Stay with Me (The WITSEC series Book 1)

by Patricia Logan

  “Fuck me harder, Kane,” Luca grunted. Kane complied almost instantly, reaching for Luca’s hands, brushing them aside as he grabbed his knees, changing his angle as he fucked into him harder. This angle was much better for Luca. He canted his hips and met Kane’s thrusts. When he suddenly slammed into Luca’s prostate, Luca screamed and shot a long white-hot streamer of come against Kane’s stomach.

  “Oh, God!” Kane shouted, making a strangled sound as he looked down and watched Luca coming without even a hand to himself. He seemed to stare in awe, wonderment crossing his features as pulse after pulse of come jetted out of Luca’s dick onto his stomach, leaving rivers of creamy white pools. As Luca looked down, gasping from his orgasm, he had to admit, it was a copious display. He didn’t think he’d ever come that much at one time.

  He watched Kane shudder and then grit his teeth and hiss, feeling a throb deep inside his body as Kane gave three short thrusts and then stopped moving entirely, coming into the condom buried deep inside Luca’s body. Luca reached up and caught Kane as he dropped down over him, letting go of his knees which were aching from being bent in the same position so long. The sloppy white mess of his come slid decadently between them, but he held on to Kane’s heaving, panting body, slick with sweat. Luca ran his hands up into Kane’s wet hair.

  Kane had definitely outdone himself as he’d fucked Luca hard. His ass was throbbing and he knew he was going to be sore in the morning. Kane was big but Luca had asked for it. Kane had delivered the fucking of his life just like he’d asked and he wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to live without him in his life. He felt his chest tighten with a painful knot of loss but then suddenly, Kane lifted his head and smiled down at him. His face was relaxed and he looked genuinely happy for the first time since Luca had met him. He propped himself up on his elbows and framed Luca’s cheeks, staring down at him.

  “You liked it.” It was a statement, not a question and all Luca could do was to nod and smile.

  “You know I did,” he said, closing his eyes as Kane stroked his cheeks.

  “Do you always come that much?” Kane asked.

  Luca chuckled. “No. Never. I guess it’s just you, Delancey,” he said, using the man’s last name. He thought he must have said it with an unconscious desire to distance his heart from the detective but when Kane frowned, he knew it had been the wrong thing to say. Kane leaned down and kissed him softly.

  “I like it when you call me Kane.”

  “Okay,” Luca said. “Kane, that was amazing… perfect.”

  Kane looked like he wanted to say something but he deliberately closed his mouth and slid out of his body, leaning back. He reached for the tissue box on the bed table and dealt with the condom. Come ran over the sides of Luca’s body to the comforter below and only then did he realize they hadn’t even pulled the bedspread back to lie on the sheets. He was surprised when Kane just chuckled and held out his hand.

  “You need a shower before I take you home,” Kane said.

  Luca felt a profound sense of loss. He wasn’t even going to let Luca spend the night with him. The truth was, he really wanted Kane to ask him to spend the night with him even though he never let men stay in his bed overnight either. In any case, Luca swallowed down his disappointment, took Kane’s hand, and let him lead him into the bathroom to wash away their passion once and for all.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kane waited for the shower to heat as he held Luca in his arms. They stood in his bathroom as steam began to rise, filling the space and the air between them. He thought he should say something after what had just happened but using words to describe the way his body felt as he’d fucked Luca seemed impossible. Even now, with Luca’s small frame pressed against his body as they hugged in the tight space, he felt strangely at peace. Sure, he’d taken lots of women to bed but it had never felt the way it did right now.

  The truth was, Luca had asked nothing of him the entire night. In fact, he’d asked nothing at all of Kane since he’d known him—nothing except to be left alone—and that was only because Kane had been bothering him since he’d met him. Thinking back on all the insults he’d lobbed at Luca like grenades shamed him now. He’d been nothing but abrupt and dismissive with Luca since first seeing him in the store the day of the robbery. He’d even suspected this man of planning the diamond robbery himself at one point.

  He’d had no right to treat him the way he had but the fact was, his head and hell… his dick had been buzzing with arousal from the first moment they’d seen each other. Still, he’d never ever treated a woman this badly. The thing was, he knew Luca had feelings just like any woman he’d ever taken to bed but because he was a man, he’d ignored the way his words and actions must have hurt. Though Luca hadn’t complained and had probably tried to cover any real emotions, Kane knew that at least a few of the verbal barbs he’d hurled at Luca had landed on soft tissue. It had been a horrible thing to do.

  He let his arms drop and Luca moved out of his hug, saying nothing and waiting for Kane to open the shower door. He’d remodeled his shower. It wasn’t large because the building was older, but he’d ripped out the old brown seventies era tile and put in shiny white subway tiles, doing the work himself. He pulled Luca into the space and shut the door behind them. Luca looked up and closed his eyes to let the water hit his face and for a moment, Kane was transfixed on the man’s beauty.

  He’d put dark eyeliner around his gray-blue eyes that were so similar in color to his own, if not a bit darker. The rest of his tanned skin was flawless and as Kane looked at his face, he realized that he wasn’t the least bit feminine at all. Kane had told him he was beautiful and he truly was, though not in a girly way. Luca had a strong jawline with dark stubble that felt amazing under his lips and his short messy hair—now wet from the spray—was attractive to Kane in a way he couldn’t quantify in any rational sense. As Luca blinked his eyes open and looked at him, Kane noticed how lush and thick his lashes were.

  Kane had to turn away to grab the body wash he liked and it was just as well. Looking into Luca’s eyes was something he didn’t want to do at the moment. He knew this night would never be repeated and for some nagging reason, that bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Without words, they washed each other in the shower, taking turns running their hands over taut muscles and smooth bodies. Kane loved touching Luca but more than that, he loved feeling the man’s hands on him. He washed his own hair, feeling lube at the back where Luca had apparently run his fingers up into the short strands at his neck after perfectly opening up his own ass. He forced himself to stop thinking about what they’d spent the last few hours doing since he felt himself growing hard again.

  When they’d both rinsed off, Kane shut off the taps and stepped out of the shower, handing Luca a towel before taking one for himself, drying his body quickly. They hadn’t said a word to each other after getting off the bed and Kane felt awkward not knowing what Luca was feeling. He seemed to be okay with leaving things as they were but he wasn’t sure if he should care about that or not. He supposed he’d be a dick if he didn’t care. When he thought about what he was going to say as they parted, he began to get nervous.

  “Did you say something about having babies upstairs in your loft?” Luca suddenly said.

  Kane turned to him almost in surprise as the sound of words broke the silence. He immediately smiled as he thought of the ferrets. He nodded.

  “Yes. Get dressed. I’ll show you before we go.”

  Luca smiled but turned away quickly and Kane had the distinct impression he’d somehow hurt his feelings. Luca said nothing but instead moved out of the bathroom and began picking up his clothes and pulling them on. Kane dropped his towel and followed, shrugging his own clothes on and then sitting on the bed to pull his socks and boots on. Luca flopped onto the side of the bed beside him and began doing the same thing with his ridiculously aqua-blue Converse sneakers.

  When they were both dressed, Kane led Luca upstairs to the loft and
opened the guest bedroom. He always left a table lamp on in the room with a low-watt bulb. The ferrets seemed to like it. As soon as he opened the door, Toto ran to the wall of the enclosure and stood up on two legs, holding onto the wire cage with his front paws and poking a black nose through like a prisoner standing in a cell.

  “These are my babies,” Kane said with pride.

  Luca’s jaw dropped and he turned back to Kane, smiling. “Ferrets? You have ferrets?” He didn’t wait for an answer though. He strode forward and when he stopped at the enclosure, he stuck a finger out and stroked Toto on the top of his little head. “Oh, my God! There’s two of them!” he said.

  “Actually, there’s seven of them,” Kane said, walking up to stand beside Luca. He pointed to Dorothy who was flopped on her side with five wiggling kits at her belly. “Dorothy just had a litter. She and Toto have five kits.”

  “Dorothy and Toto?” Luca asked, snorting. “Aww, look at the babies. They’re so little. How old are they?”

  “Ah, they were born the day I met you at The Abbey.”

  Luca nodded, seeming to think about that for a few minutes. “Can I hold this one… ah, Toto?” he asked, pointing to the little guy who was still standing at the cage. When he reached through the wire mesh and grabbed Luca’s finger, Kane heard him sigh.

  “Sure, of course.” Kane was inexplicably happy that someone actually liked his ferrets. He’d brought lots of girls back to the townhouse over the years and not a single one of them had asked to hold one. Instead, he got the usual comments about how badly they smelled or how dirty they were, or how they’d ruin their clothes with their tiny little claws. Kane had given up on taking them out of their cages to show any of his visitors because no one could be bothered with his babies until now. Of course it had to be this man.

  Kane opened the cage and reached in. Toto immediately scampered into his hands and he scooped him up, holding him against his body as he closed the door to the enclosure. When he turned to Luca, the man had his hands out, completely unafraid to take his pet out of his hands. Kane put Toto into his hands and he immediately drew him against his body, holding him close and stroking his soft, white fur. He cooed to Toto and leaned down, placing a kiss on the top of his head before looking up at Kane. He was grinning.

  “Oh, he’s so soft and gorgeous,” Luca said, looking back down. He lifted Toto until he could rub his cheek along the soft short fur, nuzzling him just the way Kane did. “You’re so sweet, Toto,” Luca murmured into his fur. Toto looked up at Luca and made eye contact before reaching up with his front paws and touching his chin. Luca chuckled, obviously delighted, and Kane had an overwhelming sense of peace as he stood there watching them interact. Luca cuddled with him for a minute more before looking back up at Kane and offering a sad smile. He held Toto out and Kane took him, trying to decipher what the sadness in Luca’s smile meant as he placed Toto back into the enclosure and shut the door again.

  When he turned, Luca was gone. He heard him walking down the stairs and let out a long breath, not knowing what had brought on his own melancholy but having a good idea it had something to do with the fact that once he drove Luca home, he’d never be back to play with his ferrets ever again. He closed the door to the bedroom and clomped down the stairs after him, hearing the ringing of his mistakes in the heavy footsteps all the way to the ground floor.

  ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

  The next morning, Kane met Kelly, Cassidy, and Mike for breakfast at Dupar’s as they’d planned. Kane’s head was still buzzing from the night before. Sleeping with Luca had been even more incredible than he’d expected it to be. He’d spent the weeks since meeting Luca thinking about sleeping with him, growing more and more curious as the days passed, but when it had finally happened, it had been just short of mind-blowing. In fact, it had been the single most sexually satisfying experience of his life. That morning he’d woken with a raging hard-on from the scent of sex in his sheets and he’d taken himself in hand and stroked his dick to a rapid-fire orgasm before he’d even gotten out of bed. He had no doubt, memories of last night would give him many future orgasms.

  After getting dressed, he’d driven Luca home to his apartment in a trendy area of West Hollywood, not far from The Abbey where he’d kissed Luca in the car. They hadn’t talked at all during the ride home but it hadn’t been especially awkward. He felt comfortable in Luca’s presence in a way he couldn’t put into words. It was like they’d known each other all their lives. It was an odd feeling, one he’d only known with two people: his mother and his sister, Glenna. As he spotted his partner and the two detectives in a corner booth, he purposely pushed all thoughts of Luca out of his mind. He couldn’t imagine trying to sit in the booth with a stiffie and the ludicrous thought of it had him grinning like an idiot as he walked up to the table. The three detectives looked up from their coffees and smiled.

  “Something funny, Delancey?” Kelly asked as he scooted into the booth beside her and nodded at the waitress to fill up his cup as she handed him a menu. Kane looked over at Kelly.

  “Nothing. Just… nothing. Anyway, what’s cooking? You guys said you have something to talk with us about?” Kane asked, glancing across the table at Mike and Cassidy.

  “We’re actually waiting on Lincoln and Mac,” Cassidy said, glancing at his watch. “They should be here in a minute. They called and said they have news.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Kane was immediately intrigued. “I sure hope so. I couldn’t think of a single thing to use as an excuse to get Moore to open that box and show us what’s inside. Even then, I don’t think even he’d be arrogant enough to keep a burner gun close by.” Burners—when talking about guns—were weapons that had been used in several gun crimes, everything from robberies where a gun is fired, to murders, usually several. Those guns became “radioactive” because they could be tied back to those crimes and the current owner could therefore be implicated in any crime committed with it. A burner was almost always dumped. The mob did it all the time which is why after a hit, the murder weapon was dropped at the scene of the crime or thrown into a river or storm drain. No one wanted to be caught with a burner on them. It was legal suicide.

  “I’m not so sure he’s that smart, Delancey,” Kelly said. “I think he’d keep a gun like the Colt. He definitely had the ammunition according to the evidence list we looked at. And in his mind, that gun is an heirloom, passed down to him by his father, its legacy—something to be proud of.”

  Kane nodded, feeling grim as he thought back to the day his father was murdered. It made him shiver. He deliberately said nothing, looking over the menu, his happy sated mood of a few minutes before suddenly completely gone as the topic had turned to the gun that had killed his dad. He was still studying the menu when Cassidy held up a hand and waved. Kane looked up to see Lincoln Snow and his partner, Mac McCallahan, striding down the aisle toward them.

  Lincoln looked exceptionally handsome as he smiled broadly. His teeth flashed white in his handsome dark face and Mac simply towered over everyone. Kane was no slouch at six four but Mac was easily three to four inches taller than he was with freckled hands the size of baseball mits. His ginger hair was striking and Kane was pretty sure the man had come from a long line of Scottish Highlanders. Kane found it curious that since meeting Luca, he’d begun checking out other men. Greetings were exchanged all around as the two large men slid into the booth.

  “So, I hope you have something for us,” Kane said. “We’re at a standstill on this case and it’s driving us crazy. Did your wiretaps pick anything up?”

  Lincoln nodded as he thanked the waitress for the coffee she poured for him and Mac. They placed their orders and after the waitress left, Lincoln leaned forward and talked softly.

  “They’re planning something. In fact, you and Murphy should be getting a call today, probably soon,” Lincoln said.

  “Well, that’s good,” Kelly said, smiling. “What are they planning, Snow?”

  “As you know, w
e’ve been on them since you were able to plant the bug,” Lincoln said to Kelly. He suddenly grinned. “You should know, you planted the listening device in exactly the right spot. It seems they hardly ever leave the living room. Brandon has moved a hospital bed into the living room because its frame is too large to go down the hall to his spare bedroom. That makes the TV remote the perfect spot for the bug. The old man has the remote control on a rolling hospital table in the room so their conversations come in loud and clear.”

  “They’re planning a big heist,” Mac said as Lincoln stopped talking.

  “A heist?” Kane asked. “I didn’t realize they were thieves as well as everything else they have their hands in.”

  “Yeah, well, after Shawn Manning went away last spring, their weapons caches dried up. According to the DEA, the Boston mob is in bed with a Mexican cartel for their drug trade, but things are crazy down at the southern border so their supplier has changed their smuggling routes. He was just busted when a billion dollars’ worth of cocaine laced with fentanyl was seized at one of the east coast ports. That means Moore’s drug supply line has dried up for the moment. With the drug trade on hold, it seems they’ve moved into the diamond trade to make up for lost revenue,” Lincoln said.

  Kane suddenly got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He glanced at Kelly and she was looking right at him, probably thinking the exact same thing.

  “You know, as part of my cover as an LAPD detective, we’re working a robbery case where a jewelry store was robbed by two thieves who did a smash and grab. They wrecked the showcases with sledgehammers and then went in and scooped up all the diamonds,” Kane said. “This is the thing. Very little of the merchandise—mostly high-end diamonds—has turned up in the usual places. Most of those diamonds have serial numbers micro-etched onto them so Murphy and I have been searching the pawnshops in the area as well as sending out fliers with all the serial numbers from the etchings on them. We’ve had two calls and the one shop owner that did buy some of the diamonds, couldn’t identify the thieves from composite sketches.”