Mark shook his head. “Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve been making very quiet inquiries but I honestly wish I knew who it was safe to talk to. I’m afraid if I ask the wrong questions or talk to the wrong people, things are going to get even hotter for you. I know whoever it is, it’s someone higher up than I am and I know it has to be a rogue agent because all sanctioned operations are run by me, not to mention they need to get their funding from somewhere.
“And you’re pretty high up there in the intelligence community.”
Mark nodded. “I can’t think of a single operation out there that I’m not read in on. If it’s ordered by our government, I probably know about it at the time or I’m read in on it shortly after. If a mission requires military assets including ammunitions and ordinance of any kind, I know up front. Every mission has to be funded somehow and military missions, including pulling a highly-trained special ops team out of a war zone and sent somewhere have to be paid for. Even Uncle Sam can’t run spec ops without funding and all funding goes through me.”
“You know everything the president knows? I can’t imagine you can get much higher than that.”
Mark smiled and clapped Jarrett on the shoulder. “Son, I know things the president don’t even know because he has to be kept out of the loop on certain matters.”
“Plausible deniability?”
“Exactly. That don’t mean my boss don’t know something I don’t.”
“But you report directly to the director of the CIA.”
“Yeah, but the thing is, if there’s a covert op going on that I ain’t bein’ read in on, if it requires military support, I get read in eventually.”
“We’re talking about secrets at the highest levels, Daddy.” Jarrett was feeling slightly sick to his stomach. He didn’t like where all this was going.
“Secrets are my business, Jarrett. Tell me the exact date so I can look into it some more.”
“It was right around Mama’s birthday,” Jarrett said. “It was the weekend of October twentieth, 2007. We got back on the following Monday, the twenty-second. I remember because I was late callin’ a buddy who works out at Woodlawn where Mama’s buried. He always leaves flowers for me on her birthday if I ain’t around on the twenty-first.”
His father looked at him with shiny eyes. “I never knew that was you, boy. I always see ‘em. I guess I should have known.” He stared at him for a minute and then blinked rapidly, turning away and clearing his throat.
Jarrett felt a sudden stab of pain in his heart as he remembered his mother. They’d lost her so young he almost couldn’t remember her face anymore. He was quite sure Jase barely remembered her at all. He should have realized that his father visited her grave every year on her birthday. They’d loved each other very much. Mark stood up, signaling the end of the conversation and Jarrett stood as well. Mark stuck out his hand, looking at Jarrett square in the eyes. “I’m gonna find out if that mission you and Virgil carried out together raises anyone’s eyebrows when I ask around. We’ll figure it out.”
“Daddy, be careful, huh? Someone tried to kill me more than once and if you ask the wrong person questions, it could be dangerous to your health.”
His father smiled, reaching up to clap Jarrett on the shoulder again. “Thanks, boy. I am being careful. That’s why it’s taken me so long. I’m asking only a few close to me, folks I know I can trust.”
“Okay.” Jarrett looked up to see Thayne and Steel coming their way, walking across the yard.
“Steel is incredibly talented, Jarrett. He just showed me the most amazing sculptures,” Thayne said.
Jarrett felt his heart swell with pride at Steel as he looked at his younger brother. He walked over and swung an arm over his shoulders, hugging him as he kissed the top of his head over the white skunk stripe. “I always thought so too.”
Steel’s arm tightened on his waist. “Thanks, guys.”
“Hey! Coffee’s getting’ cold, boys,” Aunt Edie called from the back of the house. “If you don’t get inside now, Jase is gonna eat all the cobbler.”
“Oh, hell no,” Steel said, breaking away in a run for the back door. Jarrett turned when Thayne laughed from beside him.
“Race?” Jarrett asked.
Thayne took off running but when Jarrett started protesting how he cheated, he started laughing so hard he had to stop. They made it inside with plenty of cobbler to spare.
****
Thayne and Jarrett drove back to their hotel after spending another hour or so with Jarrett’s family. It had been good to come home again. Jarrett had been dreading it since first learning of the assignment that would ultimately take him to West Virginia and even now, he couldn’t believe it had gone as well as it had. Now, though, he was worried about whether the spec ops mission he’d been sent on in 2007 with Virgil and four other Marines actually had something to do with who had tried to kill him more than once. He and his father had seemed to be able to come to an agreement of some sort, a meeting of the minds regarding his sexual orientation. And it had been peaceful. To his utter surprise, when they’d parted, Mark had hugged Jarrett and told him he was anxious to get to know Thayne some more. He’d appealed to Thayne to watch his son’s back and his lover had readily agreed. But, then again, Thayne had always had his back. He trusted him as much if not more, than any of his buddies in the Corps.
Thayne had liked his dad and there was something very comforting in knowing that. Perhaps after all this time, Jarrett could begin rebuilding the relationship with his father that he’d been missing. It had taken this mining case and his partner to give him the opportunity to see all of it and everything had turned out better than he’d even hoped it could.
Jarrett threw the rental truck’s keys on the table as Thayne followed him into their hotel room. The place smelled fresh and so damned different from the Days Inn, all he wanted to do was lie down into the bed with a naked Thayne and spread him out on the clean sheets beneath his body. Jarrett stopped in front of the bed and was about to turn around when Thayne’s strong arms slid around his waist and up to splay his fingers out over his chest. He pulled him up against his muscled body. Jarrett let his eyes slowly drift closed as he reached up and covered Thayne’s hands with his.
“I want you on that bed, naked, now,” Thayne whispered into the back of his hair as he reached around and kissed the soft skin at Jarrett’s neck. Thayne’s lips were warm and felt wonderful as they moved against his skin and Jarrett heard a low growl begin down in his throat. He loved it when Thayne kissed his neck and began the slow seduction he was so good at. It got Jarrett going every time. Hell, just looking at Thayne got him going.
“Mm, you plannin on taking advantage of me, Special Agent Wolfe?” His words came out barely above a whispered rasp.
“Damn straight.”
Jarrett felt Thayne smile against his neck and he turned in Thayne’s arms until they were face to face. He slid his arms back around Thayne and leaned close, pushing their cheeks together, letting his drag across until he was smiling against his lover’s lips. “Good. Don’t keep me waiting then.”
Jarrett made good on his promise and let go of Thayne’s back, sliding his hands between them so that he could reach for his waistband. He popped the buttons on his 501s all the while, staring into Thayne’s eyes. He’d often thought of his lover’s eyes as a Bahama blue, bright as a tropical sea and right now, the expression in them was nothing less than complete and utter lust. “If you only knew all the things I wanted to do to you.”
Thayne smiled and stepped back. He tore at his own clothes as Jarrett watched and he got down to skin in seconds. Jarrett stared at his body, loving the slight dusting of hair between his pectorals, split by the now silvered scar that had been where a doctor had separated his sternum to save his life. Thayne’s dark brown nipples pebbled in the air-conditioning of the room and Jar
rett couldn’t help but reach out and pull him closer. He bent down so he could take one into his mouth, sucking softly as he enjoyed his taste thoroughly. When Thayne moaned, he switched to the other side and repeated the motion, loving the way Thayne held his head in place with both hands sinking long fingers into his short hair. When he finally lifted his head and straightened, Thayne’s cheeks were flushed and he was panting.
“Son of a bitch, get naked!” Thayne ordered.
Jarrett chuckled, loving the aggressiveness of his lover. He was a tiger in bed and even though Thayne bottomed more often than not, Jarrett understood, probably for the first time in his life, what topping from the bottom truly meant when he was in bed with Thayne. His lover seemed to be most comfortable in the driver’s seat whether he topped or bottomed, and though being submissive wasn’t Jarrett’s usual cup of tea in the bedroom, he allowed Thayne this aggression and alpha male behavior at times simply because it was so much fun to watch. If nothing else, it brought out the animal in his man and Jarrett loved seeing him lose his mind like that.
Once, Jarrett had brought him off by slowly jacking him with his fingers buried deep inside Thayne, and it had been one of the most exciting things they’d ever done. The fact that Thayne had told him how much he’d fantasized about it for weeks afterward, was a very empowering feeling for Jarrett. He loved it when he watched Thayne come apart as he fucked him but when Thayne was as worked up as he was now, Jarrett liked to tease him and that’s just how he’d planned things to go this evening.
Jarrett smiled at Thayne and stepped back, making a show out of squatting to remove his boots and socks and then slide his jeans down slowly, letting Thayne watch his body as he did so. The expression on his lover’s face was hot enough to light the world on fire and Jarrett loved the fact that he could have that effect on him.
Thayne reached for his own cock, wrapping a fist around it and giving it a few strokes as Jarrett watched. Jarrett loved seeing Thayne do that to himself and his lover knew it as well. The tease was going a long way to making Jarrett even harder. He reached for his olive-green shirt and pulled it over his head, sailing it off into some faraway corner and then smirked at Thayne as he stepped closer, keeping their eyes locked.
“You look so hot doin’ that to yourself, darlin’,” he whispered. “It makes me horny just watching you.”
Thayne grinned as he continued to pump his cock with his fist. Jarrett glanced down to watch what his lover was doing and he instantly felt a powerful surge of lust course through his body. He reached out and wrapped his own fingers around Thayne’s, moving his hand up and down to let it slide slowly over his cock right along with his hand. Thayne moaned and leaned close, kissing him hard, pushing his tongue into Jarrett’s mouth and groaning as Jarrett sucked on it. It felt amazing against his and he thought he could taste some of Edie’s cobbler on it which just made kissing Thayne that much better.
Thayne finally let go of his cock and they wrapped each other in their arms, bringing their bodies close where they could rub against each other and give their bodies much needed friction. Their cocks, slicked by precome, slid together as they brought their groins into contact.
Jarrett loved the slow buildup of heat between them. It felt unbelievably sexy to be seducing Thayne with heated strokes along his skin and gentle touches that grew harder and more urgent as they went. He ran his hands over Thayne’s back, feeling the taut muscles beneath the smooth skin, marred only by scars here and there, the puzzle pieces that told of the life a warrior like himself had lived. It made Jarrett wonder all over again what Thayne had been through when he’d lived two years undercover as a part of Mills Lang’s crew. A man who’d never served in the military during wartime shouldn’t have a body that had so obviously been subjected to things similar to the way Jarrett’s was. But Thayne’s body was covered with scars.
Jarrett thought again how much he didn’t know about his lover. He knew he loved him. He’d finally admitted to himself that he loved a man whom he shared a life with in and out of the office—the same man Jarrett knew so little of. In some ways, even his own life was more open than Thayne’s. He did know this. Jarrett knew that they were making this journey together and he should sit the man down and ask about where the scars came from. And he also understood if he was going to ask Thayne things about his past, then it would be only fair to answer questions about himself. The very idea of that was frightening and if he allowed it, Jarrett would be opening doors to his soul that he didn’t think he could. The fact that he even had a soul worth looking at astonished him. Before meeting Thayne he’d given up the possibility that there was any decent thing about himself. But Thayne saw something in Jarrett and that was enough for now.
“I want you, darlin’,” Jarrett whispered against Thayne’s hair. “I want you.”
Thayne turned his face to brush his lips across Jarrett’s. “I want you too, baby.” He pushed back against Jarrett’s grasp, letting his own hands drop from Jarrett’s back where he’d been holding him close and then met his eyes as Jarrett’s arms dropped. His tiny smile teased Jarrett. “You gonna let me fuck you, Marine?”
Jarrett smirked, reaching out and taking Thayne’s hand so he could draw him toward the bed. “Is that what you want?” He sat on the bed and pulled Thayne down over him.
Thayne groaned as their hard cocks slid together again. His weight felt good as Thayne laid him out and Jarrett wiggled to the middle of the bed with his lover following. Thayne surrounded him as he straddled Jarrett and his arms slid around his back again, dragging him down to cover him once again as their lips met in a hotter, more urgent kiss. When Thayne finally lifted his head, he stared down at Jarrett. His lips were puffed from their passionate kisses.
“I want to be inside you, Jarrett. You know how much I want you?” He rocked his hips against Jarrett as he held on to Thayne’s tight ass with both hands. He squeezed his gorgeous bubble butt, feeling the way the strong muscles flexed as his lover ground his cock down on him.
“Jesus, Thayne.”
Thayne leaned up, breaking his hold and pinning him with a heated gaze. Fire blazed in his eyes. “Wait right there while I get the lube,” he said in a demanding growl.
Jarrett gave a short nod as Thayne slid over and pulled out the bedside table where they’d left the lube from the fun and games they’d gotten into the night before. Fucking Thayne and being fucked by him was like nothing he’d ever experienced before and at the moment, they were both wound up. The effects of the moonshine were long gone but a new fire burned inside Jarrett as he imagined how it would feel with Thayne inside him, moving over him and making him even more crazed than he already felt.
Thayne crawled back over to him and smiled down. “Pull your legs back to your chest and open for me. In a minute I’m going to have you begging for it.”
Jarrett smirked at him but did as he was told, feeling another wave of arousal shoot through his veins at Thayne’s dirty talk. He grabbed his knees and pulled them back, spreading himself wide to leave himself vulnerable for Thayne. Giving himself over to a man he trusted with his life was becoming more and more appealing as time when by, and Jarrett wondered at how he could so easily allow his lover this leeway. He’d never been able to accept this part of himself until now but he was beginning to enjoy playing bottom sometimes. Thayne popped open the top of the lube and squirted some onto his fingers. He locked his gaze with Jarrett’s as he reached between his legs and touched him in that most intimate of places.
Jarrett was surprised when Thayne ducked his head and began to lick his balls. He groaned as Thayne took one into his mouth and rolled it over his tongue. Thayne groaned and the vibrations lit Jarrett up like a Christmas tree. Thayne moved to the second ball and sucked it into his mouth, giving it equal treatment as Jarrett felt arousal slam into him. He grabbed onto Thayne’s hair with both hands and blew out a breath he hadn’t even realized he�
�d been holding. Thayne groaned and finally lifted his head, throwing him a sexy grin. Thayne went back to business and Jarrett tried to relax as the cold lube over his entrance slicked the way for Thayne’s finger. He circled his opening and then pushed as Jarrett unconsciously bore down, allowing the finger to pop inside of him. Jarrett gasped as Thayne entered him, loving the fullness he felt when his lover did this. The sting ebbed as Thayne bit his lip and looked down at where he was hard at work, pushing in and pulling back, sinking his thick finger ever deeper with each thrust, mimicking what he’d soon be doing to him with his cock. When Jarrett felt a second finger join the first, he nearly came.
“That’s it, baby. Relax,” Thayne crooned, his voice low and growly as he sank deeper with both fingers, twisting them inside. Jarrett did his best to relax and take what his lover gave without complaint.
“If you’re plannin’ something other than fingers, ya better get on with it before you make me come all over myself,” he finally gasped.
Thayne’s low chuckle seemed to roll over Jarrett’s skin, touching the exposed nerves there. “You want me? You want my cock buried inside you?” He was thrusting inside Jarrett with three fingers now, stretching him and scissoring him as he plunged in and pulled out.
“Stop talking!” Jarrett growled.
Thayne laughed and pulled his fingers out, grabbing up the lube bottle as he moved in closer between Jarrett’s legs, spreading his thighs even wider with his own. When the wide head of Thayne’s slick cock touched him, Jarrett forced himself to relax, knowing it was going to burn. He’d become used to the feeling, but the more he allowed himself to be fucked by Thayne, the easier it became. Besides, the look on his lover’s face was enough to force down the sudden rush of nerves he was feeling until he swallowed hard just as Thayne popped through.
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