The Talented Mr. Rivers (16 page)

The tension vanished. Peter even smiled…or as close as Peter got to having a human emotion like happiness. “It is a trustworthy face.”

“That comes from a lifetime of lying. I call it practice for running Pentasus.” Will squeezed his hand on Peter's shoulder before letting it drop. “Let me work with you.”

“You have to prove yourself.”

Their father's favorite line. A powerful punch of nostalgia hit Will. No matter what he did, it was never enough. He was too smart, too weak…not ruthless enough. He'd already walked down this road and now Peter expected him to take the ride a second time.

But this time he had an answer. The setup, pitting man against man—that was the right answer. “That's what I'm doing with Gatt. I'm cutting down your competition.”

“What about Hunter?”

“He stays. Non-negotiable.” He'd stick around for now or however long Seth insisted and wallow in risk, but Hunter could not be a target, and that was a vow Will would keep. “I like the things he does for me.”

Peter's eyebrow lifted along with the corner of his mouth. “You mean to you.”

As if Will wanted to talk about his sex life with his boundaryless brother. “That too.”

“I don't trust him.”

The words echoed through Will. Trust, the one thing that had always eluded him. The family didn't practice it. He had a hard time developing and sustaining it with others. “I don't trust anyone. Why do you think I had him leave the room?”

Peter nodded as he put his gun away. “What's the next step?”

“I let Gatt think I'm siding with him. We'll set up a trap and spring it.” It was an all-purpose mission meant to take them all out. Will just hoped it was enough. “That way you get to see who's been working behind your back.”

“I like the way you're thinking.”

That left one more thing. One thing he didn't talk through with Seth and Hunter but something Will knew could trip them all up. And it didn't hurt to make the point just in general. “But you don't get to listen to us.”

Peter's expression went blank. “What?”

“I removed the listening devices you planted in here. You honestly think I didn't notice?” Will shook his head. “Man, you need to find your sexual thrill somewhere else.”

“The idea was to keep tabs on Hunter.”

Will got that, and that's why he'd tackled the issue, but still. “I'll watch Hunter.”

“Apparently,” Peter said. “So, tomorrow with Gatt?”

“Yeah. I'll let you—”

Peter shook his head. “No need. I'm close by and watching. I'll know when to move in.”

He morphed from a lighter mood to deadly serious in the span of two seconds. Will could barely keep up, but then he guessed that was the point. Peter won by subterfuge. Will just had to be better at the game.

“Will your people be ready?”

“They're already in place.”

Now there was a scary-as-shit statement. It made Will wonder about Hunter and his current whereabouts. But there was only one way to check on him, and that meant showing Peter the door first. “Let the games begin.”

Hunter was starting to think he'd never sleep again. He lay on the bed with the comforter bunched beneath him. He'd stripped down to his boxer briefs and spent the last hour staring blankly at the dark room, not seeing anything but shadowed shapes and running through every mission scenario in his head.

Tomorrow the plan would hatch. Gatt, Peter…Will. Hunter knew it was the right call, but that didn't make it a
good
call for his sanity. To Seth, Will was little more than collateral damage. Absolutely expendable. He'd been a Rivers since birth and Seth didn't put much stock in any of the family members.

Hunter got that. Hell, he'd thought the same way when he first walked into the Rivers house. Even when he worked on the legitimate side of the family business. The malice and hate blanketed everything. The family members had this shiny veneer. Pretty on the outside and pure evil through every other inch. The only question mark had been Will.

Vigilance wouldn't be enough tomorrow. He'd have to be ready for anything and prepared to make any sacrifice. The BND and CIA wanted answers. Few knew about the mission, but Seth had relayed the response from above:
Don't fuck this up.

He'd gotten the message. Now to accomplish the task without forfeiting anything else.

“Just so you know…” Will rolled onto his side and faced Hunter. “I can hear you thinking.”

That sounded like a bad thing. Hunter pretended it wasn't true because the idea of them being that linked only ratcheted up his anxiety and added to the list of things that could go wrong.

Aiming for relaxed and hoping to sound disinterested, he didn't lower his arm from where it stretched out above his head or move the other hand from where it rested on his stomach. “Go back to sleep.”

“Not likely.”

So much for keeping the back-and-forth to a minimum. Well, if Will wanted to talk, then they would. Hunter just had to control the topics. “Your brother said some things tonight…”

“You had Zach sweep the place.” Will pushed up on his elbow and balanced his head in his hand. “There are no other listening devices in here besides theirs. We've been careful with the rest of your team by not letting them be seen. They've been coming in and out through the secret wall, which is still fucking creepy.”

Not really the point, but okay.
“No arguments here.”

“Or are you worried about where my loyalties lie?” Will exhaled nice and loud. “Again? Or should I say still?”

“It's not like that.”

Will blew out another long breath. “God, Hunter, can't we get off this destructive merry-go-round?”

He could get as dramatic and angry as he wanted. Hunter had to go with his gut, and his gut told him to broach the subject. That meant turning on a light, so he could try to read Will's reactions.

Hunter reached over and clicked it on. A soft yellow glow filled the room. It also let him
really
see Will. The rough scruff around his chin. The exhaustion tugging at his eyes. The hair raked by his fingers. That perfect face.

He couldn't get sidetracked by any of that, regardless of how tempting it was. “You were convincing.”

Will frowned. “Wasn't that the point?”

Yeah, Hunter wasn't in the mood for logic. “You talk to Gatt and sell it. You talk to Peter and sell it. I'm sure you can see my concern.”

“And now you're thinking I'm selling you a line, too.” Will fell back on the pillows, staring up at the ceiling.

Hunter wanted to look at him, to talk this through. Instead, he stayed still and watched the same ceiling from a different angle. Likely counted the same lines and boxes outlined in trim. “I did wonder.”

“You are the only thing I've ever taken for myself.”

The comment sounded so big in Hunter's head. “Will, I'm not sure what to—”

“I kept people at a distance because I feared my family would swallow them whole. That space faded away when I met you. I didn't want to treat you as an employee and keep sleeping around and not caring or feeling anything.”

“You didn't have sex with anyone else once I became your bodyguard. Not that I know of.” Hunter had dreaded that day. Will was young and handsome and the time could have come…it just never had.

“I didn't want anyone but you.”

“That makes me happier than I want to admit.” But even saying that much probably amounted to an admission of sorts.

“I knew Stacia and Peter would think it was a bad idea if I gave in to how I felt about you, but I didn't care. I wanted you and kept you close and eventually…well, the sex wasn't exactly a surprise.”

“So, I was inevitable.” Hunter wasn't sure he liked being put into that box.

Will looked at Hunter. “I'm talking about wanting more than sex with you. I hesitated to do anything about that because being with me put you on their radar.”

Hunter didn't know what to say. Didn't know if he even could say anything.

“Of course, now I know you can handle it.” Will closed his eyes for a second, then opened them again. The intensity remained, but his voice had changed. Grown resigned, almost sad. “You don't exactly need me fighting your battles. Maybe you don't need me for anything. I can't really tell.”

The dragging tone had Hunter's emotions scattering in his head. He flipped from frustrated and questioning to something else. Something that turned his stomach over and scraped his insides raw. He didn't recognize the sensation but he worried he could name it—panic.

They lay a few inches apart but the divide between them felt as if it had stretched wide enough to park a truck there. The uncomfortable silence engulfed the bed. Neither of them moved but the mood in the room took on a dark overtone. This conversation wasn't about the danger and being ready for tomorrow. This was much more personal.

Dealing with this was not a skill Hunter possessed. Emotions, caring…hell, even talking was beyond his skill set. No one had trained him for that, though his trainers had showed him how to jump out of a helicopter.

He struggled with how much to say. In some ways, he wasn't a hundred percent sure what he wanted or how to frame it. The pieces were clear enough. Gut-wrenching attraction. Worry for Will's safety. A growing appreciation for who he was that overwhelmed the worries of how his family tried to shape him.

A very real sense that trying to live without him would be impossible
.

He'd never given a shit about any of those realities with any other man. Blocked it all out except in terms of how a guy might perform with his pants off. But with Will he wanted more. Hunter looked into the future, and the slog of travel and being alone and finding a bar now and then for a faceless hookup left him cold.

He searched for a way to say it without
really
saying it. Only an idiot would cough up that kind of emotional crap first and risk not hearing it back. But he couldn't stop himself from wading in at least a little. “You're the bigger problem.”

“Huh.” That was all Will said.

And when his scowl didn't ease, Hunter knew he'd misfired and as expected said it wrong. “You were supposed to be a good time in the sack and nothing more.”

“Because you hated my family.” Will nodded but his voice stayed flat. “You think I don't know that?”

That was only part of it. “I'm actually not talking about them. I'm talking about me. To me you were a mindless, dirty fuck. Banging the hot, smart kid. Showing the boss who was really in charge.”

The words didn't send Will running. But the air in the room did change. Forget being tired. Will's eyes went wide and a sort of wariness washed over him as he looked at Hunter. “Is that still that case?”

Hunter wanted to lie but he knew the answer mattered. Give the wrong one and Will might bolt. Not that Hunter even knew what the right answer was. Dating, monogamy—he'd never put stock in either. And what the hell kind of future could they have?

The answer should be yes. End it and be able to go into tomorrow without the emotional weight dragging him down. That would be the smart thing, but…

“No. You know you mean more than that.”

“Careful, talk like that will blow your fuck-and-run image.” Instead of lying there, almost bolted to the bed, Will shifted. This time when he turned to his side and pushed up on an arm, his other hand slipped across Hunter's stomach.

Instead of trying to pull back or turn away, Hunter went with the emotions kicking around inside of him. The same ones he'd been trying to ignore from the start of his relationship, as dysfunctional and confusing as it was. His hand slipped over Will's. “Do you see me running?”

“No, and I want that to mean something, but you still don't think you can trust me.”

Jesus, the conversation sucked
.

Honesty sucked. Being undercover and living a fake life with a fake name didn't shake Hunter. This did. “In some ways, yeah, I admit it. But in others I trust you more than I've trusted anyone else.”

“Tell me what that means.” Will's voice didn't change and he didn't back away.

Hunter decided to take that as a good sign and push on. “No one else knows about my dad, how he tried to kill me. We share a rough past, so you know what that did to me and how I viewed people who were supposed to care about me.”

“I do.”

“I know things about Pentasus and what the company does. All of that should make me walk away from you, leave you on your own. And, yeah, maybe it's unfair but you do have those Rivers genes.”

Will frowned. “I thought you were talking about the part where you
did
trust me.”

“I am, and my point is none of the shitty stuff seems to matter. Not for more than a minute or two at a time. The doubts come into my head and then leave again.” Hunter swallowed back the words he wanted to say next. They seemed too risky and pretty dumb. Talk about handing a guy a weapon against you. But as the comfortable quiet dragged on, he let them slip out. “It's never happened before. I've never believed in anyone but myself.”

The corners of Will's mouth turned up in a smile. “You think maybe you like me a little bit.”

The breath Hunter had been holding punched through him. Relief would have buckled his knees if he'd been standing. “A lot. It's the glasses.”

“I'm not wearing them now.”

Sexy with them and sexy without them
. Hunter dragged the back of his free hand over Will's thin T-shirt. Down to the bottom hem and then underneath. “That's probably a good thing.”

“Why?”

“Because this might fog them up.”

One of Hunter's hands went to the back of Will's neck and brought his mouth down. Hunter lifted and met him partway in a blinding kiss. His free hand wandered over Will's bare skin as the memory of the conversation and all those risks faded away. Forget the doubts and the arguments. Like this, close and searching, everything felt right.

The kissing dragged on. Long, tempting kisses. Nothing rushed. A lick of Hunter's tongue across Will's lips. A tease of teeth against skin.

When Hunter's mind cleared, he realized he'd flipped Will onto his back and loomed over him. Their legs tangled through the comforter and their fingers slipped together.

Right as Hunter dipped his head for another kiss, Will pressed his thumb over Hunter's bottom lip. The smile that came next almost dropped Hunter to the floor.

“Are your idiot friends still watching?” Will asked as he leaned up and trailed his mouth down Hunter's neck.

The idea didn't seem to bother Will all that much now. Hunter wasn't sure he cared either. Let Seth enjoy. “Not if they want to live.”

“Any chance of you joining me under the sheets?” Will tugged at the top of the covers but they were trapped under Hunter's frame.

“Only if you promise to get naked.”

Will had his tee up and over his shoulders before Hunter finished the sentence. “Better?”

Damn, that was hot. “It's a start.”

Hunter didn't hold back now. He lifted his lower body and tugged the covers down. Within seconds he lay next to Will, then on top of him. Their fingers joined again and Hunter dragged their arms above Will's head. Held him there as they kissed. As Hunter rubbed their bodies together.

It didn't take much for the pulsing need to flip into overdrive. The friction had Hunter ready to strip them both in minutes. The material of Will's shorts scratched against Hunter's bare legs, driving him crazy. Their erections touched through their clothes.

Needing more, Hunter reached down and freed them, holding both in his palm as he pumped his hand up and down. The tightening of his palm had them both gasping. The kissing and touching took Hunter right to the edge.

After a few minutes Will turned his head and broke the kiss. “Damn.”

Exactly the reaction Hunter wanted, but it was only a start. He caught Will's mouth with his again as his fingers continued to caress and the skin warmed under his hand. “Tell me what you need.”

“You,” Will said in a raspy voice.

Hunter pulled his head back, not letting Will go in for another kiss just yet. “Say it again.”

“Only you.” Will shook his head. “There's no one else.”

The words spilled through Hunter. He wanted to catch them and examine them, but he pushed the analysis away. This moment was about feeling. About touching. About fucking.

About connecting.

He sat up with his legs straddling Will's hips. In a few jerky movements he had Will's lower half lifting as he almost ripped the shorts off. Will had nothing on underneath. Just those and Hunter dropped them to the floor right after he peeled them off.

Taking his own boxer briefs off proved harder. He tilted to one side and the mattress dipped. Tried to shove them down using two fingers. Swore under his breath as the elastic band caught.