“I’ve already talked to Torren. He has my brothers searchin’ a hundred mile radius around the location where we saw Raith.” Bannon wrapped his arm around Galen’s shoulders and tucked him in close to his side. “There’s a car waitin’ to drive us down the coast while I look for Camdin.”
“I’m coming with you,” Galen replied firmly. “I can help.”
“Aye, ya were a great help, but it’s too dangerous. You’ll be in the car, but I’ll not be bringin’ ya into the dream again.” Instead of arguing with the stubborn fool, Galen changed the subject. He’d be inside that dream world, and he’d do everything he could to help. The fact that Bannon thought he could win on the issue was kind of cute, though, so he gave him a swift peck on the jaw.
“Why did you tell me not to let anyone touch me? It’s just a dream, right?”
“Yes and no. Remember how uncomfortable it felt for Raith to be inside your head?” Bannon waited for his nod. “Now imagine there are a hundred people in there. Things are startin’ to get a little tight, aye? When I construct these dreams, I don’t populate them with people from my subconscious—which is the reason for the dark field.
When I’m bringin’ other people into my dreams, it’s not their physical bodies. However, as long as the other person isn’t stronger, I can trap their mind inside the dream indefinitely.”
“Which could also work in reverse,” Galen surmised. “They were inside your dream, where you controlled what happened. Say, for example, if that demon had taken my hand before he popped out of the clearing, he could have sucked me into his dream with no escape.”
“Correct.” Bannon looked pleased as punch at Galen’s deductive skills. Galen would decide later if he took that as a compliment or not.
“When ya start manipulating other people’s minds, it becomes more complicated than simply wakin’ up to get free.”
“Then we’ll just have to be careful. What about the little boy?” He couldn’t have been more than five years old, and he’d been so sad and scared. Galen’s heart broke for the little tyke.
“My brothers are looking for him as well, but he’s not the priority.”
“That’s bullshit! He’s just a little boy!”
“Aye, agreed, sweetheart, but I’m not havin’ any say in this.”
“Bannon, this isn’t right. We have to help him.” After a moment of quiet, Bannon finally dipped his head once. “If Devlin’s not findin’ him before we’re done here, we’ll go back for him. Will that suffice for ya?”
No, it really didn’t, but Galen didn’t see that he had a choice. He did, however, realize that his big Irish lover had a heart of gold, and who wouldn’t find that sexy? Craning his neck, he scraped his teeth over the rough five-o’clock shadow along Bannon’s jawline. “Thank you. How long before we have to leave?” A rolling shudder wracked Bannon’s body, and his arm tightened around Galen. “Half hour or so,” he answered distractedly, tilting his head back to give Galen more room to play. “What did ya have in mind, darlin’?”
“I think you know.” Galen purred seductively as he looped his arms around Bannon’s corded neck. Then he eased back to the mattress, pulling his lover on top of him. “It must be exhausting being so perfect all the time.”
Bannon chuckled and brushed their lips together lightly. “I’m far from perfect, but I’m tryin’.” When his mouth returned to Galen’s, he was anything but tentative. The kiss was hard and searching, leaving no doubt in Galen’s mind what Bannon needed from him.
With a muffled moan, he arched up against his lover, pressing their bare chests together as he surrendered to Bannon’s skillful tongue. God, he could kiss Bannon forever. The hungry way the man nibbled at his lips and stroked inside of his mouth with his tongue left Galen’s head reeling and his body burning.
His heart hammered wildly inside his chest, knocking against his sternum as it pumped all the blood in his body straight to his groin.
His dick hardened instantly, swelling and lengthening where it lay trapped between their heated bodies.
Bannon’s soft, moist lips released his and traveled along the column of his throat, over his collarbones, and continued down his chest, leaving a trail of liquid heat in their wake. Galen writhed and shivered, panted and moaned as his fingers tangled in Bannon’s hair, guiding the man’s mouth to where he needed it most.
Bypassing his aching cock, Bannon laved his tongue over the sensitive flesh where thigh met groin then nipped at it with his teeth.
After several minutes of torturing Galen’s senses and testing his sanity by licking, biting, and groping everywhere around his groin except his dick, Bannon’s tongue swirled around Galen’s sac, lapping at it with languid movements.
Galen whimpered and humped his hips, silently demanding more.
Bannon didn’t disappoint as he sucked one ball into his mouth and rolled it around before moving on to the next. Only when Galen’s sac was so tight he thought his testicles might retract into his body did Bannon finally release them.
Flattening his tongue, he licked a wet line from Galen’s scrotum clear up his flexing cock and all the way to the weeping tip. Just when Galen thought they were getting somewhere, Bannon went back to teasing him.
Sucking the spongy crown in his mouth, Bannon flicked his tongue over the slit, swirled it slowly around the head, and gently raked the flared ridge with his teeth. His lips slid a little farther down Galen’s turgid length, but he popped back up quickly.
“Damn it, Bannon!”
Galen felt more than saw Bannon’s lips stretch into a grin around his pulsing dick. The bastard. Over and over, Bannon tortured him, working Galen’s cock to the back of his throat a little at a time until Galen thought he’d explode.
With a feral snarl he’d never heard fall from his own lips before, he fisted his hands in his lover’s hair again and pumped his hips, fucking Bannon’s mouth roughly. The shifter just seemed to call out the beast in him.
Bannon moaned loudly, sending faint vibrations coursing along the rigid length of Galen’s dick. His lips clamped down hard, even as his throat muscles relaxed, and he held perfectly still, allowing Galen to take what he wanted without reservations.
“Yes, oh, fuck! Yes, yes, yes!” Moans, whines, whimpers, and growls that would make the highest paid hooker proud poured from his panting lips.
A slippery finger nudged against his back door, and Galen spread his legs wider, unconcerned with where the lube had come from.
Maybe he’d remember to ask later. Planting his feet beside his ass, he surged in and out of the warm, wet cavern of Bannon’s mouth and rode the finger that pumped into his hungry hole.
The sting of pain when Bannon inserted two more fingers only drove his lust higher, and he bucked up into his lover’s mouth as his head whipped back and forth on the mattress. “Right there. Oh, don’t stop. Fuck, I’m gonna come!” Lightning sizzled down his spine, his lower belly tightened, and his cock pulsated against Bannon’s tongue.
Then everything stopped.
Bannon popped off his dick with a naughty slurp, extracted his fingers from Galen’s clenching channel, and rose up to kneel on the mattress. Without a word—though there was definitely some panting and growling—Bannon positioned the crown of his cock at Galen’s entrance and shoved forward, sheathing himself to the base in one powerful thrust.
Galen arched his back and cried out to the ceiling as he felt every vein and ridge of Bannon’s length, stretching him and sliding against his straining muscles. Hard and demanding, Bannon took him on a fast ride as he drove into Galen’s body with enough force to send them sliding up the bed.
Lifting his shaking legs to wind around Bannon’s hips, Galen forced his body to move, meeting Bannon’s every punishing lunge.
“Harder!” he screamed. “Fuck me harder. Make me come, Bannon.” Apparently, “come” was the magical word that ended up leaving him empty and unfulfilled, because Bannon pulled out of his hole once more and sat up on his knees. G
alen wanted to scream in frustration, but before he got the chance, Bannon flipped him over to his stomach, jerked his ass into the air, and slammed back into him.
A strong arm looped around his chest and pulled him upright so that his back pressed against Bannon’s damp chest. Harder and faster, his lover drove into his greedy tunnel while a possessive growl rumbled in his chest.
“Ya love this, don’t ya, sweetheart? Ya love the feel of my fat cock reaming your sweet little arse. No one else can make ya feel like I do.”
“No one else,” Galen agreed with a desperate moan. If he didn’t get to come soon, he was going to die.
“Ya belong to me, Galen Charles. I’m the only one who can make ya fly.”
“Yes!” Galen screamed when Bannon’s massive cock nailed his sweet spot and sent lights bursting behind his closed eyelids. “Just you. Only you. Touch me, jerk my cock, and make me come. I need to come. Please!”
Bannon’s callused hand palmed Galen’s bouncing cock and stroked him roughly. “Come for me then. Squeeze my cock and come in my hand. Give me what I want, Galen.”
“Bannon!” Dropping his head back to Bannon’s shoulder, Galen jerked and shuddered as copious amounts of thick cream erupted from his slit and coated his lover’s hand and wrist.
“A ghrá,” Bannon whispered before burying his face in the side of Galen’s neck and groaning. His muscles tensed, his arm around Galen constricted, and molten lava filled Galen’s depths to overflowing.
They sat that way for a long time, just holding onto one another until Bannon’s softening cock finally slipped from Galen’s wet hole.
“Did ya mean it?”
Galen tilted his head farther back to look up into Bannon’s eyes.
“That I’m yours? Of course I belong to you, Bannon. Just because I’m not ready for you to claim me doesn’t mean that I don’t know that. You’re all I want.”
He meant every word of it. His main concern was that the feeling was temporary. Until he knew for sure that nothing would ever feel as good as having Bannon in his arms, he just couldn’t take the next step.
“That’s more than enough for now,” Bannon murmured against the flushed skin of Galen’s shoulder.
They were moving toward dangerous territory, and Galen didn’t want to ruin the mood by discussing something he knew hurt Bannon—no matter how much the stubborn ass denied it. “Where did the lube come from?”
Bannon snorted and kissed the back of Galen’s neck. “I had to do something while I was watchin’ ya sleep now didn’t I?”
Chapter Ten
“Where are we?”
Bannon smirked as he took his mate’s hand and led him up the stone steps of the little gazebo. With just a thought, soft, twinkling lights illuminated the canopy over them, and quiet music drifted on the warm, night air.
Gasping in surprise, his eyes shining with awe and excitement, Galen squeezed Bannon’s hand as his head turned one way and then the other, as though he was trying to take in everything at once. His eyes landed on Bannon’s chest, traveled down his body, and finally moved on to his own expertly dressed frame. “What on earth am I wearing?”
“Do ya like it?” Bannon didn’t know much about fashion, but he figured Armani was always in style, and his lover’s creamy skin was dazzling against the charcoal of the suit.
“It’s amazing,” Galen breathed, running his fingertips over the lapel of his jacket. “Are we dreaming?”
“Aye, I’m taking the night off.” They’d been traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard for days, and Bannon missed his mate. It didn’t matter that Galen was right beside him the entire trip. It just wasn’t the same.
“Quality time?” Galen asked, one corner of his lips turning up in a half smile.
“That’s the one.” Tugging Galen closer, Bannon wound an arm around his mate’s waist and held him snug against his chest while he swayed them from side to side. “How am I doin’?”
“Very romantic,” Galen answered with a soft sigh as he rested his head on Bannon’s chest. “You really should be working, though.”
“Let me tell ya a little secret.” Dipping his head, Bannon skimmed his nose around the delicate shell of Galen’s ear, smiling broadly when the smaller man shivered. “I’m likin’ my job, and I’m good at it. It’s important, but not as important as you, Galen Charles. I’ll not be neglectin’ my mate.”
“Mmm, you say all the right things,” Galen purred. “This is really nice.”
“Tell me what ya want, and it’s yours. Anything in the world.” Bannon couldn’t explain it, but he had an all-encompassing need to make everything perfect for Galen. It didn’t matter if it was only a dream. It should be an unforgettable night.
“The moon is bright, the stars are shining, the music is amazing, and I have you all to myself for a change. I really couldn’t ask for more than this.” Galen pressed himself even closer, rested one hand on Bannon’s chest, and wrapped the other around his waist to give him a gentle squeeze. “You’ve thought of everything.” It wasn’t good enough for Bannon, though. Having Galen in his arms and not worrying about anything else in the universe was heaven, but he wanted more for his mate. “Please, darlin’. Pick anything. Let me give ya something.”
Tilting his head up, Galen looked at him for a long moment before his eyes traveled to the string of lights over their heads. “This reminds me of a movie I watched a couple of weeks ago with Jory. It was a ridiculous movie as always, but it showed this panoramic view of Paris.”
“Ah, The City of Light.”
“Yes! Have you been there?” Galen practically vibrated in his enthusiasm.
“I have.”
Before Galen could even ask him, Bannon closed his eyes and reconstructed the dream so that they were standing hand in hand atop the Eiffel Tower.
“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Galen whispered reverently. His slim fingers wrapped around Bannon’s forearms and dug in as he stared out over the city. “Thank you.”
It wasn’t as good as the real thing, but it was pretty damn close.
Once things calmed down and they each had a chance to just breathe, Bannon promised himself that he’d make his little mate’s dream come true for real.
Clutching Galen close, he brushed a kiss over the top of his head and smiled. “I’m glad ya like it. I wish I could give ya more.”
“Hush,” Galen chastised as he began rocking back and forth.
“There is only one thing that could make this any more perfect.”
“And what is that?” All Galen had to do was say the word and it was his. Bannon would make sure of it.
Leaning his head back on his shoulders and looking up with a mischievous smile, Galen winked at him. “Kiss me. Right here on the Eiffel Tower, looking out over the most beautiful city in the world, I want you to kiss me.”
Well, it certainly wasn’t a hardship. “Ah, the things I suffer for ya, Mr. Charles,” Bannon teased as he cupped his lover’s face, dropped his mouth to Galen’s, and sought entrance to the warm depths within.
Galen’s arms came up to curl around his neck, and he opened right up, giving a soft little whimper when their tongues met. There was no battle for dominance, no sweet surrender. They were equals in every way as their lips and tongues slid and melded together.
Instead of his dick growing rock hard as it normally did every time he was within sniffing distance of Galen, Bannon found it was his heart that swelled this time. His entire body tingled, a lump formed in his throat, and even the lights of Paris couldn’t compete with the treasure in his arms.
When the kiss ended, the world around him still remained blurry, leaving only him and Galen. It was just a dream, but real or make believe, Bannon couldn’t imagine a more flawless moment.
He’d have loved for it to go on forever, but he had a job to do.
Luckily for him, Galen was always so understanding.
“We need to wake up now, don’t we?” There was no disappointment in his voice, and B
annon adored him even more for it.
“We can stay for a few more minutes,” he answered, turning Galen so that they could look out over the Champ de Mars.
Galen snuggled into his side and sighed. “You need to get back to work. I understand.” He looked up and pursed his lips for a quick kiss. “Thank you so much for this. It’s amazing. Even if it’s not real, it’s real to me. No one has ever done anything like this for me.”
“Anything for ya, darlin’.”
“I know.” Galen smiled coyly and took a step back. “I’m really starting to see that.” His head cocked to the side, and he frowned.
“Our chauffeurs aren’t going to be very happy with us, though.” Bannon had an inkling that the men who’d been assigned to drive them around while they slept and searched for the faerie and witches were never happy with anything. “They’ll get over it.”
“Probably, but I want to get this over with and get back home. I miss my bed.” Galen took Bannon’s hand and brought it to his lips where he placed a chaste kiss in the palm. “Thank you again for this.” Bannon swallowed around the constriction in his throat and nodded. “Slow and easy, right?”
Galen gave him a little smirk. “Yeah, but not too slow. Naked is still definitely on the menu.”
* * * *
For the rest of the week they drove up and down the coast of New England. Galen didn’t know who the two drivers were, but he did know that they were shifters, and he thought maybe wolves.
Some paranormals he could get a clear reading on, but others were harder. These guys weren’t very clear broadcasters, but he did get the sense that they’d rather be anywhere else in the world than driving him and Bannon all over the countryside.
Not that he could blame them. He doubted they’d volunteered for the job. Hell, he didn’t even know what pack they were from. Stavion trusted them, and more importantly, Bannon trusted them. That was good enough for Galen.
Haven 4: Back Roads Page 9
