Chapter 14 #2
“Want me to do it for you?” He chuckled, then stepped forward, letting go of Ishleen despite her protests.
Rue didn’t retreat when he advanced, which earned him a proud grin, and then Ryker was in front of him, capturing his head between two hands, tipping his head into the perfect angle to receive his lips.
Ryker sealed their mouths together, laughing again when he heard gasps from behind him. He didn’t hold back because of the audience, forcing Rue’s lips to part with teeth and tongue. He poured all of the pent-up anger and desire into the kiss, knowing exactly how he’d look to the rest of the room.
Like a man possessed.
Like he was starving.
To his credit, Rue didn’t try to pull away. He leaned into it, seemingly unaware of what he was doing, hands clutching at Ryker’s chest, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt to pull him in even closer.
A moan had just slipped out of him when something slammed against the rectangular window by the refrigerator.
They pulled apart, but only long enough for Ryker to position himself in front of Rue, eyes going to the glass where smears of something gray and sticky now coated the other side.
“Anyone get a good look at it?” Ellery asked.
Everyone shook their heads no, too startled to speak.
“Rue!” Eulalie’s voice was muffled, but clear. Something large shifted in the fog, but aside from its shadowy outline, they couldn’t make anything out. “What are you doing? Rue, help me!”
Ryker gave his back to the window, clamping his hands over Rue’s ears. He growled when he saw how shaken the other man already was by the phantom voice, how pale, any signs of the flush that’d colored his cheeks from their passionate kiss diminished.
“Don’t listen,” he instructed. “It isn’t real.”
“Rue!” the monster outside continued to call out, the accuracy uncanny. “You’re brothers! Rue!”
“Get out!” Ryker barked the order, but he wasn’t talking to the creature, and everyone else seemed to gather as much.
Some of them collected their plates and brought it with them, others left theirs behind, but everyone stood and rushed to the exit, practically fleeing from the kitchen even though up until this point, it’d been one of the safest locations.
Lenore followed the rest, stopping only when she realized that Bowie wasn’t doing the same. She turned back, but Bowie was already at Rue’s side, tugging on his arm.
“Let’s go,” Bowie urged.
Ryker had had enough.
He slapped him away, and Rue really must have been out of it, because he didn’t scold him for the act. So he took it a step further and glared. “Get the fuck out.”
“I’m not leaving him alone in this room with that thing,” Bowie snapped, “or with you.”
“Get out before he ends up even more traumatized from having to watch me break your neck.”
They stared one another down for a moment, but then the creature slammed against the window again, startling Bowie.
With a curse, he spun on his heels and left, though he didn’t go far, pausing just outside the doorway.
“Sweetheart.” Ryker ignored Bowie, angling Rue’s head a second time, until their eyes met. He watched as some of the confusion clouding Rue’s gaze dissipated the moment he registered who was before him.
His brown eyes. Dark, like molasses.
He was terrified right now.
“Hey.” Ryker stepped in close, blocking out the window with his broad shoulders, forcing Rue’s focus to narrow onto him and him alone. “Stay with me, baby.”
Rue almost scowled, mouth twitching before he caught it and evened it out. “You’re only half a year older than me, Ryk.”
“Rue, help me!” More banging, this time with squishing sounds whenever whatever that gray substance was smeared over the glass from the impact.
“Tell me about the rose garden,” Ryker said, holding Rue steady through the onslaught of noise at his back. “How did it feel?”
“Why do you keep asking me about that?” He did scowl this time, but his irises brightened some.
Good. That was good.
“How did it feel when you finally sunk down over the cock you’ve always fantasied about?
” he continued. “Did it feel as good as when you switched positions? When you were rolled onto your back and rammed open with enough force to make your teeth rattle? You cried out my name, isn’t that right?
Do it again. Call out for me, sweetheart. ”
“Ryker?” Rue searched his gaze, more of the fear slipping away as his mind struggled to process and figure out Ryker’s angle.
“Want to know why you ached the other morning?” He leaned in, so their breaths mingled, and then grinned wolfishly. “It’s because I fucked you while you were asleep.”
“Wh-what?” He blinked.
“Those sleeping pills of yours are my best friend,” he stated. “They put you out so beautifully. Leave you so vulnerable. I can always do anything I want to you.”
“Always?”
“Been doing it for months.”
Rue went to shove him away, but Ryker held firm and pulled him in again. “Don’t.”
That thing was still outside, still using his mother’s voice, trying to get under his skin.
Right now they were safe. They were inside and together.
But if that thing tried this again when they were apart, or when they were out in the open…
As hard as it was, he needed Rue to adjust, at least enough that Ryker wouldn’t fear him losing his mind and getting himself killed in the process if this happened again.
“Stay with me,” Ryker whispered. “Stay with me this time. Trust me this time.”
The fight drained out of Rue, and he was back to frowning.
“How did it feel?” he asked again, quieter, fully aware of Bowie still standing just outside the doorway, clenching his fists.
“Incredible,” the word left Rue’s mouth sounding breathy, then his brow furrowed deeper. “But it wasn’t real. It wasn’t you.”
“You’ve had me,” Ryker reminded. “I just told you about it.”
Rue stared at him, gathering his thoughts, and then asked, “All those times, when you visited the estate and I woke up covered in dried come…That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, baby, that was me.”
“Why?”
“Marking my territory.”