Chapter Ten

 

Lucas stirred, sleep slowly fading from him. He opened his eyes to his bedroom, dark with night, and a strong arm and warm body curled around him from behind. He smiled to himself, releasing a contented sigh. He had a ghost of a feeling left from Conrad’s cock, reminding him of the pleasure Conrad had given him. And it made him want Conrad again.

He stretched his legs, shifting back into him. Conrad’s cock was nestled against his ass, half-hard, though Conrad seemed deep in sleep. He ran his hand down Conrad’s forearm that was draped over his waist, feeling the cords of muscle. Touching him, having him close, his need began sparking fresh again.

But how could it not? He’d been awestruck by Conrad’s looks when he first saw him. Getting to know him and his personality only transposed that into solid, undeniable attraction…try though he did to fight it. Since he managed to shut down his doubts and opened himself to what he wanted, that attraction had strengthened. All day, he’d felt it, making him anxious, yearning to have time alone with Conrad. When his father had announced his dinner plans and wanting Conrad to watch his back, he’d nearly shouted in frustration. While they were gone, he’d waited, clock watching, and decided he was going to do all he could to let Conrad know his doubts, his reservations, were gone.

He did a pretty damn good job.

When Conrad had walked into his bedroom, it took all his control to not launch himself at him. And when they’d kissed, it was bliss. Complete and absolute bliss. Conrad’s lips, his tongue, the way he held him, it unraveled him. Then undressing him, finally seeing all of Conrad, he barely had enough control to keep it together. He’d known Conrad had a fine body from admiring him with his clothes on, but seeing him without them took it to another level.

Conrad’s chest was thick with muscle, blond hair dusting it. His abs were defined, deeply grooved. Conrad’s torso tapered down to a V, and all he could think when the pants and boxer-briefs dropped was getting those slender hips between his legs. And how Conrad was hung, the way his cock stretched and filled him…

Lucas shifted his hips with the memory, his cock achingly hard once again. He took a deep breath, trying to settle himself down, but his mind refused the let go of how good Conrad felt on top of him, the way the muscles in his back shifted and flexed under his hands with each thrust. The assertiveness, the confidence, the hunger in the way Conrad had taken him.

Drawing in a slow, deep breath, Lucas released it. How the hell was he supposed to fall back to sleep now? He glanced toward the night table where his phone was beside the lube and condoms. He stretched, catching it on the tip of his middle finger, and dragged it closer. Picking it up, he hit the button, seeing it was a little after 3:00 in the morning. There was still a lot of night left.

“Stop wiggling.”

Conrad’s voice, deep and drowsy, made Lucas’s breath catch in his throat. The man said two words, not even sexy ones, yet that’s all it took to have him turned on. Wiggling—despite being told to stop it—Lucas tucked himself tight against him. “Did I wake you up?”

“Wasn’t that what you were trying to do?” Conrad rubbed his hand over Lucas’s hip to his cock, closing his fingers around the solid shaft.

Lucas’s breath slipped from his throat. He knew he’d wanted him again, but having Conrad’s strong hand wrap around his cock made him desperate. He laid his hand on Conrad’s. “Yeah, I think it was, even if I didn’t realize it as I was doing it.”

“Maybe your mind didn’t, but your body did.” Conrad moved his hand on Lucas’s cock, giving it a few slow pumps.

All Lucas could respond with was a hushed, “yeah,” as he felt Conrad waking his body to the pleasure he craved to have again.

Conrad propped himself up on one elbow, kissing Lucas’s neck. His cock, fully filled, slipped between Lucas’s ass cheeks. Lucas’s attention locked on the feel of the smooth cockhead pressed against his hole. He moved the slightest bit, getting more pressure. A hard push from Conrad and his cock would be inside him. He wanted that, so damn much, to feel him bare, but this was only their second time. And he didn’t know, was this a casual thing? Was it the start of a relationship? He had no clue. The only thing he did know was he wanted him, needed to have him.

“Conrad…”

Conrad smiled against Lucas’s neck. “Let me guess. No foreplay?”

Lucas couldn’t hold back his own smile. “We’ll get to that eventually, I promise.”

“Maybe we’ll have to make it afterplay, since you don’t have the patience for it and want to get right to having my dick in you.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“You won’t ever get complaints from me about you wanting my dick.” Conrad lightly nipped Lucas’s shoulder. “Hand me the lube and a condom.”

Lucas lunged toward the night table, snatching the lube and a condom. He twisted at the waist, offering both to Conrad, and catching the wolfish smirk on Conrad’s lips.

“Eager?” Conrad asked.

Giving him a smirk of his own, Lucas said, “Very. So, less talking, more lubing.”

Conrad laughed and rolled to his back, pushing the covers down. “Damn, first no foreplay. Now no talking. By morning, you’re going to be treating me like I’m nothing but a six foot one, mobile cock.”

“Who says it’ll take until morning?”

Conrad paused in rolling on the condom. He met Lucas’s gaze and laughed softly. “I like a man who can keep up with my smartass ways.” He squeezed a line of lube over his cock, smoothing the clear fluid to coat it. “And I knew you could when I first met you.” He tossed the bottle aside. “Let’s see what else you can keep up with.”

Facing forward, Lucas started the lay on his side. “I think I kept up with you pretty damn good earlier—” A gasp left him rather than words, a hard shove on his shoulder pushing him to his stomach.

Conrad was instantly over him, spreading Lucas’s legs further apart with his knee. He brought his lips to Lucas’s ear. “I held back a bit. Do you like to fuck hard? And I mean, real hard.”

His heart already pounding, his body on edge with anticipation, Lucas nodded. “Give me all you got.”

Conrad moaned his approval.

Lucas felt the press of the cockhead on his hole, and he lifted his ass to it. Conrad pushed down to meet him, and on Lucas’s next heartbeat, the broad head was stretching his rim. Conrad sank into him slowly. Lucas closed his eyes, concentrating on the feel of the solid rod filling him. He couldn’t stop himself from raising his hips off the bed to take more. He’d meant what he said. He wanted all Conrad could give him.

His hips pressed flat to Lucas’s ass, Conrad rocked against him, keeping their bodies tight together, grinding. “Do you like how I feel inside you?”

Trying to find words through his desire, Lucas pulled in a breath to answer. “So fucking much.”

“That’s good, because…” Conrad pulled his hips back. “It’s going to be hard for me to get enough of you. If I even can.” He drove forward with a hard thrust.

Lucas shouted in pleasure. The force of Conrad’s thrust drove him to the bed. More followed, Conrad setting a fast, hard pace. The downward angle he pounded his cock into him hit Lucas’s gland, sending sparks of ecstasy through him on each one. He gripped the bottom sheet, spreading his legs wider, wanting to feel every inch of Conrad’s cock. Conrad’s strength, the power in his body, sending Lucas’s need soaring.

He heard his own loud moans filling his bedroom, Conrad’s lower, rumbling groans in harmony with him. Everything faded from Lucas but what was happening between him and Conrad, their bodies, their voices, the pleasure they delivered to each other. He slammed back against Conrad, increasing the force that their bodies came together, and a loud moan from Conrad filled his ears. Lucas snapped back again, finding a rhythm with him, both of them driving hard against each other.

Pure, raw lust consumed Lucas, burned through him. His cock rubbed against the bed. He could feel his climax building, and became desperate for it.

Conrad lowered his head, his warm breath blowing against Lucas’s neck. “Fuck, you make me hot. I’m close again.”

Lucas laid his hand over Conrad’s on the bed, curling his fingers around it in a tight hold. “Me too. Don’t stop. Make us both come.”

A deep rumble of approval came from Conrad. He thrust harder, faster. Lucas clenched Conrad’s hand…so close…about to let go…

Conrad brushed his lips down Lucas’s neck. Reaching his shoulder near the curve, he gave him a firm bite and slammed into him with his hardest thrust yet.

Pain and pleasure erupted through Lucas. He heaved back against Conrad, his climax exploding from him, his cock shooting hard between his body and the bed. Conrad released him from the bite with a rough groan, and Lucas knew Conrad had come with him.

Lucas lay still, slowly opening his clenching grip on Conrad’s hand. He breathed heavy and fast, his head was light, drunk on ecstasy and lust.

Conrad thrust a few more times, gently, then eased out of him. He kissed Lucas’s back between his shoulder blades. Speaking between quick breaths, he said, “You definitely kept up with me. But was it too much?”

A grin spread over Lucas’s lips. “I’ll let you know when I can think again, since you fucked my brains out.”

Chuckling soft and low, Conrad slid off the bed, patting Lucas’s ass. “I’m going to take that as it was good for you.”

“That’s exactly how you should take it.” Lucas tipped his head down, peeking over his arm to watch Conrad walk into the bathroom and get a look at muscled curves of his ass.

Conrad returned after a few moments and sat on the edge of the bed, wiping Lucas clean. “Any time you want that, don’t hesitate to wake me up.”

With a groan of effort, Lucas rolled to his back. “Believe me, I won’t.” He gazed up at Conrad, his blond hair framing his face. A surge of affection washed through him. He reached up, caressing Conrad’s cheek and tucking his hair behind his ear. Conrad met Lucas’s gaze, holding it. A warm smile rose to his lips, and Lucas had a feeling that what Conrad saw in his eyes, he liked.

Lowering to him, Conrad touched their lips together in a gentle kiss. Lucas sank his fingers into Conrad’s hair, ready to fall asleep in his arms again. His stomach gurgled, as if in protest of the thought.

Conrad grinned through the kiss. “Sounds like you need to refuel.”

“I could use a snack. What about you?”

“I’m starved.” Conrad nodded toward a small refrigerator near the bathroom. “Anything in there, or do you want me to run down to the kitchen?”

“No, there’s some stuff in there.”

Standing, Conrad went to the mini fridge and opened it. “There’s nothing in here but pudding cups, string cheese, and beer. It’s like I warped back to one of my old high school boyfriends’ house.”

Lucas paused in propping up the pillows behind him. “One of your boyfriends?”

Having found a clean spoon on top of the refrigerator, Conrad walked back to the bed with two pudding cups and two beers. He twisted the cap off one and offered it to Lucas. “I was young. Had a lot of energy and figured I should spread the love around. Wasn’t much of a one man guy back then.”

Nodding slowly, Lucas took a beer and pudding cup from Conrad. “And what kind of man are you now?”

“Not that kind,” Conrad said, slipping into bed beside him.

“So, you’re not seeing anyone else?”

Grinning, Conrad lifted the beer to his lips. “Little late to ask that since we’ve already fucked.”

Lucas fixed him with a flat look, trying to express that he wanted a serious answer.

Conrad leaned against him. “No, I’m not seeing anyone. And since you said it’d been a while for you, I’m guessing you’re not either unless you’re with some guy who’s waiting to fuck you on the marital bed.”

Lucas dipped the spoon into the chocolate pudding. “No, I’m not. I haven’t been with anyone in about four…” he paused, thinking, “five months.”

Conrad snapped his head toward him. “How the hell does a man as fine as you go that long without getting laid?”

Lucas shrugged, offering the spoon to Conrad to share it with him. “I was really busy the last few months of school with research and writing my thesis. And I knew I’d be moving back here and didn’t want to get involved with anyone.”

“I get not wanting to get involved, but that still doesn’t explain not getting laid.”

“I’m not much of a casual hook-up kind of guy.”

No response came. Lucas risked a peek at him. Conrad contemplated him, but he didn’t appear surprised or worse, ready to bolt. Rather, Conrad’s gaze was thoughtful, even kind.

“Are you saying I have myself a boyfriend now?” Conrad asked.

Lucas slowly looked away. “No, but…if you wanted one…”

“I wouldn’t be opposed.”

An instant of stunned shock went through Lucas. He turned to Conrad again. “Really?”

“Yeah, but the question is, would you be? Or more to say, would you be opposed to me?”

“I think the night we’ve had speaks for how I feel.”

“No, it speaks for you thinking I’m hot and being horny as fuck. You need to take a step back and really think about what you want. And there’s also the little hitch of what’ll happen when the contract’s up and I go home. I’m good on us being exclusive with each other right now, but before you start calling me the B-word, you need to think about all I’ll bring with me to a relationship.”

Lucas set the pudding cup on the night table and took Conrad’s hand in his. “I thought about all of those things before sleeping with you. If I was ready to take it that far, then I’m good with calling you my boyfriend. As for you going home when the contract’s up, we’ll figure something out.”

Conrad nodded, his gaze fixed downward on the bed, seeming deep in thought.

Nervousness and doubt fluttered through Lucas’s heart. He squeezed Conrad’s hand. “It’s too much, too soon, isn’t it? I’m pushing too fast.”

Shaking his head slightly, Conrad said, “No. It’s just…it’s been a while for me. Feeling all this, thinking of a relationship. Wanting one, actually.”

“I guess with what you do, it’s not easy for you to make connections with people.”

“I can connect fine. But I don’t. It’s better for everyone.” Conrad laughed softly and lifted his gaze to Lucas. “You caught me off guard. Now that’s something you should be damn proud of.”

Lucas brought their lips together in a soft kiss. “Believe me, I am.” He sat back, reaching for his beer again. “How’d you ever get into being a mercenary?”

Tipping his head back, Conrad took a long drink. “I thought it’d be a good way to get revenge.”

“Revenge? Against who?”

“The sack of shit who killed my mom.”

Lucas froze. Slowly, he turned to him, looking to see if there was any sign of Conrad’s words being a joke, but from the hard look in his blue-gray eyes, the grim line of his mouth, there was no humor in Conrad’s expression. He laid a hand on Conrad’s arm. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was a long time ago. We were on our way home from shopping and didn’t live in the best part of town. My parents did they best they could, but they didn’t make a lot of money. She stopped at a red light, and the piece of shit was standing at the corner, waiting for his chance. He ran around the front of the car and shoved his gun through the open window, yelling at her to get out. She was crying, begging that she had her son in the car, to let us go, and…that was it. He pulled the trigger.”

Conrad paused, his gaze fixed downward. Stunned, Lucas tried to find words, but couldn’t think of any strong enough for how terrible he thought what happened was.

Pulling in a deep breath, Conrad continued. “Someone saw it going down and called the cops. There must’ve been one close, because sirens started wailing, and he took off. I’d gotten a good enough look at him to identify him in a line-up, but it didn’t matter. He got off. And that’s when I realized, at the wise old age of thirteen, that the justice system was shit. The only thing laws do is keep honest people honest. How the fuck can a murderer walk free? Because of all the goddamn rules and regulations against those who are trying to uphold laws. One fuckup, and a criminal is back on the streets because of a technicality. Sometimes it seems like the justice system is set up more to protect them, than the people they hurt.

“So I convinced my dad we needed a gun to protect ourselves. It wasn’t hard to do. And together, he and I learned to shoot. But I kept shooting, getting better, more skilled. I saved to buy other guns, and when I got older, I went to the streets, looking for my in. I was eighteen when I met some mercs in a strip club. I knew who they were, what they did, and I told them I wanted to work with them. They laughed at me at first, until I punched one of them in the mouth and told them to fucking test me. They wanted to know if I had the balls to pull the trigger. I gave them the name of the man who killed my mom and told them, if they helped me find him, I’d show them how big my balls were. They did, and one bullet later, I was one of them.” He took another drink of his beer.

Slow realization began to light Lucas’s mind. “It’s all making sense,” he said quietly, almost to himself.

Conrad glanced at him. “What is?”

“Why you do what you do. I didn’t see it before, but when you said, in your line of work, no one who was a target was innocent, you meant that. You work for the bad guys to take out the bad guys. You got into their world so you could know who they were, what they’ve done, where to find them.”

“I’m a lot more efficient than the court system. Plus, no lawyer fees.”

Lucas rested a hand on Conrad’s chest. “Thanks for telling me about your mom. I’m sorry you lost her.”

Conrad nodded, seeming to not have words to follow, but he laid his hand over Lucas’s. In that moment, Lucas felt Conrad had shared and let him see a part of himself that few, if any, ever did.

Lucas looked again to Conrad, smiling at him. “You’re like Batman, a dark knight.”

Conrad burst out laughing. “Uh, no, I’m not. I think he still follows the rules more than I do. I wouldn’t mind having one of the Batmobiles, though. Of course, I do have a pretty badass Harley I think he’d envy.”

“I’d like to see that.”

“You’d have to come home with me to the Bahamas.”

“Is that an invitation?”

Conrad turned a grin on him. “Yeah, it is.”

“Then I accept.” Lucas sat back, another thought passing through his mind. “Will it be bad for you with the contract you have with my dad if he finds out we’re together?”

Conrad shrugged as he sipped his beer. “Since he didn’t add in a Don’t-Fuck-My-Son clause, we should be good.”

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Lucas said, laughing. His humor slowly faded, more serious questions rising in his mind. “Are you going to tell me now how my dad found out about you?”

Caressing down Lucas’s cheek, Conrad curled his fingers under Lucas’s chin. “So you think by letting me have your hot ass, I’m going to spill all my secrets and open my confidentiality on my client?”

Lucas wet his lips, giving him a playful grin. “Kind of.”

Laughing softly, Conrad shook his head. “Well, I can’t say that I won’t tell you, but it might be better if you hear it from daddy dearest. But I’ll drop a clue so when you ask him, you’ll know if he’s telling you the truth. Have you ever heard of the Marciano family?”

“No.”

“Look them up. You’ll be able to find some information on the Internet. Once you do that, go ask him about his connections.”

Lucas had to resist the urge to grab his phone and do a search on the Marciano family. Maybe it was having seen too many mafia themed movies and TV shows, but in his gut, he felt he already knew who they were, especially if they knew how to get in touch with a mercenary. He took a slow, deep breath. “Is there anything in the contract I should know about?”

“I don’t think so. It’s pretty basic. He pays part of my fee upfront, covers all my expenses on the job, and pays the rest after the job’s over. In this case, you know it’s only protection work. The one part that’s different from most of my contracts is the part of him adding in to only use deadly force if no other options are available. Leaves me feeling a bit like a hawk with a broken wing, but I’m working around it, as you saw last night.”

“If it wasn’t for that being part of your contract, would you have killed those guys last night?”

Conrad stared down at his beer bottle, quiet for a long moment. “If I could’ve done it without you seeing it, probably. It wasn’t the clause that stopped me. It was not wanting you to see that.”

Lucas gazed at him. He took the beer bottle from Conrad’s hand, setting it aside on the table, and slid onto his lap facing him. He held Conrad’s face in both hands and leaned close, their lips nearly touching. “I’m positive I want to call you my boyfriend. I think, your kind of bad is what I need. And maybe, my kind of good is what you need.”

Conrad rested his hand on the back of Lucas’s neck. “I think you might be right about that.”

Lucas closed their mouths together, desire rushing through him once more at having Conrad’s warm, soft lips on his. He knew there were challenges ahead of them, possibly even more danger, but he also knew with Conrad close, he would always be protected.