After only a moment or two of Noah’s gentle ministrations, Lindsay made a noise like a strangled moan, but he didn’t step back. “I’m sure that’s clean now,” he said, sounding raspy. “But if you keep that up, it probably won’t be for long.”
“I clean up after myself.” Noah kissed the feathery, barely there line of silver hair below Lindsay’s navel. One kiss, then two, then three. His tongue convinced him to put each kiss lower than the last, and Lindsay’s soft sounds encouraged him to keep going.
Lindsay was beautiful all over. Noah slid his hands up the backs of Lindsay’s thighs as he coaxed Lindsay’s cock to delicious hardness that made him shiver with every lick and kiss. Being allowed to do this in the light of day was more than he’d expected any time soon.
Lindsay brushed his hand over the stubble of Noah’s hair and cupped the back of his head, still petting with the slow flex of his fingers. “I like that.”
The gentle praise was also permission to keep going. Noah hadn’t done this in a long time, but he hadn’t forgotten how, and it was even better to do it for someone he cared about. He stopped playing and took Lindsay’s cock in, letting it push past his lips. The friction made him shiver. They didn’t have much time, and he went down on Lindsay hungrily, using everything he remembered to make Lindsay feel good.
“Noah.” Lindsay’s voice was only a whisper, but his raw need came through loud and clear. His muscles tensed under Noah’s hands, flexing in time with the rhythm Noah had set. It wasn’t long before precome was spilling over Noah’s tongue and Lindsay was making soft, whimpering sounds, his hand falling away from Noah’s head.
Noah opened his eyes, leaving the dark, safe place where he’d lost himself to anything but the sensations of Lindsay’s body on his. He drew Lindsay in deep, his hands tight on Lindsay’s ass, and swallowed, moaning softly. Lindsay’s orgasm was a rush of cool slickness and sharp cries, and even as Lindsay’s shudders slowed, he didn’t pull away.
“Good,” Lindsay murmured, touching Noah’s cheek with cool, gentle fingers. “That was so good.”
As promised, Noah cleaned up after himself, and enjoyed every last lick. As turned on as he was, he felt sated at the same time, like more would be overindulgence. He didn’t want it to be about him right now. What he’d needed—for more than his body—Lindsay had given him last night.
He pushed to his feet and let himself kiss Lindsay’s cheek, stroking the other with his fingertips.
Lindsay turned into it, rubbing his cheek against Noah’s like a cat.
His hands slid from Noah’s hips to the fly of his jeans and Noah stopped him with a touch as Kristan shouted, “Hey, you coming?”
“I already did,” Lindsay murmured, laughing quietly as he took a step back from Noah. Louder, he called, “Just getting clean clothes on. Be right down.”
“Are you...?” Noah stopped himself from prodding about what Lindsay was doing. Not only was it not his business—in the very strictest sense of things—but he wanted to make sure Lindsay didn’t fall into deferring to him.
“Be careful,” he said, instead, letting go of Lindsay’s hands. As long as the two of them weren’t going up against anything but humans, they’d be fine.
“I will.” Lindsay grabbed the toothbrush and toothpaste from the floor. At the door, he stopped and turned back. “You be careful too, if you’re heading out to the library. There’s a bus stop not far from here that should get you where you need to go.”
“I’m used to strange cities, don’t worry about me. I’ll be back here by full dark, I hope, but if I’m late, go on to bed.” Noah gathered up the washing things, but left the food so Lindsay could at least take it with him. “If I’m right, we’ll know where we’re going by tomorrow morning.”
Lindsay looked translucent in the morning light with his skin clean and damp, and it was hard for Noah to convince himself that Lindsay would be fine on his own. Hard, except for the scars that reminded him Lindsay was more capable than he was of surviving. He made himself leave to take the dirty water downstairs.
Kristan had left money on the counter. Noah shoved it into a pocket and got to feeding himself. By the time he was eating, Lindsay and Kristan were headed out the door.
“There’s a diner called Apollo 11,” Kristan said, poking her head into the kitchen. “If you can’t find us again, go there. Patches will owe you if we run into trouble.”
“I won’t forget,” Noah promised.
That much, Noah could make sense of, and it made him feel better to know that someone would owe him enough to get him back across the border if anything went wrong. Back long enough to collect Rose and the others and come fix it, and screw old men and their ideas of territories.
The front door banged shut and Noah was alone. He didn’t have a watch, but he guessed that he had time to clean the house—yes, it was falling down, but it was their house right now and he was the one to clean it—and be at the library when it opened. He’d wandered enough cities after leaving home that he wasn’t worried about negotiating this one. Stuffing the last of a sandwich in his mouth, he picked up Lindsay’s bathwater and put it in the sink. Dishes first, then the rest. Everything done in the right order would get them where they needed to go.
Chapter Eleven
Lindsay shifted his grip on the gun in his hand and glanced at Kristan. “Like this?”
When he could push past the ache of loss, Dane’s absence provided Lindsay with even more reason to learn to use a gun. Dane had been—and would be again, he promised himself—the protector in their little family. But now, even with Noah by his side, Lindsay had to learn to take care of himself.
If he couldn’t do it with his magic—and Lourdes had proven he couldn’t always rely on his magic for protection and defense—then he’d have to do it by mundane means.
Kristan nodded, and he used his thumb to flick off the safety. He could do this. Just because his last few shots wouldn’t have hit the broad side of a barn—much less the empty beer can Kristan had propped up on the fence—didn’t mean this time he would miss too.
Well, maybe.
Lindsay squeezed the trigger, tensing in anticipation of the recoil, and nearly yelped when the can fell off the fence. Holy shit. He’d done it.
They were behind an abandoned house in a neighborhood where, Kristan assured him, gunshots would not draw unwanted attention. Lindsay didn’t want to think about what that meant for the people who lived here, but since no sirens answered his shots, he was grateful.
Carefully putting the gun down in front of him, Lindsay turned to Kristan. “I have no idea if I’ll ever be able to pull that off again,” he said, answering her wide smile. He knew he was flushed with success, he felt it on his skin and in the straightness of his spine. More than that, there was the glow of confidence Noah’s tender attention and sincere respect had sparked in him this morning. He had no idea how Noah did it, but it felt good.
“Sure.” Kristan pushed herself up off the broken steps where she’d been sitting while he practiced.
“You’re the golden boy, you’ll pull it off. No surprise you have to be good at everything. And at least you won’t shoot yourself in the foot now. But we should blow. Patches is waiting for us.”
Lindsay rolled his eyes and turned back to take care of the gun. Once it was safely stored in the bag, he carried it to Kristan. “Yes, none of us need that. We’ve had enough visits with healers already this month, haven’t we?”
“Yeah, I could do without seeing another for a while. I’m staying away from anything flammable.”
Kristan shouldered her backpack—the way it pulled her shoulders back made her curves seem so outrageous that she should have been a comic-book heroine—and ran a hand through her cropped curls.