Ty was silent as he pushed Zane off him and sat up, leaning against the headboard and staring at his partner expectantly.
“Don’t you think so?” Zane asked evenly, watching Ty intently.
“So you’re trying to egg me on,” Ty responded without answering.
“Make me cranky and somehow use me to solve an unsolvable case. What the hell are you, Zane, a Little Rascal?”
Zane’s eyes flashed with a little temper before calming, and he sat up to look over at the other man. “It’s your passion that’s missing, Ty. You want to solve the case. You desperately want to catch a break on it. But that drive you had … I just don’t see it. I mean, for Christ’s sake, you figured out the pattern the guy follows! That drove you insane when we were here before, but now you don’t even seem to give a damn!”
Ty leaned forward and his nostrils flared angrily. “Maybe there’s a lot of shit you miss with your head so far up your ass,” he snarled.
Zane just smiled, watching Ty with something that looked like pleasure mixed with hunger and a tinge of amusement.
Ty stopped short when he saw the reaction, sitting back against the headboard suspiciously. “Don’t look at me like that,” he muttered.
“Why not?” Zane asked.
“Because,” Ty huffed as he rolled off the bed and began to pace restlessly.
Zane shook his head slowly, still watching him. “Come back here,”
he tried, though he didn’t move from his sitting position on the end of the bed.
Ty shot him a dirty look and stopped pacing. He crossed his arms defiantly and pursed his lips to see what Zane would do. But the other man just waited for a moment, then patted his thigh and raised an eyebrow.
Ty snorted and looked at him incredulously. “Go f**k yourself,” he advised.
“I’d rather f**k you,” Zane drawled. Ty merely snorted stubbornly and turned to continue his pacing. Zane grinned and sprawled back on the bed. “Well, whenever,” he added, tipping his head back against the headboard to look at the ceiling.
“So is the f**king a part of your little plan, too?” Ty asked suddenly.
Zane brought his chin down and focused on Ty. “I want to f**k you, regardless,” he said. “You have any idea how far you’ve gotten under my skin?”
Again, the hairs on Ty’s arms rose and his chest tightened slightly. He shook his head wordlessly and scowled.
“Goddammit, Ty. I get a hard-on just looking at you,” Zane snapped.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
Ty took an involuntary step back and blinked at Zane stupidly. “I didn’t,” he insisted and shook his head as he finally looked away.
Zane cocked his head. “Does that bother you?” he asked, voice revealing his surprise.
“No,” Ty answered defensively. “I just didn’t ... realize....”
“Didn’t realize what?” Zane asked softly, sitting up to lean his elbows on his knees.
Ty was slowly regaining his balance, and as he did so he smiled slowly. “That you were so easy,” he answered with a smirk.
Zane chuckled and leaned back again. “Blame the hookers.”
Ty grew serious once more and took a step closer. “Is it the same?” he asked softly.
The smile on Zane’s face dimmed. “Not even remotely close to you.”
Ty stopped as Zane spoke and then took another step closer. “Do you have any idea,” he said in a low voice, “how far you’ve gotten under my skin?”
Zane stilled completely. “No,” he said honestly, voice low.
Ty moved closer and stood at the side of bed in front of Zane. “You should,” he murmured as he reached out and ran his fingers through Zane’s hair.
Zane’s dark eyes focused on him. “How? You don’t believe the same of me.”
“I don’t?” Ty asked softly.
Gaze going soft, Zane reached up to touch Ty’s hand, though he didn’t interfere with its movement. “I don’t know,” he whispered.
Ty sighed softly and bent over, dropping his hands to lean on Zane’s thighs. He slid them up to rest against Zane’s hips and he knelt there, looking up at him. “The girl who called that morning at my place,” he said suddenly.
“She was so upset because I f**ked her, then spent the rest of the night on the balcony with a beer and a really f**king rare cigar. Thinking about you.”
Zane could feel his heart pounding in the quiet. He wondered if Ty could hear it. He moved his hands to rest on Ty’s forearms. “Thinking about what?” he asked quietly. “Where I was?”
“And who and what you were doing,” Ty answered with a slow nod.
“What we had done, what we should have done….”
“I should have….” Zane stopped and shook his head. “I thought about you,” he admitted.
“You should have what?” Ty pressed softly.
Zane sighed and closed his eyes. “I should have stayed,” he breathed.
“I just didn’t know how.”
Ty watched him closely, frowning. “You couldn’t have stayed,” he finally responded.
“I know,” Zane answered. “Doesn’t mean I didn’t think about it.”
Ty remained on his knees, frowning at Zane without anything to say.
He pulled Zane’s hand toward him and kissed the inside of his wrist impulsively. Zane’s pulse was racing, and Ty could feel it jumping under his lips. “Why are you nervous?” he whispered in confusion.
Taking a deep breath, Zane let out his greatest fear. “What if something happens to you?” It was out of left field, for sure. But it was eating at him from the inside.
Ty raised his head slightly, looking at Zane seriously as he released him. He slowly eased himself up to sit cross-legged beside the bed and rested his elbows on his knees. This all went back to Zane’s wife, he realized. It was a pretty common reaction when someone lost a person they loved; to close off and try to refuse to care or let anyone close. The bitch of it was that there was no way to guard against losing again and again.
“I can’t promise that nothing will,” he finally answered with a shrug.
Zane nodded. “I know,” he said in a pained voice. “But I still want you.”
“So what’s the problem?” Ty asked gently.
Zane raised one shoulder in a confused shrug. “You said it: we get along best when we’re f**king. How do we make that work?”