I wasn’t sure exactly what was up, but this helped explain why the sheriff was such a jerk about that room. He was scared of something but what? That was still to be determined. All I knew was that somehow, he was connected to those weapons.
If not, his actions made no sense. Filing a report saying the crazy dead guy had guns shouldn't have been a big deal. It wasn’t like the town didn’t already know something had been off about the guy.
But I needed to get home. No, I wanted to be home. I turned off the lights and locked up.
There was something about the stranger, who didn't feel like a stranger, that had me needing to be there with him, even if I was still a room away. The word that bounced around in my head every time things got quiet was home. He felt like home which was weird and insane, and I didn't even understand it. But there it was, and no part of me wanted to fight it.
I liked the guy—a lot—and from the way he got jealous of Camille, he liked me too.
The entire trip back to my house, the word kept repeating over and over again. Home. Home. Home. I shook it off as I reached the front door and then adjusted my jeans. At least he was in bed. If not, there was no way he wouldn’t notice the bulge in my jeans.
I turned the knob quietly, not wanting to wake him up. When I opened the door, I was totally startled because he wasn’t in bed. He was on the couch, his pajama pants tented.
Great. We were both hard. Nothing embarrassing about that.
“Hi.” He pulled his bottom lip in with his teeth.
“Sorry, I had some paperwork to do. I hope I didn’t wake you.” He’s sitting up on the couch, dumbass. Obviously, I did!
He sighed. “I can't sleep.”
“Do you want some tea?” Tea was the thing you offered, right? Angeline always did. Not that this situation was anything like any of the times I was at her place.
He shook his head.
“Wine makes you sleepy, but all I have is beer? You want a beer?”
He shook his head again.
“Um, maybe some warm milk?” I was running out of ideas and only managed to make an awkward situation even more awkward.
“I was thinking maybe we could talk.” He shrugged and looked up at me, his vulnerability shining bright in his eyes.
Talk. I could talk. Possibly not coherently with the way my cock was pressing against my jeans, but words could be formed.
“Yeah, of course.” I sat beside him on the couch, the only furniture I had in the room. “What's up?”
He took a deep breath and exhaled before speaking. “I want you.”
His bluntness had me second-guessing my ears. “Okay.” What else could I say to that?
“If you want me to leave, I understand, but I just.” He buried his face in his hands for a moment then looked back at me. “I don't know. I felt I should tell you.”
He was so stinkin’ adorable like this. “I want you too.” I put my hand on his thigh, jealous of his pants for being able to touch his skin. Rational thought had clearly left the building. “But please don't think you need to… Well, just so you know, this is not a condition of…you can still…”
His lips slammed into mine, ending my word vomit and stealing my breath away.
Eleven
Leo
After kissing Ron hard enough that we were both gasping for air, I couldn’t wait any longer. My human mind was telling me to slow down and give it some more time. But my cat was horny and ready and there wasn’t any stopping him. Frankly, I was pretty horny too, and I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by.
I slipped my hand across his chest and let it slide down to his waist. “May I?”
He nodded as he adjusted his position on the couch so I was lying above him. Once he was relaxed and staring up at me, I flicked the button on his jeans and slipped my fingers inside. He was hard and pressing up against the zipper, begging me to reach in and take hold of him. I wasn’t one to make a man beg, especially not someone I wanted as badly as I wanted Ron, so I released his zipper and pulled out his cock.
Ron lifted his hips, pressing into my grip as he moaned softly. “Yes, Leo. Please.”
“Anything.” I pushed up his shirt and dragged my tongue down his firm chest, circling his nipples before venturing lower. When I was within tasting distance of his cock, all my primal desires came forth, and I couldn’t slow things down. I opened my lips and sucked in his smooth head, savoring the tangy flavor that filled my mouth. “Mmm.”
“Oh, god.” He slid his fingers through my hair and held me in place. “If you keep humming like that, I’m gonna come.”
I smiled around him as I slid up and down his shaft, learning every vein and ridge in his thick girth. “I want you to.”
He closed his eyes and threw his head back as he fucked my mouth. I bobbed up and down, pulling off him as his balls tightened, afraid he’d come too soon.
When he caught his breath, his finger traveled around my thigh and tapped at my opening. I was wet and fluttering as he easily slipped inside me. He pumped me slowly, but slowly was not what I needed. I scooted around so he had access to my ass, and I could still reach his cock. Then I swallowed him down, wanting to taste his offering.
“Leo!”
As soon as he pushed up and his entire body went rigid, I knew he was ready. Ron unloaded into my mouth and down my throat. “Fuck!”
“Give it to me,” I said with a mouthful of his cream dripping from the corners of my mouth. “I want it.”
He did, filling me with his come as my cat begged me to fully claim him as ours.
After he relaxed against the couch, he pulled me forward and captured my lips with his, taking some of his own flavor into his mouth while we shifted positions so I was underneath him. “Now I need you inside me…”
I loved that he wanted to be in control, giving me what I wanted so badly. While we kissed, we managed to free ourselves of the rest of our clothes until we were both naked and sweaty against each other.
I sat up and tilted my hips so his cock rubbed along my crack, lubing up with my natural arousal. “It’s been a while.”
“I’ll be gentle.” His hands slid down my back and cupped my ass. Ron pulled my cheeks apart then slid two fingers in, stretching me so I could take him.
“God, that feels good. I think I’m ready.” I sat straight up and positioned my opening above his cock then slowly lowered down onto his dick, sucking him inside me. “I need this, Ron.”
“Me too, babe.” He pressed up and closed the small gap between us until we were skin to skin again, his shaft fully buried inside my channel.
After a deep breath, I started moving up and down, riding him with our eyes locked the entire time. I couldn’t remember ever feeling more complete than I did with him.
Our pace quickened, and I could feel his knot beginning to form. “I want you to knot me.”
His teeth pressed against my shoulder, almost hard enough to break the skin, to mark me.
“Yessss!” I cried out, my cat fully ready to reciprocate.
His head snapped back and the moment was lost, but my mind was already elsewhere as he slammed into my prostate, sending stars across my vision as my cock prepared to explode.
I started moving faster, pushing us both toward the goal we were so desperate for. “Yes.”
With that one word, Ron’s fingers closed around my hips and he held me in place.
I came, shooting onto his bare chest and belly as he filled me with his knot and his seed, locking it and himself inside me. “Fuck, that was good.”
He rubbed my back and kissed my forehead. “It was perfect. Just like you.”
Twelve
Ron
Waking up alone sucked.
I understood why he snuck out in the dead of night. Why wouldn’t he? We barely knew each other, and it wasn’t like we’d really talked about things. Going to bed with someone is one thing...waking up with them is another.
I climbed out of bed, trying not to have a p
ity party for one. Sleeping in the other room was hardly rejection. Then why did it sting?
After a quick trip to the bathroom, I padded into the kitchen to make some coffee. It hadn’t finished brewing when Leo came out, his pajama pants low on his hips and no shirt. Gah. A man could get used to that.
“Morning.” I held up two coffee cups and raised an eyebrow.
“Definitely.” He came around the counter and took a seat. “Your boss sent a text and said I’m not allowed on the property until the investigation is complete.” He let out a long sigh.
I guess that meant he didn’t want him to go in for questioning. If he had, he’d have mentioned it. That man needed to get his head on straight. Besides, he had no authority to do that. At this point, there was no crime. Just a stash of guns. It seemed suspicious, but at least Leo didn’t have to waste his day dealing with questions he had no answers for.
“Oh, I'm sorry. That sucks.” I poured his coffee. It looked like he wanted to play the nothing happened last night game, and while I wasn’t into that plan, I respected his desire to do so. Things in his life were complicated enough. “What do you want to do today? I have the day off. If you need help with something else, like maybe ordering things or picking them up.”
He blew into his hot mug, sending a blast of steam into the air. “I was thinking maybe we could bring the box to Doc’s place?”
“That's a good idea. Xander will be in school, so it will give us some privacy.” We hadn’t read the letters, but I had a feeling they would strip open a lot of wounds, and Doc may want to wait until he was older to give them to Xander.
As we drove to Doc’s, I kept the windows open. Ever since last night, all I wanted to do was smell him. There was something about his scent that called to me, and the longer I was surrounded by it, the harder it was to respect his space. Opening the truck windows made a huge difference, but the draw was far from gone. Not petting him...yes, petting...took a lot of concentration.
We’d given Doc a heads up we were coming but hadn’t told him the details of why. It felt like the kind of thing best explained in person.
“Doc’s practice is connected to his home,” I said as we drove down the dirt road that led to his place. At one time, it had been a family farm, but the fields had long grown over except for the small herb garden he used for his practice. He was pretty old-fashioned like that. “It works out well because he doesn’t have the packed schedules of city practices.” I’d heard horror stories of people trying to get in when they were sick. Here, most of the time, all it took was a phone call.
“That’s pretty cool.” His hand settled on my thigh. Maybe he wasn’t feeling day-after blues afterall.
I placed my hand on his as I drove into the driveway and found Doc outside, holding some herbs that looked more like weeds.
He waved to us as I opened the door. “Hey, Ron. It's good to see you.” He took a step back and looked at Leo. “See you brought the new guy.” He winked.
Was it that obvious? Did it matter?
“Yeah, seems to be my name around here.” Leo held out his hand for Doc. “I’m Leo.”
“I think August was the new guy for...I don’t know...ever. And he grew up here during the summers.” Doc shook his hand and chuckled. “It’s the way of things.”
“We brought you something.” I opened up the back door and reached for the box. “We found it over at Xander’s old place.” It was Clarence’s place to most of town, but when I was around Doc, I tried to be cognizant of the hurt his family endured over there and kept that man’s name out of my conversations.
Doc had taken Xander under his wing after it all went down, and he saw far more than we ever would. “My son’s at school.”
My heart filled with warmth at hearing him call Xander his son.
His eyes narrowed as he looked between us. “But from the looks on your faces, that may not be a bad thing. Come on in.”
We followed the doctor into his kitchen where we sat around the table, placing the chest in the center.
“We found a secret room at the house. It was mostly filled with guns, though that’s currently unreleased information.”
Doc rubbed his brow. “That man was crazier than a shithouse rat.”
“Apparently, even more than any of us realized.”
“The room was behind paneling and the entrance was hidden in the root cellar,” Leo explained, turning the box to face Doc.
Doc cussed under his breath. “And this was in there?”
“This, and a bunch of guns and all sorts of crazy conspiracy shit.” I placed my hand on Doc’s, and when he met my eyes I added, “This was in the other room, though...of course.”
He understood my meaning. “This isn’t the kind of thing to be in a room like that. What's in it?”
“Mostly jewelry.” Leo opened the lid. “But there’s a secret box here. I'll show you.” He pushed the cloth over to engage the secret lever and open the small compartment with the letters. “They’re all addressed to Xander.”
“Have you read them?” He reached for them, and halfway there, he pulled his hand back.
“No, we didn't have the heart to. We assume they’re from his mother, and since they were addressed to Xander, we thought it was best for you to decide what to do with them.”
“I don't know if I feel okay just giving them to him.” He shut the lid. “Parenting is hard. On one hand, they are his. On the other, maybe they were meant for him as an adult.”
“I think he would understand if you read them first.” I wished I had better advice for him. “We assume they're from his mom, but if they're from his dad, does he need that toxicity in this life?”
His shoulders relaxed slightly. “No, I suppose not… Thanks, I needed that permission.” He stood up and grabbed the box, taking it into another room and joining us again a minute later.
“Now on to something lighter.” He clapped his hands together and turned to Leo. “Why on this green earth did you buy that dump?” Straight and to the point. The tension in the room shattered at his quip.
“I needed to get out of the city. It was just...getting to be too much.”
“City life isn't for everyone,” Doc agreed. “I know I couldn't live in the city. Sometimes I need to let myself go live free, if you know what I mean.”
“I do indeed.”
Thirteen
Leo
Shifter.
Another shifter.
Doc was a shifter.
Had I stumbled into some sort of a pack or something? I wasn't sure, but I needed answers. Unfortunately, with Ron beside me, it wasn’t like I could just say, “Doc, what kind of shifter are you? I’m thinking fox, but I’m not sure.”
So I sat there, hoping for an opportunity to slip it and grateful when Ron got up and excused himself to use the restroom.
“Cat.” We didn’t have time to waste so I cut to the chase.
“Otter.” He nodded once and smiled.
Interestingly, I’d never met an otter before.
“Your mate doesn’t know.” His comment wasn’t a question.
“Did Jase tell you?” They had mentioned Doc but left out the otter part.
He leaned back in his chair. “No, but they know too.”
“Don’t laugh, but they’re currently cat sitting for me.” Of course, he laughed because how could he not?
“I was trying to figure out who else you might have met. There are a few of us in town.” He crossed his hands in his lap and tapped his thumbs together. “How did he know you had a cat?”
“My stupid cat ran up to him and let him hold us.” He wasn’t stupid, but at the time, it sure felt like it. “It was nice until he told me he was going to talk to my owner about neutering me.”
Doc threw his head back in a full-on belly laugh. It was only funny to him because it wasn’t his balls on the chopping block.
“What's so funny?” Ron came back in, and instead of sitting down, he stood behind me, his hands se
ttling on my shoulders. “I leave for two seconds, and you guys have a comedy show.”
“I don't even remember anymore.” It wasn’t too far from the truth. With his hands on me, the world fell away. I hated leaving him last night. I wanted to curl around him forever, but my cat was dangerously close to purring, and there was no way to explain that without explaining everything, and I wanted more time to figure out how to do that.
“I was telling your houseguest that we should probably establish him as a patient while he’s here and I have the time.” Good man. “If you want, I can drop him back at your place when we’re done. I need to go to town anyway.”
“Is everything okay?” His hands tightened on my shoulder, and I looked up at him. He was worried.
“Yeah. Yeah, I just...I get these weird allergies, and I didn't realize my prescription was almost gone until this morning.” That sounded plausible, right? I hated lying to him even if it was something stupid. “Doc offered, and I figured I might as well since I can’t go home.” Which still pissed me the fuck off. The sheriff had no right to do that—probably. Again, my knowledge was based on television shows so maybe he could. Shit, maybe he could seize the property.
I sounded like I was making stuff up, which of course, I was.
“Yeah.” He walked around me. “Okay, that could… That’s good.”
Damn, I hurt his feelings.
“But I can come back and get you, if you want.” His eyes were pleading as he looked at me.
Doc waved off the idea. “I'll bring him back. I can’t miss Sugar Pie Day.”
From the way Ron’s face turned from disappointed to childlike glee, I figured Sugar Pie Day was something amazing.
“Sugar pie what?” Although it didn’t really matter since I was on board anything these men were that excited about.
Feline The Love: An M/M MPreg Shifter Romance (River’s Edge Shifters Book 2) Page 6
