Wranglers: Discovery

by Vivien Dean

  Sam shoved Derek's jacket off his shoulders, while Derek fumbled with Sam's fly. As soon as he could slip his hands inside, Derek clutched Sam's firm ass and lifted him up. Sam jerked, abandoning his focus on their clothing to hold on while Derek carried him to the end of the desk.

  "It's not quite my car, but I don't think I can complain," Sam said.

  Setting him down, Derek let him go only long enough to move the stuff on the surface that was in their way. He wanted to spread Sam out. That required room. It also required the condoms he'd taken out of his wallet before leaving for their dinner. So much for thinking not having protection would stop him from acting on his attraction.

  In the time Derek had retrieved the condoms and his hand lotion for lube--not ideal, but better than nothing--Sam had kicked his shoes and pants off, and was working at the buttons on his shirt. His tie dangled down his front, all silken temptation, but the sprinkling of dark hair across the muscled chest distracted Derek, compelling him to shove Sam flat onto his back.

  "Looks like horseback riding is a pretty good workout." Derek smoothed his hand up the taut stomach to the flat nipples. He pinched one and twisted, smiling when Sam writhed along the desk. "I might have to give it a go some time."

  Sam gripped the edge. "Always knew you'd play dirty," he panted.

  "I learned from the best." Releasing his hold, he bent over and licked the enflamed skin, soothing it from his harsh touch. Sam sighed in bliss, but when his muscles went lax, Derek switched to the other nipple and sank his teeth into the hard flesh.

  Sam arched away from the surface, pushing against Derek's mouth while his hand shot to the back of Derek's head. His implacable hold encouraged Derek to torture the taut bud even more ferociously. This would leave new marks for Sam to wear. His marks. Known only to the two of them, private and delicious. Derek wanted that, almost as much as he craved getting inside the man. It made him a little dizzy considering it.

  Reaching between their bodies, he fisted Sam's cock, shuddering at the way it pulsed against his palm. Sam made a strangled sound and fell back against the desk, but Derek chased him down, biting a path from his chest, all the way to his lips.

  "Is this your payback for me beating you in court?" Sam taunted.

  "This is payback for driving me crazy for the past two months."

  "You hated me."

  "That doesn't mean you still didn't drive me crazy." He stroked the length in his hand, pulling extra hard at the tip, pushing even harder at the base. Sam hooked an arm around his neck to hold him in place for another kiss, but Derek deliberately cut it short in favor of watching the shadows dance across Sam's face. "I'm a little surprised you didn't put up more of a fight about fucking me first. It's not like you to cave, cowboy."

  The corner of Sam's mouth lifted. "Oh, I got exactly what I wanted."

  "Being spread out on my desk?"

  "No." Sam slithered an arm down alongside Derek's, pushing past their groins to grab Derek's aching erection. "My hand on your cock."

  For a minute, they just jerked each other off, their breathing growing increasingly heavy. Sam was an expert at this, Derek realized, though he was beginning to suspect there wasn't anything Sam wasn't good at. He had a way of twisting his wrist near the crown--not at the tip, where most men tried, but beneath the ridge, so there was a slight burn along the edge as it slipped over the head. It pushed Derek closer to the brink than he wanted to be, especially since he'd been able to stop Sam from screwing up his plans with the blow job.

  "No more messing around." Straightening, he reached for the lotion, squirting enough onto his fingertips to coat them. He didn't waste time sliding them between Sam's cheeks, honing in on the tight hole and spreading it around the puckered muscle. It clenched and unclenched at his touch, and he waited for a loosening before pushing two fingers inside.

  "Son of a..." Sam hissed. He clamped down around Derek's hand, a hint of what was to come. "Give a guy some warning next time, will you?"

  Derek chuckled. "Here I thought the cold lotion would give you a clue."

  He worked as quickly as he could, not bothering with a third finger. When Sam didn't demand more stretching, he knew he'd made the right decision. Putting the condom on was a little more fiddly, if only because his excitement made him clumsy, dropping the packet once before finally getting it out and on.

  Sam helped by lifting his legs and bracing his heels against the edge of the desk. Derek ran the tip of his cock along the crack, and even through the condom, the heat pouring off Sam sent a tingle straight to his balls. He stopped at the tight opening, his heart pounding. The moment he held there, assuring he was in the right position, was the single longest of the entire night.

  Slowly, he pressed forward. The muscle resisted at first, begging Derek to push harder. One snap, and he could be buried inside that irresistible heat. But he refrained, grinding his teeth to fortify his decision. Slow. Sure. If he'd wanted this easier, he should've taken more time to get Sam ready. And the last thing he wanted was to make Sam regret this choice. Derek wanted this to be mind-blowing for both of them. All it required was a little bit of patience.

  He nearly exhaled in relief when the head of his cock finally broke through the tight ring. Sam gasped, and the hands that had been holding the back of his thighs came up to grab Derek's tie instead. With one quick tug, he pulled Derek down, effectively forcing him in another few excruciating inches, but the other immediate result was the press of their chests again, the hungry seal of Sam's mouth to his.

  His head spun at the kiss. He forgot about taking this easy, or polite niceties, or the fact he was still nearly clothed and Sam was naked. He cradled one arm beneath Sam's head, while his other reached down and grasped his hip. Their tongues twisted in a searing dance, and Derek eased into Sam's passage the rest of the way without any more rational thought.

  Their bodies stilled when his balls slapped lightly against Sam's ass. Even their kissing stopped. Derek didn't know what Sam's reason was, but for him, it was a combination of the intoxicating constriction around his cock and the knowledge of who exactly it was he was stuffed inside. Two months of foreplay, condensed into this connection of flesh to flesh, mouth to mouth, breath to breath. Derek didn't want to shatter the spell by moving.

  Against his lips, Sam smiled. "You planning on keeping me pinned here to the desk all night?"

  "Yes," Derek growled. And to prove his point, he withdrew halfway only to slam his hips forward again.

  Sam's cry was swallowed by Derek's renewed attack on his mouth. Now that the stasis was broken, he didn't relent. He pistoned long and hard, in and out of Sam's channel. Every other stroke, he swiveled his hips, hitting new spots inside Sam, searching for the one that would finish Sam off, once and for all. Sam scrabbled for a decent hold on Derek's shoulders, but only succeeded in scratching him through his shirt. He finally settled on gripping his waist, a tension that was both slightly ticklish and hugely arousing at the same time.

  "God, you feel good," Derek muttered between kisses. He wasn't interested in feeding Sam's already oversized ego, but the abounding pleasure rising inside him was too powerful to ignore. "You're so fucking tight."

  "Just wait," Sam promised. "You're going to--" He cried out instead of finishing the sentence, his head slamming against the desk as his fingers stiffened in their hold.

  For a moment, Derek was thrown by the unexpected response. It broke his rhythm, but only until Sam wrapped his legs around his ass and dug his heels in.

  "Don't stop," he panted. "Do it. Just like that."

  Derek grinned. That was it. He hadn't realized how much he needed to hear Sam ask for it until he actually heard the words. Fresh shivers went down his spine, and he propped himself up to watch the emotions flit over Sam's face. He picked up where he'd left off, ploughing into his ass at the same angle but with an even greater force. Sam wasn't going to be able to sit for a week without thinking of this fuck. And if this time didn't do it for him, Derek woul
d just have to keep at it until one did.

  Though his balls were starting to tighten with the familiar feeling of an approaching orgasm, Derek was able to keep it at bay by concentrating on Sam. No way was he coming first. It wasn't about being competitive, though he admitted in the back of his mind--albeit begrudgingly--that it was, just a tiny bit. It was about being the one in control, about being the one responsible for not just pushing Sam over the edge, but picking him and heaving him over with everything that Derek had. He'd do whatever it took to make that happen, including delaying his own gratification. So without looking away from Sam's face, he sought the man's cock, nearly coming himself when he felt how much pre-come already coated the head.

  Sam only lasted two pulls before his entire body went rigid. His ass seized around Derek's cock, making it impossible to move, and the vein running down the shaft throbbed. In the next moment, a blast of hot come spilled through Derek's fingers, followed by another, and another, and even more until the scent of it filled Derek's head. He struggled not to push too hard, but the second he felt the muscles relax in Sam's ass, he started moving again, rougher, faster, uncaring now of denying himself a release. He slammed into him, again and again, over and over, all the while drinking in the sight of Sam glistening beneath him.

  His collar stuck to the back of his neck. A single bead of sweat dripped into his eyelash, annoying him into blinking to try and get rid of it. His body was wound tighter than any judgment day, desperate to be unleashed. He was just starting to think he was never going to finish, when Sam grabbed the back of his head, tugged him down, and thrust his tongue inside Derek's mouth.

  Everything exploded. In the blink of an eye, electricity raced up his spine, to the back of his neck, along every inch of skin, and then reversed its path to incinerate a trail to the tips of his toes. His body locked inside Sam's, his cock jerking against the tight, velvety walls, only to jerk again when Sam clenched around him. His ears buzzed, and his blood hummed, but Sam's sensual mouth was the best of it all.

  They kissed long after the last of the shivers had left his body. Sam's come dampened the front of Derek's shirt, but surprisingly, he didn't care. He wasn't bothered that his hand was sticky, too. He was simply content to abandon any pretense that he didn't want Sam, or that the sex had been the best he'd had in a very long time, or that he didn't want to do it again, just as soon as he got a clean condom.

  Well, maybe not just as soon. But another half hour or so.

  Sam bit at his lower lip.

  His cock throbbed.

  Okay. Twenty minutes then.

  * * *

  Chapter 5

  * * *

  Derek flipped through the papers on his desk, looking for the bright yellow Post-it he'd scribbled down the date on. So much for wanting to be sure not to lose it. Making a note of the change wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't find the damn sticky.

  A flash of color amidst the white caught his eye. "Ha! There it is." He pulled it out and slid it over to Nadia. "That's the new date for the husband's deposition on the Barragan case. I think I'm supposed to be in Oakland that day for the Maldonado hearing, but that's something I can send Barry or Maria to."

  "Or they could handle the dep."

  "No, no, I want the dep. Just rearrange whatever you have to, to fit it in."

  "Got it." Closing her notepad, she rose from her chair. "Oh, Mr. Franklin wanted to see when you had an open slot this morning. You've got half an hour until the review meeting, so now's your best time."

  "Okay. Thanks, Nadia."

  Derek grabbed his jacket from its hook on the back of the door and slipped it on as he followed Nadia out of his office. Rudy Franklin was the youngest partner the firm had ever brought on, but being young didn't make him any less important. When he called, lawyers ran. Derek was no exception.

  His secretary, Tricia, looked up as Derek approached. She smiled and nodded toward the office behind her. "You can go on in. He knows you're showing up."

  Derek tapped once on the door, then opened it without waiting for a response. Behind the heavy mahogany desk in the far corner sat Rudy Franklin. At thirty-eight, blond, and blue-eyed, he should have looked like a slightly aging Ken doll and had the same IQ. Instead, he always wore his hair long enough for the ends to curl at his nape, and his ties always heralded some sort of rock band. Even the ones he wore to court.

  Today, it was AC/DC and Highway to Hell. Derek bit back his grin.

  "Hey, Derek." Rudy closed the file he'd been reading and gestured toward the seat opposite him. "Shut the door and park it, would you?" He waited until Derek was done and comfortable before smiling. "So how have things been for you since the builder case closed? Probably pretty quiet, huh?"

  Any unease he'd had fled. This type of meeting was routine in the firm. Partners checking up on the underlings to hear how they were coping after a bad judgment, or making sure nobody was silently plotting a legal massacre that would embarrass them, or even to see if they were bored, if the cases they had were challenging them. Derek was used to these mini-debriefings. Rudy was one of those guys who took the term "open communication" very seriously.

  "Not too bad," he replied. "Nothing as high-profile as the builders, but stuff I'm happy with."

  "It was a shame about that judgment. But then again, that case smelled like lemons from the second you got it."

  Derek nodded. It was the same sentiment the other partners had given when it was over.

  "What did you think of Sam Kimball?"

  Mention of Sam made Derek blink. Ten days had passed since dinner at Luna Park, with three more dinners and all-night fuck sessions in between. But Sam had never been to the office after that first clandestine session, and he only called Derek's cell. There was no way anybody in the office could know they'd seen each other after their case was done.

  Still, he managed to chuckle and grin. "Well, he won, didn't he? That says something."

  If he'd noticed Derek's momentary lapse, Rudy didn't react to it. "Oh, I know he won. I'm curious about your opinion of him. What he's like, how he gets along with others. That kind of thing."

  That kind of thing brought the hair on his neck standing to attention. "He's a good lawyer."

  Rudy waited. When Derek didn't continue, he made a rolling gesture with his fingers. "Go on."

  "Well...it's common knowledge we didn't get along very well."

  "Didn't. Past tense."

  "We worked things out." In bed, on his desk, in the back of Sam's truck, which turned out, unsurprisingly, to be a pickup.

  "So what would your opinion of him be now?"

  "Can I ask why you're asking?"

  "We're considering offering him a job. The partners were very impressed with his work on your builder case, so we arranged for an informal lunch interview last week. They were even more impressed when they walked away. But you're going to have the last say in this, Derek. You're the one who worked directly with him. You're the one who can tell me whether or not he's someone who would be an asset to the firm, or end up dragging us down because nobody will work with him."

  Don't do it. That's what he wanted to say. He wanted to shout it at the top of his lungs, because the last thing he needed was to have Sam underfoot at work as well. It was hard enough keeping his thoughts focused now. Every other second, his mind drifted to something Sam had said, or something Sam had done, and Derek either ended up hard, laughing, or pissed off. It was tiring. Exhilarating, but tiring.

  On the other hand, he knew he couldn't lie. Oh, sure, after the judgment, he would've said any number of negative things about Sam, but things were different now. He knew Sam too well to betray him like that. That didn't mean he was happy about it. Not in the slightest. He did not want both of them working for the same people, because that introduced a whole new set of complications to their already weird relationship. Hell, he wasn't even sure what their relationship was. Fuck buddies? Friends? Friends with benefits? Neither one of them had said anythin
g more than how much they loved the sex. For now, that was how Derek wanted to keep it.

  But if they worked together, could they even continue seeing each other? The company didn't have an official policy on dating co-workers. As long as one wasn't in the direct line of command with the other, the partners turned the other cheek. Derek hadn't said a word to anyone about his appointments with Sam. Even Nadia didn't know. That was another status quo he wanted to maintain for a while.

  None of that made a difference in the answer he knew he had to give Rudy, though.

  "He'd definitely be an asset. He's a fantastic orator, he knows how to think on his feet, and people like him."

  "You didn't."

  Derek allowed a little smile. "I was the one holding the rotten lemon, remember? I was going to hate anybody on the other side." Which wasn't entirely true, but close enough for government work.

  "That's reassuring. Okay, then, that's what I needed to know. Thanks, Derek."

  "Do you think...are you going to offer him a spot?"

  "I have to tell Belinda what you've reported, but considering how hot she is to get him on her team, I think it's probably a done deal. Not him accepting, of course. For all we know, he's got a sweet deal right now and won't want to leave."

  "Can't hurt to try, though," Derek said, but only because he knew it was expected.

  "Exactly."

  Derek returned to his office with his head spinning. He wanted to call Sam and demand to know what was going on. Why hadn't Sam mentioned the lunch interview? That was a pretty big deal, by any standard. He played over every conversation they'd had, trying to find hints or clues or anything that might have suggested Sam wanted to tell him and had chickened out. He came up with nothing, except the sickening realization that Sam hadn't told him because Sam didn't want to tell him.

  He played with his phone. What would Sam do if confronted with it? Probably laugh it off. The thought that maybe Sam had been using him all along to get in good with the firm crossed Derek's mind, but it was a fleeting idea at best. There was no way he'd ever believe Sam could fake that kind of passion or desire. The man was good, but not that good. Hell, going after the guy who hated you the most was definitely not the smartest way to get into a new job, either. This was just sheer coincidence.