STORY EXCERPT

Vincent hopped onto the rocky shore from a RIB, helped by two of the deckhands who doubled as bodyguards. Summer had faded into fall and the breeze scurrying across the sound was brisk, to say the least. His gaze took in the shallow estuary where the salmon spawning was in full swing, as hundreds of salmon made their way upstream to the spawning grounds where they’d been born.

He cared not for the stunning vista, caring only that he had a limited time to catch up with the miscreant who’d managed to escape yet again. Baxter. Grizzly bear shifter, and lab rat for the whole of his childhood, until he’d been released eleven years ago to live a free life. Vincent cared not a jot that the law was on Baxter’s side. He had enough money and clout to hide Baxter as he continued to experiment with his blood, for decades if necessary. As far as Vincent was concerned, Baxter belonged to him. It was only a matter of time before he was captured.

“Sir. There are several bears upriver, feeding on the salmon.” One of his men had done a recce and returned with the news.

“Send a team,” Vincent ordered. “Baxter could be hiding in plain sight.”

“But sir,” the man protested. “How are we to tell which is Baxter?”

Vincent palmed the pistol he had in his pocket, shooting the man dead. “I don’t pay anyone to question my orders,” he said to the remaining crew. “Go and find Baxter. I want him alive. Don’t come back without him.”

The two remaining men exchanged glances but didn’t demur, moving in the direction their comrade had indicated.

Vincent smiled, satisfied that Baxter would be back in his clutches before dusk.

Hopping back into the RIB, he ordered the pilot to take him back to the large motor yacht anchored just offshore, eager for breakfast, leaving the dead crew member on the shore for the bears and seabirds to fight over.

* * * *

Sammy sat in the briefing room as Ham Locke, his boss, briefed his team on the intel just received. They’d found Vincent’s yacht. Now was the time to move on that intel and get the bastard. They just had to get to the asshole without alerting him that they were coming. The man’s reach was huge, and he seemed to have spies everywhere, even within the confines of HQ where they’d found one of his stooges recently.

Sitting around the table was Drake and several new recruits, including Lorenzo, his husband Jed, Kai—who was Ham’s husband—and Liam McConnaughey, who’d recently had a nasty brush with death at the hands of Vincent’s minion, Cole Murphy. Sammy had the hots for Liam but was trying to keep his attraction on the down low. The guy was one of the biggest flirts around and often used a honeypot technique when on undercover assignments to reel in potential targets, men and women alike. Sammy couldn’t trust him enough to get entangled romantically, so veered away from such folly.

Blond, with hair the color of ripened wheat, green eyed, and tall, two inches over six feet in height, Liam was gorgeous…and he knew it. Sammy preferred humbler partners but couldn’t help how he felt about the guy. Go figure. His attraction to Liam was so strong that if Sammy was a shifter he’d think it was the pull drawing him to the hunk. An orphan, brought up in an all-human household, Sammy had no real clue to his heritage, but assumed he was human, too, since he had never been able to shift into any animal form.

Refocusing on Ham, Sammy raked a hand over his gingery crew cut and concentrated his blue gaze on his boss, trying like hell to put Liam out of his mind.

“I’m sending Drake, Sammy, and Liam on the mission to get to Vincent,” Ham was saying, using a pointer to indicate the location on the wall chart. “You’ll have the Coast Guard as backup in the vicinity, but I want you to go in quietly so we don’t spook him again. It’s taken far too long to find him as it is. And we still need to locate Baxter, who hasn’t made contact yet. Two months, guys. That’s a long time to be missing. I just pray we find Baxter in one piece.”

Sammy spoke up. “Vincent needs Baxter alive,” he said. “He won’t kill him.”

“Only to get his blood, then all bets are off,” Ham corrected. “Vincent loathes shifters and homos. Chances are, he’d kill Baxter the second he gets enough of the red stuff to satisfy his tests.”

“You’re right,” Sammy agreed. “So the sooner we get out there, the better. We’ll get the job done, boss.”

ADULT EXCERPT

The moment Sammy stepped into his apartment, Liam close behind, he took control. Grabbing Liam, he didn’t give the man any time to demur but began to strip off the jeans and sweatshirt he was wearing. Compliantly, Liam toed off his sneakers, and tried to kiss Sammy, frustrated when Sammy turned his head away.

“I’m in charge this time,” Sammy said, grinning seductively, licking Liam’s lips, but pulling back when Liam tried to take control again. “This will take a while if you don’t stop doing that.”

Liam looked pained, and the scent of his arousal was strong in Sammy’s nostrils. Reaching down, he palmed Liam’s dick through his black boxer briefs, massaging the thick, engorged length.

“Oh god. You’re gonna kill me if you don’t stop teasing,” Liam complained, rocking his hips in time with the seductive rhythm.

“I’m just warming you up,” Sammy said, smirking, then turned his head and swiped his tongue along Liam’s lips again. “You like to flirt. You don’t like commitment. But all bets are off today. You met my damned parents, Liam. You’re the only person who I’ve ever let into my personal life like that. Not even the rest of my crew have met my parents.”

“I’m not gonna lie, this is a weird topic, talking about your parents when you’re massaging my cock,” Liam sputtered, groaning loudly when Sammy tightened his grasp slightly.

“Quit whining,” Sammy told him, and sank to his knees, tugging down Liam’s boxer briefs as he went.

Liam’s cock sprang from the confines of the material, ready and willing for some action, its tip moist with precum that oozed temptingly from the slit. Sammy moaned a little, and swiped his tongue along the succulent slit, scooping up precum, enticed by Liam’s jerk of reaction, and his loud moan of longing.

Encouraged by the sound, Sammy took an inch of dick between his lips, sucking vigorously, and listened as Liam’s moans grew louder. Swirling his tongue around the tip, skirting the crown, he sucked again, and again, then almost choked as a spurt of cum spewed out, lashing the back of his throat.

“Told ya!” Liam panted.

Sammy swallowed the load of cum, then tugged off Liam’s socks, the only thing he now wore, before rising and guiding Liam toward the bathroom. He figured Liam could use a rub down, and was volunteering for the job. Grinning at Liam’s continued complaints, he flipped on the shower and shoved Liam under the warming spray. Undressing, he admired Liam’s lean, muscular physique, and his burgeoning cock, then stepped into the stall with the sexy human.

“Face the wall, and spread those cheeks,” Sammy ordered, chuckling quietly when Liam complied instantly, wiggling his butt enticingly.

Water sluiced down Liam’s body, and his skin gleamed like a wet seal’s. Sammy reached for shower gel on the shelf and squeezed some onto his hand, then grabbed a shower sponge and began cleansing Liam with a thoroughness that had Liam moaning anew. Each time he swiped the sponge down Liam’s back and buttocks, Sammy deliberately avoided the shadowy crease between, causing Liam to wiggle his butt more vigorously.

Laughing again at Liam’s antics, Sammy turned him and began washing his front, missing his cock each time he swept downward with the sponge. Liam panted, his nipples peaking into hard little nubs, his dick at full mast again. He tried to grab Sammy for a kiss, but Sammy turned him back around again, slapping his ass as punishment.

“Quit it or I’ll stop completely,” Sammy warned. “I’ll kiss you when I’m ready.”

“You’re sexy when you’re being bossy,” Liam told him, then groaned again when Sammy smacked his ass again.

“Don’t turn around,” Sammy said, and sank to his knees, squeezing more shower gel onto his fingers and swiping them along Liam’s crease, probing slightly at the tiny hole buried within.

Rinsing the gel away, he replaced fingers with tongue, and lapped at the crease, probing at the tiny hole, Liam’s fluid moans vibrating through him. Enjoying Liam’s musky taste, he paused for a moment to anoint his fingers again with more gel, and probed with his forefinger, stretching Liam gently.

“Don’t stop, baby,” Liam begged, his entire body tense with need. “Fuck me hard.”

Sammy smiled at the lust in Liam’s voice, the feel of Liam’s heated tunnel arousing him even more. He probed deeper, adding a second finger and scissoring his fingers to stretch Liam even more. Liam shuddered, moving his hips back and forth, fucking himself on the slender intruders. Sammy smacked Liam’s ass again to warn him against trying to take control again, then anointed his cock with shower gel, rising to his feet, and moving in behind Liam, his cock so engorged he thought he may explode.

The water began to cool, so Sammy flipped off the faucet, gripping Liam’s hips to hold him in place as he slid forward, guiding his cock with one hand so that its tip perched at the entrance to Liam’s sleek body.

“Stay still. I don’t want to hurt you,” Sammy said, and began to slide home, entering Liam with a slow, steady stroke.

He dove in, only a couple of inches, and then he paused, gasping in a kind of dazed disbelief at the intensity of feeling. The moist heat. The tightness. The slick glide of flesh into flesh, and the shuddering contractions as Liam’s body reacted to the thickness of Sammy’s aroused dick.