Free 4-Bound By Danger by SE Jakes Page B

rolls with the guy.
    But hell, he’d always known it was far more than that, even before it happened. Didn’t know why, and that’s probably what bothered him the most.
    “You can’t choose who you fall in love with,” Sawyer would always say, mainly to justify the fact that he was a straight guy who’d fallen in love with another man.
    And now he was thinking about love and Clint in the same breath, and fuck no, it was too soon.
    “If you knew, then why did you get so upset?”
    Jace paused, then said, “I knew Tomcat was gone, no matter what. And I didn’t know what that meant. Why it hurt so much. I didn’t know if I was a part of the pretend.”
    “You weren’t—you’re not. For me, it wasn’t an ending—it was a beginning, although you know my job and the limits it puts on me.”
    “What, exactly, does that mean?”
    “For one thing, discretion.”
    “So if the CIA comes calling…”
    “They won’t. They shouldn’t. But I could get fucked for this involvement with you if something goes wrong.”
    Jace got it—he was still in the MC. And involved with the Feds, and fuck, this could go bad if he let it. Which he wouldn’t. “So what, every time you’re in town, we get together?”
    “It’s a start. I don’t think either of us is able to do anything more at the moment.”
    Jace nodded, because he wasn’t.
    Clint touched his shoulder. “Jace—”
    “Don’t, okay? I’m angrier at myself.”
    “Why?”
    He stopped himself from saying Because I fell for you like a girl. “I just am, all right?”
    There was a long pause, and then Clint admitted, “I’m pissed that I’m here, too, Jace.”
    “What’s with you and the mind reading?”
    “You don’t have a poker face. At least not with me. Look, not contacting you was really hard—I didn’t expect it to be. It shouldn’t have been. I never should’ve texted you, but I couldn’t help it. I played all of this badly.”
    “So what do we do?”
    Clint ran a hand through his hair. “Mind if I stay here with you until I get called?”
    It could be hours or days. Jace hoped for the latter. “Yeah. Just don’t expect me to cook for you or anything.”
    Clint rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said as he moved to get up, searched for his pants.
    “And once this time is up, then what?”
     
    Clint turned from where he’d been rooting around on the floor, because he’d actually planned to do some cooking for Jace. “What do you want to happen?”
    “You’re the one who came back to find me,” Jace pointed out. “You could’ve stayed dead and buried. I can’t believe you couldn’t find another lay without complications.”
    Clint wanted to give a quick answer, about how Jace was in fact a hell of a lay, but a wiseass comment refused to fly from his usually quick-witted mouth.
    Because Jace asked the question he’d refused to ask himself. Why had he come here? Jace would’ve gotten over him, gotten on with his work and his life—Clint was for sure nothing but a huge complication in Jace’s life.
    Or is it the other way around?
    Because Jace was probably the best kind of complication to have. “My job,” he started.
    Jace cut him off. “Mine, too.”
    “I can’t tell if that makes it better or worse,” Clint admitted.
    “Maybe you should stay in bed until we figure it out.”
    Clint dropped his clothes back to the floor and moved next to Jace again. “That’s not a half-bad idea.”

Chapter Ten
    Sawyer slammed into the locker room and away from Rex’s yelling. He’d stayed behind to work on some maneuvers after most of the team went home, and now he wished he’d followed them. But the perfectionist in him wanted better—and Jace stayed with him—and so they’d worked until he was sweating and dizzy, until his arms felt like rubber, and still it wasn’t enough.
    To top it off, Rex wasn’t finished chewing his ass out.
    “Don’t you walk away from me,” he drawled, and dammit, the man