“Gonna come. So hard. All over you,” Nathan warned, his breath raspy, his voice hoarse. His eyes were glazed and his lips swollen. He took Avery’s breath away, and a deep warmth settled behind his breast.
Avery pumped his hips. And then he added a hand between them. He gripped Nathan tight and jerked him off.
“Oh fuck. Oh fuck, yeah. Yeah. Avery.” Nathan exploded, coming over his belly and Avery’s while Avery continued to work him.
A large mess covered them both before Avery finished. He filled Nathan’s ass full of hot seed, and the knowledge that nothing lay between them satisfied the hell out of him. He wiggled his hips and let the last spurt finish before he withdrew.
Avery sat on his knees, spent and enthralled by the sight of a well-pleased Nathan Kraft. He saw the sticky mess covering Nathan’s belly and rubbed it into his skin.
“You made a mess.” Avery loved the feel of Nathan’s firm muscle. He smoothed that cum all over the man’s torso, learning him anew.
“You did too,” Nathan said thickly. “My ass is full of you. My arms ache, and it’s more than uncomfortable lying like this, with my hands losing their circulation.” He paused and smiled. “But I don’t want to move. Ever.”
Avery couldn’t look away from that smile. Something funny hit him hard. An emotion he could barely say, let alone feel. He blinked and met Nathan’s gaze again. “We’re going to move. We have a lot more to do tonight, baby.”
Nathan blushed.
“You like me calling you that, huh? Baby.”
“Better than dimples or Nate.” Nathan made a face, and Avery couldn’t help but laugh.
“Shower first. Then we’re going to play some more. And did I mention I have a cock ring in my bag?”
Nathan groaned. Avery laughed. Talk about one hell of a night.
Chapter Six
Nathan didn’t know how it had happened, but the giant lunkhead he’d been partnered with had turned out to be a really decent guy. The sex had definitely eased tensions between them. Somehow Avery’s dry comments and orders every other sentence didn’t bother Nathan as much as they used to. He felt like he understood his partner now. Underneath all that gruffness lay the same man who’d bathed Nathan with tenderness. He’d been fucked, cared for, cleaned up, and comforted all in the same night.
Mr. I Don’t Do Comfort had soothed Nathan’s fears and worries without effort. Nathan kept trying to figure out if the sex had done it or if it was something else, and he was stymied each time. Which wasn’t to say that for all of Avery’s surprising gentleness, he couldn’t still be annoying.
“Hey, princess, get the lead out, would you? We have another few stops to make.” Nathan shot him the finger and earned another grin. He continued to count Avery’s smiles. Today he’d managed four out of the jarhead. Another night on their road trip back to Bend. Nathan didn’t know how Avery had managed it, but their boss had agreed they needed to return. He’d put their search for Espada de Sangre on hold while Avery and Nathan made the cross-country trip back in an SUV. Apparently there were a few other things Jack wanted them to check into, items their client needed found.
Nathan made a quick trip into the convenience store and returned to the vehicle carrying junk food, sodas, and a black coffee, no cream or sugar, for the hard-ass in the driver’s seat.
“Here you go.”
Avery took the steaming cup, grunted at him—what constituted a thanks—and pulled out of the gas station.
They didn’t hold hands or kiss. They didn’t discuss the incredible night Nathan had spent doing whatever Avery wanted. Or that Nathan had let the man come all over and in him several times, no condoms at all. He should have been panicked at the thought of disease, but if he knew anything about Avery, it was that his partner was obsessed about safety.
That he’d fucked Nathan bare pleased Nathan to no end. Only once, his very first time, had Nathan gone without protection. He’d had his proverbial cherry popped by an older man who knew what he was doing. And just two nights ago, it had been popped again by a man with control issues.
“Hey, how old are you?” Nathan asked. Avery seemed older somehow. Maybe it was the stick shoved up his ass that aged him.
“Why?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Thirty-three.”
“Ha. I knew you had to be older.”
“Why?”
Because you make me feel safe. Because when I’m with you, I find I don’t worry so much anymore. “Because of that gray in your hair.” Had someone hinted of gray to Nathan, he’d dive for a mirror. Avery merely raised a brow.
Nathan had to know. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why are you so serious all the time?” He’d never been drawn to the stick-in-the-mud type, but Avery was different. “Were your parents assholes to you growing up? Did you have a bad life before the PWP?”
Avery looked surprised. “Not at all. My parents are great people. We talk a lot. I had a normal childhood. Saw the world, learned a lot, had friends. My dad was career military, my mom a doctor. We had a great life, and they still call me once a week. They’re retired and loving it in Washington.”
Nathan frowned. “Then why the attitude?”
“Attitude? This is who I am, dickhead. It’s called being real. I don’t need twinks and parties to make me feel good. I like who I am.”
And maybe that was what Nathan was drawn to—Avery’s confidence. His happiness with himself. Nathan liked to think he was perfect, but he’d never been able to get over why Malcolm had hated him so much. It annoyed him to realize he’d wanted the bastard’s affection, or at least some reason as to why he’d been loathed. It always left him on edge and wondering in his relationships.
“Don’t you want to get married someday?” He wanted to know.
“What the hell does this have to do with me being serious?”
“I just meant, you seem so content with your life right now. No girlfriends or boyfriends, though.”
“Nope.”
Silence filled the truck.
Then Avery asked, “You?”
Nathan thought about it. “I’d like to find someone someday. A man to live with forever.”
“Forever’s a long time.”
“No shit. You’ll notice I’m single.”
Avery glanced at him, and Nathan wondered what he saw. It had always bothered him that Avery seemed to look down on him. Everyone Nathan knew liked him. He was charming, and he knew it. But Avery didn’t seem to care.
“Ever had sex with a woman?” Avery asked.
“Nope. They just don’t do it for me. I’ve always known.”
Avery nodded. “I like both. But as I get older, it would be nice to be with one special person. You see the way Noah and Lara are together? How they look at each other?”
Their fellow nightshift buddy had married his wife just days ago, and the man was head over heels for her. “Yeah. And Chloe and her dudes? Who the hell would have thought she’d be into kink?” Their manager Chloe was a cute little thing. Prickly but loyal. And she’d found love with a set of hot twins. As in, more than one guy.
Avery smiled, and the expression was so sweet Nathan blinked. “I had a vision of her with them. All in love and happy. She deserves it. She hasn’t had an easy time of it.”
“Oh?”
“I worked with Chloe a few times before the PWP quit. She grew up in a rough part of town in Miami, so she’s comfortable playing with the big boys. I like her.” He cast a sly look at Nathan. “I notice she doesn’t take any of your shit either.”
“I know. I don’t understand it.”
Avery shook his head. “So what about you?”