Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
Gator
The door to his apartment clicked shut behind us, and for a second, I just stood there, trying to decide if I was actually going to do this.
It was a bad idea to get involved with someone I was protecting.
I knew that. But at this point, I was fighting a losing battle, and I knew it. I’d wanted him for too long.
He was fussing with the bird, trying to set her on top of her cage. She flapped once and muttered, “Going up, going up,” like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Julius snorted softly. “Behave. It’s time for bed.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, watching him.
He was so fucking beautiful it pissed me off.
Hair all messed up from leaning over the pool table, cheeks flushed from laughing with my people like he belonged here.
I knew it wasn’t fair for me to be angry.
I was the one who’d decided I needed space and sent him up here by himself.
He turned around, trying for that bright, sassy smile I’d seen all damn day. But I could see the nerves underneath it now that we were alone.
“Have fun out there?” My voice sounded like gravel.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. I did.”
I could feel my jaw working. Grinding.
“Looked like it,” I said, voice coming out harsher than I meant.
He rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Gator. It was pool and trash talk, not an orgy.”
My temper snapped. Three long strides and I was in his space, pressing him back until his shoulders hit the wall with a soft thud. He sucked in a sharp breath, and I planted one hand next to his head and leaned in, close enough to feel the heat coming off him.
“Don’t,” I growled. “Don’t even fucking joke about that.”
His eyes widened, lips parting. “Gator—”
I grabbed his jaw, not rough, but firm enough he’d know I wasn’t fucking around.
My thumb brushed his cheek. His skin was hot under my hand.
“I’m so goddamn tired of fighting it,” I said, voice cracking around the words.
“Tired of pretending I don’t want you. All fucking day, watching you laugh with your customers.
You fucking glow when you’re working. Did you know that? ”
He bit his bottom lip and shook his head.
“Well, you do. When we came home, I thought I needed some space to get my head on straight, but then there you were, charming all my friends, and Axel.” I glared down at him. “Fucking Axel had his hands on you. I’m done, Julius. I’m done.”
His breath shuddered. “Good,” he whispered, that defiant gleam in his eyes. “Because I’m pretty sure I’ve wanted you since you told me to shut up the first time we met.”
That forced a rough, humorless laugh out of me.
“Brat.”
He smirked. “True, but I could be your brat.”
That was it.
I crashed my mouth onto his, all teeth and heat and frustration, and he kissed me back like he’d been waiting for this, hands fisting in my shirt, dragging me closer until I couldn’t breathe.
I felt the tremor in his legs and curled an arm around his waist, hauling him up tighter against me.
“Fuck,” I muttered into his mouth, pulling back just enough to see his eyes. I slid my hands down to his hips. “You want this?” I demanded.
“Yes.”
“Yes, who?” I growled.
“Yes, Daddy,” he said sweetly.
I let my forehead drop to his. “Bedroom?”
“God, yes.”
I didn’t wait. I grabbed his hand in mine, threading our fingers together tight, and started pulling him down the hall.
He stumbled once, laughing breathlessly, but didn’t let go.
Behind us, that damned bird squawked gleefully, “Somebody’s gonna get it! Gonna get it!”
Julius wheezed out a laugh, burying his face in my shoulder. “Jesus Christ,” he mumbled, voice muffled.
I shook with silent laughter of my own, pressing a hard kiss to his temple as I walked him backward into his bedroom. I shoved the bedroom door closed behind us with my boot, drowning out the cackling laughter of the bird.
Julius was still laughing, breathless from Trixie’s squawk, but it turned into a gasp when I spun him around and pinned him to the door with my body.
He looked up at me, eyes wide, pupils blown so dark they swallowed the color. I braced one arm above his head and used the other to cup his jaw, forcing him to look at me.
“You think this is funny?” I growled, voice rough as gravel.
He licked his lips slowly, deliberately. “I think you’re hot when you’re pissed off.”
“Careful,” I warned, voice low and shaking.
He tilted his head defiantly, brushing his mouth against mine. “Or what?”
I covered his mouth with mine, swallowing his gasp. My teeth scraped his lower lip hard enough that he whimpered, and I felt the vibration all the way down my spine.
He kissed me back with everything he had—biting, licking, his hands clawing at my shoulders to pull me even closer.
I fisted one hand in his hair, the other sliding down to grip his hip, yanking him against me so he could feel exactly how hard I was, and he groaned into my mouth, grinding shamelessly back.
“Fuck,” I hissed, dragging my lips to his jaw, biting the line of it. “You have no idea what you do to me.”
“Tell me,” he said, panting.
I bit him again, lower this time, right over his racing pulse. “Drove me fucking insane. All day watching you smile at everyone. Joking around and teasing them.”
“Jealous?” he asked.
“Possessive,” I corrected, voice like a snarl. I sucked a mark into his neck hard enough to make him gasp. “Mine.”
He shuddered and whined. “Fuck—Gator—”
I pulled back just enough to see his face. His lips were red and swollen, his eyes desperate.
“Last chance,” I grated. My thumb stroked over his cheek, gentler than my voice. “Tell me to stop.”
He shook his head frantically. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
My chest caved with relief. I kissed him again, slower this time but just as deep, pouring everything I’d been trying to hold back into it.
He melted against me, moaning into my mouth, my fingers finding the hem of his shirt and shoving up under it, greedy for skin.
“Off,” I ordered.
He huffed a broken laugh and leaned back enough for me to yank his shirt over his head.
“Beautiful,” I whispered. I let my gaze roam over him, hungrily. He was lean and toned, with ink peeking from under his waistband.
“Look at you,” I breathed.
“Your turn, Daddy,” he purred, and fuck if that wasn’t almost my undoing.
I leaned back enough to pull my shirt over my head, and he immediately flattened his palms to my chest, tracing old scars without flinching.
He shivered. “Look at you.”
I pressed him back against the door again, skin to skin now, both of us gasping at the contact. “Tell me what you want,” I ordered against his ear.
He whimpered. “You.”
My hand snaked down between us, cupping him through his jeans. He bucked into it helplessly. “Say it,” I growled.
“Want you to fuck me, Daddy,” he whispered, voice cracking.
My forehead dropped to his, our ragged breaths mingling. “Bed,” I ground out.
He nodded wildly.
I grabbed his wrist and hauled him away from the door, practically dragging him across the room. He stumbled once, laughing breathlessly, but didn’t let go.
When we reached the bed, I pushed him down onto it and followed immediately, covering him with my weight, kissing him so hard our teeth clicked.
He wrapped his legs around my waist and rocked up.
I lost the last shred of my self-control. “Gonna ruin you,” I promised against his mouth.
“Fucking try,” he shot back, voice trembling with want.
I kissed him again, slower, lingering, my hands everywhere—palming his chest, sliding down his sides, popping his button fly one-handed.
He arched up into me, mouth falling open on a moan. “Gator—please—”
I kissed his throat, his collarbone, his chest, nipping and soothing with my tongue.
His body practically vibrated under my touch. He was so fucking responsive. I ran my finger down his cheek. “You’re so fucking beautiful. I know I told you that before, but seriously, you take my breath away.”
He grinned up at me. “Did you? Tell me that before?”
“I’m sure I did, but if I didn’t, I sure thought it.”
“Too many clothes,” he said, pushing on me to get me to move.
I rolled to the side and we both shed what was left of our clothing, then I pulled him against me so that we were skin to skin.
I ran a finger down his spine and back up again. He shivered, closed his eyes, and rasped out, “Daddy.”
And damn what it did to me to hear him all needy and wanting. “I can’t wait to hear you say it just like that when I’m deep inside of you.”
“Well then, what are you waiting for?” he asked with a snarky grin.
I rolled us both over so I was on top of him and looked him in the eyes. “Why am I not surprised you’ll try to be a bratty bottom?”
He went all wide-eyed and tried for false innocence. “Who me?”
“Yes, you. But bratty boys don’t get to come, good boys do, so can you be a good boy for me?”
He bit his lower lip and nodded his head. “I can be very, very good when it suits me.”
I ignored the innuendo and reached for the lube. I moved down between his legs and drizzled the lube behind his balls, watching as it ran down his taint and over his waiting hole. “I guess we will find out, won’t we?”
I slipped one finger in and moaned as he reached for his cock.
I was tempted to tell him not to touch himself yet, but the sight of him hard and leaking precum just for me was way too delicious.
I slipped another finger in and started moving them in and out of his hole.
The sounds he made were almost enough to send me over the edge, and we’d barely even gotten started.
Once I was sure he was ready for me, I pulled my fingers out and leaned over to reach for a condom on the bedside table. When I sat back up, condom in hand, he looked at me, and for the first time tonight, he looked uncertain.
“What is it, mon petit?”
He glanced from the condom to my face and then said, “I’m negative, so we don’t have to use that if you don’t want to.”