Levi (9 page)

“Regardless, Levi, you should have told us there was another shifter on the property. We didn’t even know there were other kinds, although I’m not surprised.”

Levi started to answer, to apologise, but Marybeth waved him off. “We are, unfortunately, rather ignorant about shifters in a way. My entire pack was murdered, killed for their fur and probably their organs as well. I had been left behind in the huts where we lived as humans. If one of the hunters hadn’t found me and thought me to be an abandoned child, I would have died too.”

Levi had known that much about his grandmother’s past. He couldn’t imagine being raised by the very people who had slaughtered your family, but he understood Marybeth hadn’t had any other option. She refused to talk about her childhood spent with the hunters. As far as she seemed concerned, her life during that time didn’t exist, like she was in an odd sort of stasis until she’d met Grandpa Vincent.

“All the knowledge of who and what we are died with my father, who was the story teller—historian, I suppose he’d be called in human terms.” She sighed and rubbed at the pleat in her purple trousers. “There’s very little I remember. I don’t recall him mentioning other shifters. I do know the gene for shifting is passed down from mother to child, so only the females can propagate our species. Is it the same for cougars?”

Lyndon had gone tense beside him at the question. Levi lifted his head from Lyndon’s shoulder and debated asking why he felt anger coming from the man.

“No, it’s paternal for us, and I’ve never heard of any cougars living together like your family did in the Himalayas, or here, even as humans. We seem to be as solitary as the actual cats.” He paused and darted a glance at Levi. “Although there was a cougar shifter who took me in and helped me out after my mom died. Grady made sure I was taken care of, and he didn’t ask anything in return. He didn’t know me, didn’t owe me anything either, but I don’t know if he was the exception to the rule or if most cougar shifters are just like regular folks. Some good, some bad.”

Marybeth narrowed her eyes and smiled thinly. “And yet, here you sit, snuggling alongside my grandson and all but growling over him. What would you say, Lyndon, if I told you to leave? If I made you leave?”

“Grandma—” Levi began, panic wedging in his heart.

Lyndon soothed him slightly, caressing his nape and murmuring softly.

“I’d say it wasn’t your choice, Marybeth.” Lyndon lightly scratched at Levi’s neck, unerringly finding the spot he’d marked. It still bore the faint pattern of his teeth. “I’d say…” Lyndon’s breath stuttered as he exhaled, was steady when he inhaled. He relaxed beside Levi, and his voice was laced with surety when he next spoke. “I’d say it’s Levi’s decision, and mine. Not yours. And if he wanted me to leave”—Lyndon used his other hand to frame Levi’s face and tip his head back slightly—“I’d do whatever I could to convince him to come with me or let me stay.” Lyndon appeared to be surprised by his own words, his eyes wide and slightly panicked looking.

Levi was, and by the truth he sensed in the statement. Marybeth said something, but Levi wasn’t listening to her, he was listening to his body, his leopard, both of which were telling him he needed to feel Lyndon’s lips on his more than he needed his heart to keep beating.

Lyndon’s mouth curved into a smile that set Levi’s body to tingling, then he kissed Levi, holding him in place as Lyndon thrust his tongue into Levi’s eager mouth.

When Lyndon lifted his head, Levi felt dizzy and breathless, his lips hyper-sensitive and swollen. He wanted to taste Lyndon again, to drown in his flavours, but Marybeth’s ‘ahem’ stopped him from begging Lyndon for more. He turned at his grandma in a sort of daze. One side of her mouth quirked up in a grin as she steepled her fingers together under her chin. Lyndon was tightly wound beside him, on the verge, no doubt, of throwing Levi over the coffee table and fucking him regardless of who was there.

“I may know what’s going on here,” Marybeth murmured, seeming to grow more pleased the longer she stared at them. Levi just felt horny and anxious for her to leave already. “I wasn’t sure if I was mis-remembering since it didn’t happen to me, or my children. Or maybe it’s because you’re both shifters, I just don’t know, but…” she shrugged and pushed herself up from the chair, and Levi knew from the devilish glint to her eyes, she wasn’t going to fill them in on her epiphany. “I need to think about this.” The look she pinned on Lyndon would have had Levi cringing, but he didn’t so much as blink. “You and I aren’t done.”

“We are for now,” Lyndon replied, then Levi was on his back and Lyndon was covering him from chest to thigh, kissing him until all Levi could taste was this one man, all he could hear or feel was Lyndon. Levi didn’t even hear his grandmother’s laughter or the slamming of the front door except as a kind of echo, faint and almost nonsensical to his fevered mind. Then Lyndon bit his bottom lip, and Levi didn’t think about anything at all except the man who’d owned him since the moment their eyes had met in the forest.

Chapter Ten

Talking to Marybeth had left Lyndon with more questions than answers, but he’d deal with those questions later. For now, he had his man beneath him, writhing and moaning and enticing Lyndon more every second.

Lyndon noted Levi’s reaction when he had bitten his lip. Levi hadn’t responded as much to the scrape of teeth, but an actual bite, the breaking of skin just enough to get a coppery hint of flavour, set Levi off, pulling sweet monas from him. Much more of it and Levi would probably blow. Lyndon didn’t want him to, not yet. He wanted to feel Levi come from the inside out.

“Come on, I need more room than we have on this couch to fuck you the way we both want me to.” Lyndon stood, tugging an eager Levi up too. He placed his hand on Levi’s nape when he started to take a step. Levi shuddered and turned hungry green eyes to him. “Strip first. I’ve thought of seeing you naked and needing since the moment I first saw you.”

“Fuck,” Levi whispered before dropping his gaze down. His fingers shook badly as he tried to unbutton his denim shirt and Lyndon reached out to help him, only to fumble the buttons, too.

Levi muttered and Lyndon cursed, then Lyndon grabbed the open neck of the shirt and jerked, sending buttons flying and pinging across the room. He stripped the shirt off in one harsh tug, groaning at the sight of Levi’s furry chest.

Lyndon stroked the dark pelt then scraped his nails over Levi’s nipples. Levi mewled and caught Lyndon’s wrists, holding his hands still.

“Please,” Levi asked, leaning into Lyndon’s touch. “More.”

“Whatever you need,” Lyndon rasped, finding the hard nubs and pinching them.

“Oh!” Levi clawed at Lyndon’s hands, pushing them against his nipples. “Harder!”

Lyndon purred, there was no other word for it. His cock leaked in his excitement as he dipped his head and bit one coral tip while he twisted the other. Levi cried out and the sharp tang of cum flooded the air between them. Lyndon bit his nipple reprovingly even as he revelled in having brought Levi to release.

“Have to teach you some control,” he murmured before nudging Levi back on the couch. Lyndon forgot about his plans to make it to the bedroom as he loved on Levi’s nipples, soaking in his whimpers and gasps.

The little nubs were red and swollen, Levi’s chest marked by teeth and nails when Lyndon fisted his hands in Levi’s hair and devoured his mouth. Levi undulated beneath him, his cock hard again. Lyndon claimed every bit of Levi his tongue could reach, then bit at his lips until Levi whined and pleaded for more. Only then did Lyndon slide down his body and torment his nipples again.

Lyndon’s cock was so hard he couldn’t breathe without it hurting. He sat up and grabbed the waistband of Levi’s jeans. The wet spot there was too tempting to resist, so Lyndon didn’t bother trying. He bent and licked it, moaning as his first taste of Levi’s cum flooded his sense.

“Off, goddamn it,” he growled, jerking at the stubborn fastening of the jeans.

Levi cursed and muttered for Lyndon to get up. Grudgingly, painfully thanks to his dick, Lyndon did so and Levi got the jeans undone and started removing them Lyndon watched impatiently until he realised Levi still had his boots on. Lyndon tugged them off then finished divesting Levi of his jeans. He stripped rapidly, unconcerned about buttons or seams, his need fuelled by the hunger in Levi’s eyes as the man watched him remove his clothes.

Lyndon grinned as he fisted the base of his dick. He’d never had a complaint about its size—at least, not any he’d consider a negative complaint. Levi’s eyes were about to bug out of his head, and the scent of fear mingled with the stronger one of arousal. Lyndon stopped stroking himself as he studied Levi. He hated having to ask, because he was kind of scared of the answer, but he needed to know.

“You’ve done this before—bottomed?”

Levi gulped and turned a shade of red Lyndon hadn’t seen before. “Uh. Once? When—when I was a kid, my first kind of boyfriend was afraid to bottom so I did instead. It, ah, didn’t go so well.”

Lyndon arched an eyebrow, his curiosity holding back the urge to pounce for now. “Could you explain what happened in more detail?” The last thing he wanted to do was repeat the ‘kind of boyfriend’s’ mistakes. Reminding himself that Levi had probably had a lover as young and inexperienced as himself back then didn’t really help. Lyndon wanted to find the guy and slap some love-making skills into him.

Levi blushed from his thighs to his ears, but he kept his eyes on Lyndon’s. “Well, it wasn’t really Yancy’s fault.” Lyndon tried not to scoff, but
Yancy? Who the fuck named their kid Yancy?

“He was really a bottom, you know. I kind of begged and nagged and…I pushed when I shouldn’t have, but I was young and impatient and I wanted to know what it felt like to get fucked since Yancy sure as hell enjoyed it.”

Levi shrugged. “I think he only agreed because he was afraid he’d have to go back to beating off if he didn’t. All I can do is guess about why he said he’d try, but he didn’t want to, I can tell now when I remember it all. Plus, apparently he couldn’t remember all the effort I put into making sure he was ready. But Yancy was just one of those guys who was sweet and kinda, uh, kind of dumb. No common sense but really smart book-wise. He moved away with his folks not too long after that.”

Lyndon decided not to push for more details. He was pretty sure he got it. “So you topped only afterwards.”

Levi picked at a spot on the couch, pulling on a thread. “I haven’t been with a lot of guys—and no girls, before you ask—”

Lyndon hadn’t been fixing to ask. He knew Levi was gay, same as him.

“After Yancy, it was a couple years. Then only some hook-ups when I’d get to Aspen or Denver, somewhere like that.” Levi waved a hand in front of his chest. “All those guys, they took a look at me and figured I was a top, and I dunno, maybe I was for them. It sounds bad, but I just needed someone and if it meant fucking when I was kind of wanting to be fucked instead, well, I settled for what was offered. Besides, I wasn’t sure I wanted one of those guys to do me.” Levi’s lopsided grin did funny things to Lyndon’s insides. “I was afraid they’d be as bad at it as Yancy had been.”

“Okay, enough about Yancy and other men.” Lyndon watched Levi’s flush deepening as Levi’s lashes swept his cheeks. “Come here.”

“I feel like a yo-yo with all this up and down stuff,” Levi grumbled.

Lyndon grunted and enjoyed the way Levi’s abs rippled and his cock bobbed as he stood. Lyndon stepped back and studied Levi for a moment, from his shaggy auburn hair past shy eyes and glistening lips, to his broad thickly muscled shoulders. Firm pecs and ridged stomach, long, defined arms and thighs, dark hair covering them like a pelt. Levi’s waist was narrow, his hips lean, but it was the dense bush and jutting dick drawing Lyndon’s attention again and again. Well, and the heavy sac hanging beneath, fuzzed and tempting.

Seeing no reason to resist, Lyndon cupped Levi’s balls and rolled them as Levi’s lids drooped and a soft moan escaped his lips.

“Like that?” he asked, applying a slow, steady pressure.

Levi had responded eagerly to a bit of pain. Lyndon needed to know if there were lines he couldn’t cross.

“Yes,” Levi hissed, bringing his hands up to clutch at Lyndon’s shoulders. The sharp bite of his nails was a demand for more, as was the smell of Levi’s pre-cum.

“You like this,” Lyndon reiterated, tightening his grip. He wanted complete clarification for both of them. “I want to be certain you’re enjoying everything we do together.”

Levi cracked open his eyes and nibbled on his bottom lip before nodding. “I didn’t know I would. I f-fantasised so much but you—ah!” He tipped his head back and shuddered, coming up on his toes as Lyndon applied slightly more pressure to his balls. “Please, fuck me!”