Landon's Desire (Book Three of The Pulse Series 3) (18 page)

“Peppermint?” Carl asked, not quite sure, it was just a hint he detected.

Landon shrugged. “I guess I read the same article you did…it said to take peppermint extract three to five times a day…obviously it works.”

“You’re very lucky I like peppermint.”

“I tried orange but apparently it’s too acidic and upsets my stomach.”

“You did your research.” Carl laughed.

“I have a small problem though, I find myself craving cloves lately,” Landon said. “Could you help me with my problem?”

“I think I could.” Carl smiled, unzipping his pants.

***

“So, this Briggs guy,” Carl said, handing Landon a beer. “What does he want with you?”

“Do I detect jealousy in your tone, Babes?” Landon teased, hoping Carl would drop the questioning.

“Hey, if you don’t want to tell me that’s fine,” Carl said, taking a seat in a chair across the small room.

Carl was pouting, it was cute the way he played it off by creating a distance between them. Landon was beginning to pick up Carl’s subtle behaviors, such as the moody tone he used when he was embarrassed, the way he took to cleaning when something was bothering him and the way he got all quiet when he was angry. Landon sat sipping his beer, staring at Carl trying to peel the label off his bottle in one piece.

“He wants me.”

“To do what?”

“Him,” Landon said, raising an eyebrow, “he
wants
me.”

“Well, he can’t have you,” Carl said, in an indignant tone.

“No?” Landon asked, goading Carl on.

He wanted Carl to go all primal, pull the jealous lover routine and pound his chest while telling the world to keep their hands off his man. He wanted Carl to want
him that badly.

“No,” Carl said. “
We’re
dating.”

“So tell me then, if we’re dating, why your ass is all the way over there and not right here,” Landon patted the mattress beside him.

Carl walked over and climbed onto the bed while Landon scooted up, resting against the headboard, and holding out his arm. Carl gladly snuggled into his side enjoying the warmth of Landon.

“I need to ask you something,” Landon said.

“Uh huh.”

“Do you top or bottom?”

“That’s not a fair question, Ace. You know I’ve never…I can’t give you an answer.” Carl played with the buttons on Landon’s shirt. “What about you, top or bottom?”

“I’m what you’d call an oddity,” Landon answered honestly. “I like it both ways.”

“Good to know,” Carl laughed.

He tried to picture himself under Landon, it was easy enough to fantasize being on top, but having Landon’s cock shoved up his ass made him squirm. It also, strangely enough, sent tingles up his spine at the same time. The idea thrilled him, made it tougher to breathe as his heart raced excitedly.

“If we ever do decide to take it to that level, I want you to know, I’d never hurt you,” Landon assured him. “I mean, I can’t lie it stings at first, but it’s a good hurt.”

Carl sat up so he could see his face. “
When
we do,” he caressed Landon’s cheek. “I know you won’t.”

Landon sat forward and locked his lips to Carl’s in a sweet gentle kiss.

TWELVE

“I’m going to be gone most of the day,” Landon said. “When I get back we’ll have dinner together, okay?”

“Dinner sounds great.”

Landon leaned across the bar and puckered his lips, Carl drew back and laughed. “Kiss me Babes, don’t keep me waiting.”

Carl grabbed his face in both hands and mushed their lips together, hard. “Happy?”

“Ecstatic!” Landon grinned. “See
you
later.”

Landon drove along the highway thinking of how to tell Carl about Briggs, he needed to get it off his chest because he was still living with the guilt. He had been so close to telling Mikala the truth, but she wasn’t the person he needed to tell. He had played it off as no big deal for long enough, it
was
a big deal and he didn’t want it becoming an obstacle for him and Carl.

Once at Liberator, Landon went to his office, a very rare occurrence, and arranged to meet with his appointed staff. These were the people that he trusted to run the place in his absence, he liked working as the behind-the-scenes owner. He only came out of hiding when absolutely necessary.

This was one of those times.

Darren Orson, his appointed CEO sat to his left. Georgia James, the head of accounting sat to his right and Danielle Maple, his shipping and receiving manager sat directly in front of his large marble-top desk.

“Let’s get started, I have a dinner engagement this evening,” Landon said, looking at the gloomy group.

Danielle spoke first. “There are car parts showing up all over Boston, they have no serial numbers, therefore are untraceable.”

Landon sat up and took notice because something seemed far too familiar about this quandary.

“This affects Liberator how?”

“Parts have been showing up at several of our dealerships, we are inspecting everything before shipping and so far we have recovered a few parts before they were used.” Danielle assured him.

“That’s a few parts too many, have you been in touch with the police?”

“Yes sir,” Georgia answered. “The parts are in the authorities hands.”

“Call me Landon,” he smiled. “We need to make sure cheap parts are never used, do we have any idea where they are being shipped from?”

“Yes,” Georgia said, thumbing through a folder. “A company named…Voronov Shipping on behalf of ACME Inc. Somehow these crates got past our inspector.”

“Downgrade the inspector immediately to the mail room. I don’t want him fired, yet. I want constant surveillance on him while he’s in the building, make sure the pin pads are reset and his security clearance is revoked. Inform the police of his name etcetera.” Landon told Georgia.

“Yes sir…Landon.” She laughed nervously.

“ACME Inc,” Landon laughed, shaking his head. “Trust Briggs to use a name from a fucking cartoon,”

“Sorry?” Danielle asked.

“It’s okay, just thinking out loud.” Landon said. “Danielle, make sure nothing comes into the building without being inspected, not so much as a matchstick gets in here without careful inspection.”

“What was the loss on the parts?”

“That’s the crazy thing Landon, there was no loss,” Georgia informed him.

Landon thought for a moment then looked to Darren.

“Untraceable parts or are they?” Landon asked, thinking like a cop, steepling his fingers against his lips with his elbows on the desk’s edge.

“I don’t understand,” Darren replied.

“I wonder if these parts
are
somehow traceable…is it possible that the parts aren’t the problem…perhaps it’s the cars they’re after.”

“Anything is possible,” Darren said, sitting forward.

“We already have tracer units installed on the cars when we ship them, is there anything else we can do so they don’t start disappearing?” Landon asked.

“To get near one of our cars is virtually impossible,” Darren said, and started rhyming off the details one by one.

“Each car has tracers as you said, they are individually crated and sealed, a guard never leaves the crate until it is delivered to the owner and inspected on sight, it’s shipped on our own ships with the highest security available and we have never delivered a car in over thirty five years, with so much as a scratch. You can’t get better facts than that.”

“Up security twenty percent,” Landon demanded. “I won’t take any chances.”

“You got it,” Darren said.

“I want to talk to the investigating officer, get me his number,”

“I have his card here,” Danielle said, handing him a card from a file folder.

“Thanks Danielle,” Landon smiled. “Keep me informed I’ll be in touch.”

Once he was alone, he picked up the phone, cleared his throat and dialed.

“Detective Johnson please?” he waited. “Detective, the names Roberto Liberatore, I think we need to talk, I have some information that’s going to be of great interest to you in your investigation.”

***

Nearly nine o’clock, Carl finished his drink, loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt. He walked over to the window and looked down into the back ally where Landon’s truck should be parked and shook his head.

Going to bed, fuck you and your dinner. C

Carl sent the text and dropped his phone onto the sofa before going to his room.

He showered, brushed his teeth, slipped into a clean pair of briefs and climbed into bed without checking his phone.

Pissed off didn’t begin to describe his anger, he’d never been stood up before and if this was the way it felt, he now knew what women complained to him about. As a bartender, he heard all kinds of stories about no-show dates and being stood up, they’d cry into their beer and tip him big. He wished he had a beer sitting in front of him right now. He turned out his bedside light and closed his eyes.

***

“Fuck!” Landon roared into his phone. “It’s not like I’m in the fucking middle of the dessert you fucking piece of shit!”

Frustrated, because he’d been driving for a few hours and after reading his last text that read,
don’t you dare stand me up Landon Kyle
, it froze. He stopped several times at payphones only to be met by a busy signal until he ran out of change and as fate would have it, his credit card wouldn’t work. He was so furious by this point that he snapped it in half and then tucked it in his pocket and slammed his phone around trying to get it to work.

Now he was racing down the highway like a bat out hell, with the radio blaring and the window rolled down to keep him from overheating. He’d understand if Carl never spoke to him again, he had some major ass kissing to do, and then scowled down at his dick which seemed happy at the idea.

His phone started vibrating in his palm, it had finally unfroze and announced he had one fuck of a load of messages waiting. He read the last message and cringed.

He hit voice dial and said,
Babes
, it connected and went straight to voicemail.

“I’m sooooo fucking sorry, Babes. Please don’t be angry, I’ll explain everything when I get there.” He hung up, he wasn’t far from home now.

***

Landon crept up the back stairs and stood at Carl’s door contemplating his next move. If he knocked and woke him, he was a dead man. If he waited until morning it would be worse. He slid his fingers across the top of the door frame until he felt the cold metal key and smiled.

Quietly he opened the door, stepping inside and locking it again. He placed the key on the stack of mail Carl always kept on the table by the door, took his shoes off and tip-toed in the dark to Carl’s room. The door was open a crack and Landon could barely make out Carl’s form laying on the right side of the bed.

Damn he thought,
that’s the side I like
, it wasn’t starting off well.

He took off his jacket, tie and socks, then careful climbed into the bed. Landon spooned up against Carl and whispered in his ear, “Babes, don’t be mad.”

“Landon Kyle, get the fuck out of my bed,” Carl hollered, trying to roll out of bed.

Landon held tight, pressing himself into Carl’s back. “Let me explain, I can explain.”

“Fine, you have two minutes to explain,” Carl barked.

“The meeting took longer than planned,” Landon started.

“That’s not an explanation.”

“Then give me five fucking minutes to tell you,” Landon said, pulling Carl as close as he could get him. “And quit squirming.”

“I said two minutes,” Carl snorted.

Landon clamped his hand over Carl’s mouth and whispered through clenched teeth, “Then shut the fuck up and listen,”

Carl stilled immediately feeling his length spring to life, there was something truly erotic about the way Landon was manhandling him that made his flesh heat up and caused his breathing to hitch.

Carl barely heard a word until Landon mentioned something about a police station and Carl peeled Landon’s hand away from his mouth.

“Police?”

“Car parts are magically being smuggled in, I think someone is trying to steal one or more of our cars, and I think I have an idea who.”

“Who?”

“I don’t think it’s safe to tell you,” Landon said, rubbing up to Carl’s backside. “I don’t want to put you in any kind of danger, the less you know the better, can you live with that?”

“I guess I can, for now,” Carl said, squirming again. “Let me roll over so I can see you,”

Landon groaned. “But I like the way we fit like this, it feels good.”

Carl rolled over and stared at Landon in his bed and laughed. “You’re dressed.”

“I didn’t want to get naked and be thrown out on the street that way,” Landon said. “It’s cold outside.”

“I promise I won’t kick you out,” Carl said, as he started unbuttoning Landon’s dress shirt. “We can cuddle, you like to cuddle right?”

“To be honest, I’ve never been into the whole cuddling after sex thing,” Landon confessed.

“Good, then this should work for you,” Carl said, Landon’s eyes darted to his. “Because we’re not having sex, we’re just cuddling.”

“Great,” Landon said, rolling his eyes.

“Come on, Ace, don’t you want to get to know each other better before we have sex?” Carl asked. “I don’t want to be just another guy you fucked, a notch on your bed post.”

“Now you’re making me feel like an ass,” Landon said, buttoning up his shirt.

Carl placed his hand over Landon’s. “Most times you’re an ass, at this moment you’re not.”

Landon gave him a cheeky grin.

He smiled and opened the last button. “Get undressed, Ace, before I change my mind.”

This was the closest thing to naked they had been together, both wearing nothing but briefs and smiles. Landon climbed back under the covers keeping a modest amount of distance between them. Lying on their sides facing each other, Landon held out his hand and Carl wove their fingers together.