by Cooper Davis
“From whom?” Hayden began laughing. It was the last and lamest excuse he ever would’ve imagined. “Who in hell did I need protection from…other than you?”
Josh never answered, just grew extremely quiet and then turned up the police scanner. They didn’t speak again until he pulled into Hayden’s long driveway. Then, getting out of the car, he opened Hayden’s door and walked him toward the front of his extremely modest house. God, how he hated Josh to see the low-rent digs he called home. Here he was, the former golden boy living in a fishing shack. At least the place was remote enough that nobody would see him being carted home in a police car.
For a moment, they stood there at the front door as if—yeah, right—they were going to share a goodnight kiss. Joshua stepped to the side while Hayden unlocked his door, and then as Hayden entered, Josh was right on his heels. It was dark, and he couldn’t see what happened, but he certainly felt it. Josh’s muscular, solid arms came around him from behind, pulling him close. For a long moment he stood, his back to Josh’s chest, listening to the rise and fall of their breathing, feeling the manic beat of Josh’s heart against his back. And then, with the most tender gesture imaginable, Josh brushed Hayden’s long hair off his nape and placed a gentle, chaste kiss there, rubbing his fingers along the cordons of muscle that were tight from long-standing tension. And then he kissed the spot again, just letting his lips brush back and forth with a soothing, tender pressure.
Josh worked those strong hands low along Hayden’s abdomen, rubbing, stroking, his circular motion moving dangerously low. “I’m not going to stop coming around, Hayden,” he whispered in a husky, thick voice, brushing another kiss along the back of his nape. “You need to know my intentions toward you. So let me be clear, Hay. The council’s mandate gives us thirty days to decide if we’re willing to mate, but I’m not on that timetable. I’m not on any timetable but yours.” Josh paused, waiting, rubbing a thumb across Hayden’s right hip. He was poised as if stalking a prey, yet simultaneously seducing Hayden as if he were his cherished, his beloved.
Then, Josh moved his lips against Hayden’s right ear, whispering in a low, vibrating tone that sent chills across Hayden’s entire body. “I’m a hunter by nature, persistent by bloodline. You better get used to the feel of my arms around you and my body against yours.” The muscled arms slid low about his hips, rocking him backward with a shocking, electric motion that absolutely set fire to Hayden’s groin. “Get used to this, to me,” Josh murmured roughly. “Because, Garrett, you should know… I’m only getting started.”
And then Joshua released him, stepping backward without another word. Hayden spun to face him, shock and arousal rippling through him like an earthquake, but the cop was already out the door.
About one p.m. Hayden finally rolled over in bed and groaned aloud. My stupid car, he cursed to himself. It was still sitting back over at the bar, and Officer Helpful had his keys. Or did he? Maybe he’d dropped them on the table by the front door. But Hayden didn’t remember Josh having time to do anything like that, not with the way he’d hauled him into that strong embrace and—shit, just held him. So fiercely, and yet with all the tenderness of an intimate lover.
Suddenly, Josh’s words from last night whispered in Hayden’s mind. It was more than a kiss.
Hayden had assumed Josh was referring to the knee-knocking, soul-searing nature of their one, very particular kiss in the snow. Was it possible that more might have happened between the two of them on that fated night, before they’d gotten into that car accident? Hayden pressed his eyes shut, a bright burst of light erupting behind his eyes. Whenever he tried to remember anything after the kiss, his head always felt like it would split wide open.
But as he replayed their embrace from last night, the way Josh had wrapped him close—and from behind, no less—it made Hayden wonder if there might have been something more intimate once they’d climbed into the truck that night, before they’d hit the road.
Rolling onto his back, Hayden trailed fingertips along his belly, imagining that they were Josh’s warm, calloused hands. Picturing those rough fingertips dipping low into his boxers, easing the elastic waistband down his hips. Hayden arched slightly, mirroring the actions he fantasized about Josh doing. Slowly, with the same tenderness he imagined Josh would use, he brushed his boxers low down his upper thighs, allowing his pulsing erection to pop free. His arousal fell against his abdomen, thick and hot, and he pictured Josh’s hand reaching to hold it.
Oh, and then Josh would take those same coarse fingers, would wrap them around his tip and begin a steady, urgent motion. Slow at first… Hayden lifted his hips, thrusting upward… but then Josh would take command, would turn that friction into something frantic, an expression of all that the other man wanted from him.
He closed his fingertips, working them back and forth about his length, absolutely aching for it to be Josh’s hand that was stroking him now. He recalled Josh’s tingling, seductive kisses against his nape last night, bucking in pleasure, yearning for the other wolf with a blazing intensity he’d refused to acknowledge for years now.
And then a shuddering flash of Josh filled his mind, naked beside him, his green-gold eyes narrowed and hungry, his lean body gleaming with sweat and power. Oh, yes, baby, he wanted to scream. Yes, I’ll accept the elders’ plan. For a taste of you, any, yes, I’ll do anything.
“Yes,” he barked, his warm seed spurting into his hand, his hips hammering off the bed with every spasm of his cock. “Yes! God, yes….” The slick wetness on his fingertips reminded him of what he’d always wanted from Josh—to bring him to orgasm, to come together with him, mixing their male essence in an erotic statement of unity.
To mate. Oh, God, wasn’t that what he’d always secretly wanted with Josh?
He kept rubbing his shaft, even after it softened, spreading that slickness across his balls, pretending it was Josh that was touching him. Loving him. Hayden collapsed against the sheets, the coolness of the material a sharp contrast to the heat in his body.
Pressing a forearm over his face he cried out, “Why can’t I remember?” What if Josh had been telling the truth last night; what if it hadn’t been more subterfuge? If there were parts of that night that were crucial, something before the accident, then it would mean that Josh might never have betrayed him. It could explain how there was so much alcohol in his system, even though according to his memories, they’d finished drinking at least four hours earlier.
Wiping his slick hand across the sheets, Hayden bolted upright in bed. If all of that was possible—if Josh’s earnest, shocking pledges from last night had truth to them—then Hayden would have to reconsider everything from a totally new angle. And he really did mean everything—including one sweet kiss that had rocked his world.
Chapter Six
Five years earlier, December 30th, early a.m.
Climbing back into the truck was an exercise in the willing and the equally willing winding up in a tangled heap. Hayden had honestly intended to pull his clothes back on as soon as they got to the vehicle. His libido was already halfway down the highway en route to Josh’s place. Surely he could tap his foot in sexual frustration long enough for them to actually get there.
But that admirable plan fell apart as soon as they wound up in the truck together, naked and still gleaming with sweat. Particularly because it seemed that Josh wasn’t inclined to wait long enough to drive home.
One minute Hayden was yanking his jeans over his feet, reaching for his sweatshirt, and the next Joshua practically pounced on top of him, tearing the jeans back off. With his natural wolf’s grace, Josh slid onto his knees, spreading wide as he mounted Hayden. Hayden swore he saw stars for a minute, he really did, because naked and pressed right up against him was Joshua Peterson exactly as he’d always dreamed of seeing the man. Naked, beautifully aroused, and with his strong thighs open around Hayden’s hips.
Josh nestled atop him, brushing tangled, damp hair out of his own face. “I can’t drive,
not like this,” the hot, panting wolf murmured with a shake of his head. “I’m too fucking turned on. Nobody’s around anyway. No way I can drive, man. I want you too damned much to go anywhere.”
Hayden was speechless. Josh was just so fucking gorgeous, with the moonlight spilling through the window and across his dusky bare skin. Gorgeous and aggressive, such a total turn on for a fellow Alpha.
Josh worked to balance himself. He splayed calloused hands against Hayden’s bare chest, already trying to tease himself into a rhythm of sorts. Only he wasn’t far enough down onto Hayden’s lap to make that work very effectively, so his cock pushed into Hayden’s abdomen with every one of his motions. Josh kept moving his strong hips, thrusting and trying to shift lower against Hayden’s groin, but the awkwardness of the truck made the whole thing far too difficult.
Hayden didn’t even give a damn. Josh was too magnificent, with his thickly muscled body, those dark silky hairs covering his chest and arms and legs. So masculine, very much like the wolf he’d been only a few minutes ago. Hayden loved every gyration of Josh’s hard, beautiful body. That Josh was sleek with sweat, his cock hard as a plank—poking Hayden in the belly with every small movement he attempted—all of it was almost enough to bring Hayden to orgasm already. Unable to hold back, he even made a growling sound of keen pleasure, and that only seemed to tease Josh into more of a sexual frenzy.
They kissed for a moment, mouths desperately opening, tongues swiping and swirling until Hayden couldn’t hold back another soft moan. The noise caused Josh to press harder against him, and to release a louder cry of his own. Hayden answered by sliding a hand behind Josh’s neck, pulling him closer, for a rougher, more commanding kiss. Their aggressive natures began making demands, back and forth, in the way they touched and explored each other.
Josh gripped Hayden’s shoulders, his fingers digging into the bare flesh, and settled his hips down a bit lower. Those powerful thighs of Josh’s opened wider, spreading, allowing more intimate contact, and their abdomens brushed together. Their muscled chests pushed and gave, until Josh paused for a moment, staring down into Hayden’s eyes. Sharp frustration filled those luminous depths—Hayden understood instantly. This was a straight man—well, maybe not so much—but still. That was the issue. Josh was used to knowing exactly how to go for the gusto and score a home run. Trying to tangle together with another man, probably for the first time in his life—while wanting that same man with an almost painful intensity—it was messing with the Alpha’s need to take charge.
Hayden smiled, getting it completely. For a long, slow moment, he leaned back against the seat and just looked up at Joshua in awed admiration. The man was a rare thing of beauty at that moment. All breathless, overheated, and ripe with mating scents.
Hayden brushed Josh’s sweaty curls out of his face, and started to laugh at the craziness of the entire situation. He had this man, the one he’d wanted for years now, bearing down on top of him, and they couldn’t seem to get a decent position going, couldn’t even figure out the best way to just blow each other. Not with Joshua humping him like he was a woman, Hayden thought, barely stifling a bark of laughter.
As crazy-fevered as they both were, it seemed like the two of them couldn’t quite pull the whole thing off, at least in terms of positioning. Hayden cupped Josh by the hips, stilling his instinctive gyrations. Josh frowned down at him, appearing confused and a little… well, shy, surprisingly enough. That disconcerted expression on such a tough, masculine face nearly did Hayden in, then and there.
Josh arched his back, never letting go of his hold on Hayden’s shoulders, and leveled him with a dark, erotic gaze. “Don’t you want this?” he asked throatily, squeezing his thighs tight against Hayden’s legs. Josh dipped his head low and gave Hayden a long, deep kiss, working lazy fingers through Hayden’s hair in a kind of caress. Then, Josh’s tactic changed, and he tangled those locks within tight, greedy fists, expressing every bit of sexual frustration that Hayden shared with him at the moment.
Waiting to get back to Josh’s place instantly ceased to be a viable option.
“Yeah, settle on me, baby,” Hayden murmured, eyes drifting shut in the deepest pleasure. Josh straddled a little wider and lower, and bingo, liquid fire speared right through Hayden’s groin. “Like that, Josh. Oh, yeah, just like that.”
Hayden slid a hand between their abdomens, taking Josh’s swollen erection within his own shaky hand. As he enclosed the tip within his fingers, Josh released a low-pitched, aggressive growl. Hayden had never wanted anything so much in his life as to bring this strong Alpha wolf to release, to make the man throw back his head and howl to the fucking moon he was so damned over the edge.
But Josh’s earlier words skimmed through Hayden’s dreamy, half-aware mind. Not the right place.
“Not the right place,” Hayden mumbled, but Josh would have none of that. He clasped Hayden’s jaw, dragging his mouth upward for a forceful, demanding kiss. Hayden shook his head again, protesting weakly. He was the one with experience in this department—at least, that’s what he’d thought until the last few minutes. This first time had to be incredible for Joshua; in fact, it was supremely important to Hayden that he take him to realms of pleasure no female lover had ever dared show him—or ever could—before this night.
Josh cocked his head, studying him quizzically, his chest rising and falling with quick, wolf-like pants. “Why not?” he demanded bluntly, forcing Hayden to still the motion he was working over Josh’s thick cock. The man was nothing if not beautifully direct, and now that they were getting together, that fact no longer annoyed Hayden. It made him quiver even harder with lust.
Hayden slid his hand down Josh’s thigh, stroking it long and slow. Just like he might if Josh were in his wolf form and Hayden were trying to soothe or steady him with his human hands.
“Seriously, man,” Josh asked, eyes glazed with desire. “Why not do it here?”
“Because, it’s what you said….” Hayden tried to slow his heart’s outrageous tempo. “Not… the right place. Not for the first time.”
Josh nodded, sexual frustration and impatience lining his lightly bearded face. Still, he didn’t budge, didn’t so much as move a muscle to dismount from his intimate position atop Hayden’s lap.
“I need to know something,” Hayden asked after a moment of them trying to bring their respective bodies under at least a little control. With a long, slow stroke he rubbed Josh’s back, loving the way the muscles rippled beneath his hand in reaction.
Josh met his gaze and that downright mystical color of his eyes grew a little brighter somehow. “Sure, anything,” Josh said. Then, he laughed a little, that familiar grin turning up the edges of his mouth. “Anything for you, babe.” And then Josh really started laughing like a mad man over that stupid line.
Judging by the crazy laughter, Hayden was pretty sure the guy was experiencing a sudden bout of nerves. It didn’t help matters that Josh was sitting high and pretty right in the lap of a long-term rival. A rival who just so happened to be a man. Probably Josh’s first male lover.
Hayden felt a wave of tenderness wash over him, a strangely protective urge to make sure Josh was comfortable with the whole thing. Reaching up, he brushed an unruly lock of dark curls away from Josh’s face, just staring into his eyes. “You’ve never been with a guy before, have you?”
Josh turned away, staring out the window, but Hayden caught his chin, forcing him to face the question. Once they were looking into each other’s eyes, Hayden tried again. “Joshua. Please. If we’re gonna do this, I need to know… it’s kind of important, actually. Have you ever been with a guy, you know, like this? Made love with one?”
Josh’s dark eyebrows furrowed together, and he stared at Hayden’s chest for a few seconds. Then, as if resolved, he smiled and looked up. “I’m glad you’re going to be my first.”
Hayden wrapped his arms about the other man and, shivering with more desire than he’d ever known in his life, whispered, “
I’m going to blow your mind, baby. It’s going to be so sweet, just you wait.” Hayden smiled, already imagining how long and slow he was going to take things with Josh, how gentle he’d be this first time. “And it won’t be like any woman you’ve ever had in your life.”
Josh laughed, burrowing his face against the top of Hayden’s head; his entire body trembling and shuddering. “Of course not, you sexy moron,” he said in a deep voice filled with nervous, fevered excitement. “It’s going to be you.”
Chapter Seven
Present day
Josh raked a hand over his hair, neatening it for about the twentieth time since leaving the station. Damn, but he wanted to look as handsome as he could for Hayden. Wanted to do something, anything, to recapture the man’s attention—he wanted to evoke those same eight or nine scents Hayden used to exude whenever Josh came around. Those musky smells had been like the color spectrum to Josh during their last time together.
Those twenty-four hours five years ago had been the most rapturous ones he’d ever known in another person’s arms. It was a man’s body that Josh had been born to pleasure, born to explore, created to experience. Or, more specifically, Hayden Garrett’s body fit together with his own as if the two of them had been created for no other purpose than joining physically—and their souls for no other reason than mystical union.
Josh rubbed his face, working to tame his aroused emotions. Here he stood, in front of Hayden’s door, and he was already in a lather, ready to pounce on a guy who didn’t even share the same memories he did.
But he will. You’ll awaken them inside of him. He will know the truth.
That hope was all that had kept him going to this point. That, and waiting until Hayden was ready. According to the man’s parents, he was as ready as he’d ever be, slipping into a darker and darker place with every passing month. And with Hayden finally out of danger, Josh’s long-awaited moment had arrived.