Chapter 3
RUN YOU DOWN TO THE DARK
Sliding soundlessly out of bed, he left the bedroom on quiet, bare feet.
Halfway to the kitchen, he spotted the suitcase in the living room and sighed softly.
He was supposed to spend these next two days alone, but apparently, that wasn’t happening.
Setting the handgun on the dining room table as he passed it, Kyle padded into the kitchen, wrapping his arms around Jamie from behind.
“You’re supposed to be in Manhattan. You left less than eight hours ago,” Kyle said softly against the taller man’s back.
Jamie finished pouring the whiskey into the glass on the counter and set the bottle of Macallan aside. “I wasn’t in the mood to argue with my father. Staying would have only made things worse.”
Kyle could feel the tension in his lover’s body and let him go.
Jamie turned to put his back against the counter and swallowed down half the glass of whiskey without flinching.
Kyle took the glass from him, taking a sip.
The liquid burned going down, but he liked that.
It was nice being able to drink alcohol at home instead of paying exorbitant prices for it at a bar by himself.
Not that he’d been at a bar alone lately since he had Jamie to come home to now.
Kyle set the glass on the counter and leaned into Jamie’s personal space.
Jamie’s hands came to rest on his hip, fingers dipping underneath the pair of sleeping pants Kyle had gone to bed in.
The temperature in the condo was a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit, so Kyle hadn’t bothered with a shirt.
He probably wouldn’t have bothered with clothes at all if he’d known Jamie was coming back early.
“That bad?” Kyle asked as he looped his arms around Jamie’s neck.
Jamie blew out a heavy breath. “I was late to dinner. I think I had six pieces of sushi before we started arguing and I decided to leave.”
“Should have maybe grabbed some food, then, not the whiskey.”
“I ate on the flight over.”
Kyle wrinkled his nose. “Ugh. Airline food. Civilian airline food at that.”
“Military field rations aren’t any better.”
“True.”
Jamie leaned down to press his forehead against Kyle’s, sighing heavily. “My parents want to parade me around in front of the media for my father’s campaign and don’t seem to understand the definition of classified information.”
“It’s been what? Six weeks since he announced his candidacy? I’m actually kind of surprised he didn’t try to blackmail the director into making sure you were free when he set the date.”
“I would have found an excuse to not be there.”
“That’s kind of the problem, but I get it.
Family can be the worst sometimes.” He curled his fingers around Jamie’s silk tie and ran his thumb over the smooth material.
Jamie always looked good in a suit, especially this one, but Kyle would rather see it on their bedroom floor. “What do you need right now?”
Jamie moved to kiss him, easy and sweet, despite the angry grip of his hands on Kyle’s hips. Kyle leaned into his touch, rising onto the tips of his toes to kiss Jamie back, chasing the taste of whiskey in his mouth.
“Nothing. I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Jamie murmured against his lips.
“I’d rather you wake me up than brood your way through a bottle of alcohol.” Kyle sank back down on his heels and smoothed his hands over Jamie’s shoulder, giving his tie a little tug. “Let’s go to bed.”
Kyle took Jamie by the hand and led him back to their bedroom.
The luxury penthouse condo they shared belonged to Jamie, a gift from his parents in an attempt to bribe him to leave the MDF years ago.
They let him keep it even though he refused to retire from active duty.
Kyle technically shared an apartment with his brother in DC, in a less well-to-do neighborhood, to keep up the appearance that he and Jamie weren’t together.
In reality, Kyle had moved in soon after he’d officially joined Alpha Team last summer, neither of them willing to give up the connection they’d formed the first night they met.
They both had used up far too many second chances in their lives.
Letting each other go would have been the right thing to do at the time—Jamie was his superior officer, and that was a mess of regulations they were actively breaking on a daily basis—but they both knew how fleeting life could be.
When Jamie had asked him to stay, Kyle didn’t have it in him to say no.
Their relationship had started out purely sexual, the both of them finding a kindred in bed that matched their individual needs perfectly that first night.
Jamie was everything Kyle ever wanted in bed and then some, but sex wasn’t the only thing keeping them together now.
They complemented each other beyond the bedroom, with Kyle filling a critical need the team had gone without for too long and the both of them filling a void in each other’s lives.
His and Jamie’s friendship had only deepened since July of last year, the two of them growing closer with every week that passed.
Him staying with Jamie in the beginning may have been so they could both more easily get off and work through the stress of the job in bed, but their initial connection had grown into something deeper than the lust that first drew them together.
Kyle had gone through a lot of one-night stands in his life, but Jamie was the first man he’d ever really, truly cared about. He trusted Jamie with his life, so it wasn’t any surprise he’d started trusting Jamie with his heart.
The lights turned on at a dim illumination when they entered the master corner suite.
Kyle had drawn the blackout curtains over the plas-glass windows lining both outer walls before crawling into bed earlier.
Even with the extra security he knew Katie had outfitted the place with so that no one could see in from the outside, Kyle was a sniper.
He preferred hiding over being out in the open.
He reached for Jamie’s tie when Jamie caught his hand, pulling it away. “I want you naked.”
Kyle bit his lip, the hot look in Jamie’s blue eyes and the deep tone of his voice going straight to Kyle’s cock. He wasn’t going to complain if this was how Jamie wanted to work through his stress.
“Yes, sir,” Kyle said, the response automatically falling from his mouth as he moved to obey.
He shoved his sleeping pants down over his hips, breathing in sharply as the waistband rubbed over his cock before they fell down his legs around to his ankles. Kyle stepped out of his sleeping pants and kicked them aside.
Jamie touched his chin, tipping his head back to make it easier to kiss him. Kyle arched into the kiss, moaning as a warm hand wrapped around his cock and lazily stroked him. Gripping Jamie’s shoulders to keep his balance, Kyle licked his way past Jamie’s teeth to suck on his tongue.
Jamie broke the kiss and took a step back. “Undress me.”
Kyle tongued the corner of his mouth, his lips still tingling from the pressure of Jamie’s mouth. “Yes, sir.”
Kyle pressed his hands to Jamie’s chest and skimmed them up and over his broad shoulders, catching the edge of the unbuttoned suit jacket beneath his thumbs to pull it off.
Jamie rolled his shoulders to help it slide free, and Kyle pulled it down off his arms. The lightweight wool fabric was smooth and soft against his hands as he shook the suit jacket to straighten it out.
He walked over to the comfortable armchair in the corner to drape the suit jacket over it.
In the heat of the moment, Jamie normally didn’t care about where their clothes landed.
With it nearing midnight and neither of them in a rush, Kyle took his time undressing Jamie because he could, since Jamie hadn’t said to hurry up.
He undid the silk tie with deft fingers, sliding it from around Jamie’s neck with a firm tug.
He slung it over one arm, letting it fall against the bend of his elbow as he worked at the small buttons of the vest Jamie wore beneath the suit jacket.
Not many men bothered with a three-piece suit, but Kyle hadn’t seen Jamie wear anything but that style in the time he’d known him.
The vest came off easily once the buttons were undone.
Kyle stepped around Jamie, gently pulling it off before depositing it on the armchair along with the tie.
Kyle’s cock began to firm up as he went to stand in front of Jamie once more, the anticipation making his skin prickle and his nipples harden.
He reached for the gold buckle of Jamie’s belt and undid the clasp, pulling the buttery-soft leather through the belt loops with careful motions.
Kyle deposited it on the armchair as well and took his place before Jamie once again.
He gently pulled the shirt tails from beneath Jamie’s pants.
His hands lingered on Jamie’s hips before Kyle slid them up that firm chest to start on the buttons at the collar of the shirt with steady fingers.
Jamie’s gaze was heavy-lidded and intent, never leaving Kyle’s face as he undid the buttons one at a time.
The silken fabric of the button-down started to come undone, revealing the firm, muscled chest beneath it.
Kyle couldn’t help himself by the third button and leaned forward, pressing a wet, open mouthed kiss against Jamie’s chest. With every button that came undone, Kyle kissed the skin it bared until he reached the edge of his dress pants and was half-kneeling on the floor.
With the last button undone, Kyle got to his feet and snagged Jamie’s right hand, turning it over to more easily get to the platinum and sapphire cufflinks he wore.
They came off easily, and Kyle deposited them on the dresser rather than the armchair.
He came back to Jamie and wrapped his arms around the taller man from behind, grasping the edges of the silk shirt and pulling it backward off his broad shoulders and down his arms.