Severe Side Winds Ahead

by Kendel Duncan

  Now, as he glanced out the windows while he waited by the luggage carousel for his bag, he hoped that he was making the right decision. He supposed he would find out in about two hours when he got to their headquarters.

  *****************************

  “Drake Malone,” Drake said as he held out his hand.

  “Kingston Fisher, call me King,” Kingston said as he gripped Drake’s hand.

  “Come on inside,” Drake said as he held the screen open wide.

  King stepped inside the large, older Victorian-style home and glanced around. He saw a gorgeous man who was in the kitchen facing two highchairs with laughing, squealing toddlers in them.

  “That’s my fiancé Hunter. Hunter, this is King.”

  Hunter turned to wave at him, “Hi there and wel……” he stopped talking when a blob of brown baby food landed on his cheek.

  “Colt, what has daddy told you about throwing your food?” he said as he turned back to glare at the kids…..who were beaming at him.

  “Da-da dirty,” the little boy said with a giggle.

  Drake walked over to stand behind Hunter, “Yes, da-da is very dirty,” he said as he tilted the man’s head back and gave him a kiss.

  The little girl squealed, “Daddy kiss da-da! Me kiss too.”

  Drake grinned at her, “Yes, Annie, you can have a kiss too,” he said as he puckered up and planted a kiss on her lips. “Mmmm, green beans and chicken. Yum.”

  Annie squealed her delight.

  Drake turned back to King, wiping his hand over his lips as he said, “Sorry about the interruption.”

  “Don’t be. They’re adorable.”

  “Come on back. The guys are all waiting for you.”

  Guys? How many guys were interviewing him?

  When he stepped through the door behind Drake he had his answer: Eight. There were eight guys looking at him, waiting to decide his future.

  King swallowed hard and stepped into the room.

  Sneak peek of:

  Blackbird Fly Home

  Doyle Global Securities #1

  Prologue

  Noah Pierce looked at the young man’s eyes over the rim of his glass as he took a drink. He knew that look, he’d seen it a thousand times when he looked at his own reflection in the mirror over a decade ago. That haunted, hopeless, resigned look. The one that said this man truly believed he had no hope of escaping the hell that he was currently trapped in.

  Noah had been there, fuck, he’d almost died there with the very man who currently had his proprietary hand resting along the back of the young man’s neck as he seemingly ignored the young man while he held a conversation with what appeared to be work colleagues. Noah knew differently though. That hand, those fingers, were there as the young man’s reminder of who he belonged to. Those fingers that seemed to be gently caressing and playing with the man’s hair, would actually stop to squeeze the neck or pull a little harder on that hair – the older man’s reminder that he owned the younger man, that he controlled his every fucking move.

  Fucking Jacob Knight.

  Noah had met him when he was in college in his senior year. Noah was majoring in Business Law, not with the goal of becoming a lawyer but more with the hope of maybe one day going into law enforcement. Jacob Knight was a top corporate lawyer who had been asked by the University to teach a semester course on Legal Ethics. Noah jumped at the chance to sign up for his class. He’d regretted that decision ever since.

  Oh, sure Jacob had acted like a complete professional at first, Noah would expect nothing less of the man. But on the day Noah took his final exam, Jacob had pulled him aside afterwards, struck up a conversation with him and, to Noah’s complete shock, began flirting with him and had asked him out. Despite Noah’s reservations about their age gap, Noah was just shy of twenty-two and Jacob was thirty-three, they began dating.

  At first it was wonderful, beautiful actually. Jacob took him to five-star restaurants, he introduced him to the symphony, and he made Noah feel like he was the most special man in the world. And for six months, he was. Until Noah graduated, got a job and Jacob aske Noah to move in with him.

  Then that dream life turned into a nightmare.

  At first it was subtle things, Jacob saying that he worried about Noah too much so he wanted to be the one to drive him to and from work. Then he began asking Noah for his phone when they got home. He said it was so he could charge it for him, but Noah soon realized that he never got it back until the next morning when he left for work. And when he asked about it all he got was the question, why do you need it?

  Then there was the Wi-Fi at home. One day after eating dinner, he grabbed the laptop, tried to sign into the internet and found that the Wi-Fi password had been changed. When he asked Jacob what the new one was, Jacob said, “Anything you need to do on the internet, we can do together.”

  “But what if I want to log into my Facebook account?” Noah had said.

  “Oh, you don’t need that anymore, I set us up for a joint one. You can just shut that one down.”

  Noah had just stared with his mouth open. He wanted to argue, he really did, but what was the point? Up until now, Jacob had made it abundantly clear that whatever Jacob wanted, Jacob got.

  And then the hitting started.

  Face slaps came first, always followed by an apology and an, ‘I swear it’ll never happen again.’

  Then Jacob had gotten mad about something stupid, the laundry not being done on time or some such shit, and he’d twisted Noah’s arm behind his back so hard they both heard it crack.

  Noah swore to himself while his wrist was casted in the ER that he was going to leave Jacob as soon as he got home.

  But when they pulled into the driveway, “Where’s my car?” Noah mumbled, a little whacked out on pain killers.

  “Oh, since everywhere we go we’re always together, I figured we’d save the extra insurance costs so I sold it.”

  “You sold my fucking car? How can you legally do that Jacob?”

  “You gave me legal authority to sign for you last month, remember?”

  “No, I don’t remember.”

  “Yes, it was right after, um, right after we got home from the hospital after, uh, after your accident that broke your ribs.”

  “After YOU broke my ribs you mean. So, you had me sign a document when I was high on Percocet?”

  Jacob bit his bottom lip and looked out the window, “I wouldn’t go that far, you seemed pretty lucid. You even wanted me to fuck you despite the broken ribs.”

  “No, you forced yourself on me when I was too whacked out of my mind to say no.”

  Jacob turned an angry glare to Noah, “Do not make me angry, Noah.”

  “Or what, you’ll break my other wrist? Why not? Let’s just head back to the ER right now and you can do it in the parking lot. Save time.”

  “Noah, get in the house. We’ll talk about this inside,” Jacob said in that tone of his that left no room for argument.

  When Noah walked in the door he said, “I’m sleeping in the guest room,” because car or no car, he was breaking up with Jacob and leaving as soon as he got these meds out of his system.

  “Of course, babe. Where ever you feel most comfortable. I’ll go make your favorite cocoa with whipped cream,” Jacob said as he turned towards the kitchen.

  Noah stopped in his tracks and frowned at Jacob’s back because, no fight about the guest room? That made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. But they’d given him a shot of Demerol at the hospital and he could feel it in his system, making it hard to stand and like he was floating on a cloud. He really needed to lie down.

  He walked into the guest room, stripped down to his boxers and climbed under the covers.

  When Jacob walked in a few minutes later with his hot chocolate, he said, “I don’t want to take any of the Vicodin they gave me, okay? I want to have a clear head for when we talk later. I’m just going to take a nap until this shot they gave me works out of my syst
em and then we’ll talk. And we will talk Jacob. You broke my wrist, that is not okay.”

  I know, love. But you really gave me no choice now, did you?” Jacob said as he smoothed his hand down Noah’s hair.

  “No, no, no….” he turned away with a sigh because he really needed a clear head to have this argument.

  “Here, drink your cocoa. I didn’t make it too hot, so you can drink it now,” Jacob said as he handed the cup to Noah.

  Noah took a few sips, “This is really good, thank you.”

  He finished it in just a few sips and handed the empty cup to Jacob.

  “Get some rest, love, we’ll talk when you wake up.”

  When Noah finally peeled his eyes open, that’s when he knew that that look of resigned hopelessness had shown up in his eyes, the same look that he saw in the eyes of the young man currently sitting next to an older but still handsome Jacob Knight.

  Because that following morning Noah had woken up not in the guest room, but in the master bedroom, naked and held tightly in Jacob’s arms, and his ass was sticky with come, come that he had no doubt Jacob had put there when he had fucked Noah while he was passed out. Passed out, Noah knew without a doubt, on too many pain drugs because Jacob had slipped Vicodin in his cocoa. Nothing was beneath the man currently pressing his morning wood to Noah’s back. Nothing. Not even drugging the man he supposedly loved. How the fuck was he supposed to escape this?

  “How did I get in here?” he whispered, though his voice cracked like he’d been sleeping for days.

  “I carried you in here after you wet the bed, love.”

  Noah squeezed his eyes shut, “I, I, Jesus, I pissed the bed?”

  “Relax, babe, these things happen. You were hurting and weak, it’s understandable. Of course, I’ll have to throw out that mattress now but we can replace it later.”

  Noah opened his eyes and stared at the far wall as his heart went numb, “Of course we can.”

  They never did. Why bother when Jacob never let Noah leave his side for a second?

  “Do you mind love?” Jacob whispered into his neck as his hard-on pressed between Noah’s cheeks.

  “Not at all,” Noah mumbled like a robot as he lifted his top leg.

  After all, it was better to give in than put up a fight…..right?