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“Are you going to hurt me?” Noah asked, voice almost hopeful. Adam scanned his face for a long moment. “Probably, yeah. But you might like it.”
“I don’t deserve politeness?” Adam’s brow furrowed, seemingly growing frustrated. “No, you don’t deserve the fake version of me. You know who I am… What I am. I don’t have to be fake around you.”
Do you have more questions or can we go to sleep now?” Noah’s brain was turning a mile a minute. “Don’t you live in a mansion on the other side of town?” Adam shook his head with a smile. “No, my dad does. I live in a studio apartment on the other side of town.” “And why can’t you go sleep there?” Adam shrugged. “Because you’re not there and I want to be with you.”
Adam woke with his arms around Noah, his body tucked snuggly against him. He was small compared to Adam’s six foot two, but he fit perfectly, allowing Adam to all but envelop him when they spooned. He liked the idea of people having to go through him to get to Noah. It was a foreign concept. He didn’t know how to describe it. From the moment he’d seen him standing there, holding that gun on him, Adam had just known he wasn’t going to let him go. Ever.
“Nah, I’m used to people pulling guns on me. I’m not used to wanting to kiss those people.” “You wanted to kiss me?” Noah asked. Adam stuck his tongue out and licked the tip of Noah’s nose. “I wanted you to walk out of that warehouse alive so that I could eventually kiss you.”
He seemed to be this strange mixture of brute force and childlike possessiveness, like Noah was his new favorite toy and he’d smash it before he’d let anybody else play with it. That shouldn’t have been hot…but it was. Noah had never been anybody’s favorite anything.
Adam snagged Noah’s hand. “You have freckles on your fingers, too,” he mused. “You’re obsessed with freckles,” Noah teased. Adam flicked pale blue eyes upwards, snagging Noah’s gaze. “No. Just yours.” If he didn’t stop saying things like that, Noah was going to do something stupid like fall in love with a murderer.
“So, are all your brothers like you?” “Psychopaths, you mean?” Adam asked. “Yeah, that’s why he chose us.” A thought suddenly occurred to Noah. “Am I going to get merced for knowing this information?” Adam’s face grew serious. “I would never let anybody hurt you.”
Adam never once let go of Noah’s hand. When she spotted this, she giggled. “Oh, my God. Is this your boyfriend?” Adam looked at him. “Yeah. This is Noah.”
She looked between the two of them, then said to Adam, “He’s so cute,” as if Noah wasn’t actually sitting there. Adam gave Noah a knowing smirk. “The cutest.”
“Why did you tell her I’m your boyfriend?” Adam frowned. “Because telling her that you’re the son of one of my murder victims and we’re together because I happened to get off with you this morning sounded like a mouthful.” Noah shook his head. “You could have just said friend?” Adam’s brows furrowed. “But then she might think you’re available.” Noah’s brain stumbled. “But I’m not? Available?” “No.”
Adam leaned in. “Instinctively, what do you think you should do?” “Run fast and far away from you,” Noah said without thought. Adam grinned like he’d just somehow put Noah in check mate. “Then, by your own logic, you should do the opposite. And stay. With me.” “This is crazy.” “All the best things are.”
Adam had no problem being the aggressor; it was his default setting. If Noah wanted it rough, he’d give him what he wanted. He slapped his face, just hard enough to get his attention, carding his hands through his hair and yanking it back to look him in the eye. “Careful what you wish for.”
“You’re definitely too good to be true.” His eyes widened. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Adam’s responding grin was teasing. “I’m a murderer. And you”—he dipped his head once more to trail kisses over Noah’s chest—“are sexy as hell. I love how you just babble whenever you’re about to come. It drives me crazy.”
“Did I say you could go?” Adam asked, his voice sexy enough to make Noah’s dick try to rally. “You don’t want me to leave?” “No, stay here and wait for me. Naked. I love having you naked in my bed.”
Tell Dad. And while you’re at it, tell him this. I’m keeping Noah. He’s mine.” “He’s not a toy. He’s a human being,” Archer muttered. His rage took hold, and his hands fisted at his sides. “He’s mine. I won’t give him up. Don’t push me on this or I swear to fucking God, I’ll burn it all down. Do you hear me? If you make me choose, I’ll choose him.”
“In the future, I have no problem being woken up like that.” “In the future, huh?” Noah flushed. “Well…if there’s another—” “Oh, there’s going to be another…and another…and another. I told you, you’re mine now. Deal with it.”
“Are you sure you have to go to work?” Adam asked, leaning across the center console to give Noah his biggest puppy dog eyes. He didn’t want Noah to go. Waking up with Noah in his arms had been like waking up and finding somebody had left him a chocolate cake. The best kind of sweet surprise.
Could you try to drive a less conspicuous car to pick me up? People are going to think I’m banging a drug dealer and try to roll me in the alley.” The idea of Noah getting beat up caused a strange feeling to fill his chest. “I will disembowel anybody who so much as messes up your hair.” Noah pretended to swoon. “Who says romance is dead?”
“Can I get out, please?” “No.” “Adam.” “Fine. Have a good night, I guess.” Noah kissed him once more. “You’re ridiculous. Try not to miss me too much.” “Impossible.”
His jaw clenched and relaxed, clenched and relaxed, his whole body flushed with…something…at the thought of Noah leaving him. Noah could never leave him. Never. He belonged to Adam. No matter how wrong it was. Or crazy. Or possessive. Noah was his.
I want to breed you, mark you… I want my scent on your skin. People need to know…” “Know what?” Noah whispered. Adam’s hand closed around his throat, gripping just tight enough to pull a shuddery sob from him. “That you’re mine. Just mine. That you fucking belong to me.” Adam dropped the washcloth, encircling Noah’s cock with his soapy hand. “You like that, don’t you? Like being mine?”
“This isn’t a game. I don’t play games. If I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t say it. Honestly, if I said half the things I think when I look at you, you’d run screaming into the night.”
“I won’t let you go.” “I’m not trying to leave,” Noah said. “But you don’t get to leave either. You don’t get to walk away when you’re done with me.” “I will never be done with you,” Adam promised.
“I know you’re mine. I know it. Deep down, in that part of my brain that doesn’t care what is right or how society dictates how people choose a mate. I chose you. I want you. Just you. My brain has picked you, and now, I can’t undo it. You’re trapped. With me. For life.”
“You can never love me,” he blurted. Oh. That. Adam reached out and took Noah’s hand. “I don’t know what love feels like. I don’t know what empathy or guilt feel like. But I know this: I want to fuck you and fight with you and fight for you and make up with you and make out with you and eat Greek food naked with you. Is that enough?”
Noah smiled in spite of himself, just a little. “Can we order pizza?” Adam met his gaze. “We can fly to Chicago and eat pizza at Lou Malnati’s if it will make you smile,” he promised.
Thomas’s intense gaze pinned him in place. “Can I tell you a secret? One not even my sons know?” Noah nodded, chest tight. “Nobody’s ever loved me either.”
“I want you inside me, but I don’t want it rough. I’m not in the mood. I want the feelings stuff. Kissing. Missionary. Lots of eye contact and mushiness. Fuck me but make it romantic-like.”
“You are the single most important thing to me. You’re the only thing that matters to me in this whole fucking world. Tell me you believe that.” Noah stared at him with wide eyes, swallowing audibly. “I believe you believe that.” Adam kissed his forehead, pulling him back into his arms and holding him tight. “Then I’ll just have to prove it to you.”
“I’m not letting you shower until you say it.” “Say what?” Noah asked, blinking up at him with mock innocence. “You know what.” Adam gave him the big, sad puppy dog eyes. “Please?”
