Wylde (23 page)

He couldn’t wait to spatter his mark on him again.

 

N
OAH
closed his eyes tightly as Kell snuggled him after their play. “Josh was right.”

“About?” Kell frowned, studying Noah’s flushed face and tenderly pushing back the hair sticking to his damp forehead. They’d both need a swim to cool off. And maybe a cold beer, if Noah kept something that wasn’t fucking organic and went down like mildewed grass.

“About trusting you,” Noah whispered softly. “I love you,

Kell.”

J
OSH
woke in a cold sweat, his chest still tight, hurting. He felt an elusive sense of familiarity for the pain he was feeling. Maybe… because his Dad was falling for someone else? Josh was doing his best not to behave like a dork, but he was a little apprehensive of the uncertain waters.

He wiped tears from his eyes and got up from the bed.

He stared out at the woods from his bedroom window, and then, as if it were inevitable, the thing he’d been waiting for since they’d first moved in happened: a figure moved free of the trees and stared up at his window.

Josh frowned, and all the pieces seemed to fall into place, mostly. He had to do something.
“Y
OU
love me?” Kell said blankly. Shit! Was he supposed to say

something? He couldn’t imagine saying…
that.
He’d never said those words to anyone. A slap on Alec’s shoulder said it all. But this?

Sweating, he pulled the bedspread over himself, feeling a sudden need to cover his body. “Um.”

“You’re scared.” Noah grinned. He lay like a nude offering on the bed, his body relaxed and his penis reddened and soft now from their play. Saying those words had obviously not put the fear of God into him.
“Scared? No! No, I, uh. That’s nice.”

Noah poked Kell, gray eyes leveling on him like the barrel of a Magnum. “
Nice?
Nice is going for a walk. Eating a good meal. But I don’t think it covers it when someone you slept with declares himself.”

“But we haven’t slept together yet. Technically,” Kell offered weakly. He reached over and snapped off the light, deciding to avoid this conversation. Noah had just blown out the better part of his brains through his cock. He told himself he’d be up to it… later. Jesus! Way to give him a soft-on.

Love? He’d rather reach under a granite overhang and find a nest of rattlesnakes than take this on. At least he knew what to expect from snakes.

And what if he let himself… care for Noah, and he decided Kell was too rustic for him? They were so different, city class and country denim.

Yet in the darkness, he felt comfortable pulling Noah back into his arms, as if their bodies did not lie. The other man didn’t stiffen up or growl at him, which Kell half-dreaded. He was pliant, satisfied. Okay, then. “So let’s sleep together now.”

J
OSH
squelched the guilt he felt as he listened briefly at Kell’s guest door. Hearing Kell’s voice, he decided he should leave
now
while the two men were focused on each other and not him.

He was afraid that if he waited until morning, either his Dad or the Chief might stop him.

A
LITTLE
while later, Kell woke to find Noah had left the guest bed. He got up, frowning, and only remembered to snag some pajama bottoms at the last moment because he didn’t want Josh to see him stalking his father in the nude. And it would be stalking, he grumbled to himself. He didn’t have a clue how to respond to Noah’s words, but he wanted to be within touching distance. He wanted to wrap his arms around Noah and lean his head on his shoulder and breathe in his scent.

Then maybe he could get some fucking sleep!

He peered into the darkened study and then Noah’s bedroom on the upper floor, pausing when he saw Noah, also wearing silk pajama bottoms, leaning against one column of an elaborate cherry four-poster bed carved with cupids and columns and other shit that wasn’t anything like what Kell would have chosen for himself. But it had one thing going for it, anyway, which he immediately pictured.

“Nice bed.” He imagined silk scarves to tie Noah down using the columns but decided it might be too early to make a comment about that. But the picture of Noah all helpless while he slow-fucked him made his penis stiffen with fresh interest.

He went to the slight man and pulled him into his arms, Noah’s back to his front, seating them both on Noah’s bed. His throat tightened, and he wished he could give Noah what he wanted, but….

“Needed to run?”

Noah nodded. “I was fine until I woke up and realized that for the first time since my wife’s death, I was… sleeping with someone. I’d had sex with someone. But… I guess you do this all the time.” Noah shrugged awkwardly. “I guess it wasn’t a big deal, what we did.”

Kell kissed the back of Noah’s neck where the hair curled against his skin. Yeah, warmth, sleek muscles, Noah felt good. Kell’s suddenly full erection prodded Noah’s backside with enthusiasm. “I told you I don’t do sleepovers. I fuck and then I walk.”

Noah turned around on Kell’s lap, grave gray eyes weighing Kell. It frustrated him, seeing Noah unhappy already. Didn’t he just know he’d fuck this up somehow? “So what does that mean?”

“I don’t know if I can love someone, Noah, or that I believe in it. I do believe in being honest and in grinding together, needing that moment. I want to see you sweaty under my hands. Want to tie you up.” Kell decided he might as well give Noah the rawer side of his want. Noah hadn’t run yet. “And I want you to sleep with me every night. I like your skin. I like your muscles and your cock and your scent. I want you close by.”

Noah flushed. “I’ve never been tied up. I’m not sure I can picture that.”
“I sure as fuck can!” Kell leaned close and kissed Noah. Deep, hungry, so he groaned when he pulled away. Did they have to keep fucking talking, or could they…?

“Caveman.”

Kell smiled. He guessed. “Yeah. Listen.” Kell wracked his brain. He couldn’t give Noah words he wasn’t sure were real. But was there something…? “I think that your first time….” Noah tensed a little, and Kell growled out the rest of his thought, “I think you should do me.”

“
W
HAT
?
” Noah stared into Kell’s dark, heated eyes. Eyes full of

recent satisfaction and the simmering need for more. He felt nerves knot in his belly. This man wanted him. This man would take him. Penetrate him. He’d even baldly admitted to wanting to tie Noah up. Noah looked at the canopy bed they were sitting on and saw it through Kell’s eyes. Trust his caveman to ignore the beautifully carved wood and focus on one aspect his bed might offer.

And now he was suggesting…?

 

Blank, Noah asked, “Have you ever… been on the receiving end?”

“
No,
” Kell said in a low, intimate tone. One that Noah decided he liked hearing from his lover. His fingers were gentle as they combed through the waves of Noah’s hair. “Don’t want to now, but if it would make you less apprehensive, I’ll let you. Well, maybe once, anyway.”

Noah laughed softly. “Now that’s enthusiasm!” He swung legs flexible from yoga, martial arts, and swimming so they curled around Kell’s hips. Kell’s eyes flared, and he reached to pull down the silk that hid Noah’s sex, groping for Noah with a sure, confident hand.

Noah felt sweat break out on his forehead and upper lip. He liked that Kell was this way with him. He might even like to be tied down, in more ways than one. “I’ll let you tie me up sometime if you let me do it to you.”

Kell blinked. “Uh.”
“Seems fair.”

Kell’s eyes narrowed speculatively. “You riding my cock while my wrists are chained to the bed. All right.”
“Oh, so I still bottom even when I tie you up?” Noah poked Kell.

“Yep.”

Noah leaned against Kell, liking that the other man put an arm around him automatically, finger tracing the sculpted definition that Noah had worked hard to build. “You say you don’t know how to love, but the way you take care of me and Josh, I know that we matter to you. It’s why I let you close.”

“You’re not a one-night stand,” Kell agreed, stroking Noah’s penis absently like a pet he was fond of so that it hardened proudly under his touch. “I’m sorry. Not good with words.”

“Man of action,” Noah said, bending close to nibble shyly on Kell’s earlobe. Kell’s hand on him felt so good. He knew he’d come, and he knew that Kell would bring him there, but the lazy touches told him that his lover was in no hurry this time, that this time would be slow and sweaty. “I think I’d rather be with someone who showed me by his actions that he loves me than gave me empty flattery.”

“I don’t know about that love stuff,” Kell admitted, but he wasted no time in shifting so that Noah fell on his back on the bed. He stared into his eyes with deliberate intention before getting to his feet and quietly locking the door.

Then, standing there, tall, whiskered, heavy-eyed, he peeled back his own pajama bottoms, knelt on the bed, and leaned over Noah so their two cocks touched. Noah hissed as Kell fisted them both together, jerking them in a slow, easy rhythm that made Noah raise his legs.

“Put your hands on the headboard, slave boy,” Kell whispered. “I’m going to come all over you, and you’re going to let me.”

J
ADE
blinked awake on her guest room bed, staring at the ceiling blankly for a moment before fragments of what she’d shared with Alec came back to her in little bubbles of heat. Ummm.

“
Ride my hand!
”

Jesus, who knew the Boy Scout could be so hot? He’d taken her over, given her orders that from any other man would have resulted in a fight, not sex. And she’d gone along with it.

She sat up and saw him standing by the window. He was frowning and looking toward the woods, and she felt his worry. His protectiveness. Like Kell, he was a natural guardian, a natural warrior. And it wasn’t exactly PC, but she guessed she liked that. She liked his muscles and his macho side… and his gentleness. Plus, turned out he could actually make her laugh when she didn’t want to break a dish over his head.

While she’d been sleeping off the intense encounter, he’d been watching over her.

 

Butt naked.

Mmm. She eyed the hard, high curves of his ass, picturing her fingers digging in when he fucked her. She wanted it slamming hard, clawing his back. She wanted his eyes holding hers while he covered her.

“Alec,” she called softly.

He turned around, and she saw his sex for the first time. He held her gaze, and she had a moment of knowing he wanted her to see him as a man.
Her man.

“I’m going to fuck your pussy and your mouth and your ass. I’m going to push you against the wall in the alley behind the diner and fuck you there on one of your breaks,” he vowed quietly, his eyes burning. “I’ve wanted you for years, and you can’t hide from me any longer, Jade.”

N
OAH
wrapped his hands around the spokes of his headboard, holding Kell’s gaze. Kell palmed his cock, hanging over him, breath warm on his face as he worked him, as he worked them both.

“All the time I was a married man, a faithful man,” Noah whispered, his body pushing up, closer to Kell, to his care, to his large, masculine hand.

“All the time I was in the army, locking down that part of myself…” Kell murmured, making the parallel. “This is our time, Noah. Look at me. Look into my eyes when you shoot.”

“Kell….” A strangled sound. Noah felt that combination of inevitability and helplessness as he gave himself, come spilling, feeling it as it struck his skin from Kell, who held his penis very deliberately, pointed toward Noah’s face.

Noah sat up, shaking his head, wiping a hand on the corner of his lips, over his chin.

 

“I hear it’s good for the skin.” Kell said.
“Y
OU
’
VE
hunted wild animals before, yes?” Anderson prodded

Adam where he’d set up camp in the woods above the canyon. “If that bloody Chief can’t find the boy, then we will, and once we do, there will be no doubt who killed Morley Orris. The people of this town will be very relieved the threat has been taken care of and they can sleep through the night.”

Adam picked up spent shells scattered under the trees. He’d been tuning up, readying himself. Imagining Kell Farraday as his target had been fucking satisfying. “Whatever. It’s too bad they don’t let you go out and shoot big game like in the old days, all that shit about endangered species. Think this’ll be like that, hunting for someone for real?”

“Likely. For the moment though, I want you to keep an eye on that Chief you’re so fond of, Kell Farraday.”

Adam smiled, noting, “Easy enough, since the fucker is staying with Noah. So I’ll watch the place, see if an opportunity presents itself.” He didn’t mention what kind of opportunity. Frankly, he didn’t give a fuck what Anderson’s deal was. He reached for his gun and his knapsack.