“Oh, fuck,” Reese cried out, his body hardening beneath Brantley.
The sixty-nine position wasn’t the same when he had Reese nearly bent in half, but it was exactly how Brantley wanted him. Unable to move, pinned beneath him. For the first time in their relationship, Brantley wanted to dominate him, to show Reese precisely the man he was getting.
Reese surprised him when he began rocking beneath him, clearly attempting to take Brantley’s tongue deeper. To help him along, Brantley pulled back and pushed a single finger inside Reese’s ass.
“Oh, God, yes,” Reese grunted from beneath him. “Feels good.”
Brantley used his own saliva to ease the way, adding another finger, fucking him harder. “Like that?”
“Yes … yes … just like that. Fuck me,” he groaned harshly.
“You wanna be fucked?” Brantley taunted, stopping what he was doing so he could turn around.
“Yes.”
Although he considered fucking the man dry, Brantley had a last-minute change of heart and grabbed the bottle of lube from the nightstand.
When he was kneeling between Reese’s thighs, he gripped his knees, forced them back and wide so he had a better view of that tempting hole.
“You sure about that?” Brantley met Reese’s gaze briefly. “Because I won’t hold back anymore.”
Reese’s gaze narrowed, his expression hardening. “I didn’t realize you were.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Brantley rumbled, dripping lubricant on Reese’s hole before tossing the bottle away and rubbing it in with a finger, then two.
Reese was writhing beneath him within seconds, and Brantley was too on edge to torment him for long. With another shift of his body, he had his cock pressed against Reese’s hole and his eyes pinned on Reese’s.
“You ready?”
Reese’s chin tilted up slightly, and the rough command was unlike anything he’d heard from him before. “Fuck me, Brantley.”
He did.
Brantley pushed into Reese’s body, and he wasn’t gentle about it. He thrust his hips forward, driving past the tight ring of muscles, gritting his teeth as the blessed heat of Reese’s body consumed him. With his hands once again on Reese’s knees, he held him open as he retreated, then slammed in again. He didn’t hold back, fucking Reese the way he’d wanted to since the very beginning.
No holds barred.
*
Reese had never seen this side of Brantley before. Not when it came to sex, anyway.
Had it been a year ago, Reese probably would’ve panicked. But here and now … he felt an intensity between them that he’d never felt before. Another first that Brantley was giving him. There was nothing gentle about the pounding of Brantley’s hips against his ass, the way he was driving his cock down into him and retreating, the friction making every nerve ending in Reese’s body spark. The pleasure was unbearable, making sweat dot his temples. He was at Brantley’s mercy, pinned beneath him, and he loved every second.
“This how you want me?” Brantley growled, slamming home. “Rough? You need this, Reese? Need this to remember what you wanted from me?”
All the air in his lungs burst out as those words sank in.
“Stop,” he gritted out, reaching for Brantley.
Brantley met his gaze, but he didn’t stop. He continued to impale him, driving in harder, deeper, faster.
Reese knew they needed to stop, they needed to talk about this, but it was useless to fight it. There was so much emotion behind Brantley’s movements, the way he fucked him, the way he held his stare. They were connected in a way they’d never been, but Reese feared there was an underlying emotion neither of them would accept: insecurity.
“Shit…” Brantley hissed. “I’m … gonna … fuck.”
Reese did the only thing he could think of. He gripped Brantley’s wrist and held on, rolling his hips in an attempt to take more of him. He closed his eyes and let the sensations batter him until his own release was inevitable. Gripping his cock, he jerked himself firmly until he saw lights flash behind his eyes, the pleasure overwhelming him.
“Oh, Jesus … Reese … fuck…”
“Come for me,” Reese demanded, digging his fingertips into Brantley’s wrist as though his only job was to hold them together.
Brantley slammed into him one final time. Reese let go as Brantley roared his release, the two of them coming apart at the same time.
An hour later, after they’d cleaned up, after Reese had finished cooking and they’d scarfed it down, Brantley left him at the house so he could return to the barn. Reese figured he could’ve followed, helped out in whatever way the team needed him, but something held him back.
Despite the fact they’d had what was likely the best sex Reese had ever experienced with anyone—man or woman—he had the suspicious feeling that something had fractured between him and Brantley. Something significant.
Rather than chase Brantley down, he used their brief separation to attempt to get some clarity. He headed for his office upstairs and closed himself inside. He stared at his laptop, wondering if he could replicate the queries that Brantley had done when looking into Madison, figure out what might’ve triggered this chasm between them.
Not that he didn’t have some idea. The media’s view of the Southern Boy Mafia hadn’t changed over the years. At some point, they had decided to glorify Maximillian Adorite as a gangster, using that in their headlines, coming up with the stories that would keep people coming back for more. And Max’s family wasn’t off-limits either. There were stories about Ashlynn, Victor, Brent, Madison, and Aidan all the time. They were the Kardashians of the underworld.
At this point, Brantley probably knew the same about Madison and the Adorite family as Reese did. His relationship with Madison hadn’t been one based on shared secrets or intimacy. Sure, there’d been sex involved, but even Reese had known there’d been a detachment to it. A means to an end. On both their parts.
And yes, somewhere down the line, Reese had gotten comfortable enough with Madison to consider a future with her. The problem had been in that comfort level. It wasn’t that he’d been in love with her, certainly not to the point he didn’t think he couldn’t live without her. No, more like he’d felt the need to settle down. So many people in his life had been getting married and having kids at the time that Reese had felt as though they were leaving him behind.
Reaching for his phone, Reese pulled up the chat thread he had going with Madison. He started back at the beginning:
*
March 8, 2021
In case you don’t recognize this number, it’s Madison. I hope you don’t get upset, but I still have your number in my phone. Thought I’d check in.
Not upset. Good to hear from you.
I heard you just finished working a case that had something to do with my brother.
Doesn’t everything somehow come back around to involving your brother?
I guess in a way that’s true. How are you doing?
I’m getting by pretty well. A lot going on. New job and all.
One day you’ll have to tell me about it. I’d love to know how things are going, what you’re up to.