Authors: Karen Mercury
Tags: #Romance
But Nathan Horowitz had his own—probably more authoritative—credentials, and he topped them all for sheer beauty, mastery, savagery. It had been love at first sight when Julian had run into Nathan right here at the base of Sam’s Steeple. When he’d massaged his cramp away Julian thought he was only jacking off a lusty stud. But Julian had never experienced such powerful feelings for another man, and he’d been hoping Nathan would just go away. That’s what usually happened here in southeastern Utah. Most people were just passing through. Not only had Nathan fired Julian up sexually, he had stolen his heart.
And apparently, Nathan wasn’t going anywhere.
This scared Julian perhaps more than anything.
I might actually be having a relationship with someone.
Xandra said, “Nathan admitted to me last night that he graduated West Point, and he works for a private military contractor in Central Africa.”
Julian nodded sagely. “I figured as much. Private military contractor is another way of saying mercenary.”
He’d assumed Xandra knew that, but she turned a new shade of white. “So, he…runs around assassinating people?”
Julian nodded. “That’s probably why he is the way he is. I’ve always suspected he wasn’t just cruising around Utah for a fun-filled vacation. I think something happened in…Africa, you said? Yeah. It’s not easy. Killing the enemy is the easy part. Finding him is the hard part, as you’re now discovering with your stalker.”
Xandra didn’t appear interested in her stalker at the moment. She gaped at Julian. “What do you think happened in Africa?”
Julian tried to step lightly. “Well, I’ve seen men get burnt out. Being in law enforcement has a high burnout rate. Hey, let’s get to the top. It’s going to get up to eighty-five by midday. Let’s follow his trail so we don’t destroy the soil.”
Xandra followed him back up the sandy slope. Julian could even feel with his back to her that she wouldn’t let it drop. “So you think he’s got some kind of PTSD? I can’t be in love with a mercenary.”
In love…
Julian surprised himself when he felt jealousy that she’d be in love with Nathan. “Yeah, I’ve seen it many times before. Why can’t you love a mercenary? It’s special ops. Most of them are former military, like Nathan. It’s a job.”
“Yes, but what’s the life expectancy? How can anyone be in love with a man who has a good chance of being dead by forty?”
“Nathan
is
forty,” Julian pointed out. “And what about life expectancy for a regular cop? It’s a risky business, Xandra. You love who you love.”
He heard Xandra sigh. “I suppose it’s a done deal,” she said wistfully. “And what about you, you gentle, noble game warden? Why have you never married?”
Julian had imagined that after last night, Xandra would assume he was gay. “I don’t meet many women in my job, and the few I do are just tourists. I
did
want a wife and children. It just never happened.”
“It could still happen.” Julian’s heart actually leaped when she said that. “You’re only what, twenty?”
Julian stopped in his tracks and swiveled to glare at her from behind his shades. “I hope you’re kidding.”
Xandra threw her head back and waved a limp wrist at him. “Of course, silly! You just
look
twenty.”
Julian quirked a grin. “Because I’m half Navajo. I get it. Yeah, I’ve got a million years left to make a family.” He turned and kept climbing.
“Well, I didn’t just mean that you look young, although you do. I mean that you could still find a woman. Someone who lives here, who works here.”
A hopeful surge went through Julian’s chest again at the possibility Xandra might mean herself. Suddenly he had to know. He’d been playing second fiddle to Nathan, encouraging and satisfying that savage beast, helping him to get closer to Xandra. Last night Nathan had shot off like a cannon inside Xandra’s mouth when Julian had diddled that baton up against his prostate. Julian knew his presence and stimulation had turned Nathan on, had urged him to greater heights.
So Julian spun about again. Xandra had been looking at the ground as she walked, and bumped into him. They had just skirted a claret cup cactus grouping, and Xandra nearly jumped into some of its spines. Julian gripped her upper arms to steady her, a surge of what could only be called love rushing through him.
“Xandra, you do know I’m not gay.”
She smiled brightly at him. “I assumed you weren’t. My gaydar didn’t ping around you.”
“I’ve only been staying out of Nathan’s way out of respect for him. I want him to be happy, and I think being with you makes him happy. So the only way I have of participating is by…touching him.”
“That, and he’s a gorgeous hunk,” Xandra said simply. “I can’t say as I blame you for wanting to slide things up that juicy tush of his. I want to, too. It obviously turned him on—he exploded in my mouth the
second
you slid that nightstick inside him.”
Julian was encouraged. “No one’s twisting my arm,” he admitted. “But I want you to know, and Nathan’s got to know, that I want you, too, Xandra.”
A sly and flirtatious look came over Xandra’s face. “Are you going to fight over me? Or maybe…” Her voice dropped lower. “Both seduce me at the same time?”
The idea that both he and Nathan would be allowed to make love to Xandra at the same time overwhelmed Julian. That was probably why he kissed her.
At first she was probably overcome by surprise, so she was a little wooden for a brief second. But she quickly fell into the kiss, snaking her palms up Julian’s shirtfront and mashing her full breasts to his chest. When she opened her mouth and tickled his lower lip with her tongue, he realized
it’s been forever since I’ve really kissed a woman
. Men didn’t go in much for it, either, so it felt foreign and strange to be holding this fragile creature in his arms, treating her tenderly.
Julian ran his palms down the slope of her lower back. He had just swept his hands over the rise of her ass and was about to cradle her to him when that irritating buffoon Nathan shouted down the mountain.
“Hey!”
He bellowed so loudly he started a few minor avalanches, sand dunes shifting, silting down the mountain in waves. Xandra jumped back from Julian, and he had to grab her to prevent her from falling into the group of cacti.
“I thought you were coming to help me, you backstabber! Instead you’re making passes at my woman?”
“Your woman?” Julian whispered, quizzically.
But Xandra had wrenched herself away, apparently eager to please Nathan. She put renewed energy into her step as she hiked up the rise, leaving Julian to follow morosely behind like a lost puppy.
Julian wanted to kill Nathan by the time he reached the couple. Apparently Nathan was showing Xandra the view from the platform where he planned to BASE jump. Julian was accustomed to the southeastern Utah views, but Xandra cringed back from the sheer drop.
“I don’t like this, Nathan,” she said, cowering into the warmth of a safer cliff face. “I won’t allow you to leap off the side of a goddamn precipice into a fucking abyss.”
Nathan had probably heard that before, for he immediately turned to Julian. A lot of Julian’s anger dropped when he saw the pure joy on Nathan’s face. It was good to see him like that. “Have you ever jumped, Julian? From a plane?” Julian shook his head. “It’s overwhelmingly powerful, soaring above a valley floor with no contraption strapped to your back, no hang glider, no wings. You’re playing with death and it’s the biggest rush of all. I’m not
blocking
out the fear—I’m
feeling
for the first time in my life. I’m feeling the fear and everything around me, the eagles soaring past, the moisture in the air, the currents lifting me up. It’s like I’ve got a heightened awareness of my entire world.”
“That’s good, Nathan. That’s good,” said Julian. “I’ve watched plenty of people hang gliding and even BASE jumping—there are a lot of good spots for that around here. That’s good that you enjoy it.”
It really
was
good. So rarely did Julian ever see the brutal commando with anything like a sense of joy in his face. Julian had seen him express bliss—while having an orgasm. Tenderness—while caring for Xandra. But joy? Never.
Nathan turned to Xandra, who recoiled against the sandstone. He took her arms and tried to explain. “Xandra. It’s a high unlike any you’ve ever felt. It’s an endorphin rush. People say BASE jumpers don’t have enough endorphins, and this is how they get them.”
“But what would you do if you couldn’t get this rush?”
Nathan’s response was immediate. “Why do you think I fly U-28s over the Sudan? The danger enhances my appreciation of life. When I’m a wingsuit pilot, instead of dying I’m flying.”
Julian had an idea. Actually, the idea itself was still formulating in his mind as he went up behind Nathan, whipping a handkerchief from his pocket.
Xandra was saying, “But you said you were staying in Utah. For a few months, at least. Does that mean you have to BASE jump every couple of weeks, since you’re not flying over Africa?”
Nathan shrugged. “Probably. Why not? Look, Delta force commandos have Purple Hearts for doing the stuff we do every day. Most of the guys in my crew have been injured, but no Purple Hearts for them. Our success rate in targeting the right homes is fifty percent compared to the military. That’s actually a very good rate, believe it or not.”
“It is,” Julian, behind him, agreed.
“Yet we never get the praise, the recognition. I just lost my partner in Africa. Does Rory get a memorial? Does he even get a headstone? His fiancée didn’t even get a
nametag.
We’re targeting the Lord’s Resistance Army, heartless thugs who turn children into soldiers, and Rory didn’t even get a coffee cup.”
Xandra looked about to cry. She seemed to have forgotten she was standing twenty feet from the sharp edge of a thousand-foot cliff, and she touched Nathan’s face with the back of her hand. “Sweetheart,” she whispered.
It was so quiet atop the steeple, a vulture squawking brought to mind a pterodactyl gliding through a Mesozoic canyon. Julian felt the time was now, so he created a triangle of the handkerchief then twisted it to create a long rope. He pressed his body to Nathan’s and said, “Trust us.”
Over Nathan’s shoulder, Julian caught Xandra’s eye. She saw the handkerchief he held, and a definite sheen of excitement swept over her face. “Yes, trust us. We both care about you, we both want you. You have to trust us not to hurt you.” She probably thought Julian was going to bind Nathan’s wrists again, but Julian had a new idea in mind.
He encircled Nathan’s torso with both arms, taking great enjoyment in wriggling his hard-on against that sublime ass. Nathan had removed his windbreaker, uncaring up here who saw his shoulder holster, and Julian’s warden’s badge stabbed into the warm flesh of Nathan’s shoulder. It was always so delicious to press his body to Nathan’s, and now he lifted the handkerchief to Nathan’s face. “You have to trust us to not do anything that would make you mad.”
Nathan didn’t protest one shred as Julian blindfolded him. He kept his grip on Xandra’s upper arms, but pressed her back into the rock with his body. He felt Xandra’s face with his fingertips, and Julian could see the intrigued smile on his face.
Julian whispered silkily into Nathan’s ear, “You like to be submissive, don’t you?” He unbuckled the holster tie-downs and slid the whole contraption from Nathan’s broad shoulders, setting it carefully in a tiny cave behind a rock.
“How can you tell?” Nathan asked, opening his mouth over Xandra’s lips.
Julian liked watching them kiss. He imagined himself in Xandra’s place, licking Nathan’s delicious tongue, feeling Nathan’s hard-on grind against his. Or, equally, being in Nathan’s place, his chest smashed to Xandra’s breasts. But today Julian’s game was different. He reached around Nathan and slid a few fingers under the strap of Xandra’s camisole. It was arousing knowing Nathan couldn’t see what he was doing. In between licks to Nathan’s tongue, Xandra shot Julian a few lewd glances, giving him the go-ahead.
Julian yanked the strap down. When the white tit bounced out, the nipple pink and soft, Julian eagerly squeezed it, thumbing the nipple to harden it.
God, how long has it been since I had a woman’s tit in my hand?
He dry-humped Nathan’s superb ass, murmuring, “You like it when I take control, when you don’t need to make decisions, when I tell you what to do.”
Nathan now sucked on Xandra’s throat as she squirmed with her back up against the cliff. She found a couple of handholds and was able to lift her pelvis to grind against the bulge in Nathan’s jeans. Julian was torn between desires. He could have shoved Nathan aside and plunged his erect cock inside the vivacious Xandra. That would teach Nathan a lesson about trust and submission, and would also be a hell of a lot of fun. Julian did still have his handcuffs on his belt. Nathan couldn’t do a damned thing about it if he was blindfolded and cuffed.
“Who doesn’t like that, you bastard,” Nathan muttered.
Julian lifted the other breast from the built-in bra and allowed Nathan to nuzzle it, nibbling on the nipple. “I don’t like it, for one.” He unzipped Xandra’s jean skirt, forcefully yanking it to the ground. “I’d much rather fondle Xandra’s bursting boobs, for one.” He leaned around Nathan’s formidable torso in order to slurp Xandra’s other nipple into his mouth, flicking his tongue back and forth till it stiffened. Xandra held each man’s head to her chest, squirming like a beached fish.