STORY EXCERPT

The man had taken his breath away. That dark-caramel coloring and those chocolate eyes had made him hard and hungry. Tyler grabbed his jeans from the pool table and pulled them on with Mallory, watching as he bent and picked Tyler’s underwear up from the floor after he finished fixing his own jeans. He held up the navy briefs. The silk was a decadent change from the cotton briefs he usually wore.

“I like these.” Mallory brought the pants to his nose, and Tyler’s eyes widened. “You smell so good beneath that sexy cologne you wear.”

Tyler closed his mouth. The man was an Air Elemental. His sense of smell was supernatural. “I—” he trailed off, not even sure what to say to that. He’d never seen a guy sniff another guy’s underwear.

“Quit wearing it,” Mallory ordered as he pushed the briefs into the back pocket of his jeans. “It fucks up how good you smell.”

Whoa, that was a little bit over the line of where they were. Mallory had no right to order him to do any damned thing, especially to quit wearing his favorite cologne. “Don’t step over the line,” Tyler threw at him coldly. He pointed a lean finger at him. “You’re not my man.” He poked Mallory’s solid muscular chest. “You’re just a casual fuck.”

“You—damn.” Mallory reached around him, giving him a hard glare as he grabbed his cell phone in its holster from the pool table and brushed against him.

The slight touch scorched his skin, and his cold-fire flared in answer to Mallory’s heat. And son of a bitch, his dick was filling and thickening in his half-zipped-up jeans.

It was nothing, Tyler reminded himself, and he dropped his gaze from Mallory’s handsome face because he tended to linger too long on the sensual fullness of his mouth. A mouth he loved—no, he didn’t love kissing that mouth. He merely enjoyed it. The man was a good kisser.

“It’s Kingston,” Mallory said, shooting Tyler an enigmatic look.

Kingston was Tyler’s supervisor. He liked the man, but there was no way he was anywhere near as dominant or as sexy as this supervisor standing in front of him. “I’ll give you some privacy.” He headed across the room the mini bar to grab a bottle of water.

Mallory was the head of what they called the DDU. Down and Dirty Units. These men were the hardest and the nastiest fighters. Ghosts and animals, they were often referred to by other agents. You couldn’t always find them, and when you did see them it was too late to defend against them. His detail didn’t put him in contact with Mallory often.

His own phone rang, and he frowned. Tyler pulled it from his pants pocket and glanced at the display. It was his closest friend, Augusta. The phone stopped ringing, and he texted her.

She didn’t text back, so he put his phone in his pocket. He saw Mallory disconnect. “What did Kingston want or can I know?” He knew he had no right to ask let alone expect any answers. A client’s privacy was important and closely guarded, so he took a long drink of water, not really expecting an answer.

“The case I’ve been working on,” Mallory answered in a taut tone. “It involves Magnus and the Sandbar. Your uncle’s store is on fire, and the bar may well be as well.” Mallory clenched his fist as he replaced the phone and clipped it at his hip. “And Sandstone isn’t answering his cell.”

A wave of fear tore through him, and Tyler fought with everything he had not to let it show. His uncle and Magnus were best friends and covenmates, and Augusta was Magnus’s niece. They were like family to him.

His first urge was to demand that he be allowed to accompany him. Augusta would be freaked. He knew she’d know about this because she was always at the sports bar. If she wasn’t tonight, it would be a surprise. Then, it occurred to him maybe she’d been calling from the bar.

Damn it. He needed to get over there.

“You have to go.” He made the words come out casual, although Tyler had no idea how. He was terrified that his family might be in danger. His heart was already beginning to beat faster and harder in his chest, and the sudden flare of Mallory’s nostrils told him the man had picked up on the scent of fear that he had to be starting to reek of.

Damn. He forced his heartbeat under control as hard as it was, but the damage was already done, and he could see it in Mallory’s suspicious stare.

Mallory closed the distance between them and put his hands on Tyler’s shoulders. His expression went from hard to concern so fast Tyler’s head swam with confusion.

“Ty, I know you’re friends with Augusta,” he said evenly. “But she wasn’t there tonight, okay?” He tucked a strand of the gorgeous russet hair behind Tyler’s ear.

“Yeah.” He nodded, stiff with terror.

“I know you’re worked about your uncle and Magnus, too,” he said gently. “I’ll check it out myself, okay?”

“I need to be there,” he said in a pleading tone.

“No, you can’t be on site,” he said gently. “I’ll call you the minute I have all the facts, but you have to stay away.”

He nodded jerkily, and Mallory cupped his jaw then kissed his forehead. It was such a gentle move that Tyler was taken aback by the man’s tenderness toward him. Nothing he’d ever heard about the man bespoke of this kind of concern and tenderness for a fling. “Okay,” Tyler agreed. “But the minute you know, I want to know.”

Mallory gave him a hard smile. “The minute.” He drew back from him and headed out the door.

ADULT EXCERPT

Staring back into Mallory’s copper-with-carnelian-flecked gaze, Tyler gave him a defiant look. He couldn’t fight it, and denying the fire between them was all but impossible.

Mallory gave him a sensual smile and moved, stroking his erection against Tyler’s, and the younger male caught his breath and arched slightly up, seeking more. Tyler needed more than the clothes between them allowed. He wanted to touch, to stroke this man and make him lose control. Mallory pressed Tyler’s hands more firmly into the carpeted floor beneath them. “You like being subdued, little sweet?” His tone was a low caress. He lowered his head and brushed his lips across Tyler’s then let a thread of amber-carnelian air kiss across his lips.

The threads of energy were soft, a gentle kiss of moist heat that went straight to his cock and got Tyler harder. Tyler moaned against his will. He felt too big for his skin. His cock ached as it pressed tightly against the zipper of his khakis.

“Damn,” he breathed, struggling for friction rather than freedom with a hint of shame. Just a kiss of air shouldn’t feel so good. The feel of the man’s fully clothed dick shouldn’t have him on the verge of begging for a kiss and coming in his pants.  But it was.

Mallory lowered his head and took a sip of Tyler’s mouth. That single sip had his mouth filling with sweet blueberry. Mallory took another sip.

“Mallory—” It was a desperate plea for a kiss and for freedom. At this point Tyler wasn’t sure which he wanted more with his body humming. He wanted them skin to skin, hot sweaty bodies grinding together in a common goal, orgasm. 

“Here, sweet.” Mallory claimed his mouth, and Tyler sighed into the kiss. Sweet blueberry with a hint of honeysuckle suffused Mallory’s mouth. Mallory deepened the kiss, growing greedier with each hint of blueberry seeping onto his tongue. He lifted his head, eyes sparking with air that all but licked over Tyler’s lips.

Tyler’s breath came out in a hard, orgasmic sound. “Fuck—”

“Yeah,” Mallory murmured softly. “I know, little boy—”

“I’m nobody’s boy,” he gritted weakly. “Get off me.”

Mallory’s smile faded though his eyes still held a bit of humor. He got up quick as a breeze and yanked Tyler to his feet by the collar of his button-down shirt. Tyler was startled and barely catching his breath when he was slammed against the wall chest first.

“You think you’re a tough guy, Tyler?” Mallory breathed against his ear after pushing his hair to one side. “Think you can kick my ass, sweetheart?”

“Damn it.” He struggled. Damn that Elemental strength. “Stop calling me that.”

“Why, baby boy?” He nipped the lobe of Tyler’s ear. “You are so sweetly tight on my cock that I can’t wait to get you back on it.”

Tyler sent out a flare of cold-fire. Usually the chill of it was enough to get rid of any attacker. Mallory laughed and twisted his arm up behind his back. “Stop it!”

Mallory nipped the back of Tyler’s neck. “Damn sexy little spitfire.”

Tyler growled in frustration, but he was hot. His skin was on fire. The blood in his veins threatened to erupt into a wildfire. Damn, he wanted, and the rougher Mallory handled him the more turned on he was becoming.

“I want to take you just like this, too, pressed against the wall, pants down around your ankles and shoes on.” He kissed the back of Tyler’s neck and damn, the boy shivered. “I want you clawing at the wall as I pound your tight, tight ass and fist your cock until you come all over my hand and the wall.

“And I love how you spray me with that cold-fire when you come,” he murmured. “It makes me come even harder.”

“Mallory—” It was a breathless plea. But he liked it when the man talked this way. It was carnal and arousing.

Mallory yanked him around and pressed his back against the wall. He forced his resisting arms above his head and held him tight as copper eyes pinned him. “To afraid to admit you’re pissed off because I haven’t been around,” he crooned. “So you get pricklier than a porcupine,” he murmured, bending his knees a little to grind his erection against Tyler’s.

Tyler groaned as pleasure rocked through him, sweet and painful against his already engorged cock. His cock throbbed, and his ass clenched. Gods. His treacherous body was too ready.

“I don’t apologize for giving you your space, and trying to kick my ass does no good,” Mallory whispered softly. “We both know I can kick your ass any day or take it anyway I want it.”  “B—”

“You want me to prove it right here, little play thing?” he murmured, lowering his voice to a sexy pitch. “You’re at my beck and booty call, boy.”

Anger sparked in him but at himself because he knew the man was mostly right. He’d never deny him. Being beneath Mallory gave him more pleasure than he’d ever had with anyone.

“M—” He started to deny, but his words were cut off by firm lips in a bruising kiss that stole his breath and took him by surprise. He felt rather than heard Mallory moan as Mallory’s heavy body pressed heavily into his own. The slightest hint of sweet-tart green apple permeated Tyler‘s tongue.

The hint was an explosion of taste that reached out and grabbed Tyler by the balls.

Damn! That was good.

Tyler tried to eat him alive, deepening the kiss and nipping at his bottom lip, and Mallory let him play. Tyler tried to move his hands, but they remained shackled, so he rubbed against Mallory, who stunned him by pushing his thigh between Tyler’s legs.

Tyler groaned and humped Mallory’s thigh. The friction was just right, hitting his cock head and balls at just the right angle. It was too good for words.