Cross & Crown (7 page)

Nick grinned crookedly as he pulled into the marina parking lot. “You want my off-the-wall theories?”

“Give it to me.”

“You sure?”

“I want it hard, babe, come on.” Kelly offered him a cheeky leer.

Nick snorted. He threw the car in park, then turned it off and sat back, his hands on the wheel. “Intergalactic tea-loving time travelers trying to help the British win the Revolutionary War. Pissed-off historians in an attempt to liberate artifacts from their cages. Or treasure hunters out to find the missing Knights Templar library.”

Kelly laughed and leaned his head against the cool glass of the window, pointing a mocking finger at Nick. “Where do you get this shit?”

Nick smacked him in the chest. Kelly grabbed his hand and refused to let it go. “Can I play devil’s advocate for your theories?”

“No,” Nick grunted. He unbuckled Kelly and reached for him with the other hand, dragging him across the console. Kelly began to protest, but Nick kissed him almost brutally, his fingers tightening in Kelly’s hair, his other hand bunched in Kelly’s shirt.

“What happened?” Kelly panted. Nick had a habit of being turned on at the oddest times by the most random
things. Kelly never knew when Nick was going to grope him. It made things interesting.

“We started something, I was thinking we’d finish it,” Nick growled, still tugging Kelly across the console.

The tone of his voice hit Kelly deep in the gut. “Not in the boat?”

“I won’t be able to walk to the boat, babe.” Kelly climbed the rest of the way over the console and into Nick’s lap. His elbow hit the horn as they kissed, and the Range Rover sat there screaming about how its occupants were making out until Nick reclined the seat. He shoved it all the way back, taking Kelly with him, and Kelly straddled him, laughing again.

“You’re fucking insane,” he gasped. He stroked his hand across Nick’s cheek to lighten the blow of the words. “What the hell turned you on this time?”

Nick reached for his neck, gripping it hard and pulling him down into another demanding kiss. He kept his hand on the back of Kelly’s head, refusing to let him sit up, refusing to let him break the press of their bodies. “Just you. Moonlight on your smile.”

“Romantic, but are you sure this isn’t just a history nerdgasm you’re having right now?” Nick smiled against his lips. “Revolutionary War, you’ve probably been hard since you heard those words.”

“So help me out with that.”

“I did earlier.”

“Then fucking do it again.”

Kelly shifted in his lap until his hardening cock rubbed against Nick’s through the sweats they both wore. Nick groaned and spread his legs further until he was able to prop his bare foot up on the dash beside the steering wheel. He
raised his hips, shoving his cock against Kelly’s, and they both moaned between their kiss.

“Shrapnel in your thigh, bad knee. How are you this flexible still?”

“Motivation,” Nick said, and he was just breathless enough that it sent another jolt through Kelly’s body. He loved when Nick got so turned on he didn’t try to wait for a bed. Or privacy. God, he loved it.

He ducked to kiss Nick again, delving into his mouth, licking at his teeth, and finally sucking on the tip of his tongue as Nick’s hands tightened on him. The kiss went on and on, and Nick’s hand found its way under Kelly’s sweatpants to grab his ass. He dug his fingernails in. Kelly had never experienced this kind of possessiveness before he’d started fucking Nick, but now everything Nick did seemed to claim him.

There was a loud banging on the window right beside Kelly’s head. They both startled, but when Kelly tried to lift up, to react, Nick held him right where he was, trapped against the steering wheel, not breaking the kiss.

“Hey, you can’t do that out here!” their intruder shouted. Nick fumbled between their chests and found his badge, then slammed it against the glass, holding it there as the chain tapped against the window.

“Sorry, Detective,” the disgruntled security guard said. “Didn’t recognize you.”

Nick snickered as he dropped the badge to resume his hold on Kelly’s hair.

“That was fucking hot, man.”

“So are you,” Nick grunted. He raised his hips, his hard cock sliding along Kelly’s, the head jutting against the inside of Kelly’s thigh. He pulled at Kelly’s ass, ready to recommence as if they’d never been interrupted.

Kelly groaned and lowered his head, gritting his teeth. “Nick.”

Nick merely chased Kelly’s mouth with his own, kissing him fiercely, pulling his hair as the kiss consumed them both. Kelly’s hips started moving again of their own accord. Nick held him as if Kelly might try to get away from him.

“Let’s get to the boat,” Kelly gritted out. “I want you inside me.”

“Too fucking late, don’t stop moving,” Nick gasped against Kelly’s lips. He took in a deep breath as he writhed under Kelly. Kelly grunted his name again when he realized Nick was coming. Nick’s grip hardened. “Kels,” he whispered almost reverently. The way he gazed up at Kelly, the love and utter devotion in his eyes, was something Kelly saw every time they touched, every time they made love. He’d never seen Nick look at anyone or anything else that way.

Kelly nuzzled against his face, then bit his neck as he gave in to his own orgasm, gritting his teeth around Nick’s skin to keep from shouting out for mercy. Nick shouted for him, though.

“I love you.” The breathy gasp in Kelly’s ear sent shivers through his body.

Kelly kissed him as they both came down from the post-orgasm high. “Love you too,” he whispered. “Even if you do like hunting intergalactic librarians.”

Nick rolled his eyes, valiantly fighting not to smile. He popped the handle on the door, and Kelly went tumbling out of the Range Rover to the ground.

“It was intergalactic
historians
. Damn, son, get it right.”

The shower in the master berth wasn’t what one would call spacious, but Nick had still convinced Kelly to join him in it. They couldn’t move without touching each other, and that was just fine with Nick.

They had actually shared a lot of showers before they’d become romantically involved. Sometimes in the places they were sent with Sidewinder, water was scarce and sharing was practical. Sometimes it’d been time that was scarce, and sharing had been practical. Nick had worked hard not to make that practice even remotely sexual, no matter which teammate or random strange Marine he was sharing with. It had always been hardest with Kelly because the man had no sense of personal space and no hint of self-consciousness. But now Nick was completely at liberty to run his hands down Kelly’s sides, to press him against the tile and kiss his neck, to steal the water because he was a few inches taller.

Okay, that last one he’d always done.

When they were both clean, they crawled into bed. The sun would be coming up soon. He’d have to go back to work in twenty-four hours. Until then, however, he and Kelly could wrap up together under the covers and close out the world.

Nick was almost asleep, curled on his side with Kelly wrapped around him from behind. It didn’t matter how they started; Kelly always wound up the big spoon.

“What books were they?”

Nick startled back to full consciousness, inhaling noisily and blinking the sleep away. “What?”

“I’m sorry, I thought you were still awake.”

“What indicated that? Was it the snoring?”

“Shut up. What books were they?”

“Uh…” Nick rolled to his back and rubbed his face. “One was a firsthand account of the Battles of Lexington and
Concord. Diary. Really rare. Another was something about English royalty. The last one was a book of maps.”

“You said there were four. What was the last one?”

“I… have no idea. Why?”

“Well, if they took the books, they’re obviously important.”

It wasn’t exactly a new concept to Nick, but he’d been concentrating more on the missing objects and assuming they were
valuable
. Not necessarily that they were
important
. He pushed up onto his elbows and looked at Kelly through the darkness. “Explain.”

“Okay, going with your treasure hunters theory.”

“Kels, I was joking about that. Intergalactic time travelers? Come on.”

“I know, but listen. They went for
books
, dude. Your average dead guy in the street can’t sell rare books on the black market, and pawnshops don’t deal with shit like that. Where are you going to get money for a rare book?”

“An antiquarian bookshop.” “Right, and you just fucking robbed it. So you’re not trying to make money off your haul. What are books good for?”

“Hitting intruders?” Nick mumbled. He rubbed his eyes again. “Doorstops. Insomnia. Special interrogation techniques. Silencing bedmates in the middle of the night.”

“All totally valid. But I’m talking about information. Books are good for information.”

Nick continued to rub the heel of his palm against his eye, ruminating on that. He finally looked up, seeing stars briefly before Kelly’s face swam back into focus. “You’re saying they weren’t after things to sell, but they’re looking for something in particular.”

Kelly shrugged. “Makes as much sense as robbing a bookstore, dude. How’d you know which books were stolen, anyway?”

“We recovered them at the scene.” Nick sat up, staring at the mirror that lined the closet across the cabin. “Huh.”

Kelly’s hand drifted over Nick’s bare back, tracing the lines of his tattoo and making him shiver. “What?”

“I saw someone that morning; I’d forgotten about it. I thought it was Garrett, even called out to him. But…”

“You thought you saw Zane? Do I need to be worried about this little zombie bromance you two have struck up?”

Nick huffed, too tired to offer Kelly a real smile. “Yeah, I’m fucking Ty’s fiancé on the side, Kels. Sorry.”

“I’m good with it,” Kelly said with a shrug. His fingers continued to trace the lines of Nick’s back. “So who was it you saw?”

“Do you remember me telling you about Ty and Zane and the CIA chasing them a few years back? Ty called from the road begging for me to pick them up in Philly?”

“Yeah, you fired at CIA agents and then got arrested to give Ty and them time to get away. That’s why there’s holes in your boat.”

“It still floats. Anyway, the dude they were trying to keep safe, his name was Julian Cross. He was an operator trying to make a break from the Company.”

“Yeah?”

“He looked a whole lot like Garrett. Maybe it was him I saw.”

Kelly laughed softly, his fingers gentle against Nick’s skin. “Was he nice? Did he say hi with a super-secret decoder ring?”

“I’m serious.”

“You always are,” Kelly drawled. He sat up, and the sheets pooled in their laps. “You think this Cross guy is behind the robbery?”

“First instinct is no. He really did seem like he was trying to break when he was on the run with Ty and Zane. He had his boyfriend with him, scared rabbit type.”

“Wow, that’s… judgey.”

Nick laughed weakly. “Well, he was. And Cross was a hitter. He didn’t do jobs like this.”

Kelly rested his chin on Nick’s shoulder, face so close that Nick couldn’t even turn his head to meet his eyes. Instead, they looked at each other in the mirror. It made Nick smile, and he tried to hide it by pressing his lips together hard.

“So, why bring him up?” Kelly asked before kissing Nick’s bare skin.

Nick shivered and closed his eyes. “He was there when he should be in hiding. He might know something. Might be involved.”

“How do you find him?” Kelly kissed him again, moving down Nick’s arm.

Nick grunted. “I don’t know. I’ll give Ty a call later, see if he has any advice. Actually… I’ll call Garrett; Cross and Ty didn’t get along very well.”

“Surprise,” Kelly sang, and he kissed the back of Nick’s shoulder a last time and then flopped to the mattress. “Okay, I’m sorry I woke you. Come here and keep me warm.”

Nick lay back down, sliding his body against Kelly’s and finally settling with his head on Kelly’s shoulder. Kelly’s fingers drifted through his hair, trying to soothe him to sleep. But Nick’s mind was whirring now. He kissed Kelly’s chest, humming.

“You want to go in right now and start working on this, don’t you?” Kelly asked, deadpan.

Nick raised his head. “Sort of. Do you mind?”

Kelly chuckled and shook his head. “My fault for waking the sleeping dog. Go on.”

Nick kissed him quickly and rolled out of bed to get dressed. “Call me when you wake up, I’ll come get you.”

“Get me for what?”

“I’m going to see if I can get the captain to hire you as a consultant on the case.” He hopped as he pulled his pants up and fastened them.

“What? Why?”

Nick grinned mischievously and crawled back into bed, his belt still in his hand. He kissed Kelly soundly. “Because I’m running with your treasure hunter theory and I’ll need you to back me up.”

“What?” Kelly sounded breathless and a little panicked. Nick headed for the steps, buttoning his dress shirt as he went. “That’s not my theory, it’s
your
theory!”

“Not according to the report I’ll be submitting!” Nick called back.

“Don’t you dare put my name to a time-traveling Knights Templar librarian, you crackpot!”