“Never.”
Brantley’s chest heaved, and he realized it wasn’t from exertion; it was from the emotion bubbling to the surface.
This man was all he wanted, all he needed.
His hips slowed, his violent thrusts becoming unhurried, gentler, although just as intense. He kept his hand on Reese’s throat and pressed his face to the side of Reese’s neck as the emotion burst free. The water masked the tears that came, but Brantley wasn’t trying to hide them. The dam had burst, and this was the release he needed to move forward.
“Love me,” Reese begged, his voice hoarse from the angle of his throat. “Love me, Brantley.”
“Always,” he moaned.
When the wave subsided, Brantley released Reese’s neck and gripped his hips. He angled their bodies for maximum penetration, then pounded him again and again until they were both grunting and groaning, the sound echoing in the room.
And when Reese growled his name, his ass squeezing Brantley’s cock, he let himself go, his body shuddering violently as he came with Reese’s name tumbling from his lips.
Chapter Nineteen
AFTER THAT OVERWHELMING ENCOUNTER IN THE SHOWER, Reese managed to get dressed. He went to the kitchen, started a pot of coffee.
“You’re gonna have to go to the store,” Brantley informed him when he joined him a short time later.
“One step ahead of you,” Reese told him. “I placed an order for delivery yesterday. Slade stuck around to put it away.”
Brantley was staring at him like he was from another planet.
“What? You never thought to have groceries delivered?”
Brantley’s dark eyebrows rose slowly. “Actually, no.” He went to the refrigerator, opened it. “Holy shit.”
Yeah, Reese might’ve gone overboard with the order but at least now they wouldn’t starve to death.
“I was gonna make bacon and eggs. Unless you’d prefer something else?”
Brantley closed the refrigerator. “Perfect. You’ve got just enough time to make it. The team’s on the way over.”
Reese glanced back, noticed Brantley was typing something on his phone. There was a definite shift in the air, one that made him feel lighter than before. He knew if he attempted to bring up what had happened, he would be shut down because that was how Brantley operated. Brantley’s theory was to let bygones be bygones, and he was quite possibly the only person Reese knew who didn’t hold a grudge, who didn’t bring up the past. It was a trait Reese admired, even though he didn’t understand it.
He appreciated it now, though, because he did not intend to dwell on the past any longer. He was ready to move forward, and to do that, he had to accept Brantley’s forgiveness and learn to forgive himself in the process.
Reese got to work preparing breakfast like he’d done a hundred times. It wasn’t much, but it would get them through the morning.
Coffee went a long way to clearing the fog from his sleep-deprived brain. He was on his third cup when JJ and Baz arrived. They brought kolaches and a handful of orange juice cartons, dumping their loot on the island.
“I’ve seen his refrigerator,” JJ explained.
“You haven’t seen it lately,” Brantley quipped.
JJ’s gaze darted to him and Reese smiled.
“So, what’s the plan?” Baz asked.
“We’ll wait until Magnus gets here,” Brantley told them.
Ten minutes later, the rest of the team had arrived. Trey, Charlie, Holly, Elana, Deck, Evan, Slade, Darius, and Jay. Luca was the only person missing, but Holly told them her brother was heading in and would be reachable by phone if they needed him. Magnus had brought Gia, introducing her to them as the woman who managed things better than he could, as well as Gia’s husband, Randy. With them, they’d brought three of their best tracking dogs, which gave them four with Tesha.
With everyone standing around the kitchen, Brantley explained what they’d encountered last night. He pulled up a map of the area, showed them the general vicinity he wanted to look in.
“We think he believed that land belonged to you,” Brantley told Magnus.
