Chapter Seventeen

Link

Eagle growled the words and slowed long enough for Link to grab the slippery soap. Fumbling, he managed to slick his own cock and drop the soap onto the tile. He squeezed his dick and stroked in tight, twisting pulls, jerking himself in time to Eagle’s thrusts.

Finally having Eagle fuck him felt so fucking good. Eagle pegged him deep, and Link squeezed his dick harder, trying not to come too quickly, he wanted—needed—it to last. Hot breath ghosted over his neck, teeth biting gently at his shoulder.

Wet skin slapped and chests heaved for air before they both moaned at the same time. Pushing his forehead hard against the wall, Link slammed his ass into Eagle, moving to his toes to offer the man better access, and Eagle gripped him harder.

Eagle hammered in, chest heaving, mouth roaming his shoulders; a few rasping sounds left the man’s throat.

When Eagle’s thrusts became sporadic, Link knew the man was close and ground his ass.

That’s it, big boy, lose control.

The man speared him in long rolling thrusts until Link stiffened, gave a long moan, and released. Come spilled over his fingers, wetting the tile.

Eagle froze, then exploded with a sharp grunt and literally lifted him from his feet.

Link panted, his forehead on the tile, gathering his shattered self together, and Eagle slowly lowered his feet to the ground. Lips roamed lazily over the back of his neck and after a long moment, Eagle flipped the shower back on. When it warmed up again, Link was pulled beneath the spray.

For a second, he felt awkward, but it was fleeting and then he was drying off Eagle when they were done. Eagle cupped his face, cleaved his fingers through his damp hair, and kissed him on the lips.

Link’s cock twitched.

Fuck, he had it bad.

The thing was, Eagle was his family. Not by blood, but more importantly, by Link’s own choosing.

He gazed at Eagle, fully expecting the man to leave, but instead, Eagle sat on the edge of his bed, not the spare one, and Link moved up closer, still naked. He brought Eagle’s head to his stomach. The man’s beard scratched his skin.

“Sleep.”

Eagle nodded at his whispered words and when Link pulled the cover and sheet back, Eagle fell back with a sigh.

Link crawled in beside Eagle and lay as close as he dared, he didn’t want this to escalate into a declaration. It had only been sex.

Right?

He held his breath. Right.

Eagle’s breathing grew slow and even for a few moments and Link eased closer. They’d definitely talk in the morning, even if Eagle didn’t want to go down that road. Link had plenty to say.

He jumped when Eagle rolled and placed a heavily muscled arm around him and pulled him close. Link glanced up, but Eagle was sound asleep.

Anyway…he had plenty to talk about and it was a long time coming. He wasn’t one of those people that let shit fester because people didn’t communicate.

Which led to the question, why had he let it go on so long?

Because he’d been fucking hurt like never before.

Maybe this was a turning point.

He fell asleep to the smell of Eagle’s fresh, clean skin.

A banging on the motel door had Link sitting straight up in bed, blinking toward the closed curtains.

Eagle rolled for his Glock and moved from the bed. Striding naked to the window, the man peeked out the slit in the curtain.

“It’s Jordan,” Eagle said.

“Just a minute!” Link shouted. Jumping from the bed, he scrambled into briefs, jeans, and yanked a t-shirt on in record time.

Finding Eagle standing there still naked and holding his gun was a turn-on, but this was not the time for his decadent thoughts.

“Get dressed!” he hissed, striding to the door.

Eagle didn’t move.

“Then get in the bathroom!” Link growled.

Something changed in Eagle’s smoky eyes, but before he could guess at its meaning, the man grabbed up his clothes and disappeared into the bathroom.

Link yanked open the door.

“Hey,” Jordan said, gazing past him and then holding his eyes. “Eagle didn’t come back to the motel room earlier.”

“Yeah.” Link nodded. “He crashed in the spare bed.”

Jordan looked back through the partially opened doorway, eyes landing on the made-up spare bed.

“Why the hell didn’t you wake me when it got dark?” Link frowned. He was having a hard time realizing he and Eagle had slept for hours.

“Detective Wall came by and said they’d take the early shift and we could take the later. Creed and I are all ready.”

“We’ll be right there.” Link ran a hand over his face.

The bathroom door opened and Eagle stepped out fully dressed with his boots on.

“Evenin’, Jordan,” Eagle said and moved Link out of the way of the door.

“Evening!” Jordan said with a smile and turned to stride quickly back toward his own room that was located a few doors down from this one.

Eagle stepped outside.

“Eagle?” Link whispered, and when the man turned he continued. “I just don’t want them to get the wrong idea.”

Okay, did that come out right? No, probably not. Shit.

“I mean—”

“I get it.” Eagle cut him off. “Give me ten minutes to change and I’ll meet you at the SUV.”

Link opened his mouth to say something, anything, to take the closed-off look from Eagle’s face, but the man strode away.

Closing the door, he leaned back against it. Just like before…they’d followed up a moment of bliss with misunderstandings.

What misunderstanding? Well, shit. He’d practically forced Eagle to hide and then lied to Jordan about the sleeping arrangements. Was it any wonder that Eagle had put a wall between them? With a sigh, he sat on the bed to pull on his boots.

Somehow, he had to make this right with Eagle, or they wouldn’t be able to work together.

Work? He snorted and shook off the immediate flashes of the hotter-than-hell shower.

He was so screwed.

His cell phone buzzed and he blinked at the number.

“Hello? Auntie?”

“Oh, Link,” Mary said with a sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. Have you made up with my nephew yet?”

Made-up was way off the mark.

Link let out a big heave and sank to the corner of his bed. She definitely had a blunt way of talking.

“I can tell by that sigh you haven’t.”

“I want to, we just can’t seem to find a moment,” he told her truthfully.

“I don’t think I ever told you that my husband used to drink.”

He gripped the phone tightly and answered her with a throat suddenly closed and a voice that sounded like sandpaper. “No, we talked about a lot of things, but you never told me that.” And neither had Eagle, he added silently.

“I tried to tell you the other day but didn’t get the chance. My husband was a mean man.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago, but he made my life a living hell. Declan finally convinced me to get away,” Mary said softly.

It sounded just like something Eagle would do.

“He bought me this house and he kept Leonard away when he’d try to come over. When he died, I never felt such relief.”

“I can imagine.” And he could, he had his own demons from his childhood.

“Anyway, when Declan found out that Tim was drinking, he saw red.”

Link wanted to ask her how she could be interested in someone who drinks like that, but he stayed quiet, it wasn’t his place to judge others. He had enough of his own problems to take care of.

“Do you believe Tim will stop drinking?”

“I hope so. He’s a good man. He doesn’t get mean when he drinks, and he’s gone to four AA meetings in four days. He’s trying, Link.”

“And that’s all you can ask for. Just…be careful, okay? And call me or Eagle for any reason.”

“I will,” she murmured. “Make-up with him, Link, he’s hurting. He…doesn’t share his feelings very well, but there are reasons for that, reasons he needs to share with you.”

Link waited, but Mary seemed to be done. She wished him well and ended the call.

Now what?

Fuck. He jumped from the bed and hurried to get changed.

His mind was going in a thousand different directions.