A Cowboy in Ravenna (8 page)

Hearing about Trin’s former lovers was hard, but okay—Trin was opening up, so Chace would man up. “Yes, electrical stimulation. Under the bound man’s cock was this little bowl, as if the guy were being milked.”

Trin’s eyes flared hot gold. “Would you like that? Me using a machine to milk you for your taste? If it were me, I’d drink your cream, so hungry for it.”

“Milk me now.” Chace climbed on top of Trin, holding that big, muscled body down and moving so his cock and balls were hanging over Trin’s mouth. “Take all of it again. Taste it, suck it. I want to give it to you. It’s yours.”

The hands that grabbed his thighs were tipped with claws. He’d pushed Trin to the edge. Sharp teeth grazed Chace’s balls as Trin suckled his fruit, as if warning Chace that he could hurt him.

Giving himself to the beast, Chace thrust helplessly, Trin’s prisoner, just the way he craved. He’d have bruises on his wrists when they were done and he didn’t care.

Trin sucked, pulling strongly, exquisitely, on Chace. “Building up your cream,” Trin whispered. “I want you to give me as much as you can.”

“I want you to have it.” Oh, fuck. He’d come to Italy to liberate himself but he’d never dared dream he’d get to share this kinky side of himself with Trin. “I wish you could lock me in a room somewhere and hook me up to that machine, maybe spank me if I didn’t produce enough cream.”

“Chace!”

Chace rode Trin’s mouth, head back, on edge. He wanted to come so he could watch Trin feed on him.

Trin licked a claw, and then the cool tip touched Chace’s entrance. Trin penetrated him carefully.

“I love that in me. I love being your possession,” Chace groaned. “Promise we’ll try it out sometime, Trin, that you’ll tie me up and milk me.”

“Oh, fuck. We’ll put you in the cellar under my cabin,” Trin said, swallowing hard. His hair was rumpled crazy around his skull from Chace’s hands. His lips were shiny from sucking Chace, reddened from sex. “I like the idea of cuffing your wrists and ankles and then touching you, stimulating you until you produce.”

“Trin!”

“Give it all to me. I want to swallow you down.” Trin’s mouth was tight and wet around Chace’s cock, receiving. He grunted, sounding ravenous as he swallowed. Chace shook above Trin, drained dry, quivering as Trin licked, taking his essence.

He collapsed on Trin. “You didn’t—”

“I’m not sure it’s safe. You don’t know what I can become.” Trin closed his eyes. “I’d need… I’d need you to tie me down first.”

Chace grinned. “If that’s supposed to be a turn off, game over.”

“You kinky little brat.”

“I want you to come.”

“Inside you?”

Chace cuddled closer. “Yes. God, yes.”

Trin’s heart was pounding under his ear. “We’ll try it soon. Right now the beast is satisfied. You gave me your taste.”

“You really go for that.”

“I had no clue I’d want something like that until I tasted you. I’ll need you to feed it to me regular. Now I’ve had you that way, I crave it.”

Chace traced the mark on his neck. Weirdly, it was almost healed. “This means something to you.”

Trin’s eyes were smoky again, the beast relaxed for the moment. “I claimed you.”

“Does that mean you’ll take care of me sexually?”

“Straight to the point like always. You’re so impulsive. Passionate.”

“And yours.”

Trin’s expression darkened. “Yes, there’s no going back. I hope you won’t be frightened of me.”

“Oh, yeah, you made me want to run screaming when you were sucking me off.” Chace climbed off Trin. Separating himself from Trin was hard…unnatural. But damn, Chace was hungry enough to eat his weight in food. Hopefully their Italian hotel would have the promised vegetarian offerings.

Trin smacked his ass and Chace loved it. He looked over his shoulder and rubbed the pink imprint.

“Kinky brat,” Chase said as they finished dressing.

Trin wrapped his arms around him and Chace felt a moment of perfect, centred peace, body singing and inner Buddha smiling. This was where he belonged. This was why it had hurt when Trin tried to push him away.

“Let’s feed you. And then…I guess you have stuff we’re supposed to do today.”

Chace laughed, tugging Trin from their room. “It won’t be so bad. No carpets to—” He stumbled over something lying on their threshold. “Holy shit!”

Sabin was curled into a ball. His eye was swollen purple, his lip cut and his clothes spattered with blood.

Chace knelt beside him, instinctively pulling him close. He looked up at Trin. “Help us.”

Chapter Seven

Chace opened the hotel door, spotting Sabin lying on the bed. His long auburn hair was damp and he was shirtless, curled up like a withered leaf. Trin was sitting nearby, running his hand above Sabin’s body.

“What are you doing?” Chace asked. He’d seen Trin do the hand thing before with sick horses. He’d always figured it was somehow connected to his healing talent.

 
“Mapping his energy.”

“Like chakras? Sasha knows a lot about them.” Chace put down the things he’d picked up at the local
farmacia
as well as at the market for Sabin—fruit, bread, cheese and some salve for the bruises.

“I don’t.” Trin shot him a look. “It’s just…I can feel where he’s hurting.”

“How does it work?” Chace doled out additional food he’d macked from the breakfast room—chocolate-filled croissants, Italian cookies, pineapple juice, yoghurt and espresso for Trin. He’d brought enough for three people.

“It feels red and hot where he’s bruised. Cool where he’s low on energy.” Trin’s brow furrowed. He took Chace’s hand in his, hovering it over Sabin. “Can you feel that?”

Chace closed his eyes. The mark on his neck throbbed and then his palm prickled. “Warm, yeah,” he said. “He’s so fucking tired.”

“Someone kicked him.” Trin gently rolled Sabin onto his stomach. He moaned but didn’t open his eyes. “In the kidney.”

“Oh, shit. Does he need a hospital?”

“Not now…” Sweat stood out on Trin’s forehead. He squeezed his eyes shut and his hand trembled. “From the bruise, looks like the fucker used a steel-tipped boot.”

“Will he be okay? He looks so…” Vulnerable.

Chace brushed the fiery hair, wondering what kind of life Sabin lived. Had he tried to rob the wrong person?

“He’ll be fine but he’ll need a safe place to rest. The knock to his head didn’t help. He’s still woozy.” Trin sat back, crossing his arms and breathing heavily. Evidently healing someone zapped him. “He’s had a rough life, Chace. I hate seeing a young shifter on his own this way. Where are his pack, his family?” Trin pulled back the long hair at the nape of Sabin’s neck, exposing a knot of scarring. “This old marking scar didn’t heal right. I can feel…he’s blocked somehow. His mind.”

Abruptly Trin’s hand fell. He was shaking. “His memory…” he whispered, staring at Sabin.

Chace shoved some biscotti into Trin’s hand. “Eat.”

Trin looked amused at Chace’s pushiness…and kind of aroused. “Only in Italy do you get cookies for breakfast. I could like this place.”

“Yeah. The cornettos are awesome too.” Chace couldn’t finish his. He left it for Trin, who looked like he could use the calories after his healing deal. “So you mentioned your, uh, pack?”

Trin sighed and then reached for his espresso, as if he had to caffeine up before this conversation. “I was the shaman of a shifter’s pack, a healer. I trained for years under an elder of our village.”

Chace settled into half-lotus. “What exactly are shifters? I mean, I’ve seen werewolf movies…”

“Werewolves are wolf shifters gone wrong, either physically or mentally out of control,” Trin explained. “Most shifters just transform into a big wolf, usually around the time of the full moon. Some of us can assume a half-transitional state.” He shrugged and colour touched his bronzed cheeks.

Yeah, Chace knew
that
form. “But you’re so big when you’re like that. You must go through a lot of 501s.”

“I haven’t done it for a while.”

“What brought it on?”

Trin raised an eyebrow.

“Oh. Me.”

“You let me put my mark on you.”

Chace remembered the moment he’d tilted his head, allowing Trin to bite him. “I’ve always been yours. There was always a connection.”

“Yeah.” Trin cleared his throat. “I could feel you.”

“Is that why we can sometimes share images?”

“Think so. I don’t think it’s common to most shifters. It might be because of my training.” Trin shrugged.

“So…” Sabin drawled. His eyes were still closed so that Chace had thought he was still out of it. “The shifter took you as his mate. Aren’t you afraid? You’re just a human and he can…hurt you.”

“You’re awake,” Chace said, reaching out to touch Sabin’s slight shoulder.

Sabin slapped Chace’s hand away.

Trin grabbed Sabin’s hand. “Don’t do that. Don’t ever hit him.”

“Fine.” Sabin struggled to his elbows. He grabbed his belly.

“Maybe that will teach you a lesson,” Trin said, not looking particularly sympathetic. “But I doubt it.”

“Gotta get out of here…” Sabin managed.

“Then why did you come in the first place?” Trin asked.

“Safe place for a while. Now I’m leaving.”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

“Trin!” Chace reached for Sabin but Trin held him back.

Sabin’s face twisted, sweat popping out on his forehead. He was so pale his freckles and the terrible bruise over his eye stood out like heavy makeup. He managed to sit up, made it to the edge of the bed—

Fell.

“Enough.” Trin, his face softening, let go of Chace and knelt beside Sabin. Trin swung Sabin into his arms, putting him back on the bed while Chace poured fresh juice, handed it to Sabin. “I have some Tylenol,” Trin said. “Hang on.” Chace grabbed his bag, dug through it and found the bottle.

“Give me three,” Sabin said.

“It says you should only take two.” Chace shook out two pills.

“I take three.”

“This happen to you a lot?” Trin asked.

Sabin avoided Trin’s gaze. “Often enough. My mate likes things rough.”

“Your mate?
”
Chace’s hand went to the new mark on his neck.

“My mark’s on the back of my neck.” Sabin touched the heavy scarring Trin had pointed out. “Oh, you got a load of it already. Good to know what’s in store for you, human.”

“Who is your mate?” Trin demanded. Gold lit his cool grey eyes like sparks in a fire. “I’d like to meet him.”

“What does it matter? He found me. He always…” Sabin shook his head. “But I picked up the trail on the kids so it was worth it. I’ve almost got enough to buy one of them.”

“Buy?” Chace was astounded.

“Buy them, set them free,” Sabin said. “Only sometimes they don’t know how to handle that.” He swallowed. “Sometimes they latch on to me, as if I know how to fucking help them.”

Trin was rigid. “You’re talking about the lost ones. You know where they are?”

Sabin studied Trin before his gaze went to Chace. He reached out, gripped Chace’s hand. “You have to help them. You…care. You would be good for them, the little ones.”

“We’ll help them,” Trin said. “Tell us where they are.”

“Help who?” Chace looked at Trin. “Tell me.”

Trin swallowed. “Outlaw shifters steal children. Sell them as slaves.”

“These kids are like you, they have gifts?” Chace asked.

Trin nodded. “Even if we mate with humans, the shifting gene is dominant.”

Chace scrutinised Sabin. “You are one of the lost ones, aren’t you?”

“I don’t need to be rescued,” Sabin said.

“Oh, yeah, I can see that.” Chace raised a brow pointedly at the black eye.

“We’re wasting time,” Trin said. “You’re in no shape to help anyone right now so it’s down to us.”

Sabin gripped Chace’s arm. “He didn’t hurt you when he… But the mark on your neck is fresh.” Sabin’s brow wrinkled, as if he was confused.

Chace touched it. “He didn’t hurt me. It was…special.”

“Special… Whatever.” Sabin eyed Trin. “I have a meet set up tonight with the seller but he’s expecting someone real, a player.”

“I can handle it.”

“
We
can handle it,” Chace said.

Sabin nodded, eyes hardening. “Your little mate has a soft heart. I want him to take part or it’s no deal.”

Trin’s jaw tightened. “I won’t put him in danger. He’d be too attractive to our kind.”

“That’s his tough shit,” Sabin said. “Do you want to help the kids or not?”

“I have to make a call,” Trin told Chace as they left the room.

“Who are you calling?”

Trin shook his head. “I don’t want you involved in this.”

“Trin, you’re a man of your word so now I am involved,” Chace said with a familiar frustration. Trin was still hiding from him. “Sabin would only share with us if I took part.”