Fortune's Favor

PowerUp! - 4

by

Marie Harte

Chapter One

Avery dumped the body he’d been carrying onto one of the beds and rotated his shoulder. With any luck, no one had followed them back to the hotel, and come the morning, tonight would be a forgotten episode. With as much alcohol as the idiot on the bed had consumed, he’d be lucky to survive a massive hangover when he woke.

And speaking of headaches… Avery massaged his temples, overdue for a good night’s sleep. He took advantage of the quiet while he could. After locking the door, he stripped down to his Skivvies, slid under the covers of the unoccupied queen bed, and closed his eyes.

He opened them again—three hours later, according to the clock—and stared up at a bleary-eyed, aggravated, six-foot-three mess of trouble.

“You do that again, and I’ll kick your ass back to Oregon.”

“Oh, good. You’re awake.” Avery promptly closed his eyes, wanting a few more hours of sleep. Cleaning up after Nathan was getting old. Not that his new partner didn’t have a reason for his benders and lashes of temper. Finding out one’s mother had recently passed away could make the best of men emotional. God knew what he’d do if his own mother died.

“Wake up, dickhead.”

Avery didn’t budge, even when a heavy weight settled over his midsection and a large hand wrapped around his throat. He and Nathan were mostly evenly matched. Both were near the same height, had psychic abilities, and were muscled to the max, thanks to the exercises they were forced to do to remain sane. So any bouts on the mats should have ended evenly between them. Except Nathan didn’t have Avery’s skill at hand-to-hand combat. And the sore loser knew it.

Avery sighed and opened his eyes. Despite Nathan’s stubble and bloodshot eyes, no one could claim he’d lost his looks. He never hurt for companionship, and Avery grudgingly saw why. Sexy and charming, Nathan Kraft invited smiles wherever he went. But lately, instead of his trademark charisma, grief clouded his mossy green eyes.

A hank of sandy brown hair fell over his forehead and blocked his gaze. That made it easier for Avery to do what needed to be done. Christ, seeing Nathan’s grief up close choked him up, and he didn’t like his susceptibility to the master manipulator.

Avery forced himself to remain calm and unaffected. “What do you want now? Want me to rock you back to sleep after saving you…again?”

Nathan shook the hair from his face and growled, “I didn’t need saving. I was about to get blown by a cute blond football player before you interrupted—again. I don’t need a nursemaid.” He squeezed Avery’s neck.

Avery gripped his thumb and twisted, pulling Nathan’s hand free.

“Ow!”

“Okay, that’s it.” He sat up and shoved Nathan to the floor. “You don’t need a nursemaid? Great. I don’t need to yank you back on track night after night.” He paused, experiencing that familiar muck of emotion in his gut when he looked down at Nathan. “I’m sorry your mom died.”

“Fuck you. She wasn’t my mom.”

Avery quirked a brow.

“Biologically, maybe. But she was my aunt.” Nathan’s voice broke, and Avery clenched his jaw not to respond. “My fucking mother, pretending to be my aunt. And now she’s dead, because Malcolm isn’t.”

Avery, a clairvoyant, had foreseen Nathan’s loss and knew he had to help. He’d envisioned them together, tracking down the stolen blade Malcolm Dixon had used to murder Nathan’s aunt—mother. What a fucked-up situation. Family skeletons falling out of the closet left and right.

He empathized with the guy. Though he wouldn’t classify them as friends, exactly, Avery had a heart. Nathan annoyed him to no end with his pranks, teasing, and irresponsible behavior. They seemed to get along as well as cats and dogs and made excellent sparring partners. Annoyance should have been the end to Avery’s feelings toward Nathan Kraft.

Instead, every time they had dealings, Avery lusted after the jackass with every fiber of his being. It made no sense. Though he was open to sex with men or women, Nathan wasn’t his type.

Regardless of his personal feelings, his professional instincts told him Nathan needed protection more than he needed to be searching for a killer. His partner had too much invested in the outcome. Nathan was still grieving, and his vulnerability made him a target for an enemy that needed serious watching.

Avery should have tried harder to convince their boss to keep Nathan at home. Back in Bend, Oregon, Nathan would have been working at the PowerUp! gym like the rest of the ex-agents of the government’s now defunct Psychic Warfare Program, PWP. The gym allowed them the ability to work out, alleviating the buildup of toxic hormones within their genetically altered bodies. With the constant exercise and mental workouts they did in the other gym—the one below the public one that only their team knew about, they kept themselves safe and sane.

Safe and sane. Two words that didn’t apply to Nathan recently.

He looked down at Nathan still sitting on the floor. “We’ll find Malcolm. Your uncle might be able to stay one step ahead of the law, but he can’t hide from us. I’ve already seen a piece of his future.”

Nathan shook his head. “Yeah, in Bloomville, PA. But you don’t know when he’ll be there. I want the fucker dead like yesterday.”

Nathan’s haunted expression irritated him, because Avery wanted to soothe his hurt. That damn flutter in the pit of his stomach flared again. What the hell was it about this guy that got to him like no one had in a long time? Hell, try in forever.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Nathan scowled.

“Like what?” Damn. He sounded like his throat had been raked over gravel. He raised a knee to hide the hard-on growing. God forbid Nathan see that. He’d never hear the end of it.

“I’d think you want a fuck, but that’s not your style, is it, big man?” Nathan sneered. “You’re as straight as an arrow. If it’s not missionary, I doubt you’re game.”

He’d love the chance to fuck Nathan out of his system and prove him wrong, but one of them had to remain in control and professional. Avery realized Nathan needed to lash out to deal with the upheaval in his life. But Christ, could the guy be any more appealing—annoying?

He counted to ten in his head before responding. “My sex life has nothing to do with you being a prick. Now try to behave like the agent I know you were trained to be, and—”

“And nothing. The PWP is dead, Major Holton. It has been for over a year now. So quit playing by their rules. I can’t believe Jack stuck me with you for this case. We’re never going to find Malcolm if you keep coloring inside the lines.”

Avery ignored most of Nathan’s mutterings, zeroing in on the fact that Nathan had checked up on him. Though he and the rest of the ex-PWP agents had been working together for the past year, he hadn’t met but a few of them before the PWP had been shut down.

He raised a brow. “Curious about me, Kraft?”

“Fuck you.”

There were so many ways Avery wanted to respond to that, but now wasn’t the time. He cleared his throat. “That brings up a good point, though. We’re paired together on an actual job. This isn’t another training session, where I beat the shit out of you then you whine about it to Jack later. We have real work to do.” He ignored the obscene gesture waved his way and continued. “If we don’t have trust, this isn’t going to work.”

“First intelligent thing you’ve said in days.”

Avery wanted very, very badly to go back to bed. He glared at the playboy, doing his best to ignore the washboard stomach begging for a feel. “Right now, what I know about you could fit on the head of a pin. You like to drink your pain away, you seem to be after anonymous hookups, and you’re psychic. I’m the only one holding it together for both of us.”

Nathan opened his mouth to argue, no doubt, so Avery continued. “Me? I spent eleven years in the United States Marine Corps. I was Force Recon and good at my job. Uncle Sam found out I could see glimpses of the future and recruited me for the PWP. I spent a year there in training and worked a few missions before they shut it down. That’s me in a nutshell.”

“Great. A jarhead with control issues. Just what I need on top of Malcolm’s psychopathic tendencies.”

“We’ll find him. You need to be patient.” But Avery knew better. Asking Nathan to be patient was like asking him to shut up for two seconds—not gonna happen. “Point of fact: we’re here not only to find your uncle. We need that blade he’s carrying. It’s special, it’s dangerous, and it belongs to our client.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

Nathan rose from the floor and moved to sit on the edge of his bed. He stared down at his hands.

Avery had the feeling he had something on his mind he hadn’t yet shared about the case, but Nathan said nothing more about his uncle. Instead he cleared his throat. “I don’t want you carting my ass out of bars anymore.”

Avery agreed. Four nights was four nights too many. “Then quit getting so drunk you can’t tell one partner from another.” Avery didn’t like how territorial he’d felt last night in the bar. What the hell should he care if Nathan fucked every guy standing? “I overheard your boyfriend say he had plans to share your ass with two of his buddies, and they didn’t seem to care if you were willing or not.”

Nathan remained silent.

“The fact that I heard them and you didn’t is telling. One touch and you’d have known you were dealing with bad news. But you had no friggin’ clue.”

Nathan could touch an object and know its history. Psychometry, the art of knowing the history of an object by touching it. Nathan was the only one on the team with that particular talent, and he’d been an invaluable asset time and time again. Probably the reason Jack kept him on, considering Nathan’s propensity for getting into trouble. Had Nathan reached out and touched his date’s jacket, he would have sensed the bad vibes radiating from the weasel-faced asshole.

“Well, shit.” Nathan ran a hand through his disheveled hair, and it made him look that much sexier.

Avery did his best to ignore the attraction, the way he’d been ignoring it for the past year, and continued berating his partner. “You know all about me. Now you? Who the hell knows? A foursome might be an average night on the town for Nathan Kraft. But no way in hell I’d let a buddy of mine fuck a stranger when he’s so drunk he can barely stand.” Nathan’s clear chagrin gratified. Maybe he’d finally gotten through to the guy. “Don’t worry.” Avery rubbed his bruised knuckles, hidden under the sheet, against the bed. “I left them consoling each other when they knew they couldn’t have you. You want ’em so bad? Go back tonight, sober. I’m sure they’ll be there.” And it won’t bother me one bit. Not at all. Nope. Not going there.

The gay bar he’d fished Nathan out of had been hopping with men out to hook up. Half of them had been fucking in plain sight in the hallways at the back of the club. So not what Avery had needed to see while he’d been carrying his sexy, aggravating partner away.

“Please. That bar was a dive. I was drunk.”

“And desperate,” Avery added for good measure, pleased when Nathan glared at him. If the man was angry, he couldn’t be sad.

“I suppose you want me to thank you?”

“Why would I expect gratitude from you? That would imply you have manners. Look, princess, if you’re done with your hissy fit, can I get some sleep? Hauling your ass around at three in the morning cut into my night. Wake me by ten.” With that, he turned away from Nathan, no longer able to see the man who occupied his thoughts too much for his peace of mind. With any luck, he wouldn’t dream. Or at least, he wouldn’t dream of Nathan.

Nathan glared at the giant mound of testosterone in the bed next to him but couldn’t rightly argue with the guy. Once again Avery had had his back. Maybe Jack had been right to send the big jerk along for the ride. God knew, Nathan wasn’t thinking straight.

He left his own bed and undressed as he walked to the bathroom. He purposely left a trail of nasty clothes, knowing it would annoy the neat freak he’d been partnered with. Nathan didn’t know why, but annoying Avery actually made him feel good when he’d been feeling nothing but bad for days.

He’d been out of his mind with grief since he’d gotten the news, unable to think of anything but his aunt drowning in a pool of her own blood.

No, not my aunt. My mom.

For ten years he’d lived with the woman, thinking her his aunt. After Michelle Kraft died in a hit-and-run accident when he’d just passed his tenth birthday, he’d gone to live with her sister. Life was by no means perfect, far from it. But once they’d gotten Uncle Malcolm out of their lives, he’d found a true home. He’d had a life filled with love and happiness, cared for by a woman who understood him, who accepted his psychic nature and his sexuality without question.

And now she was dead, because the past never stayed buried.

He shut the door of the bathroom behind him, relieved his bladder, and heated up the shower. He stepped inside and let the water sluice over him, as if it could clean away the doubt and confusion and guilt that caked his mind.

Tears welled, and he wiped the offending emotion away. He couldn’t handle thoughts of the past again, so he concentrated instead on the here and now. On the job. Avery had that right at least. Mindless, drunken sex with strangers wouldn’t numb the pain. He’d been there, done that. It didn’t work. Not to mention, it wasn’t safe. He really should thank Avery, but then the bastard would be even more unbearable to live with.

At the thought, Nathan’s cock hardened. As annoying as Avery Holton—Major Avery Holton—could be, there was no avoiding the fact that Nathan responded to him in every way. Excitement blossomed whenever he and Avery butted heads, which was often. But for Nathan, the arguments masked his attraction. Dealing with a half-naked Avery Holton in a hotel room, with nothing between them but a thin sheet and maybe a pair of underwear, was close to driving him insane.

And it made no sense. Nathan was smarter than that. He knew better than to try to convince a straight man to try something new. Recriminations and hatred festered. He didn’t plan to go that route. Once was enough, and he’d learned a valuable lesson.

There were enough playmates to be had without resorting to the unattainable. He had his share of willing men waiting for him at home in Bend. Even out here, in bumfuck Pennsylvania, the gays flocked to him. Hell, if he were some other dude, he’d fuck himself in a heartbeat. He had looks and charm, and he knew it. Aunt Danielle had always said—

No, fucking don’t go there. The hollow feeling in his chest nauseated him, and he reached blindly for the soap. Concentrating on getting clean, he calmed himself enough to think about anything but her.

His looks and outgoing personality had stood him well through life. It didn’t hurt that he liked sports and being physical. The years spent playing football in high school and college had helped his segue into physical training. But in that line of work, the constant touch, learning about things best kept secret, had pushed him out of that occupation into consultant work for various security firms and police departments. He’d made a good bit of money, and then someone from the government called. Why work local when he could work federal? Added to that, they’d offered to help him harness and control his gift, maybe even expand it.

The PWP had been a godsend. A place where he could work with other psychics, where he’d done good things for the right reasons. Or so he’d thought. Apparently someone in the organization hadn’t been playing by the rules, because they’d disbanded the program over a year ago.

He’d left with several of the others. Now denied the dosages of gene-altering drugs that had helped strengthen his psychic gift, if he didn’t physically and mentally train every day, his mind turned chaotic and even violent. Nathan already had those tendencies. He had no intention of allowing himself to get too out of control. So he worked out with people who knew the real him.

People like Avery.

A vision of the black-haired giant took over his mind’s eye. Massive arms, a broad chest, thick thighs. Grappling with Avery and dealing with his sharp wit always gave him a hard-on. Avery was such a fucking man. With a groan, Nathan took his cock in hand and stroked. Envisioning Avery’s deep, dark blue eyes, that short black hair, and his square jaw, Nathan stroked faster. Avery had lips made for sucking cock. With a fuller lower lip and a wide mouth that didn’t often curl in amusement, Avery was sheer perfection wasted on a straight man. Nathan had a tough time not sighing like a lovesick teenager whenever the big man smiled.

But in Nathan’s fantasies, Avery begged to touch, to suck, to feel. Avery would want to kneel, open his mouth, and swallow Nathan’s cock. He’d rim Nathan’s ass, lick and fondle his balls, and jerk Nathan off. Then he’d bend Nathan over and take him without restraint.

Nathan panted as his climax neared. In another scenario, he imagined Avery bending over, allowing Nathan to fuck him hard. No condom, no protection, just Nathan buried to the hilt up that fine, muscular ass…

“Oh fuck,” he whispered and shot over the tile of the stall.

The water erased the evidence of his need, if not the need itself. Now freed from the frustration riding him hard, Nathan finished his shower and turned off the water. He dried off and left the bathroom wrapped in a towel. In the morning light, he glanced at Avery, now asleep and on his back, the sheets bunched around his waist.

A dusting of black hair covered his brawny chest. The flat copper of his nipples made Nathan’s mouth water. But they needed some rings, clamps, or better yet, Nathan’s mouth.

To his irritation, he started to get hard again.

Hell, no. Avery Holton, you are nothing but Mr. Wrong. Though his partner certainly could be counted on when it came to the job, such close proximity played hell with Nathan’s libido. He had an insane urge to rip away Avery’s covers. He thought of sucking Avery’s nipples, those tempting buds now erect due to the frigid air in the room. But knowing his unflappable partner, Avery would wake up calm. The control freak wouldn’t let annoyance show on his face, but he’d clench his fists tight and lock his jaw, the way he did every time Nathan bothered him.

Sucking his nipples will do more than annoy him. The thought of Avery’s horrified, stunned reaction surprised a chuckle out of his mouth. His mood oddly lightened, Nathan crawled into his bed to catch a few hours of sleep. Now that his drunk had worn off, his brain refused to function past the need to close his eyes.

He woke to dirty clothes hitting him in the face.

“Rise and shine, twinkle toes.”

Nathan shoved his beer-smelling clothes to the floor and cracked his jaw on a yawn. “I really hate it when you try to be cute.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m not the fucking maid. Clean up after yourself.”

“Um, we’re in a hotel. They actually hire maids to clean up.”

“Pack up your shit, and let’s go.” Avery glared down at him from an impressive height.

Nathan knew the man had an inch on him, putting him close to if not over six-four. God knew, Avery didn’t need another edge over Nathan. Mr. Cool and Collected could rarely be beaten in the gym. The major had huge muscles and the wherewithal to use them. Even Nathan, for all his prowess in martial training, had rarely beaten Avery in hand-to-hand combat.

“Today, princess.” Avery sighed. “Checkout is in a half hour. You were supposed to wake me up at ten.”

The clock read eleven thirty. “Sue me.” Nathan sat up and stretched.

Avery turned away and hauled his duffel bag over his shoulder. Already packed and ready to go. Typical. “I’ll meet you at the car. Now get it in gear. We have a meet-and-greet with our realtor in another hour.”

Nathan groaned. “I still don’t like this. It’s stupid. Malcolm will see through us in a heartbeat. Just because you had a vision of him in that stupid town is no reason to think he’ll find us now.”

“I saw snow on the ground in my vision, like the white stuff there today.”

“There’s snow in Bloomville eight months out of the year,” Nathan said drily. He knew. He’d spent three long years there. Just outside of Erie, Pennsylvania, Bloomville had harsh winters, short summers, and a small population. “You know this cover is stupid. There’s no way we won’t be noticed right away.”

“But that’s the point. We’ll be noticed. Business partners sharing a house in Bloomville while we make renovations on the Dixon house. What could be better?”

It was on the tip of Nathan’s tongue to ask why Avery hadn’t considered them posing as lovers instead of business associates, but he didn’t want to push the bully. Not until he’d had a cup of coffee at least. “It’s the Dixon House Inn now. Oh man, I friggin’ hate Bloomville.” Nathan had never been so glad to see the end of that house in his life. And now he was going back to it…and all the memories stored there.

“Suck it up, and quit whining. I’ll be waiting.” Avery left without another word.

“Asshole.” Nathan got up, brushed his teeth, and dressed. Then he threw his belongings in his bag and carried it over his shoulder and out the door with five minutes to spare. He met Avery at their rental SUV at noon.

Instead of acting like an annoyed SOB, Avery reclined in his seat, his hands behind his head, while he listened to classic rock. At least he had decent taste in music.

Nathan tossed his bag into the back, then joined Avery in the front. “Why is it you’re always driving?” Nathan sat in the passenger seat. Again.

“Because I’m in charge of our little operation.”

“Says who?”

“My seniority. I served twelve years—eleven years in the service and another with the PWP. So that makes me top dog. You did what? A few years with the government? Lightweight.”

Nathan glared at him. “I’ve been with the PWP longer than you have. Three years, Major. So give me the keys.”

Avery snorted and sat up. He adjusted his seat, strapped in, then started the vehicle. “Dream on. You’re probably still a little drunk from last night. You smelled like a brewery.”

Nathan flushed. “Yeah, well, it won’t happen again.”

They pulled out of the parking lot and drove through snow-cleared roads. The weather looked bleak. The gray, cloudy sky promised more snow. No sun in sight.

“Good to know you plan to sober up,” Avery murmured. “’Cause next time I might let them have you.”

Nathan scoffed. “Yeah, right. Your savior complex won’t let you. Mr. Responsible? Not do the right thing? That’ll be the day.” He stared straight ahead, but a glance out the corner of his eye showed Avery’s fingers tighten on the wheel.

He smothered a grin.

“Being responsible is not a curse. It’s a calling.” Avery turned up the radio, and Pink Floyd blared through the speakers. “Remember your cover. You blow this, I’m gonna take it out on your ass, and not in a way you’d like.”

Nathan shot him the finger.

Avery grinned.

Instead of anger, arousal lit Nathan from head to toe.

The hour until Bloomville seemed to last forever.

Chapter Two

In a small forgotten town in Mexico, Malcolm Dixon closed his eyes and let the whisper of steel kiss his skin. Such a tender lover, so close to his soul. The blade was bigger than a knife, yet not long enough to be classified as a long sword. A gladius, perhaps, one that had been used in countless kills over the years. The hilt was made of an ivory-colored bone and knobbed in an exquisite red wood. The double-edged steel blade sang of increased carbon content, the impurities in the blooms of metal giving it a durability pure steel would not, as the material was too soft to make a good weapon. Along the blade, the word Sangre had been inscribed on each side in loving detail.

It would be hard to conceal unless a man with Malcolm’s many talents knew how to hide it. A hidden pocket in his overcoat, twenty inches deep and reinforced with a silken-Kevlar blended sheath, protected the blade from detection.

He glanced at the coat flung over a nearby chair. On the floor next to the chair, five corpses stared unseeingly at each other. A drug buy gone sour, or so the local paper would say. But Malcolm had the information he needed to satisfy his superiors. He’d already sent the files to his contact at headquarters. He’d eliminated the dealers and their buyers, and their money would fund the many black ops he wasn’t cleared to know about. Not that he cared.

He brought the blade up and read the word aloud. “Sangre. My Espada de Sangre.” Blade of Blood. So fitting, and so perfect for his needs. Weeks ago, he’d bought it at an underground auction, where most people went to sell stolen goods. He’d seen it and known he was meant to wield it. Then to find out Danielle had never died as he’d been told…

Just after he’d purchased the blade, he’d done a bit of research. The blade’s rightful owner wanted it back, no cost too great to reclaim the weapon. But he had help searching for it. A group with unique skills and more unique members. Intrigued, Malcolm dug further and found gold. Nathan Kraft was alive and well. And the bastard had led him right to Danielle, that faithless whore. All because of Sangre.

Fate surely had a hand in his life. With Sangre, he’d carved a hole where her heart should be, where the faithless woman had ripped out his own and replaced it with a stone-cold rock. Since her death, the only time he experienced a rush of emotion occurred on the cusp of another’s death. He wanted so badly to hold on to that feeling, and the sword gave him what he wanted—a short respite from the bleak existence he faced daily before the emptiness returned.

But gripping Sangre, he felt so much more. Malcolm closed his eyes and saw every death and murder committed by those holding the blade. He’d always been able to touch a weapon and gain the knowledge of how best to use it. But this blade was different. It called to him, sang to him with the sweet skill of a seductress. When he took a life using it, energy swelled and crashed inside him with such drugging ecstasy that he wept at the feel of it.

The bodies on the floor had been the notes to his latest composition, and he hummed under his breath as he kissed Sangre and carried it to his coat. After donning the jacket, he slipped the blade inside, content to have it so near. Then he made a call.

Danielle had been undeservedly blessed to feel Sangre as it slid between her ribs and sliced through her flesh. What a beautiful chorus of pain, and such emotion. He could still hear her pleading and begging and crying. But none of that made up for the secrets she’d kept. Had he known the truth from the beginning, things might have been different. His rage built as he pondered the past. He would have…

Footsteps sounded close. Malcolm gripped the hilt of Sangre and withdrew it from its sleeve inside his jacket. He stood and waited, grateful for another reprieve in his otherwise dreary life.

Two swarthy men entered with semiautomatics. He was already moving when the bullets flew. And then he danced, his partner graceful, the gladius all but glowing as he moved closer to perfection. The blade dipped and thrust and sucked up energy like a vacuum.

The men shrieked. Blood spattered the walls and floor, covering the dead already blanketing the wood like a stained rug.

Malcolm smiled, content, and carved a pattern in flesh. A design for Danielle, and for his nephew, whom he couldn’t wait to see once more.

* * *

Avery stood with Nathan and watched him charm the woman out of her seat. Within minutes of meeting Mr. Nathan Jackson, she’d offered not only to call the utility companies to turn the gas and cable on, but she’d also offered to buy them both dinner as a welcome to Bloomville.

“You’re so sweet, Ginger.” Nathan took the older woman’s hand in his and kissed the back of it.

Avery refrained from rolling his eyes. “Yes, Mrs. Hall. Thank you.”

The woman wore a ring and had a picture of herself, her husband, and two teenagers on the corner of her desk. Yet she blushed like a schoolgirl under Nathan’s attention. “It’s a pleasure, I assure you, Mr. Jackson. I mean, Nathan.”

Him she called Mister. Nathan got the first-name treatment. How was it his partner could charm total strangers but got on his last goddamn nerve half the time?

“We’ll leave you to it, then, Ginger. And thanks so much for dinner.”

She nodded. “It’ll be delivered, no worries. Best pizza in town.”

“You’re so sweet.” Nathan grinned, and those damn dimples made the woman melt. The way they made Avery melt every time he saw them.

Good thing he had a backbone made of iron. “Nathan? We need to get a move on.” He smiled politely at Ginger. “We have some cleanup to do before our investors come out to see the place in a few weeks.”

Ginger nodded. “You two restoring the Dixon house will be a draw for the town. We used to have a lot of visitors come to stay when the last couple ran it. It’s haunted, you know.”

Avery coughed to cover a laugh. Nathan shot him a dark look before turning to her. “Yes. That’s why we’re so interested in putting it back in top shape. Once we do the repair work, we’ll look into hiring local talent to run the place.” He nodded to Avery. “My partner and I are businessmen, not innkeepers. I handle the money; he does the grunt work.”

Trust Nathan to twist their cover around to make himself look important. Grunt work, my ass.

“Well, while you’re here, we’re more than glad to have you. And if you’re looking for a place to wind down when you’re not working, the Blooming Rose is a terrific bar. Lots of nice girls in town.” Apparently realizing how forward that sounded, she added, “Who’d be perfect to work in your B and B. Friendly faces to get to know better, if you were interested.”

Nathan didn’t react other than to smile. A good thing, because smaller towns tended to be more conservative. It was imperative they blend in just enough to give themselves time to look around. Avery’s visions had shown him that they’d find the blade, and hopefully Dixon, in Bloomville. But they’d get more answers out of the locals if they looked like part of the community. Those in Bloomville might not take to a gay man running their local inn. And God forbid they realize the gay man’s partner was bi.

That was a secret he was keeping under wraps until he knew he could fuck Nathan and not feel more than physical pleasure. Avery was attracted to the guy, but he’d seen Nathan go through men like tissues. He had no intention of becoming a notch on Nathan’s bedpost, and especially not if they had to work together. No matter how much he ached for the bastard. Hell, maybe he should check out the Blooming Rose.

Nathan gave him a slap on his back that felt less than friendly. “Come on, Avery. Let’s go.”

Avery held on to the keys Nathan motioned for and walked outside with him. Once out of earshot, he shook his head. “I can’t believe you sweet-talked that woman into getting us dinner.”

“She offered.”

“And the utilities? I know the heat and water were working, but do we really need the other stuff?”

“Hey, the gas fireplace is nice. And I’m not staying out in hickville without cable. Jack will reimburse us.” Nathan slanted him a look. “Not like there’s anything better to do.”

Avery nodded. “Good point. Not like you can go around sucking every dick in town if we want to keep a low profile.”

Nathan mouthed an obscenity and slammed his way into the vehicle.

Avery allowed himself a short grin. Ten minutes later, he parked in the side driveway of a large colonial-style home. He knew Nathan had at one time lived here. Over five thousand square feet, with original hardwood floors, wainscoting, and the original paned glass, the Dixon House had belonged to Malcolm Dixon’s ancestors, back when the place had been opened as a hotel before the Great Depression. In the years since, the large home had been renovated a few times to serve as both an inn and a private residence.

Avery hadn’t realized Nathan still owned it.

“Are you going to do something with this place once we’re done with the job?”

“Hell, yeah. I inherited it from my aunt—from Danielle. Soon as this case is over, I’m selling the thing.” Nathan looked up, and Avery wondered what he really saw when he viewed the whitewashed paint, weathered dark blue shutters, and falling gutters. Snow covered the massive yard, dusting the tops of the shrubbery growing wild around the property. Five large acres of trees, brush, snow, and more snow. It would have been the perfect place for a getaway weekend if they weren’t trying to trap a murderer.

“This house isn’t going to make security easy.” Avery took note of all the avenues of approach an enemy might use. “We need to get inside and lock down our control point.”

“Aye, aye.” Nathan gave him a mock salute, and Avery immediately thought of how satisfying it would be to paddle that ass.

His partner unlocked the front door, and Avery followed him inside. The musty smell of disuse hit him the minute they crossed the entranceway. But inside was a pleasant surprise. A warm yellow painted the walls not covered in glossy cherrywood. The floors had been refinished in the recent past, and the décor was charming in a Victorian, antique-y kind of way. Or at least what Avery could see of it past the dust cloths covering everything.

“Fully furnished,” Nathan muttered. “Just gotta take off the ghosts.”

“The what?”

“The white covers over the furniture. Always looked like ghosts to me.”

That sadness was back, and Avery wanted it gone. “So you want me to make this place feel like home for you? I could find you some twinks and a bottle of Jack, maybe.”

The sadness vanished to be replaced by a look of disgust. “Funny, he-man. What should we do to make it a home for you? Maybe some tits-and-ass calendars and religious right videos?”

Avery chuckled. “I thought you were going to say porn videos. More my speed.”

Nathan blinked. “You? Porn? My God. I think the floors just shook.”

Avery had taken more than his fair share of digs about his sex life over the week they’d spent together. But for some reason, today Nathan’s teasing burrowed under his skin. “I’m not a eunuch, Nate.”

Nathan glared. He hated Avery’s pet names. Sweetheart, princess, and dimples rounded the top three, but Nate was fun because it sounded so normal yet set the guy off.

“Might as well be.” Nathan shrugged him off, as if Avery didn’t rate.

Bull. Shit.

Avery stepped into Nathan’s private space. They nearly stood eye to eye, but Nathan had to look an inch up to meet his gaze. “That’s not the floor shaking, Nate. That’s your heart racing because you want me. Bad.”

Nathan’s shock came as great satisfaction, because Avery could see he’d struck a chord. So maybe Nathan had been thinking about him too. Christ, that was all he needed. As much as he prized control, constantly losing it in Nathan’s presence peeved him. But to know Nathan might want him back, that this attraction was actually two-sided? Temptation he might not be able to walk away from. Hell.

He didn’t need this, not with Malcolm Dixon running around with a paranormal sword and murder on his mind.

Nathan scowled. “You’re an ass. Always trying to get on my last nerve, aren’t you, Major?”

“Oh yeah. You want me,” Avery said with enough smugness to choke a mule. He knew this man. If he said white, Nathan would say black. Prodding his partner into not desiring him was easy. Tell him one thing, Nathan would do the opposite.

Except the sly grin Nathan returned unnerved him. His cock stiffened, and he could only thank his jacket and jeans for masking his arousal. Before he could take a step back, Nathan planted one hell of a kiss on his lips.

Avery forced himself to stand still, to not give in to the urge to fuck this man until he couldn’t walk. God, Nathan tasted good. He let Nathan explore for a few moments. But when Nathan tried to thrust his tongue between his lips, Avery pushed him away before he did something he’d regret. If he fucked Nathan now, Avery would be nothing more than another distraction to pass the time. The power would be in Nathan’s court, something Avery wouldn’t tolerate. He called the shots. He made the rules, and he left when the relationship fizzled, as it always did.

He took a swing at Nathan, but the bastard dodged. The cocky grin and easy way he ducked the punch said he’d expected as much. But the smile on his face told Avery he’d done the right thing. Nathan didn’t smile as much as he should, and despite Avery’s irritation with his partner, it gladdened him to know he’d put that amusement there.

Not wanting to let Nathan know he wasn’t upset, he muttered, “Dick.”

“Yeah, well, at least I know what mine’s for.”

“Fucking everything that moves? Nice.”

Nathan glowered. “At least I know sex is more than a three-letter word. Christ, Avery. When’s the last time you got laid? Diane? That was what? Three months ago?”

“So glad you care.” Interesting that Nathan was keeping tabs on him. And why that excited him, he didn’t want to say. “Yeah, Diane was hot. A nice woman.”

Nathan sneered. “Nice and respectable. You must be a crazy guy in the bedroom.”

Even knowing it wasn’t smart, Avery stepped close again. Pleased when Nathan’s grin left him and he fixated on Avery’s mouth, Avery took back control of the situation. “Oh yeah, crazy. I fucked her until she came; then I fucked her again. In her pussy, her mouth, her ass.”

Nathan’s eyes glazed over, and Avery’s cock hurt, wanting to sink into Nathan’s mouth, then Nathan’s tight ass.

He continued teasing. “I love ass play. And she was into it, for me. She took that silky tongue and licked my asshole. Really turned me on. Then I shoved her onto her belly and drove into her tight hole.”

Nathan’s breathing grew raspy.

“Diane loved it. And I loved doing her in every way possible. But I especially loved coming in that ass.” Avery whispered in his ear, “My bet, you’re a bottom. I bet you just love taking it, don’t you? A fat cock in your hole? Some dude rimming that ass, dipping his tongue deep to lick you all up?”

Nathan swallowed, the sound loud in the otherwise silent house.

Avery didn’t have to look down to see Nathan’s erection. His dilated pupils and quickened breath showed what Avery felt—bone-deep arousal. In toying with Nathan, he’d aroused himself all over again.

Shit. He stepped back and winked. “Yep. Diane was a lucky, lucky girl. But hey, princess. I bet one day you’ll get your happily-ever-after with the boy of your dreams too. Too bad you’re not lucky enough to have me.” Yet, dangled in his mind. He stepped away while he was still able and turned around, deliberately giving Nathan his back.

He thought he heard Nathan groan.

“I’m going to scout out the house. I’m thinking one of the bedrooms upstairs, away from foot traffic and outside access, will make a good command center. I’ll let you know.” Avery walked away and had made it halfway up the steps before Nathan responded.

“You’re a total asshole, you know that?” he yelled. “No way I’d be unlucky enough in this lifetime to have you. Not in two lifetimes!”

“That’s a lot of protest, son,” Avery yelled back to be heard and laughed to himself when Nathan swore.

Gauntlet thrown. And accepted.

* * *

Nathan stared at Avery that night, still pissed about Avery’s thoughtless comments earlier in the day. What kind of sexually repressed homophobe would spout shit about rimming and ass fucking to a gay man’s face? A man who wasn’t repressed or afraid of gays, apparently. It annoyed him all over again that he’d have to reclassify Avery. So much for thinking the guy had issues with sex. From what Avery had more than hinted, he liked fucking, and he especially liked ass play.

God, the images that called to mind were so wrong.

Nathan lusted after a straight guy with everything inside him, even knowing he’d get burned if he pursued him. How fucked up was that? He wanted to chalk up his weird desire and skewed emotions to the recent upheaval in his life, but he’d wanted Avery for far longer than that. At first Avery had been an attractive male. Eye candy. But as Nathan got to know him better, he’d become infatuated with the man. Seeing those unusual smiles, catching glimpses of the softer side Avery rarely showed his friends, taunted him to try to capture Avery’s attention.

I need to get laid. That’s all it is. A physical need. He paused in reflection. Yeah, right.

Hell, he had plenty of sex. But he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a hug from someone he cared about. And not a friendly hug like those he shared with Ian or Kitty at work. But an affectionate caress from a lover instead of a quick handjob or blowjob in a bar.

Nathan reached for the last slice of pizza at the same time Avery did. Their hands touched, and he quickly pulled away, much to the amusement of Major Macho.

Avery raised his brow but said nothing, and Nathan internalized a groan. He had no idea why Avery’s arrogance turned him on so much.

“What’s wrong, pretty boy?” Avery took a healthy bite of pizza and chewed, the powerful cords of his throat prominent. The navy cable-knit sweater he wore only added to his allure. The sweater clung to his chest while exposing his neck and the hint of his collarbone. Nathan wanted to eat him up.

Fuck. This is so wrong. He shifted in his seat, hoping Avery wouldn’t notice his expanding crotch.

Then Avery had the nerve to offer him half of the last slice he’d claimed. Being nice, on top of being so damn sexy, was cheating big-time.

Nathan grudgingly accepted the piece and let out a breath. “So your room. You good?”

Avery shrugged. “It’s a room. About the same as yours.” Avery paused and studied Nathan. “You okay being here? I get the feeling growing up in this town wasn’t fun for you. That there’s more to your issues than your mom—uh, aunt’s—death.”

Nathan started. He’d been so consumed with Avery that he’d zoned out on being here, in this place. It all seemed so long ago, but though the memories had faded, they’d never truly left. The constant beatings, the mental abuse… He sometimes wondered how far his uncle might have gone if Nathan hadn’t made a stand. God knew, the punishments Malcolm had devised were anything but rational. He’d seemed to almost get off on the abuse.

“Nathan?” Avery’s soft voice pulled him back.

“You want to know?”

“Yeah, I do.”

It was the way he answered that made Nathan decide to tell him. Gone was the antagonistic, domineering ex-agent, and in his place, a caring, concerned Avery sat waiting. Yet another facet to the man that made him such an enigma.

“My uncle was a real bastard. From the time I lived here with him and my aunt until the day he died—supposedly died—he took great pleasure in screwing with me. Used to make fun of me and put me down all the time. But never in front of my aunt. He didn’t want her to know. In front of her, he was the doting dad. About two years after I came to live with them, he started beating me.”

Avery frowned. “Damn.”

“Yeah. He was a sick fuck.” He could still see Malcolm’s huge hand wrapped around the leather belt. Could feel it as it came down hard on his back. His uncle was so careful not to leave marks where they could be seen outside of his clothes. But Nathan had scars on his ass, the backs of his thighs, and the soles of his feet. And those were just physical. He dreaded facing the cellar and got cold sweats just thinking about it.

“So Jack filled me in some about your aunt,” Avery said. “After she left your uncle, you guys moved to California.”

“She left him because he was dead. Or so we thought.”

Avery didn’t blink, but Nathan could feel the man’s curiosity, and his support. “Sounds like maybe he deserved to die.”

“Better him than my aunt.” My mother, who he finally tracked down and killed. Nathan gritted his teeth.

“Time to finish the job, then.” Avery didn’t look too bothered at the thought of killing.

“You don’t have a problem with that?”

“I’m not a murderer, but I’m a firm believer in justice. Malcolm Dixon killed a woman you loved. From what you said, he almost killed her years ago. And beating on a kid, that’s just fucked up any way you look at it.”

“True.” Nathan felt lighter for having shared. Was it because he’d told the truth finally, or because he’d told Avery, and Avery was still on his side?

“The other thing we need to take a good, hard look at is Dixon’s past. The few files Jack has on him are sketchy, which leads me to believe your uncle is even more dangerous than we think.”

“Not sure that could be true. He’s a stone-cold killer.”

“One who has a weapon attracted to blood. Did you read the report on Espada de Sangre?”

Nathan cringed. “I did. The blade is supposedly cursed. Forged in the early 1800s in Spain, it found its way to America and has been used in the Civil War, the World Wars, and in bloody crime sprees all over the world.”

“It’s like the thing is a beacon for evil. How the hell did our client get his hands on it, I wonder?”

Nathan wondered too. “You know who this guy is we’re working for? Jack knows him, but I haven’t heard a thing about him.”

“All I know is that he has money and a warehouse of stolen goods we’re getting back for him one piece at a time. But Jack needs to look for more clients. You never put all your eggs in one basket if you’re smart.”

“Great advice. I can’t wait to be there when you share it with Jack.”

Avery grimaced. “I like my head where it is, thanks. Jack’s a decent boss, but he’s not great with people.”

“That’s Kitty’s job.” Their resident empath, Kitty kept the peace at the gym.

“And ours is to find this weapon.” Avery looked him in the eye. “We get the blade first. Then we deal with your uncle.”

“I’ll deal with him.”

“I said we. You’re too close to this. You’re hurting, and you’re distracted. He’ll kill you if you’re not careful.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Avery’s words stung, but Nathan conceded his point. “Fine. You’ll help me track him down, but I’m the one who’s going to end his time on this earth. A blade to the throat, a bullet to the brain. I don’t much care, as long as he’s dead.”

Avery stared at him.

“What?”

“You could do that? Just shoot him in cold blood?” He didn’t sound judgmental, just curious.

“You don’t know Malcolm Dixon the way I do.” Nathan gave a bitter laugh. “No one ever gets the drop on him. When, not if, I kill him, it’ll be face-to-face in battle. Tell you what, though. To make you feel better, you can stand by in case I slip up. How does that sound?”

He fully expected Avery to agree with him, make some comment about Nathan’s failure to kill Malcolm the first time or poke fun at his ability to hold his own.

“I’ll back you up, Nathan. But I don’t think you’ll need it.”

Shocked and pleased, Nathan absently bit into the pizza Avery had given him and wondered what Aunt Danielle would have made of his partner. “My aunt would have liked you.”

Avery nodded. “You said she was a smart woman.”

Nathan rolled his eyes. “Are you ever not arrogant?”

“Nope. I’m in touch with myself and my strengths. I’m a likable guy. Not as charming as you, but I’m solid.”

Nathan turned the conversation in another direction. But while they argued about the coming football game on Sunday, he came to a decision long in the making. Before this case was through, he’d have Major Likable on his back and on his knees. I promise.

And when Nathan made a promise, even to himself, he never went back on his word.

Chapter Three

Three days later, Avery lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. They’d made little headway talking to the neighbors. Most remembered Dixon as a pleasant if quiet man who was away as much as he’d been in town when he lived there. No one had seen him since. From what Jack had dug up on him, Dixon worked for the government in a contractual capacity, and his name had been flagged. So Jack was handing off the intel-gathering to a few friends who could pass undetected through official channels.

Just more bad news that Dixon would be a problem to handle. The blade being stolen was bad enough. The thing seemed to like sinking into human flesh, if the reports could be believed. Though Avery and his peers did things most people couldn’t fathom, an inanimate object acting as if it were alive was a hard concept to swallow.

He shifted in bed and linked his hands behind his head. He felt better today than he had yesterday. Though they were supposed to give the appearance of doing repairs, he’d actually fixed a set of stairs and patched some drywall to alleviate boredom. Hauling the equipment helped lessen the physical tension building as well, because he’d started to feel that familiar itch along the base of his spine, the one that told him if he didn’t start pushing his mind and body, he’d have problems. The daily runs weren’t doing it.

Though he didn’t regret joining the PWP, he did wish his withdrawal from the program hadn’t been so demanding. The drugs they’d given him while he’d been in had strengthened his abilities. He could now call on his prognostication, though he couldn’t predict what he’d see. Sometimes focusing on a particular object or person helped, and sometimes it didn’t. And what Avery saw always came to pass. He couldn’t change the future, or at least he hadn’t thus far, so he didn’t like looking there unless he needed to.

Fortunately his skills aided in his job. He normally caught glimpses of criminals, and depending upon the agent in question, he could often help their new cases. He’d seen a missing painting’s whereabouts not too long ago. Their agent had successfully brought it back intact and snagged himself a wife in the process.

He snorted. Wouldn’t that be a kicker? Major Avery Holton, psychic matchmaker? At the thought, he immediately imagined Nathan. The sandy-haired playboy seemed back to normal. Aggravating, appealing, and making a swath through the locals. He’d already had several women ask for his number, and he took great amusement and delight in telling Avery all about it.

Avery had matured past the point where boys kissed and told, and even at that young age, he’d never shared his personal life. He didn’t hide the fact that he liked men and women sexually, but he didn’t see the need to show it off either. Unlike Nathan, who had nothing better to do with this social life than parade an endless supply of pretty boys under Avery’s nose.

He scowled, remembering how each and every one of Nathan’s conquests had made him feel—annoyed, angry, possessive. The confusing need for Nathan made him want to go against his hard and fast rule of no fucking around with coworkers. Maybe if he’d gotten the man out of his system, he could react normally around him.

Then again, he and Nathan didn’t usually work together, not on PWP-type missions. The gym was different. Since he’d been put on the night shift, he and Nathan cleaned equipment, helped out gym-goers, and worked out themselves. Nathan had height and brawn but not a killer instinct. Oh, he boxed well enough, and he could wrestle with the best of them. But Avery instinctively knew best how to handle an opponent. With Nathan, he would muscle the big man down flat on his back. Then his fantasies intruded, and he’d see himself straddling Nathan’s face and shoving his cock in that warm, wet mouth.

Avery swore to himself and rolled onto his belly. His cock throbbed, and he wished he’d gotten off in the bars Nathan had frequented days ago. Maybe a handjob would have relieved this constant ache. For Nathan.

Avery groaned. He had a habit of being honest with himself. For months now, he’d been trying to convince himself to ignore the truth. He wanted Nathan more than was healthy. He still didn’t know if he liked the guy, but Jesus, he wanted to fuck that beautiful man. To feel Nathan’s firm ass glove his cock, to watch that talented mouth swallow him whole, suck on his balls, lick at his ass.

Without meaning to, he blanked out…into a vision.

“Dammit. Wake up.”

Still lying on his stomach, his head turned to the side, Avery blinked into Nathan’s face. The low light in the hallway played over concerned green eyes and a mouth pinched with worry.

“You okay? You were moaning and moving.” Nathan sounded stilted, as if he had a hard time breathing. His gaze had drifted to Avery’s bare ass, the sheets gathered around his thighs.

Avery suddenly recalled his vision—an erotic, playful interlude that had him so hard. Without giving himself a chance to think, he rolled over and yanked Nathan down with him.

“What the—Hey!”

Before Nathan could say another word, Avery kissed him. The blistering intensity of his need scorched him with desire when he thrust his tongue into Nathan’s mouth, and Nathan reciprocated. The hands bracing against his shoulders softened into a hold. Then Nathan pulled him tighter so their bare chests touched.

“Yes. God, yes,” Nathan whispered as he all but devoured Avery.

The passion between them was as dangerous as Avery had suspected it might be. But he didn’t care. He wanted nothing more than to come with Nathan. His cock brushed against Nathan’s boxer briefs, the soft feel of cotton covering an equally impressive erection driving him insane.

Nathan tried to control the kiss, but Avery wasn’t built that way. He rolled them both over so Nathan lay on his back while Avery topped him. He kissed a path from Nathan’s mouth to his ear, loving the stubble over Nathan’s cheeks. “You’re going to be mine.”

“You…had…a vision? A-about this?” Nathan managed before Avery sneaked his tongue into Nathan’s ear. He nipped his lobe and ground into the cock bucking up against his body. “Fuck, Avery. Give me more.”

Nathan sounded out of his mind. Crazed with lust was all Avery could think. But at this point, he didn’t care. Nathan hadn’t said no, and the future was all but laid out for them. He’d seen it.

He slowly kissed his way down Nathan’s body, forcing Nathan to remain still with his hands. He pressed down hard, loving the force he had to use to keep the large man from moving. The power exchange must have pleased Nathan as well, because his halfhearted struggles resulted in an iron bar in his underwear and growing dampness there.

“I wanna watch you come,” Avery murmured, taken with Nathan’s feel. Such hard muscles and weathered skin. A few scars dotted his torso, marks that told their own story. Nathan might be a playboy with men, but he was dangerous as well. Avery stopped at Nathan’s hairless chest, his breathing ragged.

He didn’t care if Nathan shaved or was naturally devoid of hair. The sight of all that strength and those hard nipples made his mouth water.

He sucked one nipple and bit down.

“Christ. Yes.” Nathan gripped his hair and arched into him.

Avery turned his attention to Nathan’s other nipple and did the same. The grunts and groans between them added to the intensity, and it was all Avery could do not to come all over the hard body beneath him. He wanted to fuck, to release the tension, the desire, the frustration Nathan held over him, but the condoms and lube seemed too far away. Anything not within reach wouldn’t work.

He pushed up from Nathan and stared. Heavy-lidded eyes regarded him, and Nathan’s slick, swollen mouth quirked into a half smile. Avery skimmed down Nathan’s torso and tugged his underwear off.

A thick, long cock sprang free, tufts of sandy brown hair surrounding the powerful shaft. Nathan’s balls were heavy, tight globes that Avery wanted nothing better than to feel mashed against his pelvis while they fucked.

He knelt next to Nathan on the bed. “You’re big,” he said in a thick voice, unable to look away. Odd that before now, he’d never seen Nathan naked at the gym, not even when changing.

“So are you. Fuck. You’re huge.” Nathan sat up and reached for Avery’s cock. “I need lube, but I can’t move.”

“Me either.” It all played out as it had in Avery’s mind just moments ago, but it was so much better. Real and powerful. And scary. Because Avery experienced more than lust when he looked into Nathan’s eyes. Affection had blossomed from a seed of annoyance. None of Nathan’s off-putting quirks seemed to matter much right now. Avery wanted to blame it all on his hormones, but this softening around his heart was different.

Nathan surprised him by knocking him back. Avery landed on his ass and braced himself on his hands. But before he could move, Nathan leaned down and took Avery’s cock to the back of his throat.

“Fuck me.” He groaned and widened his legs, helped by Nathan’s firm hands on his thighs. “Oh yeah. So good.” He couldn’t help the tiny pumps of his hips. Nathan knew how to please a man in the way he rolled his tongue, dragged his teeth, and sucked with his whole mouth. Avery knew he couldn’t hold out much longer. Then Nathan cupped his balls and ran a finger underneath his ass, pushing into his anus.

Avery stared down at that golden brown head. The desire, the hungry need for more than a body—for Nathan—stood out as his lover drew him closer to orgasm.

He sat on the precipice of climax, his world close to shattering, and saw another glimpse of the future, one in which he and Nathan smiled and held hands. The shared joy in the look broke him free of the vision, and he jerked and groaned when Nathan fully penetrated him with a finger.

The release was welcome and disappointing at the same time, because Nathan had taken charge. He continued to come down Nathan’s throat, his heart racing like he’d run a marathon.

Nathan finally released him, grinned, and wiped his lips. “Talk about a mouthful.” He sat back and held himself by the root, his tip wet, his balls drawn up tight. “How about my turn?”

Avery wanted to. He knew Nathan was clean because he’d snooped through his files. And by the grace of God, Nathan hadn’t fucked anyone since their yearly physical a few weeks ago. But still, just days ago, Nathan had been in a bar trying to get laid by strangers. The intimacy of kissing the man’s dick was too new and too meaningful for him to ignore.

Nathan frowned.

Avery didn’t want to ruin the mood, but he sure as shit wasn’t going to be dumb about it. He’d go down on Nathan when he was damn good and ready. Not now. When he had a handle on these stupid feelings. He shoved Nathan and managed to get him into position on the bed, on his hands and knees.

“What are you doing?” Nathan struggled, but Avery wouldn’t let him go.

He leaned over him, fitting his still semihard cock against the crack of Nathan’s ass. “Feel me? I’m going to take you here soon.”

“No, I—”

“Will do what you’re told. And you’ll come so fucking hard.” Avery reached around Nathan and stroked him. He rubbed Nathan’s precum over his shaft to make him slick, and he couldn’t help surging against Nathan’s ass while he pumped his lover.

“You’re holding me tight. So tight.” Nathan gasped and moaned. “I’m gonna come.”

“Yeah. All over my hand. All over the bed.” Avery whispered of the darker things he wanted to share with Nathan. Bondage. Dominance. A bite of pain.

Nathan swore and came hard. He covered Avery’s hand.

“Finish yourself. All of it,” Avery commanded and used the cum on his hand to grease his cock. He slid faster against Nathan’s ass while Nathan jerked out the last of his release. It didn’t take Avery but a minute to come once more, this time over Nathan’s back.

The release should have satisfied him. Coming twice in the span of an hour would have exhausted him…before Nathan.

They knelt there, panting in the barely lit room. Avery leaned over Nathan, sliding through his own seed. And Nathan remained bent over, taking what Avery had decided to give him.

He would regret the intimacy in the morning. He could feel it. But right now, all was right with the world. He lay down next to Nathan, not bothering to clean up.

In a gritty voice, Nathan said, “I left you a nice big wet spot. Glad it was your bed and not mine.”

Avery wanted to comment, to say something smart, but instead he felt himself drifting into sleep. Between two visions and his violent orgasms, he had nothing left but rest on the menu. As he fell into slumber, his last thought was of where Nathan would sleep, and why it would bother him if the playboy went back to his own room.

Nathan stared down at Avery, not sure how to feel. He’d finally fucked around with Avery Holton, and it had been hotter than anything he could have imagined…or had ever felt in his life. And then his amazing lover had fallen asleep.

Wondering whether or not to feel insulted, he recalled the odd circumstances that had led him here in the first place. Avery slept quietly. The man rarely made noise. So the moans and thrashing Nathan had heard coming from the room had alarmed him. He’d raced in only to find his partner restless yet asleep. It reminded Nathan of the way Avery acted when having a vision of the future, except he hadn’t known Avery to have them while unconscious.

Then again, there were a lot of things he hadn’t known about Avery until tonight. How he tasted so sweet and salty at the same time. How huge that cock would be, how erotic it would feel sliding against his ass, or how fucking addictive it would be to touch him. Nathan studied his new lover, wanting to suck Avery off all over again. Damn, but the big bastard had come twice, and he’d come a lot. Nathan reached behind him and felt the sticky mess on his lower back.

Was he messed up that he liked Avery on his skin? That he’d taken pleasure in swallowing the man? He froze.

No condom. He hadn’t wanted one, hadn’t thought to use one, and that was more than stupid; it was dangerous. Though Avery seemed pretty particular, who the hell knew what he did in his spare time? Obviously more than Diane, because Avery hadn’t batted an eye about fucking Nathan, a man. The big liar.

Nathan wanted to be angrier that Avery had deliberately misled him about his sexual orientation. But had he? In retrospect, Avery had never said he wasn’t into men. Nathan had assumed that because Avery liked women and had never shown any interest in him, he wasn’t into guys. Trust Avery to once again not meet his expectations. Instead of a homophobe for a partner, Nathan had a bisexual psychic warrior who’d worked for Uncle Sam.

The thought brought forth a chuckle. Nathan leaned down to brush some hair from Avery’s eyes. The black stuff felt soft, silky smooth. “Jeez, even in sleep you’re a hard-ass.” Nathan noted the hard planes of that unforgiving face, the stubborn jaw and commanding nose. Dark brows swept together in a frown until Nathan ran a finger over his cheek.

Avery eased into a sigh and breathed deeper.

A funny feeling settled on Nathan. As he pulled the covers over Avery and finally felt the chill of January stealing his heat, he came to the conclusion that once with Avery wouldn’t be enough. Nathan often took charge in bed, because he’d rarely met a man bigger than himself, or one he trusted to do the job right. Avery hadn’t asked. He’d done what came naturally. And Nathan had let him.

It hadn’t bothered him at all when Avery had positioned him on the bed and humped him while giving him a heavenly reach-around. He couldn’t help dwelling on it as he hurried into his bedroom and through it to a private bath. There he ran hot water. After stepping into the shower, he cleaned himself up and let the soak do him good.

Images of Avery’s cock, of his strong body accepting Nathan’s touch, made him hard all over again. But instead of jerking off, Nathan waited. He’d save his extra energy for Avery. That was if the sexy jerk didn’t try to pretend tonight hadn’t happened. Nathan had run into the type from time to time. Avery had been more than comfortable getting blown. He’d come the second time all over Nathan’s back. But the morning after might look a lot different to the conservative major.

Maybe not so conservative. Nathan grinned. Avery had whispered a lot of dirty things while they’d been fucking…and not fucking. He would have loved some anal penetration, but having to leave Avery’s delicious body for even one second to grab a condom would have been too long. He didn’t regret what they’d done, only that they hadn’t tried long before now.

After his shower, Nathan threw on underwear and a pair of flannel pants and hopped into bed. He wouldn’t have minded sharing Avery’s, but he didn’t plan to sleep in that wet spot, and he wanted a sure welcome the next morning. One thing he could say for certain; their interlude had swept him from his nightmares sure to come.

The past two nights had been difficult at best. Though he’d been fine throughout the day, interacting with the locals and looking for information, at night he couldn’t help remembering the past. His uncle was a monster. Malcolm’s selfish need to have Danielle all to himself, her lies about who she was to Nathan, and that fucking cellar he still hadn’t entered tumbled in his thoughts when the calm descended and the quiet surrounded him.

But tonight he had Avery to think about. Plotting ways to push past the domineering man’s walls occupied him throughout his dreams. He woke the next morning feeling refreshed, so much so that he ignored the coffeepot first thing and ran a few miles to heat his blood, even through the snow. He returned in good spirits and laughed out loud when Avery glared at him over his steaming mug in the kitchen.

“Hey there, sunshine.”

Avery frowned. “You’re never up this early.”

“I had a good night.” No time like the present to see how Avery handled the next day.

“You should have. You left a mess in my bed.”

Hmm. He didn’t ignore it, but he didn’t seem eager to repeat the experience.

“So maybe next time we use my bed,” Nathan offered.

The noncommittal grunt he received annoyed him. Not a yes or a no, but a maybe in nonverbal?

Avery sipped his coffee and read the local paper. Nathan scowled, no longer in a good mood. Then Avery stood and stretched, and Nathan’s gaze automatically sought the exposed line of his belly where his sweater and jeans parted.

“You’re so easy.” Avery snickered.

Startled, Nathan looked up to see his partner smiling. “I would say the same, but you had me completely fooled.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Smug didn’t begin to describe what could only be called a cheery Avery. “You were so holier-than-thou, thinking me some kind of bigot. I think it kind of turned you on, wanting a man you thought wouldn’t want you.”

“Yeah, right.” But Avery was closer to the truth than he knew. By deliberately disliking Avery, Nathan had put some much-needed distance between himself and a man he shouldn’t want. “But you did want me, didn’t you?”

Avery shrugged. “You’re hot, and you know it. You give great head.”

Nathan flushed. “What a compliment. Quick, let me add it to my résumé.”

Another smile. Holy shit. Avery had grinned at him twice in the span of ten minutes. “You’re such a smart-ass. The run must have helped. That and getting off last night,” Avery said drily.

“Yep. And you know, say what you want, but it’s a good thing I have a healthy ego. Otherwise I might have been upset when you came and fell asleep without even a thank-you.”

Trust Avery to have no shame. The man didn’t blink. “Hey, I had a vision. Tapped me out, and then you sucked the life out of me.”

“Twice.”

Avery chuckled. “Right. Of course I fell asleep.” He stood and dumped his coffee cup in the sink. “I’m going for a run. When I get back, we’ll talk about today’s schedule.”

Before Nathan could ask him about that, Avery left. “High-handed asshole,” he muttered. But Avery had a point. Digging for information on Malcolm with the neighbors wasn’t working. The man had been a mystery to the town, gone as often as he’d been there, and always wearing the pleasant mask he’d shown Nathan’s aunt.

Not aunt. Mother.

Nathan stared glumly at the coffeepot. He had to deal with the truth eventually. Aunt Danielle had been his birth mother. The woman he’d thought was his mother had been her sister, Michelle Kraft. Why hadn’t Danielle kept him? And if she hadn’t wanted anything to do with him, why take him in after her sister passed? His grandmother had been living at the time, and she’d doted on him before she’d died.

He had more questions than answers. But he couldn’t escape the fact that the most important woman in his life had lied to him for years. She’d been so loving, so accepting. From the first, she’d known he was a bit different. Like his father, she’d say, and always look so sad. From what his mother—Michelle—had told him, his father had died in a hit-and-run before he’d been born. She’d raised him alone, another loving female who supported him in all things. She’d been the one to help him build his mental shields, to homeschool him while he’d adapted to knowing things no normal kid could know.

Because of the woman he considered his mother, he’d gotten a handle on his ability from a young age. When she’d died, he’d been devastated. And then Aunt Danielle had arrived, looking so much like his mother it hurt to see her. The same green eyes, the same smile and gentle mien. Though Michelle had been two years older, there could be no doubt the women were related.

He’d always thought he had his mother’s eyes, and now he knew he did. Danielle’s eyes.

With a sigh, he poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down to eat. His metabolism had kicked into high gear again, and he needed to sustain his energy for the fight to come. Malcolm Dixon was a bad, bad man.

He knew what his sweet mother had seen in him, though. Handsome and muscular, Malcolm was a man’s man. He’d served in the army for a time before becoming some type of pharmaceutical sales consultant—or so he’d said. He traveled all over the place, but he always came home with a gift for Danielle. He’d seemed to really love her, as much as he hated Nathan. Nathan had never understood why his uncle loathed him. He’d never given the man any problems, had in fact looked up to him, the way a boy admired a father figure. But Malcolm had been anything but loving.

He rubbed his thigh, under his shorts near his buttocks, where Malcolm liked best to let the strap fly. Not enough to scar, but enough to leave welts that took time to heal. A careful abuser. He was always cold and in control when he beat Nathan. Never a hothead, but a true predator who knew exactly what he was doing. Nathan could only thank God his uncle had never sexually abused him. The very thought made him cringe.

He stared down at his empty bowl and poured another.

Avery paused in the doorway, looking sexy as hell in sweats and a skullcap. “Lucky Charms? Really?”

“Don’t even think about screwing with my cereal. You touch one magical marshmallow, and I’ll make your life a living hell.”

“So what else is new?” Avery muttered—not quite under his breath—before he turned away.

Nathan couldn’t help grinning when the door slammed. Having Avery annoyed with him put everything right with the world. The past would always be there, but the future had possibilities. He ate two more bowls of cereal and left the bowl for Avery to clean up when he returned. But on his way out of the kitchen, he made himself look into the far corner, the one place he’d avoided since arriving at the house.

The cellar door was the same. A thick oak wood painted black with a dead bolt high on the frame, too high for a slight twelve-year-old to reach…

* * *

A foot shoved him hard, and he tumbled down the stairs. He landed on his ass, a few bruises to add to the ones currently there. Something skittered in the pitch-black, and he bit back the cry that would fall on deaf ears. The cold bit deep into his flesh and bones. A soul-weary exhaustion filled him. When would this end? And then the footsteps… It wasn’t over yet. And that made everything worse.

“Come here, Nathan. Come to Uncle Malcolm and take your punishment.”

* * *

Punishment for what, he’d always ask. And every time, his uncle would beat him harder for not knowing. A smarter boy would have made something up, but Nathan had been stubborn back then, like now. He’d never deserved any of Malcolm’s abuse. He’d avoided his aunt after each occurrence, not wanting her to know, because Malcolm had warned him that if she did, he’d hurt her too. And then that one day he hadn’t been careful enough, and Danielle had seen the hint of a welt under his shirt…

Nathan shrugged the memories away as he exited the kitchen. Not yet. But soon, he’d go down those stairs. He’d get past his fears and find the strength to defeat his uncle. And in the doing, he’d find out what the hell had really happened seventeen years ago, when his uncle had tried to kill Danielle and instead ended up with Nathan’s knife in the center of his chest, where his heart should have been.

Chapter Four

Avery returned to find Nathan frowning at his laptop. “What’s up?” His breath came out in rasps. The temperature outside had lowered to twenty degrees. And though the sidewalks were cleared of snow, he’d still run through several mounds of the white stuff to reach a greater distance. Between the run and last night, he felt like a new man. One able to take on a murderer and a playboy too sexy for his own good.

Christ, when would this desire go away? He tried to ignore his erection and sat down across from his partner. Maybe sex with Nathan wasn’t a good idea, not if it distracted him from keeping an eye out for danger.

“Ian finally found what Jack couldn’t.”

Avery snorted. “I bet that fried Jack’s ass.” Ian Ryder, their newest addition to the team, had been and probably still was a master forger. The guy had contacts all over the place, in law enforcement and underground. When psychic means failed, they could turn to Ian for help, and Ian never let anyone—Jack especially—forget it. Personally Avery liked the guy. Ian was small and cute and funny. Not threatening, and not his type, though Ian had offered several chances to get to know him better.

Nathan glared at the computer.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What the hell has your panties in a twist?”

“Dickhead.” The standard response he typically received from Nathan. Avery had been worried that this morning might be awkward. To his pleasant surprise, being around Nathan felt normal. Just…enhanced…by that sexual tension he now knew they both felt.

“Still waiting.”

“It’s just, here. Look for yourself.” Nathan spun the laptop around. He wore a dark sweater and jeans, his hair looked damp, and he smelled like soap. Clean and handsome and so fucking close. Avery could easily see himself tying Nathan up and having some fun. Later. After the mission, he reminded himself.

He took a look at the laptop and frowned. “This is beyond PWP clearance. How the hell did Ian get this?” Most of the names and locations had been blacked out, but Avery saw enough to understand just what Malcolm Dixon had done that had necessitated his travel all over the place. “I hate to break it to you, Nathan, but your uncle is even worse than you thought.”

“He traveled a lot. Not as much as I liked, but the three years I spent here were tolerable because he was selling drugs.” At Avery’s questioning look, he added, “Pharmaceuticals. So we’d been told.”

“So Danielle didn’t know what he really did for a living?” He’d decided to call her by her first name, because he could see Nathan had yet to deal with her passing.

“Who the fuck knows?”

Avery could feel Nathan’s frustration.

“She apparently had a hard time with the truth.” Nathan rose to his feet and began pacing the kitchen.

The time had come for some answers, things the files hadn’t mentioned about Nathan’s early years. “Tell me what happened that night, when you thought you’d killed him.”

Nathan stopped in his tracks.

“Tell me. I know a little about him, but we need a whole picture of the man. Hell, even you don’t know as much as you thought you knew about him.”

Nathan’s jaw clenched. Then he blew out a breath. “I hated him.”

“Yeah, I got that.”

“My mom died when I was ten. I moved in here at my aunt’s insistence. She wanted me; he didn’t. I know he served in the army. That he was a Ranger, I think. But he got out to be with her more. Then he found a job selling drugs to hospitals or something. I only knew he went away and left me the hell alone. But that last time he came back, he was different.”

“How?”

“Normally when he dealt with me, he was cold. Not an emotional head case, but a man who knew what he did was wrong and didn’t care.”

Avery had wanted to ask but wasn’t sure how. So he simply said, “Did he ever sexually assault you?”

Nathan shook his head, and he didn’t appear to be hiding anything. Thank God.

“No, but I have to wonder if he would have if I hadn’t tried to stop him that night.” He looked away from Avery for a moment. Then he met Avery’s gaze once more. “I came back late from a friend’s house. I was supposed to stay the night, but I’d forgotten something at home. I don’t even remember what it was now. I found him in the living room, beating the shit out of my aunt. He’d lost it. Really gone off the deep end. I’d never seen him like that before, and it freaked me the hell out.”

“I’ll bet,” Avery murmured.

Nathan shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down. “Apparently she’d caught him beating me and confronted him with her suspicions. I don’t know if that’s what made him nuts or what, but he was screaming at her and calling her all kinds of names. He was going to kill her. I know it.” He looked at Avery again, and Avery nodded to keep him talking. “So I picked up a big knife lying on his briefcase. A KA-BAR some Marine friend of his had once given him. Like it was calling to me,” he mused, and Avery had the uneasy sensation Nathan had left him. “I picked it up, and I knew where to hit him.”

“Like you read something off it?”

“Kind of.” Nathan didn’t explain any more. “I stabbed his thigh to get his attention. He bled a lot; I remember that. When he let her go and turned, it was like looking at myself. I can’t explain it, but I saw me in that man. He punched me right in the face and kept at it. My aunt jumped on his back and distracted him.

“And then I remembered the knife. After the first punch, I’d dropped it. But when she jumped him, I grabbed it. I’m still not sure how I did it. I could barely see through swollen eyes.” Nathan spoke quickly, the rush of words and the panic behind them pulling at heartstrings Avery didn’t know he had. “My nose was broken, and he’d cracked my jaw. But I stabbed the fucker as deep as I could, right in the heart. He fell with a surprised look on his face, or so Danielle told me.”

Avery had to clear his throat to speak. “No shit?”

“Yeah. I swear he was dead. I mean, I stabbed him in the heart. We took off. No medical attention or anything. Just jumped in her car and vanished off the grid. We stole a car on the road and ended up at my grandmother’s. She hooked us up with cash. Gran was loaded.” His strained smile reflected no joy. “Then we disappeared. When he never came after us, I thought he’d died.”

“Did Danielle tell you that?”

“No.” Nathan frowned. “Come to think of it, we never talked about him again. Like if we didn’t mention him, he’d never existed. And our lives were great.” He blinked hard. “Were being the key word. I can’t believe the fucker was still alive all that time. I mean, wouldn’t my aunt have changed my name if she knew that?”

“Not necessarily. You do know your last name was originally spelled with a C and not a K, right?”

“What?”

Avery shook his head. “Didn’t you read the folder I gave you?”

“I thought it was the same one I had.”

“No. Jack had me look through a few things he dug up, stuff that didn’t jibe. Michelle Kraft never gave birth to you, but a Danielle Craft did after she’d been married to Malcolm Dixon.”

“How could he not have known?”

“From what I read, the guy was active duty and deployed at the time. He was gone for more than a year. Probably why she never told him or you. Danielle stepped out on the guy and was afraid he’d find out and try to kill you. Even she had to know he was unstable after living with him for so long. Think about it. If it was bad when he thought you were his nephew, imagine what he might have done if he’d thought you were his wife’s illegitimate kid.”

“Good point.” Nathan sat next to him. “This shit is giving me a headache. I mean, why, if Malcolm was alive all these years, did he wait so long to come back? Why kill Danielle now? And why come after me if she’s dead?”

“Yeah. And what are the odds he happens to be in possession of a stolen blade belonging to our client, and you’re now on the case?”

“Has to be a setup, right?” Nathan’s gaze met his, puzzlement clear in his even features. “What have you seen, Avery?”

“Besides your uncle in this house holding that bloodied blade? Not much.” He refused to admit he didn’t want to look again. He feared seeing Nathan dead or hurt, and he didn’t want to know.

“When’s the last time you looked?”

Trust Nathan to be persistent. “Let me shower, and I’ll get back to you on that. Besides, we need to talk about how to handle the case. I have an idea or two to get Malcolm back here sooner than later.” He left the room before his partner could nag him again.

Avery didn’t like the taste of fear anytime he looked too closely at the future. Dark times were coming. Though he’d seen himself and Nathan laughing together, he didn’t know if that would occur before or after they dealt with Dixon. And they would deal with Dixon. That, Avery knew to his bones. He just hoped they could both live with the outcome.

* * *

After running five miles through thick flora and the uneven terrain of the jungle outlying his home, Malcolm retreated to the small courtyard in the middle of his ranch. A small, covered pavilion sat at the center of the courtyard, where a photograph perched on a small wooden table. Malcolm approached and stared at the picture. It was a routine steeped in loss, betrayal, and remembrance.

Danielle had been a true beauty in face and form and deed. If he’d ever suspected she might turn on him the way she had, he never would have married her. It hurt to see her staring back at him when he knew she was lost forever. But he needed the pain to remind himself he was still alive.

He sighed and left the pavilion to start his daily exercises. Nearby, in a stand that held his favorite weapons, Sangre watched over him. He executed the familiar lunges, poses, and strikes calculated to reaffirm his muscle memory. Decades of hard training had allowed him to age slowly. Though he’d turned fifty-five just two weeks ago, he had the body of a man much younger.

His life had come full circle, ever since he’d found Sangre. The gladius called to him, returned him to the place of his birth and the scene of a terrible day he wished he could do over. Even now, two decades after her perfidy, Malcolm still missed his wife.

Her surprise upon seeing him hadn’t been faked. The same government agency that had told him she and Nathan were dead had told her the same about him.

He didn’t mind the lie she’d been given so much as he cared about being manipulated. Now that his old handler lay chopped to pieces beside a copse of morro trees, Malcolm felt a step closer to closing the circle of his strange past.

Only twice in his life that he could recall had he ever lost control. In both instances, Danielle—and by extension, Nathan—had been involved.

He finished his exercises and gripped Sangre in his hand. He thrust and parried, dancing with his new favorite weapon as he reveled in the blade’s grace. Moving as so many had before him, he reenacted the killings that made Sangre so powerful.

Danielle had been an easy execution. The blade had soaked up her blood and spirit in one smooth, slick thrust. Her confessions had come too little, too late. He refused to believe the joy he’d seen flash in her eyes. It had been there and gone briefly, like the flash of life that winked out in the shadow of Sangre’s cool cunning.

Secrets upon secrets. He hadn’t been the only one with something to hide. Or someone, in Danielle’s case.

Malcolm still resented Nathan, the greedy child who’d stolen his wife’s interest. The blade fed his bile, and he allowed it. The emotion saturated him, filling all the empty parts of a man once whole. And then he knew.

Nathan wasn’t just his past. Nathan was his future. The possibility of continuation, forever, teased with potential. What if the boy had grown into a man Malcolm could use? From the material he’d gathered in the past few days, Malcolm knew Nathan had inherited his share of talent. The ability to touch an object and know its truth was a power unto itself. Like Malcolm’s ability to touch a weapon and absorb the knowledge of how to best use it, and how others had used it. What if Malcolm could absorb Nathan’s essence the way Sangre did—through death?

Excitement flared at the thought of battling Nathan face-to-face. Where so many other foes fell too easily, the boy wouldn’t fade, not as fast. He’d been the only person ever to get too close to killing him. At the time, Malcolm had considered the incident a freak coincidence, sheer luck. Now he knew better. The boy had power, and he’d tapped into it.

What would it be like to fight someone of that skill? To know that he’d found a worthy opponent, finally? Blood of his blood, a tie connecting father to son?

He grinned and slashed at the air once more, sure Danielle would roll over in her grave if she knew what thoughts filled his thriving mind.

* * *

“You’re kidding, right?”

Avery shrugged. “What’s the problem? We’re not learning anything from the neighbors. The library has jack shit on the guy, and Ian’s only managed to tell us to hurry up and wait while he ferrets more crap on Dixon.”

“So your answer is to put out an ad in the local paper?” Had Avery slipped in the shower and hit his head? “Genius, we don’t want Malcolm to know we’re here. We want to surprise him, remember? That way, when he’s standing over me with a bloody sword, I’m ready to take him out. Not become his next victim. Shit.”

“Easy there, Nancy.”

Nathan hated Avery’s condescension, even as he thrived on their arguments. He was such an idiot, helpless to stop himself from craving the attention.

“What we need to do is take control of the situation,” Avery continued. “I know Malcolm will be here. I know he’ll be carrying Sangre covered in blood, and I see you in the vision. You’re whole, not a scratch on ya, so take it easy.”

“Stop being an ass. This isn’t about me being afraid.” It’s about me worrying about you. I can’t protect you from the monster if I’m dead. “I know what he’s capable of; you don’t. You might think you’re hot shit on the mats, but Malcolm is lethal with a weapon. And with Sangre, he’s more than capable of killing…and killing…and killing…”

“I get that.” Avery regarded him with a narrowed gaze. “You haven’t opened up in here, have you?” Psychically.

Nathan shook his head. “It’s a lot to absorb. Especially since everything in this house has been handled not only by my aunt, uncle, and myself, but by all the other people who’ve traipsed through in the years since. My aunt let a friend of hers run the place as an inn for a while. That’s part of where the place got the reputation for being haunted. The guests claimed they heard strange noises at night.”

Avery remained silent a moment, his blue eyes impossibly deep. “What if they did hear noises? What if your uncle used to come back here after you and your aunt left?”

“Creepy, but it could have happened.” Nathan repressed a shiver. As much as he needed to kill the old man, he didn’t want to face him again. He’d tried to put that part of his life behind him.

“I want you to feel out the house. I’ll be with you. And while you do, I’ll open myself as well, try and catch any floating energy, maybe jump-start my senses to see the future more clearly.” At Nathan’s look, he shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt.”

“I don’t know. We’ve never worked that way together before.” But the notion intrigued him. Having Avery nearby while he opened his psychic senses would ease his worry about safety. While he tapped into his abilities, Nathan lost his awareness of reality. Just as Avery did. “Look, if we do this, you have to stay awake and aware until I pull out. I don’t want us both fuzzy in case Malcolm’s here somewhere, watching.

“Makes sense. So where should we start?”

Nathan sighed. “Might as well start in here.”

They spent the next two hours moving slowly through the house. Nathan ran his senses over everything, his fingers gliding past utensils, pots, pans, dishes, cabinets. Anything and everything not nailed to the floor became his to peruse.

He had no luck until they entered a rarely used room at the corner of the house on the second floor.

“What was in here?” Avery asked. He’d been silent for the better part of their time, his attention focused on Nathan.

Nathan had found his partner’s presence disconcerting at first, until he’d recognized the warm feeling of protection he’d been missing since his missions with the PWP. Though he’d worked on a few cases since their team had left DC, this was the first he worked as lead—with Avery.

“I don’t remember this room.” Nathan turned slowly, seeing the battered dresser and dusty ottoman. The only two pieces of furniture in the room didn’t make the space any more lived-in. Nathan moved to the closet. The minute he put his hand on the knob, he felt a resonance of energy. “Something’s here.”

“Go on. I’ve got your back.” Avery seemed somehow larger behind Nathan, as if his declaration of intent enhanced his power.

Nathan let go of his consciousness and embraced the vision that smothered him…

* * *

“I can’t wait to fill this with babies.” Danielle twirled on her feet and smiled at her husband.

Malcolm grinned back, so lighthearted and carefree. He looked young, his face unlined by time, his green eyes bright. “Yours and mine, sweetheart. We’ll love her and keep her safe from the monsters in the world.”

Danielle’s face fell. “I wish you’d quit, Mal. I miss you when you’re gone.”

“I know, honey.” He moved forward and hugged her. “I worry about you. But this work is too important. I’m helping keep the nation safe. And all the money I earn is going toward our future.” He rubbed the small of her back. “A college fund for our baby, savings for our retirement. All that stuff.”

“But that energy you absorb. It isn’t good for you.”

“It’s not good for anyone. But I’m making the world a better place for us. Think of it like that.”

She ran her hands through his hair. “Who knew you were so responsible?” She kissed him, a mating of mouths and hearts clearly shining in the embrace they shared. “Now how about we start on making our baby? Although I’m not sure about a little girl. How about a boy with your eyes and your abilities? Our little magic man.”

Malcolm chuckled. “Long as he has your temperament, I’m game. Lord knows I’m no joy to be around without you.”

* * *

The vision faded.

“You okay?” Avery’s gruff voice preceded his image slowly coming back into focus.

“Yeah, I think.” He relayed the vision to Avery in its entirety. “I can’t believe it. He really loved her. At least in the beginning.”

“Wonder what changed.”

“Everything, I’d say.” How the hell did you kill someone you loved that much? His uncle had more than a screw loose. Nathan staggered as exhaustion overcame him.

“Whoa.” Avery caught him by the arm and dragged him out the door.

“What the hell?”

“Go take a rest. You’re having a really hard time in this house, aren’t you?”

Nathan shrugged.

“I can tell. So go sleep it off. I’ll watch over the place.”

“I thought you were going to look into the future again.”

Avery nodded. “Soon as you’re up and about, I will. No hurry. What’s coming is coming, and nothing we can do will change that.”

“But we can be prepared.” How would his confrontation with his uncle work out this time? Nathan wasn’t a child any longer. He’d grown strong, powerful, and he knew how to handle danger. This time Malcolm Dixon wouldn’t walk away.

“Right. Prepared. One of my favorite words.” Avery gifted him with a small smile. “Now go lie down before you fall down. I’ll hold the fort, dimples.”

For once, the nickname didn’t annoy him. Avery sounded almost caring. “Yeah, whatever.”

“Exactly. Long as you recognize that I’m in charge, this will go smoothly for all of us. And Dixon won’t know what hit him when he gets here.”

Nathan nodded and entered his bedroom, weary beyond what should have been normal. The grief he’d been working to suppress for days caught up with him, and he turned from Avery and lay down in bed. He pulled the covers over his shoulder and faced the wall. “Shut the door behind you,” he said in a low voice.

Avery didn’t answer. The door shut softly, and Nathan felt himself alone. All alone.

He let the tears fall, aching for his aunt—his mother—for all she’d lost. More than just her life, but a caring, devoted husband. Whatever had happened to change his uncle had changed them all. He remembered her smiling face. The years spent after Malcolm, so much joy in just being with her. She made holidays, his birthday, even his sporting events so much more. Nathan tried but couldn’t stop crying.

God, Mom. I miss you.

Chapter Five

Avery felt terrible. He’d pushed the door open a crack to check on Nathan and had seen his partner shaking under the covers. The small sobs he tried to hide ripped Avery apart. But he left Nathan alone, knowing he wouldn’t want anyone to witness his breakdown.

The guy had been holding it together for days. After he’d flown back from Danielle’s funeral, he’d demanded they set out to recover the stolen blade. Their boss hadn’t complained, but he’d shot Avery a look, one that said to take care of his partner. Hauling Nathan’s ass out of bar after bar hadn’t been fun but necessary. Fucking him? Necessary and fun, but in retrospect, not in Nathan’s best interests.

Then again, maybe something they’d done had shaken Nathan’s reserve, because this was the first time Avery had seen his partner grieve.

Nathan had to get it out. Holding on to that much pain would only make it worse. He needed to be clearheaded and focused when they met up with Dixon. From the information Ian kept filtering through Avery’s e-mail, the news continued to grow worse.

Malcolm Dixon was not only a killer but an unofficial cleanup man for the CIA. Wonderful. As if that weren’t bad enough, according to Agency files, the shit the man could do with a weapon would make anyone nervous, Avery included. Malcolm’s skill seemed to be a lot like Nathan’s, except Malcolm could not only see impressions off weapons but also use the skills of those who had once wielded them. Guns, knives, swords—Malcolm mastered them all.

Avery still wondered exactly how Nathan had overpowered his uncle all those years ago. He’d had to have been all of thirteen, up against a mature man who’d been trained to kill. He had a feeling Nathan hadn’t told him the whole truth about the incident.

He sighed and moved back into the kitchen, needing something to do. After a few moments spent gathering tools, he began sanding the kitchen cabinets in need of a new stain. While he worked, he tried to think how he might have handled the situation in Nathan’s place.

So say his aunt died, and he found out she was really his mother. He had no other siblings, no family, just her. According to Jack, Nathan and his aunt were really tight. Just great. Avery would be missing the hell out of his aunt, angry she’d lied to him, and then thrust back into the nightmare of his past. He’d have to work with a partner he didn’t really know or even like, truth to tell, but one who made his cock hard nonetheless. At the mercy of his hormones, his grief, and a danger coming closer day by day.

Was it any wonder Nathan had wanted to drink his worries away? Hell, Avery couldn’t blame him. Nathan hurt, and he reached out, wanting to feel better. Sure, sex was an easy cure. But like the booze, it was also a crutch. Avery swore at himself as he sanded chipped paint off the cabinets. He shouldn’t have given in to desire and been with Nathan yesterday.

So what that he couldn’t remember any of his past lovers after that brief interlude? And sure, Nathan was sexier than hell. The man didn’t know what he was doing. Despite the attraction between them, Nathan had never acted on it before. Shit, just days ago he’d been trying to fuck anything that moved. Strangers would do. Was Avery really any different from those available partners?

Why did it fucking piss him off to think he was just like all the rest of the men in Nathan’s life—disposable? Avery felt as if he’d lost something in their sexual exploration. Coming twice, kissing the man, feeling that taut flesh against his… He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Him.

With a disgusted curse, he threw down the sanding block and made his way back up the stairs toward Nathan’s room. A peek inside showed his partner sound asleep. Thank God. Avery walked next door and decided to make better use of his time than fixing up a tired house. Instead he tried to piece together the puzzle that was Malcolm Dixon. What made the man tick? Why had he turned from loving his wife to almost killing her and her nephew? Why abuse a small boy the way he had? Had the government been responsible for his change? Or had he always been bad to the bone? What would he be like now?

Hours later after pouring through every nugget Ian had sent him, Avery came back to the same clue that puzzled the hell out of him. Why had Danielle sent her son to live with her sister? Who had she slept with while Malcolm worked abroad? He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he had a feeling the answers to everything lay with Danielle Dixon. And only one person could help him solve the questions that plagued him.

The poor bastard getting some much-needed rest next door.

* * *

Nathan woke feeling deeply rested. A glance out the window showed night had fallen. Hell, he must have slept the day away. He rose, took care of his needs, and dressed. After a hurried race through the cold hallway and down the stairs, he entered into a cozy living room. The gas fire burned. The lights had been turned low, and the smell of Chinese food made his mouth water. Then he noticed Avery sitting in an oversize chair reading a book and had to check himself for drool. Good God, the man did wonders for jeans and sweaters.

Avery glanced up and put the book aside. “Finally awake, I see. Feeling better?”

“Yeah, I am, actually.” Nathan rubbed his stomach, famished. “What’s to eat?”

“Take your pick. Noodles, rice, chicken, and shrimp. It’s in the kitchen.”

Nathan left Avery, loaded up a plate, and returned to the living room. Avery watched him with an intent look that discomfited him. “What?”

“Just wondering if you being here is the right thing.”

Nathan groaned. “Not this again. You already saw me here. What the hell, man?”

“In a vision. But you said it yourself. I don’t know when I saw you. Might be a year from now that you confront Dixon.” In a low voice, Avery added, “You need time to get through all this.”

“You sound like you care.”

“Don’t be an ass. Sure I care.” At Nathan’s raised brow, Avery added, “I don’t want to get my head shot off while you’re moping over your loss and thinking up ways to kill your uncle.”

“That’s really sweet of you, Avery.”

Avery grinned, and Nathan’s heart raced. “That’s me. Mr. Caring. No, seriously. I was thinking about it a lot today. You lost your mother. It’s a big deal, man. Take the time you need to get through this. We should go back to Bend. We’ll figure out another way to get Dixon to show himself.”

“What about the job? We’re supposed to get that blade back for our client.”

Avery shrugged. “It’s been missing for a year at least. What’s another few months? Hell. If he wants it so bad, Jack can put someone else on the case. Let Aidan take it. He’s been a real pain in the ass lately, wanting to get out and do some field work.”

Nathan chuckled. “You have to admit, working in the gym isn’t nearly as exciting as undercover ops.”

“Oh yeah. House-sitting in Bloomville is a huge thrill.”

Nathan’s held his fork over his plate as he studied his partner.

Avery frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You really mean it? You’d drop this mission and go back? For me?”

“So what?” Avery quickly amended, “Not just for you. It’s a safety issue is all. Better for both of us if we deal with Dixon when we’re more focused.”

Nathan slowly put his fork down. “I know I’m fucked up. But what’s your problem?” He had a feeling he knew. His cock filled out, and his nipples grew hard when he thought about Avery’s issues.

Avery glared at him. “You’re my problem.”

“I knew it.” He grinned, and Avery’s expression grew even darker.

“You don’t follow orders on a good day. But now you’re sad and hurting, and it’s not good that you’re here.”

“Oh?”

“Fuck it. We need to pack up and head home.”

Nathan rose from his seat and stood over Avery, still slouched in his chair. “I think you’re worried about me.”

“You’re my partner. Of course I’m worried about you.”

“It’s more than that, isn’t it?” Nathan ran a hand over Avery’s cheek, attuned to the bigger man’s expanding pupils, the breath he sucked in, and the body that looked tense, poised to spring.

“Cut it out.” That husky voice turned him on like clockwork.

“I want to fuck you.”

Avery shook his head and grabbed Nathan’s hand when Nathan wouldn’t move it away. “You want to fuck to forget. Just a few days ago, you were going to do that dickhead in the bar. You think you want me, but you really want comfort.” Avery swallowed hard. “I can’t give you that.”

“What can you give me?” Nathan knew Avery was wrong, but he couldn’t resist the hint of unease in his partner’s eyes. Avery always appeared so sure of himself, that to see him the slightest bit unsure was mesmerizing.

“A good, hard fuck. I’d ram it deep in that ass, Nate.”

“So what’s—”

“But the problem is, I don’t know you.”

Nathan frowned. “Sure you do.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t know who you’ve been with. I want to fuck you bare, but I won’t chance it. Hell, even going down on you is a risk.”

Nathan’s desire pulsed with anger. “I might like to play the field, but I don’t fuck with my safety.”

“Oh?”

Nathan recalled the other night when he was drunk off his ass and flushed. “Cut me some slack, dickhead. My mother just died. So I was out of it a few nights ago.”

Avery’s expression softened, and Nathan wondered if he was aware of it. “I know, man. You’ve been through a lot of shit in the last few weeks. But Nathan, that’s just one more reason we should wait.”

“I’m done waiting.” Nathan would be damned if he’d let anyone or anything get in his way. Time was just too short. “I could be dead tomorrow. I want you now. Tonight. You don’t know me? I don’t know you. What’s so hard about wearing condoms?”

Avery’s jaw clenched tight. Oh yeah, he had a hard-on going strong in those jeans.

“Come on. You know you want me. If it makes you feel better, I always wear a condom. Always. And I don’t blow just anyone.” He wanted to suck Avery again. “I’d be worried about you, except you’re the poster boy for safe sex. Hell, for safe everything.” He snorted. “Have you ever taken a chance in your well-ordered life?”

Avery exploded out of the chair and knocked Nathan back a step. Before Nathan could complain, Avery powered him over his shoulder and took the steps two at a time to his room.

“Holy shit. You’re strong as a bull,” he rasped as he bounced over Avery’s shoulder.

“You just won’t quit. Fine. We’re gonna fuck. All night long. And you’ll do what you’re told.”

“A closet dom. Figures.” Nathan couldn’t for the life of him think about anything but obeying Avery to the letter. He felt faint, feverish with desire. His deepest fantasies were about to come true. Submission to a stronger man. But not to just any man. To Avery Holton, the one person he’d never been able to get out of his mind.

And now, if he was lucky, out of his body.

Avery could barely see straight. He hadn’t meant to commit to this, but damn if Nathan would stop picking at his control. He had tried to do the right thing, tried to give the man time and space. But Nathan, being Nathan, had to have things his own way.

“You’re a brat,” Avery snapped and tossed him down on his bed. Avery’s room. Avery’s rules. “Always what you want when you want it.”

Nathan propped himself up on his elbows. His hair slid over his forehead, hiding one eye, and he’d never looked sexier. Avery could see the hard cock pressed against the back of Nathan’s fly. He knew how Nathan’s chest would flex, how his nipples would stand on end, taut and rosy with arousal.

“Take off your clothes.” He stood with his arms crossed, glaring down at the playboy. “Tonight you do what I tell you to, or you’ll get punished. No safe words, no stopping this. We do it my way. If you can’t take that, get the hell off my bed and out of this room. Now.”

Nathan’s answer was to shrug off his sweatshirt and start on the button of his jeans.

Avery shifted his stance, ready to blow with each revealed bit of skin.

“You look hard, buddy. Pretty needy.” Nathan chuckled as he slid out of his jeans and underwear. Then he removed his socks and lay back, completely naked. “What now, Master?”

“Smart-ass.” If only the bastard would mean it, Avery would insist he use the term. “Now you lay there and let me look at you.”

He took his time, lingering on the washboard abs, the crunch of muscle in those rock-hard biceps. “You have long legs. Muscular. I like those thick thighs. I wonder what they’ll feel like wrapped around me while I fuck that hole of yours.”

Nathan’s cock pearled at the tip, the creamy bead of dew a testament to his desire.

“Nice sex talk. You’re good at this.”

“Don’t sound so surprised.” Avery took his sweater off, not feeling a bit of the cold. He couldn’t, when he was on fire to fuck Nathan. “You’re the one with all the fantasies of me being a prude. I like sex. A lot. And I haven’t been getting enough lately.”

“So that’s what this is? Desperation?” Nathan snorted.

“No. You make too many assumptions, dimples. I like to fuck, and I do a lot you’ve probably never dreamed of.” He liked the way Nathan’s eyes widened. “I always wear a rubber. And I’m clean.”

“Yeah, well, so am I.”

“Reason I’m telling you this is because I don’t want you to be concerned when I come in your mouth again. Or in that ass without a condom.”

Nathan’s breathing increased, and his cock jumped. “You just said you don’t know me. That I could be some disease-ridden fag.”

“You need to tone back on the drama.” Avery unbuttoned the top tab of his jeans, pleased to see Nathan’s gaze glued to his fingers. “One, I know you’re clean, unless you fucked someone between the fifteenth of December and now that I’ve missed.”

Nathan frowned. “That was the date of my physical. That info is confidential.”

“Yeah, right. Two, I don’t like the constant references that I’m a homophobe. I’m bisexual, Nathan. And I like myself; therefore, I don’t hate gays.”

“So women too, huh?” Nathan licked his lips as Avery eased the buttons open on his jeans.

His dick felt like it was about to explode. “Sure. A warm, wet pussy can be nice. And sucking on a pair of tits is hot. Usually.” He lowered his jeans and underwear and sighed at the relief in his balls. “But there’s something about a hot, tight ass lately that’s been exciting me. And a nice broad chest. You’re getting more definition.” Avery didn’t remove his clothes, but he did step closer to the bed.

“Take ’em off,” Nathan rasped. “You want to fuck me? So do it.” He spread his legs wide and held up his dick, showing Avery his plump balls.

“See, that’s the problem. You giving orders.” Avery shook his head. “Come over here and suck me off. I want you on your hands and knees. No touching, except with your mouth.”

“You really are a prick, aren’t you?” Nathan rolled onto his hands and knees and crawled to Avery.

“I am. And that’s why you’re so fucking hard for it. You like me mean.”

Nathan groaned. “And so arrogant. I must be a masochist.”

“We’ll see,” Avery murmured, intending to know all about Nathan before the night was through. God, he’d been wanting this forever. The timing absolutely sucked, but he planned to teach Nathan the art of patience. Since his partner couldn’t wait until they got home, when Avery had wanted to get together, he’d give him something to remember for a long time to come.

“Now,” Avery said and held his cock out. “Open that mouth, dimples. Let’s see you suck some cock.”

Nathan kissed the head of his cock and winked up at him while he did it.

“I said suck it.” Avery gripped Nathan’s head and shoved between those lips. He gagged the pretty boy on his dick and groaned. “That’s it. Let it hit the back of your throat. Bad boys don’t get to play. They follow orders.”

Nathan adjusted quickly and took every push and thrust. Avery didn’t want to come so quickly, but Nathan had him so hard. His partner hadn’t yet disobeyed except to tease with a kiss, but the chance that he might made everything more exciting.

“Good little cocksucker, aren’t you? That’s it. Love my dick. Suck it deep, oh yeah.” He gripped Nathan’s head and fucked his mouth hard. “Wait till I’m inside that ass. I’ll grind into you. My fat cock in your hole.” Avery jerked when Nathan cupped his balls. Then the fucker squeezed with just enough pressure to upend Avery’s entire world. “Fuck.” He jetted down Nathan’s throat, the release overwhelming, while Nathan continued to massage his sac and suck him dry.

Avery shoved Nathan’s hand away and pulled out. He tucked himself back in his clothes and fastened them. “You don’t listen, do you?”

Nathan grinned and licked his lips. “Sweet. Even for an asshole.”

Avery knocked Nathan to the bed and flipped him onto his belly. “Don’t move.” He hurried to the closet and found his bag. At the bottom he carried flex-cuffs, in the event they found trouble. He returned to the bed, pleased to see Nathan had for once obeyed him, and wrapped the cuffs around Nathan’s wrists before he could move away.

He cataloged every scar and mark on his partner’s back and ass, shocked at the damage Malcolm had done. The evidence made Avery that much more determined to make Malcolm pay and to give Nathan the pleasure he deserved.

“What the hell?” Nathan pulled but didn’t try to turn over to his back.

“Now spread your legs wide.” Avery stripped while Nathan widened his legs. Then he leaned down and licked Nathan’s hole. The flesh puckered, and Nathan groaned. His balls were hard, his cock grinding into the bed with every tease of Avery’s tongue.

“That’s it.” Avery opened his ass cheeks wide and dipped his tongue farther inside. Fuck, but Nathan was hot. So damn sexy. Everything about him, from his scent to his taste to his feel, was in tune with what Avery wanted. He continued to eat the playboy, loving the drawn-out groans and pleas for more.

“Come on, Avery. Fuck me. God, let me come.”

Avery leaned up from him, erect once more. He slapped Nathan’s ass several times, hard enough to startle a cry from the man. “No. You need discipline, badly. Hmm. Nice red marks on that fine ass of yours. How’s that dick?” He reached under Nathan to grip his cock. He was rock hard and hot. Moisture slid over the tip of his shaft, and Avery used it to lube Nathan’s dick. He jerked him off and felt Nathan near his end. Then he pulled his hand away.

“Fucker. You’re an asshole, you know that?” Nathan swore as he ground into the bed.

“Nope. Not yet. Turn over.”

Nathan called him a few more choice names before turning onto his back, his wrists held fast by the flex-cuffs. He looked up at Avery with bright green eyes, the color blinding, so filled with lust. “It hurts, dammit. Suck me.”

“Oh, I will. When I’m ready.” Avery left Nathan lying there and grabbed a tube of lubricant from his bag. He slathered the stuff over his cock, ready to come all over again. Nathan was just that damn beautiful. And like that, the lust rose hand in hand with the affection he felt for his partner. His lover.

“God, you’re so big.” Nathan didn’t take his gaze from Avery’s groin. “It’ll hurt going inside me.” He bit his lip. “Please.”

Avery gave him a mean grin and nudged Nathan’s legs apart. He propped Nathan’s hips up and scooted closer on his knees. He angled his cockhead down at Nathan’s hole and pushed the littlest bit inside before stopping.

“Oh fuck. Do it. Do it now.” Nathan thrashed on the bed, trying to urge Avery deeper. But Avery put his hands firmly on Nathan’s hips to hold him still.

“Not yet. Patience, baby. Wait for it.” Avery rubbed Nathan’s dick with his fingers, sliding them up and down the hot flesh. The precum beading at Nathan’s slit wet his belly, and Nathan shuddered with every touch.

“You’re such a bastard.” Nathan bit out the truth and tried again to seat Avery deeper. “Christ, I need to come. I’m gonna come so hard.”

Avery pulled back. “Wait for it.”

“Fuck you. Dammit. Quit playing.”

“Tsk, tsk. Such a brat.” Avery leaned down and bit Nathan’s nipple. Then he sucked the bud, gratified by Nathan’s moans and bucking body. “You ready to be good, baby? Ready for my thick cock now?”

Nathan nodded. “Oh yeah. Put it in me. Please.”

Avery continued to play with Nathan’s nipples and repositioned himself against Nathan’s anus. Then he pushed slowly, until just the head of himself was inside. The heat of Nathan’s ass tempted him to ram hard, to pound away until he came. But Avery forced himself to get Nathan so in lust he couldn’t function past the need to come.

He returned his mouth to Nathan’s, wanting another kiss. Their fused lips encouraged him to go deeper. The wetness on his belly told him Nathan clearly neared his end, so Avery ground over Nathan’s cock, pressing them chest to chest and groin to groin as he sank the last inches inside his lover’s body.

He groaned into Nathan’s mouth. “So good. So goddamn good.”

Nathan groaned back, but Avery didn’t hear any of what he said. Instead he leaned up and watched as he slowly thrust in and out of his lover.

“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?”

“Huh?”

“You asked about my childhood. But you haven’t said much about yours. After you and your mom took care of Malcolm, what did you do?”

Nathan actually liked thinking of his aunt as his mother now. Though he hadn’t forgiven the lies, after careful consideration, he knew she would have had a good reason for making them. Danielle Dixon had loved Nathan fully. She’d let him know that every day of their lives spent together and apart. He wouldn’t let the recent past tarnish his memories of her.

“You okay?” Avery asked softly. “We, uh, don’t have to talk about any of this shit. I was just kidding with you.”

“No, no.” Nathan found he had to wipe tears from his eyes. Odd how his emotions could still swamp him in an instant. Yet he found the memories of his mother to be fond ones, not sad. “My mom—Michelle—died when I was a kid. Some drunk ran her down. Really shook me up, but my good old Aunt Danielle saved the day. We didn’t see her much before then. I’d had a great childhood, actually. Lots of friends, and even though I had the psychometry thing going on back then, my mom taught me to shield myself.” He sighed. “I mean, my Aunt Michelle. When I went to live with Danielle, my gifts got stronger. She helped me focus my abilities and tune out the rest. Otherwise I’d never be able to touch anything without going stark-raving insane.”

Avery nodded. “I wondered about that. You touch stuff all the time but don’t always get info from it.” Avery paused. “Or at least you don’t talk about getting info from it.”

“I don’t. But when I concentrate, I know a lot. I see the events around an object if emotion is tied to it. And if I really focus, I feel what the wearer or handler feels. But that’s a lot harder to pick up.”

“No shit.”

Avery’s vocabulary needed expanding. Nathan grinned. “No shit. What about you?”

“Me? I see futures. I see them on command now, since taking the drugs the PWP gave us. But I can’t see specific futures. It helps if I’m working with someone and try to see what’s in store for them. Like when I saw that painting Noah retrieved. I knew when it would be in Arizona. But with you, I saw you and Malcolm together. He’s holding a bloody blade, Sangre. But I don’t know when.” Avery frowned. “I can’t see a time or anything more. Just that there’s snow outside.” He turned to Nathan. “I don’t want you back there in Bloomville without me. Don’t bitch about more orders, just… Nathan, promise me you won’t go back alone. It gives me a bad feeling.”

Since Avery for once seemed to be asking instead of demanding, Nathan nodded. “Okay, okay. I promise.”

They drove in silence for a while before Nathan asked about the subject they’d both been avoiding. “So the sex…”

Avery tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “Yeah?”

“We going to do that again or what?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe, hmm? Is there a reason we haven’t done it since? It’s been a few days. Are you a once-a-week kind of guy?” Which would be a real shame.

Avery scowled. “I left you alone on purpose. You needed some time to think about what happened. Away from the mess in Bloomville, all those reminders of that nightmare in your life. I thought it would be best if you had some space. Why? You need to fuck right now?”

“You are such a dick.” He didn’t know why that should amaze him now. He knew the guy. “While I appreciate you ‘giving me space,’ I’m a big boy. I don’t need you making decisions for me.”

“So you want to fuck right now?” Avery repeated. While driving, he unbuckled his seat belt and unbuttoned and shoved down his pants. He pushed his seat back a bit and nodded down at himself. “Cause I’m more than ready to go. How about you take care of this, since I don’t need to be sensitive anymore?”

The man continued to be full of surprises. “Fuck, you’re hard, huh?”

“Yeah, Captain Obvious. Just sitting around you gets me hard. Happy now? So blow me.”

Nathan wanted Avery too much to take offense to the order. “We need to have a talk on how to ask for what you want.” He unbuckled his own belt and leaned over. He felt the SUV pull to the side of the road, knew the vehicle had stopped, but he didn’t care.

He licked and sucked on Avery’s dick with a hunger for the man. He wanted Avery’s moans, his desperation. When he felt Avery’s fingers caressing his scalp and hair, he took more of him into his mouth.

Avery shifted his hips and surged. “Shit, Nathan. That’s so fuckin’ good. Your mouth is heaven, baby.”

When Avery called him baby, everything inside Nathan softened. Except for his dick, which was steel hard and aching. He unbuttoned his pants and would have played with himself, but Avery told him not to.

“Uh-uh. You swallow me up, and I’ll take good care of you. I promise.” He gripped Nathan’s hair and panted as Nathan licked the underside of his shaft, then nuzzled his balls. Nathan returned his mouth to Avery’s dick, kissing Avery’s tip before he sucked the whole thing down.

Avery groaned, and a warm splash of cum hit the back of Nathan’s throat. “Oh yeah, I’m coming. Suck it down. Christ.”

Nathan swallowed, licked him clean, and sat up, hard and aching himself. But the look on Avery’s face… His lover had his head thrown back against the seat, his lips parted on a moan, his cheeks flushed. Avery’s cock remained half hard and wet until he tucked himself back into his pants.

He looked up at Nathan with warm blue eyes so dark they looked black. “You have, without a doubt, the most gifted mouth I’ve ever kissed.”

“Should I say thanks?”

Avery smiled. “I should say thanks. Now spread your legs.”

Nathan tensed. Though they’d played, Avery had yet to go down on him. What would his lips feel like wrapped around Nathan’s flesh?

Avery reached into Nathan’s pants and took him out, then gripped Nathan’s shaft and primed him, sliding up and down with smooth, hard movements. “You’re a big man. I like that. I like you strong, when you fight me.” Avery leaned closer and kissed Nathan’s neck, then his ear. “I like coming hard in that ass, winning the battle when I fill you up. Like I filled up that sweet mouth.”

Fuck. Avery had sex talk down to a science. Nathan felt ready to come. Avery pinched his nipple through his shirt, and a spurt of fluid trickled from his slit.

“Yeah. You’re thick. Gonna be sweet to taste all that cream. How about it? Want me to suck your cock, baby?”

“Avery. Please.” Reduced to one-word sentences, Nathan couldn’t see straight, let alone communicate.

Avery chuckled and pinched his other nipple while rubbing him faster. Then he moved back, repositioned himself, and bent down. His hot breath scorched Nathan’s cock, and Nathan couldn’t take his gaze from the dark head buried in his crotch. Cars whizzed by on the freeway beside them, but Nathan had focus for nothing and no one but Avery.

And then Avery’s mouth was on him, and Nathan cried out as his orgasm hit him with brute force. He emptied between Avery’s lips while his lover swallowed him down.

It took him a few moments to release Avery’s hair. Avery opened his mouth and let his dick go, then set Nathan back inside his trousers and buttoned his jeans. “Better?”

“Yeah,” he whispered, totally drained.

Avery buckled him up, then buckled himself in as well. He took a healthy swig of coffee and started the SUV. “Another few hours until we hit the bookstore Jack wants us to check into. Get some rest, princess. You need it.”

“Um” was all Nathan managed before he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Avery glanced at Nathan, satisfied to see him sleeping like a log. The poor guy hadn’t been getting enough rest. Avery knew the loss of his mother would never truly fade, but the hurt was still so fresh. He’d hoped giving Nathan time to think about what they’d done together might convince him it had been a mistake. Because God knew, Avery had lost his ability to deny the man. Fucking Nathan made every other relationship he’d ever had fade away. He’d jacked off the past two days, so fucking hot for his partner yet not wanting to pressure him into sex.

So for Nathan to want it back, hell, yeah. So much for all that control and discipline he liked to think he had. Yet he wasn’t as upset as he should have been. Avery grinned to himself, pleased by this new dynamic. He and Nathan now felt like a team. Though one day they’d have to return to Bloomville, now was not the time, and he knew it. Convincing Jack hadn’t been nearly as hard as he’d thought it might be. Apparently Avery wasn’t the only one worried about his partner. Jack hadn’t liked the thought of Nathan going out so soon after his mother’s death. Only Avery’s vision had convinced him to send the pair.

But last night Avery had foreseen something else. A stolen book belonging to Jack’s client. Jack wanted him to check out the bookstore in which he’d seen it and try to locate another missing painting as well. Avery just hoped the whole cursed aspect of the cases wasn’t a factor. Odd how the psychic shit no longer bothered him but the woo-woo objects freaked him out. Jack would have explained away the strangeness of the artifacts they went after as a manifestation of energy, but Avery knew better.

Espada de Sangre was more than a weapon with an overabundance of energy. The damn thing was alive, and it had a thirst for blood. He didn’t want it anywhere near Nathan, so he had to figure out how to be there when Dixon eventually cornered his partner. He still considered it both a good and bad thing that in his vision, he hadn’t seen himself. Was that because he was close to Nathan, ready to spring to his defense? Or was he nowhere near, even dead? Only time would tell.

Several hours later, he stopped in Fort Collins, Colorado. The bookstore looked familiar. Eve’s Tomes, in the middle of the old part of town.

Nathan stirred. “Yo, Avery?”

“We’re here. Come on. I have to see something.”

“What?” Nathan got out of the car and stretched, and Avery’s pulse raced.

“Wake up. I might need you to charm some answers for us. We’re here about the book.”

“Oh, right. That wacky book about weird rituals and sex sacrifices. Sounds fascinating.” He yawned.

“According to Jack, the book’s mostly about genealogy with the odd family ritual running through it, but you apparently heard something else. Why am I not surprised you focused on the sex parts? Come on, princess.”

Nathan glared at him, then cleared his expression to put on his charming face, and they entered the store. A nice, middle-aged woman named Gail described her buyer. Nothing threatening about the soft-spoken woman who’d purchased the book.

“Said she had a Stallbridge in her family tree and was doing a project on her line.” Gail smiled. “Imagine you being family as well.”

Nathan grinned, and the woman softened some more. “Did she leave a number? I just bet she’s a long-lost cousin. That would be so great to find more family, you know?”

As Nathan sweet-talked Gail into giving him information she shouldn’t have parted with, Avery wondered about Nathan’s comments about family. Did Nathan want more family? He must have felt really alone, now that his mother had died. With an uncle like Malcolm Dixon to his claim, he couldn’t be looking for any love there.

Gail handed over the number and a book about the United States Marine Corps Nathan had picked up.

“Here you go.” Nathan gave her a ten, smiled, and walked out with Avery.

“Come on. We’ll hunker down in a hotel room and do some research on that credit card slip. I can’t believe that woman gave you her buyer’s name.”

“What can I say? Some people like me.”

“I like you well enough.”

“When my lips are wrapped around your cock, sure. But how about now?” Nathan asked as they entered the vehicle and closed the doors.

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you like me, Avery?”

“I did before you started talking.”

Nathan turned in the seat and stared at him. “I’m serious.”

The intent look in his deep green eyes struck Avery right in the heart. Oh hell. He had a bad feeling he was falling for the guy. “I like you. What the hell? Do you want it in blood?”

Nathan smiled. “Nah. Just wanted to see the pain on your face while you admitted the truth. I’ll treasure your sweet words forever.”

Avery started the SUV and punched in the coordinates for a Marriott on his GPS. “You’re such a pain in my ass.”

“Not yet, but I’m hoping to get there soon.”

Avery inwardly started at the words. “Hate to break it to you, pretty boy, but I top. I don’t bottom.”

“Ever?”

“Nope.”

Nathan gaped. “You never even tried it?”

“Not once.”

“But you talked about ass play.”

“Sure.” Avery huffed. “Shoving my dick in your ass is heaven. Why the hell would I want anything shoved in mine? Some rimming, maybe a finger. That’s it.”

“Oh, honey, do we have some work to do with you.” Nathan’s grin annoyed him all over again.

“Don’t call me honey.”

“You call me baby.”

Avery shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the conversation, which wasn’t like him. “That’s different.”

Nathan didn’t respond. When Avery looked at him, Nathan was smiling.

“What?” he snapped.

“Nothing.” Nathan turned on the radio, and they listened to classic rock until they pulled into the hotel parking lot.

After they’d checked in, Avery spent his time talking to Ian and Jack and filling them in on the book and the woman who’d bought it. Nathan had gone out to get them something for dinner. All day driving with only a cheap sandwich to eat hadn’t done much to soothe Avery’s appetites. Any of them.

“Any problems?” Jack asked.

“No.” Not unless lusting after his partner could be considered a problem.

“Good. We got word that Dixon killed a half-dozen drug runners in Mexico a week ago. He’s alive and well. But not gunning for Nathan yet, we don’t think. You still haven’t seen anything that can help?”

“No. Just a few vibes about this missing book and a painting Kitty’s going after in a few months.”

“Kitty?” Jack sounded surprised, as well he should. Their resident empath had yet to leave the gym on a real-world op. Or case, as Jack liked to call them to civilianize their new life. Of all the ex-PWP agents, Avery thought Kitty fit in the best at the gym. She seemed to really like helping people get in shape, and not just as a front for the real work they’d started doing. Kitty held the entire team together, and everyone knew it.

Avery apologized. “Sorry, but she’s going to be at an auction for this painting. I’ll look more when I get home. It was just a flash, but enough to tell me she’s needed on it.”

“Hell.” Jack sighed. “Whatever. Just keep an eye on Nathan. I don’t want to have to bail him out of jail again, especially with Dixon out there.” Jack paused. “Dixon’s a bad guy to have as an enemy. Watch your backs. I mean it.”

Jack disconnected, and Avery stood there, frustrated and worried. He didn’t like fear. He’d fought through it enough during his time in Afghanistan, South America, and the other hot spots in the world where danger was at a premium. But this was different. He could handle hazards of the job as they pertained to him. The thought of Nathan coming to harm freaked him the hell out.

The snarky comments, the physical sessions on the mats, the sneers from his partner when Avery didn’t react to Nathan’s constant jibes… Those things he looked forward to day after day. Being moved to the night shift had at first been a curse, or so he’d thought. But the time spent with Nathan had stirred his passion for not only the job, but for the man himself.

He lay down on the bed and tried not to think about anything, but the more he tried not to think about Nathan, the more Nathan crept into his mind. Avery closed his eyes, and the vision pulsed through him in a breaking wave…

* * *

Nathan glared at him. “I can do this. Quit trying to protect me.”

“Sorry for caring whether you live or die.”

“She was my mother.”

“Yeah, well, Daddy Dearest is trying to kill you, in case you missed that.”

“Stop calling him that!”

“Face it. Malcolm is your father, and yeah, he’s a psycho. Doesn’t mean you are.”

The agony on Nathan’s face tore at him.

Avery hugged and kissed him. The pleasure he felt in the embrace only enhanced the love in his heart. “Quit torturing yourself. You and he are nothing alike.”

“Yes, we are.” Nathan stepped back and reached for the weapon on the table. “See this gun?” He put his hands over the pistol grip of Avery’s Beretta, and a psychic miasma settled over them…

* * *

Avery watched the ceiling come back into focus and knew he’d struck the mother lode. Holy fuck. Malcolm Dixon was Nathan’s father? Yet Danielle had given her baby to her sister rather than have Malcolm raise him. And Malcolm either never knew, or he’d found out and blamed Nathan for his existence—hence the abuse.

The dynamics in Nathan’s family gave him a headache. He didn’t know what to do. Should he tell Nathan what he’d seen? Or should he investigate? Too bad he could only see the future.

He blinked as an answer came to him. Noah. His buddy Noah First was a retrocog. He could see the past. Maybe with the right tools, Noah could see into Nathan’s past. They hadn’t tried before because none of them had figured Nathan’s history to be of more importance in this case than that he and the new owner of the blade were related. But they hadn’t counted on Malcolm being a crazy psychic with a family vendetta.

Avery made a few calls and settled back down, content he’d done what he could. He reviewed his vision, trying to see what else he might have missed, when something dawned on him. He’d hugged Nathan, feeling love.

He stared unseeingly at the blank television, bemused that the emotions he’d been feeling for Nathan were definitely moving in the direction he’d feared. Fuck it all, he was falling in love with Nathan Kraft, troublemaker, playboy, and all-around rule breaker. Avery’s opposite in so many ways.

What the hell should he do about that? More to the point, what could he do? The future was the future. So why should he bother running away from the hurt he could all but feel coming after him?

Chapter Seven

Malcolm sensed himself getting closer to his destiny. The blade allowed him to be what he was meant to be, a human weapon. The incredible agony of so many deaths pushed and prodded his psyche to accept and use the knowledge. So many times in the past, he’d kept a wall up between his abilities and violent death, that negative energy swirling beneath the passing of souls. But when he’d allowed it to enfold him, he’d finally experienced a sense of freedom.

In the harsh ability that made him faster and stronger than his opponents, he’d found solace when his wife had abandoned him. And again, years later, when his wife’s deceit came full circle. The little bastard responsible for so much of his pain remained alive, while Malcolm’s heart had been ravaged by lies and bitterness and distractions. Not feeling anything had been both a blessing and a curse.

But after finding Danielle still alive, he’d learned he could no longer afford to feel numb. Now he forced himself to reach for the familiar rage that pulsed whenever he considered that Nathan still lived.

Malcolm kept his hand on the blade, which rested on the seat next to him. He passed several cars moving way too slow along I-97 and crept into the town in the heart of the mountains. Bend, Oregon had a sedate charm, if one could overlook so many people clustered into a tiny space. He preferred the vast jungle around his home in Mexico. Even one neighbor there was too much. But here?

The snow provided no buffer. The idiots outside swarmed like locusts, laughing and playing in the cold white stuff everywhere. Not surprisingly, the sight of so much snow reminded him of Bloomville, the one place in his life he’d been content…until Nathan had arrived.

The parasite hadn’t died back then. That he’d managed to get under Malcolm’s shields should have warned him not to treat Nathan as an insignificant threat, but in his anger, he’d been stupid. And he’d paid the price.

He absently rubbed his chest, over the scar that remained.

This time Malcolm had the advantage. He had Sangre. He’d have to plan this carefully, though. He didn’t want to kill Nathan outright. No, he needed the little shit to suffer, the way Malcolm had suffered. He would take what Nathan loved most and destroy it piece by piece, until nothing remained of it but Nathan’s tattered longing.

Then he’d kill Nathan without remorse. He’d enjoy every bit of it, and he wouldn’t stop there. He’d never stop, not with Sangre in his hands.

* * *

Nathan didn’t want to wake Avery, but they needed to eat.

“Yo, princess,” he mocked as he poked Avery in his solid chest. Hell, the guy was built like a brick, and that strength turned Nathan on like nothing could. Though he’d spent time with men of all kinds of builds, he found he liked Avery’s best. Not worrying about breaking his lover was downright seductive. “Avery? Wake up.”

Avery groaned and smacked Nathan’s hand away. He blinked and slowly sat up, his blue eyes so beautiful Nathan wanted to sigh. But he’d be damned if he’d give Avery the notion he held sway over their relationship. Even though he did, Nathan would never admit it to the control freak.

“Where have you been?” Avery asked. He stretched, and his sweater pulled up to reveal that sexy stomach Nathan wanted to kiss all over.

Nathan cleared his throat. “Looking for a decent Chinese place. Enjoy your noodles and beer.”

“We just had Chinese,” Avery muttered. He disappeared into the bathroom and returned looking refreshed if still grumpy.

Nathan gestured to the food and plates he’d spread on the table. “You’re welcome.”

Avery grunted and dug into his food like a starving man. He finished a beer as if it were water and gestured for another.

Nathan handed him one and grabbed a drink for himself. Though hungry, he ate with less gusto than Avery. Good Lord, the man could put away food. “You know, I’ve been thinking.”

“God save us.”

“We haven’t been hitting the gym too hard. But we’re doing okay. What do you make of that?”

Avery stopped eating. “I’ve been running every morning. But yeah, our workouts haven’t been too intense, yet we’re not going nutso.” He paused, nodded, and resumed eating. “Must be the sex.”

Nathan blinked. “You think?” Normally they worked out, pushing themselves past physical exhaustion. In addition, they’d use their psychic skills, exercising their minds to keep the crazies away. Being deprived of the drugs that tamped their abilities into a manageable state had been the main drawback of leaving the PWP. But Nathan had decided he’d rather be a free man with a few issues than a government lackey dependent on drugs the rest of his life.

“Sure.” Avery scooped more food onto his plate. “Think about it. You and I are fairly well matched when we work out. So we put a lot into it. The sex activates different hormones, but the endorphins at the end are still present.” Avery grinned. “Especially when I’m buried deep in your ass.”

Nathan tried to ignore the flush staining his cheeks. He didn’t know why, but only Avery had the ability to discomfit him. “So that must be why you have a perpetual hard-on for me. Because I’m your buffer to losing your mind?” Christ, he felt like a woman needing reassurance. But he couldn’t help it. He normally made the moves when it came to his relationships. Avery turned everything upside down. For once, he’d found a man who didn’t cater to his whims, who didn’t do everything he said when he said it.

Before his partner could wound his ego, he turned it into a joke. “By all means, buffer away.” He licked his lips, and Avery watched without blinking. “You like my ass, but I was thinking my blowjobs are my best-kept secret.”

“Not sure how secret they are, considering you’ve blown half of Bend, but I can’t complain.”

“Now hold on. I’m more a handjob man, myself.”

“Please. You’re hot, you know it, and you like to play around. I’m not judging. Just calling it like I see it.”

Nathan felt insulted but didn’t know why. Avery hadn’t said anything but the truth, yet it made Nathan sound shallow. “I can commit.”

“Not saying you can’t.”

“You don’t think I can.” The bastard had no right to assume anything about him.

“You’re taking this way too personally.”

“You’re damn right.”

“My point is, you’re an attractive man who likes to date a lot. Am I wrong?”

“No. But I’m not a slut.”

At Avery’s look, he scowled. “I’m not! I’m choosy about my partners is all. When I find Mr. Right, I’ll settle down.”

Avery snorted.

“You’ll see.”

“Sure thing.”

“What about you?”

Avery paused over a pot sticker. “What about me?”

“Your last girlfriend was three months ago. And before that, who did you date?”

“A guy in Redmond. We were seeing each other for a while; then he moved away.”

Nathan goggled. “Really?”

“Yeah. I’m not a monk. Contrary to popular belief, I like to fuck. A lot.”

“I can see that.” Nathan stared. “So in the last year, you’ve had, what, two sexual partners?”

“Three. Count yourself in there.”

“That’s it?” Nathan didn’t understand it. “That’s all?”

Avery sighed. “That’s enough. When I’m with someone, it’s someone I like enough to want more than sex. We date. We spend time together, doing things that don’t involve my cock all the time. I realize that’s a novel idea for you, but that’s me.”

Nathan didn’t like the fact Avery had pegged him. So what that Nathan liked variety? He’d never found anyone worth hanging around for more than a few weeks. They’d grow clingy, or he’d find something about them he couldn’t stand. His relationships hadn’t lasted as long as Avery’s, but both of them were still single. They had that in common. “I might date a lot, but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking.”

“Really?” Avery pushed his plate away and sat back. He locked his hands behind his head and studied Nathan. “Because from what I’ve seen, it looks to me like you’re lonely.”

“How do you figure that, Einstein?”

“You go through men like water. It’s like you don’t want to be happy. Like maybe you’re afraid to find the perfect guy.”

“That’s such shit.” So why did it have a ring of truth to it?

“But knowing how your aunt and uncle were, it makes sense. Maybe to you, relationships are killer. Literally.”

“Look, Dr. Holton, you don’t know me as well as you think.”

“If I don’t know you, it’s because you won’t let me,” Avery said softly. He leaned forward, an earnest expression on his face that frankly scared the crap out of Nathan. He looked like he had something important to say.

“You’re not making sense. I think you need more rest.” Nathan stood and cleared the table.

“I fucked you, Nathan. It was incredible. But it’s just physical. Don’t get a big head or anything, but I actually like you better when you just talk to me. Not joking or laying on the charm, but sharing something of yourself.” Avery took a large swig of beer.

“Like what? There’s not that much to know.” Nathan decided to drink as well. Maybe if he imbibed enough, he could forget the conversation. He opened a fresh bottle and downed half of it.

“Sure there is. What do you like to do in your off time besides flirt?”

“Dickhead.” More beer.

“Do you ski? Do you run, bike? Seems like everyone in Bend bicycles, but I’ve never seen you on two wheels. Do you like working at PowerUp! with the gym stuff? How do you like living on the west side of town?”

Avery knew where he lived. He shouldn’t be flattered, but he was. “Do you?”

Avery smiled, and Nathan’s heart skipped a beat. “Yeah, I do. I ski, run, and can’t stand bikes unless they have a motor attached. I actually like being a trainer at the gym. I hate chocolate but love vanilla. See? There’s more to me than my cock.”

“Or your rock-hard head, which has head-butted mine too many times.” Nathan didn’t want to admit it, but talking with more than a sexual agenda built into the conversation was kind of nice. “How the hell have you beaten me all those times on the mats? I’m just as big as you are.”

Avery shook his head. “Poor kid. You’re smaller than me.”

“By maybe an inch or two,” Nathan muttered.

“And you broadcast your moves. Your eyes tell. Don’t look left before you dodge left. Make your move, and don’t give your opponent time to guess.” Avery looked around them and swore. “Shit. We could really use a gym right about now. I’d love to show you a few moves.”

“I bet.”

Avery snorted. “Not like that. I swear. I’ve never met anyone into sex as much as you are.”

“I’m a guy. I think about it all the time. It’s genetic.”

Avery gave him a once-over that had him hard in an instant. “Yeah, I see that.” Then he frowned. “Genetic, you said?”

“It’s a joke.”

“Let me ask you something.”

The playful, sensual vibe between them faded. Nathan sighed. “Go ahead.”

“You touch an object and know things about it, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How about a weapon? When you touch it, do you get anything more from it than that?”

Nathan didn’t know how to answer. He didn’t want to lie, not after he and Avery had shared with each other, but he didn’t like that part of himself. If he pretended it didn’t exist, it didn’t. Not for him.

“What are you asking me, exactly?” he hedged.

Avery just stared at him, then shook his head. “Nothing that can’t keep. Now how about we change the subject?”

“Gladly.”

“We don’t have a gym nearby—and I’m not counting that crappy little workout room downstairs. I need to work off some energy.” Avery stepped closer, and the heat in his gaze set Nathan to flame. There could be no denying their chemistry. “Let’s indulge each other.”

“Yeah?” Nathan let Avery tug him close so that they stood chest to chest. The faint scent of beer on Avery’s breath smelled sweet. God, he wanted those lips on his. Normally he’d make his move, but with Avery, he waited.

“Yeah.” Avery leaned close and kissed him.

The pull of their mouths, the meshing of lips and tongue and teeth, all of it was sheer perfection. Nathan groaned and wrapped his hands around Avery’s neck. But Avery wouldn’t do more than kiss him. Making love with his mouth, the controlling SOB would be sure to say.

“You taste good,” Avery rumbled and kissed his way to Nathan’s ear. “I want to eat you up.”

“Fuck, yeah.” Nathan pressed his hips against Avery’s, gratified to feel an equal hardness against his arousal.

“Take off your shirt.” Avery leaned back to watch.

Nathan whipped off his sweatshirt and stood waiting.

“I love your nipples. You need a ring, baby.”

Nathan shuddered as Avery latched his mouth onto a nipple and teased it. He bit and sucked, and Nathan couldn’t help thrusting against him.

“Eager, huh?” Avery lifted his head and grinned.

“You’re a tease.” Nathan wished he didn’t sound so out of breath. “Why don’t you take off your sweater and let me give it back to you.”

Surprised when Avery stepped back and took off his top, Nathan didn’t give him a chance to say no. He sought Avery’s nipple and sucked hard, more than pleased when the big man gasped and clutched Nathan’s head to him.

“Come on, sexy. Give me what you got.” Avery’s gravelly voice tugged at Nathan, because sex with Avery was so much more than “just the physical,” as Avery had described. Each kiss meant something more to Nathan, but damn if he could figure out why. The big bastard was controlling, insulting, and downright rude. Yet the gentleness he showed Nathan time and time again melted Nathan’s resistance.

Nathan kissed his other nipple and bit down.

“Fuck. Oh yeah.” Avery ground into him, and Nathan sucked and teased the nub until it stood stiffly at attention.

He eased his hand down Avery’s hard belly and unbuttoned the fly of his jeans. Then he snaked his hand underneath and gripped his hot cock.

“I want you,” Avery whispered and sought Nathan’s mouth once more.

The kiss promised more than passion, but a shelter from the isolation Nathan had been feeling. With Avery, he didn’t feel alone. He felt annoyed, sexually replete, and cared for. But not alone.

Avery sucked on his tongue and pushed past his lips, fucking him with his mouth.

Nathan was on the verge of coming, so hot for his lover, so damn attracted to the solid strength holding him tight.

A large hand pulled his away from Avery’s cock.

“Don’t argue,” Avery growled. “Strip down and get in bed.”

Nathan watched as Avery undressed. He hurriedly did the same and joined him on the bed.

“No. I want you to turn around. I want my mouth at your cock and your mouth at mine.”

“Oh yeah.” A sixty-nine. Perfect. “First one who comes submits to the other.”

Avery paused. “Submits how?”

Nathan grinned. “Loser does whatever the winner wants for the next twelve hours.”

“You want to fuck me, don’t you?”

“You have no idea.”

Avery glanced at Nathan’s thick cock. “I think I do. But it’s okay, Nate. You have no stamina. I won’t punish you too badly for getting too big for your britches.”

Nathan laughed. “‘Too big for my britches’? Where the hell are you from again? ’Cause you sure the hell don’t talk like you’re from this century.”

“Oh, it’s on, princess. Drag that sexy ass closer. Let me suck that cock. I love hearing you beg.”

Nathan couldn’t wait to have Avery at his beck and call. Twelve hours wouldn’t be nearly enough, but he would make do. He shifted to lie side by side next to his lover, pleased to find their heads positioned perfectly at groin level. He groaned when Avery’s lips closed around him, and he hurried to do the same. He couldn’t afford to give Avery any advantage, not when just being near the man turned him on.

He pulled Avery’s hips closer and sucked his fat cock, loving the taste of his partner. Salty, male, and so damn sexy. He nuzzled Avery’s balls and used his tongue to make him crazy. Avery might know how to please a man, but Nathan had been born to it. He’d perfected the art of driving men wild with his mouth, and he’d been doing it since he’d turned sixteen. No way in hell Avery would last.

With his fingers, he stroked Avery’s flank and prodded him to shift a leg, widening Avery for play. The bigger man groaned when Nathan fingered his ass.

But when Avery tried to touch him, Nathan refused to let him, squirming and shifting so Avery couldn’t reach his anus. Instead he sucked harder and inserted just the tip of his finger into Avery’s hole.

Avery tensed, and a bit of precum hit Nathan’s tongue. He smiled around the shaft in his mouth and started sucking in earnest.

Avery, the poor guy, tried to keep up, but Nathan was so focused on Avery’s pleasure he successfully held off his own. Though Avery felt good, the victory waiting for Nathan couldn’t be denied.

He cupped Avery’s balls and moved up and down his shaft, grazing his teeth along the underside of his cockhead.

Avery shuddered. More precum spilled from his tip. And then Nathan shoved more of his finger inside his lover.

Avery sucked harder around Nathan’s dick, and Nathan nearly lost it when Avery groaned and jetted into his mouth. The shudders and moans were so fucking arousing. Only when Avery shoved his cock deeper into Nathan’s mouth did Nathan allow himself to spill.

The release was nothing compared to the knowledge he’d won twelve hours of Avery’s submission. Knowing how his partner must be dreading his time made it all the better.

Avery and Nathan pulled apart. Nathan immediately turned around and flattened Avery on his back. After a long, drugging kiss, Nathan pulled back and grinned. “I win. And I can’t wait.”

“Hell. You’re really going to ass fuck me after what I just did for you?”

“Are you kidding me? This fine virgin ass is a temptation no gay man with a brain would turn down. Those firm cheeks, that tight, rosy hole? And so tasty.”

Avery flushed, nervous and turned on all at once. He’d had women and men touch him there, but he’d never been convinced to let someone take him. He did the driving. He called the shots. It was as if giving someone else control would mean too much, something he wasn’t ready to concede. So why the hell had he taken Nathan’s stupid bet, knowing how gifted Nathan’s mouth could be?

“Oh my God. I think you just blushed.” Nathan leaned closer, and Avery shut him up with a kiss.

He loved Nathan’s mouth. That smart wit that never stopped quieted when Avery kissed him. They moved well together, like two halves of a whole. He couldn’t not think of them as a couple when they kissed, because for all that he wanted to imagine their sex as being just physical, it meant so much more to him. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told Nathan he had sex with partners he actually liked.

He’d tried to resist, but he’d liked the asshole kissing him for way too long now. That snarky sense of humor, his ability to have fun with life and charm the socks off anyone within a two-foot vicinity, his self-confidence. If Nathan had given him any sign he returned the attraction before this trip, Avery would have acted on it. And probably hated himself for it later, because dammit, he didn’t want to be another conquest. He wanted to be a boyfriend. A serious relationship. Maybe Nathan’s significant other.

And now he’d consented to let the smug bastard have all of him.

He ended the kiss and stared up at Nathan.

“Don’t worry, baby,” Nathan said softly, more than lust in his gaze—or was that wishful thinking on Avery’s part? “I won’t hurt you. You’ll feel so good, and you’ll come really hard.”

“I’m not worried about hurting.” He was, but it wasn’t the physical hurt that concerned him but rather the emotional one he’d suffer. Going this far with Nathan would mean the world to him. But for Nathan, he’d just be another fuck. Yet Avery couldn’t stop himself from wanting Nathan to be the first.

“Good. Because I don’t want this to be anything but good for you.” Nathan left him and dug through his bag. He came back with lube but no condom.

Avery suppressed a shiver. He wanted to feel Nathan inside him, nothing but flesh against flesh. How fucked up am I? “And don’t call me baby,” he added just to be mean.

Nathan chuckled. “I like you this way.”

Avery grudgingly accepted the inevitable. He wasn’t exactly ready to fuck again, not after just having his world blown apart—literally—by Nathan.

“We’re going to take this slow.” Nathan put the lube on the side table and straddled Avery’s waist. He had in his other hand a bottle of massage oil. “Just lay there and relax. And answer my questions. Honestly.”

Avery frowned.

“You agreed to submit to me for twelve hours. Starting now. I’m trusting you to be honorable about this, Major.”

“Jackass.”

“That’s yes, sir.”

Avery gritted his teeth. This was going to be the longest twelve hours of his life.

Yet he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Eight

Avery didn’t want to, but he couldn’t help relaxing under Nathan’s firm hands. He might be a master manipulator, but Nathan had a heavenly touch. He worked the stiffness from Avery’s muscles until Avery’s entire upper body was a boneless mass of flesh.

“Nice. That’s it. Just relax.”

He closed his eyes and let Nathan do whatever he wanted. So far, so good. Nothing Nathan had done had been uncomfortable.

“Tell me about your parents.”

He cracked open an eye but only saw the top of Nathan’s head. Nathan had moved from his body to the side of the bed and knelt next to him while he massaged Avery’s biceps.

“My mom is a doctor. She’s bossy.”

“Like you.”

“Hmm. My dad is a retired Master Gunnery Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. They met when he was a corporal and have been together ever since.”

Nathan moved from his arms to his legs. “So is that why you joined the Corps? Because your dad was in? Spread your legs.”

Avery tensed but moved his legs farther apart. When Nathan merely rubbed the muscle of his quadriceps, he answered the question. “I guess. I loved being in. Loved being around my kind of people.”

“Oh? And who are they?”

“Rough, unafraid to get dirty, and hands-on. Into physical fitness. I love sports.”

“Yes, you do.” Nathan ran his hands between Avery’s legs, but instead of cupping his sac, Nathan rubbed his groin muscle.

“Fuck, that feels good.”

“You sound surprised. I’m good at this.” Nathan rubbed him some more. “Danielle was a massage therapist. She taught me to deal with touch in a way different than Michelle had.”

“Yeah?”

“Michelle had me build inner shields and taught me to avoid all kinds of unnecessary touch. It made me strong. But when I moved in with my aun—Danielle, she taught me another way. To immerse myself in touch and learn to differentiate physical sensation from psychic sensation.”

“Looks like it worked.” Damn, but Avery’s cock was harder than steel, despite Nathan’s nonsexual massage. “Did Danielle share your abilities?”

“No. She said my dad had it. The guy my supposed mother told me had died right before she had me. Now I’m not sure about anything. For all I know, the fucker is still alive.”

Alive and crazy, Avery wanted to say but didn’t. He couldn’t tell Nathan anything yet, not until he had more to go on. He didn’t want to hurt his lover, and the information would be painful, no two ways about it.

“But we were talking about you.” Nathan smoothed his hands down Avery’s legs and concentrated on his shins and calves.

“Damn, you’re good.”

“That’s what they tell me.” Nathan winked at him, and Avery felt his heart drop at the man’s feet.

Hell. He coughed to cover a groan. “My parents have always shared a lot of love. I was the only kid in the family. Both my parents came from small families and had trouble conceiving after me, so I got my share of attention.”

“I’ll bet.”

“But they didn’t spoil me. My dad made sure I earned everything I ever had in life. Taught me to work hard. I love them a lot.” He sighed into Nathan’s touch.

Nathan paused to put more oil on his hands. “Just like Danielle. She wasn’t easy on me. And it bugged her that people would give in to me a lot. But hell, I’m charming. It’s a gift.”

Avery hissed when Nathan massaged his feet, digging into his arches. “Holy shit, you’re really good at this.”

“I told you I am.”

“And so modest.”

Nathan chuckled, and he looked so beautiful in the dim light of the room. He glanced up, caught Avery looking at him, and froze.

“What?” Avery didn’t like Nathan’s expression.

“Nothing.” He turned back to Avery’s feet and hummed under his breath. “So your time in the PWP? What was that like?”

“Yeah, we didn’t really meet till I came to Bend, did we?”

Nathan shook his head.

“The training was easy. I was only allowed out on three missions; two were with Chloe as lead. You think I have control issues? She’s short, and she’s a woman. She ordered me around like it was Christmas.”

Nathan laughed. “She does that.”

“Yeah, but she knows what she’s talking about. I had no trouble following her. We took down a few rogue psychics. Nothing earth-shattering, but it felt right to do good, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“The drugs they gave me made my visions clearer. And I was able to call them on command. But they still don’t take the shape I want. I mean, I want to know how we’ll take care of Malcolm, but I can’t see it. I see whatever hits me. Sometimes I can use it; most times it’s about someone else.”

Nathan’s hands roamed north again, around Avery’s knees. “So you don’t see your own future?”

“Rarely.” Like his vision of himself and Nathan kissing, and of them smiling together, in the future? The far distant future? He wished he knew.

“Too bad. Then you could see winning numbers on a lottery ticket. Or you could predict which stocks to invest in.”

“So mercenary. Most of what I see revolves around us and our cases. I think it’s because I’m built to protect, so I naturally seek people needing protection.”

“Makes sense.” Nathan knelt between Avery’s legs and spread them wider.

Avery’s cock jumped.

“Now just lie there and relax. I’m gonna take good care of you, baby.”

“Quit calling me baby,” he said, suddenly breathless.

Nathan laughed softly and stroked his hands up and down Avery’s inner thighs. Each time he neared Avery’s cock, he moved in the other direction. And then his thumbs started grazing Avery’s sac.

“Fuck.”

Nathan smiled. “Feel good?”

“You know it does.”

“I hope it does,” Nathan corrected. “But I want you to tell me if it doesn’t.”

“Why? You’ll stop?”

“No.”

The flat-out refusal made him laugh.

“God, I love it when you smile.” Nathan sighed and leaned down to kiss him. In the process, he gripped Avery’s shaft tight.

The kiss seemed to last forever.

“Take your arms and put them by your sides.”

Avery blinked when Nathan moved back. He hadn’t realized he’d put his hands around Nathan’s shoulders. He put them down on the bed.

“No, change that. Link your hands behind your head. And scoot down. I want your hips at the end of the bed.”

Avery had made note of the bed earlier. It sat at the perfect height for fucking. He blew out a breath. Hell. He was really going to do this.

He scooted down, put his hands behind his head, and stared at the ceiling.

Nathan touched his cheek and turned his head. “Baby, it’s okay. Trust me. You’ll love this.”

“If you say so,” he grumbled, not amused when Nathan laughed. But he did grow intrigued when Nathan hopped on the bed and straddled his neck. He angled his cock to Avery’s lips.

“Lick me up. Make me nice and wet.”

Avery opened his mouth and sucked the head of Nathan’s cock. He loved the sighs and groans of pleasure he wrung from the man. Not some faceless banger in a bar. Avery gave Nathan pleasure.

He started to get really into blowing his lover when Nathan pulled back.

“Jesus, you’re getting really good at that.”

“Getting good?”

“Braggart.”

“Pot calling kettle, hello?”

Nathan snickered and left the bed. “Watch me. I want you to see this.”

Avery watched Nathan take a dollop of lube and slick his thick cock with it. He smoothed it all over, then kept a huge bit on his fingers. Knowing what was coming, Avery’s ass puckered, anticipating the cool glide of that lube.

“I’m going to ease it up in you. Relax,” Nathan murmured, his voice silky and deep and just as intoxicating as the rest of him.

Avery tried not to tense as Nathan spread his legs wider and shoved a pillow under his hips.

“Better. Now open for me.” Nathan pushed a slick finger into his ass. The tight burn didn’t bother him overly much, until the finger moved deeper. It was uncomfortable at first, as Nathan continued to prod him. Then he hit a spot inside that made Avery’s entire body tense.

“There it is,” Nathan said, sounding pleased.

Avery had touched other lovers’ prostates before, but he’d never felt that same buzz they seemed to feel. Now he knew. But when Nathan added another finger and began playing with the spot, Avery thought he’d lose his mind. His cock was so hard he hurt, and he wanted nothing more than to come.

“That’s good, baby. You like that, huh?”

“Shit, Nathan. Don’t tease me. Either fuck me or go away.”

“Go away? I have you for another…” He paused to look at the clock. “Eleven hours and twenty-two minutes.” He smiled, a devilish look of mischief. “I can’t wait to make you beg.”

He teased and toyed with Avery for what felt like forever. He used two fingers, then more, stretching gently and then with more force, easing Avery’s ass around his digits. And all the while, he kissed Avery’s mouth, his nipples, his throat. Nathan bit his chest and neck, the love bites so at odds with the gentle pressure in his ass.

The contrasts overwhelmed him, until Avery was a huge wash of sensation. “Come on. Just do it.”

“Inspiring words, Avery. Really.”

The bastard chuckled. But to Avery’s relief, Nathan looked just as hard and uncomfortable as he did.

Good. Let Nathan suffer a little too. “You want to get off. I can see that cum at your tip. Come on. Give it to me.”

“You’re a bit bossy for someone who lost a bet,” Nathan reminded him.

Avery groaned.

“Easy, lover. Just let me do what I need to, and I’ll be in that tight, hot ass soon enough.” Nathan grinned. Then he stopped playing with Avery and wiped his hand on a towel. “Oh yeah. You’re ready, aren’t you?”

“Christ, yes.”

Nathan stood between his legs and stared down into Avery’s eyes. “Mine, Avery. You’re all mine. Only mine,” he added under his breath, but Avery heard him.

The soft look in Nathan’s eyes was replaced by a possessive one, and Avery couldn’t help warming to see it.

His lover put the tip of his very big cock at his entrance and pushed. As wide as three fingers, until he pushed deeper, and then Avery felt split in two. Nathan immediately stopped, breathing hard.

“You are so fucking tight. Like heaven.” He didn’t move and gripped Avery’s hips with bruising fingers. “You okay, baby?”

By sitting there and letting Avery get used to the feel of him, Nathan lessened the burn.

“Yeah. Give me more.”

“Don’t worry. I will.” Nathan inched farther inside him. “Push out, Avery. That’s it.” Nathan groaned as he entered the tight passage.

Avery felt that push on his hot spot, and then Nathan stopped. His balls rested against Avery’s ass, and Avery couldn’t believe he’d finally let a man fuck him.

“You good?” Nathan asked on a gasp when Avery moved.

“Yeah. Man, you’re really in me.”

“Oh, I am. You’re so hot. I can’t believe how good you feel.”

“All the way up to my fucking throat. You’re huge.”

Nathan laughed, then gasped when he slid out. “I have to move.”

“So move. Fuck me already.”

“So bossy.” Nathan surged back in. Little thrusts until he saw that Avery wasn’t fighting him.

Far from it. Avery wanted more. He now knew what his past lovers had been yelling about. Being taken by Nathan was a magic all its own.

“Jerk yourself off. I want to see you come,” Nathan rasped as he fucked Avery harder.

“You going to come in my ass?” Avery asked as he began pumping himself. It wouldn’t take long, not while Nathan kept hitting that spot inside him. “Fuck me, that’s it. Right there.”

“That’s what I wanted.” Nathan changed his angle and hit that spot harder.

Avery nearly lost his mind. “Fuck. More. God, yeah.”

“Come for me. Let me see it.”

Avery couldn’t have refused if he’d wanted to. That sweet cock kept digging into the pleasure center of his brain. He pulled on his cock once more and felt his entire body throb.

Jets of cream hit his belly. As if he hadn’t just come down Nathan’s throat not long ago, he left a huge mess all over himself. And Nathan seemed to get off on it.

“That’s so fucking sexy. Yeah, all that cum, for me. So good, baby.” Nathan pounded into him, the savage need on his face a thing of beauty.

When he yelled out and stilled, Avery couldn’t look away, enrapt in the beauty of his lover.

Nathan groaned and seized, shuddering as he poured himself into Avery’s ass.

The warmth trickling down his crack onto the sheets gave Avery a sense of belonging, a communal tie between them. One that, no matter what happened in the future, Avery would never be able to forget. Or break.

Nathan finally stopped coming and withdrew. “Don’t move,” he ordered in a shaky voice.

Glad he wasn’t the only one affected by their coupling, Avery lay still, covered in a mess and loving every second of it.

Nathan returned moments later and yanked Avery to his feet. Before Avery could protest the twinge in his ass, Nathan pulled him over his shoulder and carried him into the bathroom. The smallness of the room mandated he put Avery down, and he deposited him in the shower.

When Avery would have turned the shower on, Nathan stopped him. “I said don’t move.”

“Ah, okay.”

Nathan pushed Avery back and turned on the hot water. Then he moved into the generous shower stall and proceeded to clean Avery from top to bottom, paying special attention to his ass.

“Easy. You got a workout today.” Nathan gently cleaned him with a washcloth, massaging the tender skin with care. “What we did… It meant a lot to me, Avery.”

Avery glanced down at Nathan, his face wet and clean and so very clear that it took Avery’s breath away. The man looked like he cared. A lot.

“Yeah, well, it meant a lot to me too.” He cleared his throat. “And not just because I hadn’t done that before.”

Nathan’s smile of delight brightened the entire bathroom. “So can I keep calling you baby?”

Avery pulled him to his feet and planted a kiss on his lips. He pulled back with a loud smack. “No.”

Then he shoved Nathan’s head under the water and demanded that his lover wash his own hair.

Nathan’s snarl of denial had never sounded so sweet.

Nathan tried to pretend he wasn’t amused by Avery’s surliness, but he hadn’t felt this good in a long time. Hell, in forever. He wanted to say it was the sex, because shit, nothing had felt as good as coming in Avery’s virgin ass. But to have the man acknowledge that Nathan meant something to him… He was on cloud nine.

Despite the reason behind their pairing in the first place, he’d never felt so alive. The warmth in his mind, body, and soul was for Avery. Was this what he’d been searching for so long? This acceptance, this emotion he wanted, strangely enough, to call love?

Avery dunked his head under the shower and nearly drowned him. “Keep your mouth shut, princess.” He pulled Nathan’s head out of the spray and rubbed shampoo into his hair, and Nathan finally stopped trying to fight the bully massaging his scalp.

Those hard fingers relieved the tension he hadn’t been aware he’d held, and he sighed into Avery’s soothing touch.

“That’s it. Ease your head back.”

Nathan kept his eyes closed and tilted his head to let the shampoo run off. Avery smoothed the water over him, and then he felt the kiss.

Avery, for all his roughness, kissed like a dream. He coaxed and prodded; he never took. When he left Nathan’s lips to suck at his throat, Nathan groaned. “I thought I was in charge.”

“You are, baby.” Avery pinched his nipples and kissed him again. “For the next however many hours of our bet.”

Nathan groaned as his dick, which should have been too well used to perform, spiked again. “You’re such a sore loser.”

“Yeah. Let me show you how badly I take losing.”

Nathan watched him sink to his knees and engulf Nathan in one hot swallow. Avery’s tongue and lips worked him for a while, slowly arousing him to a new climax so the pleasure washed over him like a gentle rain. Ecstasy throbbed, and he felt dizzy as he finished coming down Avery’s throat.

Avery leaned back and looked up at him, while Nathan’s back took the brunt of the shower. The slow smile that lit Avery from within turned Nathan upside down.

“You look tired. So sexy when your eyes are half shut like that.” Avery stood and hugged Nathan tight. “Now is it okay if I try to sleep, or do I need to take your cock in some other untried hole tonight?”

Nathan let out a laugh. “You’re such an asshole. A manipulative, controlling, arrogant—” He broke off as a yawn overtook him. “Bully.”

Avery chuckled. They turned off the shower and dried themselves. Then they walked together to the bed. Avery paused and grabbed a blanket from the closet, then threw it over the bottom sheet.

“I’m not chancing any wet spots.”

“Gross.” Nathan agreed. Then they moved into bed together and gravitated toward each other. Being held by Avery felt as natural as breathing, and Nathan absorbed the affection like a greedy sponge. “Don’t think you won’t still owe me some hours.” He yawned again.

“Sure thing. Put a few on my tab. Now get some sleep. You need it, baby.”

The baby did him in, and Nathan fell into a deep asleep, wishing this contentment would never end.

Chapter Nine

Three days later, Avery sat across from Jack’s desk in the basement of the PowerUp! gym. A place only select employees frequented, the secret downstairs provided the ex-agents of the PWP an area to train in and relax away from prying eyes.

And speaking of which… “Jack, something’s off.”

“I know.” Jack looked grim, at least more than usual. Avery worked out, but Jack looked like he ate muscles for breakfast. The guy rarely smiled, but he was a fair man. For Jack to seem concerned told him he’d been right to trust his instincts.

“I think it’s Dixon.”

“So do I. The reports I’ve gotten aren’t good at all. You know he can touch a weapon and access its full potential.”

Avery nodded.

“Well, the guy’s not just good with guns, swords, knives, you name it, but he’s off his fucking rocker. The CIA was using him to do their dirty work in areas of the world the public doesn’t know about. But he went off the reservation months ago. Killed his handler, a few operatives higher up in the organization, then disappeared.”

“Until he found Danielle.”

Jack nodded. “Until he found Danielle. The problem is, according to my sources, Dixon thought they were dead. Probably to protect Danielle and Nathan, his handler had told him she’d died. She left the area and never used the name Dixon again. So Malcolm never looked for her. But something changed, and he found her. We have to assume he knows about Nathan as well, since you had that vision.”

Avery forced himself to sit still even though he felt like squirming in his seat. At least with Nathan not present, he might feel Jack out to see what he should say about the Dixon relation angle.

“Spill it.”

Avery sighed. “I saw something that concerns me.”

Jack sat in silence.

“A conversation between Nathan and me. Malcolm Dixon is Nathan’s father.”

Jack’s wolf gray eyes didn’t twitch. “Hadn’t seen that one coming.”

“Me neither. I think we all assumed Danielle had an affair when Dixon was on tour, gave her baby away so Malcolm wouldn’t know, and bam, Nathan’s past is just that.”

“But now we know Malcolm and Danielle are Nathan’s biological parents. What does he think?”

“I haven’t told him yet.”

“Why?”

Because I don’t like him hurting. Because he’s vulnerable right now, and I’m worried about him. “Because he’s a target as it is, still grieving over the loss of his mother. If he learns Dixon is his father, he might go over the edge and do something stupid. You know Nathan.”

Jack grimaced. “I do. He’s only slightly less annoying than Price.”

Keegan Price, a friend and telekinetic Texan with a chip on his shoulder, loved nothing better than to make Jack’s life hell.

“Ah, so you think I should tell him?”

“No. You’re right. Keep it quiet, at least for now. He’s got enough on his plate dealing with Dixon as it is. I have feelers out, but nothing has turned up yet. But like you, my skin crawls at the oddest times, and always near Nathan. We have to assume Dixon had spotted him and has eyes on, somehow. He’s psychic, but maybe there’s more to him than his psychometry with weapons.”

“How is it we know next to nothing about this guy?” Frustration made him tense.

“I don’t like it either.” Jack studied him, and Avery worried he saw too much. “What’s different about you?”

“Other than not liking this shitty assignment? Not much.”

“I was surprised you wanted to back off in Bloomville, but your reasoning made sense. Now I’m not so sure.”

Shit. Avery didn’t need this. He stood. “If that’s all?”

“For now.” Jack’s eyes narrowed. “You sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me?”

“Only that the move back here was a tactical one. I don’t want you to think I’m giving up on retrieving that sword.”

“Of course not. Major Holton always fulfills the mission.” Jack gave him a slight smile. “That’s what I like about you, Avery. That, and you follow orders.”

“I live to please.”

“Yeah, try spreading the word, would you? Managing all you psychics underfoot is like herding cats.”

Avery chuckled.

“And when you see Nathan, tell him to clean the shit out of his locker. Something foul is making the entire locker room stink.”

“Will do, boss.”

Jack grumbled under his breath, ran a large hand through his hair, and leaned over his desk, engrossed in paperwork. Had to be killing the guy, because one thing Jack Keiser wasn’t was a pencil pusher.

Avery left before his boss could question him further and went in search of Nathan. He found him upstairs, arguing with Ian by the laundry in the back.

“Hey, who’s manning the desk?” Avery asked.

Ian and Nathan glared at each other, ignoring him.

“I’m hearing myself, so I must be making noise.”

Nathan sighed. “Chloe’s out front with one of her husbands, lovers, whatever the hell they are.”

“Fiancés,” Ian corrected. “Honestly, Nathan, you were much more pleasant before your little joyride to PA. Now you’re acting more like him.” He motioned to Avery and said, “No offense.”

“None taken.” Avery waited for Nathan to look at him, but for some reason, Nathan was keeping his distance. They’d arrived back in town late last night, and Nathan had asked to be dropped off at his place and left alone. Truth to tell, Avery had welcomed the space. And if he’d felt lonely this morning, missing Nathan’s company, that was only to be expected after spending the past week glued to the guy.

“Okay, you two. What’s up?”

Ian had a twinkle in his eye, and the bright blue color of his irises didn’t seem real. Yet Avery knew Ian didn’t wear contacts. He thought the color had something to do with his ability to detect patterns, a psychic overlay of power visible in that gaze that picked up minutiae with ease.

Avery had always wondered if Nathan and Ian had ever hooked up. Slender yet toned, just shy of six feet, with features that stunned no matter how many times you looked at him, Ian wore his sexuality like a banner, gay and proud of it. Avery found him amusing, funny, and an intelligent companion to spend time with. Not his type, exactly, since Ian seemed almost too pretty. And that long hair didn’t turn him on. Avery preferred a muscular frame, an annoying propensity to disobey the rules, and apparently the ability to ignore him in the presence of friends.

“Hey, assholes. I’m talking to both of you,” he directed to Nathan.

But instead of responding with a smart-assed remark, Nathan turned on his heel and walked away.

Avery tried hard not to stare at Nathan’s ass. “What the hell?”

“Your boyfriend is jealous.”

Avery turned to Ian. “What?”

“I was teasing him, that’s all. I swear.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I might have mentioned how hot you are in the sack, or so I’d ‘heard,’ and he snapped at me. I get the feeling our playboy has decided to settle and put down roots around our own Major Holton. Could I possibly be right?”

Nathan, jealous? Avery wanted to think so, but there was something else wrong with his partner.

“Ian, you feeling anything weird lately?”

Ian sighed. “None of you are any fun anymore. And before you try to beat an answer out of me, yes, something is big-time creeping us all out. Don’t let Nathan out of your sight. My money is on his uncle.”

“That’s what I thought.” Avery turned away, but Ian stopped him.

“And Avery? I’ve been feeling weird for a few days now. I think Dixon has been here for a while, staking the place out. That means he knows about Nathan, about us, and he’s forewarned.”

“Yeah.” Perfect. What else could go wrong? He followed Nathan into the main gym, where several people welcomed him back with open arms, all folks he recognized. Chloe and one of her men stood by the entrance, keeping a sharp eye out, he assumed. The Cannon brothers were good to have around. Both lethal and not afraid to use force. Jack gave them high marks, which was good enough for him.

“Avery!” Diane Holcomb, his ex, rushed to greet him and enveloped him in a huge hug. “It’s been a while.”

Not long enough. He saw Nathan’s scowl out of the corner of his eye and felt guilty—for what, he didn’t know. It wasn’t as if he was fucking the woman. He was having a conversation, nothing more. “Diane. Good to see you.” He forced a smile and wished for a drink.

They made small talk while Avery kept Nathan in his periphery. He felt like an idiot for reveling in Nathan’s irritation. It did him good to know his partner—lover—hadn’t decided to scrap the beginning of their relationship the minute they returned. They hadn’t had much of an opportunity to talk since coming home, but Avery intended to remedy that. The sooner the better.

Nathan suddenly stood next to him with an expectant look on his face. Avery read banked fury in his eyes. Oh hell.

“Diane, I’d like you to meet Nathan, a friend of mine. Nathan, Diane. She and I used to date.”

“Hi, Nathan.” Diane gushed, no more immune to the charm Nathan turned on than anyone else. In minutes, Nathan directed the conversation from Avery toward Diane and her business, Bend, and her social life.

“Well, I was going to ask Avery if he wanted to go to a movie next week,” she said with a smile.

Such a nice woman. But she hadn’t sparked more from Avery than some pleasant sex and a companion to make movie or dinner palatable. She was fun, easy to get along with, but not exciting. Not like Nathan.

“I’m sure he’d like to go, but he’s got plans.” Nathan shocked him by reaching for his hand and squeezing tight. “Don’t you?” he asked in a low voice.

Diane’s eyes widened. Though Avery had been up-front with her about his sexual proclivities, seeing the truth had to be something else.

“Oh, well. I see.” She chuckled. “Though come to think of it, I’m not surprised. You two look good together.”

Nathan blinked, then smiled with delight. “We do, don’t we?” He hustled her away and whispered something into her ear that had her giggling and looking back at Avery.

I so don’t want to know. He turned around only to see Ian, Chloe, and one of her dudes staring at him.

“What?” he snapped.

“I knew all that antagonism was hiding a bundle of lust.” Ian smiled like the cat that had eaten the canary. “That bastard owes me money.” He looked past Avery at Nathan.

“You bet on me?”

“I bet he’d make a move. Hell, yeah. Only a blind man could miss the sparks flying between you two. The way you constantly argued, you might as well have been married.” Ian clapped his hands together. “Told you, Chloe.”

She groaned. “Now he’s going to be impossible to live with.”

“Hey. How about work with?” her fiancé said. “No way in hell is Ian living with us.”

“Good point, Josh.”

Nathan returned, but when his gaze met Avery’s, he glared. “Come on. We need to talk.”

“The four words every man dreads to hear,” Ian practically sang.

Nathan flipped him off. Avery did one better and cuffed Ian in the back of the head.

“Ow. I’m injured! You big bully.”

“Good God. Chloe, take the drama queen into the back before he scares off the customers, would you?”

Josh sighed. “I’ll do it. Chloe and Xavier can man the front desk.” He yanked Ian by the collar and dragged him away.

Ian winked and continued to lament his treatment, while gym patrons laughed, no doubt familiar with his antics.

Avery hurried to find Nathan waiting impatiently outside by the front door. He took Nathan by the arm and pulled him toward his truck.

“Get off me.”

“Can it, princess. You want an argument, we’ll do it at my place. I don’t like it out here. We’re not alone.”

Nathan opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it closed. “Fine. But you’re feeding me too.”

“What else is new?” Avery hopped in the truck and drove them to his house in the northwest section of town. He lived near the mountains in an area away from close-in neighbors. Jack had put people on Nathan’s house the moment they left for Bloomville, in the event Dixon made a move. But so far his surveillance had turned up no hint of Dixon. Avery wasn’t reassured.

They made the drive in silence. Once they arrived, Avery took another look around and, this time, feeling more at ease, entered his house after deactivating the alarm code. Nathan stepped in with him and studied the house while Avery reset the alarm.

“It suits you.”

This should be good. “Oh?”

“Cold, manly, and dark.” Nathan shrugged.

“Okay. I’ll bite. What the hell did I do to piss you off?”

“For starters, why don’t you quit hiding our relationship?” Nathan paced, his nervous energy needing an outlet Avery would much rather put to good use in bed.

He shifted his stance and hoped the idiot didn’t notice his arousal. “What relationship?”

Nathan stopped. “Don’t be an asshole, more than you already are,” he said with disdain. “We did more than fucking out there, and you know it.”

“I know it. But do you?” Avery closed in on Nathan before he could back away. “You’re the one with commitment issues, not me. I don’t have a new man in my life every other week.”

“No, just a woman looking to fuck your brains out,” Nathan sniped.

“Why, Nathan. I didn’t know you cared.” Avery smirked.

Sure enough, Nathan retaliated. He grabbed Avery’s shoulders and tried to wrap his foot around Avery’s ankle, hoping to trip him off his feet. Avery countered by widening his stance and putting his hand around Nathan’s throat.

“You know I consider this foreplay, right?”

Nathan snarled and ducked, landing a punch to Avery’s midsection that would have winded him if he hadn’t braced for it.

“Okay. You want to play? We’ll play.” He took Nathan down in three moves and lay over his partner, belly to back. He rubbed himself against Nathan’s taut ass, wanting inside. Wanting to come. “How about you tell me what’s really bothering you?”

“Besides the fact you’re a dickhead who doesn’t know the meaning of the word loyalty?” Nathan tilted his hips, pushing his ass up against Avery. Begging for a beating. Or a good, hard fucking.

“You really lack discipline, dimples.” Avery kept Nathan pinned to the floor with his chest while he worked Nathan’s pants and underwear down to his knees. Then he freed his own dick from his pants and spit on his hand. “So we’ll make it burn.”

“Fuck you.” Nathan moaned and teased with that ass, the little jerk.

“This is gonna hurt, but I think you want that.” Avery spit again, sliding his saliva over his cock. He wasn’t nearly as slick as he needed to be, but Nathan didn’t seem to want easy. Still facedown on the floor, Nathan was tighter than a drum.

Avery pried apart his cheeks and positioned himself at Nathan’s ass. “Now open for me, baby. That’s it,” he crooned as he pushed inside the warm welcome of Nathan’s body. He didn’t need to reach around to know his lover was just as hard, just as frantic to come. And the coarse rug under him couldn’t be fun on his cock.

But Avery wanted to give Nathan what he needed, so he rode him hard. The narrow passage gloved his shaft, making the friction unbearable as he neared his end much too soon.

“Little bastard. Too proud to just say what you feel,” Avery panted as he thrust in and out. “Just tell me, Nathan. Is it so hard to tell me what you want?” He slammed home and jerked, his seed rushing out in one long, drawn-out orgasm.

Moments later, he withdrew and turned Nathan onto his back. He rubbed Nathan’s cock and stared into his lover’s eyes, taken by the emotional minefield staring back at him. Regret, anger, affection—all of it melded into a pool of need as Nathan reached his end. His breathing increased, and he arched into Avery’s touch as Avery gripped him tighter.

“Yeah, oh yeah. Please,” he moaned as he erupted, coming all over Avery’s hand.

Avery squeezed and rubbed his hand on Nathan’s belly. Then he left his lover lying there to go clean up. He returned with a damp rag and took care of Nathan, wiping his belly and turning him over to clean his ass. After tossing the rag and helping Nathan stand, he watched his lover button up.

When Nathan continued to say nothing, he relented.

“I was giving you the time you asked me for.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You asked me to drop you off at your place, so I did. You wanted space; I gave it to you. Now you’re pissed at me for doing what you wanted? I’m confused.”

Nathan thrust his hands in his pockets. “I don’t want you to be different here.”

“What?”

“You were mine out there. We did more than fucking,” Nathan said, as if daring Avery to deny him.

“I know.”

Nathan opened his mouth and closed it. “Well.”

“Yeah. Well.” Avery crossed his arms over his chest and waited. The poor guy. Nathan didn’t know what he wanted.

“I—Oh hell. I’m sorry, okay?” Nathan ran a hand over his face. “I’m confused, I’m angry, and I’m worried. And I’m… I…I want you. I want you to stick around, okay?”

“Where would I go?” Avery asked softly, starting to understand.

“Fuck, Avery. I didn’t want to have this conversation with you.”

“Talk, dimples. You need to.”

“It’s just… I like you. I really, really like you. And it’s not just the sex.” He flushed, that adorable embarrassment that made Avery like him all the more.

“Then what is it?”

“I want us to be more. A couple maybe.” His gaze flashed with defiance.

“Hmm. A monogamous couple? Just you and me, no other lovers?”

“Man or woman,” Nathan agreed.

“Is this just because you saw Diane? I can tell you right now, she and I—”

“No. It’s more than that, dammit.” Nathan frowned. “I think about you all the time. Even before we were together, I wanted to be more with you. But the timing now, it’s all wrong. You’ll think this is because of my mother, but it’s not.”

“You sure?” Avery needed Nathan to know, because going out on a limb to love a man like Nathan was asking a hell of a lot.

“I just… It’s not easy for me to attach to someone. Sure, I date a lot. I like men.”

“So do I.”

“But I never found one I really liked. Not until you.” Nathan’s soulful expression drew Avery closer, and before he knew it, he’d reached his lover and drew him into his arms.

“What are you saying, Nathan?”

“Hell, I don’t know.” Nathan’s eyes filled. “Well, fuck.”

“Don’t cry, baby.” A tear spilled over. “You know, it’s not manly to cry.”

Nathan laughed through more tears. “You’re such a dick. No wonder I love you.”

They both froze.

Avery’s heart threatened to race out of his chest while Nathan backpedaled.

“I meant, no wonder I love being with you. You know, hanging around. Fucking. Don’t get all overly emotional and freak out on me.”

Avery leaned closer and kissed him before Nathan could dig himself any deeper. Knowing how much Nathan worried about scaring him away did more to ease his anxiety than any words he might have said. The kiss was sweet, then carnal, then comforting, and through it all, Nathan accepted Avery taking the lead.

“That’s it. Let that speak for me, okay? I’m not going anywhere, princess.”

“Dick.”

Avery grinned when Nathan sighed. “You’re stuck with me. I’m going to keep your ass safe while we find your uncle and deal with him.”

“And then?”

“And then we’ll take it one step at a time to make sure you’re good with us. Remember, I’m the one who has deep relationships. You’re the love-’em-and-leave-’em type. I should be more scared of you than you are of me.”

“Just stay with me, okay?”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah, yeah. Tonight. And maybe tomorrow. And we’ll plan on Wednesday too. Jesus, do you need me to write it down on a calendar to agree? Or can you just say yes and offer me some damn comfort!”

Avery chuckled and hugged Nathan close. He loved that they were near enough in height to stand cheek to cheek. “Okay, okay. I’ll stay. But you’re actually going to have to move your shit in here. No way I’m living voluntarily in a condo.”

“Who would have guessed you’re such a snob?” Nathan leaned back to look around him and gave a mock shudder. “Especially with this décor?”

Avery squeezed him tighter. “And no messes. I could barely handle your dirty clothes in those hotel rooms. You live here, you clean up after yourself.”

Nathan’s smile faded. “When you say live here, you mean just for now, right?”

Keeping up with Nathan’s moods was impossible. Did he want permanence or didn’t he? But Avery didn’t want to push. “Nathan, I mean whatever you want me to mean. We’ll take it slow, okay? I want this threat away from you before I have to deal with your sorry ass on a day-to-day basis.”

And that quickly, the spark of nervousness vanished. “Sorry ass? You mean tight, delectable, fuckable ass. You’re the sorry one. That attitude, that couch, those clothes. Really.” Nathan continued to taunt him, so Avery gave him what he needed.

Another sound thrashing, some mind-blowing sex, and the love Nathan craved but wouldn’t admit to needing.

Chapter Ten

Nathan was dying to know what Avery really thought of them living together. For a solid week, they’d occupied the same house, the same kitchen, the same bed… Jack kept them on the night shift, where Chloe continued to boss them around.

To Nathan’s relief, Avery remained just as surly and obnoxious as he normally was. At the gym he continued to try to put Nathan in his place. And when they exercised together downstairs, Avery didn’t let up on him. The big man tossed him around like a rag doll, constantly barking at him to “man the fuck up and fight back.” Nathan liked the consistency. He’d worried Avery might change, the way his lovers normally did. But Avery didn’t cater to Nathan. If anything, he demanded Nathan see to his whims and his moods.

Nathan hated to admit he liked doing what Avery ordered. Especially at home in the bedroom. Their bedroom. It gave him goose bumps to consider it not Avery’s, but theirs. Avery hadn’t said anything about Nathan moving out. He sighed a lot and stared at the mounds of clothes that popped up all over the place, but other than throwing them at Nathan, he didn’t complain. And he seemed to love Nathan’s cooking.

His mother, Danielle, had taught him how to cook, but it had never satisfied him the way it did now, cooking for Avery.

They still fucked like crazy, but Nathan thought their lovemaking had begun to grow more tender, softer. He saw Avery looking at him sometimes, with that dark intensity that stole his breath away. The way the man would kiss him, caress him, with more than his mouth and hands, but with a real loving touch, made him want to believe he might have a shot at a real relationship.

He knew he wasn’t crazy. Though Avery hadn’t said it, Nathan thought he might more than like Nathan. Maybe not love, not yet, but there was certainly more than infatuation on both their parts.

“Christ, Nathan. What the hell did you track into the living room?”

“It’s called snow.”

“It’s called mud, dumb-ass. Next time, wipe your feet.”

The domesticity of their arrangement delighted Nathan to no end. He’d never lived with a man before. He could never have imagined he’d like it so much. He and Avery really complemented each other. Both were morning people after a cup of coffee. Avery was organized while Nathan…was not. They both loved physical fitness, Jeopardy, and sex. Loved the sex, no two ways about it. And to his satisfaction, Avery liked having it a lot.

Boredom hadn’t set in, and Nathan didn’t think it would. He’d been fascinated with Avery for far too long. And now he knew why. Avery hid a big heart beneath that gruff exterior. So generous, the way he always made sure Nathan had breakfast in the morning, the way he protected him and saw to it that Nathan had a full meal before he did.

“If you’re done playing house, Nancy, we need to talk.”

Yeah, the guy had a big heart buried way deep beneath that thick skull and dense mass of muscle where his heart should be.

Nathan put down the dishrag he’d been holding. He considered it a major feat he hadn’t chucked it at Avery’s head. “Yes, oh lord and master?”

“If only.” Avery sighed. “Look, you’re going to be pissed at me, but I have to tell you.”

Nathan tensed. Or course the other shoe had to drop. Life with Avery could never be this good. Had he fucked Diane after all? Could he not tolerate Nathan’s habits any longer, even though he’d sworn he liked Nathan’s quirks—well, most of them?

“Relax.” Avery rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to shoot you. Come on, sit down.”

“Just say it already.” He mentally prepared himself to leave and sat across from Avery at the kitchen table. He’d been ready. Every time he got comfortable, someone died or something changed. And with Dixon still on the loose, it made sense for Nathan to go his own way—

Fingers snapping in front of his nose took him aback.

“Good. Now that I have your attention.” Avery leaned closer to him. “Malcolm Dixon is here in Bend. We don’t know where, but we can feel him. And by we, I mean me, Ian, Jack, a bunch of us. But the fucker is good. We can’t find him. Not yet.”

Nathan frowned. “I know this already. Hell, I’ve felt him watching me since I got back. Is that all you had to tell me?”

Avery blew out a breath. “No.”

“I knew it.” Nathan fumed. “You’re fucking around, aren’t you?”

Avery blinked. “When the hell would I have had time? That’s what you think this is about?”

Nathan felt stupid. “Okay, no.” But relief made him light-headed. Of course Avery wouldn’t fuck around. That wasn’t his style. Avery would tell Nathan to his face it was over, because that was the way Avery worked. Straight up, no chaser, in-your-face—the Holton way.

“It’s about Malcolm.”

Nathan went on alert.

“I had a vision when we were in that hotel outside Fort Collins.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

He was hurt and pissed off that he’d been so dismissed. “You don’t think I have a right to know everything about this case? That asshole killed my mother! He nearly killed me!”

“I know, I know.” Avery pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, hear me out. When we left for Bloomville, you were a mess. Getting drunk all the time, trying to screw your way through too many twinks, you name it.”

He deserved the hard look Avery sent him.

“Then you started to come around. I mean, your mother died. I still don’t think you’ve fully dealt with it.”

He hadn’t.

“But you’re holding it together. You’re strong. That’s what I admire about you.”

Warmth filled him, and he had to remind himself to be annoyed. “But…?”

“But the vision I had, it gave me some insight into you and your uncle.” Avery swallowed hard.

Christ. What the hell did he know? “Avery, just tell me.”

“I had Noah look into your uncle. Had him go over the scene where Danielle died.”

“Why?” His palms felt clammy, and Nathan wiped them on his jeans.

“I know why Danielle gave you away,” Avery answered. “I know why she never told you the truth.”

Nathan had a hard time catching his breath. “What?”

“That vision I had? I saw and heard a conversation between us. One where we talked about Malcolm Dixon being your dad.”

Nathan shook his head. “Wait. What?”

“He’s your biological father, just as Danielle Dixon was your biological mother. It made no sense, so with Jack’s okay, we had Noah do some digging.” Avery expelled a long breath. “You ready to hear the truth?”

The iconic phrase, You can’t handle the truth, popped into his mind, and he almost gave in to the hysteria building inside him. “Fucking talk, man.”

Avery reached for his hand and held on as he spoke. To Nathan’s bemusement, the touch grounded him and took some of the numbness away. “Thirty-three years ago, Danielle Craft married Malcolm Dixon. They were happy at first. I think you saw that when we were in the house.”

“Yeah.” It had been real.

“But Danielle noticed something not right in her husband. She loved him like nobody’s business. I mean, a forever kind of love. They were soul mates—that’s straight up what Noah felt and saw when he saw her past.”

His parents had loved each other. Not exactly comforting, considering dear old Dad had killed Mom.

Avery continued and squeezed his hand. “She didn’t want to leave him. Refused to listen to her sister when Michelle begged her to leave. Malcolm was getting unstable. But with Danielle around, he kept that part of himself suppressed. He could function better when he was with her.

“Noah thinks that Malcolm’s work for the government pushed him to use his talent in a way he shouldn’t have. That all that negative energy rebounded on him, made him not right.”

“Not right. Yeah, that’s Malcolm.” Nathan had a hard time understanding it all. “So he loved my mother, but he was nuts?”

“Ah, yeah. That pretty much caps it. So when Danielle found out she was pregnant, she was scared. She loved you the moment you sparked to life inside her, but she was afraid of what Malcolm would do. He acted possessive and jealous all the time. Her sister couldn’t visit anymore, because Malcolm would turn verbally abusive. But with Danielle, he was nothing but loving. It was bizarre.”

Nathan could see it. His uncle had been that way with him. So wonderful to his mother, yet a monster to Nathan. “So she had me and gave me away?” In essence, she’d chosen his father over him.

“She loved you, Nathan.” Avery stood and crossed to sit next to him. “You have to know that.”

“Why? She gave me up.”

“She saved your life. She refused to have an abortion, and she knew Malcolm would kill you as soon as look at you. Noah said it tore him up to feel that, her pain when she handed you to her sister. She actually lucked out that Malcolm was overseas for so long when she was pregnant. He never knew. And he never would have if Michelle hadn’t been hit by that car.”

“Christ. It’s like a bad dream.”

“No shit.” Avery tilted Nathan’s chin up and looked into his eyes. “You have to know how much she loved you. She wanted a normal life for you. That’s the kind of sacrifice a good mother makes for her kid. She would have lived with you, except she knew Malcolm would hunt you two down. She took a chance raising you when her sister died, but your grandmother was sick. Danielle kept a close eye on Malcolm to make sure you were okay.”

“Not close enough,” he muttered, remembering the abuse, the beatings. “You know he used to lock me in the fucking cellar? We had rats. Big, hairy rats. And it got cold down there. He’d beat me and leave me tied up until she got home. Then he’d threaten to hurt her if I said anything.”

“God, Nathan. I’m so sorry.” Avery pulled him into a hug, easing the shivers Nathan hadn’t realized he’d had. “But that’s why Malcolm snapped. When your mom found out about his abuse, she said she was leaving him. He didn’t want her to go. He couldn’t let her leave. So he tried to kill her; then he tried to kill you.”

“I have to find him. To take him on before he kills anyone else.”

“Hell, no.”

Nathan glared at him. “I can do this. Quit trying to protect me.”

“Sorry for caring whether you live or die.”

“She was my mother.”

“Yeah, well, Daddy Dearest is trying to kill you, in case you missed that.”

“Stop calling him that!”

“Face it. Malcolm is your father, and yeah, he’s a psycho. Doesn’t mean you are.”

Avery kissed him. “Quit torturing yourself. You and he are nothing alike.”

“Yes, we are.” Nathan pushed back from the table and stood. He reached for the weapon Avery kept on a side table. “See this gun?” He put his hands over the pistol grip of Avery’s Beretta, and a psychic miasma settled over him.

Nathan held the gun pointed down, but he’d adjusted his grip so he held it the way Avery normally did.

Avery stared. “What—”

“I’m like him, Avery. I pick up energy from weapons, the way I know things about objects. Psychometry gets jacked up when I touch something with strong emotion tied to it. That’s why I don’t like to touch things that kill. They have a special feel to them.” Nathan looked down at Avery’s gun. “You’ve killed with this, but you never enjoyed it. When I hold this, I know I can shoot anything that moves, that I’m an expert, like you. And that I can nail a fly to the wall at seven meters, no problem.”

He put the gun back on the table and looked at Avery, wishing he didn’t feel such a connection to Malcolm.

Avery swore and stood. “Fuck him. Come here.” He yanked Nathan forward and caged him in strong arms.

Nathan rested his head against Avery’s strong shoulder, sad and bone tired all of a sudden.

“I’m so sorry about all of it, Nathan. But just think how fucked up your life would have been if he’d raised you.”

Avery had a point. Nathan wasn’t sure how long he stood there in Avery’s embrace. He extricated himself and took a step back. “Sorry.”

Avery scowled. “Don’t even try it.”

“Try what?”

“I’m here for you, you little jerk. Don’t even think of pulling away from me.”

Nathan surprised himself by laughing. “You’re being a dick to me now?”

Avery gave him a punishing kiss. “Hell, yeah, now. You have the truth, and you have all these whacked-out ideas floating in your head. But I’m not about to lose you to some dickhead, deadbeat dad after all the shit I went through to get you.”

His fatigue drained as he realized what Avery was saying…without saying. “Huh?”

“Oh, come on. I dragged your ass out of bars and didn’t kill any of the guys trying to get a piece of your fine ass. I didn’t jump you the way I wanted to the very first time I rubbed up against your sexy body. And that was what? Eleven months ago?”

Nathan could only stare.

“Then I managed to behave myself when I wanted to fuck you the entire trip to Bloomville. I wanted my dick down your throat during the drive, despite your annoying chatter. And no offense, you cook like a dream, but your coffee tastes like shit. I only drink it because I love you.” Avery grimaced. “Not the best timing, huh? You find out your father’s a psychopath, then you have to hear from the guy who rubs your face into the mats on a daily basis that he loves you—”

Nathan stole Avery’s breath with a kiss. Balance had a way of making things right. The truth of his past might be hell, but the beauty of his future was here, right now, for the taking.

“Fuck, Avery. You should have told me that before the part about Dixon.”

Avery groaned and yanked him closer, plastering his erection against Nathan’s. “I’m trying to be sensitive, dumb-ass. And now I’ve probably scared you. All that love talk can’t be good, not after the warped love between your mom and dad.”

“He’s not my dad, not in any sense that matters. But Danielle, her I think of as Mom.”

Avery nodded and kissed him again. He broke off, panting. “She’d like that. Noah spoke really highly of her, you know. Said the woman loved you like crazy.”

“Crazy. Good word to use with my family.” Nathan kissed Avery again, desperate for some light in his life. “I need you.”

“Always, baby.”

They made their way to bed and didn’t leave for several hours.

When Nathan could once again feel his toes, he sighed and slumped over Avery’s heaving chest. “I can’t move. My ass is full of cum, and did I say I can’t move?”

Avery chuckled. “Good loving will do that to you. Who knew you were a screamer?”

“Shut up.” Nathan smiled. Even the truth couldn’t totally dim his satisfaction. “What am I going to do?”

“About me? Just bend over at least twice a day, shut up, and take it like a man, and we’re good.”

“God, you are such an asshole.”

Avery snickered.

“I meant, what do I do about Malcolm?” He sighed. “We know he’s out there, coming for me. I need to go back to Bloomville, don’t I?”

“Not without me, you don’t. Every day we learn a little more about what Dixon is really like, and none of it’s good.” Avery paused and caressed Nathan’s hair. “I worry about you, baby.”

Nathan kissed Avery’s chest. “I worry about you too. That vision didn’t show you anywhere near. And you’re a possessive bastard. If you’re not close, it means Dixon did something to you. We need more men on this case.”

“We have nearly half a dozen on it now. Two are constantly watching your place. Noah did his research, I’m watching your back, and Ian’s been gathering intel from sources—and I quote—‘we’re not supposed to ask about.’”

Nathan snorted. “Little shit. He just says that to appear mysterious.”

“And to annoy Jack.” Avery chuckled. “Ian’s good at his job.”

“Yeah. So why can’t he find Malcolm for us?” Nathan pushed up from Avery and frowned. “I want this over with. Then I can concentrate on you.”

“You mean you’re not focused now? I don’t know if I’ll survive when you are.” Avery slapped an arm over his eyes, clearly exhausted.

Nathan felt revived. He whistled as he took care of his needs and cleaned up in the shower. When he finished, he found Avery asleep on the bed. He pushed Avery’s hair back off his face, enamored with the hard features softened in sleep. Yet Avery still looked tough, a warrior through and through.

“What am I going to do with you?”

The guy called him baby, insulted his coffee, and made love unselfishly. He didn’t care about Nathan’s past, only that Nathan would have a future, one he apparently wanted to share.

God, Nathan loved the big guy. So why was it so hard to say it out loud? Because if I do, something bad will happen. A stupid thing to think, but he had cause.

He left Avery sleeping and searched for his cell phone. He found it and made a call. Ian picked up on the second ring.

“Yes?”

“Hey, Ian, it’s Nathan.”

“I figured. Caller ID is a wonderful invention.” Smart-ass. “What can I do you for?”

“I need to grab some groceries but didn’t want to leave Avery here by himself, just in case Malcolm makes his move.” There was no telling what the psycho might do, and Nathan didn’t want to take any chances. He wasn’t too proud to use all the help he could get.

“Good call. Foreman and Price are standing by. I’ll send one of them in.”

Nathan frowned. “You’ll send them in?”

“I’m standing in for Jack while he deals with some case Gavin screwed up.”

“Isn’t Gavin our accountant?”

“Yep. And there’s a big part of the problem. He’s a wonder boy with numbers, but he got greedy and tried to track down that book you guys looked into.”

“He found it?”

“Yep. Then he lost it. And now Jack is beyond pissed, because our client needs it back, like yesterday.”

Nathan shook his head. “From what the bookseller said, it was just an old book of weird names with some sex thrown in for shits and grins.”

“Well, apparently it had something more in there, some strange codes sewn into the binding that mean something. Not that you heard that from me.”

Talk about the wrong man to tell secrets to. “Your point?”

“My point is that as we speak, Price is on your doorstep and Foreman is standing guard on the house. Your lover is in good hands.” Ian paused. “So is Avery big all over?”

“Shut up.” Nathan chuckled. “But thanks.” He disconnected just as a knock came at the door.

He peered out the dormer window and saw Keegan Price standing with his hands in his pockets. If Nathan hadn’t had the hots for Avery, and Keegan weren’t in a three-way relationship, Nathan would have done him in a heartbeat. But the pesky emotions clogging his heart made the idea unfathomable. Still, he could appreciate a walking work of art. The body on Keegan Price could tempt a saint.

He opened the door and smiled.

Keegan saw him and groaned. “Oh hell. I thought I had Avery. Come on, trouble. Let’s go shopping.”

Nathan set the code on the door and closed it, but he couldn’t quite step away. Leaving Avery unaware, vulnerable, didn’t sit right.

“Don’t worry, Nathan. We’re watching your boy.”

Nathan let out the breath he’d been holding. “I know. I just have an itchy feeling. And it’s hard to leave him without saying good-bye.”

“Huh?”

“He’s sleeping.”

“It’s the middle of the day.” Keegan frowned at him. “He’s in bed?”

“He’s resting.” Nathan gave a cocky grin. “I wore him out.”

“Oh. Oh.” Keegan tipped back the cowboy hat shielding his gaze and grinned down at Nathan. “Can’t wait to rib him about that. Avery’s a bit too tense, you know? Needs to lighten up some.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more.” Just so long as he lightened up on Nathan and no one else.

Nathan walked away, but the bad feeling growing in his gut didn’t ease. It worsened, and he warned Keegan to be ready for anything.

Maybe he’d lengthen his shopping trip, expose himself to as many people and security cameras as he could to tempt Malcolm. Anything to keep the danger from Avery and centered on himself. I’m ready for you, Dad. It’s time we settled this. Once and for all.

Chapter Eleven

Having left Avery a message on his cell phone and knowing James Foreman stood watch outside, Nathan felt free to shop. He picked up groceries Avery refused to buy. Doughnuts, some sodas, and candy bars. Nathan had a sweet tooth, and he admitted it. When he worried, it grew worse. But the health nut he currently lived with refused to cater to his needs. Health, schmealth. Nathan needed comfort food.

Then he decided to pick up a few pairs of jeans. His had holes. And on the way, he spotted a shirt and a sweater that would look perfect on Avery. More time to give Malcolm a shot at him gave Nathan a sense of purpose, and he threw himself into shopping. When Keegan bitched about it, Nathan told him the why of it, leaving out how much he actually enjoyed clothes shopping. So the gruff man could do nothing but wait around while he looked for bargains.

Three hours later, he figured he’d given Malcolm enough time to spot him while letting Avery get some much-needed rest. He needed to talk things over with Jack too. Sitting on his hands waiting wasn’t working. Nathan needed action. He intended to draw Malcolm to him. Dear Daddy would come if lured with the right bait—Nathan on a silver platter.

He returned to the house with Keegan bitching every other step.

“Damn shoe stores. You’re a frickin’ dude, act like it.”

“Get over yourself, Texas. Even cowboys wear boots.”

“Boots and jeans and flannel. One-stop shoppin’. But today…that was pure torture. Even Rory doesn’t put me through that.”

“No, she takes James with her.” Keegan’s partner was a clotheshorse and looked good in just about everything he wore. Nathan grinned. “Want me to grab James the next time I need help in the dressing room?”

Keegan growled something uncomplimentary under his breath. Nathan unlocked the door and released the alarm that flashed. Once he’d resecured the house, he called out for Avery. And got no response.

He and Keegan exchanged a glance.

“Go get him.” Keegan drew a weapon from behind his back, and Nathan could feel the psychic energy flare. No doubt the tall Texan readied telekinetic power to kick some ass if needed.

Nathan hurried into the bedroom, but he found nothing. No sign of a struggle, no sign of Avery.

“Huh.” He looked around and saw the jeans and shoes Avery had stacked on a side table were now missing.

Keegan entered, his eyes narrowed, wearing his game face. Huge and mean, Keegan invited trouble, and Nathan was happy to have him on the same team. The man held a gun in one hand and his cell in the other.

“James isn’t answering.”

Nathan’s heart raced. “Go find him. I’ll look around in here.”

“Rest of the house is clear,” Keegan offered, then handed Nathan his gun. “But take this just in case. You see anything wrong, yell for me.” Then he left to find his partner.

Nathan searched the house from top to bottom but saw nothing of Avery, only more to make him worry. Avery’s wallet, cell phone, and truck keys remained on the dresser. His gun was missing, and for some reason that made Nathan feel worse.

In looking for a clue to explain his lover’s disappearance, he tossed the bed.

What he saw under Avery’s pillow drained the blood from his head.

A black KA-BAR, the same type of knife he’d used to stab Malcolm, lay on the bed, a touch of red at the tip of the knife. The blade had been meticulously cleaned, the blood on the end a purposeful touch.

Nathan was afraid to handle it, scared to see his lover dead, killed at the hands of a madman. But he had to know.

He gripped the handle and flinched as psychic overload blasted him. It was indeed the same knife he’d used on his uncle—father…

* * *

Avery swore as a knife pricked his throat. He lay in bed but had the gun he kept close at all times pointed at Malcolm, ready to fire.

Malcolm shook his head. “If you want James Foreman’s body to be found, you’ll put that away.”

Avery lowered the gun and placed it in Malcolm’s hand, and Malcolm turned the weapon on Avery.

“Very good. Now sit up, slowly. Let’s see what little Nathan considers so precious, hmm?”

Avery’s expression didn’t change. “I’m going to kill you.” The even way he said it must have impressed Malcolm, because Nathan’s father smiled.

To Nathan’s horror, he noted a resemblance he’d never seen before.

“I think I like you, Major Holton. Your association with that bastard fuck of mine notwithstanding, you’ll make an admirable foe. I look forward to our dance, my young friend. Now quickly. Get dressed.”

Avery put on jeans, a sweater, and his shoes. Before he could reach for his jacket, Malcolm stepped behind him and shoved the blade deep into his side.

Avery grunted but didn’t flinch, and Malcolm tucked the gun into the back of his pants while his other hand held tight to the knife inside Avery.

“Such poise. You’re an old hand at this. And won’t that be fun?” Malcolm’s smile turned mean, his eyes narrowed, and he shoved Avery away, onto his hands and knees.

The dark blue of Avery’s sweater hid his wound, but Nathan saw him clutch his side. Saw his fingers stained red.

“Nothing life threatening for you, not yet.” Malcolm leaned down and stabbed Avery again, this time in the meat of his shoulder. His precise movements indicated a graceful skill, one that had only grown keener with time. “That’s going to stiffen up on you later. Be harder to fight back with that.” Malcolm spoke in a kind of clinical commentary. He grabbed a towel by his side. “Now stanch that blood. Out to the truck and get in.”

They walked, Avery in front of Malcolm, to a dark green SUV. Once there, Malcolm nodded to the back. “Open it and get in.”

Avery exploded in motion. He punched Malcolm in the face twice and tackled him to the ground. They wrestled for a bit before Avery suddenly slumped and stopped moving…

* * *

Nathan’s heart seemed to stop beating.

* * *

Then Malcolm shoved Avery off him, and Nathan saw the needle stuck in Avery’s neck.

“You fight well for a slut.” Malcolm’s grin showed bloody teeth. “Nathan is a screwup, but he at least chose someone who can handle himself. Mostly.”

Malcolm heaved Avery into the truck with some effort, but the strength in the older man was shocking. He wiped his mouth and nose free of blood and smoothed down his coat. Then he picked up the gun that had fallen and tucked it back into his jacket.

He shut the back hatch of the vehicle, disappeared once more into the house, and returned. When he entered the car, he looked down at the blade Nathan and Avery had been directed to bring back.

But when he spoke, he directed his words to Nathan. “Come to me, Nathan. Come to Daddy. You know where. And come alone, or your ass fucker dies.”

* * *

The vision cut off, as if willed away by the man at the center of it.

Nathan’s rage was so great it took him a few moments to realize Keegan and James had joined him. James looked like he’d been hit by a bus. He had a goose egg on his temple, a few cuts on his face, and he cradled his wrist.

“I have to take him in. His head wound is bad.” Keegan looked angrier than shit, but Nathan knew most of it was worry. “No sign of Avery?”

“No. Take him to Doc Cannon. She’ll make him right in no time.”

Keegan nodded. “Let’s go.”

“I can’t. I have things to do.”

“Dammit, Nathan. I can’t leave you here.” He looked panicked when he glanced down at his partner, lover, and unofficial husband. “We can’t wait. We need to leave, now.”

“So go. Trust me on this. I have to handle it my way.” Nathan paused. “Keegan, if I don’t do this, Avery’s going to die.” He let the other man see what that meant to him, his heart in his eyes. “I can’t let that happen.”

“Fuck. I know that look.” Keegan sighed. “Better hurry. I’ll give you an hour. But soon as I send out word, Jack is gonna have every available body on your ass. Take my truck; it’ll buy you some time. I’ll take yours.”

They swapped keys. “Good luck,” Nathan offered. “I’m sorry, James.”

Foreman tried to wave at him, then lost consciousness. Keegan raced away with James and called over his shoulder, “Don’t let down your guard. Avery’s depending on you.”

Nathan gripped the keys, grabbed the KA-BAR, and hurried into Keegan’s SUV. Thankfully they’d gassed up after shopping before heading back. He’d drive as far as he could, then continue as long as he had to. With any luck, he’d reach Malcolm in Bloomville sooner than the fucker anticipated. Back to the place where his personal hell had come to a brief, satisfying conclusion. One he hoped to have once again.

* * *

Avery moaned when his shoulder hit something hard. Then his side burned. Another bump in the dark. He blinked but saw nothing but a hazy black.

Movement stopped, he heard the sound of a car door opening, and light blinded him.

“Not yet, Sleeping Beauty. Back to bed.” Something pinched his hip, and he lost consciousness.

He didn’t know how long he’d been out, but when he next woke, he felt sore all over. His throat was parched, his eyes hurt, and his shoulder and side throbbed like a raw wound. His hands had been bound behind him, tied to the same chair as his ankles. He had to piss, and he felt feverish. All in all, he’d had better days.

Water splashed into his face and had him gasping for breath.

“Oh, good. You’re back.”

Avery blinked up at an older version of Nathan. The same shaped eyes, the sandy brown brows and hair. Even the way the guy tilted his head as he looked at Avery was the same. It was eerie as hell. The man had Nathan’s height and extra brawn, what Nathan might look like in another two decades after heapings of steroids. Avery wanted to see some gray in the man’s hair, or at the least some sign of age. But ignoring the slight crow’s feet at his eyes, there was little to show Malcolm Dixon had aged past forty.

“Why?” Avery asked.

“Why?” Malcolm laughed, his disbelief obvious. “Is this where I waste precious minutes talking to give Nathan time to arrive? Where my soliloquy tells all so that the hero has time to vanquish the villain?”

“That’s what you are. A psychotic villain who killed his wife and nearly killed his son.”

Malcolm’s eyes flared. He didn’t like the reminder, apparently, though why the truth should hurt, Avery had no idea.

“The woman I killed was not the sweet woman I married.” Malcolm sat down in a chair directly across from Avery. “But then, you know all about that. My son no doubt told you about his horrible upbringing,” Malcolm sneered.

“Said you abused him, that you were jealous of the love Danielle had for him. And that you had no idea how to hold on to a woman.”

Malcolm slapped him with the quick, vicious speed of a snake striking. Avery hadn’t seen the blow coming and knew he’d stepped into some serious shit when Malcolm waved that wicked blade in his face. The word Sangre on the blade glowed under the dim lighting with a peculiar luminescence that didn’t seem natural.

“Do you see this, Major?”

“Hold on while my vision clears.”

Malcolm chuckled. His moods ran hot and cold. Avery had to remember he dealt with someone not quite sane.

“Yeah. Espada de Sangre, right?”

“Correct.” Malcolm sounded pleased. “This is the weapon Owen Stallbridge hired your boss to retrieve. Yes, I know all about Jack Keiser and you people, his psychic puppets. I have contacts in a lot of places.”

“So I gathered.” Avery’s mind raced. They worked for Stallbridge? The multimillionaire investor who owned half of Bend? And Malcolm knew about it. Knew about Jack, about all of them. “How is it you never joined the PWP?”

Malcolm shrugged. “I would have if I hadn’t already been working for the government. My time in the army brought me to the attention of the Agency two decades ago. The rest is history.” Malcolm brought the blade to Avery’s forehead and dug into his skin.

The pain should have been light compared to the pressure on his wounded shoulder. At first, blood dripped into his eyes and made it hard to see. But then darkness seemed to lick at the wound, drawing more pain than he would have thought possible for such a superficial cut.

“Don’t you like my new toy? It surely likes you.” Malcolm tittered, and Avery shivered. The madness there couldn’t be missed. “I found it at a black market near Oaxaca, close to home. It’s like we were meant for each other.” His lips thinned. “Like Danielle and I were once paired…before she’d turned into a whore.”

“How was she a whore?”

“She was only supposed to be mine. She kept me bright, full. With her, I was real.”

Like a real boy, eh, Pinocchio? Avery wanted badly to make a comment, but he didn’t have a death wish.

“When she left me, when she was gone, I was so empty. All the days spent away from my beautiful wife were hell. And then he showed up…” Malcolm trailed off, into his own little world.

Thinking about Nathan—the same man Avery couldn’t get out of his mind. Nathan must have been worried sick. Hell, the asshole was probably coming here right now, wherever here was.

Avery took a good look around and saw nothing but crumbling wallpaper, lone lightbulbs dangling from cords overhead, and debris everywhere. The musty smell of mold and the chill of cement warned him he wasn’t going to like what he learned.

“Where are we?”

Malcolm blinked and turned his gaze toward Avery once more. “We’re home. If you belong to Nathan, it’s more than appropriate you share in his fondest memories.”

“Oh hell. We’re in Bloomville. The basement, right?”

Avery wanted nothing more than to kill this bastard. The sick fuck planned to torment Nathan to the end. If Avery succumbed to the wounds and darkness pulling him to sleep, his lover would never get over the guilt. No, Avery had to find a way to escape, to stay alive to somehow warn Nathan away.

“Now, now. Pay attention.” Malcolm gave him a disdainful once-over. “You know what we called women in the service? Split tails. To fuck one, you split her right up the middle. So is that what I should call you and your sick boyfriend?”

Ironic, this twisted fuck calling anyone else sick.

“Actually, I call myself a Marine.” He should have stopped there, but the injustice of what Malcolm had done to Nathan and still intended to do to him wouldn’t leave his mind. “Not like you pussy army fags with nothing better to do than compare dick sizes. And that’s no slam on being gay, but on you not being good enough to have made it into the right service.” Avery had done his fair share of insulting the other, more inferior branches of the military. In his experience, nothing bothered militant pukes more than being thought of as less than a U.S. Marine.

Malcolm’s cheeks flushed. He stared at Avery for a good minute, then shoved Sangre into the tender flesh of Avery’s inner thigh.

The blade shrieked with pleasure, and darkness invaded his mind, pulling him toward a black pit of despair and death, as if the sword fed off his misery. He hissed and sucked in a breath but refused to give Dixon the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

Stay awake and alive. And shut your trap so you can find a way to save Nathan, his subconscious warned. When Malcolm pulled the blade away, the respite was fleeting. He then dug into Avery’s belly, peeling away the skin by the wound he’d caused earlier with that fucking knife he’d left for Nathan to find.

Avery concentrated on staying aware and ignoring the pain. Nathan, please don’t be a hero. You show up by yourself, and I will personally kick your ass.

“I’m Delta Force, son. Show some respect.”

Avery hung his head, not in shame, but because he no longer possessed the strength to hold it upright. “S-sorry, s-sir. Just a jarhead being m-mouthy.”

“Much better.” Malcolm withdrew that cursed blade, and Avery bit back a groan of relief. The thing freaked him out more than Malcolm did. And damn if the thing wasn’t hungry for more of him.

* * *

Nathan pulled into the driveway of the old house, not surprised to see a vehicle there. He gripped the wheel tight, sure of what he had to do. He hadn’t rested in two days and was on edge. He knew some agents were close behind, probably no more than a few hours away. But he had to hurry. Malcolm probably wouldn’t kill Avery until Nathan had arrived, to make sure Nathan didn’t miss the big finale. But he couldn’t be certain.

He downed another cup of coffee and slammed some caffeine pills. To beat the devil, he’d need a clear head. And two straight days of driving on top of all his worry had kicked his ass.

But now he felt ready. He gripped the KA-BAR tight, its warmth a comfort as well as a reminder. The energy in the knife revived him, and he accepted it, needing to draw on every little thing he could. He’d beaten Malcolm back once. He’d do it again. He just had to open himself up to more than the energy of the objects he touched. If he wanted to win, he had to allow himself to feel the hum of violence as well.

Somehow he needed to get his hands on Sangre and turn the fucking thing against Malcolm. He left the vehicle and climbed the steps to the porch, not trying to hide. Malcolm knew he was coming. So it was no surprise when the older man opened the door, holding Espada de Sangre by his side.

He looked different than he had the last time Nathan had seen him, some seventeen years ago. This Malcolm looked a little bit older, meaner, and devoid of any semblance of sanity. The blade in his hand seemed to purr, as if it recognized Nathan in some way. Suddenly his notion to use it against Malcolm didn’t seem like a good idea.

“Welcome home, Nathan.”

Home. What a joke.

Malcolm turned and walked into the house, expecting Nathan to follow.

And what else could he do, since the bastard had kidnapped Avery? Nathan had spent over forty-eight hours envisioning the worst. Avery tortured, bleeding, dying. Nathan’s imaginings had been nightmares; he’d envisioned his lover in pieces, his hands reaching out for Nathan, who was too far away.

Then he thought about what Avery might think of his anxiety. Avery would call him a pussy, knock him on his ass, then berate him for not having the balls to face his fears and push past them. No doubt the arrogant jerk expected a full-out rescue.

God, he loved that man.

Nathan didn’t allow himself to flinch at his worry. Instead he called on his ability and let his fingers brush everything he passed by, hoping to get a hit on Avery while he followed Malcolm deeper into the house. The walls didn’t speak, nor did the furniture. But the blood on the door frame of the kitchen showed Malcolm dragging Avery by one arm. Bloodied and semiconscious, Avery trailed Malcolm and slurred insults, calling Malcolm every name in the book before he’d passed out. Before Malcolm dragged him to the basement door and pulled his ass downstairs.

Nathan knew he couldn’t avoid it forever. Memories rushed back, the terror of not knowing what lay in the dark no longer resonating as it once did. Maybe because he still had a psychic hand on his surroundings, or maybe because the KA-BAR he carried reminded him he’d beaten the bastard before.

He caught sight once more of the blood-covered sword in Malcolm’s hand. It pointed toward the ground, angling in the direction of the blood smear that disappeared in the doorway to the cellar.

“Downstairs, I take it?” Nathan said with a calm he’d started to feel.

Malcolm’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. You first.”

Nathan shrugged. He walked by Malcolm with ease, content that his father wouldn’t stab him unless he could look Nathan in the eyes as he attacked. Face-to-face, horror to horror. The way he’d attempted to kill Danielle over twenty years ago. Nathan glanced over his shoulder before he stepped into the cellar doorway.

“Like old times, eh?” Malcolm’s smile held real malice. “Hurry now, boy. Your friend is downstairs waiting for you.”

Nathan squared his shoulders and walked down into the gloom. The nightmare of his past came roiling back, and he wiped the sweat from his forehead with a quick swipe of his forearm and shoved the memories back where they belonged. They were dead and buried, like his youth. He didn’t fear the dark, and he wouldn’t let Malcolm terrorize him any longer.

Malcolm’s voice echoed in the darkness. “The KA-BAR was a nice touch, wasn’t it? I thought you’d like that.”

Nathan left the last step into the cellar and put his back to the wall while he waited for Malcolm to join him. A dim light was the only illumination in the large basement. The corridor into which he’d walked twisted around to an open area, lined with hardy shelving holding all manner of things. At one point Malcolm had used the basement as a work space. He apparently continued to work down here…doing God knew what.

Nathan followed his father around the corner and froze. Avery sat tied to a chair, a small pool of blood beneath him. He sat so still, his head hanging low, that for a moment Nathan feared he was dead.

Then Avery groaned.

He forced himself not to react. “Well, Malcolm? Now what?” He paused. “Or should I call you Dad?”

Malcolm turned to face him, still standing between Nathan and Avery. He raised the bloody blade in his hand. “Say what you want, but I won’t be rushed. I’m going to slice you up like a turkey, boy. The way I worked your mother. But I won’t kill you. Not until I let you watch me carve up your fuck buddy, piece by piece.”

Avery moved, distracting Nathan from the anger building. “Hey. I have to piss.”

Nathan snorted. “Hold on. I need to take care of this windbag. Then I’ll untie you.”

Malcolm didn’t like being ignored. He frowned and took a step closer to Nathan. Away from Avery.

“Don’t you want to know how it went, boy? How she begged for her life, begged me to leave you alone?”

“Not really.” Nathan did his best to sound bored. “I realize you’re older now, and you’re probably starved for attention. But I’m tired, and I have things to do. Playing with an old man isn’t one of them.”

He heard Avery suck in a breath. Okay, so that might be pushing things, but he was tired of letting Malcolm call the shots.

He wasn’t prepared for the older man’s burst of speed. The blade bit into his shoulder in a flash, the burn of psychic pain one he felt to his bones.

Chapter Twelve

“How do you like that, son?” Malcolm laughed and pulled the blade back. “Sangre likes you. Yeah, it can feel the soul. And yours is one sick little ball of need.”

Nathan gripped the KA-BAR tight. “You’re kidding me, right? Talk about need? You’re so pathetic you couldn’t share your wife, a woman you supposedly loved, with her own nephew. Or should I say, son? Did you ever wonder why she gave me up? Because she knew you were crazy. That you couldn’t handle being a father. Christ. Look at you.”

This time when Malcolm came at him, he dodged the blow, using Malcolm’s own energy against him. The psychic memory stored in the KA-BAR let Nathan access Malcolm’s speed and agility. Everything Malcolm had felt and been while holding it bled into Nathan…the way the users of Sangre bled into Malcolm.

Malcolm smiled. “You might be a piece of shit, but you’re going to give me a good fight, aren’t you?”

“Well, like you said, I’m a piece of shit. A chip off the old block.” Nathan nodded at him with a similar grin.

Malcolm and he fenced and fought, but unless Nathan got his hands on a weapon with a longer reach, he wouldn’t be able to outlast Malcolm. He was wearing down, no sleep and his wounds taking their own toll. And Malcolm had the added benefit of fighting with a powerful object with a mind of its own.

Nathan bled from several cuts, intended to weaken and not kill him outright.

“Use your head, you idiot,” Avery snarled in the background. “Can’t you remember anything I taught you in the gym?”

Nathan frowned. “I could use some encouragement here.” Trust Avery to be a pain in the ass even now.

“Use it all, dimples. Hands, feet, balance.”

Images of him and Avery grappling came back to him, and as he danced out of the way of Malcolm’s reach once more, he realized the only way to beat the man would be hand-to-hand. No more weapons.

The next time his father came at him, he ducked and advanced. He took a fist to the face and a slice to his arm in order to knock Malcolm to the ground. But through it all, Nathan held on to his knife. A short stab to the man’s side satisfied, but it was a means to an end. To distract Malcolm long enough to grab on to that fucking sword.

The moment Nathan’s hands wrapped around his father’s and the hilt of Espada de Sangre, he tensed. Images and feelings not his own poured into him like poison.

“Nathan, fucking fight it!” Avery sounded far in the distance.

The rush of so many kills tasted sweet, and he suddenly understood Malcolm as he never had before.

“You need this. Energy, power. It fills you up.”

Malcolm stared into his eyes, and it was like looking into a mirror. The man faltered in his answer, as if seeing Nathan for the first time. “Yes. Fills me up. The way your mother used to.”

Nathan felt Malcolm’s loneliness, his antipathy toward everything. Only murder gave him the highs away from a monotonous existence. Because his time away from his wife had been hell. The constant kills, the work with so many deadly weapons, had eroded Malcolm’s ability to feel. His returns to Danielle had made life bearable, because only with her had he felt the love that brought him back to himself. But he’d been so greedy, so damn needy, that he’d refused to allow for the possibility of sharing her attention.

Michelle hadn’t been welcome. Nor had any of Danielle’s friends. They’d lived in virtual solitude for so long, and Malcolm had hated it. Hated what he was doing to her, but he couldn’t help it. And eventually he’d stopped hating their isolation and longed for it with every breath in his body. And then Nathan had arrived. A soft-spoken, handsome young boy just as deprived as Malcolm.

He’d hated Nathan, because in Nathan he saw himself. And now Nathan knew why.

Nathan yanked the sword from his hand and stood, leaving his father to grab the KA-BAR next to him.

“You can feel me in that, can’t you?” he asked Malcolm.

Malcolm nodded, his eyes wide. “You’re just like me.”

“No, he’s not,” Avery said in a hoarse voice. “Little bastard likes to think he can do anything, but he’s not a killer like you. He’s got the power, but he’s also got heart.”

Because I had the love of a great woman. Because I’ve got you, Nathan thought but didn’t say. It was a struggle to remain separate from the blade. The thing wanted blood. It wanted to kill. And it didn’t much care who sated that need. Overcome with exhaustion, it was all Nathan could do not to lean completely on it for strength.

Malcolm blinked rapidly. “I don’t care. You’re the reason Danielle left me. Because of you.” He stepped forward with the KA-BAR, a deadly killer with or without the cursed blade. He lunged.

Nathan managed to block his attack, but the deflection allowed Malcolm to slice into his side.

“Fuck.” Fury boiled over him, and he struck out. The blade found Malcolm’s weakness with ease, sliding between his father’s ribs and then again into his thigh through the femoral artery. It sang as it drank, letting the blood ease into the nicks and crevices of the ancient steel.

“Even the touch of it feels right,” Malcolm said with a sigh. The man didn’t act as if he felt pain. He came at Nathan again, graceful in step and form.

They fought for what felt like hours. Nathan couldn’t believe how powerful Malcolm was. Despite his age and injuries, he moved like a man possessed.

“For nearly thirty years, I’ve been dancing with death. You think you can take me, boy?” Malcolm attacked with well-oiled precision. He darted away to stand by Avery and stabbed into his bloody shoulder, no doubt hoping for a reaction.

Avery didn’t give him one, so Nathan wouldn’t either. But he needed to put himself between Malcolm and his lover. God, Avery hadn’t made a sound. Because he was disciplined or passed out? Because he was dead?

“Shit. Hurry the hell up,” he slurred, and Nathan breathed a sigh of relief.

Malcolm grinned. “In other circumstances, I might like the major. But I want my blade back before I finish our fight.”

And maybe that would be his downfall. Nathan tuned out the blade’s need for more blood and zeroed in on his father’s inability to work on his own. He needed to be filled, to work with an external device, a distraction that could cost him.

Nathan stopped and took a step back. “It wants you. It wants to be inside you. It’s promising me all sorts of things if I give it to you.” He listened and heard the whispered torment, the pledges of undying love and satisfaction if only Nathan would kill.

Malcolm tossed him the KA-BAR without missing a beat and stepped away from Avery. “I want it. See if you can beat me with that measly knife again. Once is luck, twice skill.”

“You don’t need luck, Nathan. Do it. Give him the blade.” Avery’s intensity sparked Nathan to action, and he followed his lover’s order without question.

Nathan put it on the floor and kicked it to his father, while at the same time, he dived for the KA-BAR.

Just as Malcolm picked up the blade, Nathan shoved the KA-BAR into his father’s leg. Then he pulled it out and sank it into Malcolm’s chest, where the KA-BAR whispered to strike. Since Malcolm had handled the knife, it knew his secrets. And now so did Nathan. Dextrocardia—the reversal of the heart’s position. The reason Malcolm hadn’t died all those years ago was because Nathan had stabbed him where a normal person’s heart would be. On the left side. But Malcolm’s was on the right.

Malcolm staggered but didn’t drop the blade, so Nathan dug the KA-BAR deeper and twisted. Then he pulled Malcolm’s hand holding the blade and positioned it so that the tip of it rested against Malcolm’s stomach.

“You want to be together with your precious weapon? Fine by me. Go for it.”

He didn’t expect Malcolm to actually do it, but when his father stabbed himself in the gut, he wasn’t exactly surprised. However, instead of peace, horror filled Malcolm’s eyes.

He screamed and screamed until death finally claimed him. And as Nathan watched, the blade seemed to glow, as if soaking up his father’s soul.

“Don’t touch it,” Avery rasped. “Leave it be and untie me.”

Nathan scrambled back from temptation, alarmed he’d been ready to pull the blade free and continue its work. The moment he left Malcolm and rushed to Avery, he felt woozy. Every cut and bruise throbbed, and he was more than tired. He managed to untie Avery and propped him up when his lover started to fall.

“Oh man. We have to get you to a hospital.” And me to a bed.

“No shit.” Avery groaned and put the entirety of his weight on Nathan. A clear sign Avery was in bad shape. “You’re not alone, are you?”

“I figure the guys are right behind me. I drove like a bat outta hell to save you, princess.” Nathan tried to joke, but he started to shake, realizing all he might have lost.

Avery sighed and rested his head on Nathan’s shoulder. “You know, I want to comfort you, I really do. But I wasn’t kidding before. I gotta take a piss.”

Nathan laughed and couldn’t stop laughing. He helped Avery upstairs and to the bathroom just as four of his friends burst through the front door, weapons drawn.

When Ian saw the two of them, he shook his head. “You’re in so much trouble, Kraft.”

“Sue me.” Nathan slumped against the bathroom door Avery shut behind him and grinned. “I’ve never felt better.” Then he passed out cold.

* * *

Avery didn’t want to spend one more day in the hospital. He’d been in Bloomville long enough. Three days being tended to by nurses while his buddies made fun of his hospital gown and the fact that a sixty-year-old man had kicked his ass were enough to have him plotting cold-blooded murder.

Jack strolled in the door just as he fastened his jeans, intent on escaping while Nathan took a much-needed break at a nearby hotel.

“Well, well. I don’t believe you were discharged, were you?” Jack crossed his arms over his chest. Avery thought the comparison of his boss to a grizzly more than apt. Then Kitty stepped out from behind him with a horrified look on her face, and he knew he wouldn’t be hiding anything from his boss.

He groaned. “Come on, guys. It’s not that bad.”

“You’re such a liar. I could feel your pain from down the hall.” Kitty hurried to him and tucked him back into bed. She pulled the sheet over his waist, hiding his jeans, but not the multitude of bandages over his upper torso.

“Kitty—”

“Now who’s lying?” Jack asked her. “You’re feeling everyone’s pain. Probably that nutcase with the broken leg in room 2B is flaring at you. Heard him yelling when they set it. Supposedly he thought he saw a ghost at the old Dixon house and broke his leg trying to tell everyone about it. Asshole slipped on some ice and fell.”

They looked at one another. Nathan had been right on the money. Aidan, Chloe, Josh, and Ian had entered the house while Avery had finally finished his business in the bathroom. A discreet cleanup had taken Malcolm Dixon’s body away, and rumors about ghosts continued to haunt the old inn.

“Yeah, well.” Kitty huffed at a piece of hair in her eyes. “I’m here now, and I’m feeling his hurt. And how much he misses Nathan,” she added with sugary sweetness.

Avery groaned and scrubbed his face with his hands.

“Oh hell. Really, Avery? Nathan?”

“Well, look at it this way, Jack,” Kitty said and touched their boss on the shoulder. “At least now we have someone to keep Nathan out of trouble, and you don’t need to move Avery back to day shifts.”

“Hmm, there is that.” Jack tried to look angry but failed. A twinkle lit his stormy gaze. “So you fell for the playboy like so many others. Major Discipline bites the dust.”

“But discipline is just what I need,” Nathan said from the doorway, a huge grin on his face.

“Oh, that is just beautiful.” Kitty had tears on her cheeks, and Avery didn’t want to know what had put them there. The empath was no doubt picking up on his intense love for the idiot in the doorway. Bad enough he’d already confessed it to Nathan’s face. The dimple on Nathan’s cheek was adorable but annoying, because Avery could just feel his lover getting ready to take advantage. And Avery would let him.

“What’s beautiful, Kitty?” Jack pulled her into his shoulder. Avery had wondered about the pair a time or two, but Kitty looked at Jack the way a friend did. Not the way a woman in love would. Like the way he imagined he now looked at Nathan. God, he was going to take so much shit from the guys because of this.

“Nathan is glowing. He loves Avery so much.”

“You just had to tell.” Nathan frowned. “I was going to declare my feelings with wild abandon. To go down on one knee, give him a ring, and propose.”

“Ah, dude. Way too many people here for all your drama.” Avery fought a smile. Though Nathan had nearly blurted out the truth a few days ago, it meant the world to hear him declare it in front of others.

“No, no. I love you, Avery. And I don’t care who knows it.”

“So I guess you’re going to have to cancel all those dates back in Bend, then. No other men for you but me.” He was aware of Kitty pulling Jack out of the room and leaving him and Nathan together, but he had to know.

“What men?” Nathan joined Avery on his bed and leaned down for a kiss. “You’re it for me. I mean it. I’m going to prove it to you.” He held up his hand and flashed a golden wedding band.

“What the hell?”

Then the bastard had the nerve to slip a matching band on Avery’s ring finger. It fit as if it had been made for him.

“These are just temporary until Rory makes us a matching set. You and me. Permanent. Together.” Nathan still hadn’t asked.

“You going to ask me or what?”

“No. You might say no.”

To Avery’s surprise, Nathan seemed to mean it. “You’re kidding, right? I told you I love you. Despite how messy and annoying you can be, I love you. I don’t fuck around.”

“I know. I date a lot, but I’m loyal. I mean, I used to date a lot. No more. But don’t be mad when I have to beat them off with a stick. The news will be hard for my friends at home.”

“So many boys, so little time.” Avery frowned, already jealous.

“Yeah. But once they see you, they’ll understand. Why would I want any of them when I have the manliest man in town?”

Avery tried not to react, but he felt the blush cover his cheeks.

Nathan crawled over him and reminded Avery of all his wounds and bruises. But he didn’t care.

“God, Avery. I was so worried about you. I love you so much. I couldn’t lose you.”

“And you won’t.” Avery hugged him with his good arm. “Not unless you reopen my wounds and I bleed to death.”

“Shit.” Nathan hurried off him and wiped his eyes with a scowl. “And I’m not crying.”

“Sure.” Avery smiled. “If you say so, dimples.”

“I saved your life, dipshit. You owe me.”

Avery groaned. “Now what?”

“You still owe me five hours of being in charge. I’m thinking we add another twenty-four to that, because I saved your life and all. And I’m getting inside that ass again.” Nathan leaned down and kissed him until Avery forgot his name.

He blinked when Nathan leaned up. “Make it fourteen hours, plus the five. An even twenty. I’ll bottom for your lurid imagination a few more times. But then turnabout is fair play.”

“Dude, you’re always on top. How is that fair?”

Avery chuckled. “Fortune smiles on the winner, son. You may be prettier, but I’m bigger and stronger.”

“Barely,” Nathan muttered.

“And do you really hate it when I’m deep inside you?”

Nathan shifted his stance, bringing to light his erection.

“I’d say that’s a no.” Avery sat up with Nathan’s help and shoved the sheet from his waist. “The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we make that happen.”

Nathan frowned. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m good. I’ll be better when we’re home, in our place, you lying on your belly with your legs spread and that ass lubed and ready for me.”

Nathan blew out a breath. “Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

“Lead on, dimples. I’m right behind you.”

The End

Content

Fortune's Favor
PowerUp! - 4
by
Marie Harte

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve