“Yes, I passed.” Ty’s harmonious laugh drifted across Kell’s face. “We’ll be in the gun range in the morning with Dana, then we’ll observe him doing a couple of those backlogged retrievals.”
“Sounds like fun,” Kell said.
“Agreed. I’m looking forward to it as well.”
“I like the way you talk, ya’know,” Kell confessed. “You’re very intelligent.”
Ty smirked. “You’ve commented on my style… my language.” He stepped closer to Kell and put one hand against the brick wall next to his head. He leaned in close, his eyes blazing, “Did you think I’d wear my pants hanging off my ass and a puffy black coat loaded with Uzis and Tech9s underneath it? Did you take one look at me and believe I’d only be able to speak Ebonics and street slang?”
“What the hell are you talking about? Why would I think—?” He shoved at Ty’s chest, realizing his partner was messing with him. Ty caught his hand and held it. Kell exhaled sharply. He felt his wrist squeezed before Ty pulled his hand closer to him. He couldn’t see anything in the dark, but he knew Ty felt them. His blades. The hunters all had their own arms, whatever they were most comfortable with. These were his.
“You just keep surprising me, don’t you? I think you like doing it,” Ty purred rubbing over Kell’s wrist. “Are these…?”
“Demon’s Daggers,” Kell said breathlessly. “Throwing knives.”
Ty’s strong hand still held his palm up while he blindly caressed the stainless-steel blades around his wrist. “Are you a master with these too?”
Kell could’ve sworn Ty was turned on, but he couldn’t see his facial expressions. He could only feel him. That’s why he’d lured him there, into the darkness of the night where the face could lie, but the body could not. Kell was in the shadows in order to feel Ty’s body’s response to him.
Ty may’ve said he wasn’t ready to have Kell up in his head, but his body was saying something else. It wasn’t a lie how close Ty was standing to him. He couldn’t fake the heightened rise and fall of his chest, or the slightly labored breath ghosting across Kell’s cheek with every hushed syllable he spoke.
“Would you like to see?” Kell asked.
“I can’t see anything right now.”
“You don’t need to see.” Kell took a chance and placed his other hand on top of Ty’s. He was thankful for his fingerless gloves as he gently brushed his fingers over Ty’s smooth skin. “You just need to listen.”
Kell turned so his back was to Ty’s chest. He didn’t lean in, wanting to see if Ty would fill the small gap. He did. Felt Ty lean over him and place his lips against his temple. Kell removed his hood. With Ty’s hand on his waist, his body vibrated.
“Show me,” Ty ordered gently.
“You ready?” Kell smiled into the dark.
“I am.” He could feel Ty’s smile behind him.
“Place your hand lightly on my left shoulder. Don’t press. Just touch,” Kell instructed, coolly leaving Ty’s other hand on his waist.
When he felt Ty’s warm palm on his shoulder, Kell flung his left arm out as if he were tossing a dart. The sounds of his blades slicing through the air before piercing the bark of the tree several feet in front of them broke the silence. Ty’s breath hitched next to his ear.
“Where’d it go?” Ty asked. His voice heavy with something else besides wonder. “Do you know?”
Kell kept his hand outstretched in the direction he’d thrown his blades. Of course I know. He placed his other hand over Ty’s, telling him to keep it there and led him into the shallow forest around Duke’s building. When Kell got to the tree, he took Ty’s hand and placed it on the cool handles of his daggers. Both of them.
“You threw two at a time?” Ty pulled the devil’s tip from the bark.
“Yes. Would you rather I’d thrown more?” Kell admitted to himself he liked showing off for Ty. “And, by the way, yes. I like surprising you.”
Ty gave Kell his seven-inch blades and let him replace them in his wrist sheath. He took his hand and led them back out the way Kell had brought them. When they were in the parking lot under the street lights, Ty turned and faced him.
They were silent. Neither of them speaking, just watching each other.
“What are you doing to me?” Ty whispered.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Kell responded. He had no clue what was happening between them but whatever it was it was fast and it was consuming.
“Hey! You two need a ride? Kell?” Quick called out, walking beside Duke. Kell turned to see all the lights out in the building. They’d locked up and Ty and Kell had been lost in each other.
It was almost nine. He hated the MARTA at night. The next one to his neighborhood would be at ten-fifteen. Damnnit. He didn’t have money for a cab. He also didn’t want to leave, just when he thought Ty was about to reveal something important; but he couldn’t walk home either. He was about to tell Ty goodnight when he spoke up for them.