Rise & Fall (THIRDS 4)

Everyone laughed, much to Dex’s annoyance. Sloane grabbed his partner’s wrist and dragged him onto his lap, despite Dex’s sorry attempt at struggling. He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Aw, come on,” Sloane said, nuzzling his face against Dex’s neck and delivering kisses. “Don’t be mad.”

Dex wrinkled his nose. He opened his mouth to say something when ZZ Top played over the speaker system. Dex’s eyes went wide, and his face went red to the tips of his ears. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Sloane asked, trying to hold back a smile. “You look embarrassed.” Sloane happened to look up when he noticed both Calvin and Hobbs had gone stock-still, their eyes as wide as Dex’s and their faces equally red. What the…? Calvin jumped to his feet.

“Uh, I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Thanks for sharing,” Ash teased.

Hobbs stood and pointed to the bathroom. The two darted off. To Sloane’s surprise, Lou finished sipping his JD and Coke before declaring, “Those two are totally sleeping together.” Everyone around the table gaped at him. Lou blinked at them. “What? You don’t see it?”

“They’re just close. They’ve been best friends since they were little kids,” Letty said.

Lou grinned wickedly. “Honey, those two are way more than best friends.”

“Fuck. Is that why they’ve been all weird for months?” Cael said.

Sloane turned his attention to Dex who was averting his gaze. “Dex.”

“Hm?”

“You know something.”

Dex pressed his lips firmly together and shook his head, refusing to look at Sloane.

“Dex.” Whatever his partner knew, it was big. Sloane took hold of Dex’s jaw and turned his face so he could look in those pale blue eyes. “Spill.” Dex cringed.

“Ooh, bad choice of words.”

On second thought, maybe Sloane didn’t want to know.

Dex leaned in to whisper in Sloane’s ear. “I saw them jerk each other off.”

“What?” Sloane’s reaction was far louder than he intended, and he clamped a hand over his mouth. He narrowed his eyes at Dex.

“I know that sounds… weird,” Dex continued quietly, ignoring their teammates’ demands he share with the rest of them. Sloane held a hand up to quiet them. “But I was in the surveillance van, and Cal had come back from undercover work with Bautista, shit went down, and next thing I knew they were doing the dirty up against the van wall.”

“And you watched them?” Sloane whispered hoarsely.

“Only in the beginning. I didn’t know what to do!” Dex’s voice went up in pitch, which meant he was panicked about it. It made Sloane want to laugh, but he restrained himself.

Sloane arched an eyebrow at him. “How about turning away?”

“I did. After I snapped myself out of it, I turned around and put the earpieces in. ZZ Top was playing, hence why I’ll never be able to listen to it again.”

Sloane went thoughtful. “Did you get turned on?” His partner’s face went beet red and Sloane laughed. “Oh my God! You got turned on. You little perv.”

“What? It was like watching live porn.”

“Now you sound like Austen,” Sloane muttered. He glanced at Dex’s red face and couldn’t keep himself from laughing. And his partner called him kinky. This was too much. He wasn’t surprised Dex had snapped himself out of it and turned away. He could imagine what had been going through his partner’s mind.

Dex groaned. “You’re not going to let me live this down, are you?”

There was no hesitation on Sloane’s part. “Absolutely not.”

Calvin and Hobbs returned, took one look at Sloane who was grinning broadly at them, and Calvin let out a wail. “Oh my God, you told him!”