“Hm. You know what they say about friends?” I asked, tension tightening around my chest.
“Not with benefits. He’s just a friend.” Noble gave me a real smile that had me unwinding a bit.
Mr. English began shouting and nearly startled me right out of Abe. Every hair on my body stood on end, and I reached for the gun that wasn’t on me. Noble shot to his feet and helped Mr. English walk outside with a hand on his arm. I grabbed Noble’s jacket and my coat, then went after him. Noble ambled along with Mr. English until he was at a bench about half a block away from the Co-Op, and then Mr. English collapsed onto it as if he couldn’t take another step. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, and Noble carefully stepped back.
“We can’t do anything for this guy?”
Noble shook his head. “He doesn’t trust doctors. It’s a mess. Sometimes he’s lucid and talks with me.” He gave me a pained squint, and I nodded.
“Want to go back for your food? You barely ate anything.” I held out his jacket, and he gave me a shy smile as he turned to slip it on.
“Someone will have already cleared it away.” He shifted around until he was staring directly up into my face. I shivered as the streetlamps made his eyes shine with stars. He licked his bottom lip and gave me a searching stare. “Too bad we have nothing in common.”
“That’s not true.”
“It isn’t?” he asked, sounding ridiculously hopeful.
“We both want me to kiss you.”
Noble smiled and shook his head, glancing away.
I stepped in, and fear slithered through me when my hands shot out without my control. They were a touch too tight as I clutched at his upper arms. I struggled with Abe and loosened my grip on Noble, but the impulse to hurt him while I did this was there and not something I was completely able to rein in. I fought to make my borrowed body listen to me, but I dragged Noble in too roughly against my chest. Hunger for sex pulsed in my mind, a drumbeat I wanted to obey because it was spilling to me from Abe and boiling on my side of the divide, too.
Noble tilted his head back and his eyes widened a bit, pupils blown and dark. He gasped.
The purple bloom of bruises on his throat made my cock swell and throb. It was odd because as much as I enjoyed the physical sensations of arousal, the attraction to the marks was Abe’s. I was scared for a moment. I didn’t want to get lost in my host. Tyler wasn’t my real name, only the one Abe had given me as a bit of a joke, but I was all me and wanted to stay that way. Noble’s clean, bright smell turned me on more than the bruises, and his pretty lips begged to be sucked on. In the end, I slid into the warm haze of a shared attraction—Abe and me, for the beautiful man in my arms.
“We do both want that,” Noble whispered and jutted his chin. I was confused by his words for a second becauseyes, we do want youwas on the tip of my tongue, and then I remembered what I’d said.
Moaning, I sealed my lips to his, mashing the soft flesh against his teeth. Thrilling waves of sharp pleasure slowly built in my gut as he pressed close and leaned his stomach against my ready and willing dick where it was trapped in my jeans.
Nothing bothered me. Nothing pulled at my mind. The constant struggle I always seemed to be engaged in melted away and all I had was desire.
But this calm shocked and terrified me, too, so much that, all on my own, I attacked Noble’s mouth with too much vigor. Once Abe was done fucking someone, he killed. I closed my eyes. Maybe I could stave off Abe’s fixation if I didn’t look while I did this. I tried to shove Abe away from the forefront of my mind because this moment with Noble wasmine, but I brutalized his mouth, even though I really wanted to go slower and be gentle. Sweet whimpers answered my abuse of his lips. He panted and arched closer to me with a little wriggle of his hips that made me think he was hard, too.
When I opened my eyes, I stared into Noble’s bright blue irises. He must kiss with his eyes open. I could feel the obsession begin… mine and Abe’s. We both wanted to have him—we both wanted a trophy. The only difference was that while I wanted Noble alive, he wanted pieces of him to put away for a rainy day.
“Uh… wanna change my light bulb?” Noble asked with a breathy laugh while he rocked on his heels.
I growled and sealed my mouth to his again, sinking my teeth into his bottom lip far too hard. He quivered, whimpered, and anchored a hand behind my neck, pulling himself tighter to my body.
Fuck, I was going to get him killed because there was no way I could make myself stop.
4
Noble
The hallwayoutside my apartment reeked of weed and I couldn’t help my internal cringe. It didn’t matter that it was legal now, I was here with a cop, and my heartbadumpedfaster. My anxious associative guilt wasn’t the only reason I was having trouble taking deep breaths. I glanced up at Tyler. His eyes were closed, and his hands were shoved into his coat pockets. His chiseled features almost appeared mean. He was all man. My fingers trembled as I put my key in the lock of my door. It took me a couple of tries to get the rusty old latch to turn, and I let out a triumphant grunt when it finally worked.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone over tonight, so—”
“I’m not inspecting your dirty dishes—” Tyler snorted. “—or your funky bathroom.”
The doorknob turned without giving me too much trouble and the front door swung open into my dim living room. Enough light spilled in from outside to see the outlines of the furniture. “My bathroom is fine, thanks.”
Tyler laughed and leaned down as he took a long step forward. I didn’t fight as he tilted my chin up to smash his lips over mine. We almost fell over the threshold together into the living room. Once I was on the other side, I fumbled with the door, and it was Tyler who finally shoved it closed, sealing us into a private bubble whereanythingcould happen.
My cock throbbed in an excitement I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt. The other men I’d been with weren’t anything like Tyler; they were men who’d treated me like glass. One had insisted on constantly asking if my small hand hurt. In other words, they’d been perfect boyfriend material—caring and sweet.
