Sequel to: Reflections in the Moonlight.

Vin slipped into the steam-shrouded bathroom, locking the door behind him and checking it twice to make sure it would stay locked. Then he shed his clothes with quick efficiency, setting them on the side of the sink to keep them dry, and pulled open the shower door to step inside. Wide green eyes met his blue ones, and Ezra said, "Vin, Chris..."

"He's not gonna be back for a while yet." Vin wrapped his arms around the warm, wet body of his lover from behind and kissed his temple. "And even if he was, I locked the door. It's just you and me, okay?"

Ezra sighed and leaned into Vin's embrace, the hot water cascading over them. "But if we get caught..."

"He ain't gonna do a damn thing," Vin insisted. "Except look pissy, but he'd do that anyway." He pulled Ezra around so he could look him in the eye again. "Ez, he don't say nothing to JD about Casey, does he? Or that time Buck brought his girlfriend with him for the weekend, they must've done it everyplace but right out in the living room and Chris didn't say a damn word. So you tell me, how fair is it that he tells us we can't even hold hands or kiss while we're here and that we're not to be alone in the same room together, huh?"

"It's not the same, love." Ezra traced a frustrated little pattern on Vin's smooth chest with his hand. "We're both..."

Vin's finger against his lips stopped the rest of that sentence. "So? Baby, all that matters is that we love each other, okay? And it ain't like Chris don't swing both ways himself, right?"

Ezra still wasn't convinced. "Perhaps that is why he does not wish to see us...interact in that manner, Vin. Mr. Larabee is unattached at the moment."

*And he's damn well gonna stay that way*, Vin thought with an internal grimace. Ezra had come closer to the truth than his lover wanted him to; Vin knew for a fact that the 'rules' Chris had laid down about the two of them at the ranch had everything to do with the man not being attached...to Ezra. Chris Larabee was having a very nasty attack of sour grapes, a bout which had resulted in the Southern undercover agent being singled out for even more verbal abuse than usual from the volatile team leader. Ezra, being Ezra, had attributed it to Larabee not liking the idea of his best friend hooking up with a man of questionable character and was doing his best to take it in stride; he knew how the ATF felt about homosexuals, especially when it came to lovers working together, and he wasn't going to do anything that might rock the boat. Vin, on the other hand, was about ready to kick a hole in the boat and tell Chris to go down with it. Now wasn't the time to share that sentiment with Ezra, though - not while Ezra was wet and naked in his arms and no one was in the house to hear them. He leaned in to kiss that tempting, articulate mouth and then pulled back just enough to whisper. "Don't really want to talk about our boss right now, do you?"

"No." The word came out as more of a moan than a statement and Vin smiled widely before moving back in to improve on the last kiss. He let one hand trail down Ezra's muscular body, following the firm slopes and curves of well-defined muscles, while his other hand cupped the back of his lover's head to allow him total control of the deepening kiss. He scoured the inside of that delicious cavern, counted every tooth and then sucked hard on the agile tongue that had been dueling with his until Ezra was moaning uncontrollably into his mouth. By that point his wandering hand had found and grasped his lover's balls and was squeezing them gently in time with his own pulse and the pounding jets of water, and then he pulled back, panting. "Why don't we finish getting clean so we can go get...dirty, what do you say?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Ezra agreed, his eyes half closed. He dragged himself back from the pleasant haze Vin's kisses always left him in and smiled at his lover. "I have already finished, why don't I...tend to you, hmm?" He combed his fingers down through Vin's long hair. "Turn around."

Vin kissed the end of his nose and did, letting out a moan of his own when his lover began washing his hair. Ezra loved his hair, loved washing it, loved to run his fingers through it, and Vin loved letting him. By the time the conditioner was in he was harder than the shower wall his hands were resting on, and by the time Ezra was finished washing the rest of him he felt like he'd been set on fire; every place those hands touched they left a trail of flame in their wake, a burning that the cascading water fed rather than extinguished. As soon as all the conditioner had been rinsed out of his hair he spun around with a growl and pinned his laughing lover against the shower wall and captured his mouth again, swallowing the laughter, dropping his hands to the firm, round buttocks and kneading them thoroughly before his searching fingers found the tightly closed opening they protected and began to play with it, teasing the rim before poking his way just past the twitching muscle with first one and then two fingers and manipulating them back and forth, in and out, until the portal was opening nicely for him. Then he broke the kiss and turned his lover around so he could put some of the fragrant conditioner they'd been using to an even better use and took his time sliding into Ezra's tight, welcoming heat.

Ezra's head dropped back to rest on his shoulder and he moaned again appreciatively, his hands braced against the white tiles and his back arched like a stretching cat's. That was Vin's cue to move; he slid almost all the way out at a snail's pace and then back in again the same way. In and out, in and out, slowly and deliberately, gradually increasing the power of his thrusts but not the speed and giving silent thanks for the fact that Chris had a very large and efficient hot water heater - a sudden burst of cold water was not what they needed right now. Vin kept up his slow, powerful rhythm until he felt the hot channel surrounding his hard flesh begin to spasm, at which point he thrust into that welcoming heat with his full length and rode out Ezra's orgasm with him.

And then, after giving his lover some recovery time, Vin pulled back out and turned off the water. "Bed," he ordered. Ezra apparently agreed with the change of venue, immediately getting out of the shower and grabbing a towel on his way out of the bathroom, which he tossed down on the bed before almost throwing himself down on top of it on his stomach. Vin dropped down on top of him, shaping the wet muscles with his hand, massaging Ezra's cheeks again until the other man was helplessly thrusting against the towel-protected bed...and then he flipped him over and dropped on top of him again to capture his mouth in another hard kiss while using one hand to align the two of them lower down. Ezra lifted his legs, spreading them as far apart as he could, and Vin slipped back inside of him with a groan of satisfaction and began the rhythm that would bring them both off quickly; he wanted more than anything to draw things out, but considering where they were that really wasn't an option. He angled himself so that he was hitting Ezra's prostate on every stroke and leaned back in to capture his mouth again, and when they climaxed together moments later they were able to swallow each other's cries of completion.

Vin wrapped himself around his lover, his shrinking flesh still seated inside its welcoming haven as they rode out the afterglow, basking in their stolen moment of togetherness. Ezra was nearly asleep by the time he finally did ease his way out, and a few more moments of careful cuddling saw the undercover agent sleeping as peacefully as a child in Vin's arms. Only when he was certain that he wouldn't wake his precious lover did Vin cautiously disentangle himself; getting a warm washcloth from the shower he cleaned them both back up and checked Ezra carefully for bruises before covering him up with the bedspread.

The sharpshooter went back to the bathroom to pull on his clothes and comb his hair, and he scowled at the angry man he saw in the mirror. He always checked his lover's delicate skin for bruises and abrasions after making love to him - they had a special ointment that could be rubbed into the small hurts to help them heal faster - but this time the marks Vin had found hadn't been made by him and certainly hadn't been accidental. High on Ezra's left arm, wrapped around his bicep, Vin had found the livid echo of four fingers and a thumb. It was all too clear to him what must have gone down at the bust two days ago; in his mind's eye Vin could picture Ezra the way he'd looked that day, wearing an outfit of slacks, an open-collared white shirt and a blue woolen sports jacket that made him look like he was on his way to go yachting. They called it his 'spoiled rich playboy' disguise at the office, but in private Vin called it cruel and unusual punishment because of how irresistible his lover looked in the more casual style. He hadn't taken his eyes off Ezra the entire time the bust was going down, but afterwards he'd had to go the long way to get back to the ground level of the warehouse and that must have been when Chris had reacted to the Southerner's appearance in his own way. The thought of the team leader stalking up to a rattled and unsuspecting Ezra and roughly yanking the smaller man around narrowed his eyes, and knowing that Chris had been getting off on the pain and fear he was causing darkened them almost to black - Ezra's left shoulder was the one that dislocated easily, Vin knew it was no coincidence that the handprint was on that side.

Slicking his hair back, he pulled it into a sleek tail at the base of his neck and gave the mirror one final glare before leaving the bathroom. Ezra was still asleep and Vin was glad; not just because his lover was still trying to catch up on his rest after the last assignment, but also because the sharpshooter intended to hunt down Larabee and let him know in no uncertain terms that the game was over and wasn't going to be played again. It was time to blow up the boat, captain and all, and this time he was planning to do it in front of the rest of the crew to make sure there weren't any misunderstandings. Vin stopped at the bed to tuck the bedspread in tighter around his lover and to press a gentle kiss to the sleeping man's temple and then an even softer one to his slightly parted kiss-swollen lips. "Love you, baby," he whispered, and smiled when those lips moved against his in drowsy response. "Yep, I know you love me too."