Page 9 of Oath of Protection (Blood Oath Bargains #1)

NINE

HEAT

Three AM and the phone wouldn't stop ringing.

Nico surfaced from sleep in stages—first the sound cutting through dreams, then awareness of the safe house bedroom, then the cold realization that his secure line ringing at this hour meant trouble. Real trouble.

"Yeah?" His voice came out rough with sleep.

"We've got a problem." Matt's voice was tight with controlled urgency. "Someone leaked your current location. We intercepted chatter—they know where you are."

The words hit like cold water. Nico was already moving, rolling out of bed and reaching for clothes. "How long do we have?"

"Maybe twenty minutes. Cam's already coordinating extraction. You need to move. Now."

The line went dead. Nico grabbed essentials—phone, wallet, weapon—and headed for the living room. Cam was there, fully dressed, moving with military efficiency as he packed emergency gear.

"How bad?" Nico asked.

"Bad enough. We've got two vehicles inbound, probably a cleanup crew." Cam handed him a bulletproof vest. "Put this on. We're going out the back."

Nico strapped on the vest, his mind racing through possibilities. "Any idea who?—"

"Questions later. Moving now." Cam was already at the door, weapon drawn, scanning the hallway through the security monitor. "Stay close, do exactly what I say."

They moved through the building like ghosts, Cam leading with tactical awareness that came from dodging bullets in hostile territory. Emergency lighting cast everything in harsh shadows, and Nico found himself counting heartbeats as they navigated service corridors toward the parking garage.

The armored sedan was waiting, engine running. Cam got him into the backseat before sliding behind the wheel, and then they were moving through empty streets while sirens wailed in the distance behind them.

"Where are we going?" Nico asked.

"Backup location. Isolated, secure, off the books." Cam's eyes never stopped moving, checking mirrors, scanning intersections. "We'll be safe there."

The safe house turned out to be a cabin an hour outside the city, tucked into woods that felt like a different world from the urban battleground they'd left behind. No neighbors, no witnesses, just acres of forest and silence that made Nico's ears ring.

Cam did a full perimeter sweep before allowing him inside. The place was spartanly furnished but comfortable—a living room with a stone fireplace, a small kitchen, two bedrooms that looked like they'd been prepared for exactly this kind of emergency.

"How long do we stay here?" Nico asked, setting his bag down by the couch.

"Until we figure out who leaked the location and neutralize the threat." Cam was checking windows, testing locks, his movements precise and methodical. "Could be days."

Days. Alone with Cam in an isolated cabin, with nothing to do but wait and try not to think about how the distance between them had been shrinking every day.

"I should call my father," Nico said.

"Already handled. Matt's briefing the family." Cam finished his security check and turned to face him. "We're completely off-grid here. No electronic communication unless it's an emergency."

They stood there in the cabin's main room, the weight of isolation settling around them like a physical thing. Outside, wind moved through trees with a sound like whispered secrets. Inside, there was only the tick of an old clock and the awareness that they were utterly alone.

"You should get some sleep," Cam said. "It's been a long night."

"What about you?"

"I'll take first watch."

Nico studied his face, seeing the tension lines around his eyes, the way his shoulders stayed rigid even in relative safety. "When's the last time you actually slept? Really slept, not that light dozing you do?"

"I'm fine."

"That's not an answer."

Cam was quiet for a moment, his expression unreadable. "Sleep's a luxury in my line of work."

"We're secure here. You said so yourself."

"Secure is relative. There's always?—"

"Cam." Nico stepped closer, close enough to see exhaustion in the lines of his face. "When did you last sleep through the night?"

The question hung between them, more intimate than it should have been. They were standing close enough that Nico could smell Cam's aftershave, could see the way his breathing had changed.

"I don't remember," Cam said quietly.

The admission hit Nico like a physical blow. This man had been protecting him, staying alert, sacrificing his own rest and safety while Nico complained about security protocols and professional boundaries.

"That's not sustainable."

"Neither is getting you killed because I let my guard down."

"You won't. You're too good at what you do." Nico reached out without thinking, his hand settling on Cam's arm. "But you're also human. You need to sleep sometime."

The touch froze them both. Cam's eyes locked on his face, making it hard to breathe.

"Nico..."

"What?"

"This isn't..." Cam's voice broke as Nico's thumb traced his jawline. "We shouldn't..."

"I know." Nico's breath ghosted against his mouth. "But I also know I've been thinking about this every night since you walked into my life."

Cam's breathing shifted, his control visibly fraying. "Nico..."

"Tell me you haven't thought about it too."

Silence stretched between them, full of tension and want and the weight of a decision that would change everything.

"I have," Cam said finally. "God help me, I have."

Nico had spent weeks watching this man move through his life with deadly competence, never knowing that behind all that control was someone who looked at him like he was worth protecting not because of money or obligation, but because of something neither of them had dared to name.

His hand found Cam's face, fingers threading through his hair as their mouths crashed together. Cam tasted like coffee and something darker—want held back too long. The stubble on his jaw scraped against Nico's palm, real and rough and nothing like the careful distance they'd been maintaining.

"This is a mistake," Cam said.

"Probably."

"I'm supposed to protect you."

"You are protecting me."

And then Cam was kissing him, desperate and hungry, like he'd been holding back for so long that control had finally snapped. Nico responded immediately, his free hand fisting in Cam's shirt, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them.

It should have been awkward—weeks of tension suddenly shifting into something raw and physical. Instead, it felt inevitable, like they'd been moving toward this moment since the first time their eyes met.

Nico's shirt disappeared first, pulled over his head with urgent hands that shook slightly—the first crack in Cam's perfect control.

Then Cam's, and suddenly there was skin against skin, warm and real and electric.

Cam's mouth found the hollow of his throat, and Nico's head fell back with a gasp he couldn't suppress.

"Bedroom," Cam said against his mouth, voice rough with need.

"Which one?"

"Don't care."

They stumbled toward the nearest door, still kissing, still touching, boundaries dissolving completely in the heat of finally giving in to what had been building between them.

The bedroom was dark, anonymous, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the way Cam's hands felt on his skin, the way he responded to every touch like he'd been starving for contact.

"Look at me," Cam said, his voice rough. When Nico's eyes met his, something shifted in his expression. "I need you to know this isn't just adrenaline. This isn't just..."

"I know." Nico's hand found the back of his neck, fingers threading through his hair. "It's not just anything for me either."

When Cam's hands mapped the scar on his ribs—the one from the car bomb two years ago—Nico tensed instinctively.

But instead of questions or pity, Cam's mouth followed the path his fingers had traced, gentle and reverent, like he was memorizing every mark that proved Nico had survived long enough to be here with him.

Clothes disappeared with military efficiency. Cam's mouth found his throat, his collarbone, mapping sensitive spots with focused attention that made Nico's breath catch. When Cam's teeth grazed his shoulder, Nico arched against him with a sound that was half gasp, half plea.

"Is this... are you sure?" Cam's voice was rough with want but still careful, still protective even in the middle of losing control.

"Yes." Nico pulled him down for another kiss, deep and demanding. "Yes, I'm sure."

Cam's hands were everywhere—tracing the line of his ribs, finding the hollow of his hip, learning the places that made Nico gasp and arch beneath him. When Cam's mouth followed the path his hands had taken, Nico lost the ability to think coherently.

The first touch of skin against skin sent electricity through his entire body. Cam moved with the same focused intensity he brought to everything else, but here it was reverent, worshipful, like he was memorizing every inch of Nico's body.

"You're so..." Cam's voice broke off as Nico's hands found their target, drawing a sound from him that was pure need.

They moved together with desperate urgency, weeks of restraint finally breaking in a rush of heat and want. Cam's mouth found his again, swallowing his gasps as they discovered what they did to each other, how they fit together.

When it hit, Nico's vision went white at the edges, his body arching as if he could somehow get closer to the man holding him together while he fell apart.

Cam's name fell from his lips like a confession he'd been holding back for weeks.

Cam followed moments later, Nico's name falling from his lips like a prayer.

When it was over, they lay tangled together in the dark, breathing hard, the weight of what had just happened settling between them.

Cam's arm tightened around him, and Nico realized that for the first time in months, he felt completely safe. Not because of bulletproof glass or security protocols, but because of the man whose heartbeat he could feel against his ribs.

"We're going to have to talk about this," Cam said quietly.

"Later." Nico pressed his face against Cam's shoulder, breathing him in. "Right now, I just want to remember what it feels like to not be afraid."

Outside, wind moved through the trees with a sound like distant voices. Inside, two men lay in the dark, trying to pretend that everything hadn't just changed between them.

But it was too late for pretending. Too late to go back to clear boundaries and careful distance.

They'd crossed a line that couldn't be uncrossed, and both of them knew it.