Leveled

by Jay Crownover

  Dom chuckled and lowered his head so that our lips barely touched. The tip of his tongue darted out and licked the center of my top lip super softly. It was just the hint of a touch, the barest of caress and it was almost as sexy as the way his fingers were moving across my throbbing dick. “I know. It’s a good look for you, Lando.”

  Heaving chest pressed into heaving chest while our mouths merged and our tongues tangled. We both made a strangled noise as hard cock brushed against hard cock the closer he leaned into me. He bent his elbow so that he was barely hovering over me, our stomachs touched and I liked that he felt so much bigger, so much heavier than anyone else ever had. He was substantial. He was significant … and so was the pleasure that coiled tight and urgent at the base of my spine as we each did our best to get the other off first.

  It was a flurry of pumping hands, weeping tips, and bucking hips. Our bodies moved together and against each other kind of like they had been doing so for years instead of minutes, and again I wondered how something so rash, so sudden and unexpected could feel so necessary, so vital. There was no warning with Dominic Voss; there was just the drop and the fall into a swirling vortex of feeling and emotion and I was done trying to catch myself.

  He moved his lips to the side of my neck and I moaned a guttural sound and arched up into him as his hot tongue started tracing the long line of vein and muscle that was stretched taut with pleasure as my straining cock swelled and pulsed eagerly into his talented touch. I was on the brink, ready to come, and I could feel the hitch in his breath and the kick in his turgid member that let me know he was close as well. I was going to move my hand lower, urge him to let go first when he levered up off of me, and suddenly let go of my begging dick and pulled his out of my exploring grasp.

  I was about to demand he get back and finish what he started when I heard him rummaging around in a drawer on the nightstand next to the bed. I blinked when he was back, hovering over me with a condom in one hand and a familiar bottle of lubrication in the other. I blinked because he was so prepared, so ready, like having a guy show up at his apartment ready for sex was such a common occurrence that he had to have stuff on hand to make sure he got laid without a hitch. It made a sliver of unease slide through the passion and desire that was overriding everything else.

  Some of my concern must have made its way onto my face because he stopped in the middle of suiting that mighty impressive erection up in the latex and cocked his head to the side as he looked at me.

  “You okay?” He sounded genuinely concerned, so I propped myself up on my elbows and cast a look down at his waist and then back up at his questioning eyes.

  “You just seem really prepared and I guess we don’t really know that much about each other. I don’t sleep around, Dom.” My dick might murder me if he got freaked out by what I was saying and called a halt to our sexual escapades, but I had to be up front with what my expectations were. That was only fair to both of us.

  Dom finished rolling the condom down his engorged shaft and gave the base a solid squeeze which made my mouth go dry. I could totally get on board with watching him get himself off. That sounded like a good time for all.

  “I’m a cop, Lando. It’s in my nature to be prepared for any circumstance that might arise. I don’t sleep around either, but I have been single for a while now and on occasion I have met someone here or there I only want to spend a night with. You are not one of those guys.”

  It wasn’t like I could pass any kind of judgment. There was a time not too long ago where I was only down to have a boy in my life for the night and as long as he was telling me that wasn’t the case with us, I felt like I had to believe him. I wanted to believe him.

  I gave him a little nod as he crooked his finger at me and told me to move closer to the edge of the bed with my legs bent. I took a deep breath and shifted into the position he requested. We locked eyes as he leaned over me and my very ready dick as his hand, now coated and slick, coiled around my cock and moved up and down at a languid pace. My breath hitched as he took his time, rolled over the tip and circled the head with a delicate touch before skating between my legs and rubbing over my taut sack.

  My thigh muscles quivered, my abs pulled as tight as they had ever been as his firm touch disappeared between my legs and onto that spot that he needed to get ready for him. There was always the initial stretch and pull, and the tight ring of muscle got ready to yield. My heart kicked in my chest and I could see his nostrils flare as he worked a finger in and out of me while I struggled to keep my breathing in check.

  Dom reached out with his free hand and picked up one of mine where it was lying on the bed. He put it on my now shiny and still straining erection and told me, “Touch yourself.” It was all so overwhelmingly intimate. So unrestrained and uninhibited. Even when I had taken strangers to bed knowing good and well I would never see them again, I hadn’t felt this same sense of freedom, of acceptance and approval. And while sex with Remy had always been sweet and heartfelt, full of emotion and sentiment, it had also been plagued by newness, doubt, and uncertainty. There was never this level of comfort or rightness with anyone else and I didn’t even know Dom’s middle name, or his favorite color, or what his favorite band was. It was all a little disconcerting and again I got the feeling of being cut off at the knees and leveled to the ground by this man.

  Dom pulled away just enough that he could brace a hand on the bed right next to my hip as he used the other one to line himself up with my waiting body. He wasn’t a small guy and I knew it was going to be a tight fit, but the burn and the ache as he slowly slid inside did nothing to lessen the grip that pleasure had on all of my senses. His dark head was bent low as he watched not only himself going in and out of me, but also me as I continued to rub my fist up and down my dick which was now thumping against his lower stomach each time he sank inside of me as far as he could go.

  He groaned my name as my body instinctively tightened around him as he started to move faster and faster. He was big and strong so he had to place a hand on my hip to keep me anchored to the side of the bed so that his powerful thrusts didn’t shift me away from the position he wanted me in.

  I was pinned, immobilized and very full of Dom. I don’t think there was any better place I could ever ask to be.

  I felt my breath quicken and desire start to curl up all the way from my toes. My hand moved faster on my dick and my balls drew up even tighter against my body. Dom’s eyes glowed with a minty green I hadn’t seen yet and his teeth sank into the curve of his lower lip.

  “You’re close.” The roughness of his voice, as it struggled to make its way out was its own kind of sexy caresses.

  “I am.” I was panting and my hips were shifting involuntarily as he continued to pound into me like he wanted to put me through the other side of the bed. I loved the feel of him, the stretch and pull that I had to do in order to take all of him. It was sex that would leave its mark, would leave a memory in more ways than one.

  “Good because I’m not going to last much longer.” He dropped his head and growled low in his throat as he shifted the hand he had on my hip so that he could palm my tense balls while I continued to pump up and down on my cock. It was primal. It was raw. It was so real that it was all I needed to let go. There was no resisting the dual stimulation and the hard dick rapidly moving in and out of my body.

  Pleasure rushed forth, spurted out and covered both our hands. Dom growled again, thrust his hips a couple more times, and then said my name like it was a wish come true. He groaned from deep in his chest as I watched all his muscles quake and shiver with satisfaction.

  He sighed heavily, pulled out of me, and after dropping a quick kiss on the center of my chest right next to where my heart was trying to catch up with us, he flopped down next to me on the bed on his back so that we were both supine with our legs dangling over to the floor. We were both covered in sex and sweat. It should have been awkward or maybe a little uncomfortable but again it felt like the most natura
l thing in the world.

  “I have tickets to the Avalanche game this weekend. Do you want to go with me?” I blurted it out with zero finesse or tact. I didn’t even know if he was a sports fan.

  Dom blinked those army-green-colored eyes and that mouth I wanted all over me again quirked up in a half grin. “The best sex ever and tickets to an Aves game? You can’t be for real.”

  I cleared my throat. “I am very real.”

  He tilted his chin up and winked at me. “Sure. I’d love to go with you, but I’d also like to put the rest of the time we have before you have to go back to work to good use.”

  It was my turn to grin at him. “I aim to please.”

  He sat up and reached over for my hand. “Good. Let’s take a shower and switch places.”

  I could do that. I could also very easily let this man end up meaning everything to me, and the last time I had done that I had lost everything. I wanted Dom. I wanted what he had to offer, but I also wanted to keep my heart safe.

  Chapter 9

  Dominic

  I was struggling to keep things light and not too intense with Lando because I could tell every time that going back to work was mentioned, a change occurred in his demeanor. I was working with a new therapist, a young woman who cut me no slack and was just as tough on me about overdoing things as Lando had been. But even though I was with her 90 percent of the time during therapy, he still checked on me throughout the session and he had spent the last two nights in my apartment and in my bed. As long as the future wasn’t brought up and I avoided any mention of what was next, things were great, but as soon as any hint of what was to come entered the equation, Lando got quite pensive and withdrawn. I knew he thought my job was dangerous and risky, that I was putting myself on the line with little reward for my effort, but it was what I did. It was who I was, and as much as I liked the guy, really liked him and could see something real and lasting happening between us, I wasn’t going to give up everything in order to be with him. I couldn’t. If I wasn’t a cop, I didn’t know who I was and that shook me in ways I couldn’t get my head around.

  When the night of the game rolled around, I was really pumped. Not just because Lando had seats right on center ice behind the glass but because when I went to the gun range to see how training my non-dominant side to lead was coming along, I hit every target dead center and had no trouble loading and unloading the clip with my left hand. The recoil and jerk didn’t even bother my shoulder, which was a first. Taking it easy on my body and making it stronger the right way was paying off and I could hardly contain my excitement.

  I texted Royal first and got back a smiley face because she was still in a lot of pain from her ribs and just as annoyed as I had been about being laid up and unable to return to work until medically cleared. I texted Lando, too, and didn’t get a response for well over an hour. I told myself that was because he was with a client and didn’t have his phone on him, but deep down I knew that wasn’t the case. He wasn’t excited for me or happy about the news because it meant I was one step closer to getting my spot back on the force.

  Eventually, I got back a smiley face from him as well with a message stating that he was excited to see me later that night. It burned a little. I wanted to be involved with him, wanted to let myself get attached, but something in the back of my mind warned it wasn’t a good idea, that as soon as I was back on the streets, Lando would be nothing more than a fond memory. It was hard as hell to heal my body after it had been so badly broken, so I didn’t want to think about how impossible it would be to heal my heart if it ended up shattering too. I decided my best bet was to keep things fun and sexy and just see where they took me. It was easier said than done when every single part of me leapt and pulsated with excitement and anticipation when he texted a few hours later to tell me he was waiting outside.

  I was into him. Really into him and it was going to suck when one of us had to walk away.

  Those were worries for another day. All I was going to do was live in the moment and meet him as he leaned across the center console of his fancy-ass sports car for a kiss. A kiss that quickly had my blood heating and the interior of the car feeling smaller than it was. I liked it a lot when he wrapped his hand around the back of my head and scratched his nails along the scruff of my shaved head. This man understood what I liked and what was bound to make me react with a skill that shouldn’t be possible in the short time we had known each other.

  When I pulled back, we were both breathing hard and his freckles were standing out against the flush on his cheeks. I liked that he was as affected by me as I was by him.

  I cleared my throat and asked, “How was work?”

  He backed the sports car out of the space in front of my building and replied like we weren’t breathing hard and suffocating in sexual tension. “Work was good. I took on a disabled vet that was injured by an IED a few years ago. Someone recommended me and I think I can really help him. He needs to learn how to use his prosthetics properly because he hasn’t been.”

  “Wow. That’s a pretty big deal.” I knew that he was all about helping people and stopping them from hurting any way he could, but I didn’t realize how wide and deep that savior streak of his went. It was just as ingrained in him to help others as it was in me.

  He shrugged. “Sometimes people that are injured become nothing more than their injuries. They end up defined by their limitations and what once was. I like to think I can show them there is always a new normal.” His light eyes shifted to me and a smile that was definitely laced with sadness flashed at me. “You’ve done a pretty spectacular job of adjusting to your new normal.”

  My new normal was starting to revolve around him and having him in my life. “I couldn’t have done any of it without you. You know that.”

  The car slipped through the downtown streets in a much more elegant and subdued way than my big truck attacked them. I wondered what he did when there was snow and ice on the ground. Sports cars were pretty and fun but totally impractical for four to five months out of the year in Denver.

  “You have more determination than anyone I’ve ever met. You would have found your way to your new normal with or without me, Dom. I’m glad your journey brought us together, but you could have walked the path to recovery with anyone and ended up right where you want to be. Your fight to reach your destination has never wavered.”

  I cleared my throat a little and looked out the window as the Pepsi Center and all the maroon and blue lights that lit it up for the game came into view.

  “The destination may have stayed the same throughout but the path I’ve taken on my way there has plenty of room for detours and alternate routes.” I shifted my attention to the big domed building. “I’ve never seen a hockey game live before. I’m gonna have to force myself to stay in my seat and not jump on the ice to break up all those fights.” I grinned at him to let him know I was kidding, but he didn’t grin back. Instead, he ran his hands through his hair and I saw him having some kind of internal conversation with himself. Whatever he was saying must have worked, because he gave his head a shake and reached for the driver’s side door while looking at me over his shoulder.

  “Are you a sports guy? I mean I assumed you were since you’re in such good shape and you accepted my offer to come to the game so fast, but you’ve never mentioned anything about any of the athletes that come in and out of the clinic.”

  We walked towards the entrance shoulder to shoulder, my leather jacket rubbing against the arm of his wool peacoat as I contemplated his question. “I like sports. I played baseball when I was in high school, but that was more about my mom telling me I needed an activity than any real passion for the sport. I watch the Broncos play because my dad was a fan and I like football enough that I try and catch a game at the stadium at least once a year. Hockey is cool, but I don’t know enough to tell you players’ stats and rankings.” I shrugged. “I stay in shape because bad guys will take whatever advantage they have and use it against you.
I try to stay smarter, stronger, and faster than most of the people running the streets.” I looked over at him. “What about you? You have an office filled with memorabilia and you said your dad was a recruiter but no pictures of you in a uniform.”

  He shrugged, which rubbed our arms together. I wondered how that little, unintentional touch could fire up my blood more effectively than a full-on hand on my dick. It was him. There was just something about Orlando Frederick that did it for me on every single level.

  “I was always a sports guy. Growing up in a house with my dad, I didn’t have much of a choice. But I loved it. I played soccer; I swam competitively, and I played lacrosse in college.” He laughed a little and turned to look at me with humor stamped all across his face. “I even tried rugby for a while, but I wasn’t built for it. You, on the other hand”—he lifted an eyebrow at me with a smirk—“you look like you were born to be in a scrum. If the whole law-enforcement thing doesn’t work out, that can be your backup plan.”

  I think he was kidding but considering I knew how he felt about my job I wasn’t so sure. The image of that snapshot of him with his arm around the beautiful dark-haired boy dressed in a football uniform flashed behind my eyes.

  “What about football? That not your cup of tea?” We sidestepped a couple arguing after I gave the guy a “watch yourself” look and lined up in the shortest line for the VIP ticket holders.

  “I used to love football. It was my favorite sport. Right before I started college I had big plans to go into this field with the idea that I could be a team trainer. I had the connections thanks to my dad but …” He trailed off as we moved forward and handed our tickets to the guy in the yellow staff jacket manning the door. “Something happened and it soured my entire feeling for the game. I couldn’t get passionate about it anymore. I couldn’t stand to be on the field. Every time a player comes in with a shredded ACL or a broken clavicle and a season’s worth of closed head injuries it makes my skin hurt. All sports are brutal but the toll football takes on the body is insane.”