Page 80 of Psycho
Lucas craned his head around, expression pained. “Oof. I don’t like when you say my name.”
“What?” August asked, dumbfounded.
“When you say my name, it feels like you’re chastising me or something. Like…I don’t know. It’s just weird. You need to come up with some kind of term of endearment for me. Just not baby. It always sounds sleazy to me.”
August snickered. “That’s what Adam calls Noah when they’re having sex, so yeah. No thank you.”
“Your family is disturbingly close for a bunch of psychopaths,” Lucas mused.
August pulled his phone free, hooking his chin over Lucas’s shoulder so he could type in front of him.
“Did you just Google terms of endearment?” Lucas asked.
August scoffed. “Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to? What do we have on the list… Babe? Honey? Love? Sweetheart? Dove? Pet? Sugarplum?”
Lucas wrinkled his nose. “Ew. No. Too syrupy.”
August smiled. “Aren’t terms of endearment, by their very nature, supposed to be syrupy?”
Lucas pulled a face. “I suppose. But we’re not really syrupy people. We’re scientists. Professors,” Lucas reminded, as if that fact had escaped August.
August ran his nose along Lucas’s cheek. “Oh, I know. I very much like when you call me Professor. Just so you know.”
Lucas pressed his ass back against his now half-hard cock. “Good to know, Professor.”
August buried his face in his neck. “Don’t be a tease or I’m going to fuck you against the door of my childhood bedroom.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Lucas shot back.
August contented himself with placing open mouth kisses along the column of Lucas’s neck, then the shell of his ear. Lucas reached behind him to wrap his hands around the backs of August’s thighs, pulling him closer. “No. You will not distract me until we solve the problem at hand. What aboutumnishka?”
“Russian?” Lucas asked.
“Mm.”
“What does it mean?”
August grinned. “Technically, it means clever one, but it’s often described as a teacher being proud of his student. Like I’m saying, ‘that’s my boy.’”
Lucas hummed, turning to loop his arms around his neck. “You want me to be your clever boy? I think you might have a genuine student/teacher kink, Professor Mulvaney.”
“Are you still trying to head shrink me, Mr. Blackwell?”
“The head on your shoulders is not the one I’m interested in at the moment,” Lucas murmured against his lips.
“As much as I’d like to explore this further, you never answered my question. Are you okay?”
Lucas shrugged, pulling away enough to look up into August’s face. “No. I’m tired, and I’m hungry, and I want to stand under a hot shower for three days.”
“Is that all there is to it? You’re just exhausted and in need of food and a bath?”
“In a few hours, when the numbness wears off, there’s a very good chance I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. But for now, I just feel…nothing. Not nothing. I’m relieved. I’m relieved that Kohn is dead and so is his crew, but part of me worries the Russian will just find new lackeys.”
August kissed his nose. “The Russian is on borrowed time. Archer’s already on his way to take care of him.”
“That’s good,” Lucas said, sounding like it was no better or worse than before.
“Do you want to go home?” August asked.
