Sullivan (Leopard's Spots 7) (18 page)

Bobby hissed and reached back to touch his hole. “Wish I could keep you in here.” It took Sully a moment to realise what Bobby meant. “You mean, you wish you could keep the spooge in there?”

Bobby grimaced. “Well, when you say it like that it sounds all tawdry.” Then he beamed at Sully. “I like it, honey.”

“Goofball.” Sully made sure they were both soap-free then he got out and grabbed their towels.

After they dried off and got dressed, they argued over who was going to fix something to eat.

“I’m a college student. I can fix packaged noodles.” Sully thought he had the winning hand there.

Bobby propped against the counter and tapped his fingers on the surface. “Yeah, and I’m an established bachelor up until last night, who is set in his ways and you know that whole saying about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks.” Sully gave him a disbelieving look. “Right, and that applies how? Because I’m pretty sure I did things to you—”

“Sex don’t count,” Bobby interrupted, waving a hand at him as if to chase off the very idea of new sexual experiences being a learning event.

“Sure it does. You don’t get to pick and choose what counts,” Sully argued. “You’d always topped, but the very first time, you wanted me to—”

“God, shut up and I’ll do it,” Paava said from the kitchen doorway. “And now I know Bobby took it up the ass the first time y’all screwed. Thanks for sharing that.”

“You’re welcome,” Bobby told him, looking smug. “I also took it up the ass a little while ago, in the shower.”

Paava glowered as he stomped into the kitchen, heels smacking hard on the wooden floor. “Yeah, I heard. I swear y’all are bunny shifters, ‘cause y’all fuck like bunnies.”

“Are there bunny shifters?” Sully asked, almost certain he was being teased but still…hoping, because that would be cool.

Bobby hopped and got his butt up on the counter. “Nope, sorry, honey. Paava’s just mad because even his hand has been telling him no lately.”

“I’m not even going to respond to that lame insult,” Paava grumbled.

“You just did,” Sully pointed out. “And how do bunnies fuck anyway? I mean, I’d assume in doggy position but other than that—”

“Holy shit, Bobby, he’s perfect for you.” Paava took a pan out of the cabinet and turned to shake it at Sully as Bobby laughed. “You got a mouth on you, too. I should have known Bobby’s mate would be a smart ass, but noooooooo. For some reason I always thought Fate would send him a sweet little thing. Should have known better.”

“You really should have,” Bobby said after another laugh. “Man, I’d be bored spitless with someone like that. Gotta have someone who can keep up with me.” Paava pointed a spatula at Sully. “Yeah, well I think he might surpass you.”

“Eh.” Bobby spread his legs and gestured at Sully. “You ought to come stand here so we can cuddle.”

“Oh my God,” Paava muttered, but Sully was reminded about Bobby’s comment that first day they’d met.

Bobby remembered it too and had the decency to look ashamed.
“I didn’t ever cuddle
with any of the guys before you, if that helps.”

“I’m not sure knowing anything about anyone before me helps.”
But it did, in a way, and Sully moved into the strength of Bobby’s embrace. “This is nice, though.”

“It is.” Bobby’s phone went off and Bobby jolted. “Aw, hell.”

“He-he-he. Someone’s gonna be in trouble,” Paava sang.

Sully frowned and Bobby squirmed as he got his phone from his pocket. “Shut up, Paava. I’ll make sure they know you knew I had found my mate.” Paava quit laughing and Bobby nodded. “Yeah, not so funny now, is it?”

“Your parents?” Sully guessed, feeling a twinge of guilt himself.

“Yeah. Gotta take this or else they’ll be banging on the door.” Sully eased back. “Not a problem. I should go call my folks too.” Might as well get it over with. His parents weren’t going to be mad, but they’d have nine million and one questions. And they’d tell him he had to call Grandma Marybeth, and she would grill him like a steak on a pit.

Sully moved into the living room so that he and Bobby wouldn’t be talking over each other, and to make it harder on Paava to eavesdrop. With shifter hearing being as acute as it was, all Sully could hope for was the cross-interference of Bobby’s conversation.

His mother picked up on the second ring, and Sully didn’t drag it out. “Hi, Mom, I ran into my mate here in San Antonio.” Sully held the phone away when she squealed. He’d bet she wouldn’t be so enthusiastic when he told her the rest of it.

“Tell me what he’s like, what’s his name? Is he a shifter? Oh I bet he’s handsome and smart and—” she babbled.

“Mom. Mom!” Sully waited until she was silent. “Yeah, Mom, he’s all of that and more.

He’s not a slacker, either.”

“Well, of course he isn’t, dear,” she said in a
duh, you dumbass
tone. “You’d never suit well with someone like that.”

“Right. I’m glad we can agree on that, and since Bobby—”

“Bobby?” his mom shrieked. “
Bobby
Bobby, the one everyone says is crazy and dangerous? Please tell me it’s not him—”

Sully had never disrespected his mom before, but he came very close then. He had to take a deep breath before he could disrupt her rant without yelling himself. “That’s my mate you’re talking about, and I would think, if you’d imagine someone acting like you’re doing over you and Dad falling for each other, you’d be pretty mad.” There was a long moment of silence, then his mother sighed. “You’re right, but you’re my baby and I worry. All I know about him is what I’ve heard.”

“Yeah, well, all anyone in our family knows about him is what they’ve seen, which isn’t much, because Bobby doesn’t let many people close. He’s a lot more than he seems, and Mom”—Sully knew this was the important part for her—“he’s a good man. He cares about his pack, and when he leads them, whenever it’s his time to step up, he’ll be fair and kind, and strong, just like you and Dad are as parents.”

“You always did know how to flatter us,” she said. “Okay, I want to meet your young man as soon as possible. Let me talk to your father and see if we can come down next weekend.”

Sully didn’t think now was the time to tell her about the fire or anything else going on, so he didn’t protest. He was just going to have to hope everything was settled by then.

“You better call your grandma or she will be fit to be tied.”

“What does that even mean?” Sully asked. “I’ve heard that all my life and never understood it. Why would someone be fit to be tied?”

“I don’t know, Sullivan Ward, but you know what I mean and don’t think I won’t pop you one when I get there if you insist on being a smart ass.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Sully would probably get popped just on principle when he saw his mom again. “I better go. Gotta call Grandma and all that.”

“How are classes?”

“Okay, Mom. I don’t really have an opinion on them yet.” They chatted a few more minutes before Sully called Grandma Marybeth. As soon as she answered, he started in on his explanation.

“So, I met my mate here but didn’t know that was what he was at first, because, you know, we haven’t really had Mates 101 as a family course yet.” Grandma Marybeth hummed and asked him, “And you’re stalling now why? Who is he?”

“Bobby Baker.”

Sully hadn’t known what he was expecting, but his grandma’s almost maniacal laughter wasn’t it. He waited impatiently for her to calm down.

“Oh, my, you’ve done well,” was what she came back with.

“And that’s why you laughed your butt off?” Sully was glad she couldn’t see him scowling at her through the phone.

“No, I laughed because that’s going to ruffle some fur in the family. I’ve met Bobby before and thought he was a wonderful young man, but he rubbed some of your relatives the wrong way not so long ago. Of course, those relatives need to have a sense of humour kicked into them.”

“Aw, Grandma, you do love me,” Sully teased, warmed by her defence of Bobby.

“Of course I do, silly boy. Now, Bobby might have been deliberately provoking them, too, to be fair. At least he knows how to stir people up.”

“Yes, ma’am, he does,” Sully agreed.

“Now. Tell me what’s worrying you.”

Sully glared at the phone again. How did his grandma do stuff like that?

“Sullivan Ward, I suggest you answer me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” And so Sully found himself telling her about the fires and Mando, and he had to beg her not to come down.

“I’m coming with your parents when they come, so get over it,” she told him. “That young man needs some grandmothering, and besides, I bet Bobby will have to do some cool wolf ceremony thing with you since he’s going to be their alpha someday. That’s as close to a wedding between gay men as there’s going to be in Texas until people there get them some intelligent government in place.”

“Oxymoron,” Sully mumbled. “Okay, I’ll tell Bobby we’re being invaded by family next weekend.”

“Oh, wait.”

Sully could hear his grandma rifling through something.

“No, not next weekend. We have a birthday party for your cousin Kerry next weekend.

The weekend after that isn’t going to work, either, but three weeks from now…yes, that’ll do.”

“Mom said—”

“Leave your mother to me, Sully. It’s best that you and Bobby have some time together anyway, and maybe this mess with someone stalking Bobby will be taken care of by then.”

“Is that what you think it is?” Sully trusted his grandma’s instincts.

“That would be my guess. But tell Bobby, no ceremonial anythings until your family is there, or else I’ll make a nice rug out of his hide.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sully snickered. “I love you, Grandma.”

“Of course you do, and I love you, Sully Ward.” She cleared her throat and harrumphed. “Now. You tell Bobby to think back and figure out what past lover wanted more than he was willing to give. I think that’ll be the answer to who hurt Mando.”

“I’d think Bobby would have recognised, you know, his odour.” Sully was going to die of embarrassment, especially if he had to be more specific than that.

“You don’t remember when that sick cougar shifter tried to kill off your cousin Lyndon a while back? He used chemicals to not only cover his scent, but knock our ability to smell anything, period. Who knows what-all there is out in this world that can be used to deceive us. I always thought that for every gift, there’s a—well, not really a curse, but maybe something to balance that gift out.”

That made a weird sort of sense to Sully, even if he wasn’t sure he believed it.

“I don’t care if you think I’m a flighty old woman—”

“Yeah, Grandma, like you wouldn’t flick the tip of my nose off my face if you even suspected I thought that. Which I don’t, just to clarify.” Marybeth made a rude-sounding noise then he heard a baby crying in the background.

“Guess I’d better let you go. Sounds like Daniel’s having a tantrum.”

“He wouldn’t, that sweet baby boy. He would, however, make sure his daddies know he didn’t appreciate them denying him a second cupcake. You take care.”

“You too, Grandma. Tell everyone hi for me.” Sully got off the phone feeling better than he’d have expected, but that didn’t last long. He went to find Bobby to begin the unpleasant task of asking about his exes.

Bobby scratched his head again as he looked from Paava to Sully. “But I never had any serious boyfriends. I never had boyfriends at all. I mean, Paava, you know I hardly even screwed the same guys twice!” Wow, he sounded like a slut.

“Yeah, you were a slut,” Paava told him.

Sully’s thunderous expression was both a turn-on and a turn-off, because one, he was even hotter when he was mad, and two, Bobby was going to have to do something to get him out of the funk he was slipping into. Well, maybe that last one wasn’t a turn-off.

“I was waiting for the right man to come along.” He turned a pleading look on Sully.

“Seriously, why does it make me awful that I wouldn’t settle for anyone but the best?” Paava muttered, “Oh, you’re smooth. Ass.”

Sully’s expression turned from angry to sultry in a flash. “Well, you know, those past experiences also made you a damned good lover.”

“An excellent lover,” Bobby clarified before he remembered that Sully had been a virgin not that long ago. “And you are an exceptionally quick learner. No one would have ever known—” Sully sputtered and turned purple as Paava burst out with a gut-shaking laugh.

“Aw, I think you stepped in it all over again, Bobby. You done spewed Sully’s secrets.” Bobby threw his soda can at Paava. It wasn’t fully empty and seeing the soda splatter Paava did Bobby’s heart good. “You’re supposed to be my best friend, and need I remind you, my beta. As such, you are still ranked below my mate.” Paava wiped the pop off and rolled his eyes. “Get off your high horse. That crap doesn’t work with me and you know it. You have to have at least one friend who won’t let you be a douchebag.”

Bobby stood up and backed away from the table. “Bringing feminine hygiene products into a discussion brings said discussion to an end.” Besides, he’d heard a car pull in the drive.

“But you need to think about who you left broken-hearted,” Paava called out as Bobby turned and headed for the living room.

Bobby truly had no idea. He had always been up front about not wanting anything more than a fuck or whatever mutual pleasure he and a hook-up agreed on. He hadn’t got the names of every guy he’d screwed, and there’d been a few times when he’d had chemical enhancement just for the hell of it. Or when he’d been involved in a threesome or more. He’d had some wild times.

“Think of someone who’s pack,” Sully hollered.

Bobby stopped, totally stumped. He’d tried to avoid screwing around in the pack because he was going to be in power one day. He didn’t want anyone to feel they were going to get favours, or that they could use him.

But he hadn’t always thought that way. He’d been young, dumb and full of himself once upon a time. Granted, he wasn’t old now, and he was marginally intelligent and still full of himself, but he had got to where he could view more than his own needs.

Who had he screwed around with as a kid? Paava hadn’t been wrong. Bobby had been a slut, and as a kid with morals still in the developing stage, he’d unthinkingly taken the pleasures he’d had offered to him, believing people were attracted to him for
him.
It wasn’t until his dad had set him down and started explaining things to him that Bobby had learned to step back and think before screwing. Pack members, at least. He probably could have been more discriminating when it came to guys he met at the club.