The Last Werewolf (The Weres of Europe) (10 page)

“Oh, yeah, just like that,” Rik mumbled incoherently, desperate for more friction and pressure, a deeper connection. He longed to feel Leevi’s beautiful rose-hued cock sink into his ass, delving all the way until he reached the bottom, and then nudging further until Rik tasted the man in his throat. The very image of that bond haunted his imagination.

Not that frotting wasn’t sweet, but Rik doubted he could reach climax with that alone.

Then Leevi’s lips licked a line down to his neck, latching onto the sweet spot beneath his ear, nibbling softly. Leevi’s earthy scent exploded in Rik’s overwhelmed senses, and his need to come grew exponentially. His hips jerked, and, groaning, Leevi matched the move by slamming his hips hard against Rik’s. And just like that they found their rhythm, rocking in unison, their cocks sliding side by side, pulsating together as one entity with the same fast-beating tempo. The ridges of their cocks clicked and rubbed just right, as though they were meant for each other in every way, and Rik had never felt so close to anyone in his life.

And he knew now he could come with just this form of lovemaking.

Because that was what this was. This wasn’t fucking. This was lovemaking.

“Oh, fuck,” Rik cried out, winding his arms around Leevi’s broad shoulders, pulling the man’s whole weight down on him, demanding a tighter embrace. Leevi’s hands snaked beneath Rik’s shoulders and took a fierce hold, keeping Rik in place as they rutted against each other like animals in heat.

What Leevi was doing to his neck was a tad more than nibbling, and the sting of his sharp teeth mixed with the frissons of pleasure that ran through him like little flames. All Rik could think of was coming. As if in answer to his silent prayers, Leevi’s thrusts sped up, and the heat that had pooled in Rik’s groin roared into a wildfire as his own hips bucked up, desperate now for that crest of the wave.

When it hit, Rik was literally blown away. He was faintly aware of shouting out something, perhaps profanities, but the blood rushing through his veins deafened him. Ropes of burning hot come spurted out of his cock in uncontrollable spasms, without him even touching his cock. All it took to come was the hot, hard body pressing against him. That delicious cock of Leevi’s erupted against his own, jets of fiery ejaculate coating their bellies and chests, slippery and sticky. But Rik held on to Leevi’s strong shoulders, still rocking against him with involuntary jerks and the need to feel the closeness of his lover.

Lover. Rik had never had a lover. He’d had quickies, casual affairs, dates with perks, and friends with benefits. But having a lover he could readily identify as such while still wrapped in the arms of the man in question was a new experience.

“You okay?” Leevi asked, panting hot, moist gusts of breath on his neck, giving Rik goose-bumps. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Trying to chuckle, Rik found he was too breathless. Shaking his head, he said, “No. You were perfect.”

Leevi’s husky whisper would change the course of Rik’s life forever, “Wanna come with me up north and love me like this again?”

Rik’s heart had missed more than a few beats then.

And that hadn’t been the last time Leevi had created the same response in Rik. The very next morning Rik and Leevi had left
Helsinki
together to forge their life as a couple. It may have been a tenuous beginning and a strange compulsion to recklessly abandon all that he knew, but even in the light of what Rik knew today he doubted he would’ve made a different choice back then.

For better or worse, Leevi was Rik’s love. That Rik had never had cause to doubt. Leevi had made his feelings known time and again, giving Rik the kind of love he’d never dared to dream of having. Back in
Helsinki
, the gay scene was not known for its practices of monogamy, and Rik had not sought that, until Leevi had come along and literally swept him off his feet.

Busy traipsing down memory lane, Rik almost missed the exit for Orivesi, but managed to make the car swerve at the last second. Another car honked loudly behind him. “Yeah, yeah,” Rik murmured angrily at himself for getting lost in his reminiscing. It did him no good to think about Leevi so much. It was over three and a half years, dammit. He could master his wayward feelings. He could, and would, control this.

****

About forty minutes later Rik drove to the small parking lot adjacent to Leevi’s garage.
Valon korjaamo
, the plaque above the open door said. Valo’s garage. Owner Leevi Valo. Rik’s ex-lover, ex-partner, but hopefully not his ex-friend. Rik turned off the ignition and stared into the shadows of the interior, not distinguishing anything specific but able to detect movement inside.

The drizzle had faded, and the crisp spring sun shone brightly down on the rural town of
Ruovesi
. The garage was situated on the outskirts of the small town. The color gray dominated the site, from the concrete of the street to the walls of the garage. Parked cars and motorcycles were lined near the three open entrances of the garage, and inside Rik could detect rows of tires waiting for changing for the summer. Smells of engines, oils, and other vehicle-related substances filled the air along with gusts of dry sand carried along the breeze. Like frames of a painting, around the garage stood birches with little green buds that hailed spring, but the cool air warned that summer was not yet here.

And speaking of Summer, Rik was well aware he couldn’t stay in the car forever, cowering, afraid to face Leevi, the man he had once loved.

The only man he had ever loved.

The one and only man he still loved.

Shaking his head, Rik knew this was the wrong time to go about stirring old ghosts. Summer was somewhere out there, and she wasn’t answering her phone that appeared to have been turned off. Whether she had done it herself or someone had done it for her, Rik still had to find her. He couldn’t alleviate the terrible pressure in his chest until he saw her and was convinced that she was all right.

The only way to start doing that was to talk to the man who dominated this whole area as the Alpha wolf. Wolves were territorial, and these shifters were a force to be reckoned with. Rik had zero chance of wandering around the woods and cliffs without someone noticing. And Leevi would know where to start at least. He commanded the trust and respect of a whole clan of wolf shifters, most of them indigenous to this region. Although Rik had considered briefly whether he should go to the Clan Council, but his past dealings with them hadn’t been the best. No, Leevi was his best bet.

Smoothing clothes rumpled from the drive and combing his fingers through his tousled hair, Rik took a deep breath and mentally braced himself for this encounter he had worried over for years. There were days when he didn’t think about Leevi almost at all. Then there were the long lonely nights when Leevi was all he could think about. Rik was well aware that their relationship was riddled with unresolved issues, but this was not the time to hash them out.

Right? Right. He nodded to himself.

With one last steadfast straightening of his back, Rik got out of the car and walked to meet his old flame that had never stopped burning within his heart.

Chapter Six

The smells of the garage were familiar to Leevi. They smothered his nostrils, blocking out all other scents despite his acute olfactory sense—the smells of strained metal, burned transmission fluid, frayed rubber tires, leaking engine oil. All of them spoke louder to him of home than his mother’s blueberry pie or his father’s company at a junior league baseball game.

Due to the smells, and the fact that he was under a car’s engine at the time, Leevi almost missed it.
That scent
. Inhaling deeply, Leevi would’ve known that unique flavor anywhere. With a quick push he got up from beneath the car.

And there he was.

Rikhard.

Rik.

Damn, he looked good enough to eat. That wavy brown hair needed a haircut, those deep brown eyes appeared almost black in this light, and his body had gained some musculature since last they met, when there had still been the roundness of youth.

“Hey.” Rik waved a hand, like a child in greeting, with that sweet innocent smile of his curving, luscious lips.

Leevi wanted to grunt and crawl into a hole, or alternatively grab the guy, run into a cave, and claim him as his for all time. Instead, all he said was, “Hey.”

His gruff tone could not have made it any clearer that Rik wasn’t warmly welcomed back, and Leevi saw Rik’s smile falter. Was that embarrassment on his face? “Are you mad at me?” Rik used a small, hushed voice that near broke Leevi’s heart.

“I was never mad at you.” And that was the truth. How could he have hated someone as lively, funny, and instinctively innocent as Rik?

“Listen, Leevi, we need to talk.”

“I’m working.” Leevi knew he was more than capable of longer conversations than two-word sentences, but Rik brought out the worst in him. The best too, yes, but the absolute worst at times. The fact that nearly four years had passed didn’t exactly smooth out the rough edges.

“This is serious.” Rik didn’t always get to the point, so maybe it really was something urgent.

“I’m busy. Can’t this wait?”

Rik’s hand landed on his arm. It burned like fire and brought it all back in a whoosh. “This is more important. Dammit, Leevi. You know I wouldn’t have come back unless it was—”

“Yeah, that I know,” Leevi snapped back, unable to keep the low growl from his voice. Rik’s face contorted in anguish, and Leevi hated himself for putting it there.

Still, he wrinkled his nose. Now that Rik was in touching distance the odors floating from his skin might as well have been painted on him with bright flashy colors. “Does the reason you’re here have anything to do with that stench all over you?” A woman. Sex. Sleep. Quick shower.

At least Rik had the good grace to blush, but said nothing, just stared at him with those puppy-dog eyes of his.

Leevi sighed wearily. “Let’s go into the office.”

Dropping his tools with a reverberating clang in the box, Leevi led the way to his office behind the reception desk. Nothing of the garage was fancy. This was a place to work hard on cars and motorcycles.

“You seem to be doing well,” Rik commented behind him, a little more excitement in his voice again. “A lot going on, I see.”

Leevi grunted. “I had to let a couple of guys go. Now it’s just me and two others, so we’re kept pretty busy. But big chains are pushing small businesses out. In a few years this place will dwindle too.” Closing the door of his cubicle-sized office—at least it had one window for light and air—and sitting behind the desk, he said, “All right then. Since we’re too short on civility for chitchat, why don’t you tell me why you are here?”

Rik fidgeted in his seat, and licked his lips, but quickly spilled the beans of how he’d met a girl at the airport, brought her home, had sex with her, and had woken up this morning with her gone, save a Dear John note on the dresser. Leevi harrumphed. This was almost like one of those American soap operas on TV he never watched.

“So happy for your love life. What does any of this have to do with me?” The bitterness came through loud and clear, and he wondered if he should have changed it knowing how bad it would make Rik feel. Why should he? Leevi was the one who’d lost the love of his life, not Rik. So now Rik got a taste of how that felt.
Good
. A twinge of guilt did, however, effectively silence that gloating, and he added, “What’s her name?”

“Summer Harrison. She’s a Brit, came here looking for her grandmother now that both her parents are gone. The thing is,” Rik leaned forward and the intensity of his gaze was mesmerizing, “in the note she said the name of the village is Pajuskylä and that it’s right by Hell’s
Lake
National Park
.”

Leevi sat up in his chair like a spring wound too tight, and he felt his anxiousness swell. “That’s on our clan lands.” Pajuskylä was one of the oldest settlements in the region. The place derived its name,
Willow
Village
, from the abundance of willow copses around the village. Leevi’s own family hailed from the area, but not from this particular village. Regardless, he knew it well. Not all of those from the area were shifters, but a good number were.

“I know,” Rik said ruefully. “And after you sent me the text about those weirdoes in your clan after your position because of me…” His voice trailed off.

“Look, I can tell you’re worked up over this,” he reassured Rik as calmly as he could. “But the truth is even those rogue separatists aren’t stupid enough to attack innocent tourists. There hasn’t been a wolf attack on humans in these parts by our clan members in over a hundred years.”

“What about that incident during the Winter War?” Rik reminded him, his eyebrows raised in a slightly mocking query.

Hissing, Leevi made a dismissive gesture. “Water under the bridge.” His exploratory gaze landed right back on Rik, and his eyes narrowed. “Why do you think she’d be in danger from those hotheads anyway?”

Rik’s stance changed, turning rigid and uncomfortable. His face flushed again. “I, I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but…it’s like, um, if I were a cat, she’d be catnip.”