“You’ve got to go.”
After closing the door to the guys, Damien turned to Lucas and sensed the man was angry. “We discussed this… I thought you understood.”
“I understand,” Lucas said. “You’ve got to go.”
Damien reached for Lucas, but the man pulled away. “Lucas. Don’t. I need you now more than ever.”
“Do you?” Lucas asked. “Because you’ve got to go.”
“Spit it out. We don’t have time for games.”
“I absolutely understand why you don’t want to lead your family here. What I don’t understand is why you’ve got to go… and it’s not we’ve got to go.”
Damien paused, watching pain washing over Lucas’ face. He sighed, knowing this was the hardest decision he’d ever had to make. “I can’t ask you to leave everything behind for me.” He dragged Lucas closer. “And I don’t want my cousins near you, either.”
“Yet you didn’t think twice about borrowing money from these guys?”
“They were a million miles away then. Now they’re coming like a plague… a plague I’ve got to change the course of. No matter what I have to do… for however long.”
“When you first told me about it, it sounded like it was going to be a temporary thing,” Lucas said, his eyes widening. “Leave for a couple of months, avoid your family, and then come back once the smoke cleared. But then you’ve handed me a list of properties to sell… including this house. It sounds like you’re not coming back.”
This house. Lucas already stayed a few nights a week… and before the chaos, he’d been planning to ask the man to move in with him. He glanced up at the beautiful home, one Lucas had shown him upon first arriving in San Alicia… it was already their home in his mind.
“I have no idea what happens next,” Damien said. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.” What if I’m never able to come back? The thought socked him in the gut. How could he walk away from this man forever? Breathing became harder to manage in that moment. His eyes closed, and he held on to his lover tight. When he reopened them, he could see Lucas’ face twisted in anguish and knew he wore a similar expression.
Lucas lifted his gaze to Damien’s. “So this is goodbye? The forever kind of goodbye?”
“I don’t know,” Damien whispered, pain slamming him in the chest. He didn’t want to leave Lucas behind, but he wouldn’t allow his family to taint the relationship he had with the man he loved. “I don’t plan on it being forever. They might come to L.A. and hate it. Considering the fact I’m planning on showing them the worst parts of living there, they might change their minds. With any luck they’ll go somewhere else and leave me be. And then I can come back.” Damien laid a gentle kiss on Lucas’ lips. “I can come back to you.”
“Don’t you think this decision was something we should’ve discussed? Together?”
Damien rested his forehead on Lucas’. “I won’t let them close to you, Lucas.”
“They’re that bad?”
Damien shook his head. “Bad? No, not entirely. Like anything else, nothing is pure good or evil. They have moments where they’re almost likeable. But trouble follows them everywhere and I can’t let you get sucked into something by accident. So you stay here where you’re safe. Period.”
Lucas’ mouth opened, as if he wanted to argue.
“No, Lucas. I love you. I love you so fucking much it hurts like hell to think of leaving you… I’m doing this to protect you.”
“Or… hide me from your family?”
Damien frowned. “Is that what you think?”
“I know you said you came out to them before you left… but that’s not the same as living your truth in front of them. You didn’t do that out in the open.” Lucas frowned, his handsome face twisted in pain. “You didn’t hesitate to call them and ask for the money for Kent Street, but you hesitate to have them see me and the lives we lead here.”
“I’m not ashamed to live out loud before my family. This has nothing to do with that,” Damien said as he cradled Lucas’ face. “Me leaving has everything to do with protecting you.”
Lucas met his stare. “The fact you made a multi-million dollar deal in a town close means they might already be targeting this area. You borrowed the money from them… they have to know where you invested it.”
Damien sighed. “Only another reason for me to leave. I have to keep them away from San Alicia.”
A hopeful look crossed Lucas’ face. “What if they truly want to turn over a new leaf and go legit?”
“They would have to prove that to me… and that won’t happen overnight.”
“So either way… you’re gone for months… maybe even years.”
“Hopefully not,” Damien murmured, drawing Lucas closer again. He lowered his head and captured the man’s lips. “I don’t want to leave you. Not for one second.”
Lucas pressed his forehead to Damien’s chest, hiding his face. He could feel the pounding of the man’s heart against his chest and the strain in Lucas’ body. He wanted to tell Lucas it would all be okay. But that would be a lie.
“Don’t sell this house,” Damien said suddenly.
Lucas frowned up at him.
“Move in here… and wait for me to return.”
“When you can’t tell me when you’ll be back?” Lucas asked.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get back to you as soon as I can. That I promise you.” Damien pressed his lips against Lucas’ for a kiss that would never be long enough. When he lifted from it, he saw the love in Lucas’ eyes as the man stared up at him. He has my heart. “Knowing you’re here… in our home… waiting in our bed… it’ll only give me more reason to get back here all the sooner.”
“Our home? Our bed?” Lucas asked, a slight frown still darkening his expression.
“This house is as much yours as it is mine,” Damien said, taking Lucas’ hand and leading him up the stairs. He cast a glance over his shoulder as they rounded the curving staircase toward the master suite, etching his lover’s face in his mind.
After they made it into their bedroom, Damien quickly removed Lucas’ clothing, frantic in his need to bare the man’s flesh. Once there was a pile of fabric on the floor, he knelt before his lover, ready to worship every ounce of skin before him. He leaned close and laid a gentle kiss on Lucas’ tight abdomen and trailed his lips down toward the center of the man.
He avoided the jutting, hungry part and lowered to the leanly muscled thigh shaking with want. Turning Lucas to face away from him, he trailed his lips over one rounded cheek, knowing he’d made that and its twin bright red the night before with his palm and his paddle.
Damien kissed away the pain once more, gripping Lucas’ hip. He dug his fingertips in too hard, he knew, but the thought of ever letting go was breaking him inside.
He urged Lucas to lean forward. Lucas placed his hands on the mattress, and lifted his ass higher into the air. Damien growled his approval and began to lick the heavy sac before him before gripping the thick cock hanging down.
He stroked the shaft before lifting his mouth to lick the tight bud between Lucas’ cheeks. Rimming the hole, he felt Lucas trembling against his searching fingers and mouth.
“Damien,” he cried, pushing back.
The pleading was obvious. Damien knew what he needed… what he craved… but considering the moment, he didn’t want to punish his submissive. He wanted to love the man slowly… drag it out for hours and hours. So that’s what he did.
After pushing Lucas to the bed, he kissed every inch. He teased and tempted the man, pushing their desire ever higher. All the while, he was fully dressed, refusing to focus on his own need.
Lucas was able to get a few buttons undone on his shirt, but not enough to disrobe him. No, he wanted to give Lucas everything and take nothing for himself.
Apparently, it became too much for Lucas. He forced Damien to his back and pinned him to the bed. “Enough with this slow and easy bullshit,” he panted, rubbing his ass against the hard outline of Damien’s cock.
Damien groaned, his shaft throbbing with need. He closed his eyes as he lifted his hips and allowed the next roll of Lucas’ hips to hit all the right spots. Lucas’ head fell back as he rolled them again… and again.
“Fuck me,” Lucas crooned.
“Now yet,” Damien said, flipping them again and forcing Lucas onto his back. “I’m in charge here.”
“Then show me you’re in charge,” Lucas growled.
Damien grabbed both of Lucas’ wrists, one in each palm, and slammed them to the bed, all while thrusting his hips forward.
Lucas moaned, his back arching as the sound filled the room. “Yes, Damien. Take me hard.”
“In time,” Damien murmured.
Lucas yanked at Damien’s hold, his face twisting with anger. “I said to fuck me. Hard. Now.”
Damien felt a wave of lust wash up his spine, making his cock impossibly harder. “You know what happens to naughty boys who anger their masters…”
A glitter of light came to Lucas’ eyes, and the man fought a smile coming to his lips. “Are you gonna show me?” Lucas asked, his voice breathless with yearning.
In that moment, Damien stared into the man’s eyes, caught by the lust he felt… and felt radiating back to him.
I’ll never have another like him. Ever.
Lucas loved to be spanked. Always had… And Damien loved providing those punishments. Soft and gentle might’ve been what Damien had planned… but this was who they were. This was how they shared their need for one another.
Still holding Lucas’ wrists, he rose to his knees before turning to sit. He dragged Lucas over his thighs, bare ass up. Damien bit back a groan as Lucas squirmed in his lap.
Lucas had no problem articulating his joy. He moaned and rubbed his hard cock against Damien’s thigh seconds before the first spank was delivered.
The sound of Lucas’ delight would forever be etched in his memory. The graceful arch to his spine as the pain radiated through his bottom… the look over one shoulder and his lips parted in hunger. The sweat that dotted his brow… the sound of Damien’s heartbeat as he observed the desire in Lucas’ eyes.
He spanked his lover again, his palm coming into contact with the firm, muscled ass. Lucas cried out… and again as another came.
Damien watched his lover’s body as the cries filled the room, observing lust incarnate.
How beautiful he is.
Damien knew then exactly what he was leaving behind. How he’d fucked things up and had to walk away… and knew every second was going to break him apart.
When Lucas came against his leg, Damien shuddered at the wide-eyed pleasure he observed. Lucas let loose… his whole body wracked with tormented satisfaction.
The second Lucas crested and fell back, panting, Damien scooped him in his arms and held tight, stroking the man’s back.
“I can’t lose you,” he whispered into Lucas’ hair. “I won’t lose you.”
Lucas met his stare but remained silent before working the rest of the buttons along the front of Damien’s shirt. He dragged the material from the waistband and then shoved it down Damien’s shoulders. “Better show me how much you’re going to miss me then.”
Damien kicked off his shoes as Lucas’ fingers moved to his belt clasp and began opening it. Moments later, when his pants were open and his cock jutting from the vee, Lucas straddled him and slowly began to take the shaft inside him.
He rose to his feet, taking Lucas with him. Spinning, he took them both to the bed, driving his cock even deeper inside his lover. “This is where I belong.”
This is where I belong forever.
He drove into his man over and over… never wanting to stop.
And he knew, he’d move mountains to keep Lucas safe…
But that he’d also move mountains in order to remain at the man’s side.