“Put your feet up on the bench,” Tate urged. As soon as I did, I felt awkward and horribly exposed, but then Tate’s finger was probing me again and he went back to work on my dick. And then Tate’s long, thick finger pressed inside of me and I gasped at the sharp sting of pain that fired through my ass. Tate eased back a little, then pushed in again. He kept repeating the move over and over again, burying more of his finger inside of me each time. At some point the burning had eased and besides the odd feeling of being filled, a lovely sensation had started to build inside of me. Tate was still sucking me so between his mouth and his finger, I was trapped in a vortex of sensation.
Until he did something inside of me that rocketed through my entire body all at once. And I knew without having to ask that he’d hit my prostate. Tate did it again as he increased the suction on my dick and I soon found myself trying to impale my ass on his finger every time he slid it back into me. And if that wasn’t enough, I looked down to where Tate’s lips were wrapped around my cock and nearly came at the sight of him using his free hand to jack himself off. After that, I lost track of everything except the need to come.
“Tate!” I shouted as the pressure in my ass increased exponentially and I had no doubt Tate was now working two fingers in and out of my body. He rubbed over my gland a few more times as hehollowed out his cheeks and sucked hard and I was a goner. I shot load after load of cum in his mouth and even as hard as he worked to try and swallow it, some escaped his lips as he parted them when his own release hit him. As we both came down, Tate pulled his fingers from my body and I leaned down and yanked him up and sealed my mouth over his. The water had washed the cum on his mouth away, but I could still taste myself as I licked over his tongue and teeth. When I released his mouth, Tate wrapped his arms around me in a brutal hug and I just held him there like that.
Once my breathing had returned to normal, I took my time washing Tate and myself again and then dried him off and led him back to bed. He was asleep within minutes of me pulling him against my side, but I wasn’t so lucky. I laid there for hours trying to process what I was feeling, but nothing made any sense to me and the lack of control was frustrating. And as the first filtered rays of sun seeped through the window, I gently rolled Tate onto his back and placed soft kisses on his mouth and face until he woke up. I made love to him again, slowly this time and I felt a rush of joy when he whispered that he loved me before falling asleep again. I got him cleaned up and stared at the clock next to the bed, willing it to slow down. But when Tate started to stir against me a couple of hours later, I closed my eyes and didn’t open them again.
Not when he carefully eased himself from my hold.
Not when he got dressed.
Not when he leaned down to brush his lips over mine.
And not even when I heard the front door close and the sound of a muffled engine making its way down the driveway.
“I don’t recall givingyou permission to track my phone,” I murmured as I heard the footsteps approaching from behind me. I was sitting on the dilapidated porch of my uncle’s house staring at the overgrown yard, so my back was to Ronan as he came around the house and up the steps on the far end of the porch. The railing had long ago rotted and collapsed so I had an unfettered view of thewoods and mountains beyond as I sat with my back against the wall of the house.
“And if it really bothered you, you would have turned the phone off or gotten a new one,” Ronan said as he sat down next to me. I glanced at him and couldn’t help the smile that flitted across my lips at the sight of the stubble covering his head. It had been nearly three weeks since Tate and I had video chatted with Matty after he’d gotten his head shaved and I suspected that Ronan had continued to shave his own head for some time afterwards because it was just now starting to grow back.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. A tremor of fear went through me as I quickly said, “Are Tate and Matty okay?”
“They’re fine. Tate made it home with no problems and Matty’s ANC count finally normalized a couple days ago. ANC stands for-”
“Absolute neutrophil count,” I interrupted. “His white blood cell count had to get back to normal after the chemo killed all of them. That’s why he had to stay in the Immunocompromised Services Unit at the hospital for so long after the chemo was finished. He was too susceptible to infections.”
Ronan didn’t respond so I glanced over at him. He was watching me with a mix of curiosity and pity and I turned back to focus on the horizon. There was no reason to explain that from the moment Matty had been admitted, I’d researched everything I could about his condition. Because Ronan would want to know why.
And I didn’t have an answer for that.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. I hadn’t had an answer five weeks ago when I’d started researching the disease, but I had one now.
“He was released yesterday,” Ronan said.
I nodded in understanding. Matty would only be out of the hospital for a week or so and then the whole process would start all over again. More chemo, more tests, more pain. My heart ached as I thought of all he and Tate would have to endure over the next six months. And a healthy outcome wasn’t even a certainty.
“Why are you here, Ronan?” I asked tiredly.
“Why are you?”
When I glanced at him, he said, “I know you’ve been talking toDaisy. She found information that proves Ricardo Davos is in Laredo.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me that Ronan would know everything Daisy had told me. “Then you know that she didn’t find any proof of Buck or Denny being part of Davos’s crew,” I said.
“Which is why I’ve spent the past three weeks monitoring your GPS so I would know when to send someone down there to back you up.”
“What about whoever it is you have watching me?” I shot Ronan a glance and wasn’t surprised to see not even an ounce of guilt. “Who is it?” I asked.
“Mav.”
I nodded. Mav was a good guy to have your back. I hadn’t been one hundred percent sure that I was being watched…it had been more of a feeling than anything else. But it hadn’t surprised me that Ronan would take whatever steps necessary to make sure I was covered.
I’d planned to leave for Laredo the day after Tate had left, but I’d ended up putting off the trip until I’d gotten more information from Daisy. I’d gotten that information the very next day, but three weeks later and I still hadn’t been able to bring myself to get in the truck and go.
And I had no idea why.
“Talk to me, Hawke,” Ronan said quietly.
I sighed and shook my head. “I thought this place was so cool when my mom and I moved here,” I mused as I scanned the property. “And then she was gone and I was left with him. I tried running away once – a few weeks after she died. I didn’t even make it to the end of the driveway before he came after me. He locked me in a closet for three days.”
