by JC Holly
With a clenched fist he swung at Chris’s jaw. It was a wide, slow, and clumsy punch, but the man hadn’t expected it to come at all, and could only stare blankly as it connected with more force than even Tom thought he was capable of. Chris’s head snapped to the side and he staggered sideways, bounced off the wall and fell onto his ass.
Sarah cried out again and ran over to the fallen man and tried to get him to his feet, but Tom was there first and pushed her aside. He bent and grabbed Chris by the collar and hauled him to his feet, then pushed his face against Chris’s.
“Listen to me carefully,” he said, his voice eerily calm. “You just punched me, and I defended myself. There will be a nice big bruise on my ribs to prove it, too, so if you try and persuade the police otherwise, you’ll be screwed.”
The man’s eyes were still only half-focused, so Tom let him slide back down the wall and turned to Sarah, who was staring with wide eyes. His adrenaline was starting to wear off and he could feel his hands start to tremble, so he spoke fast.
“This house is mine,” he said. “And Grant’s, if he’ll have me. You come here again and your boyfriend will be up on two assault charges. One for the other day, and one for tonight. Do you understand?”
She gaped, then nodded.
“For what it counts, we had a good time at first,” Tom said. “It turned out badly, but there were good times, so I don’t wish you harm. Just stay the hell away from me.”
His speech done, he moved back to the door and opened it once more. This time the pair left, Chris with his arm over Sarah’s shoulder for support, and didn’t look back. Tom slammed the door shut behind them and rested his head against the cool wood.
Again, someone knocked on the door, only this time Tom didn’t jump. He pulled the door open, expecting Sarah back for a final dig, and instead found Grant.
* * * *
Grant stood in the doorway and smiled, hoping Tom would return it. It took a few seconds, but a weak smile did curve the man’s lips.
“Looks like I missed a show,” Grant said, as Tom waved him inside.
“You could say that.”
Grant had been halfway up the street when he’d heard a door slam. Somehow he’d known it was Tom’s, and he’d ran the rest of the way, afraid of what Chris might do. In the end he needn’t have bothered, though, as once he was within earshot he heard Tom’s speeches to Chris and Sarah, and moments later had to dip behind a parked car as the pair had fled from the house.
Tom closed the door and Grant moved to the couch. Tom followed after a moment’s hesitation. He winced as he lowered himself onto the chair and Grant jumped to his feet once more.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Tom said, waving him away.
“You’re not fine,” Grant said, his voice low, almost a snarl until he fought to calm it. “Lift up your shirt.”
Tom did as he was told, revealing a red mark where he’d been punched. Grant dipped to his knees and ran careful fingers over the area.
“The ribs aren’t broken,” he said. “You’ll bruise up something fierce, but you shouldn’t have any problems.”
Grant let his fingers linger a few seconds more than was strictly necessary, caressing Tom’s pale skin, before he stood, clearing his throat.
“So, judging by the way Chris staggered out of the door, you gave as good as you got.”
Tom nodded, then smirked. “Better, in fact. I don’t know where it came from.”
Grant noticed that the man was hiding his right hand in his pocket, and raised an eyebrow. Tom sighed and pulled his hand free, revealing two swollen knuckles.
“It’s fine,” he said, though he winced as he flexed his fingers. “It’ll heal.”
“Let me get you some ice.”
“Really, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
Grant was already moving, though, and a minute later had a bag of frozen peas perched on Tom’s hand. With his other hand, Tom held a towel full of ice against his ribs.
“This makes me look a lot less manly,” Tom said.
Grant laughed. “True, but it’s better in the long run. You don’t heal like I do.”
And with those words the joy left the room, replaced by an uncomfortable silence as they both remembered the reasons for their time apart. Grant silently cursed at himself for not thinking before he spoke. There were better ways to handle such things than just blurting it out.
Tom broke the silence first. “Tell me.”
Grant looked up. “Hmm?”
“Tell me about the healing.” The man was clearly nervous, but he was fighting past it. “Is it a lot faster?”
“Much, yeah. We rarely bruise at all, and anything other than a bad break is healed within a few days at the most.”
“What about diseases?”
“We don’t get them in the first place. We’re immune to all of them.”
Tom’s eyes widened. “But you can die?”
“Sure. We can’t regrow a head, for instance,” Grant said with a smirk. “But most run-of-the-mill stuff won’t cause much of an issue.”
“Explains your performance in the cabin.”
Grant raised an eyebrow, and Tom shook his head. “I meant the digging. Even when you were resting you didn’t look tired.”
“I wasn’t,” Grant admitted. “With stuff like that I recover faster than I burn energy. I could go for days.”
“This is unreal.” Tom adjusted the ice pack on his hand. “Next time you can hit Chris, okay?”
“Deal.” Grant smiled. “Does this mean you’re not opposed to me being…what I am?”
“At first I was a little freaked out, it’s true.” Tom gestured to the closed laptop. “That was no help at all, either. All these dumbasses posting myths as facts, that had me even more worried.”
“So what changed?”
Tom took Grant’s hand with his own, bruised one. “It’s more that you didn’t. After telling me, you were still the same guy. The whole time we’ve known one another, you’ve been a shapeshifter. Knowing it doesn’t change who you are, so why should it bother me?”
Grant smiled and ran his thumb carefully over Tom’s knuckles. “You know, I hear a kiss from a shifter can help heal things faster.”
“Oh? And is it true?”
“No idea.” He lifted Tom’s hand to his mouth and kissed it softly. “Worth a try, though.”
“You know,” Tom said, his voice a little lower. “I think that did help a little.”
Grant could sense the lust begin to roll off the man, and smiled wide. “Well then, I guess I’d better kiss your other bruise, too.”
He moved closer on the couch and moved Tom’s hand from his chest, then lifted his shirt again and brushed his lips over the cold flesh of Tom’s ribs. The man shuddered at the touch, and his hand found the back of Grant’s neck.
“I…I think maybe I have a few more aches and pains,” Tom said.
Chapter Sixteen
If Tom’s hand and chest still hurt, he sure as hell couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel much of anything, in fact, other than the heat of raw lust. He wanted Grant, right there on the couch, and he didn’t care if the whole world saw and heard.
His other questions about shifters, and there were many, could wait until after. Grant wasn’t going anywhere. Tom wouldn’t let him.
Grant’s kisses may have started innocently enough, but after they worked their way up to Tom’s mouth, then back down over his neck and chest, Tom’s cock was straining against his pants. He wasn’t alone either, judging by the bulge that was pressing against his leg as Grant leaned over him.
“I want you,” Grant said between butterfly kisses on Tom’s abdomen. “Now.”
Tom stood, his legs like jelly, and began to unfasten his pants. Grant’s eyes lit up, and he dashed away up the stairs faster than any human should be able to. That’s because he’s not human. He’s more. He was back in a matter of seconds, a lube bottle in his hand, along with a foil wrapper.
/> Tom eyed both items, then shook his head. Grant frowned, until Tom took the condom and tossed it over his shoulder.
“You’re immune to everything,” Tom said, his heart beating out of his chest. “That means I get to feel you properly.”
A smile crept over Grant’s face, and a snarl soon followed. “Bend over the back of the couch.”
As soon as Tom turned around, Grant’s hands were on him, guiding him roughly into place.
“I’m going to show you what I can really do,” Grant whispered into Tom’s ear, before nipping the sensitive skin.
Tom gasped, then bit his lip at the sound of a lowering zipper.
“Do it,” Tom said. “Fuck me bareback, then come in my face.”
Once again his mouth had run away from him, but this time he had no complaints about what he had said. He wanted Grant hard, fast, and deep. He wanted the man to fill him with his cock and make him scream in pleasure. Hands clamped onto his ass, making him jump.
“Beautiful,” Grant muttered, his voice a growl.
Tom winced as Grant slapped his ass cheek once, then twice, then caressed the stinging flesh with his palm. With his other hand, Grant grabbed Tom’s hard cock and jerked it a few times before letting go again. Tom was glad he did, as he was so turned on at that moment he wouldn’t have been able to hold off.
Grant’s hand moved back to Tom’s ass, and held his cheeks wide. Tom heard movement behind him, then almost cried out in surprise as he felt Grant’s wet tongue against his asshole. He hadn’t expected it at all, thinking Grant would go straight for the main event, but as the man worked circles around Tom’s most sensitive flesh, he was glad Grant held back.
“Oh my god,” Tom said, his voice low. “That’s so good.”
The motion switched up, and Grant poked his tongue against Tom’s hole, then flicked over the area, before moving back to circling. Tom couldn’t think, speak, or do anything other than breath heavily as the man worked his magic.
It could have been seconds, or it could have been minutes, before Grant stood, but when he did all his lust was still in effect, which he proved as he slapped Tom’s ass once more.
The lube bottle clicked open, hinting at what was to come, and Tom gripped the back of the couch all the more harder as he forced the rest of his body to relax. Grant didn’t give him much time, as moments later his enormous cockhead was against Tom’s asshole, pushing, then slipping above and below it, following the crease of Tom’s buttocks.
Where Grant usually asked if Tom was ready, this time he decided for the both of them. As soon as Grant’s cock slipped back into position, Tom pushed backward. Grant gasped in surprise, then pushed forward.
The feeling of the uncovered cock pushing inside him stole Tom’s speech once more. While it had been incredible before, it didn’t compare to now. Knowing that there was nothing at all between him and his lover made the experience ten times as powerful, and it was all he could do not to cry out.
Grant appeared to be having similar thoughts, as he made no attempt to stifle himself, groaning loudly as he slid further inside.
There was no careful inching back and forth this time, and if there was, Tom would have made Grant work quicker anyway. This wasn’t the time for slow and tender. Tom wanted all of Grant, and he wanted it as soon as possible. As Grant pushed forward, Tom moved back to deepen the already deep thrusts, and it wasn’t long before Grant was all the way inside him.
“Fuck,” Grant growled.
“Do me,” Tom said, a hint of pleading in his voice. “Fuck me hard, Grant.”
He did as he was told, and after sliding a ways back out, he slammed his cock back inside Tom fast enough that he cried out. The sound must have worked for Grant, as he repeated the action, then found a rhythm of deep and fast thrusts that had Tom clinging onto the couch in an effort to stay upright.
“That’s it,” Grant said. “Fuck, you feel so good!”
As soon as Tom had adjusted to the pace and rhythm, Grant stepped up his game and moved faster still. Tom didn’t know how he could move so quickly, but he wasn’t going to complain when it felt so good. Instead he gritted his jaw and fought against the urge to come.
Seconds turned to minutes, and the minutes stretched on into infinity. Tom had no idea how long they had been in that position, he only knew that he didn’t want it to end. Grant was as silent as Tom, both of them focused only on continuing for as long as they could. Given that one of them was superhuman, Tom could see it going for a while.
In the end it was Tom who started to flag first. He could feel his orgasm coming back with a vengeance, and he knew that this time he wouldn’t be able to hold it back. Instead he pushed back hard against Grant’s thrust, spurring the man on in the hopes that he would climax at the same time.
“Harder,” Tom cried. “Rail me and come on me!”
Grant snarled in response and redoubled his efforts, and Tom couldn’t help but scream out as he came unexpectedly. He glanced down, between his arms and watched as his untouched cock spurted its load, spasming as it did.
The muscles in his ass clenched as he came, and that was enough to take Grant over the edge. After a few more strokes he pulled out and turned Tom with a quick hand, pushing him to his knees.
As Grant worked his cock, inches from Tom’s face, Tom reached down and jerked himself in time, working out the last few drops.
“Fuck!”
Grant came hard and Tom opened his mouth to catch the hot load on his face and tongue. He held the position until Grant was completely spent, then swallowed the salty fluid, his gaze not leaving Grant’s as he did, then let his lover lift him back to his feet.
“I love you, you know,” Grant said.
“Can’t blame you,” Tom said with a grin, as he headed to the stairs.
Chapter Seventeen
The next week was a work week for Tom, and while Grant had things to occupy his time, too, he found himself missing his man terribly. So when Snow came to him with a suggestion, Grant practically snatched the man’s hand off.
As he sat on Tom’s couch, waiting for the man to return home from work, he thought back over the preceding weeks. Who would have thought that his trip into the hills for some time to himself would result in a torrid romance?
It had been tough at first, especially with Tom’s initial lack of confidence, but Grant honestly couldn’t think of a happier time in his life. He sat back on the couch and picked up one of the Christmas cards that sat on the coffee table.
Tom arrived home ten minutes later, and grinned as he found Grant waiting for him.
“I thought you were away until late with pack stuff?” Tom asked, as he hugged Grant.
“I managed to get away early.” Grant slipped his hand into his back pocket. “I got you something.”
Tom frowned as Grant handed him an envelope. “What’s this?”
“Open it.”
Tom tore it open and looked down at the piece of paper within, his smile slowly widening as he read. It was a letter confirming that a certain cabin was booked under Grant’s name for the Christmas period.
“This is wonderful!” Tom said, before pulling Grant into another hug, this time ending with a long kiss.
“I thought you’d like it,” Grant replied. “With a bit of luck, maybe we’ll get snowed in again.”
“If we don’t I’ll be on the roof with a shovel and snowing us in manually.”
Grant laughed and kissed Tom again. “Now, how about we go get something to eat.”
As they discussed places that would be open, Grant slipped his hand back into his pocket. This time his fingers found the edge of a gold ring, and his heart beat just a little faster. He wondered if Tom would like his real surprise, once they got to the cabin…
THE END
JCHOLLY.BLOGSPOT.CA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JC lives in the south of England and spends the free hours of each day reading, writing, and indulging various other hobbies in the comp
any of Tuna the cat. JC has been writing for several years now, and refuses to acknowledge proper house attire, or people who say things like, “When are you getting a real job?” and, “Can I be in your next book?”
For all titles by JC Holly, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/jc-holly
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com