Running on Empty

by SE Jakes

  “Wasn’t a suggestion.” Mercy patted his thighs and Linc shook his head, even as his legs moved him a few steps closer, registering the inevitable surrender. “After I suck and bite, I might let you come, all over yourself. Or maybe I’ll stop you, bend you over this table.” His fingers lingered over the wooden table behind him.

  Before Linc could eek out another word, he was fully clothed in Mercy’s lap, straddling him.

  “Good boy,” Mercy said approvingly, and only Mercy could get away with calling him that . . . and only in situations like this. He knew Linc’s weak spots, and Linc’s weakness for him, in bed and otherwise.

  But there was something to be said about being so free in bed, and being with someone who let you be that free, because that translated into letting you be free in all other areas of your life and your relationship.

  But it was hard, because Mercy could see right through him . . . and right now, Linc didn’t want to be seen.

  Mercy knew it too, and that made it both better and that much worse. Because what they’d done so far? Fucking tame compared to the way they’d been. And it had been good, still, but this? This was very familiar.

  “By the way . . . our test results came in,” Mercy said as he used Linc’s tie to pull him closer. “We’re both negative.”

  Linc’s heart thudded. “Good. No more condoms. Unless . . .”

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless you don’t want to be exclusive,” Linc whispered.

  Mercy’s smile became even more wicked. “I’ll show you how exclusive we’re going to be, baby.”

  Linc didn’t think it was possible for his dick to get any harder . . . but it began to twitch and throb, and he figured he could probably come on the spot if Mercy commanded him to. As if he knew, Mercy smirked, then rucked up Linc’s shirts so he could slide his hands underneath to touch Linc’s skin, then skimmed his palms along Linc’s chest, thumbs brushing his nipples, which were always too fucking sensitive for their own good. “You like that, baby?”

  Mercy demanded answers, even though his tone wasn’t angry.

  “Yes,” Linc managed, voice wavering slightly. Mercy took pity on him and rolled Linc’s nipples between his thumb and fingertips, causing Linc to arch back and then press into his hands. “Fuck, Mercy . . . that’s . . .”

  “What you need.” Mercy squeezed, then stopped for a quick moment to strip Linc of his shirts, although after he took off Linc’s undershirt and discarded it, he put Linc’s dress shirt back on him, half buttoned up.

  Linc got it then—Mercy was into the goddamned suit, and maybe Linc wasn’t in as much trouble as he thought about Castle . . . or maybe he was.

  He couldn’t stop to consider it because Mercy definitely wasn’t stopping. At all. He used the tie to bind Linc’s hands behind his back and then, without further hesitation, he leaned in. Pushing the shirt out of the way, he sucked a nipple hard, then bit it with just enough bite to make Linc groan in surrender as the jolt of passion went from his nipple to his groin in a straight goddamned line of lightning.

  Mercy murmured, “You just let go, Linc. You make yourself come just from my tongue and then I’ll spread you, fuck you . . . make you beg. Just like you like.”

  Linc knew anything he said would come out a jumble of incoherence. And then he didn’t give a shit—Mercy punished his nipples with tongue, teeth and fingers, as Linc was forced, with his cock trapped in his pants, to writhe against Mercy to make himself come. All of this was Linc’s kink and Mercy had known it from the start. Coincidence or fate, Linc didn’t know and why the hell should he care when it felt this good?

  All he cared about was coming. Hard. Stars swam behind his eyes as his entire body let out an exaggerated shudder. He remained pressed to Mercy, until Mercy pulled him off, half carried him to the kitchen table, and began stripping his pants down around his ankles, rubbing his come into his belly, getting it on his own fingers and tracing Linc’s ass with it, slicking him.

  Then he bent Linc over the table, chest down, before untying his hands from behind his back . . . only to retie them as they stretched out in front of him.

  “Spread your legs, baby,” Mercy urged, helping him balance, then using his fingers, slicked with Linc’s come, to open him up. “Good boy, Linc. Let me hear you whimper. Have you splayed out here, helpless. Doors unlocked. Maybe I should just open it and let everyone see you like this. I’m betting they’ll hear you beg and come running to take a turn.”

  “Mercy . . . Christ . . . please.” He didn’t even know what he was begging for anymore. He heard the scrape of the chair on the floor and then Mercy’s hands were on his ass cheeks, holding him open.

  Blowing on his hole.

  Linc squirmed—pleasure mixed with humiliation. He tried to hump the table but he couldn’t. The friction was minimal and he needed . . . so much more.

  Mercy leaned in and licked Linc’s hole, a hot drag that made him keen. “You’ll do what I say?”

  But before he let Linc answer, Mercy buried his face and began to eat his ass, holding him open, sucking, licking, laving a trail of hot fire that threatened to overwhelm him. Linc’s legs were shaking, and he couldn’t hide his complete and utter pleasure the torture Mercy’s tongue was bringing to him. Mercy sucked at his hole, then licked, then fucked him with it, and he was almost to the point of incoherence. He wasn’t anything but raw need, exploded nerve endings and pure sensation.

  Finally, Mercy pulled back and asked again, “You’ll do what I say?”

  “Yes,” Linc practically sobbed. “Anything, Mercy . . . please, yes . . .”

  “Across my lap after this—no questions asked.”

  “Yes, please—I need . . .”

  “Tell me what you need.”

  “You. Your cock in me. Fucking me. Filling me. Your hand on my ass—all of it.” Christ, he couldn’t babble fast enough, the relief of the court case being dismissed, coupled with the tension from the Castle meeting, and he needed Mercy to untwist him.

  Mercy’s fingers and tongue withdrew completely after Linc’s verbal compliance, and Linc whimpered from the sudden loss of contact. Cold lube squirted onto his hot skin, a brief respite.

  Linc was flat-footed on the ground, chest held against the table, being spread and teased. Then Mercy’s cock pressed his hole, and Linc groaned at the intrusion. Even though Mercy had worked him open, it would always burn.

  “So goddamned tight, Linc. You’re like a vise.” Mercy gritted his teeth as he pushed forward. Both were slick with sweat, panting. Mercy bottomed out and Linc swore he could feel the man’s gaze staring at the way his cock had to look, buried in Linc. “So hot, baby. You should see how good my cock looks filling your sweet ass.”

  Linc’s only response was a keening wail, because Mercy had pressed forward, hard, hitting his gland.

  Mercy held Linc down because he was almost vibrating off the table.

  “Mercy, please.” Linc was practically clawing the table, splaying his fingers to try to catch the edge and stay put. “Mercy, I’m . . .” The words were barely out when Linc came, his cock spurting between his belly and the table, the friction he’d gotten there leaving him unable to do anything but grind against it like a fucking whore.

  Mercy didn’t stop hammering inside of him, which stretched his orgasm out, until finally Mercy came and Linc felt him throb inside of him, felt the thick stream of come filling him.

  And then Mercy pulled out, pressed his mouth to Linc’s hole, and sucked. Linc couldn’t fight it, just lay there, boneless. Mercy came back up and laid his body over him, pulled Linc’s head so he could reach Linc’s mouth. Kissed him, and let Linc taste his own come, which Linc sucked eagerly.

  Christ, when had he become such a slut for this man?

  Before they took you. And now again . . .

  Linc wanted to sob with relief. Even as Mercy eased him off the table and walked him to the couch, made him lie over his lap and brought his hand down on his bare ass, making him
count until he came again all over Mercy’s legs, the tears shining in his eyes were because Linc knew he could be him again. Maybe not all the time, maybe not even tomorrow . . . but now. Right now.

  And that was all that counted.

  Mercy practically carried his boy upstairs and held him up in the shower to wash him off. Linc remained half wrapped around him as Mercy soaped them both, murmuring to him.

  He dried them and put cream on Linc’s reddened ass as Linc lay facedown on the bed, a soft smile on his face.

  “You okay, baby?”

  “More than,” Linc assured him.

  Mercy was hard—again—and he wanted to bury himself inside of Linc again. But he wouldn’t push it.

  Linc went into the bonds shop the next day and once again avoided talking about Ty. Luckily, the shop was busy, thanks to several bar fights the night before, and that kept his mind off having to think about Ty or Castle’s offer. Last night, Mercy had kept him busy as well. Linc could avoid thinking all together.

  Tug had to get back to Havoc early for church, so Rush was his ride today. By the time Linc locked up, Rush was out of his car, talking to Harry. Harry was the son of one of Havoc’s men, an eighteen-year-old senior who was the ringleader of most of the high school-aged kids on the compound, and he and Rush were laughing.

  “Hey, Linc—heard court went well yesterday. I’m glad.” Harry gave him a nod as he walked away from Rush.

  “Yeah, it did. Thanks.” Linc went to his friend. “So the entire compound knows about my court date.”

  “Did you expect anything less?”

  “I guess not.” He looked to where Harry’s truck was pulling away. “What was that all about?”

  Rush smiled. “He just had to share some information with me. He does as much sneaking out as you do.”

  Linc ignored that. “And he tells you about it?”

  “He likes to know he’s got a backup, just in case. It’s smart, mainly because he brings half the Havoc kids with him.”

  “Where do they go?”

  “The park near Bertha’s. It’s far enough away from Havoc and it’s not heavily policed. Pretty private.” Rush shrugged. “They don’t do it often and since the lockdown, they haven’t gone near the place. But maybe when they sneak out on Friday, you can catch a ride with them.”

  Linc tensed, but he managed to tell Rush, “Ha ha. Funny.”

  The smile left Rush’s face. “Want to tell me what Castle was doing here yesterday?”

  Had Rush spied on him in the diner? Did Tug know? Did Mercy? “He lives in the area, remember?”

  “Oh, okay.” Rush glanced at him. “And that’s it?”

  “And that’s it.”

  “C’mon, Linc.”

  “What? Do you get to question me like Mercy now too? Do you have a report to fill out?” Linc shifted irritably.

  “Fuck off, Linc. Why can’t you just answer the question?”

  “Because I don’t have to.”

  Rush walked around to the driver’s side and Linc joined him inside the car. Rush pulled away from the curb before continuing his line of questioning. “Why can’t you just tell me? What are you hiding?”

  “And here I thought I was all done with court.”

  Rush didn’t say anything for a long while, not until the pulled onto Havoc land. “You were gone, Linc, and I didn’t even know. I was wrapped up in a job and Sweet didn’t want to worry me and when he did tell me, I figured you were just . . . being you.”

  “So you’re going to track my every move from now on so that never happens again?”

  “Fuck you.” Rush stopped hard in front of Mercy’s house.

  Linc went to get out of the car, but Rush locked the doors. Like that would stop him. “More questions, Sean?”

  Rush turned to face him, his voice hard. “You slept with Castle, didn’t you?”

  “Today? No.”

  “So you did fuck him. Is that why you got such good grades?”

  “Oh fuck you hard, Sean,” Linc shot back irritably.

  “You barely paid attention, you didn’t study, and you were still top of the class.”

  “I’m a good test-taker.”

  “Yeah, how exactly were you taking those tests?”

  “You’re serious?” Linc heard the anger and hurt in his own voice. If Rush had been joking, teasing, that would be cool with him, but he wasn’t kidding, and fuck. “What the hell do you think of me?”

  “You sleep with a lot of people.”

  “So that means I do it to get ahead in my life? It was a couple of classes. They didn’t get us a pay raise.”

  Granted, it had brought the FBI’s attention to Linc, but that was based on rifle quals and other factors. His test scores in that class had pushed him over the edge but he definitely hadn’t fucked Castle to get them. Just the opposite, in fact. And the fact that one of his best friends thought that . . . “Forget it. I thought you knew me.”

  “I do know you, Linc. When things get hard or scary, you run.” Linc just stared at him as Rush continued. “And you ran and got yourself in trouble with Heathens because you couldn’t be bothered to confide in me—or anyone.”

  Rush was angry and frustrated—no more than Linc was—but Linc was too stunned to even speak.

  Instead, he unlocked the door and got out, slamming the door behind him. But Rush rolled the window down and called after him, “Right—run the way you always do, Linc.”

  Linc ignored him as a hot wave of shame and anger covered him, and he kept walking until he was safely inside the house. It was only then that he heard the rev of Rush’s car leaving, pealing away from the curb, and he realized he didn’t have the luxury of not thinking any longer.

  Mercy heard Rush’s voice calling to Linc, heard Linc come in and slam the door, but didn’t think anything of it . . . not until he came into the kitchen and found Linc had walked out onto the back porch, leaving the door opened behind him.

  “Linc, what’s going on?” Mercy took in Linc’s clenched fists and the fact that his body was practically vibrating with anger, looking into the now-darkening sky.

  He heard Linc’s breaths, harsh and pulling, and he moved closer. “Linc, come on, talk to me.”

  Linc shook his head but he turned and faced Mercy with a look of utter despair on his face.

  Mercy tried again. “Are you hurt physically?”

  Linc shook his head no.

  “Do you want me to call someone? Maybe Rush—”

  At Rush’s name, Linc’s eyes hardened and fuck, he was upset with Rush? “Linc, I just want you to breathe, baby. You don’t have to tell me shit, but just breathe.”

  Linc let out a breath. Blinked. “It’s cold out here.”

  Mercy guided him inside, sat him on the couch, and made him drink a couple of fingers of bourbon, because the man needed to calm the fuck down.

  As he poured the drink, he texted Ryker. What the hell between these two?

  Bad fight. Rush isn’t talking, but he’s upset as fuck.

  After Linc downed the drink, Mercy gave him a second one, which Linc nursed.

  Mercy sat across from him. “So, you and Rush had a fight.”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s never easy when it’s a best friend. Sweet and I . . . well, we’ve had our share of knock-down, drag-outs over the years. We’ve come to blows. We’ve gone weeks without talking. We tend to hurt those we love the most, and it’s usually because we’re scared.”

  Linc downed the rest of the second drink. “You done, Dr. Phil?”

  Mercy couldn’t help it—he laughed. That made Linc snort and then he sat back and smiled.

  “It can be fixed,” Mercy assured him.

  “Maybe. But I can’t change people’s perceptions of me. Not someone I trust.”

  “He’s worried.”

  “Are you?”

  “Yes.”

  “You think I run when the going gets tough?”

  “I think you like your freedom
. I think you’re hiding something that could explain a lot. But I think loving you means trusting you, so that’s what I’m doing.”

  Linc stood and walked over to where Mercy sat, climbed into his lap, and sank against him. “Thank you, Mercy.”

  Mercy’s arms went around him. “Anytime, baby.”

  “I wasn’t running from you. I wasn’t.”

  “I believe you. I should’ve known it then.”

  Linc hugged him hard. Mercy felt the sobs, silent as they were, and he just murmured that everything would be fine until Linc calmed.

  By that point, Linc was practically asleep. Mercy carried him to the couch and laid him down, covered him with a blanket, and put his phone within reach. Left him a text saying he was going out on patrol and to call when he woke up.

  Fuck, he hated leaving Linc, but hopefully he’d sleep for the next few hours and then Mercy would be done with patrols. He was just going out with Tug and Boomer to a new bar on the strip on the very edge of town that was supposedly being shaken down by Pagans.

  “Pagans are trying to make it their place in Shades,” Boomer had explained. “With the Heathens trying to regroup, I’d be surprised if they weren’t trying for a total takeover.”

  As friendly as Pagans and Heathens were, Mercy could believe it to be true. For the twenty-minute ride, he let the road own him, soothe him, and rile him up, all at once. It was similar to what Linc did to him—and for him, he realized.

  Their attraction had been immediate and intense. Unmistakable. It was no coincidence that Linc was the first person he’d ever met (and he’d met a lot of people along the way) that Mercy was both attracted to and jealous of at the same time . . . because Linc was a free bird, and watching him simply enjoy himself had been a thing of goddamned beauty.

  Linc was also the polar opposite of Mercy’s first love, David, because David and Mercy’d both had to hide who they were, at least for a while. Linc didn’t give a shit who knew he was bi. Hadn’t cared when Mercy began making out with him in the middle of Bertha’s, and later at the Havoc clubhouse.

  Later that night, Mercy had fucked him in one of the back rooms, over and over, and they’d ended up passing out together.