Cowboy Gangster 03 - Outlaws of Love (21 page)

Uncertainty darkened Anthony’s eyes. “You don’t foresee complications in his recovery, do you?”

“It isn’t my habit to make assumptions for better or worse,” Adrian explained. “Doing so can actually become a distraction and cause me to possibly overlook crucial symptoms. So I just take it one step at a time, and make my evaluations on a daily basis.”

“All right,” Anthony murmured. “Sounds logical and responsible.”

Adrian smiled. “I do try to be diligent in both. I assure you, Mr. Romero, I will provide your son the best of care.”

“I trust you will.” Anthony returned his smile. “Would you like to get settled in?”

“Yes,” Adrian nodded. “Thank you.”

Anthony turned to the doorway where Angelo stood quietly. “Have Franco bring Mr. Durante’s things to the guest room down the hall.”

“Of course.” Angelo cast Adrian a quick glance that the younger man caught and held briefly before Angelo retreated from the doorway. Cory stared after him, quiet anxiety setting in. Was he interpreting this right? His dad
and
his uncle had eyes for this guy?

This could be either a really, really
good
thing –or a devastating disaster waiting to happen.

♦

“You made it!” Zoe hopped off the stage where the band was setting up and approached the small group. “Awesome!”

His hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans, Axel offered a hesitant smile. Now that he was here, he wasn’t sure he had made the right choice by accepting her invitation. He suddenly felt nervous and unable to meet her eyes directly.

“How soon do you go on?” Angel asked.

“About twenty minutes.” Her gaze slid past Angel to Dane as she looked him over with appreciation. “Is this…?” She grinned at Angel.

“Yes. Sorry,” Angel laughed softly and turned to Dane. “This is Dane –my hot fiancé that I mentioned before.”

“Aww you’re gonna make me blush,” Dane smiled.

Angel rolled his eyes. “Uh-huh,” he smirked. “As if that were possible.” He shook his head. “This is Zoe, our cool new rock star friend.”

Laughing, Zoe shook Dane’s hand. “Well, not quite at rock star status just yet.” She smiled warmly. “It’s really great to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Dane winked.

Angel went on to introduce her to Maddy and Savannah and the other four club boys. “I must’ve died and gone to heaven,” she swooned. “So many beautiful boys in one place. I might faint.”

“Beautiful
gay
boys,” Ricky corrected with a grin and brushed his knuckles against the front of his shirt. “Which makes us even hotter.”

“Oh hell yes,” Zoe agreed wholeheartedly.

Tommy slung his arm around Gavin’s shoulders. “If you want to be as hot as the rest of us, you better claim your inner queer now.”

“You’re not…” Zoe looked at Gavin with a raised brow and doubtful gaze.

“Oh, he is,” Tommy quipped before Gavin could answer and kissed the boy on the cheek. “He’s just pretending not to be. Making me work for it and all.” A mischievous smile curved his lips. “But what he doesn’t know…I don’t mind a little
hard
work.”

The others laughed and Gavin shook his head. “He’s delusional,” he told Zoe.

“I don’t know,” she mused. “He looks pretty serious and determined to me.”

Gavin groaned and Tommy grinned, nodding and hugging Gavin against him. “Damn straight, baby,” he said and kissed Gavin’s temple. “In the words of the Jonas Brothers –I’m gonna getcha good.”

“Hey, leave him alone,” Maddy spoke up. “There’s an extreme shortage of straight boys in our clan. I don’t want to be the only odd man out.”

“Ahh,” Savannah hugged him and smiled. “That just makes you
extra
special.”

“You can have special,” Ricky teased. “I’ll take hotness.”

Maddy cocked an eyebrow. “You sayin’ I’m not hot?”

“You’re hot,” Ricky admitted. “You’d just be hotter if you were a gay boy.”

“He’s hot enough as is,” Savannah insisted, glaring at Ricky with narrow, amused eyes. “Don’t you try tempting him to the dark side.”

Tommy squeezed Gavin and grinned darkly. “But it’s so much fun over here on the dark side.”

His smile wavering, Axel shifted his eyes to the ground. Not so long ago, he might have agreed. Not anymore.

“So do we look country?” Levi spoke up, indicating their attire; jeans, button-down shirts, cowboy boots and cowboy hats.

Zoe laughed and nodded. “You totally blend. Got the whole hot cowboy thing going on.”

“Yeah,” Ricky smirked at Levi. “That hot pink feather band on your hat screams John Wayne.”

“Fuck,” Dane shook his head.

“Don’t dis my feathers, hombre,” Levi sneered. “Just because you can’t rock the pink.”

Ricky rolled his eyes and came back with a mock snide remark that made the group bust up.

“Are they always like this?” Zoe turned her eyes on Axel, her face lit up with a smile.

“As far I know,” Axel laughed quietly.

The four boys wandered over to a refreshment booth for something to drink, with Maddy and Savannah in tow.

“Do you want something?” Dane asked Axel when he and Angel started to follow them.

“Uh…sure,” Axel shrugged. “A soda.” He frowned, uncertain, when Dane’s eyes darted anxiously across the grounds. “Are you okay?”

Dane shifted his stare to Axel. “Yeah,” he answered a bit too quickly, a wavering smile on his lips. “A soda it is.”

Angel glanced at Dane with a puzzled frown, hesitated then trailed after him when he walked away. Left alone with Zoe, Axel grew more nervous.

“Are you going to be around after the show?” Zoe asked, a hopeful look on her face. “I thought, if you were, maybe we could take a walk down the midway, check out the games and rides.”

Axel shifted and glanced at the group over by the refreshment stand. “Dane is my ride,” he mumbled. “I don’t know how soon after the show he’ll be heading back.”

“Well, we’ll have a thirty minute intermission half way through,” Zoe said. “We could take a stroll then. I mean, if you want.” She smiled. “No pressure.”

Axel shrugged and nodded. “Uh, yeah…sure.” His gaze darted to her face and her bright green eyes grabbed his with their warmth. For a fleeting moment, he saw jade eyes staring back and felt the punch in his heart. He looked away and cleared his throat. “I’d like that.”

“Great.” Zoe squeezed his arm affectionately. “I better get back up there and finish helping the band set up.”

Axel met her gaze and nodded. “Okay.”

She gently scooped a wavy strand from his face and tucked it behind his ear, and smiled softly. “I’m really glad you came.”

His throat tight, he whispered, “Me, too.”

♦

The world came to a crashing standstill, halting Clint with an abruptness that ripped the air from his lungs and rooted his feet to the ground. His pulse thundered in his head, beating the inside of his skull as his hard jade eyes locked on the vet’s niece standing so close to Axel. All reason tried to escape him and nearly propelled him forward when she touched Axel –
stroked his hair
.

His hands clenched into fists at his sides and he clamped his jaw to prevent himself from shouting at her to keep her hands off his man.

He isn’t your man anymore. You turned him loose.

It wasn’t so much the girl touching him that tore Clint to pieces –but that Axel
let
her. And smiled at her…as if something was
there.

Maybe he isn’t as nearly heartbroken as you thought.

It was all for the best. Maybe their little “affair” really had been nothing but an illusion, and Axel never truly lost his preference for girls.

So leave him be. Let him move on. That’s what you wanted –right?

Clint tore his eyes from the disturbing sight and searched anxiously for Dane. Surely he wouldn’t be too far away. He spotted him moments later with a small group from the club. Gavin present as well. Clint headed in their direction.

“Just talk to the kid,” he muttered as his throat began to squeeze and close. “Then get the fuck away from here.”

♦

Though the Egyptian had stated bluntly why he wanted to stay, he had yet to move from his position beside Kane. Lack of words caused Kane’s gaze to wander over the man’s sweat glistened body. He was a beautiful work of sculpted art and Kane was compelled to explore all the hills and valleys of chiseled muscle with fingertips…and tongue. He refrained, uncertain how the man would respond to being touched in an “exploratory” manner. When they were having sex, then his body was free game. But in moments such as this –was it
hands off
until he said ‘go’ again?

Kane allowed his eyes to slink discreetly up to the man's face. Though he was basically relaxed, there remained a tension in Cochise’s features, squeezing the skin around his eyes as they centered on the ceiling above.

“Why did you call me?” The question slipped out without warning, startling Kane. He hadn’t been thinking about asking it, yet there it was –blurted into open air. The man gave no indication he’d heard him. Kane started to back off, then posed the one question he had been purposely restraining since the Egyptian arrived at his door. “Was something wrong?” Again, not intended to be spoken aloud.

Cochise cleared his throat and the strain in his face tightened a fraction but nothing followed –no words, no sexual advances. Nothing.

“For whatever it’s worth,” Kane sighed. “Anything you chose to say to me, would stay between us.”

The Egyptian didn’t respond.

Exhaling slowly, Kane sat up and dropped his feet to the floor on his side of the bed and rested his elbows on his knees. Damp, black strands fell into his face and he swiped his fingers through his hair a few times to tame it down and rake it out of his eyes. He released another heavy breath and twisted his head. “I’m going to take a quick shower while you’re…” He shrugged. “…I guess…resting?”

Kane went to stand, his ass barely leaving the bed, when Cochise grabbed him and pulled him down on the bed. He was captured in the man’s strong arms, his mouth seized in a fierce kiss before he registered that the Egyptian had moved at all.

In a split second, it seemed, Cochise’s cock was hard as steel, grinding and rubbing Kane’s member as the man dragged Kane beneath him and settled firmly on top of him. Kane pulled forcefully from the kiss to catch his breath but didn’t try to escape Cochise’s fervent sexual advance. His own cock was swelling thick and long, hardening to granite.

“I don’t need to rest,” Cochise panted against the curve of his jaw. His teeth nipped the sensitive skin, raking down the cord in his neck. “I’m ready to fuck now.” He delivered another hard kiss to Kane’s mouth then dragged lips and teeth over Kane’s chin and down the center of his throat.

Kane swallowed hard and clutched the blankets, heart drumming out an erratic rhythm against his ribs. His breath quivered in his chest as Cochise raked his teeth over Kane’s left nipple, inspiring instant stiffness in both the bud and Kane’s already hard cock. The tip of his wet tongue circled the sensitive nub, slipping around and around, teasing the flat surface until Kane began to pant louder and squeezed the blankets tighter in his fists as tiny electric shocks stabbed from his nipple straight down to his crotch.

Heat rushed to his chest, centering in his left pec muscle as Cochise grabbed mouthfuls of flesh and sucked with force. Kane shifted his grip from the bed to the Egyptian’s hair, taking hold as his body arched to the man, legs spreading wide as his hips pumped with a will of their own, thrusting his cock up and down the length of Cochise’s hard rod. The man immediately fell into rhythm, pushing against him, the base of his cock shoving into Kane’s heavy balls and dragging upward, again and again.

“Fuck…”
Kane gasped and shuddered. He palmed the Egyptian’s hard, flexing ass cheeks and squeezed, his fingers digging into the man’s firm flesh, gripping and massaging as he pulled him deeper between his thighs. “Uh!” his chest shoved up to Cochise’s mouth when the man began biting his skin, refreshing his fading marks from their first encounter, devouring his flesh as he “chewed” his way down his torso until his hungry mouth was at the base of his shaft.

Cochise pushed Kane’s thighs wider apart and very lightly raked his teeth up and down his throbbing cock. Blood rushed south and swelled the veins snaking his engorged member. Come juice bubbled from his cock head and trickled down his rigid pole. His dick jumped and twitched with each lick of the Egyptian’s hot, slick tongue as the man caught his “nectar” and eagerly lapped it up. The man had yet to suck him and Kane was already feeling the tingle in his balls. Surely he couldn’t be ready to come yet? They had only just started. But he couldn’t deny the familiar tightness squeezing his testicles as Cochise ran his tongue up and down the underside of his cock.