“It seemed he was part of this—” Gabe nearly spat out the words, his bitterness threatening to boil over, “—this group of sick men who enjoyed raping gay guys on camera. They were mostly straight. Or pretending to be anyway. There’d been a few cases reported in the local news that year. Of gay men being found in dark alleys, some nearly dead, all violently beaten and gang-raped. All drugged. All tricked and trapped by someone they’d thought cared for them.” Gabe stared at the white sheets where he’d been lying with Cam moments ago, rage and shame burning through him. “I’d never paid attention to those stories.” A tortured chuckle escaped his throat. “I mean, why would I, right? After all, I was in a relationship. I had someone who I thought loved me. Someone I was willing to give myself to—”

“Stop it,” Cam said in a hard voice.

Gabe looked up and found Cam’s steady gaze on him. A myriad of emotions welled up inside Gabe at the tenderness in Cam’s eyes.

“Stop blaming yourself for something that was not your fault,” Cam said quietly. “That bastard is an asshole and what he did to you was unforgivable.” He scowled. “I hope they got what they deserved, he and those fuckers who raped you.” 

“They did.” Gabe smiled tremulously. “And they didn’t.”

Cam stared at him, puzzled.

“Someone in the next room heard the commotion,” Gabe said. “I put up quite a fight despite the drug Andrew slipped me. The hotel manager came knocking at the door after I kicked over the nightstand.”

Cam’s pupils flared. “You mean—”

Gabe dipped his chin.

“They didn’t rape me.” A shiver ran down Gabe’s spine at his own murmured confession. That had been his only salvation from that entire despicable night. The fact that those men hadn’t managed to do what they’d so clearly intended to. “They couldn’t. They hadn’t prepped me. I was too tight.” Heat flooded his cheeks. “Andrew had never even fingered me.”

Cam raised an eyebrow, his gaze roaming Gabe from his head all the way to his toes, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. Fire danced along Gabe’s skin where the gray eyes landed.

“And you never — you know, did it yourself before?” Cam said.

Gabe burrowed his face in his hands, suddenly embarrassed.

“I had,” he mumbled. “But I was terrified to do it after what happened. My therapist recommended I keep trying. He said it was the only way I would get over the fear of being penetrated. He even recommended I use sex toys.”

Cam stirred on the bed. “And did you?”

Gabe blinked at Cam’s tone. He looked up and saw avid curiosity mixed with concern on Cam’s face.

Gabe smiled drily. “The first time I tried a butt plug, I nearly passed out.”

Cam looked down at his dick. Gabe flushed when he realized Cam was getting aroused again. Surprisingly, he felt a stirring in his own groin.

“This is bigger than a butt plug,” Cam said, deadpan.

Laughter bubbled inside Gabe, catching him off guard.

“It sure is.”

Cam’s expression grew serious. He watched Gabe for silent seconds.

“What happened at the club between us…was it good? As good as any of the stuff…” A muscle jumped in Cam’s cheek. “…he ever did to you?”

Gabe’s breath caught in his throat at the question.

“No.”

Cam’s expression fell so comically Gabe almost laughed again.

“It was a hundred times better,” Gabe admitted huskily, cheeks warming as his confession rang in his ears.

Relief and desire flashed in Cam’s eyes. He hesitated for a moment while he considered Gabe.

“One night. Give me one night to show you how good it can be.”

Gabe stared. A chuckle left his lips. “God, I can’t believe you said something that corny with a straight face.”

The corner of Cam’s mouth lifted in a stunningly sexy smile. He raised an eyebrow. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Cam sobered. “I mean it, Gabe. One night.”

The air thickened between them, filling with sexual tension and that electrifying aura that seemed to surround them whenever they were close to one another, making it hard to breathe.

Cam sat quietly two feet from him. Watching. Waiting. As if he had all the time in the world.

Gabe hesitated. He could feel himself standing on the edge of a precipice, one he had willingly come to. If he said no, he would walk out of this room a scarred man, unable to let himself be touched by another man. If he said yes, he would be entering unknown territory with someone who was still a perfect stranger to him. One who had the potential to hurt him as much as pleasure him.

Cam’s next words sealed his fate.

“You can trust me, Gabe. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

Gabe closed his eyes briefly, unable to meet the devastatingly beautiful gray stare opposite him. He took a shallow breath and stepped off the cliff.

“Okay.”

* * *

Cam moved, the mattress shifting under him, his pulse racing wildly. Never in a million years could he have guessed the dark secrets Gabe had been keeping inside his heart. Cam could see how much it had cost him to confess the terrible things that had happened to him at the hands of his former lover.

Deep beneath the desire Cam harbored for Gabe, the anger he felt toward the monsters who had hurt him still simmered in his veins. That they had dared to try and destroy this beautiful man was something Cam could never forgive.

That was when he realized something else besides passion and outrage was twisting his gut. Cam blinked as he finally recognized a jealous, possessive streak he never even knew he possessed.

He pushed this startling discovery aside and considered the achingly gorgeous man before him.

“Do you want me?”

Gabe swallowed before dipping his chin. His eyes flared when he glanced down and saw Cam’s growing arousal.

“Good. Because I’m going to give you the best night of your life. By the time I’m finished with you, your ass is going to be aching for my dick.”

Gabe shivered at his words, a flush of color darkening his cheekbones.

Cam leaned forward and placed his hands on Gabe’s knees, gently parting them. Gabe watched him cautiously as he settled between his thighs.

“First,” Cam raised his left hand to caress Gabe’s face before rubbing his thumb across his lips, “I’m going to kiss that delicious body of yours. All. Over.”

Gabe twitched. He opened his mouth, his breath accelerating. His tongue darted out. Cam shuddered when Gabe licked his thumb, the pink flesh wet and hot against his skin. He trailed the fingers of his right hand down Gabe’s chest, his own breathing speeding up as excitement filled him.

“Then, I’m going to give you the best blow job you’ve ever had.”

Gabe moaned when Cam pushed his thumb inside his mouth and past his teeth. He closed his lips and tongue around it and started to suck, his ice-blue eyes darkening with anticipation.

Cam swallowed a curse at the sensual sight, his shaft twitching at the arousing sensation of Gabe’s strong jaw and mouth working his finger. He brushed his hand across the taut muscles below Gabe’s navel and smiled when they trembled and jerked beneath his touch.

Cam leaned forward and brought his mouth to Gabe’s right ear.

“After that, I’m going to get your hole so ready for me, you’ll be melting with pleasure,” he murmured.

Gabe groaned, his head falling back, causing Cam’s thumb to pop out of his mouth with a wet sound as his hips flexed off the mattress, his hands fisting in the bedsheets on either side of him.

Cam dipped his head and kissed Gabe’s throat, his lips finding the strong pulse hammering away wildly a couple of inches above his left collarbone. He licked and sucked that spot for several seconds before coming up and bringing his mouth a hair’s breadth from Gabe’s.

Cam stared into the glazed blue depths opposite him and gave Gabe a full-blown teasing grin.

“Then, I’ll wait. Until you’re begging for it.”