Justice (14 page)

Paul looked at him like he’d come unhinged. “Why would we want to paint it? The white’s fine. This whole cabin is nicer than any apartment I’ve ever lived in. I love the wood floors, and walls, and ceilings—it’s like Ultra-Manly-Ville in here.”

“I like it too, but the kitchen seems too dark. Kitchens should be sunny and bright, plus I’ll be doing most of the cooking.” It seemed like a logical point to him.

“Well, since it is going to be your domain…” Paul took the pizza out of the oven and set it on the stove top. “Pale gold sounds good to me.”

A key in the lock warned them of Vivian’s arrival. Justice hurried to the front door just to make sure it was his sister on the other side of it. Once he saw Viv through the peephole, he relaxed and opened the door for her. “Hey, sis, did you have fun at Grandma’s?”

“She said you better get your ass down there to see her before you leave,” Vivian said as she stepped inside. “Is that pizza? Aw, man, I just ate liver and onions.”

“That’s disgusting,” Paul called out from the kitchen. “Seriously, I might have to rethink having you as my therapist if you’re going to eat shit like that.”

Viv cocked her head and gave Justice a surprised look. “He sounds a lot more…cheery than I expected, considering you’re leaving in the morning.”

There was no point in delaying, although he did only want to go through the whole story one more time. “About that. Do you think you can get everyone over here? There’s some important things I need to tell y’all and I don’t want to have to do it more than once. Twice, since me and Paul have already talked.”

Viv studied him for a moment then sighed. “Maybe we should just all go back to Grandma’s?”

“No, see if she will come over here instead, along with Nischal and Preston. Are Levi and Lyndon back?”

“Not until next week,” Viv said. “Oscar and Josiah will be here tomorrow. They can’t handle being away any longer. You know Oscar’s a real homebody.”

Something occurred to Justice then. “Hey, isn’t he supposed to be something like the family guardian? Didn’t I hear something about that?”

“You did, why?” she asked.

Justice grimaced. “Because I think we’re going to need him.”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“Pizza’s served,” Paul said as he came out of the kitchen. “Vivian, let Justice eat. He’s not gotten the chance to since his run, and no matter how much he eats before he shifts, he’s always starving afterwards.” Paul pointed at him. “You should eat a warthog or something. Couldn’t be as vile as liver and onions. Oh! Let me put some napkins on the table.” Paul went back into the kitchen.

“We don’t have warthogs in Colorado.” Justice thought, quickly. “Or in the U.S. I think.” Then it dawned on him—Paul had just made an easy reference to him being in shifted form, letting his leopard have his way and hunt. That was a step forward, a big one, he thought, but just to be sure, he sent a questioning look to Viv.

She grinned and gave him a thumbs up. “Warthogs are indigenous to Africa!” she hollered at Paul. “Eat, brother mine, and I’ll get everyone over here. You owe me for being patient.”

“I’ll save you a slice of pizza, and promise not to tease you about your breath.” Justice darted away, laughing as he escaped his sister’s punch.

Despite the seriousness of the coming discussion, he was happy. He wouldn’t have to leave Paul, and he hadn’t been fired, yet. That was better than he’d hoped for.

Chapter Eleven

“I like your family—the ones I’ve met—and I love my brother, but I am so glad they’re all gone.”

Justice nodded. Even Viv had left, saying she’d bunk with Marybeth and let ‘the boys’ have the cabin. Justice had refrained from snarking that he was older than her and neither he nor Paul were boys. She’d been trying to yank his chain. “Me too. Gods, you haven’t even met all my other siblings.”

Paul gave him a startled look then burst out giggling. The sound wasn’t one Justice had heard from Paul before, but it suited Paul. Paul ended the giggles on a snort that had him looking horrified. Then it was Justice’s turn to laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Paul huffed. “Snorting is so undignified when you’re laughing.”

“It’s cute,” Justice countered. “What set you off?”

Paul’s cheeks darkened. “Well, see, when I first found out your name was Justice, I kind of made a bitchy comment about that and, er, possible names for any brothers and sisters you might have. But I was mad, and scared,” Paul stressed. “I tend to revert to bitchiness at such times.”

“Really?” Justice dragged out, raising one eyebrow at his mate. “I had
not
noticed that at all.” It was fun being able to tease Paul, who rolled his eyes dramatically and turned his little nose up in the air. “I like that part of you too, so it works out well. I think I’ll probably even be making you mad just to see you get all huffy.”

“You’re doing a good job of it now,” Paul informed him. “I hope you have siblings with names like Mark, Frank, Betty. Well, not Betty. That was the name of my boss at the museum I worked at a few years ago. She was a real annoying person, all hyper and happy all the time. It was unnatural. Whatever drugs she was on, she wouldn’t share, either.”

“Those kind of people always freak me out,” Justice admitted. “Like their brain is always stuck in Happy gear, and they have the energy of a toddler.”

“Exactly,” Paul agreed. “How many sibs do you have?”

“Six,” Justice informed him. “Mom and Dad would have had more, but things didn’t work out that way. I’m the oldest, and yeah, Justice. The only one of the kids with a unique name because I was born the year Dad got on at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department. Also, I’m the only one Mom let Dad name. She said he got one chance, and while she loves me, Justice isn’t a name she’d ever have saddled a kid with. Hence, in birth order, Joel, Bennet, Aaron, Clive, Vivian and Henry. She had us pretty much one right after the other.”

“That’s a lot. Geez, I can’t imagine. It was always just Preston and me, especially once we came out. Our parents are pretty religious. They didn’t handle it well.” Paul shrugged. “They said they’d always love us,
but
. Any time there’s a ‘but’, it means ‘not really’. I haven’t even seen them in years. Supposedly they were on their way from Hawaii when I was found, but they never showed up. I haven’t even gotten a phone call from them, but—heh, yeah, I did get an email saying they hoped I was doing well. I didn’t even reply.”

“Maybe you should,” Justice said after considering it. “I mean, be the better person and all of that, sure, but also, show them that your life is going well.”

“It is,” Paul said with something akin to wonder. “It really is, even with the issues I have and possibly being hunted, I’m still, well, I’m happy, mostly.”

“Mostly is good, I’ll take it.” Justice rose from the chair he was in. Paul’s furrowed brow stopped him from mentioning his desire to get clean. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just realised that’s a lot of boys.” Paul held up one hand and started ticking off points. “And there’s only Nischal and Sabin from their mom. Levi and all his siblings, there’s a bunch of boys and only the one girl. Is that the norm for snow leopard shifters?”

“As far as we know, yes. There’s actually a family in Mongolia, snow leopards and scientists. They’ve taught us a lot about our heritage and what we are. Females are the rarer offspring, maybe nature’s way of keeping our population under control since the shifter ability is passed from mother to child.” Justice added, “It’s different with other breeds of shifters, but as far as I know, it’s only one gender that can pass along the trait, either male or female. Ours is female.”

“Huh. Interesting.” Paul seemed a bit distracted. Justice knew how to get him focused.

“Now, I need a shower.”

Paul’s concentration centred on him immediately.

“Sounds like a plan, especially if I can wash your back.” Paul gave him a flirtatious look.

“You can wash any of me you want to,” Justice informed him, laying on the innuendo. He wanted—well, he just wanted.

“Any of you?” Paul asked. Justice nodded. Paul bit his lip, then let it go as he exhaled. He looked nervous as he stood there. Justice waited, not wanting to spook him out of asking his question. Finally Paul started twisting his wrist. He glared down at his hands. “Damn it, I hate that.” Paul planted his hands on his hips, and a cocky expression had his lips tipped up on one side. “Can I play with your ass? Do you do that?”

Justice’s dick sprang up hard and happy. “You’ve touched me there before.”

“Yes,” Paul dragged out. “Barely. You were so tight, I thought maybe you didn’t do that.”

Justice wasn’t going to lie. “Not with anyone else, Paul. Ever. I never wanted to, but when you touched me like that, I just about came apart at the seams.”

“You did come,” Paul said as he leered. “I do remember that very well.” He held up one hand. “Fingers are okay?”

“Yeah,” Justice rasped after the second try.

Paul stuck out his tongue and wiggled it.

“Oh gods,” Justice whimpered. “Definitely, that’s definitely okay.”

Paul chuckled and licked his lips. “What about…” He ran a hand down his own body to cup his dick. “Or is this out of the question?”

“Anything. Anything, Paul.” Gods, he was going to beg for it like a slut. Already he was clenching his asshole with anticipation. “Fuck me.”

Paul’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.

Justice started backpedalling. “You don’t have to. We’ve never even discussed doing anything like that. I shouldn’t have just blurted that out, but like I said, I never let anyone—”

“Move,” Paul got out as he all but wrapped himself around Justice. “You can’t just ask me to fuck you then stand there.
Move.”

They stumbled and groped their way to the bathroom. Somehow they got their clothes off along the way. The shower was large, one thing Grandma Marybeth had insisted on when she’d had the cabins built.

Paul plastered himself to Justice’s front, hooking a leg around one thigh and wrapping his arms around Justice’s neck. “I’m going to turn you inside out, baby,” Paul said, and Justice shivered. “Might even have to do this again.” He nipped the bite mark that had almost healed up. “I think I’m getting over being freaked out by it, ’cause I need, so bad.” He sucked on the spot.

“Fuck!” Justice got his arms under Paul’s butt and hefted him up. While doing so, he turned and got his back against the wall. He was hoping it’d keep him from collapsing. His eyes rolled back as Paul scraped his teeth over that spot repeatedly. Justice cupped the back of Paul’s head. “Please, honey, gods, do it!”

Paul rumbled wordlessly. He shoved a hand down between them and gripped Justice’s dick. Then he bit, and he used his hand to squeeze Justice’s cockhead. Justice’s orgasm slammed into him with no warning. He loosed a strangled yell as his cock pumped out his pleasure.

“I feel like a vampire,” Paul said a short while later in between licking the bite mark. “I like it.”

“Me too.” Justice gave himself a mental shake. “The biting, I mean. I like it.” But he couldn’t ever see doing it in return, not when Paul had been bitten and clawed at—no, his leopard longed to mark his mate, but it wouldn’t happen.

Paul raised his head and unwound his legs. He got his feet on the ground. His dick stood thick and hard, pointing almost straight up. Paul pressed it against his stomach. He looked at Justice. “I want to fuck you, but—” He shook his head.

“But what?” Justice asked. “I can get hard again, no problem. I want you to fuck me, so again, no problem, and I thought we agreed those ‘buts’ were bad things.”

Paul sighed. “It
is
a bad thing, Justice. I want to fuck you, and you’ve never let anyone do that before, so you’ve always considered yourself a top. I can’t promise you that I’ll ever be able to let you do it to me. I wish I could. I hate that this isn’t equal between us.”

Justice ran his fingers along Paul’s jaws. He loved the golden stubble there. “The thing is, I don’t care if I never fuck you. We don’t even have to do this—you don’t have to fuck me. Plenty of gay men don’t engage in anal sex, and we don’t have to. There’s lots of other ways we can pleasure each other. I don’t feel like this is unfair, or like I’m losing out if we don’t have anal sex, or if you fuck me and I never fuck you. It’s the passion between us that I want to share.”

“You’ll tell me if that ever changes?” Paul asked. Justice nodded. “Okay. I really do want to fuck you. I didn’t do that often, and never bareback. I can’t imagine how good you’ll feel on my dick.” Paul touched the bite mark. “And this? I know you feel the same urge. When you’re about to come, things just flow right into my mind. I even heard your leopard being all snarly.”

“I won’t bite you.” Justice wouldn’t.

Paul canted his head. “What if, someday, I want you to?” he asked. “Or maybe I’ll want you to try it when we’re not having sex. Make it an act independent of sex, see if I really do want it or if I’m getting my urges tangled up with yours.”

“I won’t bite you, unless you’re sure,” Justice amended. “I can control it.”

“You’re a better man than me.” Paul stretched up onto his toes. Justice bent down and they met for a tender kiss. “Still up?” Paul fondled Justice’s cock. “Yeah, you are. Let’s have some fun.”

* * * *

Jesus, he was going to be lucky if he lasted long enough to fuck Justice. Paul grabbed the soap and a washcloth as Justice started the water. He wanted to touch every inch of Justice’s body before they got lost in each other.

“Water temp good for you?”

“It’s fine,” Paul said as he got the cloth wet. “Put your hands against the wall and let me have my way with you.”

Justice laughed and turned around. “Which side?”

Paul eyed the very nice, thick cock pointing at him. “Uh. This is good.”

Justice leant back and braced himself against the tiles. “I’m all yours.”

Paul licked his lips and started. He washed Justice’s face, careful not to get soap in his eyes, then worked his way down. He didn’t tease—much—but they both enjoyed what he was doing, especially when he cleaned Justice’s balls and cock. “Turn around,” he murmured, giving those balls a lingering touch.