by Ally Blue
“No, I can handle a slow jog.” Bo gave Sam a wry grin. “I promise I’ll tell you if I need to walk.”
Let’s hope you can keep this promise. Sam bit back the bitter words before they could emerge. “All right. You set the pace.”
With a nod, Bo started down the path in the direction from which they’d come. He smacked Sam’s ass and arched an eyebrow at him. Sam followed, savoring the change in Bo’s mood and hoping it would last. He had a feeling it wouldn’t, but you never knew. Stranger things had happened.
***
David, Cecile and Andre were still going over evidence from the previous two nights when Sam and Bo returned. Andre sat on the edge of a chair, headphones on, frowning at the laptop screen. He glanced at them and nodded before turning his attention back to his work. David, sprawled on his stomach on the carpet with the thermal camera in front of him, acknowledged Sam and Bo’s return with a distracted wave.
Cecile stopped the audio recorder in her hand and took her earbuds out. “Hi, guys. Did you have a good run?”
“It was all right,” Sam told her, mopping sweat from his brow. “Hot.”
“Very hot, especially for mid-May.” Bo brushed his fingers across the back of Sam’s hand as he headed for the kitchen. “I’m getting some Gatorade, Sam, you want some?”
“What flavor do we have?”
“Hang on.” Sam heard the refrigerator door open, then the sound of glass and plastic being shuffled around. “All that’s left is lemon-lime.”
Sam wrinkled his nose. “I hate lemon-lime. It tastes like sweat.”
Bo’s laugh floated from the kitchen. “That’s because it’s meant to replace the electrolytes you lose through sweating.”
“Just bring me a bottle of water, if you don’t mind.”
“Okay.”
The refrigerator door banged shut, and Bo came back into the living room with a plastic bottle in each hand. He handed the bottle of water to Sam, then twisted the top off his Gatorade and gulped half of it in a few long swallows. Sam drank the cold water gratefully.
“Where’s Dean?” Bo flopped onto one of the chairs around the dining table, holding his sweating bottle to his forehead.
“Outside someplace.” Chuckling, Cecile tucked her legs beneath her. “We all went out on the beach for a walk earlier, just for a little break, and we met up with those college kids staying next door. One of those boys was completely smitten with Dean. They’re out there talking still.”
“Talking, my ass.” David glanced up and grinned, blue eyes glinting. “I’d bet my last dollar Dean’s got that kid’s cock down his throat by now.”
“David!” Cecile uncurled one leg and aimed a barefoot kick at David’s forehead. “Don’t be crude.”
“What? It’s true!” He grabbed her foot and bit her big toe, making her squeal.
“You don’t know that.” Shaking her head, Cecile retrieved her foot before David could bite her again. “In any case, Bo, Dean is outside with his new friend.”
Andre stopped the video he was watching and pulled his headphones off. “Just for the record, Bo, I told him he could stay out there for a while. He was up working today before any of the rest of us.”
Bo gave Andre an affronted look. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
Andre raised a skeptical eyebrow, but kept quiet. He put his headphones back on then restarted the video.
Scowling at Andre, Bo turned back to Cecile. “Have y’all found anything since Sam and I left?”
“Nothing we didn’t already know about. You already know about the EVPs.”
Sam and Bo both nodded. Cecile had captured three distinct voices on her audio recorder the night before—two different male voices and one female. The woman seemed to be speaking French. Even though he hadn’t been happy about Bo doing evidence review—and dragging him into it as well—Sam had been just as excited as the rest of the group about the find.
“What about the headless soldier?” Bo asked. “How did that footage come out?”
Cecile shrugged. “We could make out the shape, but it isn’t as distinct as we would’ve liked.”
“That’s not surprising. At least Dean got footage of it, even if it isn’t very clear.” Bo pulled on the end of his braid. “So, there’s nothing unexpected?”
Bo’s tone was casual, but Sam heard the real question lurking behind the seemingly innocent inquiry. He shot Bo a stormy glare. Bo ignored it.
“No,” Cecile answered. “Of course we haven’t reviewed everything yet, but we’ve been over the thermal and audio and most of the video from the time when Andre and I felt that weird change in the fort’s energy, and nothing’s showed up so far.”
The smile that curled Bo’s lips seemed triumphant to the point of gloating. Sam bit his tongue. He wasn’t about to let Bo goad him into another fight.
Downing the rest of his water, Sam crushed the bottle and tossed it across the room into the bucket they were using as a recycling bin. “Okay, I’m going for a swim. Bo?”
“Definitely.” Bo toed off his running shoes, peeled off the sweaty socks and rose to his feet. “Cecile, we’ll be back later.”
“Take your time. Y’all are still on vacation.” She put the earbuds back in and started the audio, shooing them away with one slender hand. “Go on.”
Pulling off his own shoes and socks and setting them with Bo’s beside the back door, Sam followed Bo outside. He grabbed a foam raft and tucked it under his arm before leaving the relative cool of the back porch. Fierce heat wrapped around him like a blanket as he and Bo stepped out into the sun.
“My God, I think it’s gotten hotter.” Bo grinned. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
They ran across the burning sand and splashed into the ocean. The blue green water felt wonderfully cool on Sam’s overheated skin. Hooking his arms over the raft, he dug his feet into the sandy seafloor and let his body go limp.
Bo ducked underwater and popped to the surface next to Sam. “That feels absolutely fantastic.”
“Mm-hm.” Sam folded his arms on top of the raft and laid his cheek against them. “Pour some water on my head.”
“You could’ve just gone under like I did,” Bo pointed out with a laugh. Cupping his hands, he scooped a double palmful of water and dumped it over Sam’s head. “Better?”
Sam shut his eyes against the salty trickle. The sun glowed red through his closed lids. “Yeah. Do it again.”
Chuckling, Bo dumped more water over Sam’s head, kissed his shoulder and swam off. Sam stayed where he was, toes buried in the sand and head pillowed on his arms, and let the gentle swells rock him into a contented doze. He felt lazy and relaxed, the tension of the past couple of days fading in the sunshine and sea breeze. The ocean’s cool liquid embrace around his lower body formed a delicious contrast to the heat pressing like a weight on his shoulders and upper back. The only sounds were the sigh of the waves on the shore and the splashing of Bo’s arms and legs as he swam.
Sam couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so peaceful. He wished he could shrinkwrap this moment and keep it forever.
A sudden chorus of whoops and laughter broke through Sam’s torpor. He cranked his eyelids to half-mast just in time to see a group of young men and women race down the beach and into the water. It was the people from the house next door. Sam grinned when he realized one of the boys was missing. Wonder what sort of perversions Dean’s talked him into?
A cool, wet hand planted itself between his shoulder blades. He yelped. “Cold!”
Bo laughed, fingertips drawing chilly patterns on Sam’s back. “I see one of our neighbors is missing.”
“I noticed that, yeah.” Yawning, Sam stretched his arms out across the raft. “What do you think they’re doing?”
“You mean what do I think our resident charmer is doing with his barely legal new friend?”
Sam snickered. “Yeah.”
“Hm. Well, I imagine they’re…”
Bo t
railed off into silence. Frowning, Sam twisted his head around. Bo was staring into the middle distance, his features slack.
Fear clutched at Sam’s insides. “Bo?”
Bo blinked, and his eyes focused on Sam’s face. He smiled. “Sorry. I was just thinking.”
Suspicious, Sam narrowed his eyes. “About what?”
“Nothing, really. Just hoping Dean’s summer fling really is legal. I’d hate for him to get in trouble.”
Bo radiated sincerity, but Sam didn’t buy it. He’d seen that blank look on Bo’s face before, at the fort and again on the run that morning.
He’s still seeing those things, and he’s lying about it again to hide it from me.
The thought of another argument turned Sam’s stomach, but he couldn’t let Bo lie about something this potentially important without calling him on it.
Could he? Would it be so bad to let it go? He’d promised himself he wouldn’t bring it up again. Wouldn’t it be better to keep his worries to himself?
The memory of the nightmarish otherdimensional creature sinking its teeth into Bo’s leg was answer enough to that question.
Sam straightened up and squared his shoulders, bracing himself for a fight. “Bo, listen—”
He broke off when Bo grinned and ducked beneath the water. Sighing, Sam draped his upper body across the raft again. He stared morosely down the beach, where the group from the house next door was having a noisy chicken fight in the calm water. He wished he and Bo could relax and have fun together like that, without work and lies and hard feelings getting in the way.
Fingers curled over the waistband of Sam’s shorts. He didn’t have time to react before the garment was yanked down. His cheeks were spread and a slick tongue pressed against his hole.
“Oh fuck,” Sam breathed, fingers clenching on the raft. What in the hell did Bo think he was doing?
The tongue went away, and a second later Bo’s head broke the water to Sam’s right. Eyes sparkling with a rare playfulness, he traced a single fingertip over Sam’s hole.
Sam swallowed, one eye on Bo and the other on the group roughhousing not that far away. “What are you doing?”
Bo flashed an evil smile. “Don’t move.”
“What do you mean, don’t move? What—?” Sam let out a squeak when Bo’s finger breached him. “God. Oh, fuck.”
“Not here, people are watching.” Bo’s finger slid deeper. His free hand wrapped around Sam’s prick, which stiffened at his touch. “You like this, don’t you? I know I do. I think I’ll bring you off right here, right now. Just like this.”
Caught between shock and arousal, Sam couldn’t do anything but gape. Holding hands in public was usually a huge deal to Bo. Now, here he was fingering Sam’s ass and jerking him off outside in broad daylight, not fifteen yards from a crowd of strangers, with only a flimsy raft and a few feet of crystal clear water as cover. It was so out of character for Bo that Sam had no idea how to react.
“Bo, come on. You…you can’t distract me this way.” Sam wished his voice wouldn’t shake so much. It ruined the effect.
Smiling, Bo shook his head. “Sam?”
“Uh?”
“Shut up.”
Sam gasped, hips jerking as Bo’s finger curled to nail his gland. Regardless of what his mind thought, his body evidently knew what it wanted, and what it wanted was for Bo to keep doing what he was doing. He shut up.
Keeping his left hand clutched around the edge of the raft, Sam plunged his right hand beneath the surface of the water and into Bo’s shorts. His fingers grasped the familiar steely length of Bo’s shaft and went to work.
“Oh yeah, that’s it.” Bo’s eyelids fluttered closed, then shot open again. “So hot, Sam.”
“Tell me what’s hot,” Sam demanded, his voice breathless with rising excitement. “Say it.”
Bo flushed deep red. Holding his gaze, Sam thrust back with a moan, driving Bo’s finger in to the hilt. The catch in Bo’s breath and the pulse of his cock in Sam’s fist told Sam how excited he was. Sam held his breath and managed not to beg. Hearing Bo talk dirty turned him on beyond belief.
Bo leaned closer. His wet braid swung over his shoulder to slap Sam’s arm. “I like how hard your cock is in my hand,” he said, his voice soft and husky. He pinched the underside of Sam’s glans, sending electricity shooting through him. “I like the way your hole grabs my finger, so fucking tight it almost cuts off the circulation.” He pumped his finger in, out, in again, twisting with each stroke. “I love how hot and soft you are inside.”
“God, yes.” Sam’s hips rocked between the finger inside him and the hand around his prick. “Close, Bo.”
Bo’s low groan said he was just as close to the edge as Sam. He pulled his finger out of Sam’s hole and pushed two in. It burned a little, with only salt water to ease the movement, but the way Bo massaged Sam’s gland felt amazing, and the excitement of doing this in public—kind of—was dizzying. Sam swallowed a cry.
“Almost there.” Dipping his head, Bo bit Sam’s shoulder. “Harder.”
Sam obediently tightened his hand around Bo’s cock, pulling as hard and fast as he could. It was all he could do to maintain any sort of rhythm. The feel of Bo’s fingers caressing him inside and out threatened to wash him away in a tide of sensation.
Bo rested his forehead against Sam’s. His breath stuttered warm and moist on Sam’s face, his eyes wide and burning. “I love you,” he whispered, and came in Sam’s hand.
The depth of emotion in Bo’s eyes, more than the practiced touch of his hands, was what pushed Sam over the edge and sent him tumbling. He bit his tongue and panted through an orgasm so intense his vision went white. His shaft jerked in Bo’s palm, his hole convulsing around Bo’s fingers. One of the girls from the group next door glanced over at them, but Sam couldn’t bring himself to care. It took all his strength to stop himself from kissing Bo.
Sam had no idea how much time passed before Bo’s fingers finally slipped out of him. “Oh, my God.” Bo fell forward onto the raft beside Sam, causing Sam’s hand to pull free of his shorts. “I’ve never done anything like that where people might see.”
“I know.” Sam reached down to pull up his shorts, then rested both elbows on the raft. “I’m not complaining, believe me, but what brought that on all of a sudden?”
Bo shrugged. “Not a clue. But damn, it was exciting.” He shot Sam a sly smile. “You’re just so incredibly sexy, I couldn’t help myself.”
Sam knew better. Yes, Bo loved him, and they shared a powerful physical attraction, but there was no way Bo would’ve initiated any sort of sexual contact in public under normal circumstances. He’d been trying to stop Sam from questioning him once again about the things he kept seeing. Sam knew it, knew he should call Bo on it, but he didn’t have the strength to ruin this moment between them.
The movement hidden by the raft, Sam slipped his arm around Bo’s hips. Bo slid closer until his shoulder and arm were flush against Sam’s side. They didn’t speak, just stood there in the afternoon sun as their mingled semen dissolved into the water around them.
***
They stayed out for a while longer, taking turns lounging on the raft. When Sam’s skin began to turn pink, Bo snatched the raft out from under him, took his hand and dragged him out of the water. The kids from next door were still swimming. The missing boy had emerged bruised and flushed from the dunes just a few minutes before, looking blissfully dazed. He grinned and waved from his spot sprawled on a beach towel next to the water as Sam and Bo left the ocean and started toward the house. Sam waved back, chuckling.
“Did you see that kid?” he asked, winding his fingers through Bo’s as they reached the porch steps. “Did they have sex, or a fist fight?”
Bo laughed. “It was only a few love bites.”
“A few thousand, you mean. Who knew Dean was so rough?”
Bo raised his eyebrows, and Sam blushed. Even though Bo knew Sam had gone to bed with Dean—once, when Bo had brok
en up with him—it made Sam uncomfortable to think about it. He didn’t regret it, exactly, because it had indirectly brought Bo back to him. It just felt strange to talk about that part of his history with Dean when the man was such a close friend to him, and to Bo.
On the porch, Sam grabbed two towels and handed one to Bo. They dried off, then went into the house. David, Dean and Cecile were huddled behind Andre, who sat cross-legged on the floor with the laptop open on the coffee table in front of him.
Dean glanced up and flashed them a grin. “Hey, y’all.”
“Hi.” Sam rubbed his dripping hair with the towel. He returned Dean’s smile. “You look like you’ve been making out in the sand with a college boy.”
“You’re a perceptive guy, Sam.” Dean’s tongue darted out, licking a smear of white from the corner of his mouth. “I’ll tell you all about it later. Right now, y’all have to come see this.”
Bo glanced at Sam with a mix of apprehension and excitement before turning his attention back to Dean. “What is it?”
Andre looked up. “This is the video you took last night, Bo. We found something.”
Chapter Seven
Sam’s mouth went dry. Letting the towel fall to the floor, he grabbed Bo’s hand again and pulled him over to join the crowd around the coffee table. “What? What’d you find?”
“I’m not sure. It’s nothing concrete, just a…” Andre shook his head. “I don’t even know what to call it. You’ll just have to watch. Here.”
Sam shifted from foot to foot while Andre backed up the video to the right spot. He’d never wanted to be wrong so badly in his life. He would gladly put up with Bo’s overdeveloped work ethic if it meant Bo was in no danger at the fort.
Well, maybe “gladly” was too strong a word. But there was no doubt he preferred to have Bo safe, even if it meant he couldn’t have as much of Bo’s time as he wanted.
“Okay, here we go,” Andre announced. “Watch down in the right-hand corner.”
He clicked “play”. Sam stared at the screen. His own face drifted by on camera, looking distracted. He heard Bo’s voice talking about David’s theory of the bloodstains being painted over, heard his own voice answering. His fingers tightened around Bo’s. The moment of Bo’s vision was coming.