by April Dinh
Although he was in the other room, Pyke heard their conversation just fine as he took out a frozen coffee cake and tossed it into the oven. He took a serving tray from under the sink and had set the mugs on it when he heard tapping at his back door.
With a frown, Pyke walked over then growled when he saw it was Payton. Nester’s mom wasn’t the only one who would get a concussion for the many hints dropped on their head.
“What?” Pyke snarled when he yanked the door open. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
“Is that the thanks I get for helping you out?” He sauntered in past Pyke. “Put your attitude away so we can talk.”
The voices in the other room went silent.
“There’s nothing for us to talk about.” Pyke stood by the door, his hand still gripping the knob. “And I don’t recall inviting you in.”
“Oh please, like that ever stopped me before.” Payton had the nerve to hop onto the counter and swing his legs. “I overheard a stranger talking at the gas station. I heard your name and someone called Nester. I assume that’s your new slut.”
“Watch your mouth,” Pyke warned. “What guy?”
“Oh, now you’re interested in what I have to say?” Payton pursed his lips. “I have no idea who he was or who the woman with him was, but I heard your name several times, and the guy’s tone wasn’t friendly. See, I’m here to save your life, not destroy it.”
Pyke could have the sheriff look at the video from the gas station to see who the strangers were. “Thanks, now you can go.”
Payton tilted his head back and sniffed. “Oh my god, is that coffee cake? You know I love that shit.”
Pyke knew that. Payton loved to bake. In all honesty, Payton’s apple pie was even better than Cyril’s. That was the one and only thing he missed about Payton.
And his cat. Pyke had grown a soft spot for Bilbo Baggins. Yep, that was what Payton had named his feline friend.
“It would help if you didn’t call it shit.” Pyke waved toward the backyard. Nester was already stressed, and meeting Pyke’s ex wouldn’t help matters. “Now get out.”
“Is this your ex?”
Pyke closed his eyes at the sound of Nester’s voice. Shit. He turned and gave Nester a strained smile. “Nester, this is Payton, who was just leaving.”
“After I get some coffee cake.” Payton hopped down from the counter, and Pyke’s heart thundered as the two assessed each other. He was expecting a war to break out, for Payton to open his mouth and say something crass. Pyke wasn’t sure what Nester would do since he was still getting to know his mate.
He just hoped his balls were still intact by the time Payton left, because the look on Nester’s face said he wasn’t happy about this.
If Payton didn’t leave, Pyke feared Nester would make good on his promise never to have sex with him again.
* * * *
“I think he asked you to leave.” Nester wasn’t a fighter by any stretch of the imagination. He wasn’t the physical type, but Payton was completely disrespecting him, acting as if he still had access to Pyke.
“Oh, honey. Don’t get your panties in a twist. I didn’t come here to persuade your stud into getting back with me. I came to warn him about danger.”
“What danger?” Nester asked as the sheriff stepped into the kitchen, looking among them, a pained crease to his eyes as if he were expecting a brawl to break out.
The floozy was slim and dainty enough that Nester could take him. He’d smack the taste out of Payton’s mouth if it came down to that.
He glared at him as Payton explained about seeing some guy in the gas station who was talking about Pyke. Nester’s gut clenched, and he felt frozen inside. Thank goodness the sheriff had given his phone back. Nester turned the volume down, played the video, and then stopped it when Dublin’s face was clear.
Nester turned his phone around and asked, “Is this the guy?”
“You know him?” Payton pursed his lips. “See, Pyke. You’re new squeeze is shady as fuck.”
“Shut up and describe the woman he was with,” Pyke said.
Woman? Dreed pooled in Nester’s stomach as Payton described his mother. Fuck. What the hell was going on? Why would Norma Jean be talking to Dublin? Was that how she figured out where Nester was staying?
Pyke and the sheriff looked at Nester.
“What am I missing?” Payton asked.
“The door,” Nester replied. “And if you keep harassing Pyke, I’m going to bitch-slap you.” He crossed the room, but Pyke moved in front of him. “I don’t need the rescue,” he argued.
“No need to get testy. I was leaving.” Payton walked to the back door. “That’s what I get for trying to help you.”
“What the hell is going on?” Sheriff Copache asked when Payton left. “Why would your mother be talking to Irish thugs?”
“I have no idea.” It was the truth. He knew his mother was out there, but Nester never thought she would be conversing with the enemy. Did she even know who Dublin was, or had he approached her under a ruse?
“Let me see the video.” Pyke held his hand out, and Nester gave him the phone.
“I’m going in the other room. I don’t want to see or hear that video again.” Nester was so over people being killed. He was relieved the sheriff wasn’t going to press any charges against him, but Nester still had Dublin to worry about.
He paced the living room, something he normally didn’t do, but found he was doing it a lot at Pyke’s house. No, he refused to believe his mother had anything to do with the thug. She was a lot of hateful things, but not even she would hand Nester over to criminals.
Would she?
Pyke came into the room and handed Nester his phone. “I sent that video to Grayson’s phone before he left. Call your mom and hint around at the guy she met at the gas station. If she’s in on this, I don’t want to tip our hand. If she isn’t, she needs to be warned.”
“Great, now she has something else to hold against me. It’s not like she ever wanted me in the first place.”
“I want you,” Pyke said. “That’s all that matters, sweetheart. If she wants to snub you, then that’s her loss.”
Nester’s heart freaking melted. “Really?”
“Hon, it’s not just about sex between us. I keep telling you that.” He gave Nester a quick kiss. “Call your mom.”
“Do I have to?” Nester didn’t mean to whine, but he really didn’t want to talk to her. He wasn’t in the mood for her disparaging words. Their conversations always made him feel worthless.
Pyke hauled Nester close, curling his arms around him. “Can you do it for me? We need to know if she’s in on this.”
“Asking me to cut my nuts off would be easier,” Nester said. “Lord knows she neuters me every time she opens her mouth.”
“Was she really that bad?”
“You’ve met her, remember?” Nester sighed as he called her, dreading their conversation. “I told you what she did to me and my dad, so yeah, she was that bad.”
Pyke slid in behind Nester and held him as he waited for her to answer. When the call dumped to voice mail, Nester said, “Hey, Mom. I need you to call me.”
He hung up.
“We can try again later.” Pyke let him go and dropped onto the couch.
“What do you mean we? I don’t remember you dialing her number, chicken shit.”
Pyke yawned, and Nester felt the weariness in his bones. It wasn’t just lack of sleep, either. Too much was going on, and all Nester wanted was for the crazy train to slow down and let him off for a while.
He curled up on the couch next to Pyke and rested his head on his mate’s arm. “I think we both could use some sleep.”
“You’re right, and I’m not a chicken shit. I just don’t believe in being rude to my mate’s mother.” He shrugged. “I was raised better than that, and I refuse to lower myself to her level.”
“I’d forgive you if you did.” Nester tucked his feet under him, fighting
his drooping eyelids. “She didn’t make my life, or my dad’s, any easier. I think we would have been better off without her.”
Nester felt guilty for saying those words out loud. No matter what kind of person she was, Norma Jean was still his mom. She was far from perfect, but deep down, he loved her.
Very deep down, buried under the painful memories she’d given him.
Chapter Eight
Pyke had put Nester to bed, but as his mate slept, Pyke lay there wide awake, staring at the window as he tried to make heads or tails of what Payton had told him. Why would Nester’s mother meet with Dublin? If Nester was his target, could he be using Norma Jean as leverage?
Pyke and Nester barely knew each other. But hell, Nester was his mate, and that meant everything to Pyke. It was his one chance at true happiness, and that meant Dublin had to be dealt with.
Which meant Pyke would have to go on the hunt, because damn if he was waiting around for the bastard to strike.
But for now, Pyke turned on his side and gazed at Nester while his mate slept, finding comfort in the fact that neither of them would ever be alone again.
“If you keep staring at me like that, I’m going to think you want me,” Nester said with his eyes still closed.
A smile tugged at Pyke’s lips. Never would he have guessed his mate to be such a horndog. Nester just kept amazing him. “I’ll always want you, Nester.”
That statement made him think of earlier, when Nester told him that his mother hadn’t even wanted him. Pyke’s heart hurt for him. That had to be tragic growing up, knowing your own mother despised you.
But Pyke would always let his mate know just what he meant to him, even if their romance was just budding. Pyke had no doubt his feelings for Nester would grow by leaps and bounds.
Nester tossed back the blanket and wiggled out of his clothes. Fuck if that wasn’t a wondrous sight. Pyke smiled at the urgent way his mate was undressing. “Were you getting hot?”
“For you,” Nester answered as a smile played at his lips, his eyes still closed, as if the little imp were pretending to talk and move in his sleep.
Pyke would worry about their problems later. Right now all he could concentrate on was the gorgeous sight right in front of his eyes. All that smooth, pale skin, the needy look in Nester’s eyes when he cracked them open, and the way he was palming his own cock.
That was an invitation in the most blatant form of arousal. His eyes took in the small flare of his mate’s milky mounds as he lay there with his balls centered between his legs. It was the sexiest sight he’d seen in ages. Their kiss was slow, soft, teasing tongues and the brushing of lips. Pyke’s hand went to Nester’s swollen cock, knocking his mate’s hand away, and then Pyke stroked the hard erection gently.
Nester hissed into his mouth, groaning as he punched his hips upward.
When Pyke made no move toward Nester, the small man slid from the bed and knelt before him.
Pyke wasn’t sure what his mate was doing, but seeing Nester stare up at him made Pyke feel godlike. His mate gave a wicked smirk as he reached up and curled his fist around Pyke’s cock. Clear liquid glistened, pearls of pre-cum sitting on the slit.
Nester leaned upward and swiped his tongue across the head, eliciting a loud groan from Pyke. It was such an erotic sight. Nester’s eyes slowly closed as his lips parted, taking the head of Pyke’s cock between them.
Pyke’s leg muscles tightened as Nester’s tongue worked its magic. Pyke fisted his hands, stopping his body from jerking forward and forcing his entire cock into Nester’s mouth. Light ripples washed through him as Nester skimmed his hands up and down Pyke’s thighs.
“Sweetheart,” Pyke groaned as his thigh muscles grew rigid. He was fighting with everything in him not to move. His body ached to sink into his mate, but he sat there allowing Nester his time.
And hell if it didn’t feel fucking fantastic, too.
Pyke skated his hands over Nester’s hair as he felt his orgasm approaching. In one smooth motion, Nester leaned all the way forward and swallowed Pyke whole.
Pyke shouted to the room as he came down his mate’s throat, hot spurts jerking from his balls. Pyke shivered at his release and then grabbed his mate, tossing him onto his back on the bed.
He had to be inside of him. Pyke felt like he would die if he didn’t feel Nester’s body wrapped around his cock in the next five seconds. He grabbed the lube from the drawer, feeling just as desperate and needy as Nester looked. Shit. No one had ever made him lose control like this.
He needed, and he needed now. Pyke wet his fingers, shoving two into his mate as he quickly stretched him. He prayed it would be enough because the animal inside of him—the animal inside every man—was about to be unleashed.
Pyke snatched his hand free and then lined up his lubed cock, slamming home as he pulled one of Nester’s legs up onto the bed. His fingers curled around his mate’s shoulders as he hammered his cock between the two small mounds. His mate stretched beautifully for him.
“Yes, harder, Pyke. Fuck me like you mean it.”
Nester grabbed Pyke’s shoulders and rode his cock, plunging his hips upward as he took his pleasure. Pyke grabbed Nester’s hips and thrust forward, meeting each stroke.
Pyke was certain that, in years to come, Nester would still be surprising him. He slammed Nester’s body onto his cock as sweat rolled down his face and back.
Pyke cupped Nester’s ass and fell to his back, gazing up as his mate rode him.
Nester grinned, his pretty eyes filled with lust. “I like this position. It feels like you went deeper.”
“So fucking perfect.” Pyke pressed a hand to Nester’s jaw. How had he survived this long without Nester in his life? His mate filled the loneliness inside Pyke that he’d been living with for so long. His past lovers had never been able to achieve that. None had ever been able to make him truly happy.
But now Pyke felt his heart swell as he stared up at Nester. His mate’s palms were resting against Pyke’s chest, his eyes closed, his lips parted as he rode up and down on Pyke’s erection.
They’d just met, yet Pyke felt himself falling for Nester, making himself vulnerable by giving his heart over.
His inner beast roared as Pyke took Nester in the most primal way. Their bodies collided repeatedly, harshly, as Nester cried for more. Pyke was only too happy to oblige.
“Pyke!” Nester shouted as his body jerked and his hole pulsed, milking Pyke’s cock as his fingers dug into the bed.
Pyke clenched his jaw, determination filling him as he jetted his shaft inside Nester over and over again.
As the buildup reached its pinnacle, Pyke stiffened and then shouted to the ceiling as he came for the second time.
His head was pounding as he pulled in small gulps of air. Pyke’s vision shifted as he blinked a few times. Had he ever come that hard and brutal before? He didn’t think so. Lowering his mate to the bed, Pyke slid from Nester’s body. His mate’s hole was puckered and swollen, as if Pyke had just fucked him the entire night.
Pyke peppered kisses along Nester’s neck as he pulled his mate down to rest on him.
“I can hear your heartbeat,” Nester said. “It’s beating like crazy.”
Pyke chuckled. “I just had an amazing orgasm. I’m surprised it’s not beating right out of my chest.”
Lifting his head, Nester tucked his hands beneath his chin and smiled at Pyke. That smile was going to be Pyke’s undoing. “You’re good for my ego.”
“And you’re good for me.” He slid an arm over Nester, holding him close as he eased out of Nester’s body.
Nester pushed up from Pyke and cocked his head.
“Do you think we can—”
Pyke pressed his finger to his lips as he slid Nester off him and got dressed. Pyke had been so wrapped up in his mate that he’d almost missed the noise coming from down the hallway. His mate threw his clothes back on. Pyke shook his head and pointed to the bed.
“Stay,” he whispered.
“Do I look like a damn dog?” Nester whispered back with a scowl. “You might need backup.”
Pyke frowned at the serious look on Nester’s face. Was his mate for real? There was no goddamn way Pyke was letting his mate put himself in harm’s way.
“I have natural weapons.” He held up his hand as his claws slid free. “You don’t, so you stay.”
“Are we going to stand here arguing or check out who’s in the house?” Nester crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not staying behind, so get over it and get moving.”
When Pyke took care of whatever problem was down the hallway, he was putting Nester over his knee and spanking his stubborn ass.
“Stay behind me,” he snarled between gritted teeth. “Don’t try and play hero.”
“Ditto.” Nester gave a sharp nod. “Why can’t we just call the sheriff and let him deal with it?”
“I’m sorry. I must have left my balls back on the bed if you think I’m going to cower in my room while I wait for help to arrive.” With a grunt, Pyke eased toward the door and poked his head into the hallway.
He heard murmured voices, which meant there was more than one person in his house. They had to be idiots if they were talking during a break-in.
Pyke also suspected they were human, because that was the scent that drifted toward him. He moved back into the room, detracting his claws, and went for his pistol he kept hidden in his closet.
“Damn, things are getting real.” Nester looked wide-eyed at the gun. “I think I’ll stay behind. Send me a postcard when it’s all over.”
“Wise decision.” Pyke kissed Nester on the forehead before he moved into the hallway, burning anger encompassed in every step he took and moving his feet forward.
If the intruders were a part of Dublin’s criminal circle, Pyke just might eat the bastards.
And if it were Dublin himself, Pyke would slowly torture the bastard before ripping out his black heart.