Easton: Forbidden: Paranormal Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Do you really think that will work?” Easton looked at Wayne when he asked that of Jake. “I mean, when he left he said that he’s been infecting people for a long time. And that nothing would stop him.”

  “I do think that it will slow him down.”

  That didn’t seem to satisfy Wayne, and he wondered why. “I’ve not had the opportunity to talk to Easton about him yet. I was trying to, but we have a lifetime of shit going on right now.”

  Jake nodded, then smiled. “You actually have more than a single lifetime, Wayne. When you stepped through the doorway here, we brought you into our family. You, as well as Cara and Easton, are immortals.” No one said anything. “None of you can be harmed by what is coming our way.”

  Chapter 5

  Sitting out on the back deck, unmindful of the cold that was settling in around the area, Wayne thought about what he’d just been told. Thomas had done just what he’d threatened to do, and had killed several people. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when Easton came out and joined him. Before he could speak, Wayne told him what was on his mind.

  “I know that you went to a great expense in having your things brought out here, and I’ll pay for that. I’ll even try and find you a place to live. Also, a nanny. Unless you’d like for Cara to come and live with you. She had nothing to do with my decisions concerning Thomas.” Easton asked him if he was kicking him out. “No, nothing like that. I just realized that you will not be able to stay with me when I had a total disregard for my fellow man in this concerning Thomas.”

  “Are you finished?” Wayne looked at Easton. “I just want to make sure you get this all out of your system before I have to pound you to death. What makes you think that your disregard, as you called it, is any different than the ones that I had concerning my sister? I mean, she was at least blood related to me when I left her to Wendell.”

  “You could be hurt by him.” Wayne found himself on the light snow that had accumulated on the deck. “What the fuck was that for? Why did you dump me to the floor like that?”

  “You’re a fool if you think this will make me run in any direction other than right by your side. In front of you too, should that be needed.” Wayne said that he didn’t understand. “Obviously. I told you, I love you. I don’t know how you feel about that, but to me that means that we’re in whatever comes along together. Not working to get the other person out of our life because we’re afraid the other might be hurt. We both have been, in the event you didn’t notice that. And badly. But I’m just now coming to the conclusion that I can do whatever I need to so long as you’re there with me. I can’t help you, or myself, if I constantly have to be wondering if you’re going to toss me to the side when things get bad.”

  “I’m sorry. I was just thinking of you.” Easton put out his hand and Wayne eyed it before looking at him. “Are you going to hurt me if I take that?”

  “Are you going to hurt me if I tell you that I want to stay with you forever?” Shaking his head no, he took the arm offered to him. “We need to have some time to be together. Not just to talk, but to spend time getting a feel for each other too.”

  “I agree.” Pulling Easton to him, he kissed him, showing him all the pent up sexual need that he’d been feeling over the last few days. When he pulled away, they were both panting. Wayne thought that was a good sign. “I don’t know how much longer I can give you before I die of lack of sex. I’m sure that there is a term for that, but right now all I can think about is having your cock in my mouth.”

  Taking his mouth again, Easton shifted them both around until they were at the side of the house instead of in front of the window. Before he could guess or even hope what his intentions were, Easton was down in front of him. He was pulling his zipper down even as Wayne was trying to get a grip on himself.

  His mouth was hotter than anything he’d ever felt before. Smooth and tight. Wayne thought that he could spend the rest of his life like this and never tire of having his cock where it was. Easton pulled his pants down further until his balls were exposed, and took them into his hands. Wayne nearly came then, it had been such an unexpected thrill for him.

  Easton dug his nails into his ass, holding him still when he wasn’t fondling his balls. Wayne wasn’t sure that he could speak, much less beg for more, when he felt Easton’s tongue swirl around his crown. It was too much and not enough at the same time.

  Each time he was touched in a different place, he knew that he was going to come. This was fast and dirty sex, Wayne knew, but to him it was a powerful way to be together. When Easton stood up and turned him around, it was all he could do not to grab his cock and do the same thing to him that Easton had done to him. Then Easton entered him from behind.

  He was thick and hard. It was painful and wonderfully fulfilling too. Each time he stroked him, Wayne came a little bit more. When Easton wrapped his hand around his cock, Wayne watched as he fucked him hard and jerked his cock in the same smooth motions. As soon as he felt his climax take him, Wayne knew that he had to mark his mate.

  Turning around was hard to do. Not because Easton wouldn’t allow him to, but it meant that he was giving up being fucked. Holding onto his own cock when Easton wrapped his hand around his own, they came together, spraying each other with all that they had.

  They leaned heavily on each other as they tried to catch their breath. Wayne felt the coldness seep into the mess that they’d made on each other, and laughed. Lifting his head seemed to cost Easton when he asked him what was wrong.

  “I don’t know if you have anything else to wear.” Then Easton laughed. It felt good after the almost violent way they’d taken each other. When Easton said that he’d go to the car to get himself a shirt, he was suddenly wearing one. A bright blue one that Wayne had never seen before. “How the hell did you do that?”

  “I haven’t any idea.” Stepping back more, both of them fixed up their pants. It was scary having a shirt just come out of thin air that way. “I’m betting that it’s some of the magic that Cam was telling me about when you came out here. We’re supposed to be able to do a lot of things that we couldn’t before. Think of something else that you’d like to wear and see if you get it too.”

  “No, I’m not ready for any more magical tricks right now. I’m barely recovered from having you come all over me.” The laugh wasn’t forced or nervous sounding from Easton, and Wayne was glad for that. “You do it, and see if you can put on the same shirt you had on before.”

  He did it, and the shirt that he’d had on before, cleaned up this time, appeared on his body. This was crazy and great at the same time. Wayne could think of all kinds of applications where something like being able to dress yourself like this would be helpful.

  “Now do you believe me when I tell you that I love you?” Wayne nodded, his eyes filling with unshed tears. “We have to stick together on this—you know that, don’t you? If we don’t, then we fail as a single person. I need you in my life. I think today made me realize just how much I do need you.”

  “I need you as well. I should have told you about Thomas and his threats. It was wrong of me to keep it from you.” Easton said that he’d been doing a lot of whining himself lately, and that could have been it. “Yes, well, I think we both need to get our shit together and start living as a couple, instead of people who live in the same house together and don’t speak.”

  “I agree.”

  Wayne and Easton went back to sit on the deck. He felt better now. Not solely having to do with the sex, though that had helped, but because he did have someone at his side. Easton asked him what he wanted to do now. “We take this as it comes. We both are coming into this relationship with baggage, and we’ll deal with it as it comes around. I think we’ll be able to do that, too, now that we’re not fighting against each other trying to protect the other.”

  By the time they were called in for dinner, Wayne felt like this thing with T
homas wasn’t that big of a deal. It was, but with help—and he was assured that he had plenty of that—he could come out on top rather than just sitting back and bitching about how things were not going his way. They both, Easton told him, had been bitchy enough.

  Dinner with these people was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. Not even when he’d gone to pack meetings as a child did he remember so much fun at the tables. These people had opened their hearts and their home to them, and that was just what he and Easton had needed.

  “What have you figured out about the magic?” Wayne felt his face heat up when he thought about what they’d figured out and why they had been on the back deck. But Henry didn’t seem to notice his embarrassment. “Have any more ghosts made themselves known to you?”

  “I saw one when I was putting Abby down for a nap today.” Wayne asked Cara where that was. “At our house. She didn’t want anything other than to see the babies. Then when we brought Alex home from the hospital, she was there again with a couple more women.”

  “They watch over the children like no one else will. They’ll even warn you when there is trouble. Child-like adults can see them too.” Henry pointed to Christy. “She’s been helping me with some of the issues that come up with them. Christy will tell you that it’s because she’s a dummy, but I think it’s because of her kindness and ability to have sympathy when it’s needed.”

  “Why did you have us here tonight?” Everyone turned to Easton when he asked. “Not that I’m not happy that you did. But I have a feeling that it was more than just having us over for dinner to get to know us. There was an urgency with Henry that made us all think that we’d be hurt if we didn’t come.”

  Cattie nodded, and Wayne wanted to tell her not to share. Whatever it was, he was sure that it was going to mess up their perfect evening. Cattie looked at her brother, and he started to speak.

  “I can see the future. Not all the time, but enough that I can get feelings when something is going to happen. Today I had that feeling when I was talking to Henry about Thomas. I don’t know what it was about, but it felt important to you and us that you were here this evening.” Easton asked him why they’d not just told them that at the beginning. “Because, as I said, I don’t know what it was that I was feeling. I thought, I guess, that you’d just blow me off and say that you had other plans. Did you?”

  “No. None at all.” Easton looked at Wayne before talking again to Cam. “Will you know when it’s safe or when whatever happens happens?”

  “Usually I do. So far I’ve gotten nothing more from it.” Wayne asked him if that was normal. “Yes. Something is there, but so far all I can tell from it is that you would be safer here. It’s also the reason that I had Brody release Alex like he did. I knew that it was important that we all were together when whatever it was went down.”

  “You sound nuts. You know that, don’t you?” Cam laughed with him. “I’m learning not to blow off anything anymore. I might slip, but it’s been pointed out to me recently that I can get more results from working with someone than I can trying to do it all on my own.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  They were all talking over each other again when Forrest got up to answer his cell phone. When he came back, he looked tense. While Wayne didn’t want to know what was going on, he felt that whatever it was, it might well have been the reason for them being here. Easton took his hand under the table when Forrest said that he had something to tell them all.

  “The full page ad in some states was run in the evening editions. The calls that are coming in are huge in regards to Thomas. So far the people who are saying that they have slept with the man, or even had a one night stand with him, are upwards of the hundreds. Some of them date before he lived briefly with you, Wayne.” He didn’t know what to say, but did grip Easton’s hand tighter when Forrest looked at Cam. “He’s not only in this area, but has been arrested this evening. He broke into a house and burned it to the ground.”

  “My house.” Forrest looked at Wayne and nodded. “He broke into my home, and if we had been there, he would have killed us. Is that what you think would have happened?”

  “Yes. He had several guns with him when he was caught running from the scene of the fire. They hadn’t contacted you as yet because you changed out your phone number, and hadn’t given it to your insurance company. The police called me because they heard that we were friends.” Wayne nodded. He wasn’t sure how to feel right now. “I’m so sorry, Wayne, but you weren’t hurt. Being an immortal will keep you from being killed, but it won’t keep you from being burnt badly. You were right to come here tonight.”

  “Yes, I guess we were.” Wayne looked at Easton, who put his hand over his mouth. Kissing his palm, he told him that he was glad that he was there with him too. “You probably saved our lives by convincing us to come here. I was more than willing to stay home tonight.”

  “We’ll help you with getting a new place.” Wayne said thanks, but that wasn’t necessary since he was a real estate agent when Rick, Henry’s mate, spoke up. “You’ll be fine. And you’ll stay with one of us until the insurance company pays off. You’ll see, this will be a fresh start for all of you.”

  It would be too. A place for them to pick out their home together and begin anew. Wayne asked Easton if he was upset by this new development.

  “No, not really. I didn’t have anything there that I can’t live without. The few things that I did have there weren’t all that much anyway. You must have lost a great deal more than I have.” Wayne smiled at him. “I like that smile. It tells me that we’re going to be just fine.”

  “We are. We really are.” Standing up, he picked up his wine glass and cleared his throat to speak. “To friendship and friends. Thank you so much for being there for us today, and for the rest of our lives.”

  All around the table they clinked glasses. For the first time in his life, Wayne felt like he was on the right path. That whatever came would be easily conquered. There were more of them now to lean on, something that he hadn’t had since he was a child. But most importantly, he had a mate now, someone that would lean on him when he needed it too.

  ~*~

  Easton wandered around the room three times before he could speak. It was the first time that he and Wayne would sleep in the same bed, and doing it in someone else’s house sort of freaked him out a little. Of course, they’d broken the ice, so to speak, on the porch earlier.

  “Are you all right?” He looked at Wayne and shook his head. “Yeah, I can tell that. Why don’t you just come here and lie down? That way you can relax before you have a stroke and people think that I killed you with my manliness.”

  Easton burst out laughing, just what he needed to make himself relax—and what Wayne had figured, he supposed. Getting into the bed with his underpants on, he was glad that Wayne gave him a few minutes before he put his head on his chest. That, too, seemed to relax him a great deal.

  “What sort of house are you thinking we might need?” The question wasn’t anything that he’d been thinking about, but it did seem to be important. “The house that I had was all right. But, as I’m sure you can understand, has some bad memories for both Cara and me.”

  “Yes, I can understand that. Did you lose much stuff in the house?” Wayne told him that there were a few things that he’d not be able to replace, but they were all safe and healthy and that was all that mattered. “You’re right. Things are just that, things. I’m glad that we weren’t there. I’d hate to think that he might have hurt one of us.”

  “I have to tell you about him. Thomas. He and I met about a year ago. Nothing ever came of it; we were at the same party or something. I think it was an open house I was viewing. Anyway, he was introduced to me and that was it. About a couple of months later, he showed up at one of my open houses. He walked around the house, sort of helping me sell it. I was more annoyed than I was glad for it. Tho
mas didn’t know shit about the house, and was blowing wind up the peoples’ asses. After it was finished, he came to me again and asked about his part of the commission for helping me.” Easton thought that was ballsy, and said so to Wayne. “You don’t know the half of it. The very next weekend he was there again. Not only did he do the same thing, but he was putting it out there that we were partners. This time I sent him on his way, and told him to stay the fuck away.”

  “How did he become your lover?” Wayne looked at him, then laid back down after telling him that they were never lovers. “I’m sorry. I just thought that since you knew he was a carrier that you had…. Sorry, go on.”

  “Thomas came by the next weekend, but he didn’t try and sell the house. He told me that he liked me, and was trying to show that he could be a part of my life. I wasn’t sure that I even wanted him in the same county with me, much less in my life. When we shook hands, the first time that we even touched each other, he pulled me to him for a kiss. I could taste it on him—the sickness that he had. At that time, I didn’t know if he knew so I didn’t say anything. The next day, less than twenty-four hours after I told him that I’d think about things, he shows up at my door with all his worldly possessions. Which weren’t all that much.”

  “Are you kidding me? He was ready to move in?” Wayne said that he was more than willing to sleep with him as well. “Christ, I was wrong about him being ballsy. He’s off his fucking rocker.”

  “Cara and I talked it over, and we let him stay in one of the spare bedrooms. I never told her what I’d found out until the next day. As you can well imagine, she was hot. Thomas came to the breakfast table naked, with another man. That was when Cara lost her cool. Christ, I wish I had recorded it. She was amazing.” Easton laughed. “Anyway, while he was throwing his shit back into his suitcases and bitching about how I’d not been as good a friend as he’d been to me, I just stood there. Honestly, I had no idea what to say to him. We were never friends, and the fact that he’d brought another man into my home was not the way friendships work. While I was standing there, I looked to his bed partner and asked if he’d used a condom. Then I told him what I knew about Thomas.”