“Probably not,” Ty agreed as he stared up at the ceiling, smiling faintly.
Zane relaxed further against Ty"s body and inhaled. Then he frowned and sniffed again. Ty smelled like… lavender and vanilla.
“Did they bathe you in lotion? Or rub you with cookie dough or something?” Because there was also a whiff of cinnamon, now that he actually tried to figure out the odd scents that definitely weren"t Ty.
Maybe coconut too.
“Kinky,” Ty commented. He held up his hand and smelled his bicep, shaking his head. “It"s from the massage and… whatever it was.”
“Is this that spray-on tan stuff?” Zane asked, curious, as he prodded at Ty"s bare belly and the wide expanse of skin.
“No,” Ty answered in a slightly insulted voice. He swiped at Zane"s hand and rubbed at his belly like it tickled. “I"m always this color, they just… buffed me a little,” he explained, voice shaking with laughter.
“You are not always this color,” Zane objected, sending his wiggling fingers right back to the hollows along Ty"s ribs for a moment. “You weren"t tan up to here.” His palm skimmed up Ty"s inner thigh.
Ty turned and grabbed for Zane"s hand, pushing it back to the mattress and rolling toward him. “Quit it.”
Zane chuckled and evaded Ty"s grasp, sliding his hand instead over Ty"s hip to pull him closer. “No, they did something. It looks weird. You look like—” He shut his mouth with a snap.
Ty raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”
“Ah….” Zane cleared his throat and muttered a soft curse. He was going to get shit for this. “You look like a Ken doll.”
Ty barked a surprised laugh, pressing his mouth against Zane"s shoulder to snicker quietly. He closed his eyes and shook his head finally. “I know,” he moaned as he rolled onto his back and slung his arm over his eyes.
“So, doll, what are you packing for the cruise?” Zane drawled, figuring he might as well play it.
Ty grunted and glanced sideways at Zane with a crooked grin.
“Nothing.”
Zane smirked and deliberately dragged his gaze up and down the long, tanned, nude length of Ty"s body, and he felt fresh interest curl in his belly and thought about how he would expect a man like Corbin Porter to act if the incredible man in bed with him was his and his alone. “Hmmm. I"ll have to lock you up in the cabin then. No way am I sharing this”—he ran his hand familiarly over Ty"s body—“with just anyone. Doll.”
“Oh God, you"re getting into character now, aren"t you?” Ty groaned, laughing as he stretched under Zane"s hand.
Zane groped him a bit before lifting that hand to cover Ty"s left hand and lace their fingers together. The two rings rapped together lightly, reminding him of what was coming. “You"re mine, Del,” Zane drawled, more than a hint of arrogance sharpening his tone as he took the opportunity to look over Ty possessively, not hiding it one bit. And damn if it didn"t feel good. “Just you remember that when you go showing off that fine ass around that ship in those nonexistent swim shorts of yours.” Now he could feel the laugh threatening, caused by his outrageous playacting, and he knew it had to be showing in his eyes.
Ty was watching him, biting his lip against a smile. “He"s that much of an ass**le, huh?” he finally asked, his voice wavering with amusement.
“Oh doll, you have no idea,” Zane continued, one eyebrow pointing up officiously as he forced the amusement out of his demeanor, curling up his lip ever so slightly as his dark eyes took on a rapacious glint. He tightened his grip on Ty"s hand, the rings cutting in just a bit, which helped stave off the laughter. He knew he was a damn good actor, but if anyone could see through it, it would be Ty. Might as well test it now.
Ty smiled, barely restraining a laugh before he composed himself with remarkable speed. But he only managed to look at Zane seriously for mere seconds before his lips twitched into another smile and he snorted, trying not to laugh. He slapped his hand over his mouth and struggled to stay quiet. Finally, he regained control and looked at Zane once more with a somber nod.
Zane frowned at him for a long moment before rolling his eyes, because all he wanted to do was laugh too. “You"re right. We"re totally screwed.”
Ty began to laugh softly, the sound low and warm. His thumb slid across the metal of Zane"s wedding ring, and he lifted their hands and looked at the rings, one gold and scuffed from years of constant wear, one bright and silver and new. The laughter ebbed. Ty licked his lips as he examined them, and then he lowered their hands and slowly rolled into Zane, his body languid and pliable once more as he draped over him. It was a subtle but immediate change in his demeanor. Zane knew Ty was a damn good UC, which required a lot of acting. But he hadn"t known Ty had the ability to literally become someone else with just a shift of his body. He was impressed. Very impressed. And a little disturbed.
Ty nudged Zane"s nose with his and then kissed him slowly.
“We"ll be just fine,” he assured Zane in the British accent, his voice pitched just a little higher than normal. He smiled against Zane"s lips.
“You just have to own it. Believe that I"m yours and you"re mine,” he whispered slowly before dragging his teeth along Zane"s bottom lip.
Zane"s chest felt tight, more than it should even with Ty"s weight upon him. His entire body tingled with the words. He let his eyes half close, not wanting to examine the feeling too closely, and exhaled shakily as Ty"s words echoed in his ears.
“Make me believe it, darling,” Ty coaxed in the fake accent, his voice a bare whisper.
Zane closed his arms around Ty to hold him in place and tried to find the mindset he"d been cultivating all day. Corbin Porter was a self-serving, arrogant, possessive bastard who believed life was his way or the highway. It hadn"t taken Zane the whole twenty minutes of listening to him during questioning to figure that one out. What Zane worried about was how Corbin"s predictably selfish hold on Del all too easily translated to Zane"s own silent craving to keep Ty to himself…
and how his very headstrong and independent lover would react to it.
He clenched his fingers into Ty"s warm skin. “You are mine,” he asserted in that sharpened, confident-sounding drawl. “I know it; you know it. And so will anyone else who looks at you.”
“There you go,” Ty murmured approvingly, draping his leg over Zane"s hip and kissing him again languidly, the simple action simultaneously more submissive and seductive than anything Ty had ever done to him before. The effect was intoxicating, and Zane found both his body and his mind responding in just the way he figured Ty intended.