Wylde (24 page)

“H
EY
,” Kell rasped, pulling Noah on top of him, pushing his hair
back. He couldn’t believe they were together at last.

“I….” Noah shook his head at the unsettled feeling. He wasn’t sure why he was experiencing it, so he pushed it aside. “What time is it?”

“Early. Very.” Kell snapped on the bedside light, and his face was calm as he studied Noah, the kind of calm that came from confidence. Noah leaned his head against Kell’s shoulder. “I don’t want any more mystery. I just want my fresh start, my new man.” Noah sat back. “New man. Has a nice ring,” he said softly.

Kell cupped his cheek. “Anything your new man can do for you, Noah?”

 

“Yeah.” Noah swallowed. “Can we…?”

 

Kell’s eyes widened, and he sat up, pushing his bed hair from his eyes. “I thought you needed me to—fuck, I don’t know.”

Noah shook his head. “Don’t you see, Kell? That you made the offer was enough. You’re
not
him. There is just no way I’d ever think that.”

“You’re not apprehensive?” Kell was stroking Noah’s hair as if gentling a frightened animal.

 

“You’ll keep me safe,” he said. “Isn’t that what you manly tops do?”

 

Kell gasped out a laugh. “
Manly top?
Have you been watching some of those DVDs I lent you, by any chance?”

 

“Maybe.” Noah smiled. “It did help put me in the right frame of mind, I admit, though I’m not sure at my age I’m that flexible.”

Kell swallowed thickly, and Noah felt a rush of tenderness. His
manly top
was clearly as nervous as he was. “You look plenty flexible to me, sugar. From what I’ve seen of you in the pool and when you’ve done your Tai Chi shit.”

“There’s lube and condoms in the drawer in this room too,” Noah noted, nodding to his bedside table. Kell’s eyes widened. “What, I can’t be prepared? I knew this would happen. More than that, the last few days I’ve wanted it to happen.”

“Me too,” Kell agreed. He opened the drawer and took out the lube. Then he bent close and kissed Noah. “Oh, you will be prepared, don’t worry.”

“I’m not.”

 

“Noah, I can’t promise this is going to be painless. The first time you take cock—”

“And you’d know a lot about that, right?” Noah teased as a cover. Whenever he held Kell’s solemn dark eyes, he felt like he was jumping straight into deep water. Losing himself. “Have you ever been with a… does the term ‘almost-virgin’ mean the same thing between gay men?”

Kell nodded. “It does and the answer is
no.
I always selected experienced partners.”

 

“Don’t you mean
players?
”

“Have it your way, bossy bottom.” Kell was warming a large dollop of lube in his palms. “You’re clearly a backseat driver.” He pushed Noah’s legs up, bending him almost in half. “Remind me not to diss that yoga shit you do anymore,” he noted as a thick finger found and gently rubbed against Noah’s dimple.
A
T THE
last second before penetration, Noah tensed.

“Hey.” Kell hesitated, broaching Noah, sweat running down his sides and into his eyes as he held himself back. He wanted to fuck Noah into the mattress, had wanted it since he’d met him, but now he couldn’t, not unless—

“I know you can’t….” Noah dropped his gaze. “Can’t say you love me. I’m hoping that’s a ‘yet’ thing, and you know, that someday….”

“Baby, we can stop. I can jerk you off.” Kell thought it would kill him, but taking Noah without Noah being with him, all the way, felt like shrapnel to the chest.

“I just need to hear it, okay? That you do feel something for me. That this is more than….”

Kell closed his eyes. Noah was pushing him to give up more of himself. He wasn’t sure he could say the right thing. “Do you want to know why I don’t do relationships?” Kell leaned down and kissed Noah, trying to get him to relax.

“Because you don’t want to be tied down, I guess.”

“No,” Kell said. “Because as a Ranger, I only went places I was prepared for, that I understood. The unknown… it’s not acceptable.”

“It is scary,” Noah agreed, reading between Kell’s lines. Kell leaned his forehead against Noah’s. “Let me make love to you now, Noah.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because sometimes you scare me.” Kell let another chunk of himself go. “All right?”

Noah relaxed, smiling a little now. “I knew it!” Kell lifted a brow and thrust gently, knocking at Noah’s door, asking…. Noah’s grin softened, and his eyes closed. Kell watched sharply as he made the adjustment, easing his way. “Thanks for saying that.”

“Save your thanks for after, baby,” Kell whispered as he slowly pushed deeper inside. Noah wrapped his legs around Kell’s hips, his expression slightly dazed as Kell entered him for the first time.

Kell cupped his face, frowning at the intense emotion in Noah’s gray eyes.
Let me please him,
he thought, pausing.

“You’re the man I love, Kell.”
Kell swallowed. “Noah….”

Noah shook his head. “Don’t be terrified, Caveman. I knew you loved me when you beat the fuck out of Adam. Violence was your Valentine.”

“I do?” Kell felt a bit abashed, like a horny kid caught with a skin mag and a woody.

 

N
OAH
kissed him, marveling that there was so little discomfort at taking a man the size of Kell. “You offered to bottom.”

Kell winced at the last reminder. “Well, maybe for Christmas.” Gently, he began to move. Noah clutched him, hands squeezing, telling him he was wanted. Kell’s hand stroked down to where they were joined, palming himself, watching Noah’s face, angling his cock. Noah’s eyes flared. “Yeah?” Kell whispered.

“
Oh!
So that’s what you get out of it?”
K
ELL
’
S
fingers dug into Noah’s hips hard, just short of bruising,

forgetting Adam, forgetting the gentleness he’d employed because of him. “Fuck, you have the sweetest little ass! I want to bend you over my desk at work, pull down your pants and fuck you. Let’s make a date for next Monday morning.”

“Okay,” Noah gasped, hands raking Kell’s sweaty back. His expression said it wasn’t enough yet. “Kell, let me up.”

Kell blinked but then pulled out, and Noah kissed him, showing his appreciation. Well, fuck yeah, because Kell didn’t want to leave that tight sweet ass. “Did I hurt you?”

Noah smiled. “No. I want to sit on it. I want to watch it go in. I want to
take
it in, ride it, pretend that it’s my job to fuck you, whenever you want, however you want it….”

Kell swore. “
God Almighty,
Noah!”

He sat up on the bed, watching as Noah curled around him, holding Kell’s big cock still as he slowly impaled himself on it. “I’m yours,” Noah whispered.

“
Noah!
” Kell hammered up, unable to resist. “Fuck, take it. Beautiful. Made to suck cock, made to be fucked by it!”

Noah’s tongue came out, teasing as he licked lips swollen from Kell’s kisses. He looked fucking amazing full of Kell’s prick. “Put your hands on the headboard. Hold onto it while I fuck myself on you,” Noah whispered. Kell growled again, muscled arms stretching above his head, his big chest sweaty and heaving as Noah rode him. Noah moved lazily, provocative, Kell shoving up, hands gripping the headboard so they were white.

“
Mine!
” Kell rasped as he shot himself into Noah. God, he never got enough of that.

 

“Mine,” Noah agreed, jerking in spasms as he climaxed happy mess all over his lover’s muscled belly.

 

A
LEC
was replacing his amulet after removing it for a shower. He hissed and drew his fingers back. His dark eyes widened. “Oh shit!” “What?” Jade asked, drying his back, putting a timid kiss there. Glowing quietly.

 

“Dunno. Something bad. I need to talk to Kell, I think.”

They both jumped when the phone rang. “Shit!” Jade laughed, reaching for it, dropping the towel. She listened a moment and then handed it to Alec with a frown between her brows. “It’s your Grandmother Ruth. She says it’s our time to do something, fix the imbalance….”

N
OAH
twisted in Kell’s arms, restless. He felt a familiar worry, a familiar spike of need to protect Josh. He balled his fists, lost in a dream.

He was in his house, the house he’d bought with Josh for a new start, only it was years ago, the wallpaper fresh, the purple pool unmarred by cracks or corrosion. He walked through the hallways, peering into Josh’s room. He saw posters of fighter jets, big trucks… and a boy with black hair and bright blue eyes reading a book on his small bunk bed. He looked up with a smile, which quickly faded to anxiety. “You won’t leave me alone again, will you?” he whispered.

Noah felt loss kick him like a punch to the gut. “I’m looking for my son,” he said. “You shouldn’t be here.”

 

“I know, I don’t belong,” the boy said sadly.

 

“Where is Josh?” Noah felt for the boy, but he had to find his son. “Josh!”

 

“He followed me, of course,” the boy replied, getting to his feet, lake-blue eyes holding Noah’s seriously. “You better hurry.”

Noah jerked awake, coated with sweat. He glanced at the clock. Barely half an hour had passed since he and Kell…. He looked at his sleeping lover, but he couldn’t…. What gripped him was sure, singing knowledge, but even now the dream was fading. He could lose his son if he took even a moment to try to explain this strange connection to Kell—even as part of him chided it was only a dream, irrational. But if Josh wasn’t in the house as he sensed, he had to find him.

He gently pulled Kell’s possessive arm from his waist and climbed off the bed they’d shared, reaching for his pants.
Josh, I’m coming.

A
DAM
frowned as he exited the SUV that Anderson had provided for him. He hadn’t stationed himself on a feeder street near Noah’s house for very long when he’d spotted Noah himself tearing out in his Tundra truck. What the fuck…?

Of course, Adam had followed. Doing Anderson’s surveillance was all well and fine, but it was
Noah
who had brought him down here to this hick town in the first place.

At first Noah had driven around aimlessly, as if he didn’t know where he was going, but then he’d headed down a dirt track. Adam had driven with his heart pounding and his headlights off so the man he was following wouldn’t see him.

He’d left his truck and shadowed the path that Adam knew from his reconnaissance led to the abandoned greenhouse owned by the dead pot dealer.

With no idea what was up, Adam didn’t want this to get violent. That would be a mistake, but nevertheless, he pulled out his gun and screwed on a silencer.

He wasn’t finished with Noah Matthews.

O
NCE
he arrived in the clearing, Noah wasn’t sure what to do. He had no protective, guiding Kell; he’d abandoned his capable lover and followed the thin trail of instinct. What the hell was he doing out here? He recognized the place from the townsfolk’s description, but he’d never imagined coming to this place.

Sweat turned icy against his skin as he felt the oppressive woods all around him, as if waiting to swallow him, to watch him die like Morley Orris.

Not knowing what to do, he fell on habit. Lights might make him feel more secure. It took Noah an inordinate amount of screwing around to get Morley Orris’s old generator working again. Perspiring and, yeah, a little nervous on the dark side of the mountain, he was relieved once it started chugging, breaking the still, waiting silence of the tall trees. He wasted no time in heading into the greenhouse and snapping on the switch.

“Shit!” he cursed, meeting familiar eyes.

K
ELL
woke from a satisfied doze when his cell rang. There was no sign of Noah, and he frowned, wondering when he’d left the bed. The new possessive side of him didn’t like it, not at all. “Farraday.” He sat up, hand touching the cool space where Noah had lain. “Shit! Just stay there, I’ll come to you!” he barked. “I’ll come and get you, so don’t leave!”

Kell snatched for his pants, almost ignoring his phone when it rang a second time.

It was Alec. “Yeah?” He listened a second and then outlined. “All right, but I’m heading for the greenhouse. It’s Noah, Alec. Noah and Josh.”

Kell grabbed his abandoned T-shirt, cold to his bones, goose bumps actually forming on his skin. He had to get it together. For Noah, for Josh. His instincts were screaming this was the end game, everything coming together somehow.

He was distantly aware that his body was still slightly sticky with sweat and come from that first time with Noah as he yanked on clothing. Shit! So much for afterglow.

But by God, he’d be here again, him and Noah with Josh, safe under this roof. Grabbing his keys and gun, Kell barreled out of the room.

N
OAH
closed his phone, his heavy-duty flashlight gripped in free hand, which was shaking. “Okay, I got our Chief,” he told his son, trying to ignore the prickle of warning on the back of his neck, as if finding Josh here was a harbinger of bad things to come. “Josh, are you okay?” He squeezed his kid’s shoulder, wanting him to know he wasn’t alone.