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Grady wasn’t sure they were good enough to cause that kind of moan, but his dick seemed to recognise the sound. He cleared his throat. “Lake, what happened last night…”

“Was between two consenting adults,” Lake answered. He reached forward and hooked his fingers in the handle of Grady’s mug and then pulled it toward himself. He took a sip and closed his eyes. “I love getting up and not having to make my own stuff.”

“Glad to be of service,” Grady said dryly.

“Do we have to do the freak-out thing?” Lake asked, opening one eye.

“The ‘freak-out thing’?”

“Yeah. You know? This shouldn’t have happened. You’re not even gay. Blah blah blah.”

“Ignoring the fact that you’re trying to make light of it, both of those things are still true. Did you suddenly turn gay when I wasn’t looking?” He stole his coffee back and frowned when he realised it was empty. He retrieved Lake’s mug from the sink and made two more cups.

Lake nudged Grady’s hip as he filled the cups with creamer and then took a tentative sip. “Does your coffee have something laced in it? Something from the evidence lockers, perhaps?”

Grady took a bite from the lemon curd croissant and swallowed before saying, “Are you asking me if I take drugs from the station and put them in my coffee?”

Lake’s grin was cheeky, and Grady didn’t know what it said about him that all he wanted to do was kiss him. “It sounds bad when you say it like that.”

“Was there a better way for it to sound?”

“I notice you haven’t actually answered the question.”

Grady just arched a single eyebrow as he picked up his coffee. “Stop deflecting.”

Lake sighed and leaned back against the edge of the counter. “Why do we have to analyse it? I had fun, and you had fun, what’s the big deal?”

“Fun” wasn’t the word that Grady would have used, but it wasn’t worth distracting Lake. “Sex changes things.” Grady had already been way over his head, even before they added intimacy. It wasn’t that this changed everything, because he knew himself enough to know that Lake had already gotten in too deep, that Lake had snuck in somewhere under his ribs where he hadn’t even known he had space, but it added a new dimension to the entire situation. Grady had no idea how he could get out of this situation without destroying himself. He hadn’t learned his lesson from Kyle or Mal, apparently.

“So? Didn’t you like having sex with me?”

“That’s not at all the point I’m trying to make here.”

Lake put his mug down and approached Grady with a twinkle in his eye that made Grady wary. “I have to get ready for work; can we argue about this later?”

“Sure,” Grady said dumbly as Lake reached up and laced his fingers around the back of Grady’s neck.

“I’m having dinner with Zach, Felix, and Avery tonight, but we could do something tomorrow?”

“Okay.” Grady had no idea what he was agreeing to. All he could focus on was the way that Lake’s fingers were gently caressing his skin and tickling the hair at the base of his skull.

Every part of this was a bad idea. He shouldn’t be letting Lake continue to touch him, shouldn’t be encouraging the continuation of whatever the fuck they were doing. What happened when Lake got over this? When he decided it had been fun, but he was ready to go back to women?

He should remove Lake from around him, take a step back, and put them back on some kind of normal path.

And yet, when Lake tugged him down for a kiss, he couldn’t but lean into it and take everything, even knowing that in the end it was Lake that would take everything, and Grady would end up broken again.

ThefirstthingthatLake noticed was different when he walked into Zach and Felix’s house was the sound of barking and claws scratching. “The fuck…” A wet and dripping white ball of fluff came charging at him, barrelling right into his legs. “Hello there,” he said to the malamute puppy that was soaking his jeans and flinging water all over the floorboards with their wagging tail.

“Ares!” Avery yelled out, careening around the corner at breakneck speed. He gave the dog an exasperated look as he reached them. “He’s supposed to be having a bath, the slippery little bastard. He rolled in something out the back and reeks.” He picked up the yapping puppy, who promptly turned in his arms and enthusiastically licked his cheek. “Thanks,” he said, looking ruefully at the squirming puppy. He didn’t sound thankful.

“I thought you said you weren’t getting a dog,” Lake said, grinning. He remembered quite clearly Avery griping about it all of Christmas Day because their mum had mentioned to Zach that they knew a lady whose dog had puppies.

“Ididn’t,” Avery said wryly. “Zach did. That man needs a leash too.”

“Kinky.” Lake sniffed the air and sighed happily. They were havingroast pork.Fuck, yes.

“Who’s kinky?” Zach asked, coming out of the kitchen eating an apple. “If it was me, I absolutely agree.”