Fortune's Favor

Chapter Six

Nathan didn’t know how it had happened, but the giant lunkhead he’d been partnered with had turned out to be a really decent guy. The sex had definitely eased tensions between them. Somehow Avery’s dry comments and orders every other sentence didn’t bother Nathan as much as they used to. He felt like he understood his partner now. Underneath all that gruffness lay the same man who’d bathed Nathan with tenderness. He’d been fucked, cared for, cleaned up, and comforted all in the same night.

Mr. I Don’t Do Comfort had soothed Nathan’s fears and worries without effort. Nathan kept trying to figure out if the sex had done it or if it was something else, and he was stymied each time. Which wasn’t to say that for all of Avery’s surprising gentleness, he couldn’t still be annoying.

“Hey, princess, get the lead out, would you? We have another few stops to make.” Nathan shot him the finger and earned another grin. He continued to count Avery’s smiles. Today he’d managed four out of the jarhead. Another night on their road trip back to Bend. Nathan didn’t know how Avery had managed it, but their boss had agreed they needed to return. He’d put their search for Espada de Sangre on hold while Avery and Nathan made the cross-country trip back in an SUV. Apparently there were a few other things Jack wanted them to check into, items their client needed found.

Nathan made a quick trip into the convenience store and returned to the vehicle carrying junk food, sodas, and a black coffee, no cream or sugar, for the hard-ass in the driver’s seat.

“Here you go.”

Avery took the steaming cup, grunted at him—what constituted a thanks—and pulled out of the gas station.

They didn’t hold hands or kiss. They didn’t discuss the incredible night Nathan had spent doing whatever Avery wanted. Or that Nathan had let the man come all over and in him several times, no condoms at all. He should have been panicked at the thought of disease, but if he knew anything about Avery, it was that his partner was obsessed about safety.

That he’d fucked Nathan bare pleased Nathan to no end. Only once, his very first time, had Nathan gone without protection. He’d had his proverbial cherry popped by an older man who knew what he was doing. And just two nights ago, it had been popped again by a man with control issues.

“Hey, how old are you?” Nathan asked. Avery seemed older somehow. Maybe it was the stick shoved up his ass that aged him.

“Why?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Thirty-three.”

“Ha. I knew you had to be older.”

“Why?”

Because you make me feel safe. Because when I’m with you, I find I don’t worry so much anymore. “Because of that gray in your hair.” Had someone hinted of gray to Nathan, he’d dive for a mirror. Avery merely raised a brow.

Nathan had to know. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why are you so serious all the time?” He’d never been drawn to the stick-in-the-mud type, but Avery was different. “Were your parents assholes to you growing up? Did you have a bad life before the PWP?”

Avery looked surprised. “Not at all. My parents are great people. We talk a lot. I had a normal childhood. Saw the world, learned a lot, had friends. My dad was career military, my mom a doctor. We had a great life, and they still call me once a week. They’re retired and loving it in Washington.”

Nathan frowned. “Then why the attitude?”

“Attitude? This is who I am, dickhead. It’s called being real. I don’t need twinks and parties to make me feel good. I like who I am.”

And maybe that was what Nathan was drawn to—Avery’s confidence. His happiness with himself. Nathan liked to think he was perfect, but he’d never been able to get over why Malcolm had hated him so much. It annoyed him to realize he’d wanted the bastard’s affection, or at least some reason as to why he’d been loathed. It always left him on edge and wondering in his relationships.

“Don’t you want to get married someday?” He wanted to know.

“What the hell does this have to do with me being serious?”

“I just meant, you seem so content with your life right now. No girlfriends or boyfriends, though.”

“Nope.”

Silence filled the truck.

Then Avery asked, “You?”

Nathan thought about it. “I’d like to find someone someday. A man to live with forever.”

“Forever’s a long time.”

“No shit. You’ll notice I’m single.”

Avery glanced at him, and Nathan wondered what he saw. It had always bothered him that Avery seemed to look down on him. Everyone Nathan knew liked him. He was charming, and he knew it. But Avery didn’t seem to care.

“Ever had sex with a woman?” Avery asked.

“Nope. They just don’t do it for me. I’ve always known.”

Avery nodded. “I like both. But as I get older, it would be nice to be with one special person. You see the way Noah and Lara are together? How they look at each other?”

Their fellow nightshift buddy had married his wife just days ago, and the man was head over heels for her. “Yeah. And Chloe and her dudes? Who the hell would have thought she’d be into kink?” Their manager Chloe was a cute little thing. Prickly but loyal. And she’d found love with a set of hot twins. As in, more than one guy.

Avery smiled, and the expression was so sweet Nathan blinked. “I had a vision of her with them. All in love and happy. She deserves it. She hasn’t had an easy time of it.”

“Oh?”

“I worked with Chloe a few times before the PWP quit. She grew up in a rough part of town in Miami, so she’s comfortable playing with the big boys. I like her.” He cast a sly look at Nathan. “I notice she doesn’t take any of your shit either.”

“I know. I don’t understand it.”

Avery shook his head. “So what about you?”

“Huh?”

“You asked about my childhood. But you haven’t said much about yours. After you and your mom took care of Malcolm, what did you do?”

Nathan actually liked thinking of his aunt as his mother now. Though he hadn’t forgiven the lies, after careful consideration, he knew she would have had a good reason for making them. Danielle Dixon had loved Nathan fully. She’d let him know that every day of their lives spent together and apart. He wouldn’t let the recent past tarnish his memories of her.

“You okay?” Avery asked softly. “We, uh, don’t have to talk about any of this shit. I was just kidding with you.”

“No, no.” Nathan found he had to wipe tears from his eyes. Odd how his emotions could still swamp him in an instant. Yet he found the memories of his mother to be fond ones, not sad. “My mom—Michelle—died when I was a kid. Some drunk ran her down. Really shook me up, but my good old Aunt Danielle saved the day. We didn’t see her much before then. I’d had a great childhood, actually. Lots of friends, and even though I had the psychometry thing going on back then, my mom taught me to shield myself.” He sighed. “I mean, my Aunt Michelle. When I went to live with Danielle, my gifts got stronger. She helped me focus my abilities and tune out the rest. Otherwise I’d never be able to touch anything without going stark-raving insane.”

Avery nodded. “I wondered about that. You touch stuff all the time but don’t always get info from it.” Avery paused. “Or at least you don’t talk about getting info from it.”

“I don’t. But when I concentrate, I know a lot. I see the events around an object if emotion is tied to it. And if I really focus, I feel what the wearer or handler feels. But that’s a lot harder to pick up.”

“No shit.”

Avery’s vocabulary needed expanding. Nathan grinned. “No shit. What about you?”

“Me? I see futures. I see them on command now, since taking the drugs the PWP gave us. But I can’t see specific futures. It helps if I’m working with someone and try to see what’s in store for them. Like when I saw that painting Noah retrieved. I knew when it would be in Arizona. But with you, I saw you and Malcolm together. He’s holding a bloody blade, Sangre. But I don’t know when.” Avery frowned. “I can’t see a time or anything more. Just that there’s snow outside.” He turned to Nathan. “I don’t want you back there in Bloomville without me. Don’t bitch about more orders, just… Nathan, promise me you won’t go back alone. It gives me a bad feeling.”

Since Avery for once seemed to be asking instead of demanding, Nathan nodded. “Okay, okay. I promise.”

They drove in silence for a while before Nathan asked about the subject they’d both been avoiding. “So the sex…”

Avery tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “Yeah?”

“We going to do that again or what?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe, hmm? Is there a reason we haven’t done it since? It’s been a few days. Are you a once-a-week kind of guy?” Which would be a real shame.

Avery scowled. “I left you alone on purpose. You needed some time to think about what happened. Away from the mess in Bloomville, all those reminders of that nightmare in your life. I thought it would be best if you had some space. Why? You need to fuck right now?”

“You are such a dick.” He didn’t know why that should amaze him now. He knew the guy. “While I appreciate you ‘giving me space,’ I’m a big boy. I don’t need you making decisions for me.”

“So you want to fuck right now?” Avery repeated. While driving, he unbuckled his seat belt and unbuttoned and shoved down his pants. He pushed his seat back a bit and nodded down at himself. “Cause I’m more than ready to go. How about you take care of this, since I don’t need to be sensitive anymore?”

The man continued to be full of surprises. “Fuck, you’re hard, huh?”

“Yeah, Captain Obvious. Just sitting around you gets me hard. Happy now? So blow me.”

Nathan wanted Avery too much to take offense to the order. “We need to have a talk on how to ask for what you want.” He unbuckled his own belt and leaned over. He felt the SUV pull to the side of the road, knew the vehicle had stopped, but he didn’t care.

He licked and sucked on Avery’s dick with a hunger for the man. He wanted Avery’s moans, his desperation. When he felt Avery’s fingers caressing his scalp and hair, he took more of him into his mouth.

Avery shifted his hips and surged. “Shit, Nathan. That’s so fuckin’ good. Your mouth is heaven, baby.”

When Avery called him baby, everything inside Nathan softened. Except for his dick, which was steel hard and aching. He unbuttoned his pants and would have played with himself, but Avery told him not to.

“Uh-uh. You swallow me up, and I’ll take good care of you. I promise.” He gripped Nathan’s hair and panted as Nathan licked the underside of his shaft, then nuzzled his balls. Nathan returned his mouth to Avery’s dick, kissing Avery’s tip before he sucked the whole thing down.

Avery groaned, and a warm splash of cum hit the back of Nathan’s throat. “Oh yeah, I’m coming. Suck it down. Christ.”

Nathan swallowed, licked him clean, and sat up, hard and aching himself. But the look on Avery’s face… His lover had his head thrown back against the seat, his lips parted on a moan, his cheeks flushed. Avery’s cock remained half hard and wet until he tucked himself back into his pants.

He looked up at Nathan with warm blue eyes so dark they looked black. “You have, without a doubt, the most gifted mouth I’ve ever kissed.”

“Should I say thanks?”

Avery smiled. “I should say thanks. Now spread your legs.”

Nathan tensed. Though they’d played, Avery had yet to go down on him. What would his lips feel like wrapped around Nathan’s flesh?

Avery reached into Nathan’s pants and took him out, then gripped Nathan’s shaft and primed him, sliding up and down with smooth, hard movements. “You’re a big man. I like that. I like you strong, when you fight me.” Avery leaned closer and kissed Nathan’s neck, then his ear. “I like coming hard in that ass, winning the battle when I fill you up. Like I filled up that sweet mouth.”

Fuck. Avery had sex talk down to a science. Nathan felt ready to come. Avery pinched his nipple through his shirt, and a spurt of fluid trickled from his slit.

“Yeah. You’re thick. Gonna be sweet to taste all that cream. How about it? Want me to suck your cock, baby?”

“Avery. Please.” Reduced to one-word sentences, Nathan couldn’t see straight, let alone communicate.

Avery chuckled and pinched his other nipple while rubbing him faster. Then he moved back, repositioned himself, and bent down. His hot breath scorched Nathan’s cock, and Nathan couldn’t take his gaze from the dark head buried in his crotch. Cars whizzed by on the freeway beside them, but Nathan had focus for nothing and no one but Avery.

And then Avery’s mouth was on him, and Nathan cried out as his orgasm hit him with brute force. He emptied between Avery’s lips while his lover swallowed him down.

It took him a few moments to release Avery’s hair. Avery opened his mouth and let his dick go, then set Nathan back inside his trousers and buttoned his jeans. “Better?”

“Yeah,” he whispered, totally drained.

Avery buckled him up, then buckled himself in as well. He took a healthy swig of coffee and started the SUV. “Another few hours until we hit the bookstore Jack wants us to check into. Get some rest, princess. You need it.”

“Um” was all Nathan managed before he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Avery glanced at Nathan, satisfied to see him sleeping like a log. The poor guy hadn’t been getting enough rest. Avery knew the loss of his mother would never truly fade, but the hurt was still so fresh. He’d hoped giving Nathan time to think about what they’d done together might convince him it had been a mistake. Because God knew, Avery had lost his ability to deny the man. Fucking Nathan made every other relationship he’d ever had fade away. He’d jacked off the past two days, so fucking hot for his partner yet not wanting to pressure him into sex.

So for Nathan to want it back, hell, yeah. So much for all that control and discipline he liked to think he had. Yet he wasn’t as upset as he should have been. Avery grinned to himself, pleased by this new dynamic. He and Nathan now felt like a team. Though one day they’d have to return to Bloomville, now was not the time, and he knew it. Convincing Jack hadn’t been nearly as hard as he’d thought it might be. Apparently Avery wasn’t the only one worried about his partner. Jack hadn’t liked the thought of Nathan going out so soon after his mother’s death. Only Avery’s vision had convinced him to send the pair.

But last night Avery had foreseen something else. A stolen book belonging to Jack’s client. Jack wanted him to check out the bookstore in which he’d seen it and try to locate another missing painting as well. Avery just hoped the whole cursed aspect of the cases wasn’t a factor. Odd how the psychic shit no longer bothered him but the woo-woo objects freaked him out. Jack would have explained away the strangeness of the artifacts they went after as a manifestation of energy, but Avery knew better.

Espada de Sangre was more than a weapon with an overabundance of energy. The damn thing was alive, and it had a thirst for blood. He didn’t want it anywhere near Nathan, so he had to figure out how to be there when Dixon eventually cornered his partner. He still considered it both a good and bad thing that in his vision, he hadn’t seen himself. Was that because he was close to Nathan, ready to spring to his defense? Or was he nowhere near, even dead? Only time would tell.

Several hours later, he stopped in Fort Collins, Colorado. The bookstore looked familiar. Eve’s Tomes, in the middle of the old part of town.

Nathan stirred. “Yo, Avery?”

“We’re here. Come on. I have to see something.”

“What?” Nathan got out of the car and stretched, and Avery’s pulse raced.

“Wake up. I might need you to charm some answers for us. We’re here about the book.”

“Oh, right. That wacky book about weird rituals and sex sacrifices. Sounds fascinating.” He yawned.

“According to Jack, the book’s mostly about genealogy with the odd family ritual running through it, but you apparently heard something else. Why am I not surprised you focused on the sex parts? Come on, princess.”

Nathan glared at him, then cleared his expression to put on his charming face, and they entered the store. A nice, middle-aged woman named Gail described her buyer. Nothing threatening about the soft-spoken woman who’d purchased the book.

“Said she had a Stallbridge in her family tree and was doing a project on her line.” Gail smiled. “Imagine you being family as well.”

Nathan grinned, and the woman softened some more. “Did she leave a number? I just bet she’s a long-lost cousin. That would be so great to find more family, you know?”

As Nathan sweet-talked Gail into giving him information she shouldn’t have parted with, Avery wondered about Nathan’s comments about family. Did Nathan want more family? He must have felt really alone, now that his mother had died. With an uncle like Malcolm Dixon to his claim, he couldn’t be looking for any love there.

Gail handed over the number and a book about the United States Marine Corps Nathan had picked up.

“Here you go.” Nathan gave her a ten, smiled, and walked out with Avery.

“Come on. We’ll hunker down in a hotel room and do some research on that credit card slip. I can’t believe that woman gave you her buyer’s name.”

“What can I say? Some people like me.”

“I like you well enough.”

“When my lips are wrapped around your cock, sure. But how about now?” Nathan asked as they entered the vehicle and closed the doors.

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you like me, Avery?”

“I did before you started talking.”

Nathan turned in the seat and stared at him. “I’m serious.”

The intent look in his deep green eyes struck Avery right in the heart. Oh hell. He had a bad feeling he was falling for the guy. “I like you. What the hell? Do you want it in blood?”

Nathan smiled. “Nah. Just wanted to see the pain on your face while you admitted the truth. I’ll treasure your sweet words forever.”

Avery started the SUV and punched in the coordinates for a Marriott on his GPS. “You’re such a pain in my ass.”

“Not yet, but I’m hoping to get there soon.”

Avery inwardly started at the words. “Hate to break it to you, pretty boy, but I top. I don’t bottom.”

“Ever?”

“Nope.”

Nathan gaped. “You never even tried it?”

“Not once.”

“But you talked about ass play.”

“Sure.” Avery huffed. “Shoving my dick in your ass is heaven. Why the hell would I want anything shoved in mine? Some rimming, maybe a finger. That’s it.”

“Oh, honey, do we have some work to do with you.” Nathan’s grin annoyed him all over again.

“Don’t call me honey.”

“You call me baby.”

Avery shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the conversation, which wasn’t like him. “That’s different.”

Nathan didn’t respond. When Avery looked at him, Nathan was smiling.

“What?” he snapped.

“Nothing.” Nathan turned on the radio, and they listened to classic rock until they pulled into the hotel parking lot.

After they’d checked in, Avery spent his time talking to Ian and Jack and filling them in on the book and the woman who’d bought it. Nathan had gone out to get them something for dinner. All day driving with only a cheap sandwich to eat hadn’t done much to soothe Avery’s appetites. Any of them.

“Any problems?” Jack asked.

“No.” Not unless lusting after his partner could be considered a problem.

“Good. We got word that Dixon killed a half-dozen drug runners in Mexico a week ago. He’s alive and well. But not gunning for Nathan yet, we don’t think. You still haven’t seen anything that can help?”

“No. Just a few vibes about this missing book and a painting Kitty’s going after in a few months.”

“Kitty?” Jack sounded surprised, as well he should. Their resident empath had yet to leave the gym on a real-world op. Or case, as Jack liked to call them to civilianize their new life. Of all the ex-PWP agents, Avery thought Kitty fit in the best at the gym. She seemed to really like helping people get in shape, and not just as a front for the real work they’d started doing. Kitty held the entire team together, and everyone knew it.

Avery apologized. “Sorry, but she’s going to be at an auction for this painting. I’ll look more when I get home. It was just a flash, but enough to tell me she’s needed on it.”

“Hell.” Jack sighed. “Whatever. Just keep an eye on Nathan. I don’t want to have to bail him out of jail again, especially with Dixon out there.” Jack paused. “Dixon’s a bad guy to have as an enemy. Watch your backs. I mean it.”

Jack disconnected, and Avery stood there, frustrated and worried. He didn’t like fear. He’d fought through it enough during his time in Afghanistan, South America, and the other hot spots in the world where danger was at a premium. But this was different. He could handle hazards of the job as they pertained to him. The thought of Nathan coming to harm freaked him the hell out.

The snarky comments, the physical sessions on the mats, the sneers from his partner when Avery didn’t react to Nathan’s constant jibes… Those things he looked forward to day after day. Being moved to the night shift had at first been a curse, or so he’d thought. But the time spent with Nathan had stirred his passion for not only the job, but for the man himself.

He lay down on the bed and tried not to think about anything, but the more he tried not to think about Nathan, the more Nathan crept into his mind. Avery closed his eyes, and the vision pulsed through him in a breaking wave…

Nathan glared at him. “I can do this. Quit trying to protect me.”

“Sorry for caring whether you live or die.”

“She was my mother.”

“Yeah, well, Daddy Dearest is trying to kill you, in case you missed that.”

“Stop calling him that!”

“Face it. Malcolm is your father, and yeah, he’s a psycho. Doesn’t mean you are.”

The agony on Nathan’s face tore at him.

Avery hugged and kissed him. The pleasure he felt in the embrace only enhanced the love in his heart. “Quit torturing yourself. You and he are nothing alike.”

“Yes, we are.” Nathan stepped back and reached for the weapon on the table. “See this gun?” He put his hands over the pistol grip of Avery’s Beretta, and a psychic miasma settled over them…

Avery watched the ceiling come back into focus and knew he’d struck the mother lode. Holy fuck. Malcolm Dixon was Nathan’s father? Yet Danielle had given her baby to her sister rather than have Malcolm raise him. And Malcolm either never knew, or he’d found out and blamed Nathan for his existence—hence the abuse.

The dynamics in Nathan’s family gave him a headache. He didn’t know what to do. Should he tell Nathan what he’d seen? Or should he investigate? Too bad he could only see the future.

He blinked as an answer came to him. Noah. His buddy Noah First was a retrocog. He could see the past. Maybe with the right tools, Noah could see into Nathan’s past. They hadn’t tried before because none of them had figured Nathan’s history to be of more importance in this case than that he and the new owner of the blade were related. But they hadn’t counted on Malcolm being a crazy psychic with a family vendetta.

Avery made a few calls and settled back down, content he’d done what he could. He reviewed his vision, trying to see what else he might have missed, when something dawned on him. He’d hugged Nathan, feeling love.

He stared unseeingly at the blank television, bemused that the emotions he’d been feeling for Nathan were definitely moving in the direction he’d feared. Fuck it all, he was falling in love with Nathan Kraft, troublemaker, playboy, and all-around rule breaker. Avery’s opposite in so many ways.

What the hell should he do about that? More to the point, what could he do? The future was the future. So why should he bother running away from the hurt he could all but feel coming after him?