Full Circle by Rj Scott (top 50 books to read TXT) 📕

talked to me too. Says you'll take me back to Jennifer if I wanted so I can stay with Mom. Says I did an awesome job though." Josh laughed.

But it wasn't a laugh of joy. It was one that dripped with sarcasm. "Oh, and when this is all over and if it's safe for me to show my face in public he offered me a freaking job."

"That's a good thing isn't it?" Manny asked cautiously. He nearly jumped back when Josh thumped a clenched fist on the work surface. Temper didn't sit well on Josh. He was normally so utterly calm and controlled.

Manny wasn't sure whether to be worried or pleased that emotion was streaming away from Josh instead of being held inside. Deliberately, he encouraged Josh to turn and face him. Josh turned but wouldn't look him in the eyes.

"Don't you think that is a good thing? You are damned good at what you do. Look how it went these last few days.

You're a natural. I said that to Jake when I—"

Josh shoved him away. "You spoke to Jake? What did you tell him? Jake is a good friend of yours. Did you tell him that you wanted me there for the occasional break?"

"What?" Manny wasn't following this. The words were irrational. "What the hell, Josh?"

"You said yourself I shouldn't mistake this for anything more than it was. I know my place, so what did you tell him then?" Josh was demanding answers and his green eyes looked suspiciously bright. Manny bit his tongue. He wasn't convinced that Josh was ready for everything that Manny had to say but he guessed the beginning was as good as any.

"You don't understand. Jake is a like a brother to me—"

"I knew it—"

Manny shook Josh hard and wondered at that point if he should be slapping the taller man.

"Listen to me, you idiot. I talked to Jake last night.

Before any of this went down. I said to him that I had these feelings for you and we clicked and that you liked Star Trek and you were so good with computers and I liked that." He paused for a breath. "He laughed. Said that maybe I should take a sabbatical from Sanctuary to see whether you were the one person I was looking for in my life. I suggested I go into witness protection with you—"

"You have a life. You can't do that—"

"Don't worry, he said 'not on his life'. He said I would be off my head after three hours and would be wiring the fridge to get satellite reception. Look, Josh. I don't know where this will go. I feel a connection to you that I never imagined I would. I used to look at Nik and Morgan, or Adam and Lee, even freaking Kayden and his Beckett, and I would see them as other types of people. Not men like me who lived in the real world."

"I don't know the others, but I like Nik and Morgan, they're good together," Josh said quietly.

Manny ignored this and pushed on, "What I do is all consuming. Then Joseph happened to us all."

"Joseph?"

"I have this friend, you haven't met him yet. His name is Dale, tall, big-assed operative who fell in lust in literally days with this SEAL, Joseph. And I mean days. He wanted to be with a guy who may not even make it back from his next mission alive let alone be the kind of guy you plan forever with. But you want to know how they played it? Dale told me they promised now. Whatever that was, or however long it lasted. I always saw Joseph and Dale as the ones like me; the couple who had to exist by seeing each other when they could and praying the other man didn't get himself killed. "

"I don't see where this is going. I'm back in witness protection and you'll be out here doing stupid stuff without me to stop you. We'd never meet up so wouldn't even have a now."

Manny gripped Josh's upper arms tight. "This is our now, Josh. I'll take you back into witness protection because we promised your dad you would be safe but I came up with a compromise. I just need to know what you might be feeling and if you think it's something we could work on."

"Go on." Josh sounded intrigued.

"There is a place Sanctuary has in Canada. Deep in the wilderness but with awesome satellite coverage, it has a comms room like you wouldn't believe, room for your mom—"

"You want to play happy family?"

Manny shook Josh again. He could smack the guy—in fact he was getting close to doing so. "I want a 'now' with you. This case has come full circle for Sanctuary. It started with your dad and now it's ending with you and me. We'll stay in the north until it's all done down here, and then we'll create a new 'now' for us."

"Us?" Josh whispered. He was clearly focusing on that one word.

"Only if you want?" Suddenly Manny was uncertain. He had more or less opened his heart to the gorgeous man in front of him. Standing in that office with Alastair and Gregory and no backup had crystalized what Manny wanted. What Josh said next was vitally important.

Josh said nothing. Instead he pulled Manny close

for a kiss. The kiss deepened and Manny wondered if this was the answer. When Josh guided him to sit up on the counter so that they were level, and wasn't that hot, he finally pulled back from kissing. What he said cut through to the very heart of Manny.

"Us would be good," Josh said simply. "There's something here. A connection that is way past just going to bed together."

"Agreed."

Josh smiled and his green eyes sparked with mischief. "Anyway," he began with a smirk. "I've never been to Canada."

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RJ Scott lives just outside London. She has been writing since age six, when