Zane’s lips were pressed together hard. Cameron would have sworn that he was trying not to laugh.
“Secure?” Zane asked with difficulty.
“Unless he decides to rip the shower enclosure out of the wall… yes.”
After hearing what had come out of Julian’s mouth, Cameron wasn’t too sure Ty should be so happy with himself.
Julian’s dry voice drifted out of the bathroom. “You’re an imbecile.”
“But I ain’t handcuffed to a shower.”
“I want to sit with Julian,” Cameron said.
“No,” Zane said in a pleasant voice.
“Why not?” Cameron asked, standing and holding up his handcuffed hands.
“Because we fucking said so,” Ty said. “Get in bed. Do it now.”
Zane shrugged out of his coat and hung it in the closet before picking up his duffel. “You get in bed too,” he told Ty with a jerk of his head toward the second bed. “I’m not sleeping.”
Ty looked at Zane as if he wanted to object, but he kept his mouth shut. He stripped off the T-shirt he’d changed into earlier and toed off his boots. He fell into the bed in just his jeans and burrowed his head under one of the pillows. He reminded Cameron of a very large dog throwing itself to the ground to take a nap.
He wondered how Ty planned to just go to sleep on command after drinking an entire Red Bull, but as he watched, Ty didn’t move, and soon his breathing evened out. Cameron stared at him in disbelief.
“He’s asleep,” he said without thinking.
“Yeah, he does that.”
Zane didn’t seem to be paying either of them much attention; he’d moved to the table in the corner and was pulling a stack of papers out of his messenger bag. He sat in the corner, running his hand through his hair to leave it unruly, fingers playing with his beard as he got to work. He looked a little more relaxed but still dark and dangerous. Rakish, even.
The gun went on the table right next to the papers. Only then did he glance back up at Cameron and raise an eyebrow.
Cameron wondered if it was too late to ask for a bathroom break.
AFTER an hour of writing down notes by hand, Zane caught himself staring across the room at Ty, who was sprawled on the bed nearest the bathroom, head under a pillow, body loose and relaxed. Zane doubted he was; Ty usually knew where he was even asleep. He could only remember one or two occasions when he’d done something while Ty was asleep and hadn’t woken him.
Just being able to see him was reassuring in ways Zane would have avoided exploring in the past, but now he could admit why. He loved his exasperating partner beyond all reason. He saw him as a lifeline he had desperately needed, an inspiration in so many ways.
Several minutes passed before Zane tore his gaze away from Ty’s half-naked body to glance around the room. Cameron was asleep as well, curled up under the blanket in the other bed. He looked young and innocent, though he couldn’t really be, what with spending so much time with a man such as Julian Cross. Zane looked to the bathroom. It had been quiet in there as well. With a sigh, he pushed back from the table to stand and stretch. He had kinks all up and down his back after the flight and the car ride combined with the tension of the situation.
“Come lay down,” Ty murmured in a low, hoarse voice, muffled by the thin pillow. He hadn’t moved. Zane wondered how he did that sometimes, sensed things without seeing them. Zane had never mastered that art, even while being blinded from his injury several weeks ago.
Zane glanced at Cameron before walking over to stand at Ty’s bedside and lifting the pillow off his head. “You should be asleep,” he said as he set his gun on the nightstand.
“But I’m not,” Ty whispered. “Come lay down with me.”
Zane wasn’t going to pass on a second request, not while all was quiet. He moved around to the foot of the bed and crawled up beside him, settling on his side and scooting up against Ty to lie in the crook of his arm. When he settled his cheek on Ty’s shoulder, he felt a warm calm soak into him as he pressed close to Ty’s exposed skin.
Ty growled and rolled, wrapping Zane up in his arms. “You need rest,” he said. He lowered his voice and moved his lips against Zane’s skin. “And I need you.”
Zane slid his arm up and around Ty’s neck as Ty pulled him close. It was about four a.m., and he’d been awake for almost twenty-four hours. But being this close to Ty after days apart wasn’t conducive to sleep. “Baby,” he whispered against Ty’s throat before pressing his lips to the soft, warm skin.
Ty hummed and ran his hand up and down Zane’s side, tugging at his shirt. He pushed his chin forward and kissed him. Zane sighed against his lips and inhaled Ty’s scent, letting it flood through him. The sandalwood was still there, and Zane would have to remember to ask where it had come from. It was intoxicating, and he was barely hanging on to the thought that one of their prisoners was sleeping not even ten feet away. But one kiss—just one—he had to have it, and he tightened his arm around Ty’s neck to deepen it.
Ty’s hands gripped him hard, and he pushed Zane back just enough to be able to kiss him harder. “Is that kid asleep?” he asked in a quiet rush.
“Seems to be,” Zane said under his breath as he tried to recapture Ty’s lips. “We shouldn’t do this.” But he pawed at Ty anyway.
“Zane.” His name was no more than Ty’s breath against his lips. “I don’t care if we should or not.”
“God, I thought we got this out of our systems,” Zane whispered, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment as his gut clenched with desire.
Ty kissed him again, pulling him until their bodies touched all over. “We can be quiet.”
Zane had to smother his laugh in Ty’s neck. “No we can’t,” he muttered with absolute certainty.
Ty pulled back and looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “Not even a little?” he asked with true disappointment.
“A little? You think I’m going to stop at just a little?” Zane shook his head and kissed Ty. He ached for Ty, inside and out, but this just wasn’t the time. A professional hit man was locked up in the bathroom, and another prisoner was in the next bed. It would have been comedic if it didn’t suck so much. “I want you more than anything,” he murmured against Ty’s lips. “And you can’t possibly imagine all the things I’m going to do to you. But for that, we need to be at home.”
“Goddammit.” Ty pulled his head back and sighed.
Zane nodded regretfully. “But for now we have this,” he whispered, burrowing in close.
Ty sighed again and pulled Zane closer, scooting up until he could rest his chin on top of Zane’s head and Zane was snuggled up against his chest. “Go to sleep if I can’t grope you. I’ll stay awake.”
Zane snorted but didn’t twitch a muscle to move. “That’ll be a pretty picture for Cameron to see if he wakes up.”
Ty held his breath for a few moments and then let it out in an irritated rush. “Fine.”
He pulled his hand out from under Zane’s neck and rolled over, and then sat up and rolled his head from side to side. The immediate chill made Zane shiver, and he wrapped his arms around himself, watching Ty. He wished he hadn’t said anything. He didn’t want to sleep. He wanted to be awake, to soak Ty in. He reached out to trail his fingers down Ty’s arm.
Ty turned his arm and let Zane’s fingers glide over his palm. He pushed himself off the bed and stretched, then turned and leaned over Zane, pulling the comforter up over him as he kissed him. “Go to sleep.”
Zane sighed, warmed by Ty’s quiet affection, and reached for his gun. Then he pulled one of the pillows partway under his chest and tucked the hand holding the gun underneath it, a security measure made second nature after his time undercover in the seedy Miami underbelly. Even the past several months sleeping unarmed with Ty hadn’t made the position feel strange. “Don’t kill Cross.”
“No promises,” Ty muttered. He moved away and clicked off the light Zane had been using.
It made the room mostly dark, just the light spilling under the room door to see by, and Zane watched Ty’s silhouette for long minutes before closing his eyes. He’d just rest for a little bit.
He didn’t know how long he slept, but there was gray light coming through the curtains when a noise awakened him.
There was a bang and a rattle like plastic rolling across tile, and then Ty shouted: “Where is it?”
Zane was out of the bed and at the bathroom door, gun in hand, in three seconds flat, pulse racing.
Ty stood in the middle of the bathroom, glaring down at Julian and holding a roll of toilet paper in his hand. Julian sat in the bathtub, handcuffed to the safety rail on the shower enclosure. He was looking at Ty like he thought he had lost his mind. Zane narrowed his eyes as he sized up the scene. He glanced at the wall where the toilet paper should have been, then back at Ty’s hands, before turning a questioning look on Julian.
“Where is it?” Ty said again.
“I have no idea what you’re blathering on about,” Julian said, the epitome of calm. “Agent Garrett, I believe he needs more rest. Or perhaps it’s time for his medication,” he said, mimicking someone drinking.
“Shut up. Where’s what?” Zane asked as he studied Julian and the cuffs. They looked intact.
Ty whirled around to look at him. His entire body was tense. His eyes were a sparkling green, and they flashed angrily. Zane’s breath caught before he could help himself. His partner was stunning when he was like this. “The toilet paper holder,” Ty said in quick bursts of words. He turned back on Julian. “Hand it over or I’ll search for it myself.”
Zane glanced around again, and he caught sight of the two plastic halves of the holder on the floor behind the toilet and next to the sink. He looked back at Julian and had to repress a smile. The man was clever, and an excellent liar. Zane didn’t figure he would have thought of that himself. “You took the spring.”
“I tried to take the spring, but it didn’t have one,” Julian told him. He didn’t seem at all perturbed to have been caught.
Ty growled and reached into the tub to grab Julian’s neck and yank him to his feet.
Zane put his hand on Ty’s shoulder. “You can’t just strip him down.”
“Watch me,” Ty said, and he pushed Julian face-first against the shower wall, then stepped into the tub with him.
Julian cleared his throat as he tried to reposition his hands in a way that his wrists weren’t being torqued by the handcuffs, but he didn’t protest the rough treatment.
Zane was torn between the urge to laugh and the more professional need to pull Ty off their prisoner. He also wasn’t fond of watching Ty manhandle anyone like that unless it was him. He realized he was more tired than he’d thought if the sight of Ty searching a criminal had him jealous.
“Grady.”
Ty was already patting Julian down. Quite thoroughly. He glanced back at Zane and jerked his head. He continued the pat down, and Julian moved his head so he could glance over his shoulder at them. He didn’t show any emotion, merely looked at Ty.
“In most countries you’d have to pay for that.”
Zane stifled a sigh and took a step back. It wasn’t exactly kosher, what Ty was doing, but the assignment gave them unusual latitude to deal with such a dangerous asset. And maybe it would help Ty work off some of that extra energy. He turned in the doorway to glance out into the main room. Cameron was sitting up, turned toward the bathroom, peering Zane’s way with a worried look on his face.
Zane heard Ty whuff from within the bathroom, and by the time he looked back, Ty had shoved Julian’s face against the shower wall and was holding him there by the back of his head.
“Watch the elbows.”
“Watch your fingers,” Julian snapped.
“Welcome to TSA training, bitch.”
“Want the other set of cuffs?” Zane asked, hoping to appease his cranky partner. “You could spread his arms out.”
“Will someone please tell me the safe word?” Julian asked.
Zane snorted and leaned against the door, but he was watching Ty carefully. Something about Julian seemed to rub him wrong, and Ty’s short patience was nonexistent with this man.
A moment later Ty reached around and slid his fingers under his belt.
“Agent Garrett, I really must protest,” Julian said, though his voice was still calm.
Yeah, Zane wanted to protest too. Too much of Ty’s bare skin was too close to another man for Zane’s taste.
Julian started to speak again, but his words were choked off as Ty moved his hand further under his belt. Julian did react then, throwing his head to the side and beginning to fight as Ty pulled at the waistband of his pants.
“Ha!” Ty yanked something out of Julian’s pants and held it up. It was a long, thin piece of metal. It had once been a spiral, but it had been straightened out. Julian cursed. Ty put a hand in the center of his back and shoved him against the wall, holding him there as he stepped out of the shower.
“Bravo,” Zane said, shaking his head. He wasn’t sure whom he was congratulating, though.
Ty waved the straightened spring at him and then tossed it into the sink on the other side of the bathroom door.
“Clever bastard,” Julian muttered, sounding almost amused. “Do you have any idea how difficult that was?”
“Is this what the whole trip is going to be like?” Zane asked with a wave of his gun at the spring.
“I would wager so, yes,” Julian said with a nod. “Perhaps if you allowed me—”
