Crossroads Shadowland (7 page)

"And you're enjoying it too
much. I'm not asking you again to get up
from that damn chair."

Despite Rand's handicapped
state, he rose and worked his way through
the crowd toward the front door. Outside, Frank hailed the
nearest cab,
opened the back door and
waited until Rand collapsed into the seat before
climbing in.

"Where to, Mister?" the cabbie said.

"Provincial Hotel." The cab
pulled from the curb and Frank looked down
the street, keenly aware of Rand's subdued demeanor beside
him. "Hang a left
at the end of this
block?"

"That's an alleyway, sir."

"Perfect," Frank said. "Take it."

"It's your dime." The man
turned left, brought the taxi to a halt in the
middle of an alley surrounded by abandoned buildings, and
reached for
something under his
seat.

"You won't need that pipe
wrench," Frank said. "My buddy's a little sick to his stomach and I
didn't think you wanted him barfing all over your cab."
Frank dug into the pocket of his jeans and passed
something over the seat.

"Two hundred dollars and
your driver's license? What the fuck—?" the
man said.

"How about you take a
little walk?" Frank's dick grew harder with every
passing second. "Pick out one of the neon signs I
saw flashing on that last
block and have
dinner on me."

"Hell, I'll stay away long
enough to have breakfast for two hundred
dollars, but I have to take the keys."

"No problem. I think my
friend will feel lots better in, let's say, thirty
minutes."

Rand looked as baffled as a
coonhound chasing his tail when he turned
to him. "Frank, I'm not going to throw up in the cab.
Promise."

Frank waited until the man
cleared the alley, and his voice a papery
whisper said, "Tell me, Rand, who came before me?"

* * * * *

Rand swallowed the lump in
his throat with his eyes riveted on Frank's
face. Dark didn't begin to describe the man's demeanor right
now. A shiver of
fear and excitement
mingled, ran down his spine and shot into his groin.
Frank would never do him physical harm, but he
had a way of making him
pay—in spades—if
he chose to. The thrill of never knowing what Frank might
do drove him crazy. And left him hornier than a
toad during mating season.

God, when would he learn
McGuire always stayed one step ahead of
him? Damn good thing he didn't ask him if he'd ever fucked a
man while riding
a horse. With the corner
of his right eye on Frank, he looked into the rearview
mirror. Yep, the cabbie had disappeared into the
night like smoke.

Yanked by the rim of his
t-shirt, a hard body shoved him back and
pinned him up against the window of the cab. Frank's knee
forced his thighs apart, and used the weight of his body to press
his lower spine into the door handle. Caught up in a frisson of
emotions, Rand barely noticed the pain.

A distant streetlamp threw
a beam of light over the cab, illuminating
Frank's dark blue eyes. In their depths resided a cauldron of
conflict Rand had
trouble deciphering,
except one.

Lust.

Drowning under his heated
gaze, Rand drifted between intense
sensations, the gentle touch of Frank's thumb tracing his
mouth and his knee
pushing against his
hard staff. Rough and gentle. Soft and hard. Dark and light.
Every analogy described McGuire
perfectly.

"How do you want it? Soft
like this?" He ran his thumb over his bottom
lip. "Or hard like this?" he said adding pressure to his
balls with his knee.

A groan left his lips
before Frank claimed them with his. Victory reared
its head. Frank had kissed him again, on his own,
without Rand's initiation. In
the back of
his mind he knew the pressure on his groin had lessened, and the
top button of his jeans had eased open.

Frank shoved his hand in,
grabbed his cock and stroked. His hand
lingered near the crown. "Ah, good boy, no boxers." He
dragged his nail across
the wet slit, his
motions slow and languid. Another animal-like moan came
from Rand when Frank squeezed, tugged and spoke
into his open mouth.
"Who came before
me?"

In a dazed stupor, Rand shook his head. "No
one, I swear."

Frank's hand dove lower to
cup his balls. Rand squirmed when he
kneaded the aching sacs, and arched his hips up when Frank
squeezed. A
master at seduction, Frank
applied just enough force to open his zipper and
mingle the pain and pleasure again.

How Frank managed to push
two fingers inside his hole he didn't know,
but with the jolt of pure bliss surging through him, he
wasn't about to ask.

Rand bit down on his lower
lip to keep from crying out the, "Oh, God," he
choked out.

Frank worked the tight
muscle around his entrance and plunged deeper
while Rand bucked beneath him. He failed this time at
stifling his cry when
Frank found the spot
that rendered him dizzy. Rand's inside muscles
contracted and clasped Frank's fingers, his groin launching
into a spasm that
froze his
limbs.

"Yes, don't stop. Harder,
Frank, harder." Recovering his ability to move,
he wound his fingers through Frank's hair, forcing him into
an urgent kiss.

Rand's tongue matched the
strokes of Frank's wicked digits driving into him.
Breathless with uncontrolled pants, he whimpered.
"Do it, Frank, please. I'm
so ready, so
ready."

"Oh, we're just getting started."

Rand couldn't help his
miserable groan or the series of shivers prickling over every inch
of his hot flesh. A cool breeze through the open window
kissed
his skin when Frank rolled the
jeans from his hips to bunch around his ankles.

Frank slid down his body
without removing his fingers from his ass. A
warm mouth enveloped the tip of his cock, the sensation
pitching his body
into a new series of
tremors. He couldn't remember the last time Frank had
sucked him off.

Rand looked down. The image
of Frank's deflated cheeks and his lush,
full lips wrapped around his dick sent him hurtling into
uncharted territory. A
protest broke from
his throat when Frank removed his fingers from his ass
and cupped his butt cheeks with both
hands.

After swallowing the entire
length of his pulsing shaft, Frank worked
him hard and rough. He sucked and nibbled, slid up and down
the length and
scraped his teeth across
the engorged cap.

"Christ. I can't hold back,
Frank. Let me come. Oh, God I'm going to
come."

Frank pulled the cusp of
his t-shirt down and covered the head of his
cock with the fabric. "Come on, pretty boy. Give me all you
got."

A kaleidoscope of colors
exploded in Rand's head and his body went rigid. On and on the
potent orgasm ripped through him while he prayed it
would never end. Suspended between this world and
another, the timeless
moments played out
in slow motion.

Through a series of his own
muffled moans, his shoes came off, and the
jeans were tugged from his legs. Strong arms lifted his limp
body and placed
him on his knees with his
face against the fabric of the seat.

Soon, soon, Frank would be
inside him. Not soon enough. Something
warm slicked his ass.

Too spent to care or
respond when Frank's cock nudged his hole, he had
only enough strength to draw a deep breath before
he entered him.

Burying only the crown of
his thick, long dick, Frank reached around
and took his limp shaft in his hand. "Oh, man, McGuire, you
gotta be fucking kidding me? After that mind-numbing blow job, I
can't get it up again."

Frank kneaded and stroked
his flaccid shaft while driving into his ass
another inch. The hot, tight fit stretched Rand to the max.
An image of Frank's cock buried to the hilt rose. God, he wanted
him again, longed to have the man
pummel
him until he was fucked into next week. Believing it wasn't
even
possible for him to physically get it
up again, he was stunned when his own
dick
expanded and lengthened.

"See, you want me, don't you, Rand?"

"How do you do this to me? I'm out of
control, so over my head."

Firm hands clasped his hips
before Frank drove home. The intense,
exquisite sensation of fullness claimed Rand; he would have
collapsed under
the onslaught had Frank
not held him firm.

Rand clutched the door
handle and gave a strangled cry. "Don't stop,
don't ever stop." Liquid flames of heat pulsed through his
veins. Only Frank
existed and the
methodical thrusts from behind delivering him into a
mindless
frenzy.

The words drifted around
him, so faint he wondered if he imagined
them. "You're mine, Rand, only mine."

Whether real or invented,
it was enough to pitch him off the edge of the
precipice. A flood of warm liquid filled his ass in perfect
sync with the spurts
of cum from his cock.
How in hell was it possible?

Rand fell against the seat
with Frank's weight pushing him down. A
short time later, Frank eased out, this time his words
unmistakably clear. "So you don't have to wonder in the future, now
I've fucked a man in a taxi."

Chapter Five

Moonlight filtered through
the twelve-pane window, illuminating the
room in striated ribbons of silver and white. Pulled from a
sound sleep, Frank
sensed a menacing
presence, jackknifed up in bed and patted the empty
mattress beside him—cold like the room, and
unmistakably empty.
Reminiscent of a
sleep-drugged android, Rand stumbled toward the paneled
wall near the bathroom.

Frank's breath scattered in the icy air.
"Rand, you're sleepwalking."

Onward he trudged. Frank's
words fell on deaf ears. "Rand!" A
debilitating chill cloaked the air, a frigidity Frank knew
came from a deep,
dank shadowland few had
entered. "Jesus!" he roared, shoving off from the
bed with the speed and agility of a wild
beast.

An arm came out—the
sickening Déjà vu from the photo album
stopping Frank's heart. Like a programmed zombie, Rand's
outstretched hand
reached for the
beckoning illusion and then disappeared through the
wall.

"No!" Frank dove for Rand's
feet and, only through the grace of God,
made contact with an ankle. Grasping with every ounce of his
strength, Frank
yanked and twisted against
the whirling dervish seizing the room. "Let him go
you son of a bitch!"

He'd never encountered such
might. The breath wheezed from Frank's
lungs, every tendon stretched beyond human limit. Rand's
upper body had
vanished through the
mahogany portal, striking sheer black terror in Frank's
soul.

On the heels of a
malevolent laugh, the spirit's words echoed through
the room. "You're dead, you're dead."

Drawing on a lifetime of
mental self-discipline, Frank focused on the
portico, his authoritative tone cutting through the black
void. "Release this
man from the clutches
of hell!" An unearthly groan spewed through the
gateway and shook the walls, the overwhelming tug threatening
Frank's grip. "Let him go!"

The threshold receded, the
prevailing current in the room ebbing as the
seconds ticked by. Frank's vitality poured from his body. He
shuddered with
the realization he couldn't
have held on for another ten seconds. Before him
Rand's limp body struck terror in his
heart.

Tugging on his leg, he
dragged him back and clutched him to his chest.
"Rand, speak to me, say something. Rand!"

His eyes fluttered before
opening, and then he patted his body down. "
Wha-what happened? Frank, tell me you're real."

"Oh, God, you're back and
safe." His breath escaped in a rush. "What
happened; what in hell propelled you toward that
wall?"

"A dream." Rand brought
shaky fingers to his temple. "I thought it was a
dream."