Page 84 of Ride the Lightning
“I’m fucking living it right now,” Jonah replied huskily, removing his shirt before reaching for the buttons on his jeans.
“Go slow,” Avery demanded, making Jonah smile.
“I can’t dance without a brain injury, so don’t expect me to now.”
“Got it. Unbutton your jeans and start telling me how you’ve imagined me naked and wanting in your bed.”
“Bed, in the car, on top of the car, in the shower, stretched out on a picnic blanket—”
“Picnic blanket, huh? I didn’t know I’d stepped right into one of your fantasies. Do tell.”
Jonah slowly opened the buttons on his jeans, loving the hunger in Avery’s eyes as he talked about trailing kisses up Avery’s arm and neck. Avery moaned and released his balls to circle his puckered rim.
Jonah shucked his jeans and stepped fully naked between Avery’s parted thighs. “I fell asleep before I got to the sexiest parts. Why don’t I start here?” Jonah asked, capturing the hand Avery used to stroke his cock. He lifted Avery’s wrist to his mouth and demonstrated the kisses until he reached Avery’s mouth. “And see how it plays out.”
Avery scooted back on the bed to make room for Jonah, who joined him. They lay on their sides, touching and kissing as desire built inside them. Jonah resented his limitations, but they were only temporary. Fisting both their cocks in his hand, Jonah stroked them off together.
“What about your fantasies?” Jonah asked.
Avery blushed, and Jonah found it utterly endearing. “How can you expect me to think right now?”
“Tell me. I want to know.”
“Bent over your desk,” Avery blurted out. “Hard and f-f-fast.” His eyes rolled back in his head as Jonah increased the tempo. “S-sometimes I straddle your lap or blow you under the desk while you’re on a conference call.”
Jonah’s balls drew up as he shuttled his fist up and down. He wasn’t going to last much longer and wanted to make sure Avery was right there with him. “Good thing I have a home office downstairs. I will put your legs over my shoulders and hammer that sweet spot until—”
“Oh! Oh, God!” Avery called out. Hot cum covered Jonah’s hand and dribbled down his shaft.
Rolling Avery to his back, Jonah straddled his hips and began jacking himself off as if his life depended on it. Jonah braced one hand on the bed next to Avery’s head to steady himself. “Look what you do to me,” Jonah growled. “Only you.” He painted Avery’s chest and abdomen, and it felt more significant than just a sexual release. He was marking his territory. “Mine,” Jonah said, smearing his cum with his dick.
Jonah lay beside Avery and pulled him into his arms. They kissed lazily for a long time. Neither seemed to be in a hurry to clean up the sticky mess that would soon act as a binding agent if they weren’t careful.
Jonah finally released Avery’s lips and eased apart from him. “If you want me to keep the chest hair you seem to love so much, then I better get cleaned up.”
They kept the mood playful and fun when they got in the shower. Avery wanted the honors of washing him, and Jonah couldn’t find a legitimate reason to tell him no. Avery’s deft fingers moved boldly and confidently until Jonah presented his back to him.
He could feel Avery’s fingers trembling as he traced sections of the beast tattooed on his back. “This is stunning artwork, Jonah. The artist has wicked talent.”
Jonah took a steadying breath. “His name was Danny Valdez, but we called him Dragon. He was the first friend I made at boot camp. The man was never in a bad mood, but he was fiercely loyal and protective like a dragon. There was no one else you wanted by your side in a firefight.” Avery’s fingers continued to move, finding the parts of the tattoo that represented the dragon. “Then came Evan Deluca, but we called him Eagle because he had the sharpest vision. He never missed anything. Eagle was Italian through and through. He held nothing back.” Jonah waited while Avery located the inked feathers representing Evan.
“Who’s the cobra for?” Avery asked softly, tracing over the snake fangs coming from the lion’s mouth as well as the eyes above the jaguar nose.
“Cody Walker,” Jonah said. “Texan. Everything is bigger in Texas, you know. In Cody’s case, it was his ego, but he set it aside for the good of the team. Lyle Leonetti is the lion. Lyle came from Boston and had a thick accent. God, we ribbed him endlessly for dropping the R in words. Cah? What’s a cah? No, man. We want to go to a bar, not a bah.” Jonah chuckled at the memory even as pain welled in his chest.
Avery slid his arms around Jonah’s waist and pressed his lips to his back. “You’re the jaguar, right?”
“I am,” he said. Jonah felt so far removed from the powerful predator they’d dubbed him. He turned around and faced Avery. “The four of them died when the Humvee in front of ours ran over an IED. Our Humvee avoided most of the blast, but it rolled, and we came under fire.” He pointed to the scar on his face. “That’s how I really got this scar.”
Avery bit his lip and nodded as tears filled his eyes. He reached up and traced his finger over the silver diagonal slash marring Jonah’s face.
“Danny drew this design on our final leave, and I asked his mother if I could borrow it after I woke up from my coma. She’d already removed his belongings from our place. She mailed it to me and told me to keep it. Once I recovered enough, I sat through several sessions until it was complete.”
“Did it hurt?” Avery asked.
“Yeah, but that was the point. I was looking for physical pain to relieve the emotional trauma. It only worked for a little while, and I kept adding tattoos.”
“They’re beautiful,” Avery whispered, running his finger along the intricate designs of his sleeve tat. Then he rose on his tiptoes and kissed Jonah. “I’ve always known you and tragedy were familiar friends.”