Ravenfall

by Narrelle M. Harris

  While Sergeant Tavisa Datta tidied up, Anthea also prepared reports regarding the apprehension of a suspect in the recent spate of murders; a crime with national security implications. Further documents referred to the related kidnapping of Helene Dupre and the sergeant’s subsequent disappearance on that urgent family matter. Support activities included departmental clearance, a phone number on Michael’s desk so that he could notify Datta’s superiors that she had been briefly seconded on a classified matter of national security, and advice to Datta that her arse was effectively covered with a Teflon shield.

  It was harder to know what to do for the people Frazer and West had murdered; for their grieving families and friends who had no rational explanation for their loss. The conspirators were both dead, which was justice of a sort, but the fact remained that their deaths had been cavalier. A ploy to manipulate their real targets, the Dare brothers.

  Anthea would be making recommendations, but none of it would be adequate. None of it would make up for the dead being treated as nothing but pawns without meaning or value of their own.

  Datta was greeted with the arse-covering information when she emerged showered and refreshed. She also received from Mr Dare, via Miss Webb, an offer of a role within the Bureau – most especially since there were, as the result of Niall Frazer, several vacancies.

  Tavisa reacted as though she’d been offered a shot of acid to the eye.

  Anthea, unoffended, gave Tavisa her card. ‘It’s a whackadoodle life, as Jay Ren so colourfully puts it, but it’s another way to serve, Sergeant Datta. We know very little about interpretation of precognitive dreams, but the little we know is more than everyone else’s nothing at all. We may be able to help each other. Keep us in mind. There’s no rush.’

  Tavisa took the card.

  That night, Tavisa dreamed.

  She dreamed of going to the theatre in her pyjamas, and being annoyed because she didn’t like the theatre. Suddenly she was selling ice cream at interval, a job she’d had during the holidays as a kid and liked because she got free ice cream out of it, except in the dream, the ice cream was liquorice and bacon flavoured, which was disgusting, but she liked it anyway, because ice cream, and then the foyer turned into a beach and she swam and could breathe under the water and a lobster told her in sign language about the ice cream kiosk on the moon and she flew up high, with the lobster. It was all pretty much the kind of dream she always had after too much cheese.

  But at the very end of her sleep cycle, Tavisa dreamed she held a bright and flaming sword, which made her frightened and proud all at once.

  Then she simply slept, without dreams, and it was the most peaceful, refreshing sleep she’d had in her entire life.

  Much later that night, after all the sudden guests had departed for their homes, Anthea made a few necessary adjustments to both Mr Dare’s security and her own arsenal. She’d promised him she would stop him if he ever went rogue, so it was best he didn’t know all of her secrets.

  She was good at keeping secrets. She didn’t expect to ever need them, but she lived by her professionalism, by her promises to Mr Dare, and she didn’t aim to get sloppy now.

  Even with the bunch of white carnations and blue violets that had appeared on her desk – the first time a bouquet of any sort had ever appeared there. This bouquet had a stalk of garlic stuck in the middle of the symbols of loyalty and trust.

  He had a sense of humour, her Michael.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  A black government sedan took James and Gabriel back to Ivy Gardens.

  Almost everything they’d worn yesterday was ruined beyond saving, including James’s favourite jacket. Only Gabriel’s leather jacket had been saved, and he wore it over his shoulders. Otherwise, they were both dressed in the Bureau’s dark tracksuits and brand new running shoes that reminded James of the army and Gabriel of the school he’d so despised as a child. James agreed that burning was a deserved fate for the awful things, but that Switchblade Roy or his mates might make better use of them.

  James leant up against the car door and Gabriel, in the spirit of never respecting the tedious pomposity of the Establishment, had sprawled out on the broad seat, his head in James’s lap. James rested a hand on Gabriel’s chest, inside his track top, so he could feel the steady rhythm of Gabriel’s beating heart against his fingertips.

  Gabriel was talking to Helene on speakerphone.

  ‘But you’re all right?’

  ‘I’m fine, darling. My head aches and I don’t remember much, but the doctor gave me the all clear and I’m home with a glass of Cointreau on the rocks, a tub of espresso gelato and a BBC costume drama full of beautiful gowns and pretty men.’

  For all her chirpiness, they could hear how shaken she was.

  ‘They got the man who was behind all of this,’ Gabriel told her, his concern evident. ‘You don’t have to worry about him anymore.’

  ‘Don’t I?’

  ‘No. I promise. He’s gone. He can’t hurt anyone anymore.’

  The silence from Helene’s end went on too long. Finally, she said, ‘Is this something to do with where Michael works?’

  ‘Michael works for parliament.’ He wasn’t even convincing to himself.

  ‘He does something else as well,’ said Helene warily. ‘I don’t know what it is, but he’s worked for whatever that department is for a long time. Since before he was your age.’

  Gabriel looked troubled. James rubbed his thumb over his cheek.

  ‘His job… has something to do with it, yes.’

  ‘And you say it’s over?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And… and nobody else will be coming for you. Or for me. Or anyone else.’

  ‘Nobody,’ said Gabriel gently.

  Helene’s sigh was shaky but also full of relief. ‘Good, coco. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, hmm?’

  ‘James and I will come around. I’ll bring chocolate.’

  ‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘But not early. Come late in the day. I’m sure you and James will want a long lie-in.’

  ‘Cheeky.’

  ‘But observant,’ she said, giggling earthily.

  Gabriel rung off and shoved his phone in his pocket. ‘I know I said we’d spend tomorrow in bed…’

  ‘We’ll see Helene,’ said James.

  ‘But not early.’ Gabriel waggled his eyebrows lasciviously, making James laugh.

  Finally back home, James set about his usual routine of making a soothing cup of tea. He’d placed the teabags in the cups when Gabriel came up behind him and wrapped his arms around James’s waist.

  ‘I don’t want a cup of tea,’ he said. He kissed the back of James’s neck. Still kissing, he smoothed his hands across James’s stomach, then up over his chest.

  James leaned back into Gabriel’s warmth. Gabriel rolled his hips forward, his crotch pressing warmly against James’s behind.

  James abandoned the tea making and turned in Gabriel’s arms to kiss him. ‘I’ll make you come so hard,’ he murmured against Gabriel’s mouth.

  ‘You too,’ Gabriel murmured back.

  James pulled away, puzzled.

  Gabriel’s eyes crinkled in affectionate amusement. ‘You have orgasms, Jamie. I’ve seen your O face when you have them.’

  ‘But my body doesn’t…’ But even as he spoke, the penny dropped, ‘Oh. Oh, of course.’

  ‘You don’t ejaculate,’ Gabriel said matter-of-factly, sliding his hands down to James’s arse. ‘But you’re definitely coming.’

  James thought about those sensations that began in his brain and fizzed along all his nerve endings. ‘I really am, aren’t I? God.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Gabriel busied himself with kissing the corner of James’s eyes, his cheek, down along his jaw, then added, ‘Usually it’s after you’ve drunk from me. It’s gorgeous. You always look so surprised.’

  ‘It was surprising. I didn’t have them when I tried it on my own. I didn’t think I co
uld anymore.’

  Gabriel finally left off trying to seduce his boyfriend. ‘What did you think was happening?’

  ‘That I was imagining it. That my memory was tricking me into feeling what I wanted to feel.’

  ‘I read once that orgasms and ejaculation aren’t necessarily the same thing.’

  ‘No,’ agreed James. ‘Orgasms aren’t solely a genital function. They happen in the brain as well. After I’ve drunk from you, you say? Makes sense. Lifeblood. Symbolic, I suppose.’

  Gabriel kissed him again, then nuzzled at James’s neck. ‘Blood, sure. And at least once after you gave me a terrific blow job. Essence of life and all that.’

  James was mortified. ‘God, really?’ He thought back over the last few weeks. ‘Jesus. Really. I remember that.’

  ‘Seriously, Jamie. You knew you were having orgasms but you didn’t think you were having orgasms?’

  ‘In my defence, they’re not like the ones I used to have. God. And me a doctor. What a plonker.’

  ‘Yep. Especially since you keep talking about it instead of getting on with having another one.’

  James laughed and bared his throat for Gabriel to kiss and lick, to suck on. It wouldn’t leave a bruise, and James was sorry about that, but it felt good.

  Gabriel bit his earlobe too, and cupped James’s crotch in his palm. ‘Stop talking,’ he said in a low voice, ‘Come to bed with me. We can experiment with what makes you feel good. But first, and I really, really mean this, Jamie, I want you to fuck me. I want your gorgeous cock in me, and for us to go at it until I’m passed out from coming so hard, and then I want you to keep going until you have your braingasm and then after we’ve had a kip I want to do it all again. Maybe with me fucking you. We’ll see how we feel when I have my strength back. How about it?’

  ‘Are you sure, love?’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure. You’ll make it good. I love your cock. I want it in me. I want to feel you fuck me with your perfect, perfectly sized dick.’ He smeared kisses along James’s jaw. ‘I want you.’

  ‘What an excellent idea.’ James scooped his hands under Gabriel’s backside and lifted him. Gabriel instantly wrapped his long legs around James’s waist and clung to his shoulders, tilting his head down to kiss James’s upturned face.

  James walked them to Gabriel’s room, and Gabriel was so turned on by James’s show of easy strength that he was already flexing his hips, rutting against James’s stomach.

  James walked-and-kissed Gabriel until he reached the bed, and then lowered him slowly to the mattress. Gabriel, grinning, eyes dark with desire and mouth red and plump from impassioned kisses, refused to unhook his legs from James’s waist. He spread his arms wide on the bed, gripping the blankets for any leverage he could get, and rutted his arse against James’s covered crotch some more.

  James placed a hand under Gabriel’s back to support him. ‘Go on then,’ he urged, ‘show me how much you want it.’

  Gabriel rolled his hips luxuriantly, pressing the firmness of his backside against the bulge James was presenting in his clothes. James palmed Gabriel’s erection through his track pants. Gabriel moaned, shuddered, and tried to both grind down against James’s cock and up against his hand.

  ‘Keep going,’ James urged him and while Gabriel breathlessly obeyed, James removed his hand from Gabriel’s crotch to tug down the track pants. Gabriel’s flushed cock stood out from his body. James wrapped his hand around it and pulled along the shaft, slowly and firmly, dragging sensitive skin up and making Gabriel even harder.

  James rubbed his thumb over the crown of Gabriel’s cock, gathering moisture from the beading slit.

  ‘Look at me,’ he said.

  Gabriel looked. James licked the moisture from his thumb. Gabriel moaned and ground down, moving his hips in a little circle against James’s erection.

  ‘You’re gorgeous,’ James breathed.

  ‘I need fucking.’

  ‘So you do.’ James firmly unwrapped Gabriel’s legs from his waist and pushed Gabriel’s feet to rest on the mattress. ‘Wait.’

  Gabriel looked at James through the space between his bent knees and licked his lower lip before biting it.

  James gave Gabriel’s cock another gentle pull – Gabriel moaned and his hips jerked up – before stripping. He placed his hands against Gabriel’s hips, above the waistband of his partly pulled-down track pants.

  ‘Legs up.’

  Gabriel, grinning wantonly, raised both legs straight into the air.

  ‘That’s mae lovely boy,’ said James, the fronts of his thighs against the back of Gabriel’s legs. ‘That’s beautiful.’

  He tucked his fingers into the waistband of the track bottoms and in a single movement, lifted Gabriel’s backside off the bed and slid the garment over Gabriel’s bare rump, past his thighs and knees and calves, over his feet and off. He flung them aside and caught hold of Gabriel’s ankles before he could place them back on the bed, holding them up and wide. He nudged his crotch against Gabriel’s exposed backside. His hard cock prodded right between Gabriel’s arsecheeks and dragged against the hot, sensitive skin.

  Gabriel bent his knees, trying to spread them, which brought his whole body closer to James. ‘Fuck, yes, Jamie. Fuck me.’

  Grinning, James slid his hands down Gabriel’s legs again, hands cupping calves and thighs to encourage Gabriel to keep them in the air. Then he dropped to his knees and nosed into the crease to lick at Gabriel’s entrance. Gabriel keened.

  James pushed his mouth right into the fold and let saliva pool from his tongue onto Gabriel’s skin. He pushed his tongue rhythmically into the centre of the wrinkled indentation. Gabriel spread his raised legs wider and when the strain of it got too much, he dropped his feet to James’s shoulders.

  ‘Christ. You not having to come up to breathe for ages,’ he paused to make a sweet sound of pleasure, ‘gives you an unfair advantage.’

  For a reply, James nuzzled into the intimate warmth and wriggled his tongue right in the centre of the pucker, nearly reducing Gabriel to whimpering tears, which turned into an almost broken-hearted groan when James withdrew to kiss each side of his inner thighs instead.

  ‘Lube.’

  Gabriel scrabbled with one hand for the tube on the side table. He flung it haphazardly in James’s direction. James caught it neatly and smothered his fingers in gel.

  ‘This’ll be cold,’ he warned, then rubbed his slick fingers in slow circles against Gabriel’s entrance. He repeated the action two or three times, each time pushing a finger carefully and more deeply into Gabriel’s body. Gabriel was whimpering again, and again gave that small cry as James took his hands away.

  ‘Soon, love.’ He smoothed his hands between Gabriel’s body and the mattress, one hand between the artist’s shoulder blades, the other under his rump. He lifted and moved Gabriel’s whole body up the mattress. He grinned at the way it made Gabriel’s cock twitch and leak.

  ‘You like that.’

  ‘Brand new strength kink,’ gasped Gabriel, laughing and panting. ‘Just for you.’

  James kneeled between Gabriel’s spread legs. ‘Well then,’ he said, ‘I think you might like this.’

  He smeared more generous amounts of lube over his fingers, over Gabriel’s arse and carefully inside. Gabriel continued with the undignified noises and tried to thrust himself onto James’s fingers. His cock was slick with the pre-come beading and slipping from his slit. From time to time, James wrapped a free hand around his shaft and gave him a couple of gentle, maddening pulls. Gabriel moved his hips, chasing sensation in each direction.

  ‘Patience, you lovely thing,’ James said, and kept right on with the slow slide of his fingers, adding lube as he went, until he was satisfied that Gabriel was ready. He bent his head to lick Gabriel’s sticky-wet crown and grinned at the noise Gabriel made.

  ‘I love the taste of you,’ said James, ‘The smell of you. You’re so warm, mae braw lad. My love. My heart.
Mo ghràdh; mo chridhe. That’s almost all the true Scottish I know. I’ll learn more, if you want, to woo you by. M’eudail. My darling. You’re beautiful.’

  ‘So are you. I’ll paint you every day, so you can see how beautiful you are to me.’ He wriggled. ‘Fuck me.’

  James wrapped one arm behind Gabriel’s back and the other behind his hips, then lifted Gabriel up and into his lap. Gabriel moaned with giddy arousal at the show of strength before seizing James’s mouth with his, kissing deep, his body quivering. He mouthed a line from lips to cheek to temple, then down to bite at James’s ear. ‘Love you, love you, love you.’

  ‘And I love you, aye, I do. Keep your legs wide for me.’ Gabriel eagerly obeyed as James’s sure hands adjusted Gabriel’s angle in his lap. James rose to his knees and bumped the head of his cock against Gabriel’s entrance. ‘Hold onto my shoulders.’

  Gabriel gripped James’s shoulders while James ran his hands over Gabriel’s ribs and around his back, down to his hips, holding firmly.

  ‘You ready, angel?’

  ‘Christ, Jamie, yes.’

  James pushed up against Gabriel’s entrance, then pulled Gabriel slowly down to meet him, using his strength to bring their bodies together.

  As James breeched him, Gabriel curled his hips to meet the welcome intrusion. He moved again, trying to take James deeper, but before he could do what he so clearly wanted to do, James grinned at him. ‘Hold still. I’m doing all the work for this one.’

  Gabriel gripped James’s shoulders more tightly. James settled Gabriel’s impaled weight in his lap, dipped his hands slightly under Gabriel’s buttocks for stability then began to lift him. Then he tugged Gabriel back down firmly. He kept his own hips still, too. Lift; pull. Lift; pull. Faster and faster, strong and untiring.

  ‘There, my lovely, there. Is that good? You like that?’

  Gabriel’s “yes” was huffed out breathlessly and he spread his legs yet wider, feet splayed. He arched so his cock rubbed against James’s stomach, he curled his arms closer around his shoulders and pressed his mouth to James’s temple. James altered the angle of Gabriel’s’ body to increase the friction and Gabriel’s pleasure.