How to Howl at the Moon (24 page)

“I guess I did look pretty suspicious.”

Lance huffed. “You acted very nervous the first few times I met you.”

“I have an eensy weensy problem with male authority figures.”

“I never would have guessed that.”

“And you were all intense and starey and—oh, shit! I totally see it now! Bordie collie! They’re the ones that herd sheep, right?”

Lance sighed, giving up on instant gratification. He rolled onto his side and played with that lank of floppy brown hair that always fell into Tim’s face. He loved that lank of hair. “This is going to be weird for you for a while. There are other human pack members you can talk to. Bill McGurver, in fact. The vet? He’s married to Jane McGurver, a quickened. He didn’t know we existed either until he and Jane fell in love. So he can tell you what to expect.”

Tim stared at him, eyes wide. “Do dogs, like, mate for life or something?”

“Quickened,” Lance corrected. “Most quickened do mate for life, yes. Once we bond, it’s almost impossible to lose that bond. We’re very, very loyal.”

“So… even if I do stupid things, or I’m a huge failure, or gain a thousand pounds or something… you’d still want me?”

Lance’s nostrils flared, and he fought not to growl. Tim’s insecurity bled not only into his carefully casual words, but also into every line of his body. Lance loathed the idea of anyone making Tim feel unworthy. He wanted to erase that, to see Tim confident in his own just-rightness. Maybe, in time, he could.

“Never. I will never stop loving you,” he said firmly.

Tim’s excitement melted into something softer, and he threw an arm and a leg over Lance and stared at him. “I fell in love with you too,” he said quietly. “I mean, I loved Chance so much, his soul. And the fact that Chance is
you
, that’s like… like you couldn’t even make up something that good.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” Lance’s voice was rough.

Tim appeared deep in thought for a while, his fists clenched in Lance’s shirt. “You know what’s weird? You told me in the car that one day I’d trust you. Well, through this whole thing, you never got angry with me. Even the night of the shooting, you were angry, but it wasn’t at me. Even when I threw you out and wouldn’t talk to you, you never threated me. You never even came close to raising a hand to me. You were just sad.”

That broke Lance’s heart.
“Oh, Tim. I told you I’d never want to hurt you, no matter what you do.”

“I… believe you?” Tim said, looking surprised. “I do. I believe you. Honestly, I trust you way more knowing you’re Chance. It’s like—like everyone has to have something hidden inside them, you know? And I’m afraid it’s something nasty, like my dad had this really nasty thing inside him. So I tend to keep people at a distance. But now I know what’s hidden inside you, and it’s not something scary, it’s the best thing in the world.”

Lance was so grateful that he had no words. So instead he kissed Tim again. This time Tim
kissed him back with enthusiasm, wrapping around him like the offspring of cling film and an octopus, and nearly sending them both sliding off the couch. Lance saved them by bracing a hand on the floor.

“So we can fool around now, right?” Tim asked. He leaned toward the floor teasingly, trying to get them to fall.

“You’re going to break something,” Lance growled. “Maybe we could move this to the bedroom.”

“Is that an order, Officer?” Tim waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“
Yes
,” Lance growled, picking up his cue. Inside, Chance perked
up
his ears playfully. “On the bed. Naked. Now!”

Tim gave a delighted laugh, jumped up, and ran off to obey. And Lance, of course, had to give chase.

*                          *                         *

Tim tossed clothes as he went, hoping they
’d distract Lance, and they did. He stopped and picked up each one, holding it to his nose, his eyes locked on Tim. The dark sparkle in those eyes—sky blue going almost navy with desire—promised things Tim sincerely hoped Lance meant to deliver.

The more aggressive Lance became, the giddier Tim felt, arousal and laughter building like an internal scream he could barely contain. Tim realized he really
did
trust Lance. Even though he’d just said it, words were only words after all. The feeling of security he had now as Lance stalked him, the freedom to express his desire without fear—that was real.

Tim stripped off his last article of clothing—his underwear. He had a moment of amazement at how hard he was just from the way Lance was looking at him.

Lance slowly moved closer, and Tim backed up against his bedroom wall.

“Okay, yeah,” he managed, unable to keep it bottled up anymore. “I surrender. With no
shots fired. Just—”

Lance took the last few steps fast and bent at the waist. For a moment, Tim had a weird idea Lance was going to head butt him. But instead, he grabbed Tim around the hips and tossed him over his shoulder.

Jesus, he was strong. Tim wasn’t heavy, but he was taller than Lance. Lance didn’t just throw him onto the bed either. He stood holding Tim over his shoulder and buried his face into Tim’s hip, snuffling and breathing him in.

“Oh, fuck.” Tim braced his hand on Lance’s upper back and tried not to wriggle as Lance’s nose and tongue danced over his stomach. It should have been ticklish, but instead it was hot as hell. His erection was jammed against Lance’s chest. And then, snuffling farther in toward ground zero, Lance tilted Tim’s hips back until he could get his face at the junction of groin and thigh. Tim gave a tiny scream and grabbed the back of Lance’s hips with both hands, afraid to fall, but Lance had his thighs in a firm hold. He held Tim easily, his nose buried in Tim’s groin as if it was the best place on earth. Tim’s erection brushed hopefully against Lance’s cheek.

“Oh, Christ,” Tim gasped, closing his eyes tight. This was like that Spiderman scene, only
way
better. Who knew being nuzzled and licked and smelled while basically hanging upside down over a guy’s back could be so fucking hot? It was Lance’s strength, the voracious, shameless interest in Tim’s essence, the way he was doing whatever he wanted and all Tim could do was hang on for the ride.

But fuck, it felt like Lance could hang out there sniffing all day, and Tim really wanted more.

“Lance,” he pleaded.

It seemed to get through, because Lance tossed Tim onto the bed. Tim reached up for him, but Lance stayed braced over Tim on his arms.

“Okay?” Lance asked. His eyes were stormy with lust, but Tim could sense that if he said it was too much, or seemed uncomfortable, Lance would turn sweet and gentle. And fuck that.

“More,” Tim said. “More of everything.
Except
your clothes.
Less of those.
”

Lance
hurried to
compl
y
, standing to strip his shirt over his head and toss it. He kicked off
his shoes and wrangled off his pants, underwear and socks in one go.

He stood fully naked before Tim for the first time. His body was all tight muscle. You could see his quads and biceps clearly, and he had those enticing V-shaped muscles from hips to groin that only Greek statues and male
super
models had. His chest hair was thick and black except for that lovely spot of pure white, and a trail ran down to an impressively thick and aroused cock.
Thank you, God.

“Damn,” Tim breathed.

Lance smirked, and he dove back in, running his nose and tongue over Tim’s chest and then into—Christ!—his armpit.

Tim had always felt self-conscious about his body. He was a little on the skinny side, and he’d never lifted weights or anything. But Lance gave an excited whine in the back of his throat and seemed to gorge on nuzzling and scenting Tim, as if he was the best thing on earth. When Tim laughed at the tickling, and pushed Lance back from his armpit, Lance went for his groin again, sinking his nose deep into the area behind his balls, his tongue feasting on the fragrant space.

“Oh God,” Tim gasped, more turned on than was probably healthy. Lance ran his nose and tongue up over Tim’s balls and then up his shaft before sucking him inside with gusto and drawing on him in a way that made Tim’s toes curl and his hands clench at Lance’s shoulders. It was amazing, and worthy of at least a few years of intense study down the road, but right then Tim didn’t want to come like that.

“Will you—will you fuck me and bite me in the neck? And will that mean we’re mated forever?” Tim asked. It sounded like begging, but he didn’t much care.

Lance laughed and raised his head. “We don’t do that.”

“Oh.” That was disappointing.

Lance cocked his head and studied Tim’s face for a moment. “Unless you… want me to?”

God, yes.
“Only if you want to.”

Lance got an evil little smirk. “Yeah? You mean you want me… here?” He canted Tim’s hips up with two strong hands on the backs of his thighs and nosed deep into his crack. Tim felt a
tongue lap delicately and then not so delicately over his rim. There was the gentle scrape of teeth.

“Shit!” He grabbed for the sheets. The world was tilting on its axis, and in a minute, he’d be on the ceiling. That probably meant death and destruction for mankind, but as long as this sensation continued, Tim was okay with that.

“That where you want me, baby?” Lance cooed, raising his head to fix Tim with blue eyes that were now shot through with a hurricane.

“
Yes
,” Tim gasped. “Right fucking there.” And he did.

He’d only bottomed once before, with a guy who’d been as tentative as Tim himself. Despite the lack of chemistry, it had been an interesting sensation. They’d overkilled the prep, and there’d been no pain. Tim had liked the sensation of being filled. He loved having his prostate stimulated as he jerked off, which is how that encounter had ended. He’d purchased a slender vibrator after that, which he used when he had a lot of time and was excessively horny. But this would be different. This would be more like the fantasies he had of being held down and fucked by a real man. Not cruelly, but covering him with confidence and assurance, like a big blanket that kept him safe and also, conveniently, unlike all but the most cleverly manufactured blankets, stimulated his prostate. Now that he was with Lance, it seemed like those fantasies had been a prophetic longing for him, specifically.

“I want you,” Tim reiterated, in case it wasn’t clear.

“Mmm.” Lance moaned agreeably and went back to upending the universe with his tongue, adding a finger to the mix.
That
was a sensation Tim had never felt before, and because assurance was Lance’s middle name—or maybe it was tenacity—Lance Assurance Tenacity Beaufort—it was like being rimmed by a gopher determined to burrow.
And that was way hotter than i
t sounded.

“Oh my God,” Tim said a few million times as Lance licked and gently worried with his teeth and fingers, completely devoted, as if he could do this forever.

“I’m ready now,” Tim gasped, needing cock immediately. When Lance didn’t relent, Tim half sat up to get into the bedside table drawer and pulled out a jar of lube and a condom. He scooped some
lube
onto two fingers and pushed Lance aside with his feet so he could plunge
them where he needed them while Lance wrestled with the little foil packet.

“That’s… interesting,” Lance panted. By the intent look on his face as he stared at Tim
’s
buried fingers, and absently rolled the condom on, what he meant was, ‘That’s gravy-covered prime rib and truffles’. Tim pulled his fingers out. “Now you.” He grasped Lance’s cock for the first time and slicked up the rubber.

This is it, this is the cock I will have for the rest of my life,
Tim thought in a moment of clarity. Of all the cocks in the world, Tim thought he’d seriously lucked out getting this one, because it was plump and meaty without being freakishly huge. It still had all the original packaging intact, which Tim
loved
, and it was slightly narrowed at the tip and thick at the base. Made to the purpose, as it were.

“I love your cock,” Tim said without meaning to. “And I really want to suck it, but I just put lube and, you know,
me
, all over it.”

“Soon,” Lance growled. “Fortunately, I can suck yours
now.
”

He was looking at Tim’s cock again where it was snapped like an iron bar to his stomach. Lance started to dive for it, but Tim held him off by bracing two strong arms on his chest. “We should save that for later.”

“Why?”

Lance was so genuinely perplexed, Tim laughed. “Because we have a lot of bedtime ahead of us to fill. Are you the kid who opened all his presents in the first five minutes on Christmas morning?”

“We’d be finding bits of paper for months,” Lance agreed solemnly.

“I can imagine. Well, right now I want you here.” Tim scooted down the bed a little and shifted his hips up, making the destination clear, all while holding and stroking Lance with one hand.