SE Jakes Bound By Honor (14 page)

furnished

—minimal, but expensive. LC wondered how he afforded this on a detective’s salary and decided he didn’t care.

Instead, he turned when he reached the living room and pul ed Paulo into his arms.

“Your terms, then?” Paulo asked with a cocky-as-hel smile.

“Always,” LC murmured, brought his mouth down on Paulo’s and kissed the shit out of him, as if he had something to

prove.

What, he had no idea. Maybe that he could stil do this without strings, without thinking about the man who haunted

him.

Maybe this once, there wouldn’t be a threesome in his bed. Paulo was more handsome than he’d original y let himself

notice…the blond hair was a good contrast to olive skin and bright blue eyes.

Paulo didn’t let him run the show—not completely. He was unzipping LC’s jeans as LC stepped out of his boots and

shed his shirt. Never one to put off getting naked, he shook his jeans off too. Stood in front of a ful y clothed Paulo and

watched himself appraised with frank appreciation by the younger detective.

“You going to take some of these off?” LC asked Paulo.

“Thought you might help me with that.”

“I just want to fuck you into the mattress—if I’d known I’d have to seduce you—”

“What? You’d have left me at the diner?” Paulo chal enged, reached out and began to stroke LC’s dick, ensuring that

he would definitely not be walking out of the apartment anytime soon.

“Clothes off,” LC instructed and Paulo tilted his head but didn’t fol ow the orders. “What’s the problem?”

“You seem like a top…but maybe…”

“I’m a switch,” LC said, his tone irritable, and why the hel did he offer up that information? He wouldn’t be with this guy

for longer than today, so Paulo would never get to see the switch. Al LC wanted to do was flip Paulo and take him, good

and hard. Told him so when he reached out and took his shirt off without bothering to unbutton it, leaving his tie on.

And then he stopped and stared at the swirls of color that ran along Paulo’s chest and arms, ful sleeves, and when he

looked over Paulo’s shoulder, he saw a ful back piece as wel .

A hot body and hotter tattoos and holy mother of God, the effect on his cock was more than instantaneous. And Paulo,

the little shit, he knew, let LC strip his pants off as he caressed LC’s bal s.

“How’s that?” he asked.

“Nice. Bedroom—now.”

“How about right here?” Paulo asked, letting go of LC’s cock and pressing himself into LC’s body, right before he

sank to his knees, letting LC get a good look at the tattoos along his shoulders and his back.

The scruff of his face scratched LC’s thighs, and then Paulo was tonguing his cock, alternately licking and sucking

until LC’s bal s were tight and he stopped the younger man.

“I don’t want to come like this.” He knelt next to Paulo and pushed him down to the rug, mounted him from the front

even though he didn’t always like the face-to-face contact. But this time…damn, he could barely think.

He only hoped he didn’t cal out the wrong name. Concentrated o n the man i n front o f him, the o ne watching hi m so

fucking intently that he felt more naked than he possibly could be.

“LC…come on, I want to feel you come with me.” Paulo’s voice was part command, part plea but so fucking sexy that

LC

focused completely on him.

“Yeah, I’m here…coming now,” he said with a calm he didn’t feel as Paulo contracted around his cock, milking him to

completion.

After ten minutes, he was up, rooting for his clothes. Until Paulo grabbed him and locked his body around Tanner’s.

“Stay for a while.”

“I can’t.”

“Gotta go back and brood, right?”

“Asshole.”

And so he stayed. Didn’t want to go back and face Damon and their ghosts, and this was as good of an excuse as

any.

“What the hel ’s with your name?”

Paulo laughed. “Mom’s from Italy, Dad’s from Brooklyn—a New York City cop, like every guy in his family before that.”

“Why’d you come here?”

“Needed a change.”

He was lying, but LC didn’t cal him on it. “Any leads on the attacker?”

“None.” Paulo paused. “Any chance he’s targeting you or Damon specifical y?”

“Always a chance, I guess.” L C would not g o there with Paulo. No t now…never. H e stared a t the ceiling Paulo had

painted a light blue, like they were looking up at a clear blue sky on a summer’s day.

Simple, uncomplicated. Nothing like he was.

He was beginning to realize Paulo’s ceiling was deceptive—there was nothing simple about the detective either, and

he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stick around and find out more. “Gotta run.”

“Club’s closed tonight.”

“I can’t have a life?”

“Not for the rest of today, no.” Paulo tugged him down and kissed him in a way that made him forget about everything,

including the possibility of leaving anytime soon.

Tanner had slept more intensely in the past twenty-four hours than he ever remembered sleeping in his life. He

guessed Damon had been right about a lot of things, including the fact that he was meant to be topped, and he felt his

cheeks stil heat with that knowledge.

It wouldn’t sit easily with him for a while, he suspected, but at least he wasn’t scared of it any longer.

Of his too-quickly growing feelings for Damon, yes, but at least he wasn’t alone in that.

He rol ed out of Damon’s bed, saw the loft door was open and heard the arguing. Immediately, he headed downstairs

in time to see Damon and LC toe-to-toe and wondered if he’d have to step between them.

“You didn’t have any problem fucking him, though, right?” Damon was saying.

“That’s none of your business, Damon. Besides, you acted like my pimp so you’re surprised when I act like a whore?”

“You’re not a whore, LC. For Christ’s sake, and you accuse me of wearing a hair shirt.”

“You had no right to push that shit on me,” LC was tel ing him.

“You had no right to keep this shit from me,” Damon shouted back angrily. “This is my club too. I have a right to know

what’s going on.”

“Of course you do,” LC told him. “I didn’t want you to have to deal with this shit. Sue me.”

Tanner remained quiet, watched both men careful y. There was something far bigger going on here than just the

attacks.

Whether or not he would ever be—or should be—privy to it remained to be seen.

He was about to wait back upstairs, but then Damon stomped away from LC and went into the office, slamming the

door behind him. LC stood there, looking angrier than he’d been before. “It’s al right, Tanner,” he said final y.

“I thought I was quieter than that,” he admitted.

“Former Delta,” LC explained. “You need to work on your stealth.”

“Yeah, I need to work on a lot of things.”

“You two have sex and drama written al over you,” LC commented, motioned for Tanner to fol ow him into his loft,

which was directly attached to the bar instead of upstairs, like Damon’s. “He’l be in the office for a while. He’s pissed.”

Tanner sat on the couch, noted that LC kept the door open so they could both see the office door. LC

handed him a soda and took one for himself, sat in the chair opposite the couch and balanced the can on his thigh.

“He told me about the attacks,” Tanner said final y, and LC just nodded and Tanner knew he didn’t have the whole

story, for sure. Knew also that he wouldn’t be getting the fil ed-in-blanks version today, for sure.

“How are things with you two?” LC asked instead.

“Better than they were the first night.” Or the second. But stil , “I don’t know what’s going on, real y.”

“Beginnings are never easy.”

“ I don’t know i f that’s what this is. He a nd Jesse—they fit—they were into this whole scene. Ho w a m I supposed to

compete with a ghost?”

“You don’t know as much as you think. Has Damon said that?”

“He didn’t have to. He’s stil in mourning for him.”

“Let me tel you something, boy.” LC’s voice was sharp and severe and nothing like the way it had sounded the first

night Tanner met him. “Damon and Jesse had issues before you were ever in the picture.

And I swear, if you screw with him any more than you already have, I wil hunt you down.”

Tanner’s brows rose. “I don’t want to screw with him. I didn’t mean to.”

LC sat back and eyed him. “You might actual y be the best thing that’s ever happened to Damon. Are you going to get

out of your own way?”

“But Jesse—”

“Forget Jesse,” he said. “I said you might be the best thing for Damon. I didn’t mention Jesse at al , because he

wasn’t.

We just didn’t want to admit it. He loved Jesse, but most of his mourning is wrapped up in guilt.”

“Over what?”

LC shook his head and Tanner knew that if he wanted more, he’d have to go to Damon. For the first time, he did want

more. From Damon, he wanted everything.

He was prepared to give everything back as wel . “I can’t leave the Army.”

“I know that. Damon knows that. You just have to convince him that he can handle it.”

“Maybe he can’t. What if this pushes him back to where he was after Jesse?”

LC shook his head. “No guarantees, boy. That’s what makes life interesting as hel .”

And then Damon was out of the office and coming toward LC’s loft. Even though LC’s back was to the door, he knew,

rol ed his eyes and muttered something under his breath like,
here we go
.

Damon entered and faced Tanner, said, “From now on, I don’t want you coming here alone…or leaving alone.”

Tanner snorted until he realized Damon was dead serious. “You do realize I can handle myself. I take out tangos al the

time. I think I can handle one guy with an attitude problem. Maybe I can recon the area and wait—”

“No,” Damon said sharply and Tanner just stared at him. “No,” he repeated, more quietly. “Thanks for the offer, but I

won’t have you putting yourself in danger.”

Damon was deadly serious and Tanner decided to let it go for now. He’d speak to LC about it, find out why Damon

was so militantly dead set against letting him help.

“When you come, cal me and I’l come out to get you,” Damon said.

“You are fucking kidding me, right? I’m not a girl, Damon, and I stopped needing a n escort around the time I started

playing with explosives for a living.”

“You couldn’t take care of yourself the other night,” Damon said.

“At the other club—that was different—I asked for it.”

“No one asks to be taken against their wil .” Damon’s voice was fierce. “You need to promise me.”

No, he wasn’t kidding, and LC remained quiet, simply watching the exchange. “Okay, Damon…fine.

I promise.”

There were so many damned promises growing between them, Tanner would be hard-pressed to pick them al apart.

Tanner fol owed Damon up the steps to his loft. Damon heard LC slam his own door shut and yeah, things would not

be easy between them for the next few days.

“Why are you so pissed at LC?” Tanner asked.

“He’s pissed at me because I made him have lunch with the detective who’s investigating the attacks.”

“Because?”

“Because the detective wants him.”

“LC can’t find his own dates?”

“He hasn’t done more than fuck a guy here and there for a long time,” Damon said irritably.

“Why’s that?”

“He’s mourning a ghost of a relationship. What else were you and LC talking about?” Damon asked, even though he

had no real right to.

And stil , Tanner answered. “You.”

Damon bit back a smile and a curse as he watched Tanner sprawl out on the couch. “Any questions I can answer for

myself?”

“Plenty, but I don’t think you’re nearly ready,” Tanner said in al seriousness and part of Damon wanted to take the boy

over his knee and spank him for that comment.

Actual y, al of Damon did. “You’ve got a smart mouth on you.”

“Always have.” But he’d stopped smiling as he caught sight of a picture of Damon and LC dressed in battle fatigues,

cammy paint half o ff their faces. They were much younger, b ut their eyes told a different story—Tanner didn’t know

whether it was what they’d seen in the Army or before enlisting, but both had secrets. Too many. But Damon had his arm

wrapped around LC’s shoulders and LC was almost smiling.

“That was our first year. Taken right after boot camp.” Damon remembered how hard the two of them had fought to

make it. How they had more street fight in them than most of the other men, and that’s what got them through the roughest

time.

“I’m up fo r Delta training,” Tanner said quietly. Damon clapped hi m o n the shoulder, a t once proud a nd sick t o his

stomach.

“You don’t look happy.”

“I’ve worked so hard for this…it’s al I’ve wanted. The Army’s always given me what I need. And now…” He shook his

head.

“And it stil can.” He stroked the back of Tanner’s neck. “It’s about Jesse, right? Why you’re having doubts.”

Tanner nodded, looking miserable again. “I can’t get it out of my mind…that night.”

“If you want to know the truth, I can’t stop thinking about it either. I want to know what Jesse said to you the night he

died. I need to,” Damon told him. “I’ve been going over it in my head for a year. Since we didn’t leave things on the best

of terms…”

Tanner blinked. “That’s not the way Jesse made i t sound. Wel , no, he didn’t say your relationship was perfect or

anything, but he respected the hel out of you. Loved you. But he was insistent that I…”

That I’m exactly what you need.

He trailed off before revealing everything LC had been tel ing him about Damon.