Out Of The Shadows Page 3

  Dane nodded. “Maybe.” He followed Jai inside.

  * * * *

  When it finally came time to leave some seven hours later, Jai got his jacket from the hook near the door and dug his keys out of his pocket. Dane had been quiet all day, sitting at his desk and looking deep in thought. Oh well, moment of truth, he thought.

  “Dane?” The man looked up. “Are we still on for that beer?”

  He watched the indecision pass across Dane’s face as his eyes flicked to the other guards in the office. No one was paying him any attention; Ret was on the phone, Dex was reading his email and the others had already gone out to the car park. Jai zipped his jacket.

  “Come on,” he said on his way out, confident that Dane would follow him.

  Chapter Four

  Dane sat uneasily on the edge of the sofa as Jai handed him a bottle. He didn’t take a drink, just set it down on the table. Jai dropped into his chair, stretching his legs out in front of him. He was well aware of the fact that Dane was watching his every move from under his eyelashes as he threw his head back and chugged his beer. The attention his mate was giving him was making him hard, and he shifted slightly, his jeans becoming uncomfortably tight. He saw Dane’s gaze drop to his lap and his eyes widened.

  Jai could smell his mate’s arousal, tinged with a bit of anxiety, but it was obvious that Dane wasn’t going to act upon it.

  “Feel like watching a movie?” he asked.

  Dane looked relieved and nodded. About halfway through, Jai smiled, seeing that the man had finally begun to relax. He was sitting back and chuckling as Bruce Willis got into yet another gun battle on the screen. After seeing the sadness in Dane recently, it was great to see him looking happy again.

  When the DVD ended and they’d finished the pizza that had been delivered, Jai took the empty bottles into the kitchen. He noticed Dane following him, carrying the pizza box.

  “I’ve enjoyed this,” Dane said. “I feel like I can be myself around you.”

  Good, Jai thought. He walked back to where Dane leaned against the refrigerator. There was a risk that he would scare Dane away, but he wanted to touch his mate, unable to keep off any longer. Closing the gap between them, he rested his body against Dane’s. Reaching up, he stroked his fingers down the side of Dane’s face, turning him until he could capture his mate’s mouth.

  Dane’s lips parted, almost on instinct, and Jai flicked his tongue inside, tasting him. Dane began to kiss him back after a few seconds. Damn, the man’s a good kisser, Jai thought, unable to stop himself from pressing his hips forward to rub his stiff cock against Dane’s and wishing that they didn’t have layers of clothing in between them.

  When they finally broke apart, they were both breathing hard, Dane’s lips looking swollen and pink from the attention they had received.

  “I have wanted to do that since the day you arrived,” Jai told him.

  For a split second, a smile flickered across Dane’s features, before he froze. It was as though he suddenly noticed how close they were. Dane pulled back from him, looking embarrassed as he hurried out of the room. With a sigh, Jai followed. For the entirety of the next DVD, Dane sat in silence and Jai could see the deep thought on his face, staring at the screen but not watching the movie.

  “What you said last night, about being attracted to me, did you mean it?” Dane asked eventually.

  “Yes, why?”

  Dane shrugged his shoulders. “I thought…”

  “I was being serious, Dane. You’re wolf; you can tell how much I want you.” Jai laughed softly. “You thought I was just saying it to make you feel better?”

  Dane’s cheeks flushed. “No, I… Well, not really.”

  “You’re adorable when you’re nervous,” Jai told him, making Dane blush even harder.

  He didn’t want to push too far, seeing as Dane was finally seeming comfortable with his attentions, and so he fought back the urge to rip his mate’s clothes off and fuck him right there and then. Instead, he reached over to cup Dane’s cheek in his palm. To his delight, Dane leaned into the touch, not moving away as Jai leaned over to kiss him again.

  Dane reached out hesitantly, unsure, his hand eventually settling on Jai’s thigh. It felt so good to be able to touch, not just the brief encounter from earlier. He shuffled closer on the couch, arms going around Dane to pull him closer. Jai smiled at the low, happy keening noises that Dane made.

  All of his good intentions to take this slowly and not overwhelm Dane filtered away as his mind conjured up the image of Dane, naked and writhing as Jai fucked him.

  He groaned at the thought. Tugging at the back of Dane’s shirt, he slipped his hands underneath, running them over the smooth, warm flesh below. Sliding his palms up Dane’s torso, he got the shirt over Dane’s head and dropped it on the floor. He licked his lips at the sight before him, leaning Dane back against the cushions and ducking his head to press his mouth to hollow at the base of Dane’s throat.

  “I want you,” Jai told him. “Let me taste you.”

  Dane’s fingers tightened on Jai’s leg.

  “I’ll back off; just say the word,” Jai said, but Dane nodded.

  “I-I want this.”

  “Then let’s move this somewhere more comfortable.”

  Jai led him into the bedroom, kicking the door shut. Removing the rest of Dane’s clothing, then his own, he paused for a minute to admire the tanned, toned body before him. Beautiful. It wasn’t a word he would usually associate with Dane; maybe it was his desire speaking but, in his eyes, Dane was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  Jai got him onto the bed, so that he rested against the pillows, and straddled his hips. Pressing his lips to Dane’s, he began a slow trail of kisses down his body. Moving lower, he stopped when he came level with Dane’s dick. He smiled as he looked along the length of Dane’s torso, catching the other man’s eye. He wrapped his hand around Dane’s rigid cock and gave it a gentle squeeze, before dipping his head down to run his tongue over the head. As he closed his mouth around Dane’s cock—engulfing him, continuing to use his tongue and hands as well—Dane’s heartbeat sped up, pounding loudly to his sensitive hearing as his fingers clenched at the bedcovers. The look on his face told him his mate was enjoying this.

  Dane reached out a hand to touch Jai and then paused, unsure, until Jai used his free hand to take hold of it. His confidence bolstered, he did as he had begun to earlier and ran his fingers through Jai’s hair, tangling them in the silky locks, as Jai continued his ministrations. He could feel that Dane was close and worked harder to push him over that line, until he bucked and tensed under Jai’s weight, spilling into Jai’s mouth. Jai drank him down, taking in every drop, before letting Dane’s cock slip from between his lips.

  “Oh man, fuck, that was amazing,” Dane said, his expression slightly dazed.

  Jai laughed softly and crawled back up his body, dropping back down beside him.

  “You sound as though that’s the first time a bloke has sucked you off?”

  Dane averted his eyes again, causing Jai to frown.

  “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to embarrass you—”

  “You’re right,” he murmured. “It is the first time; the men who picked me just wanted their cock in my arse or my mouth. You are the only one who ever did that for me.”

  Gathering Dane into his arms, he kissed the end of his nose. The look in Dane’s eyes, the embarrassment, made his heart ache. He wanted to be able to chase away the bad experiences in Dane’s past, but that would be impossible. What he could do was to give him some new memories, to show him what it could be like.

  “Dane, tell me you won’t go to those places any more,” he said quietly.

  He felt Dane’s body tense in his arms, shifting back a little, away from him. “Why?”

  Jai propped himself on one elbow and looked down at Dane. “Because it’s hurting you,” he said. “Please, Dane.”

  Dane didn’t answer.

  “I’m
only trying to help you,” Jai continued.

  “I won’t embarrass the pack, if that’s what you’re thinking…”

  Jai frowned and, his fingers under Dane’s chin, turned the man’s face to his. “I don’t give a crap about the pack; what I care about is you. I hate the thought of you being treated like that. I’m assuming that these guys don’t bother to use protection. If you weren’t a were I’d be damn worried about the health risks.”

  Dane was lucky that weres didn’t contract or pass on any human diseases. If he had been human, goodness only knows what he would have picked up from these men. Lecturing Dane wasn’t going to help, however; Jai didn’t want the man to clam up again just when he’d started trusting him.

  Jai curled up against Dane’s warm, hard body, ignoring the ache in his groin. He wanted nothing more than to sink his cock into Dane, to fuck him hard and fast, but what he’d learned of Dane’s experiences so far made him hold back. He didn’t want Dane to think he was the same as the other men who had picked him up in the bars, wanting nothing more than a quick fuck and then tossing him away in search of their next conquest.

  “Dane, I need to talk to you about something.”

  * * * *

  Dane sighed. “You want me to go, don’t you?”

  “No, babe. Why on earth would you think that?”

  The man didn’t answer, just shrugged his shoulders and avoided Jai’s eyes again.

  “I don’t want you to leave; in fact, it’s just the opposite,” Jai told him. “I wasn’t sure how to tell you at first, but you should know and so I’ll just say it. You’re my mate.”

  Dane’s eyes widened. “What? No, I would have known.” He studied the sincerity in Jai’s eyes and he shook his head, his face paling. “You’re serious, aren’t you? Oh, God, my family. What am I supposed to tell them?”

  “I know you said that your dad would have a problem with it, but the rest of your family, too?”

  Dane shook his head. “I don’t know; even if they were alright about it, they wouldn’t stand against my dad.”

  He had left his previous pack to avoid his dad finding out about his sexual orientation, among other things, but there would be no way to hide it if he and Jai were mated. That conversation was one he wasn’t looking forward to. Jai seemed at ease with the fact they were mates, but then he was happily out about his choices. How could he not have realised? Looking back, it made a few things clearer. The signs had been there but he had been so busy trying to lock away those feelings that he hadn’t noticed. He’d found himself leaving the bars with men who were tall, with dark hair, who resembled Jai more than he had realised at the time.

  There had been countless times at the office when just the sight of Jai walking by his desk had made him so hard he’d had to escape to the bathroom to relieve the pressure. He had made the connection, he supposed, somewhere deep down. His thoughts always returned to the image of that same tall, dark werewolf.

  Oh, shit. How the hell could I have never seen that he was my mate?

  Mates were supposed to fit together, though, to be the other’s perfect match. How could he be mated to Jai? Jai deserved so much better than him, a man who was so scared of himself that he had hidden his true self for years. Jai, on the other hand, was open and content with his bisexuality, not to mention confident in everything else. He was flamboyant in a way that Dane could only dream of. A few weeks ago, he had seen Jai on his way out to a club in the city with Ret and a couple of the others. His black hair had a deep magenta streak through it, starting just above his left eyebrow. Jai’s green eyes had been ringed with dark eyeliner, making the colour more vibrant. Eyeliner, for Pete’s sake. Had Dane tried that he would have looked ridiculous, but on Jai it had looked perfectly normal. He had been wearing black leather trousers that looked almost painted on with an open black silk shirt tucked into them. Despite his attempts not to notice, the thought of Jai in that outfit had kept him tossing and turning in bed all that night. The man was gorgeous—even when he was trying to convince himself not to look he could see that.

  Jai was interested, he had shown that indisputably, but Dane still couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. It would be wise to walk away now, before it went any further. That would be the fair thing to do, for Jai’s sake, but he didn’t want to. It seemed selfish of him, but he wanted to keep Jai.

  “I can’t give you want you deserve,” he said, unsure whether he was hoping for Jai to argue or agree. “I’m messed up, Jai; hell, I moved away from my family and my pack just so I wouldn’t have to tell them I liked men.”

  “So, we’ll figure it out as we go.”

  “But…”

  “I want to make this work,” Jai said softly. “And if that means that we keep this between ourselves until you can get your head around it, then that’s fine. All I’m asking of you is that you give me a chance.”

  * * * *

  Dane nodded and Jai heaved a sigh of relief. He just had to give Dane time and eventually, things would work themselves out. At least Dane was with him, he told himself. That was all that really mattered.

  Chapter Five

  The following evening, Dane followed Jai back into his house. He hadn’t intended to come here, but Jai had given him a ride home and it had just seemed right. Jai took his hand and led him upstairs, kicking the bedroom door shut behind him. Dane had spent almost the entire day chasing away memories of Jai; Jai naked, Jai kissing him, Jai’s mouth as it closed over his cock… When his mate had offered him a lift at the end of the day, he had been left with no doubt as to Jai’s intentions. He had seen Jai watching him, seen the hunger in his eyes, and he knew that he wanted whatever that look promised.

  * * * *

  “I want you naked,” Jai told him softly, unbuttoning Dane’s shirt and pushing it off his shoulders.

  He ran his hands slowly over the smooth, taut skin, feeling the play of muscles underneath, exploring. Moving lower, he unfastened Dane’s jeans, hooking his fingers into the waistband to ease them off, finding his mate wearing nothing underneath. Dane kicked the clothing out of the way once it hit the floor, feeling uncharacteristically shy as Jai stepped back and stood looking at him.

  “What are you doing? You’re making me nervous.”

  Jai smiled. “Just admiring the view,” he said.

  At Dane’s urging, Jai shed his own clothing, turning it into a slow striptease. He groaned; Jai was doing this on purpose, trying to drive him crazy. He allowed Jai to lead him to the bed, getting in. Jai pulled him into his arms, pressing their naked bodies together.

  Dane hesitantly reached between them, closing his palm around Jai’s erect cock, making the other man suck in a breath. Jai thrust his hips forward, pushing his cock into Dane’s grip, relishing the feel of his mate’s hand on him. It was the first assertive move Dane had made toward him, usually waiting until he encouraged it.

  “We’re mates,” Dane whispered. “I know we are now, and I’m glad it’s you.”

  He kissed him hard on the lips, hearing Jai protest as Dane released his cock.

  “I want you inside me,” he said and Jai stilled. “Don’t you want to?” he asked, and Jai heard the nervous edge creep back into his voice. “It’s because of what I told you, isn’t it? You think I’m damaged goods.”

  “Yes, I mean no.” Jai sighed. “I have been dreaming about sinking my dick deep into you and fucking you through the mattress since I first met you. I just don’t want you to think I’m like those other blokes, only wanting you for sex.”

  Dane frowned. “I know you aren’t like them,” he said. “They don’t care about me; I know that. I want to know what it’s like with someone who actually wants me.”

  “Oh, babe.”

  As he kissed his mate again, Dane drew back enough to murmur, “I like that.”

  “What?”

  Dane smiled. “Hearing you call me babe.”

  Jai grimaced; he hadn’t realised he had said it out loud. He didn’t get mu
ch time to think about it, however, as the feel of Dane’s cock brushing against his own when the other man moved closer snapped the last of his resolve. This time when he kissed Dane, it was raw and animalistic, the pent up frustrations of not being able to touch for so many months racing to the surface. He needed to drive his cock into his mate, to see Dane beneath him.

  “What are you doing?” Dane asked as Jai leaned across him, reaching.

  Jai leaned over the side of the bed, his hand searching underneath before he came back up with a small bottle of lubricant.

  “Needed this,” he said, moving back down the bed and spreading Dane’s legs. “Pull your knees up.”

  Dane did as instructed and Jai groaned at the sight of him spread out and open before him. His gaze raked down Dane’s body, his attention drawn to the thick, erect cock that lay against Dane’s belly, the head glistening with evidence of Dane’s arousal.

  “Please, Jai.”

  Jai smiled to himself and slicked his fingers from the bottle of lube, rubbing them together to warm it a little. Dane hissed in a breath as Jai slipped his index finger slowly into his tight hole, feeling Dane’s arse clench around him. He moved slowly, giving Dane chance to get used to the invasion, until the other man pushed against him.

  “More.”

  Jai added a second finger, feeling Dane’s body relax. Twisting his fingers, scissoring them to loosen Dane up, he wrapped his free hand around Dane’s cock. Dane’s head was back into the pillow, his hips thrusting up with each of Jai’s strokes. Jai angled the next stroke, causing Dane to buck off the bed as his fingers found Dane’s prostate.

  Dane whimpered as Jai slid his fingers out but his disappointment was short lived. He felt the hot pressure as Jai’s cock nudged at his arse, easing into him in one smooth move until he was fully impaled on his mate’s shaft. Jai was moving infuriatingly slowly and he gripped the sheet on the bed.