“Have you forgiven him?”
Ty’s breath caught, and he glanced around the cabin, looking for Nick through the open door again. The rift in their friendship pulled at him just as viscerally as the scars on the Fiddler’s walls. Then Ty noticed the white noise of running water coming from down the corridor. His nerves tumbled when he thought about going in there.
“You need to. For your sake and his.” Zane patted Ty’s cheek and shrugged out of his shirt.
Ty lowered his head and shook it, hooking his fingers in Zane’s belt loops. “I’m not letting you out of my sight right now.”
“I need to shower to get this stuff off me,” Zane argued. Ty sighed as he searched Zane’s eyes. He wondered which Sidewinder had put the camo paint on Zane’s face, and if there was photographic evidence he could see later. Zane smiled, even though the expression was mostly marred by the greasepaint. “You need to talk to him, I need to clean up. I’ll be right here when you’re done.”
Ty could take a hint that loud. He grudgingly headed out, leaving Zane to take his shower. But when he stepped into the main cabin and peered through the door of the head, he stopped short, watching as Nick hung his head over the sink and splashed his face with water over and over. He apparently hadn’t heard Ty’s quiet approach with the water on.
A towel was slung over Nick’s bare shoulder, and he was trying to rub the greasepaint off his face with the tips of his fingers, but it wasn’t working very well. He’d only gotten about half of it off. His actions were slow and deliberate, his eyes never rising to meet his reflection in the mirror. He finally gave up and straightened. The crisscrossed scars on his back stretched across tense muscles, the large Celtic cross flexing like severed wings against his shoulder blades.
He wet the towel, then scrubbed at his face. It was a routine Ty was well familiar with. How many times had he and Nick stood side by side at a mirror, wiping off the greasepaint in a heavy silence? Or more often, wiping themselves clean as Kelly bitched at them from the doorway to let him stitch them up.
Nick cut the faucet off and looked up. His eyes met Ty’s in the mirror, and he froze. “Hey.”
“Missed a spot,” Ty said with a small smile.
Nick turned his head from side to side to find the remaining paint. Ty moved closer and took the towel from him, holding it up to ask for permission. Nick turned to him and cleared his throat uncomfortably. Ty ran the towel over his nose and cheeks, forcing Nick to squeeze his eyes shut as he removed the remnants of the paint.
“Every time, man,” Ty said, smiling sadly.
“Thanks.” Nick took the towel from him, folding it even though it was sopping wet and covered in paint that would likely never come clean. He seemed to force himself to meet Ty’s eyes, steeling himself for whatever he thought Ty had come in here for.
“I see you got more holes in your boat,” Ty finally said.
Nick nodded, trying to remain stoic. But Ty could tell he was barely holding himself together. “It still floats,” he managed.
Ty found himself smiling gently.
“I should have come to you,” Nick blurted.
Ty winced and shook his head. “How could you have?”
Nick’s brow creased and he cocked his head, his shoulders tensing.
“I made it impossible for you to come to me with this. You tried to warn me about him ten years ago, and I didn’t listen. Your gut never let us down all those years, and I still didn’t hear you when you tried to tell me.”
“Tyler.”
“No. You earned that from me. You earned my trust when you said something didn’t feel right. And I didn’t listen when you tried to bank it.”
Nick averted his gaze, pressing his lips tight. Ty couldn’t tell if he was upset or relieved.
“It wasn’t about you,” Ty continued. “It was because I didn’t want to hear you. And I didn’t want to hear you this time, either.”
Nick opened his mouth like he was going to speak, but he closed it again without making a sound. He met Ty’s eyes, wincing like he was looking at something too bright.
“Anyone but Richard Burns, and . . . I would have listened to you,” Ty said. “Anyone but him.”
Nick nodded and swallowed hard, not even trying to speak now.
“Maybe you should have come to me, man, I don’t know. But we would have wound up right here no matter what path we took to get here.” Ty ran his teeth across his lip to keep from saying more, and chewed on the inside of his cheek as he waited for Nick to say something. Anything.
“I don’t like the path I took,” Nick admitted.
Ty had to concentrate on the signet ring on his finger. The one Nick wore was different than his, but they meant the same thing: semper fi. Ty swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Neither do I.”
They stood in awkward silence for a few more seconds, and then Nick moved past Ty, into the cabin again.
But Ty wasn’t done. He couldn’t let it hang like that. He followed Nick, and after sparing a moment to think about it, he practically tackled Nick from behind to hug him.
Nick stumbled, grunting as Ty’s body hit him, then looked over his shoulder like he wasn’t sure what Ty was doing. Ty just held on to him, resting his cheek against the back of Nick’s shoulder, locking his wrists so Nick couldn’t get away.
Nick reached up hesitantly and patted Ty’s hands.
Ty distantly registered Zane and Kelly watching them from the corridor, and Digger and Owen contorting themselves in the stairwell so they could see. He didn’t care, though.
Nick was trembling under Ty’s embrace, his breathing ragged. He laughed weakly. “What are you doing, Beaumont?”
“Something I should have done a long time ago,” Ty whispered, so only Nick could hear him. “Forcing you to love me again.”
Nick snorted and lowered his head. Ty could just make out the barest of smiles.
“I can live with Richard Burns being a monster,” Ty said. “I can even live with knowing he used me, and God knows how many innocent men I killed.” Ty sniffed, squeezing his eyes shut as Nick began trying to disentangle himself.
Ty let him go, and Nick turned to face him.
“But the last year?” Ty said, choking on the words. He swallowed past it and pushed on. “Thinking you didn’t trust me, thinking I’d lost you? I don’t want to live in that world. I don’t want to live that life. I can’t.”
Nick was visibly fighting back tears, his nostrils flaring, his lips trembling and his jaw tight. His eyes were still on Ty’s, though, filled with sadness and hope.
“I love you, brother,” Ty whispered, and when he tried to take a breath to say the next words, his lungs failed him. His throat tightened, and what he’d intended came out an unintelligible huff. He gripped Nick again and pulled him into a proper hug instead, resting his chin on Nick’s shoulder.
“I love you too, Tyler,” Nick managed to say. “God, I’m sorry.”
Ty gasped as relief swept over him like a cool breeze in the desert they’d once walked through together. “I need you to be my brother again,” he said against Nick’s bare shoulder. “I don’t know how to be me without it.”
Nick’s arms tightened around Ty, his fingers grasping at Ty’s shirt.
Someone behind Ty sniffled. He and Nick laughed weakly, still clinging to each other.
“Fuck all y’all,” Digger finally blurted. “I’m getting in on this.”
A moment later Digger wrapped his arms around Ty and Nick, squishing his face against Ty’s. In mere seconds, the others had joined them, piling into a hug that had been a long time—years—in coming. Ty reached out blindly and found Zane’s shoulder as the man hovered near them, pulling him closer until he was forced to join in.
Nick rested his forehead against Ty’s shoulder, and his entire body seemed to slump in relief. “Thank you,” he said. He repeated it several more times, until it became so soft it blended with the whirring of the yacht’s heating system and faded int
o the darkness.
Zane couldn’t quite place the relief he felt as he slid under the covers that night, waiting for Ty to finish showering. It was obviously a relief to have Ty next to him again; he wouldn’t have survived another spiral like the one he’d suffered previously. But what he was fixating on tonight was the way he felt lighter, and Ty felt lighter, and the yacht felt lighter. Perhaps it was relief that Ty’s sanity would still be intact by morning, because as much as Zane was for Ty, he couldn’t be everything.
Zane was Ty’s anchor, a way to keep him from floating away. But Nick was Ty’s seashore, always in the distance, visible, comforting, and harkening to home. And Zane was relieved Ty could spot the shore again.
The shower turned off, and a few minutes later Ty was crawling into bed next to him. They wrapped around each other without a word. They didn’t need words. Their mouths met, the kisses hot and hard. Zane ground against Ty, hands on his hips, both men demanding and almost violent in their desire to assure themselves they were really there.
Ty threw the covers off them, kicking them down to the bottom of the bed, and then got to his knees, scooting until he was perched on the edge of the bow-shaped bed. Zane sat up to watch Ty in the moonlight that weaved through the portholes.
“Remember the last round bed we tried?” Ty asked, his voice gone low and intimate.
Zane grinned. “Should we just start this on the floor, then?” He was almost shocked when his voice came out in a predatory growl. He got to his knees and crawled closer.
Ty reached for him, sinking his hands into Zane’s hair. “Let’s see.”
Zane dragged him to the side of the bed, until his back was pushed against the curved shelf that encircled the mattress and he was bent against the hull. He kissed him possessively, yanking at Ty’s legs until he’d settled between them. Ty banged his head on the hull, cursing even as he squeezed Zane with his knees.
“God, yes,” Zane growled. He dug his fingers into Ty’s thighs and dragged him into his lap.
He slid one arm behind Ty to keep it out of the way. It was the wrist that still throbbed like he might have broken it during their fight, but he was determined not to let Ty know that. He’d have to figure out how to keep that arm out of play for a few days. His other hand, though, it was just fine. He let it roam over Ty’s naked body. He wanted more kisses, more contact.
Ty hooked his ankles behind Zane’s thighs and clutched at his neck, dragging his blunt fingernails down Zane’s back and over his shoulder blades, setting Zane’s skin on fire. He was either forgetting Zane’s bumps and bruises and tender places, or he didn’t care if Zane burned. In fact, Zane thought that was exactly what Ty wanted him to do. Burn.
Ty sighed against his lips and shifted his hips forward, legs tightening around Zane’s waist, forcing the head of Zane’s leaking cock against his ass.
“I don’t think you can fuck me right here tonight,” Ty said between heated kisses, sounding decidedly upset about it.
Zane put one hand on Ty’s chest and pushed him until he thumped against the hull, getting up on his knees to loom over him. “Why not?” he asked roughly, and leaned in to lick and bite his way across the exposed skin of Ty’s belly. Ty was beaten and bruised from their fight, since he hadn’t been wearing armor when Zane had taken his shots. His body was covered in the sordid tales of his life and the battles he’d fought. The battles he’d fought to get to Zane.
Zane brushed his palm over some of those bruises, his fingers going from gentle to rough as he yanked at Ty’s hips.
Ty groaned again and rested his head back on the porthole behind him. “Because we don’t have any lube and I won’t be able to walk. We kind of need me to be able to walk, baby.”
“You can’t tell me there’s not lube on this boat,” Zane grunted as he played his nose over Ty’s skin.
Ty chuckled.
Zane sighed and wound Ty’s pliable body around him, grinding his hardened cock against Ty’s. “That could be a problem,” he whispered, trying to steady his breathing.
“God, I want you inside me,” Ty hissed as he flattened his hands against Zane’s skin.
“You’re sending some serious mixed signals right now,” Zane snarled. Ty shrugged unapologetically, and Zane pushed away just enough to shove the pillows and blankets around beside them. He yanked at Ty’s legs, rubbing against him, then picked Ty up and slammed him into the mattress. He wanted to make damn sure they started in the middle of the bed this time.
Ty lifted his hips, the action tightening his grip on Zane’s waist. “Zane,” he moaned.
“God damn it, Ty, work with me here,” Zane grunted as he slid his hands between Ty’s thighs, palm and fingers cupping his hard cock. “You won’t let me fuck you, I’ll just have to do something else.”
Ty groaned, writhing under Zane’s touch. “When have you ever listened to me before?”
Zane kissed him and bit at his lower lip. “Just don’t scream,” he warned. Seconds later, Zane had Ty’s cock in his mouth.
Ty’s fingers gripped the edge of the shelf surrounding the bed, and he cried out Zane’s name in something like outrage after he banged his knuckles on the rim. He arched his back and thrust his hips, his feet seeking purchase against Zane’s body as Zane wrapped him up. “You’re going to fucking kill me.”
“Eat you alive, maybe,” Zane rasped, one hand pumping Ty’s cock before his lips closed around the head, tongue swirling and lapping.
“Oh God,” Ty groaned. His grip on the shelf tightened until his knuckles went white. Ty’s cum was leaking onto Zane’s tongue as he worked for more. Each gasp and groan and curse drove him on. He was so hard it was almost painful, but he wouldn’t spare a hand for himself. Ty was still trying to find leverage as he attempted to thrust his hips. He settled his heels in the center of Zane’s back, and Zane hissed at the pain.
He grazed his teeth over Ty’s shaft in warning, and Ty cried out and bucked his hips, cupping the back of Zane’s head in a trembling hand as he struggled to put his feet anywhere else. He was obviously trying hard not to just grab Zane’s head and fuck his mouth, but Zane was determined to make Ty lose what little control he was exerting.
Zane’s cock ached almost as much as his injured wrist. He slid his fingers between Ty’s legs and behind his tightened balls to rub, trying to throw Ty over the edge. It spurred Ty into moving, but not like Zane had intended. Ty scrabbled at his shoulders, pushing him, pulling him, urging him to move until he was turned around and they wound back together. Zane was still on his knees with Ty in his mouth, but now he had Ty’s body beneath him, Ty’s tongue on his cock.
Zane took a few thrusts just to appreciate how talented Ty was in this position, then returned his attention to making Ty come. It wasn’t long after all his attention before Ty curled in on himself and tightened his fingers on Zane’s ass. He was still sucking Zane off even as he thrust up into Zane’s mouth. He gave a moan that traveled through Zane’s body, and he bucked his hips, emptying himself into Zane’s mouth with a plaintive whimper.
Zane swallowed and sucked as Ty shuddered under him, until Ty was struggling. “Please!” Ty finally cried, squirming away from the overstimulation.
Zane licked his lips, sucking in deep breaths as he fought his own need for release. He rolled over and looked Ty up and down, all flushed and shaky and gasping. Zane just groaned. He turned around, crawling up Ty’s body.
“Next time I have you naked,” he growled.
Ty was still trembling under Zane’s caresses, and he spread his legs wider so Zane could get to him. “Come on.”
Zane shook his head. Ty had been right; if Zane got at him now without lube, he wouldn’t be at full physical capacity, and Zane would never hurt him. But that didn’t mean Zane didn’t want to just skewer him on his cock and pound him until he cried for mercy.
Ty huffed when he realized Zane really wasn’t going to fuck him. He wrapped his arms around Zane’s neck, kissing him messily. “Come up here the
n,” he said, giving Zane’s ass a little tug.
Zane crawled up his body, pushing the pillows and sheets aside as he did so. Ty laughed quietly as the edge of the bed loomed near them. They readjusted their position. Zane refused to lose this opportunity to a round bed. He absolutely refused.
He slammed his good hand down on the shelf, holding on so they wouldn’t fucking roll off, and watched as Ty took his cock between those full lips of his. Ty gave him a cheeky little wink. Zane had to bite his tongue. He cradled Ty’s head in one hand, trying not to wince as it throbbed, and braced himself on the other. He started with slow, careful thrusts that soon became the same ruthless rhythm he would have hit if he’d been fucking Ty.
Zane spent long, torturous moments watching the sordid little show and letting that pleasure curl in his gut, letting Ty bring him closer and closer to the brink. It wasn’t enough, though. It was never enough when he couldn’t have all of Ty wrapped up in his arms. “Ty,” he whispered, his breaths shuddering.
Ty grabbed for his hips and encouraged him to go harder. His hazel eyes were sparkling. Zane’s hand tightened in his hair as he wondered what the hell Ty had up his sleeve to put that look in his eyes. “Oh, doll, don’t be mean.”
Ty winked, his tongue sliding along the underside of Zane’s straining cock.
“Oh, Jesus, Ty,” Zane whimpered. He pulled out just enough that Ty had to chase after him, and Zane completely lost what little control he’d had.
He held on to him and pounded into his mouth. Ty’s hands came up to clutch at his hips, but Zane didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. He closed his eyes, getting lost in the pleasure as he used Ty’s mouth, thrusting deep until Ty’s nose brushed his belly, until Ty’s fingers were burning scratches into his skin, until he could feel that elusive flutter just on the edge of his senses.
Ty grasped at Zane’s chest, sliding around to rake his nails across the small of his back. He didn’t try to slow Zane’s punishing thrusts, though. He pulled Zane’s ass toward him, encouraging him to continue. When Ty began to moan, Zane could feel it in his cock, feel it making its way all the way to his toes, his tongue, into his very heartbeat.