"Liam –"
Anything else that Ace might have said after that died in his throat, because Liam yanked his shirt up and over his head, and then he just stood there in front of Ace like that. And God help him, but Ace remembered the smell of that skin, the feel of that chest against his, the smoothness of that slim, sleek body. He'd run his tongue over every curve of every sinewy muscle; he'd run his fingers over every inch of this man's body. Liam had been his addiction, and now that he was standing in front of him again, it was like setting a bottle of an alcoholic's favorite poison in front of them. He wanted Liam, wanted him desperately. And he just wanted him all the more when he saw what was on Liam's chest.
"My name," Ace said hoarsely, pointing at the tattoo of the ace of spades card. "That's me."
"Yes."
"So." Ace closed the distance between them again. "It seems that I wasn't the only one holding on to the past. Holding on to memories."
"You weren't."
"You still mad at me? You still hate me?" Ace lifted his hand to roughly grasp Liam's hair on the back of his head, and tug him closer. Liam didn't even resist: he let himself get pulled up against Ace's larger body. "Tell me, baby."
"Yes," Liam whispered, his breath hot and mingling with Ace's. "...and no."
And that was it. Ace was done waiting.
Fuck control.
He lowered his lips to Liam's, taking his mouth in a savage, almost brutal kiss. There was nothing soft or sweet about this kiss, not at all. It was all hard, blazing, impatient need; all black, passionate, furious yearning. Ace was going to have Liam again, and if this was the last time that ever he did, if this was the last thing that he ever did, he'd die a happy man.
If he could take Liam again, then Ace wouldn't care if the Fallen Angels took him away tonight and killed their former President in the most inhuman, inhumane ways possible. He wouldn't give a fuck if there was no tomorrow ever again – because if he couldn't ever touch Liam again after this, then he wouldn't want to live beyond this moment, anyway.
Still kissing Liam, Ace pushed him, stumbling and off-balance, until Liam was backed up against the wall. Ace didn't stop moving, though: he raised his hands above Liam on the wall and crowded him, used his superior weight and height to trap Liam in place, to prevent escape, not giving him a chance to even breathe between burning kisses.
Not that Liam seemed all that intent on escape or breathing. His arms snaked around Ace's waist, and he pulled Ace closer, pulled hard, returning Ace's fervor, matching his fire. Ace's erection pushed into Liam's flat belly, and his cock reared up in enthusiastic response in his jeans. Ace felt it, and he groaned into Liam's mouth.
"Fuck. Baby..."
Liam grinned. "Hey, babe."
"You want this?"
"Yes," Liam said simply. "It's all I've wanted for seven years."
"Then you'll get it," Ace grunted. "You'll get everything. Get undressed. Fucking right now."
Fingers trembling, Liam unzipped his jeans, kicked them off and down his legs, and his boxers followed quickly. His feet were bare, and something about that touched Ace deep, in places that he'd thought were long dead and buried... because they'd died and blown away the day that he'd left Liam. It suddenly came to Ace just how lonely he'd been for seven years, and that pierced him, somehow. Made him sad and angry and determined to not lose this man again, not ever.
"Turn around," Ace said softly. "Turn around and bend over."
"But..." Liam protested. "But we don't have anything..."
"Yeah, we do."
Liam looked up at him, confused. "How?"
"Beacuse." Ace went over to the shelf that had been assigned as his, swung open the cabinet door. He turned around, and Liam saw the lubricant and condoms in his hands. "Jack gave me some stuff the other day. Said he thought we might need it soon."
"You're kidding me."
"Nope." Ace opened the condom box, and stroked his cock slowly, getting himself ready. "Now. Turn. The fuck. Around."
This time, Liam did as he was told. Behind him, he heard the sound of latex being rolled, a bottle being popped open, then the slick, wet sound of lube being rubbed. His own cock was almost painful now, and he longed to rub it against the wall for a bit of relief. But he just held position, eyes focused on the rose pattern on the tile in front of him.
Ace walked back to Liam, his eyes running over that amazing back, that perfect ass, that tight little rosebud winking at him from between Liam's cheeks. He stood right behind Liam, not touching him yet.
"Bend over," Ace growled. "Hands on the wall."
Mindless, close to orgasm already just at Ace's words, Liam obeyed. And when Ace slid his large hand around his body and cupped his balls, Liam's knees shook beneath him.
"Good?" Ace muttered in his ear, his strong chest pressed against Liam's back as he teased his sac, stroking gently, tugging a bit, then cupping the balls in his warm palm. "Is that good?"
"Yes," Liam gasped out. "I –"
"Shush, baby," Ace muttered, and now his sheathed cock was gliding between Liam's ass cheeks, sleek and slippery with lube. "Close your eyes now. Feel me touching you."
Liam's eyes slammed closed, and he gave a shuddering sigh. Yeah, he'd had boyfriends since Ace Cuddy – Liam, after all, was living his life openly and with pride – but nobody had ever had the effect on him that this man did. He was putty in Ace's hands, and he always had been: Ace was an intoxicating mixture of rough and gentle, of hard and tender, and Liam had never been able to get enough. How he'd lived without it, he didn't know, and that's when it hit him – he hadn't been living without Ace. Not really. He needed this man to feel alive.
Ace squirted some lube into his hands, then rubbed them together to warm it up a bit. Carefully, he slid his fingers into the crease of Liam's delectable ass, and when he found the spot, he slipped a finger inside Liam's body. Liam tensed, then relaxed, and Ace started to push his finger in and out, getting Liam ready to take him. He spread the lube, made sure he pushed some in deep, and then he added a second finger, easing into and probing the tight passage.
So, so carefully, Ace started to open and shut his fingers in a scissoring movement, opening Liam up more. He lowered his mouth to Liam's body, trailed slow, hot kisses across his shoulders, then he took his erection in his hand and whispered, "Now, baby."
"Oh, God." Liam arched as Ace's cock replaced his fingers. "Oh, my... God."
"Mmmmmm," Ace said, still kissing Liam's back. "You're so tight... Fuck, you're perfect."
"Oh, God," Liam repeated, suddenly feeling like this was all that he was going to be able to say for the next little while. "Ace..."
Without a word, knowing what he needed, Ace slid his hand back around to Liam's front. He stroked Liam's cock, his large hand sliding easily because of the lubricant, and Liam's hips began to move back and forth on their own. Every forward thrust pushed his rock-hard cock into Ace's hand; every backwards thrust took Ace's cock deeper into his eager body. He was crushed between a muscled body and an unmovable object, his hands in fists on the wall in front of him, his cheek pressed to the cool tile. All Liam could do was push up into Ace's hand, then push back to take Ace's cock; he was filled and utterly fulfilled, at the same time. He felt used and adored; he felt wanted and like he wanted more, like he'd always want more.
It was heaven; it was hell.
It was perfect.
Liam's cock swelled to bursting, and he started to fuck Ace's hand helplessly. He was going to cum, he was going to cum hard, and his movements became more frantic as he chased that climax. Behind him, Ace groaned deep in his throat as Liam began to take him faster, then faster again. Liam was the one in control now, and Ace just held on and rode every push back onto his aching, throbbing cock.
When Liam exploded into Ace's right hand, that was when Ace lost it. His left hand gripped Liam's hip almost painfully, and he held him in place so he could drive into his ass, harder and harder. Liam groaned, a sound of pleasure, not pain, s
o Ace moved faster, plunger deeper. It built inside of Ace, it built like a wave, or like a volcano about to erupt, and when his climax rushed up to meet him, Ace cried out Liam's name over and over.
In the seconds after, both men slumped forward on the wall, panting, tangled together, sweaty and shaking. The floor beneath their feet didn't feel nearly solid enough, the wall in front of them didn't seem likely to support their combined weight. The room was suddenly too small, too close – but that made it feel like there was no world outside of it, and that was just fine by them.
Ace ran a shaking hand over Liam's chest, feeling his racing heartbeat. "OK, baby?"
"OK," Liam said. He turned his face to Ace's. "So OK."
Ace kissed him, the hottest, most gorgeous kiss that Liam had ever known, then he slowly pulled out of Liam's body. Keeping his arms around Liam, knowing that he was still shaky, Ace led him over to the shower. Ace turned it on, stepped in, pulled Liam in with him. He took Liam in his arms, and the other man just rested there on Ace's chest, close and warm. Safe.
Home.
Ace soaped up his hands, gently cleaned Liam's body, then turned his attention to his own. The hiss of the hot water was soothing, lulling, and Ace wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with this man, to hold him and talk to him until they both fell asleep.
Liam was almost dozing on his feet, and when Ace turned the water off, he started. "Shower time is over?"
"Yeah." Ace handed him a towel, and he somehow mustered the strength to dry off. "Now it's bedtime."
Right away, Liam felt a surge of energy, and he perked up. "Bed?"
"Mmmmm-hmmm." Ace was drying off his own body, and Liam's eyes hungrily drank in the muscles, the stubble on his cheeks, the black eyes already hazy with want for him again. "My bed. Let's go."
Liam didn't even make the token protest of saying that they should go to his bed. He just went to Ace's room, and he climbed right in.
**
Donwstairs, Tex, Jack, and Honey followed the path of the footsteps above their heads. When two pairs of feet walked into the bedroom at the back – Ace's room – and the door shut, they all grinned at each other.
"Well," Tex drawled. "I'd say that that's that."
"Indeed." Jack looked at his watch, then headed for the front door to take watch. "Took 'em look enough, huh?"
"So!" Tex said brightly. "Honey? You want to go upstairs and check on things?"
Bedsprings creaking above them caught their attention, and they all looked astonished.
"Already?" Jack said. "Seriously?"
"You boys could clearly take a lesson from these two," Honey teased them. "I for one am very impressed with our guests."
"Bah." Tex waved his hand. "All's you gotta do is take up with someone after seven years of missing them and longing for them. I'll bet any man's recovery time would be world-record-setting."
"Maybe," Jack said, mightily amused. "So are you going up there, Tex?"
"Yeah. No," Tex said. "No way I'm goin' up there, son. Put me back in the jungles of Columbia, I swear to Christ, because I am not interrupting those two. They got some serious time to make up for – and I say as long as we can hear bedsprings and voices, we just assume they're good."
"That?" Honey said. "Is a plan that I can totally get behind, cowboy."
Chapter Ten
"So." Liam poured some water and handed Ace a glass. "You haven't lost any of your stamina, I see." He drank thirstily, feeling like he was definitely going to need to replenish some electroylytes after that fourth round, and was going to need an energy drink soon. "Even if you are well past forty."
"I ain't well past forty," Ace growled. "I'm barely past forty."
"My mistake, handsome."
"Don't make me punish you for your smart mouth."
"Oh, yeah," Liam said softly. "Because you know I'd hate that."
Their eyes met, and Ace smiled his wolf smile. The one that promised that Liam was going to get what was coming to him – and he'd get it over and over agan, until he begged for release.
"C'mere," Ace commanded. "Now."
Without hesitation, Liam rolled over into those arms that he loved. Ace's kiss was its usual miracle of raw power and sweetness, and as always, Liam melted like ice cream in the sun. Yeah, he had it bad for this bad boy.
"So." Ace loosened his grip slightly. "How's your Mom and Dad?"
"Good," Liam said, surprised. "Both still over in Italy, loving the sun."
"And the restaurant?"
"They're still raking in the euros," Liam said. "Seems that Spanish food is hugely popular in Italy. Who knew?"
"And did your Dad pick up the language at all? Last I heard, he was depending on your Mom to do all the talking."
"Well, kind of." Liam grinned, remembering how when he was a kid, he and his Mom had spoken in Spanish and driven his father crazy wanting to know what they were saying. "He knows basically food vocab, but seeing as the man runs a restaurant, that's good enough most of the time."
"You ever go and see them?"
"Once a year or so. It's hard with running my own business, but Mirrie is amazing."
"Mirrie Kane, right?"
"Yes." Liam tensed. "Will she and Mac be OK in all of this?"
"Honestly, sweetheart?" Ace sighed. "Those boys are so focused at getting my head on a stake, I don't think anyone else on the planet even exists for them. I swear, Mirrie could wander on into Skulls at this point and ask for a drink, and she'd barely get a glance."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Liam fidgeted a bit. "Can I – can I ask again about the pictures? Without shouting about them, I mean?"
"Of course." Ace adjusted the pillow beneath his head. "Ask me whatever the hell you want, baby. No more secrets between us."
"OK." Liam bit his lip. "You – you said that you needed to – to see me. That your life was bad, and I was the only good thing." Liam paused. "Was that – true?"
"Yeah."
"Did it – did I help?"
"My God, Liam." Ace's voice was husky with emotion. "You have no idea. None."
"Really?"
"Really. After every single fucked up thing that happened, after every shoot-out where people died, or every time I had to bring women to Jensen to be hookers for him, or every drug run that went wrong, I'd lock myself into the bathroom with my laptop and that pen drive, and I'd look at you. I'd just sit there on the floor, my back up against the door, and stare at pictures you. I don't even mean the ones where we were doing anything, or you were naked. I mean... I mean the ones of you just smiling at me." He stopped, and Liam knew that Ace was about to say something that really meant something. "You remember – you remember that winter weekend we went up to the mountains? Rented that cabin and lit a fire and just stayed inside for three days?"
Liam nodded, his throat tight. Yeah, he remembered that weekend. It was that weekend that he'd thought about the most over the past seven years; it was that weekend which was his favorite, most painful memory of Ace.
"I never told you," Ace said quietly. "But I took a picture of you sleeping that weekend."
Liam stared at him. "You – you did?"
"I did. And that's the picture of you that I looked at the most. That's the one that I looked at when things were shit, and I saw no way to carry on. That's the one... that one saved my life. It convinced me to hang on just a bit longer, because if I did, then maybe, just maybe, I'd get another chance with you. And if I did, and if I made it to another sunrise, then that meant that I was one day closer to that second chance. I figured that was worth hanging on for, even if nothing else was."
"Ace," Liam said shakily. "I don't... I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Ace said immediately. "Don't you ever, ever be sorry, or say that you're sorry to me, ever again. You asked me to leave with you all those years ago, and I was the one who was too fucking scared to say yes, and so I lost you. I ruined us, I messed us all up. I wasted time, and cost us years of memories.
This is my fault, all of it, and even though I deserved the pain and the hurt, you sure as hell didn't, baby. I did that to you, because I was weak and stupid." He took a deep breath. "So, I'm sorry, Liam. I'm sorry that I walked away from you, and I'm sorry that I caused you all that hurt. I'm sorry that I made you feel not good enough, or second-rate, or second-choice, because you weren't. You never were. You were all I ever wanted, and all I ever missed in the whole of my life. I'm – God. I'm sorry."
"I know," Liam whispered. "I knew you were sorry the second that hotel room door shut behind you."
"I was."
Liam reached for Ace then, needing to feel him against his lips and body. Even though they'd been wrapped around each other for hours now, a small part of Liam still couldn't quite believe that this was happening between them. It was like a dream that he'd had for so long, and now he was afraid of waking up.
"Baby?" Ace said. "I want – can I ask you for something?"
"Anything."
"OK." Ace sucked in a deep breath. "I want – I want to try something different."
"Alright. What is it?" Liam grinned. "Wanna swing from the light?"
"I want to bottom."
"You – what?" Liam was genuinely shocked; if Ace had asked him to fuck him while wearing a Miss Piggy mask, Liam couldn't have been more shocked. "But you... you always refused."
"I know." Ace looked sheepish. "I wanted to, though. I mean, I was curious."
"So why didn't you let me inside you?"
"Honestly? Because I didn't like the thought of being... helpless. Pinned under. Being the one being... violated. It felt – I don't know. Felt like it'd be too much for me. Like it'd take too much fucking trust, and I wasn't good at trusting back then."
"So why are you asking me now?" Liam asked. "What's changed?"
"I trust you," Ace said. "I trust you completely, and I want to try."
"You sure?" Liam said. "Totally sure?"
"Yeah."
"We'll go slow, babe," Liam said. "And if you don't like it, we stop. OK?"
Extreme Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 7) Page 13
