20. Ranger

[ 20 ]

RANGER

Viktor was on edge, and I knew it had something to do with the phone he’d been staring at when I’d found him on the patio. Something was happening out there in the murky world that had brought us together. I knew it cos my phone had been lit up like a Christmas tree too, but in the bathroom, as steam billowed around us and water soaked our skin, I left that shit at the fucking door.

Be careful with him.

Planned on it. At least, when I got over the size of his dick.

This motherfucker.

I claimed his mouth, letting him settle in the familiar as my grip on him tightened.

Slow.

Maybe.

Was that the same as careful?

I had no fucking idea. All I really knew was that when it came to Vik, I’d spent way too long resisting my heart. Pouring acid on the base instinct to just fucking touch him.

To love him.

He liked to push me against walls.

Not this time. I released his dick to press a palm to his chest and ease him against the tiles.

I kissed him.

Then I dropped to my fucking knees.

Surprise rattled Viktor’s whole body. Air left his lungs in a harsh breath and his hands flew to my hair.

Stopping me.

Urging me on.

I gave him a second to decide, then I took him in my mouth, and the sound that escaped him was all shocked pleasure.

Me too, mate. Me too.

Blowing dudes wasn’t something I’d done a lot. Opportunity. Circumstance. Not fucking wanting to. But with Viktor, it was easy. Cos everything about him was made for me, even if that shit still scared him.

He didn’t look afraid now. Head bowed, watching me, eyes bright with fuck yes. “You do something to me.”

I didn’t answer with words. I used my tongue and reached back to push his hand against my skull. Fuck my mouth. Whatever. Everything I had, I gave him it all. And if I’d learned anything from living with Vik all these weeks, it was that, like me, he was kinda wild.

Feral.

Untamed.

But like this, he had way too many manners, and it took a minute for the message to get through.

Then it did, and something in him shifted. His stance changed. His grip on me. And I swear to god, his dick got harder.

“You like this?” he wondered.

I showed him I did and got my reward in his deep groan and a tremble that shuddered through legs he thought were weak, but I knew to be strong.

My thumb grazed the scar on his hip. Another harsh breath breached his lips and he finally slid his dick down my throat of his own accord as the shower rained down on us.

Fucking hell. I couldn’t breathe, and I loved it. The taste of him. The sensation of him cutting off my air supply. It made me wonder how it’d feel if he fucked me.

Whenhe fucked me.

My dick solidified to cast iron and it almost scared me. Messing around with Finch and her strap-on had been the hottest ride, but imagining it with Viktor?

Yeah. I didn’t need him to blow me. If I didn’t find some colossal focus somewhere, I was gonna come by the power of thought alone.

Lucky for me, I had the perfect distraction and it felt so fucking good to lose myself in something that made Viktor shudder and shake in all the right ways, his muscles flexing with sweet tension, his fingers digging into my scalp.

“Asher.” Vik breathed my name. “You do not know what you do to me.”

His gaze had yet to leave mine. I stared up at him, watching him fall apart.

Feeling it.

Loving it.

Loving him.

He warned me.

I ignored it, and he came in my mouth with a force that was more than a simple release. It set him free, and I was here for that.

Viktor dragged me to my feet and kissed the hell out of me, both of us wavering, balance something that belonged to other people until I found purchase on the wall again.

The water heater was powered by the Mediterranean sun, but we’d been in here a while and the spray began to cool.

Viktor shut it off and chucked me a towel. “Do not get cold.”

An order.

I liked it.

But I kept that shit to myself and obeyed, letting him choose what happened next. Sleeping with a boner this locked in was gonna hurt, but for him, I’d take any fucking pain.

Viktor caught me in a daze and took the towel from me, dropping it to the floor. “Come.”

He wasn’t talking to my dick. He steered me out of the bathroom and to the main living space of the house, pressing buttons as he went to shut the blinds, concealing us from anyone who wandered up the hill.

Pretty sure it didn’t hide us from Jake, but I wasn’t fussed about that. On the list of shit I had to worry about, Jakey copping an eyeful was below fucking zero.

You want him to watch Vik fucking you?

Not really. And it didn’t feel like it was going to happen tonight. But I kinda wanted him to see Vik was okay enough to even think about it.

Weirdo.

Yup.

Viktor tossed me a remote.

It smacked my damp chest and I snapped out of it just in time to stop it clattering to the floor.

He’s still naked.

More than that, he was still half hard, and processing that kept me from comprehending what he’d given me.

He came closer. I felt his body heat. Felt his wry humour as he loosed a low laugh. “Anyone would think it was you who had just lost his mind in the shower.”

“You lost your mind, Vik? Want me to find it for you?”

“I want you to put some music on.”

The remote. It was the magic key to his fuck-hot sound system. As if my dick could get any harder.

Viktor disappeared. One ear tracking his footsteps, I padded to the control panel built into the wall and pressed a few buttons on the remote. Vik’s entire music collection, entwined with mine, appeared at the tips of my fingers.

Get in.I scrolled through, contemplating the mood. I was worked up as fuck, but accepting of the fact that I might have to stay that way. A vibe I was used to that had nothing to do with the heat in my blood and the coiled beast in my belly. I didn’t care if I carried this wood forever. It was enough just to be with him.

Viktor came up behind me.

Stillnaked.

His dick pressed into my back and my jaw felt too heavy for my fucking face. “Choose.”

I picked an album we’d listened to before. One of his. One of mine. Didn’t matter as heady bass oozed from the hidden speakers, soft enough that it didn’t intrude but so deep it made my pulse throb.

Or maybe that was him. That dick carving a dent in my spine. His shower-warmed skin. His chin on my shoulder as he studied my choice. “I remember this with you.”

“You weren’t as fucked up as me then.”

“Maybe in a different way.” He kissed my shoulder. “But you seemed like you needed it—to escape from what we had done.”

“From killing all those fuckers at the port?”

Viktor hummed a low laugh. “Yes, that.”

“I didn’t need to escape from what we did that night. Anyone who wanted the Sambinis at their table had it coming.”

“That was your motivation for fighting with us?”

“Among other things.”

Viktor spun me around. “What other things?”

“These, for one.” I stroked my thumbs along his cheekbones. “And I was bored hanging out down south. The Kings are good people, but the family shit gets on my nerves.”

“Why?”

The answer stuck in my throat. I forced it out. “Cos it’s something I’ve never had. Like, I don’t want eight people in my face asking about my day. Leave me alone.”

“You are not used to people caring about you?”

“Not that many at once.” I took a chance and pulled him closer. “Rubi’s like a fucking rash.”

“What about Ivanov?”

I dragged my face up from where I’d been about to bury it in the crook of his neck. “Alexei? He’s all right. Except when he wants me to sit in a wet puddle all night.”

“You did that for me. Many nights.”

“You’re hotter. Why are you so interested in Alexei?”

Viktor sniffed me, his gaze hazing out for a second. “That is a story for another time. Can I touch you again?”

“You can do whatever you want to me.”

Viktor’s gaze flared. “While you were sleeping, I felt—” He rubbed his fist to his chest. “—like I needed something else. It was nonsensical, but I craved it. Now you are awake and we are here, I realise that all I needed was you.”

The track oozing from the speakers morphed into another. It sparked a memory I couldn’t fucking grasp, and I let it dance through my mind as I sank into Vik’s words. I didn’t know him as well as I wanted to. But I knew enough to believe he would never look at me like that and say this sweet shit if he didn’t fucking mean it.

He was wrong, though. He didn’t need me. No one ever had. Not like I needed him.

“Asher.”

My gaze had slipped to the floor.

Viktor found it and dragged it up, coaxing me back to those wicked-warm green eyes. He slid his hand over my hip, easing me closer to him. Then he ghosted that hot palm higher, gliding over my skin, testing himself or teasing me—I couldn’t tell as his light touch reached every part of me.

I tried not to feel my dick. I pictured it cut off and slung into the ocean. But Vik was stronger than my imagination. Heat throbbed in my gut and a sound I didn’t recognise loosed from my unhinged mouth.

Viktor kissed my neck, tilting my head to make room for himself, the goosebumps littering his skin the only sign he wasn’t in complete and utter control. “Lie down with me?”

On the wide, squishy couch I’d just vacated. The one that had sucked me into a nap I’d woken from with my heart in my throat.

It was back in my chest now, thumping up a storm, and I let Vik lead me to the sofa and push me down.

I pulled him on top of me.

Chickened out and folded my hands behind my head.

Viktor released them. “There is nothing you could ever do to make this not perfect. If it goes wrong, it is all me. It will always be me.”

It wouldn’t. Cos it had never been him. But this beautiful fucker had to figure that out for himself, and if I died in the meantime from the sensation of him naked on top of me, it was a sacrifice I’d been born to make.

Viktor nuzzled my neck again, his palms still roaming my torso, leaving liquid fire in their wake.

He licked my damp skin.

Bit my throat with gentle teeth.

Then he kissed me and it got messy.

Sweaty.

Rough in a way that made a deep-rooted part of me ache.

I’d never wanted anyone like I’d wanted Finch.

I’d never wanted her the way I wanted him.

This wasn’t fun. It wasn’t new. It was a primal, ancient thing that expanded between us, a force even Vik’s worst demons couldn’t resist.

Our legs tangled together. He braced himself on one forearm, his other hand buried in my hair. His skin flushed, and his eyes grew heavy.

I had to know. “Do you feel good, Vik?”

“I feel you.”

His hand found my dick again, fisting it as slowly as he had in the shower. Slower, as his gaze darkened, he fixated on where he touched me, and a tremor rocked him.

I let it happen. Let it play out. Run its course. If he needed out, I’d let him go. But he stayed, and it passed, leaving my dick still trapped in his wicked hand.

The same hyper-focus he’d had in the chopper descended on him. Taking me apart became the nucleus of his attention, and he worked me to the same sultry beat seeping from the speakers, the low light of the room cocooning me. The scent of his skin. His soft kisses along my jaw.

I’d never been so worked up, and I resigned myself to blowing on my stomach, but as he brought me to the brink, he eased off and kissed my chest.

My belly.

The dip above my hip bones.

His stare blazed up at me, his hand still wrapped around my dick. I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to put it in his mouth, but as he snaked his tongue out and licked me, the words died in my throat.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Viktor’s mouth was so hot. Scorching. Burning. Electrifying as what he did to me travelled through my nerves, jolting my limbs, arching my back, my spine seized with pleasure, not a blowjob, an epiphany. I’d had my dick sucked a thousand times, but never like this. Never with the real fear that my entire body would combust if his teeth⁠—

A moan breached me, breath throttled in my lungs, dismantling euphoria hazing my mind. “If you don’t want me to come in your mouth, you need to stop.”

Don’t stop.

Don’t ever fucking stop.

Somewhere in the madness, Viktor found my hand. He squeezed my fingers and hooked my leg over his shoulder, his other hand grazing lower, and I was fucking done.

No warnings left to give.

No control.

No restraint.

I came in his mouth and fell off the edge of the fucking world.

Vik was mean. Relentless. He didn’t let go, swallowing me every second of that magic ride, until I grabbed his shoulders and yanked him up my body.

He was hard.

So fucking hard.

I gave him a moment to stop me.

He didn’t.

I gripped him in my sweaty hand and jacked him.

Once.

Twice.

Then it was his turn to fall apart and his release splattered my overheated skin.

Fuck.

Fucking fuck.

I had no air.

Vik had even less.

He crawled on top of me, shaking. I wrapped my arms around him, smearing the mess between us and not giving a shit. I kissed his temple, riding out the storm. I let him breathe, trusting he’d come back to me.

And he did.