Gannon (Kennedy Ink. Book 8)

by Jenny Wood

  “No,”

  “So, tell me what you need and I’ll give it to you," His sexy fucking mouth is driving me crazy, I’d almost bet he could just talk me into coming.

  “You!” I yell in frustration, losing what little piece of control I had when he takes his finger away. I don’t see what he does with it, but it’s soaking wet when he brings it back to my entrance. “I need you inside me.”

  “Awww, baby, that’s not the right way to get it, is it? How do you ask me?” His voice is so sexy, but he stops stroking me and his finger is pressing just enough to drive me insane, but not where I need it. I need him inside.

  “Please, Gannon,” I gasp, grabbing hold of his arms as he watches me. “Please, please, please, don’t stop. I can’t breathe,” I suck in a deep breath but it wooshes out when he starts stroking me with purpose.

  “That’s it, Shade, keep going," he coaxes when I use my hips to match him stroke for stroke.

  “I love you,” I cry out, my body shaking so hard I can feel my teeth rattle. Gannon growls when I reach up and clasp his face between my hands and make him look at me. My face is wet and I’m not sure if it’s from blood, sweat or tears, because I feel as if I’m breaking into a million pieces. I’m coming apart, just like he said I would and he’s not even inside me, yet. “I love you so fucking much, Gannon. I’m – I’ll… please, Gannon. I’m gonna’ come. Make me come.”

  Without word or warning, Gannon finally breaches me, swiftly and expertly while bumping up against that hidden bundle of nerves that make me bite down on the pillow to suppress a surprised, pleasure-filled, scream. My eyes pop open while he stays there, massaging me from the inside. I gasp around his growl, as ropes of my hot seed erupt from me and paint his chest. I pant loudly, clutching at him and keeping his mouth on mine while he continues to pump his fist lazily and milk every little bit of me that he can. He doesn’t seem to want to stop and I don’t ever want him to.

  “Feel good?” he asks, flicking his tongue out and swiping it across my bottom lip. He nips at my chin with his teeth when I don’t answer and I weakly try to push him away, but I feel as though my body is made of jello.

  “Don’t use words. I can’t,” I groan when he slides his finger from my hole, leaving me empty. Feeling good was an understatement, it was the most intense experience I’ve ever had with anybody, ever. I wasn’t sure I’d survive it when he actually got inside me. “Three minutes and it’ll be my turn. Let my brain fire back up. I think you’ve melted it.”

  “Baby, if you missed me losing my load on you…” he challenges, making my eyes pop open again and I look down at the mess between us. He had come, by the looks of it. We’re a mess.

  “How?” I want to know. Neither of us had touched his dick! Gannon laughs at my expression and leans forward to kiss me, soft and sweet this time.

  “I can’t believe I get to keep you,” he says, disbelief heavy in his tone. I yawn and pull the sheet up enough to wipe his chest and the other places that need a quick clean up; then wad it up and throw it to the foot of the bed to be washed tomorrow. Reaching down to pull the big fluffy comforter over us, I curl into him and let him pull me close. I would’ve never taken Gannon for a cuddler, but I’m sure as fuck not going to complain about it.

  “That was one of my ‘top three fantasy ways to fuck Shade Mayson’, by the way," I snort a laugh that turns into a yawn and Gannon tells me to close my eyes and go to sleep, so I do.

  -------------------------------------------

  “Fuuuuuuuuck,” is growled directly in my ear, startling me out of a dead sleep. Faintly I can hear an alarm going off and I’m pissy when I realize it’s mine.

  “It’s mine, go back to sleep," I try to scoot off the bed and go find my phone before it wakes up Gannon’s mom, but an arm hooks around my waist and halts my progress.

  “Why are you leaving my bed when it’s still dark outside?” Gannon mumbles, tucking his face into my back and snuggling deeper into the bed. I wait until I feel his arm go lax, and as soft and easy as I can, I slide from his bed. I shuffle into the living room where my bag of clothes are and then tip-toe to the bathroom. I make sure to close the door before I turn on the light and then relieve myself before grabbing Gannon’s toothbrush and paste it up to clean my teeth. I look at myself in the mirror and am surprised to see my puffy lips, bloodshot eyes, and a ridiculously cheesy smile. I don’t miss the tiny beard burn marks on my neck and chest either, but those I think are sexy.

  After a quick shower, I slip out of Gannon’s room and put on a pot of coffee, dumping my gym bag full of dirty clothes by the front door so I don’t forget them. I need to go home and do laundry and repack them, so I can hit the gym later for one of my scheduled weekly appointments with Nash.

  Tapping on Gannon’s guest bedroom door, I push it open just a crack to make sure Ms. Holly is okay, but am surprised to find the room empty. She turned in early last night, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see her up this early, but the coffee pot was cold, so I knew that nobody made any recently. After checking the other rooms in the house with no luck, I check the front and back doors and realize that the back door isn’t just unlocked, it’s not latched and is slightly ajar. Heading back into Gannon’s room, I hate that I’m going to wake him with bad news after such a great night.

  I sit on the edge of the bed and run my fingers over his long and tattooed fingers, not wanting to scare him. I’m not expecting him to flip his hand over and entwine his fingers with mine, but when he does, I get a good look at the tattoo around his wrist and forearm and smile. It’s a beautiful smoke scene that rises up into a blackened forest scene that goes up to the inside of his elbow. It’s the first big piece he ever got, and I remember thinking that it was so hot when he first showed it to me. All of his tattoos are. I wish I could trace each of them with my tongue. I’d never make it to work if I tried right now, but I do inspect his new one a little more closely than I got to yesterday. Getting a good look at the black and gray, smoldering, burnt tree, I notice there are letters in what looks like ashes on the ground around the base of the tree. I stare at it harder, thinking that what I’m looking at can’t possibly be right. It looks like our initials, his and mine, together. But why?

  Forgetting that the man is actually asleep, I push his arm back and scoot closer to get a better look. My heart starts pounding when I realize that it does, in fact, say “GB + SM”. And the lyrics. There are lyrics to a song that I remember my mother had turned him on to when we were barely teenagers. He whistled it all the time, but I couldn’t remember the words, though I know there was something about a tree burning down so no one could see what you carved in it. But, why our initials? Together, even.

  "Gannon, hey, wake up,” no longer whispering or caring about scaring him, I suddenly need answers. “Gannon!” he jumps in surprise and his eyes fly open. He takes in my appearance and frowns at my clothes.

  “Why are you dressed?” he finally asks. I don’t answer, instead, moving his arm back so I can point to the tattoo.

  “What’s the lyric to the song you got here? Sing it," I almost demand, though I do it softly.

  “I don’t sing, baby," he rolls his eyes and tries to cover himself back up with the blanket. I yank it away and once again uncover the tattoo, lifting his arm out of the way again so I can see it.

  “Just tell me how it goes. Please?” and so he does. He sings the words along to the melody that I had completely forgotten. “You were only, what, fourteen when you heard that song?”

  “Yep,"

  “Those are our initials, right?” I ask.

  “Yep,"

  “You loved me when you were fourteen?” I whisper in disbelief.

  “Yep,” he sighs his answer.

  “Why didn’t you tell me before now?!” I almost yell.

  “I wished that I would’ve," he looks directly into my eyes and whispers, “Do you know how hard it is to love somebody so fucking much and have to be around them all the time, but not ge
t to have them like you want to?” It comes off as accusatory, and it’s the wrong thing to say because uh, yeah, I absolutely do.

  “Yes!” I snap, “You jackass, I fuckin’ do!” he grabs my arms and pulls me down so that I’m sprawled out over his chest.

  “I have morning breath, but kiss me anyway,” he grins but doesn’t give me time before he’s kissing me instead. It’s like everything hits me, everything at once. I wasn’t sure if I could believe in it before, but seeing the tattoo and hearing the story, it feels huge. It feels real. It feels right. Exactly right.

  “When you ask me again, I’m gonna’ say yes,” I whisper against his lips. “Today, tomorrow, next month, next year. I don’t care. You ask and I’ll say yes,"

  “Shade Mayson, do you wanna marry me?” he doesn’t hesitate.

  “Yep,” neither do I.

  “Okay,” he kisses me again and flips me onto my back, flinging the covers back over us, and wiggling around to get comfortable. Before I can appreciate that he’s still very naked, in very close proximity and we’re now apparently very engaged, I remember that I came in here for a reason.

  “No, wait,” I squirm out from under the blanket and bat his grabby hands away to explain, “I’ve got to go to work and it doesn’t look like your mom is here. You might want to check around, but I didn’t see her anywhere and the back door wasn’t closed all the way," Gannon sighs, tossing the blankets back and growling loudly in frustration. He swings his legs over the side of the bed to sit up and rubs his hands down his face while taking a deep, calming breath. The good mood of the morning evaporating just like that.

  “I don’t know what to do to help her, Shade. I’ve tried everything I know to try. She’s a grown woman, I can’t lock her up and force her to get clean if she doesn’t want to. What the fuck do I do?” he asks, miserably.

  “Do you have any idea where she might be?” I get up and walk around the bed to sit next to him.

  “No, I never know where she gets her shit from. I’ve never seen any skeevy drug dealer types around here, I don’t know who or where they could come from. She must know someone consistent that’s willing to supply her," he reasons, looking over at me in exasperation. I wish I could fix this for him.

  “I need to call the garage and check in with Hudson, make sure there isn’t anything pressing on the schedule today, but, maybe we can drive around and look for her? See if anyone has seen her," I suggest.

  “No, you don’t have to do that. I can get dressed and make a few calls, maybe Cruz can have his guys keep an eye out for her today and call me if they see her," he shrugs, but he doesn’t look hopeful.

  “That’s a good idea,” I say anyway, knowing that other than what we’ve come up with, there isn’t a whole lot that we can do.

  “Are you coming back here after work?” he asks, leaning into me just enough to press me against his headboard.

  “Do you want me to come back here after work?” I can’t help but smile at his indignant look.

  “I’d like to tie you to this bed and feast on you til Christmas, but, we both have businesses to run. So, yeah, maybe just come back after work?” I shove him playfully, making him laugh and he falls back onto the mattress and closes his eyes. “Stop and get clothes, would ya? I want you here for a while.”

  “What, I don’t get a say? What about what I want?” I tease, watching his eyes flutter open and his hand slowly trail from his chest, then down past his stomach to grab his quickly thickening cock. I jump from the bed like it’s on fire and bolt out the door, hearing his deep bellied laugh on my way.

  “Call me if you need me!” I yell, grabbing my bag, wallet, and phone before getting the hell out of there. As badly as I wanted him right then, I needed to get to work. I also didn’t want our first time together to be under the cloud of all he has going on right now. I want his focus on us and nothing else, so we could trust it and start this thing between us as something beyond what we’ve already been. I didn’t know how it was going to go, jumping from best friends for over twenty years to… what? Engaged? Was that even real? There would be plenty of time to figure it all out, but finding his mom and making sure she’s safe is priority number one at the moment.

  Just as I walk into my empty shop, ready to get things started for the day, my phone alerts me to an incoming message. Seeing Gannon’s name pop up isn’t anything new, but the content of his message is.

  - Gannon: Love you. x

  And how fucking amazing is that?

  Gannon

  Waking up with Shade in my bed was something I’d dreamt about a lot over the years. Of course, it would’ve been a hell of a lot better had he not been completely dressed and on his way out the door for work, but still...

  Laying him out and hearing him beg me to let him come was high on the list of things that I thought for sure would never happen. Now that it has, I’m going to make sure it happens as often as humanly possible. Sex-slavery might be illegal, but if it’s consensual, it’s okay, right? I’ll need to ask Cruz about that.

  Speaking of Cruz, since sitting at home and waiting on my mom to come back was not an option, I call him and ask if he’ll keep an eye out and let me know if he sees her. He’d picked her up once before about a year ago for causing a scene outside of Madison’s one and only no-tell-motel. Thankfully, he didn’t arrest her but instead, called me to come get her. I wonder now if I should’ve let her sober up in jail. Rehab sure as fuck isn’t helping.

  He also suggests I give Cameron a heads up and have him keep his eyes open at the hospital. Since he’s working in the emergency department for the next couple of weeks, he’d be one of the first to see her if she for some reason - God forbid - ended up there. Luckily, that one has never happened, though he has met her. Cam was the one who got her the referrals for the last two facilities I paid for. Health insurance for an addict is astronomical and holding a job long enough to qualify is impossible. I need all the help I can get, even if asking my newer friends is embarrassing as hell.

  With a thumbs up from him, I feel a little bit better knowing that he and Cruz will keep me updated so I’m not on the phone every night wondering if either place had any recent drug overdoses or unknown patients that fit her description. For now, it is a waiting game and I’m not willing to put my life on hold for her, not if she isn’t willing to get clean. I’d done it too many times already.

  After Shade had left me in bed this morning, beyond happy and hard as a steel rod, I couldn’t help but replay the last twenty-four hours over and over again. Had I really just proposed to him? Did it actually count? I can’t believe I got so pissed about that fucking Kelson Mandello, is he really what started this whole thing? Fuck it, I didn’t even care. Now that I am honest about how big my feelings are for him, I’m not letting a day go by without making sure he knows.

  The gym is slow in the morning, giving me time to go over the payroll for the week and tackle the upcoming weeks schedule. I make sure Shea is off on her requested days off and that Myles works in between classes. He’s studying to become a nutritionist, and though I had some reservations about hiring a young, California, hippy-type with his smoothies and kale drinks, I have to admit that he was a huge asset to the clients he’d already made. Myself included. He isn’t on some TV vegan bandwagon, it’s a lifestyle of healthy eating and healthy living and he takes pride in seeing folks happy with the results that they obtain while taking his lifestyle and dietary suggestions. I’m hoping he sticks around when he starts his own business, I’ll keep him on to teach classes and shit.

  Nash trains by appointment only, so, he makes his own schedule, but because the gym was sort of a sanctuary to him after he finished his time in the military, he also offers different classes that keep him busy. Like today, he’s teaching a beginner’s Krav Maga. Abel and Shea like working together and the folks who come in when the both of them are here, always have nothing but nice things to say about them; so when Abel works, I can usually count on Shea to be here too.<
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  Owning my own gym sort of feels like cheating. I have a lot of friends come in and I’m able to shoot the shit with them and I can work out whenever I want. I’m on one of my seven treadmills when Kingsley and Jase came in. After Kingsley lifts and Jase does cardio, we hang out by the boxing ring that sits smack in the middle of all the chaos, watching a couple of high school kids go at each other for fun. They’ve acquired quite the audience, as there are several other guys standing around encouraging them.

  When Hyde started this place, he’d wanted it to be a boxing gym like you see in the movies, but it was mostly just his buddies or men from the neighborhood that messed around over a lost bet or a way to get even. The equipment was old and outdated and it took me a while to be able to slowly renovate everything. I had to get one thing at a time and I had to admit, I took a hit financially those first six months or so. Now, my place is kind of the place to be.

  I had an attached building built to the back where I had a small octagon arena built. I mostly rent it out for charity events or special functions, but some of the guys come in and mess around in there too. Watching Shade go head to head with Jody or Kingsley is downright pornographic. I always look forward to that. Sweaty, shirtless, breathing all hard and being overly aggressive. That shit is so sexy.

  “Ew, did you just moan?” Kingsley nudges me, snapping me out of what could’ve been an extremely embarrassing daydream. I’m lucky I have on track pants that are baggy enough to conceal my growing arousal at the direction my thoughts are heading.

  “No, I did not moan,” I lie. “Go away,"

  “You go away, I was here first!” Kingsley counters, maturely.

  “Do I need to separate the two of you?” Jase saunters up, wiping his face with a towel. Kingsley leans overdramatically, whispering as if he’s doing it through a bullhorn.

  “Gannon just moaned out loud. I think he wants my body. Jase, could you tell him that I’m a happily married man and father. And also that I’m flattered but he’s not at all my type," Jase snickers and looks at me knowingly. I roll my eyes and shove Kingsley, causing him to lose his footing and almost fall over.