Page 16 of Housesitter

Shepherd gave the asphodel a hard look. It could wait its turn.

“Yeah, well, the breach of contract terms are a killer,” he said dryly.

Kel dipped his head down to brush a feather-light tease of a kiss over Shepherd’s mouth. His erection nudged insistently against Shepherd’s stomach through his jeans.

“And yet here we are,” Kel said. He ran his hand up under Shepherd’s T-shirt, grazing dirt-cool fingers up over his ribs. The casual caress made Shepherd’s blood heat fizz under his skin. “Even after Doncaster told you not to have me on the property. Do you know how pissed he’d be if he knew what we were doing?”

The sticky undercurrent of pleasure in that idea made it clear what Kel’s kink was. Shepherd filed that away in the back of his head. Just in case. He’d no real plans to revisit Kel’s pants, but he hadn’t planned this out either. So, who knew.

Shepherd wrapped his free hand around the back of Kel’s neck and pulled him into a kiss. The other man’s mouth still tasted vaguely of lemon, and his lips were gritty with the residue of sugar.

“He said to keep you out of the house,” Shepherd finally made the correction as he broke the kiss. He tipped his head back as he nodded up at the age-smoky panes of glass above them. “This is the conservatory. It’s not attached.”

Kel laughed. “Detail-oriented,” he said. “I like that.”

Shepherd stretched up to kiss him again.

“The devil’s in the details,” he said, the words mouthed against Kel’s lower lip. It might have qualified as a warning, but even Renfield’s legal department would struggle to make that case. “And you have no idea.”

Kel’s mouth curved into a smile against Shepherd’s.

“Well, why don’t you show me?” Kel asked, his breath warm against Shepherd’s skin as he grazed a lazy kiss down his throat. “Or am I supposed to take that on trust?”

Shepherd snorted out a laugh.

“Oh, you definitely shouldn’t trust me,” he said confidently. He twisted his head around to scan the table for a clear spot. There was one next to the sundews that were to go back into the garden next week, but they’d been bottle-fed and were bold. He stretched his arm back and propped the slice of pie on top of a stack of gardening pamphlets. “My contract isn’t with you.”

Kel raised his eyebrows.

“Huh.”

Shepherd looked at Kel’s face, all bad-boy stubble and heavy, built to take a beating, bones. He looked thoughtful. That was never good. Sex and thinking didn’t mix.

“What?” Shepherd asked.

Kel pursed his lips and shrugged.

“It’s nothing, just… That’s usually my line,” he admitted. “Never thought I’d be on the receiving end.”

“You tell people?” Shepherd asked. “That seems…counter-productive.”

Kel chuckled, the sound low, warm, and tickling something low in Shepherd’s stomach as it vibrated between their bodies.

“You just told me,” he pointed out.

Shepherd shrugged awkwardly, feeling the grit of old bone and gravel through his T-shirt. He pushed Kel away enough that he could sit up, his hands braced behind him.

“I was pointing out my loyalties aren’t to you,” he said. “Not that I don’t have any.”

Kel caught Shepherd by the hips and tugged him forward to the very edge.

“It’s not like they ever believe me,” Kel said. “But when the shit hits the fan, they can’t say I didn’t warn them.”

It was always good to have some claim to the moral high ground. Even spuriously.

“What about you?” Shepherd asked. “Do you believe me?”

“Of course not,” Kel said as he nuzzled Shepherd’s throat, teeth sharp as they scraped over tender skin. “It’s not in my best interests to make good choices right now.”