Ty didn"t move as he watched Zane approach. He merely kept his eyes on him, a smile quirking his lips as Zane got closer. Then Zane stopped at the foot of the lounger and openly looked him up and down.
“Enjoying yourself?” he asked before wiping at his face again with the towel he carried.
Ty couldn"t help but stretch under the frank appraisal. He gave Zane a content smile. “I am now,” he answered wryly, the accent coming easier to him. The accent, he"d found, actually made it easier to be Del Porter. When he stopped using it in private, it was much more difficult to find the headspace. He couldn"t commit himself to using it all the time, though. It sounded too damn silly.
Zane"s smile turned into a smirk. “Sit up, doll,” he said as he rubbed the towel over his chest and abs.
Ty raised an eyebrow. Zane really seemed to be enjoying his role.
He pushed himself up onto his elbows, gave Zane a crooked smile, and sat up as requested. Zane straddled the lounger, sat, and slid in behind him, then leaned back, Ty neatly between his sprawled legs. “Ah. Much better vantage point for tracking interesting people,” Zane murmured pleasantly, dropping Corbin"s oily drawl.
Ty reached over to the table beside the chair and retrieved his sunglasses. He rested an elbow on Zane"s knee, looking around as he let his fingers coast along the damp skin of Zane"s calf. The dark shades masked his perusal of the crowd. Several people were watching them, some deliberately, some surreptitiously. One man in particular observed them from across the deck and had been doing so ever since Ty had caught sight of him more than thirty minutes ago.
“I think I"ve made one of our contacts,” Ty told Zane as he let his hand travel to the back of Zane"s knee and along his thigh. He resisted mentioning the tattoo. He didn"t think he could without laughing yet.
Zane grunted in acknowledgment. “Only one? Spot any of the team?” He laid his hand over Ty"s shoulder, stroking lightly with this thumb.
Ty"s lips twitched. “Not yet. You"re enjoying this, aren"t you?”
he declared in amusement, turning to glance back at Zane briefly. His fingertips just barely brushed Zane"s skin. It was a chaste, tantalizing gesture.
Zane"s look edged toward a leer. “Hell yes,” he said.
Ty smiled and turned his head to fully look at Zane, one eyebrow raised behind the designer sunglasses. It was rare to catch Zane in this mood. Ty wanted nothing more right then than to head back to the luxury stateroom, lock the door, and get on his knees. And he was okay with that.
He took his sunglasses off and met Zane"s eyes, knowing his partner would read him like a book.
That leer was firmly in place in Zane"s flashing eyes as Zane reached out, wrapped one hand around Ty"s neck to pull him close, and kissed him hard. Ty flailed slightly when he was yanked, having to contort a little and lean far backward to meet the kiss. But he relaxed into it quickly, letting the odd feeling settle over him.
It was an entirely new sensation for him, kissing another man in public. Something he had never done. Something he was really enjoying. He reached up to drag his fingers through Zane"s wet hair. He hummed along with the kiss, letting his body react and not trying to fight it. They had two weeks of this on their cake surveillance assignment. They might as well enjoy it. It seemed like forever before Zane pulled back, though it couldn"t possibly have been more than eight or ten seconds.
“Let"s go,” Zane rasped. “I"ve had enough sun for one afternoon, and I"m sure you"ve had your fill of people-watching.”
Ty smiled and turned his head to glance around the pool again.
His entire body buzzed after the kiss, another new thing for him, and he didn"t want to move and ruin it just yet. The man across the pool still watched them casually from behind his own sunglasses.
Ty cocked his head at him. He was tall and thin, his hair a deep black and his complexion what Ty might have called swarthy. They couldn"t approach him. He would come to them at the specified time, whenever the hell that was. Until then, all he and Zane had to do was…
be married.
Ty grinned and deliberately leaned his body back against Zane"s chest. He rested his head on the front of Zane"s shoulder and turned his face until his nose brushed under Zane"s chin. “I"d rather stay here a while longer,” he said in a low voice. His hand slid up Zane"s inner thigh, disappearing between their bodies.
The low rumble of an amused chuckle shook Ty slightly as Zane dropped his chin to steal a kiss, quicker this time, before curling his arm around Ty to rest his hand on Ty"s belly. He was now pretty much serving as the back of the deck chair, and Ty was lounging against him.
“If you want. You"ll make it up to me later,” Zane teased.
“Oh, I know it,” Ty responded as his fingers found what they"d been seeking. He smiled mischievously, lowering his voice as he let his fingers glide over the bulge in Zane"s swim trunks. “I look forward to being bent over the balcony railing,” he told Zane with certainty, his voice low.
That got a reaction that wasn"t smooth, cocky Corbin. Both Zane"s hands tightened as he sucked in a quick breath, and his c**k jumped against Ty"s hand. When Zane spoke, his voice was thick and rough. “Whatever makes you happy, doll.”
Ty grinned triumphantly. His fingers continued to move teasingly, hidden behind his back. The exotic-looking man still watched them. Ty found it odd and slightly disconcerting. He laid his head against Zane"s chest again, brow furrowing as he fondled his lover, hidden in plain sight.
Zane slid his fingers through Ty"s hair, and Ty thought he just might have felt those fingers shaking. Then Zane tugged gently after a particularly firm caress. “You are skating on thin ice.”
Ty smiled and looked around again. He was being fairly discreet.
No one around them seemed any the wiser. He moved his other hand to glide idly along Zane"s thigh as he used it as an armrest. He could see how some enjoyed this game of passive seduction. The thrill was in Zane"s reaction. How far could he go before Zane lost his control?
“You plan to punish me somehow?” he asked in the most innocent voice he could muster. The accent actually helped with that.
“Oh, I think I can come up with something suitably chastising,”
Zane said darkly. His voice was dropping closer toward a growl.
“If it doesn"t involve me on my knees in some fashion I shall be wildly disappointed,” Ty drawled as he gave a squeeze of his hand in emphasis. He was pleased with himself for remembering the intricacies of the dialect.