Valentino's Cowboy [Brac Village 10] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (6 page)

“Okay,” Dr. Sheehan said as he stood. “Since it’s obvious you two want to hump like crazy, I’m out of here. Just watch his hand and clean up after yourselves.” The doctor left the room, slamming the door behind him.

The flushed look on the doctor’s face hadn’t slipped Abe’s notice—neither had the rise in the doctor’s pants. He was willing to bet that the doc was going to find his mate and do a little humping of his own.

There was a sparkle of mischievousness in Valentino’s eyes. “Boy, do I know how to clear a room or what?”

Abe could care less about the doctor right now. He reached up to pull Valentino closer, using both hands out of habit. The lust that had overtaken him mere seconds ago died a tragic death when Abe got an up close look at his injured hand.

“Don’t,” Valentino said, but it was too late. Abe pulled away, placing his fucked-up hand back on the cushioned table the doctor had been using.

“I’m hungry,” Abe said as a way of changing the subject. He pasted a false smile on his face as he nodded toward the tray. “The soup smells good.”

Valentino looked uncertain, but turned and grabbed the tray. Abe let out a silent breath, wondering if the handsome cougar shifter was going to keep him once the guy regained his senses.

Valentino took Abe’s belongings into the house, setting everything aside as he waited for his mate. Abe slowly climbed from the car, glancing around. He could see that he needed to cheer the man up. He wanted to see that gorgeous smile once more.

“Welcome to the Prayze Castle. Stables are out back and the handmaidens are waiting to serve you. But I must warn you, no matter how hard you try to make the guards smile, they are unwavering in their duties to our home.”

Yeah, he lived in a small bungalow with an entire forest outlining his home. It was small, but he liked it. There were three bedrooms, one Valentino used as an office. The kitchen was spacious, the living room a nice size with a pretty damn cool fireplace.

He had never had a fireplace before and was still a little afraid of catching his home on fire. The front lawn was cut…for a change, and Valentino had pulled all the weeds in the flowerbed, but still hadn’t planted anything, so it just sat there, boasting a clean pathway of dirt.

Hmm, he hadn’t noticed that the bushes needed hedging. He’d have to put that on his ever growing to-do list.

His mission had succeeded when Abe gave him a wide smile, his cornflower-blue eyes lighting up. “And what a nice castle you have.”

Valentino tapped Abe on his pert little nose. “Don’t make fun of
our
home.”

He moved in closer for another taste of his mate’s delicious lips, but Abe pulled away. “Can I get a tour?”

Valentino silently harrumphed. He’d give the man a tour, right to his damn bedroom! Something was up—and he wasn’t referring to his cock. Valentino was going to get to the bottom of his mate’s squirrely behavior.

“Right this way.” He gave an over-exaggerated wave toward the front door, his arm sweeping wide. Valentino took a moment to gaze at Abe’s tight little ass as his mate walked through the door.

He sighed. What a nice ass it truly was. Maybe he would show Abe directly to the couch where he could bend the man over and—Valentino hurried inside when he heard a crash. Abe was laying spread out on the floor, howling in pain.

The man had tripped over his own belongings. Damn it! Valentino yelled at himself for leaving them right there in the doorway. He scooped Abe up, settling on the couch with his mate. “Let me see, hon.”

Valentino examined the bandage and didn’t see any blood, but Abe’s fingers looked red and painful. He set his mate aside and hurried into the kitchen, grabbing an ice pack from the freezer.

“Don’t put that on my hand,” Abe said loudly as he held his injured hand to his chest, cradling it. “I don’t want anything touching it right now.”

The man’s mood had been sour ever since…Valentino had to think about that for a moment. Ever since Abe got a close look at his injured hand. Hmm, he was going to have to fix that emotional problem as well.

He just wasn’t sure how. Tossing aside the ice pack, Valentino took a seat on the couch next to Abe, pulling the man’s legs up onto his lap. He ran his fingers up and down his mate’s leg, worried that maybe his hand had been further injured by the fall. “How does it feel now?”

The smile from earlier was gone. “It’s still throbbing.”

So was Valentino but he was pretty sure that Abe wasn’t in the mood for sex. The long frown on the man’s face was a huge indication of Abe’s spiraling mood. There could also be other issues as well. Valentino had uprooted Abe in his fit of rage. It never occurred to him that maybe the fey didn’t want to be here.

He had been so self-absorbed in his anger that Valentino never stopped to think what Abe would want. There was no way he was apologizing to Gavin, but if Abe wanted to go back to the ranch, Valentino would set things straight with the bears.

His fingernails scratched along the denim as he prepared himself for the rejection. “I was a little presumptuous when I gathered your things. If you would prefer to go back to the ranch—”

Immediate stiffness filled Abe. Valentino could practically touch the tension that filled the room.

“Although”—he gave Abe’s leg a light squeeze—“you would miss out on the incredible breakfasts I whip up in the mornings.” He hoped eggs and toast counted in his statement.

The tension drained and Abe relaxed. “You cook?”

Now that seemed to perk the fey up. Valentino ran with it. Abe seemed out of sort here and he wanted to make the man feel at home. He hadn’t said he wanted to go back to the ranch, so Valentino was taking that as a good sign.

They just needed to get to know each other. “I’m pretty good in the kitchen.” He liked to experiment with new recipes. Not all of them turned out right, but for the most part, they were edible.

He hadn’t sent himself to the hospital yet.

Abe pulled his legs down, seeming a little less agitated than he was before. The tension line around his eyes and mouth were finally gone. Valentino sat there struck by Abe’s full lips as they curved into an innocent smile. “I’m hungry. So, why don’t you show off your cooking skills for me?”

Valentino could do one better than that. He scooped Abe from the couch, tossing the man over his shoulder, laughing when he heard Abe squealing. He was very careful of the man’s hand, but the sour mood had to go. There was no way he was having a sourpuss mate.

Not a chance in hell.

“What are you doing?” Abe asked, amused.

“Playing the barbaric caveman role. Is it working?” When he entered the kitchen, Valentino deposited his mate onto the counter and pointed a warning finger at the sexy blond man with the prettiest cornflower-blue eyes. “Don’t move.”

“Are you always like this?”

Valentino pushed between Abe’s legs, noticing his how his mate stiffened, his breathing becoming slightly labored. What was with the guy? If Valentino didn’t know any better, he would think—holy shit! His mate was afraid to kiss him. But that was ridiculous.

He groaned when he thought about the conversation he had with Abe at the ranch, and then Abe’s confession when he was medicated.

His mate had never answered when Valentino had asked him if he had been kissed before. He was starting to think that Abe hadn’t. Testing his theory, Valentino dipped his head forward, only to have Abe dodge his lips. “I thought you were going to cook?”

“It’s going to cost you.”

Abe’s blond head tilted to a curious angle, the most adorable little frown moving across his features. “Cost me what?” Abe glanced toward the cooking area real quick. “You mean, like doing the dishes or something?”

Valentino felt his heart smiling at his mate’s innocence. The puzzlement of what Valentino was asking for was too precious. “One egg, one kiss.”

Abe seemed even more confused for a moment. Then his frown deepened. “What do you have besides eggs?”

Okay, this wasn’t going as well as Valentino had hoped. Why didn’t Abe want to kiss him? Was it him? Had he done something to turn his mate off? Hell, maybe Abe didn’t want him at all.

That thought gave Valentino cold chills. What if Abe was just accepting him because they were mates? From everything Valentino had been able to gather about his little cowboy, the man was gay, so hopefully that wasn’t the issue.

But that left Valentino with an even more dismal issue. What if Abe just wasn’t attracted to him and was only there because fate had paired them together?

Just because there was a pull didn’t mean they fell instantly in love or that they both were ecstatic that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. What if Abe had just been playing along the whole time while trying to figure a way out of mating Valentino?

He was going to be sick to his stomach at all those possibilities. Feeling as if things were no longer right with the world, he stepped back, putting plenty of space between him and Abe. Waving his hand toward the fridge, he said with little enthusiasm, “There’s plenty of stuff in the fridge. I went shopping earlier. Eat whatever you want.”

Before Abe could say anything, Valentino darted out of the room, heading straight for his bedroom—a bedroom he was slowly starting to think he would be sleeping in on his own. He shut the door behind him and walked over to stare out into the backyard, not really caring about the scenery outside the window.

Not much bothered him, but the thought of him and Abe going their separate ways was more than he could handle at the moment. Valentino never had much in life, not in the way of boyfriends or a solid relationship. Finding Abe had lifted his heart immeasurably.

Being lonely sucked, and now it looked like he was going to continue on that road. Even though he had just met the guy and barely knew Abe, Valentino felt his heart breaking.

“You called me a bad kisser.”

Valentino froze, keeping his back to his mate as he frantically tried to recall when he would have done something that stupid.

Either no one has taught you the proper way to kiss or I am your first
. Valentino remembered saying those words, but he hadn’t been calling Abe a bad kisser. Hell, he had been hoping he was Abe’s first. He would be more than happy to teach the man
everything
there was to know about sex and foreplay.

Turning, Valentino gazed at his mate. He looked uncertain, standing in the doorway as if he were afraid to come into Valentino’s bedroom—their bedroom.

“Is that why you are avoiding my lips?”

Abe shrugged, rubbing his good hand over the opposite upper arm. “Would you want to kiss someone who said that about you?”

He took a step toward Abe, watching not only his facial expression, but his body language as well. When the small fey didn’t step away from him, Valentino closed the distance. “You can’t be a bad kisser if you’ve never kissed before. I would never say anything like that to my sexy little cowboy.”

“But I’m not—”

Before Abe could give another protest about not being a cowboy, Valentino hooked a hand over the man’s nape and pulled him close. Right before he captured Abe’s lips, he said, “Relax your lips, hon.”

Abe sucked in a breath just as Valentino slanted his head and covered Abe’s mouth with his. Once again the kiss was stiff, but this time Valentino didn’t pull back. He gently coaxed Abe’s lips apart, sweeping his tongue into the smaller man’s mouth.

Stars exploded when Abe finally became pliant, his mouth as soft as petals. He gave a small groan and Valentino ate the noise up. His other hand went to Abe’s back, pulling the man closer until their chests were touching and molding into the other.

Valentino slid the hand at his mate’s nape up until his fingers were running through the guy’s blond strands. And then he gave them a soft tug. Abe moaned again, this time a little louder and longer.

Those little noises were going to be Valentino’s undoing. He had to use an exorbitant amount of control not to take the man to bed. He knew Abe wasn’t ready for that, not quite there yet.

They would practice on the kissing, and maybe he would even give the guy an awesome blow job. What man didn’t like getting his dick sucked? Letting his hand slip down Abe’s back until he was cupping his mate’s ass, Valentino gave a light squeeze.

Abe began to tremble in his arms.
Oh yeah.
This was too perfect. Easing his hand around, Valentino ran the back of his knuckles over his mate’s erection, the swell of his jeans thick and promising.

Valentino swept his tongue one more time through his mate’s mouth before moving to the man’s jaw, keeping his movements slow, not only enjoying what he was doing, but teaching his mate at the same time.

He coaxed Abe into placing his good hand on Valentino’s chest before he kissed his way down Abe’s throat.

“Valentino,” Abe said breathlessly.

“Right here with you, hon. The only thing I want you to do is enjoy this—nothing more.” He slipped his fingers under the hem of his mate’s shirt, lifting the fabric. “Put your arms up.”

Abe was shaking like crazy, and Valentino was thrilled at the trust Abe was giving him. He lifted his arms up as Valentino removed his mate’s shirt. Tossing the material aside, he ran his hands over Abe’s slim chest, the pads of his thumbs circling small brown nipples.