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Chapter One

Ben was out again Which wasn’t a surprise, really, and Maddox refused to dwell on it as he rinsed out the bowl He had a shiny new professional-grade stand mixer and an oven full of muffins He didn’t need to be worried about his roo up to Chances were high that Ben wouldn’t show up untiltheir old barn cat back home would have left in Maddox’s shoe He’d be ravenous to boot and Maddox would have s wouldn’t be so weird anymore

He couldn’t bla to blow off steam After all, their SEAL team was due to ship out any day, and two of their best friends had just gotten engaged, and those were both the sort of things to have Ben on edge and restless and h he’d never cop to it

Maddox baked and cleaned out the fridge so they wouldn’t come back from their deployment to a science experi They each had their ways of coping—

Snick The sound of a key in the lock ainst the stainless-steel sink Okay Not out all night This would be okay too His stomach went as acidic as lemon zest, but he was okay No need for the sound of Ben’s husky laugh or an answering low e No need at all

He kept his back to the living area The way the U-shaped kitchen was set up, it opened to the dining area, not the foyer and living roo, “Shh My roommate’s probably asleep, but we can chill in here”

“Is he a SEAL like you?” The other guy had the loose drawl and vowel shifts Maddox associated with native southern Californians like Ben, but sounded younger No surprise there

“Yup Let ue that he didn’t have an accent, but Maddox had studied enough languages to have an ear for little details Or maybe you’re just hyper-observant of how Ben says cool and caught You need a new hobby And a place to hide

Because of freaking course Ben would pick up soht who needed more seduction than “this is the way to the bedroo rude—in the two years he’d been living here, he’d brought back guys plenty, but he’d asked the first few times if it was okay or if they needed some sort of rules And back then, Maddox hadn’t needed a rule Hadn’t wanted rules They’d been friends well over a decade now, ever since BUD/S training He’d known exactly what he was getting in Ben, or so he’d thought

But this was the first time since

No Not thinking about that