All Bets Are Off

by Marguerite Labbe

  So the question was, did he leave it unlocked or did someone else come by afterward and break in again? After spending the past hour knocking around in the woods, looking for whoever had been watching them, Ash’s paranoia was running high. He hadn’t been able to find the guy, but he sure as hell heard him running off.

  Ash examined the lock with a frown. It didn’t look as if it had been tampered with and Eli had mentioned that the locks had been changed. Maybe Eli had forgotten about it and left for the day. What the hell was he going to do with Eli? One glance at the bookshelves was enough to see that those books Eli prized so much were still there. How could he be so careless?

  “Dammit, Eli, you need a keeper,” Ash muttered.

  He was going to have to find a way to talk Eli out of his daily hikes. No matter how bad the weather was, Eli was out there with Jabbers. Anyone who knew him at all could set up an ambush. An ambush. Fuck, he did sound paranoid.

  Ash was about to leave when a slightly rumpled envelope on the floor caught his eye. He picked it up, noting Eli’s name on the front. It looked as if someone had started to open it. Ash debated for a few seconds. Eli would rightfully be pissed if he peeked, and it might not be anything to worry about. Ash’s instincts said there had been something off the entire day. He held the envelope carefully by the edges and used Eli’s letter opener to slit the top.

  A quick look, and then he could confess to Eli and they could have a good laugh over the way Ash’s mind was screwing with him. If Eli didn’t lose his temper.

  He tugged the brief note out by the corner, and his insides turned to ice.

  I know you’re carrying on with one of your students. I have proof. If you don’t want anyone else to know get together $15,000. I’ll contact you another time and let you know when and where to leave it.

  “Son of a fucking bitch.” Ash stuffed the note back into the envelope as he heard someone at the door. He dropped it into his book bag and turned as Britton entered the office.

  The other man blinked in surprise before his heavy brows drew together in an aggravated frown. “Just who are you?”

  “I’m one of Doc’s students. I was waiting for him to get back,” Ash said smoothly. Britton would blow a fucking gasket if he knew Eli had left his office unlocked. Hell, Ash was tempted to give him an earful as well.

  “Well, get out and wait in the hallway. You have no business being in here without him.” The old man turned around, grumbling under his breath. “And if you do see him, tell him I expect him in my office before I leave today.”

  Ash bit his tongue and waited for a minute after the old windbag left. “Asshole,” he muttered under his breath. At least his classes were over for the day. He should be able to catch Eli on his way back from his hike. They had some serious things to discuss.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ash’s truck moved down the road slower than he would’ve liked. This drive was taking forever and wearing down his patience in the meantime. But he’d already startled more than one critter on the road and Lu had called this stretch of road Moose Alley. The last thing he needed was a run-in with a beast that size. It seemed like he’d reached the end of the last bit of civilization at least half an hour ago and he still hadn’t seen the turn off.

  His hands tightened on the wheel. Lu had assured him that Eli was at the camp, only there was no way to check without actually going himself. She hadn’t been kidding when she said there was no cell phone service and there wasn’t a landline there, either. She hadn’t seemed at all worried because Eli often disappeared for days at a time.

  Ash hadn’t wanted to scare her. If Eli hadn’t seen fit to tell her about the break-ins and stalkers and blackmail notes, Ash wasn’t about to. At least not yet. It did make him wonder if there had been other notes that Eli hadn’t bothered to mention to him. And that just made him want to grind his teeth in frustration.

  If he found out that Eli was holding out on him, he’d…. He’d what? What kind of claim did he really have on Eli? They weren’t lovers, yet. Eli wasn’t his boyfriend. Ash wasn’t looking to settle into a long-term relationship at this stage of his life. At least, that had been the plan. They were more than professor and student, that was for sure. Eli was his friend, and that, at least, gave Ash more than enough reason to show his concern.

  The headlights picked out a small break in the trees, and somewhere up the mountain a solitary light gleamed. “That had better be you,” Ash muttered as he turned down the rutted, narrow dirt road. From time to time the light provided a beacon through the pitch black of the woods.

  When the trees finally opened up, Ash breathed a sigh of relief. Eli’s Jeep was parked outside a small cabin that had windows ablaze with light. Jabbers barked excitedly as he got out, and the screen door on the porch creaked when Eli stepped outside. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  The combination of Eli’s irritated tone and the hours of worry lit the spark of Ash’s smoldering temper. He slammed his truck door shut and stalked toward Eli. “No hello? Or concern? ’Cause clearly something must be wrong if I followed you all the way out here. I’m here because you scared the hell out of me, jackass. So you can drop the attitude.”

  As he got closer, Eli turned so the light fell across his face instead of silhouetting him, and his lips and jaw were set with a stubborn tilt. He’d let his hair down and it fell in a tangled cloud around his shoulders, and despite the cold, his feet were bare. Ash should not find the combination sexy, not when he was angry over his reception.

  “Lu knew where I was, and since you’re here I’m assuming you talked to her and she told you.” Eli’s cool tone set Ash aback. He’d seen Eli run hot many times, but never cold. What the hell was going on with him? “Now that you’ve seen for yourself that I’m okay, you can go.”

  Ash gaped as Eli turned away and walked back into the cabin. Ash seized the door and followed, itching to grab Eli and shake some sense into him or to kiss him. He wasn’t sure which urge was greater. “I’m not leaving until we’ve had this out. Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Okay, maybe that wasn’t fair. Eli probably hadn’t known about the blackmail note, and Ash was just letting the long hours of frustration and worry get to him.

  “Me? What bug has crawled up your ass and died? I don’t answer to you.”

  Damn Eli and his overdeveloped sense of independence. A mournful whine had them both looking down to see Jabbers sitting between them with big, sad eyes. “It’s okay, Jabbers. I’m just having it out with Ash.”

  Ash attempted to moderate his voice, but despite his best efforts it came out as a growl. “It didn’t occur to you at all that I would be worried? You’ve had both your home and your office broken into. You have somebody following you around on campus and then you fucking disappeared, left your office unlocked and—”

  “I needed time to think, dammit, and right now, you’re fucking that up!” Eli snapped, his blue-gray eyes hot with anger now. At least the cool distance was gone. Ash could handle this side of Eli. “I didn’t mean to worry you, but I wanted some time to myself, is that too much to ask for? Who was following me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Jabbers bayed, the sound cutting through their rising voices. “Dammit, give me a minute.” Eli knelt down and rubbed Jabbers’s ears and body until the dog’s tail wagged. “Jabbers, loft,” he said firmly, pointing up the narrow staircase. The beagle whined, but when Eli repeated the order, he disappeared to the sound of nails scrabbling on wood.

  Needed time to think? What did he mean by that? Needed time to think about him? Ash didn’t like that thought at all, or the little slice of hurt that came with it. Then Eli turned back around, and Ash could just see him gathering himself to put that cool wall up again. Ash’s heart sank. He was not ready for Eli to end them. And that reserve? Oh, fuck that. Ash preferred Eli standing toe to toe with him instead of hiding behind a detachment that didn’t suit him at all.

  “What are you afraid of? It’s not like you to
run off and hide.” Ash closed the distance between them, and for a second he thought Eli would back off, but then those blue-gray eyes flashed as he drew himself up.

  “I’m not hiding, now will you leave?”

  “I’m not going anywhere. Besides the fact that I’m not sure I could find a place to crash at this time of night in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, you forget that there’s someone stalking you.”

  “One confirmed break-in does not mean I have a stalker,” Eli snapped, getting in his face. “What has gotten into you?”

  Ash grabbed Eli’s shoulders, but touching him proved to be a mistake. His heart flipped and pure desire rushed straight to his cock. Dammit, Eli couldn’t just walk away from the sizzling chemistry they had.

  Ash wasn’t sure who moved first or who kissed whom. All he knew was that Eli’s hands had fisted in Ash’s shirt at the small of his back, pulling him closer in a hard grip. Ash’s hands were buried in the softness of Eli’s hair as tongues tangled and mouths bruised. Ash growled, pushing Eli as he kissed him until Eli’s back thudded against a wall.

  “Are you in that mood, Eli?” Ash rasped, pulling his mouth away, their breaths ragged on each other’s lips. “You want a hard, dirty fucking?”

  Eli dragged his mouth down to Ash’s throat and bit him hard enough to mark, followed by a flick of his tongue. “What do you think?”

  Ash dragged his scattered thoughts together enough to focus on what they needed to give in to their bodies’ demands. “Thank fucking God, I have condoms in my wallet.” Fire seethed in his brain and heated up his body as he yanked Eli’s hoodie off of him only to find a T-shirt underneath. “I hope you have lube.”

  “I’ve never brought a lover here. So lube is rather scarce.” Eli’s eyes narrowed, saying without words that Ash hadn’t been invited, and the reaction made Ash crazy. He was happy that Eli wasn’t in the habit of using this camp for trysts. Then irked because Eli seemed to be lumping him along with all the other men who hadn’t earned an invitation here. Both emotions had him craving to make a mark on Eli here, in his sanctuary, so that whenever he returned he’d be thinking of Ash.

  “We’ll have to be creative, then.” Ash tugged off Eli’s T-shirt as well. He slid a hand down Eli’s long, lean torso. His clothes sometimes masked the whipcord strength Eli had. His abs were tight and smooth muscle covered his chest and arms. Ash circled a thumb around one flat nipple as Eli attacked his throat again.

  Dizzying heat rushed through Ash. At least Eli wasn’t going to let the lack of an invitation get in the way of the heat between them. He groaned as Eli’s teeth raked his throat again, and Ash tweaked the other man’s nipple in response.

  His cock throbbed in his jeans, demanding to be set free, and damned if he didn’t want to strip, but the wide bank of curtainless windows stopped him. Logically, he knew they were in the middle of nowhere. Jabbers would bark his head off if anyone approached, but still, the bare windows made him feel exposed.

  “Do you have a bedroom?” Ash asked and then groaned as Eli palmed his cock through his jeans.

  “What? You’re not going to take me against the wall like you were thinking of doing not so long ago?”

  “Not tonight.” Though the idea definitely had appeal. One Ash would linger over later. “If you must know, I fought myself to keep from dragging you upstairs and tying you to my bed that night.”

  “This is the second time you’ve mentioned tying me up.” Eli snagged his fingers in Ash’s belt loops and started pulling him toward the back of the cabin. Ash had a vague impression of the living room leading right into a tiny kitchen. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to handle those base instincts of yours when you get your badge, gun, and handcuffs?”

  “If you’re around to set me off, definitely not.” In fact, Ash didn’t really want to think about some distant future when he had a half-naked Eli right in front of him.

  Eli pushed open a door and yanked him into the dark of a bedroom. The bed was right there, they practically tripped over it and half fell in a tangle on the mattress. It didn’t seem to be that big, maybe a little bigger than a twin, but not by much. Big enough for Ash’s purposes, and if they ended up all over each other all night, then that worked too.

  Ash pinned Eli under him with a hungry groan. Fuck. He’d been thinking of just this for weeks. Eli under him, naked… well, almost naked. Ash needed to rectify that situation. Eli must’ve had the same idea because he began assaulting Ash’s jeans, popping open the button and sliding down the fly.

  They undressed each other, fumbling in the dark with impatient hands and muttered curses. The sensation of hot, naked skin against hot, naked skin seared into Ash’s brain. The cool of the sheets and the air in the bedroom did nothing to ease the fever raging between them.

  Fuck, he’d been fantasizing about this for too long. His cock felt like it was going to explode as they ground against each other. Eli dug his fingers into Ash’s back, rocking his hips urgently. Ash wanted to get under Eli’s skin, get into his blood, and stay there.

  “Go slow another time. Where are those damn condoms?”

  Ash broke his mouth away from Eli’s skin and tried to remember where his jeans had disappeared to. “Give me a sec.” He leaned over the side of the bed, searching in the dark. The mattress shifted as Eli stood up. “Where ya going?”

  “I think there might be some oil in the kitchen.” Eli walked out the door stark naked. Damn that tight, muscled ass was a gorgeous sight, even if Ash didn’t like the idea of the man parading himself in front of the windows like that.

  “You could’ve put on a robe, you know,” he said a few moments later when Eli returned.

  “Why, so I wouldn’t offend a deer’s sensibilities?” There was amusement in Eli’s voice and something clinked as he set it down on the table. “Is that why we’re in here, Ash? You got shy?”

  Ash found his hand in the dark and yanked Eli down on the bed. Rolling, he pinned Eli under him and reached for the bedside lamp, fumbling until he found the switch. Golden light spilled across the bed and lit the highlights in Eli’s hair, turning it a deep, burnished red against the white of the pillows.

  The man was such an enigma. One part rebel, one part hellcat, and one part confident, intelligent man. Ash was fascinated at how Eli could go from being stubborn one minute to caring the next. He could never predict how Eli’s contrary mind worked. He was amusing and exasperating, and he drove Ash crazy with longing.

  One slim brow rose in query, and Eli slid his hands down Ash’s shoulders. “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

  “I’m trying to decide whether I want to fuck you or strangle you.”

  Laughter lit up Eli’s eyes, banishing the last of the irritation that lingered there. “Damn you for making me laugh, Ashley Gallagher. I was still irked with you.”

  There went that quicksilver change of moods again. Ash shook his head and pinned Eli’s hands to either side of his head. He rocked his hips, his cock rubbing slick and hard against Eli’s. “That makes two of us. I’m still pissed.” It was really hard to remember why, though. It was hard to think, period.

  “Let me take care of that.” Eli lifted his head and kissed him, and those lingering thoughts scattered and disappeared under the heat of his mouth. Ash groaned and let go of Eli’s wrists in favor of burying his hands in Eli’s hair.

  Eli’s tongue drove into his mouth, demanding more, making Ash dizzy. His long, limber body moved under Ash, twisting and arching for more contact. His hands slid over Ash’s body, exploring him with a possessive touch from the back of his neck down to the tops of his thighs. He didn’t flinch from Ash’s scars, neither the burn on his arm nor the marks on his side. He touched them with the same need in his hands as he touched every other part of Ash’s body.

  That too drove Ash crazy.

  He lifted his head long enough to grab the bottle of lube off the nightstand. “I thought you said you didn’t have any.”

  “I found som
e in the bathroom. I’m not going to ask any of my cousins why it was there, and they aren’t going to ask me why it’s missing.” Eli kissed his way down to Ash’s chest. “We’re all happier that way.”

  “We’re not going to have anyone barge in on us, are we?”

  “Nope, it’s moose hunting season and none of them won the permit lottery. We’ll have the place to ourselves all weekend long.”

  Before Ash could ponder the implications of that statement, Eli was kissing him again. Fuck, he wanted that hungry mouth on his cock. As soon as the thought hit him, the want became need. He shifted on the bed, trying to turn them both over without tumbling them on the floor. “Turn around, sexy,” he groaned.

  Eli leaned over him, bracing his hands on both sides of Ash, and his hair fell around his face, framing it in a curtain of heat. “Nope, you promised me a fucking, hard and rough. Do I have to piss you off again to get it? Because I’m sure I could come up with something.”