Burning Bright (20 page)

Then it occurred to him. “I woke with us almost naked in bed.” The tiny boxer briefs Paul wore really couldn’t be called “dressed”. It sounded like a logical defense to him. The guys better not tag him with “Sasha the Molester”. It sounded like something they would do. Had someone, like Mitch maybe, set him up as a joke?

A warm hand stroked his back. “Steve said that Neal explained the whole tiger thing to you.”

“I must have missed the sleeping naked together part,” Sasha responded tartly.

“Pity, that’s the best part. We like to snuggle and since you’re connected to the tribe now I kinda wanted you to smell like me too.”

Pleasure swept away any lingering embarrassment. He stretched and rubbed his chin against the hard curve of muscle under his cheek, marking Paul like cats did. A rumbling purr rewarded him.

He snuggled closer, satisfied his gaffe had been repaired, and Paul settled back.

At least cats were affectionate. He drifted off again, his empathy warming him like a balm.

Sasha woke later and headed upstairs for a shower. Paul’s eyes cracked open but he didn’t say anything, just watched him get to his feet. He rolled over and snuffled into the pillow as Sasha walked away.

He went upstairs and nearly arrived at Neal’s door when footsteps approached. He turned; TJ moved toward him. Sasha stopped and waited near Neal’s door. The large frame in the club’s version of a uniform and buzz cut announced “Marine”. The stalking gait and sharp intensity of the other’s regard screamed “tiger”. Sasha swallowed any nervousness; TJ was the only one of Neal’s men he’d not spent any time with. Every time it almost happened, TJ would disappear.

Again he noted the similarities to the other men. All of Neal’s guys were huge, with mannerisms and lingo left over from the military, but all possessed the fluid grace of their tigers trapped inside. So far, of all the men he’d met, in this one he could see the beast. Hazel eyes bled to amber as TJ neared.

TJ stopped directly in front of Sasha and sniffed. Now aware of their secret, all the other times Neal did the same floated to his mind’s eye. TJ pressed forward and rubbed, his lean frame pushing against Sasha’s more slender one. Bracing himself, Sasha remained calm. The wall behind him helped keep him upright.

In hindsight, Felipe had done the same. Neal made it glaringly obvious how easily his clothes ripped off. Sasha’s own fear had escalated that encounter, but he was still grateful for Steve’s intervention. He knew better than to meet TJ’s gaze directly, but looking down and appearing submissive didn’t seem like a good idea, either. He settled for staring at a bony collarbone, one that protruded from a too-loose T-shirt.

This observation made Sasha frown. Why did this tiger appear almost skinny when Neal ran a restaurant?

Sharp teeth nipping his earlobe focused his attention back. Startled, he pulled his head away and glanced up. Feline slitted eyes stared back. When the narrow nostrils flared, Sasha went cold. TJ could
smell
his nervousness.

He couldn’t help his instinctive reaction, he jerked away, sliding sideways down the wall. The taller man tensed before backing away.

“My tiger scared you, didn’t it?”

TJ’s voice rasped raw and the now hazel eyes darkened with frustration and pain. Sasha wanted to protest, but it had elements of the truth.

Before he could open his mouth, TJ rushed away. A door slammed a few moments later. He closed his eyes. That could’ve really gone better. The others warned him of TJ’s wariness, but he’d always assumed it meant he was introverted. His empathy informed him of
that
mistake…

A soft caress on his cheek and a “Hey, Doc,” made him open his eyes. Neal sniffed.

“You talked to TJ?” Neal reached past him and turned the doorknob, herding him inside.

“Not really. He’s kinda…intense.”

They sat together on the sofa and Neal pulled him into an embrace. Sasha snuggled close and warm hands slid into the robe to stroke his back. The massive chest rose and fell in a sigh under his cheek.

“He’s had it worse trying to deal with the attack.” Neal’s voice sounded sad.

“I imagine it wasn’t easy for any of you.”

“Yeah, but he woke up afterward with the tiger eating him alive. It’s making it difficult to deal with his own beast.”

Sasha shuddered. That mental image he could have lived without, especially before breakfast.

Still drowsy from the late night of watching movies, he dozed against Neal’s chest. After a moment, a rumbling noise started up again that wasn’t a snore, but an honest-to-Gods purr.

He snuggled closer, delighted.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Funding Cuts

Tuesday came and, with it, a growing desire to discover what happened with his job. According to what Dr. Salisbury shared with him, the committee met yesterday, and he should have news today. He left the Factory and went home, too anxious to wait around there any longer. Sasha didn’t want to drive his new lovers crazy.

His mobile phone bleated at him and he pulled over to answer it. Dr. Salisbury’s voice sounded tired as he talked, and after his first few words, Sasha went numb.

Funding cuts.

He had to go back to Madison.

Sasha set his keys on the counter between the small kitchenette and the rest of the studio. He tried to ignore the pitted yellow walls and threadbare carpet, but the contrast between here and Neal’s place seemed striking. He used the can and went into the kitchen to wash his hands. The fridge still had some frozen shrimp and salad greens which he pulled out to make for dinner.

“Funding cuts.” It sounded so innocuous. Dr. Salisbury seemed genuinely apologetic, not to mention personally disappointed. The older man even offered to help Sasha in any way he could, offered him lab space if he needed it…

While the shrimp thawed, Sasha pulled out a knife to chop veggies. He refused to remember his excitement at finding it on sale and his idea of cooking Neal dinner for a change. Then his mobile rang. He almost didn’t pick it up, but the number for Neal’s phone blinked at him. Damn, speak of the Dom. Neal wouldn’t take it well if he blew him off.

“Hey, Doc,” Neal’s voice greeted. “You hungry?”

Sasha wanted to cry. “I’m making lunch now, actually.”

A sudden knock on the door startled him. He walked over to the peephole and stared. Neal’s warm cinnamon brown gaze looked back at him.

“Good thing I brought salad dressing then.”

“Neal…” Sasha leaned his head against the door, aching.

“You gonna let me in? Or do I have to drink this dressing?”

Sasha laughed in spite of himself and flipped the lock open. He rolled over to lean his back against the wall, desperate to see Neal but unwilling to let him see the squalor of his apartment.

Neal walked in like he’d been there before. He didn’t hesitate, just walked over to the stove to inhale. He set an honest-to-Gods bottle of salad dressing on the counter and stirred the shrimp.

“Neal, I—”

“I know, Doc,” Neal cut in. He turned and leaned against the sink. “I know what happened. Mario’s sister works at the University. She knows Doc Salisbury, they play chess together and she feeds his parrot.”

Sasha spun to face the wall so Neal wouldn’t see him tear up like some fucking infant. Neal moved and come over to him, and then big hands turned him gently by the shoulders.

“Talk to me, Sasha.”

It was the first time Neal used his name. It completely unmanned him. He threw himself against the bigger man and hung on for dear life. The tears came out clotted and painful.

“I’m sorry. I know you really wanted the job.”

“I can’t afford to stay, Neal,” he cried. “My mom’s medical care is too much. I can’t carry it and this place, even if it is a dump.” His voice grew raspy with emotion. “I can’t sell the farm, not while she’s alive. I have to go back to Madison…”

Neal’s hands tightened. “Leave?”

Sasha nodded. “I only have this place through the end of the month. My mom’s estate has enough to pay the taxes on the farm, but that’s it. I need the rest from it to pay for her care. I can’t sell it while she’s alive or even talk to her about it since she doesn’t even remember my name—” A sob stole his voice and he clamped his mouth shut. He hadn’t meant to say that much out loud.

Neal sighed and then turned. He leaned over and switched the heat off so the seafood didn’t burn. “You have to go back there?”

In for a penny, in for a pound… “Yeah. My mom’s lawyer agreed to loan me enough from her estate to come down here and find a job. But the money stops at the end of the month and there aren’t any openings at clinics where I can do my work. I’ve already applied.”

“The guys are real fond of you,” Neal said then. “What would you say to staying on? You could do stuff around the place. I have a condo open. You could stay there, cook and clean, until you find a clinic.”

Sasha turned away. “I don’t want your charity.”

Neal spun him around and slammed him back first against the wall. “You think this is charity?” he shouted, eyes full of emotion.

“Neal, I—”

Neal kissed him, interrupting his words. The bigger man ground himself against Sasha’s lips, rough and possessive. He opened his mouth and Neal’s hand clamped on his jaw, holding his head against the wall. That Neal was the perfect lover made this harder, not easier.

Neal released him. “Don’t you get it?” he snarled. “This is not charity, you selfish bastard.
I
don’t want you to leave.” He released Sasha so fast he stumbled. Neal whirled and gripped the counter, staring at the half-prepared vegetables.

“Neal, I…” Sasha trailed off. He had no clue what to say. “Are you serious?”

Cinnamon-brown eyes flashed at him. “What do you think?”

“It’s what I want. It’s just…” He couldn’t do it; he couldn’t make himself ask the question.

Neal spun and grabbed Sasha’s shoulders. He slid a warm hand into Sasha’s hair to cup his head. “I suck at this crap, Doc. I let someone walk out when I should have stopped him. I couldn’t say the right…” Sasha watched as Neal closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When they opened again moisture shone. “Say what was in my
heart
.” He shook Sasha gently. “I still can’t dammit.” Neal took a deep breath. “I love you.”

“I…”

“Please.” Neal shook him. “Please don’t go.”

A rushing filled his ears. He couldn’t be dreaming, not in this shitbox of an apartment, but he couldn’t have heard right. “What?”

Neal smirked slightly, an arrogant tilt to his chin that the flinching in his eyes belied. “I said, I don’t want you to go.”

“I never dreamed I’d hear you say that. I fell so hard for you that first day that I thought I would never see daylight.”

Neal blinked. “Poetic.” He cocked his head. “You sure you’re not a chick?”

“Fuck me and find out,” Sasha shot back.

Neal cupped Sasha’s chin and kissed him, his tongue gentle but possessive. Neal’s hands stroked Sasha’s hair and back, then slid under his shirt to pull it off over his head. Neal didn’t pull the arms free, but left the shirt hanging from Sasha’s wrists behind him like a restraint.

But Sasha wasn’t about to let Neal take away the use of his hands. Not this time. He pulled his arms free and cupped the big man’s face. Holding the strong chin stationary, he licked along Neal’s jaw to his throat. He pushed against Neal and backed him out of the kitchen and across the short distance to his bed. Shoving at the right moment, Neal toppled backward onto the mattress.

Sasha crawled over Neal’s legs and unzipped his fly with gentle fingers. He slipped the belt free and tossed it onto the floor, the buckle making a loud knock as it landed on the wood. Pulling the soft blue cotton shirt free, Sasha undid Neal’s buttons one by one. He pulled both halves of the shirt open to bare Neal’s stomach to the room.

He used his thumbs to knead along the big planes of Neal’s stomach. The massage oil sat on the far side of the bed, causing him to stretch over the big man’s body to get it. He squirted it without warning directly on Neal’s stomach and the muscles jumped, contracting sharply to reveal the six-pack.

“Paybacks are Hell,” Neal murmured, eyes twinkling.

Sasha leaned close enough that Neal’s eyes dilated as he watched. “That’s if I don’t fuck you blind first.” He licked Neal’s chin and then went back to massaging his abdomen.

Neal wanted to move, Sasha could tell by the aborted movement of his hips. He stretched into the massage, distracted, but clearly loving it.

“Jesus, Doc. You missed your calling.”

Sasha smiled, pleased. “It’s how I paid my way through college, remember? I’m a licensed massage therapist in Wisconsin and Illinois, except Chicago requires its own license and I can’t afford it yet.”

He rubbed up along the chest and dug into the tense muscles along the tops of the shoulders, then pulled on Neal to get him to roll over. He pulled Neal’s shirt free and then yanked at the boots. They came free after some struggle and he pulled the socks off, then his pants.

“Going commando again?” Sasha noted.

“Of course.”

“I’m surprised you don’t stain your pants.”

“I have better control than you do.”

Sasha stretched out along his back and put his mouth against Neal’s ear. “Not today, you don’t.”

Neal chuckled, the deep growly sound that Sasha loved. He picked up the massage oil and grabbed the lube with his other hand, setting it next to his leg. Pouring oil along Neal’s spine and across his ass, Sasha then spent nearly fifteen minutes working at the muscles of his back. Neal mushed up a pillow and relaxed into it with a deep sigh, surrendering.

The oil heated as he worked it, the familiar warmth radiating into his hands as the magic started. Sasha let it come this time, didn’t try to hide it like he might with a client. He intended to use every trick he had to show Neal his feelings. Scooting down, he used his elbow to grind into the tense muscles of the glutes.

“Gods, your ass muscles are tight.”

Neal chuckled. “Yeah, well. I’m a tight-assed top, what can I say?”

Not tonight… Sasha smirked. He let his slick fingers trail into the valley between Neal’s ass cheeks and the big man groaned, long and low. He scooted his leg to the side, giving Sasha more room to reach him.