Two Spirits (3 page)

Tekoa got into the truck with Jessica in the
middle. His mouth covered hers and though Tenino couldn't actually
see it, the angle of Tekoa's arm as it reached across Jess made it
pretty clear that his hand was on Clay's cock.

Fuck. He needed a cold shower. Nothing new
when he was around those three, but having Trey sitting across the
table made it worse, much worse.

Not that he could blame Trey for looking and
wanting. Hell,
he
wanted what they had—only with one,
special man, as sappy as that sounded.

Clay and Jessica were of The People now. The
day Tekoa had met them, the Creator had gifted him with
otherworldly cups holding a liquid blessing.

Drinking from those cups had united Clay's
and Jessica's spirits with Tekoa's. It had allowed for a full
joining so Clay and Jessica held a piece of the Thunderbird's
spirit. It'd been the same for Tekoa's brother Ukiah and his mate,
Marisa.

I can be happy with a life partner who's
not Thunderbird
.

Tenino polished off the last of Trey's
forgotten fries then stood. "Let's hit the road."

It was pointless to shoot Briar a
keep
this quiet
look, but he did it anyway.

His cousin sent back a look that said,
Not a chance
.

He could count on being grilled the next
time she saw him. She'd be on the phone telling everyone he'd left
with a delicious blond before he and Trey reached the Jeep.

Any other town and he'd have to worry about
talk being unsafe for Trey, but not in an area populated by the
People of the Thunderbird.

Trey stood. He reached for his wallet, the
movement jerking Tenino's gaze downward to Trey's erection and
making him swallow a curse. "Don't worry about it. Meals come with
the job."

They stepped outside into pounding rain but
its cold lashing wasn't enough to beat back the heat. He jogged to
the Jeep, not exactly fun given the hard-on.

Both of them were soaked from the bottom of
their jackets down by the time they climbed into the Rubicon. He
fired the engine. Maybe he'd get lucky and the call that they'd
caught Patricia Veron would come in. Otherwise the drive to the
cabin was going to be one long argument with his cock about what to
do about Trey.

His head, the big one, the smart one, took
the position that doing anything with Trey would only lead to
misery.

Sure, he loved watching Tekoa interact with
Jessica and Clay. Loved their open sensuality. Fuck. He loved
Jessica.

She was gorgeous, sinfully submissive when
her men wanted that from her. She was a wet dream waiting to happen
and if he'd been straight or bi, he'd have needed to sweat the envy
out of his system every time he saw her with Tekoa and Clay.

But he wasn't straight or bi. He was
gay.

It'd rip his heart out to share a lover with
a woman. So what chance did he have of gaining a true spirit mate
when their physical union would never produce children? How would
it serve The People? The Creator?

And still he couldn't stop himself from
checking Trey out and hoping that maybe he was wrong about the
whole bi thing. That maybe Tekoa was right, and Trey's arrival was
like Marisa's and Clay's and Jessica's showing up, especially given
the whole discussion about Thunderbirds at the diner. That maybe
when they reached the cabin, he'd find the cup holding the
Creator's blessing.

Usually he found the wind's call and rain's
music irresistible. Usually he couldn't wait to get home so he
could stretch out in front of the fireplace and let his spirit
escape the confines of human flesh to become Thunderbird.

It was the overpowering need to take flight
in the land The People protected that had brought him back to
Hohoq. He could sense Thunderbirds high above them, but with Trey
sitting next to him, all he could think about was stripping out of
their clothing and taking Trey on the rug in front of the fireplace
and soaring with passion instead of with the storm.

And that was the little head talking, his
dick arguing for what it wanted.

Next to him Trey was looking out into
nothing but fog trapped by night and rubbing at the place above his
heart. Couldn't be heartburn, the meals served at the diner were
too fine for that. And thinking about Tekoa with Jess and Clay was
more likely to have him gripping the erection.

So worried about something? Besides a
murderous ex-girlfriend involved in child porn?

Tenino frowned. "Your family safe?"

Trey's hand stilled. "There was only my mom.
She raised me solo."

Was
. Usually he'd drop it, but…

"Recent loss?"

"Three months ago."

"Sorry."
Sorry for your loss
. Thank
the Creator he didn't have to say that very often now that he was
back home. The words never felt adequate enough or real enough to
make a difference. He'd had to say them far too often when he'd
been a cop in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Trey's hand dropped to his lap. "She's at
peace now."

So probably not an accident, though putting
Trey at around twenty-four, twenty-five, his mother wouldn't have
been that old. "Cancer?"

"FTD. Frontotemporal dementia. Best way to
describe it is Alzheimer's on steroids, except it's fatal. It
shrinks the lobes in the brain that control personality and speech.
Hers was particularly aggressive. She'd have hated what it turned
her into, someone who was verbally abusive."

"You lived with her?"

"Moved back home as soon as the doctors
figured out it wasn't Alzheimer's or Parkinson's."

A good son. A good teacher. A good man.

Not that Tenino had doubted it. The Feds
wouldn't have been above putting pressure on Trey in the form of a
threat to his reputation to get him to cooperate, but there'd been
no whiff of that shit. The guy had put his life in danger to keep
and make kids safe.

"Death can be a blessing," he said, and he
sure as hell didn't mean Trey's.

"Yeah, it can be." Trey rubbed his palms
over his knees, two passes before turning away from the window and
looking in his direction.

Tenino caught it out of the corner of his
eye, felt it like a hot caress that streaked to his dick and gave
it a louder voice. He fought like crazy not to turn his face toward
Trey. He'd gotten that message loud and clear, direct eye contact
would have the guy pulling back like a turtle into his shell and
pretending the heat between them didn't exist.

Three months, so still grieving though it
probably felt as if he'd lost his mother well before the actual
event. Then on top of his mother's death, throw in finding out that
his girlfriend was involved in making and distributing child
porn…

That'd be a blow to his confidence when it
came to choosing a lover. Tenino took a hand off the steering wheel
and rubbed his own chest, reinterpreting some of what he'd seen on
Trey's face in the diner, when he was watching Tekoa with Clay and
Jess.

Loneliness, a craving for comfort, the
desire to be held, kissed—fucked. It wasn't ego telling him that's
what Trey's eyes now held. He'd been looked at enough by other men,
he'd done the looking enough times to know that's what was going
through Trey's head, the big one and the little one, in what Trey
thought was the safety of a dark car.

What the guy needed was some sexual
healing—

Ah fuck no. But it was too late. He was
already hearing the Marvin Gaye classic in his head and seeing
Briar's grin after turning away from the juke box in the diner.

Note to self: Remember not to go into the
diner after a casual roll with someone just in the area for camping
or climbing.

Only he didn't want casual anymore. And he'd
never been good at reading the notes he left to himself.

He risked a glance at Trey.

Trey's face snapped toward the windshield.
And fuck if that didn't open up a well of tender feelings. The guy
had been through a lot in a short amount of time.

They took the final curve on the private
road leading to his place and the Jeep's headlights speared the
cabin and the stand-alone garage set apart and to the right of it.
"Here we are. Home Sweet Home."

He shook his head at the last bit. Hadn't
exactly meant to say that.

He parked in front and got out, pretty sure
his cock had won the argument, not that the big head was completely
ready to acknowledge defeat.

Trey grabbed the duffle and followed him
onto the porch and into the cabin. Tenino's gaze zeroed in on the
fireplace mantle and the Thunderbird image Ukiah had carved into
it. There was no half-filled cup waiting as there had been for
Tekoa when he took Clay and Jessica to his home.

He swallowed his disappointment. He'd known
better than to hope there would be one—especially since Trey had a
thing for women.

Maybe Patricia Veron had cured him of
that.

Tenino snorted. Right.

"Drop the duffle anywhere you want."

He shucked his jacket and hung it on a peg
next to the door. Trey did the same and damn if that didn't feel
intimate.

For the most part his place was one room
with the kitchen separated by a counter and the bedroom space
delineated by a dark brown carpet. The couch was oversized, plush,
the TV an energy-consuming extravagance that'd made several elders
mutter about the foolishness of youth, especially when they saw the
collection of video games making up his
library
.

"I'll get a fire going," he said, surprised
the one in his dick didn't already have the cabin going up in
flames. "What you see is pretty much what there is." He pointed
toward an open doorway. "Bathroom's there."

He crossed the wooden floor and knelt on the
thick, woven rug in front of the fireplace. Even with his back to
Trey, he was acutely aware of Trey opening the duffle, probably
pulling out another pair of jeans since his own were still wet from
mid-thigh downward. He hadn't expected the deluge to arrive so
quickly. Usually there was a knowing that came with being
Thunderbird.

His gaze lifted to the mantle.

No cup.

Doesn't mean Trey's not—

There's still the woman thing.

Right.

Tenino fisted his hand and tapped it against
his heart. Resisting Trey was going to be a problem.

Trey disappeared into the bathroom carrying
light gray sweats. For the next week or so, this was his job,
keeping Trey safe. But short of having a tracking device on Trey,
there was little chance of Patricia Veron finding him—which meant
there was little danger of anything except dying of blue balls.

Tenino got the fire going. Trey emerged from
the bathroom barefoot and wearing sweatpants that didn't hide the
erection. He dug a book from the duffle then claimed a spot at the
couch end closest to the fire.

It was so fucking homey that it took
everything Tenino had not to put a knee on the cushion and his
hands on the couch back so he could swoop in for a kiss.

Trey's head was down, his attention
seemingly on the book he was using to shield his hard-on, but
Tenino was willing to bet his badge that if he asked, Trey wouldn't
be able to tell him what he was reading.

Why couldn't Trey be butt-ugly? Or a flamer?
Either would make things easy.

Instead Trey was perfectly masculine, lean
and fit without the muscles of a guy who did serious bodybuilding.
And the blond ponytail was about to drive him crazy. He had a thing
for long hair. He loved freeing his braid and having a lover comb
his fingers through it. He loved doing the same to a lover.

He closed his eyes, breathed deeply and
regretted it as the light scent of Trey's cologne had him wanting
to press his mouth to Trey's throat and inhale deeply. He needed to
deal with this and there were two choices. One, kick back and have
some fun.

No commitments. No expectations. Just go
with the flow, take what was offered though casual with Trey would
only make the cabin seem empty and the loneliness worse when he was
gone.

Or two, hold out. Fight the attraction and
spend a lot of time jerking off in the shower.

Yeah, that option held a lot of appeal.

He didn't have a clue how to proceed. Say
something about the chemistry that had him harder than he'd been in
a long time? Don't say anything?

It's not like they were in a gay bar or set
up by friends. They were snugged up in his cabin with one bed, one
sofa and a whole lot of togetherness. Which meant he was going to
be totally miserable in his own place if something didn't give.

He took a deep breath, opened his eyes and
let the first words that presented themselves out. "Look. No
surprises here. I'm gay. I—"

"I'm not gay."

"Yeah, I got that you're bi—"

"I'm not bi."

Fuck if that didn't ring one hundred percent
true, which could only mean…

Shit, the guy was in denial, total
denial.

Tenino's eyebrows went up and he had the
satisfaction of watching Trey's face flame and his hands tighten on
the top edge of the book. Okay, so not in complete denial which was
a good thing because seriously, did Trey expect to be believed when
he was using a book to hide a boner?

Did he think I wouldn't notice?

Trey ducked his head and a nearly
overwhelming need to force the truth out of him just about cost
Tenino his control. He stood before he gave in to the temptation to
make Trey say,
Okay, you're right, I'm gay
.

Not just gay, but a virgin. And that was
enough reason to retreat to the bathroom.

Tenino stripped and stepped into the shower
stall, close to having most of his brains reside in his cock. He
gave the hot water faucet a savage twist because there were only
two cures for what ailed him, and taking a cold shower was only
going to lead to more cold showers.