also at the premiere night. I would put money down that Artur’s going to get a heads-up sometime this week. Sergei has used Artur too often for him not to have a part in this. I feel it.”
“So,” Hunter said, wrapping his other arm around Grace’s waist, the better to pull him tight and feel him, warm and pliant, in his lap and keep him safe from all the scary things that they both knew were out there. “Do we have a plan?”
Josh gestured to the almost empty box of donuts. “Are we awake? Are we sugared up? Have we had enough caffeine? Because I think it’s time to go back to my parents’ basement and come up with a couple. What do you say?”
“I’m wearing Hunter’s sweats for the rest of my life,” Grace said happily.
“You’ll have to change them to wash them,” Josh said. “And give him back his sugar spoon. Don’t think I can’t see it sticking out in your pocket.”
Hunter grunted in exasperation. “Dammit, Grace!”
Grace pulled it from his pocket and smacked it down on the table. “I’ll get it eventually,” he promised. “Don’t even bother to deny it.”
“I’m not going to deny it,” Hunter muttered. “I’m just going to try to give you something better. I like that spoon!”
“See?” Grace shrugged. “There is nothing better.” He kissed Hunter’s cheek, and Hunter cursed the fact that the only ideas he could come up with at the moment were how to hang on to his damned sugar spoon.
THEY STAYED the night in Grace’s room, and Hunter spent a few moments lying on the soft mattress, his eyes roving the vaulted ceiling, taking in what he understood now was Grace’s real home.
There were pictures of K-pop stars on the walls, and he had to smile, but there were also pictures of Gregory Hines, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sergei Polunin, and Carlos Acosta.
Heroes.
Pictures of him, from the second grade on, perhaps, with Josh and his family at various school outings, Felix and Julia looking very young and happier than most married couples Hunter had ever known, including his own parents.
A secret picture, probably smuggled to him by Josh, of Josh with Felix, Julia, and Danny. Danny and Felix were standing couple close—so before their breakup—and Josh was looking so very proud.
Family. Hunter had a picture of his parents and brothers that he kept in his wallet against all protocol and good sense. He loved them, distantly, but since he’d joined the service, they’d been people he sent Christmas packages to. Grace had seized upon Josh and his family with two hands, but he’d always been afraid he’d be kicked aside.
So easily wounded, Dylan Li.
“Dylan?” he murmured.
“What? Why are you still awake? Do you want to fool around?”
Hunter grunted and ran his hand under Grace’s T-shirt and the waistband of his briefs. “Yes, but no. Are you going to be okay tomorrow?”
“What’s to worry? Dance, dance, dance—it’s two weeks before showtime. Whatever.”
Funny, how he was the male lead in the show, and he practiced for probably fifty hours a week, but he could blow it off as “whatever.”
“But there may be bad guys around.” He felt like an idiot saying “bad guys,” but he wasn’t sure how much Grace had been paying attention. He’d noticed that sometimes Grace tended to dance to his own music—literally—and Hunter had gathered that the motion helped Grace focus. But they’d briefed for hours, doing things like asking Stirling or Danny to look things up, sending Felix out to make calls, and even, at one point, having Julia ask Phyllis, the housekeeper, if she knew some of the caterers who would be working the gala at the museum.
“That’s not really what you want to know,” Grace said wisely. “What you really wanted to know is if I’m going to be okay the day after tomorrow.”
Hunter let out a breath. Yup. That’s what he really wanted to know. He should have known better than to underestimate a man named Grace.
“Yeah, so. Are you?”
Grace grunted. “I’ll be way better if we have sex tonight.”
Hunter buried his nose against the soft, fine hair at the nape of Grace’s neck. “If I suck you off, can you not make too much noise?”
Grace made a decidedly evil sound. “Nope. My turn!”
And with that, he turned around in Hunter’s arms and scooched down, taking Hunter’s boxers as he went. His mouth on Hunter’s cock was heaven, and the distraction worked. Hunter would wager neither of them were thinking about the next step in