STORY EXCERPT

Fitch…

“Watch out!”

I wasn’t sure what had come over me as I raced forward and knocked the guy out of the way of the speeding car. We hit the ground with a harsh roll, bruising my elbows and hurting my side.

When I looked up, the car kept going, as if it hadn’t almost run over a human being. It nearly sideswiped a parked car before barreling around the corner.

What a freaking idiot.

“Fitch! Fitch!” My cousin came running out of the noodle place, his eyes wide, his arms held out. “What the hell just happened?”

“I think I might’ve broken my elbow.” I sat up and winced as I clutched my injured arm. “It really hurts.”

“I saw what happened,” Emerson said.

“Then why did you ask me what happened?”

Emerson helped me to my feet. My arm really did hurt. It was a throbbing, shooting pain that radiated up to my shoulder. I was pretty sure I needed to go to a hospital, but with no health insurance, that wasn’t going to happen.

“You saved my life.”

The deep voice behind me reminded me that someone else was there. I’d been so focused on my pain that I’d forgotten about the guy I’d just saved. I needed to get my heart to slow down. It pounded hard against my ribs and made my chest ache. Was I having a heart attack? Mild stroke? I think I was having a heart attack. I fanned myself and hoped I didn’t need an ambulance.

“You’re the reason my cousin nearly got ran over.” Emerson glared at the stranger.

“He was on the sidewalk,” I argued. “It was the car’s fault for jumping the curb.”

I turned to face the stranger and sucked in a deep and quick breath. Sweet mother of mercy. He was in a business suit, a nice-looking one, but it was his face that had me panting and my heart going even faster. Those pretty light brown eyes were heavenly. “I think I’m in lust.”

“Are you nuts?” Emerald grabbed my shoulders and pulled me farther away from the hunk. “Get your ass back in the restaurant and leave this guy alone.”

“But I want,” I whimpered. Maybe that shot of saké hadn’t been a good idea. It had made me play hero when I’d come out to feed the meter, and that could’ve cost me my life. It also had me saying things I normally wouldn’t have said out loud. “I saved his life, so I get to grope him.”

Emerson glared at me. “You seriously can’t hold your liquor, buddy. You can’t go around groping strangers. That’s some kind of rule somewhere. I think it falls under sexual harassment.”

I pouted because the scenario in my head had the stranger bending me over the nearest car hood. “You’re no fun. I just want to feel his package. I didn’t say I wanted to drop to my knees and suck his dick.”

Emerson slapped a hand over his face. “You did not just say that.”

I would have totally sucked his dick if he’d asked. Lord Jesus, I wasn’t a slut, but how often did I save a hot guy’s life?

The guy reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a card. “You have to let me repay you for what you did for me.”

I could think of several naughty ways he could repay me. For fuck’s sake. I needed to leave that saké alone. It had my brain all fuddled.

Emerson swiped the card and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans. “Fitch didn’t see anything, and he doesn’t know nothing,” Emerson said. “He’s not a witness, got that?”

We were on the east side of town, a neighborhood that wasn’t particular nice. It was where we lived and housed the shops we loved, but one had to always watch his back. The Malkovich gang ran the east side, and sometimes it got bloody.

But what were residents supposed to do, hide in their homes? It wasn’t crazy-crazy, but nighttime wasn’t a particularly good time to be out. But I’d wanted something to eat and had talked Emerson into joining me.

He’d picked me up from my house, and we’d had dinner. It had been harmless enough, and I’d wanted to get away from my family for at least an hour. If you’d met them, you’d know why.

Even so, what if the driver was part of the gang and the near-miss had been an attempt to kill this guy? Nope, I hadn’t seen anything, and I wasn’t opening my big mouth.

I was like those three monkeys. Blind, deaf, and damn it, what was the other one? Oh yeah, mute.

The stranger was alive, unharmed, so I had done my duty as a human being. No further steps were needed. Mind your own and move along.

But I grabbed the card from Emerson’s pocket and looked it over. Sue me. I was wildly curious to know who this stud was. I needed a name to go along with the fantasies I would have later tonight.

Gabriel Rothe. He worked at Russo and Associates. It was a law firm that even I had heard of. The building was located in the downtown area, pretty sleek, which meant this lawyer was pricey and rich.

He was also gorgeous as hell. The kind of guy a gay man wouldn’t mind licking to an orgasm. My tongue was raring to go, but Emerson was the biggest damn cockblocker.

“Let’s go back inside.” Emerson tried to tug at me, and I let out a high-pitched cry. My freaking elbow.

Gabriel moved a step closer. “You should get that looked at.”

“I can’t. I don’t have insurance.” Fuck, it hurt, badly. I wanted to pull my arm off just to stop the pain. Too bad limbs weren’t detachable. I’d take my arm off and hand it over to the sexy stud and tell him to have it serviced and I’d pick it up later.

God, that saké really was going to my head.

ADULT EXCERPT

I pulled away, pressed my palms against his rock-hard chest, and shoved him backward onto the couch. Then I paused. Two thick, gleaming canines were showing, and I feared I’d gone too far.

I was also mesmerized by the sight, reminded that Gabe wasn’t human.

He smirked. “Afraid of me, Fitch?”

His glib question knocked me out of the daze I’d been falling into. “You wish.”

Gabe threw his head back and laughed. “Then bring it, tiger.”

He toed his shoes off then finished undressing. Yep, my brain short-circuited as Gabe revealed all that tanned muscled flesh. He sat forward and yanked my jeans and underwear down my legs.

“Take the rest off.” Gabe sat back and palmed his cock, biting his bottom lip. The tease. “I’m going to show you why it’s worth playing hooky from work.”

Those words tried to force reason into my head, to tell me I was playing a dangerous game. I was a responsible adult who took my obligations seriously, and now I was threatening my livelihood by missing work, by letting my boss down because I hadn’t shown up.

“What is it?” Gabe released his cock and sat forward. “Have you changed your mind?”

“No.” I shook my head, forced Gabe to sit back, then straddled his corded thighs. His hands rested against my hips.

Gabe didn’t look as though he believed me. “Then why did the spark fizzle from your eyes?”

“My eyes were sparking?” I kissed the edge of Gabe’s jaw, hoping to distract him.

It worked.

Soon Gabe had me pinned beneath him, igniting my body into flames, kissing and petting me. It was pure torture, to have his hard cock gliding over my skin, to feel the droplets of pre-cum being left behind. I was in a whirlwind, drowning in Gabe’s masculine scent, cocooned by his body, and I couldn’t seem to get enough of him.

I had to touch, to draw my fingers over every dip and curve, to memorize where every imperfection was, to taste his skin under my lips, and to hear his heavy breathing as he explored my body.

I’d never had anyone so eager to run his hands over me, to softly kiss my shoulder, or to look at me the way Gabe was looking at me.

I was drugged, dizzy with this man, licking the saltiness from his body, arching into Gabe with need.

“Give me one second.” Gabe pulled away and walked down a hallway but was back before I could wonder where he had gone. He set the bottle of lube aside then stretched back onto the couch, pulling me into his arms.

I was lost in a haze, need engulfing me, driving me as I reached for the lube. Gabe held out his hand, and I squirted a dollop onto his fingers.

He nibbled my lips, torturing me while sliding his fingers along my hole. Gabe distracted me with slow, lazy kisses that made me moan, made me wish this were a permanent thing. But I wasn’t an idiot. We were caught up in the moment. Two people forced together by circumstances. I no more belonged in his world than he belonged in mine.

But I was going to enjoy myself while I had this stud all to myself.

“Open your legs for me, beautiful.”

If Gabe kept talking to me that way, I just might fall in love with him, and that was something I had to avoid at all costs. My heart wouldn’t be able to withstand the blow when he tired of me and moved on.

Get out of your own head and just enjoy the moment. Stop thinking two steps ahead. I just feared that I was already losing myself to Gabriel Rothe.

My thoughts scattered when his fingers entered me, stretching me, making my muscles burn at the invasion. I kissed him harder, gripping his arms and holding out until the burn subsided.

Gabe scissored his fingers, twisted his wrist, and touched my hot spot, damn near making me go off like a rocket. I had to bite my lip and concentrate not to come.

And we hadn’t even gotten to him actually sliding his cock into me. I was losing it over his fingers. But it was the way he watched me, as if gauging my reaction, fully focused on my pleasure.

What drove me higher was the fact that I could still taste him on my lips, his essence, the sweet release that had rocked him.

“I’m about to make you mine,” Gabe purred into my ear. I didn’t take his words at face value. Guys—including myself—loved to talk trash during sex. They were empty words that served only to ramp up the excitement.

“Then do it.” I bucked my hips, going along with the foreplay of words. “Make me yours, stud. Tame this bronco.”

I had never said I was good at trash talk. I would have to work on that.

Later.

The smile that lit up Gabe’s face made my heart shudder. He had that runway-model look that would make any woman drop her panties and make even straight men envy him. A gay man didn’t stand a chance when Gabe turned his charm on them.

He slid his fingers free, reared back, then grabbed the lube. I’d lost my ability to breathe as I watched him lather his cock. The damn thing had plenty of girth and length. I should know. I’d just had it rammed down my throat.

I curled my good hand into the couch cushions as Gabe lined the head of his dick to my stretched, lubed hole. He planted one hand on the arm of the couch, hovering over me, my legs pulled back in anticipation. With a scorching look, he thrust his hips, burying his dick inside me.

I threw my head back and cried out, my legs dropping. If I’d thought the stretch and burn had been intense with Gabe’s fingers, that was shit compared to having his cock buried inside me.

Gabe cupped my face and kissed me, kissed the thoughts right out of my head. He started moving, unwilling or unable to give me time to adjust. He punched his hips forward, nailing my gland, morphing my pain into amazing pleasure.