Page 13 of Part & Parcel

“My place, then, it’s closer,” Kelly said in a rush, and then turned to hail a cab as Nick chuckled behind him.

Kelly’s body was buzzing with excitement and nerves by the time they made their way down the hall to their room in the Liberty. He was expelling the energy by bouncing up on his toes with every few steps because Nick seemed unhurried, leaning on his ebony cane and casting Kelly the occasional smirk.

“When you said you got a room I thought you were joking,” Nick said as Kelly fished his key out of his suit pocket.

Kelly merely shrugged, then shoved the door open and stepped aside, holding it for Nick to enter first. “I thought it would be neat,” he said, kicking his toe against the door and then dragging it across the carpet. “Romantic and . . . stuff.”

Nick patted his belly as he walked by. “The first time we were ever together was in a hotel.”

“Which first time?” Kelly asked wryly.

Nick turned to face him, head cocked, leaning his weight on the cane. Kelly’s smile fell as he stared into Nick’s eyes. Theirfirstfirst time in a hotel room had been back in their Jacksonville days, accompanied by an adventurous young lady with a uniform kink. Their second first, though, that had been just them. Nick had come home for forty-eight-hours special liberty during his last deployment, and he and Kelly had spent most of those forty-eight hours together in a hotel room in Baltimore, learning every inch of each other’s bodies and talking about trying to do this for real when Nick came home.

What Kelly hadn’t realized at the time, and what he hadn’t really thought much about since learning it, was that the first time they’d had sex during those two days, Nick had just received orders that would turn their lives upside down: orders to kill a man his friends had trusted, even loved. He’d been struggling with that secret even then, and it had colored all his actions since. Almost their entire relationship had been built on the promises they’d made each other during a time when Nick had been keeping the biggest, most dangerous secret of his life.

And Nick had been paying for it ever since. So had Kelly, in a way.

Kelly cleared his throat, rubbing his palms along his thighs. Nick moved in his peripheral vision, and Kelly raised his head to see Nick carefully setting his cane aside and shrugging out of his suit coat.

“Come here, Kels,” Nick murmured as he removed his cuff links.

Kelly pushed away the unsavory memories, hopefully never to be thought of again. He tossed his suit jacket aside and started on the buttons of his shirt, approaching Nick with a lascivious lick of his lips.

Nick batted his hands away from the buttons and finished the task for him as they met each other’s eyes. Nick was grinning as he bunched Kelly’s shirt in both hands and pulled him closer, but there was something missing in his expression, replaced by pain he was trying to hide.

“Did you bring your pills?” Kelly asked quietly.

Nick nodded and pulled their bodies flush. “I’ll take them later. We both know the night’ll be over when I do.”

Kelly clucked his tongue, but Nick kissed him before he could argue. He pulled him closer, encircling him in strong arms, humming against Kelly’s lips and sliding his fingers under Kelly’s belt. Kelly melted into his embrace. His hands found their way into Nick’s hair, clutching at his short curls, and he knew as soon as Nick made the slightest of moves that he’d be on his back and begging.

It had been so long. Too long.

“Nick,” Kelly breathed, shocked by how eager and needy he sounded.

“I know,” Nick gasped. His cheeks were flushed and he was staring at Kelly like he could devour him. He nudged Kelly toward the bed, his voice choked. “Get out of those fucking clothes.”

Kelly fumbled with his belt as Nick carefully rid himself of his own suit. His hands slowed, though, as his eyes strayed to Nick’s movements, to the defined muscles and fresh scars revealed as Nick undressed. Kelly didn’t manage to do anything but watch him disrobe before Nick had him in his arms again, and Kelly didn’t care that he was still fully clothed. His fingers dug into Nick’s ribs, glancing over the ugly, raised scar on his torso as he pulled at him. He held Nick tightly, helping take a little weight off his knee as they stumbled the last few steps and fell into the bed together. Nick wound up on top, powerful muscles and the bulk of his weight working to restrain Kelly as he kissed him.

Kelly curled around him, pulling at his hair, relieved to have his legs wrapped around Nick after weeks—hell,months—of only being able to hold on to him at night as they slept. It wasn’t that Nick hadn’t wanted it since he’d begun to recover, it was that he’d deemed his own body’s reactions too unpredictable to make it fun, since the painkillers deadenedallthe senses, including the pleasurable ones.

Nick’s hand found its way into Kelly’s hair, grip tightening almost to the point of pain, and he delved his tongue into Kelly’s mouth, flicking the tip over Kelly’s, drawing moans from them both. Nick was hard against Kelly’s cock, and Kelly shimmied so Nick could feel it.

Nick broke the kiss with a gasp. He pushed up onto his elbow, and Kelly was dismayed to see him grimacing.

Kelly tried to reach for him, but Nick still had him pinned. “Your knee?” Kelly asked.

Nick nodded and pushed up, his weight on his hands and his one good leg. He glanced up at the headboard like he was gauging how far he’d need to crawl to get Kelly into the center of the bed. Kelly gazed up at him. At the hard line of his jaw hidden under his scruff that he refused to shave. At the scar along his collarbone where a bullet had grazed him in the line of duty years ago and he’d called Kelly from the hospital, drugged to his eyeballs, to tell him to take care of hisFiddlerif he died. At the light reflecting off his beautiful green eyes and revealing depths to them, fathomless depths, that could only be seen by someone who’d witnessed the many ways in which Nicholas O’Flaherty could sacrifice himself for someone he loved.

“Nick,” Kelly found himself whispering. He didn’t even realize he’d spoken until Nick looked back down at him, eyes alight, sending a shiver through Kelly’s body. Kelly slid his free fingers down Nick’s cheekbone. “God, you’re fucking beautiful.”

Nick smiled, the laugh lines around his eyes crinkling, the warmth turning his eyes a brand-new shade of green. He bent and kissed Kelly carefully.

Kelly arched his back, shoving his groin against Nick’s pointedly before wrapping his free arm around Nick’s neck. “Roll.”

Nick gathered him up in his arms and flipped them obediently, kissing Kelly long and hard as they readjusted their positions. Kelly rutted against him, wishing he’d managed to get his suit pants off before they started this.

Nick slung one foot over the backs of Kelly’s thighs. “I’m sorry. I thought I could deal with it long enough to make it,” he admitted.

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