Ten
Page 24
“I’m ready, come on,” Emil finally whined, when it all started to get too much in a slightly wrong way. “I just want you, okay?”
Makai slicked himself up and finally pushed inside Emil.
The initial stretch was awkward, alien, and not good at all. Emil was about to tell Makai to stop moving, but Makai had already read his expression and was pulling away.
“No, not completely,” Emil hastened to say, and Makai froze.
Once Emil’s body started to accept what his mind seemed to crave, Makai slid in a couple of more inches without much effort at all. It took patience, time, and more lube for it to feel even remotely effortless.
“Hey,” Emil said when they were starting to get into a rhythm that actually felt good to him. When Makai looked at him, he grinned. “At least neither of us is freaking out?”
Makai chuckled. “There is that.”
And then the magical romance novel thing happened, and Makai randomly thrust in an angle that made his cock bump against Emil’s prostate, and he let out an alien, whiney sound. “Holy fuck, do that again,” he panted.
Makai adjusted their position, and quickly managed to find an angle and rhythm that worked for both of them.
Emil’s cock was hard and leaking against his stomach, and the tension inside him started to rise with every thrust of Makai’s hips.
“I’m getting close,” Makai ground out between his teeth and swiped sweat off his forehead. He didn’t realize how much restraint it was taking him to make sure this was good for Emil. “Come on, sweetheart, I want to feel you come with me inside.”
Emil’s cock jerked, and he couldn’t wait anymore. He wrapped his fingers around his own dick and it took only a few pulls for him to start coming, clenching around Makai’s cock.
Makai let out an almost animal sound and came, before collapsing right next to him. Emil wrinkled his nose when he felt the come trickle out. Apparently he wasn’t much of the afterglow type if things got messy.
“I think I want the condom next time. Just for the mess,” he murmured, sounding awfully like a petulant teenager. At least it was directed at himself, damn it.
Makai chuckled. “Okay, whatever you say. I’ll get up soon, and then we’ll clean up. Give me a few minutes first.”
They lay there, Makai’s arm and leg over Emil’s, just breathing together with the scent of sex enveloping them.
“It was good,” Emil said after a while. “Like, really, really good.”
“After the beginning, yeah.”
“We got to practice a lot.” Emil smirked at Makai. “You know, to get better.”
Makai laughed tiredly, then pushed himself up to give Emil a kiss. “Come on, let’s clean up and change the sheets, then we can let the cats in and cuddle.”
Suddenly it hit Emil. “Wait, I… I actually jerked myself off,” he blurted out, eyes widening.
Makai looked a bit smug. “That you did.”
“You’re sneaky.” Emil couldn’t help but to smile.
As they cleaned up, he thought about how easily Makai read him now and how well he manipulated the situation in harmless ways to make Emil forget the issues he had. He never pushed, he didn’t even tell Emil to touch himself during sex just in case it would backfire somehow. He’d overwhelmed Emil in the best possible way, and then his body had taken over and his mind had quieted, making it possible for him to enjoy sex like he never had before.
“Hey,” he said when they finally were under clean sheets with the cats curled up at their feet. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Makai looked confused in the dim light.
“For understanding me and helping me out with whatever might pop out of my head.”
“You do the same for me, Emil. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do for each other anyway.”
“In any case, thank you. I love you.” Emil burrowed closer to Makai, right under his arm with his hand over the scar on Makai’s chest.
“Love you too.”
Mouse meowed in her sleep, and Spike let out a confused little sound but settled immediately.
Emil chuckled against Makai’s chest and felt the vibrations from Makai’s silent laughter.
He had no illusions on life being perfect, of things being completely resolved and everything being fine from now on. Happiness wasn’t just something that landed on you and stayed, you had to work for it and work on yourself, but every moment like this made it all worthwhile.
Makai squeezed him closer, and Emil hummed contently.
“Night, sweetheart,” Makai murmured.
“G’night.”
They fell asleep to the purring of the cats and the patter of rain against the roof.
More from Tia Fielding
A love as easy as breathing.
Life started out rocky for Devin Rice, but it’s turned out pretty well. He has adoptive parents and a brother who love him, and he works as a coder for his dad’s video game company. Romance is scarce, but a chance encounter leads to more than he ever expected.
While dropping off an assignment for his sick brother, Dev meets his mentor. Art history professor Seth Kent is brilliant and gorgeous, just what Dev has been looking for. Except that he’s in a long-term committed relationship.
Seth’s partner, Leaf, is older and sees the world differently due to his unusual upbringing. To him, the clear attraction between Seth and Dev isn’t a problem, it’s an unexpected gift. After all, Leaf is often on the road, going wherever rescue dogs need rehabilitation.
When Leaf meets Dev, all the missing pieces fall into place, and three men from different worlds and at different points in life fill each other’s empty spaces. For them, building a future together is the most natural thing in the world. But their unconventional love causes waves in their careers and family dynamics, and each man has his own doubts and fears to overcome.
When forty-six-year-old washed-up country musician Jasper “Red” Blue looks at the past, all he sees is a series of failures. His one treasured success is six years battling alcoholism without the help of AA. To secure his children’s future, Jasper desperately wants to produce a new album, but he can’t write alone. And he won’t work with just anyone.
Jasper’s record company manages to secure the writer of one of the biggest country music songs in recent history to help write the album. Cade Wallace is a long-haired former soul surfer, devastatingly handsome, talented, and willing to take a chance on the rugged musician. Jasper, on the other hand, is deep in the closet.
With Jasper’s career hanging in the balance, he can’t promise Cade anything, and Cade eventually heads back to his full-time job as a truck driver, taking Jasper’s hopes of a relationship with him. If Jasper’s dream of a life together is ever to come true, he will have to take some big risks, putting both his career and his children’s security on the line.
Sam Becker, a horse whisperer, agrees to take one last job before retiring to his Texas ranch. It’s clear as soon as he meets the Taylor family in Kentucky that he’s in for a challenge. What he doesn’t expect is the way his own wounds reopen. He’s never really dealt with the suicide of his mentally ill wife, and he won’t be able to ignore that hurt forever.
Joshua Taylor and his horse, Calla, were a force to be reckoned with on the eventing circuit until an accident ended their careers. Most of the pain is on the inside, however, and Sam knows those injuries are the slowest to mend. Sam’s unique methods help Calla and, surprisingly, Josh, but he’s still lost without riding. Their feelings for each other come hard and fast, and Josh starts his first steps of recovery, but Sam needs to return to Texas eventually. Even if Josh is able to move past the accident, they’ll still have a long and difficult journey to make before they can be together.
When his whirlwind life in LA became too much, Liam Barton escaped to Solitude, a Utah ski resort. Not only did Liam leave his career as a gay porn star, he said good-bye to Gael Torres, his costar at Woodspring Manor Entertainment.
; Rumors run rampant that Liam is dead. But Gael doesn’t believe the gossip. Knowing something is wrong with Liam, Gael hunts him down to get his answers.
Liam is shocked when Gael turns up in Solitude and takes up residence. To Liam’s chagrin, Gael is determined to stick around to help Liam through whatever spooked him enough to run away. As Gael breaks through Liam’s armor, both men begin to realize that no matter what life throws their way, they don’t have to deal with it alone.
It all starts at a concert at the Red Rock Amphitheater in 2004. Blake just finished high school, Dusty is a college sophomore, and as soon as they meet, they know—they belong together. With Blake living in Nebraska and Dusty in Colorado, distance does its best to keep them apart.
For two years, it succeeds.
Then Blake flees his bigoted—and even dangerous—hometown.
Two years later, Blake and Dusty are getting their lives off the ground, with Blake trying to grow his computer repair business and Dusty working with kindergarteners. Dusty thinks there’s room in their hearts and their lives for their family to grow… he just has to figure out how to express that to Blake.
Readers love Tia Fielding
Like Breathing
“Dev, Seth, and Leaf are a great throuple, and it’s a wonderfully done story. If any part of the book appeals to you, I urge you to pick this one up.”
—Joyfully Jay
“I really liked how Tia carefully develops all aspects of this evolving triad—it gives an interesting, ever-evolving peek into a true three-way bonding.”
—Rainbow Book Reviews
“…the book is fabulous and one that I will be rereading.”
--OptimuMM
Where We Belong
“The story is beautifully written, and you can’t help but fall in love with both men.”
—TTC Books and More
TIA FIELDING is a thirtysomething Scandinavian who is a lover of witty people, words, cats, sarcasm, autumn, and the tiny beautiful things in life. Tia struggles with stubborn muses and depression, but both are things she has learned to live with.
After losing the thread of her writing in her teens, Tia rediscovered the joy of writing stories through fan fiction, which later kick-started her publishing career. Tia is not ashamed of her past of borrowing other people’s characters, but has found creating her own much more satisfying.
Tia identifies as genderqueer, but isn’t strict about pronouns. Why? Because luckily, in her native language there aren’t gender-specific pronouns. Being a reclusive author living with her fur-babies is another fact of life for Tia, among the need to write that seems to be a part of her psyche by now.
In 2013 one of Tia’s novels was recognized by the industry’s Rainbow Awards in the Best LGBT Erotic Romance (Bobby Michaels Award) category.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authortiafielding
Website: www.tiafielding.com
By Tia Fielding
Auld Lang Syne
By Any Other Name
Falling Into Place
Like Breathing
Lucky
Mirage
Positive
One Step Forward
With Anna Martin: Solitude
Something New
Technically Dead
Thank My Lucky Scars
Unwind
When I Say When
Where We Belong
FINNSHIFTERS
Chuffed
Tiglon by the Tail
Howl Sweet Howl
LOVE BY NUMBERS
Ten
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Ten
© 2019 Tia Fielding.
Cover Art
© 2019 Garrett Leigh.
http://blackjazzpress.com/
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-117-7
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64405-118-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956392
Digital published January 2019
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America