“I’ll be quick.” I rip his ruined sleeve, gritting teeth at the nasty cut and the bit of glass still stuck there. If Doña Chela hadn’t told me, who knows when I’d have noticed. I was way too focused on getting out of the shop and missed all the signs!
“Really, it’s nothing, Niko. I’m fine.”
I level him with a hard look, then grab the tweezers and remove the shards of glass. He does his best to appear unaffected, but it doesn’t last as he winces and whimpers when I slather the wound with disinfectant and bandage it. It’s not perfect, but it will do. “Don’t ever lie to me.”
He presses his lips into a line. “I wasn’t lying. I just…” Tipping his head back to where we came from, he shrugs. “We had more important things to worry about, so I just kept quiet about it.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you, sweetheart, but don’t do it ever again. If you are hurt, I need to know immediately.”
He sniffles, averting his eyes as a faint flush settles over his cheeks. I think he’s touched. My heart skips a beat. Fuck, really? Has no one ever cared for this lovely man before?
When I’m done putting the first aid kit back in the bag, he pulls on my sleeve. After a moment of hesitation, he hugs me tightly, burying his face in my chest. “Thanks, Niko. You are the best.”
I wrap my arms around him and pull him as close as I can. Something settles in my chest, making it flutter and pulsate with warmth. I must protect him at all costs. I don’t care if I’ve gone mad and fallen for him just after a couple of days, I don’t care if he’s just managed to get under my skin. It really doesn’t matter, because it won’t change the facts—Tommy is mine and the only thing I regret is not meeting him sooner.
Doña Chela clears her throat and calls us over. It’s safe around the corner, so we can exit the tunnels. I nod and relay that to Tommy.
Still, we are slow and careful as we creep closer to the exit. She goes out first, motioning for us to wait, then disappears out of sight. We do as instructed until she returns a minute later. When we step out, me first and Tommy following, I find the surroundings unfamiliar. A small canal trickles by, with weeds and cattails overrunning the opposite bank. This side is reinforced with concrete and houses the tunnels. A rusty ladder just off their entrance takes us to the road above.
It’s deserted, but I can hear a commotion coming from where thick smoke billows out into the air, a few blocks away. That must be where we came from. I haven’t heard any more explosions, so our pursuers are either searching for us, or have figured out we’re no longer in the area.
“Niko, stop staring! Come on! We need to go!” Tommy urges, pulling my shirt.
Doña Chela is already in the driver’s seat of the closest car when I turn around. She waves us over frantically, roaring the engine of the old-looking truck. Entangling my fingers with Tommy’s, I lose no time sprinting over. Once we get in, she floors it like she’s a car racer. The houses and greenery blend together, and for a few moments, I fear we might crash. But after we take a sharp turn without rolling over, I realize that the old woman knows what she’s doing. How, I couldn’t begin to guess, but I can’t wait to ask her about it once we are safe.
Confident that our driver won’t kill us, I shift my focus to Tommy. He’s snuggled to my side, his breathing fast and shallow. He’s also shaking.
“It’s okay, Tommy. We’ll be fine. Doña Chela will take us to an airstrip nearby where my friend should be waiting.”
He fishes out the red gem from his pocket, studying the way it reflects the sunlight. “This is so fucking crazy. I should’ve never gone to that stupid party. But, well”—he lifts his head and looks at me with adoration— “at least I got to meet you.”
My sweet, borderline insane, little devil.
I nuzzle his nose with mine as we press our foreheads together. My life rarely ever had any good in it, but he more than makes up for that. He’s the star in my dark sky, shining the brightest as if to show me the way.
Unable to resist the craving in my chest, I press my mouth to his. His lips are slightly damp as they welcome me, his tongue is hot and sweet. I deepen the kiss at the first taste of him, the hot sweetness too much to resist. He moans quietly as he lets me in, his entire body melting against me.
This is bliss. Heaven if I knew any. I lick and explore every crevice of his mouth, claiming and mapping. His tongue chases after mine, and they tangle and untangle as I make my way to every corner of his mouth.
“Wow,” he says when we pull apart, his sky-blue eyes twinkling like the surface of the ocean in daylight. “You’re a real pro at this. Are you sure you upheld your celibacy, Father Gabriel?”
His grin is a caress to my soul. I kept a low profile, didn’t wander much. I had my church and the people in the village to take care of. It could be boring some days, I concur, but I’d convinced myself a simple life was what I wanted. So I did my best to purge all earthly desires from my bloodstream, and after a while, I got used to only an occasional late night in the company of my hand. Pretty men or women, as tempting as they were, were just too risky. Too dangerous, too big of a reminder of my old life.
Doña Chela drives over a nasty bump, causing my head to hit the car’s roof. It pulls me back to reality, breaking the dreamy bubble I’ve surrounded myself with in the middle of escaping our enemies. But my daydreaming really is Tommy’s fault—he’s just too fucking cute.
I plant a kiss on his head. “I’ve not been with anyone in years, Tommy. Didn’t feel the need to either, for a while. And then you had to show up and ruin my equilibrium from the moment I saw you.”
His smirk is mind-jumbling, the way his lips arch up as a mischievous glint finds its way into his eyes. “Equilibrium, huh?” He snorts. “So when I offered that blowjob the night you drove me to the hotel in town, you were just playing hard to get, weren’t you?”
Shaking my head, I melt into the seat and stare out the window. The scenery has changed from fields to bushesand trees. “I kept dreaming about you. Imagining all the lewd things I wanted to do to you. It was torture.”
His hand snakes up my thigh, caressing the inner side. “I think you should do all these naughty things you imagined doing to me.” When I raise my eyebrows in challenge at him, he waves his arms. “So you can purge yourself of the desire, of course. It’s no good to hold on to it when you have such a perfectly willing outlet nearby,” he declares, pointing at himself.
Ugh, he’s such an adorable dumbass.
“You are so full of it.” I laugh.
“I can be full of something else, too.” He winks at me, poking that smartass pink tongue out as he gropes my dick.
