His to Claim (4 page)

Chapter Five

The motel wasn't much to look at from the
outside. So far the most impressive feature had been the tree-lined driveway
that set the place far enough away from the highway to minimize traffic noise.
Considering how tired Alex was, sleeping wasn't likely to be a problem anyway.

"I got adjoining rooms, but only one is
ready," Kyle said as he came back to the car where Alex waited. "I
figured we could order some breakfast while we wait."

"Sure," Alex said, climbing from
the vehicle and stretching out the kinks in his back. Heck, he could probably
go straight to sleep without eating, but since the only thing he'd had in the
past twelve hours was a lousy cup of coffee, his stomach would likely thank him
by not growling the whole time he tried to get some rest.

He followed Kyle into a surprisingly nice
room. It wasn't large, but it had apparently been refurnished just recently.
Everything seemed shiny and new, including the bed…which, for Alex, was a
rather strange observation.

Kyle was
so
not his type.

Not that he really had a type, but big,
strong, self-confident guys who could turn into grizzly bears wouldn't be his
type if he actually had one.

Kyle sniffed the air and for one stupid
moment Alex wondered if he could smell arousal. Alex wasn't aroused. The chubby
was just from…ah… Okay, so "lack of sleep" was a really stupid
reason, but hey, he could lie to himself as much as he liked.

Determined to make a joke out of the
situation, Alex decided to fall back on his tried-and-true method of getting
through awkward moments—teasing.

"Honey?" he asked, because that
was what bears liked to eat.
Right?

He didn't even realize the way the word
sounded until Kyle lifted an eyebrow, grinned, and asked, "Yes,
dear?"

Laughing softly at his own mistake, Alex
shook his head and turned to look around the small room. "Sorry, I was
just wondering what it was you could smell."

"It's too late to order breakfast from
the motel," Kyle said, apparently happy to ignore that not-quite question,
"but the girl at reception gave me some menus of local places that'll
deliver whatever we want. What's your poison?"

Alex grimaced at the rather apt description.
His fellow police officers usually rolled their eyes when he headed for the
local salad bar rather than the greasy burger joint, but he could never
understand how they expected to stay fit when they filled their bodies with
such unhealthy food.

"I'm easy. Whatever you want to order
is fine by me." Alex almost managed to hide his distaste as he lied.

Kyle grinned and Alex almost changed his
mind.

"Sorry," Kyle said, "but if
you want donuts or burgers you better speak up now."

"I prefer muesli and fruit for
breakfast, but I'll settle f—"

"Really?"
Kyle moved closer, the grin on his face suggesting a far more
intimate relationship than the one they actually had. He lifted a hand as if he
was going to cup Alex's face, and for a moment Alex even thought the guy was
going to kiss him, but then Kyle blinked and stepped away, shaking his head as
if he wasn't quite sure where the impulse had come from. "There's
a…um…menu for a…um… I'll order fruit and muesli for both of us. It shouldn't
take long for them to deliver."

"Thanks." Alex wasn't quite sure
how to react, so he reached for his wallet instead, intending to pay at least
for his share of breakfast.

"I've got it," Kyle said with a
wink, his joviality not really hiding how off balance he was feeling.
"Expense account."

"Oh, okay," Alex said with a
shrug.

Even without his wallet and the contents of
his pockets that Alex had removed when he'd frisked him—was that really less
than twelve hours ago?—Kyle seemed to have plenty of cash available. Alex had
seen him pocket what seemed to be several thousand dollars from a hidden drawer
in the car his brother,
the eagle
,
had left for them. Apparently being a "bounty hunter," or whatever
Kyle actually did for a living, paid quite well. It sure as shit paid better
than police work.

Alex listened without comment when Kyle
ordered enough breakfast for five grown men, and then stood awkwardly in the
doorway wondering what to do next.

"You look exhausted. Why don't you lie
down while we wait for breakfast to be delivered?"

As appealing as that sounded, lying on a bed
in the same room with this particular man was just a little bit too unsettling
for Alex's peace of mind. There was something very appealing about Kyle
Barton—except that wasn't even his name.

"What should I call you?"

Kyle raised an eyebrow, but didn't offer an
answer.

"You said 'Kyle Barton' is an alias.
What should I call you?"

"Oh." The man actually managed to
blush. "Kyle is the name I was born with, so 'Kyle' is fine."

"So it's Kyle…?"

"Kyle Alateeka," the man said with
a shrug and a grin, "but I'm not supposed to use Alateeka again at least
for another fifty or sixty years. My siblings and I take turns using the
Alateeka name so that it'll always be a family owned company."

Alex was still trying to decide why the
siblings would need to take turns using their family name when the rest of that
statement finally hit him.

"You mean Alateeka?
As
in 'Alateeka Protection Services'?
The largest
privately owned security firm in the country?
That
Alateeka?"

"Yeah, that's us."

"So…um…why are you telling me?"
That sounded rude, and kind of insulting to…well, probably to
himself
, but he couldn't quite fathom why a man with access
to so many aliases and so much money would bother to tell Alex who he really
was.

Kyle shrugged. "To be completely
honest, I'm not quite sure why. It just feels right to tell you."

"So when I said you don't talk about
this very much…?"

"You weren't wrong. I don't think I've
mentioned my bear form to anyone in the past century, maybe more."

"Cen…tury?" Surely he'd heard that
incorrectly.

Kyle moved closer, just the way he'd done
when the woman had turned into a three-tailed fox right in front of them.
Annoyed at his own reaction—Alex wasn't a fucking damsel with a propensity to
faint—he took a step away and glared at Kyle.

The man quickly moved back to where he'd
been.

"Sorry," he said, making Alex just
feel downright mean. "I'll be three-hundred-and-ninety-seven next
month."

It was clear Kyle was waiting for some sort
of reaction from Alex, but he honestly had no idea what that should be.
"Ah…happy birthday?" he asked, just a touch facetiously.

Kyle laughed softly, but before he could say
anything else there was a knock on the motel room door. Grinning, Kyle answered
the door, paid the delivery guy who didn't seem at all interested as to why
he'd be delivering so much food to a single room, and then indicated for Alex
to join him at the small round table that was squeezed between the door and the
bed.

Breakfast was awkward. The food was
delicious, but Alex simply couldn't shake his sudden
awareness
of the man he was sharing a meal with. He even found
himself contemplating things such as what it might be like to bottom for Kyle.
Alex had never really considered the idea before. In his mind it took way too
much trust—a commodity he had very little of after ten years on the police
force in an area plagued with criminal activity—to allow someone inside him. He
took a great deal of care to make sure the men he hooked up with weren't
injured by his actions, but he'd never found a man he was willing to hand his
trust to.

Alex was so busy wondering why he would
suddenly be thinking these things it took a while before he finally realized
Kyle had stopped eating with a spoon halfway to his mouth.

Unsure why, Alex raised an
eyebrow and waited for an explanation.

"I…um…" Kyle shook his head,
apparently unable or unwilling to finish that sentence. They were literally
still staring at each other a few moments later when there was a knock on the
internal door to the adjoining rooms. "That'll be housekeeping," Kyle
finally said, getting up to open the door.

He thanked the maid, handed her a tip, and
then came back to the table. He didn't sit down.

"I'll leave the door on my side
unlocked. If you need anything…" He cleared his throat, not really
finishing that sentence either. "I'm a light sleeper. If trouble finds us
I'll—"

Alex cut him off, even though Kyle offering
to protect him was impossibly sweet. "I'm still a cop, you know—trained
and capable of looking after
myself
, even in a
firefight."

"I know," Kyle said, actually
looking embarrassed. "Keep your gun close. Hyenas are pack animals. If
your partner finds us, he won't be alone. Fortunately bullets are quite
effective against them."

"You say that like there are
some"—he hesitated over what to call them—"people a bullet won't
stop."

Kyle shrugged, but didn't deny it, grabbed
what was left of his food, and then stepped through the door to his own room.
"Sleep well," he said quietly "We'll figure out our next move
once we've had some rest."

Chapter Six

Sleep came way too easily, but it was the
sexy dreams that followed him into unconsciousness that had Kyle hard enough to
drive nails.

He woke on a startled breath as his cock
throbbed painfully, only just managing to avoid coming in his pants like some
inexperienced teenager. Fuck, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been this
turned on. Worse still was that the dreams hadn't been about Tyler or a
Tyler-like substitute. That would have been normal, and something he was used
to dealing with.

Nope, this time his dreams were about the
man in the very next room. Kyle dragged a hand down his face and tried to erase
the need swirling through him. Even if Alex desired men, it seemed pretty obvious
that he would be a top. It was very unlikely he'd be interested in doing with
Kyle the very things he'd been dreaming about just now.

Trying to ground himself in reality, Kyle
glanced around the small room. The light filtering through the curtains suggested
that the sun was close to setting. It was probably good that they'd gotten a
decent day's sleep, because chances were hyena shifters would attack at night.

Kyle felt confident that the
kitsunes
were safe. They had already called in the help of
their local shifters—one of whom was one very scary lioness shifter—to help
protect them if the hyenas managed to find them.

No, his biggest concern was keeping Alex
safe. From the conversation he'd overheard between Alex and his contact at
internal affairs, Alex's partner was part of one of the most notorious crime
gangs in the country. It was very likely the organization would track Alex down
just to make sure they hadn't left any loose ends.

And, yes, it was possible that Kyle was
jumping at shadows because the man was somehow very important to him and
someone he didn't want to lose.

Fuck, he didn't even want to think about
what had prompted that thought.

Maybe the
Taser
had fried something in his brain. He actually smiled at the idea for almost a
minute. It felt like a plausible explanation until Kyle admitted that he'd had
trouble not popping wood when Alex had been frisking him. Yeah, Tyler had been
on his mind, but Kyle had known exactly who was touching him.

A startled moan from the next room had him
on his feet and through the connecting door in a flash. He was so intent on
searching for intruders that it took a moment to identify the scent.

"Kyle?" Alex asked in confusion
even as he
blushed
bright red in the fading light.

"I heard…
a
um…"

Alex rubbed a shaking hand over his eyes.
"Sorry," he whispered, his voice thick with embarrassment.
"Weird dream."

"Do you want to talk about it?"
Kyle asked, even knowing that Alex was unlikely to want to share. The room was
filled with the scent of the man's arousal, and it seemed obvious that he'd
woken from a dream similar to the one Kyle had just…endured.

Okay, the word "enjoyed" tickled
at his conscience, but considering he was still rock hard and wanting, that
wasn't quite correct either.

"Talk?
Fuck no," Alex said, finally answering Kyle's question. He
shifted uncomfortably, tried to sit up, but fell back onto the pillow instead.
Alex put his forearm over his eyes, the palm facing upward as he hid his
expression from Kyle. Alex's whisper was barely audible. "Fuck…"

Kyle didn't even realize he'd moved closer
until he ran a finger over that warm palm. Alex's fingers nearly convulsed at
his soft touch but then closed to hold him trapped.

"I'm a top," Alex mumbled, the
words anguished and drawn out of somewhere deep inside him.

"I know," Kyle said, even as he
strangled his disappointment with ruthless decision. He wasn't upset…he wasn't.
Damn it. "We can…help each other out though."

Alex didn't uncover his eyes, but he nodded,
shuffled across the bed a little, and then pulled Kyle closer.

Kyle stretched out beside the human and had
no clue what to do next. He knew what he would have done if the man was anyone
else, but even though he'd suggested they "help each other," he
wasn't really sure how to proceed.

The fact that Alex kept his face covered was
more than a little disconcerting. Instinct practically demanded that Kyle roll
on top of the man, force his arm out of the way, and take his lips in a deep,
sensual kiss, before ramming his hard cock deep inside the man's body. Fuck,
they didn't even have lube. Even if he thought Alex was willing, he wouldn't
have done that.

But, oh, how he wanted to.

Yet he knew how he would react to such a
move and had to assume that Alex would likely react the same way.

Kyle tugged gently on Alex's hand and sighed
in relief when the man finally removed his arm from across his eyes and rolled
onto his side to face Kyle.

"We don't have to do this," Kyle
whispered, his hand automatically finding a resting place against Alex's warm
cheek. "I can go back to my room and we can pretend this never
happened."

"No," Alex said quickly, his
urgent response music to Kyle's ears. "I need you."

The confession seemed torn from deep inside
Alex, the kind of admission that Kyle knew from his own experience was very
hard to voice out loud.

Kyle leaned in and pressed his lips against
Alex's, inhaling the soft groan from the man even as he deepened the kiss and
played his tongue over Alex's teeth. He slid a hand down Alex's side, skimming
over the warm skin until he reached the soft material of the man's boxer
shorts. He didn't complain when Alex did the same, shuddering with need as they
each dragged the material aside and wrapped a fist around each other's cocks.

"Fuck," Alex whispered as he ran
his hand up and down Kyle's length. "You're hung like a horse."

Kyle managed to laugh softly. "Like a
bear, actually."

Alex
stilled,
his
breathing uneven as he finally made eye contact with Kyle. "This is…the
weirdest experience of my life."

Kyle was pretty sure the man was referring
to the entire day and not just the fact that they'd ended up in bed together.
He was about to offer to stop, again, when Alex tightened his hold on Kyle's
cock and twisted slightly, the movement dramatically increasing the sensation.
Kyle gasped, unprepared for the confidence behind Alex's touch, or the way it
made him feel.

He returned the favor, increasing the
strength of his hold on Alex's cock, squeezing just a little tighter on every
upstroke.

"Holy fuck."
Kyle didn't even realize he'd spoken the words out loud until his
cock throbbed again, threatening to dump his load all over Alex's hand and
stomach. Alex grunted in surprise, but didn't stop him when Kyle went with his
instincts and pushed Alex onto his back. Before the man could utter a protest,
Kyle pressed their cocks together, the slippery friction of their combined
pre-cum making them both groan in response.

Threading their fingers together, Alex lay
beneath him, his eyes now on Kyle,
his
pleasure very
clearly written on his face. He was allowing Kyle to take control. He wasn't
quite submitting to his dominance, but he was giving himself over freely. It
was so unexpected that Kyle lost it, coming all over Alex's stomach as the man
grinned in triumph.

Kyle laughed softly, unable to believe how
incredible it felt to be with this man in this way. Not to be outdone, however,
he slid further down the bed and took Alex's cock deep into his mouth.

Alex's grin was replaced by a look of shock
that quickly morphed into pleasure. Strangled moans filled the air as Alex
tried to lift his hips, tried to thrust,
tried
to take
back control. Kyle held him down, straddling Alex's legs with his thighs, their
fingers still entwined as Alex finally succumbed to the inevitable. Kyle drank
him down, surprised by the flavor, by the man's addictive taste.

Unnerved by just how right this felt, Kyle
let Alex's softening cock fall from his mouth and stared at the man currently
staring back at him.

~*~

Alex felt like he'd run a marathon. He'd
never come quite as hard as that, or felt so wrung out afterward, but it was
the need to snuggle into Kyle's warmth that had him completely unnerved. He
swallowed hard, plastered a fake smile on his face, and made a joke of it all.

"You finished down there, cowboy?
You're cutting off the circulation in my legs."

Kyle frowned but started to lift away, and
Alex quickly dropped his gaze, unwilling to make eye contact while uttering
such a blatant lie. If anything he wanted to pull the man closer, not push him
away, which was why he didn't dare glance at the cum coating his stomach. The
delicious feeling of having been marked by this man was seriously unnerving.

The moment Kyle's gaze landed on Alex's
stomach, Alex rolled away, climbed out of the bed, and headed into the shower.
For one heart-stopping moment he thought Kyle was going to follow him into the
bathroom, but the soft click of the internal door closing as Kyle left his room
made Alex sag in disappointment…no, relief. He'd meant relief. He was sagging
in relief. He was
really
relieved
that Kyle hadn't asked him for anything more. He really, really was.

And fuck, he'd never been very good at lying
to himself.