“Let me take care of you. Then you can ream me for assault.” Ace chuckled and leaned forward, pressing his rough chest against Zack’s. He effectively pinned Zack in place with his massive body.
Having never dealt with a changed Ace when not in the same form, Zack didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t budge the strength of the hands that dwarfed his, nor could he move Ace off him.
To his further shock, he watched as Ace licked a trail from his collarbone down his belly to his cock. Hard at the first touch of Ace’s mouth, Zack squirmed to get closer or get loose -- he wasn’t sure of which at this point. “No. Don’t let your beast rule you now.” He tried warning Ace. “I know how much you hate this.” Which made it so unbearable for Zack to express his love with his mate time and time again, only to know how much Ace despised their sharing of physical affection.
Ace murmured something Zack couldn’t understand. Then he waited, for what, Zack wasn’t sure. Ace’s large hand between his legs clued him in quickly. The intense pain he’d felt faded under the pleasure soon stealing his breath. Ace knew just how to touch him, and the power abundant in his huge frame made this exchange an erotically charged challenge.
Zack was the one who gave the orders when it came to sex, not Ace. Yet his breath left him again as Ace took his erection deep inside his hot mouth. The light press of fangs slid over him before a thick, raspy tongue licked him from the head of his cock to his balls.
“Fuck.” He arched into Ace’s mouth, aware of the differences between their bodies. He couldn’t help wanting to touch his mate, but Ace wouldn’t let him.
“No. Just lay there and accept my apology.” Ace grinned at him, the sight of that beastlike face wearing a smile enough to plunge Zack hopelessly deeper into love.
Ace took Zack’s cock between his lips again. With a powerful tongue, he licked and sucked Zack to orgasm within moments.
Zack panted as he came hard, shuddering as Ace sucked him dry before licking and teasing his balls.
“You taste sweet,” Ace murmured, his scent growing darker, spicier with need. “Now I need to finish this, don’t I?” He laughed, a deep boom coming from a creature more animal than man.
He pulled Zack to the edge of the bed and nudged his thighs wide. Zack blinked to clear the haze from his mind. He saw the moisture surrounding Ace’s cock, the natural lubricant over his massive shaft signifying his desire. God, he’d split in half around that thing.
Ace changed back and released him, and Zack didn’t know what to think.
“It’s not my beast that wants this,” Ace said quietly as he penetrated Zack’s ass. He gripped Zack’s thighs as he eased through a passage long neglected. “It’s the man who loves you that wants more. I need this, Zack.” He panted as he pushed deeper. “I need you.” Hearing what he’d been waiting for for so many years, Zack was helpless to stop his eyes from filling as Ace seated himself inside his ass. He blinked hard but felt a drop leak regardless.
“Don’t cry, babe. Then you’ll be a woman for sure,” Ace teased, his voice thick with desire. “God, I’ve been dreaming about this for so long. But you always have to be dominant, don’t you?”
He pulled out, the painful friction reminding Zack how long it had been since he’d been on the receiving end of a male relationship. Ever since he’d bonded with Ace during the mating heat, he’d foregone sex with other men. And even then, he’d rarely let another take him. He lost track of the time as Ace thrust in and out of him, fucking him so tenderly, like a man in love.
“You’re so tight.” Ace smiled with satisfaction and gripped Zack’s growing erection.
“It’s been a long time,” Zack rasped, caught in a new kind of heat.
“Waiting for me?” Ace asked as he took his time slamming back inside, grazing that pleasure spot within Zack.
Moaning, Zack fought to answer. “Always waiting for you. So long…” Hearing that, Ace stopped being gentle and fucked him hard, mixing the pain with pleasure as he jerked Zack off. Zack couldn’t hold off his orgasm as Ace continued to nudge his prostate. As he shot over Ace’s hands, Ace swore and came, jerking as he spilled inside Zack.
“Yes, yes,” he breathed, clutching Zack in a tight grip. “Give me your cum, mate. All of it.”
He milked Zack, rubbing the fluid all over Zack’s balls, shaft, and belly. A caress that restored Ace’s hard-on. “Now ride this out while I take more of what’s mine,” Ace warned, fucking him all over again.
Zack lay there and took it as he allowed his inner beast to overtake his sexual response, as Ace must have. While in his normal state, he could respond sexually like his beast, insatiable and responsive in mere minutes, but he’d only tried it once before. The woman he’d been with at the time couldn’t handle it, so he’d turned it off. But now, with Ace…
Ace ramped up and came again, getting Zack hard in the process. He withdrew, still spurting cum, and dropped to his knees. He took Zack in his mouth and licked away his seed.
Soon enough, he had Zack coming yet again, purging himself of the frustrated need he had for his lover.
“Enough,” Zack pleaded, thoroughly sated yet still confused.
“It’ll never be enough,” Ace murmured. He left Zack to clean up and returned with a warm, wet towel. “Let me take care of you.”
Zack lay still, not used to this role reversal.
“What happened, Zack? What made you pull away from me?” Ace asked quietly. “I thought… I’d hoped after that massage and that time in the bathroom that you wanted me.”
“I did. I do.”
“Then why did you distance yourself? You’ve been hurting, and I sensed it. So did Kelly. It was tearing me up that you wouldn’t let me in to fix things. What did I do?” Zack leaned up on his elbows, surprised at the intensity in Ace’s voice. “You really do love me, don’t you?” he asked in wonder.
“Hell, yes. You’re dense, you know that?” Ace ran an unsteady hand through his hair and flopped onto the bed beside him. “I know I haven’t been the easiest guy to get along with. I haven’t been as nice to you as I should have been for a long time. I apologize for that.
But tell me how to fix things, and I will.” He sought Zack’s hand and held it tight.
Amazed, Zack squeezed him back. “I love you, Ace. I have for a very long time. I knew you were uncomfortable with my bisexuality. I never pushed, never wanted more than you could give. Then the mating heat changed that.”
“It sure the hell did,” Ace mumbled.
“Our beasts knew each other, and I could love you the way I’d wanted to. But I knew you didn’t like it.”
“No, on that you’re wrong.” Ace sighed. “I liked it too much. I was afraid it would make me gay. It sounds really stupid now, but I couldn’t help thinking it then.”
“Huh?”
“My dad was a homophobe, and I’m ashamed to say some of it must have rubbed off on me. I never realized it, but I’ve had so many problems with my feelings for you because of him. Man, I really hate that fucker.” Ace shook his head. “I love you, Zack. At first, we were brothers-in-arms. Then we were Circe’s Recruits together. You’ve always been my best friend, even when I didn’t deserve it.” Ace cleared his throat. “When the mating heat first started, it was like a nightmare for me. I had to fuck other guys, but more, I needed to fuck other guys. Don’t get me wrong. I like Hale, Derrick, and Roane. But I never wanted them the way I wanted you.”
“Really?” Zack couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Man, you have no idea how much I looked forward to the heat, when I’d feel you ramming that cock up my ass. It felt so good. You always made me come so hard, and your mouth…”
“Stop.” Zack groaned on a laugh. “I’m too tired to get hard again.”
“Yeah.” Ace exhaled heavily. “I felt weird about loving the mating heat when everybody else hated it. You never said anything, but I knew you didn’t mind it as much.” Ace paused. “I saw you once kiss a guy.”
“I know.”
“And then we met Kelly, and I fell hard in love. But I still had feelings for you, and it confused the shit out of me. It took a long time, but after this last fiasco, I realized I could have died without ever experiencing us. I love you, man.” Ace sounded emotional, and Zack knew just what to say.
“Now who’s the girl?” he teased.
Ace rolled over on top of him and grinned, wiping away a tear. “You are, you pussy.” He kissed Zack hard and hugged him tight. “God, the guys are going to ride me for this, I know it.”
“No one’s riding you but me,” Zack said gruffly and shoved Ace over onto the bed. He turned on his side and caressed him, unable to stop touching his best friend, his lover, his mate.
They lay peacefully for a moment before Ace spoke again. “So what did I do to fuck things up? Tell me, because I honestly don’t know.” Zack felt like an idiot. “Ah, well, I might have been overly sensitive. If you call me a girl again, I’m going to knee you in the balls.”
“Sorry about that.” Ace had the grace to wince.
“Yeah, well, it’s okay now. Just don’t do it again. It hurt like hell.”
“Agreed.”
“Remember last week when we first took Kelly together? You were in some postorgasmic bliss when you told her how you thought of her during the mating heat. I don’t know. It just hit me wrong. I mean, whenever we went through it together, my only thought was of you. That you saw her instead of me while I was fucking you hurt.” Ace blushed. “I, uh, well, it was true, Zack. I just didn’t tell the whole truth. The very first time we went into the mating heat, I did think of Kelly. I wished I could have been fucking a woman instead of going down on a dude. Sue me, but it’s still hard for me to acknowledge to others that I’m in love with a man. And that’s after years of animal sex.
You’d think I’d be used to it by now.”
“Oh.” Disappointed but not surprised, Zack tried to ignore the mixed signals and focus on the fact that Ace loved him.
“No, hear me out.” Ace took Zack’s cheeks in his palms to force eye contact. “I love you, Zachary English. The very first time we fucked, I tried to think about Kelly. I admit it.
But it was you who took me. You who showed me how right we could be together. We both love Kelly. I know you want her as much as I do. But this thing between us, it’s real. And it’s not going away.”
Zack warmed, falling in love with Ace all over again. “So you’re saying you love me, but you don’t want me giving you a handjob in front of the guys, right?” Horror shone in Ace’s eyes. “Hell, no.” He narrowed his gaze. “Asshole. I’ll show you a handjob.”
Zack groaned. “Not now. Give me a break before my dick falls off. I didn’t know I could still harness that kind of sexual energy when not changed.” He sucked in a breath as Ace masturbated him. “Only you and Kelly can get to me like this.”
Ace smirked. “I know.”
“But remember, my beast won’t forget it. I’m still the dominant one in our relationship.” Zack tried to sound forceful, but he knew the moan that left him hurt his authority.
“That’s right, Z. Tell yourself you’re in charge while you come all over my hand.” Ace leaned in to nip Zack’s ear as he whispered, “Do you know how good you taste? How great you feel with that fat cock rammed up my ass?” Zack strove for control but could only promise payback.
“I’m looking forward to it, lover.” Ace licked his lips. “I can’t get enough of that mouth of yours. Now come over my hands and let me taste you again.”
“I love you.”
“Back at you, control freak. Now, come hard.” Ace winked as Zack lost it. “Wait until I tell Kelly what she missed.”
“My money’s on Zack,” Derrick said as he put a ten on the table. “Any takers?”
“Gimme a break,” Kelly muttered. Her dinner with the others had gone well toward restoring her faith in her mates. The guys stuck up for the pair, but Caitlyn spared Zack and Ace little sympathy, or privacy, as she paraded their feelings in front of the others.
“Seriously,” she said. “How could the rest of you not see how much Ace and Zack complement one another? Or do the rest of you have that guy/guy problem too? Like, if you love another guy, you’re automatically gay. As if there’s something wrong with that.”
“Caitlyn, enough.” Roane’s face turned bright red. Hale and Derrick avoided eye contact as well, and Kelly thought it was because they had been with each other sexually and didn’t want to talk about it. Talk about some guy/guy problems.
Caitlyn laughed. “Come on, Kelly. Tell them how sexy it is watching two hot guys like Ace and Zack going at it.”
“Hot guys?” Roane repeated, his voice menacing.
“Shut up, already, Caitlyn.” Derrick grimaced. “Roane, seriously. You need better control over your woman. Who wears the pants in your relationship, anyway?”
“We both wear pants. Really, Derrick. In this day and age…” Caitlyn’s voice grew louder as her rant continued. Poor Derrick took Caitlyn’s tongue-lashing like a champ. He rolled his eyes at Hale and Kelly, but Caitlyn saw it and verbally tore him to shreds.
“A true sacrifice. His ears for our sanity,” Hale murmured with a grin.
“Thank God.” Kelly agreed. She loved Caitlyn and the others like family, but there was such a thing as too much sharing. The guys obviously felt the same.
“Save me from a sharp-tongued Circ,” Roane said under his breath. “Okay, that’s enough, you little witch.”
“Little witch?” Caitlyn ceased berating Derrick and turned on her mate. Her eyes changed first, then her hands.
“Damn, now that’s hot,” Hale said.
Roane must have agreed, because he stood, swung Caitlyn over his shoulder, and left the table in a rush.
“Another ten says she’s purring the next time we see her,” Derrick challenged.
“You’re on.” Hale grinned. “Kelly, you want a piece of the action?” Before she could answer, Diego called her from the study. “Kelly? Phone call.” Thinking it had to be Ace or Zack, she gratefully left the dining room and closed the study door behind her. She picked up the phone, hoping for good news. “Ace?”
“Kelly Malloy, don’t speak. Listen. We have Ace Two Bears and Zack English. They’re drugged but alive…for now. If you want to see them again, don’t ask for help. Don’t speak to anyone at all. Come alone to Morey’s Pier, where we’ll be waiting for you. If we see anyone following you, your lovers are dead.”