by J. P. Oliver
Ryder
I’m gonna kill whoever did this…
They’d let me in to see her as soon as I got to the hospital, no bureaucratic bullshit necessary. Everyone in town knew Noreen and her son, and that I’d raise all sorts of hell if they tried to keep me from her. I wanted to talk to her immediately, make sure she was all right, but when I entered, they’d just moved her back into her room, and she was fast asleep.
I sank into the nearest chair, hand on her bedside.
I’d wait as long as I had to.
I hated seeing her like this: tucked into a hospital bed, little wires attached to her here and there, the right side of her face all bruised up and her eye swollen shut. There was a knot forming on her forehead. The steadiness of her heart monitor was a good sign, though the constant beep beep beep of it was as bad as watching the seconds tick by on a clock.
“No signs of brain swelling,” the doctor had explained to me when I first arrived. “So we can count ourselves lucky in that respect. She’s just unconscious, for the moment.”
Lucky, my ass, I thought.
I’d only be lucky when we caught whoever the hell did this.
I couldn’t remember a time I’d been angrier in my whole fucking life. I tried to picture my mom telling me to relax, to be calm, but honestly? There weren’t enough good vibes or healing crystals or positive energy in the world to calm me right now. All I wanted was to find this guy and beat the ever-loving shit out of him.
The jiggling in my leg stopped the minute I heard my mom make a sound. It was just a small, tired groan, but it was something. Immediately, I was sitting up, on high alert, watching her carefully and resisting the urge to reach out and take her hand.
Slowly, her good eye cracked open, taking in the room around her and then—me.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “Mom, oh my God…”
Nori smiled, wincing at the pain it caused.
I hit the button to alert the nurse, and a moment later, she was there in the doorway.
“Yes? Oh!” The nurse shook her head a little. “You’re awake, Ms. Mueller—I’ll alert the doctor right away.”
“Thank you.” I turned back to my mother once she had gone.
Nori watched me, long and silent, until, “Your aura’s scaring me, hon.”
I deflated a little. “Sorry.”
“Whatever you’re thinking about doing…it’s not worth making your soul a mess.”
Slowly, she moved her hand over the space between us on the bed. I took her fingers in one hand: they were soft and small, unworked and wrinkling. I remember thinking she was so big as a kid, but now, seeing her in a hospital bed like this made me realize how small she could be.
“You deserve justice, mom.” I lightly squeezed her hand. “I need to give that to you—”
“And I’m going to get it.” She looked so self-assured. Her unharmed eye was practically glimmering, despite being in pain. “I had a camera installed when you told me about the break-ins starting.”
I just…looked at her. Stunned.
She just laughed lightly and patted our tangled hands.
That was Noreen Mueller for you: full of surprises.
“Mom, I gotta make a call, okay?”
“Go ahead.”
Taking my hand back, I’d never dialed a number so fucking fast in all my life. Thankfully, I knew the guy on the other end always had his phone on him, and (usually) always answered right away—
“Ryder? What’s up—how’s Nori doing?”
“She’s awake—she’s going to be fine,” I said. “Listen, Eli, I need you to search my mom’s house as soon as humanly possible. My mom’s place had cameras installed—”
“Above the door,” she said quietly.
“Right above the front door, search around. There should be footage of whoever broke in. Hopefully something we can use—”
“Ryder.”
“Yeah?”
“We can send over a unit right now. I’ll get the guys together.”
I sighed. I knew I could trust Eli. “Thanks, man.”
“Of course.” Eli barked something to whoever was in the room with him; officially in lead detective mode. “I’ll call you as soon as we find anything.”
I knew how long and tedious home searches could be, but by some miracle, it was only a few hours before my phone rang again.
I answered quickly, wanting to keep the room as silent as possible. Nori had fallen asleep a little bit ago, and could use all the rest she could get. I slipped into the hallway quietly, phone pressed to my ear as I lingered in the nearly empty hall.
“Eli,” I exhaled. “Were you guys able to find anything?”
“Yeah, we’ve got the video,” he said.
He sounded relieved, and I could definitely fucking relate.
“Holy shit.”
“The idiot put his mask on at the front door, so we’re going to try to capture what we can see of him and run it through the facial recognition software, which might take some time but…”
I grinned. “It’s something.”
“It’s fucking something,” he confirmed. “We should have more to work with soon.”
“Thanks, Eli. I really mean it.” I’d definitely be buying him as many rounds as he wanted at O’Neill’s. Oh, and working this somewhere into my best man speech: bad-ass detective literally saved my mother and probably half of Harlan.
Eli hummed. “Don’t thank me. Ace was the one leading the search.”
“What?” I let out a laugh that was mostly a huff of air. “Really?”
“Yeah.” Eli actually chuckled. “Should’ve seen him. I didn’t think he could dole out orders like that, since he’s so fucking quiet otherwise.”
Affection bloomed in my chest at the thought. Ace, my little man, stepped up and took charge, and found what could have been the smoking gun. Maybe it’d finally put an end to all these burglaries.
I paused.
My little man.
I’d never thought of him as mine before, but….
“I’ll call you later, Eli.”
“I’ll have my phone on.”
I hung up, clutching my phone thoughtfully, a slow smile gracing my face.
Ace being mine? I liked the sound of that.
16
Ace
When I heard something bumping around outside my door, it was two in the morning.
Two in the fucking morning, I thought groggily. Who the fuck stumbles around at two in the morning?
I opened my eyes, the sleep fading away from me quickly.
Robbers, that’s who.
Grabbing the nearest pair of boxers and the gun from my nightstand, I moved stealthily through my dark living room, the pounding continuing as I stepped up to the door. My heart was beating. I’d heard what had happened to Nori; maybe this was just some divine intervention. The universe delivering him to my door as karma for hurting her and so many others in Harlan.
Carefully, I pressed an eye to the peephole in my door and—
Instantly, I deflated, a massive sigh rushing from my lungs.
Setting the gun on the side table, I threw the door open.
“Ryder,” I hissed, looking around the hall. I grabbed him and pulled him in, checking to make sure his banging hadn’t roused any grouchy neighbors. I was happy to see him, but, holy shit, it was two in the morning.
Readying for what was sure to be a grumpy, sleep-deprived lecture, I opened my mouth as soon as my door was shut, and—
“God, I fucking missed you.”
Ryder was on me a second after, hands cupping my face as his body made quick work of pinning me to the door. I hummed into the kiss, the chagrin fading fast. I felt his hands move over my nearly naked body as we melted into each other—it was heated and fast and surprising. I was supposed to have given up on him, but he was currently making that very hard for me.
As his hands wandered lower, over my hips and skimming my ass through my boxers, he was
doing a good job making something else hard, too.
Ryder broke the kiss first, eyes brimming with a look of regret.
“I’m sorry about what I said the other day,” he said, voice just shy of a whisper. “I’m not… I’m not used to feeling the kinds of things being with you…makes me feel.”
My heart felt swollen.
Clearing my throat, I glanced away. “I can’t do casual, Ryder. I’m not…”
Not like you.
He lifted my head with a single finger under my chin, our gazes locked.
God, his eyes were gorgeous. I could go missing in them and never want to be found.
“I don’t want to run away from you anymore, Ace.”
When he kissed me again, it was slow and very convincing.
My eyes fluttered shut, weak against it.
“I care so much about you,” he murmured. “And I want to try for it.”
My eyes snapped open, looking for any sign that what he was saying wasn’t true.
Ryder smirked and that was it. I couldn’t hold back anymore—and I didn’t have to.
By some miracle, Ryder seemed to know what I wanted to do before I did it. As I jumped him, arms around his neck, he lifted me against the door and held my thighs as they came around his hips. There was something particularly exciting about how dressed he was—I could feel the rougher material of his jeans rubbing against my erection through my thin boxers.
“You miss me?” he asked, chuckling against my mouth.
His hand palmed over my cock suggestively.
“You could say that,” I huffed.
I knew Ryder was strong, but I wasn’t about to make him carry me all the way to my bedroom. Sliding out of his grip so we didn’t end up jacking each other off at my front door was a feat of self-control I wasn’t sure I could control for too long. With a hand fisted in his shirt, I started maneuvering him towards my bedroom.
The light in his eyes changed when he saw where we were headed.
The affectionate smirk turned sexy, like he’d flipped some internal switch.
“Missed me that bad?”
“Yeah.” We crossed the threshold and I sat on the edge of my bed, legs parted. When I held my hand out for him, he took it, walking until he was standing happily between my thighs.
I looked up the expanse of his clothed chest, hands moving up his legs—slowly, slowly, until I was working over the obvious bulge forming; just enough pressure to make him groan.
“You missed me too,” I said.
Ryder’s hand combed through my bedhead, pushing it off my forehead. “Oh, you have no fucking idea.”
I unzipped and unbuttoned his jeans. Pushed his shirt up just enough to press a wet kiss to the sensitive skin of his abdomen. The muscles underneath tightened, and Ryder hissed through his teeth.
When I looked up at him again, he looked about ready to devour me.
Our time apart had been too long.
This was the hardest part for me still: verbalizing what I wanted. He made dirty talk sound so easy, but for me…well, I’d need all the practice I could get.
“Why don’t you show me how much you missed me?” I asked.
And that was like breaking the final seal—the proverbial point of no return as I scrambled back onto the bed, stretching out and watching as he discarded his shirt with a smile.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he chuckled, grabbing my legs and pulling me to the edge.
I gasped at the display of strength, pushing onto one arm in time to watch him sink to his knees. He glanced up the loose leg of my boxers, a window to my cock—not that he needed it. The tent I was sporting was kind of obscene.
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this to you,” Ryder said, pulling them down slowly over my legs.
Fully naked, he slung one of my knees over his shoulder: my only warning before he took my cock in his hand and lapped his tongue up the underside of it.
All of my blood felt like it was shooting south, the slide of his tongue hot and wet—I couldn’t help the moan that tumbled out of me, eyes lidded as I watched him. His hand had felt good when he used it on me before, but—honestly, I should have expected his mouth to be better. He was always running it, using it to flirt and tease. Glad to know he could put his money where his mouth was.
He mouthed along my cock like he enjoyed it, like he couldn’t get enough of the taste, teasing the head with punishingly light glides of his tongue. I felt like I was thrown in a pot to boil, just coming apart, my body trembling, vibrating, like this was the best thing I’d ever had.
He was the best thing I’d ever had.
Knowing that did just as much to me as his mouth, undoing me from the inside out.
My hand shook its way into his hair, Ryder’s moan encouraging and driving vibrations up my back that had me gasping for air.
“That’s—” Perfect. Amazing. Don’t stop. Never stop.
Ryder pulled off with a rather obscene pop, grinning as he lapped at the head, making a show out of blowing me.
“Th-that’s not fair,” I half-laughed, half-groaned.
“Oh, I think it’s plenty fair enough.”
My legs twitched wider as he sucked liberally at the tip.
He had the audacity to laugh, but it wasn’t his usual sweet laughter. This was low and sexual, consuming; a demon who had successfully brought a holy man to his knees. A predator who had his prey.
“You like it here,” he said, thumb pressing into the bit of precum beading at the tip.
I fought back a whine. “Mm…”
“God…” His kiss drew down my cock and over my balls, my toes curling as I sensed the direction he was headed, his lips getting close but never where I wanted him.
“Fuck me.” I wasn’t thinking, but I felt the rightness of it in my chest.
Ryder groaned. “Ask me again.”
“Fuck me.”
“One more time.”
“Ryder.” I sat up straighter, taking his chin in my hand and guiding him towards me. When our lips connected, it was a long and assuring tangle of our tongues. When he bit my lip, my cock twitched in his hand and he chuckled—so unfair. “I want to feel you inside me. I want you to fuck me till I can’t remember my own name, please…”
“No,” he said.
I opened my eyes, swallowing; was something wrong?
“I’m not gonna fuck you.” Ryder grinned. “I’m gonna make love to you.”
I liked this position: me on my back and him hovering over me.
He’d had the foresight—or maybe the blind hope—to have grabbed some lube on his way to my place, though I didn’t want to question where he’d picked it up at two in the morning. All I knew was that I certainly didn’t have any of my own and I was fucking grateful.
I’d have to remedy the lube thing if this was going to be a regular thing.
My face twisted, breath coming quicker as his finger pushed into me, slick with lube but still pinching. It was good—it was a stretch that licked white-hot fire up the base of my spine, but…good. I tried to relax but knowing his cock would be bigger made that difficult.
“Baby, look at me.”
I did.
Ryder kissed my forehead, my cheek, my nose. When he spoke, our lips brushed.
“Relax. It’s just you and me right now, okay?”
I gave a shaky nod. “S-sorry, I’m just trying to—”
“You don’t have to try anything,” Ryder said. With his other hand he guided my head onto the pillow, crowding into my space. Like this I could feel the heat of his body; the press of his erection against my stomach. I shivered as he kissed the corner of my mouth. “I’ve got you. Just let me take you there…”
I wanted him to kiss me again, but my voice felt stripped.
So I pulled him into it, our mouths parting like we’d gotten so used to, and focusing on that was a favor in itself. I could feel the slow in-and-out of his fingering, the kiss breaking and forming around the soft n
oises it drew from me until—
“R-ryder, right there, right—”
“Right here,” he confirmed, curling his finger and pressing.
My body felt limp and tight all at once, like I was just a mass of warmth he could so easily manipulate, every heartbeat a pulse of pleasure that he commanded with the tip of his finger.
“It’s good… Fuck, it’s really good, I—” I felt something drip. My hazy eyes glanced down at our cocks; any other time I might have been embarrassed to see my own leaking precum, but the tip of Ryder’s was wet, too, and it was too much to not feel something. I wanted him, he wanted me.
“Put it in,” I told him.
“Just let me—”
“Please,” I sighed. I fixed him with whatever focus I could scrape together. “I don’t want to wait anymore…”
“Better safe than sorry, baby.” Ryder slid his finger out.
I whined at the loss of it, watching as he shot me a grin, dismounting from the bed to fish a condom from his pocket. He tore it with his teeth, rolled it on, and I watched with rapt attention as he warmed the lube up in his fingers and worked it over his cock.
I didn’t even notice I was licking my lips until he groaned, crawling closer for a kiss.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he chuckled. “I might not last as long as you want.”
I laughed a little, hands grabbing and exploring as our bodies aligned. I could smell the wintergreen of the gum he chewed and something else that was so distinctly Ryder. I wanted to drown in whatever it was.
I felt the tip of him at my entrance.
“You sure about this?” Ryder asked, giving me one last opportunity to back out of this.
As if I needed or even wanted that.
I gave a light push of my hips, entrance pressing down on his head.
“Yes.”
Something changed in Ryder’s eyes. It was a darkness made entirely of lust, but there was something else, too; adoration, maybe.
Our lips tangled, sucking and nipping and licking our way into each other’s mouths as he pushed in, bit by bit, my voice catching in my throat. The pleasure was something I’d never felt before, straddling the line between pain and something perfect. My fingers gripped hard in his hair. The kiss broke, Ryder’s lips wet with saliva.
