Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 08 - Revenge (6 page)

He reached a door that was drenched with the scent he’d followed. Ryder touched the knob, growling when it didn’t turn. He hated being locked out, it wasn’t right.
Of course it’s right! Why the hell shouldn’t it be locked? I lock my door.
Logic didn’t matter. Ryder pounded on the door. If it didn’t get opened soon, he was going to rip the damned thing off its hinges. There was also the offensive hint of an odour, and Ryder finally understood it to be the cause of his anger.
Casey. He’s been here, and I want him dead. What the fuck is wrong with me?
Before he could answer, the door was jerked open and a scowling, dripping wet mountain of a man stood in front of him. Ryder’s throat went dry, all the liquid apparently racing down to squirt as pre-cum out of his dick. If this was Maarten Visser, he was fucking gorgeous.
“Uh, Ryder, Mr Visser—” Ryder heard Sissy begin.
“Go away. Now,” Maarten commanded at the same time he reached for Ryder. “Not you.”
“Not me,” Ryder agreed, his skin tingling where Maarten gripped him.
“You, my tough, angry man, are mine.”
Ryder opened his mouth to say something, anything, but Maarten didn’t give him a chance. With a jerk, he had Ryder in the room and on his tiptoes as Maarten plundered his mouth. Ryder wasn’t short by any means, but Maarten had a few inches on him, plus he had Ryder off balance.
Ryder clutched at him, finding nothing but bare, wet skin where he touched. He moaned, his eyelids shutting as he settled his palms on the smooth, firm swells of Maarten’s ass.
Maarten growled into the kiss and pinned him against the wall or the door, Ryder didn’t know which. He wasn’t used to being manhandled, at least not that he could remember. As good as Maarten felt against him, Ryder had to push back.
He ended up writhing as Maarten slid one thickly muscled leg between Ryder’s.
Oh God, that feels so good. It’s been so long…
Ryder’s thoughts were interrupted by alien ones that should have freaked him out instead of comforted him like they did. It was images and needs, at first, the soothing knowledge that he was wanted, so very, very badly, and someone was giddy with having him. Then it was words.
“Let go for me. Give yourself to me.”
That was a little more startling, but at the same time he heard the words, Maarten scraped a hand down Ryder’s chest, dragging his fingertips, making it sting. He pinched Ryder’s nipple, and pushed that thigh up tight against Ryder’s nuts.
Ryder tipped his head back and moaned, humping Maarten desperately, squeezing the flesh in his hands to drag Maarten closer.
“Come,”
he was ordered, and Ryder, who’d had trouble following orders up until meeting Marcus, mewled and pumped his release into his jeans.
“Oh, yes,” Maarten hissed, grinding against him. “Mm, so much better, so intense.” Then he thrust rapidly a few times and peeled himself off Ryder. “And mine, you are mine.”
Ryder shook his head, more to clear it than in denial, but Maarten snarled and kissed him again, this time more teeth than tongue.
“You are mine and I am yours. Quit trying to deny it. We are mates.”
‘Mates’—the word shot through Ryder, piercing his heart and soul, making room for Maarten in both. His mind, however, was having issues with it. Why was he hearing a voice he suspected was Maarten’s in his head?
“Because we are mates. It is part of our bond. How is it that you do not know this?”
Ryder was on the verge of freaking out, or coming again, one of the two. His erection hadn’t faded and he was still hornier than hell, but confusion was tangling up with that. He twisted his head aside, ending the kiss, or trying to. Maarten continued to nibble down his jaw line.
“You were just fucking someone else,” Ryder got out, anger burning his gut. “Casey—”
Maarten caught his chin, similar to the way Sissy had, and forced him to look at Maarten. The man truly was handsome, with pale blond hair and deep green eyes. He had a thinner top lip, but the bottom one was lush and deep pink from their kisses. His face could have been on the cover of the finest magazines, yet here he was, staring at Ryder like he was a treasure.
“Casey was simply there.” Maarten shook his head. “That sounds wrong, but had I known you would be here, that I’d find my mate, I would never have touched Casey. I didn’t particularly want him. He was easy, and I was stupid.”
Ryder didn’t like it, at all, no matter what the excuse was. He’d followed Maarten’s scent, mixed with that of another man’s, and it had driven him close to insane.
“Ryder, please,” Maarten begged. “Listen to me. Here.” He touched Ryder’s chest. “Listen to your wolf. He knows me. He is calling to my wolf, drawing us together because we are mates.”
“I don’t understand it,” Ryder said, unable to keep being angry. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in Maarten’s arms. “What’s happening?”
Maarten stepped back and Ryder struggled not to reach for him. “What do you mean, what’s happening? I told you, we are mates. You feel it just as I do.”
Ryder swallowed and felt like a fool. He didn’t know enough about any of this stuff. “I haven’t been around shifters for very long,” he admitted. “I don’t understand why we’re mates. I don’t even know if I like you.”
Maarten laughed softly and those green eyes shone warmly at Ryder. “You will like me well enough, and love me soon, too. Just as I will you.”
Ryder opened his mouth to protest that, but Maarten held up one finger. “Please, one moment.”
“Okay.”
“It is truth, all of it,” Maarten continued. “You felt our mental link, heard my thoughts, were comforted by me when I touched you, spoke to you. I don’t know why you haven’t been around shifters, why you don’t understand about mates. We are two halves, soon to be made whole. Soon we will not be able to bear to be apart. No one will know you as I do, and you will be a part of my soul. It is our way, when and if we find our mate. I can’t tell you how or why Fate decides two people are to be mates, I can only tell you that it happens, and it is to be treasured, as is one’s mate.”
Maarten stroked his cheek, and gave him a look so tender, it made Ryder’s chest ache. “And you, my handsome Ryder, will be treasured. You will never doubt your worth again.”
“Sounds too good to be true,” Ryder confessed. He wanted what Maarten had described, wanted it so badly he was scared to believe.
“Trust me.” Maarten stroked his cheek again, watching him. “Let go of what happened with Casey. It was nothing, and I doubt very much that you are a virgin.” Maarten frowned. “And I do not want to think about that, but it is a fact. We come to each other as the only lover that will matter, and the only lover each will ever have again.”
“What?” Ryder didn’t mean to squeak, but holy shit. “We just met! Like ten minutes ago, max.”
Maarten canted his head to one side. “You really don’t understand what mates are to each other, do you?”
Well, now Ryder felt like a fool. He pushed away from Maarten. “I told you I didn’t. It’s not like I was born into this shit. I just got drugged, raped and turned.” He hadn’t dared to look at Maarten when he said it, but after a long moment of silence, Ryder sneaked a peek. Maarten’s golden tan had turned a pasty shade of whitish green. Ryder went back to studying the floor. “I don’t want your fucking pity.”
“You don’t have it,” Maarten snapped. “I am sorry you were drugged and raped. I am. I am even sorry you were turned against your will, but those things aren’t why we are mates. We would have been anyway, had we met and you were still human.”
Ryder sighed and rubbed his temples. His damned dick was so hard he couldn’t think. Not much, anyway. “Maybe not. I was hyped up on drugs all the time until I was changed. Shit doesn’t do anything now but make me puke.”
“You’ve lived an interesting life,” Maarten said quietly. “I would like to hear about it, and drugs or not, we would still have been mates.”
“I don’t think I can ever see Casey without wanting to hurt him,” Ryder admitted. “I don’t like that. The guy who did this to me…” He fluttered a hand in front of himself. “He was an evil bastard who liked hurting people. I don’t want to be like that. I want to be like Marcus, honest, honourable. I just have to learn how.” Jesus, he was spilling out things he’d not said to anyone else, all to a man he didn’t know. But he couldn’t seem to stop, something in the very core of him reaching out to Maarten. Did he trust it?
Should I trust it?
“I would be hurt, if I didn’t know you truly are untutored in our ways.” Maarten stretched, arching his arms to the ceiling. “Ah, that feels so good.” He moaned and rolled his head on his shoulders for a minute before returning his attention to Ryder. “I can only tell you that I believe you are an honest, honourable man. If you aren’t, I’ll have to make you into one. Maybe spanking—”
“Don’t even,” Ryder warned, narrowing his eyes at Maarten.
Maarten crossed his arms over his chest. “You won’t let me have any fun.” Ryder blinked, surprised at having gone from a serious discussion to a teasing one.
“There’s plenty of time to be serious,” Maarten informed him. “I’ve had over three years of being deadly serious while my brother and his mate were hunted, and I was fending off advances from the bastard who wanted them dead.” He turned away. “I lost my pack when I regained my brother, and that… It sucked, but I’m not meant to be a leader, I suppose. Too silly and forgetful at times.”
Ryder looked at those broad shoulders, dotted with freckles, and he wanted. There was no other word for it. Serious conversation and getting to know one another was going to have to wait. Maybe both of them needed out of their heads for now.
Maarten’s back was as muscled as the rest of him. His spine was indented, and led to that lovely swell of ass. Ryder was lured forward before he could think about it, gaze focused on the deep crevice of Maarten’s butt.
“We can forget it all, for a while,” he murmured as he stopped behind Maarten. “Let our bodies take over, shut off our minds.”
“Sounds like a wonderful plan,” Maarten said, peering over his shoulder. “Who tops?”
Ryder sent him a wicked smile. “Well, since you already did once today…” He’d let Maarten finish the rest of that sentence. Ryder put a hand on Maarten’s shoulder and licked his lips. Jesus, he’d never had a body like this to explore. He leaned in and licked the top of Maarten’s spine. The salt and soap taste of him was more of a turn-on than Ryder thought it should probably be.
“We will figure out the rest,” Ryder said to himself as much as to Maarten. “Right now, it’s just us. No problems, no questions. Just me, getting ready to fuck you.”
“Yes,” Maarten murmured as he pushed his ass out. “I don’t need much to be ready, just some lube and patience when you push in. You don’t have to stretch me or anything. Although I haven’t let anyone top me in a long time.”
Ryder was flattered by Maarten’s eagerness for him, but he had no intention of hurting Maarten, whether the bigger man thought he didn’t need more than lube or not. Stretching Maarten’s hole, feeling that ring squeezing his fingers, the heat of his body, maybe even tasting him—Ryder would deny neither of them that kind of pleasure.
Besides, as horny as Ryder was feeling, he still wanted to take his time and experience his first sober, adult sexual experience—he was including getting off on Maarten earlier in the whole scope of it.
“Patience,” he breathed against Maarten’s skin.
“I—oh.” Maarten broke off on a gasp as Ryder licked his way down Maarten’s spine, running his hands along the muscled planes of Maarten’s back at the same time.
Ryder paused to nip at every third or fourth vertebrae just because he loved the sounds Maarten was making and the goosebumps that pebbled Maarten’s skin. One day, he wanted to lick every freckle on the man’s shoulders.
He stopped to toe off his shoes and socks, but he kept himself pressed against Maarten as much as possible. Having the sexy stud offering himself like that, with his arms supporting him against the wall and his legs spread just enough that Ryder could see his pink hairless balls, was intoxicating, amazing—Ryder didn’t have the words for it.
“Beautiful,” he breathed as he unfastened his pants.
“Looks fade,” Maarten said, head hanging low. “Then you will be stuck with a not so attractive, not so bright mate.”
Who had Maarten thinking so little of himself? Ryder would ask, later, when they’d fucked themselves out. Besides, he was still kind of stumbling over the ‘always together’ part even if it did make him want to laugh with relief. He wouldn’t lose Maarten, he’d have someone who wanted him, always. Ryder had never expected anything like this.
He cupped Maarten’s left ass cheek. “You have an amazing ass,” he told Maarten.
“I have a fat ass that looks like it’s never had a workout.” Maarten moved in a way that spread his cheeks farther apart. “I would fuck it if I could, though.”
“Don’t blame you,” Ryder said as he kneaded Maarten’s cheeks. Ryder liked Maarten’s butt, the way it was so round and full instead of leanly muscled, or even bulked with muscle. Something had changed in Ryder when he’d been turned. Ryder himself was hard all over now that he was a shifter, his metabolism going on crack or something, he didn’t know how it worked, it just made him more like a body builder than not. Maybe it had something to do with him having been human, his body reacting differently to whatever turned him into a shifter, whereas Maarten had been born one. Ryder wasn’t likely to ever figure it out, and really, he didn’t care. He just appreciated Maarten’s ass, very, very much. “Smooth.”
“Wax,” Maarten explained. “All over except my face and head.”
“Really?” Ryder had to see that. He first finished undressing, touching Maarten every chance he had, then he caressed Maarten’s bottom again, delving into his crack and finding it smooth and warm. There was no hair around his tight little hole, or anywhere that Ryder could feel. “Doesn’t it hurt?”
“In a good way.” Maarten made an impatient sound. “Please, hurry up.”
Ryder dropped to his knees and pulled Maarten’s cheeks apart. He went right for the rosy pucker nestled there.
“Oh!” Maarten shook, his ass cheeks flexing, that opening clenching. Ryder kept his grip strong as he lapped over Maarten’s asshole.
Every sound Maarten made spurred Ryder on, every shiver and plea that left Maarten firing Ryder’s desire. He pushed his tongue into Maarten’s hole, tasting his…his mate. The flavour went to his head, shorting out everything but Maarten and Ryder’s need.
Ryder slipped a hand around to fondle Maarten. The man had a big cock, big and thickly veined. Ryder would bet a guy would feel every one of those when Maarten was fucking him. He palmed the head while Maarten whimpered. The tip was wet, the wide slit leaking pre-cum. Ryder pushed at it, and Maarten bucked forward. More of that, then, he figured. He teased Maarten’s holes, tonguing one and fingering the other as much as he could without risking harm. Maarten’s climax startled him, the man rocking back and forth, speed never changing, then hot cum pouring from the slit Ryder had pushed his pinkie against.