“I grapple with you often. It’s most definitely a treat.” Noah gave him a slow, lingering kiss. “And I love you, too.”
“So, what did he whisper in your ear?”
“Fucker told me he actually enjoyed the porn and just needed an outlet for his restlessness.”
Rowe’s laughter lasted through most of the shower.The Color in Noah’s World“This place is insane,” Noah whispered into the phone as he found his corner as far from the client’s bedroom as possible. And it was pretty far because the apartment could actually swallow the home he shared with Rowe. The penthouse—it would be another penthouse—stretched from one side of the brick building to the other. The wide-open spaces made him feel small. Cathedral ceilings and the sparse decor made everything echo. “You think Vallois’s penthouse is lush? You should see this woman’s place. It’s all white. White everywhere. I’m afraid I’ll leave stains just breathing in here. And there isn’t one thing out of place.”
He’d found a gray metal barstool he couldn’t mess up and placed it in an area that gave him full view of most of the main room of the apartment. He settled onto it and cradled the phone to his ear. “There are twelve windows stacked in twos along one wall, Rowe,” he continued. “Twelve. Each one taller than me. White curtains from the high ceiling fall to the floor and the furniture, carpet…hell, even the rugs are this color. I don’t get it.”
Rowe laughed, husky and soft. “That would drive me nuts. There are obviously no pets.”
He could hear the sheets rustling and wished so badly he was there right then. “There’s a cat around here somewhere. Fluffy like crazy and guess what color? I could be looking at it right now and not know it.”
Rowe laughed again and the throaty rasp of the noise did things to his body as always. God, he loved nothing more than hearing that sound when in bed next to him. Which hadn’t happened for three nights now. He sighed, unhappy about facing another all-night session in this cold palace without Rowe’s warmth. “I miss lying next to you.”
“So do I. Daisy’s company just isn’t the same. I was hoping you could swap out with Royce tonight, but I needed him elsewhere. We’re starting to come up short.”
They were. Rowe and Andrei had been going out on more jobs and it looked like they’d need more people on the computers as well. Quinn and Gidget had been pulling long hours and Noah had been helping them. On nights like this, when he was overnighting as a bodyguard, it was nothing to flip open his laptop and help them comb through social media. When a client came in, suspicious and scared, the first thing they did was a profile analysis if the client knew who was after them. Or behavior profiling, as Quinn called it. Nowadays, it was easy to ferret out all kinds of information. Noah had actually started to love this part of the process. When he’d taken this position, he’d considered it a temporary solution—not really wanting to rely on Rowe for his job—but he loved the work. “Business is really picking up.”
“It is. Finally. It only took months after the fires to reestablish our reputation. We’re going to have to hire more people.”
“You going to let Andrei weed through the masses again?”
“Of course. He’s got a knack for picking good ones. Sven is one of the best employees I’ve ever had.”
There were more rustling noises and Noah could easily imagine Rowe, who always slept naked when they were home, sprawled out on their sheets. This week, they were white and his pretty skin and black tattoo would stand out in a vision he never tired of.
“Daisy, move.” A dog snort and soft cursing sounded. “I think she misses you, too. She won’t leave my side when you’re not here.”
The woman he was guarding had been in her room for a couple of hours. She was pretty nice, really, and she had reason to need a bodyguard because she’d recently invested in a bunch of free clinics and there were some not-so-happy fanatics enraged about some of the women’s care options she’d added to the program. Lucille Arinov was so much more than a socialite who’d been born with a silver spoon. In fact, her warm, caring personality didn’t fit this winter decor at all. If he’d met her before seeing her place, he would never have believed it hers.
Rowe made a soft grunt and Noah knew he’d turned onto his side. He closed his eyes, picturing his boyfriend in their bed and got an idea. Eyes flying back open, he looked at the boring, gray, square piece of metal on the wall—one of the few things of color in the room—and thought about a good way to pass a little time. “So…what are you wearing?”