“Ah.” Balta nodded and surprised him by leaning over and kissing him, just bringing their lips together in an oddly-gentle caress. “It is not so hard for me. It has been so long and Joa has worked hard to make life easy. You will learn,sim, and you will find this home one day.”
Balta sounded so damned sure.
Raul tried to nod, but he felt unsteady. Unsure. Balta wrapped an arm around him and tugged him into the lee of that solid male body, the warmth almost shocking.
So he leaned, gathering strength from Balta’s abundance.
They fed each other bites, cheering and groaning at various turns depending on the play on the television. By the time Brazil took the game, the food was demolished and his eyes drooped, so heavy.
“Joa will be in the middle of the bed, Raul, missing us.”
“Mmm. He will. Thank you for the snack.” He kissed Balta’s jaw, feeling bold.
“Thank you for sharing it. It is better than sitting in the dark alone, to be with a lover.” Balta winked, the look so naughty. “Joa needs his sleep, you see. All of it. Otherwise he is acaipora,sim?”
Oh, Raul could not see Joa ever being a monster, hiding in the trees and waiting to take down an unwary child… Still, the idea made him snort out a chuckle. Then he thought on what Balta had said before that. “I don’t need as much sleep, hmm? Anytime you need me…”
“I believe I do,meu lindo.” Balta gathered the trash in his broad hands as he stood, stared.
Raul rose, helping to gather their things before turning off the TV. His body tried to tell him things he wasn’t sure Balta meant by the words, but those dark eyes held promises.
Then Balta wrapped one arm around his waist and began to walk them back to the bedroom. It was dark and, as Balta had said, Joa was curled in the center of the bed.
They both stripped out of their pants and Balta stopped him, tilting his head back to kiss him as if there was no tomorrow, tongue pushing in, conquering his mouth.
Oh.
Oh, he stepped in, meeting Balta more than halfway, slamming them together with a muffled moan. The broad, fuzzy chest was so unlike Joa’s smooth skin, and Balta’s kisses were like the fireball whiskey Landon Gaudet had made him try on a dare just before the finals.
Hot and burning, lighting him up from the inside—they were totally unlike Joa and his sweet, yielding mouth that threatened to draw him in. No, this was not an invitation to take the reins. Balta simply overwhelmed his good sense.
Raul wrapped his fingers around Balta’s hip, thumb rubbing over the soft skin he found there. There were scars, as well, webbed across Balta’s lower back, one puckered monster scar on Balta’s lower ribs.Deus, he remembered that from watching it on the television. Balta had been gored, and they had all held their breath, hoping he made it through.
He’d prayed for days, lighting a candle every morning, every night, for Baltazar Silva’s life.
Joa stirred on the sheets, then sat up, blinking at them. “Midnight snack?” he asked, and Raul felt Balta laugh against his lips.
“Shh,doce. We were just coming back to bed,sim?” Balta eased him in next to Joa, who moved over to give them room. Balta snuggled in close, the furnace of Balta’s body making his eyes cross with pleasure.
He’d never been so close to anyone that he spent the night with them this way, and now he had two. He was—Raul felt blessed.
Blessed and sated and ready to rest.
He curled his hand around Joa’s waist, and Balta’s entire body ended up plastered against his back.
Raul breathed deep, smelling musk and man and a hint of Doritos. Yes. He was a lucky man.
