Sinner's Gin (Sinners, #1)

“How’d you guys meet?” He turned around and leaned against the counter, watching Miki’s expressive face as the man gave him a gentle smile.

“I was on a break over at the Golden Phoenix Palace. I used to grab some food and go out onto the fire escape to listen to music. I think it was like two in the morning when he was leaving a club and coming down the alleyway. I guess I was singing to Joplin with my headphones on, and he stopped and listened to me.”

“And asked you to be part of his band? Just like that?”

“Yeah. I thought he was fucking crazy. Well, okay, first I thought he was hitting on me, and then I thought he was fucking crazy.” Miki grinned. “But I said sure. It seemed like free money from what he said. They were doing covers then, so I didn’t have to worry about learning new songs. He and I started writing stuff together after that.”

“How old were you?” Kane tried counting back Sinner’s Gin history from what he remembered, but it seemed off in his head.

“Almost fifteen.” Miki laughed at Kane’s horrified expression. “I’d just shaken loose of Carl and Shing, so anything I could bring in was good. Damien used to tell the club guys I was eighteen but short because I was Asian, so they’d let me in to play. Caught some shit when we started making CDs a couple of years later, but the record company took care of that.”

“I would have loved to see them trying to figure out how to get you a passport.” The meat gave slightly when he poked at it with the tongs, and Kane said, “Hey, these are almost done. Grab some plates, and we can dish up some food. I take it the living room couch is where you eat.”

“Pretty much.” He shrugged. “I kind of took the dining room over as my bedroom. Climbing those fucking stairs with my knee was not on my list of things to do every day.”

Miki found a box of plates stacked up in the kitchen’s unused walk-in pantry. The forks were mismatched, rescued from a thrift store back when Sinner’s Gin lived together in a two-bedroom apartment, and a pair of jelly glasses were the best Miki could find to hold the red wine Kane brought with him, their crisscross pattern sparkling from the scrubbing Kane ordered Miki to give them.

Miki’s lone steak knife had cousins, and Kane excised the thick bone from his porterhouse to hand over to Dude. The dog accepted the offering with a delicate bite, then pranced off into Miki’s bedroom with his prize.

“He’s not going to eat that on the bed, is he?” Kane leaned back to see if he could spot the dog. “You don’t sleep enough as it is. If any bone’s going to poke you, it’s going to be mine, not the dog’s.”

“You’re….” Miki shook his head. “For a cop, you’re kind of a whore.”

“So long as he’s not eating that in your bed.” Kane smirked. “Okay?”

“Nah, he’s got a blanket in there he hides stuff in. He’ll eat it there. I give him dog cookies, and that’s where he takes them.” Miki took a sip of the wine and swallowed. His mouth twisted slightly, but his expression remained the same as he murmured something desultory at Kane.

“Want me to get you some Gatorade?” he drawled at Miki.

“No, it’s um….” Miki tried another sip. “God, yeah. This is bad.”

They ate slowly, with Kane talking about the people he’d run into while investigating a teenaged girl’s disappearance. Dude came out from the bedroom and gnawed loudly on his stripped-clean bone, perking up when Kane laughed at something Miki said.

Miki slid back into the couch, his plate still half full. Kane glanced at the leftover food, then drifted his gaze up to Miki’s face. The man reached over and nudged the plate toward Kane. Falling back in a slump, he waved negligently at the cop. “Go ahead. You look like Dude when I’m eating hot dogs.”

“Now that’s something I’d like to see,” Kane murmured as he stabbed the remainder of Miki’s steak and lifted it to his own plate. The thought of Miki’s full mouth wrapped around a length of sausage got him hard. Of course, seeing the man laid out on display bare to the waist under bubbles was a hard memory to shake.

He leaned back over to steal a forkful of potatoes, solely to tease, but Miki’s mock frown was too delectable to pass up. His fork clattered onto the plate, and Kane ran his fingertips under Miki’s chin, capturing the man’s jaw in his palm. Miki’s eyes widened, deepening in color when his pupils dilated. His lips parted, and Miki sat stone-still, transfixed as Kane lowered his mouth down on his.

It wasn’t fair, Kane decided. In that sweet moment when he first tasted Miki in his mouth, there should have been something sexy playing on the stereo and the promise of something hot and chocolate to pour on the man’s body for Kane to lick off.

Instead, they were being serenaded by a terrier chewing through a steak bone, but Kane savored the moment anyway. Especially when Miki moaned into his open mouth and their tongues touched briefly, sharing the heat building between them.

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