Page 81 of Sean's Sunshine

Sean chuckled. “And the fact that you get that qualifies you for the position of roommate,” he said.

“But more,” Billy added, meeting his eyes. “More. We’re a real couple.”

“Yeah,” Sean said.

“And I’m gonna tell people that. I’m not making anybody guess anymore.”

Sean nodded. “That’s good, because after the way you went after Jesse today, I think the cat’s pretty much out of the bag.”

Billy smiled with satisfaction. “Yeah, you’re not making me hate that moment.”

Sean chuckled and said, “My God, I love you.”

The kitchen went so still they probably heard stars explode from light years away. Even the dog, who had been quietly pawing Billy’s pantleg for bites of hamburger, stopped moving.

Billy stared at him in quiet surprise. “I love you too.” He studied his hamburger—eaten protein style, wrapped in lettuce, with pickles and ketchup. “It’s sort of stupid we haven’t said that before, right?”

“Yeah,” Sean agreed. “But that’s okay. I gotta tell you, Guillermo, I don’t think either one of us are all that bright.”

Billy grinned at him, and the mood of relief, of quiet celebration, filled the room again.

Sean did the dishes after dinner, and they watched stupid television. About midway through Sean’s favorite program, the one Billy claimed to hate with all his soul, Billy started to kiss his ear.

Down the back of it—oh! Nibbling on the lobe—nice. And smooth lips down the side of Sean’s neck—mmm.

“How you feeling?” Billy asked softly.

Sean turned his head to capture Billy’s mouth. “Like topping first,” he murmured, “but bottoming at the end.”

Billy sucked in a breath and nipped at Sean’s ear. “Aren’tyouadventurous—but your lips were blue this afternoon. I’m saying—you need to pick one and go with it.”

Sean groaned because Billy was probably right, and also because he’d slid his hand under Sean’s shirt and was rubbing his stomach, his chest, skin to skin.

“Bot—” Billy tweaked a nipple. “—tom!” Sean squeaked at the end. “Bottom. I’ll bottom. It’s not fair. You’re so good at topping, though. God, I’d have bottomed a lot more if I’d known there were guys who could top like you.”

Billy laughed gruffly, pinching Sean’s other nipple. “I’m sort of glad you haven’t,” he growled. “’Cause that makes me special.”

“Oh, Guillermo,” Sean moaned as Billy slid his hand down under the waistband of Sean’s jeans. “You were alreadysospecial.”

Billy nipped his earlobe again. “Good.”

Abruptly his hands and his warmth were gone, and Sean was scrambling up after him.

“Go get naked,” Billy ordered. “I’m going to put the dog out for a pee, okay?”

“Yeah,” Sean murmured. Poppy the tiny rescue dog was going to his new owner the next morning, one of the people who’d been hurt the most by the dirty cop Jackson had tried to save that day. Sean would miss the little creature, and suddenly he wanted one of their own more than anything. A dog to keep Billy company when he was gone, and a dog to get him out of bed and out of the house on his days off when he thought the job had taken all he had to give.

Sean knew those days; he knew every cop had them. As he made it to his room and stripped—first himself, then the comforter down to the foot of the bed—he thought that having a lover, a partner, who got him, who could make him laugh and who kept him on his toes,thatwould make all the difference.

But the dog would be nice too.

But not now. Now Sean lay in the bed naked, unapologetic about what was going to happen next. He grabbed the lubricant from under the pillow and squirted some on his fingers. When Billy came in, still air drying his hands after washing them and ordering the dog into the corner on his blanket, Sean had moved his fingers down to his cleft and, with his back to the door, was penetrating himself slowly, lost in the stretch of it, the anticipation.

The freedom.

Billy made a sexy, wanting sound, and Sean glanced over his shoulders to see him frozen, watching Sean’s hand as he slid his finger in and out, and Sean looked him in the eyes, added more lubricant to his fingers, and thrust a second one in.

“Can you go ass-up?” Billy asked, and as Sean did that, he heard Billy taking off his clothes, folding them neatly onto the chair like he did every night.