More than Need by Aurora Crane

Author:Aurora Crane [Crane, Aurora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

Gideon hadn’t come to see him once that day. Riley checked the time on his computer. Nearing two in the afternoon. Even before they’d started sleeping together, something would have come into his inbox by now that made his eyebrow twitch. Or a knock at his door with a request that ended in, “Get out of my office right now, Gideon, before I fire you.”

Riley knew his increased workload, while partnerless, kept him busy, but that didn’t make it any less unusual that Riley hadn’t heard anything from him.

He might have counted himself lucky if things were normal. They weren’t normal. While he wouldn’t give Gideon special treatment or allow either of them to use the relationship to their advantage, they couldn’t deny that their relationship shift had changed something.

Riley threw down his pen, unable to concentrate. For fuck’s sake. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Their professional lives were separate from their personal ones. They had to be, in order to make this work and to keep it secret.

He emerged from his office and found Quinn and his partner, Grady, as well as two of his other detectives, Greer—who looked as he always did, a mixture of disgust and annoyance on his face—and his partner, Henry.

“Where is Gideon?” Riley asked, shooting the question at anyone who had the answer.

“Staff room,” Quinn answered. “He didn’t look that great, though. Think he might have caught whatever Ange has.”

Riley had been afraid of that. He searched Quinn’s face. Not even a hint of reprimand or judgement. Sebastian hadn’t told him yet. Trying to find the right moment, or giving Riley a chance to do it himself? Quinn deserved to have it come directly from the source and not through a third party. Still, Riley hesitated. The risk Riley took was his burden to bear, and he didn’t want to add that to someone else, or ask them to keep the secret.

Riley did an about-turn without responding.

Gideon sat at the table in the break room, a steaming mug in his hands. He looked listless, with closed eyes.

“Gideon.”

He jumped, tea sloshing over the side of the rim of his mug. “Fuck,” he hissed, leaning forward to grab a napkin.

Riley got there first. He dabbed at Gideon’s hand, studying him as he did. It was an understatement to call him a “bit” pale. “Did you sleep at all last night?”

“I look that good, huh? I was a bit restless; nothing I can’t handle.”

Slightly nasal. Riley finished wiping up the mess and moved the mug out of reach. He pressed the back of his hand to Gideon’s forehead.

“What are you doing?”

“Go home, Gideon.”

Gideon frowned. “I don’t think sleeping badly warrants going home, sir.” He’d used that honorific on purpose.

Riley sat on the chair next to him and forcibly turned him, trapping Gideon’s smaller thighs between his knees. “Don’t make me give you an order. You’ve visited Angela recently.”

“I took her some stuff and tidied her place. What does that have to do with anything?”

Riley checked Gideon’s hand. No burns.

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