Page 122 of Bulletproof

“Who?”

“New friend,” I answered, yawning. “She said I should go to the Polynesian Cultural Center.”

“Okay.” He was smiling at me as I fell into the hammock. “You planning to take a shower today, baby, since you smell like sweat and sex?”

I closed my eyes in answer.

His laughter was warm as I heard him turn the pages of the paper. I was uncomfortable, so after a while, I pulled off my sleep shorts and lay naked in the hammock with the warm trade wind brushing over me, safe from the sun, cool in the shade under the awning of the porch. Sam was there, and I was in heaven. I felt drugged and sluggish with happiness.

“Good morn— oh.”

“Good morning, Mr. Fisher,” Sam said, yawning. “How can I help you?”

Hayes must have come from the beach side, as no one had knocked on the door of our cottage. “I … wanted to speak to Jory.”

“Hold on,” he said, and seconds later, I felt what was probably Sam’s T-shirt fall down over my ass. I was now covered. “Okay, now you can focus.”

He cleared his throat. “I wanted to apologize to Jory for—is he asleep?”

“Yep, I wear him out.”

“That’s very crass.”

“The fuck do I care what you think?” he scoffed. “You’re the one who came to tell him, what, sorry for thinking he was full of shit when he was telling you about me? You thought I wasn’t in his life anymore, Mr. Fisher, when I am more than in it—I’m the whole fuckin’ thing.”

“That’s awfully conceited of you to think that you’re his whole world.”

“He’s mine too. It goes both ways. We have a life together that, yeah, I let get away from me a little, but don’t for a second think that he’s available because that man has been mine since the first time I saw him lying in the street nearly a lifetime ago.”

There was a throat clearing. “I didn’t mean to⁠—”

“The fuck you didn’t. You want him.”

“He deserves better than the life you’re giving him.”

And I would have said something at that point, but Sam answered too fast.

“No, he doesn’t.”

“The hell he⁠—”

“He deserves to be loved, Mr. Fisher, and he is. I can promise you that there’s no one alive who loves him more than me.”

“I—”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t around for you to see me so you wouldn’t get your hopes up that anyone could ever take my place. That’s my fault.”

“Detective—”

“Please don’t come around anymore. I’m asking nicely.”

There was silence, which had to be Hayes leaving, and then Sam’s T-shirt was gone, baring my ass before a strong hand squeezed tight. I whimpered as lips were pressed to my right cheek.

“You like that, me gettin’ all caveman on him?”

“You were much too eloquent to be compared to a Neanderthal.”

He bit down, and I hissed out a breath, my cock hardening fast.