Chapter Two
Chapter
Two
“Babe!”
“Kitchen!” Aiden yelled
out in answer to Nick’s shouted query. Deefer had signaled Nick’s
arrival when he’d driven into the driveway of their rental property
so Aiden knew his lover was on his way. As always, when Nick walked
into the room, Aiden was filled with a sense of pride that this
tall, hot, alpha as hell man was his. Nick’s eyes warmed when he
saw Aiden standing by the kitchen cabinet and walked straight to
him. Aiden knew what was about to come, and it was the highlight of
his fucking day.
Without a word, Nick wrapped a hand
around Aiden’s nape and pulled him in for a kiss. As with most
things Nick did, he took control, claiming Aiden’s mouth with his
own and adding just enough pressure to have Aiden melting into the
man. Christ, he could kiss!
When Nick pulled back with a groan, he
pressed his forehead against Aiden’s, and the two of them took a
couple of quick breaths. “Damn, Aiden,” Nick said with a sigh.
“Every time I come home and kiss you, it’s like the first
time.”
Aiden grinned and pulled
back slightly. “I know what you mean. Although, I
do remember the first
time you kissed me.”
Nick grinned back. “Me, too. I
remember the fact that you broke my nose just after it,
too.”
“Well, it served you
right. You don’t get to yell at me, and call me a fucking idiot and
then get to kiss the hell out of me and expect any other
reaction.”
“In my defense,” Nick said
as he wandered over to the fridge, “you had just scared the fuck
out of me, and I thought you and Deefer had just been blown to hell
and back.”
At the sound of his name, Deefer
sidled over to Nick and was welcomed with a pat on his head and a
piece of cheese Aiden hadn’t yet been able to get Nick to stop
feeding the dog.
“He and I had it all under
control, and stop feeding him cheese! It’s spoiling him, and he is
starting to turn his doggy nose up at the ordinary dog food he
gets.”
Nick laughed as he handed Aiden one of
the beers he’d grabbed then moved to lean on the kitchen table.
“That dog has faced too many life and death situations in his
lifetime and saved more lives in Afghanistan than any one unit I
would suspect. I think he should be on a steak and caviar diet for
the rest of his life.”
Aiden turned to look at his dog and
chose to ignore the hangdog expression on the chocolate lab’s face.
“I think he might agree with you. And although I, too, think he is
worthy of more than some kind of processed dried meat, it is what
the vet says is best for him, and I for one want him around for as
long as possible.” But that didn’t mean that Aiden didn’t slip the
dog a cut or two of whatever protein he and Nick would be eating.
Aiden had lost count of the number of devices that dog had found
during their time in combat, including his own.
The two of them worked together to
finish getting their dinner ready, before sitting down to eat. This
was something that Nick insisted on. Every day possible, the two of
them were to sit down together for dinner. Not in front of the
television, but face to face and talk about their day. For Aiden,
coming from a family who only communicated by shouting at each
other before resorting to physical violence, this had been a little
odd at first, but now it was something he looked forward
to.
“How was work?” Aiden
asked, and realized this was one of his favorite parts of the day.
Sharing the good and bad parts of his day with the man he loved, he
didn’t think it could get better than that. Unless a certain Marine
were sitting with them of course.
Nick sat back with a sigh. “They think
all those fires are being set by the same person.”
“The ones you were talking
about a couple of days ago?” Aiden asked. “Do they have any
leads?”
Nick shook his head. “Not a thing.
They guy is either too damn good, or just that lucky. He hasn’t
used a consistent MO, his accelerants change, the description of
strangers in the towns don’t match, but they are just too regular
and occurring in an almost zigzag across the country for it to be
coincidence. I reckon he or she will either come through here, or
strike here at some point.”
Aiden couldn’t stop his heart from
stuttering a little, or that damn tendril of dread from unfurling a
little within him put down his glass. “Has he killed
anyone?”
Nick nodded, and cast his lover an
assessing look. “There have been a couple of bodies turn up. This
guy isn’t just using incendiary devices, love. His MO is erratic to
say the least.”
Aiden nodded. Logically he got that,
but it didn’t stop his mind from immediately retreating to what
he’d been through as a child.
“How was the writing
today?” Nick asked in an obvious attempt to change the
subject.
Aiden smiled, letting go of the past.
“Really good! My characters are talking to me, and it is all coming
together.” Aiden had always had a way with words, but it wasn’t
until he was risking his life in combat on a daily basis that he
had started to write down the stories he had in his head. He wrote
gay erotic romance stories, and all of them featured men who had
been in the military. Hell, the day he’d met Nick on a bomb sweep
through a bombed out street in Afghanistan two years ago he’d
featured as inspiration for more than one of his alpha characters.
He’d even managed a few ménage stories in his brief writing career,
especially after he and Nick had come face to face with a certain
medic during an attack on their base one afternoon.
“Is this one an MM or one
of those hot ménages you seem to be favoring lately?” Nick asked
with a knowing glint in his eye.
“This is a ménage, and it
seems to be writing itself,” Aiden admitted.
“I’m guessing that’s
because of seeing a certain Marine a couple of weeks ago.” Nick sat
back in his chair and placed his cutlery down.
Aiden nodded, taking the final swig of
beer from his bottle. “Yeah, it’s hard not to, especially now that
he knows we’re living here, and you’ve made it pretty clear that
we’d love nothing more than to get to know him. Add to that, Sam is
still hotter than hell, and it would seem my muse will be running
with the ménage theme for the foreseeable future.”
He remembered the first time he’d laid
eyes on Lance Corporal Samuel Wilson. Despite their dire situation,
he’d been drawn to Sam’s cool, calm attitude under fire. When he’d
cast a quick glance at Nick, he’d seen the fire of appreciation in
his eye. He and Nick had been together for almost a year at that
point, and he should have been angered at seeing his lover look at
another man, but Aiden had always been too logical for a reaction
like that. After all, he was doing his fair share of looking,
too.
“Then I say run with it.”
Nick pushed back from the table, and Aiden read the look in his
lover’s eyes and guessed that tonight they would be doing the
dinner dishes sometime closer to midnight when the two of them had
loved on each other for a couple of hours. Again.
Despite knowing what was about to
happen, Aiden sat back in his chair and waited for Nick to come
around the table. When Nick reached out and turned his chair to
face him, Aiden’s heart rate sped up.
“Why don’t we go into your
office, and you can read me what you wrote today,” Nick said in a
voice heavy with lust. “You know how I love to reenact each scene
to make sure it’s as realistic as it can be.”
“That’s true,” Aiden said
with a smile. “You are more than willing to place yourself in my
hands for the sake of my art.”
Nick returned a smile. “The things I
do for your art.”
Aiden laughed as he stood up and
wrapped his arms around Nick’s shoulders, pressing himself against
the slightly taller man. He could feel the hard evidence of Nick’s
arousal pressed against his abdomen, and with a subtle shift of his
own hips, he was able to press his own cock against it, making Nick
growl, a sound Aiden loved to hear.
“If we are going to do
this right,” Aiden advised as Nick wrapped his arms around his
waist and palmed Aiden’s ass, “then we should head to the shower in
the master bath instead of my office.”
****
After turning on the shower, Nick
turned to look at Aiden, who now stood naked behind him. “That is
one the things I love about you, babe.” Nick cast a slow lingering
look over his lover’s body.
“What’s that?” Aiden asked
as he stepped closer and started to release the buttons of Nick’s
work shirt.
“That you strip faster
than anyone else on the planet. That way, I get to enjoy the view
while you help me with my clothes.” Nick loved the sound of Aiden’s
laugh and had to physically stop himself from simply ripping his
own clothes off and throwing himself on top of the man.
“Well, we all have our
talents,” Aiden murmured as he continued to pull Nick’s clothes off
in a methodical way that had Nick’s arousal rising
steadily.
“How are you going to read
me your manuscript in the shower?” Nick asked in an attempt to
allow his mind time to gain some semblance of control.
The look Aiden shot him had that thin
thread of control evaporating. “Oh, I can assure you, sheriff, I
have the entire scene playing out in my head. I don’t need to read
it to bring it to life”
“And will it work with
just the two of us?” Nick winced at the intensity he heard in his
own voice, and from the way Aiden’s hands stopped and his gaze
locked with his own, Nick knew that Aiden had heard it,
too.
For a long moment the two men stared
at each other, and Nick had never felt so completely naked before.
Aiden had the ability to see right through him, and into his very
soul. It was something that Nick had been wary of at first, but now
recognized it as a symptom of the emotional connection he enjoyed
with the handsome man.
“No matter what,” Aiden
spoke in a voice that rang with strength, “it will work with just
the two of us. We are the constant, Nick. Sam is someone that I