by Kate Lowell
Glyn squirmed. He wanted back at Levi’s body, wanted to rub his chest against that hard muscle and feel the friction against his own skin. To wrap his legs around Levi’s waist and be filled with his heat.
Levi chuckled as if he could read Glyn’s mind and was enjoying the tale it told. He tugged on Glyn’s hair again, using it to pull Glyn over to the desk and lay him across it, face up. “Stay there,” he said, releasing his grip and running his hand down Glyn’s chest. “Don’t move.”
Not much chance of that. Glyn was pretty sure his knees would give out at the first bit of weight he put on them. He watched as Levi took off his belt, laid it on the desk beside Glyn’s hips, and slid his jeans off. Levi’s cock sprang out as the jeans hit the floor. There was no comparison. Glyn’s father had passed down to him the witch’s tendency to, as his mother put it, cat around, along with his talent for picking winning stocks. He’d seen a few cocks in his time, but none that made his insides curl with impatience like Levi’s did. Levi was the opposite of twink, and his cock was the opposite of twink cock. Long, with heavy, assertive balls that Glyn loved to toy with when Levi let him. Which didn’t look like it would be happening today. The thought made Glyn squirm, which earned him a sharp tap on the thigh.
“I said, be still.”
Oh Lady, I’m going to die of frustration. He’d been teasing himself all day with his plans for the evening. Having it flipped backward and upside down on him had sent his already swelling cock skyrocketing. Or it would be if Levi would get him out of his jeans.
Levi stepped between his thighs where they hung over the edge of the desk and lifted one leg around his waist. The other hand came down to press gentle heat over Glyn’s zipper, slowly circling and building up the friction between the cloth and the flesh underneath. Glyn moaned and pushed himself into that caress, heedless of the metal between them.
“That’s it, beautiful. Talk to me. Tell me what you want.”
Glyn panted. “Fuck me. I want you inside.” He reached for Levi, but Levi pushed his hands away.
“How do you want me to do it?”
What did he want? He couldn’t think; nothing worked inside his head. All he knew was that he wanted Levi inside. In desperation, he looked up at Levi, begging him wordlessly for help.
Levi bent to kiss him, his hands rough against the skin of Glyn’s shoulders and the tender points of his nipples. Glyn wailed into Levi’s mouth, his fingers digging into the thick muscles of Levi’s chest. He nearly cried when Levi pulled away, then carefully crossed Glyn’s hands over his stomach and pressed just hard enough to tell Glyn to keep them there. Or else.
Glyn closed his eyes, unable to focus on anything but the heavy swirl of desire in his belly and the painful pleasure of his cock. He was unprepared when Levi picked him up and flipped him over, and Levi’s sudden grasp at his hips thrilled him. Glyn scrambled for a grip on the top of the desk, his legs hanging over the edge, feet splayed on the floor for balance. Levi reached underneath him, tolerating no resistance from Glyn’s jeans, and had them down around his ankles before Glyn had caught his breath.
“This what you want?” Levi coaxed, running his hands in circles over the globes of Glyn’s ass.
Glyn nodded and moaned, long since past the point of coherent speech. He stood on his tiptoes to offer himself up to his lover, weight shifting impatiently from leg to leg. Levi’s hand slid up to stroke along Glyn’s spine, and Glyn laid his forehead against the desk and prayed. He wasn’t sure what he was praying for, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Levi laughed and pried Glyn’s hands off the edges of the desk, then pinned Glyn’s wrists together in the small of his back with one massive hand. “This is what you’re looking for, isn’t it?”
Glyn whimpered and squirmed.
Levi shook the hand holding Glyn’s wrists. “Answer me, Glyn. Is this what you want me to do?”
“Y-yes,” was Glyn’s hoarse reply. Lady, he needed.
He heard one of the drawers open as a gentle kiss landed on the crease where his ass met his thigh. He drew his legs farther apart, hoping for more attention. Levi’s chuckle sounded out behind him, and then there was a click and the coolness of lube dribbling down his crack. Another click and the thunk of the bottle hitting the inside of the drawer again, and Levi’s fingers were at his entrance, circling and teasing. They pushed at him, abortive movements that made Glyn writhe and beg. The feel of teeth in his buttock almost sent him over the edge, but Levi slowed his attentions, drawing Glyn back again to wait.
“Nice try, but you’ll come when I tell you to.”
Glyn gasped and pressed his forehead harder to the desk. The trembling became shaking, and he wasn’t sure he could avoid disappointing Levi. He thought about credits and debits and sitting at the computer trying to make sense of someone’s homegrown accounting system. It helped a bit. What would really help, though, was the cock brushing against the backs of his thighs as Levi worked his finger around Glyn’s entrance again.
“Levi, please!” During these moments, the begging, the not knowing what would happen next, was almost as good as he knew the sex itself would be. He brought his thighs together, standing on tiptoe to try to catch that cock between them. Maybe he could add a little persuasion…
“Do you want my fingers first?” Levi asked.
Glyn turned his head to one side to catch a glimpse of him. Levi knew him well enough to know that the answer would be no in his current mood, but he never failed to ask. And never fails to check, either. He squirmed as Levi slid a finger in without waiting for his answer, to make sure he was loose enough not to hurt himself in his eagerness.
As Glyn spasmed around him, Levi laughed and then replaced the finger with his cock. He pressed forward, too gently for Glyn’s liking. In and out, tiny movements over and over again, while Glyn moaned and pleaded and tried to move against the hands that held him pinioned to the desk. When Glyn was convinced he was going to break down and cry in frustration, Levi pushed forward, breaching him completely. Glyn groaned and stiffened, then sagged back down onto the desk.
Gentle fingers traced the curl of his ear. “Okay, beautiful?”
Glyn nodded. “Don’t stop. I’m so close.”
Levi chuckled, a feral sound that brought goose bumps to Glyn’s skin. “I know. I won’t make you wait…too long.” That chuckle again and the scratch of nails down his back, just this edge of pain. He bucked against the hand around his wrists, rolling his hips to force Levi farther in.
A sharp slap to his thigh made him freeze. “Now, you didn’t let me put you in this position to let you get away with that, did you?”
Glyn lay still, breathing hard and waiting.
Another slap. “Answer me, Glyn.”
Glyn closed his eyes. “No.” Fuck, he wasn’t going to last.
“That’s what I thought.” Levi leaned over him, the heat of his chest stretched the length of Glyn’s back, and slowly pushed himself inside, an inexorable advance that brought Glyn to a state of tension that made his muscles crack. Glyn shivered, rocking his hips to encourage Levi to move.
He didn’t have long to wait. With a huge indrawn breath, Levi began a slow push and pull, gradually increasing speed. He shifted his grip from Glyn’s wrists to his hips, holding him in place when Glyn began to slide forward on the desk with the force of his thrusts.
Glyn started that climb again toward climax, praying Levi would take him over. He held on to the desk, riding the thrusts as best he could as Levi’s rhythm staggered. His world was narrowing down to the hard edge of the desk in his hands, the tension in his cock, and the searing heat in his ass. It wouldn’t be long now.
The door opened. “Levi, the rest of the council— Holy shit!”
Levi growled. “Get out!” His voice was a deep, harsh grumble, full of menace and the promise of blood. The door slammed, and Glyn lost his grip on the last pieces of his self-control.
“Leeeeviiii!” he screamed as he came over
the floor under the desk.
Levi growled, still more wolf than man, set his teeth into Glyn’s shoulder, and bit gently. A few thrusts more and he froze, crushing Glyn against the desk, then pushed again, his body shaking against Glyn’s. Gradually the tension left his muscles. He released Glyn’s shoulder, apologetically licked the dents his teeth had left, and rested his head on Glyn’s upper back. “That was nice.” Levi’s breath ghosted over the back of Glyn’s shoulder.
Glyn smirked. “Mmmm. Was that Bryan that walked in?”
Levi groaned and ran a hand down and up the side of Glyn’s thigh. “Yes. God, his face!” He snorted and settled a little closer. “I could stay here forever.” He sounded relaxed for the first time in a long time.
Glyn lifted his head and looked over his shoulder. “Well, I couldn’t. Get off, Fido. You’re heavy.”
Levi snorted and nuzzled the back of Glyn’s neck. “Okay.” He peeled himself off Glyn’s back and pulled out, his now flaccid cock swinging heavily down against his thighs. Glyn heard the rattling thump as Levi fell into the chair. “If you need some help,” Levi said, “you might need to wait a few minutes. I don’t think I could move a muscle.”
Glyn laughed and levered himself up. Sweat had glued his skin to the desk, and his legs were none too steady underneath him. The only thing that would have made him happier would have been knowing for sure that Tuesday would work. “I think I’m okay.” He tottered away from the desk and fell into Levi’s lap, then tucked his head under Levi’s chin and pulled Levi’s arms around him. The chair creaked but held up under their combined weight. “You picked a good chair.”
Levi chortled. “I threw a bunch of concrete blocks on it to be sure before I bought it. You should have seen the salesman’s face.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I needed to know if it was strong enough to handle hours of acrobatic sex with my boyfriend before I was going to spend that much money.”
Glyn snorted and closed his eyes, relaxing in the heat and safety of his lover’s arms. They rested together for a few minutes before Levi’s voice rumbled up out of his chest.
“Thank you,” he said, one hand sliding up to play with the strands of Glyn’s hair where it tickled his shoulders.
Glyn lifted his head and smiled back at him. “I should be thanking you.”
Levi shook his head, his expression dark, and Glyn’s good mood began to fade. What’s going on?
“I wasn’t going to tell you, but I think I’d better. Bryan came to talk to me today.”
Oh. The good mood was definitely gone now. He could guess what the conversation was about.
Levi shifted, pulling Glyn closer. “He wants to bring another candidate to the moon.” He placed an absentminded kiss on the crown of Glyn’s head. “I wanted to kill him for it.”
He pulled away to cup Levi’s face in his hands and force him to look Glyn in the eyes. “You’re not going to let him talk you into it, are you? Don’t, Levi, please!”
Levi placed his hands over Glyn’s and kissed each palm before laying them flat on his chest and covering them with his own. “No, I’m going to vote against it. But I’m only one person. There are five of us. It only takes three.”
“It doesn’t matter. He can do what he wants, but he can’t make you do what he wants. This isn’t about what color to paint the bar. It’s our lives!” Glyn was panicking now. Could he step aside quietly if the council voted against him? He wanted desperately to be able to say yes, but he knew himself too well. The answer was no, for so many reasons. Fucking witchblood.
Levi shook his head. “We’re a council, not a monarchy. I’m not McCourt.”
Glyn shook his head in frustration and fear. “Only because you want it that way. Levi, just this once. That’s all I’m asking. It’ll work this month!”
This time it was Levi’s turn to take Glyn’s face in his hands. Levi’s thumbs smoothed over his cheekbones, then traced the lines of his eyebrows in quiet affection. “Doesn’t matter. What kind of man am I if I follow the rules only when it suits me personally? If he calls council…”
“McCourt wouldn’t let him get away with it.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Glyn wished he could take them back. He didn’t want Levi to turn into McCourt. Not really. They’d worked too hard to turn him back from that road.
Levi froze for an instant, then stood up and set Glyn gently back on the chair. “I know. And that’s probably the best reason of all to let it happen.” He pulled his jeans on, slipped his sneakers on over bare feet, and gathered his shirt from the floor. “I’m going to talk to the council.” He shushed Glyn with a gentle finger across his lips and then kissed him tenderly. “I’ll do my best. If it was only my blood I had to worry about, there’d be no question. You know that. But it was my choices, my stupid idea about a democratic wolf pack, that brought us to this point. There’s more here at stake than just us.”
Glyn nodded in misery. He did understand. He pressed his forehead against Levi’s stomach and muttered, “You know, we could just move to Florida. Granddad’s house is still there. We could go to Disneyland.”
Levi sighed and stroked the back of Glyn’s head. “Don’t tempt me. Right now I’d throw you over my shoulder and run like the wind if I could.” Glyn felt the fingers of Levi’s other hand wandering over his shoulder, and he suddenly realized Levi was tracing the old scars. So he wasn’t terribly surprised when Levi took a deep breath and continued, “I don’t want anyone to get hurt. McCourt left me—us—a dead wolf in the Dumpster this morning. Things are getting out of hand. If I ran, I’d be leaving all that for the pack to deal with.”
The news left Glyn stunned, and he didn’t resist as Levi tilted Glyn’s face up with two fingers under his chin. “And if I uproot you, destroy all your routines, your systems, what happens then? Cave paintings on the wall? Kitchen chairs doing the merengue in the hallway? Another week of the neighbors declaring their undying love for a giant teddy bear and fist-fighting for the privilege of marrying it?” A short silence, and then Levi shook his head. “No. You gave up a pretty good life to follow me here, one that was working for you, where you weren’t having these random spits of power. I’m not going to uproot you and put you through all that another time, just so I can avoid my responsibilities.”
Glyn groaned and buried his face again in Levi’s belly. “Me and my damn broken gene pool. Just promise me you’ll wait before you jump into anything? Gram’s on the trail of something, and she says she needs to talk to you first. She’s coming by tonight.”
“We’ve got until Tuesday, right? I’ll figure it out, or your gram will. Just give me some time, and trust me.” Levi bent and kissed him on the mouth, then knelt briefly to kiss the rough red scar at the curve of his hip before walking out the door, leaving Glyn wishing for a time machine so he could redo the last five minutes. He reached out with his witchsight to look at Levi’s futures but chickened out as they started flickering into existence around the office door.
Glyn loved Levi, loved the man who had fought his way out from under the weight of his savage wolf and was determined to make a safe haven for his pack. He knew Levi would make the best decision he could.
It didn’t make the sick feeling in his stomach go away.
The Other Man
Levi walked into the bar, firmly squashing his wolf back into its cave. The early evening crowd had thickened into a tight-packed Saturday-night party crew. Clothing was coming off at about the same rate as the liquor was disappearing from the bottles behind the bar. There’d be no talking to Bryan right now. He and Shelley, their human bartender, were pouring as fast as they could, and the servers ricocheted through the crowd with as much speed as the crowded conditions would allow. They really needed to get more staff in and look at an expansion. The place was almost too crowded.
He let the emotions in the room and the smell of sweat and sex and hunger wash over him. His wolf pricked up its ears, but there was nothing the
re as interesting to it as the afterglow, and it quickly settled down again. Levi smiled to himself. He was back under control now. Didn’t mean he was looking forward to the meeting with the council, but he thought he could make it through without losing his temper and breaking someone. The sex had helped take the edge off—anything he did with Glyn helped, but sex was the best.
Damned horny wolf.
Their last few words, though, had dumped him right back into his pre-sex state of mind. He stepped into the kitchen, grabbed a rack of clean glasses, and dragged them over to fill the shelves behind the bar, avoiding Bryan’s eyes the whole time. Glyn was right; he could simply force the decision on them all. It would be easy. Just let the beast out, kill or injure a few naysayers, and Bob’s your uncle—terrified wolf pack and all the power you could ever want.
He shoved the last glass into place and dragged the rack back into the kitchen. Yeah, he could have power. Except he didn’t want it anymore. He’d lived in that dark place, in the days before Glyn, drunk on rage and violence, certain that no one could stand against him. And he had the blood on his hands and the scars on his conscience to prove it.
Back in his regular role as jack-of-all-trades, he hovered at the edges of the room, watching the dancers and ready to bounce anyone who got out of line. A pretty blonde girl undulated right in front of him. She smiled and winked, turning so he could inspect her barely covered buttocks and the tattoo crawling up out of the waistband of her skirt. Levi ignored the flirting, but when she started to dance toward him, hips and breasts swinging in time to the music, the idea of hiding out back started to have more merit. They could always use an extra hand washing dishes. Except that their kitchen staff were pack, and he’d already gotten enough nervous looks when he went in for the glassware.
Another one, a brunette this time, eyed him from her seat at the bar like he was a piece of meat. Funny how that didn’t bother him when Glyn did it. Tonight, from them, it just made him feel dirty. Even worse, he thought he remembered her from high school. Obviously she hadn’t gotten the memo about his preferences.
