Unspoken Vow (Steele Brothers 2)

I want to be the guy to bring him out of his darkness and give him light until he can shine on his own.

Though the way Anders’ hand reaches for my cock and rubs me through my jeans, my self-restraint might protest holding back.

His mouth explores my exposed skin and works its way up to my lips.

Even when he kisses me deep, his tongue searching out mine, I don’t move anything but my mouth.

An anguished groan comes from him. “Touch me, Brody. Please.”

He doesn’t have to tell me twice, but I don’t dive right in. I take it slow, cupping his face right over his scar.

“This okay?” I whisper.

His brown eyes bore into mine and get shiny as he says, “Yes. Really yes. Like, I’m surprised by how much I need you to touch me right this second.”

“Do you think we can take it upstairs, or will that be pushing our luck?”

Anders looks around the small confines of my Lexus IS. “We can totally do this.”

It becomes evident that as soon as I put my seat all the way back and Anders tries to climb into my lap that we totally can’t do this.

Anders’ back hits the steering wheel and the sound of the horn echoes through the quiet garage while laughter fills the car.

“Fine,” he relents. “Upstairs.”

It’s practically a race to the elevator, and as soon as the doors close to take us up to our floor, Anders is on me again, backing me against the wall and taking my mouth more aggressively than he ever has before.

I take that as a good sign.

When the elevator dings, we stumble our way to our front door, where I fumble with the keys until I have to pull away from Anders.

Hand in hand, we enter the apartment all smiles and anticipation.

All of which almost disappear when Anders’ gaze darts across the room.

“Hi, Rach.”

I drag him through the apartment without even looking at her. “Bye, Rach.”

“Am I going to need noise-cancelling headphones?” she calls after us.

“If you’re gonna keep staying here, yeah.” I slam the door behind us.

“I’m glad you made up!” she yells. “I’m going out for dinner. A long one.”

“Well, that takes care of her.” I shuck off my T-shirt.

“Bring us back some food,” Anders yells. “And that takes care of dinner.”

“Brilliant.”

Anders steps closer to me and eyes the bed. “I see you didn’t get rid of the restraints.”

“You can call it being cocky if you like, but honestly, it’s been out of pure hope. I didn’t want this to be the end of us.”

Anders takes a deep breath. “Me either. I don’t want anything to come between us.”

It means so much to me for him to say that. “I know that might not be possible, but as long as you promise to try and keep trying to come back to me. To trust me. Trust that no matter what, I’m here for you.”

“I’ll try. Now, get on the bed.” He shoves me until I fall onto my back on the bed.

“Nngh.” I love confident Anders.

Actually, I love quirky Anders too.

I love every aspect of him, even the ugly, dark sides of his past.

Now to prove it to him.

29

Anderson

I climb on top of Brody’s large body. “I want to try something.”

“If it’s shibari, I’m gonna have to say no. I mean, it looks hot, but I can see it now. You’ll forget how to untie me, and then there’ll be scissors way too close to my junk for my liking.”

The laugh is on the tip of my tongue, but it’s the realisation he even knows what shibari is that stops me short. “You researched bondage?”

Brody looks uncomfortable and glances away. “I researched a lot. And not just the bondage stuff.”

“What other stuff?”

“PTSD, domestic abuse … drug addiction.”

I swallow hard.

“Intimacy issues for survivors, local psychologists so I could meet with someone …” he continues.

“Umm, why?”

“I’ve had a lot of time since …”

“Since?”

Brody stares up at me, his brown hair falling across his forehead and sincerity shining in his eyes. “Since you walked out. I wanted to do everything I possibly could to try to understand what you’ve been through and to learn to be the kind of guy you need going forwards. If there was a going forwards.”

“Fuck, Brody,” I whine.

“What?”

“I don’t know where you and Reed came from, but it has to be like some sort of angel exchange program for broken-ass guys like my brother and me.”

He chuckles. “What we’re about to do is anything but angelic. Actually, it’s probably downright sinful.”

“About that. It’s what I want to try. I was talking to Ed, and—”

“You were still going to him?”

“I was going to cancel my last appointment, but it was too late, and I would’ve had to pay anyway, so I figured I may as well see if I could get anything out of it. I went and explained our situation, and he kinda gave me tips on hooking up comfortably without bringing out the restraints right away.”