Something in the Way He Needs (Family 1)

He couldn’t hold back his grin. The man was adorable.

Daniel raised his eyebrows when he looked at Asher’s face and blinked in surprise. “I made spaghetti for you,” he said slowly, carefully, as if he was testing Asher’s reaction. “The sauce is from a jar but I bought fresh parmesan cheese.”

“That’s nice,” Asher said. “Thank you.”

“I… I’m sorry about your kitchen. It’s mostly all clean. I swear.”

“It’s okay,” Asher said, and surprisingly, he meant it. He’d had a fight with more than one roommate over leaving dirty plates in the sink or not taking out the trash when it smelled bad, so having someone set fire to his kitchen and stink up his apartment should have rankled. But it didn’t. Maybe he was mellowing with age.

Yeah, Asher settled on that reasoning, pointedly ignoring the fact that this new-found calmness had started when he met Daniel and didn’t seem to apply to anybody else. Some of his officers could definitely attest to that after being faced with Asher’s loud and angry reaction to their sloppy documentation that very morning. One officer had walked away with his eyes looking a little wet. Another had grumbled under her breath about not needing that new asshole she’d just been ripped. And a third hadn’t said a word or made eye contact with anyone for the rest of the day.

“It’s okay?” Daniel asked. “You’re not mad?”

Asher cupped Daniel’s cheeks, holding his hair back with his fingers and stroking his jaw with his thumbs. Standing there with no distractions, just gazing at Daniel’s face without the man looking away or using his hair as a shield, without Asher pushing him down to his knees in a haze of lust, without so much alcohol in his system that the room seemed to spin half the time, without the dark lighting in a bar or casino or hotel room; standing there gazing at Daniel’s face, Asher realized how incredibly beautiful Daniel was. Not just cute or attractive. The man was positively stunning.

His heart slammed against his ribs, he was having trouble getting enough air, and his dick was so hard he ached. Holy shit. He had never experienced such a strong reaction to another man. Not ever.

“Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?” he asked breathlessly.

Daniel’s gaze lowered and he fidgeted uncomfortably. Asher couldn’t have that.

“No, don’t hide from me.” He took Daniel’s chin in his hand and forced him to look up and meet his gaze. “I mean it. You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in real life.”

He wasn’t sure what to expect in response to those words because he wasn’t usually one to shower guys with compliments. If they were particularly strong in a scene, he’d let them know they’d pleased him, but otherwise, he didn’t say much. It wasn’t that Asher was keeping anything back, he’d just never seen the point of flattering someone. Either a guy wanted to bend over for him or he didn’t. And if he didn’t, well, there was always someone else a few stools over who was perfectly willing to take his place without making any demands.

“Did you have a good day at work?” Daniel asked.

Well, that was a diversion if Asher had ever heard one. But Daniel was looking into his eyes, his expression sincere, like he really wanted to hear about Asher’s day. Being the focus of Daniel’s attention was heady, and Asher found he enjoyed the position. Daniel should always be looking at him. Just him.

“My day was fine,” Asher answered. “Nobody got shot, which is always a good thing. Mostly I was cleaning up messes from when I was out last week and catching up on paperwork. What’d you do?”

“I walked around the neighborhood a little, discovered a good coffee shop, met some nice people, spent time on my computer, and then I worked on dinner. Speaking of dinner,” Daniel said and dropped his gaze, “I hope you like your noodles extra limp because I may have overcooked them.”

“You may have overcooked them?” Asher repeated, tilting one side of his mouth up in amusement. Daniel shrugged and chewed on his bottom lip. “I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Asher assured him.

“I’ll do better next time,” Daniel promised with conviction.

Whether he would or not didn’t matter to Asher. There were a dozen take-out places that could have dinner at his door in less than thirty minutes. But the knowledge that there would be a next time, that Daniel seemed to be happy enough to want to stick around, those things mattered to Asher more than anything else he could remember, although he still wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing.

Daniel already had the table set so Asher sat down without bothering to change out of his work clothes. He scooped some of what Daniel claimed was pasta onto his fork and took a bite.