Page 20 of Cohesion

“Hasn’t really started yet,” Peyton said. He finished off his water and dumped it in the recycling bin. “I don’t even have a computer.”

“We’re really slacking here,” Jericho drawled. “Was about to give Peyton the grand tour. Finish that, and then I’ll show you around the place too.”

Quinn stood. “I can walk and eat.” He took another spoonful as Jericho led them through. All the doors in the first passage were closed, and he opened the second one on the left.

Quinn studied the map hastily scrawled on the window with a whiteboard marker as he finished the rest of the small yoghurt. There was something familiar about it, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint why. “Where is this?”

Jerich leaned back against Peyton’s empty desk. “Queen Victoria Building. Second level. We went from the second level basement and then”—he pointed to the ceiling—“up.”

Quinn frowned at the crosses over some of what had to be the shops. “Why?”

“Dane and Errol were smuggling some goods through one of the stores, but they were being cagey as fuck about which one, and they didn’t trust me yet. So, Six and I went in after hours for a few weeks.”

“Breaking and entering.”

“I prefer to call it creative searching.”

Quinn couldn’t see a bin, so he placed the container beside Jericho instead, stepping up close. “I call it breaking and entering.”

Jericho tilted his head, a smirk forming on those enticing lips. “Are you going to arrest me, Detective Hughes?”

“It’s Detective Sergeant Hughes, actually,” Quinn said, glancing at Jericho’s lips. He’d only had the one kiss, and he wanted another one.

“My mistake,” Jericho murmured, smiling against Quinn as he kissed him.

Everything was too uncertain. Even if Jericho had said that he wanted it, that he wanted totry, there was still so much about him that was hidden, that they didn’t know.

Quinn should have cared, and parts of him did. But the bigger parts of him just wanted to keep taking until Jericho told him to stop. Maybe even then. Jericho was a siren, and Quinn wasn’t strong enough to resist the lure that he presented. None of them had been, and now they were all caught in the storm together.

He cradled Jericho’s face between his hands as he licked across his bottom lip, demanding entrance. Jericho settled his own hands over Quinn’s hips and then another set rested on the small of his back before sliding up to skate over his shoulders.Peyton.

Quinn turned his head, capturing Peyton’s lips. Peyton lined himself up against Quinn’s back with a low moan that slid across Quinn like wet heat.

When he pulled back, Jericho moved in, taking Peyton’s lips for his own. Peyton tangled his fingers with Jericho’s against Quinn’s hip, securing him between them.

Quinn’s heart skipped a beat. They were gorgeous together, completely in sync as if they’d known each other a lifetime. He had no idea how he’d gotten so lucky to have found this again. When he’d lost Sebastian all those years ago, he never thought that he would ever have the chance at any kind of lasting happiness. He’d had his chance, and he’d blown it. He’d not only burned that bridge; he’d also drowned the ashes and filled in the lake with concrete.

Attempting something with Eric had been a mistake. Pining after Peyton while still nursing his heartbreak and guilt had made it so much worse. Eric hadn’t deserved to deal with the aftermath of any of that. Quinn had never been capable of givinghim what he needed, and he was too much of a coward to admit that until Eric had broken it off.

Yet here he was. With four men who looked at him like he was more than that. Who looked at each other, and the incredible beauty of each of them, and still wanted him as well.

Jericho pulled Quinn back down for another slow, deep kiss, and then Peyton took his turn, passing Quinn back and forth between them. Peyton’s kisses were softer, and he allowed Quinn to take the lead. Jericho pushed more, teasing as he made Quinn work for it.

“That door locks,” Jericho said huskily.

“Don’t tempt me,” Quinn murmured. He was there for a reason. He wanted to know more about what Jericho knew, what he and Greer were doing. How they were going to shut all of this down and keep Sebastian safe. “Is anyone else here?” He hadn’t meant for that to sound like a proposition. And if Jericho said they were alone, Quinn wasn’t sure hecouldsay no. They were far too tempting, and all rationale went out the window when he was around them. Had he put condoms in his wallet? Or lube?

He wasn’t going to check, because it didn’t matter. They weren’t doing anything here, in what amounted to a public place.

“Does it matter?” Jericho said. He slid his hands down Quinn’s shirt and hooked fingers in his belt.

“Kind of, yeah.” More than kind of. Sex was not for public areas. But he let Jericho kiss him again and didn’t protest when his belt was undone. Or when Peyton’s hands slid under his shirt.

“They won’t hear us if that’s what you’re worried about.” Jericho leaned in and nibbled Quinn’s earlobe. A jolt of pleasure raced down Quinn’s spine. “And I can be quiet.”

Peyton smiled, lips against Quinn’s back, and Quinn answered with his own.

“I don’t think you can,” Quinn said. They’d only slept with Jericho once, which wasn’t enough of a data pool to be one hundred percent accurate, but he was confident that Jericho wouldn’t know how to stop running his mouth if his lips were superglued together. He and Sebastian were quite similar in that regard.

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