Manny settled back in his seat. He hadn't realized he was sitting upright and forward in expectation of the next thing that Josh was telling them.
"Josh did good," Nik said softly.
"Yeah."
"You did good."
"Thanks." Manny left it at that. He didn't want to talk about it. Couldn't for the life of him imagine dissecting everything that had happened. He wanted Josh on a bed, under him, on top of him, who cared, as long as they were kissing while the taste of adrenaline caught in his throat. He was flying. Everything that had happened today had been as smooth as silk.
Stunning.
CHAPTER 13
Josh waited at the door. He wasn't going to pretend he wasn't waiting. Morgan had laughed with him at the fact but Josh didn't care. Damn fool going up into a building on his own, then letting his firearm be taken from him like that, and then going all Mafioso and talking guns. He was in so much shit. The tracker showed them parking five minutes ago. How long did it take to get up to this floor?
What were they doing? Using the freaking stairs?
When the door opened and Manny walked in as casual as you like Josh went past being pissed and straight on to caveman. Grabbing at the guy's expensive suit jacket he began to pull him away from the door.
"I need to send a report back to Sanctuary—"
"Already done."
"And the comments about the body—"
"Look." Josh stopped dead. They hadn't actually made it far from the door at all. Manny looked half bemused and half laughing. "I made a full report to Sanctuary. The senator is back at his place. Alastair is back at his. Nothing is being recorded as the place we bugged is now empty. I haven't had a hit on the necklace yet nor on the face of the girl. Forensics is stepping up the search now we know for sure that there is a body. I'm running profiles on the wife to see if there is a way in through her. Does that cover it all?"
Manny said nothing. He just nodded.
That was enough for Josh to keep with the whole dragging thing and with no more words said the two men were in Josh's room. The bed was still unmade from when Manny and he had left this morning. The sight of it was a reminder of how much danger Manny had put himself in today. Suddenly shaky on his legs and with all the adrenaline of anger gone from him Josh sat on the edge of the bed. Resting his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hand he whimpered. It was kind of pathetic, really, just how scared he had been when they had made Manny give up his gun. Symbolically, to separate Manny from that weapon was like taking a sword from a knight.
He groaned again. Now he was getting damned poetic.
"What, Josh?" Manny's voice was soft. He removed his jacket, loosened his tie and then pulled it over his head.
Josh only knew this because he was peeking through his fingers, like a child watching gifts being wrapped. Only this time the gift was being unwrapped. In steady stages Manny removed his shirt, belt, shoes, and pants, until he was just in those crazy-tight-sexy black shorts. He was hard. Jeez, up until thirty seconds ago Josh had been hard enough to do whatever someone could do with a really hard dick. Drill holes in steel or something equally meaningful. With a single slide of fingers Manny pushed the underwear down over his hips, pulling them forward a little so his dick appeared an inch at a time. Dark and thick and so hard it was enough of a sight for Josh to lick his lips in anticipation.
"Why did you do that?" Josh asked. "Why did you give up your gun and walk into that room?"
Manny climbed onto the bed and sat cross-legged.
Josh peeked again. That was one nice view, all tattoo and warm, toned skin and God that dick. He raised his head and dropped his hands.
"I needed to do it. We are breaking the case, right?"
"I've never been so scared in my whole freaking life," Josh said softly. He held out a hand in front of him aware of an almost imperceptible tremor. He was shaking.
"It's hell being that end of an op," Manny said supportively. "You can hear everything but you can't actually physically help."
"I wanted to. I wanted you to stop."
"I know you did. I wanted to stop. I was literally shaking inside. I'm not cut out for the front lines."
"So why did you do it?"
"Because," Manny started and then paused as if considering the question. "I have an insanely heroic Captain Kirk complex." He grinned and Josh couldn't help the snort of laughter. Referencing Star Trek in this charged moment was Manny to the core. "Now are you going to get undressed?" Gone was the joking and here was Manny Sullivan. Incredibly hot, pint-sized IT geek who had lust in his eyes and a really pretty dick.
Josh didn't need asking twice and he was naked quicker than Manny could disappear into the bathroom and come out brandishing some kind of medical kit.
"There's one in every room," Manny said as he placed it carefully on its side and opened the latch on it.
Inside were a jumble of bandages, Band-Aids, and a carton of condoms. Oh, and a jar of something Josh had used as lube before. The contents were like an Aladdin's cave.
Suddenly Josh was shy. He'd only really had two significant lovers in his life. The first was a guy at college; that had lasted until the end of the sophomore year. The second was the connected-to-evil-bad-guys ex.
This was really happening. He was going to have proper grown-up sex with a man who was freaking gorgeous. Who topped? He didn't really have a
