Page 60 of Lovesick Gods

Danny’s body naturally wanted to spark in the throes of his pleasure, so he let it, let himself pulse with lightning over every inch of skin. Cho moaned, and being already so close to the edge, he came in seconds. Danny came soon after without even being touched.

Neither spoke as they breathed heavily in the aftermath. Neither could form coherent words for the first several minutes. Danny only loosely registered when they pulled apart and Cho tossed the condom over the side of the bed into the trash, leaving him feeling empty again but so, so content.

They lay there, side by side, and Danny stared up at the ceiling, wishing, if only for a moment, that he could stay like this forever and never have to be Zeus or Detective Grant again.

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Mal should cut his losses. Now. Let it just be sex. Enjoy the remarkable orgasms this man gave him like no one else ever had and leave it at that. But he was compelled to know everything he could about his…adversary.

“Quid pro quo, Sparky,” Mal said to the ceiling, not even turning his head.

“Yeah? Shoot.”

“What’s the real reason you ditched work to see me?”

Silence filled the air like it was charged with static. If this was just sex, Mal shouldn’t care, but he had to know why Danny sought him out like someone drowning in the middle of the ocean.

“I…I just…” Danny started to speak but faded out. When Mal glanced at him, he had an arm draped over his eyes as if to hide. “I told you it’s been stressful lately.”

“This is more than stress.” Mal should know. He was intimately familiar with being broken.

“What do you care?” Danny peeked at him from beneath his arm. “You’re just looking for angles, right? Your next opportunity to get the upper hand?”

Mal stared. He wasn’t used to Danny being this…cold. “Thought I justhadthe upper hand. You complaining about how that turned out?”

“No complaints,” Danny chuckled humorlessly, dropping his arm but returning his attention to the ceiling.

“Danny…”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I came here so I wouldn’t have totalkabout it.” Sharp, punched words. This was Danny at his most honest, open and angry. Mal didn’t know what to do with that information.

“Then don’t,” he said, remaining neutral when Danny looked at him again. “I told you. You don’t owe me anything.”

The frown in Danny’s brow smoothed out with a wave of emotion. Moisture filled his eyes like a switch had been flipped, like all he’d been waiting for, for days,weeks, was to hear someone finally say those words to him.

“I can’tbreathe,” he said, and Mal knew he didn’t mean literally, but he understood. He knew exactly how Danny felt as the kid’s eyes went distant and he rushed on, “Sometimes I feel soangry, I want to destroy everything around me. Sometimes I don’t feel anything. I’m just numb. And my powers can’t fix what’s wrong with me, not this time. You’re the only thing…” His eyes centered on Mal’s face, and all at once he seemed to realize how much he was saying and who he was saying it to.

Tears trickled down his cheeks.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m fine,” he said like a challenge, turning back to the ceiling with a grimace, though whether he was trying to convince Mal or himself was unclear.

Either way Mal knew it wasn’t the truth. And he shouldn’t care. Danny was right; he shouldn’t care. But he did. “Then why are you crying?”

Danny whirled on Mal with a snarl and he tensed to be hit—no. They weren’t fighting. They weren’t in costume. Mal hadconvinced himself he was sleeping with his nemesis, but that wasn’t whose eyes met his. He didn’t have to throw his guards up when it was Danny looking back at him instead of Zeus. And he realized with a start that it wasDannyhe wanted.

So he stood his ground and waited. Danny’s face was a twisted, angry sneer, but he didn’t reach for Mal, didn’t do anything but gasp for breath and look at him like he wanted to scream until his seams unraveled and all that fury drained away.

It did drain, eventually. Tears still on his face, Danny’s expression crumbled into one of anguish instead. He looked ready to lightning jump away, to escape this unexpected confrontation he’d brought upon himself.

Rolling onto his side to better face Danny, Mal kept his movements as measured and calculated as he had with the young robber in Rashid’s shop. He didn’t want to spook Danny; he didn’t want him to leave. Cupping Danny’s face in his palm, he pulled him closer for a kiss. Slow. Sweet.

What the hell was Mal doing? Heshouldbe working out angles, like Danny had said, looking for his opening, for a chance to turn this insanity to his advantage. And when it came to heists and keeping out of jail, he’d do that, he’d do whatever he had to…but to Zeus, not to Danny. Maybe that was the compromise that fixed this. It didn’t have to be personal, it should never be personal. Zeus was business, but Danny…Danny was something else and Mal was already in too deep.

A moment of just their lips pressed together passed before Danny started to kiss him back, like he’d been too stunned to move. When they parted, he whispered, “You make it easier…” but then his eyes widened and he pulled back like he’d surprised himself with his honesty.

Mal couldn’t betray his indecision, his doubt that what they were doing was the right course. Disaster loomed over them every step of the way, but he couldn’t call it quits yet either,couldn’t let go of something that made him feel like only a perfect heist ever had.

So he tried to portray that he had everything under control, summoning the confidence that had kindled Danny’s passion in the convenience store. He kissed Danny again and felt the other man’s hesitation. There was more Danny hadn’t told him, but it didn’t matter. Right now all Mal cared about was this moment, high on endorphins, sweaty and dirty and spent. The heist didn’t matter. Dunkirk didn’t matter. Only Danny.

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