Beyond Moonlight (4 page)

In response, Jesse started to move faster, rolling his hips and shoving down into Shane’s pelvis. He sank his teeth into Shane’s shoulder and moaned when the thick length of Shane’s cock brushed over his sensitive gland. A shock of pleasure raced up his spine and out into his limbs, skittering along his nerve-endings. He shuddered in response, sucking hard on Shane’s golden brown skin. There would be a hickey there come morning, he knew, but it wouldn’t have been the first time they’d marked each other up.

“Hang on to me.” Shane’s arms hooked under his knees. Jesse clung to him as Shane stood, and then he just held on, crying out helplessly while Shane gripped his hips tight and slammed his body down onto his cock. It wasn’t a position they could sustain for more than a couple of minutes, even with Shane’s legs braced against the couch, but Jesse relished every single second of it. The angle, the depth, the stretch—it was all so utterly perfect. If he hadn’t come so recently, it might have sent him right over the edge.
 

“Shane…please…please.”

Jesse wasn’t even sure what he was begging for, but Shane seemed to know. He turned and settled them both onto the couch with Jesse on his back, one leg hiked up onto Shane’s shoulder, the other draped over the back of the couch. Then he braced his hands on either side of Jesse’s shoulders and pounded into him until Jesse was screaming and arching and writhing in desperation, his blood roaring, skin slick with sweat. Yet he still managed to grab onto Shane’s narrow hips and urged him to go faster, lifting up into each stroke, loving the feel of Shane’s dick surging into him with every thrust.
 

A few more of those rough thrusts and Jesse was coming again, bucking up against Shane’s body, shooting warm, slick spend across the skin of his abdomen. Shane pressed in deep one last time and then surrendered to his own orgasm, his cock stiffening even further in the seconds before Jesse felt the slippery warmth of his release spilling inside.

Shane collapsed on top of him, chest heaving, his hair dripping sweat. Jesse mindlessly stroked his back and wrapped his legs tight around Shane’s waist, holding him close.
 

“Yes,” he murmured, even as Shane still trembled with the occasional aftershock.
 

Shane drew back, breathing roughly and looking puzzled. “Yes?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you,” Jesse clarified.
 

Shane blinked. And then he laughed softly, and Jesse was treated to one of those broad, gorgeous smiles that always made his belly flutter. “Yeah?” Shane said. “You’re willing to put up with me until I’m gray and wrinkly and maybe can’t even get it up anymore?”

Jesse grinned back at him and trailed his fingers down Shane’s stubbly cheek to his kiss-swollen mouth. That sounded perfect to him. Besides, by the time Shane reached that point, he wouldn’t exactly be far behind himself. “Yeah,” he whispered, leaning up to give Shane a tender kiss. “And for even longer than that.”

.: Allegiance :.

Nick tossed back his final shot of Patrón and slammed the empty glass down on the table in front of him. He was sitting alone in the farthest corner of the ballroom in Edward Mead’s mansion—yeah, the guy had an
actual
motherfucking ballroom—with the sounds of celebration going on all around him. Everything there was top of the line: the food, the liquor, the decor; hell, even the catering staff, who’d handled the event so far with such flawless efficiency it was almost like they were invisible. Under normal circumstances, Nick would have probably been impressed. But at that moment, the only thing he could think about was how soon he might be able to sneak out unnoticed so he could take another hit of blow.

Nick supposed some people might have thought the ballroom was elegant. Shane and Jesse certainly had. But in his opinion it was the epitome of ostentatious douche-baggery. Maybe if he owned a record label and a half dozen other businesses, he’d buy a house with a ballroom, and a library, and a twelve-fucking-car garage, but he highly doubted it. Well, maybe not the garage part; he could have a whole lot of fun filling that thing up. He only had one car now—a cherry red Dodge Viper with black racing stripes—but most of the time it just sat collecting dust in storage. A car wasn’t really necessary in a city like New York, and the label provided a vehicle service that took care of his transportation needs anyway. Still, he liked to take his baby out sometimes and just let her loose. Being chauffeured around definitely had its perks, but there were moments when it made him feel like a goddamn kid stuck in the backseat while his daddy sat behind the wheel. When that feeling got really bad, he knew it was time to take the Viper out.
 

That itchy, restless need to escape was pretty strong at the moment. He didn’t think he could take another minute of celebrating. Not one more fucking minute. What was there to celebrate? As far as he was concerned, this should have been a period of mourning.
 

Eight months back, if someone had asked Nick Ventura to make a list of the top ten things he thought he’d never live to see, the marriage of his brother Shane to Jesse
Fucking
Seider would’ve been right there at the very top. But that was exactly what he’d witnessed not even two hours ago. He’d stood up there next to Shane as his grudging best man, watching as Jesse and his brother exchanged vows and identical platinum wedding bands in their stupid-ass matching tuxedos. Just remembering their huge, sappy, idiotic grins made Nick want to heave. He imagined he would’ve felt more cheerful at his grandmother’s funeral. That was, if he’d had any kind of relationship with her anymore. He didn’t even know if she was alive or dead, or if his mother was either for that matter.

Nick firmly pushed that thought away. What did it matter if that bitch
was
still alive? She’d walked out when he was five and never looked back, left him and Shane with that asshole sperm donor who’d just barely earned the name of father because he’d kept them clothed and fed and hadn’t managed to kill one of them before they got their record deal from Blue Horizon and left that nightmare of a house behind. In Nick’s opinion, that made his mom as good as dead anyway.

“Fucking bitch,” Nick said under his breath. Not that anyone could hear him, regardless. The music was loud and it looked like everyone else was out on the dance floor. He couldn’t see Shane, but there was Jesse off to the left, dancing with Luck’s manager, Emmanuel. Em had his arms linked around Jesse’s neck and they were swaying slowly to the music. Whatever he was saying to Jesse had Jesse laughing and smiling wide. Nick didn’t really get their friendship, but whatever.
 

Nick got to his feet slowly. For a few seconds the room seemed to toggle back and forth like a seesaw.
Goddamn.
He was even more wasted than he’d thought. He gripped the back of his chair until the motion stopped, then looked around, trying to find his brother. How the hell was it possible that Nick couldn’t see him? Shane was almost always the tallest person in the room.

He shook his head. Well, it didn’t matter. If Shane was occupied elsewhere, that meant Nick was free to slip through the nearest set of French doors onto the veranda without worrying about his brother coming after him.
 

A few seconds later, Nick was outside. The crisp, cold air sobered him a tiny bit. He leaned back against the wall and took in the snow-covered landscape while he dug into his jacket pocket for his snuff bullet. It was technically designed for snorting tobacco but it worked just as well for coke, and it was a hell of a lot more convenient than dragging around a baggy with a razorblade, a straw, and a mirror.
   

He’d just twisted a dose into the chamber and lifted the bullet to his right nostril when there was a sudden noise around the corner from where he stood.
Fuck!
Nick jerked back, further into the shadows and away from the yellow light spilling from the set of doors he’d come through a few minutes before. He hastily shoved the bullet into his pants’ pocket and hoped that whoever had come onto the veranda stayed on the other side. He wasn’t in the mood to explain why he was standing out there alone in the dark.

“Why’d you drag me out here, baby?” a voice asked suddenly. “It’s freezing.”

Nick cringed.
Double fuck.
That was his brother’s voice.
Dammit.
Shane was the last person he wanted to see right then.
 

“I just wanted a couple minutes alone with you,” he heard Jesse reply. “It feels like we’ve barely talked all day.”
 

Shane laughed. “I know what you mean, but someone’s gonna come looking for us any second.”

“Well, kiss me before someone shows up then.”

Nick rolled his eyes. Goddamn they were cheesy. The only thing cheesier would’ve been if they’d actually had a Christmas wedding like they’d first considered, but Nick had been spared that by a week. He planned to be drunk off his ass on Christmas and as far away from Jesse and Shane as possible. Maybe a month in Hawaii would help him get rid of the ever-present queasy feeling that had settled into his stomach and set up shop after he’d learned of Kayden Berlin’s true identity last summer.

A few beats of silence passed and then Jesse spoke again. “Do you miss them, Shane? Your family? When we were standing up there earlier, I wondered for a second if you were sad that they weren’t here.”

“My family
is
here, babe. You, Nicky, Em, the boys. You
are
my family.”

 
Nick drew in a slow breath. He hadn’t thought about that at all—whether Shane might miss their mom and dad and the other people who would’ve been in attendance if their family hadn’t been so entirely fucked. He was glad that Shane seemed to look at it the same way he did. Those people had stopped being their family a long time ago.

“I know.” Jesse’s voice sounded thick. “But I just…I wish things had been different for you. I wish that—”
 

“Don’t,” Shane said softly.
 

Nick couldn’t say what compelled him to do it, but before he even realized what was happening, he was moving past the French doors and peering slowly around the corner of the house. Shane and Jesse stood a few feet away, in a pool of light from inside the ballroom. Shane had Jesse’s face cupped in his hands and his thumbs were brushing across Jesse’s cheeks. Nick could only see Shane’s profile, so he couldn’t read his brother’s expression, but when Shane spoke again, his voice was filled with a tenderness so unlike anything Nick had ever heard from Shane before that it sent a jagged bolt of pain through his chest.
 

“I love you, Jess. I love you so fucking much.”

Shane leaned down to kiss Jesse and Nick forced himself to look away. He backed up a few steps, unable to stand the sight of them, refusing to acknowledge the inexplicable tightness in his throat or the hot sting in his eyes. As quietly as he could, he twisted open the knob on one of the French doors behind him and slipped back into the ballroom.
 

Noise and heat washed over him. He started walking, feeling a little unsteady on his feet, with only one thought in his mind: snagging a bottle of tequila from the bar and getting up to the room he’d been given for the night. Nick wanted to drink himself into a fucking stupor, until he forgot all about the scene he’d just witnessed and the aching tenderness in his brother’s voice when Shane had said he loved Jesse.

Nick was so distracted he didn’t notice the waiter in his path until he’d crashed into him. The tray in the waiter’s hands slipped; two champagne flutes slid over the edge and shattered on the marble floor at their feet. Nick automatically grabbed for the tray and managed to right it before the rest of the glasses went over.
 

“Oh, shit,” he started. “My bad. I wasn’t—”

Nick broke off when he found himself staring down into a pair of stunning green eyes. He’d bumped into the tight-bodied, little cater waiter who’d been cruising him all night. As hot as the guy was, Nick hadn’t really been interested before, but now he took the time to really look him over. The guy had beautiful skin, the color of café au lait, and his hair was a mass of loose, black curls. Nick couldn’t have guessed what his ethnicity was, but those eyes and the texture of his hair gave him away as some kind of mix. Nick found that he liked the contrast of those pretty green eyes, that dark, dark hair, and that smooth, golden brown skin. His gaze dropped to the waiter’s mouth; lush and perfectly shaped. Nick could easily imagine those plump lips wrapped around his cock while those eyes stared up at him. What he saw in the waiter’s face told Nick that the guy knew the exact turn his thoughts had taken.

Nick took the tray from him and set it on a nearby table. “Come on.”

The guy followed him without a word as Nick crossed the ballroom and paused at the bar long enough to grab one of the liquor bottles that lined the edge. He didn’t even bother looking to see what it was—at that point he was beyond caring.
 

Nick heard someone calling his name as he stepped out into the hallway—Dre, maybe—but he didn’t stop. He led the waiter up to his room on the third floor. All of the wedding guests had been provided with a room for the night, courtesy of their host, Edward Mead. The fact that the notoriously homophobic owner of Blue Horizon had offered to let Shane and Jesse have their wedding at his mansion for free had surprised the hell out of Nick. But, then, Luck was the label’s biggest seller and Jesse fronted one of the most popular bands in the world. Edward Mead was many things—not the least of which was a total asshole—but he was far from stupid. Whatever his reason for letting the big gay wedding of the century happen on his property, Nick was sure it served his purposes more than anyone else’s. It wouldn’t hurt to stay on his leading front man’s good side, would it, especially when Shane was marrying the singer music execs everywhere were salivating to get their hands on.
   

Nick dismissed those thoughts the moment he and the waiter stepped into his room. What business was it of his anyway? He got paid to play the bass and sing backup vocals, not to worry about what his bosses may or may not have up their sleeves. Maybe Edward had been softened by the spirit of the holiday season. Stranger things had happened.