The Spiral Down

by Aly Martinez

  When our hips met, our hard-ons gloriously rubbed together, shooting sparks to my balls. I groaned and dropped my hands to his ass.

  His lips caught mine just seconds before his tongue swept my mouth, igniting me. Threading my fingers into the back of his hair, I tipped his head back and sealed my mouth over his. After that, we were all hands and mouths as I backed him against the pantry door. When he hit, I went for the button on his jeans.

  “Wait,” he panted. “I came here with something to say.”

  I ground my hips into his and shifted my attention to his neck. “Then fucking say it so I can get you naked.”

  “I want to fuck you,” he blurted.

  My entire body stiffened, and my heart began to race.

  “Not now,” he quickly clarified. “I’ll wait. However long you need. But I want to be very honest with you so there are no doubts in your head about where I stand. Look at me, Evan.”

  The purr of my name left me helpless but to obey. Slowly, I lifted my head and met his heated gaze.

  Trailing his hand over my abs, he ducked behind me and flattened his chest to my back. Chills spread over me as his teeth raked the flesh at the base of my neck.

  “Actually, I want a lot of things from you, Evan.”

  “Son of a…” I groaned when he rolled his hips and pressed his hard length against my ass.

  “This being just one of them,” he whispered.

  Snaking a hand around my hips, he found my shaft through the denim and gave it a quick once-over. That paired with his hard-on at my ass had my knees damn near buckling. I threw an arm out and supported myself against the door.

  “Shiiiit,” I groaned.

  “But I want more than that too. I want you in my bed on my tour bus, waiting for me after a show. I want to watch movies and order takeout with you on lazy Sundays. I want you shirtless, lounging on a beach with me when we need a vacation to clear our heads. I want your voice in my ear, counting down from ten when the panic sets in. I want you sitting beside me for family dinner at Levee’s. I want you parked beside me at every boring-ass award show I’m forced to attend. And, Evan, I want every woman who so much as walks past you to know that you’re mine.”

  My mouth was dry and I wasn’t sure I was even breathing when his agile fingers popped the button on my jeans open and dipped inside. A hiss escaped through my teeth when his cool hand wrapped around my length.

  “But, more than all of that, I want you to want it too.” Using his other hand, he forced my jeans and my boxers down my thighs and then began a merciless rhythm on my cock. “I’m a patient man. I’ll wait. And, when I’m positive you want all of that too”—he ground his denim-covered erection between my bare ass cheeks—“I’ll fuck you, Evan.”

  And his promise was all it took to make me explode. I dropped to an elbow against the door, barely remaining upright in the midst of the sensorial overload. He caught my release in one hand as he continued to work me through my orgasm with the other.

  Slowly, my head and my body returned to me as I came down, but there was a piece of myself that would never reemerge.

  Because, no matter how hard I’d tried to fight, that piece now belonged to Henry.

  HENRY LEFT THE next morning. It sucked, but when his lips brushed mine, it felt like we were finally starting something real. And surprisingly, I wanted that real more than ever before. We kept in touch with multiple daily calls, and as the weeks passed by, I found myself falling for the man on the other end of the phone.

  To say Henry was a busy man was an understatement, but he always made time for me. It wasn’t enough though. He still hated to fly, but it was kind of my specialty, so the first day off he had, I grabbed a red-eye and flew out to see him. We didn’t leave the hotel room for a full twenty-four hours. We didn’t exactly put clothes on, either. While my walls were crumbling, I wasn’t ready to give myself to him completely. And he never pushed me. His mouth touched every inch of my body, including the few times he snuck his tongue down the seam of my balls. I nearly came unglued the first time his tongue swirled around the sensitive flesh. But, then again, this was Henry. He had that effect on me regardless of where his tongue was touching.

  After that, it was two long weeks before we saw each other again. But it was for the best. We got to know each other, and that kind of comfort only turned my already-desperate desire to be with him up a notch—or twelve.

  There wasn’t a ton of conversation when Henry showed up at my house that night. Those seconds were better spent with our mouths crushing together as we blindly made it to my bedroom, clothing left to litter the hallway. I didn’t even make it to the bed before I came down his throat. I couldn’t get enough of him. And, as quickly as he’d lost himself with my hand working between his legs, it was clear he couldn’t get enough of me, either.

  He was lounging like a sated god on my pillows with his hands folded behind his head when I returned from the bathroom and tossed the damp washcloth on his stomach.

  “Shit. Cold,” he gasped, his abs rippling as he scrambled to pull it away.

  I fought to suppress my smirk. “Sorry.”

  “Yeah, you look real sorry.”

  I swayed my head in consideration. “Actually, I’m not sorry.”

  A glowing, white smile formed on his lips. “Not at all?”

  Judging by the hope etched on his face, we weren’t talking about the washcloth anymore, but my answer remained the same. “Not at all.”

  If possible, his smile grew wider as he looked down and cleaned his stomach.

  That smile did something to me. I couldn’t put my finger on what, but I gave up trying to figure it out and decided to put my fingers on him instead. Crawling into bed, I flipped to my stomach and draped an arm over his hips.

  Part of my mind screamed for me to get up, get dressed, and use any possible barrier to distance myself from him. However, I didn’t care what my head had to say anymore. With his breath on my neck and his heart slamming in my ear, I knew what I wanted.

  Him.

  He tangled our legs together and brushed the hair off my forehead. “What are you thinking about?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” But it seemed distant even to my own ears.

  “Look at me,” he urged gently. “What’s going on in that sexy head?”

  I smiled, tilting my head back to catch his eyes. “Just thinking about us. That’s all.”

  The skin on his forehead wrinkled. “What about us?”

  “How good this feels. Just being here with you. I never expected—” To crave you so deeply. And not only in the bedroom. But in everyday life.

  “Evan. This. Me and you. It’s not a bad thing.”

  “I know.”

  “Don’t fight it, okay? Just trust me that I’m in this with you. One hundred percent. Every step of the way,” he implored before leaning down and placing a reassuring kiss on my lips.

  Filling my lungs with all that was Henry, I allowed his promises to infuse me. The calm left behind was confounding, but I’d never wanted to embrace something more.

  “Do you trust me?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he replied immediately.

  “Good. Let me fly you to your next show.”

  His arms spasmed. “Evan…”

  I pushed up on my elbows. “That’s my job.”

  “This isn’t about jobs.”

  “No. You’re right. It’s about me. And I fucking hate the idea of anyone else flying you. Or even driving you, for that matter. I should be there.”

  His blue eyes warmed. “You hate it?”

  “Despise might be the better word.”

  He bit his lip and bashfully cut his eyes away. It was so unlike Henry it made me chuckle.

  “I despise it too,” he whispered.

  “Then let me fly you. You want me to trust you? Consider it done. But you have to trust me too. I swear on my life I won’t let anything happen to you up there.”

  His eyes dimmed. “It’s just… I ha
d a really bad experience in the air a few years ago.”

  I rolled to my back, and he followed me over until his front was plastered to my side.

  “You know this is where I give you the whole ‘flying is safer than driving’ inspirational speech. They teach it the first day of flight school. Plus, I’m a damn good pilot. You’ll be safe with me.”

  He dragged his finger over the curve of my pecs. “Maybe, but even the best can’t prevent an act of God?”

  I narrowed my eyes on his blank stare as he watched his finger swirling circles on my chest. “Okay, I guess you could worry about that. But I assure you—”

  “You can’t assure me of anything.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “Two years ago. There was a bad storm. My flight was struck by lightning while we were descending toward the airport. We lost power. Blew an engine and suffered a good bit of damage to the body.” His hand stilled as his eyes filled with overwhelming fear at the memory. “There was this loud banging rhythm from a piece of metal flapping in the wind, and all I could think about was that it was going to be the bassline of my death.”

  I blinked in shock. “No fucking way. AirUSA Flight 219?”

  He chuckled humorlessly. “That would be the one.”

  Awestruck, I announced, “I would have given anything to be on that flight.”

  He curled his lip in utter disbelief before rolling away.

  I caught his elbow. “Henry, that flight is legendary in the world of aeronautics. No one, and I mean no one, should have survived that flight.”

  “Yeah. I got that much when I was wearing an oxygen mask and praying to a God, who obviously hates me,” he scoffed.

  “No.” I tugged on his arm until he turned back to face me. “See, you and I, we look at this differently. Sure, lightning is considered an act of God. Fine. But the real act of God I see is that you had Captain John Wyatt in the cockpit that night. That man is the most talented pilot I’ve ever met. He was quite possibly the only person in the world who could have gotten that plane back on the ground with zero casualties. And, out of the thousands of pilots who could have been behind the controls, you got him. That was your act of God.” I laughed quietly. “I can’t believe you were on that flight. The jealousy actually hurts a little.”

  His mouth slacked open. “Jealousy?”

  “I’ve heard all the stories at least a dozen times, but I’d have given anything to experience that landing firsthand.”

  His lips formed a hard line. “Is there something wrong with you? It was the most terrifying experience of my life, not a rollercoaster at an amusement park.”

  “That’s not what I meant. It’s just—”

  “You should have heard the cries from the other passengers, Evan. There was this mom with her baby…just shrieking.” He paused when the emotions lodged in his throat. “The whole ordeal lasted only a few minutes. But, for those minutes…we were all dead.”

  I tugged on his arm until he begrudgingly stopped trying to escape my bed. “Okay, okay. I get it. I swear I do. We just have a different outlook on things. I’m sorry.” I pointedly held his gaze until he relaxed. And when he did, I pressed a gentle kiss to his lips until his body sagged. “I’m sorry,” I repeated softly. “I’m sure it was scary.”

  “Terrifying,” he corrected.

  “Terrifying,” I confirmed. “But did you ever get a chance to meet Wyatt afterwards?”

  “Yeah. I thanked him. Donated a bunch of money in his name. Shit like that. I actually harassed him for months to be my new pilot. I’d fly with him again. I threw a ton of money at him, actually.” His entire face lit as his lips lifted up at the corners. “He told me to fuck off in three different languages.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. That. Smile. Millions of people were captivated by just the image of it on television and magazines, but up close, with only mere inches separating us, it was damn near spellbinding.

  Henry was afraid to fly.

  I was afraid of that smile. And, the longer I spent with him, I was starting to fear the man behind it—in the best possible way.

  Shaking my stupor off, I replied, “I’m surprised it wasn’t more. He’s fluent in at least six.”

  His brows knitted together. “You know him?”

  “Yep. He taught me everything I know about flying.”

  “Really?” he drawled in shocked interest.

  I chuckled. “He’s my dad, Henry. Well, stepfather, really. But same thing. He’s the only dad I’ve ever known.”

  He gaped in disbelief. “Shut up.”

  I laughed again. “Is he the one who told you to use Jackson for your pilots?”

  He nodded quickly.

  “Yeah. That makes sense. I always thought it was strange that a big shot like you used him. He’s good, but he mainly charters to animal transports and medical emergencies. He and my dad have been best friends since high school. John got me the gig with Jackson when my first job fell through.”

  “No fucking way,” he breathed.

  “Scout’s honor.” I lifted my hand in a Vulcan V.

  His smile was epic.

  If the question had been how long I wanted to fight, that smile would have been the minute I threw in the towel.

  “You do realize your dad basically set us up. It was fate, Evan.” He teasingly waggled his eyebrows.

  “Hardly.” Dipping my head, I caught his mouth and mumbled against his lips, “I think we should stop talking about my dad though.”

  He moaned when our tongues glided together.

  After sliding a hand into his hair, I tugged his head back and kissed down the hard, masculine curves of his neck.

  I knew he was kidding. Henry’s coming into my life wasn’t fate. At best, it could be considered a fluke. But, as I made my way down his sculpted chest, ten years’ worth of resolve disappearing, it was clear: For once, luck had been on my side.

  “This is going to end badly, isn’t it?” I mumbled—more to myself than him.

  “Not if I can help it.” He arched his back off the bed as I teased my tongue down the hard planes of his torso.

  “Evan,” I ordered, grazing my teeth over the sensitive flesh on his stomach.

  He squirmed under me. “Evan. Shit.”

  “What if you can’t help it? You know, random acts of God and all.”

  “A few inches lower and I’ll talk to God myself.”

  I started to laugh when I peeked up and found him watching me. The blistering heat in his gaze crashed down, enveloping me.

  My heart was thundering, but I wanted this—to take him in my mouth so I could give him one of the tiny pieces of myself I’d been protecting since Shannon had left me broken.

  I wanted the freedom I’d been denying myself for too long.

  And I wanted it with him.

  Unfortunately, I would have to wait.

  The Sesame Street theme started blaring from his phone on the nightstand.

  “NOOOOO!” I YELLED as Evan continued to kiss toward my rock-hard cock. Fucking inches away—and my phone was blaring the only ringtone I couldn’t ignore. “Hold that thought. Okay?” I said, blindly slapping my hand on the nightstand to find my phone.

  He eyed me skeptically.

  I scooped my phone up and pressed it to my ear. “Hey, kid. Now’s not a good—”

  “I need help¸” Robin cried on the other end.

  My heart lurched, and I sat straight up, forcing Evan to roll to the side.

  “What’s wrong?” I rushed.

  A man’s voice cursed in the background just as she shrieked, “I’m trying. Back off.”

  “Robin!” I called, jumping from the bed. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “There’s this guy…and I owe him some money.”

  “Fuck.”

  She continued to cry, but she lowered her voice to a desperate whisper. “I know, I know…but please. Just one more time. I swear. I’ll get clean. Please.”

  Blood boiled in my veins, but guilt overwhelmed me
. I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed the phone painfully tight as I ground out, “How much?”

  She blew out a relieved breath. “Twenty-two hundred.”

  I clenched my teeth together, but my hands began to shake. Marching from Evan’s room, I tagged my jeans and my shirt from his hall floor. Frantically pulling them on, I barked. “Where are you?”

  “You can just transfer it to my bank account.”

  And that was when I lost it. “Where the fuck are you?” I roared.

  She sobbed. “Please don’t send Carter! Please. I’ll do anything…”

  Oh, I wasn’t sending Carter. It was time I handled this shit with her myself.

  “I’m in town.”

  She gasped, “No.”

  “Where are you, Robin?” I repeated, barely keeping it together.

  “Henry, no! You can’t come down here.”

  I was searching for my other shoe when I caught sight of Evan walking from his room fully dressed. He was eyeing me closely, but he didn’t touch me as he walked to his hall closet and dragged a hoodie out.

  “Last chance,” I growled. “Either you tell me where you are or I’m hanging up.”

  “Send someone else—”

  I closed my eyes so tight it’s a wonder I didn’t disappear. I wished I had. Because, one second later, I felt the jagged pain of my heart shattering.

  I hit the end button and dropped my phone to the floor. My knees quickly followed.

  “Oh, God,” I breathed when the reality of what I’d done consumed me.

  Evan was there immediately.

  Kneeling, he pulled me into his arms. “Jesus, what the hell is going on?” he asked as I broke down.

  It had been a long time coming. I’d barely been fighting off that breakdown for the last five years.

  “I’ve…I’ve never hung up on her,” I stuttered, trying to catch my breath, but it was one race I wasn’t going to win.

  “Okay, let’s calm down.” Tucking my face into his neck, he counted into my ear. “Ten, nine, eight.”

  If anything happened to her, I’d never forgive myself. But that was the problem. Something had already happened to her…because of me. She was probably in some dirty crack house, track marks running up and down her arms, scared to fucking death, and I’d hung up on her.