Page 26 of Wild Card (Foster Bro Code #2)

Axel

Dalton ran his hands through my damp hair, fingers catching in the tangles. “Love your hair, but it must take a lot of work.”

“Not really. Just pull it back most days.”

“Not tonight,” he said, gently working the tangle loose with his fingers. “You wear it down for me?”

I scoffed. “As if I would.”

He stroked through the length of my hair, then started another section. No one had played with my hair in…god, half a decade at least. I had hookups who loved my hair, but I never stayed long enough for this kind of attention.

“You’re sweet on me, aren’t you?” Dalton whispered in my ear. “You wanted to look good for me.”

My heart dropped. Shit, was he right? Had I left my brothers to finish unloading that tow job just so I’d have time to wash and blow-dry my hair—not to mention detangle it—because I wanted to impress Dalton?

I sat up so abruptly his fingers ripped through a tangle painfully. “I should go. It’s getting late.”

“There’s no hurry,” Dalton said.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and reached for my briefs. “You’ve got work in the morning.”

“I get to go in late since I’m on call tonight,” Dalton said, shifting to run his hand up my bare back. “You could stay over.” His lips touched my shoulder. “Think of all the sex we could have before morning.”

He ran his nose along my neck, and I shivered with want. How did this man make me so insatiable? I’d never had a problem moving on after a fuck before.

“Axel?”

I turned, catching his mouth with mine, giving in to the desire for closeness that made me so nervous. I’d spent years fighting my impulse to cling to the nearest human who’d offer me even a crumb of affection. I didn’t want to regress to that scared, needy kid.

But Dalton made it difficult to push him away.

He guided me down onto my back, making a meal of my neck, and I was hard and ready again when a sharp ring cut through the room. His cell phone.

Dalton checked the phone screen and swore.

“It’s the station.” He answered the call. “Harvey, here.”

He listened for a few beats, then sighed. “Yeah, I’ll run over there. Yup. You got it.” He ended the call and grimaced. “Sorry, I’ve got to go on a call.”

I looked down at my hard cock. “Now?”

Dalton leaned in and kissed me hard. “Yeah, but hold tight. I’ll be back.”

“Nah, you can drop me on your way,” I said.

Dalton was already dressing in his uniform. “Sorry, darlin’. It’s the opposite direction. Just wait here. If you still want to head home, I’ll take you when I get back.”

His gaze flicked to my dick, deflating rapidly. He licked his lips. “If you stay, maybe I’ll warm that cock up with my mouth.”

I raised an eyebrow. “While you’re in uniform?”

He chuckled. “If that’s what does it for you.”

“I do like making a lawman go to his knees for me.”

He grinned. “So long as you remember, I’ve got cuffs, and I’m not afraid to use them.”

“Promises, promises.”

Dalton finished buckling on his belt and strode from the room. I collapsed back on his pillows and wondered what the fuck I’d gotten myself into.

I pulled my phone out of my jeans and checked in with Holden.

Axel:

How’s Banshee?

Holden:

She’s asleep. How was the date with Deputy Hottie?

Axel:

Hot. You want details?

Holden:

No, thanks.

Axel:

When are you going to go on a date of your own?

Holden:

Probably never.

Axel:

Shit, man, you can’t think that way.

Holden:

What would be the point? I’m glad you found someone, though.

Axel:

I didn’t find someone. I’m just having a good time.

Holden:

If you say so.

I scowled at the phone. Fucking brothers, always thinking they knew everything.

Holden was the worst, too. I glanced through the rest of my texts.

Jett was asking about our next poker night.

Ruby was pestering me about how I never called her.

Why did she even want me to? I’d been an asshole the last time we saw each other.

Fox wanted to schedule that tattoo we’d talked about. I took a minute to reply because I always made time for ink.

But eventually, I got bored and tossed my phone aside. How long would this call Dalton was on take, anyway? I should have just insisted on going with him. Maybe I could text Holden back and ask for a ride home…

The bed shifted behind me. The room was dark, and my groggy brain told me I’d fallen asleep. Lips touched my shoulder. “Go back to sleep,” Dalton murmured.

“Home,” I mumbled.

“In the morning,” he said. “Sleep.”

My eyes were too heavy for me to mount a proper defense. I sank back into sleep, only vaguely aware of the body snuggling up behind me, the weight of an arm draping over my waist.

When I opened my eyes again, weak morning light streamed through the window.

“Shit,” I rasped. “The dogs.”

Dalton slid a hand up my stomach to my chest, resting his palm over my racing heart. “Swung by last night. Gave them extra food and water.”

“What? But the gate code?—”

“I’m observant.”

“You broke into the junkyard?” I craned my neck to look at him, incredulous.

“The call took a long time. I didn’t want you to worry about them if you decided to stay.”

“Decided to stay?” I growled, ready to let loose on him. Dalton had stranded me in his bed!

He kissed me, soft and sweet.

“I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “It was supposed to be a routine trespass check at the Cunningham place. They’re paranoid, and usually, nothing comes of it. I thought I’d be back in fifteen minutes. But I had to make an arrest, and it took time to book the perp.”

Well, it was tough to get pissed if he hadn’t expected to take so long.

His hand slid down and curled around my morning wood. “I could make it up to you?”

“I seem to remember promises of a hot mouth.”

“I hope you can live without the uniform,” he said, pressing his hard dick against the curve of my ass. “I’m naked.”

“Only if you let me suck you too.” I turned in his arms to face him. “Get that fat dick up here. I’m hungry.”

He made a broken noise and flipped around in the bed so quickly I had to dodge a knee to the face. Finally, he got himself settled, wet tongue toying with my piercing, sending extra heat cascading through me.

I was still a little unsettled that I’d slept with him all night, but sex was always the best medicine for an awkward situation. I leaned forward and ran my tongue along the underside of his rapidly hardening dick.

Dalton’s breath gusted hard against my balls, making a shiver go through me, before taking me between his lips. I groaned and stuffed my mouth with cock. Slurping, ragged breathing, and muffled moans took over as we licked and sucked, each of us trying to outdo the other.

Dalton couldn’t take me as deep because of my Prince Albert, but the way he used his tongue to flick that piercing was quickly unraveling me. I played with his sac, tugging it as I swallowed around his cock, and he jerked and cried out.

He came down my throat, shot after shot. His pleasure only amped up my own. He was too far gone to focus on sucking me, but I bucked my hips forward, fucking his mouth in short, sharp thrusts, and came over his tongue.

We both lay quietly, catching our breath.

“Not a bad breakfast,” I said.

He gave a breathless chuckle. “I aim to serve, but I think you did a better job.”

“Lots of practice,” I said.

His gaze flicked up to meet mine. “You stay over with people often?”

I shrugged. I wanted to lie. Tell him this wasn’t special. But damn it, I could already see the disappointment setting into the lines of his face, filling those warm eyes with heaviness, and I couldn’t take it.

“No,” I admitted. “That part is new.”

His lips twitched as if he were fighting a smile. “Well, glad we could start the day off right. I can make some coffee while you get dressed, if you’re ready to go?”

I nodded once. “Yeah, I wasted half the day yesterday. My work is piling up.”

He winced. “Sorry about that.”

“Eh, my own fault I was hungover. At least you gave me a pretty good cure.”

Dalton chuckled as he rolled out of the bed. “Who knew a dicking down would do the trick? We should market that shit.”

I grinned. “Can you imagine the horror on every straight guy’s face? All you need to cure your hangover is a dick up your ass!”

Dalton doubled over, laughing, still buck naked and looking sexy as sin.

The man kept in shape, but he was also showing his age a bit, a softness to his stomach that was nowhere near a six-pack.

I liked the softness there, the proof he wasn’t perfect.

Similar to the scar cutting across his arm, the cowlick that stood up on the back of his head, and the sleep crease still on his cheek.

Dalton wasn’t just a sexy deputy I wanted to seduce anymore. He was a real guy, and somehow, that had become even more appealing.

I climbed out of bed to hide my face and headed for the bathroom. “I better get going.”

Dalton caught my shift in mood. “Yeah, of course.”

I pissed and rinsed off, keeping my hair out of the water, and got dressed. I searched my jeans pockets and came up with a simple elastic band, so I pulled my messy hair back into a sloppy knot at the base of my skull.

When I entered the kitchen, Dalton was dressed in uniform again and had a cup of coffee waiting. He handed me a travel cup. “You know, I think you’re just as hot when your hair is pulled back.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” He stepped in close and murmured, “As long as you take it down while I fuck you so I can grab a handful and get your mouth wherever I want it.”

My eyes met his, and how had I ever thought they were warm? They were hot as Hades. “You’re a bad man,” I said.

His lips tipped up. “Isn’t that why you like me?”

“Maybe it is.”

At least, partly. When his smile widened and his eyes lightened, when there was just pure happiness on his face as he led me out to the car and started the drive home, I couldn’t help but think he was also the nicest dang guy I’d ever met.

If anyone was ever gonna stick it out with me, it’d be him. But he deserved a hell of a lot better.

When Dalton drove past the house, I saw a truck out front and realized I’d forgotten to help Emory move his belongings in.

“Shit,” I muttered.

“Want me to drop you here?” Dalton asked.

“Nah, I gotta check on the dogs first. Thanks, though.”

Dalton stopped at the junkyard gate, swooping in to kiss me once more before I escaped from the car.

The dogs greeted me in the junkyard, seeming happy enough. I did a quick check of their food and water, then headed over to the house to take my punishment for failing to show sooner.

Gray and Bailey were wrestling a huge dresser up the stairs. Maybe I was glad I’d forgotten to get here sooner, because damn.

In the living room, Emory and Holden were moving our ratty sofa toward the front door. I stepped out of the way. “Where’s that going?”

Holden grunted. “Emory’s is nicer.”

There was swearing from the direction of the stairway, and I decided I’d rather not get wrangled into that, so I held open the door for Holden and Emory. They got the sofa down the front steps and set it on the lawn.

“Will you help Holden bring in my couch?” Emory asked. “I should go make sure Gray knows where I want the dresser.”

“Sure.”

The next hour was spent lugging furniture and boxes. Because Emory had an entire apartment of much nicer belongings, Holden had agreed he could move them into our place.

I wasn’t sad to see that sagging, stained couch go, but…dang, the place looked a lot different. There were all these colorful throw pillows and blankets draped over the furniture, and art on the walls.

Beautiful landscapes full of fields turned golden by the sun, mostly, but I saw some bright, bold pop art going up the stairs to the bedroom.

“Okay, I gotta head over to the shop,” Bailey said, swiping an arm across his sweaty forehead. “Sorry to miss the rest of this fun.”

“Seriously?” I said. “There’s a shit ton left to move.”

He gave me a flat look. “Says the guy who was off fucking his boyfriend for half the morning.”

“I was— He’s not— ” My brothers were all laughing, the fuckers. “I didn’t mean to stay! He got a callout.”

“Because your boyfriend is a deputy, of all things,” Gray said with a snicker. “Who would have thought the wildest one of us would be tamed by a cop ?”

I rolled my eyes. “No one is taming me. It’s just some fun.”

Gray patted my arm. “Sure, keep telling yourself that. Pretty soon, Dalton will be moving in with you.”

I snorted. “As if there would be room for him.”

“Better get a bigger RV,” Bailey teased as he opened the door.

“Yeah, well…” I didn’t have a good response. “Shut up.”

“Good one,” Bailey said as he stepped outside. “You’re as sharp as ever.”

“Yeah, your boyfriend hasn’t softened you at all ,” Holden taunted.

“Well, I think it’s sweet,” Emory said. “Axel deserves a good man to love him.”

“Em’s right,” Gray added. “This is a big moment in Axel’s life. He’s in looooooooove.”

He started making kissy faces at me while my brothers laughed, and I suddenly regretted all the shit I gave him when he started dating Emory. But that was different. That was serious. This wasn’t?—

Oh, shit.

This whole Dalton thing was getting out of control. If even my brothers—who knew my track record—thought this was a serious relationship, I was in trouble.