Bad Behavior (Bad in Baltimore) (16 page)

“This,” David managed on a gasp.

Tai rocked the toy back and forth by fractions. “What about this?”

David’s shoulders rolled, his chest undulating like a snake, hands into fists as his muscles pulled at the restraints, his words a raw whisper. “When I don’t have a choice. When you tell me I don’t have a choice.” He kept his eyes tightly closed. “Please tell me I don’t have a choice.”

The power of David’s surrender hit like a helmet to the chin, the force snapping down Tai’s spine, rattling in his skull. But unlike suffering a stinger and having to be carted off the field, after the dazzle of impact faded, he could move. He pushed the wand in deep, then dove forward, braced over David’s body on fists.

He dragged his mouth, then his teeth through the sweaty-sweet taste of David’s neck, his jaw. “That’s right. And right now, you don’t have a choice about coming. Your dick is mine to use how I want.”

David’s head cranked back against the mattress, opening more skin to Tai’s teeth. Drunk with it, Tai sucked a mark up under David’s ear, and another, sharper, faster, along his jawbone.

Tai might as well have been socking away liquor for all the coordination in his fingers as he dug out a condom, tore open the wrapper and got the tip over David’s dick.

“What are you do—?” David’s words cut off as Tai put his mouth over the latex-covered head and rolled the edge down with a rough stroke of his hand.

“You don’t need to know. Because I’m making the choices.”

David groaned, but his gaze was steady on Tai as he slicked the condom, then reached back to lube himself. It was fast, rough and nowhere near enough stretch to make this easy, but that slur of dazed heat inside him wouldn’t let him slow down.

“Yeah, David,” Tai said to the blue eyes wide with the question. “I’m going to ride you. And you’re going to stay hard for me.”

A protest started in closed lips and tighter eyes, then faded on a moan as Tai gripped the base of David’s cock to angle the entry.

It burned, too much and too fast, but Tai only gave himself a few seconds to recover before sliding down over the head again.

The sound that burst out from behind David’s bared teeth made Tai want to go faster. A strangled scream, tearing, gurgling like David was drowning as Tai sank all the way down.

He slid his palms up David’s chest, thumbs coming to rest at the notch in his collarbone.

“Tell me what I’m making you feel.”

David whispered the answer without hesitation. “It’s good. Tight. So tight. And that thing inside, God, so heavy and it’s pushing right. It’s heavy and pushing—”

Tai rocked forward.

“Jesus.” David’s body jerked.

“Yeah, boy. Your dick is in me, and I’m still fucking you.” Tai started a slow grind, David’s dick shifting and touching all the right places inside. “Gonna have to wait for it. Wait for me.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Tai moved faster, shoving David’s cock in deeper, pushing them both further into a place where everything was raw and hot to the touch. Strength and power unleashed between them.

Tai trailed his thumbs gently alongside David’s windpipe, the absolute trust in David lifting his chin to give Tai access to every inch of that fragile stretch of flesh. The perfect submission sending another druglike wave to cloud Tai’s brain. Even if they’d done breath play before, practiced it, if he knew every cue from David’s face, he couldn’t risk that now. Not with Tai’s head high on this buzz.

He spread his palms wide on David’s shoulders, the deltoids solid and hot as the muscles flexed and strained, and took a grip to anchor them for the fuck.

David’s eyes came back into focus, zeroing in on Tai’s with the first thrust. Tai moved his hips in hard, shallow strokes, keeping David’s cock angled to rub Tai’s gland over and over. The quick burn of friction didn’t take long to put him right up on the edge. Despite Tai’s weight and the spread of his thighs, David did his best to meet the thrusts, his hips slapping up against Tai’s ass.

“Please, Sir. Please, God, please.” The words might have begged, but David’s voice was a raspy growl.

“Wait. For. Me.” Tai timed with his thrusts.

“Yes, Sir.”

Tai slowed and released David’s shoulders, bringing a hand to his mouth. “Make it wet for me.”

David sucked in Tai’s fingers and licked over Tai’s palm as if lapping up honey.

“Good. You’re doing good.”

Even with Tai’s body pulsing from the pressure in his ass and the urge to come drawing his balls up tight, his own hand on his dick felt like a stranger’s. He was so focused on David and his reactions, on the way David had melted into pliancy, that Tai had pushed back the demands from his own body.

He tightened his ass around David’s cock, drinking in the moans, the strangled breaths and the pleas as he started moving again. It was good and sweet, the slide of his hand and the stab of pleasure from being fucked. A long, steady rise and fall of sensation on the climb, until it wasn’t. Until something switched inside him and it was there, a violent shock, jolting bright and hot from his balls, the first shot flying past David’s shoulder. Instead of a drop, the next wave was sharper, then harder, spasms from deep inside as he painted David’s jaw, his lips, his chest with endless streams until Tai was wrung dry and aching.

“Fuck.” The word shuddered out of him with a last, rough gasp, and he hung there, staring down into David’s face, cock giving a desperate final twitch as David licked the come from his lips.

Tai pulled the edge of the sheet from the mattress and wiped David’s eyes. The body under Tai trembled, the cock in his ass swelling and throbbing.

He eased forward, letting David slide out of him, then rolled to one side.

With one hand on David’s jaw to keep his face turned to Tai, he reached down first to unsnap the strap on his balls, which produced a bone-deep whimper, and then freed his cock.

There might have been curses or only sounds from David’s lips, but Tai kissed them away, pulling off the condom and working David’s dick with firm strokes.

“You were a good boy. Now you’re gonna come for me, David.” Tai breathed in David’s gasp through another kiss and jacked him faster.

David tore his head free, and his body convulsed into jerks as his cock spilled thick and warm and creamy across Tai’s arm and fingers.

“God, David.” Tai breathed in the smell of his hair and skin and the faint bleach of spunk. “So good. So sweet, baby.”

David smiled. “I waited so long I was afraid I forgot how to do it. And then it was the best one of my life.”

“Patience can be rewarding.” Tai swept his hand up through the trails of come on David’s chest.

“Yes, Sir.” But there was a hint of a brat in the hoarse voice.

“I’ll be happy to convince you some more.”

“I’m looking forward to you topping that.”

“Oh, I plan to.” Tai nodded.

“Mmm.” David let out a long breath and sank onto the mattress, then flinched.

“Right. Let me get that for you.” Tai reached between David’s legs and gripped the curve of the wand. “Breathe out.”

“Appreciate it. Hard to relax with a stick up your ass.”

Tai chuckled as he eased it out of David’s body and tossed it on the mattress at their feet. If David needed teasing and humor to come down from sub space, Tai was happy to go along with it. It beat the hell out of pounding on the bathroom door.

“Damn that was good.” David turned his head to look over at Tai.

He’d never actually seen eyes sparkle before. But there it was. Happiness and good humor and the late-afternoon sun made David’s eyes clear and bright.

So when it hit, it was as sudden a shift as the last time. Tai had just decided to start unhooking David from the restraints when he jerked his arms. Hard. And again. His face went slack with panic.

“Red. Okay? Red.”

Tai blessed Nic for teaching him to always have quick releases on restraints. Both David’s hands were free before he’d safe-worded a third time. But he repeated the word over and over as Tai released the clips on his ankle cuffs.

“It’s okay. You’re okay,” he whispered as David curled into a silent ball. Tai reached for David’s shoulder but hovered an inch above his skin. “I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want, but don’t try to get up until you feel steady.”

“I hate this.”

David’s mood had shifted fast enough to give Tai whiplash, but those words spread something cold and hollow through him, until he wondered which of them would end up in the bathroom hiding a reaction under running water.

David uncurled enough to roll his shoulders and head to look to where Tai stood at the foot of the bed. “It’s so damned stupid.” David’s laugh echoed the hollowness in Tai’s chest.

“What is?”

“I want it so much. I fucking love it. What you do, everything.” David paused. Swallowed. “And then.” He shook his head. “First time I ever got drunk enough to puke, Chip Montgomery slapped my back as I was hanging on to the toilet for dear life and said, ‘If you run with the big dogs, you’ve gotta learn to piss in the tall grass.’ Guess I’m still learning.”

Tai stood silent, waiting.

“I’d rather— Don’t go. Please.”

“Okay.” Tai sat on the bed next to him.

When David moved closer, Tai stroked a hand down David’s spine. “I’ve never been much of a backslapper.”

“Really? Would have figured you for a sports guy.”

“Figured right. But that’s all ass slapping and chest bumps.”

“I think I’ll pass on both right now.”

Tai’s phone launched into Gina’s ringtone.

David followed Tai’s gaze to his shorts. “Do you need to get that?”

Tai leaned back on his hands. “No. Not unless it rings again.”

“Your…daughter?”

He hadn’t given David time to ask any questions on the phone yesterday. Hadn’t ever expected to mention Sammie to—

The phone went off. “Sorry.” He fished it out.

“She’s all right,” Gina said immediately, though from that opening and the strain in her voice, his baby girl was anything but all right.

“What happened?”

“There was an accident. But she’s okay. Might have broken her wrists.”

“Wrists? Gina, what happened?”

“She got hit by a car. She’s okay.”

How did hit by a car equal okay?

“I want to talk to Daddy Tai.” Sammie’s voice, thank God her voice, sounded from somewhere. And then a lot of other voices, indistinct and one saying, “How about a ride, princess?”

“We’re going for x-rays now.”

“Where are you? Johns Hopkins?”

“Mercy.”

“What the hell for?” Gina worked at Johns Hopkins. His mother worked at Johns.

“It was closer. I have to go. She wants you to come.”

“On my way.”

He pressed
end
, though disconnecting by throwing the phone through the nearest wall felt like a better plan, then turned back to David. Who was gone.

Tai yanked up boxers and shorts and was reaching for a T-shirt when David appeared in the doorway, dressed and leaning on his cane.

“I have to—” Tai started.

“I know you have to go,” David interrupted. “I’ll see myself out.” His voice was firm, and if the windows weren’t toward the sun, Tai might not have noticed how pale David’s face was. But after what had happened, there was no way Tai could miss the flatness of his eyes or the faint vibrations in the hand that held the cane.

“No. You’ll get in my car.”

C
hapter Twelve

O
ne of the reasons Beach was used to getting his way was that he could predict the argument against him and be a few steps ahead.

At that moment, he ran the projected conversation like this.

Me: I’m all right.

Him: Like you were last time. (A snort for emphasis.)

Me: I’ve had practice now. I promise to drink some juice and make no sudden movements.

Him: I don’t have time to argue with you. (Accompanying growl.)

Me: So don’t. Your daughter needs you.

Yes, that should work. But before the words left his mouth, Tai stood in front of him. Next time Beach would have to take into account the way sub drop also slowed down his brain.

“David. Let’s go.”

A hand on the back of his neck, warm thumb rubbing behind his ear, made Beach as docile as Jez when Tai told her to stay.

His well-used muscles protested the uncomfortable passenger seat in Tai’s cramped Focus. Beach’s Spider waited across the street, gleaming like the ocean where it touched the sky. He couldn’t believe he was leaving it there among the jetsam of indifferent crossover wagons, battered trucks and faded minivans. He should be cradled in the Spider’s Daytona-style seat, driving away from all the thoughts that asked him what the hell he was doing, what kind of man was he to let another man use him like that. The gruff, explicit demands from Tai that made Beach’s knees give way like rusted hinges would have made Beach offer to punch the shit out of a man who spoke like that to a woman.

There was one piece of bondage that his safe word couldn’t get rid of. The damned monitor kept him trapped here, where one text would send him crawling back, hungry to learn how much further, how much higher Tai could take him.

The seat belt jabbed into his neck, too tight across his chest, and he clawed it away from his skin.

Tai covered Beach’s hand and lowered it. “You passed out last time.” It was that soft, sexy rumble that had hooked Beach from the first.

“I hadn’t eaten.” Beach slid his hand away, but Tai’s palm rested warm and heavy on Beach’s thigh, heat sinking through the khaki, solid as an anchor.

“I need to go see Sammie.”

Beach filed away Tai’s daughter’s name.

“And I need to take care of you,” Tai continued. “That means you come with me.”

It was high-handed. Insufferably arrogant. And possibly the only time anyone had ever said that to him.

He’d had to chase his mother to London after his father split for Venezuela. Even Gavin, as good and loyal a friend as he was, seemed more inclined to put up with Beach than to encourage his presence.

Tai’s words might be part of the formula of kneeling and leather and checklists. But a lifetime of sifting through platitudes and polishing them to sparkle with sincerity made Beach keenly aware of when someone was only mouthing the expected.

Tai meant it.

All Beach had to do was accept it. “Yes, Sir.”

Tai brushed a thumb along Beach’s jaw, fingers light on the top of his spine.

That horrible, clenching emptiness left Beach’s gut on the next breath. Maybe the key to not having sub drop was to keep subbing. Hair of the dog? He barely smothered a laugh at the thought.

Tai’s hand landed back on Beach’s knee. “Better?”

Beach considered what advantage there was in denying it. But he didn’t want what Tai was offering to come out of manipulation. It wouldn’t feel this good. Besides, it wasn’t as if Tai would stop the car and leave Beach there in Little Italy to walk home.

“Yes.”

“Good.” Tai squeezed Beach’s leg.

Why did hospitals all have the same smell? Beach must have inhaled so much of it during his coma that he went cold from the first breath. As soon as the emergency room doors slid shut behind them, Beach worked to tune out the rest of the waiting room. Pacers, bleeders, people doubled over in pain and one woman sobbing uncontrollably. A woman in wine-colored nurse’s scrubs came up to them. Beach winced. If a nurse was coming to meet them, it must be very bad. And Tai had wasted time on Beach?

“Toluaotai.”

“
Tina.
” Tai bent and kissed the nurse’s cheek as she reached up to pat his.

“She’ll be fine,
la’u tama
.” The nurse hugged Tai.

“She’s just a baby.”

“All the better. She’ll heal fast.” The nurse kept a hand on Tai’s arm and gave Beach a solid appraisal that made him all too conscious of the fact he’d barely had a chance to towel the come off him. And he was sure his hair was styled à la just fucked.

“
Tina
, this is David Beauchamp. David, this is my mother, Kara Mosely.”

“Your mother?” Beach tried to keep the shock out of his voice. The middle-aged black woman in nurse’s scrubs was Tai’s mother. Beach snuck a comparative glance at the man he was…dating? Fucking? Submitting to? Beach recovered and offered his hand. “…Is a very beautiful woman. And I am honored to meet you, ma’am.”

“Nice save,” Tai murmured with a hint of amusement in his voice. “I’m going to go see Sammie.” He tromped off toward the triage desk, leaving Beach to draw on every skill he’d perfected over years of social fencing.

“How do you know my son, David?” Her glance lingered first on Beach’s cane, then on the ankle monitor.

“Everyone calls me Beach, ma’am. Ah, socially.”

“Boyfriend?”

That might have freed him from the fear of accidentally outing Tai, but he still didn’t know how to answer. He supposed his being brought along on an urgent errand made them seem longer acquainted.

“We haven’t—”

A roar from Tai spared Beach from answering.

“She’s asking for me! Her mother called. For God’s sake, would it kill you to go ask? There’s two of you in there.”

Behind the glass partition, the nurse facing Tai said, “I can’t release any information. If a parent wants you, they’ll come get you, but only two people are allowed with a minor patient.”

“I heard you the first time. Jesus Christ. Go ask them.”

“Sir—”

“Toluaotai.” Kara Mosely’s voice wasn’t that loud, but the authority in it cut through the protests of the nurse and Tai. “Boy, you need to take all of the seats. Right. Now.”

Tai pushed away from the partition and strode toward the entrance doors and then through them.

“He’ll cool down. Boy has always had a temper. I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

But Beach hadn’t. Tai’s rumbling voice demanded obedience but never with anger. Always steady, in control. Solid. Even when he spoke of punishing, there was never a hint of the rage Beach had just seen.

“He’s told you about Sammie?” Despite her reassurance, Kara watched the doors for her son’s return.

“Yes.”

“We were so sure she was his. Even after Josh came back. Don’t think he’s quite adjusted to that. But how could he? She’s his baby.”

Beach filled in the few gaps. No matter what had happened with Sammie’s mother and Josh, Tai obviously still considered Sammie his daughter. And he damned well deserved to be with her.

Mercy Hospital took no chances with security. The nurses behind the glass controlled access to the doors leading from the waiting room. One came out to take the patient with a blood-soaked towel around his hand through to the back.

It was good from an insurance and business model perspective, but hell on waiting. Beach hated waiting.

“Please excuse me for a moment, ma’am,” he told Kara and stepped away, pulling out his phone.

It only took two calls. Midland-South Health was a name that got people moving if they knew where their bread was buttered.

Tai came back in as Beach tucked his phone away. With an explosive breath, Tai said, “I can’t get Gina on the phone.” He paced around. “How did she get hit by a car? She knows better than to play in the street.” Tai paced and muttered before looking up. “David, sit down.” It wasn’t the frustrated snarl he’d been using, but softer, a mildly exasperated concern.

As Beach sat, he wondered how long there had been between Tai learning of Sammie’s paternity and Jez coming to live in the apartment on South Streeper Street. Now there was Beach to order around in that fond but stern voice.

Doctor Stevenson cleared the doors to the emergency room in just under five minutes from the time Beach had hung up. The white coat and ID might have labeled him a doctor, but the tie and crisp blue dress shirt said he hadn’t seen an ER patient all day. He combed a hand through the thin wisps of hair at the apex of a frowning brow.

“Mr. Fonoti?”

Tai started toward him, and Doctor Stevenson’s eyes widened behind his glasses.

“I’m Doctor Stevenson, the director of the emergency department.” He offered a handshake then continued with a trace of a grimace. Whether the expression was from the force of Tai’s grip or the doctor’s attempt at looking contrite was hard to determine at a distance. “I’m so sorry you were kept waiting, sir. Things can get a little cramped back there. I hope you’ll understand. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to—back.”

Tai glanced over his shoulder, and Beach found himself nodding encouragement along with Tai’s mom.

The doors buzzed, and Doctor Stevenson led Tai through. Beach leaned back and rolled his cane across his thighs until Tai’s mother pinned him with a sharp look.

“Don’t you just look like the cat that ate the cream and both of the canaries.”

Beach sat up straight. “Excuse me, ma’am?”

“Don’t ‘excuse me, ma’am’ when you’ve got feathers all over your lips. How did you do that?”

Beach put his cane against the floor and studied the tip. “I simply knew the right person to call.”

Kara didn’t have her son’s thick brows or his intimidating muscles. But she did have a look that had Beach ready to confess sins he hadn’t even thought of committing.

“Are you a drug dealer?”

Beach dropped his cane. “Ma’am?”

“Mafia of some kind?”

“I— No. Not at all.”

Kara’s eyes lasered in on his anklet and then back up to his face. “You going to try to tell me that you got your anklet at a craft fair at the county jail?”

“No, ma’am. I got myself into some trouble. But Tai didn’t know about this…” he pointed at the monitor with his cane, “…until after we’d—ah—met.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The kind I’m ashamed to admit. Though it seemed like it was the right thing at the time. If I had to do it again—”

“You’d do the same damned thing.” Their voices were nothing alike, but Kara sounded exactly like her son.

“Probably,” Beach conceded with a rueful smile. “But I wouldn’t have made the mistake of involving a friend the way I did.”

Beach didn’t know what he’d expected of Tai’s family. He hadn’t actually given it any thought, though he’d known the man hadn’t randomly appeared on the planet. Now seeing Kara’s perception, her obvious force of will, it was clear where Tai had come by some of his personality. Certainly Kara would have needed that kind of strength to deal with Tai as a child—and adult.

“And what happened to your friend?” There was a warning in her voice. A maternal protectiveness Beach had only encountered from a distance before.

“He’s all right. Unscathed in body and in terms of his relations with the police.”

“But you weren’t.”

“I wasn’t as lucky, no, ma’am.”

Kara glanced toward the nurse-guarded inner sanctum of the ER and then back for another slow once-over of Beach. “You’re not the sort of man I would have expected Tai to bring around.”

Again Beach tried to picture what sort of man—submissive—Tai had been with before. He didn’t tell his mother about that part, did he?

“Though you must be important, or you wouldn’t be here right now.”

Beach hurried to clear that up. “My being here is only a matter of timing. I— There wasn’t a way for Tai to get here without me tagging along.”

“I’m sure you know well enough Tai would have found another way if he wanted to.”

Beach smiled to concede her point. “He is direct.”

“That’s one way to put it.” Kara’s demeanor softened from her inquisitor role, leaving Beach feeling like he’d cleared the most difficult stretch of the course.

Noting the gold band on her left ring finger, Beach asked, “Is his father the same?”

“Tai’s father passed away when he was only a baby.”

“I’m sorry.” And he was. His own parents might not be ideals, but at least they’d been present awhile.

“So am I. I think he’d have been pleased.”

“Tai is a son to be proud of,” Beach said quickly. As the words left his mouth, he realized it wasn’t only polite conversation. A man who was still devoted to the child he’d learned wasn’t his, a man who saved a poor dog destined for euthanasia, anyone could recognize how Tai protected and took care of others.

And I need to take care of you.

Beach twirled his cane between his palms. He wasn’t a child or a dog to need rescuing. And that was Gavin’s schtick, ending up screwing the cop who’d found them when Beach and Gavin went off the Key Bridge.

“What about your family, Beach?”

“Ma’am?”

Kara wasn’t one to be put off by a delaying tactic. “What does your family think about your
trouble
?” Her emphasis covered everything from his scarred shin to the cane to his ankle monitor.

“We aren’t that close. My parents prefer to live outside the country.” Beach shuddered to think of what Uncle Sinclair would say about his adventure on Fort Carroll. At least Beach was out of range of his uncle’s peach tree full of switches.

Kara shook her head. “I’ve never heard of a South Carolina mafia, but you do make me wonder.”

“Honest, ma’am. The business interests of the Beauchamps are firmly on the right side of the law.”

“Just not the personal interests?” Kara had him there.

Beach wondered if she’d had time to do an Internet search on her phone while he was slicing through bureaucracy. To find out about why his parents preferred to live outside the country.

He was saved from having to answer when Tai returned, carrying a dimpled girl with a neon-green cast on one slender arm and a purple one on the other.