Endings and Beginnings (Death and Destruction Book 8)

by Patricia Logan

  Nico whimpered as Mac kissed him, tangling their tongues with a fervor that equaled his own. Mac felt Devecchio’s fingers dig into his skin through the soft fabric of his dress shirt and the sharp sting of Nico’s nails through the soft fabric shot straight to his balls. He wanted Mac as much and as desperately as Mac wanted him.

  It had been forever since Mac had taken a man to bed and just the thought of Nico as a willing partner thrilled the hell out of him. His cock throbbed with need and as Nico moved against him, giving his dick friction, Mac tried to stop himself from coming right then and there. He felt like he was about to burst. Mac kissed Nico, enjoying the tiny noises the man was making as his tongue played inside his mouth. He ignored the very real fact that they were out in the open, making out like two teenagers in the parking garage where Mac worked. Anyone could come down at any time and catch them in a very compromising position. After all, he’d pinned Nico back against a concrete pillar in the FBI’s parking garage and they were grinding against each other like crazy. He suddenly realized how very public they were and how badly he wanted privacy so that he could rip off every last shred of Nico’s clothes. He pulled his mouth away and looked down into Nico’s face.

  “We need to take this somewhere else,” he panted, thrilled to see Nico’s chest heaving and his face flushed as well.

  “Yeah.”

  “We can go to my place. I’m parked over there.” He pointed to his Range Rover. “You want to follow me?” He swallowed hard around the lump in his throat, praying Devecchio would agree. Mac didn’t think he could handle rejection at the moment. The very thought of having a naked Nico Devecchio in his arms was really doing it for him.

  “Yeah, Mac, fine,” Nico said, nodding.

  “Come on, baby.” Mac stepped back and reached down, taking Nico’s hand. He pulled him over to the truck and as they passed by Nico’s more sedate Nissan Altima, Nico stopped him. Mac looked down at their joined hands and then up at him. “What’s wrong?”

  “I should probably follow you. I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave my car here over night. Besides, someone might see us driving together and think it was odd.”

  Mac dropped his hand. He had every intention of keeping Nico at his place all night long. He’d been lusting for the man for all too long as it was. He wasn’t looking for a one-night stand and he really hoped Nico was like-minded.

  “Yeah, okay.” He smiled at Nico. “But you’re gonna follow me, right?”

  “Yeah, Mac. I’m right on your heels. Just text me your address to be safe, you know, in case you lose me on the freeway or something.”

  Mac was relieved their teams had thought to exchange numbers when they were working the last case together. He pulled out his phone and texted his address to Nico. When his phone chimed, Nico pulled the phone out of his jacket and checked the display. He smiled down at Mac’s text and replaced the phone in his jacket. Nodding at Mac, he walked away from him, toward his car. Mac waited until he’d climbed inside before walking to his own truck and getting in. He started the engine with a roar and couldn’t help the smile that spread across his lips.

  ****

  Nico couldn’t believe he’d had the courage to do what he’d just done and now here he was, one step closer to his goal of getting McBride M. McCallahan, the massive ginger bear he’d fallen hard and fast for, into his bed, right where he belonged. All he could think of—in fact, all he’d been thinking of for months—was gathering the courage to tell Mac what he really felt for him. He’d had no idea if Mac was gay or not and the fear of being flattened to the concrete by one of those massive fists or worse, having Mac despise or hate him because he was gay, was scary as hell.

  One thing about being gay, you never stopped coming out. Every time you took a new job, you had to come out. Every time you made a new friend or acquaintance, you had to come out. Every time you liked a guy, you had to pray to God that he wasn’t going to beat the shit out of you if you told him you wanted him. It had happened to Nico more than once. In fact, he knew very few gay men who hadn’t faced either a violent reaction or outright mocking and anger at some point in time. It sucked big time.

  By the time Nico joined the team, his colleagues, Jarrett and Thayne, were already out, announcing their engagement just as Nico began working with them. He watched the faces of the men he worked with whenever Jarrett or Thayne entered a room and Nico saw nothing but acceptance. No one seemed to care at all that they were gay, not even Mac and his partner, Lincoln, who accepted them as good friends. If men like that—macho men like that—had no problem with two gay men, then Nico had hope that they would be open to his own sexual orientation, but one never knew.

  Right now, Nico was known to the team as the same brilliant nerd that he’d always been, but he wanted something more. He hadn’t told anyone about the real reason he’d chosen to leave the New York Police Department. He’d joined up with high hopes of making a difference and being a cop was the most natural thing Nico could think of. He’d worshipped cops when he was younger and he’d always wanted to put on that uniform and get respect. He’d had the image of getting waves and smiles from ordinary citizens as he walked a beat, twirling his night stick, every day. The trouble with that idea was that the reality of his life was anything but that.

  Once his captain had gotten a look at his test scores and his college transcripts, he’d paired him with a partner who had a particularly bad reputation. In hindsight, Nico wondered whether his captain wanted him to wash out or be scared off. Maybe he’d been intimidated by Nico’s IQ and just had no idea what to do with a guy who should by all rights be working at NASA or the FBI’s cybercrimes division.

  Right away, Nico was convinced his partner was dirty and in the long run, he turned out to be. The only problem with that was, it had been Nico who’d finally turned him in and after his interview with Internal Affairs, he’d been ostracized. No one on the department wanted to work with a “rat” even though Nico had told the truth. His captain had transferred him down to the evidence locker and he’d been told for his own safety, he’d never have a partner or work out on the street where he might need backup again. He was punished for telling the truth about a dirty cop. Even the guys down in evidence sneered at him. He was persona non grata everywhere in the NYPD.

  Nico had done as his captain had probably hoped. He’d quit the department and applied to work elsewhere when it had become evident that his career would be forever stalled with the NYPD. He put in applications with both the FBI and the ATF and he’d been offered jobs by both agencies. It had been hard to decide which job to take but then he’d heard about the elite team of agents who’d brought down so many evil criminals and about the wild way they’d done a lot of it. So he’d asked SAC Stanger to hire him and assign him to their group. Somehow, he’d been lucky and he’d thanked the saints the day that Stanger had called to tell him who he’d be working with. Nico couldn’t have been more elated. He’d never had the chance to prove his potential on the police department. He’d never had the chance to show them how good he was. Now, all Nico wanted was to be known as a good agent.

  With this assignment, he relished the opportunity to show the others he wasn’t so damned one-dimensional. He was going to prove what a damned great undercover he could be. On top of all that, getting this assignment had given him the courage to admit his desires to Mac, fear of getting killed or not. Thank God it had worked out and just the idea that Mac had been wanting him too, floored Nico.

  He followed Mac’s Range Rover onto the freeway and when his truck transitioned onto the 10 West, he was a little surprised that they were headed for the beach. They got off in Santa Monica, not far from Nico’s house on the west side. He smiled to himself. Just the image of Mac walking down to the beach in board shorts and a tank top with his massive arm muscles exposed, had Nico half hard. The man just did it for Nico in every possible way. From the red hair on top of his head, to the freckles sprinkled all over his skin, to his beautiful amber
eyes, everything about McBride made Nico horny as hell.

  After a few blocks, Mac pulled onto a side street with old growth trees and parked his car in front of a small house. Nico was just a little surprised. Houses weren’t common in this neighborhood of apartment buildings. Usually, the owners were holdouts who refused to sell their turn of the century property to developers who wanted to tear them down and put up apartments or condos to sell at a massive profit. Nico found parking across the street and walked over to Mac who waited for him in front of the small house. He smiled as Nico walked up and held out his arm. Nico grinned back and tucked himself against Mac’s body as the man surrounded his shoulders and turned him toward the house.

  “I live in the back house,” he said. It might have been Nico’s imagination but Mac’s voice sounded thick with desire.

  “Okay.” Nico nodded, not realizing until Mac pointed it out, that the house was actually a duplex. They walked down the narrow one-car driveway past the front house to another in the back. Mac let them inside after opening the metal security door. Nico also noticed the windows of the house had bars all around. That wasn’t unusual for some neighborhoods in LA but this area was upscale. He made a mental note to ask about it when he had a moment. For now, all Nico wanted was to be naked with his dream man in his arms.

  They stepped into a small living room which Nico wasn’t surprised to find very neat with a comfortable-looking couch upholstered in a navy-blue velour fabric and a matching recliner off to the side. Between the two pieces of furniture was an end table made of some dark wood which supported a lamp, two remote controls, and a coaster that looked like it was ready for an adult beverage of some sort. The coffee table matched the end table and it was barren but for a crocheted doily and a flower pot which appeared to contain a fake lily of some sort.

  Nico smiled at the doily wondering who’d fabricated such a dainty piece for an otherwise macho universe. Nico knew instantly that someone loved Mac a whole lot but not only that, he loved that person right back. Moreover, it was obvious that Mac was a bachelor. Despite the flower pot and the crocheted doily, he lived alone. There was nothing womanly about his place. The floors were apartment-quality gray carpet and the window coverings were plain white blinds which matched the plain white walls. The only pictures on the walls were photographs of men in military fatigues. As much as he wanted to check out the pictures more closely, he wanted to check out Mac even more. The big man must have had a similar idea because the moment Nico took his eyes off the contents of Mac’s living room and glanced at the man whose hand he still held, Mac dragged him up against his body and began kissing the life out of him.

  Chapter Three

  The fact that Nicodemo Devecchio’s body felt absolutely perfect when pressed against him, shouldn’t have surprised Mac. He’d been holding him in his arms in his dreams practically since they’d first been introduced. Mac couldn’t remember when he’d been so attracted to a man before. Though gay, Mac hadn’t always slept with men. He’d felt pressured as a younger man into sleeping with women—actually, no one had pressured him—he’d kind of pressured himself. He hadn’t grown up wanting to admit to being attracted to other boys and by the time he’d turned thirteen, he’d decided to put away his thoughts about them and concentrate on trying to like the girls in his class.

  He’d fooled himself for a while. He’d even been able to fool his dad, who was a great man whom Mac worshipped. When he’d died leaving him to support his mom, Mac had joined the Army instead of going to college. He’d only gotten his degree while bringing home a paycheck as an infantryman and taking online courses at night.

  The thing about most women, though it took Mac a while to catch on, was that they were fairly perceptive about the opposite sex. If they were the kind of woman who slept around, they knew when a guy was into them and when he wasn’t. Mac had always been the strong silent type so women gravitated to him in droves. He hadn’t really had to make much of an effort to get them into bed. However, once he’d performed, a lot of them had actually called him out. He’d fallen for one blonde who’d eventually become a friend. But, after they’d first slept together, she’d cuddled up to him and asked him why he dated women when he wasn’t attracted to them.

  She wasn’t the only one who asked him that, just the only one who’d accepted Mac for who he was, a gay man playing at being a straight man because he thought he had no other choice. It had been hard for him to admit who he really was but in the end, he’d thanked her for calling him on his bullshit even though he really wasn’t convinced he wasn’t bisexual. She was the last female he’d slept with. Beyond that, it had taken years in the military and a rise to Special Forces before Mac could finally admit to himself that he didn’t like women in that way at all. After all, if he was man enough to die on the battlefield, he was man enough to love who he wanted to love. He’d come a long way in accepting who he was but once he had, Mac had become determined to hold out for the right man. He wasn’t sure if Nico was that man, but Mac was going to make every effort to find out. Why not start in bed?

  Nico’s mouth felt amazing under his. The man tasted divine and smelled even better. Even though they’d worked all day long, going over the mission that they were both about to be thrown into together, Nico still had a whisper of Aqua di Gio on his skin. His black beard had grown out to a short stubble but when Mac’s lips scraped over it as he trailed kisses from his mouth up the side of his jaw, the feel of it was so sexy, he couldn’t stand it. He suddenly wanted to lick him all over. Nico was absolutely dream worthy and masculine as hell and Mac loved every inch of him.

  “You know, I don’t want to rush you or anything but I want you in my bed right now,” Mac growled low at his ear.

  “I want that too, Mac,” Nico said.

  Mac let go of him and took his hand again, closing his fingers around Nico’s and dragging him down the short hallway. Once inside his bedroom, Mac walked to the foot of his king-size bed and took off his suit jacket, pulling at his tie. He turned to find Nico standing just inside the doorway staring at him.

  “Come on. Get undressed,” Mac said. He knew there was nothing romantic about the way he talked to Nico but in his experience, other guys didn’t want help out of their clothes. His partners had usually been just as happy to take off their own clothes, as not to.

  “Yeah, I will. But right now, I want to watch you for a minute,” Nico replied with a small smile. “I’ve been imagining what was underneath your clothes for so long that just seeing all of you is the most erotic thing I can think of. Is that okay?”

  Nico’s voice was like butter. The Brooklyn accent the guy had was fucking sexy as hell. The way he was staring at Mac with what his mother would call hot eyes, was even sexier. As a kid, whenever he’d go into her kitchen and watch her cooking something he really loved, she’d tell him that she recognized his desire for what she was making by the way he watched the food with hot eyes. That’s just how Nico was watching him undress and it was a bit of a turn-on. Mac had never thought of himself as an exhibitionist but if watching is what Nicodemo wanted, that’s exactly what he was going to give him the chance to do.

  Mac nodded. “Yeah. Knock yourself out.”

  Mac pulled off his tie and tossed it away onto a valet stand where he hung his suit jacket next. When he was down to shirt sleeves, he unbuttoned his shirt, letting it hang open. He grabbed his belt, pulling it open as he looked up to catch Nico’s hooded brown eyes watching him closely. He had the palm of his hand pressed to the placket of his slacks but he did nothing to undress, instead preferring to concentrate on the great unveiling happening right in front of him. Mac cracked a half smile and continued with the undressing.

  He worked his belt free of its loops and then slid the zipper of his slacks over his hardening cock. McBride wasn’t a small man… anywhere. He didn’t know whether it was his Scottish ancestors that he had to thank for the size of the beer can he hid in his slacks but whatever it was, Mac knew he was hung. Th
at had turned out to be a problem with a lot of his sexual partners. Women were anxious to see if they could take it all and if not, whether they could give a good enough blowjob to satisfy him.

  Guys were a totally different story. For obvious reasons, fucking a man with a cock like Mac’s took time and a hell of a lot of patience for both parties. Mac had learned to top with extreme care. He never bottomed and had to settle for a good blowjob if a guy wouldn’t let him penetrate. It wasn’t that Mac was opposed to bottoming. He’d just never met a guy who didn’t want to try to take him inside first. He figured it was one of the reasons guys went out with him. They guessed what he was packing and once they saw it and fell on it, that was all she wrote. Besides, once he’d worked his way inside a guy, Mac knew how to screw. Some guys got off on the stretch alone and others got off the second he was inside. If a guy let him play the way he wanted to, staying inside and giving him an awesome ride, he often sent the guy home with memories of the best orgasms of his life.

  Bottoming looked like fun to him and he’d often wanted to try to take a man’s cock. He just didn’t trust easily. The last thing Mac needed was a bad memory and a lot of pain when he just wanted satisfaction. As far as satisfying his partner, Mac knew he was good in bed. He just had to take the time with a guy to put him at ease before they started. You’re getting ahead of yourself. Mac wasn’t sure he was even going to get that far with Nico. As far as he knew, they were going to get naked and then trade mutual blowjobs.

  He glanced over at Nico. He was rubbing himself in earnest. Mac could see the not-so-small bulge in Nico’s suit pants. He was turned on just by watching Mac strip. So be it. He slipped his slacks down his thighs, baring the soft stretchy fabric of his boxer briefs. Mac toed out of his shoes and then stepped out of his pants. When he glanced up at Devecchio again, the man was prowling toward him with the catlike grace he’d noticed in the parking garage. Mac stopped what he was doing to watch.