“I want you so much,” Tony breathed. “Just like that night. I want to ride you.”
I groaned and pulled down my pajama pants. While Tony undressed, I rolled a condom down my erection and lubed it up.
“Do you need me to get you ready?”
Tony shook his head. “I like the burn.”
God, he was killing me. Hovering over my hard dick, Tony slowly lowered himself. I moaned loudly. Tony covered my mouth with his hand and kept moving down until he was sitting on me. I gave my hips a little pump, and Tony gasped, his hand falling from my mouth. I grinned.
“Fuck,” Tony panted out.
“You look so good sitting on my dick.”
“Sweet talker.”
I started to move, loving the little gasps and groans that came out of Tony every time I pushed upward into him. He leaned back, hands on my thighs.
“I’m supposed to be the one riding you,” he said hoarsely as I drilled into him fast. I stopped, and Tony began to undulate. My eyes fixed onto his partially erect cock waving around. I grabbed it in my lubed hand and gave it a firm tug, rubbing my palm over the sensitive head before doing it again.
“Holy shit!” Tony leaned his head back. He was beautiful like this, sensuous and so very gorgeous with all that lean, tanned skin and his perfect cock. He was cut while I was uncut, and I was fascinated with the way the head of his penis was always visible. I ran my fingers up and down the smooth skin of his shaft.
Tony sped up the rolls of his hips, breath coming in quick, harsh pants. His eyes met mine. God, he felt so good around me. I wanted to fuck him forever. The bed started creaking. I bit my lips so I wouldn’t cry out; I was dizzy with pleasure.
The noises Tony was making now were incredibly sexy—little uh-uh-uhs that made my dick throb inside him.
“I’m—I’m not going to last,” I said, valiantly struggling not to let the next roll of pleasure sweep me away.
Tony leaned forward and began grinding down on me, and my hand faltered while stroking him. As we stared into each other’s eyes, the moment seemed to stretch into one, long, taut band before it snapped, and we flew.
****
Pounding on my door yanked me out of the post orgasm daze I’d fallen into. Tony had slumped forward onto me, and he immediately sat up, which jerked at my cock still buried inside him.
“Ah!” I cried out.
“Sorry,” Tony whispered. Carefully, he pulled off me and fell to his side on the bed.
“Who is it?” I called when the pounding started again.
“It’s Jeovanni. Tony, I know you’re in there.”
“For Christ’s sake,” Tony mumbled. He got off the bed and pulled on his pants while I got rid of the condom and covered up.
Tony yanked open the door. “What the fuck, Jeo?”
Hung looked pissed. He pushed Tony aside and came at me, and I barely had time to sit up before he was on me, hands at my throat. Fortunately, I was able to hold him off so he couldn’t get a very good grip.
“What the fuck?” I asked in a strangled voice as Hung tried his best to throttle me.
“Jeo!” Tony tried to pull the man off, but Hung was determined.
“You think it’s okay to mess with him?” Hung asked me. “You think playing with his feelings is funny?” His fingers adjusted their grip, and suddenly he was cutting off my air.
“Jeo, stop!” Tony yelled, and a minute later, Blaze, Lake, and Adam crowded into the room. With all of them trying, they managed to get Hung off me. I’d never seen him so enraged. I sat, breathing hard, hand to my neck while Blaze and Adam kept hold of Hung, who was still trying to get at me.
Tony put himself between me and Hung. “Jeo, what’s gotten into you?”
“I’m not gonna let that guy toy with you, Tony. You went away because of him, and this is your home. I know you’ve got feelings for him. It’s fucking shitty of him to take advantage of you like this!”
Obviously Hung had come home and heard what we were doing.
“He’s not taking advantage of me, okay?” Tony said. “I appreciate you trying to look after me, but it’s not like that.”
I threw Tony a look because I damn well didn’t appreciate being strangled in my own bed for doing something that was none of Mendoza’s business.
“He’s lying to you,” Hung said. “Guys’ll say anything to get what they want.”
“Good grief, not everybody’s like you!” I shot back. Hung growled and increased his struggle to get back at me.
“I’m a big boy. I can look after myself,” Tony said. He looked like he’d had enough. “I can fuck whom I want, Jeo. You don’t have to save me from big bad Cane and my inability to stay away from him.”
Hung stopped struggling and after a moment, Blaze and Adam loosened their holds on him.
He pointed at me. “You better not hurt him!” Then he charged out of the room as quickly as he had charged in.
“Well, that was an interesting way to be woken from a deep sleep,” Lake said, rubbing his eyes.
“Sorry, guys,” Tony said.
Adam looked between me and Tony. “I didn’t know you two were screwing around.”
“Neither did I,” Blaze said pointedly. “I guess this means your erectile dysfunction’s all better.”
Adam swung his head toward me. “You have erectile dysfunction?”
“Obviously not anymore,” Tony said. “I cured it. Sorry, we didn’t mean to wake anybody up.”
Blaze narrowed his eyes at me and then Tony before the three men trailed out of the room. Seconds later, I heard their doors close.
I groaned and pulled a pillow over my face. “I’m never gonna live this down. Soon everyone’s going to think I can’t get it up.”
“Couldn’t get it up. I fixed you.” Tony snatched the pillow away from my face. “Blaze saw right through that, and I’m sure Lake did too. You can tell Adam it was a lie later.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why Jeo did that.”
“He cares about you,” I said. I was annoyed with the guy, but it was difficult to be too angry when he was just watching out for Tony. “He knows I was a bastard to you before.”
“I never told him what happened,” Tony said, surprising me.
“You didn’t?”
“No. I didn’t tell anyone. Well, except Nick, but we were exchanging secrets. Some of them suspected I left because of you though. But honestly, it wasn’t like you actually did something to me. You just told me how things were. I’m the one who came into your room that night.”
“I lied to you.”
Tony sighed. “We’ve been over this. I’m just saying, I was hurt and embarrassed, but I didn’t have anything to be angry with you about, and I told the guys you didn’t do anything to me, which was the truth. Were they awful to you while I was gone?”
“No. Well, Jeo isn’t my biggest fan, but we just avoided each other.”
“I’m worried about him. He disappears for long periods of time, and he’s been so irritable, like he thinks we’re all against him.”
“Maybe you should go talk to him,” I said.
Tony approached the bed, bent down, and kissed me softly. “I think I will. See you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tony
Our room was dark when I walked into it. Tossing my shirt onto the chair, I climbed into bed.
“When are you going to open up to me?” I asked Hung, who was lying in his bed staring at the ceiling.
“About what?”
“About where you go all the time and why you seem so angry lately.”
Hung turned his head. “I’m angry at Cane for fucking you over. You left for months, Tony. This is your home.”
“I thought I explained I needed to clear my head.”
“Whatever.”
“Look, it’s not only what happened with Cane.”
“So something did happen with him!”
I sighed. “We’d done those porn scenes together. I t
hought maybe we could get together off camera, and we did. Once. Then he didn’t want to pursue it.”
“That’s fucking bullshit.”
“He had his reasons. I left because I was embarrassed, yes, but I had something else I needed to do.”
“What was that?” Hung sounded like he didn’t believe me.
I punched my pillows and tried to get comfortable. I hadn’t wanted to get into this with anyone. “I needed to go see my mother. I hadn’t seen her in a long time.”
Hung rose up on his elbow. “You never talk about her. I know your dad’s dead. Don’t you get along with your mother?”
“Not really. I was close to my dad but not to her. I don’t want to talk about her, if that’s okay. I just want you to know that Cane never did anything awful with me except lay it out that he didn’t want to start a relationship. I left, and embarrassment was part of it, but I had reasons other than him. Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“So you won’t attack him again?”
Hung lay back down and crossed his arms over his chest. “If he behaves himself.”
I snorted. “This is pretty ridiculous when you consider the fact that I pursued him.”
Hung chuckled low in his throat.
“Since I’ve told you so much, aren’t you going to return the favor and tell me what’s up? I know it’s not all about Cane. You’ve changed.”
“What do you mean, changed?” Hung asked.
“You’re just different. I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it. You’re more pensive and quiet. You’re gone a lot. You quit doing porn.”
“I can’t do porn forever. I’m getting old.”
“You’re not old,” I said. When Hung remained silent, I realized maybe that was part of what was wrong. “Honest, Jeo. You’re not.”
“I feel like I am,” Hung muttered. “I’ll be forty-two next month. Listen, like you, I don’t wanna talk about this, okay?”
“Sure. G’night.”
“Goodnight, T.”
****
“Mr. Bruder, I wonder if I could get half the payment for the painting by this Friday.” I hated asking the man for anything, but I needed to send that check to my mother. She’d called me that morning, complaining that her electricity was going to be turned off. She got a decent monthly check from my father’s life insurance, but she was terrible with money. She refused to work even though she was healthy, and she tried to live a much more expensive lifestyle than she could afford. I planned to send her nine thousand dollars and tell her that would have to last her a until July.
Bruder looked up from reading the news on his tablet. “I suppose, if you need me to. How’s the painting coming?”
I’d worked all morning on it, and I felt a migraine coming on. “I think you’ll be pleased,” I said. “At least, I hope you will. I’ve said I’m not a real artist.”
“And I’ve said I’ll be the judge of that.”
“I’ll just go upstairs and start work. I have to say though, so far, your competitors have nothing on you. If anything, they need to get on the ball to keep up with B-Natural.”
“Good. But I like to have the reports.” Bruder turned back to his tablet.
I trudged up the stairs, weary even though it was still early in the day. Even the early spring weather wasn’t cheering me up. How had Cane stood all the years living in this atmosphere? It was downright oppressive.
I winced a little as I sat down, the sex I’d had with Cane the night before having left me a little sore. I could easily fall into a daydream about it, but I had work to do. I impatiently tapped my fingers on the table while the computer loaded. I kept thinking about the initials next to the names of the people in the photos I’d found in Bruder’s file. What did they stand for? They were all different, and not all the photos had them. I’d made a list of all the people Bruder had contacted about tea. I suddenly wondered if those names might correspond with the initials. If so, the list might be of certain clients who want specific “tea,” and Bruder put their initials beside the name when he matched them up.
No use thinking about it now; I couldn’t check it out until I got home. I hadn’t even brought the flash drive with me so I wouldn’t be tempted. The last thing I needed was to be caught in the act by Bruder. He’d probably have me thrown into the East river wearing a pair of cement shoes.
Cane’s voice downstairs caught my attention just as I’d finished itemizing the product list of Dorothy’s Bountiful Harvest Health Supplements.
Footsteps on the stairs preceded a smiling Cane in the doorway. I couldn’t help but smile back even though my head was pounding.
“I brought you some lunch.” Cane placed a bag on the table. “What’s wrong? Head hurting?”
I winced. “Yeah. Pretty bad.”
“Why don’t you take off? Karl will understand.”
I doubted it.
“No, the sooner I can finish going through this list of competitors, the better. I’ve got everything I can get off here. You going to eat with me?”
“Sorry, no. I have to run.” He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me. “See you later.” He winked and left.
I looked at the paper. Written out in Cane’s block letter script was Rockwell Center, 11 a.m. March 25. Convention of health products and services worldwide.
The Rockwell Center was in West Manhattan. A convention would be a perfect cover for an exchange of goods underground. Now I just needed to see if there were any tunnels nearby.
I brought up a map of the city and a list of underground passages. As I’d already guessed, there were quite a few. The only tunnels I could find in the area of the convention center were dubious at best: old cow tunnels made in the 1930’s to usher cows beneath the city and out of traffic.
Well, it was a start.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Cane
“Did I hear you right? Did you say cow tunnels?” I’d agreed to go on this excursion with Tony because—hell, because I’d go anywhere with the man. But I hadn’t expected him to announce we were looking for cow tunnels.
We’d taken a taxi to the piers and were now walking in the dark who knew where.
“Yes. In the late 1800’s, Cows were once ferried from New Jersey to slaughterhouses here, and in 1932, when traffic became a problem, they built an underground tunnel in which to herd the cows through. Clever, huh?” Tony flashed me a smile.
“And you think these tunnels have something to do with the trafficking Karl’s doing?” I asked dubiously.
“Just so happens where the Rockwell Convention Center sits used to be a slaughterhouse—”
“Wait, what?”
“Yeah. I know. And, from what I’ve read, the cows were ushered directly from the harbor to the slaughterhouse through this underground tunnel that’s supposed to be there. Extremely convenient for what your cousin would need it for, don’t you think? He’s going to have people here from all over at a convention. How easy would it be to usher some of them beneath the building to collect their goods?” He winced at the last word.
I had to admit it sounded like the perfect plan.
When we reached the building at the pier, Tony kept watch while I picked the padlock on the steel door, a skill I’d learned long ago from one of my uncle’s men.
“What the fuck? A gun?” Tony hissed, having seen the weapon I’d tucked in the back of my pants.
“I’m not taking any chances.”
I got the door open and we took the stairs to the basement, our footfalls echoing throughout the cavernous stairwell.
“This is crazy,” I muttered. Tony ignored me and when we got to the bottom, opened the door and looked around.
“Here,” he said after a moment. To my amazement, he’d uncovered a partially boarded-up entrance. “A couple of crates were in front of it. Hardly an expert hiding job.”
“I guess they didn’t think anyone would come looking,” I said.
“Your cousin’s p
retty damned sure of himself,” Tony said as he moved the board to the side and stepped behind it into the darkness. The man had balls of steel.
“Wait up.” I stepped in after him. “You should’ve let me go first. I’ve got the gun,” I hissed at him.
Tony switched on the flashlight on his phone and shined the narrow beam of light around us, illuminating the dirty concrete walls of the tunnel. Judging by how close my head came to the cobweb-covered ceiling, the tunnel was about seven feet high. The width looked about nine feet.
“Did you hear something?” Tony asked, stepping a little closer to me.
I listened and heard faint scuttling. “Probably rats.”
“What?” Tony grabbed my shoulders and jumped up, and there was nothing for me to do but catch him, hands beneath his thighs.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“What did you expect to find in a tunnel? Living down here where nothing can get them, they’re probably as big as the cows who used to tramp through.”
Tony clutched at my neck with one hand while twisting around in my arms, shining his flashlight over the floor with the other. “I hate rats.”
I tried to set him back on his feet, but he hung on. “Tony, I can’t carry you all the way through this tunnel.”
“Why not?” He turned wide eyes to me.
“Because you’re fucking heavy. Come on.” I smacked his ass.
Reluctantly, Tony lowered his feet to the floor, but he kept a hard grip on my hand as we started walking deeper into the darkness.
“I’m climbing you again if I see one.”
As we walked, he kept sweeping the flashlight back and forth.
“They’re more afraid of us than we are of them,” I said, tugging him forward by the hand. “Hurry up.”
“I feel like I can’t breathe,” Tony said.
I squeezed his hand. “Hey, you’re okay. It’s just a very confined space.”
“I know this was my idea, but it’s fucking creepy in here.”
I couldn’t deny that.
About two hundred yards in, we came to a door.
“This is much newer than the walls,” I said quietly, examining it.
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