The worst thing was, he meant it. Dave’s stomach clenched in cold panic because Elk Ridge washome.He didn’t want to leave. He certainly didn’t want to be part of a pack whose only entertainment was beating the crap out of each other.
Christian’s gaze was suddenly pleading. “Dave, theywantus.”
Oh God, how was Dave meant to deny him when he wanted it so badly?
“Matt, Bryce,everyoneat home wants us, too,” he said, knowing it was true.
“It’s not the same there now,” Christian said doggedly. “We only ended up there by accident anyway. Barton’s offering money and a place for us both to live. Once I prove myself, he wants me in his guard. I’ll be one of the top shifters in the pack.”
Dave had no answer. Money and status didn’t mean anything to Christian by themselves, but they were symbols of how much he waswanted.They were evidence of something that Christian, stubborn and hard-headed, didn’t think could be matched by Matt’s easy acceptance of them into his home, his family. Christian still didn’t really understand kindness or love, and so he sought something tangible to measure people’s intentions by. And what Barton was offering was exactly that.
Dave sat in horrified silence as everything he’d thought he had unraveled in front of him. He didn’t have a clue how to stop it.
He couldn’t understand how he’d missed Christian becoming so unhappy in Elk Ridge that he wanted to leave. He hadn’t breathed a word of it to Dave, but then, it wasn’t as if they talked about things that mattered. He wiped his hand over his mouth, and was dimly aware he was shaking.
Christian nodded as if Dave’s silence was agreement, then stripped off and disappeared into the bathroom. Dave’s heart twisted as he watched him walk away.
He didn’t want to leave Elk Ridge, and hedefinitelydidn’t want to live here, which for all its apparent straightforwardness would do more damage to Christian than anything else. Dave could see how it would seem easy to him, because it was how he’d spent most of his life, surrounded by violence.
All the things he’d slowly learned over the past five years, to trust, to show even the tiniest chink of vulnerability, would be lost. Dave had watched him learn to follow someone else’s lead, and not to always pivot to attack if he didn’t understand something.
That Christian—the one who curled around him and held him in sleep, who joked and softened and let his pack see his heart—couldn’t survive this place. The Christian who Dave loved so much would be beaten down into a tiny corner of his heart, buried under aggression and brutality, and Dave was scared he’d never find him again.
Christian was flattered by Barton’s offer, that was all it was. He hadn’t been wanted by anyone his whole life before Dave had come along. Come tomorrow and the light of day, everything would be back to normal. Tomorrow, Dave was going to grab the first pack member he saw and ask them outright about Jesse’s pack, because that way they could get out of this hellhole and back to Elk Ridge, where Christian would settle again and everything would be as it should be.
But the hollowness in his chest told him otherwise. He didn’t have the heart to wash or to brush his teeth. He stripped off his clothes, rolled into bed, and when Christian came out of the bathroom, he closed his eyes and pretended he was asleep.
Chapter Fifteen
CHRISTIAN
Christian came slowly awake to the familiar sounds of Dave puttering around in the bathroom. He stretched out luxuriously, taking advantage of having the whole bed to himself, and hissed as a whole series of aches and pains made themselves known.
Damn, last night’s fight had been hard, and all the better for it. Mornings after, though? Not his favorite. At least, that was always the case until Dave stopped looking at him with the slightly pinched look that gave away just how much he hated seeing Christian hurt and got to work with a hot topical treatment cream, followed by a bone-melting massage. Dave knew how to give a massage like no one else on this earth.
For once, there was nothing pulling at him. No shadowy threats or pack politics. Just the ache of a hard-won fight and the certainty of Dave’s hands waiting to fix him. Christian would have wriggled in anticipation if it wouldn’t wake every bruise on his body.
Instead, he turned over so he was lying on his front, pushed the sheets down to ease the way for Dave’s massage, and waited impatiently for him to finish whatever he was doing so he could come and make everything better again.
He was shaving, judging by the low buzz and tuneless humming he could hear. Dave always hummed when he shaved, even though he swore he didn’t. Christian smiled into the pillow at the familiarity of it, the life they had together.
Lying on his front like this, pressing his morning wood against the sheets, was beginning to feel good. He moved his hips slightly, and it feltreallygood. Dave had better hurry the hell up, or there’d be nothing left for him to wrap that talented hand of his around once he’d massaged the rest of Christian into a state where he was both relaxed and turned on as hell. Just so long as Dave remembered to wash the treatment cream off his hands thoroughly first, because the one time he’d forgotten to do that hadnotbeen fun. Even the memory of it stopped Christian from grinding himself into the sheets again.
His eyes closed slowly as the humming continued in the bathroom, and he began to drift back to sleep, only to rouse with a jerk as he remembered the rest of last night—Barton’s offer to have them join his pack.
Excitement thrummed through him, and he couldn’t wait for Dave to come to him. He rolled out of bed and padded through to the bathroom. Dave was patting his face dry with the towel when Christian stole up behind him, sliding his arms around his waist and putting his chin on Dave’s shoulder. Who cared if he had to reach up slightly to do that, when it meant he could breathe in the scent of Dave and press his very awake cock against the warm curve of Dave’s ass?
“Morning,” he said against Dave’s ear, his voice deep with the remnants of sleep.
“So I see,” Dave said, and the fond smile in his voice was almost as good as the way he pushed back slightly against Christian in apparently unconscious invitation.
He nuzzled into Dave’s neck, nipping lightly at the warm skin there, and looked into the mirror just long enough to see the way Dave’s eyes had gone dark and his mouth was slightly open. He returned his attention to Dave’s neck, and this time when Dave pushed back against him, it was less like invitation and more like demand.
When he raised his head again, Dave’s lips were parted, little sounds puffing out with every breath as Christian rubbed his hot cock against his ass, beginning to think he might not last long enough to give Dave what he so obviously wanted.
He swept his hands over Dave’s chest, short, blunt fingers pausing to tug gently at his nipples, then pinch them in the way that had Dave making little choked-off sounds. He loved those noises Dave made almost as much as he loved the way they looked together in the mirror—his hands on Dave’s body, and the strength of his arms binding them together.
“Where—” Christian started, because therehadto be lube. They were in a bathroom, for God’s sake.
