“Just wait until I fuck you, Tiago. You’re going to love it.”
Tiago froze.
Dallas chuckled and nuzzled Tiago’s chest. “Not right now. When you’re ready. Don’t freak out on me.”
“Oh.” Tiago’s weak laughter actually made Dallas ache for him.
Tiago had no idea what he was missing, but Dallas was also glad that he’d be the first and only man to ever make love to Tiago that way.
“Romantic.” Tiago’s voice held a hint of what might have been longing.
Dallas looked up and saw that Tiago was blushing a dark red. He winked at Tiago. “That’s me all right. Planning all sorts of romantic things for your virgin ass.”
Tiago’s lips quirked, and he asked, “Like what?”
“Have you ever been rimmed?”
Tiago shook his head.
“Fingered? Used a toy to fuck yourself?”
Two more negations from Tiago.
Dallas almost pitied his mate. “Why not?”
“I…” Tiago shrugged. “I always top.”
“Even when you’re alone?” Dallas slid down until his chin brushed the head of Tiago’s dick. “You’ve never been curious?”
“Of course I have, I just didn’t act on it,” Tiago replied with a hint of testiness. “If I wasn’t going to let anyone fuck me, why bother?”
“Oh, man. Because it feels so, so good.” Dallas licked over Tiago’s slit. “So good, stud.”
“Stud, huh?” Tiago bumped his dick against Dallas’ lips. “Suck me.”
Dallas sucked one of his own fingers instead.
Tiago’s eyes just about bugged out as he watched. “What are you doing?”
Dallas spoke around his finger, which was interesting to say the least. “What d’ya think I’m doing?”
“Sucking your finger to…to…put somewhere,” Tiago finished weakly. His thighs tensed then quivered.
Dallas gave his digit one last wet lick then held it up. “And whose hole do you think this is for?”
Tiago gulped.
But he spread those powerful thighs of his apart after only a few seconds hesitation. “If I don’t like it—”
“You will. Oh trust me, you will,” Dallas promised him. “You have to relax and quit worrying about it. If you’re afraid it will hurt, this single finger won’t. Consider the size of it. It isn’t big at all. You know how much I love something a lot fatter in my ass.”
“Yes, I do.” Tiago grinned cockily. “Poke away.”
“Poke away?” Dallas almost laughed. He settled for opening wide and sucking half of Tiago’s dick right down.
Tiago’s eyes crossed and he grabbed at Dallas’ hair.
Dallas brought his spit-slicked finger down to run it over Tiago’s pucker.
He took more of Tiago’s cock in and swallowed around the crown once it breached his throat.
Tiago moaned and thrust a little.
Dallas used that impetus to slide the tip of his finger past the tight ring he’d been touching.
He came back up the length of Tiago’s shaft and gave special attention to the sensitive spot beneath the crown.
Tiago slid down the bed as he pulled his legs up.
That was what Dallas wanted—Tiago offering up his ass, his cock and balls, everything.
Dallas licked down the underside of Tiago’s dick, over his perineum, and to the pucker he was fingering. Dallas lapped at Tiago’s hole as much as he could, making sure it was plenty wet before he came back up to resume the blow job.
Tiago wiggled his bottom.
Dallas got the message. He pushed his finger in and found that sweet spot inside.
Tiago’s jaw dropped and a guttural sound left him.
It was a beautiful sound. Dallas kept caressing Tiago’s gland while taking his cock in again and again. Every time he swallowed around it, Tiago would moan or shout, and his inner muscles would grip Dallas’ finger so tightly it made him dizzy with lust.
Tiago held Dallas’ head in place and began thrusting, and Dallas was more than okay with that. He knew Tiago wanted more fingers plowing his hole, but without the lube, Dallas wasn’t going that far.
He used his other hand to pinch at Tiago’s nipple. That, along with Tiago sinking his cock in deeper than before, sent Tiago spiraling into climax.
Dallas came up enough to catch all but the first shot of cum on his tongue. He caressed Tiago’s gland until Tiago whimpered and pulled back.
Dallas left off sucking on his dick and also slipped his finger free. He knelt and quickly began masturbating, not far from coming himself.
“Holy fuck,” Tiago uttered, his gaze dropping to the blur of movement as Dallas jacked off. “That’s sexy as—”
Dallas threw his head back then canted it down and groaned, watching the spunk splatter on Tiago’s belly and groin.
The white, creamy liquid was a stark contrast to Tiago’s tanned skin. When Dallas had pumped the last of his load out, he ran a finger through his own cum then licked it clean.
Tiago’s breathing grew louder.
Dallas glanced through his lashes at Tiago and did it again.
The third time he went for it, Tiago grabbed him and rolled Dallas onto his back.
“Tease,” Tiago accused.
Dallas waggled his eyebrows. “No, because I’ll follow through.”
He set about showing Tiago exactly how much of a tease he wasn’t.
Chapter Thirteen
“Maarten, how do you feel?” Marcus asked, as he and Nathan joined Maarten and Ryder at their table.
Maarten looked rough, with dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, and his face slightly puffy. “Better than yesterday. Worse than a few days ago.”
Marcus patted his back gently. “Did you talk to Luuk? Your brother was frantic, you know. Is he going to come down here and kick my ass?”
“He wants to kick mine,” Ryder groused, taking the lid off the tray of food that had been brought to them. “It would suck if there was a fight between the Alpha Anax of Europe and me, but it might happen. Then again, I’d let Luuk deck me, since I’m Maarten’s mate and I let him get hurt.”
“Like you let me do anything,” Maarten grumbled. “I’m my own man.”
Ryder nodded. “As much as I am, and I don’t blame Luuk. I’m pissed at myself too.”
“I’m the one who fucked up,” Maarten admitted bluntly. “I wasn’t paying attention to anything but the song on the radio and the dirty thoughts in my head. Thoughts I won’t feel up to acting on for a few more days, I fear.”
“We’ll be all right.” Ryder brought Maarten’s hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “I will wait forever for you, if that’s the way it has to be.”
Maarten looked horrified. “Gods, no! I’m not going without for more than a few days. If I’m still feeling like shit then, you’re just going to have to fuck me into better shape.”
Marcus helped himself to the rare meat and over easy eggs after Nathan fixed his plate.
“While we’re flirting, they’re taking all the food,” Maarten pouted, his bottom lip plumping out.
Marcus hitched a shoulder at him. “You wanna get mushy, we get the food, you get the…heh. Well, you’re not getting anything for a few days, I guess. Want some of my steak?”
Maarten shot him a dirty look. “I have a suggestion for where you can put your steak.”
“Which steak?” Nathan asked. “Because yeah, Marcus is hung and he could even put his own steak there.”
Ryder and Maarten both looked at Marcus.
Marcus continued eating. He wasn’t going to dispute the truth.
“That’s still a mean thing to say,” Maarten said a moment later.
“If I didn’t tease you, you’d get your feelings hurt.” Marcus held up a bite of nearly raw steak on his fork. “You sure you’re going to pass? I got the rarest one on the platter.”
Maarten looked over the remaining choices. “Well, that’s fine. This one is almo
st mooing. Wait. This isn’t beef.”
Marcus figured if Maarten was trying to gross him out, it wouldn’t work.
“You do know I ate anything I could to survive at one point? Rats, mice, bugs.” Marcus left it at that. He didn’t need to mention that desperation had occurred when he’d been held captive and starved for days at a time.
“You win,” Maarten huffed. “I’m not sure if I can even eat this. My throat and stomach—” He shook his head and put the meat back on the platter.
“Some milk might help. Want me to get some?” Nathan offered. “Or call for it?”
“Calling for it would be wonderful.” Maarten sent him a grateful smile. “That root thing I had to suck on made a huge difference. I am pretty certain I would have died without it, but my insides feel abraded, I guess. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
“Would more of the root help?” Marcus asked.
Ryder set down his silverware. “I was wondering that myself. I didn’t bring the damned root with me. I thought it had done enough and Maarten’s shifter nature would do the rest.”
“I feel much better, Ryder. You know that. You were with me through the worst of it,” Maarten said. “I think whatever that shit was they gave me in the water fucks up the ability to heal. It would, if it were datura, or a form of it.”
“Must be a milder form, and thank the gods for that.” Ryder brushed the back of his knuckles over Maarten’s cheek. “Even a miniscule amount of datura is deadly for us.”
Nathan returned and took his seat at the table. “Good. No one swiped my food. I’d hate to have to stab someone with a fork.”
“You wouldn’t either,” Maarten argued. “You would lecture them and force them to listen until you were done. Then you’d remove your fork.”
Nathan cocked his head. “I have to say, you do know me well.”
The conversation continued in a light manner until everyone had finished eating, and in Maarten’s case, drinking his milk.
Marcus sat back and rubbed his stomach. “That was good. Now I need to talk to Dallas. And Tiago.” He even managed to say that calmly. “I don’t care for the jaguar shifter.”
“He is Dallas’ mate. I’d say chances are good that he had every right to run off with Dallas.” Nathan looked at him as if daring Marcus to argue.
Marcus wasn’t a stupid man. “Which is why I’m not going to be a dick. Yesterday I was…rash. My nerves were shot.” He glanced down at his hands and felt his face grow warm. “I wasn’t in a good frame of mind.”
“You and me both.” Ryder sighed. “It’s been a rough couple of years for all of us.”
“It has,” Marcus acknowledged. His embarrassment faded. Ryder and Maarten were his friends. They weren’t going to give him shit for not being perfect. If anyone had told him he’d consider Maarten a friend over a year ago, Marcus would have thought they were nuts. But Maarten was becoming quite a good friend and Marcus was glad of that.
“He’s powerful,” Ryder noted, tapping into one of Marcus’ main concerns about Tiago.
Marcus wasn’t certain that Tiago was much weaker than him. “Yes, another thing I’m not thrilled about, but it’s not a pissing match to see who is the strongest among us.” Marcus smiled. “I’m secure in my alpha-ness.”
Ryder snorted. “Yeah, same here. It’s weird to think of a different breed of shifter, though. Cats and dogs. That’s what keeps popping up in my head.”
“I still can’t believe it. Well, I can,” Marcus corrected. “Obviously, we’ve seen two jaguar shifters. Maybe it’s the rainforest.” He frowned then, as he considered that. “I wonder if there are other shifters in different parts of the world? Like some sort of water dwelling shifter.”
“Oh!” Maarten snapped his fingers. “That would be where mermaids come from! And high in the Himalayas, the Yeti. Think of the possibilities.”
“What about Big Foot?” Ryder asked.
Nathan cackled. “Please. Everyone knows that one’s fake.”
Ryder threw a balled up napkin at him. “Asshat.”
Nathan flipped his braid over his shoulder. “You are just jealous of my fabulousness.”
Another few minutes of chatting passed then Marcus stood up. Nathan, Ryder and Maarten also stood.
“You know I want to talk to him, too,” Ryder said. “So whenever you’re ready.”
Marcus had no problem with that. He was, after all, in Ryder’s territory.
Ryder held the door open. “After you. Age before beauty.”
Marcus flipped him off. “Brains before dumbasses.”
It was only a short walk to the hut where Dallas and Tiago were staying. Marcus walked up the steps and knocked on their door.
“Who could it be now?” Dallas sang out.
Marcus glanced at Nathan. “Am I supposed to know that song? Or did he make it up?”
Nathan shrugged. “No idea.”
“It’s a song,” Maarten informed them. “Gods, you two need to learn your music history.”
Dallas opened the door. He was damp all over and wearing only a towel. The mate-bite Tiago had given him was lurid on his pale skin. “Come in. We’ve been expecting you. Hm… Except not this very second. Tiago’s showering. I made a mess—”
Nathan waved his hands. “Nope. Don’t want to know. This place smells like sex, sex and more sex.”
Dallas bobbed his head. “That would be right.” He looked very pleased about it.
Marcus didn’t blame him. “I just want you to know…I’ll be calmer today, even if Tiago tries to provoke me.”
Dallas looked at the bathroom door, then at Marcus. “Jaguars are different. They don’t have mates. They don’t have packs or…or whatever a herd of jaguars would be called. Their fathers aren’t fathers, just sperm donors, and the mothers only raise the children until they can survive on their own. They aren’t like us when it comes to pack and family, not at all. Tiago didn’t know what hit him with the mate bond. It’s been a shock to him.”
“And it wasn’t to you?” Ryder asked.
“Eh. I’m easy,” Dallas replied. “Or I was. You know what I mean. I don’t flip out over things because I’m not that deep.”
Marcus had to correct him there. “No, because you don’t let anyone too close. You’re not an airhead, Dallas.”
Dallas blushed from his face all the way down to where the towel was wrapped around his hips. “Um. I’m just going to put some clothes on real quick. And…and thanks, Marcus.” Dallas sprinted into the bedroom. “Make yourselves at home!”
The shower cut off. Marcus sat in a chair and Nathan propped himself on the arm of it. Ryder and Maarten settled onto the couch.
Maarten was paler than normal, and his breathing was a tad labored.
Ryder murmured quietly to him while they waited.
Marcus didn’t look when the bathroom door was opened. He gave Tiago his privacy.
A few minutes later, Dallas and Tiago came out holding hands.
Tiago gave him a cautious once-over.
Marcus tried a smile on him. He didn’t have to force it. Much. “It seems I was out of line yesterday.” Almost an apology.
Tiago tucked Dallas under his arm, hugging Dallas to his side. “I am not used to being around others. The power structure in a pack is bizarre to me.”
Marcus had had enough of the dancing around each other. He stood and offered his hand. “Marcus Criswell.” He didn’t add his title. It would have made him sound arrogant.
Tiago clasped his hand and shook it. “Tiago Henrique Silva de Souza.” They both let go. “Is there something specific you want with me now that we’ve agreed not to try to kill each other?”
Blunt. Marcus approved of that. “Ryder and I have a few questions about jaguar shifters, and yeah, I want to know what your intentions are. Dallas is a well-loved member of our pack. His future is a concern to me.” He held up a hand when Tiago looked to be getting angry. “I think there’s a difference in the way we see things
, and that’s fine. I need you to try and understand that Dallas is like a little brother to me—or maybe a son. All of my pack members, they are family to me. So I want Dallas to be cared for, and to be happy. The mate bond can make you do things you wouldn’t normally. Things that might lead to unhappiness in some ways.”
Tiago sat in a chair and tugged Dallas onto his lap.
Marcus suspected Dallas was acting as a willing buffer to Tiago’s unease.
“You are worried about him. That I can respect,” Tiago finally said. “He has already told me that he needs his pack. I need my home, too. We will work out the difference so that we both are happy. I wouldn’t mind seeing New Mexico for a few months at a time.”
“And I like it here, just not all the time,” Dallas added. “We were talking it over this morning. If Ryder will let us hang out here half the year or so, we’d split it up into two or three months at a time.”
Ryder nodded. “Done, as long as everyone else agrees.”
“It seems that problem is solved then.” Marcus returned to his seat. “Do you know of other jaguar shifters?”
Tiago told him of two males that claimed part of the rainforest.
“Could one of them be Robert Butler? He’s been running drugs out of Brazil—and maybe French Guiana. He had some kind of alliance with the former Alpha Anax that ruled before Ryder took over, and he’s pissed about losing his dealers and drug runners. Sound like any of the jaguars around here?” Marcus waited while Tiago parsed out the why of that question.
When he saw the light of understanding in the man’s eyes, Marcus continued, “Yes, he’s a jaguar shifter. Since they don’t have mates, he didn’t know about the mental bond mates have. His mistake, because it saved Maarten and Ryder. Although, he did want to keep Maarten for himself.”
“Fucker is dead,” Ryder spat. “Almost killing Maarten, poisoning him…”
Tiago waited a beat then spoke. “I don’t know the answer to that. Jaguars don’t hang out together. We don’t associate at all, except for the ones who breed, I suppose. Even that is a fleeting association. Same as parenting. One of them could be him, except—no, one of them doesn’t leave the rainforest—the one at the west end of it. He stays in his jaguar form and rules his area. The other, I can’t help you with. What did this Butler look like?”
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