It should not have felt safe. Ranger was hard everywhere, his body honed by years of fighting. But this man... his heart was as kind as his tongue was sharp, and as his cock filled the space between us, I wrapped my hand around it, trusting that the falter in my pulse would fade.
I let my hand wander, exploring him, that odd sensation of want and agitation lacing my blood as I said what had been on my mind all afternoon. “I keep thinking about you and your woman—about you and Finch.”
Ranger bit my bottom lip with a rough groan. “Why?”
“If she is like her brother, she is beautiful. And so are you. Also...” I breathed into a slow blink as Ranger gripped my chin. “It is new to me to think of you like that.”
“How did you think of me before?”
Blyad. I had his cock in my fist, but it was him who held me at his mercy, and again, the truth fell from my lips. “I thought of you like a star in the sky.”
“Like I was fucking dead?”
“No, very much alive, but only to look at. Never touch.”
“You’ve touched me plenty. You’re touching menow.”
I was. Ranger was hot and heavy in my hand, and it did not feel like a step too far. It felt like I could touch him this way forever and my body began to respond.
Ranger noticed. The flicker in his dark gaze, the pulse in his length. He rooted a hand to the tiles behind me and finally looked down. “You’re packing some heat there, Vik.”
“Vik.” I rolled the nickname around my mind. “You would not call me that if we were lovers.”
Ranger kissed my jaw, my neck, and grazed my collarbone with his teeth. “We are lovers. Tell me your name.”
“Like this? It would be Vityasha.”
He repeated the diminutive and it sounded so different that I almost forgot I had spent my whole life believing no one would utter it to me.
“Vityasha,” he whispered.
And wrapped his hand around my cock.
[ 20 ]
RANGER
Viktor was on edge, and I knew it had something to do with the phone he’d been staring at when I’d found him on the patio. Something was happening out there in the murky world that had brought us together. I knew it cos my phone had been lit up like a Christmas tree too, but in the bathroom, as steam billowed around us and water soaked our skin, I left that shit at the fucking door.
Be careful with him.
Planned on it. At least, when I got over the size of his dick.
This motherfucker.
I claimed his mouth, letting him settle in the familiar as my grip on him tightened.
Slow.
Maybe.
Was that the same as careful?
I had no fucking idea. All I really knew was that when it came to Vik, I’d spent way too long resisting my heart. Pouring acid on the base instinct to just fucking touch him.
To love him.
He liked to push me against walls.
