Shep gave him a somber look. “This is part of your present, but unfortunately, you can’t keep it.”
Elijah sniffed, not ready to forgive Shep’s lateness. “No offense, Sam, but that sounds like a really shitty gift.”
Shep laughed. “We’ll see if you still think that after you see it,” he said, sliding the lid to the cooler back. Elijah froze. He was almost certain his heart stopped beating. A puff of cool air and mist escaped, and Elijah blinked as his brain attempted to process that he stared at a human heart. There was a human heart in a cooler. In his living room. “Fuck, babe. Please tell me that’s not my mother’s.”
Shep shook his head. “Your mother is alive and well, still shacked up with that real estate agent in Boca.”
His relief was short-lived. There was still an actual human heart in his house. “Whose heart is it?”
Shep cocked his head. “I think you know.”
David Cane.Elijah swallowed hard. “He’s…”
“Never going to hurt you or anybody else again,” Shep finished.
“You’re going to get caught. Somebody will find out,” Elijah said, the words rushing from his lips as panic set in.
Shep scoffed. “I promise you. We won’t get caught. Everybody thinks he’s fled the country.”
Thinks he’s fled the country. Did that mean he hadn’t fled the country, or he had fled the country and Shep went and found him? His brain formed questions faster than he could think to ask them. “You traveled here with a human heart in a cooler?”
“Well I couldn’t exactly mail it back here.”
Something occurred to Elijah then. “Is… that’s where all of you went? Do they know you merc’d him?”
Shep chuckled at Elijah’s turn of phrase. “They know. These kinds of jobs are easier with a team. If Jackson and the others had refused to help, I still would have gotten the job done, but having them tag along made for a much tighter plan and some built in alibis.”
“Alibis?” Elijah parroted.
“Yeah… my bachelor party.”
“Your bachelor party…” Elijah repeated. “What bachelor party?”
“The one that has lots of pictures of us getting drunk in Tijuana. Pictures that are hitting social media any minute now.”
“You spent four days getting drunk in Tijuana?” Elijah asked between gritted teeth.
“No, we spent three days assassinating a child predator and one day making it look like we spent four days getting drunk in Tijuana. Keep up, rabbit. Webster’s got this. Nobody is going to find his body. Ever. But on the off chance they did, our timeline is tight as a drum. Cane is dead. We have neutralized the target. He’ll never hurt another child ever again.”
Elijah relaxed, staring down at the heart of the man who’d abused him. Shep had done that. He’d hunted down Elijah’s monster and slayed him like his very own fairy-tale prince. Shep had killed for him, had risked prison for him. “I wish I could keep it.”
Shep started to slide the cooler shut but Elijah shook his head.“No, leave it open. Come here.”
Shep’s brows shot up at Elijah’s request, but he didn’t protest, didn’t question Elijah’s him. He justset the cooler and the small bag on the coffee table, sitting beside Elijah on the sofa. Elijah stood, sliding the robe to the floor and hooking his thumbs into his shorts before sliding them off. Once he was naked, he climbed back on into Shep’s lap, this time facing away from him. He slipped his hands between the cushions and found the lube he’d stashed there earlier. This wasn’t at all how he saw the night going. It was so much better. David Cane was dead. Shep had brought him his tormentor's heart. Sure, it came in an igloo cooler and not on a silver platter, but there was that saying about beggars and choosers.
“What’s on your mind, rabbit?” Shep asked, running his tongue along Elijah’s spine, his beard scratching as he moved.
Elijah coated his fingers, rising onto his knees, looking back over his shoulder at Shep. “I’m going to finger myself open and then you’re going to fuck me.”
Shep growled, sliding his jeans and underwear out of the way, and lubing up his cock. Elijah hissed as he pressed two fingers inside, working them in and out slowly. Shep spread him open so he could watch Elijah’s fingers disappear. “Yeah, fuck yourself for me, rabbit. Does it feel good?”
Elijah curled his fingers just right, moaning. “Yeah, so good. Not as good as you though.”
“I’m right here. Whenever you’re ready.”
Elijah slipped his fingers free, settling himself over Shep, the blunt head of his thick cock already wet as he sank down onto it. “Oh, fuck. God, you’re always so fucking big.”
Shep gripped Elijah’s hips pulling him down as he rocked upwards until he was buried inside. “You’re always so tight.”
