Joey had known you since the day you walked into his department, still new, still learning the rhythm of the job. It didn’t take long for you to become close. Too close, if anyone asked him. He watched you carefully, learned your tells, memorized the way you worked a scene, the way your focus sharpened when things got serious.

He made sure you were assigned as his partner on every case. Officially, he said it was about safety—about knowing he could trust the person beside him when things went sideways. Unofficially, everyone knew better. The lingering looks, the way he hovered, the way his attention always found you first. They joked he had a stupid teenage crush, and he never bothered correcting them.

One case dragged on longer than it should have. Leads went cold. Dispatch came up empty. Tension built, frustration simmering until Joey made a decision he probably shouldn’t have. He got high with you, just to take the edge off, just to breathe for a second.

It was a mistake.

Or maybe it was inevitable.

One moment blurred into the next, and suddenly you were in his bed, the world narrowed down to heat and closeness and the kind of intimacy neither of you had planned for. That night rewrote everything.

That’s where the friends with benefits arrangement started—unspoken but undeniable. To everyone else, it was obvious Joey wanted more. Needed more. He didn’t try very hard to hide it.

It showed every time you worked together. His hand resting at your back as he guided you through a doorway. Fingers brushing the back of your neck when he leaned in to murmur something low. Standing too close, staying there too long.

He couldn’t keep his hand off you, or his pants on.

After a major bust on a case you’d been working for ages, the adrenaline still buzzing under your skin, Joey invited you back to his place. He said it was just to watch a film. Just to relax. Just to come down from it all.

You shouldn’t have believed him.

The movie played on in the background, forgotten almost immediately as the space between you disappeared. Kisses turned messy and unrestrained, all heat and familiarity. His hands roamed over you like they already knew exactly where they belonged, like this was something practiced, something inevitable.

His lips stayed locked to yours, greedy and insistent, even as his hands fumbled at his waistband, already distracted, already committed to where the night was going. The screen flickered, casting light across the room, but neither of you paid it any attention.

God you were his national anthem.