Duty and Devotion Read Online Free PDF

that night was so spot-on he could still feel the arrow in the middle of the bull's-eye. At least he'd salvaged something for him and Matt; the small house on the beach in Montauk was ridiculously expensive but worth it. Evan wanted to say thank you and I'm sorry and a couple of other things it made him blush to think about.
    Evan hadn't expected to be making all the same mistakes again. He didn't expect after his wife's death to fall in love again, let alone to fall in love with another man.
    He'd almost fucked it up. Almost pissed it all away in a swoop of fear, and that still haunted him, even as Matt almost seamlessly became part of their lives. The kids loved him. They didn't just accept him, they demanded him as part of their lives. Evan had no excuses.
    So of course, after all that dumb luck, he was working steadily on screwing it up.
    When Sherri died so tragically, so suddenly over two years ago, all Evan could think of was how he'd failed her as a husband. How he depended on her too much, how he left her holding the bag one too many times. How much did he want that time back, to apologize or to make it up to her? That wasn't going to happen with her—but he would be damned if he repeated the same mistakes with Matt.
    Back in the house, Evan spied the two suitcases near the front door. Upstairs he could hear the shower going. He absently reached into his pocket to check his messages, then threw the phone on the couch.
    “Seriously, Evan,” he mumbled, kicking off his sneakers as he marched upstairs.
    Man on a mission.
    By the time he reached the second-floor master bedroom Evan was naked—embarrassingly naked and semihard and shivering a little from both states of being as he put his hand on the doorknob.
    Matt was singing. Or more like humming loudly with the occasionally remembered word thrown in.
    Evan's heart thumped, and his dick got a little more interested.
    He pushed into the room before he lost his nerve—ridiculous as it might seem. Not usually the aggressor, not usually the one that made the first move. But this vacation was the start of a new resolution, one where Evan remembered how tenuous life could be and how not to take his boyfriend for granted.
    If anyone in the world knew how life changed on a dime without warning or preamble, Evan did. And he didn't want to ruin his relationship with Matt making the same old mistakes.
    The steam level indicated Matt was fully enjoying the water tank and the absence of anyone flushing the toilet. Evan stepped over a pile of towels and Matt's sweatpants, his hand pausing and wavering over the folds of the shower curtain.
    “I see your shadow,” Matt called over the pulse of the water.
    “Those razor-sharp cop instincts still exist.”
    “Also? I've seen Psycho like forty times.” His boyfriend pulled the curtain back, soapy and smiling. “You have a license for that lethal weapon?” He gave Evan's dick a pointed look.
    “That's a line?”
    “I told you—no more lines.” And with that Matt erased Evan's foot-dragging seduction and reached for him. “No more courting. You're stuck with me.”
    Evan ducked into the shower, pushing Matt a step back and stealing the still-hot spray. He tipped his head back, rubbing his hands over his chest and arms in a way he knew Matt appreciated.
    Appreciative enough to trace the same patterns with Matt's own hand, stepping under the water to close the distance between them.
    “This is a surprise,” Matt murmured, pressing his mouth against Evan's pulse point, licking up under his ear. Evan shivered as he wound his arms around Matt's broad shoulders.
    “Kickoff to vacation,” Evan said, pushing them out of the spray to lean his lover against the tiled wall. “Celebrate the quiet.”
    “I like it.” Matt's dick rubbed against Evan's stomach. “Makes me look forward to what you have planned for the rest of the weekend.”
    Evan's body blushed and burned as he rocked his hips against Matt's. They'd gone only so