by Parker Foye
“You’re not cut,” Jim whispered as he tightened his rough grip around Teddy.
“No.” Teddy pulled in his belly to give Jim’s hand more room, but Jim extracted his hand from Teddy’s jeans.
“All these fucking clothes.” He deftly unbuttoned, unzipped and untucked Teddy, and Teddy nearly melted into the mattress.
So bold. His cock was in Jim’s hand, and Jim was peering under the covers at it.
“Gods, not a bit of hair on you, either.”
Shit.
Teddy couldn’t come up with a quick retort to spout in his defense but was glad Jim was looking down and not at his face. Jim would have seen how his eyes had widened and how his cheeks were probably glowing in the dark from the shame.
He hadn’t meant for anyone to see that—anyone except the casting agent who’d warned Teddy that he’d need to take his clothes off. Maybe he was still too much of a bumpkin for his own good, but he preferred his natural state. The waxer at the salon had been unexpectedly aggressive.
“I—”
The press of Jim’s fingertips behind Teddy’s sac stole the breath he was going to use to explain. “Fuck, I like the way that feels.” His thumb swiped against the sensitive flesh above Teddy’s hairless base. Tingles danced where Jim’s fingernail scraped.
As Teddy pressed his hips forward discreetly, his mouth went dry as cotton. “I auditioned for a thing a few days ago. Needed a certain look.”
“I see.” Jim traced down the seam of Teddy’s throbbing cock to his high, tight balls, and then back, and Teddy held his breath. “Damn. There, too?” Jim’s voice was even raspier than usual. It dripped with unvarnished desire that made Teddy’s pulse quicken and his ass cheeks clench.
Jim’s palm was heavy over Teddy’s sac and the bottom of his shaft. He was rubbing ever so slowly, his fingertips tickling the tops of Teddy’s thighs and the seam of his ass.
His exploratory touches were somehow both gentle and breathtakingly erotic. Teddy’s breaths were already too shallow—his head already too muddled—and Jim had barely even gotten started.
“Did you tip the waxer well?” Jim whispered.
“Better than you tip me.”
“I did what I did because I wanted to get your attention.”
Stunned, Teddy swallowed and forced his gaze up to Jim’s face. His eyes were a bit hooded. Dark stubble dotted his jaw and around his sinful mouth.
His lips had been against Teddy’s ear, so he knew they were soft, but he wanted to know how they’d feel in other places—how they’d feel on his sensitive neck and on his chest. He wanted to know if Jim would be all lip and no teeth around his nipples, whether he’d go in obliquely, tantalizing and teasing, or if he’d head straight for the target right from the start.
Either way would have been fine, really, as long as he didn’t stop touching him.
“You’re wearing so many clothes,” Jim said again. “I think you must want to keep me out. You don’t want me to touch you. You want me to grab your bike and drive both of you home.”
Jim was spreading the seeping moisture from Teddy’s slit all over his head and rubbing downward, grabbing, pulling, milking.
The knots in Teddy’s belly unfurled more with each touch. Jim was chasing Teddy’s anxiety away and making room for the desire.
I deserve this. I deserve to feel good.
He rocked his hips and pushed greedily into Jim’s fist.
God, yes. Please.
“You like that?” Jim whispered.
Teddy bit his tongue to keep the snark at bay. Of course he fucking liked it. His cock was hard as a muffler pipe, and he couldn’t even take a deep breath. Every exhalation was a whimpering plea.
“You want me to stop?” Jim asked.
“No!”
“Then answer me when I ask you questions. If you don’t answer, I stop. Understand?” He brought a hand up to his mouth and spit into the palm. “Hmm?”
Swallowing, Teddy nodded.
Jim wrapped his fingers around Teddy again, wetter, tighter, less forgiving.
Teddy put his head back and splayed his fingers and curled his toes. Jim may as well have been tugging the life force out of him. There was nothing tentative about his grip. It wasn’t curious or experimental. It wasn’t the uncertain tickle or clumsy yank of a man who’d never touched another man before.
He’d been around, and Teddy had been ignoring him for months.
“Fuck.” He rolled helplessly onto his back because he needed to be able to grab something that wasn’t Jim, and the sheets were right there beneath him.
As his fingers clawed into the covers, he thrust up into Jim’s fist, belly tightening and balls straining. Panting, he stared at the shadows of the ceiling.
Not at Jim. He was too handsome. He was masturbation fodder—good for a quick, hard release on a day Teddy badly needed it, and the last thing he wanted was to go hard every time he saw Jim’s face that way. There was a glint of ownership in the man’s gaze—as though Teddy was a motorcycle or a car he knew all the parts to and how they fit together.
Teddy wasn’t sure if Jim was trying to take him apart or put him together, but he had to let the exhaust out.
His voice was a compressed whimper—a rattle in his throat—as his core tightened and that fire shot down his groin, made a vise around his nuts, and then exploded into Jim’s hand.
Three minutes, maybe. Possibly less.
It didn’t feel like very long, and Teddy didn’t know what that said about him. He didn’t know if three minutes was good or bad, only that he couldn’t have done any better with Jim. Jim was a sensual overload, and he was gripping the top of Teddy’s cock head tight and kissing at the juncture of his belly just above his shaft.
Oh, fuck.
Teddy decided Jim could put his lips wherever he wanted. He liked his hot breath heating his skin and his tongue...
Fuck.
Jim’s tongue pressed at the base of Teddy’s softening shaft, and Teddy might have cried if it weren’t for the knock on the bedroom door.
“Jim?” Jamie called out.
“Goddamn it,” Jim muttered and pressed his head against Teddy’s belly. “What?”
“Ralph and Will are here.”
I guess that’s it, then. Teddy ground his fist against his eyes and quietly scoffed. Time’s up.
Right when he’d convinced himself to stay.
Jim lifted his head and scowled toward the door. “What the hell do they want?”
“The usual.”
Teddy waited for Jim to slide his hand off his cock, but he didn’t. He held it like a stick shift he needed to immediately use to change gears. Teddy worried if he kept holding it the way he was, Teddy would be right back in high gear and coming again. Jim’s mouth was so close.
Will he suck me?
He couldn’t imagine Jim taking a man into his mouth, and shouldn’t have been. He was on the way out the door, and it didn’t matter if Jim would.
“So, nothing?” Jim called out.
“Sounds about right.”
“What time is it?”
“Not even five. I don’t think they went home after we left the restaurant.”
“For fuck’s sake.”
“I know. Trust me. I was having the best dream when they knocked on my door. I was on this beach that had white sand, and there was a waiter who kept bringing me these huge frozen daiquiris. He wouldn’t even let me tip him. He said I deserved a break. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
“Not for the waiter,” Teddy mumbled.
Jim gave Teddy’s cock a punishing squeeze that made Teddy whimper, and called to the door, “Where are they now?”
“Outside on your deck. They came over to shoot the shit, but I guess they forgo
t they owed you. I’m going to put them to work.”
“Appreciate it. Keep them out there, will you? I’ll be down in about an hour.”
“Why do you need an hour?” Teddy murmured.
Jim didn’t respond.
“I’ll find plenty of ways to keep them busy,” Jamie said. “Got some air filters and smoke detector batteries for them to change at my place if they finish.”
“Thank you. Love you.”
She chuckled, and her voice got quieter as she moved away from the door. “You’d better.”
Jim rolled onto his back, pulling his fist away from Teddy as he went.
Teddy felt like a cat who wanted someone even more when the person stopped petting him, but with the way he was grinding his teeth, Jim seemed equally put out by the interruption.
“Hey,” Jim said. “Stay right there.”
“Look, maybe I should get dressed and go. My bike is out there, and—”
“And what? Does it have fluorescent stickers with your name on them or something?”
“No, but—”
“So chill out.” He padded toward a door that must have been to the en suite bathroom, and stopped halfway there. “Actually, know what? You’re still wearing too many clothes.”
“Too many clothes for what?”
“Too many clothes for a number of things, but the primary one being bathing. Undress. You reek of cheap coffee, syrup and artificial eggs.”
“We use real eggs at the restaurant.”
“Sure you do, by special request. The rest is that stuff that comes out of a container with a spout. After all this time, you think I can’t tell the difference? I’m smarter than that, Teddy.”
Teddy was starting to see that. After all, Jim had gotten him to visit, and Teddy didn’t go home with men. Not anymore.
Chapter Four
“What are you doing? Come here.” Jim pulled a turtle-slow Teddy into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.
Teddy gave him a shifty, sideways look.
“I think I told you to undress.” Jim grabbed the bottom of Teddy’s shirt and tugged it over his head.
Teddy folded his arms over his chest and pulled his shoulders down in an awkward fashion indicative of shyness.
He shouldn’t have been shy. Jim liked to think he was built for power, but Teddy was built for speed. Lean muscle with nothing spare. Plenty of shifters had a similar build, though none were coyotes.
He gave the waistband of Teddy’s jeans a tug. “Take those off, too.”
Teddy gripped the band, staring at Jim.
“What, you don’t want me to watch?”
“I can manage.”
“I could have sworn you were a little more outgoing than that, but maybe you’re a better actor than I expected.” He turned his back to let Teddy finish undressing. He needed to shut the water off, anyway. “Hope you can stand it being scalding hot.”
“If it doesn’t peel my skin off, why bother, right?”
“That’s the spirit.” Jim set a few towels atop the commode and stepped over the side of the tub.
“I wouldn’t have pegged you as a bath person.”
Jim clucked his tongue and kept his gaze forward as he settled lower into the water, letting each added inch of heat relax his overworked muscles. “Trust me. I didn’t have this thing put in solely to add to the house’s resale value.”
“You got bubbles in there?”
“Nope. No hiding behind bubbles. Come on.”
Teddy had both hands over his cock and, raising one pale foot, tested the temperature of the water with his big toe.
Jim flicked water onto Teddy’s undercarriage.
“Hey!”
“Get in. If I’m not going to get to sleep, I want breakfast soon.”
“I’m not stopping you from eating.” Still clutching his boy parts as if they were a wounded baby bird he’d scooped off the ground, Teddy lowered his foot.
“I’ll eat when I’m clean,” Jim said.
Teddy brought his other foot into the tub and looked from the water, to Jim, to the handrail. If he were going to sit, he’d have to move one of those hands.
“Why don’t you come over here? You won’t have to rest your back against the hard, cold tub wall.”
“I could rest it against you instead, right?”
“Is that a bad thing?” Jim draped his arms against the back of the tub and lifted a knee. Teddy, ever oppositional, took the other end.
“You have guests,” Teddy said reasonably, as if he were reading Jim’s thoughts. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. “I figured you’d want to get to them.”
“Want to? No. If I’d invited them, I’d probably move a little faster. When people show up and take me unawares, I make them wait.” Jim shrugged. “You seem to revel in making me wait, so I’m surprised you feel so much sympathy for them.”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t kept you waiting for anything.”
“Bullshit. You keep me waiting for coffee refills, you keep me waiting for the check when it’s time for me to pay, you keep me waiting for you to take off your clothes...” Jim turned his hands over in a you-get-my-point gesture.
Teddy narrowed his eyes. He did that a lot to Jim, but for the first time, the squinting was accompanied by the barest hint of a smile. He needed to be a little closer to confirm it, though.
“I’m wearing you down, aren’t I? Come here.” Jim gestured to the spot in front of him. “I’m not done holding you.” Jim needed to touch him some more, and that wasn’t just his libido talking. The coyote part of him that was quiet most of the time was restless. He wanted companionship. He wanted his mate, and thought Teddy was it.
He hadn’t felt that sureness about trusting someone for anyone except his lieutenants. Usually he didn’t question his instincts, but he was in new territory. He would only ever get one mate, and he didn’t know if what he felt was right.
More touch seemed necessary for confirmation.
“Teddy...” Jim tried to gentle his voice, but he was a dog, and dogs weren’t good at whispering. “Why are you resisting again?”
“Because history says if I move there, you’ll make me feel foolish for wanting to and for complying too easily.”
Jim didn’t realize he was cracking his knuckles until Teddy’s wary gaze fell down to them.
Someone had hurt him, and Jim wanted to hurt them, but Teddy wouldn’t have understood that. The man was sitting in that defensive position with his legs pulled close to his body and his arms wrapped around them.
Jim didn’t know how to handle him, but he needed to get a grip soon. He wanted Teddy hooked before the full moon, because if shit hit the fan and the coyotes got moondrunk, it’d be days before he saw him again. Jim would be breaking up fight after fight and trying to keep the assholes from killing each other. He didn’t lose his human mind the way some of them did when they shifted.
Move him, the coyote said, and the part of Jim that was just man agreed. They needed more touch, not less.
He held up his hands, showing them to Teddy. Warning him. “I’m going to touch you. Okay?”
Teddy’s brow furrowed, but he nodded.
He scooted forward and pressed his hands under Teddy’s arms. Jim pulled him back with him to the other end of the tub. “I’m not gonna be an asshole about something I’m asking for and that I want, too.”
“You’d be surprised at how often that logic doesn’t fly with some people.”
He turned Teddy around and settled him between his legs. “Okay?”
Let this be okay.
When Teddy didn’t immediately respond, Jim’s gut lurched as though he’d been descending stairs too quickly and had miss
ed a step—a terrifying free fall that ended abruptly when Teddy murmured, “Yeah. It’s okay.”
Shit.
His heart stomped on the brakes and stuttered in his chest.
Jim dragged his hand down his face and forced a sharp breath through his open mouth. He was a shifter alpha. He was usually better at knowing his next move and the one after that, too, but with Teddy, he was leading a dance he didn’t know all the steps to.
“I’ve...never bathed with a man before,” Jim confessed. He sluiced some water over Teddy’s cocked knee, then pressed the pad of his thumb over a flat white scar at the top. “How’d you get that?” He rubbed at it, wondering if a little magic could heal the old wound. Jim had some to spare, and Teddy wouldn’t feel anything.
Teddy tilted his knee as to get a better look at the mark. “Oh. I fell through an old staircase at a theater when I was a kid.” He chuckled and nudged Jim’s hand away to poke at the mark. “It was a short fall, but a painful one.”
“I bet.” Jim decided to leave the scar alone. It told a story the same way scrapbook pages did, telling one part of the story that was Teddy’s life.
“So, you...said ‘with a man,’” Teddy stammered.
“Hmm?”
“You could have said you’ve never bathed ‘with anyone.’ Was the wording intentional?” Teddy worked his big toe into the faucet hole and turned his head a bit to the side, one blue eye fixed on Jim.
If he wanted Jim to tell him he’d never done the same with a woman, he was going to be disappointed.
Jim put his head back against the tile wall and smoothed Teddy’s hair back from his smooth jaw. He liked looking at him. “You know, I’m catching a vibe from you that you find bisexuals untrustworthy.” He’d made his tone playful, but Teddy’s spine had gone rigid against him at the joke. “Ted—”
“You ever, you know, have enough of the same thing happen in a short time that you form prejudices about that thing?”
“I guess I have.”
After a few moments, Teddy relaxed against him again and nodded once.
