Bad Behavior (Bad in Baltimore) (11 page)

Beach wasn’t simply in over his head, he was drowning, dragged under so deep he couldn’t find his way up. Tai licked up the length of Beach’s dick, but too soft, the sucking pressure on the head only a tease. A giant snake took control of his spine in a twisting, undulating roll.

Tai gripped Beach’s ass harder, pulled his cheeks open and rubbed a flat, fat tongue against Beach’s hole.

Slithering heat, a build of pressure, and Beach squeezed his eyes shut so tightly tears leaked from the corners.

“David.” It was sharp. Harsh with demand. “Breathe.”

He managed a shuddering exhale.

“That’s it. I’ve got you.” The grip on his ass shifted to a hard rub, forcing the muscles to relax or hurt.

Beach took another breath.

“Yeah. I’ve got you.” Tai held Beach open and licked his hole, darting flicks that set off little pops of pleasure rippling out from his ass to his balls and the tip of his dick.

It built urgently, the need to move, to free his hands and take back what Tai demanded from Beach’s body. Built in the burn of precome on his dick straining into the air, in the pressure of a sharp nose in his balls, in the warm wiggle of tongue in and around his rim.

But he knew the secret now. He let out a breath and rode it out because there was nothing to do but take it. Take it and let it control him, let Tai decide what Beach would feel. His legs dropped open wider, and he floated on it, more and more of him cracking open for Tai to take and hold.

Beach’s breath came faster, and it was already so loud he added words to it. “Yes, Sir. Yes. God, yes.”

“So good.” Tai’s fingers worked in, deeper than his tongue had, and Beach absorbed that new sensation, let it spread out from his ass to under his rib cage. “Mine.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Tai sucked Beach’s balls, pulling one and then the other into a hot mouth, tension and pressure a blinding swirl of pain and pleasure. Beach found that place where he was wide open to everything Tai gave and sucked in the hurt with the ecstasy.

He lost track of everything but sensation and the way it poured back out of him to the man pushing him, connecting them deeper than skin.

Bedcover under his ass, cock jabbing into his balls, then sliding along Beach’s shaft. Face cradled between hot palms, hips pinned under a slow, grinding weight. Thumbs warm and insistent under his jaw, and Beach tilted his head back, offering his throat to the solid grip along his windpipe.

“Fuck.” Tai’s grunted curse was pure praise, bursting over Beach like sweet rain.

He came back into his body to the vibrations of Tai’s hand smacking around on the mattress, then the nightstand, aching from the absence of the drive of sensation. Beach jerked his hands to reach out.

“I’ve got you, David.” The deepness of Tai’s voice settled over him an instant before his physical weight pressed down and filled the hole that had opened in Beach’s sternum, slick fingers pushed lube into his ass, and the sound of a condom wrapper tearing told him he wouldn’t be feeling empty for long.

But he did. As the blunt head made an eye-watering stretch of his asshole, his hands tried again to reach for Tai’s shoulders, to pull him closer, craving the mass of muscle and warm skin to keep that terrible emptiness away. Tai lifted Beach’s hips.

“Take it, David. Open that ass and take my cock.”

Beach dragged his eyes open to face the dark stare that sank into him, turned him to liquid so his body could reform around Tai as he fit inside.

It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t fast. But for once, Beach wasn’t chasing sensation. Wasn’t moving on to the next high. He simply was.

He breathed and it burned, too full, but he wanted Tai deeper. No, it didn’t matter what Beach wanted. He would
take
more, if Tai chose to give it.

Tai shifted his hips, small movements that were huge on the inside. But that was good because it made room for all that thickness and pressure. So the stretch went on and on.

Beach closed his eyes in concentration.

“No. Look at me.” Cock, voice, eyes. Tai was finding more ways into Beach’s head.

He dragged his eyelids up.

Tai moved, urging Beach’s legs up toward his chest, high around Tai’s waist. God, so deep, pressure enough to make Beach’s eyes roll back toward his hairline.

“Don’t close your eyes.”

The tiny part of his brain that wasn’t on board with this objected.
Then don’t jam your cock up me until I feel it in my chest.
But that part wasn’t in control. The Beach who belonged here, the Beach who was happy to belong to Tai right now, nodded.

“I’m going to fuck you now, David. You’re going to stay open to me, and I don’t just mean your ass.”

“Yes, Sir.” It burst from him on a groan, and Tai answered with one, fingers convulsing where they gripped Beach’s hips.

Beach thought it was hard to keep his eyes open on the first thrust. But it was almost impossible on the second and the third. Tai moved slowly enough to leave Beach aware of all the different sensations. The jar to his whole body as Tai bottomed out, the drag that made pleasure ripple out from ass to dick, then the screaming excitement of the nerves in muscles stretched to the limit at the rim and then the jolt of hot, sweet need as his cock prodded Beach’s gland on reentry.

Every stroke forced a deep breath from his lungs, the slide out making him suck in a gasp as he willed his eyes open to meet Tai’s gaze again.

“Good. That’s it.”

Beach got dizzy, tried to fling his hands out for balance, but he couldn’t. Tai gripped tighter.

“I’ve got you. Feels good in you, David.”

No one had ever called Beach David during sex. Every time Tai did, it set off a prickle of awareness that this was different. This was new. That Tai was focused on this part of Beach he’d never known was there.

But when Tai went on in his deep-as-the-ocean voice, “So hot and tight around me, boy,” Beach lost it.

He wanted to cry, he wanted to come, but most of all he had to touch the man who made him feel like this. Have more than just the spot where Tai rocked inside to mold them together.

“I’m—” Beach shook with the effort to explain it. He wanted to be good and open, but it was hard and he needed. “I can’t— God. Please…Sir.”

Tai loomed over, fingers brushing Beach’s. A dull, heavy click and his hands were free. He reached for Tai’s arms.

“Yeah.” Tai scooped him up, pressing them together. “You can come for me now, David.”

Beach would like that. He really would. Tai’s hips pumped short and quick, cock stabbing over and over at the place inside that felt so good, so close.

Tai kissed him, openmouthed, sloppy drag of lips and beard, trailing across Beach’s face to his ear.

The powerful arms squeezed him tighter. “You will come for me. You’ll come just like this. From my cock in your ass.” Tai’s rapid breaths scorched Beach’s ear. “You’ll come like this because you don’t have a choice.”

Not having a choice was something guaranteed to send Beach fleeing as far and fast from that dead end as possible. But not David. David loved it. David didn’t want a choice. He wanted this. Rough demands and the impossible challenge of getting off when he had no control over the sensations in his body.

Hotter, slicker, sweat and precome between them, and the spike of nuclear heat from where Tai jabbed with every hard slam of his hips.

Beach shook, reaching for it with everything he had, Tai deep in his ass, his chest, his head. Groans and pants in his ear. “Now, boy. Do it. Right now. Come.”

The warning was a sizzle, a wisp before the force of it slammed into him, pumped out of him. Spasm after spasm yanking the hot flood from ass to balls to dick. The delicious shocks echoing into his thighs and chest and ears, until it slowed to nothing but a hum. Because this thing they were doing was still there. Even though Tai had stopped moving, had separated from Beach’s body, the connection linked them, anchored to the spot where his breath was.

Tai stripped off the condom and gave his dick a few hard jerks. Harsh grunts washed over Beach’s ears, and then a gravel-scraped, “So good, David. Yeah, fuck,” as Tai bucked and splashed Beach’s chest with warm, thick strings, sharp bleach smell in his nose.

Tai rubbed a hand over Beach’s cheek while the other pushed Tai’s cock next to Beach’s on his belly, sliding in the slick puddles.

“You okay?”

Beach nodded.
Okay
couldn’t really cover feeling like he’d come apart and shifted under his skin into something new, something better. Something that didn’t fade away with the ebb of the high from sex chemicals. The sex rush was gone. What was left was like a low-level hum of arousal, a mild buzz from a couple quick shots. But without the urgency to chase after it. He could stay here forever.

“Let me check your wrists.” Tai uncuffed them, looking over the red skin, a gentle thumb on the pulse point. “Anything feel wrong? Pulled muscles? Your leg okay?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I still have legs, but I can’t really assess their condition at the moment.”

Tai chuckled and lifted his weight off Beach’s thighs.

“Thank you but that wasn’t really a problem. I like how—strong you are.”

Tai’s lips twisted. “Move your fingers, let me see them.” It wasn’t his Sir voice, but there was still a demand there.

Beach complied. Then he wiggled his toes. “All functional and accounted for.”

“Good.” Tai brought his sticky hand to Beach’s other wrist, rubbing the mingled come over the redness that was already fading.

Beach caught his breath. His cock was out of commission for the foreseeable future, but his pulse ramped up. Tai kissed, then licked the inside of Beach’s wrist. His skin tingled, like he’d stepped into sunshine from too long in air-conditioning.

“And how do you feel in here?” Tai made Beach’s lax hand point and tap his own forehead.

Safe. Happy. And when Tai anointed Beach’s other wrist and followed up with kisses, he didn’t think it was unreasonable to add
worshipped
. “Pretty good,” he answered, and drifted to sleep with Tai’s mouth still tickling a wrist.

Tai wished he could fall asleep like that. But no, he had to be one of the rare guys who got energized after sex. Just one more way to remember he didn’t fit a category. But then, neither did David A. Beauchamp.

He was the entitled, arrogant prick Tai had pegged him for from reading the case file. But the self-deprecating charm wasn’t something that came through on paper. And most of the entitled snots Tai came across would have to be a breath from dying before they’d admit the kind of vulnerability David had shared.

Tai had pushed hard last night, driven to find out if an interest in D/s was nothing more than a new adrenaline rush to Beauchamp or if he really could give himself up to it.

And he had. Fuck, he really had.

Then today, the way he’d let Tai strip everything away with his mouth and tongue and feed it back on his cock, God. Tai rubbed his face across the sleeping man’s wrist.

Leather, sweat, come. Tai’s hand tightened around David’s forearm.
Mine.

With a mumbled sound, David rolled into Tai. Cradling David with an arm at his waist, Tai eased onto his back and let David settle on top, cheek prickling Tai’s nipple with stubble.

Tai wanted to drag David in tighter, right under the skin, open up and pull him inside to keep him safe. Mostly from David himself. Tai had run into new subs at Nic’s. Ones who had met the wrong guy and were only beginning to put themselves back together from the damage.

The way David went tearing off after things on a whim, the file full of crazy stunts, he’d been lucky so far that the worst was a coma and a busted leg.

Tai ran his hand down David’s back, palm flat over the muscles, heat against the chill of David’s skin exposed to the air-conditioning. At the base of the spine, Tai spread his fingers wide to cover as much skin as he could, wishing he could leave a heat signature on David’s body, a warning that everyone’s luck ran out.

When the Terps were in a bowl game Tai’s freshman year, he’d picked up some Samoan from a player on the other team. David was
O le lima e paia le mata
, looking for trouble and bringing it on himself. If Tai remembered it right, the words were about punching yourself in the eye. Those pretty blue eyes weren’t where Tai wanted to leave his message about staying out of trouble. He stroked his hand down farther, fingers grazing the top of David’s ass.

That was one effective way of getting attention, but Tai knew plenty of others. If he had his way, David would start relying on self-control rather than luck. And Tai was going to make sure that for once, things went exactly his way.

C
hapter Eight

T
ai figured David had been out about fifteen minutes when he opened his eyes. After a deliberate rub of his cheek against Tai’s pec, David lifted his head. “Hello.”

Tai met David’s gaze. “Hello.”

David smiled.

Tai hadn’t realized he was anticipating disaster until that smile made relief wash through him.

“It appears I owe you an apology.” David angled his chin so that stubble prickled Tai’s nipple with the motion of David’s jaw.

“Oh?”

“I usually have better manners than to pass out on my lovers.”

“Too bad.” Tai used his palm to drag David in tight. “They might have found it flattering.”

David resisted, lifting his chest a bit, peeling apart skin welded by sweat and spunk. “Though if I recall correctly, I remained conscious enough to be aware of happy endings all around.” He tucked his head in, peering down at where the evidence had dried.

The retreat was more than physical, the withdrawal behind that careless charm slamming a barrier between them.

Tai lifted David’s chin on two fingers. “Were you happy with it?”

David met Tai’s gaze steadily for a moment then lowered his lashes. “Absolutely.” He pushed down against the gentle pressure of Tai’s fingers. “You seem to enjoy grabbing my chin a lot. Is it part of this thing?” David laid his hand over Tai’s gauntlet. “Like leather and punishments?”

“It’s a me-and-you thing. But if it bothers you—”

Before Tai could pull his hand away, David covered it, fingers urging Tai into a stronger grip. “I didn’t say that. Quite the opposite. I may have discovered yet another new turn-on.”

“It’s good to have some spares in case your usual goes flat,” Tai agreed. If David was more comfortable hiding behind banter, Tai could let him hide.

“Or flaccid.” David grinned and stretched up to offer a kiss.

Tai should have held back, accepted the kiss and let things be relaxed and easy. But his self-control evaporated around David. His push-pull of need and resistance yanked hard at the core of want inside Tai, drove him to pin David’s face in a tight grip and take his mouth as if the heat and force would leave a taste of Tai behind.

After a second of it, David opened to it, absorbed the kiss with a groan that vibrated between them. His tongue stroked alongside Tai’s, and damn if Tai wasn’t going to be the one left with a craving instead.

He released David’s mouth, eased the hold on his face, thumbs stroking his lips, his chin—which had started the whole damned thing. Even that night in the bar, the way that chin had jerked out when Tai turned down the first offer.

David was breathing fast, eyes closed. When they opened, the look was soft, full of a need that moved them both close to that dizzy space of power offered and accepted. Tai wanted to hold him there. Cradle him in it.

David’s tongue swept across his lips.

Before he could disappear again, Tai kissed him gently. “Sorry. You have this sexy hint of a dimple in your chin.”

The freeze was so instant they might have been back under the shower. Tai released him.

David put his fingers to his chin. “You should have seen it in my pudgy youth. Disgusting thing. Thank God it’s less noticeable now.” He dropped his head, hiding his face completely. “Guess it’s like a Band-Aid, right?” He ripped himself free, making them both wince as skin separated. He was hunched on the edge of the bed, feet on the floor, before Tai could recover.

“Right. So.” David straightened his shoulders with an effort Tai could see in the muscles of his back. “I’m certain you have other things planned for your Saturday. Do you mind if I clean up a bit?”

Tai sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I don’t want to presume on your time. My clothes are in the bathroom, I think.”

“No.”

David flinched, and Tai softened his tone.

“Your clothes are in here. On this side of the bed. I brought them in before I walked Jez.”

“Right.” David’s hand came up to his head, hesitated, then rubbed across the scar Tai had felt under thick, short hair.

“David—”

That sent him rocketing off the bed.

“I— Excuse me. I feel—” David’s steps were uneven, but he still beat Tai to the bathroom and shut the door firmly.

The shower went on and the toilet flushed, a waterfall of sound, enough to mask Tai knocking.

Humidity, cheap lumber and a settling foundation ensured the door didn’t close all the way, not enough to lock, though it could be wedged tight enough to discourage Jez’s curiosity.

She trotted over now and sat at his feet as he stared at the door, looking at him out of the top of her eyes again as if saying,
Smooth one.

He knew what was going on now. But David didn’t. When the sound of the toilet had faded, Tai put his mouth close to the door so he didn’t have to yell.

“David, listen.”

“I’m fine.” The quaver in David’s voice made him a huge liar, but it wasn’t a good time to call him on that.

“This happens sometimes. You feel shaky and sick and miserable? It’s called sub drop. It’s like coming off a high. A hangover.” Tai listened. There was no change in the sound of the water, but at least he hadn’t heard anything like a body hitting the floor.

After another minute he said, “Hey. I don’t know you well enough to know what you need. So you need to convince me you’re okay, or use your safe word and I’ll leave you alone.” The rush of blood in Tai’s ears was almost enough to drown out the water, or anything David might say.

“Silence isn’t very convincing.” Tai took a few steps back into the bedroom to grab David’s cane and his shorts. “Dav—” Hand on the doorknob, he paused. “Hey, Beach. At least take your cane.”

With a squeaking jerk, the door flew open, then closed to a narrow gap with David’s arm sticking through. Tai shoved the clothes and the cane at him.

“Thank you. I’ll be out in a few minutes.” David’s voice was controlled, but the lack of emotion worried Tai more than the shakiness had. He replayed the fraction of a second when the door had come unstuck, David’s hair and face dripping onto a towel around his shoulders.

Everything inside Tai demanded he force open that door and make David okay. Shield him with strength and force the understanding that it
was
okay. That the feeling was normal and would fade if David would relax and let Tai help. Three years ago, before he met Nic, Tai would have done exactly that. Letting David push him away was a lot easier in theory than in practice, though.

Hands in tight fists, he pressed them against his diaphragm, dragging calm to him and squeezing it in that grip. It might not be very Zen, but that was what worked for Tai.

When the door opened with a soft pop, he relaxed his fists.

David’s hair was wet-dark, standing up unevenly from a toweling, drops still trickling down his chest and belly to the waistband of his shorts. The expression on his face was bland, a faint amusement Tai could picture David practicing in the mirror. It might have been convincing, if Tai hadn’t just spent an hour watching real emotions on that face. That and the way his fingers clenched the top of his cane.

“I apologize for alarming you, but I’m fine.” David started forward, and Tai moved out of the way.

David headed straight for the apartment door. Not unexpected, but it still stung, made Tai fight another urge to wrap the man up in his arms and demand they talk about what had happened.

“You might want your shirt. And your shoes. The pavement can be damned hot.”

David came to an abrupt halt. “Right. Thanks.” He started to turn back and caught his balance with a hand on the wall. “In the bedroom?”

“Do you want me to get them?” Tai kept his position, leaning on the wall between the bedroom and living room.

“No, thank you. I’ll get them.”

Tai had planned to stay right where he was until David left, but went to the bedroom door. If it was the last chance, he was taking a final look at that sweet ass and sculpted back. Sue him.

David slid his shoes on and then bent down to grab his shirt. Straightening with a jerk, he swayed, overcorrected. Lips gray, features slack, eyes unfocused. Even with only the profile of his face, Tai knew what was about to happen.

Reflexes had Tai springing forward. He’d become a master at reading the signs when Gina was pregnant. In addition to the puking—or maybe because of it—she’d fainted a lot.

David sank like a rock, but Tai was already there, cushioning the drop so that David landed in Tai’s lap, both of them sitting.

David blinked. He wasn’t out completely.

Tai waited for the blue eyes to focus. “Just so we’re clear. You’re not fine.”

B
each wanted to argue, but he still felt like shit. Who knew sex that good had this at the tail end?

And he could admit to himself that Tai holding him like this made him feel better than he had since he’d woken up.

“Some of this might be your blood sugar. What did you have for breakfast?”

“Breakfast?” Beach stalled while he thought back. There’d been that text, and he hadn’t stopped for food. “Toothpaste.”

Tai’s brows went up in thick slashes. “As in—”

“I brushed my teeth. That was all.”

“How did you make it to, what are you—almost forty—?”

“I’m thirty-four.” Beach’s wounded pride snapped out the correction.

“Thirty-four,” Tai agreed with amusement that made Beach want to turn around and level a glare, except he was really comfortable and not quite sure he wouldn’t pass out. “So how did you make it this far without learning how to stay out of trouble?”

Beach leaned into the hard heat. It was different, being held like this. His experience with embraces was that they were mutual. This one wasn’t. It was all Tai. This kind of difference was the good kind.

“Trouble is where all the fun is.”

“Yeah?” Tai’s voice rumbled against Beach’s back, vibrated down his ear into his throat like a taste of something bittersweet. “I’d like to teach you different.”

“So far it’s been fun watching you try.”

“Want another shower?”

Dread and desire chased themselves around deep and low in Beach’s belly. “Uh, no.” He didn’t. That hadn’t been fun at all. So why did the idea of it—of Tai making Beach do something he didn’t like—why did that make his skin flush, his cock ache like it wanted to go for thirds this morning? Sucking in a breath, he added, “Sir.”

Tai rasped his goatee against Beach’s neck. “Food. Then we talk.”

“Okay.” Beach swallowed back disappointment. Over what he wasn’t sure. That Tai wasn’t going to punish—even that word in Beach’s head made things inside go hot and tight—him or that they couldn’t stay right here awhile.

Maybe it was the idea of talking. Beach liked to talk—as long as no one expected him to say anything. He was afraid that this talk was going to mean making some choices, and that was something he particularly liked avoiding. Options he loved. Choices meant an option was closed.

Tai’s grip shifted around as he helped Beach to his feet, never leaving his balance to chance. Which was good, because his legs felt like they were on a deck going through ten-foot swells.

“So, where’s a good place for food around here?” Beach realized he was still clutching his polo shirt. He tugged it over his head, glad he’d grabbed the Loro Piana with forty-percent silk. It soothed the hot prickles on his skin.

“My kitchen.”

Beach had his cane, but Tai still used a hand under Beach’s arm to steer him to the couch. “Sit.”

Jez had been stretching in a perfect imitation of downward dog and reversed herself instantly, rump thumping onto the floor.

“Good sit, Jez.” After pushing Beach onto the couch, Tai went to pet her. “Teach him.” He pointed at Beach. On his way by, Tai leaned down to rumble in Beach’s ear, “You stay.” As Tai straightened he muttered, “I’ve got to find a way to stop confusing the dog.”

Tai went into his bedroom and came out in cargo shorts and a tank top, crossing the living room and into the kitchen. Jez trotted over and put her head on Beach’s thigh. It felt like a bowling ball and was about that size and shape. But she did have the most beautiful eyes, full of her heart. Beach rubbed behind her ears, under her jaw. She tipped up her head to let him work, then twisted around to stare as Tai came back over, shoving a glass of orange juice at Beach.

“Drink this.”

“Didn’t your gran ever teach you the magic word?”

“Never knew either one. Drink it. You need some blood sugar.” Tai opened up the fridge again. “Anything you don’t eat?”

“I’m sure there’s plenty of things in the world I’d rather not put in my mouth, but I’m open to trying new things if you hadn’t noticed.”

Beach got a snort of laughter in answer. Jez had followed Tai into the kitchen, where she lapped at a water bowl up on a stand. The guy was sweet enough to his dog to make sure she didn’t have to strain for a drink, but he couldn’t manage a
please
every now and then?

At least one of them had been raised with manners. “Can I give you a hand?”

“Sure.”

But before Beach could rise to his feet, Tai went on, “You can sit there and drink your orange juice so you don’t pass out and get in the way.”

Beach stared sharply at his feet. He’d been labeled a lot of things, but helpless had never been one of them.

The feelings that had sent him charging into the bathroom—where he had definitely not been crying once he got his head under the cold spray—surged back, a pull like a riptide. That infuriating chest-crushing sensation that had dropped the bottom out of the best time he could remember. He rolled his ankles around. Other people popped their knuckles, Beach popped his ankles. It always made him feel better. It didn’t work as well with the weight of the monitor and scream of still-mending bone, but at last he got that satisfying snap, and a soothing relaxation pulsed up his legs.

Investigating the sound, Jez stalked over, muzzle dripping. She started to lunge forward to wipe her jowls on Beach’s leg and shorts, but he diverted her to the couch.

“Ha. I’m wise to that trick, pretty girl. Don’t think you’re the first sweet little pup in my life.” He ran his hand along her flank and stopped. There was a thick scar under the short hair, a diagonal slash across her ribs, spine to belly. He swept his hands everywhere, finding another healed wound on her opposite haunch, near the docked tail. “My God, Jez, what happened to you?”