Cameron looked back at the door. There wasn’t any sound coming through it. “Come on. Let’s go downstairs.”

“And drink,” Julian added, nodding. He smiled suddenly, giving Cameron a sly sideways glance. “Or. We could just turn in for the night. In our own room.”

“Which is next door, and you’ll be tempted to eavesdrop,” Cameron said, waving at the room down the hall. “Compromise,” he said, looking up to meet Julian’s eyes with an answering smile. “Drink, then room. Just… give them a little time.”

Julian gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes as he slipped his arm around Cameron’s shoulders. “You’re an insufferable romantic, you know that?”

“And you love me for it.”

“I do.” He glanced back at the door. “I wonder if they’ll be done in time to realize joining that ghost tour is the best way to reconnoiter?”

“You’re an insufferable predator,” Cameron said, tongue-in-cheek.

“And you love me for it.”

“I do.”

ZANE squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for Ty to say something, but Ty smiled slowly and took a step toward him. “You totally just outed us to the criminals,” he said as he pointed a finger at Zane.

“You make me insane, do you know that?” Zane blurted again with a wave of one hand. “Do you do it on purpose just to see me lose it?”

“Sometimes,” Ty said with a smirk.

Zane sighed in utter frustration.

Ty bit his lip, watching his lover just because he could. He firmly believed that being able to rile Zane like he could was one of the aspects of their relationship that had saved Zane from tumbling back into his destructive past. Every now and then, Zane just needed to feel like he was alive. Everyone should be able to feel that. And if annoying him to the point of homicide was what it took, Ty was up to the challenge.

“What brought this on?” he asked after Zane was silent for a time.

Zane shook his head, his eyes drifting to the door of the room.

Ty gaped at him and pointed at the door. “From the criminals?”

Zane snorted, caught Ty’s hand, and kissed his fingers. “Apparently some ‘criminals’ have better sense than I do.”

“You’re modeling your love life on that of a trained assassin,” Ty laid out in disbelief. “I swear to God, if he pulled some Jedi mind trick on you and they’re off escaping right now, I will put a bullet in his Irish ass!”

Zane laughed, the sound almost desperate as he swiped a hand over his face. “Well, now what do we do?” he asked, dejected. They had gone months without breaking their cover in front of anyone. It had almost been a source of pride for them. Just another undercover assignment.

Ty shook his head, looking at Zane again as unusual warmth began to spread through him. “I don’t care if they know. I don’t care if anyone knows anymore.”

Zane looked at him sharply. “You don’t mean that.”

Ty shrugged. They both knew what their options would be if their relationship was discovered at work. It had nothing to do with them being gay and everything to do with the FBI’s unofficial policy on fraternizing. “I think we take our chances when we get home.”

“What?”

“They’d just reassign us partners within the work group. We’d still be working together. You’d end up with Freddy, they’d probably put me with Scott. It wouldn’t be too bad. We could actually… you could get rid of your crappy apartment and we could live together.”

Zane stared at him, his dark eyes taking on an almost molten appearance. Ty’s breath caught in his throat as he tried and failed to continue speaking. Deuce had asked him once what it was about Zane that had first drawn him in. He’d been a broken man, an addict who was hopelessly lost in the past, drifting through life alone with little purpose and even less faith that it could get better.

Anyone with any sense would have steered clear. But from the first moment Ty had really looked into Zane’s eyes, he’d seen behind them, into the man Zane was capable of being. He’d seen a phoenix waiting to rise from the ashes, and he still did. Every time he looked into Zane, he saw something extraordinary.

Zane shook his head, his breaths coming harder as they stared at each other. “What if you live with me and you change your mind?”

“Zane,” Ty said in frustration. He held up one hand. “In the time you’ve been with me, have I ever changed my mind after deciding something? Even when we both knew I was wrong?”

Zane smiled weakly and shook his head.

“I love you,” Ty said, the quiet words devoid of any self-consciousness or his usual bravado. “And I’ve never been able to say that before with such conviction. I can’t remember a time that you weren’t the first thing I thought of, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don’t care what stands in our way.”

Zane’s breath hitched, and he reached out for Ty. He caught Ty’s face gently between his hands and kissed him, drawing it out until finally releasing his lips to run his nose along Ty’s cheek. Ty closed his eyes, feeling the calm that Zane’s touch always instilled in him sweep over him. He pushed his nose against Zane’s as he slid his fingers into his hair. If he and Zane had any say in the workings of fate, Zane would be the last person he ever touched like this.

Zane let out a shaky breath and whispered. “Will you… will you make love to me?”

Ty chuckled and took Zane’s face in his hands to kiss him. “Baby,” he started, a thousand things going through his mind to say, every one of them a typical smartass Grady remark. He looked into Zane’s sincere eyes and his smile softened. Zane’s occasional purple prose was all part of his charm. Sometimes Ty even let him slide without poking fun at him. “I’d like that.”

Zane grinned and gave him another gentle kiss, lapping at his lips to get Ty to part them. His hands settled atop Ty’s shoulders before sliding down his chest, catching on the soft material of Ty’s T-shirt, and around his torso to hug him close. Ty gave him a gentle tug, trying to get him to swing around and lie back with him on one of the antique double beds. Zane pulled back from their kiss and pulled off his Henley, tossing it to the floor, before reaching to slide his hands under Ty’s T-shirt to strip it off him. There were two soft thuds on the carpet—Zane toeing off his shoes—then he shifted onto the mattress, pulling up his legs as he lay on his side alongside Ty.

“Baby,” Ty whispered against Zane’s lips. He had never felt this sort of heat and longing for another person. He didn’t know how Zane did it, but Ty knew that there would never be anyone else for him. He wanted Zane to feel that too, to have that assurance both physically and emotionally. He would do whatever he had to do to make sure that Zane knew he was his.

He slid his hand into Zane’s hair, gripping the curls at the base of his neck and using them to pull Zane’s head back, just to be able to kiss him harder. Zane’s lips were soft and gave under his as he drove the kiss. They lay wrapped around one another, and when he shifted more, Zane broke off the kiss with a gasp and rocked their groins together despite the layers of thin cloth between them. The look in Zane’s eyes told Ty that he was on the right path. Zane’s reply was lost between Ty’s lips, but he dragged his legs apart so Ty could settle between them.

Ty groaned as Zane wrapped around him. He broke the kiss and pushed himself up, bracing himself with one hand as he used the other to tug at Zane’s undershirt. “Get these off,” he snarled.

Zane didn’t hesitate. He pulled the shirt off as Ty pawed at it, and started unfastening his pants, hurrying to arch his back and start shoving them down over his hips along with his briefs. Ty had to crawl backward to let him get them off, and he pushed his own jeans and boxers down his thighs and got rid of them before he knelt between Zane’s legs.

“Come here,” Zane invited, holding out one arm to pull Ty back close against his warm skin.

Ty took his hand and kissed his fingers, then his palm, then his wrist. He tugged at Zane’s hand, trying to get him to sit up instead. Zane did, sucking in a breath and sitting up without pulling his hand away, and it put him right in the circle of Ty’s arms. Ty slid his fingers between Zane’s as he kissed him. He had to lean over him to get closer, raising himself up on his knees. Zane spread his legs wider, propping up his knees and moving his feet out as Ty moved closer to him. A new wave of possessiveness and desire swept through Ty as he looked down at his lover. He ran his hand through Zane’s hair, gripping the curls again to yank his head back and kiss him.

It only took a few seconds for him to tighten his grip and force Zane back down to the mattress. He used Zane’s body to pull himself up and closer, settling between Zane’s legs, pushing his hips against Zane’s inner thighs, rubbing his hard cock against Zane’s with a groan. Zane exhaled harshly as he shifted his legs further apart, making room for Ty as he slid both hands over Ty’s shoulders and down his back and all over what skin he could reach. Not gripping or pinching or squeezing, just touching. He was murmuring too, desperate words that sounded like I love you.

Ty’s hand went to the back of Zane’s thigh, pulling at it to settle Zane’s raised leg against his hip. He kissed him languidly, taking care to slide his lips and tongue against Zane’s, wanting to give them both the chance to taste and feel each other before they lost all self-control. He rocked his hips almost unconsciously, rubbing their groins together as they kissed. Zane sighed against his lips as he followed Ty’s lead and relaxed under him.

“I’ve wanted this,” Zane said, breathless.

“You’ve had this, Zane,” Ty said as he took a brief moment to push up and adjust his position.

“Not this,” Zane argued. “We haven’t had this.”

Ty brushed his nose against Zane’s, nodding in understanding. “We have it now.”

He settled lower between Zane’s legs, the head of his cock pushing against Zane’s ass. He pulled at Zane’s thigh again as he laid himself out over him and dove into another, more demanding kiss. Zane curled his arms around Ty even as he shifted under the weight, trying to create friction between them.

Ty groaned appreciatively, his hand sliding up Zane’s leg to grip and pull at his hip. “Lube in my bag or yours?” he asked breathlessly, cursing himself for not thinking of that a little earlier in the process of making them both almost painfully aroused.

“Both?” Zane answered with a soft laugh. As he spoke, his hand smoothed down his belly toward his erect cock.

Ty reached to stop him, knowing that if Zane started touching himself, they’d never make it to the lubricant. And he desperately wanted to be inside Zane tonight. He pulled Zane’s hand up and held it down against the mattress.

“Two seconds,” he said as he rose and looked down at Zane hungrily. “Don’t start without me.”

He caught the wicked smile before Zane hid it. Ty rolled backward and crawled to the end of the bed, leaning over to grab his bag and pull out the leather toiletry bag he carried with him.

“Want you in me, baby,” Zane said from behind him.

Ty grunted and tossed the bag to the head of the bed as he crawled back up between Zane’s legs. He let his hands slide over Zane’s body, fingers digging into the hard ridges of muscle and soaking up the warmth of his skin, and Zane lifted up into his touch. Ty bowed his head to kiss at Zane’s stomach, sliding his hand up to his chest and following its path until he was back where he’d started, between Zane’s spread legs and kissing him. Zane moaned and hooked his calf over the back of Ty’s thigh, his hand settling on Ty’s waist for leverage as he tipped his hips up into Ty’s.

Ty growled and pushed himself up, muttering as he reached for the bag and fumbled inside it. Zane gave another obscenely sexy moan as he continued to rub their bodies together, moving his hand to the other side of Ty’s waist. Ty finally pushed the bag over and toppled all the contents out, finding what he needed from the pile and then using his forearm to sweep everything else off the double bed to the carpeted floor.

Zane laughed at his haste, but the heat and desire in his eyes were still shining.

Ty pushed up, looking at Zane and rolling his hips down as he watched their bodies moving together. “Fuck, Zane,” he hissed as he bent down to nip at Zane’s lips.

Zane nodded as he licked along Ty’s full bottom lip. “Want me to turn over?”

“No,” Ty growled. He leaned on his elbow, using his other hand to slide between them and down Zane’s body. “I want you right here,” he told Zane, stealing one last sloppy kiss before pushing back to his knees.

Zane’s hands dragged down Ty’s body as Ty moved. Ty ran one hand along the inside of Zane’s thigh, unable to keep himself from touching. He enjoyed the play of muscle under soft skin, the occasional imperfection of a scar under his fingertips, the way Zane tensed and writhed beneath his hands. He became distracted by the drag of his fingertips against Zane’s thigh. Zane quivered under him as he caressed. He was extra sensitive there, right at the juncture of his thigh and hip, not quite ticklish, and it was one of Ty’s favorite places to touch and grip and dig his fingers into when they fucked. Ty ducked his head to kiss the spot he’d been stroking. Zane groaned and his eyes fell closed as he tipped his head back, and his hands closed into fists in the sheets.

Ty grabbed the back of his thigh hard and folded Zane’s leg up as he leaned over him, bending just enough to kiss the inside of his knee. He reached for the little bottle of lubricant and pressed it into Zane’s hand. Then he sat back and let his hand slide under Zane’s other knee, his fingers gently stroking the very top of his calf, enjoying the sight of Zane’s legs splayed around his hips.