STORY EXCERPT

He was sure the large figure was James, bringing him his evening meal and coming to sit with him again. As stupid and foolish as it was, he’d come to like the presence of the handsome man. He had green eyes that were soft and gentle, when they didn’t appear angry with killer rage, and he had a hair colour that Quinn had never before seen. Not really. It was pale blond, but in the light, it glinted with auburn and gold. The man only had the shortest of stubble for a beard surrounding his pink mouth, but Quinn was convinced that if he allowed it to grow out, it would be the same.

“Just coming to make sure the mage prisoner was comfortable, no need to stand up on my account.”

Fuck. This was not James, and despite the man’s words, Quinn did stand up. He stood up and stepped back as much as he could before the slack of his chain ran out.

It was locked around a thick and sturdy beam from one of the empty stalls. The animals had all been cleared out of here, leaving its entire use as a prison just for him. And now he was alone with Hank.

All the man ever did was glare at him and stare. Quinn hated him, and he was pretty sure that Hank hated him as well.

Hank, however, was grinning. He didn’t let off an air of bad energy. Not that Quinn could read such things, but there were always ways of telling by body language and facial expressions.

That didn’t mean the man was planning on playing nice, however.

He was tall, a little over six feet, which meant that he towered over Quinn. He had pale blond hair, like James, but it was dull and cut much shorter. He also had the coldest blue eyes Quinn had ever seen on any man.

It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that Hank got off on being cruel to any paranormal hostages that came into the village. He was a chatty man, and Quinn knew about what had almost happened to Will, who was both a vampire and a healer mage.

Where the hell was James?

As if reading his thoughts, or maybe he just saw the discomfort on Quinn’s face, Hank laughed a little, as though someone had just said a funny joke. “Your protector is out talking to the head of the village, mage. Just you and me until he gets back.”

Quinn shook his head. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Fuck. He immediately knew that he shouldn’t have opened his big mouth.

Hank hooted. “You do speak! I was starting to think you were a dumb mute or something.”

Quinn sealed his lips shut, refusing to take the bait.

The man was here to annoy him, pester, poke, and prod. He hated the paranormals, Quinn could tell that much, but he wouldn’t hurt Quinn. James, and the leader of this village, had already made it clear to everyone that he wasn’t to be harmed.

Unless, that order had been revoked. Or Hank was here on his own, regardless of the rules. Quinn knew by now that just because someone put a rule in place, didn’t mean that it couldn’t be broken.

He started to shake.

Hank just kept right on staring at him. “You’re a pretty big coward for a fire mage, aren’t you?”

Fuck him.

“Come on, say something to me again.” Hank took another couple of steps forward. This time Quinn moved off to the side to try and avoid him, but the chain kept his movements limited. Hank knew this and cut him off, shoving him against the stall, the hard wood pressing against his back.

He grunted at the rough treatment, but he’d been in these same chains for weeks now. If this was the worst the man could do, then Hank would take it and not complain.

Just because he was scared shitless didn’t mean he had to let the bastard know about that.

When Quinn tried to shove him away, Hank barely moved, and he just grabbed onto the heavy iron links of the chain nearest to Quinn’s wrists, and forced him to keep still.

Hank was at least six inches taller than Quinn was. There was nothing he could do if the man wanted to intimidate him like this.

He opted for pretending that he wasn’t intimidated at all, and he stared up into those cold, pale blue eyes with as much defiance as he could muster.

He was stunned by the somewhat thoughtful expression that was on his face as Hank stared back down at him. For the first time, there was no curled lip or suspicious sneer. Hank looked at Quinn’s face, his cheeks, eyes, and jaw, studying him.

“You’re a human,” he said. “How can you be one of us and one of them at the same time?”

Just lucky, he supposed.

When Quinn didn’t answer, Hank’s giant hands clasped around his shoulders and slammed him back into the stall. The action was so fast that Quinn hadn’t had any time to defend himself against it, and he smacked his head.

“Answer me!”

“Hank!” A sharp voice barked, and Quinn wanted to sigh out loud and sing to the heavens.

James had come back. He was here to watch over Quinn and get Hank the hell out of here.

Hank released Quinn’s shoulders, rubbed his jaw, and then backed away a step. He hardly looked like he cared that he was just caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. He appeared more annoyed than anything for being interrupted.

“What do you want?” Hank demanded.

James stepped out of the way of the open barn door, clearing the path. “Get the hell out of here. Don’t let me catch you in here without permission again.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Quinn spread his legs, hooking one of them over James’s arm as he knelt before him and got to work. It took Quinn a couple of seconds to get over his usual embarrassment for letting someone see him like this, but when he did he was entirely relaxed. Then James pressed his first finger into Quinn’s pucker.

“You’re tight,” he said.

“It’s been a while,” Quinn admitted, and then opened his mouth to inhale deeply when James pressed his finger inside all the way down to his first knuckle.

He crooked his finger and started thrusting it gently forward and back, clearly searching for Quinn’s prostate.

Quinn couldn’t help but grab hold of his dick and stroke himself as he watched James work. There was something so incredibly erotic watching such a large and strong man working gently and patiently between Quinn’s legs.

“You’re beautiful,” Quinn said.

He hadn’t meant for the words to leave his mouth, but they did, and he wasn’t about to take them back.

“From my position, you’re the beautiful one,” James said, and then he added in another finger.

This time he did find Quinn’s prostate, and Quinn arched his back and gasped at the sensation. He squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped his fist tightly around his cock to keep from coming, but he couldn’t for the life of him stop his hips from thrusting back against James’s hand. It felt too good. This wasn’t going to last. He was going to come and then it was going to be over and—

“Hey,” James’s gentle voice cut off his inner ranting.

Quinn forced himself to open his eyes and look at the man.

James stroked his thigh with his free hand, as if he was trying to calm a wild animal. “If it’s fast tonight, that’s fine. We can’t really take our time out here anyway. When we get to somewhere safe, your house, I will do to you all of this and more.”

Quinn shivered. “Tell me. Tell me everything you’re going to do to me when we finally get somewhere safe.”

James actually planted a kiss on the side of Quinn’s knee, and he shivered again. Really, that spot was somewhat sensitive to the touch of James’s mouth. He never would have known that.

“I intend to lick and kiss every inch of your body,” he said, kissing the inside of Quinn’s thigh this time. He then reached for the health salve and coated his dick thoroughly in the stuff. He was so big that he needed a lot of it.

“I’ll put my mouth right here,” he said, and then pressed the blunt head of his cock against Quinn’s asshole. “And I’ll make you come just from the feel of my tongue alone.”

He pressed inside just enough until the head of his dick pushed past the ring of muscle.

Quinn’s body tensed up, but he knew how to make himself relax, he knew his body’s limits, and he wasn’t afraid.

He watched the sweat building on James’s forehead as the man struggled with holding still. He was trying to keep from hurting Quinn.

If it was possible, Quinn thought he might have fallen in love with the man right there just for that.

He wished he could just tell James that he was ready and have the man slam inside of him, but he couldn’t. He had to wait for his body to adjust.

When it finally did, he reached around and gripped the back of James’s ass and pulled the man closer until he was balls deep inside of him.

They both groaned at that.

“I take it you’re ready?” James asked, but he already knew the answer because he was already moving. It was a gentle rocking motion, but he was still moving, and Quinn was still gripping the swell of the man’s firm ass because he didn’t want James to pull away.

His voice was breathy when he nodded and answered. “Yeah.”

Then all Quinn could do to hold on was watch the changes in James’s face. His eyes screwed shut almost immediately and he breathed deeply through his mouth. Quinn heard some noises that suggested he was definitely having a good time, but then realized that the majority of those happy sounds were coming from him.

Then James started to move faster, his dick touching just where it needed to inside of Quinn’s body, and then he really started to make noise.

James pressed his mouth to Quinn’s lips, which got his attention, even as the other man sped up.

“Not too much noise,” he said, though each of his words were separated by a groan and barely audible through their combined hard breathing.

Quinn was beyond rational thought. He was already coming and he wanted it now. “Fuck me. Please, I’m coming, do it!”

James groaned and kissed him again. It worked well enough to keep them quiet, but it was funny how they both had a difficult time keeping their mouths connected as James thrust inside of him with an almost violent passion.