Ben the way no one else could. Then again, Gabriel was a profiler by nature. Maybe it was nothing personal.
Ben bit his lip, wondering if Gabriel’s protection detail assignment would continue another day. Everyday life was a risk in itself. But standing in front of a bullet sort of bumped up the odds. He wanted Gabriel safe, not off somewhere getting stabbed and punched like on his last assignment.
He crossed his arms on the dinner table and leaned forward, resting his chin on his forearms. He stared at his phone, willing it to vibrate with a new message. He could keep this up all night if necessary, waiting for that I’m-back-home text to arrive.
He stared, then stared some more. World-champion starer proving his talent in full force. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon.
A light flashed in the room and Ben instantly jolted in his chair. With a hand over his wildly beating heart, he glanced over to the phone’s black screen while the light in the corner flashed. His gaze snapped up to Julian, then to Matt. Julian stood from the table and walked out of the kitchen toward the back of the house while Matt stacked the dishes on the table.
Ben took a few deep breaths to settle the pounding in his chest as he made a mental note to never challenge his phone again. He stood and shoved the device into his back pocket, ready to help Matt clear the table when he spotted Julian standing in the kitchen doorway. “Someone’s here to see you,” he signed.
Julian stepped away with a hint of a smile.
The pounding in Ben’s chest thundered. His lips parted. Like a figment of his imagination, there stood Gabriel. Rather than jeans and a T-shirt, he wore slacks and a black button-down dress shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows. As if in a trance, Ben took one step, then another, nearing him.
“I was going to text you,” Gabriel signed. Had Ben not been staring, he would have missed the negligible shake in Gabriel’s hands before he shoved them into his pockets and continued without signing. “But I knew I’d make it before curfew.”
Gabriel’s eyes always revealed more than his words or gestures. They told a story, even when the man chose to remain silent while waiting for Ben’s cue. Tonight, there was something off in his gaze, something unsteady. Almost pleading.
Ben stepped into Gabriel’s space and slid an arm around his waist, sensing he wasn’t the only one who needed to be grounded.
Strong arms instantly wrapped around him, pulling him close. The muscles were as hard and tight as Ben had imagined. Maybe more. But it was the shaky breath breezing against his ear and the fiercely pounding heart against his own that caught his attention.
Ben rested his head on Gabriel’s shoulder, nestling into the warmth and safety of the steel cocoon encasing him. He placed his hand over Gabriel’s heart, each thump violently smacking against his palm. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then another as he stroked Gabriel’s chest, coaxing the fierce and frantic thumps to calm.
After a few seconds, the pounding in his own chest finally eased as the thumping against his palm began to settle, the rhythm of their heartbeats syncing.
This closeness, this peace…it felt right.
And it didn’t feel temporary.
= ♥ =
The nonstop adrenaline rush of the last two days had Bull running on autopilot. The imminent crash wreaked havoc on his body, making his hands shake and his pulse beat double time.
Holding Ben in his arms was exactly what he needed to soothe the inevitable fall from that high. After forty-eight hours of running on all pistons, his heartbeat finally neared something close to normal.
“You’ve got fifteen minutes until curfew. You can go out back if you want. As long as he stays on the property, it’s fine.” Julian, a.k.a. Mr. Buzzkill, stacked the last of the dishes from the dinner table and walked them over to Matt by the sink.
Moving to a different location would require letting go. Bull ducked his head, brushing his nose against Ben’s hair.
There was no way in hell he was letting go.
Not yet.
Never…if it were up to him.
Ben tilted his head up, the distance between them only a few inches. He could lean in and capture those lips, but this wasn’t the time and certainly not the place. Those thick dark eyebrows dipped into a frown and the concern in that green gaze reached deep into Bull’s soul.