Gutsy, page 14
He didn’t answer, only turned me and walked us toward the truck.
Amos wouldn’t go back to the house with us. He stayed at Oma’s, and neither Esau nor Pious mentioned the fact I didn’t wear a seat belt, and Pious held me tight in his arms on the trip back to their farm.
10
PIOUS
The couch in my living room was more comfortable than it had ever been. Journey twitched as I held him while I blinked my eyes to fight off the tiredness pulling me under. It was late and we were ready to get to sleep, but I didn’t know what to do. Esau had already said his good nights and bedded down. He’d seemed mad when he’d disappeared to his room, and I didn’t blame him one bit for leaving me alone to pick up the pieces here. Journey curled close to me and nuzzled his mouth against my neck, and while I was worried after what I’d seen him do to Amos, I didn’t have it in me to chase him off.
It felt too good.
He fit just so against my body.
A small ecstatic moan in my ear had my blood racing through my veins.
Maybe I’d been scared that night I ran off on him, because right now I was terrified I would do the wrong thing, make the wrong move, and this would all end. The soft kiss he pressed to my jugular skittered in a line of heat to my cock, where it tingled. I leaned into his touch and shifted Journey. He scraped his teeth against my skin, and the teasing touch made me grip him tighter, maybe with too much strength. He moaned and sucked on the spot, and I couldn’t control the need to thrust my hips against him.
“What are you doing?” I asked gruffly.
He shrugged. “Thank you for stopping me. I didn’t want to hurt your friend.” He moved back and the beautiful copper of his eyes made me want to never look away again.
“I know you didn’t. You’re a good man.”
He grunted as if maybe he didn’t believe me, but I couldn’t make him accept what I said at face value, just like I couldn’t do a damned thing about the people in town who didn’t trust my family. There weren’t many folks who thought we were evil, but the ones who didn’t like us weren’t shy about it. It sucked that perhaps those busybodies were right. I’d hurt Journey. I’d caused this man pain.
He sighed, and I focused on his plush lips. “Go ahead.”
Smiling, despite everything, I gave him a hug.
The air in the room was warm and pleasant, and he tipped his chin higher. I rubbed my hand up his back along his spine and couldn’t stop staring at his mouth. I wanted to lose myself in him, and with one restless wriggle he leaned his weight on my cock and the pressure of his warm body had me sighing out a breath.
Journey chuckled. “So, all I had to do to get you to hold me close was threaten to eat a person? I’ll have to keep this in mind.” His voice cracked, but he held on to his smile.
“You’re joking right now?”
“I already went weepy once. I think I’ve used up my allotted tear quotient, or I’ll be kicked off the man team.” His eyebrows quirked.
Leaning back, I dragged him into a more comfortable position on my lap. “Doubtful.”
“You’re a flirt,” he grumbled.
“Me?”
“Mm-hmm.” His soft smile made my gut heat.
“I wanted you here, exactly like this.” I hugged him harder. “But not in these circumstances. My home has always been missing something, no matter how many people were here.”
He was quiet for so long my eyes slipped closed and I began to drift off.
“That night we met I wanted you in my bed—” He tapped my chin until I opened my eyes. “—but I couldn’t imagine a life where I slowed down and spent time with someone else. Real time. Lazed about. I was missing out and didn’t realize it.”
Against my body, he felt supple, ready for me to do anything I wanted with him. I kissed his cheek. When I’d wrestled him to the ground earlier, he’d been more like a pile of hunting instincts trapped in flesh than a man, and now he was soft and sweet. It was a hell of a transformation.
And I wanted to keep him here with me.
“You can’t leave right now. We need to figure out a way to help you. I’ll back off if you want. I don’t want to make you feel like you’re not safe here because I’d like something from you.”
Journey snorted. “It’s me who should be offering to provide distance, since I’m on top of you.” He squirmed until his rounded ass pressed on my excited cock, and I shivered at the intimacy of this moment—him in my arms, the enticing tease of his body against mine. Groaning, I grabbed his chin and tilted his head back.
The press of my lips against his was warm, fiery, and perfect. I slid my tongue along the seam of his mouth, and he whimpered, opening for me. I was shocked, but maybe not much, when he grabbed my hand and dragged it between his legs. I rested my palm on his inner thigh, stopping when he tried to tug my hand higher, and he whimpered. The delicious, needy sound got to me fast, and I massaged the muscle under my palm while I fought not to hump against his ass. After a few minutes of wonderful torture, I gave in and let him move my hand.
Hard. Hot. His shaft twitched.
A sharp thrill sliced through my stomach and my hard-on throbbed. He was plump, and I clasped his cock through his pants, tracing the way it bent to the right.
“So good,” I murmured.
Nodding, he trembled and lifted his hips. This wasn’t what I’d intended to do when I sat down with him. I’d just wanted to hold him and keep a close watch on him while I thought about everything Oma had said.
But he felt so good.
He sighed and turned toward me, curling his arms around my neck, and I leaned back so I could see his face. His hair had slipped down onto his forehead, and the bruise on his jaw still looked terrible. I leaned forward and lightly kissed the mark. “What are we doing?”
“I’ve been so alone with all this. Scared.” His brows furrowed and he pecked another kiss to my lips. “My friend Noble tried to help, but this, with you, is different.”
“You’re not alone. We’ll fix things.”
“Your oma mentioned bad luck runs in threes,” he said, mouth twisting into a sarcastic smile. “So, all I need to do is eat another person, and I’m good to go, right?” He sucked in a shuddery breath. “Just one more.” The smile that slithered across his face, only to disappear just as quickly, punched a cold dread through my gut, but the bad feeling dissipated as he moved again, just a smidge, and ground his ass against my cock. I clutched him closer.
“We won’t allow that to happen.” I ran my hand up his back and along his neck until I could bury my fingers in the silky warmth of his black hair.
“You haven’t seen me when I get bad. I’m not sure how you’ll stop me.”
He sounded so sincere, and I clutched him closer without meaning to. “We’ll get through it.”
He nodded, but I didn’t think he was agreeing with me, so much as letting me know he’d heard me. There was something off with him, maybe just everything that had already happened tonight. “Take me to your room,” he whispered. “I’m tired, and I want. . . .” He pressed my hand harder over his cock, and I rubbed along its length, my toes curling against the wooden floor. I knew how good it would be if he was doing this to me, and I took my time, making it nice for him. He let out a long breath. “I need something to feel better.”
“I don’t want to be a quick solution to a bad mood,” I said, my emotions freefalling. I was serious, I didn’t. “But I don’t want to tell you no, either. I needed you that night we fought. If I’d just gone home with you. . . .”
He shrugged. “We can’t go back in time. I’d have loved it. I’d have put you on my bed, stripped your pants off, and shown you a very good time.” His eyes lit up and he leaned closer, taking over the kiss with a confidence I hadn’t seen since he’d arrived. This attitude was familiar from the night he whisked me away, though, and I’d liked it then.
He straddled me. The fire crackled nearby in the woodstove and warm heat seeped through every part of me. I was still half convinced, even with him attacking Amos, that he’d hallucinated the awful things he’d told me about. I shoved my tongue between his lips, and he ground his hard cock against mine. It was impossible to keep my hands off his ass, and I palmed his rounded muscles and arched up against him. A juicy tension coiled in my gut and I wanted to paint my cum on him, plant it in him, smell my scent on him. I wanted something raw and gritty and. . . also kind. Maybe I’d built this moment up too much in my head.
He moved to the right and his firm shaft nudged mine directly. I sucked in a lungful of air and couldn’t do anything while he swirled his hips. My fingers splayed across his back, and I panted when he stopped and the almost-there sensation of nearly coming receded.
“What do you have here? Lube?” Journey whispered.
My mind blanked. He let out a small sound like he was looking at a puppy, and after I had a moment to process his attitude, I scowled at him, which only had him leaning all his weight on me and chuckling. I rocked my hips faster, chasing after pleasure. “No, I don’t have anything.”
“If I go out to my car for supplies, will you judge me?”
I glanced around. “I wanted to wait, but. . . .” Journey was here, in my home. I’d never be more comfortable than this, and maybe being where I felt safe had been exactly what I was missing in the city.
He smiled at me, and the look in his eyes was so intense I stilled. It had my blood boiling that he wanted me so much. “But?”
“But I like you. I liked you that night, too. I’ve lived my life waiting for the right moment, and when it arrived, I was still stuck on waiting. I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to do what was right.”
“Feeling good is right.” He rested his forehead against mine.
“But how good will I feel when you’re gone?”
“I can’t leave right now, even if I wanted to,” he grumbled.
“That isn’t making me feel better about it.”
He settled his lips on mine and ground against me, and I lost the thread of the conversation as heat built between us. I leaned back against the couch and slid to the side, and before I knew it, I had my head lying on the couch arm with his slim body between my legs. Warm gusts of air brushed my lips as he closed his eyes and leaned away, and I gripped his back as he somehow caught my cockhead just right between us. Heat swirled in my groin and I pumped against him.
“You want me?” I whispered.
His eyelashes fluttered and he opened his eyes. “Yes, darling. I do.”
“I want you, too.”
His smile almost killed me; it was breathtaking. I’d remembered him being handsome, lamented losing out on being with him, and now I was getting a second chance. Whatever else happened, I couldn’t turn him down again. I cupped the back of his head and kissed him, and he moaned, moving his hips again. My toes curled until they cramped. I was so close.
“While I’m gone on my expedition, think about things. Do you want to fuck me? Or do you want me to fuck you?” he murmured in my ear. I froze. I hadn’t considered either one of those options for more than a few seconds at a time. He levered himself up and off me, and I lay there staring at the ceiling while my heart hammered. He put on his boots, and it tickled the inside of my brain that something was wrong with that, but all I could think about was how my shaft throbbed.
He slid on his peacoat and went out the front door, leaving it hanging open a crack so cold wind swirled through the room to dance across my cheeks. I closed my eyes as my cock pulsed. I needed him to do something with me. I’d thought about him off and on since that night on the dance floor. A long time passed and I turned to look at the door, my heart kicking into high gear.
“Shit,” I murmured and bolted upright, still staring. “Damn it.” I ran over to the door to yank it open, wincing at the drag of my pants on my ready-to-go cock. Journey stood on the porch on the other side, eyes huge as he stared up at me.
“Sorry, it took me a minute. I had a call from my friends.” He wiggled the lube in my direction. “Everything’s fine with them. I was on my way back to you.”
I ran a hand over my face and stood aside for him to come in. The cold air bit at me and I checked the thermometer on the side of the house—ten degrees was a nippy night. I closed the door and locked it as he bent to take off his shoes right beside me. My cock had gone down, but when presented with his peachy ass I was right back where he’d left me. I edged closer and grabbed his hips, rubbing against him, and he moaned, glancing back over his shoulder.
“Is that what you want?”
“Oh yes.”
He finished taking off his shoes and stood, leaning back against me. I wasn’t sure what he did with his body, but he moved until he was on tiptoe with his hands behind my neck, grasping me for balance. My cock was wedged exactly where it wanted to be—with too many clothes between it and the warm spot it wanted to fill. “Have you been with anyone? I’ve wondered, since you talked about waiting.”
He hissed and rubbed at my fingers on his hips. I’d been gripping him too tight. I let go, but he reached back and tugged my hands to where they’d been resting. “Sorry.”
“Answer me.” He glanced over his shoulder, and my face burned. The way his lips thinned the longer I took to speak gave me a happy little thrill. Did he care?
“No. No one since I was with you that night. I got close once, a long time ago—closer than I did with you in the club—and I just. . . froze up. Realized I didn’t like him that much and was only doing it to do it.”
He pursed his lips. “There’s nothing wrong with sex to feel good.”
“I know, but it isn’t for me. I’ve never been that way. I feel like I know you better than I did. I just needed some time with the idea.” I massaged along his waist and around to his stomach, dragging him flush against my front.
He turned in my arms and leaned against my chest. “Now you want me?”
“I wanted you then. Now, I guess I trust you a little more.”
“Seems like a bad call.” His smile was sad, so I leaned in to kiss it better. He slipped the lube into my pocket.
“To warm it up. I don’t care if you want to fuck me, you want me to fuck you, or you want to flip fuck. Whatever makes you happy.”
“What do you like?”
Journey gave me a smile so wicked it made me shiver. “Take me to your bed?” He put his hand in mine and laced our fingers together. I led the way back to my room, and the moment felt weighty as I closed the door behind us, sealing the rest of the world out.
He walked over near the bed and spun to face me, stripping off his shirt, then smiled at me and unbuckled his belt. The light on his skin and toned body was so beautiful. His belly was slightly rounded, more than it had been the first time we’d met, but the curve looked softer than the rest of his cut stomach, and exactly like something I wanted to kiss. I moaned as the trail of black hair under his belly button came into view when he unzipped his jeans, slid them down, and stepped out of them. I nearly swallowed my tongue at the perfect curve of his ass under his gray briefs when he pivoted and bent to remove his socks, sticking his cheeks way out.
“Like what you see, country boy?”
“Yeah,” I growled.
He crawled onto the bed and angled his head toward the top as he flopped in the middle with his chin pillowed on his arms.
“Come get me, then.” His smile had me rushing. I tossed the lube on the bed and unbuttoned my shirt, and his hips rocked against the quilt in a slow, sensual slide as he watched me strip.
“So, I didn’t have condoms in my car, but I trust you’ve told me the truth,” he murmured. “And I want your warm load in my ass anyway.”
“Oh fuck,” I mumbled, and he laughed, getting up on his knees. I walked closer, and it was him who unbuckled my belt when my fingers wouldn’t coordinate to do it. He pressed soft kisses against my pecs and teased down the zipper of my jeans, stroking his fingers over my trapped erection, and then he pressed dainty kisses down my chest to my stomach and nuzzled his face there, whining in the back of his throat.
“Are you okay?”
“Just lovely,” he whispered. “I want. . . . I want sex more than that.” He nipped at my stomach, and I groaned.
“More than what?”
The warm swipe of his tongue on my flat abdomen made it impossible to stand still, and I shifted toward him. He sank his teeth against my skin, and I gripped the back of his neck, massaging, and then he loosened his jaw and sucked the hurt away, glancing desperately up at me. I couldn’t handle the need in his eyes. He wanted things from me, maybe only my cock, but I wanted him, too. I hoped this would be more than sex, maybe the start of something between us. I leaned down and kissed him, shoving my pants off as I went. I fought free of my clothing and pushed him back onto the bed, and it was a relief to stretch out on top of him.
“Let me know if I’m hurting you.”
He nodded, and I kissed him. He hadn’t taken off his briefs and my boxers were still on, but I wasn’t in a rush. I spent time teasing us together, which was so much better without the jeans in the way, and Journey wrapped his legs around my waist and arched against me. I started a rhythm of thrusting against him, and he dug his fingernails in against the skin of my back until it burned.
“Pious, I want to come,” he sighed out. “I want to come with you. I don’t care how.”
Sliding down the bed, I gripped the top of his briefs and tugged them down. I loved every inch of his skin that came into view. His uncut cock snapped up, long and proud and a little thick, to wave straight in the air, and he stretched his arms up and behind his head, grinning at me.
“Like what you see this time?”
“Anyone would.” I couldn’t decide what to do first, but then a bead of precum glistened on his slit and I bent forward to capture him in my mouth. He moaned, a deep, masculine sound that tore me apart and gave me purpose. I sucked down his length until his fingers were in my hair tugging and shoving me in a steady rhythm.
