Torch (Unbreakable Bonds 3)

“You know we’re more than that,” Hollis said, voice low.

“No. I don’t. You eat here, you harass my friends.” He sighed. “But you also helped catch Dwight Gratton. So I owe you.”

“You owe me nothing.” Hollis reached out, hesitated, then dropped his hand.

Ian’s heart sort of stuttered to a stop. “You’re afraid to touch me, aren’t you? Too bad, Banner. It’s just too damn bad you know so much about my past because that’s a deal breaker for me. So, I don’t know why you say we’re somehow more to each other when, as I said, nothing has ever happened.”

Hollis stared at him and then something twisted in his expression. He reached out again and this time, he didn’t stop. He wrapped both hands around Ian’s upper arms and pulled him into his bigger body with heady strength.

Oh, he felt good and he smelled like cool air and some sort of spicy aftershave and Ian wanted to climb his body and lock his legs around his waist. He settled for wrapping his arms around him instead and had to bury a smile in the man’s coat when Hollis shuddered against him. He’d had a feeling all those months ago that they’d react to each other like this.

Hollis let go of his arms and put his hands on either side of Ian’s face so he could lift it. He stared at him, at his eyes, then at his mouth and Ian got tired of waiting. He stood on his toes. “I’m going against my own rules here, but you say you’re going to be gone months more, right?”

Hollis nodded.

“Then let’s see if you’re worth waiting for.” He slammed his mouth onto Hollis’s.

The big guy went completely still at first before a loud, rumbling groan spilled right into Ian’s mouth as he opened his. Hollis tilted his head and their lips fit together like puzzle pieces. Ian loved to kiss and he clutched Hollis’s coat and lured his tongue out to play.

He tasted like coffee and some kind of butterscotch candy and Ian briefly wondered if he’d hit a Starbucks recently, then he lost all train of thought when Hollis picked him up, turned them and braced him against the wall. He pressed his bigger body in to hold Ian up and now that he wasn’t stretching up onto his toes, he could put his entire focus on the detective’s wicked, wonderful mouth. Hollis tangled their tongues together and slid the fingers of one hand into his hair. The other he used to help prop Ian up to his height, by cupping Ian’s ass. It was like being surrounded. And sort of…cherished. The man kissed him like he needed it—not just wanted it.

When Hollis kneaded his ass, digging into Ian’s jeans, Ian was pretty sure his brain short-circuited. He moaned and wrapped his arms hard around Hollis’s neck so he could anchor himself. He wrapped his legs around Hollis’s waist and couldn’t stop smiling against his mouth when Hollis moaned and gripped his ass tighter. He lowered his other hand to grip Ian’s other ass cheek and he ground their bodies together.

Ian forgot all about his earlier fear and the worry about whoever had been skulking around his restaurant. He forgot about Sven. All he knew was the scratch of Hollis’s beard on his cheek, the way the man melted into his mouth and molded all those thick muscles against his body.

And most of all, along with the incredible heat between them, Ian actually felt safe.

Ian had to pull back enough to get air into his starving lungs. “Whoa. Wow.” He pulled Hollis’s face into focus to find the older man looking at him like he was food. He liked that. Liked it a lot. He grinned and tightened his legs.

Hollis jerked and moaned again and the overly excited sound had a broken, thready quality to it that let Ian know the man was barely hanging on. Hollis shut his eyes. “You’re okay,” he whispered, voice gravelly. “Tell me you’re okay.”

He hated that Hollis felt he had to ask that, but he understood and if there was a way to keep this kind of desire and need in his life, he’d have to work to get past his resentment that Hollis knew of his past. And…he seemed patient. Hell, it had taken him over a year to fucking kiss him. Patience would be needed because, yeah, there were things Ian couldn’t handle and there were times the fear wrestled for control.

“Ian?” Hollis leaned his head back, blue eyes locking with his.

“More than okay. Can’t you feel that?” He thrust his hips into Hollis.

The man’s eyes actually rolled back in his head and Ian couldn’t stop the rush of delighted power he felt. “Oh, you are definitely worth waiting for and we are going to have a really, really good time together.”