“What are you up to, Nicko?”

After a few more minutes of contemplating the cipher, which he couldn’t figure out because the symbols were foreign to him, it occurred to him that this might have to do with a case Nick was working on. He slipped the paper into the book and set it back where he’d found it.

A yawn caught him off guard, and he clicked the lamp off and made his way carefully below to the main cabin. Nick was still and silent, his nightmares no longer plaguing him. It was a relief to slide under the covers beside him and have him curl almost immediately around Kelly.

Nick’s hand was warm on Kelly’s bare stomach, his fingers curling against Kelly’s abs. Kelly carefully placed his hand over Nick’s, Nick’s eyelashes fluttered and his nose curled in his sleep. Kelly closed his eyes and rolled in Nick’s embrace until he had cuddled closer and Nick’s arms enveloped him.

Nick woke with a gasp.

“It’s me, babe,” Kelly whispered against Nick’s chest. “It’s Doc, you’re safe.”

Nick tightened his grip and pulled Kelly closer. “Hey,” he said, his deep voice even gruffer with sleep. “You okay?”

Kelly pushed his head back so he could see Nick’s face.

Nick was still half-asleep, his eyes washed of their usual green in the darkness. His brow was furrowed. It wasn’t unusual for him to be concerned when he woke with Kelly in his arms like this; he could be cuddling, or he could be choking Kelly unconscious.

Kelly kissed his chin, then scooted up so he could reach Nick’s lips. Nick hummed into the kiss.

“I’m fine,” Kelly said. “Couldn’t sleep.”

Kelly rolled onto his back, pul ing Nick with him. Nick curled around him in a way that still surprised Kelly, resting his head on Kelly’s chest and throwing a leg over Kelly’s hips.

Nick was about as alpha top as a man could get, but when it came to cuddling, he had no compunctions about being held.

Kelly wrapped his arm around Nick’s shoulder and squeezed him tight.

“Boat still throws you off, huh?” Nick mumbled against Kelly’s chest.

Kelly nodded as he ran his fingers through Nick’s hair.

When they’d been discharged from the armed services, Kelly had gone home to Colorado and stayed there in a cabin he’d built with his own two hands and a very dedicated earthmover.

He’d grown accustomed to the smells of pine and snow and earth, the sounds of the wind whispering through branches and animals skittering through the underbrush coming from his open windows.

The waves lapping at the hull near his head were a sound from the past he hadn’t thought he’d sleep to again. The hustle and bustle of Boston in the distance was completely foreign to him. All the times he’d visited Nick before, he’d always been too drunk by nightfall to care.

He stuffed his nose into Nick’s curls and inhaled deeply.

Nick smelled of the sea, salty and cool. He always had, even in the middle of the desert with the hot sun pounding down on their backs or climbing the freezing shale mountains of Afghanistan. Or maybe the sea had always smelled of Nick.

Kelly had a hard time deciphering which came first in his mind.

“We can get a hotel, if you want,” Nick offered. He was waking up, his voice becoming clear and strong even as he rested his head against Kelly’s chest. “You’re here for another two weeks, no point in you not sleeping the whole time.”

Kelly’s lips twitched on a sigh. “I’d rather be here.”

Nick rested his chin against Kelly’s chest, rol ing over to his stomach and gazing up at him. Kelly stroked his hair, then let his fingers travel down his back, tracing hard muscles under bare skin. Nick shivered when Kelly’s fingers trailed over one of the long scars on his back.

“I need to get used to it anyway, right?” Kelly asked, but the question caused a flurry of butterflies in his stomach. He and Nick hadn’t talked much about their future. In fact, they’d only gotten as far as telling each other they were in it for the long haul, but they still didn’t have details worked out. Where would they go, what would they do? Would they compromise and move somewhere new, would one of them quit his job, or would they share time between both homes like they’d been doing? They hadn’t even begun to think of any of that stuff.

Nick had asked Kelly to marry him not long ago, but he’d been fresh out of surgery to donate a piece of his liver to his dying father, and so drugged that Kelly wondered if Nick remembered anything that had happened that day. He’d been told after Nick’s surgery that the surgeons had been forced to give Nick ketamine, which explained why Nick had hal ucinated for a solid week after he’d gotten out of the hospital. He’d spent most of it rambling about killing an old colleague of theirs named Liam Bell and telling Kelly he was beautiful.

He’d never brought up being engaged, never even panicked about it. That was what really gave it away, actually. Nick was notoriously twitchy about commitment. He’d probably disappear into a puff of smoke that spelled out “nope” in the air if Kelly told him he’d proposed while drugged.

Kelly hadn’t brought it up again. Just knowing Nick was thinking permanently while high on Dilaudid and ketamine was sufficient to make him giddy, and he was willing to wait until Nick was comfortable enough to bring it up again.

While sober. But hell, they were still living in two different states, thousands of miles apart. They had bigger issues than forgotten proposals.

Nick interrupted Kelly’s musings by pushing himself up, leaning his elbow on the mattress at Kelly’s side and placing his hand over the bullet scar on Kelly’s chest. “We both know you’d go nuts living on a boat all the time, Kels.”

Kelly swallowed hard, nerves swamping him. Nick really was going to talk about this, about them living together. “And you’d go stir-crazy in a cabin in the woods where you couldn’t see the ocean or meet new people every day,” he said with false cheer. “I’m Navy, baby, I was born for boats.”

Nick’s smile was genuine, but melancholy at best. “Liar.

You need trees and grass.”

“So get me a bonsai tree and I’ll grow my weed on the flybridge.”

“Wrong kind of grass,” Nick said as he pulled himself closer and gave Kelly a slow, teasing kiss. He slid his fingers over Kelly’s cheek before clutching at his hair and resting his weight on Kelly.

Desire tore through Kelly like a wildfire. It always did when Nick touched him. This was his first relationship with another man, but the excitement and adventure had yet to wear off. He was certain that with Nick, it would never fade.

“I guess we need to talk about it, huh?” Nick murmured between kisses.

“Unless you want to keep going like we have,” Kelly said.

“A week here, two there. A month apart. It sucks, babe.”

Nick nodded fervently and dove in for another kiss.

“But I know you and I know me,” Kelly managed to say through Nick’s kisses. “We’ll work it out. I’m good with it for now.”

“Well, I’m not.” Nick said before a long, tense silence. He flopped onto his back with a huff. “So let’s figure it out.”

“Now?” Kelly practically squeaked. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“We’re both up.”

Kelly gestured to himself emphatically. “Up is the appropriate word, yes.”

Nick laughed, the sound warming the cool cabin as it drowned out the waves beating at the hul .

Kelly huffed and rolled to straddle Nick, placing both hands on Nick’s chest and settling onto Nick’s groin, grinning over the fact that Nick was half-hard. Nick shifted beneath him, gripping his thighs. Kelly leaned far to his left to switch on the lamp beside the bed. They both winced away from its dim light, but Kelly was finally able to meet Nick’s incredible green eyes. Nick was gazing at him, indulgent and . . . smitten.

“I love you,” Kelly blurted, unsure of why he felt inclined to say it just then.

“Yeah, you do,” Nick drawled, grinning wider. His expression softened quickly. “I love you too.”

“Fuck first or talk first?” Kelly asked.

Nick pursed his lips, scowling in thought. “What if we go at it first, then fall asleep and forget to talk? Then it’s still a problem in the morning.”

“Valid. But what if we wind up fighting about it? We’ll miss out on the fucking.”

“There’s always makeup sex.”

Kelly pointed at him. “Ooh, and angry sex.”

Nick’s eyebrows rose higher, and he was obviously fighting a smile. “We’ve never had either. Might be fun.”

Kelly couldn’t keep from laughing any longer. He ran his hands over Nick’s chest. “Should I pick a fight?”

Nick’s hands rose higher, settling on Kelly’s waist. “Not just yet,” he murmured, giving Kelly a tug.

Nick sat up to meet him as Kelly leaned over him, and he wrapped his arms around Kelly as they kissed. He crossed his legs, getting more comfortable as Kelly settled into his lap.

“Thought you voted talk before fuck,” Kelly grumbled.

Nick kissed him again, nodding. His hands dragged down Kelly’s back. “I did. We’re talking.”

Kelly laughed. He put both hands on Nick’s shoulders and shimmied his hips, rubbing Nick’s hardening cock against his.

“No, we’re not.”

“Good, then shut up,” Nick growled. The next kiss was a consuming one, clearly meant to silence Kelly’s habit of rambling when Nick was trying to seduce him.

Nick’s grip tightened, and before Kelly knew what was happening, Nick had wrapped him up and rolled them, pinning Kelly to the mattress with his head at the foot of the bed and his legs wrapped around Nick’s waist.

“Okay, that was fun,” Kelly gasped.

Nick shushed him, then kissed him and rolled his hips.

They’d already taken care of these needs once tonight; almost as soon as their feet had hit the deck of the yacht, Nick’d had Kelly pressed against the hul , kissing him silly. But it had been almost a month since they’d seen each other, and Nick was finally fully healed from his surgery. Kelly had expected nothing less. In fact, he’d be a little pissed if Nick didn’t maul him a few times a day in the first week of his visit.

Nick’s cell phone began to ring as they kissed. The sound was muffled, like it was coming from inside something. Nick pushed up with an aggrieved curse. “I’m not answering that.”

“Aren’t you technically on duty?” Kelly asked.

Nick muttered something unintelligible and rolled toward the head of the bed. He fumbled under his pillow and came out with the phone.

“You keep your phone under your pillow?” Kelly asked with a laugh. This was the first time they’d shared a bed while Nick was on duty. “How does it fit beside your gun and your knife and the lube?”

“Shhh. This is O’Flaherty,” Nick practically growled when he answered. His eyes narrowed and he started toward Kelly as if he intended to continue what they’d started, but then his expression changed from predatory to alarm, his face softening, his eyebrows rising, his motion halting. “When? What happened? Were they attacked?”

Kelly sat up, scowling. He hoped this was work and not another distress call from one of their friends. The men of their former Recon team, Sidewinder, seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble. And no matter which one of them needed help or what kind of help they needed, Nick was always the first one any of them called.

“I’ll be right there,” Nick spat, then ended the call and tossed the phone aside. He clambered out of the bed and to the closet, talking over his shoulder as he pulled a shirt on. “I have to go. Come with me?”

“Of course.” Kelly scrambled to put more clothes on, but he took his cues from Nick, who didn’t even take the time to put real pants on. He just stayed in his sweatpants and slid his bare feet into a pair of plastic flip-flops as he headed for the steps. Kelly was still struggling to get a shirt on as he followed.

Nick broke a record number of traffic laws on the way to wherever they were going, but the smal , portable flashing light on his dash seemed to make it okay. Was that legit? He’d been in a car with Nick a thousand times, though, and he wasn’t even compelled to hold on to the handle when they weaved through traffic or took a sharp turn. Nick was possibly the best driver Kelly had ever known. Sometimes it seemed ill-advised, but Kelly trusted him implicitly. In the driver’s seat, that was. The one time Nick had flown a helicopter was a different story. Their buddy Owen still refused to get into a helicopter after that trip.

When they arrived at a nondescript hotel, there wasn’t any hustle or bustle like Kelly had expected. No uniformed cops on the streets, no flashing lights, no panicking guests in the almost empty lobby. Nothing but a single man in uniform as they stepped off the elevator. Nick held up the badge on a chain around his neck as he walked by.

“He’s with me, he’s okay,” he said in passing, pointing at Kelly. Kelly nodded to the man, trying not to feel awkward. He had been special operations in the military and was extremely capable both in the field and in any situation stateside. He had medical training that could save a life under enemy fire, and he could break a man’s neck before they knew he was there.

But he wasn’t a cop. He didn’t know the first thing about investigating or the law. The only reason he was here was because he was trailing after his boyfriend. He didn’t like the feeling.

Nick headed for room 319, where another officer stood guard, a plastic chair near him against the wal . Nick showed his badge again, even though each man they’d passed obviously knew him by sight. When they entered the hotel room, a stocky man with silvering hair stood near the bathroom door, shaking his head at Nick.