Gannon Morgan [Seven Brothers for McBride 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (13 page)

“You realize this can’t go anywhere.” McBride didn’t really pitch it as a question, and even if he had, he wasn’t sure if he was asking Caleb or reminding himself that this was going to end badly because there was no way in hell it could end well.

“I know.” Caleb lowered his mouth to McBride’s virgin neck and placed the most delicate kiss above his carotid artery. “But I want you even if I can only have you once, in the dark, with neither one of us able to tell anyone.”

“You would tell. You’d love to have something over me.” McBride refused to tilt his head to the side to give Caleb free access.

Unfazed, Caleb didn’t mind maneuvering his head in the tiny space between McBride’s shoulder and head. Tenderly, he tugged on his shirt collar, exposing his neck.

McBride braced himself for a vicious bite, but it never came. Caleb licked and kissed the spot where he obviously wanted to make his mark, but for whatever reason he chose not to.

Big hands gripped McBride’s shoulders, urging him to turn around, which he did. He thought Caleb would grab him and push him where he wanted him to go, but he did the opposite. With care, and the slow seduction of a man with nothing but time, Caleb moved close, lowered his head, and kissed McBride.

Firm lips pressed so gently against his the contact was almost fleeting. Afraid if he didn’t respond Caleb would stop, McBride opened his mouth. He told himself if Caleb swiped his tongue against his tooth, McBride would instantly pull away. But Caleb did nothing but kiss him. McBride was furious when all Caleb did was ease his tongue into McBride’s mouth. His taste was sunshine and raw earth, hunger and need.

All too soon, Caleb pulled away.

For a long moment they stood in the darkened house, looking at one another. McBride knew he had to walk away. He knew he should walk away. But he found he couldn’t.

“I thought you wanted a mate?”

“I do.” Caleb leaned close and nipped McBride’s lips. “I want you.”

“I can’t give you that, and you know it.”

“You can if we keep silent.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Even if I screamed the truth from the rooftop, do you think anyone would believe me?”

“Perhaps not initially, but when I didn’t buy you a thrall and never took a companion, your brothers would start to believe you.” All it would take was one or two loose words in town and McBride would be sunk.

“Then buy me one and get yourself another man.”

“Knowing that we don’t really want them?”

“Perhaps they will want each other and we can keep up appearances with their consent.”

It was thoroughly unlikely, but McBride couldn’t stop thinking about it. He wanted to be with Caleb, and he found himself willing to do almost anything to get where he wanted to be, but he hesitated, too. Just because he could get away with something didn’t mean he should do it. Breaking the law as the sheriff was serious business.

“I’m supposed to set an example.” Why in the world was he trying to convince Caleb this was a bad idea? The person he really needed to convince was himself.

“What better example could you set than defying a set of ridiculous laws that keep you away from what you truly want the most?” Caleb lifted McBride’s hand and kissed his way down his fingers to his palm. He licked him and looked at him at the same time.

McBride’s cock swelled to full hardness so fast it hurt.

As he watched, mesmerized, Caleb licked his way along his index finger. He did this with slow sensuality, as if he were licking McBride’s cock. And then he lightly scraped his exposed canine over the tip. Not enough to draw a lot of blood, but enough to give himself a taste. He drew McBride’s finger in his mouth and sucked hard.

Even though it was a minute amount of blood, it was enough for McBride to feel the pull. His heart sped up, and something in his body changed so drastically he felt profoundly altered. Unable to determine what was different, all he could think of was something changed on a cellular level. As much as he thought he should yank his finger out of Caleb’s mouth, he refused. It felt good. Each swirl of his tongue eased a bit more blood out of McBride’s body and made him hunger to taste Caleb in turn.

Summoning the last of his strength, McBride stepped back, which yanked his finger out of Caleb’s mouth with a
pop
that echoed in his house.

“Feed from me.” Caleb again offered up his neck, but McBride shook his head.

Reaching behind him, he twisted the doorknob and stumbled out of the house without taking his gaze off Caleb. Turning away, he strode over to Ollie’s house. He knocked once and entered. Ollie was in his kitchen, making something that smelled so good McBride now had dual hungers.

“Are you here to feed?” Ollie looked exactly like Gannon, but he didn’t have a scar on his face. He did have one across his belly that stood out since he was very deeply bronzed and he was cooking without a shirt on. “Let me put this aside to rest and I’ll be ready for you.”

McBride entered the kitchen, and the glorious smell was even stronger. Ollie was the only brother who didn’t use the cookbot. He said it was good, but cooking was one of the things Ollie enjoyed the most. Since he often made more than he could ever eat, he shared things with his brothers.

“I should hire you to cook up at the big house.” Everything Ollie made smelled better than what McBride’s cookbot had managed to produce.

“And then who would work your fields?” Ollie grinned as he took a roast out of the oven and settled it on the stovetop.

“I would put my cookbot out there.”

Laughing, Ollie settled at the table and tilted his head to the side. His easy acquiesce was what Caleb should do when McBride wanted to feed, but he never was so accommodating. Ruthlessly, McBride cut those thoughts off. He had to stop thinking about him and comparing him to his brothers. Even if it killed him, McBride wasn’t going to be drinking from the eldest Morgan ever again.

Teasing his finger across the scar caused Ollie to moan. “Does it hurt when I bite you?”

“It does when your teeth first reopen the wound, but when you start to pull, it feels incredibly good.” Ollie stayed very still. He was one of McBride’s favorites to feed from because he made the entire thing effortless. “Do you mind if I climax while you feed?”

“No.” McBride would enjoy watching him stroke his cock. Ollie had a frank, straightforward way of masturbating that made him seem almost clinical. It was visually interesting to watch but didn’t arouse McBride the way that watching Caleb did.
Damn
. He couldn’t even control his wayward thoughts for two minutes.

Ollie exposed his cock and warmed himself up as McBride teased his scar. The smell of the roast blended with his blood hunger, making his mouth water as his teeth itched. Lowering his head, he bit hard into Ollie, loving the way he tightened his body so he didn’t jolt and throw McBride off his hold. Against his will, McBride found himself pulling hard on Ollie while thinking of Caleb.

He slowed the strength of his pulls because he wanted to taste if Ollie’s climax changed the taste of his blood. Last night, when he’d tasted Gannon while he drank from his mate for the first time, McBride had been astonished at how much richer his blood tasted. He felt no powerful bond toward Gannon, but the sweetness of his blood had been delicious. It was only when he thought of Caleb that he’d made a mental mess of things and had lost his enjoyment of the moment.

“I’m close.” Ollie’s frequency of movement increased. “So close.”

McBride looked down and saw Ollie’s fist was concentrating strokes at the tip of his prick. Faster he flicked his wrist, cupping up around and under the crown. At the precise moment when he ejaculated, McBride pulled hard. He was rewarded with a powerful taste. It wasn’t as sweet as Gannon’s, but he’d been pulling blood from Alden. And then he realized that as good as it was, it was nothing compared to the taste of Caleb.

Letting his slammer down easy, McBride finally finished and licked the wound closed.

Ollie stayed seated.

“Ollie?”

“I’m okay.” He shook his head, tucked himself away, then rose to wash his hands in the kitchen sink.

“What happened?”

“I just felt it more.”

“Felt what more?”

“You pulling.” He shook his head again as if he were trying to shoo away the feeling. “It was like I could feel each cell of blood going from my body into yours.”

“That’s never happened before?”

“No. Even with Jonas, and he—” Ollie’s eyes went very big, and then he dropped his gaze to the floor.

McBride had a terrible foreboding that if he asked, he was going to hear something he didn’t want to know. But he felt he had to know. “What did Jonas do?”

“Nothing.” Ollie moved to the stove and checked his roast. “Do you want some?”

Knowing that he should say no didn’t stop his stomach from letting out a great grumble.

“Well, that answers that.” Ollie smiled, but it didn’t quite touch his eyes. It was clear he wanted to share but just as clear he didn’t want to talk about Jonas.

“I don’t want to intrude.” Sharing a meal with one of his slammers was a little more intimate than McBride wanted to get with them. After the mess he’d made of things with Caleb, he didn’t want to start another kerfuffle with a different brother.

“Please, it’s not a problem. I always make more than I can ever eat.” Ollie set another place at the table. “And truly, it would be nice to have someone to eat with.”

“I’m hoping to get you a mate tomorrow.” McBride settled at the table watching Ollie hustle about his kitchen. He had knocked out the wall between the living room and kitchen so that he could put in more cabinets. It created a wonderfully open feel that the other brothers’ houses didn’t have.

A look of happy surprise transformed Ollie’s face, but just as quickly it vanished. “I’m happy just to serve.”

“Liar.” That caused Ollie to jerk his head up. “You want a mate. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I don’t want to seem pushy or like I think you owe me.”

“I don’t think of you that way at all. I really am getting thralls as quickly as I can.”

“I know you are.”

“Then what was that look for?”

“I just—nothing.” Ollie took the seat across from McBride, unfolded his napkin, dumped it in his lap, and then started serving himself while McBride did the same from the dishes nearest to him.

“Please tell me what Jonas did. I have a feeling it ties to why you’re worried about getting a thrall.”

“I’m not worried.” Ollie tried to smile, but joy never managed to light his eyes.

“You are.” McBride took a small portion of everything then tasted the roast first. It was beyond good. He’d never had meat so tender that he was able to cut into it with the side of his fork. “This is incredible.”

“Thank you.” When Ollie smiled this time, his honest pleasure transformed his whole face.

“Please tell me.”

Ollie dropped his attention to his plate and took several bites. McBride couldn’t force him to talk, but he thought if he were calm and open, he might be able to compel him to share. Whatever it was, it bothered the young man and seemed to embarrass him as well.

“Jonas was my father’s companion, and he’s the one who brought you here?” McBride already knew this for a fact, but he thought it would help to get Ollie started talking.

Ollie nodded. “He bought us when Bailey was finally old enough to be sold. Usually brothers get separated, but Jonas wanted all of us.”

“Were you happy to stay together?”

“I was. And I think my brothers were, too, even though Caleb would never admit the truth.”

“Caleb is different from the rest of you.” McBride tried to give it a rest, but he clearly couldn’t.

“Not so very much.”

“Jonas never fed from him?”

Ollie nodded, and McBride was pleased to have his suspicions, and Caleb’s claim, verified by a disinterested third party.

“Jonas was afraid of Caleb.”

“I can understand why. Wasn’t Jonas smaller than him?”

“He was smaller than all of us.”

“Then why did Caleb bother him and the rest of you didn’t?”

“Because the rest of us know our place is to serve our master.” Ollie nodded slightly in McBride’s direction. “Caleb didn’t like Jonas, so he refused to let him feed.”

“And Jonas didn’t punish him?” McBride took another bite of the roast and tried not to drool all over his plate. The vegetables were good, but the meat was divine.

“Oh!” Ollie shot out of his seat. “I have gravy, too.”

He fiddled with something on the stove then settled a pourable container near to McBride. Dutifully, he lifted it up and poured some over the meat and whipped potatoes. He took a bite and decided then and there that Ollie had to come and cook for him. Hell, he had to cook for everyone on the farm. His talents were utterly wasted in the field. Surely the cookbots could be retrofitted to plant the
tallos
. They wouldn’t be able to pick it, but they could surely drop the seeds into the ground and cover them up.