Page 36 of Before They Were Lovers

“You can’t tell me you don’t want this.”

Johnson’s voice was soothing, his breath warm on his neck. “I’m offering more than just flowers and candy, Day. Come to my condo on Valentine’s Day. I can have my private chef make us a gourmet meal. Wine, soft jazz, and candlelight.”

Day groaned low in his throat as Johnson dug deeper, loosening a particularly tender muscle at the top of his spine.

A shiver ran down Day’s back that had nothing to do with the hands on him.

God was close. He could feel his palpable presence. The air seemed to shift whenever he was around.

One of the cabinet doors slammed, jerking Day out of his haze and making Johnson jump and lurch away.

He turned to see God holding a mug. He was a perfect statue except for the fierce scowl marring his face, making his features appear harder and more chiseled than they already were.

“You mind putting off your orgasm until I get a cup of coffee?” God growled.

Johnson gave God a smug smile before he turned and walked out of the room, leaving Day standing there feeling busted.

“Didn’t mean to interrupt before you finished.” His partner side-eyed him while he poured his coffee. “I guess he got his date.”

Day rolled his eyes. He wasn’t going to feel bad for getting his neck rubbed by a colleague.

At least, that’s how he was justifying that interaction.

“How was Seasel’s pot roast that you scarfed down like it was made by Gordon Ramsey?” Day snapped.

“I was starving, and I hadn’t eaten all day,” God bit back. “It wasn’t like I let her mount me in the break room.”

“Oh fuck off, God. I’m tired, all right.”

“Yeah, whatever.” God stared him down while he added a couple of spoons of sugar to his black coffee. “No wonder he keeps asking you out. You’re sending mixed messages.”

Day wasn’t in the mood for this shit.

“If you were more direct with Seasel, she’d stop feeding you.” Day shoulder-checked God on his way past. “Since she said the way to your heart is through your stomach.”

His partner grumbled something under his breath that Day ignored. At the end of the shift, they grabbed their bags and left the precinct together. They hadn’t said anything to each other for the last couple of hours, and Day didn’t like the sting of the unresolved tension lingering between them.

God was halfway to his car, walking with determined strides, his shoulders almost up to his ears.

“Hey,” Day called out.

God paused but didn’t turn around.

“Look, I don’t wanna go home like this.” Day walked toward God’s back. “We’ve been together long enough that sometimes we’re gonna get on each other’s nerves. More so you on mine.”

God snorted.

“But you’re my guy, you know that, right?”

Day thought all he’d get was a nod and a grunt, but God turned and faced him.

He gave him his patented, charming smile, loving when God’s lips twitched as if he were fighting his own.

“Come on, it’s late, but let’s get a brew.”

“Yeah, all right, but since you’re the bigger asshole, you’re buying.”

Day chuckled, his chest already loosening.

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