Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last (30 page)

had been too long since he’d touched the guy…and never like this.

“I’m sorry.”

Palming the back of Blay’s head, he urged the male closer to him, tucking that face into his own

neck. “I’m sorry.”

As Blay went with it, Qhuinn shuddered, turning his own face inward, breathing in fully, pulling

all of the sensations deep into his brain so he could remember this forever. And while his palm

rubbed up and down, soothing that muscled back, he did what he could to make amends for so much

more than his cousin’s infidelity. “I’m sorry—”

With a quick shift, Blay shook his head. Shook himself free. Pushed back.

Pushed away.

Qhuinn’s shoulders dropped. “I’m sorry.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because…”

In that moment, as their eyes met, Qhuinn knew it was time. He’d blown so much with Blay; there

had been so many missteps and deliberate misunderstandings, so many years, so many denials—all on

his part. He’d pussied out for so long, but that was over.

As he opened his mouth to speak the three words on his tongue, Blay’s eyes grew hard. “I don’t

need your help, okay? I can take care of myself.”

Pound. Pound. Pound.

His heart was thumping so loud, he wondered if it was going to explode.

“You’re going to stay with him,” Qhuinn said numbly. “You’re going to—”

“You don’t pull that shit with Saxton—not ever again. Swear to it.”

Even though it killed him, Qhuinn was powerless to deny the guy anything. “Okay.” He lifted his

palms. “Hands off.”

Blay nodded, the deal sealed.

“I just want to help you,” Qhuinn said. “That’s all.”

“You can’t,” Blay countered.

God, even though they were once again at odds, he craved more contact—and abruptly, he saw

the pathway to exactly that. Tricky proposition, but at least there was some internal logic to it.

His arms lifted, his hands seeking, finding, latching on. Blay’s shoulders. Blay’s neck.

Sex surged in him, hardening his cock, making him pant. “But I can help you.”

“How?”

Qhuinn edged in close, bringing his mouth right to Blay’s ear. Then he deliberately put his bare

chest against Blay’s. “Use me.”

“
What?
”

“Teach him a lesson.” Qhuinn tightened his hold and tilted Blay’s head back. “Pay him back the

right way. With me.”

To make things crystal clear, Qhuinn extended his tongue and ran it up the side of Blay’s throat.

The hiss in response was loud as a curse.

Blay punched into him, shoving him back. “Have you lost your
fucking
mind?”

Qhuinn cupped his heavy, hard sex. “I want you. And I’ll take you any way I can—even if it’s

only to get back at my cousin.”

Blay’s expression played table tennis between utter disbelief and epic anger.

“You fucking asshole! You turn me down for years, and then all of a sudden do a one-eighty?

What the
fuck
is wrong with you!”

With his free hand, Qhuinn played with one of his nipple rings—and focused on what was doing

at Blay’s hip level: Underneath that robe, the male became fully erect, that terry cloth no match for the likes of that kind of hard-on.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind! What the fuck!?”

Usually Blay didn’t curse or raise his voice. It was a turn-on to see him lose it.

Locking his eyes on his friend’s, Qhuinn slowly sank down onto his knees. “Let me take care of

that—”

“
What
?”

He leaned forward and tugged at the bottom of the robe, pulling it toward him. “Come here. Let

me show you how I do.”

Blay grabbed the tie that kept the two halves together, and yanked it tighter. “What the
hell
are you doing?”

God, the fact that he was on his knees, begging, seemed only appropriate. “I want to be with you. I don’t give a shit why—just let me be with you—”

“After all this time? What’s changed?”

“Everything.”

“You’re with Layla—”

“
No.
I’ll say it however many times you need to hear it—I’m
not
with her.”

“She’s pregnant.”

“One time. I was with her once, and just like I told you, it was only because I want a family and

so does she. One time, Blay, and never again.”

Blay’s head fell back, his eyes closing as if someone were driving spikes under his fingernails.

“Don’t do this to me, for God’s sake, you can’t do this—” As his voice gave out, the anguish was a

sad insight into all the problems Qhuinn had caused. “Why now? Maybe it’s
you
who wants to get back at Saxton—”

“Fuck my cousin, it’s got nothing to do with him for me. If you were alone, I’d still be right on this carpet, on my knees, wanting to be with you. If you were mated to a female, if you were dating

someone all casual and shit, if you were in a million different places in life…I’d still be right here.

Begging you for something, anything—one time, if that’s all you’ve got.”

Qhuinn reached out again, going under the robe, stroking a strong, muscled leg—and when Blay

stepped back again, he knew he was losing the battle.

Shit, he was going to lose this chance if he didn’t—

“Look, Blay, I’ve done a lot of shitty things in my life, but I’ve always kept it real. I almost died tonight—and that sets a male straight. Up there in that airplane, looking over the dark night, I didn’t think I was going to make it. Everything got clear for me. I want to be with you because of that.”

Actually, he’d known a fuck of a lot sooner, waaaaaaaay before the Cessna situation, but he was

hoping the explanation made sense to Blay.

Maybe it did. In response, the guy weaved on his feet, as if he were going to give in—or leave.

There was no telling which one it was.

Qhuinn rushed to get more words out. “I’m sorry I’ve wasted so much time—and if you don’t

want to be with me, I get it. I’ll back off—I’ll live with the consequences. But for the love of God, if there’s a chance—for whatever reason on your side—revenge, curiosity…hell, even if you’ll let me

fuck you just once and never, ever again, for the sole reason of driving a stake through my heart? I’ll take it. I’ll take you…any way I can get you.”

He reached out a third time, snaking his hand around the back of Blay’s leg. Stroking. Pleading. “I don’t care what it costs me….”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Looming over Qhuinn, Blay was preternaturally aware of everything around him: the feel of

Qhuinn’s hand on the back of his thigh, the way the hem of the robe brushed against his calf,

the scent of sex thickening the air.

In so many ways, he had wanted this his whole life—or at least ever since he’d survived

his transition and had any sexual impulse at all. This moment was the culmination of countless

daydreams and innumerable fantasies, his secret desire made manifest.

And it was honest: Qhuinn’s mismatched eyes were without shadows—or doubts. The male was

not only speaking the God’s honest as he knew it in his heart; he was at peace with laying himself

vulnerable like this.

Blay closed his lids briefly. This submission was the opposite of everything that defined Qhuinn

as a male. He never surrendered—not his principles, not his weapons, never, ever himself. Then

again, the turnaround did make some kind of sense. Facing death did tend to be followed by a come-

to-Jesus chaser….

The trouble was, he had a feeling this wasn’t going to last. This “eye-opener” was undoubtedly

tied to that plane ride, but as with a heart attack victim resuming his piss-poor diet soon afterward, the “revelation” probably didn’t have a long shelf life. Yeah, Qhuinn meant what he was saying in this heady moment—there was no doubting that. It was hard to believe it was permanent, however.

Qhuinn was who he was. And soon enough, after the shock wore off—maybe at nightfall, maybe

next week, maybe a month from now—he was going to go back to his closed-off, hands-off, distant

self.

Decision made, Blay reopened his lids and bent down. As their faces got closer, Qhuinn’s lips

parted, the fuller, lower one pursing as if he were already trying out the taste of what he wanted—and liking it.

Fuck
. The fighter was so magnificent, his powerful bare chest glowing in the lamplight, his skin carrying a sheen of arousal, his pierced nipples rising and falling to the driving beat of his heated blood.

Blay ran his hand down the corded muscles of the arm that linked them, from the heavy thickness

of the shoulder to the bulge of the biceps and the cut curl of the triceps.

He removed the palm from his thigh.

And stepped away.

Qhuinn paled to the point of going gray.

In the silence, Blay didn’t say a word. He couldn’t—his voice was gone.

On sloppy, loose legs, he scrambled for the way out, his hand flapping around the doorknob until

it gathered enough coordination to open up the exit. Walking out, he couldn’t have said whether he

slammed the door or shut it quietly.

He didn’t make it far. Barely three feet toward his room, he collapsed back against the smooth,

cool wall of the hallway.

Panting. He was panting.

And all that effort wasn’t doing any good. The suffocation in his chest was getting worse, and

abruptly his vision was replaced by black-and-white checkerboard squares.

Figuring he was about to pass out, he sank down onto his haunches and put his head between his

knees. In the recesses of his mind, he prayed that the hall stayed empty. This was not the kind of thing he wanted to explain to anyone: outside of Qhuinn’s room, hard-on obvious, body shaking like he had his own personal earthquake going on.

“Jesus Christ…”

I almost died tonight—that sets a male straight. Up there in that airplane, looking over the

dark night, I didn’t think I was going to make it. Everything got clear for me.

“No,” Blay said out loud. “
No
…”

Putting his head in his hands, he tried to breathe calmly, think rationally, act reasonably. He

couldn’t afford to go any deeper in this—

Those heated, glossy, mismatched eyes had been the stuff of legend.

“
No
,” he hissed.

As his voice resonated inside his own skull, he resolved to listen to himself. No further. This

would go no further.

He’d long ago lost his heart to that male.

There was no reason to lose his soul, too.

An hour later, maybe two, maybe six, Qhuinn lay naked between cool sheets, staring up in the dark at a ceiling he could not see.

Was this horrible, aching pain what Blay had felt? Like, after that showdown in his parents’

basement—when Qhuinn had been prepared to leave Caldwell, and made it clear that there were

gonna be no ties between them anymore? Or maybe after that time they’d kissed in the clinic, and

Qhuinn had refused to go any further? Or following that final collision when they had nearly come

together, right before Blay’s first date with Saxton?

So damn hollow.

Like this room, really: Without illumination, and essentially empty, just four walls and a ceiling.

Or a bag of skin and a skeleton, as it were.

Shifting his hand up, he put it over his beating heart just to reassure himself he still had one.

Man, fate had a way of teaching you things you needed to know, even if you weren’t aware the

lesson was required until it had been served to you: He’d spent way too much time wrapped up in

himself and his defect and his failure to his family and society. Such a tangled fucking mess he’d been for so long, and Blay, because he’d cared, had been sucked into the vortex.

But when had he ever supported his best friend? What had he ever really done for the guy?

Blay had been right to leave this room. Too little, too late, wasn’t that the saying? And it wasn’t like Qhuinn was offering any kind of winner. Underneath the surface, he was no more stable, really.

No more at peace.

Nope, he deserved this—

The slice of light was lemon yellow, and it cut through the black field of his vision as if the

blindness were cloth and the beam a sharp knife.

A figure slipped into his room silently, and shut the door.

By the scent, he knew who it was.

Qhuinn’s heart began to thunder as he shot upright off the pillows. “Blay…?”

There was the softest of rustling, a robe being dropped from the shoulders of a tall male. And

then, moments later, the mattress depressed as a great, vital weight got up upon it.

Qhuinn reached through the darkness with unerring accuracy, his hands finding the sides of Blay’s

neck sure as if they had been led by sight.

No talking. He was afraid that words would cheat him of this miracle.