Blood Brothers (7 page)

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

Anne Cain is a freelance graphic artist and web designer and a proud member of Samhain Publishing’s cover art department. Barbara Sheridan has been published previously in historical, paranormal and contemporary romance.

Blood Brothers is Anne and Barbara’s second collaborative effort and is set in the same “universe” as their novel The Dragon’s Disciple. To learn more about the series, please visit

http://www.dragonsdisciple.com
. Send an email to Anne and Barb at

[email protected]
or join their Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Barbara and Anne!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dragonsdisciple

Looking for more stories that feature love between men? Enjoy this
excerpt from WILLOW BEND, a gay erotic contemporary romance by Ally
Blue, available now at Samhain Publishing.

Paul sighed as he dropped his pencil onto the little table beside his easel. He rubbed a hand across his forehead and glared at the half-finished landscape sketch in front of him.

“Dammit, it’s just not right,” he muttered.

He wished he could take the canvas and easel out back and paint the meadow from life instead of memory. But that wasn’t going to happen today. The rain pattering gently against the barn roof seemed likely to hang around for a while instead of passing in the usual violent rush.

Leaning back in his chair, he frowned at the canvas and tried once again to focus on the problem at hand.

He’d spent half the morning attempting to capture the peaceful beauty of the meadow behind his house. So far, it hadn’t exactly turned out the way he wanted. Every time he tried to summon an image of the meadow, mental pictures of Cory kept getting in the way. Cory naked on his bed, legs up and apart, mouth open and eyes wide with orgasm. The thought made his jeans tighten.

Paul trailed his fingers over his crotch, feeling himself harden through the worn denim. He looked around before unzipping his jeans, even though he knew there was no one to see. He pulled his cock out, closed his fist around the shaft and began to stroke hard, imagining Cory’s hand around him. His eyelids fluttered closed. He could almost feel Cory’s soft, wet mouth sliding down over his prick, those callused fingers rolling his balls and teasing his hole.

“Cory…” His head lolled back, legs spreading as he stroked himself faster.

The sound of the barn door opening made him jump. He shoved his still-hard cock back into his jeans and zipped up, heart in his throat.

“Paul? You here?”

Cory. Paul laughed. “Up here, in the loft.”

He walked over to the open trapdoor in the floor, a little awkwardly because of the way his erection pushed against his zipper. He looked down; Cory grinned up at him from the bottom of the ladder.

“Hey,” Cory said as he started to climb up. “You weren’t at the house, so I figured you’d be out here. Hope you don’t mind me dropping by. My tour got canceled ‘cause of the rain, so I thought I’d come see you.”

“Course I don’t mind.” He shook his head at Cory’s soaking-wet state as he stepped off the ladder. “Got caught again, huh?”

“Yep. But I don’t care. If it wasn’t raining I wouldn’t be over here.”

Cory peeled off his dripping T-shirt and draped it over the top of the ladder, then stepped out of his sandals. Paul reached out and pulled Cory into his arms. Cory’s wet skin felt cool against his palms.

“I’m glad you came over, Cory.” Paul gave him a gentle kiss, trying to resist the urge to throw him on the floor and ravish him.

“Mm. Me too.” Cory’s knee slipped between Paul’s legs. He grinned and rubbed his thigh teasingly against Paul’s crotch. “Did I interrupt something?”

“Um. I was just thinking about you, actually.”

“Were you.”

“Uh-huh.”

Cory snaked a hand between Paul’s legs. “And what were you doing while you were…” he leaned forward and ran his tongue over Paul’s lips,

“…thinking of me?”

Paul swallowed. “I was…uh…”

“Touching yourself?” Cory pressed closer, massaging Paul’s erection through his jeans. “God, that’s hot.” He tugged Paul’s zipper down and slipped his hand inside, green eyes going hot and hazy as his fingers wrapped around Paul’s shaft. “Paul. Fuck me.”

Paul tried to speak and couldn’t. He buried one hand in Cory’s hair, wound the other arm around his waist, and kissed him hard. Cory’s mouth opened under his, tongue pushing in. The water from Cory’s rain-soaked shorts seeped through Paul’s jeans where their bodies pressed together, but he barely noticed. Nothing mattered anymore except the feel of Cory’s body, the taste of his mouth.

He stumbled backward toward the threadbare old sofa under the window, pulling Cory with him. The backs of his knees hit the edge of the cushions and he fell half-on, half-off the sofa with Cory sprawled on top of him, one hand still clutched firmly around his dick.

Paul rolled over and pinned Cory with his body. He looked down at the man underneath him, at the tangled wet curls clinging to his neck and flushed cheeks, the golden skin gleaming with rain and sweat, and felt a strange stirring inside.

“God, Cory,” he said softly, cupping Cory’s cheek in his palm. “You are so fucking beautiful.”

Cory blinked, long dark lashes brushing his cheeks. He reached a hand up to skate his fingertips across Paul’s mouth. “Paul…”

Paul leaned down and they kissed again, gentler this time, slower.

When Paul broke the kiss at last, he was surprised to discover that he held both of Cory’s hands clasped in his, their fingers intertwined, arms stretched above Cory’s head. His full weight rested on Cory’s body, and those long legs were wound around his waist. It felt incredibly intimate.

“Paul, please,” Cory whispered. “Need you in me.”

When Captain Tobin kidnaps hunky chef Kelly Landry, he’s interested
in more than just this man’s cookies.
Enjoy this nibble of a savory, science-fiction, homoerotic delight,
TASTE THIS
by Leigh Ellwood, available May
23, 2006 at Samhain Publishing.

“Tobin.” Kelly sounded exhausted. The baker’s body was leaden and limp, like dragging a sack of Earth potatoes. “Tobin, I’m sorry, I never meant—”

“There’s no reason to apologize, Kelly. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“You’re acting as though I did.”

“I am not!”

They breezed through the kitchen—rather, Tobin breezed and Kelly lagged. The aroma of baked chocolate and sweet sugared cake was faint, yet pleasant all the same. It did little, however, to overpower the tension.

“Your tone implies otherwise,” Kelly said, stopping short of careening into Tobin.

“Kelly, I just want to talk. There’s nothing sinister in that.”

“We could have talked in the lounge.”

Tobin frowned. So Kelly was eager to get back in there, was he? So he preferred Danae’s pussy to his own hard, thick shaft?

Stop it
. Tobin shook away the doubt and finally turned to Kelly, softening his expression to ease the worry in Kelly’s.

“I want to talk in private, Kelly,” he said quietly. “I haven’t seen you all day, is all. I was hoping we could talk together like we normally do when I finish duty. I didn’t find you in our quarters, so I tried here.

That’s when I checked the lounge.”

“I see. I lingered a bit after my work was done, obviously,” Kelly said.

Tobin was unconvinced of Kelly’s ease. The baker stiffened in his grip and looked around the kitchen as if expecting an ambush.

“Fine, we’ll talk, but why are we at the pantry?” Kelly asked cautiously.

Tobin remained silent and gestured to the now open door. When Kelly hesitated, Tobin smiled. “I promise you, you’ll come out alive,” he said.

He escorted Kelly inside, engaging the lock behind them. Using the keypad by the door, he set the lighting at a minimal glow, leaving it light enough for them to move around without toppling any shelves. In this dark amber glow, Kelly appeared beautiful as ever. Curved shadows lent his profile a sensual air of mystery that Tobin found very arousing.

Tobin watched Kelly nervously pace a worn, circular path, and stroked his cock in silence. Kelly squinted in the dark at him, unaffected by the gesture.

“What are you going to do to me?”

“I want to make love to you, Kelly. I’ve tried to wait, tried to defer to your wishes, but it’s getting more and more difficult to do.”

“I thought we were going to talk.”

“We just did.”

Tobin tried to cross Kelly’s path but backed away when the baker cast him a wide-eyed, worried frown. Certainly he still didn’t think Tobin brought him here to hurt him? Locking the door was meant to ensure privacy, not as a means to cut off escape.

“I’m sorry. You...you’re just acting strange, is all. I can understand if you’re upset with me...”

“I’m not, Kelly. You can do no wrong in my eyes, please understand that.” Tobin pressed his two forefingers against the tip of his cock, supporting the rod as it stood to attention. “Look at this,” he implored.

“All I have to do is look at you and I’m hard as a rock. Do you have any idea what you do to me, Kelly?”

Kelly folded his arms over his chest, tucking his hands in his armpits. He looked down at his own limp cock, looking as though he should hide it away.

“That could come from anger, too,” Kelly said, nodding at Tobin’s erection.

“I’m not going to rape you,” Tobin snapped. Oh, but Kelly tested him!

Even as the baker frustrated him, Tobin remained aroused. If only he were a more eloquent man, able to better express his feelings. “You arouse me no matter what. Naked, clothed, baking, just sitting still...I can’t get enough of you. I just want you to know that, and I want to show you how much it means to me.”

“Were you turned on by what you saw?” Kelly’s voice was weak, waiting for punishment. His hunched posture inferred expectation of a verbal lashing.

Tobin paused. What could he say? The scene was a shock, he had to admit. Over a week of lackluster oral sex from him, and he had to walk into the lounge to see Kelly enjoying it from both ends. Perplexing, yes, yet Tobin also had to acknowledge that seeing Kelly enjoy Wren’s lips on his cock, and Danae tonguing his ass, was a turn-on. He said as much.

“Still,” Kelly said when Tobin assured him of that, “you look mad enough to kill right now.” He stopped pacing and stood in an aggressive pose, hands fisted at his sides. “So you know, I’ll fight you if I have to. I could probably take you.”

“I’m sure you could, but why would you? I don’t want to fight, what makes you think I do?”

Kelly’s hands relaxed. “I-I don’t know. Part of me feels bad, and the other part defensive. I’m not sure what I should be doing.”

“Besides talking?”

“Yes, but we’re doing that now, aren’t we?” Kelly forced a chuckle, but it hardly sounded amused. “I think this is the most we’ve talked in a while.”

Tobin had to agree. The time following Kelly’s arrival was parsed into a neat routine of work and sexual play and sleep. Tobin and Kelly, in particular, tended to work more then others on the
Jiu’Kr
simply because nobody existed to relieve them of their duties.

“I could come to like this, just talking,” Kelly said. “Though I wish it didn’t have to happen with you dragging me out of the lounge.”

“Like I said, privacy. And you had the chance to resist me then, and still do now,” Tobin pointed out, “yet you followed me like a child. In fact, you were the most confident at Taste This. Here, not so much, and I can’t understand why. You’re on even footing.”

“Taste This was the home field advantage,” Kelly said. “That was home—”

Tobin’s heart plummeted at this. Would the
Jiu’Kr
ever be home?

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