Sinner's Gin

by Rhys Ford

  “He’s not alone,” Kane said softly. “He has me.”

  The silence on the other end of the phone would have been deafening if not for Dude’s snores coming from the other room. Kane glanced over his shoulder, taking another look at the man sprawled out on the mattress. Miki’s foot was exposed, and from what Kane could see of it, his pinky toe seemed to curl under his other toe. A black nose poked out of the sheets, the linens ruffling as the dog breathed heavily outward.

  “You’ll have to excuse me, Detective Morgan, but I don’t know you. How can I trust you with him?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know you either,” Kane shot back. “But of the two of us, who the hell’s sitting in his living room at fucking three o’clock in the morning?”

  Another length of silence passed, shorter than the last. Then Edie said, “Point taken, but to be fair, Detective Morgan, he’s not let me into his living room… at any time of the morning.”

  “Do you need to be down there?” he asked. “To deal with the shit that’s going to hit? Or can you come to hover over him and do what you have to do up here?”

  “It would be better for me to stay down here. It’s harder to break heads long distance,” she admitted slowly. “But I don’t want to leave him alone.”

  “I’ve already told you.” His reply was gentle but firm. “He’s not alone, and if there are any heads to be broken up here, I’ll deal with them.”

  “Does he know that?” Edie asked. “About you… willing to break heads open for him?”

  “Yeah, pretty sure he does.” He cut her off. “And if he doesn’t, he will soon. Look, he feels safe here. From what I can see, there aren’t too many places he feels safe at. I’m not going to let some asshole take this one from him.”

  “Let me give you my number. I’ll take yours.” She rattled off her information and made Kane repeat his twice. “If anything happens… anything at all, I want you to call me.”

  “You think he’s going to like me running to you every time he stubs his toe?” Kane laughed. “I’ll let you know if something hardcore is up.”

  “Will you make sure he eats, at least?” It wasn’t hard to hear the worry in her voice, and Kane smiled, almost hearing his mother in Edie’s words. “And something other than ramen.”

  “I promise. He had steak tonight. And vegetables.”

  “Now I know the world’s going to end,” she muttered. “I’ll call you both when I know more. Thanks for taking care of him, Detective. I owe you one.”

  “I’m not doing this for you, ma’am,” Kane replied. “I’m doing this for him.”

  HIS beer went warm before Kane could finish it. After dumping the rest in the sink, he prowled through the lower level of the warehouse looking for linens to put on the couch. Not surprisingly, he came up empty. Glancing up at the staircase winding up to the second floor, Kane was debating searching there when he heard Miki murmur his name.

  He shed his sneakers an hour or so ago, so Kane’s bare feet made little noise as he padded over the wood floors to Miki’s bedroom. The light from the lamp he left on in the living room barely reached the bedroom’s interior, but it was bright enough to catch the gold specks in Miki’s hooded eyes. Kane spotted Dude, snoring and buried in a stolen pillow on the floor. The singer lay on his side, facing the archway, and he watched Kane intently.

  “Didn’t mean to wake you up.” Kane sat on the edge of the bed. “I was looking for sheets I could use on the couch.”

  Miki blinked, sleep dragging down his eyelids. Nestling his chin into the pillow he clutched to his chest, he mumbled. “Bed’s big enough. Just sleep here.”

  “Mick, even as dead tired as I am right now, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Kane eyed the enormous bed. “I was thinking of crashing on the couch.”

  “It’s just to sleep. Get in bed. You’re making too much noise stomping around for me to crash.” Miki grumbled. “And the couch isn’t long enough for your ginormous body.”

  Compared to the too-short couch, the comfort of the feather-topped bed was tempting, but not half as tempting as the young man already lying in it.

  “Turn off the goddamned light,” Miki grumbled. “And go to sleep.”

  “God, this is a bad idea,” he muttered. “Big fucking bad idea.”

  After a quick trip to the living room to flick off the lamp, Kane stripped off his jeans and climbed onto the bed. Pulling at the edge of a sheet, he covered himself and reached for one of the stray pillows. Miki slid back to give him room, edging nearly to the wall he’d placed the bed against. Kane let his eyes adjust to the darkness and was surprised to find Miki still awake and staring at him.

  “What?” Kane growled.

  The singer yawned and squeaked a little kittenish noise. “Thanks for… everything. For being here. Shit, for making me dinner. It was a good dinner.”

  Neither one of them mentioned their interrupted kiss, but the memory of Miki’s tongue lapping at his mouth simmered in Kane’s brain.

  “You’re welcome.” He reached up to tangle his fingers into Miki’s thick hair, drawing the strands away from the man’s sharp cheekbones. “You’re supposed to be asleep, remember?”

  “It’s kind of weird. You being in bed. I’ve never slept with anyone,” Miki rasped. “Well, Damie when we were first touring, but that doesn’t count. We didn’t have money for separate rooms, so we’d rent one with two queen beds. Johnny kicks in his sleep. Dave lost the rock-paper-scissors, so he got stuck with him.”

  Kane sighed and edged forward, wishing he could somehow take away the bruises in Miki’s heart. The man sighed and laid his hand over Kane’s, shuffling his body away from the wall and closer to Kane’s heat. It wasn’t the time to tell Miki about the fallout from the leaked photos, not when he was wrapped up and sleepy. Kane stroked Miki’s face with his thumb and the singer practically purred under his touch. The kitten noises coming from Miki’s parted lips made Kane’s cock stand up and take notice and when Miki’s knee edged against Kane’s thigh, he had to close his eyes briefly and take a deep breath to calm his dick down.

  “I’m not sure I won anything. D talked in his sleep.” Miki grimaced. “He mumbled some nasty things I didn’t think anyone could do in bed.”

  “It was always you and Damien then?” Losing Damien probably drove Miki to the edge of his sanity, and Kane still wasn’t sure the singer hadn’t fallen off that particular cliff.

  “Yeah, always me and D.” Miki laughed. “Dave called us the Prince and the Pauper. I didn’t know it was a book until he said something. I always thought it was a Mickey Mouse cartoon.”

  “Mark Twain wrote it.” Kane chuckled. “You guys didn’t look anything alike.”

  “Never said we were the sharpest spoons in the drawer. It’s ’cause he was rich and, well, I was shit Chinatown ghetto,” he replied. “Damie was the smart one between the four of us. I never graduated high school. He went to college when he was like fourteen and got some degree in music.”

  “But you wrote a lot of Sinner’s Gin’s songs.”

  “He liked what I had to say.” Miki’s shrug was barely discernible in the faint light. “D used to say I wrote good music because I didn’t know what the rules were when I started. What’s the saying? Put a thousand monkeys in front of typewriters and eventually one of them writes Shakespeare? That’s what I told him.”

  “Did he tell you to shut up?”

  “Yeah. Kind of. Mostly it was, ‘suck my dick, Sinjun, and fucking take the compliment.’” A grumbling, soft woof came from the floor near the foot of the bed. “He let me get stoned out on music. I’d want to listen to things and pick them apart. Damie was good like that. He’d let me talk everything out until I was too tired to go anymore.”

  Kane didn’t need Miki to say he missed his best friend. The heartbreaking loss in the man’s voice was evident.

  “Johnny and Dave, they were my friends, but Damie, he was my brother. Tonight, when you and Connor were together, I thought ‘that�
��s what me and D were like.’” Miki smiled. “Except Damie was more of a smartass than Connor. Johnny used to say God gave Damien a big dick to balance out how big of an asshole he was.”

  “Well, that theory explains Connor’s dick.” Kane chuckled. “Horses are jealous of him.”

  They lay there, simply breathing, and for a moment, Kane thought Miki had fallen back asleep. Then the man looked up and sighed. “I miss D. You’d miss your brothers, wouldn’t you?”

  “Hell yeah.” He nodded. “Quinn for sure. He’s younger than me. We’re close. Connor’s always been the big badass in the family, but I’d miss him. He used to kick the shit out of me when I stepped out of line when we were kids. I think Braeden and Ian are scared to death of him.”

  “He’s a cop too, right? Connor?”

  “Yeah, he’s SWAT, ’cause being a regular cop wasn’t hardcore enough for him.” Kane’s fingers stilled, resting on the curve of Miki’s face. “The twins just made junior inspector now, and Ian’s in the academy. He’ll graduate probably next year. Braeden’s the freak. He’s a fireman. Ryan’s the baby. Mom’s hoping she goes out and gets a real job like Quinn.”

  “Way too many kids.” Miki wrinkled his nose.

  “Sometimes.” Kane laughed heartily. “Usually when I needed to pee and the bathrooms were all taken. But now, it’s all good. I like most of them. Ian’s an ass, but I think it’s because he’s pissed off Ryan came along and he wasn’t the baby anymore.”

  Miki yawned and rubbed at his eye with the heel of his hand. Kane moved his hand when Miki brushed against his wrist, but the singer shook his head and shifted forward until they touched again.

  “You should get some sleep,” Kane whispered. “It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he mumbled under his breath. “I heard you talking to Kel and Edie. I’m guessing she’s pissed off.”

  Kane’s face burned a bit under Miki’s scrutiny. “I was going to tell you about that crap when you woke up.”

  “It’s okay. I’m kind of used to it. I’m kind of mad about the photos, but those guys have said all kinds of shit about me over the years. At least this time, it’s sort of true.”

  “You were never a whore. You were a kid. There’s a big difference there.”

  “I was never a kid, Kane,” Miki whispered, his breath hot on Kane’s palm. “He wouldn’t let me go. Neither would Shing. I stayed with Carl because I had no where else to go, and at least he fed me. If that doesn’t make me a whore, then I don’t know what does.”

  “You did what you had to in order to survive.” Kane stroked Miki’s mouth once with his fingertips, then leaned in to steal a brief kiss. “That doesn’t make you a whore. It made you a survivor.”

  “A kid shouldn’t have to survive his childhood.” Miki lightly bit Kane’s lower lip, then nuzzled in closer. “I don’t mind being called a whore. At least it makes it sound like I had a choice.”

  Chapter 11

  Butterflies and whiskey, catching fire to the moon.

  Death’s calling to me but I tell him it’s too soon.

  Songs to sing, places to see.

  I don’t want to go but Death sure wants me.

  —Death Calling

  DESPITE the chill on his skin, Kane’s cock ached from spending the night against Miki’s lithe body. He’d woken up when Miki got up to let the dog out and then again when Dude came back in. The dog’s weight dipped the mattress slightly as he turned around a few times near Kane’s feet, but Dude settled down quickly, falling off into a snoring heap before Miki shed the sweats he’d worn to hold off the morning cold.

  Shivering, the young man crawled back under the blankets and shuffled in close to Kane’s body, leeching as much of Kane’s warmth as he could. Miki’s nose was a sharp bite of ice on Kane’s nipple and he bit back a yelp when Miki rested his cheek on his chest, his breath as hot as his face was cold. Kane’s cock, already hard from its morning drowsiness, stirred and thrust up, reaching out in vain to pierce his boxers. Scolding his libido, Kane shifted, working his hand down to adjust his dick, then wrapped his arms around the sleepy man curled into his torso.

  If Kane could have slept a few more hours cuddled up against Miki, he would have easily traded his left nut to do so. His bladder began to complain, pressing down on the hurry up button in his groin. Groaning, he extracted himself from the man’s arms and stumbled to the bathroom to piss. A quick search through the bathroom turned up unopened packages of toothbrushes, and he scrubbed the scum off his teeth until he foamed over like a rabid dog.

  The night left its stink on his body, and Kane did a mental inventory of the spare clothes he had left in his SUV. Connor had thrown in a backpack of T-shirts, underwear, and sweats he had in his truck, but Kane wanted his own jeans, not his brother’s too-big hand-me-downs. He ran the shower as hot as he could stand it, then switched over to an icy cold pour from the waterfall spout set into the tile overhead.

  His cock apparently still held a grudge at being told to shut up and go back to sleep, because it flared when he began to lather up with Miki’s soap.

  A flick of the hot water knob turned the pour lukewarm, and Kane leaned against the stone-tiled shower wall. The glass-enclosed space was large enough for five people, and Kane wondered what exactly the interior designer was thinking Miki would be up to in such a big shower.

  Looking at the long sauna bench built against one wall, Kane’s dick sent a ripple of ideas toward his brain about what he could do to Miki if given the chance.

  His hand was a poor substitute for Miki’s mouth, but Kane wasn’t going to go begging for affection from the young man he’d left alone in bed. Despite his emotional and physical exhaustion, Miki fought his way out of sleep for the first few hours after Kane lay down next to him. He’d wake, tense and short of breath, his hazel eyes wild with fear. Kane held Miki loosely, rubbing at the small of his back with a gentle brush of his fingers. The frenzied fits and starts slowed. Then Miki’s limbs finally went slack, and Kane wrapped them up in a soft cocoon of blankets, cradling Miki against him when sleep took them both.

  His dick, however, had an excellent memory of the man Kane left in bed, and it wept a single pearly drop when Kane’s palm moved over its head.

  He pulled on his cock, circling his fingers around the base, then lifting it up to heft it in his hand. His balls were tight, and Kane could feel them rolling, tightening, and falling down with each stroke he gave his shaft. Pressing his shoulders to the tile, Kane bent his knees, letting his back take his weight, and he leaned his head back, thinking of the hot body he had pressed against him in the early morning.

  There was something sensual about a man as he slept. Secret, tender noises were shared, swallowed up in the night before anyone could even admit they’d been made, but Kane caught every sigh and murmur Miki’s succulent mouth made. He’d buried his face into the crook of Miki’s neck, inhaling the sweetness of male sweat and green-tea soap. Just a whiff of the lather he’d built up on the washcloth, and Kane found himself nearly ready to burst, remembering the length of Miki’s back against his chest and the press of his round ass on Kane’s cock, the soft cotton of their underwear whispering between them as they shifted in their sleep.

  Kane closed his fist over his cock, pulling up hard and slow until his clenched fingers reached the glans. The flare caught the rush of warm water pouring down from the cascade showerhead, parting to splatter down on Kane’s thighs and heavy balls. He spread his fingers over his stomach, stroking at the hair around his belly button as he ran his fingers down his shaft. Closing his eyes, he imagined the tightness around his cock was Miki’s mouth and the press of his thumb lapping at the wet underside the man’s flexible tongue exploring the length of him.

  His hand drew him faster, rolling what little loose skin he had on his cock until it grew taut in his grasp. Thumbing his head, Kane peeled back his slit, using the edge of his nail to score the soft flesh at the head of his penis. Miki’s s
harp teeth would leave their mark, Kane was sure of it. He’d nibble and bite, making Kane jerk and jump even as he slid his cock down Miki’s tight throat.

  Miki’s full lips would fold over his head when Kane pulled out, suckling him tightly before running the edges of his bite over Kane’s velvety glans. Tightening his grip, he played with himself hard, pulling his palm over his head, then back down to his root, squeezing lightly when he reached the top. His fingers kissed the pout of his cock, pinching him in until the slight tingle along his shaft grew. His nipples ached nearly as much as his sex, and Kane skimmed his free hand over them, rubbing the flat of his palm over the rough nubs.

  Kane kept the rhythm of his strokes slightly off, pulling up slowly, then plunging back down his shaft in a stuttering slowness. He imagined Miki would take his time at first, then devour him whole. The water was a poor substitute for the wet of Miki’s mouth, but Kane took what he could get.

  Skimming his fingers over his sac, he searched out the skin under his balls. Fluttering his fingertips over the delicate stretch there, he teased his hole, then tugged at the heaviness dangling beneath his cock. A few tugs was all he needed, and Kane sagged, sliding a few inches down the stone wall. The grout dug into his skin, scoring him as lightly as Miki’s nails might, and it was enough to take him to the edge.

  Grabbing his shaft, Kane tightened his hold and picked up his pace, pulling his palm up and over his weeping head with quick, short jerks. The rush hit him hard, strong enough to bring down a dark haze over his eyes, and Kane rode it out, biting down hard so he wouldn’t shout Miki’s name as he came.

  He pinched at the tight swirls on his chest, echoing the press of his fingers on his head. Another swipe down his cock, and his balls tightened, nearly too soon for Kane to do anything but let the climax hit. It slammed into him, rising up from his curled up sac and pouring electric shockwaves through his dick. The wave of his seed nearly scorched the skin from his hand, and he barely had time to take a gasping breath when another followed, as intense and as hot as the first.