Wait Until Dawn Spirits 4, page 10
Chris thrashed and undulated, his hand loosely fisting Rich’s dick. Rich pumped his fingers in a series of short jabs, twisting the tips around the inner rim, loosening the tight WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
73
muscle stroke by stroke. Chris’s moans were louder now, his shouts and pleas inescapable to anyone in the house and likely in the yard. Maybe even the surrounding mile, Rich thought smugly, as he grazed the underside of Chris’s crown with his teeth. Chris’s ass clenched around his fingers in warning and Rich pushed a third one in as hot cum spewed into his mouth. He swallowed and lapped at the treat, seeking every drop.
When he was certain he had it all and Chris’s dick was too sensitive for him to continue suckling, Rich released the softening length and laved a path from Chris’s balls to his stuffed hole. Chris bellowed and almost unseated him when Rich nipped the stretched ring. He sucked hard on the soft skin right above, applying pressure to the spot inside and out. Chris was panting as if he’d run for hours. Sweat slicked his skin, his abdomen shiny and streaked with it. The ridges were deep and Rich promised himself he’d lick every drop of sweat from them next time. If there was a next time.
* * * *
Chris was dying. His body couldn’t possibly handle so much ecstasy. The nerve endings in his body were going to explode and he’d turn into a gross pile of goo. Rich pushed further into him and Chris couldn’t stifle the scream as pleasure seared from his ass to his balls and cock then all the way up to his brain. No one had ever mastered him so quickly and had it been anyone else but Rich, Chris had no doubt he’d be running out the door right now no matter how good he felt. The scrape of teeth over his rim sent Chris’s thoughts to scattering and his mouth to babbling.
“Please, please, honey, Rich, now, I can’t,” Chris gasped as another electrical current of pleasure rippled over him. “Rich! Uhn!” That was it, he was gonna die, his heart would give out—
“Condom? Lube?”
Rich had to repeat the question a few times before it made any sense to Chris. He flopped a hand in the direction of his jeans and managed to mumble, “Wallet.” A lubed condom would do, and Chris preferred it sometimes when he wanted the bite and pinch, the burn of penetration. He had meant it when he said he wanted to feel Rich for a week every time he took a breath.
Rich crawled back on the bed with the condom open. “No lube?” WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
74
“No need,” Chris croaked. Rich straddled his chest and held the package out to him.
Chris took it and managed to slide it on his lover despite the way his arms felt like overcooked spaghetti noodles. Rich smiled down at him, a wicked sexy tilt of lips that speared lust straight to Chris’s ass. He needed this, and Rich was going to give it to him.
“On your knees,” Rich ordered, moving aside and Chris let out a whoop as he immediately rolled over. “Like it this way, do you? Because I can fuck you hard and deep or—”
“Yes,” Chris interrupted. “Need to feel you like I said. Want your bruises on my hips, your hands clenching while you shove that big dick in me.”
“That’s what you want?” Rich asked, one hand clamping hard on Chris’s hip while his cockhead nudged Chris’s hole. “You want me to just—” Chris’s strangled gasp drowned out the rest of Rich’s words as Rich filled him with one swift thrust. Chris couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but experience the pain and pleasure of the rough entry. His rectum contracted and the pleasure intensified.
Chris’s eyes nearly crossed from it and his dick was already erect and leaking onto the bed.
He was going to come embarrassingly fast.
“Goddamn it, like being in a wet velvety fist,” Rich rasped, then the time for words was gone as he grasped both of Chris’s hips and began slamming into him. Chris arched his back, sticking his ass up for more, shivering as Rich’s balls slapped against his. It was too good, too perfect, and when Rich angled his thrust and slid the head of his cock over Chris’s gland, Chris’s vision whited out and he shot his load without having touched his shaft. Rich’s grunt was tinged with desperation and Chris clenched his cheeks, setting his inner muscles to rippling and massaging Rich’s dick. Rich jabbed into him with a series of erratic thrusts, then he ground his hips against Chris’s ass, moaning as he filled the condom. Chris felt the warmth inside him, the pulse of Rich’s thick cock, and the only way it’d have been better was without the barrier between them. Even in his sex-stupid state, or maybe because of it, Chris knew they’d have that, in time.
WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
75
Chapter Nine
Trying to put some emotional distance between himself and Chris after that was impossible. Rich couldn’t find the strength to roll away from the man for longer than it took to dispose of the condom. He also couldn’t stifle the blossoming hope as he listened to Chris talk about his mother. It wasn’t long ago Rich would have been scoffing at Wiccans and any other religious sect, but maybe he’d only been envious that those people had found something to believe. He had something to believe in now—the man lying beside him. His magical lover who saw auras, something else Rich wouldn’t have thought possible, but there were spirits, and he was possessed or something very close to it, so why not auras?
“I don’t think you’re possessed,” Chris said out of the blue. He’d just been talking about giving his next long haul to an associate so Rich and he could spend more time exploring their new relationship.
“What would you call it then? They’re in me, and at least one of them can control me.” Chris seemed to mull it over before giving him a serious look. “I think you’re a conduit.
Somehow McAllister tapped into it, and I have to wonder if the second spirit isn’t after him.
It’s not Conner, I don’t think. You said he’d murdered other men?” The extra sense that had made Rich the good detective he used to be tingled, setting the fine hairs on his forearms to vibrating. “He did. There were some murders in Houston, men who looked a lot like Laine. McAlister raped them, sometimes before he killed them, sometimes…”
“That’s… “ Chris shook his head as he rubbed at his scalp. “I don’t have words for how sick that is.” He sat up and tugged Rich up as well. “We need to know about those men.
What if one of them had some history of being psychic or something? Maybe not, maybe he was just so furious he couldn’t go wherever he was supposed to go. Maybe he was waiting for a chance to get McAlister, although I really want to kick both their asses. If this is someone after McAlister, they don’t seem to care what they’re doing to you, so we should see if any of the victims were kind of jerks.”
Rich opened his mouth to reply but the stinging cold bloomed in his jaw, spreading rapidly up to his head and down through his chest. He tried to warn Chris, say something, WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
76
but his vocal chords were as frozen as the rest of him. This is wrong! It’s close to noon, not dark!
This can’t be happening!
He heard his name being called, faintly as if from far away, then his vision began shifting, images blurring until he couldn’t focus on any one thing. Then as suddenly as it began, the sensation left him. Rich blinked and found himself on his back, Chris straddling his hips. Chris’s hand was fisted on Rich’s chest.
“What happened?”
Chris exhaled an obviously pent up breath, the strength of it gusting over Rich. “One of them, the not McAlister one I think, because one second you were fine then the next your fingers and toes were freaking freezing. You weren’t responsive until I slipped this”—he tugged at the leather strap —“over your head. I kept the crystals in my hand on your chest. It worked.”
“This time,” Rich murmured, staring at that big hand clenched on his bony chest.
“What happens if you’re not here?”
“I’ll be here, even if you tell me not to be.”
Rich wanted to laugh. How could this one man know him so well when no one else had got a clue until Chris smacked them with it? A tap on the door followed by the door knob turning was all the warning Rich got that their time alone was coming to an end for now.
Chris evidently saw the knob moving as well because he snarled and got off Rich long enough to pull the sheet over him. Rich murmured a quiet, “Thank you,” as Severo and Laine entered the room. Both men’s jaws dropped when they saw a very sexy, very naked Chris kneeling on the bed beside him. Rich felt justifiably smug. His guy was definitely smoking.
Chris’s lips tipped up in a grin as he tapped the PA. “Guess Laine agreed to the free peek?”
That was the first Rich had heard about a free peek, but he didn’t mind. Neither Laine nor Severo would touch, and there was nothing wrong with admiring. Of course, Laine looked more like he was queasy, what with the way his skin had lightened quite a bit from its normal tan. Rich glanced at Chris, who winked and tipped his chin towards the other two men. Rich watched with Chris as Severo took a step closer, his eyes drilling the piercing… At least, Rich hoped it was the piercing, but Chris did have an impressive cock.
WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
77
“Laine?” Severo took another step closer, frowning slightly. “I think I want one of those, what do you think? Would you like it?” Severo turned back to his lover when Laine didn’t reply. “Oh shit!” He ran back and slid his arm around Laine’s waist. “I guess that’s a no since you look ready to pass out.”
“I don’t do that shit,” Laine grumbled. “That just, uh, I haven’t seen that before.” Chris beat Rich to the question. “Not even in porn?” Laine’s cheeks at least had some colour to them, a deep red that made his silver eyes even paler. “I don’t, I never—I have him—” Laine pointed to his partner. “Why the hell would I need porn?”
“Aw, baby, you say the sweetest things,” Severo cooed while Rich rolled his eyes at Chris. Chris shook his head in return and twirled a finger beside his temple. Rich agreed.
Laine had to be crazy for dismissing porn. It could be a lot of fun to watch with a lover.
Maybe he could slip a disc in the DVD player and surprise Laine.
Laine looked torn between being embarrassed or smug. He settled for impassive evidently because his expression was bland when he faced Rich. “First, tell your boyfriend to cover his junk up.”
“But I like it.” Rich couldn’t resist teasing, the flirt he’d buried a year ago rising easily to the surface as he gave Laine a smile he used to use to charm anyone, except for Laine’s secretary Doreen. She’d been pretty damned resistant to manipulation. Rich might have loved her if he’d been straight. “And it’s not junk, as you can see. He has a very fine set of balls and—”
“Rich!” Laine’s face was incredibly red and Rich snickered as he held up part of the sheet for Chris. “You always did like poking at me,” Laine accused as he kept his gaze on Rich.
“Well, yeah,” Rich admitted. “You were always so easy to get a rise out of.”
“Still is,” Severo chimed in, leering as he brushed a hand close to Laine’s groin.
Laine groaned and rubbed his forehead with one hand. “Can we all just, please, please be serious for a minute? Did something happen in here?” Laine’s pleading look said ‘Please don’t make that into the smut story it could be’. Rich was debating when Chris answered. As Laine listened to Chris’s retelling of the events, and their conversation leading up to it, he began pacing the small room.
WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
78
“I still have the file, Rich, the one you brought with you. It had the reports on those Houston murders.” Laine touched Severo’s shoulder, a brush of fingers that Rich could see sent a shiver through Severo. “Baby, will you call Matt and ask him to get the file and bring it over?”
Matt. Shit! Rich could feel two sets of eyes on him, but there was only one he owed any explanation to, at least one besides Matt, who wasn’t around. Yet. Rich ignored Severo’s questioning look as he left the room, followed shortly thereafter by Laine, who’d only stayed long enough to tell them both to shower and get dressed because they smelt like cum. The fact Laine had blushed to the roots of his hair when he’d said it had just set Rich and Chris both into a fit of laughter, but they were alone now, and as Chris had said yesterday, Rich had some explaining to do.
* * * *
“Come on, you can tell me.” Chris knew it couldn’t be as bad as Rich thought it was. He wasn’t a cruel man, and Chris said as much.
“I have been, sometimes, or at least selfish. With Matt, I was both.” Rich twisted the edge of the sheet between his fingers. “You probably caught that he’s a deputy here, right?” At Chris’s nod he continued. “Yeah. Well there were some sparks, kind of that hate-but-want-to-fuck thing, you know? Not that we hated each other, but we definitely had two different set of sparks between us, personalities and that lust that sometimes flares up between two people.”
Okay, Chris maybe didn’t want to hear this after all. He’d only known Rich for a little over twenty-four hours, and this Matt guy probably knew him longer than that.
“I was staying at the motel, the one you asked about staying at. We’d all had dinner at Zeke and Brendan’s, another couple who are friends of Laine and Severo’s. I went back to the motel and walked right into my room, not thinking of anything other than how much I wanted to—” Rich gave him an apologetic look. “You know.”
“Yeah, sure. It’s not like I haven’t messed around.” Rich didn’t seem any happier to hear that than Chris was to hear Rich’s explanation.
“I’d rather not think about that,” Rich said gruffly. “I don’t have to finish—” WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
79
Chris hugged Rich to him. “Yes, you do, because it’s obviously eating at you. I’m a big boy, I can handle it.”
Rich burrowed against him and slid a hand over his stomach. “If it helps, I wasn’t nearly as attracted to him as I am to you. I never so much as made a pass at him, and you had me in a matter of hours, and I still want you, more than before.” That did help, a lot. Chris kissed the top of Rich’s head. “Same here, minus the whole wanting Matt thing. I haven’t ever been so drawn to someone before.”
“That’s good, right?” Rich sounded worried, and that wouldn’t do at all.
Chris cupped Rich’s chin and tipped his head back for a long, thorough kiss that left them both breathless and shaking with need. “I’d say that’s better than good. It’s perfect, okay?”
Rich nodded and licked his kiss-swollen lips. “Perfect. Got it. So, I went back to the room, and…”
Now Chris was certain Rich’s shaking was due to something else. McAlister. “Hey now, you don’t have to tell anything that you don’t feel comfortable telling. It’s enough, you said you walked into a trap, I got it.”
Rich’s sigh brushed over Chris’s skin, cooling it. “So Matt came looking for me the next morning, and McAlister was waiting for him there. He stabbed Matt, left him bleeding out on the floor with orders to call Laine and tell him where I was being held. I came to in the hospital, had two of those out-of-body experiences, watched the doctors trying to bring me back and couldn’t figure out why they should.”
“Rich,” Chris whispered, wishing he could carry the man’s wounds for him, physically and emotionally.
“No, no, it’s…it’s good for me to talk about it. The shrink even tried to get me to. It’s just hard.” Rich was silent for a moment as if gathering his thoughts or maybe his courage.
“When I finally woke up, Matt was there. He’d been there since he’d been released, seemed like I had so many memories of hearing him or seeing him briefly, and I couldn’t deal with him. I couldn’t look at him without feeling like I was going to be crushed under this huge wave of guilt. I’d almost got him killed, hadn’t done anything other than bitch at him, and yet he’d held his own personal vigil watching over me. I couldn’t—”
“How long were you awake before you tossed him out?” Chris said it without accusation, careful of Rich’s feelings. Rich looked miserable regardless.
WAIT UNTIL DAWN
Bailey Bradford
80
“As soon as I could speak. I don’t remember what all I said, but it was cruel, something about him being a fool and I wouldn’t want some closeted hick like him.” Ouch. That had to have hurt. But Chris understood, even if Rich didn’t. “First off, I don’t think you were all there yet. Second, how long has McAlister been at you?” Rich blinked owlishly at him. “How long?”
Chris nodded. “Yup. When is the first time you remember feeling him?”
“It doesn’t matter—I was still an asshole who kicked a puppy, pretty much. Matt was a sweet guy, innocent, you could tell, and I crushed him like he was nothing.”
“How long?” Chris wasn’t giving up until he got the answer.
Rich glared at him for a minute before lowering his lids. “I felt him the first time I died.”
“You don’t think maybe you were trying to protect Matt, even just a little?” Chris knew his man better than Rich knew himself. Rich’s shrug was slight but unacceptable. Chris jostled him a bit until Rich met his gaze. “Then why? You gonna keep trying to tell me it was just guilt?”
Rich opened his mouth, a ‘Yes’ clearly forming on his lips. He shook his head. “No. But I needed to keep him away. He’d already been so loyal to me, and I didn’t know how else to keep him safe from the man who’d tried to kill us both, not when I suspected the fucker was in me somehow.”
