Solo chuckled and trailed his fingers down my body until he was flirting with the button of my jeans. He undid it then found my neck and pressed a kiss there.
“So it’s the song doing this to you, huh?” As he flattened his palm over my erection and squeezed, I groaned.
“The song, the man, this moment you planned for us…”
“Good. Because I’m not nearly done.” Solo nipped at my lips and drew my zipper down. “Never will be.”
It was amazing how powerful words could be, and just knowing that Solo was as committed to this relationship as I was made me feel like the luckiest man in the world.
Reaching for the back of his neck, I pulled him in and slid my tongue across his lips. “Let me in.”
Solo didn’t hesitate, and I slipped inside. As his tongue tangled with mine, he slid his hand inside my jeans and wrapped his fingers around me.
Jesus, that felt amazing. When Solo began pumping me nice and slow, my eyes fell shut. I began a slow bump and grind so I was shoving in and out of his fist, and as if that wasn’t enough, the taste of him was flooding my senses.
“Solo…”
He gave me a final pull and then let me go. “God, I want you. I’ve never wanted anyone more.”
The flush on his cheeks, the love and desire shining in his eyes, made every single part of this night perfect, just as he’d said it would. I reached out and brushed a thumb over his swollen lips. “Then take me.”
27 Solo
I NEVER COULD have imagined that accepting a spot in the Elite this year would lead me here, into the arms of the man who should’ve been my competition, should’ve been my rival, but had turned out to be my everything instead.
Grant “Panther” Hughes had moved into my sightline, and I’d locked on to him and never let go. He was everything I’d ever wanted, and never dreamed I could have. But as he stretched out on my bed, naked as the day he was born, I stopped that bullshit thinking.
Panther was mine, in all the ways, and I would spend every day of my life making sure he never regretted or questioned that. I walked over to the side of the bed, Panther’s eyes tracking my every move, and when his hand moved to circle his engorged cock, I smiled.
Panther groaned and pumped his hips up, and I quickly reached for the button of my shorts and popped them open. With his eyes following my every move, it felt like I had flames licking over my skin.
As my erection came into view, Panther bit his lower lip. The flush that hit his cheeks was so damn sexy that it was all I could do not to come right then and there.
“Jesus, Mateo. You’re so fucking beautiful.”
My breath caught, the truth of his words there in his eyes for me to see. I climbed up onto the bed, stretched out beside him, laid a hand over his heart, and kissed his temple.
“I think you have that the wrong way around, lieutenant.”
Panther turned his head on the pillow and cradled my cheek. “No way. This face, this soul, it’s beautiful, and it’s all mine…”
Panther took my lips in a kiss that made my heart swell to bursting. This man made me believe in words like love, forever, mine, and yours. I wanted to have, and be, all of that with him. I stared into those piercing eyes. “I’m all yours.”
Panther trailed his fingers over my cheek before he rolled to his right side and glanced back over his shoulder at me. I knew exactly what he wanted. I shifted in close behind those broad shoulders and tapered waist. As our bodies aligned with one another, I placed my lips to his shoulder and ran my hand down the side of his torso to the swell of his ass.
“God…you look fucking unreal,” I said as I gripped his hip. I pulled him back so I could fit my cock in against the crack of his ass. “And you feel even better.”
Panther arched back against me. I played with the short strands of his hair, kneaded the tight globe of his ass, and slowly began to rock my hips against him. A pleasure-filled groan left him, and as I picked up the pace, Panther looked back at me. I leaned forward to take his mouth in a tongue-tangling kiss that just about blew my head off.
His body was so hard in all the right places. I let go of his ass to reach over his waist and start stroking his cock, and all of those muscles began to shift and flex as Panther began to writhe against me.
Damn, this was hot as hell, the way he was moving against me as though he wanted something in him, and now. Panther tore his mouth free and said, “I need you,” and I wasn’t about to make him wait any longer.
I grabbed the lube off the nightstand, poured some into my palm, and quickly lubed up my eager dick before trailing my slippery fingers down Panther’s crack and teasing his hole. As I slid one finger inside, he moaned. When he angled his body toward the mattress and bent his left leg toward his chest, I cursed at the erotic picture he’d just made.
“You have no idea how goddamn hot you look right now,” I said, and slipped a second finger in. Panther reached down and worked his cock, all the while making sounds so damn sexy that I wanted to hit record on my phone so I could get off to them later.
But the look in Panther’s eyes when he looked back at me guaranteed I was going nowhere that took me away from him. Shit. His light eyes were close to black with how dilated they were, his arousal now at a fever pitch. When I brushed up against his prostate, Panther squeezed his eyes shut as his tight ass all but strangled my fingers.
Not able to hold back any longer, I pulled my fingers free and reached for my cock. I lined it up with Panther’s eager entrance, pressed a kiss to his shoulder, and slowly pushed forward. Panther groaned, and as he eased back against the wide intrusion, I scraped my teeth along his shoulder blade.
“Yeah,” I said as his ass continued to swallow up my length. “Fuck, Grant. Oh, fuck, you feel amazing.”
I tightened my fingers on his hip, and as my dick tunneled inside and I bottomed out, I sank my teeth into his shoulder.
“So do you,” he said through labored breathing. When his head fell forward into the pillow and his arm began to move, I knew he was ready, ready for me to bring us the high that we could only get in each other’s arms.
My fingers digging into his supple skin, I watched the shadows from the candlelight flicker over the two of us, and when his body began to shake against mine, I knew it was time. I slowly pulled out and then thrust back inside, and when he cried my name, I did it again. I could see the strong line of his neck and muscled arm as it worked his thick, leaking length. As he strained and thrust back against me, the pure masculine beauty made my climax race down my spine to my balls.
“Grant,” I said, beginning quick, sharp punches as my orgasm threatened.
“Yeah. Right there, Mateo… Harder.” He gripped the pillow with his free hand as I tunneled into him. Then, just when I thought I would lose my mind, Panther’s entire body tensed and clenched around mine, and the two of us exploded in an orgasm that made my eyes roll to the back of my head.
Sweet Jesus, nothing compared to the way I felt when I was with Panther. I’d always said my first love was flying, and that nothing could ever take its place. But as Panther shifted and rolled over so we were facing one another, I realized how very wrong I was.
This was my first love, and if I had anything to say about it, it would be my last.
28 Panther
THE SUN HAD barely begun to peek through the curtains when I rolled over onto my stomach, stretching out against the warm sheets. There was a delicious ache in my muscles, the kind that only came from a night of pure, body-devouring bliss. I opened my eyes to focus on the man sleeping soundly beside me and smiled.
Solo lay on his back, one arm curved up over his head, his breathing steady and quiet. It was amazing how innocent and peaceful he looked when he slept, especially when you considered the wild, unrestrained man he became during his waking hours. I knew him well enough now to know that wasn’t all there was to him, that beneath his exterior lay a vulnerability he wasn’t willing to show to just anyone.
; And he’s mine, I thought, tucking my arms under my pillow so I could get a better view of him. All mine.
Solo’s brows pulled together and he made a light groaning sound as he rolled to his side, facing me. I couldn’t resist reaching out to touch him. I brushed my fingers lightly over the side of his head where his hair was the shortest, content to watch him sleep for as long as he wanted to. But a few seconds later, he yawned and struggled to lift his heavy lids.
“You’re really fucking cute when you sleep,” I said, running my fingers down his stubbled jaw. Before I could pull away, he grabbed my wrist, keeping my hand on his face.
“Is that why you didn’t wake me up?” He stifled another yawn. “I’m not as cute when I’m awake?”
“Cute is not the word I’d use to describe you unless you’re sleeping, trust me.”
Solo grinned and kissed my palm. “No? What, then? Irresistible? Devastating? Exceptionally…large?”
Laughing, I pushed Solo onto his back, leaned over him, and planted a kiss below his ear. “All of those things,” I murmured, then kissed my way up his neck, over his jaw, landing on my favorite part of him, his mouth. I swept my lips over him once, twice, three times. Solo groaned and squeezed my ass.
“Just so you know, we’re not leaving this bed today,” he said, burrowing his face into my neck.
“No? Gonna chain me up and force me to stay?”
“If I have to. Or maybe that’ll just be foreplay.”
I grinned and rolled back to my side of the bed, grabbing my phone from the nightstand. “Let me just clear my busy schedule.”
“What, a play date with Houdini?”
“Close. We were gonna hit the gym later.”
“You mean I didn’t do a thorough enough job of wearing your ass out last night?” Solo scooted closer to me. “Guess I’ll have to bring it today.”
I chuckled and shot off a text, letting Houdini know I was out for the day. It was only after I’d sent the message that I realized how early it still was. Eh, the fucker would get it eventually.
After turning my phone off, I flipped onto my side so that Solo and I were facing each other. Last night had been so incredible, and he’d said exactly what I needed to hear, but there were still conversations that needed to be had—and with our time together at NAFTA running out, they needed to happen sooner rather than later.
Solo must’ve registered the change in my thoughts, because he sighed and reached for my hand, lacing his fingers with mine as it rested on the sheets between us. “I guess we need to address the elephant in the room, huh?”
Unable to resist, I lifted the sheet with our joined hands and took in an eyeful of his long, thick cock. “Pretty sure I already did last night. Several times.”
Solo groaned and pulled the sheet back down. “Don’t start with me or we’ll never stop, and that would be a huge fucking problem, because I know we need to have this conversation. So…let’s just get it over with already.”
Right to the point. That was my man.
“Okay.” I cleared my throat. “I guess we start with what we know.”
“Right,” Solo agreed, and then frowned. “So what do we know?”
“Well, we know we have a week until graduation.”
“Right.”
“And I’m pretty sure after last night we decided we want to try this thing out permanently.”
“Pretty sure?”
“Definitely sure.”
Solo smiled. “That’s better. What else do we know?”
“Uh… I think that about covers the known factors.”
“And the unknown would be”—he let go of my hand and began ticking the list off with his fingers—“we have no idea where we’ll be sent off to after graduation should we choose to accept our orders. We have no idea how long those missions will last or when we’ll see each other again.”
“Yeah,” I said, swallowing hard now that we were throwing our future out into the open to dissect. “So we just… I don’t know. Hope we end up within a thousand miles of each other? FaceTime on the regular? Visit during our time off?”
“I guess so.”
“I mean, what other options do we have?”
Solo looked down at our hands and stayed silent for a long time. So long that I began to wonder if there wasn’t some other elephant in the room I didn’t know about.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I said. “Just rip the Band-Aid off.”
When Solo’s eyes met mine, there was such a look of determination mixed with apprehensiveness that it made me wonder what the hell he was about to say.
“I’ve been having some thoughts,” he said slowly, as if whatever he was about to say was so foreign he had to roll them around on his tongue first. “What if…we made a different choice?”
29 Solo
IF SOMEONE HAD told me that during the last week of training at the Elite I would be contemplating anything other than kicking ass, taking home the trophy, and getting my orders to fly off to God knows where for my next mission, I would’ve told them they were fucking crazy.
But as I lay there next to Panther, the only thing I could think about was how we could be together if we were a million miles apart. Sure, there was the whole long-distance thing. But the idea of not being able to see him every day, of not being able to touch him, talk to him, and share my highs and lows was like a dark cloud hovering over us—one I had a feeling I wouldn’t shake if it became permanent.
“A different choice? Other than flying?” Panther’s eyes narrowed a fraction.
“Yeah. I mean, flying would have to be part of it—can you really imagine trying to ground me?”
Panther shook his head and laughed. “Not in a million years. Wouldn’t want to, either. Flying is in your blood. It’s who you are.”
“It is, but the missions? The kills? They get harder every time.”
Panther’s expression turned serious. “Have you had many of those?”
“Four.” I kicked the sheet down from our waists and rolled to my stomach.
Panther reached out to run his fingers over the star tattoos decorating the back of my thigh. “That’s what these represent?”
I nodded as Panther traced one of the stars from one point to another. “I got them so I would never forget, but they’re painful to look at, so—”
“You put them back here.”
“Right.”
Panther leaned over toward me, and I craned up to meet his lips. The kiss was gentle, almost reverent, and when he raised his head, the wonder in his eyes made my heart thump.
“You constantly surprise me, you know that?”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” Panther pressed another soft kiss to my lips and then propped his head up on his palm. “Actually, I’ve been feeling a bit of a disconnect myself lately.”
“Really?”
“Mhmm.” Panther started to fiddle with his dog tags. “I mean, like you, I can’t imagine not flying in some capacity. But the idea of being shipped off somewhere you’re not? I…I hate it. God, is that crazy? That after a handful of weeks with you I can’t imagine even a day without you?”
“Grant?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s about the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” As a blush bloomed on Panther’s cheeks, I chuckled and scooted over to kiss him. “And guess what?”
“What?”
“I want to be where you are too. So…now what?”
Panther shifted to his back. I moved into the crook of his arm and placed a kiss to his chest, and he smiled down at me.
“Now we think. We finish out our training, and then we look at our options.”
A silence fell, heavy but not uncomfortable as we each thought about what the other had said. This was big. As in life-changing. Here we were, two guys who came into the Elite Academy with one goal in mind: to come out on top. We wanted to rule the air, be crowned the king of the sky, and walk away with every opportunity such a pres
tigious title would afford.
Now? Now we wanted all of those things, but so we could choose what we wanted next with each other, and that was huge.
“You okay?” Panther’s voice was a whisper in my ear.
“Yeah, I’m good. Was just thinking.”
Panther’s arm tightened around me, and I felt his lips in my hair. “About?”
“About how quickly things can change.” When Panther tensed, I pressed a kiss to his chest. “In a good way. How quickly they can change in the best possible way.”
He let out a sigh of relief and shut his eyes. I pushed up so I could look down at the face that had captured me from the second I’d seen it.
A strong jaw lined with dark stubble, arresting blue eyes that saw everything and promised the world, and a mouth that made me want to get close enough to taste forever. It was a face I wanted to wake up to and go to sleep seeing each night, and no matter what happened after graduation, I knew I would be with him and he with me.
“Stop staring.”
I grinned and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Never.”
He shifted to roll me up on top of him, then spread his legs so I could nestle between his thighs. “That sounds promising.”
I placed my hands on either side of his head. “That’s a threat, not a promise. You, Grant Hughes, are stuck with me forever now. There’s no getting out of it.”
“No?” Panther said, and began to wind his long, muscled legs around me. “Damn. And here I thought if I told you I loved you, you’d run.”
I rocked my hips over the top of his. “Bullshit.”
“Hmm,” Panther said, and smoothed his hands down my sides to my ass. “Tell me again…”
He didn’t need to say what it was he wanted to hear. I already knew. “I love you.”
Panther grinned. My stomach flipped and my heart began to pound, and I felt as though I was experiencing the best high of my life.
As I pressed kisses down that strong jaw, along his neck to the center of his collarbone, I said, “I love you… I love you… I. Love. You.”
Classified (The Elite Book 3) Page 10
