried his hands in his pockets to control the shudders and clenched his jaw to hold back the groans from the rush of blood flooding his cock.

He leaned against the back of a wooden bench, attempting to appear composed while his heart thudded like a battalion of soldiers marching across his sternum.

Mirage turned, their eyes locking.

Grace swallowed a boulder of nerves.

A striking gaze with shimmering shades of gray and blue paralyzed him. Mirage’s eyes reflected storm clouds and tranquil oceans, each hue blending into the next.

When Grace continued to stay silent, Mirage scoffed and put some distance between them.

He thought he might have gotten a glimpse of hope or want, but Mirage’s unfazed mask slid back in place too fast for him to be sure.

The dance of yearning and hesitation wreaked havoc on his mind, a fucking rumba he didn’t know the moves to.

Mirage stared at him with impatience, an undertone of expectation sizzling in his irises.

The words Grace wanted to say—I wanna know what it feels like to kiss you and probably fuck you—got caught in his throat.

Grace wasn’t a virgin, but he also wasn’t Meridian. He had no clue how to do this suave romance shit.

He hadn’t had a lover while serving twenty years in the Marines, eight of them in Special Forces.

For the first year in the Ravens organization, he was pumped full of so many medications, enhancers, and psychological programming that by the end, they’d turned him into a goddamn cyborg. No longer a man with sexual needs, and he’d been locked in that state for eight years.

He was supposed to be, and remain, immune to lust. And he had been…until a bomb reactivated it.

The detonation not only sparked the return of delicious feelings but a few not-so-great ones as well.

Fear had been triggered until he was incapacitated with it.

Grace could’ve done without that one.

All right, I’m gonna fuckin’ tell you, but if—

“Let’s go, Grace…it’s getting late.” Mirage seethed around a tight jaw, his tone loaded with frustration.

Apparently, Grace had taken too long.

Dammit.

Grace

The ride back to headquarters was borderline painful.

The silence between them was always a balm to his chaotic mind, but not this time.

His eight courses of food churned in the pit of his stomach as they exited the vehicle and rode the elevator to their floor.

Mirage trailed far behind him, too far. He wasn’t on his heels where he was supposed to be.

Grace stopped and spun on Mirage, his calm demeanor now silent anger.