Chapter 35 Dare
THIRTY-FIVE
DARE
Despite the pain, I focused all my attention on Zach. I still couldn't believe we'd made it through. I couldn't believe he was standing here, in front of me, safe and sound in my house from the horrors of his past. We were clean, dry and together.
It was in that moment, surrounded by mundane things and cute animals that I realized how close I'd been to losing my freaking life but, most importantly, how close I'd been to losing him.
I didn't know what I'd do knowing I'd left him with that monster.
I didn't even want to think about that. All I wanted was to hold him close, tucked into the crook of my neck, and never let him go.
A sharp burn made me jolt and I glanced at my new friend with a frown.
"Ouch!" I said, pointedly.
Ari raised an eyebrow with a smug look on his face.
"Do you expect me to say sorry, my friend?"
"It wouldn't hurt."
"You do know you got shot right?" he chuckled.
"I'm painfully aware."
Ari nodded.
"Are you now?" Warren asked and marched back into the living room. "Because you're acting as if Ari is the one hurting you and not your own stupidity."
"Hey!" Zach groaned and Warren glared at him too.
"Don't get me started on you, mister," he said and I had to choke back a laugh.
Zach bit his lips and lowered his head. Warren seemed to be satisfied with himself, and stepped forward to squeeze Ari's shoulder.
"How's it looking, bud? Is he going to live?"
Ari rocked his head from side to side, grimacing, before he said, "The next few hours will be critical."
He winked at me and I snorted. Zach, on the other hand, gasped.
"What? Is it that bad?" he asked.
"Nothing a little alone time with you won't fix, I'm sure," Ari replied and Zach blinked several times.
"He's fine, Zach. He'll be sore for a while, but the bullet went cleanly out.
I stopped the bleeding and stitched him up.
You boys just have to take it slow for the next few days.
" Zach continued to stare blankly at Ari.
For a minute I thought he was embarrassed that Ari was talking about us, or confused as to how he knew, but then he grabbed Ari’s hands and looked into his eyes.
"So he's going to be fine?"
"Yes, Zach. I'm fine. He was joking about me being critical," I said.
Ari nodded for good measure and Zach wasted no time. He put his arms around him and gave him a squeeze, thanking him for looking after me.
I wasn't going to lie. Seeing him hug another man made my chest a little tight. I couldn't help that I wanted him to be hugging me instead, could I?
"You don't have to thank me. I'm doing my job. Now will you let me look after those wounds?" Ari tried to touch his face, but Zach stepped back.
"They're just bruises. Nothing can be done about them."
He tried to step closer to me, but I glared at him.
"Let him examine you. You took a pretty good beating out there. Maybe you've broken something."
Zach rolled his eyes.
"I would know if I'd broken something, I'm pretty sure."
Ari shrugged.
"I don't know. Adrenaline can be tricky. Maybe you still can't feel it. Let me have a look, I promise I'll be gentle."
Zach pursed his lips and relented. As he let Ari do his thing, Warren sat down next to me.
"You okay?" he asked and I nodded. "Just got a call from Wyatt. He said they've taken care of everything and there should be nothing to worry about. Lombardi is gone like the wind."
I huffed.
"They made stops. Zach was seen with him. I don't want him getting into any trouble down the line."
Warren patted my knee and even that gentle touch hurt. "He said Slade took care of the digital footprint."
"I don't know. I don't buy that it's all done and dusted."
"You should have nothing to worry about as long as that man has no family or friends to report him missing."
I glared at Warren.
"You know Wyatt is good at what he does, right? I know he messed you up," Warren whispered, "but in this, you can trust him. If he says it's done, it's done."
I sighed.
"Nothing is done, Warren. Trust me. Lombardi was here on business and until that business is taken care of nothing is done. No one is safe."
Warren didn't say anything. I didn't even know if he knew about Salieri and what his brother had started. But right now, it didn't matter. All that mattered was Zach was here, back home with me. I might be a little worse for wear, but I was okay. As long as he was safe, I'd be just fine.
"It was really stupid, going after them alone."
"I couldn't hang around," I grumbled.
"I know. I know. I'm just repeating what Wyatt said. I don't know that I would have done any different if the man I loved was in danger."
I nodded and we both sat in silence for a while, watching Ari examine Zach.
"Hey, I thought you said you weren't gay," I said.
Warren flinched.
"Obviously I didn't mean I'm in love with a man or anything." He sounded flustered and I couldn't help laughing.
Although I quickly regretted it when that caused my wounds to throb and the pain to start back up again.
"Guess I better take these," I mumbled and grabbed the pillbox from the coffee table.
Warren got me a glass of water and a few moments later, Ari stepped aside and smiled.
"I'm glad to report no ribs or bones were broken. You can take Dare's pain meds if the bruises hurt too much but you should be fine."
"So I'll live?" Zach asked with an innocent, almost angelic tone before he rolled his eyes and came to sit down next to me.
"We'll leave you to it," Warren said and we watched him help Ari pack up before they went on their way and left us all alone. I turned to Zach and held his hands, searching his eyes now that everything had settled down.
"How are you feeling?"
He frowned.
"I just said I'm fine—"
"I mean about what you did."
He licked his bottom lip at that and turned his gaze away.
"I'm okay. I mean...no, I'm okay. I think."
I cupped his cheek and made him look back at me.
"It's okay if you're not. You don't have to lie to me.
Or feel embarrassed. What you did is hard.
It might have been the right thing, but it's hard.
It's hard enough when it's a complete stranger. I couldn't imagine what it must feel like with someone you used to love, even if he didn’t deserve that love.”
He nodded and my hand moved with his face, but he didn't say anything for a while. And when he did finally speak up, it was completely irrelevant to Victor's death.
"Your nose looks rough," he said, fingers hovering like ghosts over my busted nose.
I smiled, or tried to, but for some reason him paying attention to my injury made my face hurt so I flinched.
"Is that gonna be a problem?" I asked.
"A problem?"
"I don't know. Maybe I've lost my sex appeal."
"Ah, yes. You're so ugly I could throw up now." He snorted.
I put a hand to my chest and gulped.
"You wound me, lover," I said.
"Well, stop saying stupid crap then and maybe I won't."
"So you still like me?"
Zach's face turned serious and he put both hands on either side of my face.
"Like you? You saved me, Dare. You came after me. You showed me there's life after trauma. That I can rebuild my life again. I don't just like you. I love you. But you know that already."
I pressed my lips together, trying to suppress another smile and shrugged.
"Doesn't mean it gets old hearing you say it," I said.
"In that case," he started and leaned in. "I love you, Dare Patterson. I love you so much I can't even begin to describe."
And before I could respond, he kissed me softly. It didn't mean my cock didn't get hard in an instant.
"Damn," I hummed.
"What?" he asked and pulled back to study my face and body. "Did that hurt?"
I smirked.
"Only in the best of ways."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. I just thought I'd be too tired after such an adrenaline rush, but nope. I'm hard as a rock and you barely even touched me."
"Oh," Zach said and got up.
"Sorry. It's okay. Don't stop. You can just kiss me."
He turned back around to face me and offered me his hand with a grin.
"Who said I was stopping?"
I took it and he helped me up.
"Where are we going?"
"Where do you think?" He raised an eyebrow and led me across the living room, through the hallway and into the bedroom, where he shut the door in Lookah's face after telling him this was a moment just for the two of us.
"He's going to hate you after that," I said as he helped me down on the bed and reacquainted his lips with mine.
"That's okay. I'll live with it as long as you don't hate me," he mumbled in between kisses.
"Never," I replied and I laid down on my side and Zach climbed up next to me.
"Good. Good," he hummed.
His hand floated over my face, neck and chest as he brought his lips back onto mine and I could taste him again.
It had been a long day. Too long. Too much time was spent away from him, but we were both here now and I was so happy I could burst. As it were, every single breath, every single touch felt ten times more intense than it had before.
I didn't know if it was almost losing him or if my body was too sore and sensitive and I didn't care.
All I wanted was to be with him. To take care of him.
For him to take care of me. To be together from now until the end of time.
Zach deepened the kiss and when I tried to hold him closer, a twinge in my arm made me cry out. Zach apologized and pushed me flat on the bed.
"Don't worry, baby. I'll take care of you," he said and proceeded to take off all my clothes before he sat on top of me and kissed me again.
My cock throbbed. How could it not when he was sitting on top of me, his ass cheeks pressing against me? It was pure bliss.
Correction.
It was pure bliss when he started grinding against me and I couldn't hold back the gasps of pleasure that rolled through me.
I put my hands on his ass and gave his cheeks a squeeze, making him flinch and his kiss to waver as he took a deep breath.
"Why are you still dressed?" I asked him.
"Because," he murmured. "I'm taking care of you."
"I don't need taking care of. I need you."
Zach opened his eyes and glared at me.
"Are you sure? First it was pneumonia, now it's a gunshot wound. You need a lot of taking care of."
"I don't," I grumbled and massaged his ass cheeks through the rough denim. "But I would like to take care of you."
"Yeah?" He smiled.
I nodded and he sat back so he could take his shirt off, but I was too impatient and I got busy pulling his pajama bottoms down.
"Wow. Hungry much?"
I scoffed.
"How could I not be when you set my world on fire?"
Zach tried to conceal a smile as he took over my task and got rid of his pants and underwear before sitting back down on me, skin to skin.
"Much better," I said.
"Uh huh." He wrapped a hand around my cock and before I could do the same with his, he pressed his own against mine, rubbing us off together.
I tensed as my body temperature increased and my breathing turned rough again. He was hot, his touch was hot, his cock was hot. I felt scorched.
I searched for his eyes and when they locked into a stare, I slid my fingers up his chest and swallowed a knot that had formed in my throat.
"I love you," I said.
He licked his lips before he repeated it and dropped on top of me. I grabbed him by the back of the neck and I kissed him again, driving my tongue into his mouth and initiating a dirty dance with his.
The hairs all over my body rose the deeper our connection became but it still wasn't deep enough.
"I want to make love to you," I whispered and he nodded.
"I want you too. I want you deep inside me, Dare," he said in a rugged tone before he reached for the drawer and pulled out the bottle of lube.
When I reached for it, he pulled it away.
"I'm taking care of you, remember?" he asked but before I could answer he pumped some slick on his fingers and drove his hand behind him, and into his hole.
"I might be injured but this I can do," I told him.
I slipped my hand between my crotch and his balls and curled my fingers around his.
As I slid them inside he pulled his out, letting me stretch him out while he turned his attention on my cock.
He stroked me with his lubed hand, and I watched as his breathing pattern changed the deeper inside him I pushed.
I watched as gasp after gasp escaped from his lips and filled the room with his need.
"You like that?" I asked.
He nodded and closed his eyes with a moan.
"Are you ready?" I asked.
With a bite of his lip, he bucked his hips and I pulled my fingers out of him, lining up my cock with his hole. I slipped inside him with ease and he sat on me with a deep guttural moan as if he'd been holding back all this time.
I pushed deeper inside him over and over again until my body gave up and I couldn’t do anything but lie back, too exhausted and in pain to keep going.
But Zach didn't mind. He took over bouncing up and down my cock and all I could do was stroke him to the rhythm and enjoy the show of him coming undone, moment by moment, pump by pump, until he spilled all his secrets over my hand and chest.
I didn't know what was sexier. Being inside him or watching how much he enjoyed me being inside him. It didn't matter. All that mattered was he was here, I was here, and we could both be together forever and ever after and we could keep doing this for time immemorial.
Pleasure throbbed against my taint, and I barely had time to tame it before it burst out of me. I convulsed, ached and tensed up as my soul left my body, filling Zach to the brim with my load.
He dropped down on top of me and locked lips with me and I no longer cared about the pain throbbing in my body. I wrapped my arms around him and held him there.
"I love you, Zach. I love you, baby," I said.
"Me too," he all but moaned and it made my cock jerk inside him as if threatening us with more good times.
I craned my neck and kissed the tip of his nose.
"Will you stay here? Please?" I asked him before the thought even managed to form in my head.
"I am here, silly," he answered, smiling softly.
"No," I said, sternly. Seriously. "I mean stay here. Don't go back to your apartment. Stay here. Move in with me. Will you?"
Zach let out a deep breath and blinked a few times.
Then, he beamed.
"Yeah. I mean, I'll move in with you if you're sure?"
I sighed.
"I've never been more sure of anything in my life."