Page 2 of Hold Me Down (KRK Security #4)

Dave might not be walking bowlegged the next morning, but he was definitely feeling that fuck as he left Travis's bed and headed back to his room. He'd been too tired to make that trip before falling asleep last night, but now he desperately needed a shower, and his bathroom was clearly superior.

"No, it isn't," Travis shouted after him as Dave reminded him of that on his way out.

It was an old argument, dating all the way back to when they'd bought a small, run-down house in desperate need of repairs and fixed it up from the ground up.

Travis preferred the bigger room with a smaller bathroom, and Dave wanted the opposite—it made things easy when it came to sharing house space, but also marked the beginning of a years-long debate on who had it better.

Dave's en suite had a bathtub, which of course made him the winner, but Travis just couldn't admit it, even though he enjoyed a long soak every once in a while himself.

Granted, he wasn't as big of a fan of them as Dave was, but he'd definitely become more appreciative over the years—especially when they climbed into the tub together.

Dave sighed as the hot water hit him. They didn't have to be anywhere before noon, which meant he didn't have to hurry.

The company outing would take care of the training for the day, so he could take his time in the shower and during breakfast, and maybe he'd even fit in some reading time, as he wanted to get back to the thriller he'd started last week.

It wasn't often that they had a morning like this, so whenever it happened, Dave tried to appreciate it.

Today, he'd have maybe appreciated it even more if sex was on the table, but his muscles were sore enough that he didn't want to risk making it worse—at least not until tonight, when they would hopefully have reasons to celebrate a job well done on the obstacle course.

As he rinsed off the suds from his body, Dave pictured what the two of them might get up to tonight, but then he quickly put a stop to that line of thinking when his cock started getting too interested in those plans.

Later , he told himself. He liked delaying his pleasure from time to time, and today was one of those days.

He went through his morning routine on autopilot, simply giving himself permission to move slowly through each step, from shaving to putting on lotion, and by the time he walked back into his bedroom, he was completely relaxed, humming under his breath a song he couldn't quite place.

Skipping the underwear for now, he put on his favorite pair of sweatpants and headed out to the kitchen. He caught the smell of coffee before he was even halfway down the stairs and he grinned to himself.

There was nothing like living with someone who was great in bed and made him coffee in the morning.

Dave was one lucky guy.

* * *

"Give it your all, ladies and gentlemen, as whoever comes last on the course will be buying the first round tonight," Martinez announced with his arms wide and grin even wider. "I hope you're ready."

"Ready to kick your ass, that's for sure," Travis told him, with several others humming in agreement.

Excluding Kalei, there were sixteen of them today, as some of the teams were out on assignments. This was the first time in a long while they had a chance to try a new training set-up they hadn't come up with themselves, so everyone was pretty excited.

Which, of course, meant various bets and taunts were flying back and forth from the moment they'd gathered at the training facility less than twenty minutes ago.

"Okay, okay," Kalei's voice cut through and everyone fell quiet and turned to face him in the large foyer.

"Remember you're at work and behave accordingly.

Pushing to challenge yourself is one thing, pushing to score a point against your colleagues is another.

I guess the best I can expect from you all is that you do both. "

Dave pressed his lips together to stop himself from laughing at the several yeahs and hoorahs that answered Kalei, who nodded.

"Figured. No stupid risks, though. I'll be watching, and the team here will record you, too, so we can later use it for training ideas. Try not to embarrass me."

Kalei led the team with a cool head and high expectations, maintaining a serious front at the office and only ever slightly lowering his guard outside of it, usually at the company cookouts he organized at his house.

Since Dave and Travis had known him for more than a decade and a half at this point and remembered him being different before he'd lost his husband, Kalei was a little looser with the two of them one-to-one, but not by much.

"Okay, go get ready and meet me by the green door over there." He pointed to the corridor on his right. "You have ten, so get to it."

Orders received, the team dispersed quickly into the changing rooms.

Most of them came already dressed for training, but they all tossed their gym bags into the lockers and drank their electrolytes or shakes as they went back to shooting shit the moment the door closed between them and Kalei.

It was Jeremy who finally closed his locker with a loud click and shook his head.

"You all talk so much you'd think you'd have something to show for it. How about we go out there and see."

There was a second of silence before a round of oohs went around the room, even as everyone followed Jeremy out.

Dave fell into step next to Travis.

"Ready to kick their asses?"

Travis grinned at him. "Born ready, baby."

And that was that.

As they walked up to the green door, Kalei was there waiting for them with Stuart, the guy who usually oversaw all their training at this facility. After a round of greetings, Stuart led them to a briefing room, where he invited them to take seats as he stood next to the big screen.

"Since this is a new obstacle course, I'll walk you through what you may expect, but be aware that we're keeping some of it a secret, so you'd have to think fast on your feet."

When a floor plan appeared on the screen, Dave leaned forward in his seat. He could see others doing the same in the corners of his eyes, but he focused on the intel at hand.

There were three separate areas on the plan, with two where the setup was mostly visible—although some of the details weren't clear—and one where all they could see was the first few feet of the space, with an unspecified object blocking sight of the rest.

"We'll be timing you, of course, but we'll also count the obstacles you complete and the ones you don't. Sometimes you may want to give up on something for the overall speed, and sometimes you should not, but you may not be able to tell, especially on your first go-round.

I suspect you'll be revisiting this course in the future, since even knowing the whole setup, there's still a lot to work through. "

Stuart quickly ran them through things they could see—adding some info about the dimensions Dave stored in his head, the cogs in his brain already turning to figure out the best and quickest way to tackle them.

And then, it was time to start. Each pair would have ten minutes to make their way through, and the bonus points for the obstacles they completed.

Unfortunately, Dave and Travis were slotted to go last, which meant they wouldn't be able to see much of the proceedings until later.

There was an electronic scoreboard next to the screen that would be updated on the go and show how many obstacles each pair completed, but other than that, they would only see dots moving on the floor plan.

Then again, as things started, the two of them had ample time to assess the difficulty of each stage by how quickly and efficiently their colleagues made their way through the course.

All the waiting pairs were whispering to each other now, eyes fixed on the screen and the scoreboard, and Dave could feel the growing tension in his stomach.

He couldn't wait for it to be their turn.

Ian and Clay were the last ones before them, and Dave and Travis got up to watch them on the screen.

As they moved quickly through the space, it was clear that they were serious contenders for the first place currently held by Jeremy and Martinez.

Ian and Clay clocked one more obstacle in the second area but spent a bit more time there, and then they failed to earn points for the last obstacle, just like Jeremy and Martinez, even though they lingered there longer.

Ultimately, they fell behind by a point.

"Damn." Travis shook his head. "That was close."

"I wonder what that last thing is." Dave waved at the scoreboard. "Only Melissa and Keri have a point for that one, so I'm thinking less brute force and more flexibility—or height."

"I'm leaning towards height, but I guess we'll see soon enough." Travis bumped their shoulders together. "Whatever it is, if we make good time, I say we go for it with all that we have."

Dave nodded. He had no doubts Travis would want to fight until the very end and he had no problems with it— hell , he enjoyed it.

Even if Travis had been pushing harder lately than ever before, Dave didn't mind trying to keep pace with him.

After all, that was what they'd always done—they moved through life together, one way or another.

Finally, it was their time to shine, and Dave could feel his blood pumping as the adrenaline rushed through him right before the door opened.

And then there was barely any thinking, only moving, covering the space with his partner by his side. The first room was all about beams and ropes—challenging but not too hard—and yet Dave's heartbeat quickened, keeping him alert and on task.

Easy could lead to distractions and they couldn't have that.

They had a challenge to win.

In the second room, they got through the vertical ladders and the stepping stones quickly, but Travis almost slipped on his way down from the bouldering wall.

"You good?" Dave shouted as they ran to the door.

"Never better, come on, come on."

The moment they entered the last space, they realized they were out in the open—there was a tunnel to crawl through, and then they were on the sand, with several still rings ahead of them and the wall at the end, looming large over the rest.

There was no time to stop and think, though. Dave could tell their time was good, and they clocked in every obstacle so far.

They had a chance.

The rings were harder for him than he'd like, and he promised himself to figure out how to work around his bulk on those, but that was for later, because they were rapidly running out of time now.

"Come on, come on, come on," Travis was chanting at him—and at himself, probably, but it pushed Dave to run harder anyway until they both paused in front of the ten-foot wall with a clear surface and nothing to hold onto until the top, where there was a big ball they needed to drop to complete the task.

"I'll give you a boost, then run on the other side to catch the ball. "

No time to argue, Dave nodded and took a deep breath before positioning himself, then placing his foot in Travis's hold and— holy fuck .

Not expecting to be thrown this high, he scrambled to get a hold on the handles on top.

He had them, he just needed to scramble a bit higher, but his elbow was at a weird angle, and he was going to do some serious damage to it if he tried to push up on it. If he relaxed his grip, he could—

He was falling before he even finished the thought.