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“So, you don’t think the embezzlement is connected? Or you do think Leo was somehow involved in the homicide?”

“We were missing a motive. Maybe this supplies it. If Leo offered Monig money on top of the guy’s already existing obsession?”

“Monig’s on shaky ground financially,” Beau agreed. “Still. Murder is a big ask.”

Archie nodded, scrubbed his face. “I really don’t want to think Leo was behind John’s murder. I don’t want to think it was someone John loved. Trusted. But I would bet money—my remaining money—that Leo’s been stealing from John’s accounts over a long period of time, that John discovered it, and John being John, he gave Leo a chance to explain himself, make it right.”

“It’s hard to put millions of missing dollars right.”

“Yeah.”

He was a little nonplussed when Beau’s arm tightened around him, pulled him close. Beau kissed his temple. “I’m sorry. I’d love to tell you you’re wrong, but it’s a plausible theory.”

Archie rested his forehead on Beau’s shoulder. Just for a moment he was not only willing to let someone else share the burden of knowledge; he was glad.

They stayed like that for a few moments, then Beau said softly, “It’s cold out here. Let’s go inside and I’ll warm you up.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sometimes Archie used to wonder if his memories of sex with Beau had been colored by nostalgia and inexperience. But the plain truth was, Beau had an instinct for what felt terrific, an astonishing delicacy and playfulness given his Boy Scout attitudes and mindset.

Lying there in his old bedroom, the dreamy past and shadowy present seemed to coalesce for Archie. Or maybe he was just tired. It had been such a peculiar night. It was still peculiar, but in a pleasantly, distantly familiar way.

Beau fingered Archie balls, weighing, teasing, fondling—then just when Archie thought he couldn’t take another second of it—he moved to Archie’s cock, tracing one finger along the cleft, running the circle of finger and thumb up and down Archie’s swollen length. Archie, desperate for more, anything more from Beau, fumbled Beau’s hand on top of his, trying to guide him, moaning in abject relief when Beau’s fingers wrapped around him.

“Right there. Yeah. Yes. Please…”

“Yes, please,” Beau teased, and pressed a moist soft kiss against Archie’s mouth. Followed by another kiss and another…and another… Beau kissing his way down Archie’s throat and chest and belly and groin. Archie’s penis, thick and arrow-straight, jutted out of the nest of pale curls, and Beau gave it his full attention, taking the head of Archie’s cock into his mouth and beginning to suck. Archie’s head dropped weakly back and he groaned.

Beau took his sweet time, varying the pressure, sucking hard, sucking soft and so satisfyingly, nibbling with tongue tip and the graze of teeth. Now and again, he lightly, delicately scratched his fingernails against Archie’s sensitive inner thighs.

Archie responded with throaty noises and small shudders. Anything more was beyond him. Little sparks drifted across beneath his closed eyelids.

Beau kissed the head of his cock, nuzzled his balls—nibbled lower, nudged a place Archie had never been kissed, never thought to be kissed, but was indeed kissed. Archie gulped and bucked, and Beau raised his head, smiling, and fastened his beautiful mouth around Archie’s shaft again, probing beneath the crown with knowing and naughty precision.

He had an unerring instinct for giving pleasure, that mix of knowledge and creativity—or maybe it was just a whole lot of experience that Archie preferred not to think about.

The wet warm pressure of Beau’s mouth increased. Archie’s hands moved blindly over the bedding and clutching the rough silk of Beau’s hair, the tension in his groin continuing to mount. With his fingers tangled in Beau’s hair, he drew him still closer and Beau seemed to swallow the whole length of him.

It would have been great if it could have lasted forever, but a few more masterly tugs and release rolled through him, shockwaves of sensation, a dizzying delight so intense it almost made him feel a little sick. Archie came in fierce surges, reduced in moments to limp satiation.

“Jesus God in Heaven…” he gulped as Beau finally rolled over onto his back. Beau turned his head and grinned at him.

“I had no idea you were so religious.”

Archie gave a weak laugh. “Ah have litrally seen the light.”

Beau chuckled. For a moment Archie eyed him, lying there without any self-consciousness, long brown legs splayed, his cock soft and relaxed and definitely damp.

Archie’s eyes widened. He lifted his head. “Did you come?”

Beau’s laugh was husky. “I was channeling you.”

“No, seriously.”

“Seriously, you have no idea what a turn-on it is to be able to do that to you.” He picked up Archie’s lax hand, kissed his palm.

Archie’s head dropped back in the pillows. “I still can’t…” Believe this is happening.