12. Dev

The bumps in the lane leading to our destination roused Ward from his doze, but we'd already passed the sign that indicated where we were going. I couldn't say I was disappointed at that. The longer I could delay the inevitable freakout, the better.

Or maybe he would surprise me and accept the location without a fuss. I wasn't going to bet on it, though.

"Where are we?" He blinked, then opened his eyes wide, obviously trying to wake up.

"A friend's."

Ward smirked. "Do you know everyone who lives in cabins in Ontario?"

"Oh, sure. There's a club."

He squinted at me, unsure if my deadpan response was true or not.

I rescued him by smiling widely. "You're gullible."

"I'm not," he grumbled. "Canadians are too weird. That could've been the truth, for all I know." He crossed his arms. "So who's this friend?"

"His name's Eric Hamel."

Ward waited a beat. "And?"

"And what?"

"How do you know him? What makes this place a good spot to lay low? I need details."

By this time, we'd reached the cabins—yes, plural—at the end of the drive, and the door to the largest opened. Eric stood in the doorframe, looking exactly how I remembered him. His long blond hair cascaded around his shoulders, and he was as slim as ever—well, his stomach might be slightly more pudgy, but that only meant this place agreed with him, I suspected.

Ward blinked. "Why is he naked?"

Yep, he was—as naked as the day he was born, except for a pair of winter boots. I wasn't sure why he was wearing them, because no way in hell would he venture outside without even a coat, would he? Except a moment later he did, rushing down the three steps to the parking area with his arms open. I tried not to look at anything but his face, but I was curious about if his dick was trying to retreat back into his body like mine was.

I stepped out of the SUV and into Eric's waiting arms. He kissed both my cheeks, then dove for my lips before I could protest. Thankfully, the kiss lasted only long enough for his tongue to touch mine before he stepped back, his hands cupping my shoulders and his mouth stretched in the widest smile.

"Dev! Salut, mon ami. Comment ?a va?"

"?a va, Eric. This is Ward Sullivan. He's American."

"Ah, désolé," Eric said with a chuckle. "Welcome to Cedar Grove Naturist Park. Come, come. Inside, s'il vous pla?t. It's too cold this morning to spend long out here."

Eric turned and tromped back through the snow and up the stairs. I held back slightly, waiting for Ward's reaction. Because there was bound to be one.

"Naturist?" he asked mildly.

"Otherwise known as nudist."

"Something you want to share about yourself, Dev?"

"What?" I frowned at him, and then it hit me. "You think I'm— Uh, no. Hell no."

"You do chop wood without a shirt on."

"Because it's exercise and I get warm." Speaking of, my cheeks were burning now. "Let's go inside."

"If you catch my eyes drifting downward when I look at Eric, kick me."

"Same, please." I frowned at the odd noise Ward made at those words, but I decided not to ask what that was about. "You're taking this a lot better than I thought you would."

"I might not be as into having fuckbuddies as someone else in this conversation, but I'm not a prude," he retorted. "As long as I get to keep my clothes on while I'm here."

"They're very laidback," I assured him. "If you don't make them feel awkward about their nudity, they won't care we're wearing clothes."

"‘They'?" he echoed. "How many people are here?"

"I think three of the five cabins are permanently filled."

"Huh." As we started up the steps, he cast a glance at me. "Feel free to go au naturel if you want."

"No. I'm good."

"You sure? I mean, you seemed awfully friendly with Eric."

There was a weird tone in Ward's voice, but I couldn't decipher it. He wasn't freaking out, though, so again, I left it alone. "We used to work together. Back when I was a fishing guide. He tried to get me to come work for him when he opened this place, but I wasn't keen on going fishing with a bunch of naked tourists. Do you know how often my clients got hooks caught in their clothing?"

"And if there's no clothes for it to get caught on…" Ward grimaced.

"Exactly. No, thank you." I stopped at the threshold of the cabin and waved Ward in ahead of me. "After you."

Eric's flamboyant personality was perfectly evident in the interior of the cabin. The walls were covered in colorful and kind of explicit artwork, and his furniture wasn't the rustic stuff I'd gone for at my place. No, this was high-end stuff, covered in what looked like supersoft fabric. Which made sense, if you were sitting on it while nude. Like, ugh, I wouldn't want to sit on a leather couch in the summer. The sofa was a deep purple, and the two armchairs a bright fuchsia. Along with the artwork, the colors should have been overwhelming, but somehow, everything worked together to be bright and energetically cozy. The kitchen, visible from the front door since the cabin's living area was open concept, complemented the color palette with soft sage green cabinets and light stone countertops.

"I love what you did with the place," I said genuinely.

"Yeah?" Eric beamed and waved us inside. "Sit! Make yourselves comfortable. Coffee?"

I couldn't suppress the moan. "Yes, please."

Ward sat heavily on the couch and grabbed my wrist to yank me down beside him before I could sit in one of the armchairs. Okay…this worked. Though I wasn't sure why he was so insistent I sit beside him. Unless…

"He won't kiss you," I whispered.

"Huh?"

"Eric. He wouldn't kiss you or anything if he sat beside you. He only kissed me because—"

"Fuckbuddies, I know." Ward gave me a weird look, sort of squinty, but didn't say anything else.

I decided I was too tired to figure out what was up with him and instead slumped back into the couch. My fingers itched to pull out my phone, but I'd turned it off to prevent anyone from tracking us after using my contacts list to get Eric's number and calling him on a landline from a gas station. Ward had done the same. I didn't like being offline like this, but we didn't have much of a choice. There was either a leak in SPAM or Crimson was tracking us. Either way, no phone was the best plan.

Eric approached with a tray laden with three mugs, a tiny pitcher of cream, and a sugar dish. He placed it on the coffee table, then sat in one of the armchairs, crossing one leg over the other as he settled, his black-as-night coffee steaming.

"So, chéri, what brings you here? Not that I'm complaining," he rushed to add, "but it was unexpected, your call."

I nodded. He'd been thrilled to hear from me, and even more thrilled to welcome us to his retreat. "I appreciate you letting us come here."

"You can come anywhere I am." Eric grinned.

I smiled back. The guy was too nice. There was a reason I was friends with him. "That's great to hear."

Ward snorted, but when I looked at him, he was staring into his coffee. Whatever.

"As for why we're here… You remember I work for the Special Processing and Monitoring group?"

"Ah, yes. SPAM, oui?"

"That's right. Someone's after Ward, so we needed a spot to stay for a few days. Somewhere that we can't be easily connected with, that SPAM and the guy after Ward don't know about."

Some of the joviality in Eric's expression dropped away. "Are we in danger?"

"No," Ward said. "Our phones are off, so we can't be tracked, and I don't think there's enough of a connection between you and Dev to land this place on anyone's radar."

Eric inhaled deeply and nodded. "All right, then. If that changes…"

"We'll be out of here," I assured him. "I don't think we should stay for more than a couple of days, anyway."

The idea of trying to find another out-of-the-way place to hide exhausted me, but we could do it. But that was a Future-Dev problem. Current-Dev wanted to drink his coffee and maybe have a nap. The couple of hours of sleep we got at the safe house seemed like a long time ago.

"Bien s?r," Eric said. "Well, my guest room is yours for as long as you'd like it, Ward. Dev, I assume you'll stay in mine?"

Ward's hand suddenly gripped my thigh. "Dev sleeps with me."

My eyes widened at Ward's possessiveness, but I couldn't lie, it made my stomach feel funny in a good way. A weird way, but good.

"Oh." Eric's brows rose. "Vraiment, Dev?"

"Yeah," I said, somewhat sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Non, non, it's fine. A bit disappointing, but fine." He smirked at Ward. "Do you like his tongue trick as much as I do?"

I coughed. "We're, uh, fairly new."

"Oh, he hasn't experienced your talented tongue yet?" Eric tsked and waved his mug at Ward. "Then we'll talk after, yes?"

Ward glared at him. "No."

Eric laughed. "Okay, okay. Finish your coffee and I'll show you to your room. You both look ready to drop."

The room was nothing special, but the queen-sized bed, with its puffy white duvet, looked like the comfiest thing I'd ever seen. Eric disappeared quickly, and Ward closed the door as I sank heavily onto the bed to remove my socks, my pants already discarded onto the floor.

Instead of stripping down, Ward stood motionless with his back to the closed door. "Don't sleep with him," he said, his intense gaze on me.

I frowned. "Who, Eric?"

"No, the snowman in the backyard." He rolled his eyes. "Yes, Eric."

"Why would I sleep with him?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

My frown deepened. Wasn't it obvious? "Because I'm with you."

"But—" Ward cut off whatever he was going to say with a frustrated growl. "I don't understand you."

I chuckled. "I'm not that complicated, I promise."

"I'm usually not, either."

That made me laugh. "Keep telling yourself that, my friend."

"Are we?" At my blank look, Ward continued, "Friends?"

"I think we are."

"Fuckbuddies?"

I opened my mouth, then paused before saying anything. The term was usually the right one for my flavor of friends, but it didn't seem to fit here. "Is that what you want to be?" I asked instead.

"Fuck. I don't know." Ward seemed to deflate. "You said it was only sex. Is that all you want?"

I patted the bed beside me, and after a few seconds, he sat down, as heavily as I had. Now was probably not the time to have this conversation—or any conversation—but, well, he'd started it.

"I'm always open to possibilities," I started, tapping my shoulder to his gently. "My mom taught me that."

"You've never mentioned anything about her."

"Habit." I shrugged. "She died about three years ago. Cancer."

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks." I sucked in a breath and focused my thoughts on the good ones about Mom and not the bad ones from the end of her life. "She was born too late to be a hippie, and too early to be a hipster, but she was definitely of that mindset. A free spirit. I never knew my dad, and when I was little, she'd tell me pretty stories about how he was a prince on the run and they'd only shared one night together, or he was a travelling magician, or a mysterious stranger, maybe a spy, who swept her off her feet, or other stories that were obviously not true, but it wasn't done to confuse me. It was more that she wanted me to focus on what could be, not what was."

"Did you eventually find out who he was?"

"Yeah, her college boyfriend who wanted her to have an abortion. She refused, her parents disowned her, and after that, it was the two of us against the world. Anyway, I met my biodad when I was in my twenties—he's a nice enough guy, married with kids now, and I totally get where he was at back then. But that doesn't matter." I corralled my wayward thoughts back to the point I was trying to make. "Possibilities, right. Mom's stories kept my thinking about my biodad fluid, you know? I was never locked into thinking he didn't want me."

Ward gave me a funny look. "I mean this in the nicest way possible, but your mom sounds incredibly weird."

I laughed. "She would've been the first to agree with you."

"It explains so much about you."

Bumping my shoulder against his again, I said, "Thanks. But, yeah, that's my tired brain's way of explaining that yes, if you're looking for more than sex, I'm down to give it a try." I held up a finger as he started to say something. "With a couple of conditions, I guess."

Ward stiffened slightly. "Okay, what?"

"If we're exclusive, it's on both sides."

"Of course."

"And I'm not moving back to DC, so it's going to have to be a long-distance thing once this case is done."

"Would you consider visiting DC occasionally?"

"Oh, yeah, no, for sure. Living there, though…" I shuddered. "Been there, done that. City life is not for me."

He was quiet for a few minutes, looking at the hardwood floors between his socked feet. Then his entire body seemed to let go of tension, and he sagged into my side. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Let's try it," he confirmed. "Us."

"Yeah?" I couldn't help the smile that stretched my lips. Having any sort of relationship with him was amazing. Friendship was great, but a romantic relationship? Being Firefox's boyfriend? Hell yes, sign me up.

"Yeah." As if to seal the deal, he threaded his hand through the hair at the back of my head and guided me into a soft, drugging kiss.

I fell into the sensation of his lips teasing mine, our tongues tasting each other in brief, almost tentative strokes. The rest of the world disappeared into a fog—the worries about Hallie, the fear of Ward's nemesis, the suspicions that someone in SPAM had betrayed us, all gone. The only thing that remained was the feeling of Ward's gentle touch.

I couldn't have said how much time passed before we both drew back. At some point, I'd taken off my busted glasses, so I couldn't see much more than the general placement of Ward's features. He was smiling, which was all I needed to know.

"Nap?" he suggested.

I groaned. "God, yes."

"And maybe when we wake up…" He waggled his brows.

"These are the only clothes we've got," I reminded him, chuckling. "And Eric will be listening."

Immediately, Ward's brows lowered. "That would be rude."

"It's his house."

"But still. Couldn't he go out and do…naked stuff?"

"Naked stuff?" I echoed, not even bothering to keep my smile in check.

He waved a hand. "Whatever nudists do in the winter. Contests to see how long they can stay outside before their dicks retreat fully into their bodies? I don't know."

"You're sleep-drunk." I leaned forward, resting my forehead against his.

Soft chuckles left him, his shoulders shaking slightly with the gentle sound. "Maybe."

"We definitely need to nap. And then…we'll see."

He pressed his lips against mine. "Works for me."