Page 60 of More than Need

They were being ridiculous. “It’s just casual clothing; let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“It’s more than that,” Dawson said. “You look touchable.”

“I distinctly recall a lot of touching taking place not that long ago,” Riley said. That was the whole reason they’d needed to shower in the first place.

“Physically, sure, but you’re always so…” Dawson stiffly straightened his hand. “You know?”

“I hope that you’re planning on sharing that coffee,” Riley said to Gideon instead of responding. He assumed Dawson meant stiff and unyielding. His clothes didn’t change his personality, no matter how he looked in them.

“It’s hot chocolate,” Gideon replied. “There’s not a lot of coffee in this place. An unopened jar of instant and a bag of beans with a note on it.”

Riley knew what that note said.If you don’t appreciate coffee, fuck off.He hadn’t written it himself, but as far as warnings went, it could have been worse, considering.

“We decided to fuck off,” Dawson said pleasantly. “Because appreciation is subjective, right? What do you consider appreciative enough to have whatever the hell flavour it was?”

“I would think if you don’t know the flavour, then it’s safe to say your appreciation level is not up to snuff.”

“You don’t drink a lot of coffee at work,” Gideon said. “You only put in an order two of every seven days for morning-coffee runs. I didn’t expect that level of snobbery. It’s kind of hot.”

“Then you’re finding someone else attractive. I didn’t write the note.” Gideon knew his handwriting and should have deduced that the fancy cursive didn’t belong to him.

“Got their number handy?”

“No.”

“I thought there’d be a really posh, like, coffee setup,” Dawson remarked. He leaned back, spreading one arm over the top of the couch. “You know, with creamers and a machine and those obnoxious. tiny little mugs that can only fit a mouthful in and were not made for anything other than snobbery.”

Riley didn’t have a particular feeling about coffee one way or the other. He could take or leave it and only drank it when he felt like it. Sebastian—the culprit of the very friendly note—called only one coffee a day the first sign of the apocalypse. If he didn’t have three by the time he made it into work, he wasn’t worth speaking to. Riley had no idea how his four men dealt with him first thing in the morning; he would have murdered him already.

“Your lawyer friend, right? Sebastian? The one that caught us at the station?”

“Caught you doing what?” Dawson asked, grinning with a twinkle in his eye. “Were you two getting busy at work?That’shot.”

Riley pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t think risking our careers by almost getting caught should be considered hot.”

“We have different definitions,” Dawson said. “Like appreciation for coffee.”

Save him from sarcastic idiots. “Sebastian’s love story with coffee should not be something to aspire to.”

“Kind of like your love story with hot chocolate? There might not be much coffee, but therearealmost ten different kinds of that. And a container with powdered milk and expensive specially made actual chocolate bark for making it on thestove.” Gideon waved his hand in a flourish. “You have a special cupboard for all your hot chocolate. An entire buffet. The only thing missing are the marshmallows. Did you run out?”

Riley wasn’t answering that.

“That’s definitely a love story,” Dawson agreed. “A cinematic experience with multiple sex scenes.”

“Melted-chocolate sex scenes,” Gideon added.

Dawson deliberately adjusted his pants. “Is it just me, or is it hot enough in here to melt some chocolate?”

Christ. “Are you two ready to leave yet?”

“No, but here, have a cup,” Gideon said, passing him one of the mugs. “Give this one to Dawson.”

Riley bent to take a kiss from Dawson before delivering it as requested, which said a lot about how they turned his brain into mush.

“Do your brothers have kids?” Dawson asked curiously.

Riley made himself comfortable beside him. Quinn—and Riley’s brothers—were fond of telling him how uncomfortable they found his couch, but Riley had never agreed with them.

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