by Cameron Dane
A hint of naked need slipped into Noah’s gaze. “I might just take you up on that one day.” He blinked, and the flash of vulnerability was gone. “I’ll send you a bill for the work.” He didn’t wait for Sirus to reply before walking away. He called back, “Have a good night.”
“Bye.” Sirus hung at the door until Noah drove away, his heart heavy with the strange conversation. As he stood there, not yet ready to face the picture he had drawn of Grey, Sirus realized he’d just had a more open, revealing conversation with his plumber than he’d ever had with Greyson Cole.
A man he had let fuck him. Multiple times.
Something wasn’t right about that.
Grey fiddled with his cup of coffee as he sat at a table in the local diner and waited for his take-out meal of a burger and fries. He slipped his cell phone out of his pocket and pulled up the selection of photos again, stopping on the one’s he had discreetly taken at Ginny’s Crafty Delights a short while ago. Ginny had two of Sirus’s pieces on consignment; one in ash wood that loosely resembled a male torso in a turned, reaching position, and a freeform piece made from woven bands of metal. Grey could not believe the paltry price tags being asked for Sirus’s artwork, and would have purchased them both himself if his gut didn’t say doing so would look damned suspicious.
Christ. Grey had not seen nor heard from Sirus all day long, and he had no expectation the man would return to the cabin tonight. The plumbing work on Sirus’s home had already gone one day over schedule, so there was no way Grey could expect another day of delays would force Sirus back to the cabin for one more night. Nope. Grey figured he’d had about as much ass as he was going to get on this vacation, and he might as well be satisfied he’d even gotten that.
No more kissing, fucking … sleeping with Sirus Wilder. Sweet, sexy, strong Sirus Wilder. All because Grey wouldn’t bend over and give up his own ass.
Damn it. Grey’s cock pressed against his jeans as he thought about being naked in bed with Sirus. His length pushed against his zipper where he sat, protesting the prospect of renewed celibacy. His chest squeezed tightly as well, as it had done all day every time Sirus’s name popped into his head. Worst of all, though, his ass throbbed a steady, aching staccato as a fast vision of Sirus penetrating him and stuffing his channel with exquisite, slow tenderness, filled Grey’s head. Grey gasped as his heart rate increased and his erection grew, shocking him with the intensity of his physical response while in a public place.
Grey sat in a booth, where the table concealed his crotch; thank God. All the same, he scanned the diner’s patrons and prayed like hell it took at least a few more minutes to complete his order. He could not stand up right now. With his attention subtly touching on nearly every customer in the diner—none of whom paid him a damn bit of attention— Grey started to breathe a sigh of relief. Then his gaze clashed with a brown one that stared right at him, no blinking or backing off when Grey caught him in the act.
What the fuck?
From one booth away, the blond man continued to stare, and the feral business tycoon inside Grey stirred to life, putting an immediate cockblock on his hard-on. Grey regularly shat the remnants of millionaires and billionaires who thought they could intimate him; he sure as hell wouldn’t tuck tail and run over a small town local eyeballing him—no matter that the man looked like he could knock Grey unconscious with one punch.
His erection no longer an issue, Grey slid his phone back into his pocket, grabbed his cup of coffee, and moved to the other man’s table. “Mind if I join you?” Grey asked, but didn’t wait to get an answer before sitting down. He put his cup on the table and wrapped his hands around it, letting the warmth of the liquid inside seep into his palms. Not that he needed it. Grey tended to get damned hot under the collar when another alpha dog tried to hold him down and piss on his fur. Grey felt like this man sitting across from him attempted to do just that with one cold, unwavering look.
Grey settled into the cushion of the booth seat, and bared his teeth. He doubted the guy mistook it for a smile. “You got a problem with me, friend?”
“Not right now,” the man answered. His deep voice scratched like sandpaper, and he didn’t look like he so much as twitched under Grey’s cool delivery. “Just looking you over, though, and trying to figure out if I will before you leave this mountain.”
Grudging respect for this man’s balls had Grey retracting his fangs. “That seems unlikely,” he studied the guy’s roughly handsome face, searching for familiarity, “seeing as I don’t know who the hell you are.”
“Noah Maitland.” Noah did not reach across the table for a handshake.
Noah Maitland. Noah. Maitland. Noah. Noah. Oh. This is Noah. “Noah Maitland.”
Grey maintained a sense of ease in how he sat, but he couldn’t help but think about his immediate response when Sirus mentioned the man’s name the other morning. Right here, Grey’s skin got as hot under the surface as it had back then. Grey breathed, and kept the evidence of his reaction at bay. “You would be Sirus’s plumber.”
“I know how to do one or two other things, and I work for a few other people as well.” Noah sat across from Grey with quiet authority, and Grey knew—just on experience from dealing with entrepreneurs every day for over ten years—that Noah was a financial success in his business. This man was no pauper, and nobody’s bitch. “But yes,” Noah added, “most recently I did work up at Sirus’s cabin.”
Grey’s gut instinct hit him on another level—a personal one—and jealousy grew in his belly. He glanced down at Noah’s hand and noticed a wedding band on his finger.
Even with that, Grey wondered if Sirus knew Noah Maitland was gay. And if he didn’t, but discovered it, would Sirus’s interest in this man exceed home repair?
You can’t have him sat right in Grey’s throat, choking him with its ferocity. Not right now. Not ever.
A buzzing clouded Grey’s hearing, and Noah Maitland—with his way too sexy rugged man vibe—blurred before Grey’s eyes, his vision now covered in a film of red.
No. Get control of yourself, man. Don’t you dare let this guy see you lose your cool.
You’re a possessive person; anger is a natural reaction to seeing someone else crush on the man you’re fucking. You don’t like to share. Anything. It doesn’t mean you care.
Grey muzzled the monologue looping in his head, locked his inner dog in another room, and affected a mildly interested arched brow. “What is it exactly you think you know that has you so concerned, Maitland?”
“I don’t know anything,” Noah answered. “Just saw something that allowed me to draw a conclusion on my own.”
“That’s not much to go on to make a snap judgment about a man.”
“No, sitting here watching you,” Noah sliced panic through Grey with his never-ending, assessing stare, “I think I figured the situation out exactly right.”
Right then, an earsplitting whistle cut across the diner. Everyone turned toward the pass-through window behind the lunch counter, and owner Ruthie Costa pointed at Grey with her spatula. “Order’s ready, honey,” she said, losing the interest of all the other diners with those words. “Nice and hot. Be out with it in just a second.”
“Thank you.” Grey dipped his head and made to slide out of the booth, but a strong hand wrapped around his wrist and locked him to the table. Grey’s attention slid down to the fingers holding his arm in a bruising vise. He blinked, and brought his focus back up to Noah’s face. “You’re going to want to take your hand off me.” His tone dripped colder than the polar icecaps. “Right now.”
Noah released Grey’s wrist. “I apologize,” he said, but again, looked Grey right in the eyes without cowering. “Let me just say one thing before you go.” The color in Noah’s eyes softened, even as his hand curled into a fist on the tabletop. “Sirus is a nice man. Kind. Generous. A lot of people in this area care about him and do not want to see him hurt again.”
Again? Did these people know about Sirus’s relation
ship with Paul? Or had there been someone else? Jesus. The desire for knowledge about Sirus clutched at the inquisitive nature of Grey’s personality, at his need to know every little detail about any situation in which he was involved. At the same time, fuck, he couldn’t ask without becoming one hell of a hypocrite. There wasn’t any damn way he would exchange equal information about himself with Sirus, just to get some answers.
“If you’re a good man,” Noah continued, pulling Grey out of his private thoughts,
“and you think there’s even the possibility that you’re going to cause him pain, maybe you need to think about walking away right now.”
Grey fought down an unnatural wave of violence, and just resisted hauling this pretender to his feet and shoving him into the wall. “And give you room to step in?” Grey hissed, keeping his voice low, out of a respect he wasn’t sure this man deserved.
Noah flinched, and his pupils flared. “I didn’t say that.”
“No,” Grey bit down and took some of the rancor out of his tone, “but you’re thinking it.”
“Just don’t hurt him.” Noah’s gaze touched over every other patron in the diner, then came back to Grey. “Trust me when I say it would be more than me who cared.”
A young waitress passed by the table right then, a brown bag in her hands. “I have your food, Mr. Cole.” She smiled at both men shyly. “I’ll be waiting at the register whenever you’re ready.”
“Be right there,” Grey answered.
“Think about what I said.” Noah spoke one more time, his voice and face still quietly threatening.
The dog within Grey slipped out and, for just the blink of an eye, morphed into a wolf. “I’ll think about your fucking motives too,” he said, his voice cutting. He blinked, and everything slipped right back to cool. “You have a good night.”
Grey walked away and paid for his meal, smiling and making friendly chitchat to the server and the couple who also stepped in to pay their bill. On the inside, though, Grey saw the snarling teeth of a brown haired beast shredding to pieces a golden haired wolf.
To the victor went the prize.
Sirus Wilder.
In the dead of night, freezing cold, Grey banged on Sirus’s door, a little porch light the only thing illuminating where he stood. He went home after his showdown at the diner, but he had no appetite for the burger and fries. He’d tried to wipe the conversation with Noah from his mind, but he kept hearing the words “don’t hurt him again” in his mind. More than that, Grey couldn’t shake the absolute caring in that damn warning, as well as a very real concern that he had the power to hurt Sirus.
Grey had spent the better part of the evening telling himself that Sirus going home to his own cabin was for the best. All through his shower, and through masturbating while in that shower—with Sirus on his mind—Grey reiterated that things were better this way.
He didn’t want complications in his life, and spending too much more time around Sirus would undoubtedly become messier with every day added to their brief hook-up. Grey had even crawled into bed and tossed and turned for at least two hours, surrounded by the scent of the very man in question embedded into the sheets and comforter, torturing Grey with how fucking big the bed was without an even bigger man sharing it. Then, Grey had rolled over and turned toward the window, and his attention snagged on a navy blue T-shirt. Sirus’s shirt.
Grey had found himself out of bed, the T-shirt in hand, and behind the wheel of his car before he even processed that he’d pushed back the covers and gotten up. He didn’t know why he was here now, or what he wanted to say, what he should do, or if he should mention his conversation with Noah.
The door swung open, stealing any attempt Grey had to throw together a late plan.
Sirus stood in the open doorway, a soft light behind him casting him in near shadows. He wore nothing but a pair of white briefs.
“It’s late.” Sirus appeared scruffy and rough, but he didn’t look any sleepier than Grey did. “What do you want?”
“We had an agreement.” Grey’s voice was stripped and harsh, more than he wanted to show. “We share a bed while we’re up here together. That was what we said.” Grey snaked his hand around Sirus’s neck and pulled his head down. He looked right into Sirus’s eyes, internal nakedness swirling and showing through from him. “Don’t break our deal.” Christ, how Grey wanted this man. “Please,” he added, and crushed his mouth on Sirus’s in a raw, openmouthed kiss.
Chapter Twelve
Oh God, he’s so stunningly beautiful.
Sirus couldn’t stamp down that destructive thought about Greyson Cole, just a split second before the man grabbed him and took his mouth with a deep, wildly aggressive kiss.
Wanting to resist, knowing for his own protection that he should, Sirus melted on the please from Grey and sank right into his burning hot frame, letting Grey’s body heat shield him from the gust of bitter cold wind. Sirus knew he would never get secrets and confessions from a man like Grey, but the fact that he had said that one word in such a guttural way shattered every protest Sirus knew he should speak. It stopped his hands from pushing Grey away and slammed a lid on every valid reason Sirus had mentally listed as to why he should never sleep with Grey again.
That damn please reached deep inside Sirus and latched on to an aching need to know more, and it had him throwing himself into the kiss, groaning as Grey ate at his mouth.
Eventually, Grey broke the kiss and came up for air. “Invite me inside,” his eyes were full of shards of fiery amber, “or I swear I will fuck you right on this porch.” He angled Sirus’s head and stole another kiss, tangling tongues between gasps for air.
“Jesus,” Grey licked Sirus’s lips, “it feels like forever since I’ve been in your ass. Tell me I can have you.”
Don’t. Don’t weaken and give him all the power. “I—”
His eyes glittering with arousal, Grey whispered roughly, “I want you so fucking much.” He grabbed Sirus’s hand and shoved it down over his cock, grinding it against the hard ridge of flesh. “Feel it … ahh yeah,” he hissed when Sirus squeezed his prick, “and let me inside.”
Oh, God, I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t… Sirus looked at Grey, taking in every inch of his face in one fast second, and swore he saw agonized longing living in every stark line. He let go of Grey’s erection and touched his fingers over the unforgiving angle of Grey’s jaw; the man jerked and shivered, and Sirus had his answer.
“Yes.” Ignoring every warning bell of common sense, Sirus dragged Grey over the threshold into his home, shutting the door behind them. He tore at Grey’s jacket and ripped open the buttons on his shirt, dragging him toward the couch, certain that his pure need was open and visible for Grey to witness. “Oh, God, yes,” Sirus said again, and yanked Grey to him, fusing their fronts together from mouth to cock.
“Thank you.” Raw need edged Grey’s voice as his palms grazed Sirus’s abdomen with tormenting brushes of contact. “Thank you.” Grey scraped his mouth across Sirus’s, teasing the seam with darting licks from the tip of his tongue.
Every light brush of lips accompanied a few steps toward the living room, and with their arms entangled and their legs getting crossed over one another, it might have looked like they were slow dancing to anyone who saw the pair. Sirus pushed Grey’s coat and shirt off and let them float to the floor, glorying in the feast of fit body revealed to his eyes. He slid his hands around Grey’s back and slipped his fingers inside the waistband of his jeans, tugging him close. Their chests rose and fell in uneven falls with every shared breath they took, and their cocks strained as their kiss turned deeper and became more desperate, proving to each man that this was a tango meant only for the eyes of two.
They kept moving until they bumped into the arm of a cushioned chair, at which point Grey reached between their bodies and pushed his hand down the front of Sirus’s underwear. “Damn it,” he wrapped his fingers around Sirus’s stiff length and gave it a hard jerk, “you feel good.” Grey
stuck his tongue into Sirus’s mouth as he pulled on Sirus’s dick again, and Sirus thrust his hips into the heavenly, rough touch. His cock leaked precum over Grey’s palm, and his asshole fluttered at what it knew would soon come.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Grey teased Sirus’s slit with the blunt edge of his fingernail, snaking a shiver of delight through Sirus’s body. “Show me more of that excitement.” He pressed a line of kisses across Sirus’s cheek up to his ear, flicking his tongue over Sirus’s flesh every step of the way. “I love it when you shake.” He manipulated his fingertip over the supersensitized head of Sirus’s cock again.
“Ohh, shit…” Sirus moaned and pushed out more early seed, his dick swelling unbearably under the pressure of Grey’s concentrated touch. “Goddamnit.” Sirus shoved his underwear the rest of the way down so he could watch Grey fondle his aching cock.
“You already know exactly what I like.”
Sirus stared as Grey added his other hand to the mix, curling his fingers in a tight fist around Sirus’s penis and dragging up and down his length in fast strokes. Grey also continued to torment the head and opening of Sirus’s dick with an expert touch.
“Oh, God,” Sirus sucked in a big gulp of air, somehow getting even stiffer as he watched, “that’s so fucking good.” Every inch of his body throbbed with wanting. “I like it hard.”
Grey cursed and pulled Sirus right up against him with his hold on the man’s erection. “Jesus, you go right to my head.” He leaned in and delivered another savage kiss, bruising Sirus’s lips. “I need another taste of your cock, but I want to fuck you so badly I don’t think I can suck you without coming.” Grey spun Sirus around and rubbed his crotch against Sirus’s ass. Slick fingers pushed into Sirus’s crease and pressed at his quivering pucker. “Bend over and brace your hands on the chair.”
Sirus shivered as a sudden awareness stabbed him right in the chest. “No.” Every time they had sex, Grey turned Sirus away from him. Before he could second-guess himself, Sirus grabbed Grey and pushed him into the chair in a seated position. “If I’m the one taking it, then this time,” he slid his legs in on either side of Grey and straddled his lap, “I want to ride.”