Two Spirits

by Jory Strong

  Insatiable, Tenino had called him, but it felt like this was more than that. He parted Tenino's lips with the thrust of his tongue, speared his fingers through Tenino's hair and held him tight, loving the feel of Tenino's weight and heat.

  He wanted to be fucked. He was ready for it. Needed it. With a moan he canted his hips, offered himself.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 4

  Hot, primal lust invaded Tenino. It filled his mind with a red haze and his body with feral, clawing hunger. He felt savage, possessive—so close to being out of control it scared him.

  Every instinct was to take, to fuck, to dominate. The sounds Trey was making were driving him crazy, feeding a predatory instinct Tenino usually felt only when he became Thunderbird.

  He deepened the kiss, lay more heavily on Trey. He fought the desire to pin Trey's hands to the mattress and force promises from him along with an acknowledgement that he was ready to live openly as a gay man.

  The faint rhythm of a drumbeat worked its way into Tenino's consciousness. The drum pounded to the beat of his heart and pulsed through his dick in warning.

  His foreskin retracted. His cock head throbbed and grew slick with arousal.

  He panted, fought the urge to find the tight rosette of Trey's ass and enter virgin territory. He wanted. Needed. But the drumbeat grew louder and ancient singing brought hope.

  He'd never been called to free his Thunderbird spirit and join with the storm while making love to a partner. It might not mean anything, he told himself, trying to throttle the hope buffeting him like storm winds, that the call to free his Thunderbird spirit meant Trey was meant to be his true mate.

  He rolled away. The phantom drumbeat and song faded, leaving only the harsh sound of his own breathing and Trey's low moans of pleading.

  His skin was coated in a fine sheen of sweat. He couldn't risk sliding his cock into Trey's ass and screwing this up by losing control. If he gave in to the lust riding him, he risked a revelation that'd freak Trey out and send him running.

  Tenino grabbed a condom from the nightstand drawer and ripped the package open. "You're going to take me first. I'm going to make you wait, maybe make you beg to be taken."

  Trey was already there, willing to beg. He opened his mouth, but the words were lost in a shudder of vicious pleasure as Tenino expertly slid the condom over his shaft.

  He clenched his buttocks, tried to suppress the moan and the telltale blush.

  Tenino's eyes darkened with feral satisfaction. "First time someone else put a condom on your dick?"

  The predatory purr in Tenino's voice had Trey shuddering with raw need. "Yes," he said, breath catching when Tenino pulled a small plastic bottle from the drawer.

  Trey's fingers clutched the sheet as Tenino coated the condom with lubricant. He shivered in anticipation, the need coursing through him tangled with so many different emotions.

  Tenino straddled him, bent down for a carnal kiss that had Trey's hips lifting off the mattress, his cock searching for a tight orifice to fuck. "Please," Trey begged.

  "Yeah, that's a good start," Tenino said, reaching between them, his hand gripping Trey's cock and guiding it so the head pressed against a tight ring of muscles.

  Heat scorched through Trey. He panted, lifted, fought to push through Tenino's firm grip and into the heaven that was so close. "Let me fuck you."

  Tenino's husky laugh was a challenge. Make me, it said.

  Trey released his stranglehold on the sheet. He took Tenino's shaft in hand, loved the feel of hot satin over throbbing hardness, the wetness of arousal and the knowledge that he was the reason for it. "Better start moving up and down on my cock or you're going to lose your chance to be on top."

  "You think you can take me?"

  "Anytime, anyplace."

  "Do it then."

  Tenino rolled away in a smooth movement. He lay on his back, thighs open and black hair spread across dark green sheets.

  Raw need gripped Trey. He positioned himself on top, heart triple timing at having his hair curtain them in intimacy. His eyes met Tenino's and longing swept in.

  I don't want to lose this, he thought and touched his mouth to Tenino's, inhaling breath and need, desire surging between them.

  He pushed into Tenino's ass, urgency and craving deepening as tight muscles resisted, welcomed, squeezed.

  It was exquisite, nearly unbearable.

  He panted. His skin sheened with sweat as he worked himself in one slow inch at a time, Tenino's reaction controlling the depth of penetration, the speed and force.

  Fuck this feels good. So good. So right.

  He loved having Tenino's cock trapped between them, fevered velvet over hardened desire. He loved having his own cock held tightly inside Tenino.

  He got all the way in and moaned, shuddered. Tenino's hands gripped his hair, tugged and Trey felt it in his dick.

  There's no denying this now.

  And he didn't want to. All he wanted was to feel. To let go.

  He thrust. Slowly at first, then faster—harder, his heart soaring as he swallowed Tenino's guttural moans, as he reduced Tenino to thrashing, fighting, coming.

  White fire raced up his spine to become an explosion of heat in his head, a supernova of pleasure in his cock.

  He moaned. Panted. Ecstasy pulsed through his cock and there was no holding back. Semen jetted into the condom and he wanted to rip it off and fill Tenino's ass with come.

  Collapsing to the sheet, he lay there, mind blown and heart thundering. He'd done it; he'd made love to another man. There was no going back, no labeling this as experimentation.

  I'm gay. But that didn't mean he knew what he was going to do about it when he got home.

  Worry about it when you get there, he thought, ignoring the spasm in his chest that came with imagining himself saying goodbye to Tenino.

  Tenino's mouth came down on his. He moaned, met Tenino's tongue and one kiss morphed into another and another, driving back thoughts of going home and replacing them with contentment.

  "Shower," Tenino said.

  They showered then returned to bed, sliding under the covers this time. Trey closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately. Tenino rolled to his side and looked down at the blond in his bed.

  He laughed softly. Damn, Trey'd blown him away tonight, going from denial to insatiable desire. Now all he had to do was convince Trey to stay. Everything inside him insisted that he had to keep Trey in his world.

  It was crazy. They barely knew each other, even if the chemistry between them was explosive and more powerful than anything he'd ever experienced.

  Instinct? A gut read like he used in the line of duty? Was that the reason he felt so sure about Trey? So determined to keep him in Hohoq and share as much of his life with him as he could?

  Hope rushed in like a gusty spring breeze. Both Tekoa and Ukiah had told him how desperate they'd been for a physical and spiritual union as soon as they first saw their mates. It seemed like he was experiencing the same thing with Trey.

  Tenino glanced at the Thunderbird image carved into the fireplace mantle. There was no cup there filled with the honey-gold drink that would allow Trey to become one of The People.

  Spring breeze became fall chill. He pressed his body to Trey's, trying to recapture the warmth with the touch of skin to skin.

  Trey doesn't need to be of The People for this to work. I don't have to have exactly what Tekoa and Ukiah have with their mates to be happy. Their situations are different than mine.

  Ukiah had found Marisa slipping over death's edge and chased her spirit back into her physical body. Tekoa had found Clay gravely injured, had done a sing for him, touched him with spirit energy and the power of their ancestors.

  Tenino's heart rabbited. A shiver slid down his spine and spread into his gut. Maybe the cup would only appear if Trey were gravely injured or near death.

  He rubbed his cheek against silky blond hair, inhaled Trey's scent and tried to recall the legends
about the Creator changing those not born of The People. There weren't many of them. Then again, in the days when the Thunderbird flew freely and widely, the land hadn't been invaded and conquered by people fleeing Europe. The cultures and way of life giving birth to the Thunderbird and to those who could see and join with it in spirit flight hadn't been decimated and nearly destroyed.

  I'll keep him safe. Even if it meant they might never fly together, their spirits one with the Thunderbird. And if the only way to keep Trey in his life was to leave Thunderbird lands…

  Worry about it tomorrow.

  * * * * *

  Trey woke to the mouth-watering scent of cooking bacon and coffee brewing, to a masculine voice talking quietly on the phone and memories guaranteed to cause a morning erection.

  He opened his eyes and found Tenino looking at him. It sped his heart and had a blush rushing to his face and more blood rushing down to his cock.

  How'd he end up in bed with such a gorgeous guy? This morning Tenino's hair was loose and he was in jeans and a black-and-white flannel shirt.

  Kick the covers away? Grip his dick?

  Entice Tenino back to bed?

  Tenino's smile said he knew exactly what was on Trey's mind. "Looks like my guest is up, Mom. I better sign off."

  Mom. Trey's chest and throat tightened in a suffocating grip of guilt. If his mother was alive and well…

  This would devastate her. She wouldn't be able to look at him without crying, without pleading for him to talk to the preacher, to get counseling, to pray for God's forgiveness and the strength to fight temptation and avoid sinning.

  He'd buried her three months ago and here he was in another man's bed, craving another man's touch, a few breaths away from begging another man to fuck his virgin ass.

  Trey rolled to his side, back facing Tenino. But he was still hyperaware of Tenino crossing the cabin.

  How did he square a lifetime of being told this was wrong, of knowing what admitting it would do to his mother, with—

  "Damn, you make me crazy," Tenino said, jerking the covers down and exposing Trey's nakedness and the throbbing truth of his hard-on.

  Tenino took possession of Trey's cock, sending heat blasting upward to swell Trey's chest and unlock his throat, to burn away guilt and drive it out on a moan.

  Just while I'm here. Just until Patricia is caught. Just until I have to go home.

  It was all right to be gay here. To be okay with being gay while he was in the middle of nowhere with Tenino.

  Trey rolled onto his back, lifted his hips in silent pleading, and Tenino's smile became wicked promise. Putting a knee on the bed, Tenino bent down, claimed Trey's cock with firm masculine lips.

  "No!" But a fuck upward was his dick's way of saying it didn't care how it came as long as it did, and soon.

  Trey gripped the sheets. He panted, fought to make it last. But he was no match for Tenino or the clawing hunger raking his insides.

  No became "Yes, yes, yes!" as Tenino deep-throated him.

  Holding out became impossible. Not with Tenino sucking, bobbing, swallowing, building the pleasure until it rocketed through Trey's cock in a scorching rush that left him a weak heap of sweat-slick skin and lax muscles.

  "You don't expect me to get up after that," he said, his breath ragged and his heart tapping out a Morse-coded message. I don't want this to end.

  Tenino stood, lips swollen and eyes heavy-lidded. And Trey's heart thumped harder, all set to try and revive his cock, while his emotions were like a spinning top. The sight of a woman's lips stretched around his shaft or swollen after taking him had never left him feeling the way he did now, looking at Tenino's face.

  "You're lucky I've got breakfast cooking on the stove, otherwise I'd take that as a personal challenge. Trust me, if I set my mind to it, I could definitely get you up."

  Trey's stomach fluttered and his heart flipped. The tightness returned, panic this time instead of guilt. He was falling in love with Tenino.

  "You're thinking too much," Tenino said, swooping down and giving him a hard, fast kiss.

  "Comes with being a teacher."

  "Better get dressed. I'm about to throw some eggs on. How do you like yours?"

  "Over easy."

  Tenino kissed him, long and slow and thorough, a wicked sharing of tongue and the taste of his own come. And heat surged back into Trey's cock.

  Tenino's smile was part smirk. "Later," he said and returned to the kitchen.

  Trey snagged the sweatpants from where they lay near the couch then hit the bathroom. And washing his hands, couldn't stop himself from looking at the guy in the mirror.

  That guy looked as if he'd totally embraced his sexuality. He looked like he'd spent a hot night between the sheets with a guy who really did it for him. He looked as if he could step out in the open and say, I'm gay, so what? It's not all I am; it's not even mostly who I am.

  His heart sped. He pressed his fingertips against it, brushed them over a nipple and sent a streak of pleasure to his cock. If he had the guts, he could be that guy in the mirror.

  And what? Have a long-distance relationship with Tenino? Assuming Tenino thought of this in terms of anything other than a fling.

  Trey's heart beat like the clap, clap, clap of old-fashioned felt erasers banged against a brick wall and creating a cloud of chalk that clogged his throat. He'd made the classic mistake, fuck first and wonder what it meant afterward.

  But it's not like they'd met under normal circumstances. And a guy like Tenino… If he'd wanted a live-in lover, he'd already have one.

  Trey left the bathroom. Tenino flashed an erection-producing smile. "I was starting to think you wanted me to investigate your disappearance."

  Heat shivered through Trey and Tenino gave a husky laugh. "Yeah, that would have ended in the shower with your lips around my dick or your hands against the wall and my cock in your ass."

  The imagery nearly turned Trey around and had him heading toward the bathroom. "Promises, promises," he said, forcing himself to keep heading toward the kitchen.

  Tenino's lids dropped. His gaze dipped to Trey's erection. "The promise for today is that you're going to beg me to fuck you."

  Can I just do it now?

  Trey swallowed down the question and joined Tenino at the kitchen counter. Two plates were on it, both loaded with eggs, bacon and a couple of pieces of toast.

  His stomach rumbled. "Looks good."

  Tenino laughed and pointed to the coffee maker. "Help yourself. There's some milk and OJ in the fridge."

  Trey got some coffee then grabbed his plate and sat at the table across from Tenino. "So what's the plan for the day?"

  "Besides making you beg? And come? And then beg some more?"

  Trey blushed. God, was he ever going to stop that around Tenino? "Not admitting to anything other than coming, yes, besides that?"

  "You know how to handle a firearm besides an Xbox light gun?"

  "If you mean other than very, very carefully? No."

  "Then that's up first. I want you to know how to protect yourself."

  Trey's heart did a little flip-flop and flooded with something that could only be labeled hope. "Sounds good."

  They finished breakfast and stood. Tenino reached across the table. He cupped the back of Trey's neck and like a heat-seeking missile Trey pitched forward so their mouths met.

  "You will beg," Tenino said, delivering a kiss that had Trey moaning and his lips clinging, ready to form the words.

  With a masculine, very satisfied laugh, Tenino pulled away. "Later, after I teach you how to shoot."

  "How cold is it outside?"

  "Not too bad. You can get by with a t-shirt and a long-sleeved one over it. We're not going far, just to the end of the clearing. If you get cold, you can come back for your jacket."

  Trey went to his duffle. It was still on the chair where he'd dropped it last night.

  He fished through it, pulled out a black Maroon 5 tee a friend had given him then
dug through the long-sleeved shirts currently wrapped around a ceramic pig.

  Reaching the smooth surface of the pig, he hefted it from the duffle with both hands, exposing a lemon blast of yellow decorated with purple flowers.

  Tenino snorted. "You've got a piggy bank?"

  He left the gun safe he'd unlocked and walked over to stand next to Trey. "That your emergency stash?"

  "Could be. It's full of dollar coins. Only way I can keep myself from accidentally using them as quarters."

  "Yeah. I hate that." Tenino reached out. "Let me hold that thing."

  Trey handed it off.

  Tenino laughed, his arms dropping downward as if the bank weighed more than he could manage.

  Trey's heart did a fast rap, rap, rap though he knew Tenino was just playing around. He swallowed down the shout to be careful.

  Tenino turned the pig in his hands. A message was carved into the ceramic in childish script. For Mr. Masters. The world's best best best teacher. From Tanya K. Ward.

  "Sweet," Tenino said, rubbing his thumb over the words.

  Trey nodded, picturing a little girl with a bright smile and a hundred tiny braids. "Yeah, she was," he said through a thickened throat.

  "Was?"

  "She died over Thanksgiving break. Kidney disease runs in her family. Her older sister is still alive thanks to a transplant, but her younger one didn't reach three."

  Tenino set the piggy bank on the floor, in between the chair legs, and pulled Trey against him. "I'm sorry she got dealt a shitty hand. I'm sorry for her, and her family, and for you."

  Trey slid his arms around Tenino's waist. "I couldn't risk leaving it in my house and having Patricia come back and destroy it. I can hardly believe it survived the first time."

  Tenino's expression became all cop. "What do you mean by 'You can hardly believe it survived the first time'?"

  Trey's heart did the same little flip-flop it'd done when Tenino said he wanted him to be able to protect himself.