The Wolf at the Door

by Charlie Adhara

  It was ridiculous. He shouldn’t be here. Didn’t even know if Park was in his room. Didn’t have a clue as to what he would say. But he couldn’t let disappointment be the last look he saw on Park’s face that day. Deep inside he felt that if they left things the way they were overnight, then that would be it. And he wasn’t sure if he was ready for that to be it or not.

  See, that was a lie, too. He was sure. The thought of Park never again looking at him like he had that morning, vulnerable and tender, was like a kick in the gut. Again, it was the why behind the lie he didn’t understand yet.

  Cooper knocked briskly and then wished he’d taken a moment to figure out what he was going to say. No time now. Almost immediately Park opened the door. He didn’t look surprised to see Cooper on his step. But he didn’t look happy to see him either.

  Cooper fidgeted in the misty, humid night air. The drone of summer crickets made a mockery of the drawn-out silence as they observed each other. Park’s broad form filled the space of the doorway. He didn’t speak, didn’t smile, didn’t move back or invite Cooper in.

  Cooper mentally stumbled through half-thought-out apologies, questions and emotions, discarding each one immediately. He struggled to find words at the best of times. Without knowing what exactly it was he wanted, he had no idea what to say. He only knew he didn’t want Park to turn him away. Wanted the tension between them gone.

  So he did the only thing he thought would get through to Park quickly. A communication that couldn’t be misread. He looked down.

  Baring the back of his neck in complete submission, Cooper waited. His skin was flushed with embarrassment. The moment dragged out. He could feel Park’s gaze assessing him and Cooper couldn’t help but tremble slightly at the unnatural feeling of giving someone, anyone, complete control. But backing out now would be even worse so he held the position.

  Cooper let go of the last of his doubts, closed his eyes and committed.

  I trust you. I do.

  He could feel the tension ease from his body and, like it had in the interrogation room, the air between them suddenly lightened. Cooper could breathe again. Without a word Park walked back into his motel room, leaving the door open, and sat on the sofa against the wall. Cooper straightened and followed him, closing the door behind him.

  He sat next to Park, keeping his eyes on his own hands, not out of submission anymore but just normal nerves.

  “Does Jefferson know you’re here?” Park asked. His voice was mild, but there was a glint in his eye that Cooper didn’t understand.

  “No,” Cooper said. He wondered if that would upset him. Would he think Cooper was sneaking into his room at night after not taking his side today?

  But Park merely nodded. He was staring at the juncture of Cooper’s neck and shoulder as if fascinated.

  Cooper continued. “He’s a good guy. If he comes across a little abrasive sometimes, it’s just because he cares.”

  Park’s eyes flickered up to his face and he looked doubtful. Cooper felt a need for Park to understand. It wasn’t Jefferson’s fault. It was just the way they’d been trained to work. Both of them.

  “Pushing people’s buttons gets results. And it’s not like we can’t use some of those around here,” Cooper stated. Even though he didn’t buy into Jefferson’s theories exactly, that didn’t mean there weren’t still some unanswered questions on Park’s end either. “He’s one of the BSI’s best agents.”

  Park studied him for a long, quiet moment and then looked away, his face suddenly weary. “Is he.” His voice was flat. It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes he is,” Cooper said anyway. The silence stretched between them until he blurted, “Still, I should have...stood up for you. Before.”

  Park snorted, but he didn’t look angry. In fact he was a lot warmer now. Different when it was just the two of them. His knee was brushing Cooper’s side by side on the couch and his posture was relaxed, comfortable. “I didn’t need you to do that.”

  “Yeah. Obviously.” Cooper looked at their almost-kissing knees. “You just seemed, um, pissed, before. I thought maybe...”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea that your partner know we’re...getting along.”

  “Oh.” He hadn’t even considered Park might be equally reluctant that news of their line crossing get back to the Trust. He supposed that made sense. Not that Cooper thought Jefferson would report them. But he had no idea what Trust policies were or how far-reaching their ears... “Park, what did Rudi mean when she said you owe Cola?”

  Park smiled faintly, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Is that what had you so worried-looking at the station? It’s really not a big deal.” He paused, and for a crazy moment Cooper wished he hadn’t asked. He didn’t know what he would do if Park lied to him again, but he’d probably have to leave and he very much wanted to stay. Then Park continued hesitantly, like he was tasting each word before saying it, “Before joining the Trust, Cola helped me find out what happened to my parents.”

  Cooper turned that over in his mind. He didn’t doubt Park was telling the truth. He could tell by the way he lingered just slightly on the word parents. “Is that why you really requested to be put on this case? To pay her back?”

  Park stared without seeing across the dim motel room. His lips parted, but instead of speaking, his tongue slipped out slowly to touch the grooved scar on his upper lip.

  Cooper wondered if this too was some sort of silent, physical communication. The most honest kind.

  Any other speculations died when Park turned to face him at last and there was no misinterpreting the dark, hungry look in his eyes.

  “Is that why you came here? To talk about Jefferson and the case?”

  Cooper swallowed and Park smiled, slow and knowing. Like he could sense the flush of heat across Cooper’s chest, the shrinking of his throat, the swelling of his cock.

  Maybe he could.

  Park leaned in and, after hesitating briefly to inhale his scent, began to nuzzle the juncture of Cooper’s neck and shoulder.

  “That’s not...an answer,” Cooper protested even as his head rolled back to give Park better access.

  “No?” Park murmured, and then cut off Cooper’s response by biting him very lightly on his shoulder. “Answer my question and I’ll answer yours,” he said even as his hand slid from Cooper’s arm down his body. “Why did you come here tonight?”

  “I don’t know,” Cooper said, trying to sound indifferent and failing.

  “You know.” Park’s hand cupped his ass and squeezed.

  “Is that supposed to be a hint?” Cooper gasped even as he lifted off the couch to encourage Park’s hand to take a firmer grip.

  “Why did you come? Why did you offer me your...submission?”

  “Next time I’ll just stick with a simple sorry.”

  “Somehow I doubt that,” Park said, sounding amused.

  Christ. Was his emotional constipation that obvious?

  “Tell me why, Cooper Dayton.”

  “I—” He pressed his lips together and shook his head, which only served to move Park’s mouth to the hollow at the base of his throat, and Cooper trembled.

  “Say it.”

  “Wanted you.” The words ripped out of him, sounding raw and alien. It wasn’t exactly what Park was asking, not the whole truth, but it seemed to be enough, thank god. Anything more might have killed him.

  “Did you know,” Park said, nibbling a trail up Cooper’s neck, “that as opposed as I am to being someone’s dirty little secret, knowing that I’m going to take you tonight right under his bigoted nose makes me hard enough to drill through the wall?”

  Cooper groaned. He wanted to protest the dirty little secret but couldn’t talk around the heavy wave of lust. Park swiped his tongue roughly across his pulse point.

  “Did you know that?” he repeated.

/>   Cooper shook his head. “N-no.” He cleared his throat. “If I did, I definitely would have come over here a lot quicker.” He felt Park smile against his skin.

  Park’s fingers were deftly unbuttoning Cooper’s shirt and sliding it off his shoulders. His hands ran up and down his chest, examining every surface. He dipped his head and began lightly sucking on his nipples. Cooper didn’t have strong feelings about his nipples one way or another, but he did have strong feelings about watching Park mouth him with such unabashed desire.

  Cooper took a long, shaky breath and let his head tip back, running his fingers through Park’s hair and tugging gently, and then, as the pressure in his belly increased, not so gently, while Park made appreciative sounds.

  Hair-pulling, what an odd thing to find arousing. The old phrase pulling pigtails came to mind. They’d been pulling each other’s pigtails since day one. And now, hopefully, they’d be pulling each other’s...well.

  Cooper’s hands dropped from Park’s hair to help undress them both.

  It was a lot slower than the night before. So were some wild horses. More sober, too, obviously. Cooper was a lot more conscious of Park’s responses as they explored each other’s naked bodies with hands and mouths. His sharp, satisfied exhale when their naked cocks finally pressed together, the way he shivered when Cooper grazed his teeth across Park’s chest.

  Last night had been all about racing to his own personal finish line. Cooper was traveling with another person tonight. Taking the scenic route.

  Eventually, when their movements became more urgent and their grips harder, Park pulled back and Cooper stood hurriedly to move to the bed. But Park grabbed him and, with a sharp shake of his head, pushed him back onto the couch so that he fell there on his knees.

  “I want you right here. Like this,” Park murmured, and lightly guided him down so he was on his forearms and knees.

  Cooper could hardly hear over the sound of his own shaky breaths and again, he felt intensely aware of Park assessing him. His body trembled. He wanted to demand they get on with it even as some deep, coarse part of him reveled in the feeling of being positioned to please and pinned there by Park’s gaze.

  He did wish the lights were off, though. He needed the distance that darkness provided to dim the intensity of his reactions to Park.

  Cooper closed his eyes instead, but that just heightened his other senses. He felt Park’s warm breath ghosting over his back. He smelled the heavy musk of their combined arousal. He heard Park murmuring something under his breath, soothing, approving.

  Park pressed his lips to the back of Cooper’s neck and then began to kiss and lick a path straight down his spine.

  “God, Park,” Cooper groaned.

  Park hesitated, nuzzling the hollow of his lower back. “Oliver,” he corrected, sounding almost shy. An absurd way to sound, considering where his mouth went next as it traveled farther down.

  “Oliver,” Cooper gasped, and then bit into the couch cushion to prevent his incoherent curses as Park kissed, nibbled and licked him open.

  His body quivered at the effort of keeping still, resisting the urge to push back against the demanding heat of that mouth.

  Park slapped Cooper’s thighs lightly. “Open up for me.”

  Cooper spread his legs wider and Park pushed his tongue deeper still. Had Cooper’s face not already been buried in the cushion in ecstasy, he would have buried it there in embarrassment. There was no room in his overheated head for shame now, though. Park dipped a spit-slicked finger inside of him and gently worked it in to tease his prostate. Cooper arched back and uncontrollably began to hump his hand.

  Park pulled back. “Stay,” he said, voice rough. “Just like this.” He stood and walked away. Cooper rolled his face against the cushion, trying to slow his breaths and take the opportunity to regain some control over himself. Desperately searching for a little bit of distance.

  Park... Oliver hadn’t even kissed him. On the lips, anyway. Cooper loved kissing. And he didn’t like being ordered around. So why was this ranking as one of his most erotic encounters? Everything that shouldn’t have worked, did.

  Because it’s Oliver doing it. He shook his head at the unwelcome thought.

  Park was behind him again, moving near silently. One powerful hand ran up and down Cooper’s back, smoothing out any tension that had gathered in his absence while the other hand efficiently prepped him. His fingers were slick and warm with lubricant, and they twisted and teased shocks of tingling pleasure through Cooper’s nerves, wringing more huffs and squeaks out of him than even the protesting couch below them.

  The prodding fingers slowed. “You are not what I expected, Cooper Dayton,” Park said, sounding oddly frustrated.

  Yeah? Ditto, Cooper thought, pushing back insistently on Park’s hand, needing more, but the fingers were suddenly gone. Before Cooper could even fully register the resulting empty sensation, he felt Park’s cock gliding up and down between his cheeks instead, the thick head occasionally nudging at his hole.

  Cooper pushed up onto his hands and looked over his shoulder. He felt momentarily stunned by the sight.

  Park was braced behind him, half kneeling, half standing on the floor in a position that didn’t exactly look comfortable but had the benefit of tensing his not insubstantial muscles so that every ab, pec and quad was defined and taut with raw power. His cock was suited up, flushed and impressively hard against Cooper’s own rather pale ass.

  It was Park’s eyes, though, that Cooper couldn’t turn away from. They were startlingly wide and dilated with thin rings of gold around the edge, and staring back at him with an intensity that looked almost pained.

  Cooper tried to push back onto him, but Park’s hands tightened on his hips, holding him in place.

  “Do you want this?” he asked quietly. “Do you want me?”

  “The fuck do you think?” Cooper tried to snarl, but it came out embarrassingly more like a whine.

  “I don’t know,” Park said lightly. His voice was teasing, but his eyes still looked dark, conflicted, and Cooper wondered if there was something else there. Cooper wasn’t the only guy in the world with hang-ups. He may not even be the only guy with them on this couch. Park needed to feel wanted. Maybe even needed to feel needed. But shit, who didn’t at some point or another?

  “Tell me what you want from me,” Park was saying. “Exactly.” His thumbs massaged Cooper’s buttocks.

  “I want you...in me,” Cooper said, surprised at how hard it was to say while looking him in the eye. But if he couldn’t shuffle his own shit for a minute or two and give Park the honesty he needed, he probably shouldn’t be doing this at all.

  Cooper tried again. “I want you to fuck me. I want you to give me your cock. Hard.”

  Park groaned, his hands tightening on Cooper’s hips, and pushed inside of him with one long stroke. Cooper’s eyes fluttered shut and he grunted in discomfort at the abrupt fullness. Park paused there to give Cooper time to adjust. Their harsh, desperate breaths were the only sounds for a moment. Park’s obvious, barely restrained excitement sent a thrill through Cooper’s body, and he could feel his own muscles spasm, teetering on the edge between relaxing and rejecting. Not quite pleasure but no longer pain. Just sensation and the reluctant but growing need to accommodate, to just let go.

  Park leaned forward carefully and pushed an openmouthed kiss onto his shoulder. The heat of Park’s hard body against his eased the last of Cooper’s resistance, and he adjusted his position and murmured an invitation.

  Park pulled almost all the way out and then pushed back in, much more slowly this time. Back out and then slowly back in. Taking his time. Cooper huffed and rocked on his knees and elbows, trying to pick up the pace, but Park’s hands, still tight on his hips, forced him to be still. Using him how he wanted. Exploring until he found the angle that snapped Cooper’s head back with each slow
stroke.

  “Fuck,” Cooper groaned. The sensation of Park slowly nudging the tight bundle of nerves inside him was so sweet, so raw it bordered on pain.

  “Good. You feel so good,” Park said.

  Well, la-di-fucking-da for him. But Cooper felt like he was being unwound and stretched thin while electric wires of pleasure were pulled taut from his toes to the tip of his dick and up his spine. It was too much. Too intense. Lovemaking wasn’t what he’d asked for.

  “Come on,” Cooper groaned, and bit into his own forearm, tasting the salt of his sweat.

  “Come on what?” Park teased. Cooper rolled his eyes and called him a couple of rude and creative names under his breath. Of course, Park heard him anyway and chuckled lightly. Whatever conflict he had been feeling before was apparently gone, and he seemed entirely at ease while Cooper felt on the verge of spinning out. Out of control. Out of balance.

  He needed Park to lose just as much control as he was.

  “Please—” Cooper said, voice a little shaky. “Please, Oliver. Please fuck me harder. I want you so bad. Take me. Fast and dirty.” Maybe laying it on a bit thick, but judging by the way Park’s light laughter had turned to a rumbling growl, it was just right.

  “You’re dangerous, you know that?” Park said, and his thrusts quickened.

  “Then I guess you better teach me a lesson,” Cooper said.

  Wait, did that even make sense? He could hardly believe the words came out of his mouth. But lost in the fog of pleasure came the irrational confidence that for once he could say nothing wrong. Park certainly didn’t mind anyway, and with another growl he pulled Cooper’s hips up and began to pound his ass. The couch springs squealed and the back bumped rhythmically against the motel wall.

  “God. Yes. Please—” Cooper gasped, a little rhythmically himself, and then couldn’t stop himself from adding, “Thank you, Agent Park.”

  He heard Park laugh again, a bit breathlessly this time, but Cooper also felt Park’s hips spasm and his thrusts sped up to a punishing pace, so clearly not all of him was merely amused.