A gay story: Between the Bars Pt. 01 Chapter 1
“Do you know that guy?”
“Huh?”
My friend Andrew lifted his chin in the direction of the corner. “Don’t look yet, but there’s a guy over there who keeps looking this way. He keeps looking at you like he’s trying to place you.”
“Really? Is he hot?”
“He’s not bad,” Andrew nodded judiciously with his eyes over my shoulder. “Could use a shave, but I know you like the scruffy type.”
I snickered and continued eating my greasy, delicious burger, the sort of thing Neil would have pouted over my eating if he’d been here. But he wasn’t, and despite what he thought, my arteries could handle it. “Well tell me when I can look, would you?”
“Look now. He’s reading. But be casual.”
I rolled my eyes; did my friend think I was a total idiot? A social retard that didn’t get out much? Well… okay, that part was true. I didn’t get out much, actually, but I still remembered my social skills. Turning sideways in the booth, I leaned back against the wall and took a drink of my beer. This allowed me a view of the corner, and the guy who was sitting at the corner table across the room over my shoulder. An empty plate was pushed back and he was sipping a bottle of Beck’s while he read the newspaper with his cheek propped up on his hand, elbow planted on the table.
Not bad? The man was beautiful. An evening ray of sun shone through the window and flooded him like a spotlight and I had to draw my breath just looking at him. The sun painted gold in his shaggy brown hair that fell over his forehead almost to his eyes and flecks of gold illuminated his stubble. I stared at the way his hand cupped his jaw, fingers lightly drumming his cheek as he frowned down at the paper spread in front of him. Dark brows, strong but boyish jaw, probably in his early thirties same as me. Clothes rumpled, like a traveler; a battered leather satchel on the floor next to the chair. He wore jeans, a long-sleeved pullover and lace-up boots. My eyes wandered all the way down to his feet and then back up and I found myself looking into a pair of eyes so blue they startled me even from across the room. He’d caught me staring and he was grinning at me, and I dropped my eyes instantly with my face blazing.
“Dammit,” I said under my breath.
Andrew, who’d watched the whole thing, was laughing. “You are so red,” he told me. “You’re cute when you blush, you know that?”
“Shut up,” I snarled at him. I ducked my head to hide my red face. God, I hated blushing in public. It made me feel so self-conscious. If crawling under the table wouldn’t have made things even worse, I would’ve done it.
“He thinks so too,” Andrew said relentlessly. “He’s still smiling. You should go say hi.”
“Yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes. Andrew knew better, but he never gave up. He was persistent; I had to give him that. My friends were always trying to get me past my shyness; but most of them had finally accepted it was a lost cause and left me alone, except for Andrew. Ever the optimist.
“I’m gonna go pay our bill.” He swung his legs around and went to the bar with our check. I kept my head down, but I could see him cross the room and to my horror, he headed straight to the part of the bar that was right next to the guy. The guy. I knew Andrew, he’d talk to anyone and he was smiling at the guy as the barmaid took the bill from him. I sent him frantic mental messages: Don’t do it, don’t do it, but it was too late. He was already doing it, turning around and talking to the guy at the table. I groaned, sinking down into my chair.
Nonetheless, I had to watch from under my eyelashes. I watched the guy laugh and reply, and then they both looked at me grinning and I took my cell phone out of my pocket and flipped it open as if I was answering it even though nobody was there. “Hello?” I said to no one. What an idiot I am. “Uh-huh, yeah,” I mouthed into the phone while staring down at the floor under the table until finally Andrew came back over with a big smile on his face. I said cheerfully,” Okay. Sure, talk to you later,” and flipped the phone closed.
“You asshole,” I commented as he sat down to finish off his beer. I had turned around to face him so the guy was behind me again and I didn’t have to avoid looking at him.
“You’re welcome,” Andrew smiled. “He’s in town on business, just till tomorrow. I told him he should come down to the WETbar tonight and meet us. You’re coming, right?”
I groaned and started making my usual excuses. I need to write, but this time Andrew wasn’t hearing it.
“You’re coming. Don’t make me come to your house and drag you out the door. Besides, how many words have you already written this week? How many hours research?”
I made a face.
“You need a break, Rylan. You’ve hardly been out of that house since Neil moved out. I know you’re a writing machine, but you can’t work all the time.”
“It’s not really work.” I shrugged; a little embarrassed to admit how much I loved spinning my silly little tales. I loved the research. I loved the urgency of a story that wanted to get out. I loved the letters I got from fans, except the scary ones. Most of them were wonderful people, my fans, but some of them worried me a la Stephen King’s Misery, and so I wrote under a pseudonym and guarded my identity jealously. Otherwise, I couldn’t be happier with that part of my life.
“I know you love it,” Andrew shook his head indulgently. “What is this time? Regency England?”
“Yeah, always a favorite.” The readers loved my Regency work and so did I; it was probably my favorite historical period. However, I didn’t talk about my in-progress stories and my friends didn’t ask, although they did read the free copies when the proofs came in.
“Well, Regency England can live without you for one night. I’ll pick you up at ten so be ready.”
Chapter 2
At ten, I was sitting at my monitor in jogging pants, and Andrew was pounding on my door with his boyfriend Louis and our friend Josie in tow. They stormed in and complained loudly about my not being ready while I threw on some decent clothes. I didn’t want to go. I was right in the middle of Chapter 16 and it demanded to be written, but Andrew was right, I hadn’t been getting out enough. Sometimes, I’d be startled to realize I hadn’t left the house in days. Not that it bothered me. I was perfectly happy writing, cooking, drinking tea and not getting dressed. If it weren’t for my friends, I’d stay that way; and sometimes, I didn’t even answer their calls.
Ugh. The Friday night bar scene. I wasn’t looking forward to this. It was starting to rain, too. Atlanta in December, dreary and cold. Moreover, I wanted to stay home and write. So, my frame of mind wasn’t the most cheerful, but I got in Andrew’s SUV anyway. They did their best to drag me into their conversation but I stared out the window without seeing what passed outside, instead I saw the cobblestones and carriages of Victorian London.
Spring Street was swarming with drunken people spilling from bars, laughing and stumbling as they made the rounds of the clubs. I cringed inwardly. Just the sort of thing I liked to avoid, but the sooner we got it over with, the sooner I could get home and return to my nice fantasy world, slipping into it like a comfortable bed. The real world could be such an annoyance.
A quick scan of the crowded club when we walked through the door showed that the guy from the café wasn’t here, at least not that I could see. I was relieved, but also maybe a little disappointed. Those eyes, so intensely blue… the eyes that every male romantic lead character had, but I’d never actually seen in real life. Male leads had to be scruffy and dashing rogues with a heart of gold. He looked the part but there was a certain spark there, and I had to admit that moment he smiled kept happening repeatedly in my mind, like the birth of the sun.
So, Friday night. The place was packed and I sat at the end of the bar drinking my way through a battalion of pints. Josie talked to me while we watched Andrew and Louis dance. Now, there was a relationship I never thought would last, the 12-year age difference could’ve been the Grand Canyon. But somehow they made it work, and Louis was the cutest little twink, someone I thought was just a bubblehead at first but I now knew was more serious and grounded than most people a lot older. When they kissed on the dance floor, everything else disappeared for them and they were surrounded by a little dome of light, a glow, their own world where nobody could touch them.
“Wah,” Josie pouted as we stared at them and greedily gathered the scraps of their beauty. “Why can’t I find that? It’s not fair.”
I shrugged and downed a long smooth gulp of my beer. I was starting to feel pleasantly toasty. Drinking made me so much more witty and interesting. “You might one day.”
“But why can’t it be like your books, Ry? I wanna get kidnapped by pirates and be ravished by a pirate captain that I hate at first, and then fall in love with and we live happily ever after.”
“That’s fantasy,” I snickered. “You know it’s not real. Drew and Louis are just lucky sons-of-bitches. Nobody gets to have what they have. I don’t even want it myself.”
“Such a cynic,” she shook her head. “You’re just saying that because Neil fucked you over.”
My cynicism was famous and alcohol only made it more pronounced. “Neil had nothing to do with it. He knew about me going into to it. I warned him I’m not romantic, I don’t do the touchy feely crap.”
“I know, but you must have it in you somewhere… your books are so romantic, you can’t be as hard and cynical as you pretend.”
“I am. Like I said, that’s fantasy.” I was really getting a head of steam now and other people around us were even starting to listen. If I’d been sober, I would’ve been mortified but drunk I didn’t mind yammering to a crowd. “In those stories, everybody finds their soul mate and lives happily ever after. People buy the stories because they love the fantasy. But in real life, it just doesn’t happen. There is no happily ever after because the plot lines aren’t wrapped up neatly in the last chapter. The subplots don’t get resolved. Nothing ever fits into a chapter outline. That’s what makes reality such a fucking drag.”
Someone laughed and that only encouraged me.
“Now Neil… he wanted a soul mate. He wanted someone to understand him and be there for him. He wanted an emotional crutch and he wanted it to be me, even though I told him that isn’t my thing. I told him I need space, and he couldn’t handle it. I don’t want a soul mate. I don’t need that level of emotional involvement. I need to concentrate on my work. I need to be able to withdraw when I’m writing and not have someone pouting or throwing a tantrum because I’m not paying attention to them. And I warn these men, but they can’t accept it.” I shook my head in amazement. “I don’t think I ask for much in a relationship… I just want a nice quiet, peaceful domestic arrangement with no drama, and someone who leaves me alone when it suits me. I’ll even cook and you know I’m a great cook.”
“And I’ll bet you have men lined up around the block,” said a husky stranger’s voice in my ear. I felt a hand on my arm at the same moment I turned around quickly and saw those brilliant blue eyes and the sunburst smile from the café. I flushed, but instead of going into full blushing-and-stammering mode, I just grinned. Ah beer, the great social equalizer.
“Oh yeah. Who could turn down all this?” I held my hands to present myself and earned the full intensity of his smile. It actually made my heart give a little jump and the almost-forgotten thrill of brand-new lust zipped over my nerve endings as he wrapped his arm around me and drew me off the barstool.
“Nobody I know,” he growled in my ear. “Come dance with me.”
“I don’t dance,” I protested but I was going with him, letting him pull me, waving to Josie as she watched in amusement from the bar.
“That’s okay, I don’t either.”
It all worked out because the dance floor was crowded enough that even if either one of us could dance, there wouldn’t have been much room. Instead, he locked his arms around me and we swayed to the techno beat; he felt so good. I slid my hands around his waist and up his lower back, feeling the curve of his muscles under the shirt and his body against me, and soon we were grinding together. He was a couple of inches taller and his thigh fit firmly between my legs, pressed against my crotch, so that every time I moved I rubbed my cock against it. I was hard now, hard and tingling. My blood raced through my veins and reminded me of what I’d been missing. I didn’t even know this guy’s name but I didn’t care. I moaned in my throat as his hands caught my hips and pulled me against him making my whole body recoil from a massive jolt of sexual energy. This guy, whoever the fuck he was, radiated it, smelled of it.
“So,” he breathed in my ear. Words casual but deep, husky rumble conveyed layers of hidden meaning. “What’s your name?”
The fact that he’d picked up my thoughts could’ve alarmed me but it didn’t. I was past caring, my fingers fumbling with the back of his shirt, tugging it from the waistband of his jeans. I told him my name and he laughed softly as my hands found his warm, smooth skin beneath the shirt. Goddamn it, he felt good. Muscles tight, rippling, flesh that could make me lose my way.
“Nice to meet you, Rylan.”
It was not lost on me even in my sex-clouded state that he didn’t mispronounce my name Ryan like people invariably did, and I always ended up annoyed and correcting them. I tilted my chin back and lightly nipped the outside edge of his ear while I answered softly, “Nice to meet you too…”
“Daniel,” he supplied, catching his breath. That encouraged me and I nibbled down to the lobe, letting my breath tickle him so that he shivered in a very sexy way. His hands were suddenly on my ass, firmly grabbing my butt cheeks, and moving with my hips so I was slowly and steadily humping his leg on the dance floor with everyone watching. This kind of exhibition was unheard of for me but I was so fucking turned on right now, I didn’t care who stared.
“So, Daniel.” I barely managed to form the words without groaning. “If you go get us a cab, I’ll tell my friends I’m outta here.”
He drew back and met my eyes, but nodded. As he broke away, his tongue flicked out and softly brushed the corner of my lips that were parted for my breath, and left me stunned.
With his body gone, I felt bereft and I stood still a moment, reeling with desire, before I could summon the will to move. When my limbs would obey my brain, I made my way over to Andrew and Louis, who were standing at the edge of the room talking to a couple of friends. They grinned and tried to draw me into the conversation but I shook my head impatiently and tugged Andrew back.
“I’m leaving.”
“Really?” He eyed me and noticed the breathy and slightly flushed state I was in, and he laughed. “Not alone, I assume?”
“No.”
“Not the guy from the café?” he demanded, eyes lighting up like a kid at Christmas.
“Yeah. Him.” I half-grinned and half-choked, ending up gasping for air as I felt a little stab of nervousness creep into my gut. “What the fuck am I doing Andrew?”
“Taking him back to your place and fucking the hell out of him, idiot.” He gave me a little shove and I took the hint heading toward the coat check near the door, where Daniel was just hanging up the phone and collecting his bag and leather jacket from the coat check girl. He looked up at me and grinned and I felt my cock give a little twitch in my jeans, which were uncomfortably tight just now.
“Cab’s on its way,” he said as I claimed my own jacket. Catching the sleeve, he pulled it on me and I found myself facing him and his mouth coming down on mine… I gasped and he took the opportunity to slide the tip of his tongue past my lips and give me a sweet, too-brief taste of him. Lips so soft and stubble a bit rough, scraping my tender skin, making it burn. He pulled away and left me hungry and wanting more, smiled at me and gave me a little push through the door to where our cab waited at the curb outside in the rain.
“Is it a long way?”
Daniel nuzzled my ear in the back seat of the cab while the rain pelted the windows in a captivating rhythm. I could see the eyes of the middle-aged black man who drove looking at us in the rearview mirror now and then, so I refrained from sticking my tongue down his throat the way I wanted to.
“Torturously long,” I whispered against his cheek. “But that’s okay… you can wait, can’t you?”
“Oh yes.”
We settled into the backseat with our hands in our own jacket pockets and a little space between us, but I couldn’t stay away and I inched closer. I just wanted the outsides of our thighs to touch, just a little. Just enough to feel the electricity his touch sent through me. I squirmed impatiently and he noticed, smirking at me under his lashes. Even in the dark, in the rain-splashed flashes of lights from signs, streetlights and the headlights of passing traffic, his eyes were so brilliant.
He leaned his head closer to mine against the back seat. “I can wait,” he whispered, a breath in my ear. “But can you?” and his eyes dropped to my lap where the outline of my hard cock pressed against the top of my thigh.
“You know,” he kept on, soft and relentless, “the first thing I noticed about you when I saw you was your smile, laughing at something your friend said. I kept looking up at you to see if you were smiling again. I was drawn to your lips… the way you licked them after you took a drink of your beer…”
This made me blush and I laughed, staring down while his breath brushed my cheek.
“And you turned around and stared at me, up and down before I looked up. Oh yeah,” he laughed softly, “I knew the whole time. You were so sexy when you blushed. I wanted to drag you to the john and bend you over the sink but didn’t think I’d see you again… which would have been a shame. It would’ve been a shame because I kept looking at your lips and thinking what they could do to me… kissing down my chest and my belly and wrapping around my cock…”
A gasping squeak came from me. I couldn’t help it. His words were getting to me no matter how I tried to fight it. I was the man of steel, dammit, and he was melting me into a puddle without a single touch. Just a low, husky, slightly southern whisper in my ear under the eyes of the cabbie that was plainly worried about what might happen in his back seat.
“I think your lips would be pretty around my cock,” Daniel whispered and my belly clenched, abs flexing in an effort not to rub myself against my jeans. My hands balled up into fists in my jacket pocket as he kept on and I shivered from his husky voice in my ear.
“I want to see you lick my balls because I love that. Then I want to watch you lick my cock up and down while you unbutton your pants and play with yourself.”
I gasped without meaning to. Dammit. My cock ached and he grinned at my stricken look, my hungry breath. He was enjoying this. My fidgeting was uncontrollable and I raked my fingers through my hair. Watching me, he nodded.
“Yeah, do that,” he laughed softly, “’cause that’s what I’ll be doing while you’re sucking the head of my dick… I’ll be tugging on your hair and making you moan. You’ll like that, won’t you? Having your hair pulled?”
His own breath was getting jerky as he kept up his barrage of images.
“I love watching someone who really loves sucking cock. You get this look on your face, you know that? I love looking down and seeing that look, seeing your eyes looking up at me while my cock is down your throat. But know what else I like?”
There was a pause and I closed my eyes and gulped a breath. I shuddered. But this time, he didn’t keep on. He stopped and waited. I opened my eyes and saw he was waiting for me to ask him what he liked. I swallowed and licked my dry lips. It wasn’t easy for me to say things like this. I didn’t want to look stupid or say something that would humiliate me later, but I had to this time. I had to if I wanted him to not stop.
“What?” I finally breathed in the barest whisper.
A slow grin spread over his face and he glanced at the cabbie, then leaned close to my ear so his arm pressed against mine and our thighs touched slightly. I could smell him, something faintly soapy, and his hair brushed my cheek and made me shiver. He was seducing me and it had been so long since someone did that I felt unworthy and out of practice, even if it was thrilling.
“I love watching, but I like doing it, too. I’d like to push you to your back and lick you, taste you because I know you’ll be so sweet… so hard and ready for me…”
Oh my god. I groaned and I was almost sure I’d said it aloud but then the cab came to a stop and when I looked up, I realized we were sitting in front of my house and the cabbie was staring at us, waiting for his money.
Fuck.
I fumbled for my wallet and shoved him what I hoped was enough cash as I threw open the door and tumbled out into a puddle with Daniel behind me and we splashed up the front stairs, his hands tugging at my clothes while I fitted the keys to the lock.
Chapter 3
The door slammed closed and his leather bag dropped, dripping, to the floor. My back hit the wall of the dark foyer and his mouth crashed into mine, demanding lips and rough stubble and a soft, utterly delicious tongue invading my mouth, tasting me while I wound my hands in his soft damp hair – mist of rain like a spider web – and pulled him down, licking and sucking fiercely at his bottom lip. Yeah, bruise him; make him sore and tender, lips swollen from sucking me.
His lips left mine. I groaned with disappointment, but then his hands pulled and tugged, peeling off my leather jacket, expertly unbuckling my belt. My head fell back against the wall and I couldn’t move, I could only stand there and gasp while my knees got weak from the feeling of his fingers tugging at my fly, unzipping my pants. I caught the flash of his grin through my haze as he sank to his knees on the hardwood floor at my feet.
I wanted to grab his hair, but my palms braced me back against the wall and if I let go, I might slide to the floor. His hands slid inside my jeans and over my hips to cup my ass in both hands while a hot tongue traced the damp patch on my boxers, teasing the head of my cock through the thin knit. His tongue swirled around and around until my knees were weak and I moaned. Then, he chuckled as he grabbed my jeans and underwear in handfuls and jerked them down. My cock sprang out and it would have slapped my belly but then his warm, soft mouth caught it and his tongue circled the head and licked the juice from the slit until I almost screamed.
“Mmm,” I whimpered pleadingly.
Swallow me… I couldn’t move and I moaned in pleasure and frustration while he slowly, tenderly slid his lips down my shaft and his wet tongue caressed the pulsing veins on the underside. Oh my god oh my god. He played with my balls with one hand while he sucked lightly, not enough to make me cum and Jesus I wanted to cum so fast and so hard, to drown him as my juice spurted down his throat in a river. I opened my eyes and peered down just in time to see him unbuttoning his own jeans with one hand and pulling his own hard dick out. The sight made me groan and he grinned around my cock, smug. He looked fucking incredible stroking himself and I felt hot waves start to ripple through me from my balls out to my fingers and toes.
I bit my lip. Daniel squeezed the base of my cock as he sucked, and with his other hand, he mirrored the same pressure and rhythm on himself. I was limp against the wall now; he let out a little moan and the vibration of his mouth around my cock made my knees go weak. The hot little tingling waves exploded into a little fire and I whimpered from the pleasure, and from the visual, watching him jack himself. His eyes turned up to mine and all the sudden I was done, the orgasm snapped and I went off like a roman candle into his mouth, so fast and so hard… and as he swallowed, his body tensed sharply and a little muffled moan caught in his throat. His eyes rolled back; and I stared open mouthed as his cum splattered the polished wood of my floor in big, creamy blobs.
For a moment, neither one of us could move. Still on his knees, he tipped his forehead against my thighs until he caught his breath, only his grip on my hips holding me upright. My hand shook as I wrapped it in his hair. So soft, thick, like damp silk in my fingers. I pulled his head back and he looked up at me and grinned, then he was on his feet and pressing me to the wall, kissing me and filling my mouth with his tongue that tasted deeply of my own cum, warm and salty and just a hint of bitterness and I clung to his lips and tasted it greedily.
“Sorry about the floor.”
“Fuck the floor,” I purred. I never thought I would purr, but there was no other word for it. Damn him.
“I usually prefer something softer, like the couch, or your bed. I don’t want your back to hurt when I’m fucking you.” Hot breath teased my hairline and I shivered even as I shook my head. No.
“I usually don’t…” A bit troubled, I started to explain, but he cut me off with a finger to my lips.
“That’s fine, it’s okay. Whatever you like, however you like. We’ve got all night; that was only something to take the edge off.”
A hot jolt shook the pit of my belly and I pulled away to flip the light switch. Didn’t want him to see the shudder that went through me, how his words affected me, he didn’t need to know that already. Sexy growl be damned, he was still in my territory. I pushed him back a step.
“So… would you like to come in for a drink?”
He laughed at my formal invitation and the double entendre at the same time… still in the hallway and already he’d had a drink. But I had yet to have mine, and the thought made my mouth water.
“Thought you’d never ask.”
Relaxed and lazy, I opened the leaded-glass doors to the living room and turned on a lamp, while Daniel dropped his bag on the floor and draped himself over the leather sofa. The low lamplight cast a honey-colored glow over his skin, his face was soft and satisfied, lips so luscious I had to bend over the arm of the couch and taste them before heading to the kitchen to get drinks. I also brought out rolls, ham and cheese and made two sandwiches because I am always hungry after a good hard orgasm.
My legs were so wobbly. I laughed at myself, all jellied. A puddle of goo. It’d been way too long since I had a decent fuck… or any fuck at all, for that matter. It wasn’t like me to bring home a stranger from a club, but this time was different. Daniel seemed sweet and sincere, not likely to be a psycho, and it didn’t matter anyway; I wasn’t planning to marry him. I planned on taking Drew’s advice and fucking him all night and again in the morning, and then sending him on his way so I could get in a full day’s writing after breakfast.
But in the meantime, I had this gorgeous man waiting for me, and I wasn’t going to waste a minute more than it took to get my strength back. Grabbing the plate with two sandwiches and the beers, I practically ran back into the living room.
“Food? Just what I needed.” Daniel’s eyes lit up and he gave me a smile that was positively heart stopping as he grabbed the ham sandwich.
I noticed his eyes as I watched him eat. He looked tired, a little haggard even, with circles under his eyes that marred his smooth skin. At least three days of stubble there. Some people did wear stubble for the look but the general scruffiness of his whole appearance told me he’d been traveling a lot, but he was obviously not a transient; his clothes were too expensive. No, he was just trying to get somewhere. And despite the fact that he was just a one-night stand, I couldn’t help but be interested. Details and life stories were how I made my living after all.
“Are you in town on business?” I asked in the midst of our comfortable silence, as we sat on the floor next to the coffee table, my leg thrown over his.
Daniel gave me a quick glance. He hadn’t mentioned being from out of town; but it was obvious to anyone paying attention. It seemed he wasn’t used to people paying attention. Most people don’t. “Just passing through,” he finally answered casually. “Unexpected family business came up and I need to run home to see to a few things in the morning.”
“Oh, I hope it’s nothing bad,” I said sympathetically. This gave him the opportunity to tell me more without my asking directly; he saw the opening, but he didn’t take it. He just shrugged.
“Nah, it’s fine.” Then he turned that disarming smile on me again, looking me straight in the eyes. That was a fine point of dealing with people. Always looking them in the eyes. “This is a nice place you have. What do you do, Rylan?”
Repeating the name, that was another point. He was good.
“That,” I gestured across the room at the bookcase filled with hardcover proofs of all my novels, about thirty in all in the eight years I’d been selling work.
“Really?” He got up with his sandwich and went over to the bookcase, randomly pulling out a book. “Pink Moon,” he read off the title. “By Cassandra Quinn.”
I shrugged. “These publishers have a formula, and part of the formula is a woman writer. Cassandra Quinn is just one of my pen names; I have three that I use for different lines of books. That’s a Starfire Romance, standard capture fiction where the heroine gets kidnapped and falls in love with her captor.”
With a grin, he flipped the book over, with its colorful cover portraying a woman with tits half-bursting from her tight bodice and a shirtless man embracing her passionately, and read off the back jacket.
Chestnut-haired beauty Blythe Halstead was as spirited and untamed as her favorite steed. Rather than waste her time on needlecraft, fashion and the stifling morass of social obligation, she sought the freedom of the open country and the misty, forested lanes surrounding her family’s estate. The worst fate she could imagine was to be bartered as a bride to the portly, stuffy, lecherous Lord Oliver.
Needing money to escape that loathsome marriage bed, Blythe disguised herself and took to the roads as a masked highwayman. One fateful night, as she was relieving a wealthy couple of their valuables, she heard approaching hoof beats and turned to see a black horse and cloaked rider bearing down on her.
Geoffrey Hawke prided himself on being the most infamous rogue, robber and rakehell in the county. He was determined to find this new upstart poaching on his victims and dispose of the competition.
But when he unmasked his foe, he found himself gazing into a pair of emerald-green eyes that stole his heart…
Laughter cut Daniel short and he looked up at me with his eyebrow raised comically. I grinned rather wearily. Yeah, so people laughed. So what?
“People buy them,” I pointed out.
“I see that.” He looked around and took in my expensive house with the custom leather furniture and inlaid woodwork and hand-woven Oriental rug. Starving artists were a dime a dozen. Writer friends of mine struggled with freelance, while I cranked out four or five guaranteed sellers a year without leaving the house, and the checks rolled in. I never claimed it was Tolstoy. When I first started I hid what I was doing from all but my closest friends, I was embarrassed about writing “trash” and considered myself above it; but now, if people thought I was a hack, I didn’t give a fuck.
“Hey… if you’re making money and making people happy, it’s great,” he said with a shrug. “People love these books. My mom is addicted to them. You’re obviously good at it, so it would be a shame to waste that talent.”
I smiled at him and nodded as I finished off my beer. Exactly my point. He’d sat back down on the floor next to me and our eyes locked just inches apart. His scent brushed across my senses and my cock gave a little twitch to tell me it was reviving. I sat perfectly still as he lifted a finger and lightly trailed it down my throat, tugging at my shirt collar. One by one, he pulled the buttons of my shirt open and then traced his fingertips down the front of my shirt, over my sternum and down my belly until he reached the open fly of my jeans.
“So… wanna show me the rest of the house?”
I melted under his touch. Just a fingertip and I was a puddle for this man. “What parts do you want to see?” I mumbled as he brushed his finger down the length of my cock through my jeans. He grinned and the tip of his pink tongue flicked over his full bottom lip that I just had to lean over and nibble between my teeth.
“Oh, you know,” he said lazily, “the good parts. All the naked ones.”
Damn clothes always in my way.
Still on the floor in front of the couch, I greedily tugged Daniel’s long-sleeved shirt over his head while he pushed his tongue into my mouth. I sucked on it the way I’d been wanting to since he teased me with that not-enough kiss in the club. Fuck, he tasted good… luscious and sweet, slight malty flavor of beer and some essence that took my breath away and I pushed my tongue in deeper to seek it out. That taste, and then a scent, it was just a hint of some delicious smell that was driving me out of my mind and I had to find out what it was, I had to get to its source so I could have it, just a tease wasn’t enough.
“No.”
I tried to pull away but he growled under his breath and caught the back of my head. I was going to lick him all over until I found that smell. But he possessed my mouth and he wasn’t about to stop kissing me; his tongue danced over the roof of my mouth while his lips nibbled me in tiny little bites. Oh goddamn it, he just made me swoon, literally made my knees weak like a teenager, my hands slid over the smooth, muscular curves of his back and it was like stroking a lean panther stretched out next to me.
“Upstairs,” I panted against his lips and he nodded and recaptured my mouth. I hauled him up, never breaking the kiss, and backed him toward the stairs with my fingers hooked into the waistband of his jeans. Get upstairs and get naked. It wasn’t easy to guide someone up a flight of stairs backward, kiss and strip at the same time but somehow we managed it, stumbling and laughing the whole way. I never stopped sucking his tongue, leaving a trail of clothes behind us like breadcrumbs.
“That how I find my way out of here?” he asked.
I snickered, steering him toward my bedroom door at the top of the stairs. “In the morning maybe. I’m damn sure not letting you out of here before then.”
“Mmm, I promise I won’t try to escape,” he purred.
That made me shivers all over. Naked, fucking gorgeous and mine, at least for tonight. I pushed him back to the bed and he sprawled out across the rumpled sheets while I flipped on a light, and then I turned and stared in amazement at what was lying in my bed waiting for me.
A little groan escaped my throat, almost a whimper. Fuck, he was beautiful. The pale light of the lamp illuminated him like a halo. Golden skin that went on forever, long muscular thighs, sinuous hips and his long, gorgeous cock lying on his belly, thick and ready, the flushed head gleaming with pre-cum. Sharply defined abs and lean corded muscles of his chest and arms all laid out for my eyes. The man worked out, that was obvious because he was fucking perfect; so perfect my knees shook and butterflies took flight in my stomach.
His eyes took me in and I wavered with a second’s insecurity. I was pale, I didn’t work out and I spent most of my time in a desk chair. Not flabby but nothing like him. Still, he didn’t seem to care; he smiled in welcome as I got to my knees on the bed between his slightly spread legs. His eyes were so blue against the pale tan of my sheets. I sank down into his mouth with my hands braced above his head, up on my knees above his body. I closed my eyes and groaned as his tongue probed my mouth intimately, tasting every part of me until I was weak and he hadn’t even touched me yet, only just a light hand on the naked skin of my lower back.
“I’m glad we both came earlier,” Daniel suddenly laughed against my lips. “Or I wouldn’t be so patient.”
“Me either,” I agreed as I nibbled the little spot where his jaw curved into his neck. Oh so sweet and stubbly.
“How do you like to fuck, Rylan?” His raspy growl in my ear was sudden and it startled me. I couldn’t answer, but at the same time, his words made my cock drip onto his belly. I could feel the sticky liquid bubble out, string down and make a little puddle right under his navel. I couldn’t see it but the picture in my mind was perfect. How did this man know what words did to me? They made me shiver all over, made my knees shake, made my hips weak. I was a word junkie and nothing turned me on like words but it was usually in books, nobody I’d been with ever pushed that button in me. Nobody had ever tried.
His hands on my lower back guided my hips in a short thrust and the tip of my cock lightly swirled through the liquid on his belly, the mixture of both our juices, and painted his skin like the feathery stroke of an artist’s brush. I groaned and nipped his neck but I didn’t speak, and he understood my silence, how I couldn’t answer.
“You like to bite, don’t you?” Oh, that raspy fuck voice again, making me shiver. I nodded quickly and scraped my teeth down his collarbone. Skin so tender, slightly salty, luscious when I licked away the marks my teeth left behind.
“Mmm. Bite my nipples, I like that…. Oh yes.” He sucked in a breath as I licked my way down the center of his collarbone and trailed tiny bites to his nipple. My cock was leaking like mad now and my heart knocking so hard against my chest, I could almost hear it. The combination of his words and his maddening scent was sending me into orbit and my arms were about to give out.
“Yeah, now bite it… not too hard… Ah.” Sharp little intake of breath, his body tensed as my teeth found the hard nub of his nipple and bit down gently while I lightly sucked it, swirling my tongue around and around while he encouraged me, his hands stroking down the curve of my back to skim my ass and I moaned.
“Mmm yes, that feels good… Now don’t forget the other one…”
My tongue flicked the other nipple while my front teeth bit into it. I bit harder this time, slowly pressing down into the flesh, licking and sucking; and Daniel’s hands slipped from my back and knotted into the sheets while he squirmed and bucked under me so deliciously.
“Oh… oh fuck that hurts but don’t …”
I chuckled in my throat and released his nipple and I wasn’t sure if his sigh was relief or disappointment. When I withdrew, he was panting through his mouth and the pale light showed a sheen of sweat on his upper lip.
“Bastard,” he breathed, and I laughed, dipping down to lick the indentation between his abs. Jesus, his stomach was fucking gorgeous. When he tensed, every muscle was sharply defined in a perfect, lean, rippling six-pack that made me breathless as I explored it with my tongue and my lips and my teeth while I breathed in his scent. That elusive intoxicating smell I’d caught earlier was strong now; it was the smell of his cock and it was very hard, it twitched eagerly on his belly while I nuzzled lower and nosed the very edge of his pubic hair.
“Oh yeah baby,” he groaned. I knew he wanted me to suck him, but there were areas I had still not tasted; and so, I just traced the line of his hip up to the light trail of hair under his belly button. Oh, now that was a sweet spot, right under his dick, right where the juice pooled, a mixture of his and mine. I licked it greedily, brushing his cock off to the side with my hand, holding it there while I tasted his pre-cum, marking his skin with my spit.
“How does it taste?” he growled.
“Delicious,” I spoke for the first time and he laughed at the same time he groaned in pleasure from my sucking his delicate skin.
“You’re so quiet and that’s okay… but I’ll get you talking, Rylan. I’ll teach you to fuck me with your mind and not just your dick and you’ll thank me always…”
I just figured he was babbling now, so I kind of chuckled, and then went on to the serious business of licking the sweet cream from the tip of his cock. Such a pretty flared head that pulsed when I wrapped my lips around it and sucked lightly. He gasped and thrust his hips upward, but I stopped him with my hand on his belly. I didn’t plan to get him off this way, but it was so deliciously tempting I couldn’t resist just a little taste before I flipped him over.
Warm and hard and so silky against my tongue, fitting so perfectly against the roof of my mouth, I almost sucked him off but I made myself pull back because I wanted to taste his ass. I couldn’t believe this beautiful man was giving himself to me like this – he was so perfect, so out of my league – and I wanted to experience everything I could. I wanted to lick his hole and slide my fingers inside his tight ass, gently suck his balls before I finally slid my cock into his tender hole.
“Ohmygod,” I breathed without meaning to, squeezing my eyes closed.
“What’re you thinking, baby? Tell me about it… tell me what gets you off.”
I took a deep breath and traced my tongue lazily over his ribcage. I didn’t answer right away. My natural shyness made this harder for me than it should’ve been. I flipped him over to his belly and he stretched out with his arms over his head. All that golden skin and hard, flowing muscle made me speechless with awe at the same time it inspired me. The back of his neck… his biceps and defined shoulders, the smooth curve of his spine into his lower back. God, how I loved that little dip at the very base of the spine – and then his ass… firm cheeks a bit paler than the rest of his skin, begging to be licked and squeezed and slapped. My cock was growing more urgent and demanding. I was again glad I wasn’t bursting to cum, because surely it would’ve happened too fast; he was just fucking gorgeous.
“What gets me off?” I finally said breathlessly. “Looking at you like this…”
“Mmmohyeah,” Daniel purred, wiggling a bit, rubbing his cock against my sheets. The sight made me so hot; I literally broke into a sweat. “You’re an ass man, aren’t you Rylan.”
“Very much so,” I managed to answer while staring at all that golden, naked perfection. That little spot right at the very top of his crack, right where it started, was fascinating me. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I wanted to drive my tongue into it, see if it tasted as delicious as it looked. My dick throbbed and I absently rubbed it while I stared at him like a hungry dog stares at a steak.
“Then tell me what you want to do to it… tell me and then do it.”
Words came so easily for me in my head and flowed onto the page, but they somehow got tied up in my throat before they came out of my mouth. In certain situations – like at the bar – I could get going, but one-on-one was much harder for me. I didn’t want to sound stupid, but at the same time, I was never going to see this guy again. He was here in my bed and he was taking me out of my humdrum life and making me feel things I hadn’t felt in so long, I barely remembered them at all and so what the hell did it matter if I babbled like a fool?
“I want to nibble the back of your neck and all the way down your spine,” I whispered shyly in his ear. I trailed my fingertip between his shoulder blades and he shuddered while I nipped his neck right where it curved into his shoulder. “And when I get to your ass….”
“What?” he gasped when I paused. This wasn’t easy for me but I loved the way my words made him squirm against the sheets. I had to just stop and stare with my mouth open, drooling at all that gorgeous flesh writhing from what I was saying, me.
“When I get to your ass, I’m gonna spread it and lick this spot right here…”
“What spot?” he demanded, glancing over his shoulder at me; he was so beautiful, eyes glazed with sex and his lips flushed and wet.
“This one.”
Chapter 4
On my hands and knees above him, my cock brushing his skin, I licked a trail down his back to that little place that I was fixated on, that little indentation between his ass cheeks. I swirled my tongue around it until he was gasping; and then I did exactly what I said and spread his cheeks with my palms and licked down the cleft to his tender pink hole, probing it with my tongue, licking it, sucking the skin around it lightly while he moaned into the pillow.
“Oh fuck… Daniel, you taste so good.” I gasped dizzily, his ass cheeks were so round and firm in my hands when I squeezed them and my cock was aching now, leaking furiously onto the sheets between Daniel’s legs. For a moment, I drifted in a haze not able to form a coherent thought; but then I buried my tongue in his ass again and it didn’t matter anymore, the whole world was nothing but this warm, tight hole and the whimpers that came from his throat.
“Yes,” he breathed. “That’s it. Push your tongue in hard, Ry. Show me how you want to fuck me.”
Oh my fucking god. I let out a low, hungry growl against his ass and pressed my tongue past his tight ring so that it surrounded me with his warmth and I tongue fucked him relentlessly, until he drew his knees up under him and lifted his ass, pushing back against me. I was shaking all over and fighting not to cum but goddamn, he was so fucking wanton, he was melting my bones.
“Yesyesyes… just like that… you’re fucking me just right, Ry.” Daniel was on his elbows and knees now and he threw his head back, arching back against my tongue and moaning in short, harsh gasps. “Slow and easy at first, then so hard and so deep… until I taste your cock… can you fuck me like that, Ry?”
“Mmmhmm.” I could only mumble because my mouth was occupied with his sweet ass. My finger slid inside him easily and he twisted under me and moaned sharply.
“More,” he demanded greedily. “Put in another finger.”
He was spread out for me with a light sheen of sweat glazing his skin, all the lines of his muscles tense and taut. My knees were shaking as I slid my middle finger into his tight hole alongside my first finger and I felt his hole flex and tighten around them as I stroked the smooth passage. God, I loved that moment of eager acceptance, it just drove me wild knowing he was open and waiting for me; I pulled my tongue away and he whimpered in disappointment, but still pushed back against my fingers fucking him slowly in and out.
I draped myself over his smooth golden back, pushing him down to the bed, and he rubbed himself against my weight and purred.
“That’s it,” he growled as I nibbled his shoulder, catching the flesh hard between my front teeth. I wanted to eat him up, devour him, pound into him until we both came apart. “Fuck me with your fingers Ry, open me for your cock…”
That made me groan and jump to my knees, pulling my fingers out of his tight hole. I had to stare at it for a moment: so tiny, flushed such a dark pink, fluttering, open a bit from the invasion of my fingers. Greedy, wanting me. He writhed impatiently while I fumbled in the bedside drawer with hands that shook so that they could hardly tear the paper; and the sensation of my lubed hand wrapping around my sheathed cock was so intense I groaned aloud, shivering up on my knees.
“Yeah, get that cock ready to fuck me,” Daniel growled, making me weak. Quickly he put a pillow under his hips, lifting his ass, spreading it wide for me. The combination of the sight before me and his words sent a knot of sparks down my gut and deep into my balls to trail off into my shaking thighs and I couldn’t hold back any longer.
Yes. I was going to fuck him until he couldn’t see straight and I slid my lubed fingers back into his hole where they felt so warm and cozy, wiggling them to make him tingle all over, slowly pushing my third finger inside with the other two and he winced slightly, but he groaned. “Mmmyeah, yeah, stretch me, fuck me into this mattress…”
I couldn’t wait anymore and I sank into his tight warmth. It was home for my cock, so sweet and tight and slick, feeling his sweaty back against my bare chest and his sharp, clean smell pouring over me like the most beautiful and intoxicating mist, losing myself in my thrusts and he undulated under me, strong and wild. It wasn’t going to last, not for either one of us. I burned and ached and a the knot of need clenched tighter and harder in my balls until I pinned him to the bed and lay still, breath heaving in his ear. He felt slippery, squirmy and electric.
“I need to cum,” I growled.
“Yeah? Me too,” he grinned over his shoulder, turning his head to capture my lips with his hot open mouth.
He was breathing as hard as I was, and pushing his hips back against my throbbing cock, taking me closer and closer to the edge even though I wasn’t moving at all. I felt drenched, spit and lube, sweat and juices all over me, drowning in a wave of sex and I was helpless against the tide. I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t help the little whimpering moan that came from my throat as I thrust into him and picked up his rhythm.
His round, tight, muscular ass under me was so tempting. I didn’t want to cum so soon but it was unavoidable, it was overwhelming me like a flood and I pulled back, shifting to my knees. Wanted to mark that ass, make it mine…
Smack.
His whole body jolted in surprise but then he growled and pushed his ass upward into my slow thrusts, and I rubbed away the sting of my smack, the slight pink handprint that was so pretty on his pale golden brown skin.
“Hell yes, Ry.” There was a wild excited note in his voice that made me shake uncontrollably as I panted for air. His harsh demands made me so fucking hot, growling at me while I thrust into him. “Yeah, smack my ass while you fuck me, baby.”
Smack, this time on his other cheek and even though he was expecting it this time, he jolted again and rocked backward so his balls slapped mine and a bead of sweat trickled down the center of my chest and dripped onto his back. Orgasm licked at the base of my spine but I fought it off, pushed it back impatiently, as he ground against me so shameless and wild.
“Yes… like that, Ry, just like that… Just do it again and make me cum so hard. Smack me, Ry.” Smack, smack while he groaned long and loud in his throat and threw his ass up against me. That changed the angle so that I hit a certain spot inside him and I heard him give a wild gasp, gripping the sheets in handfuls, and his hole flexed against me in tight spasms and I lost it.
“Yes… fuck, yes.” I gritted my teeth, and then I came in a rippling jolt of pleasure turning me inside out and backwards and he trembled under me and groaned his own orgasm into my sheets. I collapsed on to him, his back heaving against my chest, and we lay there together as I absently petted away the last trace of redness from his ass.
Time passed and I think I drifted in and out of consciousness until we could both move again. When I pushed myself over my side, my arms were weak and shaky and it had been so long since I’d fucked until I was a puddle, I had to grin smugly. It was hard to move enough to shed the condom and drop it into the trash. Daniel had rolled over to his side facing me, his lashes shadows over his half-closed eyes, and he gave me a lazy, satisfied grin as he stretched his arms over his head. His ribs and the lean muscles under his arms flexed under his smooth skin and I stared in awe at all that delicious flesh. Damn…
“Made a mess out of your sheets,” he yawned apologetically.
I shrugged. It was a miracle I could still move. “Need to get up,” I grunted.
“Uh huh. Where’s the bathroom?”
I lifted my arm just enough to gesture down the hallway. So heavy. He got up and I lay there and drifted until I felt a warm, wet cloth on my belly, wiping my cock clean of lube and spunk. That was nice. Sleep tugged at me, but the beer finally forced me to get up and stagger to the bathroom for a piss.
Passing by my office door, I noticed my computer screen glowing gray and expectant, and I had to go in. My open file drew me. The little world I was creating tugged at me but I wasn’t planning on writing; I was too tired. However, I quickly re-read the last few paragraphs on the screen, making sure I was still in the story, still in my flow.
“This where you do your writing?” Daniel’s sleepy voice asked me from the door. I looked over my shoulder as he came in naked and dropped down on the couch, curling up like a small boy in the corner with his eyes drooping.
“Yeah, most of it.” The rest of the house had been professionally decorated, but this room – a disorganized hodgepodge of books, notes, mismatched furniture and stereo equipment – was all mine. My grandma had crocheted the soft afghan Daniel was pulling down from the back of the couch. It was actually the master bedroom, with an attached bathroom and deep bay windows looking out onto the small backyard. I slept in the second bedroom down the hall because I spent all of my time in here. A bedroom just had a bed in it.
“Ever fucked in here?” he grinned.
“Actually no. Most people don’t even get to come in here.” I pecked out a sentence, my mind half-on Daniel. “You make a nice addition to the place, though.”
He smiled as sleep started to drift over him. He looked so cute; my heart gave a little skip. However, he was leaving in the morning. This was just a one-night thing. So heart-skips weren’t allowed. Still, I planned to wake him up early and give him something to remember before he left.
Finally, he roused himself and sat up, blinking. “You staying up to write, or coming to bed?”
I pulled my mind out of the story, hit save and started the backup. The story could wait but this gorgeous man in my bed could not. “I’m definitely coming to bed.”
Chapter 5
Hot wet mouth wrapped around my shaft. I thrust hard and my orgasm is so fucking close, just out of reach, so intense… I moan and let it explode and ripple through me…
“Ry.”
A vaguely familiar voice saying my name startled me from sleep with my heart pounding until I opened my eyes and saw Daniel next to me. I remembered who he was, and why his hand was slowly stroking my belly under the covers, so warm with his smooth naked body curled against me and the slow sound of the rain against the gray windowpanes. My cock was already hard from the dream, and I purred sleepily as his hand wrapped around it and stroked slowly.
“Morning.”
“Morning,” he nibbled on my ear. He flicked his tongue down my neck and I stretched and groaned. Fuck, he was nice to wake up to, all that endless rippling muscle between my sheets, warm hard cock nestled against my thigh, nipping my neck with his lips as his thumb spread my juice around the head of my cock. I stroked the curve of his ass and reached up to wind my other hand through his soft hair. He made a little sound of approval because, as I already knew, he liked having his hair pulled.
“Fuck me,” he mumbled in my ear. He still sounded sleepy and heavy, and so sexy it made my balls tingle. “Then let’s go back to sleep. It’s raining.”
“Mmm.” I smiled and nodded, my eyes closed back against the pillow. He rolled over and reached into the drawer; I lay there drowsily while he rolled the latex down and lubed me. Nice… no thinking, just a warm cocoon of sex and sleep, cozy pattering rain, his delicious sweat-tinged smell and his ass fitting into the curve of my body like a spoon when he pulled me to my side and I curled around him and nuzzled his hairline. He raised his leg, spreading his ass.
“Don’t thrust. I’m a little sore from that hard fucking you gave me last night. Just let me take you.”
I smiled at the thought of making him sore… his tender little pucker swollen and red from being battered by my cock… and I caught his thigh and held it up while he slowly pushed back against my shaft until it slid past his tight ring and then he sucked in a breath and stopped. I held perfectly still until he moved again. He slid me inside him and then I was totally buried in his slick tight warmth and I could feel every little pulse, every little flutter of his muscles gripping me, stretching around my invasion and I was motionless while sparkly pinpoints of pleasure zinged over my nerves, all the way down till it made my toes curl.
Daniel was humming softly in his throat the whole time, but he hadn’t moved yet. My cock throbbed with delight, content to stay right where it was, its very favorite place in the whole wide world. We lay still in our cocoon and it could’ve been a minute or it could’ve been hours. Finally, he moved back against me and I slid his leg into the crook of my arm and held his ankle. I was the one buried inside his ass but he was fucking me in a slow and lazy early-morning rhythm. He caught my mouth with his over his shoulder and his tongue tasted so warm and sweet even after sleep, toying and sucking at mine in slow, languid sweeps that made me weak.
I locked his leg behind my knee so I’d have a free hand. I needed to wrap my hand around that cock, hard and flushed and dripping on his belly, I wanted him to cum so hard, watch the cream splatter his flexing abs, wanted to watch his face while he came. He threw his head back when I lazily pinched his nipple and he looked so beautiful, flushed and needy, panting through his parted lips, eyes rolled back. Need hit me hard in the gut and I slid my hand over his ribs down to his hip.
“Do you want to cum?” I growled.
“Yeah… fuck yeah…”
His breathless groan, my cock driving into him hard, the slap of my balls against his ass, the slight squeak of the bed, the driving rain against the windows. I wrapped my hand around his cock and it was so warm and hard, thick, every vein pulsing in time to my thrusts and he reached up and grabbed my hair as I stroked his cock and fucked his ass, oh so tight and sweet, I couldn’t stand it I was going to cum so hard I might black out.
“Oh my god… right there. Right there, yes yesyesyes.”
All that slick flesh writhing against me and his cock twitched and tightened in my hand, drawing up. He pulled my hair, crying out with his lower lip caught in his teeth as he spurted all over his belly and down my hand. His hole tightened around me sharply and then I lost it too and shot, twisting in the hot bursts of sensation like a wave that rolled me over and over until I crashed on the beach and lay there panting and motionless and emptied out.
Collapsed in a sticky, panting heap of flesh, it was a long time before we moved. I started to drift off a few times, but finally Daniel pulled away and sat up on the side of the bed, letting out a groan as he rolled his shoulders and his neck.
“Damn. It’s been a long time since I’ve been fucked like that,” he grinned.
“Really?” My ego swelled to enormous proportions.
“Hell yeah.” Tidying up, he dropped the lube back into the open drawer; and he pulled something out, grinning. I froze. “And what have we here?”
A deep, horrified blush spread over my face, as he held up my black silicone dildo, realistically sculpted and complete with balls. Shit. I wanted to crawl under the covers, but he was inspecting it with great interest rather than laughing at me as I immediately thought he would. He felt its weight, encircled it with his hand and pretended to jack it, nodding appreciatively.
“Nice,” he said. He glanced over at my scarlet face and smiled, stretching out to brush a kiss over my cheek. “You’re cute when you blush, but don’t be embarrassed. Picturing you fucking yourself with this is hot.”
My flush became paralyzing and I lay there in mute horror as he stroked the tip of the dildo down my thigh, dropping his voice to a low growl.
“I know you get it all nice and slick… do you like to suck it? I wonder if you push it in hard, or slow and easy. Do you like to be fucked hard? Mmm, I like the idea of your legs in the air and this in your ass. What do you think about when you’re fucking it, Rylan?”
He knew I wasn’t going to answer; but despite my dismay, I felt a little tingle at the base of my cock. It was just too soon for either one of us to be up for another round and he knew it. He sat back up and dropped the dildo in the drawer with a sigh of regret.
“Too bad I’m not staying in town a little longer. I’d love to watch that.”
“Maybe you’ll come to Atlanta another time,” I said shyly.
He shrugged and stretched out next to me, resting his heavy head on my shoulder. “Maybe,” he mumbled. “Now… it’s too early. Go back to sleep.”
We both slept, still covered in juices. I woke before him and slid out of bed without disturbing his slow, even breath. I felt fantastic as I showered, even if my thighs were hitching a bit from the strain of all that fucking. It was an amazing feeling. I was grinning like a sap when I walked back into the bedroom naked and found him awake, blinking at me.
“Hey.”
“Morning, again.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I need to get moving. Mind if I take a shower?”
“Not at all. Towels are in the closet behind the door.”
As he staggered off to the bathroom, I pulled on some jeans, grinning when I heard a groan over the running water. Least I could do was make him some breakfast after fucking him into oblivion. I went downstairs, still sleepy, still not caffeinated; and as I crossed the semi-dark living room to the kitchen, I tripped on something.
It was Daniel’s leather bag. I bent to pick it up so I could move it out of the walkway; when I did, it tipped sideways and something heavy fell out and hit the floor. My first thought was it barely missed my toe. Then, I reached for it and saw what it was, and I stopped dead.
A handgun.
Wrapping my hand around it, I turned it over so I could inspect it in the dim light. It was a SIG-Sauer P229 forty-caliber semi-automatic. This gun had an automatic safety, not a conventional one, so if it had a round in the chamber, it would be ready to fire with a double-action trigger pull. I tried not to panic. This stranger had brought a gun into my house. Immediately, I started thinking all kinds of terrible things – that he was going to rob or murder me – but my rational mind got a hold of itself and reminded me he’d had plenty of time to do it already, if that were what he intended. Also, it was a very popular weapon for police officers, so it wasn’t out of the question that he was in some sort of law enforcement. No doubt he was carrying it for protection while he was traveling and it was perfectly legal to do so, as long as he were properly licensed; and he seemed perfectly harmless and law abiding. No big deal, I decided. I wouldn’t even mention it; he was leaving soon anyway, and I’d never have to see him again. I just picked up the gun, put it back in the bag and set the bag on the couch, and then I went into the kitchen and started the coffeepot.
My morning routine involved watching the local news on the TV in the corner of the kitchen while fixing breakfast. It was more the drone of the morning anchors I listened to than any interest in what they were saying. I fried some bacon and made a quick cheese omelet, only paying attention to the news with half an ear while I replayed some of the more erotic moments from last night in my head.
“…And out of Florida, Tallahassee police are searching for Detective Daniel Braden. Detective Braden disappeared Wednesday after allegedly being involved in the shooting death of a fellow officer. Details are not being released, but he is wanted for questioning and anyone who might’ve seen Detective Braden is urged to call Crimestoppers at…”
My heart in my throat, I ran for the TV as they showed a picture of the police officer on the screen. Yes, it was him. The picture was older but there was no mistaking it. The man on the TV wanted for questioning in a homicide in Tallahassee was in my fucking shower. That was why he had a gun. Holy shit. He was a cop and he was a suspected murderer.
Wildly, I spun around to grab the phone, but when I turned, Daniel was in the doorway in his jeans and t-shirt, hair wet, staring at me. I froze in my tracks, heart pounding and knees shaking.
“I didn’t do what they’re saying,” Daniel told me urgently. He took a step toward me and I edged backward. The phone was about halfway between us, lying on the counter, and if I could somehow stop him for a second I could grab it and dial 911…
He saw my eyes darting to the phone and took another step toward me, keeping his voice calm and beseeching, his hands lifted unconsciously to show his good intentions.
“Rylan, please. Listen to me. I didn’t kill anyone. The crime scene was tampered with and the evidence is all fake.”
“So you were framed. Isn’t everyone?”
“I really was framed, Ry. Listen. Just calm down and I’ll tell you the whole story. Will you at least listen?”
I was scared as hell, but unless he had the gun down the back on his jeans, I wasn’t in any immediate danger the way I saw it. Crossing my arms, I lifted my eyebrow expectantly and stared at him, waiting, while a voice in the back of my mind screamed at me that I was a flaming idiot for even giving him a minute to explain himself before I called the cops.
“I’m a detective with Internal Affairs,” Daniel began with a deep breath. “Know what that is?”
“Investigating the police from within,” I shrugged. I sounded ice-cold when in reality I was shaking like a leaf.
“Right.” He nodded; relieved I was with him so far. “I was undercover as a vice detective, working on drugs and prostitution and illegal weapons; but I was investigating a ring of dirty vice cops. These jack-offs are running an illegal gun-smuggling ring between Tallahassee and Chicago, with contacts in the Birmingham and St. Louis PD’s. This week, I was finally able to nail down the proof I needed on my wire.”
“But my cover got blown. I’m not sure how, but I have my suspicions and proving them will be my next step, once this is over. When they found out I was an IAD investigator, they could’ve killed me but that would’ve been too easy. Instead, the leader of the Tallahassee ring, Sgt. Adkins, shot another officer who was deeply into this, using my weapon, and tampered with evidence to make it look like I fired the gun. He wanted to discredit me and send me to prison, to send a message to IAD that he was untouchable.”
“But why didn’t you go to the police commissioner or something?”
“Because.” He sighed heavily. “This thing goes very high, maybe even up to the top of the force. Internal Affairs couldn’t even protect me. That’s how high it goes. Now, every undercover cop has a contingency plan in place, just in case things go sour; it’s an escape hatch nobody knows about so nothing can be used to trace you. I used mine. I went to my safe house instead of going home where I knew they were waiting. I shredded my credit cards and disabled my electronic equipment, anything that could be used to track me electronically. Adkins smashed the camera equipment I was wearing the night I cracked the case, but it was set up on a digital feed to the Tallahassee PD internal network so it’s safe in there for now. I’m not stupid enough to keep the originals of my evidence anywhere near me; if I got killed it’d all be lost. I only had copies and I destroyed those before I left. The originals are with another IAD detective up in Chicago who’s working this case from the other end. That’s why I was headed up there. I need to get to him so we can bring these assholes down. I have a contact in Atlanta, so I took the soonest bus up here, and he got me a flight out of here today. I was just going to get something to eat and then crash at a hotel for the night when I ran into you.”
He smiled and shook his head ruefully. “Leave it to me to let my dick get me in trouble. I never should’ve gone out to meet you, but I didn’t think it would do any harm. I didn’t think the story would be out this fast and I damn sure never thought my face would be plastered on the morning news.” He glanced over my shoulder at the TV in disgust. “So now I’m a fugitive. I can’t show my face at an airport, let alone ID.”
“And how do I know you’re telling the truth?” I demanded, with a bravado I wasn’t entirely feeling.
“I dunno. You don’t, I guess.” He slumped, sighing. “Let me show you my badge and ID, at least.” He reached back and I jumped, giving an involuntary gasp at the sudden move; and he dropped his hands and stepped toward me. “Please don’t be scared, Ry… the last thing I want to do is hurt you. Here. Take my ID out of my back pocket yourself if you need to.”
I nodded, mentally telling myself to get a grip; and he turned around and held his arms out while I drew his wallet out of his back pocket. There was no gun there and I was not looking at his ass and how delicious it was in his jeans. Not at a time like this.
Identification, gold detective’s shield with a badge number. That was it.
“There’s nothing here that says you work for Internal Affairs,” I protested. I felt disjointed because I realized now I wanted to believe him. I didn’t want him to be a murderer, or even a crooked cop trying to lie his way out of it. I wanted him to be one of the good guys because he looked and acted like one, and he fucked like a dream. But without proof, how could I be sure?
“No, because I’m undercover,” he explained patiently. “Even though my cover’s blown, we don’t carry around anything to link us to IAD. In a case like this, it could be my death warrant. I can’t ask you to go on faith, but… that’s all I have right now.”
“Fine.” I handed him his wallet back and stepped back a few paces until my back was against the center island. “Your story sounds plausible and there’s no way for me to discredit it, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. If you just leave now, I won’t call the police.”
He sighed and he looked so dejected, gazing down at the floor before he looked up at me with his brilliant blue eyes again.
“I wish I could do that, Ry. I really do. But it’s gone beyond that now. I can’t walk away from here, because I can’t go through airport security to catch my flight to Chicago. The airlines would’ve been notified by now and I’ll be arrested. I have to clear myself, because I have to bring these guys down. It’s my job and I’m in too deep to walk away from it now. You don’t know how many people have died because of these dirty cops, all over the country.” Another sigh, heavy and resigned. “I wish I could leave you out of this, but the fact is, I can’t. I need your help because you’re the only help I’ve got right now. You’re going to have to drive me to meet my contact in Birmingham.”
****
hor’s note: Thanks to Black Shanglan, Lady Christabel and all others who have given me feedback and encouragement on this novel.