Sheik Down (6 page)

It was death one way or another. Just like every relationship. Either your mother died or your father walked away when he was finished. Lucas had come the closest to making him forget that. Lucas was dangerous and so tempting that it made Raid’s chest ache to resist him. Yet this way Raid protected both of them from further hurt.

He turned his face into the gentle spray of the natural rain shower fixture as he shampooed and cleaned. He switched off the water and plucked a plush plumb towel off the near rod and wrapped it around his hips.

He nearly stumbled as he entered his bedroom. “Lucas? I thought you’d left.”

“I did, then it occurred to me that I’m always walking away when I shouldn’t be.”

“That’s the nature of an ended session. Someone has to go,” Raid commented.

He tried to ignore the excitement of seeing Lucas sitting on the side of his bed. He’d only allowed himself to imagine it a few times before deciding that dreaming led to doing and doing led to dust. Keeping Lucas in the playroom was the best way to
keep
Lucas.

“And then I got to thinking about fear, and how I scare you.”

“You don’t.”

“I do,” Lucas insisted.

“Believe what you will to make yourself happy, but facts don’t change because you wish them to.”

“Okay, Confucius, but hear me out.”

“Do I have a choice? You’re in my bedroom, which is precisely where you shouldn’t be.”

Lucas grunted. “Wanna bet?”

Raid decided to ignore him. He dropped his towel and pulled back his bedspread. “I’m going to sleep. Please excuse yourself.”

“Nope.”

Lucas stripped down to nothing. Raid couldn’t resist looking. The man was built like the finest sculpted marble. His father ought to commission a statue of him for one of his homes. Hell, Raid ought to—except then he might do something embarrassing like rub on it. Wouldn’t the staff find that amusing?

Besides, the real thing was standing without a thread of coverage sporting damp hair and gleaming skin in his sleeping quarters. And Raid did like what he saw. He almost sighed when he felt his cock come to life. Lucas’s body responded similarly.

“This is exactly the behavior that ended our arrangement the first time around,” Raid reminded him.

“You were wrong then also.” Lucas nodded toward his bedside table. “I got nosy while you were in the shower. I know you have condoms and lube ready to go. Are you telling me that you have some guys for your playroom and others for your bedroom?”

“Generally, yes.”

Lucas frowned and Raid thought he saw a trace of jealousy. He liked it. Perhaps more than he should.

“Who is it?” Lucas asked conversationally.

“My bedmates are none of your concern.”

Lucas grabbed him behind the neck. His fingers held fast like steel bands. Possession was written all over Lucas’s face, and Raid’s neck ached with the force of the other man’s hold.

“I propose a change,” Lucas stated. “I’m your bitch downstairs. You’re mine up here.”

“No.”

“One of the things you like about me is my dedication to my work. I finish everything I start and you know it. Why do you think I’d suddenly accept a half-assed relationship when I know you want more?” Lucas demanded to know.

“I don’t want more.” At least, not logically. Everything else in Raid shouted,
Yes!

Lucas pressed his forehead to Raid’s. “Don’t you? Were you thinking that you’d keep coming to town four or five times a year, look me up for a job, and fuck me until it was time to leave again? Did you think it would be enough to be on call for each other year after year, or until one of us finally finds a guy who’ll commit?”

“That’s exactly how I imagined it,” Raid murmured.

Lucas shifted. His cock brushed against Raid’s and Raid swallowed hard. He tried to focus on all the reasons for keeping his distance, but they looked like pale excuses.

“You’d have me in the dungeon and you’d take some random man to bed with you?”

“When I need someone in my bed, yes. I don’t tend to need it when I have a sub to explore and that was when I frequented clubs to find my submissive. I need it less now,” Raid explained.

Except Raid wanted it right now. Not with a guy he picked up, but with Lucas. Panic closed around his throat.

“You need to leave, Lucas.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“You need to leave,
now
.”

“I don’t think so.” Lucas fisted their cocks together.

He still held Raid behind the neck, still pressed foreheads and there was no escaping the bigger man’s overall strength and determination. It was just as well. Raid was helpless to do so. He wanted the tall, demanding blond. He’d never had a lover like him before and instinctively he knew he’d never have another to compare.

“You are the worst submissive,” Raid said, his voice breaking. Weakness. God, he hated weakness.

“Yeah, well, you’re a sucky boyfriend. But I’m about to fix that.”

“Please leave,” Raid said again. His words lacked insistence. In fact, they sounded—needy, broken.

“Or what?” Lucas whispered as he peppered kisses on Raid’s cheeks.

Lucas thrust against Raid’s cock still held in his large grasp. Raid shuddered. And when Lucas’s mouth hovered over his, sharing his breath, his heat, Raid
wanted
to be kissed. Wanted it with every stupid, needy fiber in his being.

“I’m in love with you, Raid. I’m not going to share the dungeon and I’m not going to let you share your bed with anyone who isn’t me,” Lucas informed him.

Another thrust, a hushed breath across Raid’s lips. Raid parted them, hoping Lucas would ignore his command and kiss him anyway.

“I’m going to fuck you,” Lucas whispered. “I’m going to spread your ass and take it. I’m going to do it right here in your bed.”

Lucas stroked the side of Raid’s nose with his own.

“And if you cry
very
sweetly for me, I’m going to give you mine when I’m done. You can pound it as hard as you want. In leather.” Lucas kissed the tip of his nose. “With a finger.” He kissed his forehead. “A fist.” He flicked his tongue out to taste the corner of Raid’s lips. “Anything you want, as long as it’s you, fucking my ass while I beg you with yeses.”

“It wouldn’t be wise,” Raid argued, trying to muster some dignity even though Lucas was melting his insides.

“There’s one word that would stop me.”

Raid tried to think. Tried to find the word. He knew it. It wasn’t a hard one to remember, but it was impossible to say.

He lifted his chin a fraction of an inch to finally capture the mouth that tormented him with dirty promises and hot whispered images that feathered across his lips like sin for the taking.

Smooth, warm, hungry, Lucas accepted the kiss and gave it back just as eagerly. Their mouths parted and Raid dueled for dominance. Lucas wasn’t giving it up. Raid’s world tilted as his back hit the mattress and Lucas’s teeth nicked Raid’s upper lip. He tasted blood, but somehow that made the kiss perfect.

Lucas had released their cocks and now grabbed a handful of Raid’s ass cheek, squeezing and kneading it until Raid wrapped his leg around Lucas’s waist.

Lucas turned his head away as he fumbled for the bedside drawer. Raid nibbled down the side of Lucas’s neck, stopping to taste his clean, warm skin. He loved the supple texture beneath his lips, against his tongue and his dedicated pursuit generated a shuddering moan from Lucas.

Lucas lifted himself up enough to roll on a condom he had freed, and pushed an impatient finger against Raid’s anus. Every muscle in his lover’s body was tight with need. Still he hesitated over Raid.

“Any last words?” Lucas asked.

Raid shook his head.

“I’m going in.”

Raid grabbed the hair on the back of Lucas’s head, tugging his head back. He nipped Lucas’s bottom lip, then locked gazes with the blue-eyed God who wanted him badly enough to fight.

“
Yes
,” Raid whispered with exaggerated importance.

Lucas flared his nostrils. “Damn, that
is
a sexy word.” Lucas rolled a second condom onto Raid. “For afterward when it’s my turn, so you don’t chicken out on me.”

Lucas pushed in. It had been a long time since Raid had let another man take him. He knew what to do, it just stung like hellfire accepting the other man’s invasion. A fine sweat broke out on his brow, and he hissed as the pain began.

“Fucking tight in here,” Lucas rasped.

Raid resisted the urge to squirm and breathed through the discomfort. The sting became a throbbing burn. Lucas’s kiss was sweet, tender, patient. He also found Raid’s nipple and thumbed over it until Raid couldn’t stand another minute of cock in his ass without moving.

He flexed his hips. Bless the heavens that Lucas was a bright man, because he took the cue and began to move. Lucas switched up his angle of entry to coast over Raid’s gland.

“Sweet Jesus,” Raid gasped. “I’d forgotten how good that feels.”

“Been a while, huh?” Lucas chuckled softly. “More incentive to keep me around.”

The blond sucked Raid’s earlobe leisurely as he built his pace. Then, hooking Raid’s legs behind his knees, Lucas raised up, taking Raid’s hips off the bed. Most of his weight was supported by Raid’s upper back and shoulders. But in this position, Lucas mastered Raid’s hole, pounding hard, fast and accurately across his prostate until he
was
crying out, just as Lucas had promised.

Lucas gripped the base of Raid’s dick like a clamp. “You aren’t coming until you’re inside me.”

Raid only vaguely heard him. Still the building pressure in his balls commanded his attention with the agony of being restricted from releasing. He pushed Lucas’s hand but Lucas held fast.

“I said, no, Raid. No, as in a big—” he pounded, “—
red
—” another torturous thrust, “—no.”

Lucas shouted as he rocked hard against Raid’s ass, shoving in balls deep even after sound left him and air hissed out of his clenched teeth.

“God you are a fucking wet dream.” Lucas kept his hold on Raid’s cock, easing himself out of Raid’s snug hole.

“Let me up,” Raid demanded.

“In a minute.”

Lucas grinned at him and managed to get lube on his fingers and apply it without letting go of Raid’s shaft. Lube also got on the sheets, but Raid didn’t care. He just wanted
in
.

Finally Lucas let him go and rolled until he was on his knees, presenting his gorgeous ass to Raid. Lucas reached around and slapped his butt. “All yours.”

Raid didn’t need to be asked twice. He hooked Lucas’s hips and thrust in.

Lucas shuddered. “Hot damn, that hurt.”

Raid went dizzy, trying to hold off the orgasm that was banging down the door. It stole his breath and put a vise in his chest. He pulled almost all the way out and slammed in again. Lucas grunted, but he didn’t object and in a third and final bone-shaking slam, Raid came, unable to do more than hang on as sparks shot across his vision.

When the last spurt left him, he took Lucas down. His mind cleared and Raid thought he might suddenly get sick. He rolled away to sit at the edge, trying to get a grip on the knee-quaking dread that swamped his senses.

“Raid?” Lucas crawled up beside him. “Stay with me. Don’t leave before we work this out.”

There was no missing the tightness in Lucas’s voice, the edge of warning and—fear? Raid couldn’t look at him. It would only make the rest of the situation more painful than it already was. Raid’s throat closed on the lump forming there.

“I won’t leave.”

“Thank God,” Lucas said, relieved.

“I live here. But you’ll leave. You
should
leave. Now.”

“Fuck that. I’m not going anywhere,” Lucas snapped.

Raid dragged his head to the side to shoot him a look Lucas wouldn’t mistake as tenderness. “I said go. I don’t want you here. My bed has always been off limits. I broke that rule tonight—for you. It won’t happen again.”

“You’re a fucking broken record, Raid.”

Lucas fisted the sheets in frustration. He could already see the way Raid was closing himself off. His shoulders had tightened and, despite all logic, Raid’s face was devoid of any emotion. Even in business the man had something going on behind those eyes. This time it was as if somebody had switched off a light.

Lucas hated it. He didn’t want to be shut out and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let the man he’d fallen in love with amidst a tree house build eject Lucas from his life now. Not when he was so close to knowing what being loved by Raid could be like.

He thought of getting on his knees in front of Raid and discarded it. This wasn’t the dungeon. This was relationship territory. This was room for equality and tenderness, not an invitation to be dominated. He considered kissing him but that seemed to be a hot button for the man and the last thing Lucas wanted to do was trigger him into stony rejection.

If Lucas were hurting, he’d want to be held. With that in mind, he wrapped his arms around Raid. The man fought him, trying to push him away, but Lucas held on.

“I’m not letting go. I’m not leaving. I’m not walking away and neither are you. We’re having this discussion and no matter how it ends, I’m not going to let you pretend that it’s because I don’t want you.”

Raid shoved him in the chest. Lucas tackled him to the bed, but the pair rolled to the floor. Just as well, Lucas decided. The floor made pinning Raid that much easier.

“Get off!” Raid bellowed.

“I’m in love with you,” Lucas shouted back.

Raid’s eyes went wide, panicked. Ah ha! There was that fear again. The same
get me out of here
look Raid had downstairs when Lucas wanted to kiss him.

“It scares you,” Lucas said putting the realization to words. “Love scares you.”

“How can it scare me? Love is intangible. It’s a product of sentimentality.”

“Bullshit.”

Raid struggled but gave up when he realized that Lucas had him. “Fine. What do you think you love? My body? My use of yours? My money?”

“You. That’s it. I knew I was in love with you when you went out of your way to spend time with that kid recovering from cancer.”