King Cobra (Hot Rods) (15 page)

“We sort of hooked up with a chick in the garage earlier.” Alanso scrubbed his hand over his face.

“Do you think…could she have seen us?” Eli had never felt so sick—or so embarrassed—in his life.

“
Come mierda
. I saw the light on in her studio, but I thought she’d just forgotten to turn it off again like usual.” Alanso froze.

“Yep, I’d say there’s a pretty good chance.” Joe grimaced. “You idiots. Why? Why did you waste your time when you knew what you really needed?”

“Because I was afraid of fucking it up.” Alanso didn’t sound like he felt any better than Eli did. “I wanted to be sure before we approached her.”

“And I’m still working my way through this.” Eli waved his finger between Alanso and himself. “My dad said something about breaking up the band. Wondered which one of us would fuck up Hot Rods first. Not in so many words, but… Yeah, it made me worry.”

“I understand the responsibility you feel.” Mike didn’t try to bullshit them about everything at risk. “But you aren’t helping anyone by putting off the inevitable. You’re only causing a lot of drama and delaying the outcome. Man up, Eli. Take your Hot Rods to the next level.”

He closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he nodded. Alanso smiled and knocked his shoulder into Eli’s chest, causing the garage owner to show his hand. “Okay, then I guess we’d better go find our girl. Alanso took some notes while we were…busy…earlier. Maybe we could put them to good use.”

“Uhhh.” Kate looked to her husband, who nodded. “Sally’s not home. She’s sort of on her way here.”

“What?” Right now?” Eli bounded from bed, uncaring that the camera now only caught him pacing. “When she’s upset? In the dark? Jesus. It’s a five-hour drive!”

Alanso buried his head in his hands, leaving his bald scalp to reflect the soft lamplight. He murmured, “She left?”

“I’m not happy about her hasty retreat either.” Mike grimaced. “I tried to convince her to wait until morning—well, later morning—but she wouldn’t hear of it. Honestly, though, she’s got her hands-free unit hooked up and Kayla’s in the other room keeping her company on the road.”

“Thank God for Bryce and those new additions he’s been testing out.” Eli unwound just a tiny bit. “I don’t like it, but I guess there’s nothing I can do.”

“You could get your plan together. Talk to Alanso. Talk to the rest of the guys. Figure out what you need so that when she comes home, you’re ready.” Mike’s direct tone convinced Eli he’d thought about the solution for a while. “Don’t chase her, Cobra. She’ll be safe here. Let our women talk to her. Convince her of the benefits so you can plead your case once she’s cooled off and calmed down. It might do you some good to be without her for a bit. Maybe then you’ll get your priorities straight. These people are not going to hang around forever. Not even for you. If you don’t love them back—”

“I do!” Eli pounded his fist into his palm.

“All right, then.” Mike held his hand out. “Take the time you wanted. You’ve got it now. Do this right. I’m afraid it’s going to be your last shot.”

“You text me the moment she walks her pretty ass through that door,” Eli snarled.

“Want me to spank her for you?” Joe wiggled his eyebrows.

“Hey!” Morgan slapped her husband lightly on the shoulder. “Isn’t it enough that you have four guys and four women of your own to play with?”

“Just offering a public service.” He bussed his wife’s cheek. “I can’t handle anymore anyway. I pity the Hot Rods. That’s a tall order.”

The crewmembers laughed.

“I want to be you when I grow up,” Alanso said softly.

“You’re going to get there, honey. It’s complicated.” Morgan blew him a kiss. “Just keep your King Cobra in line and you’ll be on your way.”

“Promise?” He couldn’t help but smile at the pretty woman who’d tamed Eli’s cousin.

“Cross my heart.” She did.

“Take care of Sally.” Alanso rubbed his head. “I love her.”

“We know.” Kate smiled back at him. “And she’s obviously got feelings for you. Strong ones. Or she wouldn’t be running so hard.”

“I hope we haven’t destroyed that.” Eli groaned. “Not when we were so close.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves.” The voice of reason, in the form of a construction foreman, warned them. “In fact, it seems like you’ve had one hell of a day. Why not hit the hay? If Mustang Sally isn’t here in the next three hours and forty-two minutes or she gets disconnected from Kayla, I’ll call you back. I swear.”

Alanso seemed to melt into the pile of pillows on his bed. “You might have another great idea there.”

“Please, don’t make his head any bigger.” Kate rolled her eyes. “Sleep well, guys. And Alanso, I’m so sorry to hear about your mother.”

He let his lids sink and nodded. Eli climbed under the blankets beside him and gathered him to his chest. “You’re right, it has been a long one. Thank you. For everything.”

“Anytime. Goodnight boys,” Morgan said with a smile.

Joe, Mike and Kate waved just before the screen went black.

Eli closed the laptop and set it on the nightstand before curling up behind Alanso. “We’ll make this right. I’ll fix it for us, Alanso.”

“We’ll do it together, Cobra.”

“Even better.” Eli smiled and laid his head beside his best friend’s on their shared pillow. The rumble from the living room entertainment center soothed him as he thought of the rest of the Hot Rods nearby.

All but one.

Chapter Twelve

“Eli.” The soft call rang through the darkness. Though the barest hint of salmon had begun to brighten the window, the man in Eli’s arms was still draped in shadows.

“Yeah.” He wrapped Alanso tighter, drawing him flush to his chest. They’d ended up lying on their sides, Eli behind his head engine tuner. Holding on to the other man helped ease his anxiety over Sally’s safety just a little. More than two hours remained on the countdown clock to full-out panic.

“I can’t sleep, Cobra.”

“Me either.” He sighed. “I keep thinking of Salome and how unworth it tonight was.”

“
Lo siento
. This is all my fault. I pressured you. And I have to be honest.” Alanso held his breath, then let it out slowly. “That sucked donkey dick.”

“Mmm. Yep.” A snort caused Eli’s head to bounce on Alanso’s shoulder as he tucked around the shorter man. He rubbed up and down Alanso’s calf with his foot. The hair and hardness there felt so different from the women he’d slept with, it fascinated him. “It did. The worst sex I’ve had since my first time with Mary Beth Cole. I swear, I thought she was going to bleed to death after I popped her cherry. Tonight was so awful—you’ve ruined me for flings. But I’m responsible too. I’ve been in denial for months. You wouldn’t have looked for a surrogate if I’d just given in to what we really lusted for in the first place.”

“I guess.” Alanso was too polite to admit the truth.

“I was trying to keep us from jacking up our relationship with the Hot Rods, yet in the end, that’s exactly what I forced us into doing. Damn it.” Eli deliberately relaxed each grouping of muscles in his body when Alanso began to caress his forearm, alerting him to how tense he’d become.

“Plus, I’m still horny.” Alanso picked his head up just to thump it onto the pillow again. His bald skull left a dent in the feathers. “That bullshit screw didn’t help at all. Especially when I can’t stop thinking of Mustang Sally watching us. I know it’s messed up but that kind of turns me on. A helluva lot more than
Bambi
ever could have.”

“Oh thank God.” Eli grabbed him and rolled. “I’m dying over here.”

“You want to fuck me?” Alanso squirmed on his belly. Though the pillow obscured half of his face, the other half darkened. With need, embarrassment, or both, Eli couldn’t quite tell.

Never again would he leave someone he cared for to wonder about their standing in his life or his heart. “So damn bad. I love you. I want you in every sense of the phrase.”

“I want to be yours,” Alanso whispered. “
Te amo, querido
.”

And though Eli had worried about the softer side of their affections, it didn’t weird him out at all to drop a light kiss on Alanso’s cheek. Maybe he deserved to take this man after all. He promised both of them he’d always respect and honor this bond, whatever they called it.

Stretched out over Al, Eli reached for the lube in the nightstand. He sat on his heels, with his thighs bracketing Alanso’s. From there he was able to insert his fingers beneath the waistband of the briefs that hugged his boyfriend’s sculpted ass, framing it to even greater perfection.

Thinking of Alanso like that sent shivers racing up and down Eli’s spine and pumped his cock even fuller than it’d already been.

“I think I can feel traces of my come on you from before. Good boy for not washing it off. You liked it when I staked my claim, didn’t you?” Eli rubbed his knuckles over the small of Alanso’s back. Slightly sticky, they both moaned at the memory of how close they’d come to living their dream.

“
Mierda, sí!
No more almosts, Cobra.” Alanso turned steely. “This time for real. All the way.”

“I’m glad you agree.” He smacked the ass laid out before him, slightly paler than the rest of Alanso’s tan skin. After another spank he kneaded the quivering muscles, separating the cheeks just a little. “Because no chance in hell am I stopping now.”

He retrieved the lube from the sheets and snapped open the cap. In the brightening space he still had some trouble seeing the transparent liquid. Alanso’s hiss let him know when the cool gel hit bull’s eye.

“You’ll appreciate that in a minute.” Eli grunted. “Trust me, I can still feel how deep your cock was in me when I move. Thick fucker too.”

Alanso stilled. “Did I hurt you?”

“Not in a bad way.” Eli grinned. “Behave and I might even let you do it again soon.”

“I’m about to come just thinking about it.” A groan tore from his parted lips.

“Oh no.” Eli slicked his fingers then his cock before tossing the lube onto the bed. “I want you good and fired up when I slide my cock into that tight ass.”

“Not a problem.” Alanso wedged his hand beneath his body to cup his hard-on. Even if he couldn’t jerk himself in that position, he could apply some pressure. Maybe to squeeze the base of his shaft and prevent himself from tipping over the edge far too soon.

The angle of his hips presented his ass even more fully to Eli’s roving hand. Cobra tucked his finger between those rock-hard cheeks and followed the valley between them to Alanso’s hole.

They both shouted something unintelligible at the initial contact.

Eli sank inside his best friend, rubbing in tiny circles as he penetrated the rings of muscle protecting his rear. “Don’t worry,
amigo
. I’ve done this before with chicks. If they can take me, you can.”

“Just wish you’d hurry. All talk and no action,
pendejo
.” Alanso grunted when Eli pushed harder, spearing deeper on each pump of his hand. “I’m no girl. Don’t treat me like one.”

“I don’t doubt you can handle anything I have to dish out.” Eli withdrew to shuck his own briefs. He groaned at the weight of his erection flopping free and the room temperature air on his hand, which felt downright icy after Alanso’s core. He planted his knees on either side of Alanso’s once again and tipped forward, shoving his hands beneath the guy’s shoulders, cupping them in his palms to anchor his head mechanic while he roughly aligned their bodies. “But this is more to me than sex. Understand that or I stop right now.”

Alanso gasped when Eli nuzzled him. “Wouldn’t let you fuck me if it wasn’t.”

“You gave those guys in the woods a chance to touch what’s mine.” Eli had never experienced the burn of jealousy before. Never wanted to again.

“Practicing for you.” Alanso rocked his ass backward. When the tip of Eli’s cock wedged in perfect position for penetration, they both cursed.

“Do it. Do me.” Alanso practically begged.

Eli hugged him and said, “My pleasure.”

He began to forge inside Alanso, using steady pressure on the opening to his body.

At first he met with so much resistance, he wasn’t sure he’d ever make it through. When he whispered, “Let me in. Please,” Alanso relented.

Eli breached him.

Alanso’s eyes flew open in the new dawn.

A beam of sunlight streaked through the window, illuminating his chocolate eyes as they widened. Eli advanced, joining them more fully. As Alanso’s ass hugged inch after inch of Cobra’s cock, he blanketed his lover with his body, hoping Al realized that Eli intended to have his back for life.

That hadn’t changed, at least.

When he’d buried a significant portion of his shaft, he paused.

“No.” Alanso bucked beneath him. “You’ll give me everything or nothing at all.”

“Jesus. Crazy Cuban. I’m just giving you a chance to adjust.” Eli gritted his teeth to keep from riding like he yearned to.

“Ever notice patience is not my strong suit?” Alanso shoved against the bed. He thrust himself up over Eli’s cock until they met abdomen to ass. Not a single molecule of air separated them.

Eli prayed he wouldn’t embarrass himself by shooting before he’d even begun to really fuck. He thought about the model number of the new spark plugs he had to order tomorrow, and tried to figure up the total cost to distract himself from the pulsing of Alanso’s fist-tight flesh.