Page 27 of Holding the Line
“I want it because I need to know what we’re fighting.Who we’re fighting.I need to protect you.”
“I’m not yours to protect, Marsh.I’m not a fucking mission file.I can protect myself.”Eli said with a confidence that, if he were completely honest, he simply did not feel.
“Like you did back there?Like you’ve been doing all this time?The bruises, the scars, the flinching—”
“Stop!”Eli shouted, hands shaking.“Just stop.You don’t get to demand answers when you won’t even let yourself feel anything half the time.”
Marsh was breathing hard, anger and worry and something else burning behind his eyes.“So, what—you’re just going to run again?Is that it?”
“Yes!”Eli shouted, voice cracking.“Because that’s what I’m good at, Marsh.Because running is the only way I stayed alive.I have a choice to make, and this is what I need to do.”
“Then choose to stay,” Marsh growled.“Choose me.And I will have your back until my last breath.You will never have to fucking run again.”
The cab went silent.
Then Eli leaned forward, eyes dark.“Don’t offer things you don’t mean.”
Marsh leaned in closer again.“I don’t say shit I don’t mean.”
Something shifted then—cracked and spilled between them.Eli surged across the console, dragging Marsh into a kiss that was all heat and desperation.
Marsh groaned, grabbing Eli’s hips, pulling him fully into his lap.The seat was shoved back with one move of Marsh’s hand.Eli straddled him, hands braced on his shoulders, grinding down against him as Marsh’s mouth claimed his.
Clothes were half-off, jeans shoved aside just enough.Marsh wrapped one hand around Eli’s cock, stroking him, and Eli gasped, forehead dropping to Marsh’s shoulder as he moved.
“You gonna run from this, too?”Marsh growled in his ear, making him shiver.
Eli shook his head, breathless.“Not—fuck—not this.”
After a mind-blowingly intimate moment, Marsh shifted slightly, reached over to the glove compartment, and popped it open with a muttered curse.He grabbed a small tube of lube, his movements hurried.
Eli raised his head slightly, a crooked smile tugging at his lips.“Seriously?You just keep lube in your truck like it’s part of a first-aid kit?”
Marsh grimaced, cheeks flushing.“It’s new.I was ...hopeful.”
Eli laughed softly, then leaned in to kiss the corner of his mouth.“Hope looks good on you.”
Marsh chuckled, then grew serious.He squeezed the lube onto his fingers, and with slow, deliberate care, reached down to prepare Eli, easing him open gently, giving him time.
Eli lifted himself up a little to give him room, then let his head drop to Marsh’s shoulder again, breath hitching with every glide of his fingers.“God ...you take your time, don’t you.”
“You deserve that,” Marsh murmured, voice thick.“You deserve more than quick and desperate.You deserve to be worshiped.”
Eli shuddered.“Then shut up and worship me already.”
Marsh slid into him with a groan, steady and deep.Eli gasped, nails biting into Marsh’s shoulders, but he didn’t stop.Didn’t want to.In that position, with Marsh inside him and the sky spilling light through the fogged windshield, Eli felt something crack wide open inside his chest.
He was the one riding, the one setting the pace.And yet, every hip flex thrust from Marsh felt like possession.Like grounding.Like home.
Marsh wrapped one lubricated hand around Eli’s cock again, stroking him in time with their bodies.The rhythm built slow, then faster, until it turned frantic then eventually it crested—white-hot pleasure tearing through Eli, dragging Marsh with him moments later.He loved the hoarse sound Marsh made as he yelled Eli’s name into the cab of the truck.
Their breathing slowed together, Eli still wrapped around him, head on Marsh’s shoulder.“Ko nui taku aroha koe.”
Marsh jolted, then kissed him on the shoulder.“I will work out what language that is.”He promised.Eli knew that he would, and he looked forward to it, but then he might be ready for him to translate those words.I love you.
Marsh’s hand slid up his spine.“Are you going to leave me, Eli?”
Eli hesitated, voice quiet.“What if I can’t stop being afraid?”