Page 57 of In Too Deep

Harrison kissed him before he could say anything else.

He stroked him harder then, gliding his thumb through the slickness gathering at the head on every pass while he learned him through touch alone. Every snag in Harrison’s breathing. Every tremor running through him. And Harrison kissed him deeper as Jake worked him tighter, harder, the restraint gradually bleeding out of him until he was no longer carefully composed beneath Jake’s touch but openly affected by it.

Needing it.

Jake was drunk on that. On every roughening breath, every involuntary movement, every little piece of Harrison he was finally being allowed to have.

Harrison broke from the kiss with a sharp gasp and dropped his forehead onto Jake’s shoulder. “God, Jake…”

Jake felt the change immediately. The sudden tension running through Harrison’s body, his fingers digging into Jake as though he needed something to hold onto.

“Aye,” Jake breathed against his temple. “That’s it.”

Harrison made a sound Jake hadn’t heard from him before. Low and broken, dragged from somewhere beneath all that fucking control. Then his whole body locked as he came. And Jake watched it happen. Felt Harrison pulse hard in his hand, slick warmth spilling over his fingers as another shudder went through him. Jake slowed his strokes but didn’t stop, holding him through it while Harrison buried his face into Jake’s neck and breathed in short, fractured gasps.

There was no composure left now. No detective inspector. No careful older man deciding how much of himself Jake was allowed to have.

Just Harrison.

And Christ, Jake wanted to remember him like this.

The way his body shook. The helpless little sounds he seemed incapable of swallowing back. The grip he had on Jake as the last pulses rolled through him and Jake gentled his hand, drawing it out until Harrison finally sagged against him.

Jake’s heart was going fucking mental.

He’d made plenty of men come. Christ, he’d had enough practice over the years to know he was pretty fucking accomplished at it. Usually that was the easy bit. But that? Harrison Black shaking in his arms, forehead buried against his shoulder, still trying to catch his breath after finally letting Jake have this much of him? Might be Jake’s greatest fucking achievement.

Which was ridiculous.

It was a handjob. He hadn’t exactly split the atom.

Yet the stupid swell of pride in his chest refused to listen.

Jake pressed his lips to Harrison’s ear. “You’re a sexy fuck, Detective Black.”

Harrison gave a weak, breathless laugh.

Jake smiled against his skin. “And really fucking nice, too.”

Eventually, Harrison straightened and reached for a discarded tea towel, cleaning Jake’s hand, then himself before tossing it aside. When he turned back, he brushed his thumb softly along Jake’s jaw. “Stay the night.”

God. That sounded nice.

Half an hour ago, he’d been so fucking angry with Harrison he’d barely been able to think straight. Hurt that he’d kept things from him. Terrified about Robyn. Ready to tear strips off him for standing there being a copper when Jake had needed him to be anything but.

But now?

Now all Jake wanted was Harrison’s arms around him. A bed. A few hours where no one asked him anything and he didn’t have to think about rivers or bodies or thirteen fucking years of not knowing.

Just Harrison.

“Aye.” Jake leaned in and kissed him softly. “I can do that.”

Harrison took Jake’s hand and led him through the cottage to his back bedroom. Jake hadn’t been in this part of the cottage yet, and stepping inside Harrison’s room felt oddly intimate in a way the kitchen hadn’t. The bed was neatly made despite the chaos of the last few days. Boxes still stacked against one wall waiting to be unpacked. A lamp on the bedside table cast a soft amber light across half-finished decorating and clothes draped carefully over a chair.

A room halfway between moving in and learning how to live there.

Harrison kicked a box aside with his foot, pulled back the covers, and nodded Jake in. So Jake slid beneath them beside him and Harrison reached for him again, allowing Jake to tuck his head beneath Harrison’s chin while he stroked lazy, absent patterns up and down his back.