STORY EXCERPT

Mason felt the vein in his eye twitch. He suddenly no longer thought the young man in front of him was cute or adorable anymore. He wanted nothing more than to strangle the little bastard. He clenched his fists, and it wasn’t until the little defect looked down at them with that smile wavering, and a slight hint of fear, that he relaxed his hands. “What do you want me to do?” he asked. “And don’t you dare ask me to do something that can get me fired from my job. I’m not taking you on a road trip across the country or something. I just got promoted and I want everything to stay that way.”

There was no way this kid would make him do something that would endanger his job, would he? Would he? Oh, fuck.

“I’m not going to ask you to do that, or even ask you to burn down the stupid hotel,” the kid said.

“Which I wouldn’t do even if you asked me,” Mason snapped. “You can’t ask me to do anything that would put humans in danger.”

Even by pack law, that was a big no-no.

“Nope, this will actually be a little easier on you,” said the fox defect, and his bright smile was back in place. “I already know about your promotion because I overheard you talking with that dick head, Pingsley.”

Williford. Fucking perfect.

“Wait, how could you have overheard that?” Mason asked, and then he half answered his own question when the kid was about to point to his fox ears. “I know those work and that you have better hearing than even me, but that still doesn’t explain it. You’re not a guest, so where did you come from?”

Now the kid looked genuinely shocked, and then put off as he crossed his arms. Great, another cute thing he was good at doing. Pouting. Mason was fucked in the head.

“I work in there with you, you asshole!” he snapped. “I wash the dishes!”

“You do? For how long?”

“I started working there literally one day before you got there. You never noticed me?” There was such a tone of sadness in the kid’s eyes that Mason was genuinely sorry he hadn’t noticed him. Fuck, even those fox ears had slumped down, folding right against the top of the kid’s head. Charlie’s ears did that whenever he was sad about something.

“I’m sorry. I guess I was just always focused on my station.”

“I said hi to you a couple of times.”

And Mason didn’t remember that either. Why was this kid making him feel like such a dick? He hadn’t done anything wrong here. “I’m sorry,” was all he could say.

“Well, whatever I guess, it doesn’t matter right now anyway since you know who I am now.”

Actually, he didn’t. Mason still didn’t have a name. “What’s your name?” he asked, and he hoped that the kid wouldn’t be pissed off that he didn’t know something as simple as that.

Thankfully, the little fox didn’t give him any shit for it. “Parker Smith, and you’re Mason Young, I already know that. We’ve only been working together for over a year now.”

Mason winced. So much for not getting chewed out about the name thing. “All right, Parker, you wanted me, now you got me. What can I do for you for the next year, and it had best not interfere with my job or my family life.”

Parker went back to smiling at him, and his ears perked right up. Mason felt a lot better about everything after that. “You can give me better shifts in the hotel. Recommend me as a waiter since they get paid more money. Oh, and I need a new place to live, so that will be with you from now on.”

“Wait a minute, stop. I can’t just make you a waiter and you can’t come and live with me.”

“Yes I can, you have to let me live with you. And I didn’t demand that you snap your fingers and make me a waiter. I asked that you recommend it. Put it into that dick Williford’s head so that he at least knows I still want the position. Do you know how much money they make in tips?”

“So that’s what this is about, you want more money? The guy who paid you for an iPod he didn’t break wasn’t enough?”

Mason regretted that the second those fox ears folded flat against the top of Parker’s head, and the kid started pouting again. “Just do it. You’re mine for twelve months, and it’s not like I’m demanding money from you or anything.”

“I don’t have a spare bedroom,” Mason said, his last defense against this kid.

“Your couch will be fine,” Parker said with a smile. “Actually, I’ve got another request, too.”

Mason felt the dull throb of a headache starting up at the back of his skull. He sighed. “What do you want now?”

“I don’t want to put your work in danger or anything, so while we’re at work, we’ll pretend that everything’s normal.”

Mason…was more than all right with that. “Really?” he asked.

Parker nodded. That big grin was back on his face, his ears perked, and his tail waved around behind him. “Yeah, because otherwise, when we’re in public, you need to pretend to be my boyfriend.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Parker hands moved away from the back of Mason’s neck and down to his massive shoulders. He tried pulling at them, giving the other man the hint that he wanted him to come even closer.

Mason took that hint beautifully.

And there was something beautiful about this. This had to be the most gentle kiss Parker had ever received in his entire life. He’d never felt real physical pleasure by having a tongue in his mouth to suck on before. It was making the blood throughout the rest of his body boil and simmer while his dick became harder and throbbed even more. The only thing that was missing was some romantic song playing in the background. This was just as perfect as all those free romance novels he got on his Kindle app.

Then he felt the hard length of Mason’s cock pressing against his thigh, and oh fuck! Parker moaned as the pleasure mounted. His body couldn’t contain it anymore and the rush was so damned sudden that there wasn’t even the chance to try.

He gasped and moaned against Mason’s body as he came in his shorts. Even as his muscles spasmed and his body released everything inside of him, he couldn’t help but feel a colossal amount of embarrassment over what just happened. Oh, fuck, he just came in his pants, like some teenaged kid. It was no wonder Mason didn’t want anything to do with him.

“I’m…I’m sorry, I—hmmph!”

Mason growled and slammed their lips back together, pushing Parker’s back even harder against the tree that was behind him as his tongue forced its way back inside of his mouth. Not that the man needed to do any forcing at all. Hell, Parker was planning on giving everything he had to the alpha so long as they didn’t stop doing…whatever it was they were doing.

The kissing was so damned intense, so hot and intoxicating that it took Parker a few seconds to realize that Mason’s eyes were back to being red, and that same low growl was still coming out of his throat. Had the man been a cat shifter, Parker would’ve thought that Mason was purring.

“That was so fucking hot. Holy God, I can smell it. I can smell it all over you.”

Parker let out another low moan when Mason’s hand came between his legs and squeezed his half hard cock. At first it felt a little painful, and then the pleasure was back full force as Mason’s hand moved up and down, stroking Parker’s dick back to full thickness from the outside of his wet shorts.

“What the hell are you doing to me?”

“Me?” Parker asked. “You’re the one seducing me,” he said. Which hadn’t been the idea. Parker brought Mason out here for the run because he’d hoped that the animal side of the taller man would come out to play. Now that it was here, Parker was the one who found himself being swept away. He was being swept away by all of it, and it was so fucking amazing that he didn’t have the words to describe it.

Mason’s red eyes darkened, and then he leaned in for another kiss.

It was even better than the last one. Mostly because of the way Mason’s tongue licked him deep, the way his free hand roamed all over Parker’s already scorching-hot body, until it was touching and petting his ears while his other hand stroked his hard cock.

He had to pull away from the kiss, had to warn Mason that he was about to lose it again. “Oh, fuck, stop, stop. I’m gonna come again.”

“I want to fuck you. I shouldn’t,” Mason said, shaking his head, as if the more human part of his mind was threatening to take over.

That really fucking hurt. Like, lance through the heart hurt. To know that Mason was fighting this so damned hard because he had that sort of hangups about Parker’s ears…no, he wouldn’t let the man do that. There was nothing wrong with Parker’s ears and tail, and he was going to prove that he could be just as good a lover as anyone else, even if he couldn’t shift.

Parker swallowed hard, gathered his courage, and he stuck his hand into the pocket of his ruined shorts. He pulled out a bottle of lube. The water gun hadn’t been the only thing he’d picked up when he got changed for the run.

“I want you to fuck me,” Parker said. “It’s okay if you do, too.”

He held his breath and stared into Mason’s eyes at that point. He could say no, he could say that he didn’t want to be with a freak, a defect and that he most certainly didn’t want to stick his cock inside of one.

Parker would cry his damned eyes out if Mason said something like that, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it, even if only to himself.

Mason stared at the bottle of lube, and then at Parker. His eyes never lost that animalistic quality to them, and it was all Parker could do to keep from losing his damned mind, wanting to know what Mason’s answer was going to be.

Mason grabbed onto the bottle just as he leaned in and pressed another hard kiss to Parker’s mouth. He pulled back quickly, however. “Get out of those clothes.”