Shiver (Unbreakable Bonds 1)

Pale light washed across the floor, creeping up from the first level. Wincing with each movement, Andrei quickly pulled on his boxers before grabbing his gun and the gel. If Lucas was in trouble, he’d need the gun. If he wasn’t, he was begging for another coating of the gel so he could get back to sleep.

He hesitated on his way to Lucas’s bedroom and instead silently slipped downstairs to find Lucas sitting on the sofa staring out the window at the city skyline and the gradually lightening sky. Dawn was less than an hour away. He had no way of knowing how long Lucas had been sitting there, seemingly lost in thought.

His stomach twisted uncomfortably. Was it what they’d done that was keeping him awake? Comments from his ex-girlfriend, their own easy banter, and even things Rowe had said left Andrei feeling as if one-night stands with men were a common occurrence for Lucas. But then, the complication was that Andrei was still there and would continue to be in his life as long as there was a threat. Was that what had stopped Lucas from allowing their kissing to progress any further? Lucas might already be eager to have Andrei anywhere but in his penthouse and yet he was stuck.

Of course, Andrei hadn’t yet given in to the temptation to contemplate his own tangle of emotions when it came to Lucas. He’d almost begged the man to fuck his ass! Never in his life had he thought such words would cross his lips. Not only had he said those words, but Andrei had a feeling that he’d say them more than once for Lucas. The grim man staring at the skyline was just different. He couldn’t peg it. But Lucas made Andrei want things he couldn’t explain or even want to understand. The one thing he was clinging to was that none of it felt wrong.

“Regrets keeping you up?” Andrei asked as he crossed to the living room to stand beside the sofa.

“That depends on what kind of regrets you’re referring to,” Lucas said softly, still staring out of the windows in front of him. Bare chested, Lucas wore only a pair of soft sleep pants, as if he’d attempted to go to bed after leaving Andrei but had given up when it proved impossible. His skin was pale and mottled with an assortment of bruises from his beating just a few days earlier. Even with that, he was still incredibly sexy with large, powerful muscles filling his frame.

“Regrets about what happened upstairs?”

A smile broke across Lucas’s face briefly when he looked up at Andrei. “Nope.”

Lucas pushed to his feet. He stood before Andrei and placed his palm on Andrei’s stomach, then slowly moved up to caress his chest. He stopped over Andrei’s pounding heart. “I don’t regret a simple kiss. I don’t regret wanting to do it again. I refuse to regret wanting to do a hell of a lot more.”

“Good.”

“Why are you up?”

“Back is killing me.”

Lucas glanced down at the gun and gel in Andrei’s hands and chuckled. “So, what? You were going to hold me at gunpoint until I applied more of the gel.”

Andrei grinned. “Something like that.”

“Gotta love a plan.” Lucas snickered as he took the gel and motioned for Andrei to sit on the footstool in front of the chair that Lucas dropped into.

Andrei remained quiet through the first coat of the gel. It wasn’t as cool as when Lucas had applied it the first time since they hadn’t bothered to put it in the fridge, but it still worked to kill the heat. Lucas’s hand felt good on his back, massaging away the tension and loosening up muscles. It was on the second coat that Andrei finally raised the courage to speak again.

“What regrets were keeping you up?”

Lucas paused for several seconds before he released a soft sigh. His hand swept down along Andrei’s left side, slipping just under the waist band of his boxers to get one little patch of burned skin. “I needlessly risked your life tonight and I’m sorry. You were right. We should never have gone to the warehouse at night. It was stupid. I was showing off and we got lucky that you weren’t hurt worse.”

“This is my job. I know the risks,” Andrei argued, wishing he were facing the man.

“Yes, but I can make better, smarter decisions to reduce the risks to both of us. Rowe and Snow are right, though I’ll deny it later if you tell them I said that.” Lucas gave a little growl of frustration and snapped the cap of the bottle closed. “I’ve got more common sense than this. I’ll be more careful going forward.”

Andrei rose and turned to face Lucas who stood at the same time. “Thank you.”

Lucas lifted his clean hand and ran it through Andrei’s hair. Andrei had to fight the urge to close his eyes and lean into his palm. He was quickly learning that Lucas loved his hair and now that they crossed certain boundaries, the man was frequently giving in to the temptation to touch it as if it soothed him.