He calls me beautiful, but good God, he is fucking stunning.
Eventually, Gradyn stopped shaking. He blinked, and the most wonderful cat-got-the-cream smile appeared, matching the twinkle in his green eyes.
“And that was just the appetizer, beautiful,” Gradyn said as he dropped down and pecked a soft kiss on the big smile Devlin could not hide. “I haven’t even gotten close to where I want to go with you yet.” Without wasting a moment, he tilted Devlin’s head back and pressed kisses down his chin to under his throat, pausing to suck on Devlin’s Adam’s apple with a slow pull that stirred Devlin’s recently sated cock.
Devlin’s dick nudged against Gradyn, and Gradyn looked up, that same smile still transforming his face. “Oh yeah, beautiful.” He reached down and caressed Devlin’s growing, supersensitive length. “That’s right where I’m headed.”
Devlin squeezed his eyes shut, and his heart raced with anticipation as Gradyn licked a line down his chest, heading in the right direction...
*
...The combination of an intermittent buzzing noise and banging on wood jerked Devlin upright, throwing him back into reality and the couch in his apartment.
Not the motel room in San Francisco.
Son of a bitch. Devlin glared at his front door as the heavy knocking thundered again. I was just about to get my first blowjob!
Someone outside put their full weight on Devlin’s doorbell and just let the annoying noise ring without end.
“Hold on!” Devlin grumbled some more under his breath as he pulled himself off the couch, winced, and looked down at the bulge in his jeans. Fuck. He untucked his shirt, settled it over the evidence of his arousal, and then scrubbed his face as he made his way to the door and yanked it open.
Wyn Ashworth stood on the other side with a six-pack of beer under one arm and a twelve-pack of cola under the other. “Hey, man?” His dark, tall frame towered in the doorway. “I’ve been standing outside forever; I thought something happened to you. Did I wake you up? You look like you were sleeping.”
“Maybe a nap,” Devlin conceded. He glanced at his watch and realized he’d been asleep for hours. “Ethan’s not here yet. Come on in.” Devlin stepped aside and let his giant of a friend, still dressed in his work blues, inside the apartment.
The uniform put Devlin in the mindset of old-school truth and justice. It brought him back to his current situation with Gradyn--or Garrick--not their past, and that killed what remained of Devlin’s erection.
Wyn Ashworth was a cop. And maybe, just maybe, Devlin could figure out a way to pick this man’s brain about how and why a person might kill one identity and become another. Not to mention why said person would then turn up in his old lover’s hometown but then act as if he didn’t know him.
Devlin’s soul screamed “Gradyn is a good man! There’s a good reason!” but his intellect did battle with millions of questions that needed answers before it could decide how to proceed.
Chapter Four
Garrick leaned the final snowflake rim up against the wall and stepped back to admire his cleaning and painting job. Each of the four shone like new and would look insanely cool when he and Maddie eventually got the rest of the Trans Am refurbished and all its parts in one gleaming finished product. That would take some time, but Devlin was absolutely going to flip when it happened.
I’d love to be here to see his face when he looks at the car for the first time.
A band tightened around Garrick’s chest, and his thoughts went back to the shock in Devlin’s voice when he heard Garrick speak yesterday and recognized him as Gradyn. Christ, the confusion and anger that had mapped the man’s beautiful face when, somehow, he saw right through the alterations in Gradyn’s appearance that had transformed him into Garrick.
You have to be Garrick now; don’t ever forget it.
Fuck, though. Garrick couldn’t stop reliving yesterday. Having to pretend not to know Devlin ... damn it, he hated himself for doing that to Devlin, even though he knew he didn’t have a choice.
He never should have come to Redemption. He’d made the choice in a heightened, panicked situation where he hadn’t had time to use anything other than his gut to make a decision, where the only thing that felt safe and real was the thought of running to Devlin Morgan and finding a way back into his arms.
Devlin, Devlin, Devlin. What am I supposed to say and do now?
Garrick tunneled his hands through his overlong hair and clasped them behind his neck. He exhaled long and low. Jesus, getting shot at hadn’t made his heart race as fast as the thought of seeing and talking to Devlin again did.
He stamped down taking his thoughts of Devlin one step further to the memories of them making love. Garrick didn’t need the twitch in his cock to become a full-on boner while at work.
The sound of a door slamming at the front end of the garage jerked Garrick’s attention in its direction, and he saw his boss pause in front of his office door and slip a hand into the pocket of his coveralls.
After withdrawing a set of keys, the stout, gray-haired man looked across the garage to Garrick. “I must go home now,” the man said, his Greek accent thick. “My son is waiting for me. Would you like me to leave you the keys? You can drop them off when you are finished working on your project.” Mr. Corsini had built his business on the same piece of land as his home, and that house was all of two hundred yards behind the garage.
Before Garrick could open his mouth, Maddie popped up from the other side of the Trans Am. “It’s okay, Mr. Corsini.” She offered the boss
