Wylde (6 page)

Both men trained their guns on the greenish-lit interior. A pale hand lifted, shaking, as if rising from the depths of the ocean, and then a white-faced Thomas Anderson staggered out of the little hut.

Kell’s shoulders slumped and his gun fell to his side.

“Boy, I hope you learned a lesson about hiking on your lonesome,” he cracked, shaking from the scare, sure he’d lost this kid. He didn’t care for Marisa Anderson much, and her husband was coldly removed, barely ever around since he had important business dealings that kept him traveling, but Kell certainly didn’t want the teen to come to harm.

He was trembling, so Kell squeezed his shoulder. “You’re safe now,” he added gruffly.

“It was the ghost. I saw him!” Thomas whispered. He had his arms wrapped around himself, but Kell could see he was only comfortable taking so much reassurance from the men.

Kell shook his head, not buying it. He didn’t believe in ghosts, despite the rumors. “Listen, we’ll talk about that later, but you didn’t happen to shoot a gun in the woods, did you?” Kell prodded.

Thomas dropped his head.

 

Kell sighed. “Well, I figure your old man is going to be really,
really
pissed at you,” he warned the boy. “Where is it, son?”

“Lost it,” Thomas mumbled, and for a moment his eyes swam with tears. “Is Jade okay?”
Kell nodded, and Thomas looked desperately relieved.

Alec was still staring into the forest, frowning. “Good thing you found this hut, kid,” he commented. “Probably saved you wandering further into the forest and getting totally lost.”

Thomas shook his head, looking like he was fighting tears. “No… it wasn’t me. Morley Orris helped me. I’ve seen him around town. He… he….”

“Where is he?” Kell looked around.

Thomas pointed at something lying in the grass in the shadow of the hut. Alec knelt beside it, picking it up. “Flashlight,” he said. “Still on.”

Thomas scrubbed his eyes as if embarrassed as more tears fell. “I heard him shoot at something and then nothing.” The teen covered his face, and Kell could see he was too far gone to say more.

“Stay here a minute.” Kell left Thomas and strode over to the meadow edge where the crushed bushes were. He dug around, frowning, before he lifted an abandoned shotgun up with one finger.

He looked over at Alec and Thomas before turning and studying the flattened brush again, wondering. Just what the hell had gone on in the forest tonight?

“I think the ghost got him,” Thomas breathed.
“H
EY
,” Kell said, feeling a warm glow as he walked into Noah

Matthews’s sixties kitchen, which was half-renovated. The sun was high over the trees now, and the blue sky and sunshine sparkled on the Matthews’s pool, forgiving of the unnatural shade of purple.

Noah studied him. “You okay?”

 

Kell nodded, feeling strange. When was the last time anyone had cared?

 

“You found the boy,” Noah added. “Josh and I heard….”

Kell said, “He shouldn’t have gone out there and I think he knows it now. Unfortunately for him, his old man was around from one of his business trips, so he’s giving him hell.”

Noah challenged Kell with a look from serious gray eyes. “I can’t say I blame him. If it had been Josh…. I’d not want him ever going in those woods, risking getting lost,” he said quietly, but nevertheless, Kell caught the whiff of disapproval:
back off, you are not a parent.

Kell rubbed his tight neck. Fair enough—he was no one’s daddy. And anyway, he had to go talk to Thomas Anderson’s parents once they calmed down. Then he and his men were going back to the woods to see if they could find Morley Orris. So far all they’d discovered were his abandoned truck and some traces that something heavy had been dragged from the meadow, but that was it. The local pot farmer had disappeared.

Or something got him.
Kell suppressed the thought. He wasn’t a fanciful man. He believed in hard facts. They’d investigate and find Orris. Besides, he’d thought for years the ghost story was bogus. It seemed that it was always stealing food, going through garbage. In other words, it ate, which didn’t seem otherworldly to Kell.
“Chief… Kell,” Noah interrupted his thoughts. “Stay for breakfast.”
Kell felt his heart speed up a little at the invitation. He smiled, noticing that Noah’s gray eyes had softened. He put his hat down

and watched as Noah opened the fridge and pulled out an unappetizing white slab of something that jiggled on a plate. Kell frowned at it. Shit, where were the eggs and bacon? “Scrambled tofu coming up. Would you also like a glass of organic wheat grass juice?” Noah asked him calmly.

 

Kell blinked. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Noah grinned, raising a pale brow, his ash-blond hair tangled around his unshaven face.

 

“You’re going to be a handful,” Kell predicted, his tone caressing.

H
OURS
later, Kell cut through the Matthews’s yard to return to his SUV. He was sweaty and hot and limping because he’d tripped on some deadfall and nearly taken an embarrassing tumble in front of his men.

In short, he was in a piss-poor mood.

 

In cool contrast, Noah Matthews climbed out of the pool, his body as perfect as a classical marble statue.

Kell came to a halt, staring, his weariness forgotten as he watched the graceful, slender figure pick up a towel and dry his slick chest. He suppressed a groan, but just barely. He wanted to
lick
the droplets of water running over sleek, softly defined muscles. Take Noah’s water-dark hair in a fist and hold his head steady as he captured his mouth in a fierce, possessive kiss—

He blinked.

He guessed he probably
was
a barbarian for having such thoughts about a man innocently taking a swim. And anyway, he had the feeling Noah would require careful handling. He’d certainly told Kell off for being judgmental of a parent’s concerns. Was Kell up for that? Hell yes, his gut answered.

“Did you find that poor man?”
Kell shook his head, a little chagrined at his intense thoughts. Noah stopped him with a gentle hand on his sleeve. “You look

done in. That guest room is yours if you need it, even if the house is….” Noah sighed, shrugging.

“It’s not purple, is it?” Kell asked, nodding toward the pool. “Nope.” Shy warmth glimmered in Noah’s eyes.
Kell rubbed the back of his tight neck. “Don’t flirt with me if

you don’t mean it, Noah. I don’t play games.”
Noah’s eyes widened. “I meant it as a kindness, not a—”

Kell raised a hand, cutting him off. “I know, I’m sorry. I’m a bit… down to earth.”

 

“You’re a caveman, Chief,” Noah corrected wryly. But he smiled, and that smile made Kell’s pulse race.

 

“Okay, I’d appreciate that. But I don’t have to drink anymore of that grass shit, right?”

N
OAH
made up the bed with fresh sheets while Kell showered. He came out of the bathroom wearing a large towel around his waist and felt his throat tighten for some goddamned stupid reason, watching Noah ensuring the comfort of his guest.

He reminded himself he just wanted a hot, fast lay, and he had no room in his solitary life for anything else.
“You’re staring at my ass,” Noah said primly, straightening to glare at Kell.

“I’d like to spend about an hour nibbling on it, so just be glad all I do is stare,” Kell said, unrepentant. He couldn’t believe how fast he heated up whenever he was around Noah.

His cheeks flushed—he told himself he was warm from the shower,
not
blushing like a green kid—as he quickly dropped the towel and, ignoring Noah’s interested gaze, climbed swiftly into the newly made bed, hiding his impressive woody safely under the covers. He cleared his throat before saying sincerely, “This is… nice. Thank you.”

Noah swallowed. “No, thank
you
, Chief. I’m glad you found that kid so that Josh and I can get on with our first few days here, argue about watching
300.
”

“Hear there’s some nice homoerotic subtext in that flick.” Kell quirked a brow, baiting Noah.

 

Noah’s answer was a tossed cushion thrown Kell’s way before he closed the door behind him.

Kell grinned, rolling over onto his stomach, luxuriating in the comfortable bed, exhausted. “He likes me, I know it,” he whispered before drifting to sleep.

K
ELL
was dreaming. He even knew he was dreaming on some level, shifting on the cool, fresh sheets of Noah’s guest bed restlessly, his hands opening and closing into fists.

He was back in the woods. Hungry, cold. He was lying under a rotting tree trunk, eyes open in the darkness, thinking of the people living so close by, warm, safe.

Most of all, he was scared. Scared of the woman who at first had seemed so nice, leaving him food, but then the man had chased him away one day when he’d caught a glimpse of him.

And there was the greenhouse in the woods, glowing light. He went there sometimes, watched the man tending the plants.
“Kell!”

Kell blinked, wide eyes snapping open to fix on Noah. He was sitting up in bed, the sheets tumbled down to his lap. His face and chest were slick with sweat. He was gripping Noah’s forearms, and as he came back to himself, gasping for breath, he belatedly realized his grip was hard enough to leave bruises on Noah’s skin.

“Shit! I’m… sorry,” he whispered, dropping his hands and falling back against the headboard, still trembling. Great, here was the man he wanted to lure into his bed—and he’d done it, but in a way Kell had never wanted. He didn’t like appearing vulnerable to anyone.

“I could hear you from my study! Are you all right?” Noah’s gray eyes were warm and concerned.

Unused to anyone looking at him that way, Kell nodded, swallowing thickly. He closed his eyes, scrubbing shaking fingers over his slick face.

The bed creaked as Noah got up and went to the en suite. He reappeared with water in a glass tumbler, handing it calmly to Kell. Kell gulped down the water and then rubbed the cool glass against his forehead.

 

“You had some kind of bad dream?” Noah probed.

Kell shrugged, not wanting to share the nightmare. Even now it was fading into scattered impressions, like leaves blown by a fall wind. He scratched his bare chest and saw Noah’s gaze fall to his skin.

Now
this
he understood and welcomed.

His adrenaline still pumping from the dream, Kell put down the glass and snagged Noah’s slender wrist, pulling him onto the side of the bed.

Noah began, hands raised, “Kell….”

Kell took in wide gray eyes and a scattering of freckles on Noah’s pale skin before he cupped the other man’s cheeks and pulled him into a kiss. “I’m not someone you have to take care of,” he murmured.

“Is it so wrong to let someone take care of you?” Noah frowned.

Kell didn’t want to talk. He had Noah where he wanted him now, and discussing his brief vulnerability was not something he wanted to do. What he did want…. He nipped Noah’s lush bottom lip so when the other man gasped in shock, he put his tongue inside Noah, groaning at the burning rightness of penetrating him.

“You want me in you,” Kell growled, triumphant. “Baby, I can feel it!”

His hands were in Noah’s curls, holding his head as he loved him with his tongue, stroking it voluptuously over Noah’s timid one, drinking in the soft sound Noah gave, showing him just how fucking good it could be—

Abruptly Noah struggled, and Kell released him, a satisfied smile touching his lips as the slighter man ran an unsteady hand through the curls that Kell had mussed while he’d claimed Noah’s mouth.

“You can’t just grab me and kiss me like some kind of goddamned wild man!” Noah stated, looking pissy. The soft, cloudy look that he’d worn directly after Kell had kissed him cleared, and the familiar snap was back in his affronted gray eyes.

“Wild man, huh?” Kell bit his lips before continuing, focusing on Noah. “Baby,” Kell said in a deep, husky voice, his erection throbbing hungrily under the sheets, “I’m sorry if I scared you. I just had to be inside you.”

Noah jumped off the bed. “I told you I wasn’t—”

 

Kell raised a hand, getting pissy himself. “You rang my gaydar from the minute I met you, so don’t give me that shit.”

“My… reticence is
not
shit! And I also don’t appreciate being manhandled. When I date someone, I expect things to be… different.”

Kell could see his eyes take on a familiar predatory gleam in the mirror opposite the bed. He carefully veiled them from Noah with his eyelashes, since he was already in hot water. “So what do you expect when you date someone?”

“I….” Noah looked thrown for a moment by Kell’s calm question, but then his mouth tightened. “Well… we might attend social functions together. Visit the theater. Go to an art gallery viewing. We’d eat together. Talk about books we’ve read and places we’ve traveled.”

Kell chewed his lip. “Huh. Last thing I read was
Lightning
by Dean Koontz. Places I’ve traveled I’m still not allowed to talk about. The only theater in town is at the high school. But I could take you to a movie and for a meal at the diner.”

Noah huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “You’re actually asking me out on a date? Are you for real?”