Page 33 of Concluded (The Bureau #13)

A n agreement was negotiated without Dee’s participation, which was fine with him.

He was still recuperating from his magic and slightly stunned from that kiss.

Achilles had kissed him like he meant it—not out of lust but a different sort of passion altogether.

Which made Dee think that, while their time together might end up being cut short by death, it would still be worth it.

While they could, they’d damn well bloom.

Consequently, Dee was thrilled to learn that he’d be given until tomorrow to recharge his battery, and that since the little house was now overflowing, Achilles and Dee would temporarily decamp to a hotel.

Charles was concerned about the safety aspects of this, but Achilles argued that nowhere was safe right now, not even secret alien compounds in the desert.

An hour later, Dee and Achilles were gleefully checked into a room at a vintage hotel a couple miles away. It wasn’t the fanciest place in town, but it was nice enough, in a quiet neighborhood, with an ocean view.

They were barely inside when Achilles kicked the door shut, grabbed Dee, and shoved him against the wall for another of those knee-shaking kisses.

“Sorry,” Achilles said, pulling back slightly.

He didn’t look sorry at all. With his wild hair and a feral gleam in in his eyes, he bore more resemblance to a satyr than his namesake hero.

“If you have any doubts about this, I don’t blame you. I won’t?—”

Dee shut him up by kissing him back.

“Does that satisfy your need for affirmative consent?” Dee asked when they came up for breath.

“It does.”

For the first time in his life, Dee wanted someone.

Not in a sort of general it would be fun to fuck sort of way.

This was a burning need—almost literally, like a fire raging in his core—to physically unite with this particular person.

He felt greedy in that he wanted to have Achilles.

But also generous, in that he wanted Achilles to have him.

“The one time when being naked would come in handy,” Achilles grumbled, fumbling at his clothes.

Dee’s came off more easily—like magic—and he graciously helped Achilles with the last of his.

Then they both stood there, feasting with their eyes.

Dee didn’t know what Achilles saw in him, although Achilles was hard, which was a good sign.

When he looked at Achilles, he saw a Greek god turned man, with scars old and new, with some sexy facial stubble and warm brown eyes.

Suddenly it was Dee’s turn to grab Achilles and pin him against the wall. “I need your consent too.”

“Jesus, Dee, can’t you tell I?—”

“You could take me apart, piece by piece, and if I thought it pleased you, I’d only beg for more.

You could consume me and I’d be glad of it.

I don’t know if this is because I’m a djinn or if it’s my own personal quirk, and I guess it doesn’t matter.

I want you to own me, body and soul, and I want to grant all your wishes.

Do you understand? Because we’ve known each other only a short time, and it’s been a weird time, and I understand this may be way too much for you. ”

Achilles looked at him solemnly, and for a terrible moment Dee believed that Achilles would turn away. Then he reminded himself to hope , just as Achilles kept telling him. And as if the thought made it true, Achilles leaned his forehead against Dee’s.

“I feel like I’ve been waiting for you for twenty years,” Achilles said.

That was the most beautiful sentence that Dee had ever heard. The core of it all, he thought, was that Achilles didn’t seem to value him for the magic Dee could do. Achilles saw in him a man of worth, a man who made good choices, a man who had a place in the world.

Dee sank to his knees and took Achilles’ cock into his mouth.

Dee had given head only twice before. He’d never been especially interested in the act, but now he wanted it desperately.

Wanted to kneel in front of Achilles, worshiping him in the most intimate way, making Achilles temporarily forget all his worries.

Dee feared he wasn’t very good, however, since he couldn’t take all of Achilles’ length without choking.

Then Achilles grabbed Dee’s hair—hard, with both hands—and moaned deeply, and Dee decided maybe he wasn’t so bad at this after all.

He experimented with different movements of his hand, tongue, and lips, glancing up often to see what had the best impact.

When he scraped his teeth ever-so-gently against tender skin, Achilles groaned and gripped Dee’s hair even more tightly.

Looking up at Achilles’ flushed skin, his wide-blown pupils, Dee realized that he could very likely come just like this, his own cock untouched, simply from the pleasure of pleasuring Achilles.

Before Dee could explore that intriguing idea, however, Achilles hauled him upright, dragged him to the bed, pushed him down, and threw himself on top. “Too rough?” he panted, cradling Dee’s face in his hands.

“Take me apart, piece by piece,” Dee repeated, meaning every word of it.

They groped each other roughly, thrillingly, learning new topography and making it their own.

Achilles had firm muscles despite his recent misadventures.

His skin, marred in places with divots, ridges, and furrows, was otherwise pleasingly soft.

Dee wanted to burrow into him, make a living robe of him, taste him even in his dreams.

When Achilles probed a single spit-slick finger between Dee’s cheeks, all that Dee yearned for was to engulf him. “Please,” he begged, hoping that Achilles knew what he meant.

“I don’t have lube. Or rubbers.”

“Don’t care.”

It might have been foolish to proceed without either, but Dee was very much in a carpe diem sort of mood. For all he knew, gun-toting bears and evil ex-congresswomen would burst in on them five minutes from now and he’d never again have this opportunity. It was absolutely worth the pain and risk.

Achilles must have thought the same. He growled into Dee’s ear, sounding very much like a bear himself, then rose up, but only so he could flip Dee over.

When Dee hastily gathered his knees beneath him, Achilles gave his ass a couple of appreciative squeezes and then, with a happy sort of sound, used his tongue to wet and loosen the tight ring of muscles.

Dee clutched the bedcover and thought frantically of the least sexy things possible.

Recycling collection schedules. American cheese.

Stock market tickers. But not even software terms and conditions could calm him down, and by the time Achilles stopped tonguing him and instead pressed the tip of his cock slightly in, Dee was almost sobbing with need.

“Fuck me, dammit. Please. Gods, Achilles.”

Achilles leaned down over Dee’s back so he could whisper in his ear: “Well, when you ask so nicely….” Then he reared back up, grabbed Dee’s hips, and pushed inside.

Dee literally saw stars. There was some pain, yes, because it had been a long time since Dee had done this, and Achilles was not being at all gentle.

Dee didn’t want him to be gentle. What Dee wanted was exactly what he was getting: deep thrusts making him burn, a bruising grip on his hips, soft words tumbling from Achilles’ mouth in a torrent.

“Yes, Dee, beloved, good, so good, Dee….” There was also a lot of Greek, which Dee didn’t understand, but it sounded poetic, as if Achilles had been possessed by the spirit of Homer himself. Except there were also plenty of English profanities, and those sounded entirely like Achilles.

Dee himself didn’t say much. Couldn’t say much, although he managed some coherent pleas in between his whimpers and moans. He teetered right at the edge, trying his best not to fall.

“What do you need, Dee?” Achilles asked, still rocking his hips.

And that was enough. Dee tumbled, electrified and ecstatic, disintegrating into endless points of bright light.

* * *

Dozing in Achilles’ arms, Dee felt stupidly optimistic.

He didn’t know that they’d survive whatever was coming.

In fact, if he thought about it logically, his doubts were many and entirely realistic.

But he felt differently. Felt, in fact, as if they’d already won.

Post-coital endorphins, probably, but nice nonetheless.

“Icarus,” he said sleepily into Achilles’ shoulder.

“Huh?”

“I flew too close to the sun.”

“I’m not the sun.” Achilles drew back a little so that they were face to face. “Did I hurt you? Are you having regrets?” His brow was drawn with concern.

Dee reached up to smooth the crease away. “You hurt me deliciously, and I have zero regrets. I don’t mind being Icarus. I mean, it must have been glorious for him for a while, right?”

Achilles’ expression relaxed. “This wasn’t…. It’s never been like that for me. Why do I feel like this about you? What’s going on?”

“You’re asking me?” Dee chuckled. But then doubt stabbed him. “Are you sorry? Do you wish I?—”

“I wish you to be exactly as you are. I’m the opposite of sorry. Just… bewildered, I guess. But hey, if we’re both destined to live a life of weird, at least for once the weird can be good. Spectacular, in fact.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“You know, I made love charms a couple of times. Didn’t want to because it’s creepy, but I was broke.

Anyway, they sort of worked at first. But pretty soon…

. One client came back a couple months later, looking like she’d aged years.

She said the guy fell for her, all right, but pretty soon they had nothing but shrieking arguments.

So she left him, but now he was stalking her. ”

“Jesus.”

Dee winced at old regrets and moral failings. “She told me that all her previous feelings for him had changed—like a chemical alteration—and now they were, well, synthetic. Like that artificial banana flavor.”

“What did you do?”

“I let her wish the other wish away. For free,” he hastened to add. “And it helped. He stopped stalking her. She felt less torn up. It definitely wasn’t a happy ending, though. They both had to live with what they’d done.”

Achilles was silent for a while, although he gave a small smile when Dee toyed with his tangled curls.

Finally, he sighed. “If you’re implying that what we have is influenced by magic, I wouldn’t argue, although I have no clue how.

But even if it is magic, it’s not like your love charm.

I can feel this—feel you—in every cell of my body.

And it feels right. If magic got us here, well, I’m fine with that.

I don’t understand jet airplanes and I know they sometimes fall out of the sky, but when I have to get somewhere far and fast, I’m happy to use ’em. ”

“It feels right to me too,” Dee assured him. “I just felt like I ought to say something. Caveat emptor?”

“I don’t own you, Dee.”

Dee looked at him earnestly. Imploringly, even. “But you could. I really, really wish you did.”

Achilles’ smile was blinding. “Always, your wish is my command.”

Sex the second time was even better than the first. And the third time, late that evening, was somehow even better. So good, in fact, that Dee seriously thought it might kill him. It would have been a very happy ending indeed.