Zane laughed aloud, and Ty could see clear interest on a few other faces. Zane was drawing a lot of attention, and well he should be.
Hell, probably half the people up here—women and men—would want Zane to bend them over a balcony railing.
Ty turned his head to nuzzle against Zane"s chin again. “You didn"t tell me about the tattoo.”
“I figured you"d noticed,” Zane murmured. “It"s not exactly subtle.”
Ty laughed and shook his head. “Haven"t had occasion to see that side of you lately.”
Zane chuckled, and it shook both of them this time. “So what do you think?”
“I"m more impressed with the rest of you,” Ty assured him with another smirk. He gave Zane a few slow strokes. He wanted Zane in him, and now. But more than that, he wanted Zane to want it enough to make a move.
Zane hissed quietly. “Doll….” His voice carried a warning tone.
“You"ll make me forget we"re supposed to be working.”
“We are working, remember?” Ty drawled as he continued to slide the tips of his fingers against Zane"s swimsuit.
Zane splayed his hand over Ty"s chest and started stroking up and down his sun-warmed skin, going a little lower each time. “And I"m wondering just how Corbin would decide between being smug and showing you off or being jealous and dragging you to bed away from prying eyes,” he said throatily.
Ty shifted his body against Zane suggestively. If they were getting up to head to the cabin any time soon, he wanted Zane just as turned on as he was. He might even be able to push him over the edge and get him to go rough on him. God, that was fun, watching Zane battle between control and wild passion. His fingers stroked along the hard ridge in Zane"s shorts.
“I vote for the bed,” Ty murmured with a smirk.
Without warning, Zane surged up out of the deck chair, practically lifting Ty to set him on his feet. He grabbed a towel in one hand and Ty"s wrist in the other and started stalking for the doors that would lead into the concourse of luxury cabins. Ty nearly stumbled, barely grabbing his sunglasses, and Zane"s grasp on his wrist was the only thing that kept him on his feet as he was dragged away from the pool. He bit his lip in anticipation of what might be coming and tried to look suitably chastised as he followed.
Zane pulled him inside, and the forced air spilled over them as they moved through the entryway and into the wide stairwell. Once they were around the corner, Zane swung Ty around with a growl and pinned him to the wall, his head narrowly missing a sprig of holiday cheer taped to the bulkhead. “You have any idea how close I was to tipping you back on that chair?” he growled, grinding his obvious hard-on against Ty"s thigh.
Ty tangled both hands in Zane"s hair and bit his lip again against the smile that threatened. “God, I love it when you do this,” he told Zane with relish, his voice a bare whisper as he tried to catch his breath.
“This?” Zane purred against Ty"s ear as he pressed his body against Ty"s from chest to thigh, heated bare skin catching and skipping instead of sliding. He deliberately dragged one hand down Ty"s side toward his shorts.
Ty shook his head, fighting the grin as he let his fingers slide down Zane"s face. “I believe you were growling,” he corrected. He wrapped his arms loosely around his lover"s neck and tilted his head up, silently requesting a kiss.
Zane"s response started as a hum in his chest and built to the requested growl as he dipped his chin and pushed his lips firmly against Ty"s just as his palm cupped behind Ty"s thigh to hitch him closer. If Ty didn"t know better, he"d think Zane planned to f**k him right there in the hallway. When Zane growled again, dropped the towel, and slid his other hand under the fabric of Ty"s shorts to cup his ass, Ty suddenly wasn"t so sure he really did know better.
Zane had just dragged his tongue along Ty"s lower lip when Ty heard someone very close by clear his throat. He jerked back in alarm as Zane"s hands abruptly tightened on him, and Ty banged the back of his head against the wall. It was a knee-jerk reaction to being caught Ty was pretty sure he"d never get over. He didn"t like being surprised.
A man stood in the middle of the corridor looking into the stairwell, watching them passively. It was the same man Ty had seen observing them outside. He was quite striking up close. His hair was dark and curly at the ends, cut just above his shoulders and slicked back, with hints of gray at the temples and along his hairline. His stylish goatee was carefully maintained, hiding the hard lines of his lips. He held his expensive sunglasses in his hand now as he looked at Ty and Zane in bemusement. His eyes were a deep mahogany, a beautiful color, but cold and emotionless. The steel gray bathing shorts he wore just intensified that effect.
Zane straightened to his full height, curled his arm around Ty"s shoulders, and subtly pulled him closer, splaying his hand across Ty"s collarbone possessively. Ty bit back the annoyance the protective stance caused.
“Can I help you?” Zane said, the sounds rumbling between put out and wary.
“Mr. Porter?” the man asked in heavily accented English. Ty couldn"t quite place the origin. Turkey, maybe. He wasn"t sure. What was obvious was that this had to be one of Corbin Porter"s contacts aboard the ship. And he definitely wasn"t Italian. That left Vartan Armen, the acquisitions specialist.
“I"m Corbin Porter,” Zane acknowledged. “You must be—”
“Vartan Armen, yes,” the man broke in. “Only the one telephone conversation more than a year ago does not give one much with which to draw a conclusion, I know.” Armen paused and looked Ty up and down. “I must admit, your… husband gave you away.”
Ty had to fight not to bristle at the man. He felt like a pit bull, his hackles rising because he didn"t like the scent of the man. He snorted at him as if amused. Zane must have picked up on the tension, though, because the hand on Ty"s shoulder began to rub soothingly. “He does attract attention, doesn"t he?” Zane said.
Armen gave Ty a polite look and nod. “Quite striking, indeed. I am aware we are not to meet until some days hence, but I feel all this cloak and dagger is quite cumbersome. We"re not here to hide from one another,” he said with a smile that seemed genuine. “My stateroom is 8520, if you wish to contact me before our scheduled activities coincide. I feel dinner and drinks would put us all more at ease before we convene any business.”