Page 14

Cal made a groggy noise and twitched, slowly coming awake.

Titus didn’t rush the process, didn’t shy away.

Instead, he kept petting him, allowing his touches to linger a bit longer, grow a bit bolder, with each passing second.

The moment he felt the detective come fully awake, he grabbed a fistful of that precious hair at the base of Cal’s skull and used that hold to drag the man up into a sitting position.

Calix yelped, blindly reaching out to grab onto him, the blindfold still in place, preventing him from seeing who was before him.

Titus kept quiet, holding him steadily, the tight grip enough of a silent warning to keep Cal from trying to yank away. A warning that didn’t go unheeded.

Their faces were close, less than three inches apart, and Titus was forced to acknowledge that perhaps Aodhan had been right about pushing their detective too close to starvation. Though, in his defense, he hadn’t been the one delivering sexual torture on top of things.

If Aodhan had really been concerned, he could have kept his dick in his pants.

Calix’s tongue—pink, Titus noted—darted out past his dry and cracked lips, wetting them quickly. His hands clasped and unclasped the material of Titus’s t-shirt over his chest, but he didn’t fully release him. He seemed to be listening for something, feeling the situation out.

Using those instincts of his that Titus had praised earlier.

“…Mercy?” there was doubt in his tone, at first, but a second later he repeated, more firmly this time, “Do I call you that? Do I call you Titus or,” he licked his lips a second time, “do I call you Mercy?”

“What do you want to call me?”

“I…probably shouldn’t say.”

Which meant it was something bad. Titus chuckled. “Try me.”

“That’s why I shouldn’t,” Cal said. “Because I don’t want to try you.”

“How did you know it was me?” It could have been Aodhan sitting here.

The room stank of sex and sweat enough there was no way, even as close as they were, Calix could make out Titus’s personal scent, so that was out.

He’d made no sound at all, even keeping his breathing shallow, and out of the two of them, Aodhan was the one who’d shown his rougher sides.

That’s why Titus had opted to grab him by the hair in the first place. To throw him—

“It’s the feel of you,” Calix replied. “The way I feel when I’m around you, it’s…different.”

“Ah.” That explained that. He wasn’t using his ability to manipulate the air around them at the moment, but he understood what Cal meant.

“What is it?” the detective asked. “Is it because you’re a Connect?”

“Yes.” He tipped his head, watching as Cal grew silent, clearly thinking over his next words carefully. “Say what’s on your mind. It’s just the two of us in this room.”

Titus wished they were already connected, because if they were, he’d be able to feel exactly what the other man was feeling, and would not have to settle for suppositions.

Calix seemed nervous, a different kind of trepidation than he’d previously displayed in this room. It was in the way he trembled ever so slightly, and how his fingers tightened more around the thin material of Titus’s t-shirt.

In the end, he gave in to whatever negative emotion he was feeling and shook his head slightly. “Never mind.”

“Tell me.”

“It was a moment of hubris, forget it.”

“Little monster.” Titus brought his mouth closer, sure that Cal could feel the gust of his hot breath against his chapped lips. “Don’t make me string you up again. How will you ever get answers if you’re too afraid to ask the right questions?”

Cal pushed lightly, but when Titus growled, he gave in. “Is that why I’m here?”

“What was that? You’ll have to speak louder.” He didn’t, Titus had heard him. How could he not, with the mere half an inch between them?

It was adorable that the detective felt shy over something like this, especially since Titus had obviously been leading him to this conclusion all the while.

Hadn’t he tried to get Cal to admit it days ago?

He had to know this conversation was what Titus wanted from him, yet he was acting like a skittish, cornered animal.

In a move that reminded him of something Aodhan would do when scolded, Calix huffed. “Why bother? It’s not possible anyway. You might be a Connect, but I didn’t know about Aodhan and you before now. You probably already have a secret completed pod, and this is all—”

“To punish you?” Titus cut him off drolly. “For hitting a kid I care nothing about with your car eight years ago?”

Spelled out like that, it was absurd, and it was obvious that Calix was seeing that as well, for he quieted.

“If not for that, then why?” Cal’s voice was soft, timid almost.

“Interesting logic. Aodhan is the one who insisted on using the hook. He’s the one who’s been—”

“ You’re punishing me,” he insisted. “I just don’t understand why if not for what I did to Nero.”

This was a very different version of the detective than he’d been at the station, when Titus had tried bringing their past up only to be rebuffed. He’d known Aodhan was onto something about Calix being secretly into this, but he’d never dreamed it would truly be this easy.

Was it?

Or was this a trick?

“Are you playing the part of a good little sub,” he wondered aloud, “or is it real?”

“Don’t make it sound like this is normal.

It isn’t. Nothing about this is. This isn’t BDSM play.

This is kidnapping. Plain and simple.” Calix pursed his lips.

“You said if I wanted answers, I had to go about it a different way. You don’t react well to being talked back to.

I’ve adjusted my approach,” Cal surprised him by fully admitting.

“Why am I being punished, Mercy? I have to understand in order to properly learn the lesson. Aodhan I get.”

“Do you?”

“He’s angry I was going to leave the planet. A part of me knew he wanted this thing between us, fake or not, to continue.”

“Yet you were really going to go anyway.”

“I was.”

“How brazen of you to confess that, little monster.”

“You promised we were alone in the room.” Calix hesitated. “Did you lie?”

“I am good at that.” Titus loosened his hold in his hair just enough to be noticeable, but not enough for Cal to get the wrong idea. If he tried to pull away again, he’d retighten the reins in an instant. “Do you really want to know why you’re being put through this?”

“Yes.”

“For the exact same reason.” Titus heard rustling at the open door, but that didn’t stop him from biting out in a clipped tone, “You’re being punished for running away from me all those years ago.”

A sharp clapping noise made Cal jolt in his hold, but Titus had been expecting it and merely tipped his head in the direction of the entrance where Aodhan was standing.

“Finally,” Aodhan sounded angry, “we’re all being honest. I knew you’ve wanted him from the start.”

Titus was hoping confessing here, in the room where Aodhan already felt in control of their situation, would be enough to ease the bloodlust. But looking at the way his little killer held himself, as though about to explode out of his skin, or worse, cut someone else out of theirs, he realized he’d miscalculated.

Oopsie.