by Cameron Dane
“Fine.” Four weeks of limitations and no job to rely on as an outlet turned Devlin’s tone somewhat surly. “But don’t be surprised if you go to watch last week’s True Blood and it’s mysteriously gone from the DVR.”
Maddie snorted and rolled her eyes. “Fat chance. You love that show too much to delete one just to spite me.”
“Maybe I’ve already watched it,” he shot back.
“You wouldn’t.” She didn’t even flinch. “Not without me.”
That was true. Pathetic and sad, but true. They shared an apartment, and neither one of them dated enough to disrupt any of their routines.
Their waitress breezed to the table right then, just long enough to deposit two plates of greasy food in front of Devlin and Maddie. She offered a quick “Enjoy” before moving on to the next group of customers entering the diner.
“Yeah, all right,” Devlin muttered as he picked up his bacon cheeseburger. “Shut up and eat your food.”
Maddie flashed him a fast smile and dug into her mile-high club sandwich.
* * * *
“You should at least consider giving Darren another shot,” Maddie said as she joined Devlin next to his car in the parking lot of Corsini’s Garage. “I don’t remember him being a chatterbox. Maybe you’re not doing enough talking and he feels like he has to fill in the awkward silences on his own.”
Devlin rolled his eyes. His sister had picked up their conversation from the diner as if she and Devlin hadn’t driven across town in separate vehicles.
“I’m going to go now, Maddie.” Devlin looked at her from over the hood of his piece of crap Corolla that Maddie kept alive with duct tape and prayer, and delivered a look that matched the firmness in his tone. “I’ll see you at home tonight.”
“No, wait! Come inside with me for a second. I want to show you something.”
“What now?” Devlin didn’t move. “I have to get to the hospital for my therapy session.”
“You have a few minutes,” she answered in a knowing voice. “It’s something you might want to consider buying when I’m done restoring it.” She sing-songed the information like the Pied Piper from over her shoulder, and Devlin could not ignore the enticing tune.
Devlin jogged and caught up to her side. “What is it?” She knew he hated his car but that he also refused to sink a pile of money into something new that wasn’t truly special.
“Just a ’77 Trans Am that will have all the interior specs and gleam with shiny black paint and the Pontiac Firebird insignia on the hood by the time I’m done with it.”
Shit. “Really?” Devlin used to watch a certain movie over and over when he was a kid, and he had latched onto wanting the damned car like nobody’s business.
“Really,” Maddie answered. She pushed open the side door to the garage and Devlin followed her inside the big, cavernous building. “It doesn’t look like much right now, but give us some time in between the jobs that pay the bills and Garrick and I will have it looking and running better than the original. Follow me.” She circled around two cars. “We have it curtained off and under canvas in back.”
They rounded the front end of an Accord and came across a pair of long legs encased in Corsini’s standard blue coveralls sticking out from under the car.
“Ooh, stay still, G.” Maddie tapped her boot against the boot of the guy under the car. “I think I remember the words to a double-dutch game I used to play when I was a kid.” Maddie proceeded to skip in a pattern over and between the man’s spread legs, all the while singing an old jump-roping song. At the end, she jumped a foot away with a grand “Ta-da! I did it.”
A chuckle drifted out from under the car, followed by a smooth, deep voice. “If you’re done skipping rope with my legs, Maddie, can you get me a new light? This one just died.”
Holy shit. Devlin trembled as the rich tone of that damned voice washed over his flesh. He knew that voice all the way down to his soul.
Devlin planted his hand against the hood of the Accord so he didn’t stumble.
He couldn’t fucking believe it.
“Gradyn?” This time his voice did croak.
Chapter One
Gradyn Connell in Redemption. Devlin’s mind spun with the information. He could not fathom it. Holy mother. Was the man here with his wife?
Maddie shot a puzzled glance in Devlin’s direction. “Gradyn? Did you mishear me? This is Garrick.” She stooped down, squeezed the man’s shin, and tugged him out from under the Accord. “He’s going to help me restore the Trans Am.”
The guy wheeled out on a rolling plank, revealing a fit body, and got to his feet. “Hi.” He wiped his grease-streaked hands on his coveralls and then stuck his right one out Devlin’s way. “Garrick Langley. Good to meet you.”
What the hell?
Devlin went lightheaded for a second time in as many minutes, and he leaned more heavily against the Accord to help hold himself steady. The voice attached to this new mechanic echoed in Devlin’s mind as Gradyn. The texture of it rippled through Devlin’s being as vividly as he recalled the rough hands of this man learning every inch of his body. He knew the command and tone of that fucking voice; he also still knew the shape and length of this man’s cock--that had taken Devlin’s ass with insane slowness and punishing power--that had branded Devlin both inside and out while looking at him through green eyes that pierced right into Devlin’s soul.
Only, right this second, Devlin looked into pure blue eyes, not green, and the lack of that connection sucker punched him. Before him stood a lean, sinewy fit man, not the wide shoulders and thicker bulk Devlin remembered of Gradyn Connell. This man’s skin was a handful of shades lighter than the allover tan skin Devlin remembered kissing from top to bottom. This person had raven-black hair, long enough that some of it was pulled back with an elastic band, and the rest looked as if it had worked loose of that band over the course of the morning. And fucking hell, the thing that Devlin couldn’t believe with his own eyes--fucking shit--this man didn’t have so much as a dot of indigo ink anywhere on his face, into his hairline, or down his neck. Devlin had touched those tattoos; he’d licked them and gotten into a shower with that man multiple times over that weekend in San Francisco. No way had they been surface ink. What the hell?
“Dev.” Maddie jabbed him in the shoulder. “You’re being rude.”
“Sorry.” Devlin snapped back into the moment and realized the man still had his hand reached out in offering. “Garrick, you said?” Devlin asked. He slid his hand into the warm clasp of this person who was not a stranger.
Damned well wasn’t any Garrick Langley either, whoever that was.
“Yes, my name is Garrick,” the guy said as he shook Devlin’s hand. “And I take it you’re Maddie’s other brother? I’ve met the chief already.”
You’ve met me too, you bastard. You fucking lived inside me for almost forty-eight hours straight.
Devlin didn’t let go of “Garrick’s” hand when the man made to pull away. “Yep, I’m Devlin, the other brother,” he replied. That not right blue gaze shot to his, and the long fingers clasped around his contracted.
“You seem familiar,” Devlin pushed. “Are you sure we haven’t met?”
“I just moved to Redemption a month ago.” Garrick narrowed his stare, as if studying Devlin under a microscope. “I don’t think we’ve crossed paths in town.”
Devlin noticed he didn’t exactly answer the question. “Where were you before you came here?”
“DC.”
Not San Francisco. Or Oakland. Didn’t matter. Maybe Garrick--formerly known as Gradyn, Devlin damned well knew it--had moved from one coast to the other with his girlfriend after they got married.
“How’s your wife?” Devlin asked.
That got the man tugging against their handhold again, and this time Devlin let him go. “I’m not married.” Confusion mapped the guy’s tattoo-free features and raised his voice higher. He held up his ring-less left hand, and there wasn’t any leftove
r tan line in sight from something he might have recently removed. “Never have been.”
Maddie suddenly pounced and landed a stinging punch on Devlin’s arm. “What the hell is wrong with you?” She turned to Garrick and put a hand on his wrist. “G, I’m sorry my brother’s being such a jackass. If it makes you change your mind about helping me restore the Trans Am for him, I understand.”
“No, it’s okay.” Garrick waved his hand in a dismissive manner. He crouched back down and sat on the edge of the rolling board. “I obviously look like someone he knows. That has to be kind of weird. No harm done. Nice to meet you, Devlin.” The guy looked up at Devlin and held his gaze in silence for a prolonged heartbeat. “I hope I’ll see you again.” Then he lay back on the board and disappeared under the car.
Devlin rubbed his arm and tried to warm away the goose bumps that had lifted under his skin. For that split second Garrick had stared at him, Devlin had felt naked.
Just like Gradyn made me feel five years ago in that club.
“What the hell, Dev?” Maddie jabbed his arm again, her punch as good as any featherweight boxer. “Come with me before I change my mind about restoring this car for you.”
She grabbed his arm, and Devlin let Maddie drag him across the spacious, open building to the far back corner of the garage. His thoughts remained on Garrick, though, now some fifty feet behind him. Something suddenly hit Devlin. Garrick had forgotten the replacement light he’d initially asked Maddie to hand him. He had slid under the Accord again, under the pretense of working, without a light.
He hid himself under that car. Away from me. He damn well knows who I am. And now he knows I recognize him too.
Question upon question spun in Devlin’s head. Why was Gradyn calling himself Garrick now? Or was Garrick real, and Gradyn the lie? Why had he so drastically altered his appearance? Why was he pretending he and Devlin had never met? And why had he come to Redemption?
Devlin had nothing but time on his hands these days, and he intended to find some answers.
* * * *
Devlin stared at his computer screen and scanned through the list of e-mails in “Gradyn’s” folder. Six months worth of communication, and he couldn’t help smiling at some of the subject lines from Gradyn to him. Miss You, Devlin and Horny Tonight and Something Cool I Had To Tell You and A’s Beat Bo-Sox, Suck It and I Want Your Cock So Bad, just to name a few. A handful that dealt with more serious subject matters were mixed in too. So Sorry About Your Mom and Daddy Issues? Heh. Can You Have Those If You’ve Never Had One? and Lost An Old Friend Today; I Fucking Hate Meth.
Then Devlin glanced over the ones that had come during the last month of their long-distance relationship, where the subject matter had changed to increasingly benign, until the final one, with the header I Have To Tell You The Truth.
Highlighting it, Devlin opened the e-mail, as he’d done a thousand times the first few months after receiving it. Since then, he had avoided it and the stab of betrayal it sent through his gut each time he read the words.
Devlin--I had fun with you, please don’t think everything was a lie. I met you at a tough time in my life, a place where I was in transition and had to make some huge choices. I needed to know if committing to my girlfriend was what I really wanted out of life.
You’re a good guy. I enjoyed experimenting with you, but I see now that was all it was, an experiment. I’ve been with my girlfriend for a long time, and I love her. About a month ago, I told her everything about us--the weekend, the phone calls, and the e-mails. We’re stronger now than we ever were, and I’ve asked her to marry me. She said yes, and now it’s time to focus completely on my real life.
I’ve been struggling with how to tell you all this, but I realize that I just have to do it. I won’t be calling or e-mailing you anymore, and I won’t respond to any attempts to contact me. I’m sorry if this hurts you. When I approached you in that club, I didn’t have anything but a night of fucking in mind.
Goodbye,
Gradyn
Devlin only winced a little bit as the sensation of a knife twisting in his stomach assaulted him all over again. He forgave himself the shadow of lingering pain, considering he’d just seen the very man few hours ago. Gradyn or Garrick, lean or thick, blue or green eyes, bald or a head full of hair, tattoos or ink free ... the surface didn’t matter. Didn’t change the DNA of the man. Didn’t change the heart and personality of the person Devlin had somehow fallen in love with over the course of one incredible weekend. Of course, Devlin wouldn’t have thought the man he had come to know so well capable of sending this last e-mail--of Devlin being his dirty little secret--so what the hell did he really know?
Staring at the words on the monitor now, four and a half years away from reading this e-mail for the first time, it still sounded surreal and like the words of a stranger. This wasn’t the style of the guy Devlin had spent a weekend fucking and getting to know, nor like the man he’d traded a hundred other e-mails with, as well as dozens more phone calls.
Unless, as Gradyn had hinted, that man Devlin had gotten to know was a vacation from the life of the real Gradyn Connell. That would make the increasingly distant e-mails during the last month, as well as this final one, the true Gradyn. Or Garrick. Or whoever the hell this multi-faced, multi-named, multi-lives person turned out to be.
Devlin scrolled back to the first e-mail Gradyn had sent after their weekend together.
Hey, Devlin--
Goddamn it, man. I told myself I’d be cool and walk away. It was just supposed to be a couple days of fun. What the hell is wrong with me? I feel so lame right now. If you’re laughing at me, I’ll fucking come find you and spank your ass.
Seriously, though, I want to be real clear about something, and I’m not sure I did a good job of it while we were together.
Dev, I think that was the most incredible two days I’ve ever had in my life. It was because of you. You needed to know that.
I don’t know what the hell to do next. I miss your voice and I’m pretty sure the next fucking thing I’m going to do is pick up the phone and call you.
Still hard,
Gradyn
Devlin chuckled and grinned, just as he’d done when finding this e-mail in his Inbox only minutes after getting home from the airport five years ago. Everything in Devlin’s gut, everything in his ability to read people, told him this e-mail, not the final one, was the heart and soul of the man he’d gotten to know within the confines of one small motel room in a faraway city...
*
...The motel room door slammed into the wall as it opened. Gradyn, fully in charge, forced Devlin inside and shoved him up against that same wall the second after he kicked the door closed. Both men breathed heavily from the kisses they’d shared on the stairs and in the hallway. Gradyn clutched Devlin’s head in his big hands and dipped down, devouring his mouth all over again.
Devlin held onto Gradyn’s waist and opened himself up to a hot, wet taking of his mouth, reveling in the big, male body crowding him into the immovable wall at his back. Devlin licked back with equal fervor, tangled his tongue with this other man’s, and fused himself to Gradyn. Gradyn’s hard cock pressed deeply into Devlin’s lower belly, and Devlin wanted nothing so much as to see it and touch it without two layers of clothes between them.
“Lemme...” Devlin pulled at the man’s belt with one hand and curled his hand around a thick, solid cock with the other.
Oh shit, it’s big.
Gradyn jerked at first contact and then ground himself into the touch. He growled and bit at Devlin’s kiss-swollen lips while he snaked his hands down Devlin’s back. Gradyn yanked Devlin’s shirt out of his jeans, giving some skin on skin contact that had Devlin moaning for more. The man delved his hands under Devlin’s shirt and pushed it off over his head, forcing a break in their kiss.
With a low whistle, Gradyn dropped his attention to Devlin’s chest and abdomen, took a backward step into the room, and shrugged out of his leather jacket.
“Goddamn it, beautiful.” He never took his eyes off Devlin as he reached down and unlaced his boots. “Get those jeans off and show me that pretty ass. I need to fuck you.”
Adrenaline flooded Devlin with breakneck speed and had him running to the nightstand next to the double bed. “I have the stuff.” He fumbled with the finicky drawer hinges, wrestled the thing open, and commanded his fingers to listen to the order from his brain to stop trembling. “I don’t know what you want,” he rambled as he withdrew a large bottle of lube, “but I think I have everything we could possibly need.”
He heard the rustling of clothing as it was presumably being removed and hitting the floor, and then Gradyn said, “I have my own condoms, but I’ll need your lube.” That smooth, deep voice wrapped around Devlin from across the room, shimmering phantom touches over his bare back. “I only have enough slick for one round, and I can already tell that’s not going to be nearly enough with you.”
Oh, Jesus. Devlin sucked in a gulp of cleansing air. It’s really going to happen. “Okay.” Devlin’s heart continued to race faster than it ever had, almost burning his chest. He kept his head down and his back turned as he undressed, needing the extra few minutes to gather his nerves. After toeing off his shoes and socks, he finished undoing his belt and slipped off his jeans and boxer briefs.
He breathed, searching for calm again. Shit, though, he’d never been completely naked with a man. Showers in gym class did not qualify as being nude with another guy. At least, not in this sense. It didn’t count unless the other guy admired and craved the same things he did.
Suddenly, a furnace of male heat covered Devlin’s bare backside. “Fucking incredible,” Gradyn murmured at Devlin’s ear. His lips grazed Devlin’s nape, and a big, calloused hand swept over the hills of Devlin’s buttocks. “I knew you’d have a great ass.” As Gradyn said that, he slipped a finger into Devlin’s crack.