More Than Everything

by Rachel Kane

  “As long as you take it.”

  Everyone could see the battle playing out in her face, as greed went to war with hatred. It was an ugly sight, and even Justin Mulgrew stepped away from her, as though he couldn’t bear to see this true picture of her soul.

  “Fine,” she said. “Fine. But you haven’t seen the last of me.”

  “Well, yes, we have,” said Dalton. “That’s the point of this deal. This is the last of you interfering with anything these boys decide to do.”

  Yet, as he watched her gather her things, her sharp, spidery movements to reach for her purse, the papers and pens, he sensed that she was right, that they hadn’t heard the last of the Mulgrews. Someone like this would always keep turning up.

  But that was a battle for another day. Right now, the relief in Noah’s face—and in the faces of the Cooper brothers—was all the reward he needed. Noah slung his arm around Dalton’s waist, holding him tight as Violet fussed with her things.

  “Come along, Justin. We need to get out of this pit of sin before it pulls us all down straight to hell.”

  Justin gave them an apologetic look as he left with her, the lawyer in tow.

  “You boys call me,” the lawyer said just before he exited. “Mr. Raines is a very generous man, I’m sure, but let me make sure he crosses his T’s and dots his I’s before you sign anything.”

  Noah nodded. “Don’t worry, if he tries anything crooked, I’ll sic Bonnie on him. Oh, by the way, Bonnie, meet my boyfriend, Dalton. We’re always making dramatic entrances like this.”

  Noah’s mother looked Dalton up and down, like she was examining a piece of fruit at the grocery store, looking for bruises and bad patches. “Hm,” she said. “I suppose he’ll do. Billionaire, are you?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Dalton said with a nervous chuckle.

  “You get a pre-nup,” Bonnie said to Noah.

  “Mom! We haven’t even talked about—”

  “I’m just saying! A man like that! Heaven forbid anything should happen, but you need to be protected!”

  “You don’t have to worry,” Dalton said to her. “Nothing—and no one—is ever, ever going to hurt your son again.”

  He meant it, too. He would move heaven and earth to protect Noah. And Bonnie, the other person in this world who felt the same, seemed to hear the truth in his voice, because she nodded, satisfied.

  “I was hoping to catch up with you, son,” she said to Noah, “but I imagine you’re going to be busy tonight.”

  “Mom!” Noah said, shocked. “Don’t embarrass me!”

  “If this mansion’s rocking, don’t come knocking,” said Judah.

  “For god’s sake, Judah!”

  “Are you people always like this?” groaned Colby.

  30

  Noah and Dalton, Together

  “I want to apologize,” said Dalton.

  “For what?” Noah asked. His fingers were trailing down Dalton’s bare chest, the soft, creamy sheets barely covering his pelvis. Outside the sky was pitch-black as the jet plunged northward, the stars of cities twinkling below.

  He was just glad to be alone with Dalton at last. There had been endless activity at the house, enough activity that he’d been starting to think he hadn’t gotten back together with Dalton, so much as he’d joined a company. So many people from the Raines company began to arrive, with their laptops and phones and important conversations, all of them dressed for work even though it was evening. Colby had worked with Liam to assign them rooms. It was a big house, after all, made for having guests, and there was a lot of business for them to conduct over the next few days. Judah had held Roo, who wasn’t overly happy to be woken by all the commotion, but who was mollified when she saw all the new faces.

  Listen, Dalton had said to Colby, but his brother had interrupted him.

  I know, I know. Just go. I’ve got this.

  Are you sure? Last time I skipped out on work with Noah—

  You just have to promise not to tell me one single detail, okay? Pretend I’m a robot with no heart. Your gross and tacky love does not compute. Just remember who gets credit for the new factory, when you tell the tale.

  “I’m afraid I’ve been really aggressive. I mean, I walked back into your life and kind of took over things. I didn’t even stop to ask Liam and Judah whether they wanted an investor. I didn’t ask you. I keep doing this, rushing ahead, without consulting anyone first.”

  Noah’s hand slid beneath the sheets. “I don’t know, it made for an entertaining evening. Wait, why are you hard again?”

  “Because of your hand, Noah. Your hand is right there. Squeezing.” He gave a little groan.

  “Are you sure? I think you’ve got some sick power fetish. Like, you can’t get off unless it involves walking into a situation and throwing tons of money around.”

  “I’ll agree with anything you say, as long as you keep your hand moving. Oh god.”

  “Maybe we’ll skip the late dinner, and you can just buy me everything in a boutique, how does that sound? Would that get you hot?”

  “Wait, that’s your fantasy, not mine,” Dalton laughed, pulling Noah on top of him. “And no, no boutiques. Not tonight. Tonight I just want a simple dinner—”

  “He says, as he flies me to a fancy Manhattan restaurant in his private jet.”

  “—and a quiet evening getting to know one another again.”

  Noah put his lips to Dalton’s. “Yes. I think I’d like that. A quiet night, no drama.”

  “I think we’ve both had enough drama for a lifetime.”

  The sheet had somehow been pushed away, although Dalton didn’t know when that had happened, and now there was nothing separating their bare bodies. Noah pressed himself against Dalton, hip to hip, cock to cock, as though it were time to stop talking altogether.

  They’d already been at each other once on this flight. Thank god the Raines jet had a built-in bedroom. Thank god the attendants knew better than to disturb them. The way Noah had cried out when Dalton first entered him, that mix of surprise and joy…it had been pretty loud. Remembering it sent tingles down Dalton’s spine, made him even harder. He lifted his hips, letting his shaft and Noah’s rub against one another.

  Knowing Noah, he was trying to think of something wicked to say to goad Dalton on, but Dalton didn’t need any prompting. He pulled Noah’s face down, kissing him deeply, feeling that brief resistance as he knew Noah always struggled with giving up control, but the resistance soon was gone, and Noah joined him in the kiss, returning it. Again Noah’s hand slid down, testing Dalton’s hardness, while Dalton reached for the nearby bottle of lube again.

  He was surprised when Noah snatched the bottle away from him.

  Startled by the look on Noah’s face. That evil grin. A grin that promised something unexpected.

  When the lube drizzled down onto Noah’s fingers, Dalton gasped. “I…I’m the top, remember?”

  With his white teeth shining, Noah said, “Who is on top right this second?”

  “Well, you’re in my lap, but see, the word top really refers to— Oh god. Oh. My. God.”

  His words were stolen away by the sensation of Noah’s slick fingers. At first he thought perhaps Noah had changed his mind, and was going to use the lube to jack him off. Which would have been welcome, though not quite as welcome as Dalton fucking him.

  But the first place Noah went was Dalton’s balls, rubbing them, tugging on them, sending an almost vertiginous sensation through Dalton. He found himself getting even harder, precum leaking from his cock at this attention. Come on, he mentally urged Noah, suck me, or climb on top of my cock, or something, anything—

  The way Noah kept working on his balls, though, the way he worked his way a little further down, to the flesh beneath them, had Dalton writhing in pleasure on the bed.

  Oh my god…are you going to finger-fuck me…is that what you’re—

  Even the words in his mind couldn’t continue, when Noah began to rub his hole.

&
nbsp; It wasn’t like he never had any attention paid to his own ass. Dalton wasn’t a virgin in that regard. But he was so used to topping, especially with Noah, that—

  Noah’s slim finger entered him, and the entire world collapsed to just this feeling, just this sensation, as Dalton threw his head back, sighing, feeling the blood rushing to every part of his body all at once. “Noah…god…what…”

  Another finger joined that one, and then one more, and Dalton’s ass squeezed them tight, lost in the pleasure of being penetrated. “You…Noah…you have to fuck me…”

  “What’s that?” laughed Noah. “You, the big billionaire, the one who sweeps in to save the day, you great big alpha, you want little old me to fuck you?”

  Dalton reached down and grabbed Noah’s cock, as he breathed the words, “I need it inside me. Now.”

  Noah needed no further prompting. He removed his slick fingers from Dalton’s ready ass, and slid himself down between Dalton’s legs.

  He wished he could see it, as Noah entered him. It was the sight he liked best, when he was fucking Noah, watching his cock enter his lover, watching Noah’s body eagerly take him in, and he wanted to see the opposite site now, wanted to see Noah sliding home.

  This desire, this hunger, took such strange and wondrous forms. The slim man who towered over him now, who would have thought he could come to mean the world to Dalton? Who would have thought that in this moment, Dalton was utterly at his mercy?

  They pressed forward, each of them, Noah against Dalton and Dalton against Noah, their bodies meeting at the end of Noah’s thrust, and nothing had ever felt so perfect as having Noah inside him. The only thing that even came close, was him being inside Noah. They were going to have to alternate like this, one fucking the other, over and over, because Dalton was never going to be satisfied, it was like a meal that only made you hungrier for more, and he found himself starved for Noah, wishing he could be fucked, and suck Noah off, and fuck him and everything all simultaneously, until his entire world was Noah, the whole thing just the look in Noah’s eyes as he stared down into Dalton’s…

  You have beautiful eyes, Noah thought. And if he were not so close to climaxing right now, maybe he would have studied those eyes with the seriousness they deserved, their strange greenness, the rings around the irises that had first caught his attention. You have a beautiful mouth, a beautiful chest—and oh, your cock!—but it is your eyes I keep coming back to. I want to stare at them forever, if that’s okay…

  He knew he had taken a chance, insisting on fucking Dalton. His lover might have protested. Might have demanded they stick to one top and one bottom. But he was so overcome with love and lust, he found he couldn’t help himself, he had to have Dalton, had to fuck him, because there was no other way to satisfy the desire that was burning inside him…and no other way to show just how much he loved him. The give and take, the thrust and pull, the sighing and the panting and the soft moans that filled the cabin of the jet, there wasn’t anything else he would rather hear, not in the entire world.

  Do you know what you mean to me? It was a question asked with eyes instead of words, a question of hands that pressed against Dalton’s shoulders for support, a question of the way his hips moved as he pushed himself into Dalton. Do you know how much I love you?

  …do you know how much it means, to be loved by you?

  And he was so lost in these thoughts, and in the feeling of Dalton holding him tight by the hips, and the feeling of being inside his lover, that his orgasm nearly caught him by surprise, like it had been welling up all this time while he was considering Dalton’s eyes, and now was ready to spring forth, driving him forward, speeding his thrusts, making his breath hard and shallow and fast, locking his gaze to Dalton’s, a look of wonder on his face as it hit, a tidal wave of pleasure…of belonging. He cried out and didn’t care who heard, the whole world could’ve been listening for all he cared. All that mattered was this feeling, coming inside Dalton, claiming him as his own, and Dalton’s hands pressing him down, forcing him further in, as he reached his own climax, the seed pumping out of him, pouring onto his chest, his belly, spurting up to Noah’s as well, this mess of love, these rivulets of desire, the scent of their lust in the air as Noah collapsed against him, sweaty chest to sweaty chest, suddenly too tired even to kiss, as though all the energy had gone out of him, as he stayed inside Dalton, still feeling himself pumping away, weak with desire, weak with satisfaction, and the only thing he needed further now, the single thing he was missing, was Dalton’s arms moving up to embrace him hard, to hold him close and never let go, and because they were linked now, because they were connected, Dalton seemed to hear this need, and pulled him, cheek against cheek, breathing each other’s panting breaths, letting Noah rest against him.

  There had never in Noah’s life been anything like this. A sense of completion. A sense of safety. Of belonging to someone who would never leave. Who would understand his worth, understand what he wanted, what he needed, who he was.

  He didn’t know what to do with the feeling, and so he cried, because it seemed like the most honest thing to do, even though it was a little embarrassing to burst into tears when you’re still lodged inside your lover, but he didn’t care, he wept, and the sobs came hard, and Dalton’s arms never left him.

  They would talk about those tears, later on, after dinner, after the wine and the drive through the city at night, the dark-houred tourism of two men alone with an entire world to look at. They would talk about what it meant to each of them, to finally have someone, and they would repeat stories to each other, stories about the past, old wounds and old scars, because they were safe now, it was safe to tell those stories, nobody would ever be scared off, ever again. In that safety, Noah would tell Dalton things he’d never told another soul. He’d cry again, and Dalton would hold him again, and for the first time in his life, Noah would understand what it meant to be truly protected, truly loved by another man.

  But right now there were no words.

  Right now they simply clung to one another, skin to skin, as the jet hurtled through the sky, taking them to a future neither of them could have ever imagined, but which both of them had always deserved.

  31

  Four Months Later

  It’s amazing what money can do. Of course Noah knew that, it was something he’d known his entire life, since he’d first noticed the difference between the hand-me-downs he was wearing, and the sharp, fashionable designs of the models he studied in magazines. But it still surprised him sometimes how it got things done so much faster, so much more effectively.

  Superbia Springs was nearly ready to open. It had taken a lot of coordinating, a ton of work, and quite a few checks signed by Dalton, but the house had been redecorated inside and out. Architects had swarmed in, working with historical photos of the house as it had looked in 1925. Liam, Judah and Noah had gathered as many old documents and pictures as they could, with the help of Alex at the bookstore, and Thaddeus Mulgrew, the only good Mulgrew, the town historian. Noah had vetoed any design that would be too modern, erasing the Art Deco beauty of each room, and the architects had scowled, all wanting to impose their own vision, but when they’d run to Dalton, he’d laugh and remind them who was paying whom.

  They were so close.

  Today, Noah was in the gallery, and between the sunlight coming in through the special UV-filtering panes (no more fading colors, he swore), and the light from the Tiffany chandeliers, the room looked like some gorgeous alien forest, the green of the wallpaper matching, as closely as it could, the old arsenical brilliance of the past. You want us to make it look poisonous? The architects had been skeptical, until Noah pulled Judah in to explain the history of chemical dyes; it was all a little over his head, and all he knew is he wanted green, the most beautiful greens on earth…the kind that would remind him every day of Dalton’s eyes.

  Men were unwrapping paintings, a collection of art from around the South, modern, bold paintings without a single s
till life among them. Noah directed their progress, showing them where to put each one, just as he’d mapped it out in his head, stepping back, considering, ordering them to nudge an inch to the left or right.

  “Why hello,” said a voice from the doorway. “Are you very busy?”

  He turned, beaming at Dalton. “You’re damned right I’m busy. What are you even doing here? I thought you were at the construction site. Don’t you have robots to build or something?”

  “I haven’t seen you for two hours,” Dalton said. “You know how I get when you’re gone from me for so long. I start to worry this was all a dream.”

  Noah laughed. “It’s a nightmare. I can’t believe how much there still is left to do. Do you know how desperate I am? I actually left Judah in charge of ordering the bedding for the guest rooms.”

  “Come with me to lunch.”

  “Maybe you misunderstood me. I have Judah making fabric choices.”

  “I’m sure he’ll do fine. Come to lunch.”

  “We’ll be lucky not to end up with Pac-Man and Star Wars sheets. Seriously, I love you, but there’s so much to do—”

  But Dalton had a funny way of letting you know when he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He didn’t have to say anything, it was just a little change in his posture, a little switch from Friendly Cheerful Dalton to CEO Dalton.

  It always sent a little thrill through Noah when he saw that switch. Not that he’d ever admit it. Couldn’t let Dalton think Noah liked it when he bossed him around.

  “I have a picnic basket in the car,” Dalton said. “I thought we could have lunch in the garden.”

  And what a basket. When Noah peeked in once they’d gotten outside, he saw bottles of champagne, dishes of mangoes and strawberries, finger sandwiches and—