“I can see the signs. I get migraines, remember?”
Skitz nodded. “I thought they’d fucking stop by now.”
Since being hit over the head when he’d gone to retrieve Morgan’s dance bag a couple Thanksgivings ago, Skitz—or Adam—had suffered headaches and occasional memory loss. We were all worried about him as these symptoms didn’t seem to be going away with time.
“Bossman here?” I asked.
“He’s at the warehouse.” Skitz got a couple ibuprofen out of the cabinet and swallowed them with a glass of water. He looked sheepishly over his shoulder at us. “Hey, uh…I was talking to the bossman earlier. I’m thinking I’d like to drop the nickname.” He frowned. “It’s taken on a different meaning since what happened, you know?”
“Sure, man,” I said at the same time Tony said, “Of course, Adam. We understand.”
“Thanks.”
As Skitz started to leave the kitchen, Tony asked him, “Hey, is Lake here?”
“He went to work. Ax picked him up.”
Lake had won the argument, then. I bet Blaze was in a terrible mood.
Tony patted my shoulder and grinned. “Have fun at work.”
I grunted and left out the back door. I had a scene to film with the new guy, Seb. I wasn’t looking forward to it, and with Blaze in a snit, my evening was sure to suck big time. Working in porn had always just been a way to make money; the fact I could get off while doing so was simply icing on the cake. I had no trouble getting hard, following directions, and getting off. I wasn’t a modest person and didn’t mind dozens of eyes on my naked body. But, if I were being honest with myself, there had been a change since Tony. I still went through the motions, but it was with a new awareness that there could be something more to fucking—an underlying closeness and inexplicable connection between the two people involved.
And although that knowledge didn’t seem to have changed my performance or someone would have said something by now, inside, I’d lost the feel for it. What I was doing had suddenly become wrong in a way I couldn’t explain if I had to.
I didn’t know if thinking about all that just before I was supposed to do a scene was what made the whole thing go to shit, or if it was the extra time I’d recently spent with the object of my desire, but go to shit it did.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tony
I practically jumped out of my skin when the door to my bedroom slammed open. Until that moment, the house had been quiet, and I was alone in my room because Hung was out somewhere again. I looked up, confused to see Cane in my doorway wearing a Hard Times Productions robe and a frustrated and angry expression.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Instead of answering, Cane strode over to the bed, took my book out of my hands, and threw it across the room. I sat staring up at him in shock.
“Are you okay?”
“No, Tony,” Cane said between clenched teeth. “I am definitely not okay.”
“All right,” I said slowly, scanning my memory for something I might have done to make him angry but not coming up with anything. He’d been fine earlier when he’d headed over to the warehouse. Maybe Blaze had taken out his frustration with Lake on him.
“Well, is there anything I can do to help, or are you just going to stand there staring down at me like you want to rip me apart?”
Cane’s eyes smoldered, and my cock twitched underneath the covers.
“Believe me, ripping you apart isn’t what I have in mind. At least not the way you’re thinking.”
Eyes wide, I opened my mouth to ask him what the hell he was talking about but before I could, Cane surged toward me and covered my lips with his own. Indignation, reasonable thought, control…they all fled. Having him so close to me, the heat of his body searing my skin and his mouth hard and demanding on mine, completely shut off all brain function. I twisted my fingers into his thick hair, our tongues sliding together. It felt fucking magnificent.
Cane groaned, and I gave an answering moan, wrapping my legs around his waist. A voice in the back of my mind screamed at me to stop and think. With every ounce of will I had, I cupped Cane’s face and pushed him back. I almost laughed at the sight of his cheeks scrunched between my palms, blue eyes dazed.
“What’s this about?”
He got that look again, like he was about to have a meltdown.
“You’ve ruined me for porn,” he said.
I frowned. “What?”
“It’s bad enough I don’t want to hookup with anyone. Now I can’t even do a damned porn scene because all I can think about is you!” He flopped down on the bed beside me and threw his arm over his eyes.
“The talks we’ve had. Everything’s changed.”
I eased back onto the pillow, letting him continue.
Cane looked out at me from under his arm. “I don’t want an apology for the night you came into my room, Tony, because I don’t fucking regret it. I lied that night. I was trying to keep you away from me.”
My heart beating double time, I gently moved my hands inside the parted V of Cane’s robe and circled his nipples with my thumbs.
He surged up, lips on mine again, and I shuddered under the onslaught of his tongue in my mouth and one hand on my face controlling my movements while the other slipped under my T-shirt and squeezed my nipple. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. I hungrily pushed my erection against his hip, the cotton of my sleep pants teasing my sensitive skin.
I pulled back.
“Are you sure?”
Cane’s eyes burned into me. “Positive.”
“You were protecting me?”
He gave a faint nod.
I slid my hands down his body and untied the robe. It fell open, and I greedily touched Cane’s muscular chest, pausing to tug at the dark hair growing there before skimming down his taut abs to wrap my fingers around his hard cock.
Cane’s head fell back onto the pillow, and he moaned. “Yes.”
I continued stroking him, and his eyelids parted to look at me. “I couldn’t do the scene with Seb. I’ve always been able to do the porn, but tonight…tonight I couldn’t. I just wanted you.” He pulled me down and began nipping and kissing my neck like he was starving.
God, I was going to come right then and there. I wanted him inside me.
Pushing the robe off his shoulders, I began licking my way over his skin. Cane made a growling sound that had my cock jumping against his abdomen. He shoved up my T-shirt, and I let him pull it over my head. His hands burned a trail of fire over my bare skin, and I arched into him as I sucked on his neck.
Cane yanked off my sleep pants and tossed them onto the floor. I gasped when he shoved both my legs over my head and buried his face between them, licking at my balls before making his way down to my hole.
“Holy shit!” I hoped to hell Adam had gone out, or he was getting an earful. My toes touched the headboard as Cane licked and nibbled at the sensitive nerves of my anus while I moaned like a three dollar whore. God, it felt like heaven. When his tongue entered me, I gasped, locking my fingers in his hair with one hand while the other scrabbled at the sheets.
“I want in there,” he said, beard scraping my flesh, and I whimpered.
“I want you in there,” I managed to get out, and Cane grunted and wiggled his tongue inside me.
“Y-your cock,” I specified, although his tongue felt really good. I wanted to be stuffed full of him, though, with nothing between us. Not even a condom, which was crazy, I knew.
I fought to clear my head and reached for the bedside drawer. He beat me to it and fumbled to get a condom open and himself sheathed. He dropped the lube while trying to squirt some into his palm, and we were both too caught up and impatient to even laugh about it. Then finally, finally he pushed inside me, one hand grasping my left ankle, the other holding the headboard over my head.
I closed my eyes and bit my bottom lip until Cane was all the way inside, balls pressed against my ass, then I let out a long sigh
of satisfaction. Cane pulled out nearly as slowly as he’d gone in and then slammed home again, zeroing in where it felt best. I shouted his name as he did it again and again. When I opened my eyes to look at him, his face was suffused with lusty concentration. Our eyes locked.
Wanting to be even closer, I slipped my ankle from his grip and wrapped both legs around him, tugging him down to blanket my body. The position made his thrusts shallow, and my balls tingled in their tightening sacs.
Our lips met again, more softly this time as we panted and moaned. Wrapping my arms around Cane’s shoulders, I buried my face in the crook of his neck and whimpered as he slowed his thrusts, ending each with a sensual twist of his hips that scrambled my brain.
“God, yes,” he murmured. “So good.”
I nodded because I couldn’t speak. The slide of his cock in and out, in and out, stretching me so thoroughly, each thrust ending with a sharp spark to my prostate before the twist of his hips sent my eyes rolling back in my head and had me flying in no time.
Cane got to his knees and looked down where we were joined, watching his cock penetrate me while he played with mine, running it through his hand and tapping it against my belly. I moaned and bucked, trying to get more of him into me.
Gradually, Cane’s movements became frantic and messy. “I’m close,” he said hoarsely and stroked my cock faster until I bowed off the bed and came hard, my entire body clenching as my climax rolled through me in a bright burst of light. Cane made a sexy noise in his throat and pushed into me, hard before collapsing on top of me.
As my body slowly came down from the intense explosion of sensation, I became aware of our harsh breathing evening out, the tick of the clock on the nightstand, and the sound of the refrigerator clicking on in the kitchen. All else was silent. My mind began to clear, and I let my trembling legs drop from around Cane’s waist. His body remained a heavy weight on me, but I didn’t care. I let my fingers roam over his sweaty back, feeling his heart pounding against my chest. I swallowed the sudden tears clogging my throat and pressed a kiss to his temple.
The memory resurfaced of the last time when, at a moment very like this one, Cane had pulled our sated bodies apart, his face a mask of regret and steely determination. I held my breath. Would he do it again? Even knowing the reasons behind Cane’s actions that night, I was certain I’d crumble if history repeated itself and he rejected me a second time.
Cane shifted, and I hissed as he eased his cock out of me. He’d given me a good pounding, and I was sore. I realized having Cane inside me again had been something my body had craved that no one else had been able to properly satisfy. I wasn’t even sure what the difference was except that, with him, there was more. A connection. A bond. It sounded so silly, but I knew it was true. The question was, had he felt it too? Or was I just someone whose body he liked and wanted?
Cane rolled onto the mattress and flung an arm over his eyes. I stiffened, readying myself for what he would say.
“I’d been wanting to do that for so long.”
I swallowed. “But?”
Cane peered out at me from under his arm. “But what?”
“You’ve been wanting to, but it can’t happen again?”
Cane frowned. “You don’t want it to?”
I grabbed my pillow and smacked him with it. “You’re the one who’s so worried about letting me close to you!”
Cane turned his eyes to the ceiling, staring sightlessly. “We can’t let Karl know we’re together like this. I mean, if we decide to be. He’d use you to hurt me.”
“Are you saying you want to be with me? Like this?” I waited.
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have come.”
My mouth ticked up at his choice of words and so did his.
“I mean, I wouldn’t have come in here and attacked you.”
“Are you sure? Because it kind of sounded like you were so angry about not being able to do your scene you were taking your frustrations out on me.” I crossed my arms over my chest, not exactly mad but not willing to let him off easily either. Hell, I’d gone for months thinking I’d been rejected because he plain old just didn’t want me like I wanted him.
“I was angry, but, hell, Tony, I’ve been fighting this ever since you came back. Of course I want you. I’ve always wanted you, and you fucking knew that or you wouldn’t have come on to me that night.”
“I thought I knew it. You were pretty damn convincing when you told me to go away.”
Cane sighed and wrapped one of my curls around his finger. “I’m sorry about that. I just wanted to protect you, but I hadn’t been able to tell you no before sleeping with you.” He smiled crookedly. “That night gave me a great supply of masturbation fantasies.”
“Me too,” I whispered. “And now we have some more. So, what now?”
Cane sat up in the bed. “Will you hate us having to keep it secret?”
“Do we have to keep it secret from everyone? Or just from your cousin?”
“I think it would be safer to keep it from everyone, don’t you?”
I thought about it. It would be difficult, but I’d wanted Cane for so long, I couldn’t say no. Besides, I planned to find enough on Karl Bruder to make sure he couldn’t be a threat to us.
“Okay,” I said, and Cane’s grin took my breath away.
“Really? Okay?”
I nodded.
He leaned in to kiss me, and just as things were heating up again, a motorcycle roared into the driveway, lights arcing over the wall.
“Fuck,” we both said and jumped out of bed, scrambling to get clothes on. By the time the front door opened, Cane was back in his robe and striding through the kitchen to the back door.
We’d done it just in time. Hung entered the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” he asked, glancing at me as he took off his boots.
“Just reading,” I said, belatedly realizing my book was on the floor across the room. “I mean, I was about to. Can’t find my book. Where’ve you been?”
Hung shrugged. “Out.” He removed his shirt and kicked off his jeans before falling into bed. “You mind turning out the light? I’m beat.”
I did, just in time to hide the huge smile I could no longer contain.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Cane
I couldn’t regret the decision to be with Tony, even if it had to be a secret. Not when I was going to be able to touch him, see him naked, kiss him. I wanted to fuck him again as soon as possible. It was terrible because I needed to be concentrating on finding proof Karl was involved in the sex trade.
“Blaze,” I said the next morning when the bossman walked in while Tony and I were having breakfast at the kitchen table. “Sorry about the scene last night.”
Blaze poured some coffee and leaned against the door. “Everyone has a bad day once in a while. Don’t worry about it.”
I scratched the back of my head and avoided looking at Tony. “Yeah, well, thing is…I don’t want to be in front of the camera for a while.”
Blaze frowned. “Really? Is there a reason I should know about?”
My mind went blank. I couldn’t tell him it was because I couldn’t bring myself to fuck anyone except Tony.
“Erectile Dysfunction,” Tony said. He glanced at me. “Don’t be embarrassed, Cane. It happens to the best of us. Well, it hasn’t happened to me, but I’ve heard it’s a thing.”
Struck completely dumb, I tried to telepathically communicate to him that I was going to kill him when I got him alone.
Blaze coughed. “Sorry, man. Of course you can have all the time off you need until you solve the, er, problem. I can find something else for you to do.” He hurried away, and Tony laughed into his hand while I continued to glare at him.
I had to admit, though, as excuses went, it was a good one. Blaze wasn’t going to bug me about getting back into scenes, and he’d keep the reason I wasn’t doing them to himself because, well, how fucking embarrassing.
As soon as I
could, I yanked Tony into the coat closet and kissed him. I wasn’t sure how I’d ever gone so long without it. Tony was as enthusiastic as I was, but when we heard someone in the living room, he squeezed my arm. We stood as quietly as possible, my lips pressed to Tony’s head, listening to Hung. It sounded like he was on the phone.
“Sure, sure. I can do that. No, I don’t mind at all. I can do it every weekend if you want.”
I frowned down at Tony, and he shrugged, obviously as mystified as I was as to whom Hung could be talking to. Hung’s voice faded away, and I cracked the door and peered out.
“Coast is clear.”
Tony and I stepped out of the closet.
“You going to be ready to go to Carl’s at ten?” I asked him, eying his form-fitting jeans and snug long-sleeved T-shirt.
“Actually, I really need to finish up some work I took on before I knew I’d be doing more for your cousin. Tell him I’ll be there at one.”
“Okay,” I said. “He won’t be happy.”
“Well, that’s tough shit,” Tony said.
“I know you probably think I’m just playing sycophant to Karl’s egomania, but I can’t stress enough how dangerous my cousin is. He recently had a guy’s wife killed because of a miscommunication. Promise me you’ll be careful.”
Tony looked contrite. “Sorry. I promise. Just tell him I had things to wrap up before I could give him my total concentration.” He leaned into me and turned his face up for a kiss, which I happily gave him.
I decided to stop in the After Hours offices before heading up to the penthouse. Karen, the receptionist, was doing her nails at the front desk when I walked in. When she saw me, her face brightened.
“Mr. Winters! How can I help you?”
“I’m just checking to make sure everything’s going all right. Any new employees?”
She flipped open her notebook. “We got a couple new guys recently part-time.”
I guess it would have been too easy for her to say, “Yeah, we got twenty new people coming in. I think Mr. Bruder kidnapped them.”
“Any big appointments coming up?”
The Hacker and his Heart's Desire Page 10