Tug of War (Legacy Book 5)

by Rain Carrington

  “I doubt it, but with you looking at me like this…it helps.”

  “Good. Now, let’s see what we can do for the other guy you can’t get off your mind.”

  That struck him in the heart, but he couldn’t deny he wanted to be at Javi’s right then and there to find out what he could do for Gary. Diego meant everything to him, but he was right. Until he had some kind of closure with Gary, he may never be able to fully commit his heart to Diego.

  Chapter Two

  Javi and Daniel were in the living room, but only Daniel was seated. He watched Javi pacing as he explained what was going on to Diego and Tommy.

  A beautiful man, Javi was, with his dark Latino good looks and thin but firm build. Tommy had had a small crush on him for about a minute before he figured out that Javi was totally devoted to Daniel. Still, he could barely take his eyes from his partner if he was near.

  “Okay, you know I would never ask, Tommy, and Diego, man, this is not something I would ever do to you, but I don’t know anyone else that could talk him out of what he’s doing.”

  “What’s he doing that’s so bad, Javi?”

  Javi stopped his back and forth for a moment to look Tommy in the eye and answer his question. “He’s putting himself in danger, and not just physical danger.”

  Continuing, Daniel spoke up, “He’s being more cryptic than he needs to be. What he means is, he’s hurting, and he is going back to work for his and Javi’s old colonel, Crowley. The guy is bad news and the biggest reason Javi stopped being a mercenary in the first place. Absolutely no heart or conscience, so he takes the worst of the worst jobs, killing kids, women, civilians, anything the lowlife people he deals with can give him. Gary was torn up after a couple jobs the guy took, so he quit him too, but now…”

  “What hurt him so bad?”

  Javi finally stopped and sat on the arm of Daniel’s chair, absently running his fingers through his partner’s hair. “His mom just died. They were tight, like really tight. She was what made him join the mercs in the first place. She had breast cancer years ago, no insurance, no money to speak of. He saw a chance to help her and he did. The cancer came back and she didn’t tell him. She didn’t want him doing anything stupid for her again. He’s going off the deep end and I can’t get through to him.”

  Tommy’s head fell and he stared at the floor between his shoes. “If you can’t, I sure as hell don’t have a shot.”

  “Tommy, come on, man. He felt more for you than I’ve ever seen him feel for anyone. We were friends, and sure, we messed around, but you? It was different.”

  Head coming back up, he accused, “You knew that, but you still can’t tell me why he took off?”

  Looking rightfully guilty, Javi confessed, “I know, but it sounds lame as fuck. He was into you more than he planned, and it scared the supposedly brave soldier, so he ran. You know that too, Tommy.”

  Diego shifted beside him and again, he was drowning in guilt. “I was scared too, but I didn’t run.”

  “I’m sorry, Tommy, I should have never called you. Diego, man, I am really sorry.”

  “No, don’t be,” Diego chided. “If he needs Tommy, then Tommy will go help him. I’m sure he won’t like me much, but I don’t really care.”

  Tommy’s head moved like it weighed three tons as he looked up to Diego. “What?”

  Those eyes fell on him and held him there, so determined Diego was. “If you think I’m letting you go chase your old boyfriend without me, you’re nuts.”

  The discomfort was incredible but what won out in his emotions was the sudden burst of gratitude. “Diego, I don’t…”

  “Shh. We’ll talk about it on the way.” To Javi, he asked, “Where are we headed?”

  “Mexico. They’re in with some fucking cartel, and I have no idea what they’re doing with Crowley, but whatever it is, it can’t be good.”

  With his limbs going cold, all that came into his mind was the intense training Javi had given him for those two months in the mountains. Again, all he could hope was that he knew enough not to get himself or the men he loved killed. “What should we do? Bring?”

  “Bring nothing. I’ll have some people meet you down there with whatever you might need. If you need anything at all. I know Crowley might give you some trouble, but Gary will know how to deal with it. What you need to do is get to him, talk to him.”

  “I don’t even know what I would say, Javi. I mean…like Daniel loves to remind me, we weren’t exactly in some epic romance.”

  “Maybe not by other people’s standards,” Javi began, glancing guiltily at Diego. “But for him, it was as epic as anything in his life.”

  Diego rose and asked Daniel, “Will you need me for anything? I’ll let Roman know he’ll have to step in for me, but if you need me personally, I’ll have my phone.”

  “We’ll be fine here. Thanks. Tommy, don’t do anything stupid,” Daniel warned.

  Tommy knew what he was saying. Don’t go there, see Gary and dump Diego. That would break his heart as much as losing Gary had. “I won’t, Daniel.”

  Diego drove him home to pack, dropping him in the driveway, but not before confessing to Tommy, “I’m not thrilled about this, Tommy. I do know it’s probably exactly what you need, though. What we need. If…if you want him and not me, I’ll let you go, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to hurt me. A lot.”

  “It would hurt me as much, Diego. Maybe it is what I’ve needed.” He leaned over the centerpiece and kissed Diego’s bottom lip. “I love you. I’ve known it for a long time, but I was afraid. You knew that.”

  “You love him too, Tommy. That’s the thing. Can you choose, if he wants you back?”

  “Yeah. I already have. That’s why I told you I love you. I choose you, Diego.”

  His eyes were filled with fear and sadness as he said, “We’re about to find out, now, aren’t we?”

  Stuffing his clothes into his duffle, his mind was a whir of thoughts, and none of them were stopping to hang around long before another busting in. He sat hard on the bed, wanting to scream. It was stupid, the way he’d confessed his feelings. Bad timing, wrong timing, looking desperate, he was sure.

  On the one hand, the sweetest, most devoted man in the world was there, in his hands. He was good, unwilling to advise Daniel and Mike in ways that would get anyone hurt in any way, begging them to make the family more legitimate. He shouldn’t be in a mafia family, he should have been a priest or some do-gooder working for charities.

  Tommy half expected him to sprout wings and a halo, he was so good, and Tommy loved that about him. Loved every good impulse he had.

  Then there was Gary. A whole other man, on the bottom rung on the ladder of good versus evil. He was carefree, unconcerned with the world except for those few people in it he loved. He wanted fun and money and to kill the bad guys in painful ways. Bloodlust, sexual lust, and pride, all reeked from him. And Tommy wanted him as badly as Diego. It made no sense.

  Caught in it, in the center of the two, Tommy’s stomach began to ache with the confusion and turmoil loving two men brought him. It was agonizing, and yet…and yet it wasn’t all bad. For so long he thought he’d never have one man in his life, and now, he had two.

  ****

  Ten months earlier

  Recovering from the bone bruising beating he’d taken by the bullets that had slammed into his Kevlar, he was lying in Javi’s guestroom, a little high from the Percocet he’d been given by the Montello family doctor, when Gary walked through the door.

  Gary McIntyre, biggest man he’d ever known in person, something like six foot four inches, Daniel may have said, He couldn’t remember, not with the Percocet making him fly. He was handsome as hell, but in a rugged, worn from experiencing life sort of way. Gray through his scraggly beard, thick hair always a mess, and his chest hair flattening out what Tommy knew was a muscled chest under the thin shirts he wore.

  His blue eyes always seemed to dance with a private joke, but yet, they were ol
d. Not wrinkled or faded, but centuries old, having seen so much of the bad the world could dole out.

  “How’re you doin'?”

  Tommy’s mouth was dry from the pills, but suddenly, it was full of saliva as he pictured Gary without clothes. He knew the man was a god under that camo he loved to wear.

  “I’m…I’m okay. Little sore, but I’ll live.”

  “Ice and arnica cream. It’ll do wonders.”

  He’d take that to heart, if the pills would let him remember it. “Thanks.”

  Gary sat on the edge of the bed, and though the movement hurt him some, he wished Gary would just lay over him, touching him…

  “After you feel better, you wanna hang out sometime?”

  Was he asking Tommy on a date? Tommy had never been on a date in his life. “Uh…I don’t…I mean, yeah, sure.”

  Gary’s airy chuckle was like an aphrodisiac. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I’m sure. I’m a little woozy from the meds they gave me. Don’t think I’m always this dumb. Not that I’m smart, but…well, you know.”

  “Don’t put yourself down, Tommy. I think you’re smart. I also think you’re fucking sexy.”

  He was spinning, and he knew that time it definitely wasn’t from the pills. “I’ve never felt that way until this minute.” Okay, true confessions of the stoned-as-a-mother-fucker club, that was him.

  “Well, glad I could help. If you’re feeling better Friday, you want to show me around your town? Hit a bar or two, then your place?”

  “I don’t exactly have a place yet. I’ve been staying here with Daniel and Javi. With me being his new bodyguard, it worked out, but Javi said I don’t have to, not nights when he’s with Daniel.” Okay, so he was rambling. He’d worry about being embarrassed later.

  “Okay, then, I can get us a room for the night. I’ve been invited to stay here too, while I’m in town.”

  “You’re not staying here long?”

  Gary lay a hand on his chest and the touch nearly burned him. “I might stay longer if I have something to stay for.”

  He left after dropping that damn line and Tommy could feel the smile making his cheeks ache, it was so wide. Daniel saw it, after coming in as soon as Gary left. “Oh fuck, you have the same stupid grin he does.”

  “Hey!”

  Daniel’s laugh was more of a giggle as he teased, “So you and Gary? That’s hot. He’s hot, but you know, he’s like a really intense guy.”

  “And Javi’s not?”

  “He is, but I don’t know. Be careful, okay? Javi tried to warn me about himself since we met, and even he says that Gary is crazier and more dangerous.”

  Tommy liked that, though he didn’t know why. “I didn’t say I wanted to marry him, Daniel. Not everyone falls in love in an hour like you did with Javi.”

  Trying to think of a way to defend himself, Daniel grew quiet for a moment, then admitted, “Okay, yeah, so it didn’t take me long. Still, be careful. You didn’t live through getting shot point blank in the chest a hundred times so you could be broken in some other way.”

  “Yeah, okay, I’ll be careful.”

  The date on Friday started almost normally, the two of them going to a bar and taking a corner table, then Gary cracking him up with the lighter tales of his life as a mercenary. The stories were filled with the sights and especially the smells of living in tents or motels with a bunch of beefed out men and their bathroom and eating habits.

  When he came to the stories of having to watch and hear them fucking women, and how Gary grossed them out by fucking men in the same rooms, Tommy’s side was hurting from his adventures.

  They didn’t want to drive, as they’d both been drinking, so Gary called an Uber and they went to a motel nearby. They barely got in the door before Gary had his hand down Tommy’s pants, and he was giving Tommy’s dick a tight squeeze, making him hot as much as it hurt.

  “You’re a tough fucker, huh, Tommy? Mmm, wanna fuck you so hard you’ll think those gunshots were sweet kisses.”

  He was dizzy from the lust that was coursing through him and sweat started pouring down his back. “That’s what I want, yeah. Fuck me good.”

  His dirty talk needed work, sure, but he didn’t care at that moment. All he cared about was feeling like a piece of clay in the big man’s hands, being kneaded, manhandled. He was tossed on the bed like he weighed nothing at all after Gary picked him up and kissed him squarely, and as soon as he was on the bed, Gary was yanking his pants off him.

  “You clean? On pRep? I don’t mind wearing a condom, but for some reason, I’m dying to paint your insides.”

  Fuck! With only words, the guy was going to make him come! “I’m clean and on pRep.”

  “Me too.”

  He was stripping his clothes off himself and doing it much slower than he was taking Tommy’s clothes from him. Like he was giving Tommy the best striptease ever. His chest was indeed furred nicely, thick dark hair that had the occasional gray breaking the monotony.

  He was muscled, god, was he muscled, chest barreled and hard as two boulders. His gut was ripped, eight pack with a lighter cover of fur. His legs were thick, and from behind the black briefs, the only things he wore by the end of the striptease, there was a line of thick cock there, and a wet spot from his precum.

  “My face is up here, boy.”

  Tommy’s eyes slid over the rest of him on the way to his face and he grinned. “Sorry, but you can’t expect me not to look at that. Are you gonna take those off?”

  “Uh, yeah, but not yet. I think I’ll make you beg to see it now.”

  He felt his jaw drop, thought for a second he could close his own body enough to close his mouth, but he found he couldn’t, after all.

  “Yeah, just how I like my boys, with their mouths open.”

  Tommy groaned without knowing it was coming, making Gary chuckle in the most sadistic way. “You ever been fucked right, Tommy? Fucked like a man was trying to split you apart?”

  Like he could talk? He couldn’t form words to answer him. So, without verbal skills, he shook his head in a jerk and Gary rewarded him by sliding his briefs down his hips.

  Out popped the biggest and most beautiful dick Tommy had ever seen. The tip glistened as his precum pearled there, and the staff was purple with the blood it held. Nice thick veins ran over it, just under the silky flesh. Yeah, Tommy wanted to taste it, to feel it, and he knew right then and there, he’d do anything to experience both.

  As the briefs fell to the floor, Gary stepped from them, then crawled onto the bed and over Tommy, smashing his mouth against Tommy’s, tongue pushing through his shaking lips.

  His hands were thrown over his head and Gary ordered him to keep them there. He couldn’t have moved them if he tried. Gary climbed off the bed and got into his abandoned pants to retrieve a row of condoms and another row of sample lube packs.

  Tommy stared at them, six condoms, Gary’s big dick in his ass six times…

  “I’m always prepared, boy. Are you?”

  No, he definitely wasn’t prepared, but he was willing and able.

  “Cat got your tongue?”

  Finally, Tommy squeaked out, “You’re freaking me out a little. That’s all.”

  Gary calmed some and threw the condoms and lube on the bed then climbed back over Tommy. “I won’t hurt you unless it’s okay, and even then, it’s only to make the sex hotter. Tell me now if you’re not into this. I’ve gotten real used to fucking like this, but it’s not all I am.”

  The thought of stopping any of it terrified Tommy. He was dying to feel all Gary had to give him. “I’m into it. I’m so fucking into it.”

  “Thought so. That big dick of yours couldn’t get any harder.”

  That made him looked down at his own precum-dripping cock. “Big?”

  “You didn’t know you were big? My expert eye measures at least nine and a half inches and decent girth, too. You ever topped? Not that I am some bottom, I’m usually not, but with that cock of yours,
damn, it’s tempting.”

  No, he’d never topped. He’d barely bottomed much. “I’d fuck you, but you couldn’t expect me to be good at it.”

  “Ah, a teaching subject. I like that. Sweet, shy boy you are now, but something tells me I could watch you turn fast into a raging lion in the sack.”

  Only on some porn he’d watched had he ever heard such dirty talk, and he’d loved it then. Having it said to him, having Gary spitting out nasty things was making him crazy.

  “I want you so bad, Gary. Is that all right?”

  Instead of answering him in words, Gary leaned in to kiss him tenderly then whisper, “That’s more okay than you can guess, Tommy. I can’t tell you how all right that is.”

  It was then that he figured he would owe Daniel the apology. No, it wasn’t an hour that it took for him to fall for Gary, but three wasn’t much better.

  Gary moved Tommy to his side and spooned behind him, but he wasn’t planning on cuddling. No. He tore open one of the packs of lube and started fingering Tommy’s ass. It wasn’t what Tommy had pictured, not from porn or from his imagination. Gary’s finger didn’t just slide in and out of his hole. He hooked a finger to tap his prostate first thing, getting him revved up for the amazing stretching he got.

  The one finger was quickly joined by another, and he spread them, jammed them deep then came out and circled around the ring of muscle before slamming them back inside him. All the while his fingers worked Tommy’s ass, Gary was biting on the flesh of his back and shoulders, sucking marks on his neck and jaw.

  His scraggly beard was giving him whisker burn, but he loved the feel of it, the sensation of the little bit of pain making how great his ass felt contrast enough to blow his mind. The teeth sinking into his muscle, that did the same, making him yelp, and the sound turned into a low, long groan as his focus left the ache of the bite to zero in on the way his prostate was being tapped.

  “You want it now?”

  Feeling bolder than he thought he could, he grunted, “Suck you. I want to suck you first.”

  Gary laughed in his ear, but it wasn’t loud, it was whispered and rough. “I like your style, baby boy. Damn, you are the sexiest thing. I could get used to this.”