I remember his words the first time we ever fucked.“…I can go either way.”Hotter flames lick the inferno already tearing through my blood. I drop my head to kiss him and it’s not gentle this time. Lips bruise. Teeth clash. Until I pull back and grip his face. “You want me to fuck you?”
Tanner licks his lips. “Yeah. I think I do.”
I don’t need telling twice, and something shifts between us, as if we’ve dropped gloves in a hockey game, but we’re not going to fight, we’re going to fuck. We wrestle each other out of our clothes and Tanner rolls onto his belly, holding his injured arm out of harm’s way. I fit behind him like a dream, and ease inside with every intention of fucking him slowly, of making it last, but the gravelly sound of pleasure he makes obliterates my sweet resolve.
His back is everything. I lie over him and pump my body, building and building, until I’m fucking him hard enough for him to growl and fist the blue pillow he’s buried his face in. I bite his neck. He pushes back against me, demanding more, and I give it to him, blinded by the sweat that runs down my face and into my eyes.
We’ve skipped a few steps—no foreplay, just kissing and then fucking at a million miles an hour. It’s ridiculous, but I can’t stop. I can’t slow down and savor this moment. It’s as if the worry and heartache we’ve been through to get to this point need exorcising. I’m shouting as I drive into him, and he answers me with soul-deep groans of satisfaction. His body flexes, and it’s beautiful.He’sbeautiful, and I’m spellbound. Lost. I don’t know how I’m gonna wait for him to come before my entire body explodes.
The bed starts to shift with the force of how we’re moving together. Tanner braces himself with his good arm and raises his body from the bed, leaving his chest low, his legs spread wide. The change in angle blows my mind. I dig my fingers into his hips and they slip on his sweat-damp, inked skin. I press my face between his shoulder blades and groan. “I’m gonna come.”
Tanner lets out a choked laugh. “Me first.”
The echo of our first time together warms my bones, but I’m too far gone to enjoy the sentiment for long. Tanner arches his back, and any rhythm we had when we began this rowdy dance abandons us. Fucking him becomes clawing and desperate. I wait for him, clinging to my release, and I make it by a split second.
Tanner comes. His muscular body seizes up, clamping down on me, and he drags me into the fire. My cock erupts inside him. A plaintive noise escapes me, and my toes curl so hard I get fucking cramps in my feet. “Fuckfuckfuck.”
I can’t stop moving. And then I can’t move at all. I’m frozen in place inside him and there’s nowhere else I ever want to be.
Tanner collapses in a heap. I fall with him, briefly, then I remember he’s still fragile and quickly roll off him, reclaiming my spent dick.
I ease Tanner onto his back and check him out, searching for signs of actual discomfort.
He shakes his head. “I’m fine. Don’t freak out.”
My chest is still heaving. It takes me a minute to speak. “I’m not freaking out. I just fucking love you.”
Tanner beams. “That’s lucky, because I fucking love you too.”
His smile latches onto my soul. If he didn’t have my entire heart already, I’d have handed it to him on a platter in this moment. Warmth fills the space the retreating heat of our half-crazed encounter leaves behind. I lean over him and touch his face, tracing his rough cheekbones and long lashes as if I’ve never seen them before. He grins at me some more, but his lids grow heavy as he clutches my hand to his chest. Whatever rejuvenation he’s been through today is fading fast. I watch him go, and it’s nice. Peaceful.
And despite his coma-like tendencies of the past few weeks, he’s not gone for long.
I’m still naked when he wakes a half hour later. His eyes open, and they’re still bright and unworried. Lively, even. Apparently my dick wasn’t magic enough to calm the restlessness jumping in his restored blood. “Can we go to the bar?”
I pause in the action of bending over to retrieve the clothes we scattered all over the floor earlier. “You want to go to work?”
“Not to actually work. I need to see my guys. I miss them.”
Of course he does. Before the accident, he saw them on a daily basis, and every single one of them had him on speed dial. V and V is his home. His family. He needs them as much they need him.
As much as he needs me. “For sure. You up to the walk? Or you want me to drive?”
“I can walk. I’m not wasting gas on a three-block stroll.”
He hasn’t walked further than the bathroom since he came home from the hospital, but I take him at his word, cos I know he’d do the same for me. I coax him into eating the soup he’s made first, though, and load him up with the hydration he’s lost through fucking.
Then we leave, hand-in-hand, and amble the short distance to V and V in the brisk chill of the evening. It’s late when we get there and slip inside unnoticed, but the bar is still kicking. It’s chaotic, too, without Tanner’s efficient leadership. There are more glasses stacked on the tables than usual, and no one has restocked the shelves in a while.
“Don’t,” I say to Tanner as his gaze flickers around the carnage. “That’s not why we’re here.”
As I speak the words, Molly looks up from clearing glasses and lays eyes on Tanner. Her excited shriek pierces the air. She drops a tray onto the table and blurs across the bar, stopping only milliseconds before she crashes into him. “Oh my gosh! You’re here!”
The commotion alerts the rest of the staff to his presence, and he’s soon surrounded, customers forgotten. I move aside and take a seat at the bar, watching it play out. Molly cries. I’m sure she’s not the only one, and after a while, I feel like an intruder on a private moment. I avert my gaze and fish my phone from my pocket. I haven’t checked my email in days. My inbox is stacked with bullshit. Most of it I ignore, all but two. One is from a lawyer’s office in California with divorce papers attached, the other is from Jerry. He’s offering me a permanent job at Wildfoot Adventure under the condition no one ever leaves the office without a satellite phone ever again.
I blink at my phone screen. The two emails seem to bookend my life so entirely I have no idea what to do with it.
A large frame folds into the stool beside me. For a moment I’m so convinced it’s Tanner I hold out my phone to my new companion.
