“Mmm, what can I say? You inspire me.” Cooper pretended to give him a critical once-over. “Have you considered full-time muse work? You’d look very fetching lounging in nothing but a sheet.”

“You’re ridiculous. Remind me again why I missed you so much while I was away,” Park murmured, and pulled Cooper close, touching his lips to his.

It was a sweet touch more than any kind of passionate claiming, and still it made Cooper’s knees buckle. Park held him up as he continued to press soft, tender kisses to the edges of his lips. His hands running up Cooper’s sides, to the back of his neck, and tracing down the back of his arms—

Cooper flinched and hissed when Park’s hand passed over his elbow.

“What?” Park asked, concerned, already easing Cooper’s sleeve up to look. A brutal bruise had ripened around the bone from when Neil had slammed him onto his back. Park traced the edges of the dark bloom without touching, face suddenly impassive.

“It’s fine,” Cooper said quickly, reluctant to start talking about Neil again and see worry in Park’s eyes. Or worse, pity. “I’m not that delicate.”

Park must have heard the plea for what it was because all he said was, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you fight hand to hand before.”

“Yeah, well, murder investigations call for a lot less fisticuffs than Sam Spade led me to believe.”

“You’re better than I thought.”

Cooper snorted. “Thank you to the peanut gallery for that not-at-all-condescending compliment. I do have almost a decade more field experience than you, professor.”

“Why is it that you always seem to forget I was an infamous pack enforcer, feared around the continent?” Park asked thoughtfully.

“Oh, please. You’re not so tough.” He poked Park in the belly lightly, and Park seized his wrist, twisted him around, switching their positions, and had him bent over the kitchen counter before Cooper could even register what was happening.

“You lock your knees when you’re tense. That’s why it’s so easy to overbalance you,” Park murmured behind his ear.

“Hey!” Cooper said a little breathlessly, Park’s weight at least partially on his back, pinning him down while his arms acted as a cushion between Cooper and the granite. “Is this foreplay or the start of a training montage?” He arched his spine suggestively. “‘Cause if you want, I’ll let you teach me how to bend my knees properly, either way.”

Park huffed a laugh. The puff of breath on the back of Cooper’s neck made him arch again, instinctively this time, the tickle of arousal unfurling lazily in his belly. Park dragged his hands possessively over Cooper’s chest, rubbing his nipples, up to his sensitive throat and then back down his torso, tracing down the grooves of his hips.