Private Dicks (17 page)

Chapter Twelve

“There’s something to be said about this
pro bono
work,” Wash mused, flopping back on Rhodes’ couch. “Heh. Bono.”

Rolling his eyes, Rhodes sat down next to him. “Thought you
liked the part where we get paid?”

“Yeah. Getting paid is nice,” Wash said. “It’s just that
finding Miguel and getting Ness locked up gave me a warm, toasty feeling
inside.”

“If we quit getting paid, you’ll get kicked out of your
apartment and then you’ll have a cold, clammy feeling on the outside. Plus, you
need paying jobs so you can hire Trevor.”

“Hire Trevor?”

“Yep.” Rhodes nodded. “We cost him his job. He’s shown us he
can be trusted and he only gets slightly hysterical during a break-in. You
won’t have to interview him or anything.”

Wash grinned. “True. And if we need to check his references,
we can just go chat with Ness in prison. It’ll be good to see him with his hair
all messed up. Maybe he’ll have a nice, beefy, sadistic boyfriend too.”

“We can only hope.”

“Hmm,” Wash murmured. “If we’re going to be paying Trevor,
maybe we can just limit our
pro bono
work to taking Carlos and Miguel
out for breakfast. That’ll keep me toasty on the inside. I’d like that.”

“Okay.” Rhodes let his head flop back against the back of
the couch and closed his eyes. Exhaustion pulled at him but the residual echo
of terror wouldn’t let him sink into oblivion. “I don’t like seeing a gun at
your head.”

Wash grunted. “Tell me about it. I don’t like
feeling
a gun on my head.”

Opening his eyes, Rhodes rolled his head to the side so he
could look at Wash. He wanted to grab his partner, pull him against him, never
let him go, keep him safe from all the fuck-face, child-snatching club owners
who wanted to shoot new holes in his head. Christ, Rhodes wanted to hold him so
badly that his arms quivered.

“So what’s it going to be?” Rhodes demanded, frustration and
longing making his voice harsher than he’d intended.

Wash turned his head toward Rhodes, obviously startled.
“Huh?”

“You wanted time to think. You had time to think. You had
three fucking days to think. Now tell me if it’s still hands-off and you’re
going to start dating some breeder or if I can…” Rhodes ran out of air. His
chest hurt.

Wash cocked an eyebrow. “If you can what? Fuck me through
the floor?”

Lust punched Rhodes in the stomach and he almost doubled
over. “Yeah,” he wheezed, barely able to breathe. “Just tell me.”

Instead of saying anything else, Wash leaned toward Rhodes
and kissed him. With a snarl, Rhodes shoved him onto his back on the couch and
took over the kiss, grinding his mouth into Wash’s without any finesse. All the
lust, all the love, all the daydreams and intimate moments and over-too-soon
touches poured out of Rhodes in that one brutal kiss.

After a while, reason nudged its way into Rhodes’ brain,
reminding him that Wash hadn’t really answered. Rhodes pulled back. His eyes
almost crossed with desire when he saw Wash’s full lips, swollen and red and
shiny with wetness.

“Tell me,” he repeated, staring down at Wash, wishing he
could will the answer he wanted from Wash’s mouth.

“I want you to…” Wash trailed off, shifting his eyes away
for a second and catching his bottom lip between his teeth. Rhodes bit back a
groan.

“What?” Rhodes demanded, resisting the urge to shake it out
of him. This was driving him insane and he was too tired to run off the desire
eating at him.

Wash’s gaze snapped back to meet Rhodes’. “I want you to
fuck me through the floor.”

Rhodes couldn’t hear anything else. All of his blood was
rushing through his head, filling his ears with an echoing roar. He stared down
at Wash, watched his partner’s expression change from teasing to uncertainty as
Rhodes just looked at him, frozen.

“Really?” Rhodes finally managed to ask. His voice broke in
the middle of the word. If he hadn’t been completely focused on Wash’s answer,
Rhodes would’ve been embarrassed.

Wash’s eyes shifted away again. “Yeah. I mean, before
tonight, shit like what Callum was spewing made me wonder if I really wanted to
deal with all that. I was thinking it’d be so much easier if I just did women.”

“It
would
be easier,” Rhodes said in a gruff voice,
fear knotting up in his throat.

Wash shrugged. “Easier, schmeasier. Every time I jerked off
over the past few days, I thought about you. Forget the chicks—I’m going with
the dicks. Well,” he made a face, “one dick, I mean. My own private dick. Start
off slow, you know, and
then
build up to the orgies.”

Rhodes brought his lips down onto Wash’s smiling mouth. “My
dick,” Rhodes growled against the curve of Wash’s lips. “And my dick only.
Remember that.” Kissing his way across Wash’s cheek, Rhodes caught an earlobe
in his teeth and nipped it in warning.

“But what about your balls?” Wash wondered, sounding so devilishly
innocent that Rhodes bit him again. “Can I suck your balls? And your ass? Can I
squeeze—” Wash’s teasing monologue broke off with a gasp as Rhodes ground his
cock against Wash’s, rotating his hips in an agonizingly slow, hard circle.

“You will do what I tell you.” Rhodes met Wash’s gaze,
watching as those green, green eyes dilated until the pupils drowned all color
in black.

“I usually hate it when you’re bossy,” Wash rasped, staring
up at him. “So why does it make me hard?”

Rhodes groaned, letting his head drop until his forehead
rested against Wash’s collarbone. “You’re killing me,” he groaned. Rhodes took
a deep breath. Beneath all the other smells from an evening at the club, Wash
still smelled so good, so familiar, so
his
. Despite his arousal, Rhodes
felt his body begin to relax. He inhaled again, sinking into the man beneath
him while his eyes drifted closed.

“The hell, Rhodie?” Wash sounded equal parts offended and
amused.

“What?” Rhodes grumbled sleepily, working his arms beneath
Wash and burrowing his face into the hard chest beneath him.

“Aren’t guys supposed to fall asleep
after
fucking?
What—are you bored with me already now that you’ve got me?”

“Not bored. Sleepy.” With an effort, Rhodes raised his head
a little and blinked at Wash. “It’s been a long night.”

Wash rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it. I was the one with
a gun to the head, remember?”

That woke Rhodes up a little more. “That’s why I had to
know. Now that I do, fucking can wait ’til after we get some sleep.”

“Humph,” Wash grunted.

Rhodes grinned as he settled his head back down on Wash’s
chest, his arms tightening around his partner. “You sound like a crabby old
woman. Trevor’s right—you
are
the grandma.”

Rhodes’ pillow rose and dropped a few inches as Wash heaved
a sigh. “It’s been five minutes and already the magic is gone,” he complained
in a dramatically querulous voice.

Although he was already slipping off again, Rhodes chuckled
sleepily. “Glad you’re not dead, Wash,” he murmured.

“Me too, Rhodie.” Wash’s hand cupped Rhodes’ smooth skull.
“Me too.”

The sun lit the inside of his eyelids to red. Grumbling at
the intrusion interfering with his wonderful, cottony sleep, Rhodes shifted.
Feeling the hard chest under his cheek, he jerked his head up, his eyes flying
open.

Wash was still beneath him, flat on his back on the couch.
He was snoring a little, his dark hair wild, the innocent shape of his mouth
belied by the masculine stubble that roughed his cheeks.

Rhodes smiled.

Smoothing strands of hair away from Wash’s face, Rhodes leaned
in to kiss the other man’s temple. Touching his lips to the closed eyelids, he
worked his way down Wash’s cheek to his mouth. As he brushed Wash’s lips with
his own, Rhodes sank into the kiss, exploring all the curves and hidden
treasures of Wash’s mouth.

Wash’s hand latched around Rhodes’ neck. With a start at the
sudden movement, Rhodes pulled back for a second and then dove back in. Now
that Wash was awake, Rhodes didn’t have to hold back. He could kiss him like
he’d been dying to do forever.

Christ, he loved kissing Wash. His mouth was still new and
thrilling, yet so familiar. Hours, days, months of staring at those lips had
burned it into Rhodes’ mind. He tried to trace Wash’s mouth with his tongue but
his lover was having none of it. His other hand pulled Rhodes’ head down,
increasing the pressure of the kiss until it was grinding, almost painful, but
so, so amazing.

Rhodes turned, pulling Wash with him, and toppled off the
couch onto the floor.

“Oof!” Rhodes grunted as Wash landed on top of him, driving
an elbow into his stomach.

Grinning, Wash pushed up until he was straddling him.
“Smooth, Rhodie. You’re a real player, aren’t you?”

Sitting up, Rhodes yanked Wash back into a punishing kiss
that quickly mellowed, turning almost sweet. Mentally wincing at the thought,
Rhodes nipped Wash’s lower lip sharply.

“Ow!” Wash pulled back, giving Rhodes his best doe eyes of
offended innocence. After working with Wash for more than a year, Rhodes knew
the look shouldn’t affect him anymore but he felt his stomach cramp with guilt
even as he rolled his eyes. Kissing changed everything.

“Sorry, baby,” Rhodes growled, leaning forward to lick the
tiny injury. Wash pressed into the kiss with a small mewing sound—and bit
Rhodes on the lip.

Rhodes snarled. Wash jumped up, laughing, and took off for
the bedroom. Touching his bottom lip to check for blood, too turned on to
really care if there was any, Rhodes hurried after him.

At the bedroom door, Rhodes stopped as suddenly as if he had
walked into a wall. Wash was stripping his shirt off over his head, his back
muscles bunching and flattening beneath that smooth brown skin.

His pants were next. Wash let them drop around his ankles
and swept his boxer briefs down his legs, pulling off his socks as he went. He
kicked away the rumpled pile of clothes and turned to stand in front of Rhodes
completely, gloriously naked.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” Rhodes breathed before snapping
back to reality. He strode toward the bed, stripping off his own clothes as he
went, using the mass of his body to drive Wash backward toward the bed. The
back of Wash’s legs hit the mattress and he fell onto the giving surface, never
looking away from Rhodes.

Yanking open the nightstand drawer, Rhodes held his gaze,
locating the lube and condoms by feel. When his fingers closed around them, he
tossed them onto the bed and knelt, straddling Wash, who was watching him with
smoldering eyes.

Bracing his hands on either side of the other man’s head,
Rhodes leaned over, bringing his mouth down on Wash’s. He kept it light, almost
teasing, nipping and licking Wash’s full lips, his tongue barely penetrating.

Wash made a sound and Rhodes pulled back a few inches.

“What?” Rhodes asked, widening his eyes in his best innocent
look. Arousal narrowed and brightened Wash’s eyes, coloring them a clear green.
He bit back a smug smile. It had taken barely a touch of his lips to remind
Wash how much he wanted Rhodes.

Wash scowled. “Kiss me,” he ordered.

Dipping his head, Rhodes brushed his lips over Wash’s,
hardly making contact. “I am kissing you,” he murmured, close enough that his
breath brushed over Wash’s mouth as he spoke.

“Do it
right
,” Wash insisted. His voice bordered on
petulant and Rhodes was oddly turned on by the sulky thrust of his lip. Rhodes
caught the offending lip between his teeth and felt Wash catch his breath.

Releasing him, Rhodes asked, “Like this?” before taking
Wash’s mouth hard. With a hum of approval that vibrated against Rhodes’ lips,
Wash arched into the kiss, increasing the already bruising pressure. Rhodes
pulled away, sitting upright.

“Bastard!” Wash spat out, almost sounding as if he was about
to cry. He lurched up to grab Rhodes’ arms and tried to yank him back down.
“Fucking
do
it!”

Rhodes resisted Wash’s pull, enjoying the tease. He’d been
miserable and desperate for Wash for the past three days—shit, for the past
year
.
Rhodes wasn’t about to rush this. Peeling Wash’s fingers off his arms, Rhodes
pinned his hands against the comforter above his partner’s head.

“Behave yourself,” Rhodes ordered, watching with arousal as
a flush warmed the brown skin on Wash’s cheeks.

“And if I don’t?” Wash asked breathlessly. Despite his
question, Wash sounded more aroused than offended by Rhodes’ bossiness.

“Then things will get interesting,” he answered, panting.
The tip of Wash’s erection was nudging Rhodes’ tailbone in a damp kiss. Rhodes
was suddenly so aroused that he had to bite his own lip hard to clear his
brain.
No
, he thought, squeezing his eyes shut and giving his head a
shake.
This night is going to last.

“Yeah?” Wash challenged, a hitch in his breathing giving
away his excitement.

“You think I’ve forgotten how to use handcuffs?” Rhodes
demanded in his best cop voice, his fingers circling Wash’s wrists, his
fingertips brushing the sensitive skin where the veins stood out. “Or how to
squeeze a suspect until he squeals?” Rhodes released the wrists in his grip and
swept his hands across Wash’s chest, playing with his nipples for a gentle
second before giving them a twist.

Wash yelped, jerking a few inches off the bed. “Fucker!” he
panted. Rhodes just grinned at him and flicked the abused nipples with his
short nails. He’d felt Wash’s cock jump against his backside at the rough
treatment.

Moving to his hands and knees, Rhodes lowered his head to
give Wash’s collarbone a sucking kiss and then nibble down his chest. With a
broad stroke of his tongue, he laved his partner’s nipple, gentle and wet,
before catching the small nub between his lips. He alternated sucking and
letting his teeth barely score the swollen tip, working to keep hold of the
nipple as Wash bucked beneath him.