Title: The New Professionals - Partners II: Getting Closer
Author: Clare
Email: clare@solomon29.freeserve.com.uk
Pairings: Curtis/Keel
Series: Second part of the 'Partners' series.
Status: Complete
Archive: Yes, at Jon's archive.
Disclaimer: Standard.
Summary: Unusual situations bring Keel and Curtis closer.
Warnings: Don't faint but I've actually put some sex into this part<g>!

 

'Partners II: Getting Closer'


Sam Curtis had been up since the crack of dawn this morning. He had jogged, weight-lifted and rowed for over two hours in a vain attempt to calm down his over-eager penis. He couldn't eat; he couldn't concentrate; and his cock was definitely doing all his thinking right now.

He scowled as he left the gym. It was all Keel's fault.

Nine Hours Previously

They were waiting to arrest a man named Joe Lane in connection with arms smuggling. Lane had vanished into a club before they could get to him and it had seemed better to wait outside rather than go in and risk civilians getting hurt when they arrested him. Spencer and Backup were covering the back entrance but it looked as if Lane was in no hurry to reappear.

"We could always go in after him if you're brave enough," Keel said with an 'I dare you' glint in his eyes.

"What's so brave about going into a club?" Curtis queried.

"Gay club," Keel amended.

"Oh." Curtis wasn't entirely sure how to answer this. As he continued to watch the building, a thought occurred to him. "How do you know it's a gay club?"

Keel shrugged nonchalantly. "I've been there a couple of times."

"Oh, so you're, er .gay?"

"Sam, you know I've been married; the word is 'bisexual'. So how about you?"

"No, I'm not. I mean, I've never. But, I mean, if, if." Curtis swore silently at himself as he heard the gibberish pouring out of his mouth. He'd prayed for a moment like this since the first time he'd seen Keel. He'd never been attracted to a man before, but with Keel it had been instant. Yet, now, presented with the perfect opportunity to make a move, he was stuttering like a terrified school-boy! So much for his suave flirtation techniques.

Putting him out of his misery, Keel said, "Is that a 'no, I'm not and never could be' or an 'I never have but could be if I met the right man'?"

"The latter," Curtis said, dry-mouthed.

"Well, I-" Keel stopped speaking and nudged his shoulder. "Here's our man!"

Curtis turned and saw with a sinking heart that their suspect had chosen this of all moments to finally emerge from the club. As they took off after him, Curtis muttered to himself, "He's not the man I want!"

Keel hadn't been intended to hear the words but he glanced over his shoulder at Curtis with a wicked grin that showed he had.

As they closed in on Lane, Curtis called out that they were CI5. "You're under arrest!" he told the man.

Lane swore at them and produced a knife from his jeans. Keel and Curtis exchanged glances and Sam smiled and nodded Chris towards the man.

"Gee, thanks!" Chris muttered before throwing himself into the fight. However, it didn't take him many seconds to disarm the man and cuff him.

Malone greeted them at CI5 headquarters, expression almost happy at the sight of the suspect. There was a predatory gleam in his eye as he looked at Lane and said to his agents, "Mr Keel, you can help with the interrogation. Curtis, you get off home."

Keel nodded and Curtis gave a reluctant, "Yes, sir." He had hoped to follow up their conversation outside the gay club but that was obviously not going to happen. Keel waggled his fingers in a goodbye wave and Curtis grinned at him and left them to it.

Under normal circumstances, Curtis could go to sleep in any surroundings, day or night. This night he tossed and turned, going over and over what had been said. The desire to be with Keel was an ache deep inside him. He was tempted to call the other man on his mobile phone, but if Keel was still at the office then Malone would hardly appreciate the interruption. He sighed, turned over once more in his bed, and resolutely closed his eyes.

The next morning saw his fruitless journey to the gym before he drove to work.

The day had been going quite well until a friend of Lane's decided to get in some retaliation. A call came through via the Met offering a drugs tip-off to CI5. Keel and Curtis pursued the lead. The next thing they knew they were locked in an immobilised lift with a bomb ticking away somewhere above the ceiling.

"I would imagine that we have about ten minutes of life left," Curtis said with false nonchalance.

Keel rubbed at his damp forehead. "What can we do?"

"Malone has a team on its way here but ." Curtis shrugged.

"There must be some way out of this." Keel looked up at the ceiling. "There's supposed to be a way of getting these things open."

"It's welded shut," Curtis said quietly.

"We've been well-and-truly set up, haven't we?"

Curtis nodded soberly then attempted a smile and said, "If you have any final confessions, I know I'm not a priest or anything ."

"Good!" Keel said. "C'm'ere!" He pulled his partner towards him by the lapels. Curtis opened his mouth to query this and immediately had Keel's tongue half-way down his throat and the man's body wrapped around his. Sam's first instinct was to kiss back with everything in him. His second instinct was to back off and say he didn't want this to damage their partnership. However, given that they now probably had less than seven minutes left to live, perhaps this wasn't the best possible moment to second guess his desires.

He responded to the kiss, focussing wholeheartedly on the sizzling contact while he wrapped one arm round Keel's back and moved the other to cup his partner's beautifully curved backside. As first - and, in all likelihood, last - kisses went this one was spectacular.

It ended with them both gasping for air and Keel's fingers stroked across Sam's shoulders and chest before beginning to undo the shirt buttons.

"Er, if CI5 find our charred bodies naked ." Curtis began to object, in spite of himself.

"You wanna be dignified or you wanna get laid?"

Curtis smiled. "Well, when you put it so romantically how can a man refuse?"

In seconds both their sets of clothes were in a discarded heap on the elevator floor.

Curtis took in his partner's slim naked body. "If I were an artist I'd want to paint every inch of you."

"In five minutes?!"

"I hate working to a strict deadline," Curtis said then fell to his knees and took the other man's cock deep into his mouth.

Keel groaned and said shakily, "Oh, I don't know - sometimes a time limit *really* inspires you." His ability for any further speech vanished and the world faded for a precious few minutes. In the aftermath of orgasm he slid down the cool wall of the lift into Sam's arms.

Gasping, he moved his hand towards Sam's semi-erect cock. "Gimme one second to get my breath ."

Curtis shook his head, stroking Chris's damp face. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine."

"But ." Keel looked uncomprehendingly at him.

Sam smiled and inclined his head to give his partner a chaste kiss. "Thank you," he said softly. "It was a great partnership."

"In every sense of the word," Chris agreed warmly.

Anticipating the explosion, both men jumped when Keel's CI5 mobile phone rang. He unearthed it from the mess of clothes all around them. "Yeah?"

Backup's voice said, "We just deactivated the bomb in time. Bringing you down now."

"Right," Keel answered blankly and switched off the phone. The lift juddered and began to move. The two men stared at each other, eyes widening. "We have about ten seconds to get dressed ."

"Before half of CI5 sees us naked ."

"Including *Malone*."

They scrambled for their clothes.

Backup explained how she had deactivated the bomb and Malone took one look at their pale faces and, unexpectedly, said that their de-briefing could wait until the next day. He left the building shouting orders to the rest of the operatives, Backup pausing a moment with the two men. Her eyes drifted down their clothes and she frowned.

"This is gonna sound crazy but I could have sworn you, Chris, were wearing that shirt-" She pointed to the one Sam was wearing "- earlier."

Keel's mouth opened and closed soundlessly and Curtis rushed to the rescue, saying, "You've been working too hard, Backup. I know we like to look smart at work but we hardly had time to pop off home to change clothes in the middle of *that* case."

Her expression remained unconvinced and then a glint of understanding entered her eyes. Keel and Curtis beat a hasty retreat.

Curtis drove, joking that he was the only one of them whose hands had stopped shaking. He pulled in to drop Keel off at his flat and Chris said, "Do you wanna come up?"

"Do I want to what?" Curtis queried, grinning.

Keel smiled back. "Well, you received my confession earlier. It's only fair that I should have yours."

"It might take more than ten minutes!"

"Show-off," Keel said, adopting a husky tone of voice. "We've got all night."

Curtis said nervously, "What if I want to take longer than that?"

Keel paused then said with a smile, "Regular confessionals are very healthy!"

Curtis laughed, relieved. "Let's go."

THE END

Feedback: clare@solomon29.freeserve.com.uk