Chapter Fifteen
brYCE
He didn’t mean to watch Tom get dressed.
Okay, that was a lie. He meant every second of it. But it wasn’t just the long lines of his back that made him unable to look away, or the way the morning sun caught the muscles of his arms and shoulders, touching them with warm gold.
It was the ease of him. The quiet confidence. Now he was rolling down his sleeves with methodical care, smoothing the cuffs of his pale-blue shirt before doing up the buttons. When he looked up and caught Bryce watching, he smiled, a small, private thing that made something twist in Bryce’s chest.
“You want coffee?” he asked.
Tom nodded, his mouth curving just a little more. “Just so you know, the answer to that question is always yes.”
Bryce laughed as he reached for his t-shirt.
The coffee didn’t take long. Just a few minutes in the kitchen, which was strangely empty for the time of day.
Tristan, Jason and Riley were at school and work, no Christian and Dave, and Matt and Jesse were undoubtedly wringing every last moment of peace out of the day they could.
And Karl would be out there on the perimeter, guarding them all, the way he always did.
He’d picked up the slack with Christian and Dave away, and Bryce was beginning to wonder just when he was fitting in any sleep.
Tom leaned on the counter beside him, looking more like he belonged here than any council rep had a right to.
Bryce poured them each a mug, then nudged one toward Tom. Their fingers brushed, and though there wasn’t the same intense spark as last night, something still pulled taut between them.
“You sleep okay?” Bryce asked, keeping it light.
Tom nodded, sipping. “Better than I have in a long time.” He paused. “You?”
“Yeah.” He meant it. The bed had been warmer. The steady presence beside him had stilled something in him. Even in his dreams, he hadn’t been alone—Tom had run beside him under the moon.
Tom wandered to the table, settling into one of the chairs, cradling the mug in both hands. He looked softer than usual, like the world hadn’t reached him yet.
Bryce sat opposite him and let himself look for a few long moments. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Maybe just memorizing the moment, the peace he felt.
Tom broke the silence, his voice thoughtful. “You know, it wasn’t just the job that made me pull back after Zack. It was... I wasn’t ready to risk it again.”
Bryce stilled. He hadn’t expected to talk about what had happened. He never did, not once the sex was over. Because there was never anything more to talk about.
Tom didn’t look away. “I don’t mean to drop that on you. I just wanted you to know it wasn’t just sex for me last night.”
A dozen possible replies skittered through Bryce’s head. All of them too much or not enough, and all with a thread of panic thrumming through.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll make breakfast. Nothing fancy. Eggs, toast, maybe some bacon if Jesse hasn’t eaten it all.”
Tom’s lips curved. “Sold.”
Bryce stood, stretching. “All right. But fair warning, any complaints about my cooking, and you’re wearing the chef hat next time.”
There was a small pause, just long enough for both of them to register it. Next time.
Tom met his eyes. He said nothing, but the smile he gave in return held something Bryce hadn’t seen in him before. Not just warmth, but hope.
And Bryce, who’d always run from permanence, didn’t know what to do.
That became ever clearer over breakfast. Somewhere between buttering toast and reaching for the pepper, he realized he didn’t want Tom to leave.
He hadn’t intended to want that. He’d spent years making sure no one got too attached to him.
Wasn’t fair, when he wasn’t interested in serious.
He was always up front about what he wanted—no strings, a bit of fun, and a good memory.
And there’d never been any danger of his wanting more because his heart was already taken, long ago.
So what the hell this was… How the hell had he not even spelled things out for Tom, making it clear what was on offer—and more importantly, what wasn’t? He’d just been taken over by wanting him last night.
Now here he was, watching the curve of Tom’s mouth around a bite of toast, and thinking what it might be like to make him breakfast again. It scared the hell out of him.
“Still no sign of Jesse,” Tom said, his voice quiet. “I can’t tell if he’s avoiding me or just coming to terms with accidentally being the most important shifter in the country.”
Bryce huffed a laugh, turning back to the bacon sizzling in the pan. “Could be both.”
Tom tilted his head. “You think he’s avoiding me?”
“I think he’s scared,” Bryce said, without sugarcoating it. “Of what comes next. Whatever exactly that is.”
That sobered them both. Bryce turned the burner off, and the bacon hissed into silence.
Tom said, softer, “If I had the power to keep him from being used, I’d do it.”
“I know,” Bryce said. And he did. But it didn’t make any of this easier.
He plated the eggs in silence and set the dish between them. Tom reached for a fork, and Bryce’s hand brushed his again. There was no jolt this time, just warmth and familiarity.
It felt like the beginning of something. And Bryce still didn’t know what the hell to do with that.
TOM
It was damn hard to peel himself away from Bryce and head back into town. But he had a job to do, and that included discovering what Jax had picked up on his own security sweep.
The official security sweep, that was. Councilor Bennett gave Jax carte blanche to run the security detail however he saw fit, which Tom approved of for operational reasons, but it didn’t exactly help to contain Jax’s ego.
Part of why he got so pissed at Tom tagging along, as he called it, was that he believed that his word should be enough for Steadman.
The thing Jax had never been able to get his head around was that Steadman wanted more than just a security perspective.
She simply dressed it up that way to make it sound harmless.
He had to get his head back in the game fast, instead of thinking about last night, and this morning, and how Bryce had given him two of the best orgasms of his life.
And had held him through the night. Tom had never had anyone check in with him as often and as sincerely as Bryce had done, and it was…
It was as if what Tom wanted had mattered to Bryce.
He shouldn’t have said what he had over breakfast—that it hadn’t just been sex. Talk about pressure. But it had felt important, somehow, to be honest.
And maybe—maybe—it had stung a little when Bryce hadn’t said anything back. But that was okay. Tom hadn’t said it because he expected something in return. Bryce wasn’t the kind of man who could be rushed, not with things that mattered.
He pulled into the hotel lot and found Jax out there, checking his SUV. While Tom didn’t think any of the people from Elk Ridge he’d met were likely to have booby trapped the car while Jax slept, he couldn’t fault Jax’s attention to detail.
Jax rolled out from under the vehicle as he approached.
“Embedded yourself pretty deep in that pack, huh?” he said, standing and dusting off his hands. His eyes swept over Tom like he was logging a tactical weakness. “Guess that’s one way to get access. Some of us stick to more professional methods.”
Tom didn’t want to deal with Jax’s judgment this early in the morning, especially not when it was so richly deserved. So he ignored his wolf, snarling inside him at the implication Tom had only slept with Bryce for a way into the pack, and tamped down his anger.
“Is there something I should know about Karl Griffin?” he asked. It had been bugging the hell out of him, and he wanted to show his mind was on the job, despite the fact he was standing there in yesterday’s clothes. “His name didn’t throw up any red flags on the searches I forwarded to you.”
Subtlety was lost on Jax, so he might as well remind him that Tom had cooperated fully and deserved the same in return.
Jax darted a glance around the parking lot. Just a few yards away, a family was standing beside their car, talking. “In a minute,” he said curtly.
One of these days, Tom was going to grow accustomed to the paranoia that surrounded everyone in DC. He waited with the appearance of patience while the family discussed at excruciating length how to order their plans for the day. Eventually, they all got into the car and left.
“Back in the corps, Griffin was a legend,” Jax said, and for the first time Tom heard respect in Jax’s voice for someone other than himself.
“Ghosted in, ghosted out. No one ever really saw him, but everybody knew where he’d been.
Then he vanished for good—just dropped off the grid.
Rumor was, something went sideways. But that’s all anyone ever heard.
And now he turns up here, living like a burnout, taking orders from some wannabe alpha with a handful of shifters to his name?
That’s not the Griffin I heard about, Barrington.
” He shook his head impatiently. “I don’t get it. ”
And that was Jax’s other problem—lack of imagination.
Matt Urban’s pack was tiny, but far from being a wannabe, Matt would give the alphas of the biggest packs in the country a run for their money, if he chose.
Instead, he’d somehow unearthed an Argent.
Tom wanted to laugh with the ridiculousness of it, but he knew Jax would only think he was laughing at him.
And, while Matt was a force to be reckoned with, it didn’t answer how Karl Griffin had ended up here. Tom could understand why he stayed, though. God knew, the place had a magnetic pull. Or maybe that was just Bryce.
“Maybe he’s got a partner here,” Tom suggested. There wasn’t one in the pack, but a few shifters dated non-shifters.
Jax shrugged. “Didn’t ask. Still doesn’t explain why a guy like that would tank his whole rep to hole up here.” The way he looked around the lot said exactly what he thought of the place.
Jax started toward the hotel. Something in the way he moved, together with the fatigues he favored, gave him an unmistakable air of menace. It was one he cultivated—he maintained that subtle, unobtrusive suits were for Secret Service types who’d lost their balls.
“Anyway, you’ve been here for days. You should have found out why Griffin’s here.” Jax cut a sideways glance at him. “Thought you were supposed to be Steadman’s prodigy.”
Tom blinked, because, what? “She just asks me to do the stuff no one else wants to do,” he said truthfully.
“Well next time, make sure you’ve done your damn job before jumping the nearest warm body,” Jax said as he pushed open the front door and neglected to hold it open for Tom.
He didn’t follow Jax into the lobby. If he had, he might have punched him.
Instead, he took the side stairs two at a time, not stopping until he was inside his hotel room with the door locked behind him.
Empty and silent, with impersonal patterned carpet and dark drapes adding to the impression of gloom.
He sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed a hand over his face. The apartment in DC was a world away from this room. It was modern, sleek, and airy. He used to think it was what he wanted. But now, all he could picture was the messy sprawl of Bryce’s bedroom and the comfort of the rumpled sheets.
Then, uninvited, the memory of Jax’s contempt sliced through.
Like Tom was soft for wanting something as simple as connection.
As if strength were only to be found in aggression.
When the security detail assembled in full gear—military fatigues, sidearms, comm units—they didn’t look like bodyguards, these days.
They looked like a private army. One that answered only to Bennett.
And the detail was growing, just like Bennett’s power base. Just like Tom’s unease. Which was yet another reason to do his job well. Steadman needed the facts to keep Bennett in check. And Jesse deserved a chance to face the world on his own terms.
He leaned back, arms braced behind him on the bed, and stared at the ceiling. In another minute, he’d get his thoughts in order for the councilors’ arrival, but first, he just wanted to think about Bryce a little longer.
He didn’t know what this was between them. What it could be. But he knew he didn’t want to let go of it.