Chapter Thirteen
LEON
He hadn’t meant to say anything. He really hadn’t. Maybe it was the fact Karl smelled incredible. Or maybe Leon was just tired and dangerously horny from being around the sheer hotness that was Karl.
Whichever. The result was the same.
A muscle ticced in Karl’s jaw in response to Leon’s statement, and he looked at Leon as if weighing the situation like a tactical decision. But he didn’t move away. So Leon moved—careful, slow—until the side of his thigh pressed flush to Karl’s, and his hand brushed Karl’s arm.
Fuck. It was like being dropped into the middle of a storm, winds tearing him apart, lightning burning him up. The world narrowed to heat, pulse, sensation—his gut pulled and something strange and catastrophic swelled in his chest, like his heart didn’t know whether to break or detonate.
Karl jolted, like he’d felt it too. Their eyes locked. “What the fuck was that?” Karl asked, voice rough.
Leon laughed breathlessly, trying to regain control over the situation. “Are cats and wolves like magnets or something—slam together and try to blow apart at the same time?”
For all he knew, that could be right, which would make sex with Karl a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and maybe not in a good way. More likely, though, it was tension finally snapping after days of stress and forced proximity.
Karl didn’t answer. His gaze dragged over Leon’s mouth, dark and intent, his breathing ragged. Whatever had just hit them, he wasn’t pretending it hadn’t. He just didn’t want to be distracted by it anymore.
Want surged through Leon, sharp and consuming, so fast it drowned everything else under raw, blinding hunger.
He forced himself to move slow, deliberate, like stretching out after a punishing run, letting the heat settle into something he could control instead of being devoured by it.
He set his mug aside with careful precision, and Karl did the same, though his hands didn’t look entirely steady.
Leon reached for him, tugging at the poncho he was wearing. “Want to take this off?”
He’d have preferred to undress Karl himself, a slow, tantalizing reveal of Karl’s body, but the fact Karl hadn’t replied to his suggestion made Leon want to be sure they were on the same page.
He knew Karl’s body was ready—he could tell how primed he was—but Karl’s mind might disagree.
Hell, for all Leon knew, he might have a mate.
The thought was like a bucket of cold water being dumped over him, but then Karl gathered the yards of material in his hands and lifted it over his head.
Oh, Bastet.
Leon didn’t have to pretend not to look this time, to hide the jolt of hunger or the drag of his gaze. He just drank it in, the breadth of Karl’s chest, the long lines of muscle down his thighs. And the lazy curve of his cock, already half-hard. He was so goddamn beautiful, it was almost rude.
Leon’s removal of his own poncho was so desperate it was practically ungraceful.
He flung it away from him, careless where it landed because he could see the hunger in Karl’s face as his gaze roamed Leon’s body.
And then they were squirming to find a way of lying down that didn’t take either of them off the dry blanket under them.
For an instant, they lay face to face, looking at one another.
Leon was relieved to see Karl breathing as swiftly as he was.
Karl trailed his hand along Leon’s side.
Not greedy, not grabbing, simply trailing lightly and leaving sensation in its wake, as if his skin were on fire.
He’d thought Karl would be the type to go straight for the kill, but maybe he should stop stereotyping wolves because Karl’s fingers were just drifting maddeningly up and down until Leon was shivering with the need for something more.
They were still watching one another, Karl’s gaze intent as if he were cataloging Leon’s every reaction. Leon ran his hand over Karl’s chest, stroked down the warm skin of Karl’s stomach, tensing under his touch, until he wrapped his hand around Karl’s cock. Hot, heavy, and perfect.
Karl’s eyelids fluttered, and he let out a soft, broken sound, like a gasp that hadn’t quite made it all the way out. Leon swallowed hard.
“You okay?” he asked. Not teasing. Just needing to check.
Karl nodded. “Yeah.” His voice was a rasp, his color rising as Leon began to work him, fingers curved around Karl’s cock, his thumb occasionally moving to swipe the growing wetness on the head.
Karl moved his hand from Leon’s side to cup Leon’s jaw, and his thumb slid over Leon’s lips until Leon gave in to temptation and licked it. He drew it into his mouth and sucked, wrapping his tongue around the tip and loving the way Karl’s eyes darkened further.
They held one another’s gaze an instant longer, making sure they were both okay with this, before Leon leaned in and kissed Karl, a light brush of the lips swiftly turning into something more.
As his tongue flicked against Karl’s lips, Karl made a sound low in his throat and deepened the kiss, one hand cupping the side of Leon’s neck, thumb brushing under his jaw.
Leon arched into him, not even pretending to hold back as he groaned into Karl’s mouth.
Which was precisely when Karl drew away and gently pushed Leon onto his back. He rose to his knees so gracefully it was almost cat-like. Careful to stay under their shelter, Karl moved to kneel between Leon’s open thighs, his gaze roaming over every part of Leon’s body.
Leon stretched out sensuously, luxuriating in anticipation and the heat of Karl’s gaze.
Karl shook his head very slightly in what looked like exasperation touched with fondness, improbable though that seemed.
But Leon forgot everything else as Karl’s broad hand slid up the outside of his leg with infuriating patience.
He wasn’t rushing or greedy, just there, in that wolfish way of his, with every ounce of attention focused on Leon.
It made Leon feel like prey. He promptly lost his momentary unease at the thought when Karl leaned down and licked a slow, sure stripe along his cock, and he moaned.
Okay. Not prey. Maybe breakfast.
Karl’s tongue flicked over the head, soft but direct, then down again. Leon’s thighs tensed involuntarily, his hips arching. But Karl’s hands stayed steady on his thighs, keeping him grounded. Keeping him still.
No one had ever gone down on him quite like this—unhurried, focused, as if Karl were learning him by taste and texture alone.
He should have expected it, really. Karl didn’t do anything by halves.
Then Karl sucked him in deeper, his mouth hot and wet, the slow pull of it devastating.
He kept at it, not fast, not sloppy—just methodical, dragging his tongue along the underside on every stroke like he knew exactly what it did to Leon.
Leon bit off a moan, his head falling back, muscles drawn tight.
God, that mouth. It was unfair. Criminal.
He clenched his fingers in Karl’s hair, tugging lightly, then harder as Karl’s mouth made him lose his mind.
Karl made a low, involuntary sound, and Leon’s whole body clenched in answer, which was ridiculous.
He usually had more control than this. But Karl’s mouth was lethal, and Leon couldn’t keep still. Couldn’t keep quiet.
He came too fast, too hard, unable to stop it, the rhythm of Karl’s mouth wrecking him completely. He sobbed through it, back arching, hands in Karl’s hair, every nerve ending lit.
“Fuck,” he said, when he finally got his breath back.
Karl was kneeling up, looking at him with a grin on his face that wiped away all the care and tiredness he’d been carrying. A triumphant grin that Leon had every intention of removing. If that damn wolf thought he’d won this round, he’d soon learn how talented Leon was.
It took more squirming, but then Karl was the one lying down, at Leon’s mercy. He took his time, exploring Karl’s body with mouth and hands, his hair trailing over Karl’s skin as he moved. Karl’s chest was rising and falling swiftly, and as Leon licked at a nipple, he surged up, cursing.
Interesting. Leon tried it again with the same result.
Finally armed with the knowledge of what it took to conquer the bossy wolf, Leon set to work.
He sucked Karl’s nipples, one after the other, drawing them into his mouth and lashing them with his tongue, and then he gently bit them.
And then he bit them not quite so gently, until Karl was writhing under his attentions.
Driven by something he didn’t understand, Leon rubbed his cheek against Karl’s chest. He hadn’t been in human form long enough for much stubble to come through, but there was just enough of a dusting for it to catch at Karl’s sensitized nipples, and when it did, he truly thought the wolf was going to launch into orbit.
God, he’d never known anyone this sensitive. And that—
That was new. He’d never before felt the urge to mark anyone.
Confused by the fact he’d done that to Karl, Leon decided to turn his attention elsewhere.
The whole time he’d been teasing Karl, Leon’s mouth had been watering at the prospect of sucking that fat cock.
Karl was swearing in broken-off, jerky words, which became one long stream of filth when Leon wrapped his long fingers around his beautiful hard cock and guided it into his mouth.
So many guys thought Leon’s hair meant they were free to wrap their hands in it, using it to force his head down on them.
Not that Leon necessarily minded, but only if he’d agreed beforehand.
Leon could tell Karl wanted to from the way his hands were clenching in the metallic blanket underneath him, but he let Leon control things. And for some reason, that mattered.
God, Karl’s cock was gorgeous. He hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted this. He could suck Karl forever. Wasn’t going to happen, though, because he’d barely gotten started when Karl tensed every muscle and came, silently but no less intensely for that.
Extremely pleased with his work, Leon moved back up the blanket to lie down next to Karl, who was still panting, a dazed, wrecked look on his face.
Leon leaned in, brushed his mouth over Karl’s jaw, and whispered, “Still think you’re in charge?”
Karl huffed a laugh. “You’re hilarious if you think you’ve won.”
He turned his head toward Leon, eyes still hazy but more focused now.
For a moment, neither of them said anything.
The rain drummed steadily, relentlessly on the tarp overhead.
Their bodies weren’t touching, but they might as well have been, because Leon could feel every inch of Karl’s attention like heat pressing against his skin.
And then Karl blinked, and whatever had been in his expression a moment ago—openness, curiosity—was gone. He pushed himself upright.
“We should get moving. They’ll be expecting us,” he said. His voice was slightly rough but gave nothing away.
Leon sat up too, feeling like he’d just missed something without knowing what it was.
“Yeah,” he said, too casually. “Wolves and their timetables.”
Karl didn’t rise to it. Just got to his knees and started packing things away in the plastic stash box.
Straight back into practical mode, as if he didn’t have any other.
Leon watched the curve of his spine as he bent, saw the tension in his shoulders already returning.
He hadn’t noticed how much tension Karl carried until it was gone, just for a while.
He told himself the twist in his gut was just the adrenaline wearing off. Maybe it was.
KARL
Well. That hadn’t been on his list of likely outcomes for the day.
He folded the tarp tight, his fingers moving with a calmness he didn’t feel. He could still taste Leon on his tongue. Feel the ghost of those hands on his skin, the heat of his mouth, the way he’d watched Karl like he was memorizing every reaction.
Karl closed the box, fastening the clip with a little too much force.
One look into Leon’s eyes—dark with hunger, utterly focused—and Karl had wanted.
That had been the start of it. Or maybe not.
Maybe the start had been the moment Leon had wandered onto the ranch, all cheekbones and tight jeans, not caring what anyone thought of him.
Or maybe it had been when Leon had squared up to those would-be paparazzi, smooth as sin and sharp as a blade.
Didn’t matter. Wasn’t happening again.
Leon was silent. Karl wasn’t sure what he’d expected—some smug comment, probably—but the silence had weight. Like Leon didn’t know what to say either.
Karl shoved the box into place and fastened the wooden panel that kept it hidden. “We should push on, get as far as we can before dark.”
Leon made a noncommittal noise and tucked his hair behind his ear. He didn’t say anything else, and Karl wasn’t sure whether that was a relief or not.
He’d liked the way Leon had touched him.
Not just the sex—the attention. He’d felt alive, under his hands.
Free. Which was precisely why it couldn’t happen again.
He wasn’t looking for connection. Didn’t have room for it, with everything else on his shoulders.
This had been a one-off, born of rain and adrenaline and something they’d both be smarter to forget.
If his body still felt too sensitized, his chest still tingling with the feel of Leon’s cheek rubbing against it—that was just aftershock. Nothing more.
With one final glance around to check they hadn’t missed anything, they shifted. Back to business, to how they had been.
He kept his gaze on the trail ahead, senses already scanning for threats. Focused on keeping everyone safe. That was who he was. That was what he had to be.