Chapter 9
NINE
Icarus felt it the second Adam entered the club, their connection a live wire electrifying the air around them.
Adam’s gaze seared a path across his bare back, and Icarus could hear his heartbeat over the thumping music, over the heartbeat of the client in front of him.
Mike, one of his regulars, was a sweet, handsome commodities trader from out of town who always called when he was in Yerba Buena.
Polite, generous, and decent in bed, he was a good, calm, and safe night’s work.
And as good an excuse as any to stall while excavation continued.
According to Atlas, Icarus had three days to deliver Adam back to the Canyon Lands.
Three days to figure out what he was actually going to do.
He could take this first one to gather his info, gather his wits, and gather extra money in case he needed to bolt.
And no matter how loudly Icarus’s instincts screamed at him to run Adam’s direction, a night off from Mister Stranger Danger across the room was a smart decision.
He needed to make more of those and less of the run-toward-danger sort.
Beside him, Mike slid some bills into the folio the bartender had left for them. “You mind if we grab a quick dinner on the way to the hotel?” He dipped his chin, and a blush reddened his dark cheeks. “I dropped off my bags and came straight here.”
Icarus lifted his chin with a crooked finger.
“Of course not, babe. Need you—” The rest of his words died as a hand spread across his bare back, snuck beneath the drape of his open-back halter, and inched around to clasp his side.
Icarus didn’t need to look to know who the hand belonged to.
The heat and strength of the body that pressed against his back, the scent of whiskey that flooded his senses, and the muscled arm that draped over his shoulder, a single designer heel dangling from his fingertips, confirmed what he already knew.
As did Mike’s wide eyes.
“I need a word with you,” Adam said, voice deliciously rough.
Icarus shivered, and he was sure that Adam, snug as he was against Icarus’s back, felt it.
Adam spread his fingers over Icarus’s hip, teasing the side laces of his leather shorts.
Icarus would be lying if he said his dick didn’t perk right up.
Rude of his dick, and of Adam, seeing as Icarus was standing at the bar next to a client.
“I’m busy,” he said to Adam as he attempted to step forward, hand on Mike’s forearm.
He failed, Adam’s fingers digging into his side. “I’ll outpay him.”
Snatching his shoe from Adam, Icarus whipped his head to the side and glared at the too-presumptuous, too-fucking-handsome man. “That’s not how it works.”
One corner of the Devil’s mouth hitched up. “Fine.” He turned his smirk to Mike. “How much did you pay him?”
“Five hundred.”
Adam removed his hand from beneath Icarus’s blouse, and Icarus didn’t want to admit how much he missed the touch. Adam stepped more fully beside them and withdrew a wad of bills from his wallet. He held out the cash to a slack-jawed Mike. “That’s a grand. Enough for you to go away?”
Mike’s gaze bounced between the cash, the two of them, and down to Icarus’s erection straining the front of his shorts. “But he’s the best.”
Icarus chuckled. Leave it to the thirsty trader to try and negotiate.
Adam, though, had an answer for Mike’s thirst: quench it with a different one.
He lifted a hand, catching the attention of the bartender, who, catching sight of Adam, bobbled his shaker.
He finished pouring the drink, slid it in front of the customer, then hustled in their direction.
“Didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”
“Unfinished business,” Adam replied, gaze flicking to Icarus, then to Mike. “Get . . .”
“Mike,” Icarus’s client supplied.
“Get Mike a barrel-aged whiskey.”
“Coming right up.”
“That settle us?” Adam said to Mike while the bartender accessed a secure cabinet beneath the back bar.
Mike shot Icarus a chagrined smile. “Sorry, Icarus, but I’ve never had the real stuff before. Rain check?”
“Of course, and I can’t blame you.” He leaned forward, ready to flex a bit of extra strength if Adam tried to stop him.
He didn’t, and Icarus gave Mike a long, lingering kiss.
It was the least he could do for the money and the fleeting hope of a normal evening.
He drew back, leaving the trader more than a little dazed and more than a little hard, his erection tenting his slacks and nudging Icarus’s fishnet-covered thigh.
Not a total waste of a night, then. A firm reminder to Mike to call again next time he was in town. “Enjoy your whiskey.”
Icarus slipped out from between Mike and Adam while the latter settled the tab with the bartender. Adam caught up with him halfway across the club, slinging an arm over his shoulder again. “What happened to ‘We’ll talk in the morning’?”
“Somewhere else I had to be.” Icarus made it one more step before his forward momentum was halted.
Adam dragged him backward instead, toward the panoramic windows that overlooked the city. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To find another client.”
The speed at which they reversed accelerated, and Adam shifted their course toward a dark corner off to the side of the windows. Arm still over his shoulder, Adam slunk around to his front and planted a hand against the wall behind Icarus, caging him in. “You don’t need another client tonight.”
“Are you jealous?”
Adam bent his elbow, crowding closer, and Icarus backed the rest of the way up, hissing at the cold cement wall against his back.
It was no match, however, for the heat that blanketed his front.
“I woke up hard as a rock this morning,” Adam growled in his ear.
“First time in I can’t remember how long. ”
Icarus shifted, wedging a thigh between Adam’s spread legs. “Are you still hard?”
Adam took the hint, dragging his erection along Icarus’s thigh, denim catching on fishnet.
Icarus pushed up against the dick and balls he’d love to get his lips around. So much for running away from danger, but when it was this goddamn tempting . . . “I can do something about that.”
“You can tell me why you followed me last night.”
Icarus dropped the shoe to the floor, freeing both hands to glide up Adam’s chest, over the soft, worn fabric of his sweater, relishing the heat that seeped through the material to his palms, warming him to his core.
“We’ve been over that already.” He pressed his own erect cock against Adam’s hip.
Evidence aplenty on both their parts. “Still seems we have some—what was it you said?—unfinished business.”
Adam coasted a hand over Icarus’s hip, making space between the wall and his back, and snuck his fingers under the dip of the draped top, under the waistband of his shorts, inches away from where Icarus would kill to have them, spreading him open, breaching his—
“You’re lying.”
Icarus bit back the groan on the tip of his tongue, the fantasy interrupted, but not for long.
Not if he could help it. And this right here—seduction—was what he did best. Smirking, he lifted the leg not between Adam’s and hooked it over the Devil’s hip, encouraging him to dip his hand lower, to grind his cock along the hard one pressed snug to his. “Am I?”
A push too far, fucking finally. Adam’s hand dropped off the wall, fingers threading through the fishnet, clutching Icarus’s raised leg almost painfully.
But it was nothing compared to the force of the kiss he laid on Icarus—scorching in its heat and hunger, in its sheer need.
Adam’s lips moved over Icarus’s, rough and greedy, a tongue demanding entrance, which Icarus granted without hesitation, his own desire surging to meet Adam’s.
Icarus opened for him, mouth and body, hooking his leg around Adam tighter and curling his fingers in the front of his shirt, hauling him closer, rutting cock to cock.
He growled down his throat as Adam shoved a hand farther down his shorts, diving into his crack, clasping a cheek and spreading him. So close to where Icarus wanted him.
Danger had never felt so fucking good. And Icarus wanted more. “Please.”
As if the plea had broken a spell, Adam pulled back—lips, body, hands, the latter adorably tangled in fishnet for a few seconds before he fully separated himself.
Icarus could have kept him locked tight in his hold, but not without giving away his strength, and in any event, not without Adam’s consent.
Eyes half-lidded, Icarus swooned against the wall and flicked the corner of his mouth with his tongue. “You want more?”
Adam paced in front of him and roughly ran a hand over his nape, seemingly at war with himself, his angry tone confirming as much. “Of course I want more.”
Icarus lifted the hem of his blouse with one hand and slid the other inside the front of his shorts, adjusting his erection, making sure Adam got a good look at how hard he’d made him. How much he wanted more too.
As good as crooking any finger, Adam’s gaze went right to the intended target. Icarus could see how hard it was for the Devil to tear his gaze away. Adam stepped closer, then caught himself. “Are you in trouble?”
Icarus yanked his hand out of his shorts. “Is that what this is about? Some rescue fantasy shit? Can’t get enough of playing hero after last night?”
“I am no one’s fucking hero.” Adam closed the distance between them and palmed Icarus’s dick through the leather. “Even if I were, this isn’t me trying to rescue you. This is me trying to find any excuse not to haul you into the bathroom and let you fuck me senseless with this piece.”
Moaning, Icarus thrust into his hand, wishing for any other material so Adam could feel how hot and dripping he was for him already. “I fail to see the problem.”
Adam curled his fingers around the ridge of Icarus’s cock and slowly stroked the length of it, eliciting another moan. “You’re trouble.”
Icarus dropped his head back against the wall, eyelids fluttering closed. “You caught my name, right?”
Adam’s lips brushed his neck, a tongue teasing in their wake. “But which of us will burn in the end?”
“Devlin.”
Icarus righted his head and snarled at the intruder who’d spoken. The woman standing on the edge of the shadow they were hidden in snarled right back.
“Who’s that?” Icarus spat.
Adam didn’t step back or release his dick. “My second. Jennifer.”
“Your second?” He aimed his next question in the intruder’s direction. “Where were you last night?”
“On the receiving end of that rescue you witnessed,” Adam answered for her as he licked along Icarus’s collarbone, teasing the narrow halter strap.
“And after? She didn’t have your back.” None of them had. Not Jennifer, not the raven, not the enormous, growly coyote.
“I always spend that night alone.”
Dragging his gaze away from their audience, Icarus dipped his chin and flicked the shell of Adam’s ear with his tongue. “But you weren’t.”
Adam whimpered, and his erection dug harder into Icarus’s hip. “Do you have any idea who you’ve decided to get into trouble with?”
“We’re going to be late,” Adam’s second huffed.
Icarus nipped his earlobe. “Can you tell her to fuck off?”
“Unfortunately not. She’s a coyote. She’ll eat me.
” He glanced up through long dark lashes, and it was a good thing Icarus had the wall at his back.
The smoldering look, the heat radiating off the man in his arms, was enough to make him swoon again.
Almost enough to make him come in his shorts. “Not in the good way.”
That thought didn’t help Icarus’s hard-on either. But as he glanced over Adam’s shoulder, getting a glimpse of glowing golden eyes, Icarus came back to his cautious senses, a little. “Related to the one last night?”
“His cousin.” Adam returned the earlier nip, teeth teasing Icarus’s shoulder. “How do I reach you?”
Icarus dragged his leg along the outside of Adam’s. “Seems you already know where to find me.”
Adam kissed a path up his neck and along his jaw. “For a proper date.”
Icarus laughed out loud. “Sweetheart, I am not the sort you date.”
Adam drew back, smirk positively evil, positively addictive, and the fingers still around Icarus’s dick tightened, bringing him back to fully erect with a single stroke.
“Once I leave, I want you to go into a bathroom stall and jerk yourself off, and while you’re doing that, pretend it’s me on my knees in front of you, giving you the best blow job of your life.
” Icarus gasped, and Adam dipped his tongue inside his mouth, a parting sweep of heat and whiskey and everything Icarus wanted another taste of.
“Or better yet, imagine your cock pounding my ass. It’s been so long since anyone’s breached me.
Imagine how tight it must be, how good it’ll feel.
” Adam dropped a final peck on his lips and stepped back.
“Then decide if you want to be the sort who dates.”
He turned on his heel and left without a backward glance.
As soon as Adam and Jennifer cleared the exit, Icarus bolted to the bathroom, locked himself in a stall, ripped down his shorts, and yanked out his dick.
He jerked himself off to the images Adam had seared onto his brain.
Adam on his knees, mouth around his cock.
Adam on his knees, ass in the air, taking every pounding thrust Icarus gave him.
He sprayed the wall and floor in less than two minutes, coming with a shout, not the least bit ashamed if anyone heard him.
But after, forearm braced against the door, face resting in the crook of his elbow, reality set in.
He hadn’t been performing for anyone just now.
Hell, not since he and Adam had left Mike at the bar.
Icarus hadn’t just fucked Adam in his imagination, he’d fucked himself in reality.
A million different ways from Sunday. Living up to his name yet again.