Jumping at Shadows (2 page)

“I said, whaddaya say we blow out of here and find someplace a little more private?” the blond repeated loudly, his voice nearly dripping with suggestion.

Eric smirked as he picked out the blond’s reflection from a little farther down the bar. He didn’t miss the guy’s Hawaiian-shirted body shifting closer to the jeans- and sweatshirt-clad man beside him, even as he wondered how the hell the misplaced beach bum could stand to wear that shirt
and
board shorts in weather like
this
. But the thought vanished as he caught sight of one tanned hand reaching out to run meaningfully over his neighbor’s fleece-covered waist in a move so blatant and deliberate that Eric couldn’t possibly miss it. Eric raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head away from the mirror, and a look over the sweatshirted shoulder of the man beside him brought him nearly face to face with the California surfer lookalike who seemed far better suited to life in a different state. The bleached blond might have come up even with Eric’s height—barely—standing on his tiptoes, but he had a blinding smile that made up for his shortcomings, and it was currently aimed squarely at the man between them. Eric’s brow went a little higher as that wandering hand worked a little farther around the fleece-covered waist and began a slight but obvious dip downward.

“Cold night to be outside,” the dark-haired man answered in a deep, sexy drawl that rippled over Eric’s skin and drew his jeans even tighter. The shift of that ass against his hip told Eric that the tone had been intentional, and it distracted Eric enough to pull his attention away from the blond and focus it on the stubbled jawline. “What’d ya have in mind?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” the blond continued, stepping in a little closer, slipping his hand a little lower, aware or not that his fingers nearly brushed the front of Eric’s jeans in the process. “Something dark… and cozy… and
alone
.” The last word was loud and pointed and aimed directly at Eric as the surfer dude’s deep blue gaze shot over the dark-haired man’s shoulder to lock with Eric’s hazel one.

The dark-haired man smothered a chuckle as he raised his mug to sip the foam clinging to the rim, and Eric smirked as he dislodged the blond’s hand from his jeans and put his own hand in its place. It didn’t take much more movement than that for Eric to slide both hands the other way around the man’s waist, stopping only when his chest pressed against the man’s fleece-covered back.

“You could always set fire to the trashcan in the alley,” Eric said cheerfully, smiling as he rested his chin on a gray fleece-covered shoulder. “That would work for ‘dark and cozy’. And given the weather outside, you should have ‘alone’ to boot.”

A snort from the blond accompanied a definite laugh from the man in the sweatshirt, who lifted a fleece-covered forearm over Eric’s head as he turned to place his back to the bar. His hand settled familiarly at the small of Eric’s back, and eyes the color of dark chocolate twinkled over a jaw as stubbly as Eric’s own. Eric met them with his own twinkling eyes as the arm tightened to pull him closer, but he couldn’t resist a glance at the blonde, who now stood with one hand closed into a fist on his outthrust, khaki-covered hip while the other rested heavily on the bar.

“I’ve also heard the alley is a great way to meet people,” Eric told the blond lightly, slipping a hand under the Irish Pub logo on the front of the sweatshirt and sliding it over the taut skin beneath. “You know, they accept all kinds there.”

The dark-haired man chuckled as he leaned into Eric’s touch, and then almost purred as he turned enough to bring his stubbly jaw closer to Eric’s cheek. Eric had to curl his fingers in the fleece when his cock pressed into a solid hip hard enough to make him nearly start humping right there in front of everybody.

“Main Street is a great way to meet people too,” the blond cut in briskly, glancing at the back of the dark-haired man’s head before settling his gaze pointedly on Eric. “At least until
other
people show up.”

Eric laughed softly and felt warm breath dusting the skin below his ear a second before the kiss. “Sorry to cut your night short, Jace, but this one’s taken.”

Eric felt the man smile against his neck, then the pinch of teeth nipping lightly at his ear. Had they not been in a public place, he would have encouraged the nibbles instead of pulling back enough to force the teeth to leave his skin. The twinkling dark eyes that met his own as their owner leaned back had grown softer—and much, much warmer—though they still held the teasing laughter he knew so well. They were the eyes of his lover for the last eight years, his husband for the last seven, and the ones he wanted looking at him for the rest of his life. To this day Eric still counted himself lucky to have landed one T.J. Briscoe all for himself.

“Yeah, they always are,” Jace muttered from behind them, putting a world-class touch of self-pity in his tone as he turned to snatch his own mug of beer from the bar top. “Two more minutes, Eric my man, and I would have stolen
your
man.”

T.J. snorted as he moved to tease Eric’s ear with his teeth again, but Eric answered Jace anyway with a breathy, “Then I guess it’s a good thing I showed up when I did.” A sharp bite to his lobe told him that the comment was unnecessary, though the warm sweep of a tongue afterward soothed more than the sting.

Just being close to his lover was easing the tension from Eric’s body, and the stroke of T.J.’s hands down the length of his back was soothing in the way only T.J.’s touch could be. When Eric finally pulled his ear free to look into his lover’s face, his own smile had turned mischievous and his hands continued to move under the sweatshirt. “So what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?”

“Just looking to pick up some hot, horny man-cake to take home for the night,” T.J. answered salaciously, lowering his hands enough to pull their hips together even tighter. “Thought I would chat with Jace while I waited for you.”

Eric laughed even as Jace grunted loudly from his place at the bar, though the blonde’s elbow jabbing sharply into T.J.’s ribs interrupted the kiss they were about to share.

“Get a room,” Jace scolded them firmly, drawing both of their tolerant stares in his direction. “Either that, or get naked so you can put the show on right. And hey,”—he leveled a look at Eric before turning fully on T.J.—“if your man ever stands you up, just look me up. I’ll be more than happy to keep you warm on cold winter nights.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” T.J. told him with an overly cheerful smile, and then he turned back to claim the kiss he had been after, taking Eric’s lips softly and gently. Eric’s hands climbed higher under the sweatshirt as he met the kiss with one of his own.

“Like I said, get a room or get naked,” Jace repeated loudly, effectively separating them again with a light bump. “Or at least stop rubbing the rest of our faces in it.” He snorted as he took a disgruntled swig from his own mug, seemingly unaware of the flatness of the stares he got from them this time.

“You know, you two make us free and single boys look bad,” he continued pompously, watching them with narrowed eyes. “Not all of us have our own sweaty bodies to keep us warm and
happy
every night, let alone hot, studly bodies like you two keep flaunting around. You should be ashamed of yourselves for taking each other off the market. Makes the rest of us jealous as hell.”

“As long as you’re in that group, we’re content,” Eric told him teasingly, turning back to his lover. “And by the way, you should be. Now where were we?” The last of his breath landed on T.J.’s lips, and T.J.’s soft “Right about here” was barely out before the kiss they had started earlier was on again. Jace snorted in the background.

Jace may have been right about them rubbing other people’s faces in it, but by now everyone at the Pub was well aware of their attachment, and the few who weren’t learned of it in short order. But Eric had never spent a second worrying over what the rest of the world thought of their relationship, and he wasn’t about to start now, not when he felt T.J.’s body responding in a way that matched his own.

The Pub was well known and often applauded for its liberal views on public displays, and so when T.J. slipped a strong thigh between Eric’s legs with a subtle sway of jeans-clad hips, Eric shifted readily to accommodate it. He wasn’t above enjoying a hands-free groping, and as long as he didn’t start blowing T.J. in public view—and their zippers remained raised against hand jobs—they weren’t likely to get thrown out. Whatever else Jace had to say was lost on them as T.J. took the kiss deeper, and the blond finally moved away with a friendly slap to T.J.’s shoulder in passing, leaving them as alone as they could be in a crowded nightclub.

Eventually, with a brief touch of tongue, T.J. broke the kiss. “Hey, baby. You have a rough day?” he asked softly, brushing the tip of his nose against Eric’s.

“I’ve had better,” Eric answered, feeling the weight of the day return and trying to avoid sounding surly. He sighed as he leaned his forehead against T.J.’s. “If I asked you to make the bad men go away, would you?”

T.J. laughed softly, kissing the tip of the nose he had been rubbing. “You know I’d try. Want to get out of here? I’m ready to take you home and make you feel better.”

“Thought you’d never ask,” Eric said with a heavy sigh, claiming another quick kiss before they separated. As he bent to retrieve the jackets that had, inevitably, fallen to the floor, he couldn’t help noting that the bald, sweaty man in his outdated wool suit was now looking anywhere but at the two of them.
Better luck next time
, Eric thought silently, though not all that charitably, as he slipped his arms through the sleeves of his coat.

“Keep the change, Brian,” T.J. called over the bar, tossing the bills he had dug out of his pocket on the top as he took his own coat from Eric. He gave the bartender an appreciative once-over and ended it with a flirtatious wink. “The service, as usual, was impeccable.”

“Best in town,” Brian agreed emphatically, sweeping the bills away with a deliberate show of muscles and pecs. “Be sure to tell your friends. ‘Welcoming’ is our middle name.”

“In more ways than one,” Eric added, settling his jacket on his shoulders before leaning far enough over the bar to deliver a friendly slap to the bartender’s arm. “Try to keep things legal, okay?”

“Always do,” Brian told him brightly; then he turned serious before they started moving away through the crowd. “Hey, take it easy out there tonight. It may not be snowing yet, but that doesn’t mean people won’t get stupid.”

“Always do,” T.J. echoed him, leaving him with another wink as he let Eric lead the way to the door. A farewell salute with a half-empty mug from halfway across the room was the only good-bye they received from Jace, and they both acknowledged it with a brief wave before stepping outside.

The icy night air was a slap in the face after the closed-in heat of the club, and Eric shivered despite having zipped his jacket to his chin. T.J.’s jacket remained open, even in the blistering cold, and the flailing edges brushed around Eric as T.J.’s arms suddenly caught him from behind. A wet kiss fell on his neck, followed by a chilled nose nuzzling into his hair.

“We’ll take the shortcut home. Get warm and relaxed and continue that kiss we started, among other things,” T.J. murmured suggestively as his tongue swiped Eric’s ear.

Eric turned to pull him close. “Best plan I’ve heard in ages,” he said with a smile and a kiss, and his cold hands found their way to T.J.’s ass as he pulled them together. “But we’d better go soon if you plan to make it out of this parking lot.”

The lecherous look that filled T.J.’s face again was promising, and Eric let his lover go and turned to jog to T.J.’s Jeep, which was parked in the lot across the street. They could always come back for his truck later.

“
… O
H
G
OD
…!
”

Springs screeched as Eric’s hips were lifted from the bed, and his legs scrabbled for purchase against T.J.’s sweat-slicked body. His fingers were clenched around the bars above his head, his white-knuckled grip testing their strength as T.J. reared up over him, towering between his legs. T.J.’s head was thrown back as his hips snapped forward, driving his cock hard and deep in short, powerful thrusts, and Eric’s cries came out gasping and broken as his body shuddered against the sheets wadded beneath his back. One corner had already slipped loose from the mattress, and the blanket and quilt had fallen into puddles on the floor. He would have bruises from the strength of T.J.’s fingers digging into his hips, but it was a small price to pay for the feel of his man losing control inside him, pounding out the memory of everything except how very much in love he was, and how very
good
T.J. made him feel.

“
God…!
”

The force of the slap of flesh against flesh nearly dislodged his grip when the headboard hit the wall, then began to beat a pattern in time to T.J.’s low, ragged panting as the rhythm of his thrusts increased. Then Eric arched wildly from the bed as the tip of that plunging cock kissed the perfect spot, and his near-sobbing exclamations grew louder and more pained as he squirmed between the bed and his lover, forcing T.J.’s thrusts into an erratic motion that nevertheless hit his prostate again and again.

Eric’s cry suddenly turned sharp and incoherent as his body convulsed in an explosion of ecstasy, cum bursting from his own painfully rigid cock as his orgasm rocked him to the core, splattering thick streams of white over his stomach and chest without a single touch of either of their hands. T.J. continued to pound into him as the clenching of Eric’s ass took him the last few inches over the edge.

“
Jesus… baby!
” T.J. growled above him, his hands pulling at Eric’s sweaty thighs as his hips shot forward and stayed, his cock pulsing deep inside Eric’s channel as his balls emptied in a series of strong, draining shots. Long moments passed before the waves of pleasure receded. Their bedroom slowly came into focus as their gasps softened into long, heavy breaths.