Two Spirits

CHAPTER 5

Trey knew he should be freaked out, shocked at being tethered to the bed, his arms raised above his head, his back against the mattress. But the look on Tenino’s face, the hunger and relentless determination, the burning lust was enough to have him lifting, making it easy for Tenino to strip the jeans and underwear away.

His breath caught when Tenino opened the drawer of the nightstand, pulled out a condom and the lubricant. His anus tightened defensively, like a virgin afraid of penetration.

He noticed he was shivering, but the race of his heart, the wild pounding in his cock didn’t let him label what he was experiencing as anything other than anticipation.

Tenino dropped to his side. His shirt was unbuttoned, as was Trey’s. His eyes roved over Trey’s bare skin, caressed it with a heat that almost made Trey whimper. He moaned when Tenino’s fingers found his nipples, tightened on them, sending shards of painful pleasure to a cock already leaking.

“Payback’s a bitch,” Trey joked, only to pay the price as his balls tightened in remembrance of what it was like to lie on top of Tenino, to thrust into a tight, dark place.

“You could say that.”

Tenino’s hand moved downward, claimed Trey’s cock. He loved the way it throbbed against his palm, leaked, jerked.

Part of him wanted to lean down, suck it into his mouth and reduce Trey to mewling whimpers. But the part of him that’d cuffed Trey to the bed was after something else—complete and total submission, complete and total acceptance of the relationship being forged between them.

Yeah, he’d enjoyed letting Trey fuck him and they’d revisit the scenario again— maybe even often because he was finding he could be more flexible than he’d thought possible—but fundamentally he wasn’t wired that way. At his core he was dominant.

He wanted to be the man on top, the man shoving his cock into his partner’s ass, making him scream and come.

Tenino brushed his thumb over Trey’s cock head. He smeared the liquid arousal over the smooth head, silently calling himself a pervert for liking Trey’s circumcised penis, for thinking it made Trey seem more vulnerable—as if Trey’s virgin status wasn’t more than enough to bring out some primal urges.

Damn. The thought of being Trey’s first was mind-blowing.

The thought of anyone else fucking Trey was enough to make Tenino crazed, and told him more clearly than the constant erection and ever-present threat of a terminal case of blue balls that this attraction to Trey was serious, different than anything he’d ever experienced.

He’d never been the jealous type. He didn’t like to look closely at it now—but there’d been stretches in his life where a quick, anonymous fuck or blowjob suited him fine.

No names. No commitments. Nothing except a physical release that didn’t involve his own fisted hand.

Tenino wrapped his fingers around his own cock. He slid up and down, worked his penis in the same rhythm he worked Trey’s and seriously thought about letting go and coating Trey’s belly with come.

He reduced Trey to writhing, begging. But truth be told, he brought himself close to doing the same.

How torqued was that? Trey was the one in cuffs while he was the one who was supposed to be in control.

Tenino just about lost it when Trey willingly spread his legs, started begging to be fucked. It took heroic effort to release Trey’s cock, then his own, so he could squeeze lubricant onto his fingers.

Trey jerked when Tenino pressed lubricant-coated fingers to the tight ring of his anus. “You could have warmed the stuff up first,” he joked in an effort to hide his sudden nervousness.

“It’ll warm up soon enough,” Tenino said, eyes so fierce they reminded Trey of a bird of prey. “Bear down. Push out.”

Trey’s cheeks flamed but he complied. He moaned as Tenino breached him, opened him, stretched and prepared him, Tenino’s fingers finding a place Trey hadn’t known could be the source of so much pleasure and stroking over it until he was panting, fighting the restraints.

He almost cried out when Tenino rolled away. But his heart rate sped up as he watched Tenino put on a condom.

Nervousness dimmed the haze of passion. Trey shivered when Tenino settled on top of him, pressed a condom-encased cock head to his entrance.

His buttocks clenched protectively while his penis pulsed in eagerness, responding to the expression on Tenino’s face, the determination. “Don’t fight it,” Tenino said, his fingers going to Trey’s nipple, tightening hard enough to make Trey moan and ache for something more.

Trey forced himself to relax, to push out as Tenino pushed in. It was exquisite, nearly unbearable. Earth-shattering.

He tugged against the restraints. He used them to keep from tensing up again even as he wished his hands were free so he could spear his fingers through Tenino’s hair.

Trey shook as inch by inch Tenino slid into him, took him. Only Tenino’s hand returning to Trey’s cock, taking control of it, kept him from coming before Tenino was all the way in.

No erotic fantasy could compete with the sight of Tenino above him, his face a mask of agonized pleasure, his tanned body coated in a thin layer of sweat, straining to go slow rather than to give in to the urge to fuck.

There was no going back. No return to denial.

Trey felt disgust in himself for all the years he’d wasted. For the lie he’d lived and the dishonesty he’d brought to his relationships with women. But he didn’t wallow in self-recrimination. There was no point in it and on some level, he knew all the choices of his past had led to this moment, this man.

“Kiss me,” Trey managed, wanting the ultimate intimacy, needing it, knowing he was lost when Tenino’s lips touched his, when their tongues tangled as Tenino forged deeper and deeper.

Sensation rode Trey. Emotion consumed him. Hope overwhelmed him.

He was helpless, the handcuffs only symbolic. He wanted Tenino, now and forever.

One moan after another followed as Tenino began thrusting. Trey couldn’t have fought the pleasure even if he’d wanted to. Nothing had ever felt as good, as right as having Tenino on top of him, fucking him, finally letting him come before coming himself.

The sound of rapid breathing filled the air. Beneath it a phantom drumbeat echoed and raced in time to Trey’s heart.

He forced his eyes open and found Tenino’s face inches above his. Their gazes held as Tenino’s cock softened inside Trey, neither of them speaking, as if they both wanted to hang on to the closeness and delay the moment when their physical connection would end.

“You okay?” Tenino finally asked, his voice whisper-soft, rough-edged.

“Yeah. Better than okay.”

“Good.” Tenino dipped his head, planted a quick kiss on Trey’s lips before rolling to his feet and disposing of the condom then freeing Trey from the handcuffs.

“I need a shower,” Trey said, grinning as he sat up. “So does the sheriff know you use police-issue equipment like that?”

“I got a little carried away,” Tenino admitted, his face reddening just enough to make it totally endearing to Trey.

“Well, I won’t say anything,” Trey managed with a straight face. “But I’m thinking my silence should come at a price.”

“Oh yeah?”

The rough dark edge to Tenino’s voice had Trey’s cock stirring, ready to harden again. “Yeah. Like next time you’re in the mood to play a little bondage game, you’re the one who gets cuffed.”

White teeth flashed in a face made erotically savage by the look in Tenino’s eyes. “Any time you think you can take me down, go for it.”

Heat coursed through Trey. Images of wrestling naked, fighting for the dominant position had him taking himself in hand.

Tenino’s cock hardened in response. His hand mimicked Trey’s, slid from base to tip. Made Trey want to go down on his knees the way he’d done when they’d finished with the guns.

“I thought you were hot to get to the nearest bookstore,” Tenino said, the rough timber of his voice like a phantom hand reaching inside Trey, stroking.

It took Trey a second to remember asking where the closest bookstore was when they’d finished shooting. He circled his cock head with his thumb, rubbed over the slit, challenged. “Guess it can wait until this gets old.”

Tenino snorted, leaned down and found Trey’s testicles with his free hand, took possession and made Trey gasp as pleasure spiked through him. “You think this could ever get old?”

Trey fought the urge to flop backward, to cant his hips and spread his legs. One fuck and he already felt like an addict where Tenino was concerned.

The phone rang, saving him from himself though he shuddered, ached when Tenino’s hand left him.

“To be continued,” Tenino said, pressing a quick kiss to Trey’s lips. “That’s probably Tekoa checking to make sure everything’s okay. If we’re staying here, one of us should bring in some of the wood stacked outside so I can get the fire going in the fireplace. It’ll cut down on how long the generator has to run later to charge the batteries.”

Trey laughed but stood so he could get dressed. “One of us being the poor city slicker who you think doesn’t know how to deal with a fire in the fireplace.”

“Do you?”

“How hard can it be?” Trey said, choosing those particular words with care.

Tenino’s grin made heat flare in Trey’s chest. “Good question. We’ll have to see just how hard things can get.”

Tenino walked to the desk, totally at ease with his nakedness. Trey remained motionless, unable to look away from the firm muscles and autumn-brown skin of the man he hoped would be his first lover, and his last.

As if sensing Trey’s eyes on him, Tenino picked up the phone, turned, took himself in hand even as he spoke into the receiver, said, “Oh yeah, the schoolteacher and I are getting along just fine. Any word from the Feds?”

Trey blushed, quickly pulled on sweatpants and a shirt, then his shoes. The rumble of thunder greeted him when he stepped outside. He found the wood and gathered an armful of it, inhaled deeply, loving the smell of clean air and evergreens, damp earth and the approaching storm.

He’d spent most of his life in the city though he’d hiked in areas set aside as preserves. But compared to here, those places seemed…tame, refined, less…

Trey frowned, struggled to pinpoint the difference and found it when the low clap of distant thunder was followed by the phantom drumbeat, as if this land was so ancient and primordial it had a heartbeat, as if it was a place of magic like those captured in legends and folktales.

He’d underestimated it when he’d gotten his first look at it through the window of the police car. Now it spoke to him, called to him in a way he couldn’t ignore and didn’t want to.

Tenino was hanging up the phone when Trey stepped back inside.

“Any news?” Trey asked, going to the fireplace and setting the wood on the hearth.

“Nothing good, at least when it comes to Patricia Veron gunning for you.”

Trey stood, turned to watch as Tenino came toward him. “What does that mean?”

“A fight broke out in the prison cafeteria a little while ago. One of her uncles was shanked while the guards were distracted. I think it’s safe to say he was probably the target all along. Child molesters aren’t popular. Doesn’t look like he’s going to survive it.”

Trey started to ask which uncle but didn’t. He had met both of them, liked them. But that didn’t make him feel bad about one of them being attacked in prison.

A long time ago they may have been the innocent victims, but they’d grown up and ruined lives. They’d perpetrated horrendous crimes on children.

Trey glanced down Tenino’s still-naked body and saw the phone call had impacted him just as thoughts of Patricia and her family had killed his erection. He turned, reached out to touch the thunderbird carved into the mantle, changed the topic. “I can see how this land gave birth to the thunderbird. There’s something about it, something almost mystical. I keep imagining I’m hearing a drum, and sometimes there’s chanting.”

Surprise ripped through Tenino, followed by sheer happiness. Both Ukiah’s mate Marisa, and Tekoa’s mate Jessica, had heard the heartbeat of The People before drinking from the Creator’s cup.

“We call it singing,” he said, keeping his voice level, matter-of-fact, when what he really wanted to do was question, cross-examine, secure every bit of evidence proving Trey was meant to be his permanent partner.

“Sorry,” Trey said, heat rising to his cheeks, making Tenino curse silently in fear of shutting the conversation down.

“No offense taken.” His fingers settled on the mantle next to Trey’s. “Ukiah made this.”

“Your cousin, right? The sheriff’s brother?”

“Yeah. He’s an artist. Also operates a lodge, complete with private cabins, for people who come here to hike and rock climb but don’t necessarily want to rough it in tents. These days he’s got a waiting list and there are always people begging to stay during the winter when he closes down.

“The land has a way of holding you, making it almost impossible to leave. I managed it once. Worked as a cop in Los Angeles then in San Francisco. But I couldn’t stay away. I won’t leave again.”

Trey nodded, ducked his head so his blond hair completely hid his expression. Tenino wanted to reach over, pull the strands of gold back, or better yet, pull Trey against him and prevent him from hiding. Shit, it’d all happened so fast. It was way too soon to talk about something that transcended the pleasure of fucking and was more about the spirit than the body.

He grimaced. In a minute he was going to start reciting poetry. How fast would Trey run if he started doing that?

Trey surprised him again by saying, “Hohoq is one of the names of the thunderbird, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. The Thunderbird is important to those of us who live here. Roughly translated, we’re called People of the Thunderbird.”

“There are a lot of different beliefs when it comes to them.” Trey’s voice held a hint of a question as well as caution, as if he didn’t want to risk saying or straying into something sensitive.

Tenino couldn’t stand it. He curled his arm around Trey’s waist, forced him to turn so they could look into each other’s eyes. “Don’t pussyfoot around and worry about political correctness with me. I’m a gay cop. You think I can’t handle anything you can dish out?” He leaned in, tempering the words with a kiss meant to tell Trey he’d endure a hell of a lot of accidental insults in order to keep the lines of communication open.

Trey met his kiss with equal passion. Nearly drove him to the rug with desperate longing.

Tenino fought the lust, knew this conversation was more important than physical release—even if his penis didn’t agree. “What is it you want to know?” he managed, needing to close his eyes for a second so Trey’s lips and the feel of their cocks touching—hardened once again even if they were separated by the thin material of Trey’s sweats—didn’t distract him.

“Just wondering what the thunderbird means to you, I guess,” Trey said.

Tenino wasn’t sure how to answer, wished now he’d spent at least a few minutes thinking about something beyond sex with Trey. “The Thunderbird serves the Creator by guarding the land, just as The People protect and care for it.”

It was the best he could do, the truth as much as he could tell it. Once his people had been so much more, but…

Tenino turned his thoughts away from anger and bitterness. The past couldn’t be forgotten. Neither could it be changed or those who lived today be held responsible for what their ancestors had been a part of or allowed to happen. He was one of The People. He was Thunderbird. But he was also American. A cop. A man who enjoyed technology yet still revered the natural world.

“I want to show you something,” he said, the impulse riding him as if it were the Creator’s wish.

Tenino moved away, got dressed then went to the table. He picked up several guns and took them to the gun safe. Without a word, Trey collected the rest of them and came to his side, handed them to him so he could put them in their proper places.

“Does the sheriff’s department have budget problems?” Trey joked. “Looks like an arsenal in there.”

Tenino laughed. “Hazard of the trade. I don’t know a single cop who settles for just his on-duty piece.” He closed the safe.

“Won’t do you much good if you have to get to them quick,” Trey said.

“If I need this much fire power, I’m in deep shit. I’ve got my service piece and the shotgun in the patrol car. The chance of someone breaking into the cabin is remote but I don’t like to take unnecessary risks. Last thing I want is for one of my guns to turn up at a crime scene.”

Tenino picked up a shoulder holster he kept on top of the safe next to the on-duty one holding his service piece. He put it on then slid the .45 caliber from its usual holster, checked the safety before placing it into the shoulder piece. He didn’t expect trouble, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be prepared for it.

He started to step away from the safe, thought better of it and laughed at the strange twists and turns of falling in love. His hand went to the keypad on the safe, hit a series of codes before asking, “When’s your birthday?”

Trey told him and Tenino keyed in the number. Felt ridiculous at putting so much meaning into trusting Trey with access to the guns, but there was no avoiding it. The only other person who knew how to open the gun safe was Tekoa.

“Just in case I’m not here and you need protection, it’s keyed for your birthday,” Tenino said, managing to sound casual. “Just hit TM first so it’ll match the user with the code.”

Trey shivered visibly. “Hopefully that’s not information I’ll ever need to use.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the plan. Better grab your jacket. A storm is moving in. I think we can make it to the place I want to show you and back before it hits.”