Something in the Way He Needs (Family 1)

Daniel nodded, his wavy hair flopping back into his face. “Yeah, I could see that. You definitely strike me as the guy in charge.”

Asher reached over to Daniel and rubbed his way up Daniel’s back and over to the nape of his neck. Then he met Daniel’s gaze and circled his big hand around until it was wrapped around Daniel’s throat, not constricting, just petting gently, but making sure Daniel could feel the pressure against his windpipe.

“Yeah,” Asher said, noticing how husky his own voice sounded. “I like being the guy in charge.”

Daniel shuddered and swallowed hard, but his eyes didn’t leave Asher’s intense gaze. And he didn’t pull away from Asher’s touch. Oh, damn, that was such a turn-on. Asher wanted to get off the bus and take the younger man to his hotel room, where they could really play. It took all his control to let that desire go.

First off, he’d have to join Oliver and his merry band of mischief makers for dinner as soon as the bus trip ended, so there wasn’t enough time for fun with the intriguing stranger. Plus, Daniel had set a limit—he didn’t have sex unless he was in a relationship. And whatever else anybody could say about Asher—vicious with a whip or a cane, almost over the edge with ropes, and just generally pissed off and cantankerous—nobody could say he didn’t respect hard limits. Oh, and the relationship thing wasn’t his bag either. He sighed.

“I….” Daniel’s voice broke on just that word, so he cleared his throat, still making no effort to extricate himself from Asher’s hold. “I’m a little hot, so I, uh, think I should take off my sweatshirt.”

The man’s cheeks were rosy, and Asher could believe it was from heat. Of course, he was pretty sure the heat was generated from their conversation and the way he was touching Daniel rather than the outside temperature. Asher rubbed his thumb against the vein on the side of Daniel’s neck for a full minute before releasing his hold. And in all that time, Daniel didn’t complain or pull away.

Oh, yeah. The man was a natural sub. No doubt about it in Asher’s mind. And the Dom in Asher responded to that on a fundamental level.

But Asher also recognized it wasn’t just the dominant part of him that seemed to have developed an unusually quick and not particularly logical fixation on the disheveled, direction-challenged man. Strange as it was, Asher found he enjoyed talking to Daniel, liked listening to his stories about the many adventures he’d managed to squeeze into his thirty-three years, and loved seeing him smile. Since when did he give two shits whether a guy was smiling?

Asher was distracted by his own mental musings, so he was taken off guard when he saw Daniel standing in front of his seat with his arms and head tangled in the huge sweatshirt he was trying to pull off his body. Even worse, his twists and turns with the offending garment somehow caused him to lose his balance. So by the time Asher focused on what was going on right in front of him, he saw Daniel stumble and fall against the bus railing, his torso completely over the edge and his legs following.

“Ah, damn, Daniel. Don’t move!” Asher shouted as he leaped from his seat and wrapped his arms around Daniel’s waist, pulling him back down into the seat. Then he gently shifted the sweatshirt and pulled it over Daniel’s head and arms. Daniel curled into Asher’s body, and Asher felt him trembling and gasping for air as he tried to calm his too-rapid heart rate. The man was clearly terrified.

“Shhh, it’s okay. I’ve got you. Maybe next time you can let me help you take your clothes off. I promise you’ll be perfectly safe.” He hoped the humor in his voice was clear, and that he wasn’t coming across as a letch.

Daniel lifted his head and met Asher’s gaze. “You saved my life,” he said in awe. “I was going to fall and you saved me.” Those enormous brown eyes blinked several times and Daniel poked his pink tongue out of his enticing mouth and licked full lips. “You know what they say happens when someone saves your life?”

No, Asher had no idea what they said about such things. Superstitions played absolutely no role in his life. If he couldn’t see it and touch it, then it wasn’t worth his time or thought. Taking Asher’s silence as acknowledgement that he did not, in fact, know the answer to this particular riddle, Daniel kept talking, his tone barely higher than a whisper, and his trim body still trembling.

“If someone saves your life, then your life belongs to him.”

Chapter 3

ASHER didn’t respond to Daniel’s comment, at least not verbally. His body, however, was another story and Asher wondered whether the smaller man practically sitting on his lap could feel what the thought of owning Daniel did to him. Because that was exactly how Asher’s now fully erect dick interpreted Daniel’s words. He had an almost overwhelming compulsion to order the younger man to strip naked and kneel at his feet.