Chapter 15 Rafferty
RAFFERTY
Bar wasn’t a huge place, but tracking Jesse down without setting off any alarms had been damned difficult.
In the end, it’d been a stroke of luck that brought me to his door.
I’d asked around at a local coffee shop if they had any recommendations for room rentals, and the barista had mentioned Sofija’s place since it was right on the water.
One of the old guys in the shop said another American, a Texan, had beaten me out for the location and suggested his uncle’s place instead.
I declined his offer, then all but ran to Sofija’s place, my heart nearly leaping out of my chest as I neared the picturesque home. I had no idea what I’d do with Jesse if this turned out to be his place, but I had to see for myself.
That was a lie. I knew exactly what to do with him.
My hands slid over his tight little butt. “I missed this ass.”
“It missed you,” he said, sending me a crooked grin as he dove in for another kiss.
Our kisses deepened, and we rutted against each other, our cocks hardening quickly.
There would be no teasing this go-round.
With another kiss, he stood and held out his hand. I stood as well and then took it. He walked backward, pulling me in for another kiss, reaching for the sliding door behind him. We practically fell into his little room, the heat ratcheting up quickly.
As if no time had passed.
I’d questioned my sanity the entire flight over. I had certainly broken the law in regard to this man several times over. I killed two people in self-defense, and could probably avoid jail time for that, but this? Going to meet the fugitive in another country?
There was no coming back from this.
And yet.
In the six months since we’d seen each other, I hadn’t been able to get him out of my head. I was half-convinced I’d blown this out of proportion, and that the moment we had in my cabin should’ve just remained that. A moment.
Standing in front of him, though, with his hands roaming freely over my body, impatiently taking me out of my clothes as I impatiently removed his, that electric sense of knowing was back in full force.
I knew his body, as he knew mine. And here, halfway around the world, even under entirely different circumstances, there was no denying the energy between us.
His breath caught as my thumbs went to my underwear, and he whistled as I slid them down and off my legs.
“Jesus, I’ve needed this so much,” he said, slowly sinking to his knees, his hands on my thighs.
His shoulders sagged, as if they could finally stop holding up the weight of the world.
He nestled into my pubic hair and inhaled deeply, then looked up, his eyes meeting mine.
They shone with a combination of relief and horniness.
And that was the sensation. All those long months, I’d been sitting on tenterhooks, clearing cases, thinking about my next steps.
Knowing I was approaching a fork in the road.
I was gonna have to give up on him or go all in.
Any reasonable person would’ve given up a month in, two months in, three months in.
But I hadn’t found it in myself to be reasonable, and I couldn’t figure out why.
Standing here, towering over him as he nosed the soft and hardening parts of me, I finally understood why I couldn’t simply assign Jesse Travis to the bin of lessons learned.
From the day he showed up at my cabin, my protective instincts around him had been on overdrive.
Being away from him so long had killed me, not just because I missed him physically, but because I couldn’t keep him safe from my little cabin on the lake.
I didn’t need to be told he was more than just his record, more than just a guy who dragged himself out of a sinking vehicle, more than just someone who would do what it took to survive. Something in me had always seen more.
All this lifetime criminal had ever wanted was a chance to feel safe.
Unguarded in a way he never could have been in his old life.
And the thought that I could possibly be the one to stand watch, to give him that space between himself and the world, to give him a chance to just fucking breathe…
made my heart beat as it never had before.
I wanted nothing more than to be the man strong enough to allow him to be soft.
I had no idea what the hell this would look like, but you couldn’t have dragged me away from that moment. You couldn’t have threatened me with enough jail time to stay away from him.
Jesse took my cock in his mouth, sucking on it, gently at first, as if introducing himself. I grinned at the thought, then moaned as he sucked a little harder.
“Yeah, baby. Just like that.”
My hand went to his shaved head, and as much as I’d loved the halo of curls, this felt good under my palms too. He felt good.
I figured things would turn into a fuck-fest the second we were in each other’s orbits again, and while that was definitely happening, it wasn’t the most important thing.
The thing I felt more than anything was the opposite of the desperation I’d been carrying around in my chest. This was coming home. This was intimate.
And if I was wrong, I was so fucked.
But then Jesse shot me another of those soft looks, and I knew I hadn’t been wrong at all.
As much as I was enjoying the blowjob, I needed something a little more.
“Come here,” I said, gripping his shoulder. He pulled away—oh so delicious and slow—blinking up at me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I took his hand, helping him stand, and I put my arms around him. Hugging him tight to me.
“Fuck,” he breathed into my chest. “I didn’t know how much I missed you until this very second.”
“Same.”
I spared a glance for his rumpled covers, and he took my hand in his, dragging me down to the bed with him. We faced each other, kissing, as we tangled our limbs. He first rolled on top of me, kissing me deeply. Then we switched places, and I pinned him down, showing him how much I missed him.
“I need you inside of me so bad,” he said, breathless from our last kiss.
“Turn on your side,” I commanded softly.
He sent me a gorgeous smile and immediately complied. Reaching across the bed to the tiny nightstand, he riffled through the drawer before handing a small bottle of lube over his shoulder. I took the bottle and kissed his shoulder as I poured the slick liquid onto my fingertips.
He leaned against me, and I shifted, snaking one arm under him and across his chest as I parted his cheeks with the other.
“Mm, yes,” he breathed out, his body pliant, willing.
I swirled my fingers just so as I tightened my arm across his chest.
“I haven’t been with anyone,” he whispered.
“Me either.”
He gazed up at me over his shoulder, his eyes filled with something I couldn’t quite define. I was helpless against this look. I kissed him as I opened him, carefully, languidly, because we had all the time in the world.
Okay, maybe there was a little teasing.
“Please,” he finally said after several long minutes of making out.
I removed my fingers and added slick to my cock, the sound in my throat guttural as I notched against his hole.
He whined and pushed back, and I nudged forward, encircling him in my arms. With a grunt, I was inside his willing body, liquefying every moment of the stress and uncertainty of the last six months until they faded like a distant memory.
The tension I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding in my body vanished.
“Jesse,” I breathed into his neck. “Jesse,” I repeated, thrusting into the sidelong hug, pulling him impossibly closer to me.
He responded with his body, melting into me, tilting his hips back as I pushed forward, our quiet lovemaking in the sunny room something like hope. Like a future I never dared to dream of.
We moved as one, gripping each other, a different kind of desperation. Our silence was broken by a stifled sob.
“Are you okay?” I asked, stilling my hips.
“Better than I’ve ever been in my entire life,” he whispered, leaning his head down to press kisses along my arms banded across his chest.
I let one hand drift to his neck, while trailing the other down his belly and into the thatch of hair at the base of his cock. He pressed his neck into my hand, his cock into my other, and I tightened both.
I fucked into him, grasping his throat while not cutting off any air, stroking him with a hand still slick from opening him.
As dreamy as everything had been to this moment, his gasping cries and my soft grunts turned heated.
I pushed him onto his belly, sliding my hands under his armpits to grip his shoulders as I fucked his pliant body into the mattress.
At first, Jesse was simply a willing fuck toy, but then he leveraged his knees to hunch back against my sharp thrusts, more of those deep, dark animal noises twinning as climax approached.
I slid my hand under his raised hip, grasping him, squeezing tight, twisting my hand, stroking him with each hard, deep thrust.
He choked out a grunt, his cock jumping in my hand.
He groaned through his orgasm, his hot body milking mine. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the blue of the ocean, that sense of limitlessness spurring me on, my entire body euphoric, as I peaked, then went higher, releasing into him, more free than I’d ever felt in my entire life.
His sheets were a mess, but I didn’t give a shit. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I leaned back, pulling his cheek to the side so I could watch my cock exit his well-used hole, followed by my cum.
We separated, laughing and messy, and he dragged me into his shower, into the small stall that made up one side of his bathroom, the tiles ancient, corners rounded with age, the high but narrow window above us scaled over so the light filtered in like cinema.
The showerhead, equally ancient, had the water pressure to prove it, and a sprig of lavender and herbs was tied to the gooseneck extension from the wall.
Jesse was in my arms, his chin tilted up, lips expecting to be kissed all over again. I was helpless against him.