In the Blood (Metahuman Files Book 4) Read online

  “Missed you too, Senya,” Alexei rumbled.

  “Let’s go home, Lyosha.”

  The promise in Alexei’s gray eyes was enough to make Sean forget about all the work he still needed to finish in favor of following the doctor’s orders.

  Ten minutes later, they were in Alexei’s car, driving away from the security checkpoint at the base perimeter. Sean slouched a little in his seat, smiling when Alexei placed his hand on Sean’s thigh, squeezing gently.

  “Mission go okay?” Alexei asked, most of his attention on the road.

  Sean curled his hand over Alexei’s, soaking up the heat that seemed embedded in the pyrokinetic. “It was long. Not sure if we found anything worthwhile. You guys did, though.”

  Alexei grimaced. “Last night not good.”

  “I was talking about Mexico. What happened last night?

  “You first.”

  “I was helping Elena consolidate the data extracted from the solid-state drives you guys brought back from the mission the other day.”

  “Not good news?”

  Sean leaned his head back against the seat and tried to ignore the unease settling heavily in his gut. “We have security footage of Cillian Halloran and Declan Wolcott delivering a possible Splice shipment to the cartel responsible for the Splice attack in Mexico City this past spring.”

  “What?” Alexei said flatly, his one hand tightening on the steering wheel.

  “It matches the timeline.”

  “When Cillian start working for Declan?”

  “I don’t know. This is information we only learned about today.” Sean grimaced, running a hand over his face. “There’s a good chance that when Declan escaped in June he had other cargo on his jets. If he left with a shipment of Splice, or even the raw materials, he’d have to offload it somehow. Declan may have known Cillian from the shipments they delivered to the Reborn IRA over the years. If they’ve teamed up to sell the last of Valerie’s Splice stores, Cillian’s services as a chemist would be in high demand.”

  “Yjob.” Alexei angrily shook his head. “Director know?”

  “He knows. Elena is submitting an updated report. We were finalizing the details when you showed up.”

  “Is not good if those two work together.”

  “You have a gift for understatement.”

  “Have gift for other things.”

  Alexei slipped his hand free of Sean’s and slid it up his thigh to cup his groin. Sean pushed into the touch with a small gasp, turning his head to glare at Alexei.

  “Stop it. Keep your attention on the road, Lyosha.”

  “Only want to distract from bad thoughts.”

  Sean manfully didn’t whimper as Alexei very deliberately rubbed his hand between Sean’s legs. “Distract me later.”

  Alexei smirked and removed his hand, settling it back down on Sean’s thigh. After a moment, he sighed heavily, the humor leaving his face. “Will need to up security details for families again.”

  “I know. I put that recommendation in my part of the report.”

  Since June, both their families had been watched over by MDF agents due to the realization they could be targeted by certain people in the CIA. Sean had already been targeted once back in Belfast, and with everything that had happened in June, he wasn’t willing to let his family become collateral damage. His parents and three brothers had only just started to come around to the fact that he’d lied for years about what he did for a living and embrace who and what he was now.

  As for Alexei and Kyle’s family, their parents, at the behest of the MDF, had ended up fostering the girl Sean had saved during the June mission. Phaedra Armstrong was just one of many victims that Valerie had tortured through Splice experiments at her biotech lab. Phaedra was the only survivor, coming away from that horror with the ability to see what was happening anywhere in the world, in real time.

  Her clairvoyant power was exceedingly rare, and the MDF was keeping her identity restricted only to a select group of people with the highest security clearance within the agency and the Dvorkins. At ten years old, Phaedra was still a minor, and the MDF couldn’t legally retain her services. They’d trained her on how to better control the power she was frightened to use, but that was all they could do for her right now. Growing up on the base wasn’t possible, so the director had asked the Dvorkins to foster her. Considering how close Phaedra had grown to Sean throughout her rescue and short time on base, and through him, Alexei, Phaedra had been more than willing to live with the Dvorkins.

  She’d lost her entire family through Valerie’s sadistic experiments; any distant relatives had been told she’d died for security purposes. DNA identification was still ongoing for a good number of the dead found buried on Declan’s ranch in mass graves, so it was easy to add her supposed death in with everyone else’s. The MDF had created and filed a new, legal identity for her, and despite her young age, Phaedra knew how important it was to keep secrets.

  Trauma would do that to a person.

  The MDF had assigned an agent to live on-site at the residential apartment complex the Dvorkins lived in to ensure Phaedra’s safety. Sean knew Alexei hadn’t minded the extra protection for his family, but he had a feeling one agent wouldn’t be enough with everything going on right now.

  His brothers, members of the rock band Atomic Grace, had finished their tour at the end of summer before going their separate ways. Sean didn’t think they’d be all that thrilled about bodyguards being foisted on them again for national security reasons, but oh well. The latest clusterfuck wasn’t something Sean was willing to let his family ignore.

  “Not what I expected to come home to after finishing my mission,” Sean muttered.

  “What you think would happen?” Alexei asked curiously.

  “That I’d come back and we could spend three uninterrupted days in bed.”

  In response to that, Alexei slammed his foot down on the gas and shot through the upcoming intersection as the light changed from yellow to red.

  Sean laughed. “You’ll get a ticket if you run every light between us and home.”

  “Worth it,” Alexei replied.

  Sean hoped so, because Alexei ran five more lights before they made it to the apartment building. They parked in the subterranean garage, leaving Alexei’s car in a guest parking spot. They lucked out that a spot was available. The nearest public parking garage was five blocks away, and on a cold November afternoon, neither of them wanted to walk that distance.

  Wish we could do something about that, Sean thought to himself.

  He could amend the parking clause on his lease and rent another parking spot for Alexei, but Sean didn’t want to risk any unwanted attention from anyone on base. Alexei was hardly ever at his own apartment these days unless Sean was on a mission. He understood why Alexei still kept the apartment—cover for Kyle and Jamie—which was the only reason he hadn’t yet suggested Alexei move in for good, but he was tempted. He’d thought about it over the past six months, because he liked sharing a home with Alexei, and being without him during the course of his last mission was hard.

  I’ll ask soon, Sean decided. Maybe after Thanksgiving.

  They called the elevator and stepped inside, taking it up to his level. As they stepped out into the long hallway, Alexei reached up to ruffle Sean’s hair.

  “Dye tonight?” he asked hopefully.

  “What? You don’t like me as a blond?” Sean asked.

  Alexei gently tugged at his hair. “Like you.”

  Sean couldn’t help but smile at that. They’d had a rocky beginning back in January before working together over the course of several months gradually turned into a friendship. It took overcoming Alexei’s distrust of spies and demolishing Sean’s uncertainty at starting a relationship without any lies involved to get where they were today. It was nice knowing Alexei preferred Sean as himself and not with any cover in the way.

  Alexei let them into the apartment and Sean immediately headed for the bathroo
m after shrugging out of his jacket. His cover had been more working-class poor than CFO this time around, and his clothes reflected that. He stripped out of his worn T-shirt in the bathroom before digging beneath the sink for the box of hair dye removal he always kept around for after-mission cleanups.

  Dyeing hair took a matter of minutes these days; removing it took just a little longer. Alexei leaned one shoulder against the doorway and crossed his arms over his broad chest, watching Sean in the mirror with hooded gray eyes.

  “How long?” Alexei asked.

  Sean tried not to think about how warm Alexei’s hand had felt between his legs on the drive over and concentrated on working the removal product through his hair. “Five minutes to set, then I can rinse it out.”

  In answer to that, Alexei straightened up and started to strip in lazy motions that revealed a tempting expanse of warm skin and the hard muscles that came from a rigorous training regimen. Alexei was sexy clothed, naked, or dressed only in a skimpy bathing suit that showed off his thick cock that Sean really couldn’t get enough of. He didn’t have an ounce of shame in him, and very much liked it when Sean looked.

  Sean raked his gaze up and down Alexei’s body, heat settling low in his belly and flushing across his face as Alexei flexed his arms a little. “You’re ridiculous.”

  “Am best.”

  “If you say so.”

  The bathroom was small, but that didn’t stop Alexei from hooking an arm around Sean and pressing himself up behind him. Despite how slick his hair was, Alexei still bent his head to kiss Sean’s shoulder, teeth pressing softly against skin. Sean shivered, feeling as if a charged wire connected his cock to Alexei’s touch. He moaned when Alexei slipped a hand between his legs and felt him up. Sean ground down into his touch as Alexei rubbed his hardening cock against his ass. The vibrations of Alexei’s laughter vibrated through Sean’s torso from where he was plastered to his back.

  “Come join me in shower when hair is done,” Alexei said with one last teasing rub of his hand before he let Sean go.

  Sean had to brace himself against the bathroom sink, glaring at Alexei in the mirror as the taller man stepped into the shower stall. “That’s not fair,” he practically whined.

  Alexei just chuckled as the water started up. Through the clear shower door, Sean watched as Alexei lazily soaped up and got clean, paying particular attention to his cock since he knew Sean was looking. Alexei had a really nice cock that Sean was desperate to get his hands and mouth on, and failing that, was perfectly willing to ride it if that’s what Alexei wanted. Sean didn’t care; so long as he got Alexei in him in some way, he’d be happy.

  A month in the field used to never leave him aching like this. Before, when relations with his family were strained, and he had no one to come home to, Sean hadn’t cared about how long a mission took. Now, knowing what was waiting for him upon return, Sean was glad when the mission was over. He was happy with Alexei, and the reduction of stress in his life was noticeable even to his work-assigned therapist. Sharing his life with someone he cared about was definitely a game changer.

  Sean had a couple more minutes left to kill, and he used that time to strip out of his jeans and underwear, never taking his eyes off Alexei’s blurry form in the steamy shower. Condensation had fogged up the glass from the warm water, making it harder to get a good view. Sean didn’t mind the view at all as he teased his cock to hardness while waiting for the chrono on his bioware to finish counting down the time.

  The second the chrono hit zero, Sean opened the shower door and stepped inside the small, steam-filled space. The shower wasn’t really meant to house two people, but they ignored that fact in favor of getting close. Alexei maneuvered Sean under the shower spray, working his strong hands through Sean’s hair to help rinse out the dye-removal product.

  Sean tipped his head back and closed his eyes as the warm water sluiced over his face. Alexei’s mouth touched his, and Sean parted his lips, drawing him into a wet kiss. Alexei cradled his head with gentle hands and kissed him slow and deep, the warm water running over both their bodies. Sean couldn’t get enough of him, wet hands slipping against warm skin as he pulled Alexei impossibly closer.

  One muscled thigh slipped between his legs, giving Sean something to rub off against. The solid pressure against his cock had him breaking the kiss with a gasp, trying not to breathe in any water. Alexei reached for the shampoo bottle, squirting some into the palm of his hand. Sean bit his lip as Alexei lifted his leg a little, silently coaxing Sean to keep going.

  He bent his head, watching the way his cock moved against Alexei’s thigh as the taller man worked the shampoo through his hair. Licking his lips a little, Sean wrapped one hand around Alexei’s thick cock, giving it a firm tug. Alexei’s fingers scraped hard over his head at the touch and he smiled.

  “Can I suck you?” Sean asked.

  As good as Alexei’s cock felt in his hand, he couldn’t wait to get it in his mouth. Alexei seemed to like the idea, judging by how his cock throbbed in Sean’s grip, but the answer ended up surprising him.

  “Nyet,” Alexei said, dropping one hand to his ass, soapy fingers slipping between his ass cheeks. “Want to fuck you.”

  Sean raised his head to nip at Alexei’s ear. “Can’t fuck me in this shower. I don’t want to pay extra on the water bill, and the hot water is going to be used up soon.”

  Alexei made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat before he finished rinsing the shampoo out of Sean’s hair and turned off the water. Sean blinked up at him, water clumping his lashes together, and watched as Alexei shoved open the shower door. A cloud of steam billowed out into the bathroom as Alexei stepped out, tugging Sean after him.

  The mirror was fogged up, but the condensation was slowly starting to fade since the bathroom door was open. Alexei pressed Sean up against the sink, big hands gripping his hips with warm fingers. Sean braced himself against the edge of the counter and let Alexei drag him back a little by the hips, nudging his legs apart.

  He lifted his head and looked into the mirror, able to see more of their reflections now that the steam was dissipating. Alexei stood behind him, tall and dominating in a way that made Sean go weak in the knees, sticky pre-cum dribbling out of his cock.

  He blinked, seeing his own face flushed in the mirror, hair back to its original brown coloring, the shade just a little darker than usual from being wet. Alexei ran his hand up Sean’s back, tracing his spine all the way to his neck. Those long fingers messed up his hair before curling underneath his jaw.

  Alexei leaned over him, his warmth encompassing Sean like a blanket. “Keep watch, da?”

  Sean dug his fingers into the unyielding surface of the sink counter, practically whimpering at the feel of Alexei’s cock sliding along the crack of his ass. Water was cooling on his skin, leaving goosebumps behind.

  “Okay.”

  Not like he would ever look away. There was a reason Sean’s bedroom furniture had been moved around to accommodate a large, floor-length mirror now bolted to the wall. Alexei liked to watch, liked it when Sean watched, and Sean had learned to like it too. Ever since Las Vegas, when he could hardly look at the mirror unless Alexei asked him to, Sean had slowly grown to enjoy getting off together in front of a mirror or by himself with Alexei watching and dictating the moves. Neither of them were much into any sort of heavy kink, but Alexei’s voyeuristic tendencies made sex interesting.

  Alexei made sex interesting.

  Sean swallowed as Alexei yanked open a drawer in the sink vanity and pulled out a bottle of lube. A moment later, slick fingers stroked up from behind Sean’s balls to his ass, sliding over his hole in a teasing touch. His mouth dropped open in anticipation, teeth a flash of white in the mirror.

  Alexei slipped a finger into him and Sean’s eyes fluttered shut at the sensation. The hand on his face shifted a little until Alexei pushed two fingers into Sean’s mouth. He sucked greedily on them, running his tongue around them as he cracked his eyes open
and looked at the mirror. Alexei’s gaze met his, mouth curled in a satisfied smirk that made Sean moan and press his ass back against that warm touch.

  “You fuck yourself like this while on mission?” Alexei asked curiously as he crooked his finger just right to scrape it over Sean’s prostate.

  Sean swallowed around the fingers in his mouth, breathing in sharply through his nose as he nodded as much as he could.

  “Pretend it me?”

  Sean whined, nearly gagging as Alexei pressed his fingers down onto his tongue, rubbing them slowly over it. He nodded again, never taking his eyes off Alexei in the mirror.

  If anything, that smirk got wider. “Good, kotyonok.”

  The teasing nickname Alexei had bestowed on him in June was an intimate, inside joke between them these days. In the beginning, Sean hadn’t known what it meant and hadn’t wanted to cheat and get a translation from the computer. Sean had gotten better at speaking and understanding Russian over the past few months, but all his language abilities went right out the window when Alexei got his hands on him like this. Happened every time. Russian was difficult to learn and emulate even when one didn’t have their lover distracting them in the best way possible.

  Alexei removed his fingers from Sean’s mouth, giving Sean room to breathe as a second finger joined the first in his ass. He rocked back against Alexei’s fingers, entire body undulating in a way that no longer embarrassed him when he saw himself in the mirror. He hadn’t had many partners before Alexei, and his experience in bed hadn’t been anything to write home about. Alexei had certainly changed that, shoring up his confidence so that Sean didn’t mind showing how much he liked getting off with Alexei.

  “You should fuck me, Lyosha,” Sean said as he rocked back onto those talented fingers again.

  “Soon,” Alexei crooned. “Tell me how you come on mission.”

  Sean let his head hang a little, watching how his cock bobbed in the air with every roll of his hips. “I would…would finger myself open. Like you are.”

  “Pretend it me?”