Devlin and Garrick Read online

  Devlin grabbed onto Gradyn’s hips, holding the man to him for a relentless mating. He drove his dick into Gradyn’s ass in rapid-fire strokes, creating so much friction and heat he thought he might set them both aflame.

  Gradyn gasped but didn’t pull away one bit. “Jesus Christ, you get so fucking deep.” Ecstasy and pain mapped his face in harsh, beautiful lines. “So good ... forgot.” He opened his eyes, found Devlin in the mirror, and a dirty-boy smile made him look downright savage. “Oh yeah ... yeah.” Base lust shone in Gradyn’s gaze as he jammed himself back onto Devlin’s cock with repeated strikes. “Pound me good.” He lifted one leg onto the dresser and opened up his ass even more. “Make me come again.”

  Needing to find his own way to give this man what he needed, Devlin leaned forward and planted his hands on the dresser right on top of Gradyn’s, linking their fingers. Gradyn went immediately still, and his focus locked on Devlin’s in the mirror. Devlin didn’t know how in the hell he didn’t move, with the tip of his cock barely tucked inside Gradyn and screaming for more, but he managed it. He nuzzled his face into Gradyn’s arm and over his thick shoulder.

  “Turn your head,” Devlin whispered. He brushed his mouth against the rough stubble breaking through Gradyn’s jaw. Gradyn shifted, and their mouths hovered with less than an inch between them. Devlin looked into eyes so close everything should have been a blur, but the green in Gradyn’s stare burned bright and clear, and something inside Devlin tightened with recognition, as if he knew exactly who this man was. He didn’t know a damn thing about him, but everything in his being knew this person. Devlin didn’t even think as he leaned in half a distance more and whispered, “Kiss me, Denny.”

  Gradyn moaned and latched onto Devlin with a clinging of their lips. Devlin kissed Gradyn back with equal, guttural need, and at the same time, slowly sank his cock all the way back into Gradyn’s ass, taking every damned tight-as-hell inch with deliberate intent, until he couldn’t steal a millimeter more.

  A tremble trickled through Gradyn, and then he went completely still. The softest, almost surprised-sounding sigh escaped him and his breath brushed across Devlin’s sensitized lips. A second later, while still looking right into Devlin’s eyes, Gradyn’s pupils flared and his passage contracted in a smother-hold on Devlin’s prick, signaling his end.

  With their faces so close it felt like they shared the same breath, Gradyn came first, his mouth open but making no sound, and spilled himself against the front of the dresser. Each pulse of his orgasm corresponded with a contraction in his ass, and he sucked Devlin right into coming with him. Devlin’s balls drew up against his body. While watching the stark pleasure of release consume Gradyn, Devlin jerked and cried out, unable to fight the inevitable anymore. He shot while still buried in Gradyn’s passage, zapping lines of concentrated pleasure to his core, and dumped his seed into the condom.

  Exhaustion swamped the men, and they both collapsed onto the dresser. For long minutes afterward, Devlin remained slumped against Gradyn and pulled in cleansing air until he could breathe again without his entire body heaving. He still had his cock resting inside Gradyn, he still had his fingers locked in a bruising hold over Gradyn’s hands, and he knew he had enough weight in his six-foot frame to cause someone under him discomfort. Devlin knew he needed to get up and allow Gradyn to unfold from the dresser, but holy hell, he didn’t want to separate from this man’s body.

  In any way.

  Gradyn finally grunted and turned his head. “Can I?” He nudged Devlin but didn’t shove or force him off. “I have to piss.”

  Oh shit. “Yeah, sorry.” Without thinking, Devlin shot upright, and in the process jerked his cock out of Gradyn none-too-gently. Gradyn hissed as it happened, and Devlin winced at his carelessness. “Fucking shit.” He snapped his attention to Gradyn as mortification burned him red from top to bottom. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” Gradyn shot Devlin a sideways glance as he moved a little stiffly to the bathroom. “I’ll live.” He closed the door almost all the way. A moment later, Devlin heard Gradyn sigh as he relieved himself. Devlin peeled off the used condom and found a tissue to wad it into before throwing it away. As the toilet flushed and the water began to run, Devlin grabbed a few more of those tissues and wiped Gradyn’s ejaculate off the front of the dresser. No point in trying to clean off what was on his chest; the cum there had already dried to the point that he would need a wet cloth to remove it.

  Didn’t matter. It was Gradyn’s, and Devlin liked thinking about how the man had looked--so harsh and primal--as he lost himself and covered Devlin’s chest with his seed.

  Gradyn emerged from the bathroom with a stretch, lifting his arms toward the ceiling. He moaned a sound of content and cracked a few joints as he crossed the room to his discarded clothes. “Goddamn,” he rolled his shoulders, “I needed that.” As soon as he said it, he glanced up at Devlin with a grin. “The sex, beautiful, not the peeing. I needed the sex.”

  Devlin felt his cheeks heat, and a thrill shot through him upon hearing this nickname Gradyn had bestowed upon him. “Wasn’t anything bad about it for me, either,” he admitted, and just went ahead and slipped into full blush again.

  Gradyn chuckled as he sorted through his clothes. “You felt damn good in me, that’s for sure.” He cocked his head, and his jeans and underwear dropped from his hand. “You want to go out to dinner with me? Right now? I’m starving and ... I don’t know,” he shifted from one foot to the other and a furrow appeared between his brows, “I want to sit down and have a nice meal with you. What do you say?”

  Devlin’s heart skittered and his stomach flip-flopped enough to make him feel a little bit lightheaded. “I would love to.” He hoped to hell he wasn’t beaming like floodlights in a dark night sky. “Thank you.”

  “Good.” With a fast stride across the room to Devlin, Gradyn leaned down and stole a quick kiss. “Let’s go take a shower.” He took Devlin’s hand and pulled him to the bathroom. “We can talk about what kind of food you like so I know where to take you.”

  Devlin let Gradyn lead him into the bathroom, but when he went to turn on the shower, Devlin stopped the man and turned him around. “Wherever we go,” Devlin’s mouth felt drier than desert sand, “afterward, I want us to come back here so you can fuck me.” His ass channel squeezed and his cock twitched just with saying it.

  A sweet lopsided smile kicked up the edge of Gradyn’s mouth. It whispered through Devlin, exciting him and settling him at the same time, and it made any intimidation he’d felt regarding this man’s muscles or body art disappear.

  Gradyn brushed the back of his hand against Devlin’s cheek. “It’s a deal, beautiful.”

  Devlin swore he almost goddamn purred in response...

  *

  ...Devlin jerked as his elbow slid off the desk, the motion yanking him back to reality. He was rock-hard where he sat in his living room, and a stain of pre-cum darkened his gray sweats. A quick glance at the time on the computer told him his sister would be home soon. Shit. Wincing at the stiffness of his erection, Devlin got up and went through his bedroom and into his bathroom for some privacy. He damned well wouldn’t be able to talk this thing down; he simply had to take care of it.

  He leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and could see himself back in that motel bathroom sharing a shower with Gradyn. It didn’t take anything else to get Devlin stroking his prick and his toes curling into the tile floor as the physical pleasure consumed him.

  His mind wasn’t entirely in the moment, though. Just a few rubs up and down his dick later, he bit his lip and silently spilled into his own hand. And while Devlin did have his mind on Gradyn, the picture that had made him come had not been one of Gradyn back in that shower in San Francisco, but rather one of Garrick Langley, the man he’d seen in Redemption today.

  In the aftermath of orgasm, Devlin couldn’t help wondering what he would say to Gradyn--Garrick--when they had another chat.

  Chapter Two
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  I just want to crawl into bed and sleep forever.

  It didn’t matter to Garrick that it was only six-thirty in the evening and still bright as blazes outside. As he pulled his beat-up truck into the drive, he envisioned stripping out of his dirty work clothes and falling into bed naked. A shower and food could wait until morning.

  He cut the engine and climbed out of his vehicle as stress he couldn’t afford to feel pressed heavily on his shoulders and turned his legs sluggish.

  “Garrick! Garrick! Garrick!” Shouts from a little boy jerked Garrick fully awake, and he looked up to find a six-year-old blond-headed terror of youthful energy barreling in his direction with no breaking in sight.

  “Shawn!” His mother chased him from around the backyard.

  A dark-haired girl followed right behind her, yelling, “Slow down, stupid!”

  With just a split-second to brace for impact, Garrick caught the boy flying into his arms. Garrick moved half a dozen steps backward with momentum rather than fighting it and saved himself from falling on his ass.

  The kid threw his arms around Garrick and planted a big, sticky kiss on Garrick’s cheek, all against his mother’s and sister’s warnings to stop. The boy’s open affection had thrown Garrick a bit when he’d moved in a month ago, but damn, the kid didn’t have a father and he clearly just wanted a guy in his life.

  Garrick shifted Shawn in his arms, and smiled at the other two. “Hi, Grace.” He addressed the mother first and then dropped his attention down to Shawn’s sister. “How’s it going, Chloe?”

  The eleven-year-old mumbled something inaudible under her breath as Grace said, “I’m sorry, Garrick. Shawnee heard your truck from the backyard and got away from me before I could grab him.”

  “He’s such a doofus,” Chloe said in a snotty voice.

  “No I’m not!” Shawn shot up in Garrick’s arm and reacted just the way his sister surely intended. “You’re a poopy-face and have ugly hair.”

  Grace stepped in between the sightline of her children and shot each of them a narrow-eyed glare. “Both of you show me some manners right now or I will start taking away privileges.”

  Chloe compressed her lips and her focus lowered to the grass. Shawn shifted in Garrick’s hold, looked at him, and declared, “You’re gonna take care of us on Saturday.”

  “Shawn!” Grace’s face flooded to full-out red in two seconds flat. She looked to Garrick with a plea in her eyes. “I apologize. I told Shawn I was going to ask you if you were free, not that it was definitely happening.”

  “It’s all right.” Garrick kept his voice cool and ignored the fact that Grace looked like she wished the earth would open up and swallow her whole. “What’s up?”

  “I have an opportunity to show my first houses.” Grace kept the books for a local real estate firm, as well as a handful of other businesses, but Garrick knew she wanted to branch out and become a realtor herself. “Unfortunately, the client only has time free on the weekend.”

  “What time?” Garrick asked as he put Shawn back on the ground.

  “He says the morning but it could easily end up taking half the day.” She winced and looked at him with a squint. “I hate to even ask but I don’t have anyone else.”

  “It’s done; don’t worry about it.” Garrick didn’t have to work this Saturday; he liked these kids, and he remembered how tough it was for his mother to raise two children alone. “You need to be there at nine?”

  She nodded, and he said, “Then I’ll be here at eight-thirty.”

  She grabbed his free hand and squeezed. “Thank you.”

  Chloe pulled her stare off the ground and offered Garrick a wobbly smile. “We were just gonna go inside to make dinner.” She shuffled her ballet-flat-covered foot back and forth in the thick grass. “Do you... Would you like to eat with us?”

  “Oh...” Garrick hated saying no to these kids but he could also hear his bed beckoning to him from through the walls.

  “Yes, absolutely.” Grace jumped in. “The least I can do is feed you a good meal in exchange for agreeing to help me out on Saturday. You can’t really have anything decent to eat at your place.”

  Garrick slid his attention to his tiny living quarters above the garage and knew that tonight he didn’t care about the microwave/convection oven combo or frozen meals in the fridge. The bed, some sleep, and the risk of letting himself fall into oblivion for just a few hours beckoned his exhausted body above all else.

  He came back to the various levels of hope in the faces of the Fine family, each not saying a word while they waited for him. Garrick made himself smile. “Sure. Okay. I’m hungry. Let’s go.”

  Shawn hooted and hurled himself into Garrick’s arms again. Garrick caught the kid this time without swaying, but at the same time, a shiver of cold trickled down his back and raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

  Someone is watching me.

  Garrick kept Shawn in his arms, but as he walked toward the house, he turned in a circle and did a subtle scan of the area. There were not a lot of places to hide in this neighborhood that wouldn’t intrude on someone else’s property, and doing that would likely get any individual trying to spy quickly caught. Garrick did a visual search of the surrounding houses in reverse anyway and still didn’t see any people or vehicles he hadn’t already cataloged as belonging on this block. All the same, his skin shivered with awareness, and he knew eyes were on him.

  He reached out to Grace and put a hand on her arm, stalling her on the porch. “Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary today?” Garrick worked like hell to keep his tone merely curious. “Did anyone come to the house looking for me?”

  Grace immediately shifted her attention to the road. “No, I haven’t, and no, nobody came asking about you.” She took Shawn out of Garrick’s arms and set him down by his sister. “Chloe, take your brother inside. You can help get dinner started by pulling out the big pot in the bottom cabinet. You both can get the spaghetti out of pantry and break it in half for me.” Chloe opened the door and let Shawn inside first, and Grace added, “Split the box evenly, please. I don’t want to hear any fighting.”

  As soon as the kids were safely inside the house with the door shut, Grace turned back to Garrick and dropped her voice to just above a whisper. “What’s going on? Is something wrong?” She rubbed her hands over her arms, as if chilled. “I’m looking around,” her focus slowly worked from one end of the street to the other, “and I don’t see anything.” She kept her gaze on the street, and shivered.

  Goddamn it. I overreacted and scared this woman for nothing.

  He knew damned well why too. Coming face-to-face with six-feet of dark-haired man who’d made Garrick so hard he’d had to hide under a car at work today. That was why.

  Fuck.

  Garrick glanced up and down the street one more time, and this time everything inside him remained calm.

  “Garrick?” Grace kept her focus on the neighborhood just as diligently as Garrick did. “Do you think someone is watching us?”

  “I apologize,” he responded, without answering her actual question. “I had a tough day. I’m tired, and maybe that made me twitchy.” He clasped his hands behind his neck and exhaled slowly. “I think I need a drink.”

  “I have a bottle of wine,” Grace said. “Will that do?”

  “Perfect.”

  She smiled and swept open the door. “Then follow me.”

  Garrick couldn’t help looking over his shoulder one more time as Grace led the way.

  He couldn’t completely relax.

  He never would again.

  * * * *

  Two hours of dinner, board games, and part of a ball game on TV later, Garrick let himself inside his little apartment above the Fine’s garage. He didn’t bother turning on the light; he knew the one-room layout by heart, and even if he didn’t, the streetlight bleeding in through the shut curtain on his one window provided all the shadows needed to strip out of his clothes.

  U
nwilling to take the extra minute to unfold his bed, Garrick simply threw himself onto the couch and let his legs hang over one of the arms. The worn-out fabric caressed his flesh with softness, and he wiggled in deeper, settling in. Comfort and exhaustion overrode him, and he let his eyes drift shut on the end of an unexpected day.

  A sensation of grittiness irritated his eyes as soon as he closed them, making Garrick curse a string of foul words he should never say around Shawn unless he wanted the kid repeating them to every person he met. Growling like an inconvenienced animal, Garrick got up and treaded to the bathroom with a deftness that defied his mood. He switched on the light, flooded the white bathroom with a shock of fluorescent light, and squinted as he stepped up to the sink. Blinking, Garrick met the stare of the blue-eyed man in the mirror. Then he held his left eyelid open and withdrew a contact lens, quickly did the other, blinked again, and looked into the green eyes he’d kept hidden from the world for almost five years.

  Eyes he wasn’t sure he could ever show Devlin Morgan again.

  Along with a name he definitely could never answer to again.

  A man that as far as the world understood, no longer existed.

  Gradyn Connell was no more.

  Yet this Garrick Langley person, who had to become real, had sat at that dinner table with Grace and her children tonight eating pasta, taking part in the conversation, and smiling in all the right places.

  All the while, his mind had drifted to another spaghetti dinner that had been the best of Gradyn Connell’s life...

  *

  ...A meal and dessert now complete, Gradyn sipped his cranberry juice and studied the younger man sitting across the table picking at the last of his chocolate cake. Fuck, Devlin Morgan, whoever he was, really was beautiful. Masculine as hell, with an insane body, but somehow beautiful too. Thick deep-brown hair cut neat and trim but not buzzed in any way, slashing cheekbones, a strong jaw, a wide mouth that didn’t lean toward too full or too narrow ... it all spoke to the hungry male living inside Gradyn right now. Devlin’s body possessed the same beautiful symmetry as his face; not too much bulk--the way Gradyn himself was right now--but not too skinny either. His frame was lean and fucking nearly perfect; one of those bodies that lent itself to the belief that God had simply blessed him with great genes.