He laughed quietly to himself, turned over onto his stomach, and hugged his pillow to him. He took a deep breath and fell asleep on the exhale.
Chapter Seven
That door was right in front of him, and he pushed through it eagerly. Today Kian was standing behind his coffee machine. He looked up as he heard the door open, and a smile broke over his face. To Nathan it was like the sun had started shining. He made his way to the counter and hiked himself onto a stool there. He waited while Kian served his customer before he rushed over to Nathan, smiling. Nathan felt himself reeled in and his lips plundered. He tasted Kian on his tongue and held Kian’s scent in his nose and felt himself relax into the kiss, claiming him heart, body, and soul. Nathan melted willingly. Eventually Kian pulled back. He was still smiling. Nathan forced himself to not follow Kian’s retreating lips and remain on his stool.
“Wow, that’s a hell of a welcome,” he rasped out.
He looked over Kian’s shoulder at the mirror behind the counter. He was shocked to see his face. He looked completely ravaged. His lips were slightly puffed, red, and shining wetly. His eyes were twinkling in the light, his pupils larger than normal. Even his cheeks were flushed, and what the hell had happened to his hair? He didn’t remember Kian running his hands through it, but he must have because it was a mess. He looked away when he heard Kian chuckle. He reached for Nathan again, this time running his fingers over Nathan’s hair and straightening it as much as possible.
Kian walked away cheerfully. He pulled off his apron and grabbed a basket sitting on the table. “Chris, I’m going out for a few hours. Place is yours. Don’t destroy my business,” he called out as he started around the counter. Nathan saw a pale, blonde-haired elderly lady pop her head out of the far back room.
She slowly walked out, wiping her hands on a tea towel. She waved at them. “Oh, he’s pretty Kian. Go ahead and have fun, sweetie. The place will be fine without you.”
Kian laughed, happily grabbing Nathan’s hand and pulling him out of the door. They were a block away from the cafe before Nathan’s brain caught up with his feet.
“Where are we going?” he asked while he reached around and took the basket from Kian.
Kian released his burden before answering. “We are going to have a picnic. We have pies and drinks packed in that basket there. I thought we’d go and spend some time in that park over there. Sit by the lake or fountain and talk. Maybe just sit in the sun and vegetate even.”
There was nothing Nathan could say to that, so he settled in to just enjoy himself and his company.
* * * *
Nathan was stretched out on his back with Kian resting against his shoulder. They were sitting in dappled shade under a weeping willow by the lake. The tendril-like branches of the willow gave them some semblance of privacy. So they were lying back on a checked blanket, just enjoying each other’s company and the warm weather. Nathan rubbed at his full belly. He turned his head enough to kiss Kian’s temple.
“Thank you for this. This was a great idea. The food was fantastic, and the company irreplaceable,” he whispered into Kian’s hair.
Kian sighed and moved around until he was straddling Nathan’s hips. He leaned down and dropped a brief kiss to Nathan’s lips. “You’re very welcome. I thought it would be nice to get out with you during the day. I’ve always liked picnics, so I wanted to share one with you. I knew Chris would be with me today, so I knew I could get away for a few hours. So did you have a chance to investigate me? Am I real, or is all this just in your imagination?” Kian finished on a sigh.
Nathan could see the apprehension in Kian’s eyes. He reached up and twined his fingers through Kian’s hair, just wrapping it around his fingers for a few seconds before he smiled and answered.
“You are very, very real. My people don’t know what is happening or how it’s happening, but somehow I appear to be bouncing from my own time to this time, the past, in my sleep. They think it’s something Mother Nature and Lady Luck and the Fates or some other Supernaturals have done. They want to bring you forward to my time eventually because, no matter how I react to this age currently, it may be too much for me to live here.”
Kian was nodding at him, slowly biting at his lips. Eyes locked to Nathan’s serious face.
“Also, we don’t know if I wouldn’t keep time bouncing if I tried to stay here. If you came forward, we think I could be an anchor for you. The research they have done, which admittedly isn’t much, suggests if we could bring you into the future you would be able to stick there with me because there shouldn’t be any reason for you to come back here. That’s the theory anyway.”
Nathan finished with a shrug. He kept his hands roaming over Kian as he spoke, moving over Kian’s thighs and hips. Almost trying to find a way to anchor them together even unconsciously.
Kian just nodded slowly, his face calm, and Nathan could almost hear Kian’s brain thinking. “So, you found out about me, yeah?” Kian asked, nibbling on his bottom lip thoughtfully.
Nathan nodded “At least everything on public record, anyway.”
“That means things like my birth notice, my parents’ marriage notice, and their deaths, too?”
Nathan nodded again slowly.
“When I started the Shoebox?”
“Yes.”
“When I died?” Kian finally asked quietly.
Nathan swallowed convulsively and nodded.
“How? Old age?” Kian asked hopefully.
Nathan looked away. He couldn’t look Kian in the eyes.
“Okay, so not old age or natural causes,” Kian whispered, running his hands over Nathan’s chest. “Is there anything you can tell me?”
“They don’t want me to. If you know too much, then you might change something and it might make it harder to bring you forward.”
Kian nodded again. He lowered himself down over Nathan and lay down over him. Nathan wrapped the man securely in his arms. He felt the minute tremors that ran through Kian’s body. He pressed little kisses into Kian’s hair and whispered nonsense to him until he felt the tremors stop.
“Kian, have I been coming to you every day or intermittently? I really don’t know. I can’t tell. It seems consecutive to me, but I can’t really tell.”
“I’ve seen you every day since the first day we met. You don’t always come at the same time, but you always arrive between four p.m. and six p.m.,” Kian answered into Nathan’s chest.
“So every day between sixteen hundred and eighteen hundred. That’s good to know,” Nathan said, his face still buried in Kian’s hair. He couldn’t stop breathing this man in.
He had to tell his docs to work fast. If he was coming here in consecutive days, they didn’t have a lot of time to find the solution. He felt Kian lift himself slightly and looked up at him. Nathan lifted one hand and fit it around the back of Kian’s neck. He lifted his head just enough to lock their lips together. He teased his tongue around Kian’s lips, just flicking it around the edge of Kian’s kissable lips until the man sighed into Nathan’s mouth, latched his lips onto the teasing tongue, and sucked it into his mouth. He sucked on Nathan’s tongue greedily, and the eroticism of it had Nathan hard in seconds. He was moving his hips against Kian’s without realizing it. Kian’s hands ran over Nathan’s hips and held him down with surprising strength while still he still sucked on Nathan’s willing tongue.
Nathan could hear himself whine into Kian’s mouth once his hips were held captive. Kian released his tongue and pulled back a little. “Shhh, sweetheart, don’t forget we’re still in public. No one will say much about us kissing, but anything else might land us in jail.”
Kian swooped back down to bite Nathan’s lips happily before licking into Nathan’s waiting mouth. Nathan opened up eagerly for Kian and gave himself to this man to do with as he pleased. He willed his cock to behave and stay down and was amazed that it did. Kissing this deeply had never been something Nathan had experienced, and he was in heaven. The taste of Kian on his lips
, his scent in his nose, and feel of Kian’s body on top of his was perfect. And somehow knowing sex was currently off the table gave him the freedom to just enjoy the moment.
Eventually Kian sighed, rolled off Nathan, and stretched like a cat at his side. Nathan rolled over to watch. He ran his hand down the center of Kian’s chest to hook his hand onto Kian’s belt buckle.
“It’s almost time for the Shoebox to close and Chris to go home. Let’s get back. Then you can get these clothes off me and fuck me though my mattress. All that kissing was incredible, but now I need you in me,” Kian told him, his lips puffy, red, and shining.
Nathan didn’t even blink. He was on his feet and pulling Kian up in less than a second. They headed back out of the park with their picnic basket in one of Nathan’s hands and Kian’s hand in the other.
* * * *
They reached the shop as Chris was about to lock up. A quick thank you and see you later and Nathan pushed Kian through the doorway and had it locked. He picked Kian up and over his shoulder and carried him upstairs and into his bedroom. He dropped Kian in the middle of his bed before noticing the picnic basket still in his hand. He put it down beside the bed and ripped his own clothes off. His eyes never left Kian as Kian squirmed out of his jeans and T-shirt, socks, and shoes hitting the floor fast. He rolled over, lifting his ass up in the air. Nathan grabbed the tube of lube, having pride of place on the bedside table, and lubed his fingers generously. He had one finger inside Kian as he settled himself on the bed behind his lover.
Kian was pushing back onto Nathan’s finger, his movements almost frantic. Nathan placed his free hand on Kian’s lower back to still him. Kian slowed down, and Nathan added another finger, scissoring them a few times before pushing in a third. He reached over and quickly grabbed a condom. He ripped it open and rolled it on in less than a second. Positioning himself, he pushed into his lover in one steady thrust, pulling Kian back onto him until they were snug together.
“Fuck Kian, you’re perfect. So hot and tight for me. Fucking perfect,” Nathan grunted from behind clenched teeth.
“You’re one to talk. No one has ever made me want them like I always want you. I think about this all damned day long. Think of feeling you in me. How you fill me. How you make me feel. Jesus, Nathan, I fucking love you, and if you don’t find a way for this to keep going, I’m going to find a way to make you miserable. Come on, baby. Fuck me harder. Make me feel you forever.”
Nathan growled and pushed into his man harder and faster. He snapped his hips forward and pulled Kian onto his cock, then sucking in a sharp breath, he pushed Kian away from him almost viciously and threw Kian around onto his back. He hooked an arm around Kian’s leg and threw it over his shoulder. He pushed back into Kian’s hole without pause or warning. He felt desperate. He had no breath to speak. All he wanted to do was make his man come. He needed to see Kian release. Needed to hear him and smell it. It was a visceral need. He took Kian’s hard dick in hand and pumped it in counterpoint to his thrusting. Kian was writhing under him. Head thrown back. Neck arched and panting hard. Mouth open. Cheeks flushed and fucking gorgeous.
“Fuck, Nate…fucking amazing…love your cock…perfect, more, more…” The words dropped from his lips, through gasps for air.
Nathan leaned over his fallen angel and bit sharply into Kian’s neck. He felt Kian arch under him and gush over his hand and onto his own stomach. A second later Nathan’s orgasm hit him like a freight train.
Nathan felt himself fall onto his front beside Kian, his hand falling onto the picnic basket handle. His fingers curled around it. “Wake up now, Watchman,” he heard, and Nathan blinked himself awake back in his own room, two doctors beside his bed, monitors attached to him, and a picnic basket clasped in his hand.
“Well, well, well, that answers one question,” Chloe said as they all stared hard at the picnic basket.
“What the fuck?” Nathan looked around him. He was in his bed still, in his present, and so was the picnic basket. “Now what? What happened?”
“Chloe had a theory she wanted to check out,” Noah said, looking at his wife.
“It was just a hunch. I wondered what would happen if we woke you up instead of waiting for you to wake up naturally. When you woke up, you brought back with you what you were holding at the time. When the time comes to bring Kian through, hold on to him tightly and we’ll wake you up. It might be disorienting and very strange for both of you, but don’t let go until you’re both here safely.”
“I’m a bit disoriented myself here,” Nathan mumbled. “How will you know when to wake me up?”
“The same way Chloe woke you up before, Nathan. We kept a watch on your heart rate, and since there was nothing dramatic on this visit’s schedule, we just waited for your heartbeat to calm down again. We didn’t interrupt did we?” Noah lifted an eyebrow, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.
“Maybe…”Nathan blushed.
Chloe lightly punched her husband in the shoulder. “Don’t tease, honey. Nathan, one more experiment. Let’s send you back to sleep and see if the basket stays.” She didn’t give him time to understand or even think about what she’d said before she pressed a hypo-spray to his neck and blackness came for him again.
Chapter Eight
“That is freaky.” That was Kian’s voice.
Nathan opened his eyes, and this time he awoke back in Kian’s bed. His lover was leaning over him.
“What happened? One second you were flopped here beside me, and the next, whoosh, you were gone. Usually when you leave, I’m asleep and don’t see you. But this time I was awake and you vanished. Then you’re back in minutes. Wow. Please explain,” Kian gushed out.
Nathan sucked in a deep breath. He reached his arms out and pulled Kian into his chest.
“My doctors decided to try an experiment. They figured if they woke me up, before I woke up on my own, then anything I was holding might go through with me back to my time. It looks like when I was pulled back I had my hand around your picnic basket. When I woke up I was still holding it in my time. Then they sent me back here to see if the basket stayed there without me. It’s a theory they’re working on,” Nathan told him quietly, almost whispering it all into Kian’s hair.
Kian nodded. “So they are really ramping things up, huh? I know you’re in danger if you don’t spend time with me, but this jumping back and forth seems to help you, so I guess the time running out isn’t yours. I guess my time is running out. Something is going to happen to me, soon, isn’t it? And if I die here, then you die there, right? You don’t have to answer, Nathan. It’s okay. Just getting my head around things, that’s all,” Kian said into Nathan’s chest.
He burrowed deeper into Nathan and gave a sigh that came from his soul. Nathan wrapped his arms around Kian more tightly and kissed him gently when Kian lifted his lips for a kiss. Seconds later they were both asleep.
* * * *
Nathan woke up back in his room in the Alcatraz Tower again. He felt like crying. Kian understood so much and accepted it. He was in pain at the knowledge, and that pain made Nathan want to cry for him. He knew Kian wasn’t being fatalistic or calling death. He was only accepting that he would have to go through something before he could be with Nathan permanently. Fuck, when did things get so complicated? Nathan groused to himself.
He pushed himself out of bed and headed for his bathroom. Thirty minutes later and he felt somewhat human and in control again. He had the next few days off, and he was starving. The commissary was his first point of call. He grabbed some pie and coffee and went to find a seat. One bite of his pie had him glaring at it. And the coffee was even worse. Kian had spoiled him with his pies and great coffee.
“What did the pie do to you?” Noah asked as he sat next to Nathan.
“Kian’s food is so much better, but I’m starving,” Nathan grumbled taking another bite. He shoveled it all into his mouth quickly so as to taste very little and followed with the coffee. He’d added copious amount
s of sugar to the mug to make it palatable.
Noah chuckled. “He can cook for you when he gets here. Chloe is arranging for you to move into family quarters, so he’ll have a kitchen. Your stuff should be in there by tomorrow night.”
Nathan blinked at them slowly as things sank in. They really seemed to believe they’d found a way for him to keep Kian. But he had to ask, “Do you guys really think you can do this?” He knew he sounded needy and worried, but this was so damned important that he didn’t have the ability or the right to hide anything from the people that seemed to be working all hours to give him his dream, his life really.
Chloe put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “We still have the basket you brought back before. It’s in your new quarters as we speak. We don’t know all the variables. We are having to trust a lot in those Ladies you dreamed about. In many ways, Watchmen are always in the hands of Lady Luck and Gaia. You activate at Gaia’s command and find your Balance at Lady Luck’s discretion. So we are going to do all we can and leave the rest in their hands. It’s not often they let us down in the matching of a Watchman and his Balance.” She adjusted her jacket and ran her fingers through her hair.
“Okay, let’s get down to business. Tonight is going to be very important. We don’t want to change anything from your usual routine. You’ll go to bed as usual. The only difference will be that Noah and I will be there for you. I was planning to try and have Noah go into the dream with you, then bring you both out of it, but I don’t have the time to figure out how to do that. So you will be going in as normal. We’ll keep monitoring you all the time. If we have to, depending on what my instincts tell me, I’ll have to determine when to pull you out, if I feel there’s a reason to.
The Watchman of Alcatraz (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 6
