“I don’t know about you, but I am.”
“And so you should.” He slumped into the cushions, his eyes drifting shut again. “Wow, that was awesome. I think you broke me.” He waved a hand randomly until he connected with my arm, then closed his fingers on my wrist. “Give me a moment and I’ll return the favor.”
“What I really want…” I stopped, because maybe I shouldn’t ask and a blow job would be great.
“What?” He opened his eyes to look at me. “Tell me.”
“I want to jerk off on you. But that’s messy and bad for the couch and anyway, maybe you’re not into that.”
“Shh. Back away a bit.” When I did, Kendrick slithered down to the floor and lay flat, pulling his shirt high so the smooth planes of his stomach were revealed above his softening dick. “Here, push the rug out of the way and I’m yours.”
I wish.Way too soon for that, though. I eased the rug out from under us and rose to my knees, fumbling with my jeans. The button had never been so stiff, the zip never so annoying. I got my cock free. This wouldn’t take much. No time at all. My hand blurred on my shaft as I knelt over Kendrick between his thighs and jerked myself, breathing his scent, savoring his taste on my tongue, my eyes fixed on his. He watched me steadily, warmly, as I fisted my straining dick.
Look at him. Fuck, just look at him. That skin and that cock and that stomach and those hip bones. Fuck.I looked higher again and was caught in his steady blue gaze. I thoughtabout how kind he seemed, how accepting. Thought about his empathy, his voice saying, “Oh, baby, that’s sad,” and came in a blinding, electric rush. My cum painted his stomach and pubes with stripes and spatters, essence of me on his pale skin. Slowly, the jets became drips, then stopped. I knelt over him, wrung out.
My wolf preened.He smells like us now. Marked. Ours.
With his gaze still fixed on me, Kendrick swiped a finger through the mess on his stomach, raised it to his lips, and sucked the fingertip clean.
I groaned deep in my chest, and managed one more pathetic dribble from my cock across his before I slumped back on my heels.
Kendrick laughed, a relaxed, happy sound. “You look like you needed that.”
“You havenoidea.” I unwrapped my cramping fingers from my dick, and took a slow breath. My hand shook as I touched the mess on his stomach, drawing circles, rubbing the cum into his skin. This felt so good, so right.
I had a moment of blinding sympathy for all the gay wolves who’d met their mate when queer love brought a risk of death. I imagined the men in showers afterward, through all the years, scrubbing any trace of their lover from their skin. And here I was, out and free, marking my man with mouth and dick and every part of me. “I want you to fuck me next time,” I said. “I want to fuck you, if you’re up for bottoming. I want…” My voice trailed off in the panorama of all the things I might have if I dared to grasp for them.
Kendrick stroked the back of my hand, tracing the veins there. “I could be onboard with all of those things. Not right now, because A – refractory period is a thing, and B – I have to pick up Larissa from her friend’s house in half an hour, and we need a shower. But in the future, yes.”
“Should I go away now and let you clean up and have father-daughter time?” I didn’t want to move, but this wasn’t really my place.
He closed his fingers over mine. “Not unless you want to. I’m happy to share my shower. I have a guest towel that can have your name on it, and as long as you don’t mind hanging out with me and my kid in a very G-rated way, there’s no reason you have to leave.”
Really?A kaleidoscope of hopeful images, of Kendrick and Larissa and a place for me in this house, washed through my brain in a flash bright as sunshine. “I don’t mind.” Understatement of the year.
“Be warned, she may try to wheedle you into a doggy-wolf ride.”
“I haven’t shifted yet today. If she wants one, she can have one.”
“You’re a good man, Trent.”
I hugged my arms across my stomach. “I’m not, really.”
Kendrick tugged at my wrists. “Don’t argue with me. You know what? Before I heave my sex-broken body off this floor, c’mere and hug me.”
The polished boards were hard and Kendrick was covered in my mess, and there was nothing I wanted more than to hold him right now. I yanked off my shirt, eased to my side on the floor next to him, and pulled him into my arms.
He sighed softly as he came to me. “Yeah. I knew you’d give the best hugs.”
I worked one arm under him to pillow him and eased him farther onto me, wrapping him in close. He felt so right in my arms.
Mate, my wolf said with clear finality.We will guard him and keep him and the child.
If he wants us to,I thought back, because I wasn’t taking away anyone’s free choices. Wolf society had done that for far too long.
He will want.My wolf subsided, fading out of my awareness beyond a steady constant, underpinning who I was. But this was who I was too. A thirty-seven-year-old gay man finally free to bring a lover into my life. I kissed Kendrick’s hair and rubbed my chin against his cheek.
“You’re a special man,” Kendrick murmured. “I’m looking forward to showing you just how special.”
