Wylde (10 page)

Jade kicked a nearby tree and then put her hands on her hips, huffing for breath since she’d been racing ahead of Alec on the deer trails. She obviously spent a lot of time hiking, because she was in great shape, something else to appreciate about her. Alec sighed. Was there anything about this unattainable woman that didn’t appeal to him?

Reading the worry under the spark of frustration, Alec dared to cup the back of her neck, and when she swung around to glare at him, he pushed her hair out of her face. Her pupils were dark, swallowing his reflection; he felt like he could fall into her eyes.

“Yeah, well, if you’re givin’ up—”

“Not giving up. I don’t give up anything I want so easy,” Alec said, smiling slightly. Slow and steady, he reminded himself. He’d been trying to figure out what might work to bring her closer to him, and he’d figured that was the best strategy. “I know you’re frantic but it’s going to be dark soon. I’ll be back first thing in the morning to help you look for Beau again, okay? But we could mess up any tracks out here or just get lost. It’s time to give it a rest.”

Jade nodded reluctantly. “But I
hate
waiting,” she grouched as they headed downhill toward her house, windows streaming with a lemon beacon like a welcome lighthouse.

“I noticed, but some things are better if you have to wait for them.” Alec cocked a brow.

“What, you one of those guys who brags about what a slow fuck you are?” She gave him a scathing glance. Alec knew she was covering her upset by scratching him, but he would wear her scratches if he had to. Hell, he
wanted
to.

Anything for Jade, whom he’d loved since he was fifteen years old and she was a wild, untamed beauty of twenty-two.

“Don’t need to brag,” he said, and he hid a smile when she glared at him. But he didn’t miss the slow, considering look she gave him: he had her thinking about it, and that was good. He hadn’t lied about waiting. He’d waited for years to be man enough she’d take him seriously. He’d still be waiting when he was sixty-eight and she was seventy-five, if that were how long it took.

“It gets dark here quick, huh?” Jade commented. “I never noticed before, but….” She bit her lip. “Shit, I wish we’d found my dog. The house does seem totally empty.”

The deerskin bundle around Alec’s neck began to warm faintly, and he grabbed it, tensing.
Something….

“Yeah.” He looked over his shoulder at tall stands of mosscovered trees, slick with the cool humidity that even the hottest summer days couldn’t burn away.

Jade gave him a speculative look. “There’s something you
know
about whatever haunts these woods, isn’t there? Something you haven’t told anyone.”

Alec looked at Jade, crediting her with reading him better than almost anyone, except maybe Kell. “Maybe.”
W
YLDE
watched the couple as they headed back down the trail that led to the woman’s house. Sometimes when she baked cookies, she left them out on a plate, as if for the birds. He’d eaten them many times, closing his eyes and savoring the sweet, perfect taste.

The young man with the woman made Wylde feel funny, the way he did sometimes. He wondered if he’d have dreams about him, dreams of touching his skin.

“S
O WHAT
are your intentions toward my dad?” Josh demanded as
soon as Kell put his hat down on the bench beside him in the diner and sat facing him and Noah.

Kell swallowed under the steady look from two pairs of gray eyes, wishing for whiskey and not coffee in that moment. Clearly, if he took on Noah, he was also taking on Josh.

Well, he was up to it.
“My… what?” Kell glanced at Noah in shock and saw color flush his cheeks. He wanted to lick him where the color lit his cheekbones, dig his fingers into Noah’s love-sweaty hair as he moved inside him—
He dragged his eyes and his libido away from Noah and looked to Josh, who had a stack of books on their table from his visit to the library—Kell noticed that some were about Shetland Sheepdogs, and some about ghost hunters. Shit.
Josh calmly continued to regard Kell with his hands folded over his collection.
“Uh….”
“Dad tells me you don’t take stuff too serious,” Josh continued. “And I want to be straight with you… you’re okay with that, right?” For a moment, vulnerability moved through Josh’s gray eyes and reminded Kell he was very young.
“I prefer a straight shooter, yeah,” Kell said, wondering what he was leaving himself open for. One thing was for sure; this kid was going to be a helluva man one day.
“We like you for my Dad, but you need some work.”
Kell didn’t know what to say. He glared at Noah, who was now stifling laughter.
“Is that right?”

“Yep. So I found some books for you at the library.” Josh pushed a portion Kell had missed from the heavy pile toward him.

“Josh—”
“Do you want my Dad or not?” Josh flatly demanded.

Kell’s gaze heated as he looked at Noah, watching the laughter die in those gray eyes and give way to that shy look. He liked to make Noah shy. He liked that Noah responded to him, whether it was anger, scratching, whateverthefuck! Kell would take him on, take it all on….

“I… yeah,” Kell rasped, knowing his eyes must signal his intensity as they held Noah’s. “I want your dad very, very much.”
“Then you have to read up, Chief. Dad tells me education is everything. I did some reading too, about bi men, but I had to hit some websites for that.”

Kell met Noah’s gaze, seeing he was now chewing his lip. He figured Noah was probably not bi, but gay, but he probably didn’t want to shake his son’s belief in whatever his relationship had been with Josh’s mother. He could respect that.

“Do you have any questions?”

“I have to get used to the water, I think,” Josh reflected. “Like when the pool isn’t what you expected.”
“You mean when it’s a delicate shade of purple?” Kell joked, teasing Josh gently about his pool. “Your Dad and I don’t want to freak you out. I just want you to know that….” Kell thought there was one thing he could say to put Josh’s mind at rest. “You come first with him and you should. You’re lucky to have him, Josh, but maybe you’ll let me… date him.”

Josh let out a breath. “Okay, you’re a bit rough around the edges, but maybe there’s hope since you seem to want to change.” “Huh?” Kell glanced at the title of the topmost book:
Courting rituals of Victorian Times.
Holy shit! “Josh—”

“Don’t worry, Chief. We’ll make you into a good boyfriend for my Dad in no time. That is if you want to date us?”
Us?
Kell’s eyes widened as he confronted again that he was taking on more than Noah here. As much as he wanted to drag Noah to a nice warm cave somewhere and have his way with him, Noah was a single father, and Josh was part of the deal.

Kell put down his menu. “I haven’t….” He cleared his throat. “I haven’t dated anyone before, Josh. But, uh, I would be happy to try. That is if you can give me a hand?”

The satisfied smile on Josh’s face squeezed Kell’s heart even as he told himself it was no big deal. So he’d have to observe a few niceties before taking Noah to bed. It didn’t mean he was getting in deep with him. It didn’t mean they’d really be anything but a casual couple.

“Y
EAH
, well, she’s a lying bitch, what can I say?” Thomas

Anderson told his friend over the phone. He was sprawled on the carpeted floor of the empty music room above his parents’ triple garage. The architecture jutted out into the woods, but Thomas refused to be scared anymore about the shadow he sometimes thought he saw in the mist or the strange young man he’d glimpsed the night the Chief had rescued him. He had nightmares, sure, but everything was fading now, and mostly he was worried what his school friends would think if Jade Moreton spilled what had happened that night.

So he’d decided not to wait for her to make him look bad. He was going to beat her to it. No one would believe her if he trashed her first. And anyway, his mom had fired her, and everyone in this small town knew that too.

“Look, I don’t care what rumors you heard from your buddy the deputy. I didn’t run away. I… just got lost. Yeah, okay, see you at the game tomorrow.”

Thomas put down the phone, biting his lip. It didn’t sound like Marty had believed him. Well, fuck, Marty hadn’t been there. Too bad all that pot was gone along with Morley, because Thomas could really use some now to mellow out.

He sighed. Maybe it was just as well. The one time Morley had come by the house, Thomas’s dad had been home. He hadn’t seemed to like what he saw of Morley and warned Thomas to stay away from him. Thomas’s mom was cold and remote, but Thomas was used to that from her. The old man, though… Thomas did his best never to cross him. Especially lately, since he was in an unpredictable mood, thankfully spending a lot of time hunting and fishing in the forest.

From below, the garbage cans he’d left outside rattled. “Shit.” Second time this week. If his mom fucking heard it—

“
Thomas!
” the intercom blared, his mom’s icy disapproval entering the room like an unpleasant vapor. “You left those cans out again and someone’s dog is in them!”

Thomas got up and pounded “answer.” “Yeah, yeah, sorry, Mom. Forgot about ’em.”

“See if you can find Minny while you’re bringing them back into the garage. I think she’s hiding again.”
His mom’s cat, a Persian named Minny, never left their house, so they’d had to set up a litter box for her in the garage. One of Thomas’s sucky jobs was emptying it once a day into the trash now that his mom had fired Jade. He sighed. “Yeah, okay, Mom….”
J
OSH
was drawing as Noah and Kell finished off their burgers.

“Good?” Kell asked as he watched Noah lick his lips.

“Amazing! I’d never thought such simple food could taste so good, but I’ll have to take up running again at this rate.”
Kell cocked a brow. “You keep in nice shape. I’m sure you have a lot of stamina.”

Noah blushed, no fool to the subtext. “Thanks. So I thought we’d find our Shetland Sheepdog tomorrow.”
Kell nodded, eating a fry. He didn’t want them to leave, even knowing that with Josh around, he couldn’t exactly do the things with Noah he wanted. He just didn’t want them to leave just yet. “How about a movie tonight?”

“Something cool?” Josh demanded, slapping his sketch down. Noah met Kell’s amused gaze. “Okay, but if you get frightened by the gore—” Noah began.

 

“
Da-ad!
Totally don’t embarrass me, okay?”

Kell frowned, reaching for Josh’s drawing when something struck him as familiar about it.
A pale face looking into a window. Lost, lonely eyes, long dark hair. Tall trees looming misty behind the figure.
The face and tormented expression reminded him of his recent dream.

“Josh, is there something you want to talk about?” he asked. Josh helped himself to his dad’s fries, but his face was sober. “Not yet….”

T
HOMAS
cursed when he tried the light switch in the garage and nothing happened. Why had his parents wanted to live in this fucking place? Oh, yeah, because when they had lived in L.A., they’d fought all the time, his father convinced his mom was screwing around on him. So the old man had moved them out here, to the wilderness. But the power was always going out, another sucky thing about living here. He opened the cabinet by the door between house and garage and located a flashlight, turning it on and shining it over the cavernous space, taking in his muddy Toyota, his mom’s Lexus and his dad’s BMW.

“Minny?” he called.

 

He heard another rattling sound. Sweat prickled the back of his neck.

 

“Stupid cat,” he whispered. “Stupid fucking cat.”

K
ELL
paid for popcorn, drinks and candy for all three of them, feeling good about treating his two dates. Josh gave him brief thanks and snagged his share, racing for the theater where the movie was showing.

Kell grinned. “I think he’s afraid you’ll change your mind,” he told Noah, referring to how they were seeing a more adult actionadventure film.

Noah shook his head. “He’s not spoiled but… I probably let him do too many things.”

 

“Nah, I disagree. I think you’re doing a fine job.”

“Yeah?” Noah gave him another shy smile, making Kell’s balls tighten in response. He couldn’t take it anymore. He needed to touch, taste,
claim
Noah.

“Betsy, will you hold onto our treats for just two seconds?” Kell abruptly asked.

The girl at the counter nodded, and Kell led Noah away from the movie crowd to a deserted alcove.
“Kell?” Noah’s eyes were full of uncertainty, but he’d allowed himself to be cut from the crowd. That spoke volumes about his willingness to be wooed.
Once in the shadows, behind some tall potted plants, Kell carefully took Noah in his arms, dark eyes holding gray ones. Asking. Giving plenty of time. And then his mouth closed warmly over Noah’s, hot and demanding, drinking him in with a long, drawn-out moan of relief.
Noah.

Noah parted his lips, and Kell rewarded him with a slow, luscious tongue-fuck, lifting him high against the wall and placing his bigger body between Noah’s legs. He let the hungry knob of his erection rub gently back and forth against Noah’s smaller body until he felt Noah begin to grow hard.

“Put your legs around my hips.” Kell growled out the order in a guttural tone.
Noah complied, his head falling back as Kell thrust against him, sprinkling scalding little kisses down his neck. Shit! He broke away, panting, huge and swollen and on the very edge of his control. Noah was gripping his forearms, eyes wide in his face.

“
Oh, Jesus!
” Kell rasped, leaning his forehead against Noah’s. “You need to lay down for me. Please, baby, make it soon….”

R
WRAWHHHHHRRRRRR
!
“
Fucking cat!
” Thomas yanked his bleeding hand away,
shaking it. Minny was high up on a cupboard, eyes huge and yellow

in the darkness. She hissed indignantly, her small body pulled tight against the wall. “What’s your problem? I’m just trying to bring you inside. Fuck it! Fine, just stay out here!”

The crash of metal came again from the specially reinforced bear-proof trashcans his parents used. Thomas stiffened, feeling a little freaked, though he knew it was just someone’s dog or maybe a coyote. He’d certainly seen one of those around often enough. It couldn’t be the ghost… Thomas was sure he’d seen fear in the young man’s eyes, as if he didn’t want to be seen.