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“Okay, let’s do this,” Ford said. His hand was gripping mine between the seats of the truck.
“Okay,” I said, but I didn’t move until Ford reached for his door handle.
I went around the front of the truck and reached for his hand again, knowing he liked it when I did that. Even if we weren’t in the best of neighborhoods, I didn’t care. Ford needed me, so people would just need to deal with the sight of two men walking hand in hand down the sidewalk.
“Do you remember what unit he’s in?” I asked.
Ford shot me a grin. “Nice try,” he said.
“What?” I asked innocently.
He shook his head at me. “You’re going to need to find some better way of distracting me.”
I waited until I was sure we were alone before I said, “Okay, then how about… I thought of another place we can try my handcuffs.”
Ford actually slipped on the stair he’d just stepped on. “Are you kidding me? I meant distract me with stories about work or something!”
I laughed at how he began squirming like he could already feel those metal cuffs snapping around his wrists. With all the new pairs of ears in our house, Ford and I were having to become more creative with our lovemaking. Some form of a gag was pretty much always required, whether it was something as simple as his hand over my mouth or vice versa, or something a little more fun like using one of my ties that I never wore anymore or hiding out in the bathroom and running the water to muffle our moans. We’d also scoped out some places outside that would be perfect little hideaways once the weather was warm enough.
“Okay,” I said as we climbed the stairs. “Mr. Pellet called in a complaint about a shoplifter in his grocery store today. The suspect was Mrs. Hughes.”
Ford laughed because he knew who I was talking about. Mrs. Hughes was a ninety-year-old woman who had a tendency to escape from her daughter’s home and walk around Pelican Bay in just her house robe and slippers. The woman didn’t have any issues with dementia or anything… she just got bored easily and didn’t like waiting for her daughter to drive her wherever she wanted to go. She also didn’t particularly like wearing clothes.
“What did she steal?”
“Grapes,” I said. “I wasn’t really sure what to charge her with since she was just standing in front of the grapes section and eating them,” I added.
“You didn’t charge her with anything,” Ford said knowingly. “You did what you always do.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”
Ford glanced over his shoulder at me and softly said, “You fixed it.” He winked at me and continued up the stairs. My eyes fell to his ass.
“Hmmm, I think I should be rewarded for preventing bloodshed in the produce section of the Shop and Save.”
Ford laughed.
Something he did a lot of lately.
And something I’d never get tired of hearing.
“You will be,” he said coyly. “Handsomely,” he added with another wink.
Our banter came to an end by the time we reached the fourth floor. Ford was visibly nervous. He reached for my hand long before we reached the apartment door at the end of the hallway.
“Fuck,” Ford whispered. Then he knocked on the door.
I gave his hand a little shake to get his attention. I didn’t need to tell him I loved him because I knew he could see it in my eyes. He pulled in a breath and nodded. He was still tense but there was a certain measure of relief in his gaze. Like he was coming to the realization that no matter what happened next, he and I would still be walking out of here together.
The sound of locks being turned on the other side of the door had us both looking straight ahead. When the door opened, the chain was still on. I couldn’t really make out much about the young man on the other side except that he had dark-blond hair and gray eyes.
“Yes, can I help you?” he said.
“Theo?” Ford choked out.
The young man on the other side of the door froze before whispering, “Ford?”
He quickly shut the door and I heard Ford whimper. But then the door was flying open a second later and Theo practically threw himself into Ford’s arms.
Ford seemed too shocked to react at first, then he was wrapping his arms around Theo. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, Theo.”
Theo started shaking his head. He pulled back and grabbed Ford’s face and just studied him. Admittedly, I was a little nervous that something would flare up between the two men now that I was seeing them together for the first time, but Theo didn’t do anything more than shake his head and embrace Ford again.
And Ford looked at me.
