“You would, huh?” Tierney had recovered. He was good, not sounding too excited, simply interested. Dalton knew this was major, though. Tierney’d told him enough to make it clear that losing the prospect of ambulance service in that region had been a blow.
Mark leaned closer, as if someone might overhear them on this deserted street. “Truth is, Crystal—the third commissioner,” he bothered to explain, glance flickering toward Dalton for a second. “Crystal and I have been hoping for a way to do an end run around Sarah’s plan to award it to American Ambulance—which is actually Fowler’s plan. Guy’s getting some kind of kickback, I’m sure.” He waggled his fingers back and forth. “You know, just between us.”
“Of course.” Tierney nodded. “How about I give you a call Monday, and we talk?”
As Tierney wrapped up the conversation with just the right touch of joviality, Dalton totally saw how good his man was at the job, even when not being deceitful. Well, maybe this three-minute exchange wasn’t really enough to judge, but he was still impressed.
Walking away afterward, holding hands, Tierney said quietly, “That fucking rocks.”
“I know, right?” Dalton couldn’t contain his smile.
“Thank you.”
“For what? I didn’t do anything.”
Once again, Tierney halted, turning to him. “For just being there.”
Oh God, the man was killing him. “Anytime.” Really. Anytime.
Waking up in the middle of the night, Dalton found Tierney watching him. Bluish moonlight streamed in the windows, and his expression was almost as readable as in the daytime.
“Hey.” Dalton was probably smiling like a fool, but the man was too cute with the way his hair stuck up everywhere and those shadowed lines fanned out from his eyes.
“Hey, you,” Tierney croaked, smiling back and lifting his hand to touch Dalton’s face. Dalton took it as invitation to press on Tierney’s shoulders until he rolled over and Dalton could lay himself out on top of him.
“I should brush my teeth,” Tierney murmured between kisses.
“It’s still dark.” Dalton wasn’t ready to let him up, not when Tierney was palming the small of his back like that, and his fingers were searching lower, tickling the skin of his ass. “Sex before sunrise doesn’t require minty-fresh breath.”
Tierney’s grip tightened, and he turned them until he was on top, weighing Dalton down and taking over their kiss. Dalton let his tongue be the pursued instead of the pursuer, meanwhile working his hands along Tierney’s sides until he could dig in and hold tight to Tierney’s hips, guiding their motion. Not that Tierney needed the help, because they’d gotten so good at doing this together, rubbing off. Dicks slid, and ripples of aching want worked through him as they glided against each other. Pleasure—oh God, such a romance novel word—undulated through him with each of Tierney’s thrusts, until Dalton was arching his back, waiting for the next wave of sensation.
“Stunning.”
He opened his eyes at Tierney’s whisper and got caught in his gaze, trapped there while Tierney ground against him. He was propping himself up on his arms but pinning Dalton down with the full weight of his pelvis, his cock alongside Dalton’s. Wrapping his legs around Tierney’s thighs, Dalton let him have control, and Tierney took it, grasping Dalton’s wrists in his hands, then lowering his upper body onto Dalton’s chest and compressing his lungs, which should be uncomfortable and frightening but was exciting. “Fuck me,” Dalton whispered.
Tierney stilled.
“I want you to fuck me.” So badly. He wanted to give himself to Tierney—something he’d read about in those books Sam recommended, but never fully got until now. “Please.”
Tierney just stared, totally motionless.
Dalton’s heart beat uncertainly, faltering with doubt. Had Tierney thought the other night was a one-time thing? “Don’t you want to?” Too exposed and raw to pretend, he felt all the longing and questioning in his voice reverberate in his chest. But he trusted this man to not hurt him, didn’t he? Not reject him. This was all about his needs, and he needed Tierney to want him.
Tierney shook himself. “I really want to.” His grip on Dalton’s wrists loosened, just a little, and he lowered his face until they were breathing the same few molecules of air. “But, um . . .”
Dalton’s heart flat-out stopped for a split second, missing a beat.
“This is more than friends, isn’t it?” Tierney asked very quietly. Somewhere below a whisper.
Yes. But Dalton took the coward’s way out. “What do you think?”
Tierney was braver than him. He sucked in a breath before answering. “I think it is for me. Much more.”
Thank God. “It is for me too.”
Tierney’s face relaxed, but then he tensed again. “I didn’t finish telling you earlier— Shit, um, I’m not in love with Ian. I don’t think I ever was, I mean, it was nothing like—” He snapped his mouth shut, eyes going wide.
Nothing like this. “Tierney, please. Fuck me.”
“Christ,” Tierney groaned so deeply Dalton felt it rumble through his groin. “Of course I’ll fuck you.”
It meant a condom and lube, but the whole time they were taking care of the mundane necessities Dalton’s excitement was pumping through him, telling him this was it. What “it” was exactly, he couldn’t say, but he was so eager that nothing seemed awkward or killed his yearning for Tierney. He offered himself up, ass in the air and head on the bed, not holding back his moans as Tierney slowly pushed into him, indulging in all his longings to be this man’s slutty boy toy. He arched his back and spread his legs and begged for more of Tierney’s cock like a porn star.
“Jerk yourself,” Tierney said, words keeping time with his rhythm. “Are you doing it?”
“Yes,” Dalton breathed.
“That special stroke?” he asked. “When your thumb glides up the underside and you tease that spot just under the head?”
“Yes.” Moaning now.
“Don’t stop.” Tierney reared back, digging his fingers into Dalton’s hips and working his own in fast, short strokes. Like he was pumping him up for a big explosion, one of those legendary “I shot forty feet” orgasms. Dalton fought against it, because he wanted this to last. If Tierney kept fucking him, nothing could ever go wrong. They’d be intimately locked together forever, doing this dance of thrust and receive.