Ash popped the cap on the lube and watched Eli’s eyes darken when he pushed two slick fingers into him. “Like leaving your office door unlocked after it had already been broken into once?”
Eli groaned and twisted his hips back. “Okay, I can see how that might be mildly annoying.”
“That’s it,” Ash growled. He sat up and dumped Eli on the bed.
“What are you doing?” Eli asked as Ash leaned over the bed and began to tug one of the shoelaces off his sneakers.
“Giving you back just a little bit of the torment I went through today.”
Eli snickered as Ash turned around with the shoestring in his hand. “Formidable. What are you going to do? Strangle me with it?”
“Oh, no, I’m trying to keep you safe, not hurt you. And if I have to tie you up to make you see it, then I will.” Eli twisted like a cat and rolled out of the way as Ash lunged for him. Ash snagged him around his lean waist and hauled him back. They wrestled on the bed, Ash trying to bind Eli’s wrists together and Eli doing everything he could to stop him, his laughter hampering his efforts to hold Ash off.
It didn’t take too long before Ash managed to tie the D rings together with the shoelace behind one of the slats on the headboard. He sat back on his heels, admiring his handiwork. He’d like to see Eli get out of that one. He had to admit, Eli had given him more of a fight than he’d expected.
“Okay,” Eli panted, blowing his hair out of his face. “What did that solve? Dammit, Ash, why did you come?”
“We can talk about that later. After I’ve driven you out of your mind.”
Ash looked down at Eli, his heartbeat picking up. Damn, he was never going to get that sight out of his mind. Eli glared at him, his eyes like granite. The muscles in his arms strained as he fought the ties around his wrists. Ash slid a finger down his chest, following the reddish-brown light smattering of hair that led all the way to Eli’s cock.
Eli’s chest rose and fell with his quick breaths. “You did that a long time ago. Now let me go.”
Ash circled his fingertip around one of Eli’s nipples and watched it peak and harden. “It really drives you nuts to be caged, doesn’t it?” He leaned over him, and his dog tags brushed Eli’s chest. “Trust me, Eli, you’re in good hands.”
“I do trust you,” Eli said between clenched teeth. “Doesn’t mean that I don’t want to kick your ass right now.”
“I thought you wanted to fuck.” Ash slid his hands along Eli’s long, lean thighs.
Eli shuddered, his eyes going hot as Ash cupped his balls. They were heavy in his hand, and Eli’s lips parted on a moan. “I do, but you’re taking your sweet ass time getting around to it.”
“The last time I had you naked, you had the chance to get your hands all over me. Now it’s my turn.”
One leg snaked around Ash’s waist, tugging him closer. As much as he wanted to fuck with Eli until he surrendered, he didn’t think that tactic would ever work with his lover. Eli needed to be wooed and seduced, not coerced. And the look on Eli’s face had him mesmerized. He might be the one tied up, but he had all the damn power.
“Fuck me,” Eli said in a low, compelling voice, arching up against Ash.
“Damn, you make it hard to think.”
“Thinking’s overrated right now.” Eli wrapped his other leg around Ash’s waist. “Fuck me.”
Ash rubbed a fingertip against Eli’s entrance, still slick with the lube, and Ash’s cock leapt. “I’m considering—” He broke off with a gasp as Eli’s legs suddenly tightened around his ribs, cutting off his air.
Eli lifted his head as he gave Ash a wicked grin. “You were saying?”
Ash drew in a shuddering breath as Eli released him. “God, you’re a wicked bitch.” He couldn’t figure out how the hell the man had still been single by the time Ash had come into town. Someone should’ve snatched him up a long time ago, and he was very grateful that they hadn’t.
“Language,” Eli tsked, flexing his thighs again in a not so subtle threat. “You know, I can squeeze until you pass out and when you wake up you’ll be the one tied to the bed.”
Ash reached for the condom on the bedside table. “You wouldn’t know what to do with me if you did.”
“Try me, Georgia. Just try me. You’re not the only one with bondage fantasies. Trust me, having a Marine tied up and at my mercy is high on the list of things I want to do before I die.”
Ash groaned and rolled the condom on with impatient fingers. He’d been anticipating this moment the last six weeks and he didn’t want to wait anymore. Eli’s eyes glazed over and a tremor went through him as Ash started to push into him. His thighs relaxed around Ash’s waist, and his hands clung to the headboard. “Yes.”
Ash watched him through half-lidded eyes, heat pouring through him. Damn, Eli was ready for him. There was no resistance, just a snug heat that gripped his cock as he sank into him. Ash thought about using Eli’s distraction to break free of his legs, but now that he was inside of him he didn’t want to leave.
Eli arched and clenched his inner muscles. “Fuck me, Georgia.”
Who had whom captive?
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re mouthy and demanding?”
Eli chuckled and lightly squeezed Ash’s waist with this thighs. “No one else matters but you.” He circled his hips in invitation and drew himself up to kiss Ash. It was like the man had somehow seized hold of his will. Ash drew slowly out of him only to surge back hard. Fuck, he’d been thinking of just this for too long.
“Yes,” Eli groaned against his mouth and lightly bit Ash’s lower lip. “Harder.”
Ash braced his hands on the bed and snapped his hips, staring down at the man who writhed so beautifully under him. Eli demanded, he begged, he teased, using both mouth and body to convey what he wanted. It was absolutely fucking breathtaking.
The bed squeaked as they rocked, Eli rising up to meet each of his thrusts. Ash dipped his head down to bury his face in Eli’s exposed throat. He breathed in the scent of Eli’s hair and the sweat on his body as he savored the feel of him.
Then arms came around his body, and Ash cursed, lifting his head to see that sure enough, somehow Eli had managed to get the buckles free. The cuffs dangled around the slat, still bound by the shoelace. Eli chuckled in his ear and slid hard hands over Ash’s short hair. “The look on your face is priceless.”
Ash sank his entire weight against him and burrowed his arms under Eli’s shoulders. “You’re impossible.”
“I know,” Eli breathed against his ear. “Now, harder. I’m almost there.”
Ash thought he was about to explode himself. He reached between them and began stroking Eli’s slick cock. “Hold on… just a little… bit… more.”
Eli clenched around him hard enough to drag a ragged curse from him. “Like that?” Eli whispered in his ear.
For someone so nice everywhere else, Elijah Hollister was an evil man in bed. Before Ash could catch his breath Eli clenched again. Ash panted, stroking Eli faster because he couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He tightened his hands on Eli’s shoulders and kissed him as his orgasm hit him hard. Eli groaned desperately against his mouth, and then his cock jerked in Ash’s hand, spilling and twitching, muscles clenching in rhythmic waves as Eli came too.
Panting, Ash dropped his head onto Eli’s shoulder, groaning as his body shuddered with the last rumbles of his climax. “Damn, Eli, you win.”
Eli chuckled and kissed Ash’s temple. “Good, I love to win.”
They didn’t move for a few minutes, just held each other until Ash finally shifted off of him with a rough groan. When he came back from the bathroom, Jabbers was stretched across the foot of the bed, eyeballing him warily. “I don’t think there’s room for three of us,” Ash said to him as Eli slipped from the bed.
Jabbers thumped his tail and answered with that odd throaty sound he made that sounded so much like conversation, but he didn’t budge. “How’s this, buddy, the next time I see you ba
ck home, I’ll bring you a nice, big bone. Or maybe a piece of rawhide, would you like that?” Jabbers lifted his head and cocked it as if considering the bribe. “Okay, you drive a hard bargain, I’ll bring both.”
“Jabbers, down,” Eli said in a firm voice as he returned.
With a whine, Jabbers jumped off the bed and slunk out the door with an air of total dejection. “See, now you’ve gone and broken his heart. We were coming to a deal,” Ash said as he crawled under the blankets and held them open for Eli.
“He was playing you like a like a blackjack dealer in a stacked game. Don’t worry about Jabbers, he actually prefers sprawling in front of the stove. The hearth stones are nice and warm.”
“So he looked at me and saw a sucker?” Ash scooted over and held open the blanket, wondering if Eli was going to take him up on his unspoken invitation or start up the argument again. He did not feel like getting into it all over again, even if it had led to a naked Eli.
Eli chuckled and curled into him so they both could fit on the bed. He laid his head on Ash’s shoulder, slid his arm around Ash’s waist, and tangled their legs together. “Pretty much. A born sucker.”
Ash reached over to shut off the lamp and closed his eyes. He rubbed Eli’s shoulder, laying his cheek against Eli’s hair. Why had they waited this long to spend the night together?
“What are you thinking?” Eli asked softly.
“I’m thinking I don’t want to leave this cabin, ever.” The thought of going to Amwich and pretending that they weren’t a couple for the next two months was depressing. So Ash wasn’t going to think about it.
“You don’t have class tomorrow, do you?”
“I do, but they’re all lectures, so I’ll borrow the notes and since I haven’t missed any days yet, I should be fine. My Fridays are free. I arranged my classes that way so I wouldn’t have problems on drill weekends.”
“Well, then, you don’t have to worry about leaving. We have four whole days to ourselves.” Eli trailed a suggestive hand down from Ash’s hip to his thigh. “And I, for one, intend to make the most of it.”
Ash’s heart quickened. Eli wasn’t going to try to kick him out in the morning. And no awkward conversation right now about why Eli had been so distant or why Ash had hunted him down. Damn, he had four days of just him and Eli and nobody questioning what in the hell they were doing. He tugged Eli over him and ran his hands down those long thighs. “I’m all yours, Doc.”
Chapter Twelve
The cabin smelled of the fish they’d caught earlier and fried for dinner. Between that, the potatoes Eli had roasted, and the fresh greens with mushrooms, Ash couldn’t remember ever being so full. And he’d worked up quite an appetite being outdoors all day. He groaned and pushed his plate away. “You are a liar, Eli.”
“How so?” Eli asked as he stacked the plates to take to the sink.
“All that bitchin’ and moaning and it turns out you’re a pretty damn good cook yourself.”
“Don’t you dare ever let those words pass your lips where Lu can hear them.” Eli leveled a hard glare at him. “I hate cooking, but I put up with it when I don’t have her around to make doe eyes at. If you ruin my meal ticket, you are done for.”
“I hear you loud and clear, Doc.” Ash rose and went to fill up the sink with hot water. “Since you cooked, I’ll do KP duty.”
This break had been just what he needed to recharge. So much so that yesterday he’d avoided bringing up what had sent him after Eli in the first place, and Eli hadn’t pressed him on it. Seemed like neither one of them wanted to get into the complicated stuff. Real life would intrude soon enough. He washed the dishes, listening as Eli brought in more wood for the stove and Jabbers chased something out in the underbrush.
That didn’t mean he’d forgotten about Eli’s stalker problem, and he’d spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to convince Eli to take a harder look at Wayne. He had a feeling Eli would dig in his heels. Stubborn man.
“It’s going to be a cold one tonight.” Eli stoked the fire and closed the stove.
“I have no doubt we can keep each other warm.” Ash looked over his shoulder and blatantly ogled Eli’s ass as he stood up and went back outside for more wood. He still didn’t understand how an ass could be that lush when the man hiked every day, and he didn’t care why as long as he got to get his hands on it often.
Ash could get used to seeing a lot more of Eli. He’d never been in a position before where he could imagine living with a lover. He’d never even really wanted to. But these last two days of being with Eli, fishing and hiking, teaching him the finer points of poker, and trying to make the most of the small bed in the back, made him wonder just what he’d been missing when it came to long-term relationships.
It seemed rather pointless to consider anything lasting. Unless he was redeployed, he’d be graduating in the spring. He had a possible job offer through a friend of the family in Atlanta with the Defense Criminal Investigation Services. Both Melanie’s and Kurtis’s family were in Atlanta, so it was very tempting.
That wasn’t his only option. If he applied for the FBI, the closest field office to Amwich was in Boston. There were plenty of really good universities and colleges around there, and he had no doubt that Eli could make a successful career at one of them. After this weekend, though, he couldn’t picture Eli in a city. At least not for a long time. And who even knew what field office he’d get assigned to?
Good God, what had gotten into him? He’d spent one weekend with the man and now he was considering more than he’d ever sought from another lover. Eli belonged in Amwich. He thrived on his daily hikes and his getaway camp up here near Canada. Here, he could go rock climbing whenever he wanted, or camp, or take his Jeep off-road. He’d hate being in a city all year round, and Ash couldn’t think of anything that would tempt Eli to do so. Time to focus on why he’d come to the camp in the first place instead of daydreaming about a future that wasn’t going to happen.
“So why did you run out of town so fast?” Ash asked, stacking the frying pan on top of the drainer as Eli came back in.
“I don’t even want to think about it. Next topic.”
Ash pulled the plug on the sink and turned around, drying his hands on a towel. He couldn’t tell if Eli wouldn’t meet his eyes or if it was just a coincidence. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with a blackmail note, would it?”
Eli turned toward him with a stunned expression on his face that rapidly turned to fury. “Whitney left a fucking blackmail note? That’s it; I am reporting the incident to Dean Newton. I should’ve done it before I left.”
“What the hell does Whitney have to do with it? What incident?” Ash asked, trying to figure out if they were having the same conversation or not. “I’m talking about the manhandled blackmail note I found on the floor in your office.”
Eli looked blank for a moment before recognition dawned in his eyes. “Oh, yeah, there had been an envelope on my chair or was it my desk? I guess I lost track of it in my panic. I’m not sure how it got there.”
“Okay, now I’m really getting curious. What happened? All I’ve got is Whitney, incident, and blackmail.”
Eli looked away with an uncomfortable cough. “I really don’t want to talk about it. Maybe when the semester’s over with, but right now it just wouldn’t be right.”
Ash should let it drop, but he had a hard time when his curiosity had been roused. He put together everything Eli had and hadn’t said, along with the way certain people had been acting all semester and started chuckling. “Whitney finally cornered you alone and batted her eyes, thinking to seduce you, didn’t she?”
Eli groaned and shook his head. “More like she tried to take a club to my head so she could drag me off to her cave.”
Eli glared as Ash began laughing in earnest. He could picture it all too clearly. Eli had never noticed the signals from her, but the rest of the class had, and it had been the subject of many whispered conversations. Eli was so damn cl
ueless sometimes.
“I’m sorry,” he managed to say, when Eli’s eyes narrowed with dangerous intent. “I’d heard rumors from the girls in class that she had a thing going on with Professor Hayworth for about a year or so. I guess after he left, she picked you to be his replacement. You never heard about that, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.” Eli made an aggravated sound. “And I certainly didn’t expect to be ambushed like that in my own office. I know you’re worried that someone’s been snooping around, but they aren’t half as dangerous as she is. It’s going to be a long semester if she stays in the class.”
“She’ll behave herself.” Even if Ash had to pull her aside for a few pointed words. Eli had enough on his mind as it was, and Ash didn’t even want to think about how Britton would react to rumors about her.
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