Chapter 19 #2
Kaden smiled, then kept going until he was seated as far as he could get inside him. Joe slid his hands up Kaden’s arms and wrapped them around his shoulders.
“Kade,” Joe whispered and smiled. “Mine.”
Oh God.
Then Kaden began to move. It took every bit of control to go slowly, to let Joe adjust to what he was doing. Joe began to lift into his thrust and Kaden allowed himself to move faster.
“Oh God, Joe, you feel so good.”
Kaden didn’t last long. It was impossible.
The clench of Joe’s muscles around him. The look on Joe’s face.
The sounds he was making. The calling out of his name.
Not Kaden but Kade. Kaden cried out when he came, emptying himself into Joe and when he felt Joe wrap his legs and arms around him and hold him tight, he let himself fall into Joe’s embrace and their hearts came down together.
When they were cleaned up and back in each other’s arms in bed, Kaden pushed damp hair back from Joe’s forehead.
“Was that okay?” Kaden whispered.
“I don’t have the words to say how okay that was.” Joe snuggled even closer against him. “I’m glad I have a lot to learn. I’m glad I have you to teach me.”
When they came down for breakfast the next morning, Joe had a broad smile on his lips and Kaden was feeling smug that he’d put it there.
Alistair sat at the kitchen table, drinking tea.
Judging by his amused expression, Alistair knew exactly what they’d got up to last night.
Maybe he’d heard them. Kaden rolled his shoulders in discomfort.
They needed to find somewhere else to live.
“Good morning,” Alistair said. “Sleep well?”
Oh yes, he’d heard them.
“Help yourself to whatever you’d like to eat.”
“Not Marmite.” Joe stared at the jar on the table.
“Toast and marmalade?” Kaden asked. “You as well, Alistair?”
“Please,” Alistair said.
Kaden poured coffee. “I’m doing an open mic tonight at Hoopers in Soho. Would you like to come?”
Alistair shook his head. “Sorry. I’m meeting a friend. Next time?”
“Sure.” Kaden doubted it was Alistair’s sort of thing anyway.
They sat at the table with Alistair. Although nothing felt particularly awkward, Kaden wanted Joe in a place of their own. The money Joe had won would make that possible.
After breakfast, Joe and Kaden took Elsie for a walk. They set off down the road and as Joe moved closer to him, Kaden slid his hand into Joe’s and squeezed his fingers.
“Is it okay to hold hands?” Joe whispered.
“Sometimes, yes.” Kaden had never done it before in public. Harris had never wanted to and nor had Kaden’s previous boyfriends. It gave him a warm feeling in his chest. “We’ll look online for a place to rent when we get back.”
“Not buy?”
“Not yet. It takes too long. We can find a rental more quickly. I’d like to stay in the north of London.”
“Near your friends and your dad.”
“And work. I like London. There’s plenty to do and see here. Lots I want to show you.”
“Okay. That sounds great.”
“I wonder whether to call Harris. I don’t want him to think I care whether he’s better or not, but I’m worried about what he has inside him.”
When they got back and Alistair asked to speak to Kaden on his own, Kaden automatically assumed the worst, that despite what Alistair had said, they were going to be asked to leave. Joe took a book into the living room while Alistair and Kaden stayed in the kitchen.
“We’re going to look for a place this afternoon,” Kaden said quickly. “If you could just give us a couple of days—”
“I’m not asking you to leave.” Alistair gestured towards a chair. “Sit down.”
Kaden sat at the table. Elsie nuzzled up against his knee and Kaden pushed his fingers into her fur.
“I have a favour to ask,” Alistair said. “A day-in-the-life article.”
Kaden’s tense shoulders eased slightly, though why did Alistair not want Joe to hear? “A day-in-the-life of an ex-spy?”
Alistair chuckled. “Not a day in my life. Someone else. Someone who needs… flattering. The newspaper will make the approach.”
“I…I don’t write puff pieces. Sorry if that’s what you’re looking for.”
“Not quite.” Alistair regarded him carefully. “We need access to this person. The article gives you that. What you do with that access depends on whether you’re willing to help further.”
Something cold slid into Kaden’s chest and coiled like a snake. The tension came back. “Doing what?”
“You talk to him, make notes for your article and leave a small device. Placed, not planted.”
Oh my God. Kaden stared at him. “What’s the difference between placed and planted?”
Alistair raised his eyebrows. “That’s what you ask?”
Kaden sagged. “Yes.”
“Placed means that although the device needs to be hidden, it’s not a long-term thing where it would be deeply embedded and difficult to find. That would be planted.”
“A camera?”
“Not a camera.”
“A listening device.”
Alistair nodded.
For a second, Kaden thought he might be sick. “Is this to do with the job you did? I thought you’d retired.”
“Well…” Alistair leaned back a fraction and his mouth curved briefly in a smile. “I have but I occasionally dip my toes back into the water when required.”
Kaden let out a short, disbelieving breath, his brain rapidly catching up with implications he’d missed.
“When you first contacted me, you said you’d read and liked my work.
You mentioned the book I’d ghostwritten that went on to have a lot of success as a reason for choosing me, along with day-in-the-life articles.
Maybe they were the more important. Has everything I’ve done for you led to this moment?
You chose me all those months ago for this? ”
“I knew you were sharp.”
“Oh God.”
“We needed to know who you were before we took our interest further.”
“That sounds like a yes.” And now you’re a we?
“It means we don’t ask people for help without understanding them first. And I wouldn’t be asking you if it wasn’t in the public interest. You’ll need to sign the Official Secrets Act before I give you any details.”
Kaden swallowed. To think he’d thought Alistair had been impressed with his credentials. He felt…used. That box he’d been given to look through. Had that been a trap? A test? To see if he’d steal anything? He doubted Alistair would tell him if he asked.
“We pay attention to what people do when they think no one is watching.”
Kaden’s heart thumped hard. The bedroom? Please no.
“When you mentioned Jalis…Joe,” Alistair continued, “it complicated things. Made me reassess.”
“How?”
“Because Joe might not have been what he seemed. Initial impressions show him to be a pleasant young man. Friendly. Helpful. Straightforward. Incredibly bright. But is that the full story? Has he manipulated you to enable him to stay in this country? Is he really from Afghanistan? Or is he from Russia?”
It was impossible not to react. Kaden’s jaw had dropped and he shut his mouth. Joe’s origins had to stay secret. “Yes, he is from Afghanistan. He’s not deceiving me. There’s nothing more to his story.”
“I don’t believe that. There are always omissions. The question is whether they matter.”
Kaden forced himself to hold Alistair’s gaze. This was an interrogation, just dressed a little differently. He had to be careful. “Joe needed somewhere to stay assuming he managed to get to the UK. I wanted to help him. That’s all there is to it.”
“Right.”
He doesn’t believe me. Elsie shifted against Kaden’s leg. He scratched behind her ear, more for himself than for her. Though it didn’t help his anxiety.
“You think he’s dangerous.” Kaden was unable to keep quiet. “He’s not.”
“I suspect you don’t know him as well as you think you do.”
Kaden let out a quiet, humourless breath. That was probably true but… “It seems I don’t know you at all.”
Alistair shrugged. “I’ve spent my life being many different people.”
Kaden felt hurt to have been used. Silence stretched. He was determined not to be the one to break it this time.
“What are you not telling me about him?” Alistair asked.
“Nothing.”
“I know that’s not true.” Alistair’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. It lingered there, as if he were waiting for Kaden to slip up, blurt something out.
Kaden swallowed. “I’m not hiding anything. Joe’s just…Joe. He needed somewhere safe to live. I like him. A lot. I wanted to help him. I still want to help him.”
“And when I told you I expected the truth about him, you said we’ll tell you when we can.”
Words he now regretted. Kaden sucked in his cheeks. “And we will.” When we’ve decided what the truth is. “Why assume Joe’s lying?”
“I think,” Alistair said, leaning back slightly, “that people rarely arrive in one’s life without a reason. Especially not when circumstances align so neatly.”
Elsie shifted against Kaden’s leg, probably sensing the tension. He kept his hand buried in her fur.
“So this is what? A test of him now?” Kaden asked. “Or of me?”
“Perhaps of both of you.”
Kaden let out a breath through his nose. “And if I say no? It’s illegal. I’d never be able to work as a journalist again. I might be fined. Might even go to prison.”
“You’re free to refuse. I can’t force you to do it.”
“What about Joe?”
Alistair’s eyes sharpened slightly. “What about him?”
“If I agree… Does it involve him?”
“It doesn’t have to, assuming I could be sure you’d not tell him what I’d asked you to do.
But you would tell him. In view of that, we might as well make use of him.
We could supply him with a camera and he could be your photographer.
” Alistair paused as if he was thinking about that.
“It might give you more opportunity to place the device if you had the distraction of a photographer with you.”
Kaden’s head was spinning. “One minute you don’t trust Joe, the next you want him to commit a crime with me.”
“How would he feel about that?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Which proves my point. What do you really know about him?”