no clear way to get to the drain. When he checked the cabinet underneath, he saw that the sink wasn’t hooked up to a water source or drainpipe. “That was not a useful hint,” he grumbled.
He turned to seek Romeo’s agreement and found him staring at one of the waterfall photos. Teddy hadn’t given them much thought, assuming they were just intended to mimic the soothing artwork often found in doctors’ offices.
“I think we need a phone number,” Romeo said, chin in hand. He tried to remove the print from the wall, but it was firmly attached. He leaned in closer to the picture.
Not to be outdone, Teddy parked himself in front of the other waterfall, which also proved inseparable from the wall. Numbers. Was there tiny print somewhere? Not that he could see. He growled in frustration. “This is stupid. It has nothing to do with our work. I think we should—”
“Go pick up the phone.”
Huffing his annoyance, Teddy stomped over to obey. “Still nothing,” he reported after picking up the receiver.
“It’s the...the streamlets. Their width might be binary code. Put in these numbers. Um, one. Zero. One.” Romeo went to the other picture. “Zero. Zero. Zero. One.”
“How do you know which order—” But before Teddy could complete his question, a buzz and a click came from one wall. A hidden door behind the muscle chart sprang open. He and Romeo scurried over and mildly jostled each other in the doorway, seeking a better view.
“Wow. I guess we know what happened to the good doctor,” Romeo said. The open door revealed a closet, empty except for an old-fashioned doctor’s bag and a lab coat that had been shredded into large pieces.
“The doc’s werewolf guinea pig ate him?”
“Nah, no blood. I think the doc was the guinea pig. She—or he—injected themselves with the serum.”
That made sense. The bag contained a flashlight, some AAA batteries—which didn’t fit the flashlight—an empty plastic syringe, and several plastic vials full of purple liquid. Teddy clicked the flashlight on and off, but nothing happened. “Is there anything else in here?” He walked into the closet, intending to check the single shelf. But even if he stood on his toes, straining his ankle in the process, he was too short to see.
“Let me look.” Romeo stepped inside.
It wasn’t a tiny closet. It was bigger than either of the two in Teddy’s apartment and, unlike them, wasn’t stuffed full of clothing. But it was pretty cramped for two grown men, and when Teddy moved slightly to one side just as Romeo did the same, they ended up pressed against each other, chest to chest.
Teddy couldn’t stand it one minute longer. He reached up and ghosted a finger along Romeo’s lips. Romeo responded with a strangled sound, then wrapped his arms around Teddy and kissed him.
Teddy kissed him right back.
Chapter Twelve
Romeo tasted delicious, like coffee and the spices from his lunch. But more importantly he felt delicious: warm and solid and breathtakingly real. Teddy was vaguely aware that his hands had settled rather firmly on Romeo’s butt, and that Romeo didn’t seem to mind a bit. But the kiss was more important than the grope. Teddy never wanted it to end.
Inevitably, though, they had to breathe. They broke off the kiss but remained holding each other. “I thought you didn’t want this.” Romeo’s voice was wonderfully rough, and Teddy felt Romeo’s heartbeat racing as fast as his own.
“Wha’?” Language felt too difficult at the moment and thinking was out of the question.
“You said you weren’t interested in... You said you want to stay unattached.”
Teddy was going to argue that a single kiss in a closet hardly made for a meaningful relationship. But he and Romeo were still tightly embracing—Teddy’s hands still on Romeo’s ass, in fact—which meant they were rather literally attached, at least for the moment. And Teddy didn’t want to let go.
“You’ve been tempting me,” he said stupidly.
“Like an incubus?”
“Pretty much.”
Romeo’s chuckle felt good. “For how long?”
Honesty was best. “Since the minute we met. Only... I thought you were a jerk who hated me.”
“You don’t think that anymore?”
Teddy squeezed him a little more tightly. “This is a weird way of showing hate.”
“What about the jerk part?”
“I...” Teddy struggled for the right words. “I’m sorry. I made some wrong assumptions and I misjudged you. You’re definitely not a jerk.”
With a noisy sigh, Romeo rested his head against Teddy’s. God, that felt good. His lips were tantalizingly close to Teddy’s ear.
“I didn’t think you were a jerk,”