Drift (Don’t… #8)

Chapter 4 GRAY

A quiet look at Jan in the mirror, Gray did up his shirt buttons and flicked him a look as the extractor fan quietly handled the fading mist in the en suite bathroom now they’d both showered and dressed for work.

With Shaun coming here, it seemed to have put Jan on guard. In part, Gray understood it. The offer of a promotion in the MC accounts department hadn’t gone down well with Jan.

Tomorrow he had an external skills assessment for it under the Financial Reporting Council, covering corporate, public, government, and forensic accounting. If Tax wasn’t the devil’s bed partner enough, the FRC was also lover to the Government, setting the UK’s Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes. Over the past four months, Jan’s time on the books had been split between work and study, Jack there on feeding duty when Jan was too lost to remember the basics of eating, forget washing and combing his hair, which Jack always added a quick scrub into Jan’s windswept cut to play him up as Jan sat at his office desk. But like a few mornings now, Jan had lost his smile a little too easily and lain beside him in too much quiet before he’d relaxed and curled into Gray in bed.

“Problem?” Today his smile had fallen before Ray called about Shaun. Something else ate at him. Gray knew that.

Jan tapped at one of the three bathroom units and started to search through it after it gave quietly away. “A few hours. I left my new bloody Aventus cologne out of place for a few hours last night, and Jack—”

“Not what I’m asking about, Jan.” He was playing avoidance. Like with still keeping to a new cologne for Jack’s and his own sake over Vince’s rape, Jan was a soft lad, but only to a certain point. When Gray got no reply, only a hurried search for cologne, he reached behind Jan to a specialist built in unit with a cooler to keep the colognes away from direct exposure.

Chemicals were chemicals in his book, no matter how good they fuelled the senses with a promise of the good and wicked. He’d seen enough dirty terrorist tricks with acid swaps to make sure access was restricted to even bathroom items, mostly because the main composition in glass, silicon dioxide, played hard to seduce with most acids, making a cologne bottle nothing but a terrorist’s play toy when it came to acid-burnings and handing out warnings.

As Gray handed over his Aventus , Jan never asked why the cooler was needed, no doubt putting it down to simply keeping glass bottles out of direct sunlight. Gray preferred it that way. Some things Jan didn’t need to worry about on top of work, not chemicals and their poisons.

Gray stilled for a moment as he reached to close the unit, a bitter aftertaste of a carfentanyl and halothane mix from Light and Martin hitting his throat, or the ghost of it at the very least.

Through all the years, he’d obsessed over his career in MI5 or the cullers putting them on the detonation plate. Yet in the end, the worst threat of all had been family.

Jack’s.

Light.

Martin.

Himself.

“Nearly three-hundred pounds for a hundred mil?” Jan winced and carefully took the cologne out of its box. Because to Jack, in order to help control his world, cologne came in boxes, so they stayed in boxes, ordered by size and colour no matter who they belonged to.

“Hmm,” said Gray as Jan dampened his throat. “Not a bad choice for work.”

Jan snorted. “ Not bad for work … Jesus. Most where I come from couldn’t afford to spend three-hundred on a shopping bill let alone buy cologne. That’s the director of Counterterrorism who also oversees the Russian and Mandarin Language Talent Program at MI5 talking. Not to mention who also holds a DPhil in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry from Oxford University… and three exceedingly expensive homes in the UK, one of which used to be mine, and god knows how many abroad.”

There it was: Jan’s subtle way to bite. “That you putting me in elitism as a bastard?”

“Why? Is calling you a few names all it takes to get under your skin and….” Jan stopped that there. “Jesus, sorry.” He frowned. “Nerves.” He offered a hopeless shrug, but Gray really didn’t mind. He needed to let some of the stress go beyond gentle playing around under the bedcovers. Jan looked at the bottle he held. “A few years back, my most expensive cologne was a bottle of Armani, at seventy pounds… and that was on special. At Amazon.”

Gray winced, then dropped it as Jan’s smirk came his way. Yeah. So maybe he was right over elitism. He preferred the finer things in life sometimes, but Jan was top of the list there. Gray put the Aventus back in its box and offered a soft smile. “It’s never about the scent, just the man and his choice behind it.”

“Hmm.” Jan slipped his jacket on, and Gray pulled him close with a touch on his waist. The sophistication of the rich, woody base of oakmoss, cedarwood, and birch all blended with a softer jasmine and patchouli to give a slight sheen to his throat, and yeah—he smelled good. Damn good, but the whole refined scent merely seasoned Jan’s softer, so much more damn sensual allure and infused quiet confidence with it.

He was out to impress Shaun despite how Gray would know Jan would leave before Shaun got here, burying all his shyness and need to only play with numbers beneath the fine blend.

Gray kissed at his throat. Always about the man, the choice behind the scent.

“Hm. I said I was sorry, right?” Jan breathed, sounding a little out of it, contentedly so. Gray nodded. This… this way worked too with Jan. But he could be a livewire when it came to finding out which wire to touch in order to get him running normally with that softer head of his. Sex anger, work, love, Jack was all heat and fire at the flick of a switch. Jan simmered internally, almost unnoticed until the rogue spark burned under the skin past endurance levels, but it took such a damn long time to surface. Something had been bothering him over the past few weeks that didn’t match the usual stress over a promotion, but that was okay. Gray had his secrets too.

“Yeah… fuck work.” Jan pulled back a second later and shifted the cuff of Gray’s sleeve to get at his watch. “Shit, I’m gonna be late.”

Gray didn’t let him go. “You’re the boss’s lover. It gives you certain—”

“Piss-takes and looks of teacher’s pet amongst the lads at work?” Jan snorted again.

Was that it? When Jan tried to pull away, Gray kept him close. “Someone giving you a rough time over the offer of Assistant Manager?”

Jan shook his head and pulled away. “Not really. And it’s just that at the moment: an offer.” He shut the unit door, then put his towel in the wash basket as he snorted a smile. “Still can’t believe me and Monique got the offer along with Ben and Chris.” He gave a rough sigh. “Chris is bloody talented and has been there longer than me, so I understand why he’s being an asshole.”

So Chris was giving him grief. “You’ve been there over four years. The average is five to start looking at moving up. And an asshole.” Gray flicked him a look. “How much exactly?”

Jan narrowed his eyes. “He’s an accountant, Gray. The worst I get is a cold coffee and my mail diverted to the toilets after he’s been in there.” He pointed at him. “They’re all good at their jobs. Leave them alone.”

Gray started to fasten his tie, so Jan took over and flicked him a look.

“I mean it.” Despite the worry over the FRC, Jan fought a small smile. “He’s just pissed off I got offered it too because he knows who I come home to. Monique’s getting it rough as well because we’re friends. Chris doesn’t need a midnight visit.”

“You’ve both put in the overtime, more than enough to qualify you for the five-year period. You’re also better at your job than all three of them.”

Jan blushed, and the humility behind it was all… him. “You’re biased,” Jan said softly, too softly, and Gray kissed him before Jan eased back and avoided Gray’s look. “You’re also a bastard, a boss at the MC staff table with it, and Chris, more so than Ben, catcalls that out with his look my way.”

This they had discussed: Gray being behind the promotion. Gray had rolled with it, understanding the doubt, the frustrations if he had. “I’m a consultant with the MC, no longer a boss there, certainly not yours or Chris’s.” He pulled back. “Bias is my bed partner, not theirs. And like I keep saying: there were no threats or backstreet threats involved to get you on that shortlist.”

Jan stopped straightening Gray’s tie a moment, eyes narrowed. He went to say something, that look of his knowing full well Gray would herd people into position for those he held close. “You sure?”

“Scout’s honour, and all that.”

Jan pulled a face. “Your father told me you burned the Scout Master’s tent and—”

Gray stopped that there and pulled him back into a kiss, only for Jan to eye him up.

“You…. Are you absolutely sure there was no word in Brennan’s ear on your part? No threat to skin his young if I didn’t make the list? Because I am good at my job, and even though you got me into the MC accounts department, I just want the possibility to move up the ladder on my own merit. So those threats of yours…?”

Gray gave a rough sigh. “None needed. You heard about the promotion before I did. And Shaun has no kids anyway.”

Jan shook his head. “But that doesn’t mean Jill, my boss, wasn’t thinking of you.”

Gray tried so hard not to react. “Smart lady, this Jill. And she does have kids.”

“You checked?” Jan tapped him in the ribs. “I’m being serious. Convince me this isn’t keeping you happy and on Brennan’s side, along with Jack.”

Gray kissed at his cheek. “Yeah, of course, this is about keeping me and Jack content—”

Jan went to pull away, the usual softness to his brown eyes lost to the spark of bad blood that finally found the surface.

“But…” Gray hardened his tone because Jan was still missing the point. “It’s also about you, Ben, Chris, and Monique, their skills, stresses, strains, loves and losses. Which means every thought that went into your offer, the same care and thought went into Ben, Chris’s and Monique’s. Tomorrow?” He stroked at Jan’s jaw. “Tomorrow is the deciding factor: your skill against theirs, nothing else. That’s something the MC won’t bend for.” He offered the softest smile. “You? You’re still stood behind the red rope at the art gallery.” He kissed where his thumb had brushed on Jan’s jaw. “Have faith in your ability. Just show them that same faith when it comes to them knowing who should be where and when in their ranks. I’ll play no part in the outcome.” He didn’t lie there. He’d never take anyone into counterterrorism who didn’t earn it. The MC worked the same way, especially as it dealt with staff from MI5 and 6, the army, and Metropolitan police…. Even if Jan failed tomorrow, there would be other opportunities. He more than had the skill even if Chris tried to bully Jan into thinking otherwise. And as for the cullers….

Jan dipped his head for a moment, then found Gray’s look again. “So the offer is honest? I’m good enough, even despite knowing about my father and the money I laundered?”

Ah. This was really getting at Jan’s core: talk on the money his father had laundered. How Jan laundered it back into his family to look after himself and his mother and sisters once his father had been sent to prison. Jan had known poverty to the point of malnutrition as a boy, to the point of searching in black bin bags for scraps of food. All that had resulted in Jan’s mother running into Martin, and much later… Jack. “Knowing everything, they gave you the offer.”

Jan blew out a shaky breath. “What about the FRC? Do I need to tell them?”

“Those who need to know, know.” Gray dipped his head a little, searching Jan’s eyes. “As for the FRC: unlike your father, there was no arrest with you, no trial, no conviction. Just your conscience and the funds you’re paying back.” Gray would have buried it all, including any payments that touched Jan’s name, but this was all about Jan. His conscience, never Gray’s. “They can’t judge on a conviction that never was.”

Jan frowned, then rested his head against Gray’s. “Should I be straight with them, though? I mean, would you employ someone for MI5 accounts if they’d done what I had?”

“Never about the cologne, just the man and the choices behind it.”

Jan gave such a heavy sigh. “I doubt they’d see it that way. But… just do me one thing, yeah?”

“Hm?” Gray liked him in close.

“Leave Chris alone. The last thing any accountant needs is a culler breathing down his neck as he does inventory of the stationary cupboard.”

Gray snorted softly. “I like bigger playrooms, sharper… tools of the trade.” He thought it over. “Russian style for anyone stupid enough to give you grief.” He thought it over a little more. “Maybe it’s time for a walk-through of the accounts department ten minutes before the FRC sit down tomorrow, get some fear cells spiking before this… Chris goes in.”

Jan levelled a warning finger his way, and Gray laughed softly, then checked his tie in the mirror. Jan had done a good job.

“Speaking of aggressive play in business….” Jan eased back against the unit and folded his arms. “You heard nothing yet on Nottingham business since you disbanded their training two years ago?”

Gray slipped his suit jacket on. Jan tried so hard not to mention the cullers directly. “Pack order,” he said quietly. “The silence from their end is ensuring it. I’ll get an employment review call eventually like everyone else has, and it will either be stay or go.”

“Jesus, after everything that’s happened, I never once thought that it would be her death that would impact everyone at such a classified level, that it could mean a full disbanding of Nottingham business with the crowning of a new Monarch.” Jan fell into quiet. “It’s also because of you… sacking the other two men in Nottingham as well, though, right?”

“Yeah,” Gray said quietly. The other two cullers had ended up with bone dust scattered to the wind after he’d taken them out in the cellar Light had based himself at. No… sacks needed. “That as well.” He put Jan’s cologne away.

“And that doesn’t bother you? After everything that’s been done, you potentially lose head… directorship of the Nottingham branch?”

Gray straightened his collar and glanced at him. “Why would it? You can take the title, you can’t take away the natural-born skill and… instinct. UK streets are mine. They know that. Employment beyond Nottingham is always on offer, as Light’s finding out with Cal and MI6. In the end, it will either result in yes or no, stay or go,” he said flatly. One Head of State was too ill to address him prior to death, the other? He’d have his own plans.

“So the delay over talking to you?”

Gray looked over at him. “Forced calm through negative reinforcement.”

Jan widened his eyes, went to say something, failed. Just for a moment. “ Denying the dog the itch to bite just to let him know they still hold the leash.”

Gray shrugged. “Perhaps.” A smile. “Most likely.”

Jan gave a rough sigh and wiped a hand over his face before checking his watch. “Yeah,” he said as he pushed off the unit, “fuck to everything outside of those doors.” Jan narrowed his eyes Gray’s way. “Maybe I should pay them a visit? Get their bones rattling before they talk to you? Slip Jack in… let him run riot with the artwork stuffed under his coveralls, hit them in the pocket where it would really hurt?”

Gray laughed softly. There was no mention of Light in with all that defence, but that was okay. That… bite of Jan’s? That one that said fuck to it all and pulled in every one close…?

Gray loved obsessively, he knew that. But his kind of love, as best as Gray could define it: it was there in Jan’s look, in Jack’s. That mirror of intense obsession coming back his own way that said fuck to everything outside home shores despite knowing everything that had gone on behind them.

Yeah. Never about the cologne, just the men and their choices beneath it.

Jan rested his head against Gray’s and gave a rough sigh. “Work. I need to go.”

Gray buried a smile at his… avoidance of Shaun. Because he wasn’t late. Jan rarely was.

“I’ll walk you to the Oval, but then I’ve got to get off.” Jan pulled away with a blush, then scratched at his hair before holding the en suite door open for a moment for Gray.

“So…” Jan shut the door behind them. “Interrogation of an MI5 director of counterterrorism, Question twenty-four.”

Gray inwardly groaned and buried a smile. He allowed Jan one a week, no more. It was how he’d found out about Gray’s education. The questions mostly stayed light, but sometimes they turned serious: too calculated in their concern, and once or twice Gray quietly called “no” to just how intrusive his questions got. Jack always just threw something at Jan for his “ boring as fuck ” questioning, even if he did have a private smile that said he was listening.

“In your professional opinion,” said Jan, “what’s the greatest threat to people in the UK and what’s the one thing that can save them from it?”

Gray gave him a glance, and eventually said, “Sophistry… and sophistry.”

Jan narrowed his eyes. “You on loving expanding my lexicon thing, huh?” He leaned in. “What’s this… sophistry?”

Gray cocked a small smile. “And thus my point is proven.”

“Huh?”

Gray sighed heavily and plucked out his phone. A moment later, he handed it over to Jan.

“Sophistry.” Jan called on a sexy tutor tone, even a brief sexy tutor look up over the phone before he eyed the definition. “ The clever use of arguments that seem true but are really false, in order to deceive people , according to the Cambridge Dictionary.” He nodded, then—“Hey.” He handed Gray his phone back after thumbing through it. “God, that’s bloody twisted thinking for a Monday morning, you seeing lies as the main threat to the UK yet thinking they’re the one thing that’ll save our dumbasses in the long run. Nowt but horses with the blinkers put on to keep us calm and docile, according to you. You bulk buy those blinkers from Amazon before you make us wear them to really keep us inside the chicken holding pen?”

Asshole came back Gray’s way in the dictionary, and he laughed.

Yeah, he could be. Just sometimes.

“Jan get off okay?” Gray headed into the kitchen, checking his watch even as he made the coffee on the table his first stop. Jack’s version of a continental breakfast could always feed the five thousand and mimicked all the colour and the life Jack had represented upstairs: sliced toast, doughnuts, pastries, plus everything that had hit his senses coming down the hall concerning croissants and rolls. Pancakes stacked themselves on a plate, but Gray stayed with the coffee for now before he shifted his look back to Jack.

Sat at the kitchen table, Jack stared down at his drink.

“Stunner?”

It took a second or two, then—“Hm.” Jack shook out of it, looking his way and offering a smile. “M’ere, mukka.” He scratched distractedly at his jaw. “Just wondering how long Bill’s damn MOT is gonna take after Halliday’s appointment this morning.”

Gray stayed with him a moment. Sometimes it was so damn hard to tell one of Jack’s absences from anyone’s normal way of daydreaming: they looked so similar, just a thousand-yard-stare to begin with, and they’d crept in a little after losing Martin. Under Halliday, Jack had found a balance, some peace, and that had in turn settled peace in Gray.

But sometimes, just sometimes, there were moments like this, where after all the playfulness in bed… away from it, Gray would catch these quieter moments, almost as if Jack stepped inside his own head, looking for Martin after each no show.

With each small seizure, each time he’d come out tired, each time he’d come out alone, sad, almost seeming like he’d climbed out of a swimming pool and carried all the weight on his shoulders. Alone. He just looked so… alone.

“Just asking if Jan got off okay.” Gray went over and stroked at the back of Jack’s neck. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good.” Jack patted Gray’s neck as he leaned down and kissed at his jaw. “Other than Jan getting off on you this morning, Monique called through from the main gates, and he mumbled something about congestion tax and carpooling that saved his head and pocket, then he legged it.” He snorted. “He’s burning stress out in sex plus avoiding Brennan, huh?”

Jan must have told him Shaun was on his way over, as for the rest? Gray snorted a half smile and nodded. “Just a little.”

But Jack seemed okay. Maybe. Martin making an appearance would let Gray know when he wasn’t. Yet as Martin kept to his stay away, that kept Gray in check over not getting too involved with Jack’s care plan. Jack was doing good. Martin’s stay away called that.

A flurry of movement came from behind Gray, and a mass of fur and muscle almost buffeted him out the way as it jumped up onto Jack’s lap just as he tried to reach for his coffee.

“Fuck. Seriously?” Jack tried to scowl past at what grinned back at him before it turned around and slumped down on his lap. “I’ve not even had my coffee yet.” He tried to reach for it, but only ended up dodging one hell of a huge Maine Coon cat tail that could have bested a katana for the length and strength behind the blow to Jack’s jaw as he tried. “This…” He tried to push the cat off. “This thing’s gonna be the bloody death of me, forget emotional support pussies.”

Gray handed him his coffee and tried so badly not to react as he took a sip of his own drink and rested back against the table.

“Oh go on, boss, you know you want to.” Jack threw out his arms even with his coffee mug in tow. “Start from where you left off yesterday, no—five months ago. This shit never gets old.”

This “shit” was really what had had Jack up early most mornings, leaving him time to serve a breakfast that would feed the five thousand, and Gray sniffed, looked back at the full weight of the half wolf, half cat nearly blocking his view of Jack. Then he buried everything behind his mug. Pinning Jack down, the Maine Coon only growled his way anyway, so Gray held its look until it looked away. He was more a dog man. Dogs could be called to heel. Cats just gave that Th’fuck you looking at confrontational tone. Either way, he’d never really grown up with a pet of his own other than having his grandfather’s dog around. But Jack, the monstrous beauty on his lap… he hadn’t really been given a choice.

Old Mr Kershel had been a customer of Jack’s for years, sometimes leaving Gray waiting in the car outside his garage as they sat like two old men reminiscing over old war wounds. In their case: mechanic war wounds. Kershel had been a technician for thirty years, mostly as a competitor of Jack’s dad, but he’d swung Jack’s way after he’d retired, regularly coming in for a service on his Astra estate. He’d passed away peacefully at his five months ago, and it had kept Jack quiet for a few days. Right up until Kershel’s granddaughter had pulled up to Jack’s garage and handed over… that.

Gray tried so hard not to laugh as Jack roughed up one of the Maine’s ears, leaving Jack nearly spilling his coffee in the other hand as the cat leaned into it.

“She started off so fucking small and cute.” Handing his coffee to Gray, Jack tried to push the Maine off his lap, but the cat shifted her Th’fuck you think you’re doing head his way and winked back at Gray, refusing to. “How the hell can she get so bloody big in just five months?” mumbled Jack.

“Happens, Jack. You know, the old bird and bee logistics: as girls grow up, they get… bigger.”

Jack laughed. “Oh fuck you.” He shoved at the Maine’s ass. “And you…. Off. Get the fuck off, missus.”

The Maine got to her feet, stretching into Jack, butt first, just before jumping down and rubbing up Gray’s leg.

Gray stared down at it, nothing more. The cat didn’t care and continued to rub him up the wrong way.

“Firestarter.” Jack started brushing his coveralls down, then pulled a hair out of his mouth. “Ed would have loved the bully in her.”

Gray chuckled as he made sure the cat moved away from him. Yeah, Ed would have done, more Kershal’s last dig at Jack. It had been a classic.

You’re not a real mechanic until you’ve had a pussy, Jacky lad.

P.s. Your old man is writing this for me and nearly dying. He’s gonna peg it before I do….

The note stayed stapled to the wall in the family photo room. But the cat that Jack still hadn’t named?

All mean majesty, the Maine carried a long, thick waterproof topcoat of dark grey body hair, with a light silver-grey main. With a powerful muscular athletic body that claimed Jack as her bed whenever he sat down for five minutes, large, pointed ears, and an impressive tail, she was spectacular to look at, and boy did she know it as she went back over to Jack and lay at his feet, only to have Jack run into distracted scruff-roughing behind an ear. Jan had come alive with having her in the house as well. Gray, he… tolerated her Cold War standoff.

“That going to be her name?” he said softly.

“Huh, Firestarter?” Jack went full shake of body and hair to get rid of the cat’s coat as he stood. “I’m tempted.” One stubborn strand refused to shake free, and the contrast of long black hair with a touch of silver running solely left side of his temple offered such a gorgeous look into an old age Gray wanted to grow older with and taste. “But you?” Jack levelled a finger Gray’s way. “Stop. I get enough off Sam at work asking if I can send him goddamn pictures of my pussy.”

Gray laughed, then looked at his watch.

“Make sure you eat. I’ve put something in the Oval for you and Brennan if you need it,” Jack said as he plucked Gray’s cup from his hands. He’d finished his, already missing it, and Jack winked and headed over to make another.

“Thank you.” He meant that.

With a tap at the streaming device, Lea’s “ Kusse wie Gift ” drifted into the kitchen on a softer German tone, calling out how Jack’s music tastes varied so widely across the language spectrum lately, everything from French… Spanish… Italian and anything in between. Jack didn’t know German, but sometimes just listening to tone and tonicity was enough to fall in love with the music from any land. The Welshman in Gray knew that. But it was something new for Jack. The nuance was subtle, but there.

Huge paws padded over, and the Maine rubbed up against Gray’s leg again. She did it deliberately to get a negative reaction, he knew that, so Gray sniffed and looked down at it. “Out. Bathroom’s in the garage, cat.”

The Maine flicked her tail and walked off, only to stand by the door, and her look went back to him.

Giving a sigh, Gray let her out.

Jack laughed as the door closed. “Party tricks.” He winked Gray’s way. “You know yours don’t work on her. You’ve finally met your match with Pussy fuck you claws here, mukka.”

Gray laughed and headed over to Jack as he started pouring another coffee. Amberwood soothed his senses as he shaped Jack from behind. It left a light sheen on the curve of Jack’s throat, and Gray ran the back of his hand down the tanned offering. The Amberwood was his own cologne. Jack had always borrowed it since he’d first stepped in the manor, and Gray loved how he kept to this side of wearing something of him on his skin.

Always about the man and his choices behind the scent. In this case, Jack always quietly carrying a part of Gray on his skin.

Jack stopped messing with the coffee and gripped the unit before he dipped his head, giving such a soft exhale to Gray’s touch. The quiet between them, punctuated only by the soft tick of the clock that blended together the halfway point between tick… tock… drip…. fucking drop, showed they both still simmered from the light foreplay in bed, and Gray traced his touch down Jack’s side as he kissed, then gave a gentle nip at Jack’s throat. Garage coveralls were again tied at Jack’s waist, and Gray pulled the tangle of sleeve loose and slipped a touch down to rest above the fine offer of Jack’s pubic hair line.

Not yet touching, just… a promise of.

Maybe.

Jack chuckled. “Teasing bastard today, huh?”

Gray hid a private smile as he ghosted Jack’s neck, lips so close, but never touching: breath-play at its most subtle. As much as he loved how Jack would have to work with the burn, Gray loved the heat coating his body as he was forced into waiting games too.

Giving a soft sigh, Jack brushed a thumb over the back of Gray’s hand, then eased around to face him.

“Talk to me about Jan…” Gray said quietly, easing a distracted touch under Jack’s boxers, all to cup his asscheek as life turned a little more serious. “He mentioned issues at work.”

“Ben and Chris?” Jack frowned, his own touch slipping under Gray’s suit jacket, to his hips. “They’ve not backed off?”

“They?” That changed things slightly. Two on one was only good for the bedroom. “So he’s spoken to you about it?” Why hadn’t Jack mentioned it?

Jack nodded. “A week back. Mostly spoilt-shit antics in the office.” He frowned again. “He’s worried enough to talk to you now?”

So Jack had gotten the impression Jan wasn’t too worried. Maybe he hadn’t been back then. Gray nodded.

“Tomorrow should put his head at ease, then,” said Jack. “But he still mentioned them to you?”

“Only because I pushed him.”

“Hmm.” Jack narrowed those stunning silver-grey eyes, his breathing deepening as Gray slipped his coveralls off his hips, exposing his ass. “Don’t… and I mean don’ t get involved. Let him sort it,” said Jack. “I think he’s embarrassed more than anything.” A harder breath came from him as Gray stroked the back of his hand down the length of his cock. “He said he’ll take it through the proper channels if it gets too much. And you… coming into the pen to play with the cattle?” He tutted. “You’re just bored. Focus your… restricted activity elsewhere.”

“Wrong word to say.” Gray smiled and teased three long, deep strokes at Jack’s cock. “Wrong person to say it to. This… don’t…”

Jack laughed, but it came on such a shaky breath. “Fuck.” He closed his eyes, body looking alive, but his head, on the back of one word, so many threats seemed to play around him. His private smile looked set to dive in and taste each and every one no matter how much it left him crying no and shaking as he dipped his head into Gray’s shoulder.

Giving a tut, Gray withdrew his touch and patted Jack’s abs. “Work. It’s that way.” He pointed to the kitchen door.

“Huh?” Jack shook off some of the heat and looked up at him.

“I’ve been warned off getting in the pen with the cattle.” Gray leaned over and picked up his coffee before pulling back and taking a sip, but not before he ghosted a nip at Jack’s ear. “So no sex it is.” A smile. “Not until you’ve finished work.” He held his look. “And I mean no going mate’s rates with Jan or running on self-service.”

Left breathing deep and hard, needing it deep and hard from the look of it, Jack started fastening up his zip with a snort. “Asshole.” He laughed quietly.

Gray loved the echo of Jan, yet in the same breath, the utter difference between Jan and Jack uttering that word. “Yeah,” he said gently. “It’s been known. Just sometimes, stunner.”

The heat in Jack’s eyes in a look only ever reserved for Gray cried he didn’t mind. Not one sodding bit.

“Knock, knock.” That came from the kitchen door, and as Jack turned away and finished slipping his coveralls over his shoulders, calling out work, Gray blocked the view and gave him time to do it before heading back for the table.

“Clear.” Gray took a drink of coffee as the door came open.

“Ooh, breakfast.” Ray came in carrying the cold from outside on his duffle coat, and he rubbed at his hands now he made it to the table. “You shouldn’t have, Jack. All this… for me?” He batted big bushy eyebrows before pinching a pancake with some jam.

Decent except for the heat on his cheeks, Jack levelled with Gray. “All those bits on the top…. I dipped that one in Lady’s litterbox. See how much I think of you?”

“Aww.” Ray weighed the half-eaten pancake up in his hand, eyed the size. “Yeah? You sculpt these in relation to my nuts too? Nice to know mine are bigger than yours.”

Jack cocked a brow at Gray. “And there: the verbal evidence your head of screw-you security has been perving on my said balls in the shower to do the compare and contrast. Sack the bastard, real quick like. His mouth is far too unprofessional enough for hired help, as well. It hurts my delicate earballs, all his talk on… nuts.”

Gray shook his head with a smile, and Ray polished a non-existent Favourite badge, so Jack flipped him the bird. There was tension between them, there always had been, but that was okay. It kept Ray on his ex-MI5 professional toes, which earned him second breakfast of a morning at Gray’s table, away from the one Ray shared with his wife at the gate house. So Ray kept Jack on his toes too with knowing Ray didn’t fall for his… sack the perv’ charm. Ray had a place here as head of security, just as Jack took Gray’s world as his lover.

“Shaun Brennan’s here.” Gray put his mug in the dishwasher now he’d finished.

“Yeah.” Ray looked over. “He’s pulled up to the main gates. I’ll go and run the usual surveillance checks in the Oval before he gets here.”

Gray nodded. “I also need you to do two background searches for me,” he said as Ray started to head for the hall.

Jack gave Gray a look, a shake of head and snorted smile as he no doubt picked up background searches meant Chris and Ben, then he headed over to the door. Jack had gotten his licence back a year ago, and Gray wanted to ask if he’d be okay driving, but he left it alone, knowing Jack would say if he wasn’t. Gray nodded towards the Oval instead as Jack winked back his way and left. “Go ahead. I’ll talk the two marks to you,” he said distractedly to Ray before taking Jack’s mug over to the dishwasher and giving a general cleanup of the breakfast things.

Maybe he was just culled too much and needed the distraction with Ben and Chris, Jan’s work colleagues, but….

The Polaroid of him getting out of his Mercedes-Benz sat by the Dulce coffee machine. Jan rested against the bonnet, smiling at Jack as he’d stolen the image, but the image itself lay out of alignment with life and unit alike and had been like that for over four months now: Jack’s longest stretch without needing to straighten it and order the burn of life in the process.

Although not needed too much lately, Jack’s control of life was fought, won, and lost on the back of the need to straighten a photo.

Gray’s control came with the wider picture, always would be when it came to Jack and Jan. So anything that threatened to push them out of alignment, no matter how office-bully small, it always got his attention because he knew life played a cruel hand like he did.

Someone always came along to try and fuck it all up.