Aleks was so focused on not hurting me that he didn’t kiss me again until he was fully seated inside of me.

And I’d actually missed his mouth for the minutes it had taken for him to bottom out. I hadn’t expected for so many emotions to pile up inside of me as Aleks made me his, but they were there just beneath the surface and when he kissed me and asked me if I was okay, it was all I could do to keep the tears stinging the backs of my eyes from falling.

“I’m perfect,” I whispered. “Absolutely perfect.”

“I never knew, James,” he said as he kissed me over and over. He had yet to move inside of me, but I was grateful for it because my body was still adjusting to the feel of him while my heart was adjusting to all the emotions.

How the hell was I ever going to let him go after all this?

“Knew what?” I asked.

But Aleks shook his head. “I just never knew,” he murmured again and I took that to mean that, like me, he was dealing with some heavy shit on the inside he hadn’t been anticipating either.

Aleks began kissing me more heartily and I could feel his dick thickening inside of me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I knew he was asking the same question for a different reason. I slid my hand down to his ass, which flexed beneath my hand, but didn’t tense up in any kind of way. My nonverbal answer seemed to be answer enough, because Aleks kissed me again and pulled slowly out of me, then slid gently home.

He did it over and over, his face pulled into a mask of pleasure as he adjusted to how good the friction and pressure felt on his cock. My own body was screaming with the need for release. My ass burned as Aleks’s dick continued to stretch and fill it but the burn quickly changed over into something more… something that was so very different from the sensations I usually dealt with as the guy doing the fucking.

Aleks began slinging into me as his body’s instincts to find his release kicked in, but as I’d predicted, he never once lost track of me in the process. His eyes kept coming back to search out mine and his hands were touching me everywhere they could reach. I lifted my legs so I could get him deeper inside of me and the move caused more of his lower body to press against my dick. The added friction on my shaft had me groaning and seeing stars. This time when I closed my eyes, Aleks didn’t ask me to open them again.

We didn’t speak or even look at one another as we raced for the finish line together. It was like our bodies had become one and I could hear, see, and feel everything without having to actually do any of those things.

They were just there.

Beneath the surface of my skin, along with the epic orgasm that was building and building.

I closed both my hands around Aleks’s ass so I could get him to shove into me deeper with every thrust, though he was already as deep as he could go. But he seemed to understand what I wanted because he dug his knees into the bed and began fucking me hard and fast and deep. His fingers threaded through my hair in a painful hold that just intensified everything else. He grunted as he fucked into me and his hot breath blew first over my neck, then my ear, then my mouth. I was gripping his ass hard enough to leave bruises, but it had the desired effect.

He ground his groin against mine enough that I didn’t need to go for my own dick.

A first for sure.

“I need to come,” Aleks said as he began kissing me. “But I need you to come with me.”

Sweat was pouring off us and my heart was racing in my chest. I’d never had someone say something to me one way but have it mean something entirely different.

Aleks wasn’t just worried about leaving me behind. He wanted me with him when he finally found that elusive pleasure that had been denied to him for so very long.

He began peppering my face with kisses even as his cock slid in and out of me with hard, heavy thrusts. His balls slapped against my ass.

“I’m there,” I acknowledged. “Just a few more,” I insisted.

Aleks shifted just slightly and the move suddenly had him nailing my prostate. I let out a shout of pleasure that startled him, but fortunately, he seemed to understand he wasn’t hurting me.

“Right there,” I gasped.

He hit me there again.

And again.

And I lost the ability to speak.

I came suddenly and without warning. I cried out and closed my teeth over Aleks’s shoulder. Blunt fingernails dug into my scalp as Aleks slammed his hips forward over and over, still getting my prostate each time.

Which only caused me to spew more and more cum between our bodies as the orgasm went on and on. My inner muscles reflexively tightened on Aleks’s dick. He screamed and then clung to me as his body began to spasm. He continued to thrust into me hard as he shot into the condom, and despite my own blissed-out state, I could feel the heat of him through the latex.

Aleks’s body quaked as his climax continued. My own had finally started to ease so I got to enjoy Aleks experiencing his own pleasure. I wrapped my arms around his back as aftershocks ripped through him with violent force. My ass stung from how hard and well he’d fucked me, but I balked at the idea of him pulling out of me, because I knew how I’d feel when he did.

Empty.

There’d be no trace of him left inside of me.

Yeah, first thing I’d do when we got to the city was make sure I got tested because I wanted to feel Aleks’s essence burning my insides almost more than I wanted my next breath.

I kissed the shell of Aleks’s ear as he came down from his high. He’d collapsed on top of me, not caring that I was holding all of his weight.

A fact I was very happy about.

We were practically glued together because he was lying in the huge pool of cum I’d spewed all over myself, but neither of us were in any hurry to move. I knew I’d need him to pull out soon because of the condom, but we could spare a few minutes.

Aleks seemed to rouse from his stupor after about a minute. He turned so he could rest his chin on his hands, which were folded on my chest. There was a soft smile on his face.

“What?” I asked as I toyed with his hair. The sweat had caused some of his curls to dampen and cling to his forehead.

“Now I know why naked sex is so much better,” he said.

I laughed and said, “Right?”

He carefully eased out of me and then slid up my body enough so he could kiss me on the mouth. “Yeah, naked sex means less laundry.”

I pinched his ass and he jumped and then rubbed his hand over his butt.

“And?” I said, pretending to be offended. “Is that the only reason naked sex is better?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Less laundry means using less water and water conservation is very important.” He grinned mischievously, then started to climb off me. I grabbed him and rolled him beneath me. I reached between us and quickly removed the condom from him and tossed it on the floor, knowing the chances I’d hit the wastebasket next to the bed were slim to none.

“Try again,” I said. I was glad that instead of tensing because I was lying on top of him, he seemed to sink into the mattress. He wound his arms around my neck.

“Luca will save a fortune on laundry detergent.”

I kissed him hard and fast. “Not even close.”

I almost forgot what we were talking about when he began kissing me back.

“I’ve got it,” he finally said and nodded his head like he’d had some big revelation. He kissed me victoriously. “You won’t need to buy more pajamas!”

I shook my head at him, but inside I was doing cartwheels at the mirth I saw on his face. It was just so goddamn natural. It was as much a part of him as a limb or organ. The men who’d hurt him had tried to wipe it out, but they’d failed.

“I guess we’re just going to need to have a lot more naked sex until the answer comes to you,” I declared.

He let out a rough sigh. “Fine, if we must.” We watched each other in amusement for a moment, then his expression turned serious and he was pulling me down for a kiss. “Naked making love,” he murmured. “Okay?”

The change in terminology did crazy things to my heart. It spoke volumes about what we’d just done and what each time we came together would be like. Whether it was hard and fast or dirty and rough or soft and slow, it would always be lovemaking.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

He stroked my beard as he stared at me. An overwhelming need to give him even more of myself became like this pervasive thing in my blood. But I knew I couldn’t tell him the words that were stuck in my throat, so I swapped them out for a question that would hopefully accomplish the same thing.

“Will you come flying with me tomorrow, Aleks?”

He didn’t even ask how or when or where. He just held my gaze and gave me the simplest of answers that still managed to blow my entire world apart… in the best way.

“Yes.”

I went looking for him in his office because that’s where the man always was, but when I found it empty, I had to ask one of the handful of private bodyguards he employed where he was.

I found him by our mother’s bench on the beach.

By it.

Not on it.

Because Luca never sat on it.

I didn’t really know why.

Maybe because sitting on it would have meant he’d have to actually be still for more than a few minutes.

Or maybe it was about the cigarette in his hand. Maybe he was worried that smoking on our mother’s bench would somehow be disrespectful to her.

Luca didn’t even try to hide the cigarette from me when I reached his side.

It said a lot about where his mind was.

“You remember what Mom did when she caught us trying that cigarette that one of the construction workers who were putting in the pool left behind?” I asked as I motioned over my shoulder toward the house.

Luca took a drag on his cigarette and inhaled deeply. He didn’t respond at first, then nodded. “She probably thought making us smoke the rest of the pack would be a hardship.”

“It was… for me,” I reminded him.

“She probably should have checked the pack first,” Luca murmured. “Two cigarettes besides the one we’d started was nothing.”

“You were ten,” I said. “She probably figured you’d get so sick you’d never do it again.”

He finally chuckled. “The look on her face when I finished mine, yours, and then asked for another…”

“I don’t think I ever saw her get that angry before.”

I was about to add the words “and after” when I realized there hadn’t been much of an after. She’d died less than two months later. Luca hadn’t smoked again until he’d been well into his twenties, because he’d been too afraid of pissing off our father. No cigarette was worth a smack to the face… or worse.

As hard as I’d had it with the old man, Luca had had it worse because he’d had the added pressure of needing to succeed at so many things. As basically just hired muscle, all I’d had to do was throw a good punch or instill just the right amount of fear into someone and not get caught. Luca had had to wear multiple hats when he’d started learning the business and ultimately taken it over. My brother had always been the more sensitive of us, but he’d been forced to snuff that out after our mother had died.

Because sensitivity was a weakness.

Softness was a weakness.

He’d been well on his way to being the ruthless tyrant our father had been grooming him to be when he’d gotten the surprise of his life during his first year of college.

His best friend, a girl named Genevieve, who he’d had one drunken sexual encounter with to prove to himself he wasn’t a fag, had stunned him with the news that they were going to be parents.

The night Genevieve, or V as we’d come to call her, had told Luca, he’d come to me and in a rare show of self-doubt had cried in my arms as he’d tried to deal with a myriad of things all at once.

That he was, indeed, only interested in men.

That our father was going to disown him if he didn’t kill him outright.

And that he was going to be a father.

That last part had been the hardest thing for him to accept because he’d been convinced he’d turn out to be just like Vidone Covello.

When he’d gone back to V, he’d intended to tell her that he just couldn’t do it… that he couldn’t be a father to any child.

Then he’d seen the tiny outline of his baby on a sonogram and everything had changed.

Well, not quite everything.

Luca had waited until little Gio was almost five to tell our father about his grandson. I’d suspected it had been some kind of final hope on Luca’s part that we could go back to being the family our mother had always wanted us to be.

Vidone had been in a rage at first, because he hadn’t wanted another bastard in the family. He’d barely even looked at me when he’d said those words to Luca and I’d hardly even flinched because I’d gotten used to that title. But when the old man had actually met the little boy who’d come running into the room in the middle of the argument, Vidone had paused and considered the child. He’d grumbled about it quite a bit as he’d eyed his son holding his grandson in his arms and whispering words of comfort to him. He’d called Gio over to him and looked him up and down and then, just like that, he’d suddenly declared that the boy was a Covello and that Luca and V would make it official that weekend. My poor brother hadn’t even had a chance to respond to the declaration because our father had started talking about how little Giovanni Covello was the future of the business and he’d one day rule an empire that would make Covello a household name.

That was what had changed things for my brother.

While Gio’s birth was what had woken Luca up, it was that moment with our father that had set him free.

Because Luca had calmly walked up to our father and taken his son from him and carefully led the little boy back to V and had asked her to go wait outside. He’d asked me to go with her and though I had technically answered to our father at the time, I hadn’t even hesitated to turn on my heel and follow V and little Gio.

Luca had emerged from the house less than five minutes later, our raging father on his heels.

I still had no idea what exactly had been said between the pair, but I’d gotten the gist.

Luca had chosen his son over his father.

And he’d chosen me too.

Because when Luca had gotten V and Gio settled in the car, he’d turned to me and softly told me to get in the car as well.

It hadn’t been an order.

Our father had been shouting orders.

At me.

First to tell me to stop Luca from leaving, then to get my ass up the stairs so I could take my place at his side, which really meant behind him.

I still hated the fact that I’d hesitated even for a second. When Luca had quietly whispered in my ear to trust him, it was like he’d given me what I’d needed to break the collar I’d been wearing around my neck for most of my life.

My collar may not have been a physical one like Aleks’s had been, but I’d been owned just the same.

And I’d been released from my prison by someone who’d always vowed to watch out for me.

Which he had.

I’d learned only after we’d left our father’s overpriced, oversized mansion that just about everything was already in Luca’s name. Our father had been so confident in being able to keep the noose around Luca’s neck for his entire life that he’d started transferring assets to either Luca’s name or the business in order to stay under the IRS’s radar.

But Luca had slipped the noose and it had cost our father everything.

By the time he’d died six months later, Luca had been giving him just enough money to survive on… and he’d only done that out of respect for our mother. For whatever reason, she’d loved Vidone Covello and Luca hadn’t been willing to shit on that.

But despite Luca being able to break free of our father’s control, he’d known from the day Gio had been born that in addition to inheriting Vidone’s business and assets, Luca had also inherited the man’s enemies.

The solution had taken its toll on Luca, but he’d been adamant that he wouldn’t lose his son the way we’d both lost our mother, and I’d wholeheartedly agreed with him. To protect Gio, Luca had never publicly acknowledged the boy was his child, even after he’d told our father about him. He’d still showered his son with all the love he could and he’d given him everything money could buy and had made sure V had never wanted for anything, but the lengths we’d had to go to while Luca had spent time with his son had been extreme. There hadn’t been days where he could just go pick his kid up from school and walk him home. There’d been no career days or going to school carnivals or any of the little plays that Gio’s class would put on.

Any activity where Luca’s real name could come out had had to be nixed, but that hadn’t meant there hadn’t been lots of family dinners both at V’s house and at the house in the Hamptons. Our entire little extended family had bonded with Gio and had made sure he never felt like he just had a mother and nothing else. But we’d had to work harder than most families to make it happen.

But it had worked because Gio had been safe from Luca’s enemies.

Until an enemy we hadn’t seen coming had snuck under our radar and stolen both Gio and V from us.

And changed Luca’s – and all our lives – forever.

“You took him flying, huh?” Luca asked after a few minutes of silence. Some of my anger at Luca for his role in trying to abduct Aleks was still there, but I’d had time to accept that desperation and a sense of betrayal had driven my brother to do what he’d done. He’d treated Aleks with kid gloves since then, so I did believe that if he’d been successful in taking him in Seattle, he wouldn’t have allowed any harm to come to him.

“Yeah,” I said as I glanced at my brother. The fact that I’d taken Aleks up in the little Piper single-engine plane was pretty telling. Even back before Gio had gone missing and I’d bought the plane, or rather, Luca had bought it for me and surprised me with it one day, I hadn’t taken anyone up in it with me. I’d paid a guy at the private airport nearby a small fortune to store the plane for me and to keep up the maintenance on it, but I wasn’t sure if Luca had known that.

Clearly, he knew pretty much everything.

He probably also knew I’d kept my pilot’s license up to date, despite the fact that I hadn’t flown much in the past several years. Only on the rarest of occasions had I left the dark world I lived in to escape to the skies for an hour or two.

But being in the air with Aleks by my side had brought a host of emotions to the surface that I hadn’t been expecting.

Like how much flying really was in my blood. It was a high that was second only to being with Aleks.

So Aleks and flying at the same time… utter heaven.

And as soon as we’d landed I’d felt so fucking guilty for having those few hours of pleasure.

Hours where I hadn’t allowed myself to remember that Gio was out there waiting for us to come and get him. Hours where I didn’t fucking drive myself crazy wondering what was happening to him while I was letting myself feel the freedom he might never know again.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Luca looked at me. “Why are you sorry?”

I opened my mouth to answer, then found I couldn’t give voice to my shame. He sighed and looked away.

“I never should have done it,” he said quietly as he flicked his cigarette away and then started looking for another.

“Done what?” I asked.

“Take Aleks. It was a mistake. Just like asking you to…”

“To what?”

When he didn’t answer, I got in between him and the bench and snatched the new cigarette he was about to light.

“What?” I bit out. “To help you find your son?”

He didn’t answer but he dropped his eyes.

Something Luca rarely did.

“You didn’t ask me or our family to do that, Luca,” I said. “We all love that boy and we all want him back. That shit I said the other day about never asking you for anything… that was my fear talking… I would have spent the rest of my days in that life to find Gio.”

Luca turned his head away but fortunately, he didn’t turn away from me.

“I will spend every day looking for him until we bring him home. Every. Fucking. Day,” I vowed.

He still wouldn’t look at me and I knew it was because there was something he wasn’t telling me.

“What?” I whispered. “What is it?”

He shook his head.

“Tell me,” I almost pleaded.

“There was a boy, Vaughn,” he began as his dark eyes lifted to meet mine. The agony and shame I saw swimming in them was a punch to the gut.

“When I first went in after Gio without you guys. He was only thirteen or fourteen. I had to… to prove I was who I said I was.”

I swallowed hard because I knew what he was trying to say. The people who’d stolen Gio would have wanted to make sure Luca wasn’t a cop or someone trying to expose them.

“I didn’t touch him,” Luca quickly said. “I knew there were video cameras in the room, so I couldn’t just say I’d fucked him… They wanted me to prove I wanted a little boy. I’d told them I wanted a younger kid… someone with light hair and fair features, but they put me in with him and told me to have fun while they checked their ‘inventory’ for someone who matched what I wanted and was closer to the age I was looking for. That’s the fucking word they used, Vaughn. I knew it was a test and I knew what would happen if I failed it.”

I knew too.

He never would have been shown any other boys.

And they likely would have killed him even for just suspecting he was a fraud.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He was terrified… he was crying in the corner and begging me not to touch him. Kept saying he wanted to go home.”

I watched in horror as my brother actually wiped at his eyes.

“I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet… we were in full view of the camera so it had to look real. But I swear to God, Vaughn, I didn’t hurt him.”

My brother was so distraught that I put my hands on his upper arms. “I know you didn’t, Luca. Tell me what happened.”

He sucked in a breath to collect himself. “I turned him around and made him face the wall. I knew they’d only be able to see my body from behind. I leaned down and whispered in his ear that I wouldn’t hurt him and that I’d find a way to help him go home. I told him I needed to make it look real and to not be scared. He… he nodded and asked me to promise him I’d take him home.”

Luca covered his eyes with his hand. “I did. I promised him. While I was pretending to… to hurt him I just kept whispering in his ear. I told him about this beach. How you and me used to play out here every day and how Mom used to collect shells and how we’d see dolphins while we were swimming and that one came up to you the one time and you touched it. I promised I’d show it to him someday. When I was done, I told him he needed to sit on the floor and cry so it looked like I’d really done that to him. He said he would and then he made me promise I wouldn’t forget about him.”

I began rubbing Luca’s arms because he was shaking, though I knew it had nothing to do with the slight breeze.

“What happened to him, Luca?”

“I left him there, Vaughn. There weren’t any other kids there – it had all been part of the test. I was told to go to a different address to look at the merchandise they had for purchase that met my needs. That address led to another and another. But none of the places had Gio so I had to keep pretending they didn’t have what I wanted so they’d show me more boys. Then I got a lead on a boy that sounded exactly like Gio and I just couldn’t risk losing it… it took me three days to get back to that house but it was empty. The boy was gone… the whole place was abandoned, like none of them had ever been there. All the other places were empty too.”

“You couldn’t have known they’d be gone,” I said, but Luca shook his head.

“You and I both know that’s how they operate… they never stay in the same place for long. I knew there was a good chance they’d move that boy that very day. But I thought I’d have at least twenty-four hours.” Luca shook his head and wiped at the tears he hadn’t managed to hold back.

“But you couldn’t have known that back then. You had to make it about your son, Luca. And I know if you could have, you would have done all you could have to get that boy out. But you didn’t have the resources back then.”

I realized then that that boy was probably the reason Luca had set up such a vast network of resources to not only get kids out, but to get them back to their families whenever possible.

“He was somebody’s son, Vaughn. And I promised him I wouldn’t forget him. But I left him there.”

Luca tugged free of my hold and turned away. I was about to reach for him again when I heard my name being called.

I turned to see King flagging me down from the back of the house. Fear skirted through me as he began trotting toward us.

Aleks.

I hurried past Luca. King met us right where the back deck hit the sand.

“What? What is it?” I asked, hoping like hell it wasn’t about Aleks, but I knew it was.

“Hurry up,” was all King said as he grabbed my arm. “He needs you.”

I threw King off and sprinted toward the house. “Luca’s office!” King shouted.

It took me less than a minute to reach that part of the house. I could hear Con’s voice coming from inside the room, but it wasn’t until I stepped inside it that I heard what he was saying.

“Hang on, Aleks, Vaughn is coming.”

I could hear Aleks’s sobs before my eyes searched him out. He was sitting in the corner on the floor, his hands wrapped around the back of his neck as he hung onto his head and rocked back and forth.

“Aleks,” I called as I rushed to him and knelt in front of him.

Aleks shook his head violently. “No, no, no…”

He kept repeating the word over and over. I eased his chin up because I needed to see his eyes.

To know if he was still there or if he’d been swallowed by a blackout.

“I can’t, James. Please don’t make me!”

I wrapped my arms around him. “I won’t, Aleks. You’re safe, baby.”

He sobbed against me and put his arms around my neck.

“I’m sorry, Vaughn,” Con sputtered behind me. I could hear the distress in his voice.

I still had no clue what was going on, but I didn’t care. I pulled Aleks forward so he was practically straddling my lap. It allowed him to curl into me as far as he could. It was like he was trying to burrow under my skin.

“It’s okay, Aleks, everything’s okay,” I repeated over and over until Aleks’s sobs slowed, then finally stopped. My neck and my shirt were soaking wet, but I didn’t give a shit. Aleks’s breaths were harsh and choppy, but the more I rubbed his back and just held onto him, the quieter he fell. We’d been left alone in the room at some point.

“I’m sorry,” Aleks murmured against my neck after about twenty minutes. I could hear the exhaustion in his voice.

“It’s okay,” I responded. I’d have plenty of time to ask him what had happened, but for now, I just wanted him to rest. “Let’s go to our room, okay?”

He nodded against me.

I got to my feet and pulled him up with me. He leaned heavily against me so I swept an arm beneath his legs and put the other at his back, lifting him. “No, James, I’m too heavy,” he whispered, even as he pressed his face against my chest. His arms went around my neck again.

“No, you’re not,” I said. “And I don’t think I’ve ever told how much I love carrying you. It makes me feel all caveman-like.”

I felt him smile against my neck. “There’s nothing caveman-like about you, James,” he said softly. “Besides, I think cavemen drag people back to their caves by the hair.”

“Your hair isn’t long enough for that, so you’re just going to have to settle for me carrying you around when I’m feeling all possessive and dominant.”

Another smile.

“Okay,” he said on a sigh.

The door leading to the office wasn’t completely closed, but it didn’t matter because as soon as I reached it, it opened. Luca’s worried eyes skimmed over Aleks, then me. I nodded my head to indicate the younger man was okay, but not surprisingly, it didn’t diminish much of the concern in Luca’s gaze. Just beyond the door were King and Con. Con still looked devastated and King looked pissed – at Con.

I couldn’t imagine what the hell had happened to cause the brothers to be at odds, but I couldn’t deal with any of it right now.

I got Aleks to our room. Con ran ahead of us to open the door. As we passed him, Aleks said, “I’m sorry, Con. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“No worries, Aleks,” Con said, completely flustered. For once, he looked at a loss for words.

I kicked the door shut behind me and then carried Aleks to the bed. I settled him on top of it, then crawled in behind him. He turned over and pushed into my arms and I gladly wrapped them around him.

“I didn’t go away, James,” he said softly against my neck. “That’s good, right?”

I knew he was talking about the fact that he hadn’t blacked out.

“That’s amazing,” I said. “I’m so proud of you, baby.”

“It means I’m fighting back,” Aleks murmured. I could feel him trying to ward off the sleep that was threatening to take him.

“Yes, it does,” I said. I rubbed my hand up and down his back. “Just sleep, Aleks. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

He nodded and snuggled deeper into me. “Tell Con I’m sorry I got upset. And tell him I’ll do it, okay?”

“Do what, baby?”

Aleks was so quiet that I thought he’d actually fallen asleep. But when I heard the words he whispered right before he drifted off, I felt a chill go through my bones.

“Wear the collar.”