Page 47 of Lovesick Gods

With the towel still bunched in their hands, Danny and Cho leaned forward at the same time. They kissed again. Softer. Slower.

“Some of our promises will need to wait until next time,” Cho spoke quietly between them. “I don’t want a time limit when I take you apart. And I will return that favor soon. Apologies for Lucy, it’s…not something I can reschedule. But half an hour is still plenty of time for a little fun.”

“Yeah…” Danny said, telling himself to be patient. If he wanted to draw things out and make Cho yearn for him, then these interruptions played in his favor. He just wished he didn’t want the escape the man offered him as badly as he did, that he didn’t feel like he’d lose his mind without it.

Time. He needed time, and it would get easier. He didn’t needCho. It was just that he hadn’t had such good sex in so long, maybe ever.

“Let me…” Danny pulled his hands from Cho’s beneath the towel and gestured at the glass on the counter.

“Don’t worry about it, I can—”

But Danny shook his head and cleaned the remaining glass anyway. Depositing all of it in the trash safely, he wiped the counter, reluctantly tossed the cookies in the trash as well, and left the kitchen practically flawless.

He held up his hands when he was finished. “I was careful. No more glass, I promise.”

Tossing the towel next to the sink, Cho crossed his arms in thought. “Might need to make a game of it, Sparky, just to be safe. Make sure you use yourmouthonly.”

“Sounds fun. Come here, Ice Man.” Danny reached for Cho’s sweater and twisted his fingers in the fabric, tugging as he started to back up. “Let’s debauch your sofa again.”

ß

Hades was doing his namesake proud—he knew everyone’s secrets now.

The details about Prometheus’s upcoming heist had been overheard only too easily at Haven, but while keeping tabs on the man, Hades had watched him welcome into his home the very detective currently working his case.

Daniel Grant.

Hades had watched with interest, since there was no greater leverage to use against a criminal than sleeping with a detective, and vice versa. But there was something unique abouttheir rapport and the way Prometheus called the Lightning leaning detective ‘Sparky’. Everything became clear when Grant shattered a wine glass with a flash of yellow light.

Zeuswas sleeping with the enemy. Hades couldn’t have planned their combined downfall any better if he’d gotten them together himself.

For now he’d bide his time and plan something grander for his next theft, really letDetective Grantand the OCPD feel the pang of failure as another impossible-to-solve case reared its head while they were still working on the first one. Something to give them a reason to look into him.

Yes. He knew just the place to rob next.

Chapter12

Mal was on his way home from another stakeout with Dom when he decided to stop byAndrews’ Electronicsto check on Priestly. It was the next week, a little earlier than Priestly said he’d be finished with their amplifiers, but it didn’t hurt to get a progress report. Plus, it gave Mal an excuse to walk a few extra blocks around the neighborhood to make sure Dunkirk wasn’t lurking.

Lucy had spotted him the night Mal was last with Danny, throwing a wrench into his plans for the evening. Dunkirk had high-tailed it when he saw Lucy, but she’d insisted that Mal meet her. She’d followed him as best she could, but by the time Mal caught up with his sister, she’d lost track of Dunkirk heading into the heart of the city toward his father’s territories.

He was looking for Carla, and he wasn’t going to stop. He knew she didn’t have long before the baby was due. It meant he might get reckless, dangerous, and throw aside the truce that currently resided between the Titans and the Irish.

Mal’s mind was in three different places as he entered the electronics shop—Zeus, the heist, and Sean Dunkirk’s idiocy. Mal didn’t mind mixing business with pleasure, but business and unpleasantness was plain annoying. Unpleasantness that disrupted his pleasure was even worse.

A couple other customers were in the shop today, so when Arty spotted Mal, he nodded and said, “If you’re checking on your order with Priestly, he’s in the back.”

Offering his thanks, he slipped quietly through the curtain. Priestly was hard at work at one of the tables, tinkering with a thin black cuff using the tiniest set of tools Mal had ever seen, like the kind used to fix a screw on a pair of glasses.

“Ask and ye shall receive. That mine?” Mal said.

Priestly didn’t look up. “You’re early.”

“Not expecting miracles, Hart. Just checking in.”

“A few more days, then you can test it. Otherwise, breathing down my neck doesn’t make me work any faster.” Finally, he glanced up after setting the cuff aside. “Unless you have a complaint about the aesthetics, and in that case…too bad. I like what I came up with, and I’m not changing it.”

Mal snorted. He had an MO with the people who worked with him, who were closest to him—they challenged him every step of the way but were loyal to a fault.

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