by Lynn Stark
“I don’t like big men.”
Colt said nothing to that. His smile, however, was ever-so-gentle. “You must be Angel. How did you like the ride in the plane?”
Angel shifted from foot to foot as he bit his lip, obviously not certain if he should respond or not. Finally he blurted out, “I freakin’ loved it!”
Everyone laughed, the tension in the room dissipating as quickly as it had formed. “I’m glad. Anytime you want to go again, just let me know and I’ll arrange it.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Can I take my friends?”
“Of course.”
“How far can we go?”
“As far as you want.”
“What if we want to go for breakfast in Paris?”
Colt laughed even as Alex tried to quiet the enthusiastic man. “Hell, I might even ask to tag along for that. If you guys want to go to Paris for breakfast sometime, I’ll make the arrangements. We’ll just have to get you passports, if you don’t already have them.”
Somehow Avery wasn’t surprised when Angel dug down into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a passport. They laughed again and Alex pulled him close for a hug. Angel put his arm over Alex’s shoulders, leaning on him. Avery again wondered if they were lovers, but decided they were just friends. There was nothing lover-like between them.
Colt went to the cupboard to get a bowl. Then he was filling it with the hearty stew Gilly had made. He carried it to the table and sat down.
“This smells great.”
“You have to have the biscuits, too.” Angel ran to put several on a plate. He put them in the microwave to heat them up. A minute later he was returning with steaming biscuits. He put three on a plate for himself, slathered them with butter, and then drenched them with honey.
“Man, where are you putting all that food?” Gilly asked, laughing. “Do you have a hollow leg?”
“Two of them,” Angel mumbled around a sticky biscuit.
Once Colt had finished his food he leaned back and smiled at Gilly. He reached out to stroke the other man’s shoulder in a tender gesture, as if he couldn’t help himself, that he needed the contact to reaffirm what he felt. Avery wanted one of his own, but knew once he got it he would want it to go a lot further. His body began to heat with the thoughts of all the things he wanted to do with Colt. Dark eyes met his and he blushed.
“Cupcakes!”
Everyone groaned while Colt looked perplexed. Gilly growled. “No cupcakes!”
“But everybody loves cupcakes!” Angel protested. “Big, fat, chocolate cupcakes with fudge frosting and chocolate sprinkles!”
“No. You got your cookies and brownies. Who do you think is going to make all this extra stuff? I want to concentrate on my candy.”
Colt chuckled, obviously catching on. “Angel is now working for you?”
“Yes. He’s turning into a regular brat. Another half hour and he’ll have me running a bakery and they already have one in town. You don’t want me to take business away from them, do you?”
Angel ducked his head. “No. But chocolate cupcakes are still a good idea.”
“Then I suggest you lease the store on the square and teach him to bake.”
The little guy was all for that. In fact, he got so excited he ran around the table to hug Colt before he realized what he was doing. Avery’s lover squeezed the guy hard before releasing him. Then Angel was hugging Gilly and returning to stand between Tristan and Alex. They spent another hour talking over their plans. It was an easy time and Avery saw a lot of it in his future. He prayed his brothers would feel safe enough, and like the area enough, to stay in Silver. He hadn’t seen much of the town himself, but knew he would have to venture out, too. Though he had come with the horse that didn’t mean he actually had a job. He couldn’t work for Colt anyway. That would just be weird. No, he’d have to get a job training horses, which was something he excelled at.
Once Colt invited his brothers and Angel to stay as long as they needed to, Avery took them upstairs to choose a bedroom. They groaned in unison when Angel chose one that, to Avery, looked like something out of a fancy, nineteenth century brothel. There were crimson velvet drapes on the windows, canopy, and the bedspread. The bed was large enough for six men his size. The furniture was old, beautiful, and looked expensive. There was marble and gilt around the fireplace and antiques on every available surface.
He hoped the excitable guy didn’t touch anything.
Alex chose the room next to Angel’s. It was connected by a door, which made the younger man happy. Tristan chose a room across the hall. They hadn’t brought much with them. They didn’t have much, just what could fit in a couple of duffel bags, so it didn’t take long to get them settled in.
Going downstairs he looked for both Colt and Gilly and couldn’t find either one. He smiled and began searching the downstairs rooms. Maybe they were fooling around, he thought, and he could get in on the action. His cock perked up with anticipation until he found what he guessed was a very serious talk going on between the two men.
Gilly turned eyes on him that were so full of pain that Avery knew nothing good had happened. “Colt doesn’t believe he’s treating us fairly,” Gilly whispered. “He believes we’ve been pressured into accepting what they were offering and wants us to take time to think about it before it goes any further.”
Avery’s eyes went from Gilly to Colt. He saw the truth in the man’s handsome face. There was pain in his dark eyes, but an expression which told him that what Gilly had said was true.
“Really?” he whispered, his heart breaking along with Gilly’s. “You give us everything and then take it away? I can’t believe this!” His voice rose along with his anger and his sense of betrayal. “Why couldn’t you just have left us alone? Go to hell!”
Leaving the room Avery slammed the door behind him. He ignored Colt’s plea to return. What was there to return to? The man admitted he had made a mistake, that he, Bliss, and Clarissa had made a mistake. They didn’t want Gilly and him. He felt bad about leaving Gilly alone with the man who had crushed their hearts, but he couldn’t go back.
All but running upstairs he went to the room he had been given for his unexpectedly brief stay. Though he had known from the beginning that there was a chance that it wouldn’t work out, he had hoped that it would. He had never felt such a connection with others as he had with them. Grabbing his duffel bags out of the closet he packed everything he had brought with him. He left the gifts Clarissa and Bliss had bought for him. After he was finished packing he dropped his bags in the hallway before he went down the hall to tell his brothers he was leaving. Their instantaneous support meant a lot to him. They didn’t ask what had happened, just grabbed their unpacked bags and went for Angel.
When Angel learned they were leaving Avery felt like he had kicked the guy’s puppy. But they needed to go. Without saying it aloud they knew they wouldn’t be separated again. “We’ll find a nice house and fix up a bedroom just like this, okay?” Avery promised in a strained voice.
Gilly stopped them in the hallway. He was pale, his features strained, but there was a determined glint in his brown eyes. “You can’t go.”
“Why the fuck not? He doesn’t want us.”
“He wants us. He’s just worried they pressured us into a relationship with them. He wants us to think about it, to know what we really want.”
“I know what I really want. It obviously wasn’t as important to them as it was to me.” Avery tried to move by Gilly but the man stopped him. “Get the fuck out of my way.”
A hand wrapped around his upper arm. Avery felt his brothers step up behind him, ready to take up for him if necessary. He almost smiled. It was just like the old days, when they needed to back one another up. It wasn’t always easy being both small and gay. Sometimes it just sucked. But they were scrappy, as their grandfather described them.
“Are you really going to throw this away? All Colt wants is
for us to take some time to think about what we want. He wants us to be sure, because if we leave later it’s going to hurt a whole helluva lot more.”
“I suppose you’re staying,” he said scathingly, feeling betrayed a second time. He didn’t know why. Gilly was free to make his own choices, as was Avery.
“Yes, I’m staying. I don’t want to regret not trying. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll at least know I tried. I can live with that.” He looked beyond Avery to the men standing behind him. “This is a good place for them, too. Let them get settled, relax, have some fun. They can look for a place to live in a few days.”
Thinking about it for a moment, Avery decided to put his brothers’ needs, and Angel’s, ahead of his own. It wasn’t like he had to strip down and bend over if Colt came into a room.
Nodding, he said quietly, “Okay. We’ll stay for a few more days. Then we’re out of here.” His brothers had just picked up and left their lives behind. It hadn’t been much of one, basically hiding out, and living like hermits when they could, just to stay out of the public eye where someone might see and recognize them. He heard a door slam and turned to see that Angel was gone. “Well, one of us is happy.”
“Have you seen the bathroom? There’s a copper tub in there large enough for six people. He’s planning on going for a swim.” Tristan laughed as he bent to pick up his bag. “My own bathroom’s not so bad, either. I think I’ll soak and enjoy not having to share it with a bunch of other guys.”
Alex lingered, his eyes full of concern. “I think you’re doing the right thing. I saw the way Redford was looking at you guys. If he’s not in love with you yet, he’s damned close. I believe he only has your best interests at heart. He wants you to be sure.”
With that his brother was gone, heading to the room he had claimed. Suddenly tired, he grabbed his own bags. “Okay, I’m staying. You can stop standing guard.”
Gilly looked at him suspiciously. “You won’t sneak out?”
“No. But I do have to go out to look for a job this afternoon and my brothers will probably go with me. Maybe Angel will stay here for some cooking lessons.” Avery chuckled, finally feeling some of his good humor returning. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t still hurt and confused, but just thinking about the small, energetic man made him feel better. “You’re a real sucker when it comes to him.”
Nodding, Gilly stepped close. Avery didn’t resist when he was pulled into strong arms and against the surprisingly hard body. He thought most chefs were pudgy or fat. The man was hard and fit, obviously working out to keep his body that way.
“The guy is so sweet that I can’t resist. I will have to teach him to bake. Now, hold still while I kiss you.”
They had kissed and wrestled around a lot the night before, but nothing else. Gilly hadn’t gotten to wear his new shoes and Avery hadn’t gotten his blow job.
Gilly’s mouth was firm on his, his tongue gently asking for entrance. Avery’s lips parted and he moaned with pleasure as the kiss quickly went from “we’re more than friends” to “I want in your pants now.” His cock filled out, lengthening, pressing against his zipper as Gilly ground their hips together. Moaning, he raised his hands and clutched at the other man’s shoulders, pulling him closer as his tongue dueled, telling Gilly just what he needed at that moment.
Strong teeth bit his lower lip when they broke apart, gasping for air. They stared at one another for only a moment before Gilly was grabbing his hand and pulling him down the hall to his room. Unlike his, Gilly had chosen a room that was almost stark. There were no frills, no glittery objects. And it definitely said “monk” whereas Angel’s room screamed “slut.” Avery’s room was somewhere in between. A rich, dark brown duvet covered the bed. The pillows leaning against the headboard were in shades of creams and browns. The headboard itself was not much more than a large, stained board, and was without any ornamentation of any kind. Nice, but it was plain, as was the rest of the furniture in the room. There was even boring cream carpet covering the floor.
Gilly closed the door firmly after them as Avery waited beside the bed. He might have been nervous but the other man showed no sign of it. He returned to his side and began stripping off his clothing.
“I like the way you smell. Pine needles, horses, leather, and icy mountain air.” A moan left his lips as his neck was nuzzled, Gilly inhaling deeply. “Now, if I could just pour some chocolate over you, you’d be perfect.”
Avery laughed. He couldn’t help himself. Gilly sounded so serious about wanting to do it. “Don’t obsess much, do you?”
“Not much.”
Their clothes came off and then they were on the bed. Gilly didn’t waste any time. He kneeled between Avery’s legs and swooped down on his cock, sucking it to the back of his throat.
Avery nearly shot off the bed as his body arched with pleasure. Strong hands pressed on his thighs, preventing him from fucking the man’s mouth as his need demanded. Though pleasure was burning through his veins he wanted more. Winding his fingers through Gilly’s brown curls he held on as the man slid his mouth up his length and sucked on the head, his tongue swirling around it before teasing the slit.
Droplets of pre-cum oozed. Gilly looked up at him as he licked them away. Avery groaned and gave a warning tug on the guy’s hair. Gilly grinned and swallowed him whole again, a hand sliding between Avery’s thighs to cup his aching balls.
Without any warning cum shot from Avery’s balls, pulling them tight against his body. “Oh, fuck yes! That’s the way to suck a dick!”
Gilly sucked and licked, his mouth tight around the shaft until Avery’s body twitched for the last time. He lay there panting, his heart thundering in his chest. His hands fell away from Gilly’s hair to land on his thighs. Staring at the ceiling he didn’t think about anything in particular. All he knew was that at that moment his body was sated and he was too tired to think about anything else. All he wanted to do was sleep.
The other man must have realized this because he came up beside him and pulled at the duvet until it covered them both. Wrapped in Gilly’s strong arms Avery decided he would think about everything else later.
A low moan accompanied him into wakefulness. Avery was on his stomach and blinked as he lifted his head. He looked over his shoulder and saw that it was Gilly straddling his legs and massaging his ass cheeks. It felt good and he knew where the other man wanted it to go.
What the hell. Gilly was as much as his partner, maybe more so, than Colt, Clarissa, and Bliss. He had as much to lose as Avery did if this didn’t work out between them. Could it be just the two of them? The thought made his heart ache. He didn’t want to give up the other three. Their instantaneous acceptance of who he was had meant everything to him at that critical moment in time when he was revealing the most vulnerable part of himself.
“Feel good, baby?” Gilly asked, leaning forward to place a kiss between his shoulder blades. “I love your tattoo. I bet it took a lot of time.”
“A couple of months.”
“Are the three dragons you and your brothers?”
Avery was shocked. No one had ever gotten that before. To be fair, however, few had ever seen it. “My brothers and I used to pretend we were dragons. We’d play for hours in our grandparents’ garden. It was always full of flowers and small animals.”
“And dragons.”
“And dragons,” Avery agreed, hoping he didn’t cry. It was a very real moment of connection he felt for the other man, much the way he had felt with Colt when the man instantaneously accepted him as he was.
“Well, it’s gorgeous and I love the story behind it.” Another kiss followed by another kiss. Gilly made a trail of them until he was at the base of Avery’s spine. “Will you let me love you, baby?”
“Yes.”
“Turn over. I want to watch your face when I make love to you.”
With his heart thumping in his chest Avery rolled onto his back, Gilly still straddling his legs. The man’s brown eyes examined his cock
as it throbbed against his belly. “Is this better?”
“Much better. Let’s get you ready.”
Gilly reached to the side of the bed and Avery saw that he had a bottle of lube. Sliding his hands beneath his thighs he pulled his legs back, offering himself fully to the other man.
He was nervous, but Gilly seemed to realize this. He leaned over Avery, kissing him softly on the mouth as he pushed a lubed finger into Avery’s tight rosette of muscles. He moaned and demanded more with his mouth. Their kiss grew wild as a second finger was pushed in with the first, scissoring, stretching, until a third finger pushed joined them. There was a pinch and more than a little burn with the last, but Gilly worked him through it until he was pushing against the fingers, wanting more. Warm lips brushed over his. His leg was nudged out of the way so those lips could travel along the side of his neck to find a pebbled nipple. Another moan burst from him as it was suckled firmly, teeth teasing the small ring circling through it.
A cry of pleasure left his lips as a finger found his prostate. Gilly didn’t give him another moment. After pulling his fingers free he rolled on a condom and slicked his cock with lube, then added more to his twitching asshole. A moment later Gilly was pushing into Avery, sliding deeper and deeper into him, until he was buried to the hilt. They stared at one another, trying to push back the excitement that was quickly building between them.
It was the most difficult challenge he had faced in bed. All Avery wanted to do was shoot his load and get some relief. But the cock in his ass was beginning to move, pushing in, making his eyeballs cross. Other than when Colt had taken him, nothing had ever felt so good. But he forced thoughts of the tall, handsome Dom out of his mind as Gilly took charge and fucked him hard and fast.
Strong hands clasped Avery’s, pushing them down on either side of his head on the bed. They stared at one another. With his cock surging back to life for a third time he smiled smugly. Gilly thrust his cock hard into his dark channel, pegging his gland. He nearly unseated the man on top of him. After that he locked his legs around Gilly’s hips, preventing any possibility of being separated accidentally.
