Cammie spread her hands as if to say "See? It can happen."

Damn. He hadn't meant to encourage her. "I like him."

"The sentiment is returned, I assure you."

"You know Saul pretty well."

"He's a sad man. Haunted by more demons than is strictly fair." She punctuated each word with a sharp poke of her finger.

Filling his mouth with scalding tea might be a more attractive idea than dashing her hopes. "There's no future for us, Cammie. It's impossible." Giving voice to the truth he'd been trying not to think about turned his stomach. He pushed the tea away. "I wish I could explain it to you, but I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Won't. If you were listening, then you already know. I can't stay here. I have to go back."

Cammie blinked like a wise owl. "Take him with you."

The pain hit him hard, squeezing his throat closed. "I can't."

"He's got nothing left here since that bastard partner of his betrayed him and he lost Lisa. Nothing worth holding on to, or at least he believes. I fear for him sometimes, that so little tethers him to the world of the living."

Reegan had nursed a few of those own fears himself since meeting Saul. The man's business wouldn't last the year. Maxie had said so. The dark possibilities behind that failure haunted Reegan's thoughts.

"Cammie, it's not that I don't want to be with him." He craved that more than anything. At the end, however this situation ended, Saul would be the most brutal loss of all. "It's physically impossible. He can't travel back with me."

A shuffle of footsteps in the doorway warned Reegan of Saul's presence before he ever spoke. "Why not?"

Reegan floundered. "Saul..."

Cammie wiggled off the bench when the silence became awkward. "I'm going to bed. Try to keep it down, boys. That girl needs some sleep."

Reegan didn't fool himself into thinking that all of a sudden she respected their privacy. She was fleeing, and he didn't blame her. He waited, hunched over his mug, until Saul appeared in his peripheral vision, standing rigidly at his shoulder.

Reegan reached back, connecting with Saul's hip. "Sit down. We need to talk."

He sensed the usual sarcastic quip on the tip of Saul's tongue. Or maybe he'd become so used to his responses, the conversation seemed to require it. What they were about to discuss required a touch of levity, so when Saul bit down on his response and sat as ordered, Reegan grieved the loss.

"I've been thinking about it. Going back with you."

Leave it to Saul not to pull any punches. Or to home in on the one topic certain to drive a wedge between them. Reegan hadn't been thinking about it, except in fantasy, because that would be the only way it could ever happen.

He had to physically push the words out. "You can't. I'm sorry. It's impossible."

"Because I'm from this time."

Reegan gave a sharp nod.

"It's never done?"

"It's been tried. Around the time of the technology's birth. I don't fully understand it, but I'm well versed in the consequences." He darted a glance at Saul's face, unsurprised to see it blank and unreadable. "It's connected to why travel into the future is still experimental. It sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it, if the dimension of time truly is a loop? But the initial trials ended mostly in tragedy. People were sent into the future to never return."

"None returned?"

"A few did. And it baffled everyone because probes sent to the future returned just fine. It's the people who gum up the works."

Saul folded his fingers under his chin and stared into the distance. "But that's not exactly what we're talking about here. Our situation is a little different."

"Technically it is, but to satisfy your unanswered question, they've tried it this way too."

"This way?"

"Sent travelers back in time to bring people from the past into the present."

"Same results?"

"Yes. It doesn't always end in tragedy. On rare occasions, it works. They have no idea why some people arrive safely in the future and others don't. There are theories, of course. Most of those are mystical in nature."

"All science starts that way," Saul intoned. "So." He shifted in his seat, gaze pinned on Reegan's face. "What happens to them? Do they just bounce back to where they belong?"

If only they did. Nobody would suffer more than a bumpy ride. "No. They disappear in the portal. Teams sent back to look for these volunteers never find a trace of them, in their time or ours. They simply...vanish."

Saul looked to be carved from marble, he was so still. "I see."

"I won't take that risk with you."

"No." Saul's nostrils flared on a deep inhalation. When he exhaled, the tension left with the air. He sagged against the back of the bench. "I know you won't."

Not I won't. The deliberate wording gave Reegan a chill. It crawled up his spine to settle in the base of his skull. He'd known they'd been enjoying each other on borrowed time. Now Saul knew it as well. The final piece of information revealed.

Reegan curled his hands around the cup to disguise their trembling. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." Saul rose stiffly and walked away. Reegan heard the door to the bathroom open and close.

He took up his teabag, dunking it several times before he blew out a disgusted breath and pushed the mug away. He couldn't leave things like this. Screw the universe and its strange workings. He wasn't leaving until they touched one last time.

Six steps brought him to the bathroom door. He knocked and waited. Saul's voice sounded thin and tired when he answered. "Yeah?"

"It's me." No need to go into any more detail than that. About who he was or what he wanted. They'd crossed that bridge ages ago.

"Come in."

Reegan entered, expecting Saul's posture to reflect his voice. He'd envisioned him slumped over the sink, head hanging between his shoulders. The physical manifestation of everything Reegan had been feeling.

He got everything he didn't expect, including a strong arm grabbing him around the waist before he'd even crossed the threshold. Saul spun him. Butted the door closed and pinned him against it, breathing heavily against the back of his neck. Reegan's insides went from lukewarm to burning in the space of three seconds.

Saul didn't speak. Just nuzzled, but not gently, scraping his cheek and chin on Reegan's skin with enough pressure to redden it. Caught up in the sensations rocketing between his neck and groin, Reegan almost missed his anguished, broken words. "Do we really have the time for this?"

"I'm making time, damn it." Reegan tried to turn, but Saul held him fast. "Ease up. I'm here now." He tested Saul's hold again. "Come on. I want to kiss you."

That helped. The iron grip around his stomach eased, and Reegan wiggled around until his back was to the door and they were pressed chest to chest. He didn't struggle for control, letting Saul take the reins.

Saul's lips crashed over his, thumping Reegan's head back against the wood. Insistent fingers worked the buttons of his jeans. Reegan didn't interfere. He cupped his palms over Saul's waist and let the man work.

"Get that off," Saul growled, glaring at Reegan's T-shirt. His eyes held a sheen of moisture that Reegan tried not to think about too much. He stripped the shirt over his head as ordered and let Saul peel his pants down past his thighs. Only then did Saul pause, breath whistling through his nose as he stared.

His voice, when he spoke, trembled, words shattering as though they were a bottle of vodka crashing to the floor. "I want you," he whispered.

Reegan cupped his face, lifting his chin so that their eyes met. He stroked his thumb over one sharp cheekbone. "So have me."

"I didn't-I don't have anything."

"There has to be something here." He leveraged Saul backward against the sink top, rummaging through the plastic bottles lined up against the mirror. "Here." He tossed a bottle of hand cream at Saul. "It might smell like flowers."

Saul didn't look to care, dropping it into the sink with a grunt of acknowledgment, before turning back with another searching gaze. It took Reegan several seconds to discern the look of expectancy. "We don't need one."

The struggle in Saul's expression was plain. "Another benefit to living in the future?"

"It's a plus, yeah."

Saul hesitated, though his body wasn't happy about it. Muscles taut, he vibrated with longing. Reegan reached to slip the buttons on Saul's jeans, feeding that desire as much as he dared while the other man battled his misgivings.

Saul finally spoke as Reegan pushed his jeans down past his hips. "I've never..."

Reegan worked a translation as slid his own pants the rest of the way off and scooted backward onto the marble vanity. He pulled Saul between his spread legs. The man knew how to fuck, so that wasn't it. That he'd proved. "Never?"

"Without protection."

Ah. The condom hadn't been unpleasant, but Reegan couldn't imagine having that barrier between himself and his lover on a regular basis. Yet those were the times Saul lived in. The opportunity to give him more this once stirred Reegan's lust to even greater heights.

"Then let me show you what it's like." He urged Saul out of his pants and jerked the T-shirt over his head, leaving him naked. Cammie's parting words rang in his head. "We need to be quiet."

Rather than answer, Saul reached past him and flicked a switch on the wall. A low drone filled the air as the exhaust fan roared to life. "Now come here," he ordered.

Little about this encounter would be soft or tender. Saul wouldn't draw it out. His body language indicated that ability was beyond him, and Reegan knew he wasn't far behind. Still, he'd try to start slow. He drew Saul close for a heated kiss, frotting against him with lazy thrusts.

Saul endured the slow pace for a few minutes before yanking Reegan off the counter and spinning him around. He buried his face in Reegan's neck and rutted against his ass in quick, sharp movements. A thin coat of perspiration made the drag of his cock against Reegan's cleft maddening. Waiting became torture. He scrabbled for the hand cream, unable to hold back a frustrated keen when it kept sliding out of his grip.

Saul lifted his head at the sound, pupils flaring at the sight of Reegan straining for the bottle. He surged to grab it first, then leaned back to place a firm but trembling hand on Reegan's back. "Reegan?"

"It's okay." He knew that tone. That question. "No need to be gentle."

He wasn't gentle, starting with two well-coated fingers. Reegan hissed in air, then let it out, releasing what tension he could. Saul's fingers sank deeper, and he gave an appreciative groan. Slippery hands pushed his legs even further apart, and Reegan obliged, bending further over the sink top. The fingers rotated, then retreated, and Reegan groaned at the sudden emptiness. "Come on. More."

The words were still echoing in the air when he felt the thick, blunt tip of Saul's cock at his entrance. Saul bent over his back, setting his forehead between Reegan's shoulder blades, his body a mass of quivering need. "I'm sorry. I can't wait."

"Don't want you to."

Saul pushed inside, but despite his words, stilled as soon as he did, running soothing hands down Reegan's flank while he battled the initial discomfort. "Okay?"

Reegan nodded, and Saul took him at his word, not asking again. He tried to hold back. Reegan sensed that. The restraint translated into slow, rigid thrusts, erasing the vestiges of Reegan's pain. He hung his head low between his shoulders, sinking onto his elbows. "What are you waiting for?"

Saul's clipped laugh brought a smile to Reegan's face, but he hid it against his folded arms, embarrassed at how his heart twisted.

Panting, Saul had trouble getting his words out. "I just...Jesus. It's amazing. It's-"

Indescribable, apparently, because Saul didn't bother to finish the thought. He realigned his grip on Reegan's hips, fingers digging deep. When he started moving again, it was with a fluidity and dispatch that proved his control had finally snapped.

Trying to hold against the onslaught, Reegan braced his elbows on the counter, but soon the relentless pounding stole his strength to do anything but drift with the rising tide of climax. A vicious thrust drove him into the neat row of perfumes and body creams that lined the back of the sink. They scattered across the vanity, and Reegan gasped as the changed angle propelled him past his own point of no return. He reached for his straining cock, wrapping it tight in his fist, stripping it in time with Saul's frenzied thrusts.

Climax hit with the force and speed of a bullet, and Reegan held his instinctive shout behind clenched teeth as his body jerked and emptied in ecstatic pulses. Saul buried his answering cry against Reegan's shoulder. His pace faltered, and he came, swelling and throbbing inside Reegan's body.

Strength gone, they fell forward, Saul still buried inside him, arms wrapped tight around his lover. Even as their breathing calmed, his grip stayed firm. Reegan's ebbing pleasure redoubled, the possessiveness striking a bell-like peal in his heart and mind.

Saul shifted. Lips brushed Reegan's hair, ruffling it above his ear. His voice purred one expectant, tortured word. "Reegan."

Reegan shushed him. "I know."

Chapter Sixteen.

"Don't even think about trying to sneak out of here without me. You're not going over there alone."

Saul scowled as he slid his jeans over his hips and reached for his wadded-up shirt. "You'll slow me down."

Reegan's sharp laugh preceded a smack to Saul's ass. "I'm not six. Stop with the playground insults. I won't slow you down, and going alone is hands-down reckless. Now put your damn shoes on, and let's get moving." He began straightening Cammie's scattered toiletries. "You said we could do this in an hour?"

That was pushing it. He'd said that to keep Reegan out of danger, though he wasn't really safe anywhere. "On the inside. Maybe ninety minutes."

Reegan grunted an acknowledgement as he finished repairing the damage their overzealous encounter had done to the spotless vanity top. "Let me fill Silvia in. Then we can go."

They found Silvia still cuddled into the chair where they'd left her. Reegan might have been trying for a disapproving stare, but Saul noticed quite a bit of fondness in his expression.

"Don't wake her." Cammie spoke quietly from the doorway. "I'll pass on any message you need me to."

It might be for the best. Saul tried to judge the look in Reegan's eye. "You okay with that?"

Reegan took several seconds to consider. "Maybe she'll sleep through it. Saul said we'd be back in an hour or so."

He had said that, but inexplicably, on hearing Reegan repeat it, a bad feeling took seed in his brain, unfurling with alarming speed. He grappled with the premonition as though it were a living thing, shoving it deep into the recesses of his mind.

Cammie waved off his concern. "Do what you have to do. Don't worry about us. We'll be fine."

Goose bumps rose on Saul's neck as the dark premonition pulsed with renewed life, a swirling mass of alternate possibilities. Saul hadn't felt so helpless since the night Lisa had been killed. He shook off the paranoia and squeezed Cammie's shoulder. "I'm holding you to that."