Something Green Read online

  "I'll meet you there!" Jesse wasn't so great with the stairs for some reason. Plus, his way was faster, and as long as he warned DB that he was going to vanish, it wasn't horribly startling. The reappearance was still an issue, though.

  Of course, if Jesse was already on his bed when he got there, it wouldn't be startling.

  DB let himself in and debated grabbing a beer on his way, deciding against it. As it was, the coffee had him detouring to the bathroom first.

  "Hey!" Jesse didn't sound impressed. "I'm naked in here!"

  DB rolled his eyes. Man, Jesse was one pushy ghost. "Gimme a sec," he called back. He did his business, washed his hands, and started stripping as he went to the bedroom.

  "I suggest you hurry." Jesse was sprawled on the bed, looking more real than usual without even a part of him sinking too far into the mattress, and he had a hand curled around his prick, stroking slowly.

  "How about you try waiting for a minute?" Still, Jesse looked pretty sexy all sprawled out like that, and DB found himself tossing his clothes into a corner of the room and making a beeline for the bed.

  "I've been waiting for hours." Still, Jesse let go and moved over, one hand reaching for him. "Come here. Ready?"

  "Hours. I don't think it's been hours, Mr. Exaggeration." He climbed onto the bed and lay down next to Jesse, reaching out and trying really hard not to think about it. When he thought about it too much, he went right through Jesse, but if he just went with it... Yeah, his hand slid over Jesse's smooth belly.

  "Oh, man." Jesse made a happy, kind of contented sound and touched back. Fingers danced over DB's nipples, and Jesse grinned at him, eyes all bright. "Hours. I've been wanting this since lunchtime."

  "We were busy." He closed his eyes, body arching up into the touches. He imitated them, his fingers moving up to find Jesse's nipples.

  "I know. I get hot watching you work." Jessie pinched a little, one harder than the other.

  DB gasped, jerking. His cock was hard, curling up over his belly. Moaning, he turned toward Jesse, his hand moving back down to find the leaking cock; he didn't want to make Jesse wait.

  "DB." Jesse sighed and moved into the touch, his fingers pinching again. He dipped his head to lick across DB's stinging nipple, and made a rough, desperate sound. "Gonna be fast. Sorry."

  "I can do fast." DB wrapped his free hand around his own cock and moved them both together. He nearly lost Jesse when he started to think about how weird it was to be holding a cock that wasn't there, but then Jesse licked at him again and everything but how good things felt pushed out of his mind.

  "Yes!" Jesse sounded delighted and surprised. "God, yes." He pushed DB over and climbed on, his hips pushing hard so they worked against each other and the friction got even better.

  DB slammed the mental door on how it totally wasn't possible that Jesse could be heavy on him, that Jesse’s cock could be so hot and hard. He just kept his eyes closed and bucked up, going with it.

  Apparently giving up on being gentle, Jesse bit at him. "There, there, there," he muttered, his hips speeding. "DB. Gonna. Oh, shit, going to --" There wasn't any more warning, but he'd had more than enough. Jesse groaned and shot, his prick pulsing alongside DB's.

  DB swore he could even feel the spunk splashing up along his belly. His eyes flew open to look into Jesse's face as he came, his cock jerking as he climaxed. This time there was definitely spunk on his skin.

  Of course his was real.

  "God, yes." Jesse's eyes were wide and looked awestruck and come-dumb as he went in to kiss DB again. DB even felt his lips for a moment or two before Jesse turned to tingles and insubstantial light. "Damn. We gotta work on the ending a bit."

  "You gotta admit, though, we're getting pretty good at the middle part."

  It wasn't long ago that all they had to share was tingles. Now they both got to touch, to feel. He had no idea why or how, despite Madame Yanya's advice of "You have to believe." That didn't explain anything, but it didn't bear thinking on too hard, because thinking about it never failed to bring it to a stop.

  "The middle is amazing." Jesse rolled, moved himself to the other side of the bed and lay grinning up at the ceiling. "We're on our way to my birthday goal of doing it on the kitchen table. Awesome."

  "You're a horndog, you know that?" Not that he could really blame Jesse; the guy was dead, after all.

  "You go without sex for twenty years and get back to me." He still had the silly grin on. "Smoke for me, will you? We earned it."

  Oh, Jesse was in a very good mood.

  DB was more than happy to take full advantage of being able to have a cigarette without Jesse bitching at him about how unfair it was that he smoked in front of the ghost. He grabbed his pack off the side table and lit one up. Putting an arm behind his head, he puffed away, drawing the smoke into his lungs, holding it there a moment and then slowly letting it go.

  "Blow smoke rings. Just not through me." Jesse rolled onto his side and watched. "You did it again, you know. Saved the girl, got the job done, came home alive. It was a good day."

  "Yeah. I might even have solved my little problem of suspicious cops, too." He blew a few smoke rings up into the air.

  "And there was sex." Jesse sounded smug now. "There really isn't a better day out there." He paused. "Of course, that means tomorrow is gonna suck."

  "Probably." That was just the way things worked. No good deed went unpunished around here. "But today didn't."

  "Today didn't," Jesse agreed. "Today was pretty damn good."

  DB could live with that. He put it down in the win column and finished his cigarette.

  ***

  "I'm bored." Jesse hated it when DB was hard at work doing background checks on men suspected of being cheaters. They always were, and there was nothing for Jesse to do while DB was following the money. He couldn't even use the computer to help out. Hell, he couldn't even make the coffee. "Can we go spy on him yet?" That Jesse could do.

  "You know the routine, Jesse. Background checks first. How long have we been doing this now?"

  "Well, I've been doing it for less time than you, granted, but I don't get to use the computer or drive or anything. Wanna take a break and make out for a while?"

  "Not at the office, Jesse." Damn it, DB had so many rules.

  Jesse sighed and went to sit in his chair, the one under the sign that said "Do Not Sit, Reserved for Ghost."

  "Okay. How much longer?"

  "We can go home as soon as I've finished digging here. Maybe another half hour?" DB looked up at him. "Of course, if you keep interrupting me, it's going to take longer."

  "Shutting up now." Of course, he could always wander around while DB worked. Jesse got up and went through the wall to the outer office. "Hey, DB? How come you keep this office when we don't have a secretary anymore?" He waggled his arm through the top of the desk out there, making a face at the dust.

  "Because moving is a pain in the ass."

  That was true. "We need someone to dust," he called. One loop around the office and he was bored again, so Jesse went out to the hall. Maybe something exciting was happening out there.

  Nope. Nothing out there except a flickering light and a body coming up the stairs. Probably heading to the shady lawyer next door; most people were. But then the man looked up, and Jesse realized he knew him.

  Well.

  Grinning, Jesse put himself back in DB's office. "The crush is coming," he announced. "I'll be in my chair, watching him watching you."

  DB looked up at him, frowning. "What?"

  "Joe. Stairs. Not going to the lawyer, I don't think." Or maybe he was. That would be embarrassing.

  "Joe? You mean the cop?"

  There was a knock on the outer door before he could answer DB's questions.

  "It's open," DB called.

  Jesse zoomed to his chair and sat. Joe fascinated him, and it was kind of fun to see DB try to be all smooth. Playing to the cop and still holding back was tricky.

  Not boring
.

  "Black?" Joe's voice called from the outer room. Then there were steps and he appeared at DB's door. "You need some flowers or something out there. Magazines. A secretary."

  "Do you have a bead on where I might find any of those for free?" DB pointed to the seat in front of his desk.

  "Nothing in life is free." Joe sat, his legs stretched out in front and crossed at the ankles, totally making himself at home. He still looked rumpled, but slightly less so than he had at the crime scene a week ago. It was earlier in the day. "So. Been busy?"

  "Like I told you on the phone yesterday, I've been working on some domestic cases. You know -- the ones that actually pay?" DB was checking Joe out, trying to be subtle about it.

  Jesse frowned. "Hey. Guy who shares your bed right here."

  DB flicked a quick glance at him before turning back to Joe. "I don't suppose you're here with a paying case for me?"

  "I'm here to see what you have for me."

  Jesse frowned harder. That sounded far too much like a come on. Far too much. "Um."

  Joe leaned forward a bit. "You haven't been in touch. I wondered if maybe you needed some help. Encouragement."

  Okay, not cool. Jesse sat up, too, and watched DB closely.

  "No news is good news, right? I kind of like it when all I've got is boring domestic cases. It means people are being safe. I like that." DB sat back and pulled a cigarette out of the pack sitting next to the phone.

  "You only get... hey, you never did tell me what it was. Visions?"

  Damn, Joe didn't seem to care about the smoking. Jesse scowled harder.

  DB lit up and took in a long draw. "I see things," he finally said, when the silence had drawn out uncomfortably and it was clear Joe was willing to wait for as long as it took for an answer.

  "I see dead people," Jesse intoned, because it was more or less expected.

  DB didn't look amused.

  Joe looked intrigued, though. "What kind of things?"

  Jesse grinned. "Sexy things."

  DB shook his head. "Come on, you don't really need the details, do you? You know it works, let's just leave it at that."

  "I like details. I'm a detective." Joe looked around the office. "So, what kind of things do you see? Full-on visions? Do you see things before they happen, that kind of thing?" He stood up and started walking around.

  Jesse grinned at DB. "You know he's gonna see the sign, right?"

  "No, it's not like that." DB glared at him, but he was right, there was no way Joe was going to miss the sign, and the cop was going to put two and two together.

  "So what's it like?" Joe pushed. He went and looked out the window and then turned around. "Faces? Places?" He looked around, and if Jesse hadn't known Joe couldn't see him he would've sworn Joe was doing just that. Then Joe's gaze lifted to the sign and his eyes widened.

  "Told ya," Jesse said to DB.

  DB stuck out his tongue, and then sighed. "I see ghosts."

  "Ghosts." Jesse had expected a certain level of surprise and disbelief, but Joe looked like he'd been poleaxed. He went pale, and he even took a step back. "What kind of ghosts? All ghosts?"

  DB frowned. "I can pretty much see any ghost that's around to be seen. Now you look like you've seen a ghost."

  Joe kind of stumbled forward, his eyes still far too wide as he headed for Jesse's chair.

  Jesse realized just in time that he was about to lose his place. "Whoops! Hey. Read the sign, man."

  "I haven't," Joe said as he sat down, hard. "Not once. No matter how hard I've tried."

  Jesse glanced at DB. "Um. He might be drunk, maybe?"

  DB nodded. "You okay, man? I mean, you were good with the psychic thing, this isn't really much different."

  Jesse peered at Joe as a bit of color came back in his face. "DB, I mean it about that drink. Dude is messed up."

  "It's..." Joe shook his head. "No, you're right. It's not different. Sorry." He shook himself a bit and smiled, which wasn't the right thing to do. He looked a bit constipated. "So, ghosts, huh? And they come to tell you stuff?"

  "Something like that." DB got up and walked around to the front of his desk, leaning against it. "Have you been drinking?"

  "No, but I can. You got anything?" Joe looked up, and Jesse saw his fingers curl around the arm of the chair so tightly that his knuckles were white.

  "All right, you'd better tell me what the hell is going on here. Something is up with you, and it started the minute I mentioned ghosts."

  DB had his arms folded across his chest, and Jesse knew that meant he wasn't budging until he got answers.

  Joe closed his eyes for a long moment and sat back. "Yeah. All right." He opened his eyes again, but pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at DB. "My partner, the one I told you about? He could... see stuff. Premonitions. But he didn't see the right thing once, and now he's dead. He was. I." Joe stopped talking, but even Jesse -- who'd been out of the whole relationship loop for decades -- knew what the look on his face meant.

  Too bad there wasn't even a hint of a ghost around.

  DB's look gentled, became the one he used with wives who thought their husbands were cheating. "I had assumed he was your partner at work, but you meant lover, didn't you?"

  Joe sighed and leaned way back. "Both. Idiot never did listen to me on the job."

  Jesse wanted to give him a reassuring pat on the back or something, but there really wasn't much he could do. "That's gotta suck."

  "I'm sorry." DB gave Joe the reassuring pat on the shoulder.

  "Thanks." Joe sighed again and stood up. "It's been almost a year; I'm getting used to it." He pointed to the sign. "That for real? You're haunted?"

  "Be nice," Jesse said with a grin. "Talk me up."

  "Yep, it's for real. I have a... partner, I guess you'd call him."

  "You have a ghost for a partner. It's not just some shtick to drum up business?" Joe looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to believe DB or not.

  Jesse bit his tongue for a moment and then stopped resisting his urges. He was dead, no good could come of denying himself the need to express himself. "Hey, DB. I dare you to tell him the rest. And you can talk to me in front of him, that might be cool." That could actually be funny, really. Jesse thought it might drive Joe up the wall, though.

  DB glared at Jesse and then turned his attention back to the obviously still shaken Joe. "First you insist that I must be psychic or something, and now you're accusing me of saying I have a ghost as a partner just to drum up business?"

  "Tell him we're together!" Jesse walked over to his chair, grinning. "Go on, do it for me. I'll give you an awesome blow job later. Hey, Joe. You're in my chair."

  "I know," Joe said apologetically. "I'm used to the psychic thing, though. Sorry. Give me a minute to rearrange my thinking."

  "Would you mind moving to the chair next to the desk? That one really is reserved for the ghost." DB gave Joe a wry grin. "And take all the time you need -- it took me a lot longer than a minute to rearrange my thinking."

  Joe blinked a couple of times and then looked around a little wildly. "He's here?"

  "Dude." Jesse looked at DB. "You might want to ease him into this a little faster. Give the man a drink at least."

  "A drink sounds like a good idea." DB nodded and went to his desk, pulling a bottle of Scotch out of one of the desk drawers along with a glass. Once there was a finger or two of the liquor in the glass, it was held out to Joe. "If you come sit over here, you can have it."

  Joe blinked again and scrambled out of the chair. "Sorry," he said, looking at the chair. "I... wow."

  Jesse sat down so he didn't have to see Joe looking in the wrong spot. "That's okay. Go have your drink, bud. You look like you need it."

  DB quirked him a little grin while handing the booze over to Joe. "Just assume he's around. He usually is."

  "Aw, you like it that way." Jesse grinned and settled back.

  "He is? Okay." Joe took the drink and sat down in the client chair. "
Okay, a ghost. How does that get you all your inside information? Can you fill in the blanks a little for me?" He was still looking around and eyeing Jesse's chair like he was expecting a rattle of chains or something.

  "Why does it matter to you how I do it?"

  Jesse knew DB hated talking about the ghost stuff with people. It made him cranky because most people thought he was crazy.

  "Because I need to know how specific you can get, how reliable every bit of information is. If I know where stuff is coming from, I might be able to get actual warrants and admissible evidence." Joe swallowed his shot and put the glass down on DB's desk. "And I'd like to be able to trust you."