SafetyInNumbers-Final (24 page)

“Yes!” Liam shouted. “Yes, yes, a hundred times yes!”

Billy covered his mouth, sealing their promise inside. He couldn’t believe that only an hour ago he’d been afraid that he was pushing Billy and now they were agreeing to get married and have kids. “I love you, Liam, and I want forever with you.”

“You have me forever and if I have anything to say about it, we’ll come back and do it again.” Liam wiggled around and pouted. “Take off your clothes, Billy Bear, I need to feel you.”

Billy pushed back until he was standing at the foot of the bed and held out his arms. “You want it, come get it.”

Liam jumped up and yanked Billy’s shirt over his head before dropping to his knees. He made quick work of Billy’s belt and then he was tugging down the jeans and boxers together. When they got to his knees, Liam let go and buried his face in Billy’s groin, inhaling the musky scent of his bear. Billy got one meaty fist in his hair and tugged his head back until Liam was pouting. “You said to come get it. Give it to me.”

“So demanding.” Billy gripped the base of his cock and tapped it against Liam’s pout. “Open.” He opened his mouth just wide enough to flick the head of Billy’s cock with his tongue. Billy immediately pulled back and shook his head. “Open wider.”

He tended to be bossy and demanding, and Billy was usually happy to indulge him, but he loved when his bear took control. Liam opened his mouth wide and Billy fed him a little at a time, before pulling back and doing it again. The slow, deliberate strokes were making him crazy.

“You’re so fucking sexy like that,” Billy murmured. It wasn’t possible to answer and when Billy thrust forward hard, hitting the back of his throat, Liam didn’t think he was waiting for one. “Suck me, baby.”

Liam hummed and hollowed his cheeks, taking as much of Billy as he could. As he bobbed up and down, working against the fist in his hair, he didn’t know what he loved more—the tug on his scalp or the cock in his mouth. Then Billy’s free hand slid around his throat, fingers stroking, and Liam slowed his movements. It had taken a little practice, but he knew if he took it slow that he could relax his throat and let Billy in. They both groaned when it happened and Liam thought he might come just from this.

Billy was too considerate a lover to let that happen and after a few short pumps of his hips, he pulled back completely. Strong hands lifted him and turned him until he was kneeling on the edge of the mattress. “We need to get tested. I want to feel you bare.”

“A bare bear?” Liam laughed a little desperately when he felt Billy spread him open and lick over his hole. “Fuck…fuck…love when you…Billy!”

Billy held him open with his thumbs and speared him with his tongue until he was begging for more. There was only brief reprieve when Billy reached for a condom, then something significantly bigger was nudging his hole. “Let me in.”

His body knew the pleasure Billy could give it and complied instantly. The slow slide, the fullness, the complete connection was everything. “Love the way you fit inside me.”

“Kinda like I belong there.” Billy pulled back just as slowly, but the grip on his hips tightened and Liam knew that was the signal that he was about to let loose all that deliberate control.

Liam fisted the sheets in his hands and rocked back as Billy pounded forward. The ride was rough and lacked finesse, which was just the way they liked it. He didn’t want a lover who kept his passion on a leash. He wanted one that would fuck him with abandon and demand his response. There was no way to hide in their love making, no way to be a passive participant, because they poured all their feelings into it. He’d been a fool to doubt Billy’s love when it was right here for him to feel.

Strong arms wrapped around his torso, pulling him up until his back was pressed to Billy’s chest. He rubbed himself against that pelt, the movement doing something to their rhythm that had his eyes crossing. “Fuck, Billy Bear, I’m close.”

One hand smoothed down his body until his cock was enveloped in a tight grip. Billy thrust forward and stroked back, the combination in his ass and on his cock unraveling him completely. Billy fucked him through it, drawing out his orgasm until he felt the answering shudder ripple along his back. “Damn, baby.”

Exactly. Liam stretched out as Billy went to dispose of the condom and purred like a contented cat. “Is it my imagination or does it just keep getting better every time?”

“Not your imagination.” Billy climbed onto the bed, pulled the blankets up, and curled around him. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m so grateful you came into my life.”

“You deserve everything and I’m going to spend the rest of my life giving it to you,” Liam promised. “I love you, Billy Bear.”

“I love you more,” Billy teased.

“No, I love you more,” Liam challenged.

Billy just laughed and kissed the tip of his nose. “Always have to get the last word in.”

Yeah, it was probably a flaw, but he knew Billy liked it. “You love that about me.”

“It’s just one in a growing list.” Billy kissed him again before settling into the pillow. They were almost asleep when Billy murmured, “Shoulda gotten a video of that floppy dick dance.”

He might never live that down, but he was too happy to care.

Chapter 20

Chris

“Hey, are you busy?” Chris asked as he tapped on the open door of Saul’s office.

“Just going over the bills.” Saul gestured for him to come in and moved everything off to the side. Chris took him at his word and closed the door so they would have privacy, a move that Saul recognized instantly. “Everything okay?”

Chris took the chair across from that big desk and looked at the man who had taken him in. Together with Javier, they had given them all the first stable home environment any of them had in years. If he thought of Bull as a father figure, what did that make Saul? “I just thought maybe we should talk.”

“That doesn’t sound very eager.” Saul leaned back in his chair and assessed him. “In case you didn’t realize, I’m not Bull. There’s no pressure here to spill all your secrets and bare your soul. I’m happy to talk to you anytime, anywhere, about anything, but only if it’s what you want.”

“I didn’t mean to make it sound like I felt pressured, just the opposite in fact. You’ve given me a lot of space and I think that’s my issue right now. You’ve given me more space that I needed.” Chris never doubted Saul’s support, but since he came to Owen’s defense, he felt like there was a growing distance between them and he didn’t know why. “The last couple of weeks it feels like there are two families living here instead of one, and if I did something to cause that, I’d like to fix it.”

“First, you didn’t do anything wrong, so there’s nothing to fix.” Saul laughed a little and Chris didn’t think it was directed at him. “You made a very important statement about Owen’s well-being. It’s been a long time since someone dared to warn me off anything and if it had been anyone other than you, I would have knocked them on their ass. Instead, I backed off and gave you the room you needed.”

“I wasn’t trying to warn you off.” He’d been staking his claim, but he never meant it to alienate Saul.

“Of course you were, and rightly so. Do you remember when we moved into this house? I needed a safe place for Javi, not more responsibility. Bull told me a year later that he knew I wouldn’t be able to resist trying to help all of you.” Saul grinned at the memory and Chris felt himself grinning back. It had definitely been an adjustment for all of them and Saul was the reason it worked. “We’re all pretty strong-willed men and it would have been a disaster if you hadn’t seen me as some sort of authority figure.”

He agreed completely and that’s what he expected of Saul, so he didn’t understand the problem. “I still see you in that position.”

“For you, but not for them. Without a single word, you made it clear from our first meeting that Liam was your responsibility and I respected that. With your first words to me, you declared your intention to take responsibility for Owen and I can only believe if I put you in the position, you would do the same with Billy.” Saul stood and came around the desk to take the chair next to him. “They see you as their authority figure and that’s been building for a while. Even if you still see me in that position, you would only allow it to extend so far before you warned me back again and it will only last as long as you need it to.”

It was the last thing Chris expected Saul to say. “You think I won’t need you?”

“No, that’s not what I said. Family always needs one another.” Saul gestured to the chair he’d vacated and said, “Sit there. Go on, I promise it’ll make sense in a minute.”

Chris reluctantly took Saul’s chair and grimaced. “Okay, it still doesn’t make sense.”

“You look good there. Strong, a little intimidating, in charge. If I were Owen, Liam or Billy, I’d probably be squirming a little wondering what I did wrong. Well, Owen would probably be turned on a lot, but we can get into that later.” Saul sobered a little and continued, “They won’t see me that way again, and if I tried, they’d just look to you for direction. That makes us two alphas in a contained environment and I won’t risk our relationship—yours and mine—by treading on the authoritative role you’ve taken on.”

Chris considered that and the chair he was sitting in. He understood what Saul was saying and even appreciated that Saul had stepped back, but where did that leave them? By Saul’s thinking, Chris was the one who did the treading by taking the responsibility for Owen and Billy right out from under him. He hadn’t thought of it that way, he just did what came naturally between the four of them, and there was no way to go back because Saul was right in saying they’d never see him like that again. The problem was that Chris still did.

“I need you to be you
with me
and we need our family to still be part of
the family
.” Chris knew he sounded desperate, but he couldn’t lose Saul. “Why didn’t you tell me I was stepping all over you like that? I would have stopped.”

“No, that wasn’t possible because you didn’t do anything different. You just acknowledged what was already there.” Saul leaned across the desk and took both his hands. “You are and always will be part of this family, which is exactly why I gave you the room you needed. How long has it been since you had full control over your life? Almost ten years? It has been a true pleasure watching you come into it and I don’t want you to give an ounce of it away, not even to me.”

That sounded good, but Saul was wrong in thinking he didn’t need him. With no one to teach him about life and love and how to be a good man, he often looked to the men he respected for guidance. Saul was definitely one of those men. “I thought you were mad at me.”

Saul looked at him wistfully. “I’m so proud of the man you’ve become, Chris, and so honored that you trusted me to do right by you and Liam. I know how hard that must have been after everything you’ve been through and I never took that lightly. My decision to give you space wasn’t because you did something wrong, it’s because I love you and wanted you to succeed.”

Chris dropped his head and begged, “Saul, please don’t give me that much space again.”

“I’m sorry for that.” Saul came around the desk and urged him up into a crushing hug. Chris held on and let the wave of emotion take him. Bull had called them brothers and Ty had said they were friends, but Saul was the real father figure in his life.

He wouldn’t call him that out loud, but he would make sure Saul knew how he felt so they never had this misunderstanding again. “I’m always going to need you, just so you know.”

“And this will always be your home, no matter how far away the road takes you.” Saul pulled back with an encouraging smile. “Just so you never forget.”

“Just in case it wasn’t obvious, I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” He grinned a little when Saul rolled his eyes.

“If that’s true, I have to say you’re doing just fine winging it.” Saul pulled back completely and jerked his head toward the chair Chris was first sitting in. “I hope you didn’t get too comfy in my chair.”

“It’s a pretty comfy chair.” He looked at it as he took the smaller chair he started in. It would always be Saul’s, but it hadn’t felt as weird as he expected.

“Uh huh, keep telling yourself that.” Saul settled back and made a show of getting comfortable. “All right, hit me with it.”

“I guess my first concern is Liam. We’ve never just been brothers. When our parents got married, he already had this crazy schedule and we rarely saw each other enough to enjoy our new relationship. Does that make sense?” When Saul nodded, he continued. “My life was going to shit fast, so the moments we did connect were clouded with that on my end. Then the shit hit the fan and I became more of a protector than a brother. Now he’s got Billy, so how do I pull back and not step on that relationship? How do I just be a brother?”

“You guys have been through too much for that. Liam will always look to you for security and I think Billy is probably looking for accountability. So maybe the answer is that you see them as a single entity and provide a secure, structured environment for their relationship to grow in.” Saul tapped the arms of his chair as he chose his words. “That may sound strange, but they weren’t able to come together until they got your approval.”