Bad Behavior (Bad in Baltimore) (29 page)

Tai pulled David into the shower and settled behind him, squirting some shower gel into his hand and washing David’s chest, his neck, his back. Whether it was because he was tired or because the plug had kept him close to it, David yielded immediately, no resistance, no questions as Tai soaped David’s sac, then stroked his cock to full attention.

Curling a finger through the loop at the base of the plug, Tai started working it, guiding David between the steel filling his ass and the hand gliding on his cock.

“Is it good, baby? Still enough lube?” Tai kissed and licked the water from David’s neck.

“Yes. But…”

“What? Tell me. It’s okay.”

“I don’t think I can hold it for long.”

“Good. Come when you’re ready, boy. I’ve got you.”

David drove faster into Tai’s fist, and he tightened his grip, angling the plug to pull the loudest moans, the sharpest breaths from David’s throat.

“That’s it. So damned good for me, boy.”

David’s fingers locked with bruising force on Tai’s forearm, hips jerking and snapping, dick spilling thick, creamy spunk over Tai’s fingers.

“Yeah.” Tai held on until David shuddered to a stop, then turned him under the spray to rinse them off. Tai’s dick throbbed, nuts heavy, full and needy. David was loose and pliant and counting on Tai to take care of him. He clenched his muscles and told himself to ignore the ache.

“Relax now. Breathe out.” Tai pulled the plug from David’s body, rinsed it and leaned out to put it in the sink.

His boy was drained, hanging on wherever he could get a grip, swaying on his feet.

“Few more minutes.” Tai shut off the water and dried them off. He thought about heading right for the bed, but he needed to know what had happened. After wrapping them in fresh towels, he pulled David out of the bathroom and onto the couch. With David between Tai’s legs, he settled against an arm, David’s back to Tai’s chest. He tucked David under his chin.

“How did the party go?”

“Good. Raked in a ton of donations, and between your contribution and mine, we got Sammie a rose.” The excitement in David’s voice made it sound like it was better than a florist delivery.

“That was nice.”

David turned. “I mean, she gets to—or you get to—design it. The species is set, but you can specify color and shade and name it after her. It will go in an official registry of rose cultivars. Latinus somethingus ‘Samantha’. Or ‘Sammie’ if she wants that.”

Tai knew he should be saying something, but his jaw was locked, aching as his throat swelled. He knew David wasn’t ungenerous. He’d hosted a friend who could have obviously afforded a hotel. But this was different. It was for Tai’s baby girl.

“Between your contribution and my five hundred dollars we managed that, huh?”

David went still. Tai squeezed him in a hug. “Thank you. It was incredibly thoughtful. She’ll be ecstatic.”

David relaxed again. “Well, I figured if she wasn’t a flower fan, you could give it to your mom.”

“I suppose I should be glad it wasn’t a horse auction.”

David laughed.

“So, between buying a rose and driving off the road trying to put your seat belt on, what happened?”

David shifted. “It’s kind of funny.”

Tai had his doubts about that. “Really.”

“I was feeling—well, a steel ball up my ass, and Gavin decided that my bright eyes and warm cheeks meant I was on something.”

“And you told him it was more that something was in you?”

“Not exactly. But he figured it out.”

“Uh-huh.” Tai tucked David back under his chin.

“I— It felt like sub drop. After that. Even though I hadn’t come.”

Tai waited, guilt slithering sticky and hot under his ribs.

“So when I felt it, I pulled over. I was going to call you, but it faded.”

“Just like that.” Tai couldn’t keep his tone even.

David started to shrug, then sat up. “I did stop and wait until I felt better. When I started driving again, I realized I hadn’t put my seat belt on. The other car was speeding.”

David met Tai’s gaze and then shook his head. “Listen. That, whatever it was, that is not because of you. Not because of the butt plug or the conversation we had in Gavin’s bathroom.”

Tai narrowed his eyes, feeling his brows pinch together. “Excuse me?”

“You like to take control and God, I love—it, but it doesn’t mean that you can control everything.”

“Where is that coming from?”

“Gavin made me feel weird about us and the D/s. I let that get to me. Then I made the choice to start driving. And to try to put on my seat belt at the same time.” David tipped his head and looked steadily at Tai. “Not my best choices, though definitely not my worst. But they were mine. If you think…” David started to look away but checked himself. “If you think I let you down and I should be punished, then I accept that. But I don’t accept you feeling guilty.”

The sticky feeling was annihilated by a blast of warmth. Damn. His boy was figuring it out. “C’mere.” David let Tai pull him back down. “I’m proud of you. That was some pretty good stuff.”

“Thanks. So…” David picked at the nap of his towel. “Are you going to punish me?”

“No.”

David gulped and nodded. “Why not?”

“Because you got there without it.”

After the show on the side of the road, Tai didn’t figure they’d be seeing Gavin and his overbearing dick of a cop friend anytime soon. So David saying Gavin had invited them to dinner and to tour the building his foundation was buying came as a surprise.

Gavin must’ve tightened Jamie’s leash quite a bit because aside from general complaints about asshole boaters, asshole drivers and asshole red tape as it applied to Gavin’s shelter, he could pass for civil if you graded on a curve.

For the most part Gavin and David carried the conversation, David telling exaggerated—or at least Tai hoped they were exaggerated—stories about past adventures. Jamie, the cop, rolled his eyes a lot, but when he glanced at Gavin, the sneer on his face softened to a patient almost-smile. Watching David work to draw a laugh from Gavin—and whatever passed for humor on Jamie—made Tai wonder why David hadn’t become aware of his submissive nature before this. He’d been the leader, especially in the riskier of the exploits he related, but a desire to please shone through all his interactions. When they were deciding over dessert, he shot Tai a glance, a request for permission that brought a spark of heat to Tai’s balls and electric power to his spine.

He put his hand on David’s menu, pressing it onto the table as he lowered his own and told the waiter, “We’ll split the mousse trio.”

Jamie rolled his eyes for at least the sixth time, but David grinned, making Tai wish they were enjoying room service in David’s hotel room where Tai could take his time licking the chocolate and salted caramel off David’s lips. Under the table Tai rested a hand on David’s thigh. There was a twitch as David’s fidgeting stopped.

Gavin ordered a brandied coffee and Jamie added, “Make it two.”

After the waiter left, David said, “I’m looking forward to being an adult again soon.”

Jamie muttered, “Didn’t know you ever were,” as Gavin arched his brow and said, “Really?”

David laughed. “I’ve never eaten so much dessert as I have with digestifs off the menu. I may have to be rolled in for my court date.”

“You think you’ll just stroll back out with a fine? Get right back to partying like nothing happened?”

David’s smile didn’t dim, though tension snapped into the muscle of his thigh under Tai’s hand. “Gavin paid a fine.”

“He didn’t drag his best friend off the Key Bridge and then out to Fort Carroll.”

“Plus the having sex with a cop at the time probably helped.”

“Like your PO doesn’t ha—” Jamie cut off midsyllable and glanced at Gavin, though the other man hadn’t moved or made a sound.

Tai suspected it was something similar to the squeeze he’d applied to David’s leg, but both Gavin’s hands were visible.

The waiter returned with their desserts.

Into the silence that followed, David said, “Jamie, I admit I wasn’t thinking clearly, either night.”

“Yeah, GHB will do that to you,” Jamie grumbled into his coffee.

David didn’t fight back. “It was stupid. Not our—my—usual kind of stupid, either. I was fixed on this ridiculous idea that there was some proof of my father’s innocence on the island. If I’d stopped to think, I’d never have put Gavin at risk.”

Jamie’s cup clattered into its saucer, but Gavin answered, “It’s fine, Beach.”

“Jamie?” David ducked his head and flashed his dimples.

It was decent of David to include him, especially as he wasn’t the wronged party, and if the bristling little prick turned him down, Tai would—

“Fine, whatever.” Jamie spared Tai the necessity of deciding how far the testosterone battle would go. “Is this like a twelve-step thing?”

“No.” David dug his spoon into the dark-chocolate mousse but didn’t bring it to his mouth. “It’s only an apology. And a truce.” David shook his napkin as a white flag.

Jamie stared at Tai instead of the napkin, like he was trying to figure out if someone else could be blamed instead.

“Okay.”

Gavin shifted the conversation onto the building he’d invited them to tour, thanking Tai again for his donation and interest.

The building was downtown, on the east edge of Mount Vernon, which made sense if they hoped to provide beds and other options to the teenaged hustlers who worked a few blocks away.

There were two parking spots on the alley side, and Gavin led them around to the front door, which he unlocked.

“So you bought it?” David asked.

“We did,” Gavin answered, though who the
we
involved wasn’t clear.

The door led into a hall with two arched openings. “It’s important that it not look too institutional.” Gavin switched on the lights. Bare bulbs flared up immediately, chasing away the twilight. “We need to avoid any association with the kind of places they’ve learned not to trust.”

“The Gospel according to Blondie. I’m going to see if the exterminator fixed your rat problem in the kitchen.” Jamie stomped off down the hall.

As they followed, Gavin explained, “I’m lucky enough to get insight from someone who could have benefited from the shelter if it was in place at the time.”

“Ah.” David sounded as if he’d just worked out the identity of the killer in a mystery.

“That should help,” Tai said, over the sounds of metal scraping against concrete, which he chalked up to Jamie’s inspection of the exterminator’s work.

“I was thinking the office could be back here.” Gavin indicated a door.

“Fuck,” Jamie barked from the kitchen.

“If he’s locked himself in a refrigerator, I want to see it.” David ducked through the kitchen door.

“I wonder if you’d give me your opinion on this, Tai.” Gavin pushed open the door. “We’re bound to get some residents who are working with corrections.”

Tai’s finely tuned bullshit detector red-lined, but he followed Gavin into the storeroom.

What was it going to be? Tai was betting on something about the D/s. Didn’t figure it to be about boundaries or “our kind of people” with Jamie in the picture.

Tai leaned against a shelf. “Spit it out.”

Gavin smiled and held his hands in a pose of surrender. “Of course you’d see through that. Though I’d hope I could rely on you to steer potential residents our way.”

“You could.” Tai waited for Gavin’s complaint. David’s friend’s expression was hard to read, a pleasant mask. It reminded Tai of the banter and humor David used when he was pushing away anything unpleasant, but it was far less animated.

“You’re good for him.”

That wasn’t what Tai was expecting. He straightened.

“God, he was even on time for dinner tonight,” Gavin continued. “I don’t know if it’s the particular kind of relationship you have, but it’s good for him.”

There was no disgusted emphasis to Gavin’s description, but Tai knew he hadn’t been singled out just for ego stroking.

Gavin met Tai’s stare. “He’s calmer, for want of a better word. When I heard the restrictions for his pretrial release, I worried he’d do something crazy—or take off like his father.”

“Do you know the whole story there?”

Gavin gave a curt nod, jaw tight.

“And you’ve never told him?”

“I’d heard things, but Jamie pulled up the record after Beach and I were on Fort Carroll.”

“So why not tell him, even what little you knew to keep him off Fort Carroll? Or from doing ‘something crazy’ now?”

Gavin didn’t step back, but his face became more of a mask. “If Beach wanted to know the truth, he would.”

“You think you’re protecting him.”

“Did you look into it?”

“No. It’s his call.”

“Or you’re protecting him too,” Gavin said.

“The difference is I trust him to know what he wants. What he needs. Whether it’s protecting or ass-kicking.” Tai folded his arms and resumed his lean. “So what did you drag me in here to tell me?”

“It’s difficult.” Gavin tucked his hands in his trouser pockets. “I’m very fond of Beach. And I can tell you have feelings for him too.”

Feelings. What a way to describe the surge of lust and pride and owning and belonging and power and need that ripped through Tai every time he looked at David.

Mine.

“There’s no way to say this that doesn’t sound as if I’m running him down, but that’s not my intention. It’s simply who Beach is. He gets…fascinated. Intensely so. It isn’t that he’s insincere. But his passion burns up and then he’s bored. If it weren’t for the monitor, he’d have taken the
Nancy
and been gone at the start of the summer. He never stays long in one place.”

Gavin’s words introduced a surprising shock. In this hot, dusty room, icy shrapnel sliced strips of sensation away until numbness buzzed at the base of Tai’s skull.

He shook it off, dragging feeling back with the heat of anger, though his voice still sounded far away. “If his friends act like this, why the fuck would he bother to stick around?”

Gavin’s half smile was infuriating. “I’m glad you’re on his side.”

Over Tai’s growled, “Someone should be,” Gavin went on, “But I am too.”