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“We haven’t talked about it.”

“I’m shocked.”

“Fuck you,” Ben said flatly.

Dominic laughed. For a few seconds, there was nothing but static and the uncomfortable hiss of hot air against Ben’s neck. Ben rubbed his scarred knee and thought about all the times he’d stared death in the face. What kind of man could do that and not have a difficult fucking conversation? The answer to that was, unfortunately, every man Ben grew up with. But Ben didn’t want to be one of them. No matter how tempting it was.

“I—” Ben said, and had to stop and brace himself. “I… would like… to keep seeing him after we get back.”

“Good job,” Dominic said. “I’m proud of you.”

“I will shoot you in the fucking face, you piece of shit,” Ben replied. Several more seconds passed, and Ben sighed. “He’s twenty-fucking-six, Dom. He has a giant bag of face rollers that he uses so his face isn’t puffy. He’s genuinely stressed about not having his phone for a week. He eats food I’ve never even heard of. He travels constantly, and he has guys flinging themselves at him everywhere he goes. He won’t want some old man dragging him down.”

“Have you asked him about it?”

Ben entertained himself with a deeply enjoyable fantasy of smashing the receiver into the radio. “What the fuck is with everybody nowadays? You don’t need to say everything that floats into your head!”

“No,” Dominic said with a patience that drove Ben crazy, “but you should probably talk about the things you want. Revolutionary idea, I know.”

“Fuck off,” Ben muttered. But his heart wasn’t in it. For all his talk of getting straight to the point, Ben avoided the point like the plague when it came to anything involving emotions. Either relationships worked out, or they didn’t. But to Ben’s great disgust, talking about emotions often meant relationships worked better than they otherwise might have. Not that Ben had much practice.

“I’ll consider it,” Ben said after a long silence. “Now fuck off, Delta.”

“Talk to you in the morning, Bravo,” Dominic replied.

Ben turned off the receiver and set his watch for two hours, when he was due to check in with the guard who was staying overnight. He checked out the window, squinting through the dark. The storm was dying down, just like the guard had said. The guy was an Alaskan native, so he didn’t sound too concerned about the ridiculous amount of snow piling up around them.

Two hours. Ben could have that talk with Levi in two hours. Or he could keep avoiding the subject for another day, like he’d been doing since he admitted to himself that yes, okay, he might want this to continue after they left the cabin.

Ben got up and headed into the living room. Levi wasn’t on the couch where he’d left him. Ben checked the bedrooms next. Nothing. He walked through the cabin, trying to tell himself the alarm bells ringing in his head were an overreaction. He knocked on the bathroom, the only closed door in the house. Nothing.

“Levi,” Ben barked. “Where are you?”

There was a muffled call. “Here! Not dead!”

It was coming from the porch. Ben cursed and stormed toward the front door. He was so pissed off he barely noticed how fast he could walk after days of massages. He was even running as he burst onto the front porch to find Levi rubbing his arms and shivering. He spotted Ben and grinned. “Look at this shit! Have you ever seen snow this high? It’s almost up to the top stair!”

He pointed at the stairs leading up to the porch. The snow was, like Levi said, almost up to the top step. Ben’s knee throbbed at the idea of sinking into that level of snow. Why did anybody live in Alaska?

“What the fuck are you doing outside?” Ben demanded.

Levi actually looked bashful. He sidled closer, his cheeks red with cold. “I’m just watching the snow settle. I’m still on the property. Calm down.”

“Calm down? They have a fucking sniper.”

“In this storm?”

“Storm’s stopped!” Ben said, throwing his arm out to indicate the lack of snowfall. Other than a sheen of snow so light it was barely noticeable, the storm was gone. “What the hell are you thinking? Get back inside, Levi.”

He waited for Levi to roll his eyes or try to make this into a sex thing. But Levi just scratched his mouth, looking almost awkward. Then he walked inside without a word.

Ben slammed the door shut and whirled on him, fuming. Before he could say a word, Levi cut in.

“I like that you never call me Lev.”

Ben’s angry tirade guttered before it could begin. He stared at Levi, so baffled it almost overtook his protective rage. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

“Because everyone calls me Lev. It’s on the billboards.”