Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Rafferty

A fter spending only a few hours with Jesse, I was starting to question what I thought I knew about the man. I’d known he was more than his family, but I was surprised how much he seemed to crave my good opinion.

I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Jesse had been light and funny this morning, but as the day progressed, I could see the weight of his decisions begin to weigh him down. And I wondered at what point he’d decided he was going to run instead of going back to the Rangers.

Thinking about our earlier conversation, I pushed aside the game and stood up.

He looked up at me. “What’s up, Raff?”

“I’m bored with this game. Let’s take a hot shower together. I’ll work on your sore muscles and then maybe distract you for a bit.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I might like that. Thank you.”

We disrobed in the bedroom and walked into the bathroom together. I leaned in to turn on the hot water and caught something out of the corner of my eye. Jesse was twirling the knife between his fingers with a smirk on his face.

I snatched the knife from him, mid-twirl, and he laughed as I put it on the windowsill.

“How the fuck do you disarm me every time?” he asked as he stepped under the water.

I joined him in the tiny tub and tugged on my cock. “It helps that you’re too distracted by my dick to fully pay attention.”

“It’s not just that,” he insisted, grabbing the soap from the holder. “Tell the truth—it’s not just your gorgeous cock.”

I stood over him. “Fine. But you have to promise not to laugh at me.”

He snorted as he soaped up his armpits. “Okay.”

“I was a nerd in high school,” I admitted.

“Not shocking.”

“And I maybe had a thing for close-up magic.”

He clamped his hand over his mouth, and his face went red.

“I said no laughing!”

He snorted, then removed his hand from his mouth. “Can’t help it. I’m picturing you as a skinny, pimpled kid trying out card tricks on unsuspecting girls.”

I shook my head. “I was chubby, and I was doing it for the football gods.”

He thunked his forehead on my shoulder, his body shaking.

“So . . . yeah. I spent hours practicing my sleight of hand.”

He lost it, dropping the soap as he leaned up against me.

“Punk.”

“I can’t believe the school nerd got the drop on me.”

“Hey. Freshman year was awkward. But then I shot up, dropped some of the baby fat, and started lifting heavy. By the time I was a junior, I was on the varsity football team. After high school, I joined the Army.”

That set off another peal of laughter .

“What’s so funny about the Army?”

“I don’t know. Did you show off your magic tricks to your fellow service members?”

I pressed my lips together.

“You totally did, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

He didn’t stop laughing for a good long while. Something about his laugh filled my chest with happiness, and I was immediately sad about the fact that this was the only time I’d have a chance to hear it.

“Are you done?”

He wrapped his arms around me and smashed his face into my pecs. “Mm. Almost, Raff. I’m just trying to imagine the nicknames they had for you behind your back.”

“Shut up,” I said, but I didn’t mean it.

Finally, he settled and picked up the soap. Despite the tight space, we sudsed each other up very thoroughly. Facing him away from me, I massaged his shoulders and hips until his moans grew pornographic.

Now that he was good and horny, we rinsed and toweled off, then walked, naked, to the bedroom. I pushed him down against the bed and kissed the hell out of him. I hadn’t planned on kissing him at all—that was pretty personal for what we were doing—but I had to taste him.

Fuck, he was delicious.

We quickly rearranged ourselves against the pillows, and he wrapped his hands behind his knees, pulling his legs back, exposing his hole to me.

I leaned in and ran my tongue over the bunched skin.

“Your mouth is lethal,” he choked out.

I responded by pushing my tongue inside him, fucking him on it till he began to relax. When he started to get noisy, I switched it up and started lapping at his nipples while I pressed two slicked fingers inside him. I dotted kisses along his neck and collarbones, twisting him up as I owned his body. I eyeballed the condoms on the nightstand.

“I’m on PreP,” I said, raising my brows.

“Prison doc cleared me.” His eyes rolled into the back of his head. “Though ... I haven’t done bareback in so fucking long.”

“It’s just...if I don’t get the opportunity to see my cum dripping out of this perfect hole, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”

He nailed me with a look I felt in my nuts. “Can’t have that, can we?”

I slicked myself with the lube as he brought his knees to his chest. I hovered over him for a moment, taking in the pretty halo of hair. I then lowered my hips, pushing into his pliant, willing body.

“Jesus, your ass is the most perfect thing on this planet.”

“And the way your cock curves up just so...”

I grinned, lightly hooking my hips as I thrust in and out of him. His eyes never left mine, and I didn’t know why it felt this good to look into his eyes.

But it did. It so did.

We stayed in that space for a while, slow fucking, locked on to each other. Finally, I began to speed up, drinking in his cries and moans, wondering how the hell I was ever going to get to see him again. Because I did have to see him again after this. There was no way I couldn’t.

I reached between us, stroking him, watching his face as his body reacted to the pleasure. He came on a shout, and I followed soon after, reveling in his heat.

I licked his belly clean and grabbed a few soft tissues from the box on my grandmother’s side of the bed. After watching my cum drip from his perfectly wrecked hole, I gently mopped up the mess I’d made.

“You are quite the addiction,” I said, kissing him softly.

As I pulled back, his eyes widened, and I wondered if I’d said too much .

“Jesse, if this?—”

I stopped speaking when the cold muzzle of a gun was pressed in behind my ear.

“Hey, cousin,” said an unfamiliar voice. “Where the fuck is my dad?”