Coming Together (A Crack in the Ice: Post-Apocalyptic Tales of Man-Love Book 4) Read online

  Coming

  Together

  By

  Leigh Harde

  Copyright © 2017 by Leigh Harde

  All rights reserved.

  It is illegal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document by either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Coming Together

  Chapter One

  Major James Reese willed himself to relax as Nick’s cock slowly sank deep inside his ass. Even though Nicholas Snow’s frame was small compared to James, he made sure to keep his arms locked holding most of his body weight above him. James let out a long satisfied “mmm” once Nick was fully seated inside him with his balls flush to his body.

  Nick held himself still and leaned close to his ear. “Are you okay?” he asked in a nervous whisper. James was only the second person that Nick had ever penetrated, and he was worried that he might have accidentally hurt him.

  James couldn’t believe his luck. He was lying face down on their bed with a pillow underneath his hips holding him up and open for his love. It was perfect, James thought to himself, just like his angel.

  “Oh, yeah,” he moaned. “It’s good.” He turned his head slightly so that they could kiss. Nick started moving hesitantly and gradually found a rhythm. They continued to kiss until his thrusts suddenly became erratic. James could feel it inside when Nick’s cock began to pulse and fill him with seed.

  “I’m sorry,” Nick said flushed with embarrassment. He quickly rolled off James and covered his face with his hand. “I couldn’t control it,” he said miserably. Nick had wanted them to come together this first time, but James had been so tight. And he had to admit, topping a man’s man like James was such a turn on—not to mention the fact that he was the love of his life.

  “Hey,” James said and pulled Nick’s hand from his face. “I take it as a compliment.” James entwined their fingers. Nick was on his back, and James hadn’t moved from the pillow. Nick pursed his lips and shyly turned his head to look into his eyes. He was so young, James thought. He had been a virgin just a few months ago when they had found him nearly frozen to death in the Drifts after the Scavenger’s killed his father.

  Normally, James liked to be on top. But the night before, Nick had bitten his bottom lip as he looked up at him through long blond lashes. He asked if maybe next time, he might could make love to James. Instant hard-on. James knew that when they woke up that morning, he would be taking it up the ass. Having his love inside him had been even better than he had imagined.

  “You really spread me open,” James said to Nick in a husky whisper. He knew that it wouldn’t take much to have his love up and ready for round two. “I love having your cum inside me.” Nick’s mouth opened a little at his words and a hunger crept into his deep blue eyes. “Your cock fit so good,” James continued the dirty talk. “Like it was made to stretch out my ass.” Nick was breathing harder as he edged closer to James for a kiss. He played with the ends of the larger man’s short black hair as James’s dominated his mouth. Nick’s pupils were blown wide when they finally came up for air. He crawled on top of James again and entered him swiftly. This time, though, Nick pulled him up by his hips as he went to his knees behind him.

  “Yes!” James barked. He loved it when Nick took control in bed. Nick was feeling more self-confident now as he reached for James’s thick cock and started stoking in time with his thrusts. He didn’t care what it cost him, he thought, this time he was not going to come first.

  “Ohhh. Ummm.” James grunted. He wanted to prolong their lovemaking, but he knew that Nick was holding on by a thread so he decided to let himself go. Once Nick felt James orgasm, he followed quickly calling out his name and collapsing onto his back. James turned over sliding an exhausted Nick off him then cradling him against his chest.

  “Was I okay?” Nick asked searching James’s steel gray eyes for approval.

  “More than okay, angel. You’re gonna give this old man a heart attack,” he said joking.

  Nick’s eyes drew together as he propped up on an elbow. He didn’t like it when James talked about their age difference. Besides, he thought, James was in better shape than he was and barely had any gray at all. “You’re not old,” he huffed.

  “Says the twenty-one year old,” James replied with a chuckle and kissed him again until he went soft in his arms.

  Mitch “Mayor” Reid watched pensively as Elijah Frost stared down at the breakfast that he had prepared. They had spent last night together, but Mitch didn’t have sex with him. He knew that something had come between them in the last couple of weeks and was biding his time until Elijah was ready to talk about it.

  Elijah could feel the Mayor’s mismatched eyes studying his face. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he looked up from his food. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

  “Ah,” Mitch said and sighed. It was what he had suspected. With Nathan being one of Reese’s men, he knew that it was just a matter of time before Elijah discovered the truth. “I was trying to protect you, baby,” he said. “I’ll always protect you.”

  “I had a right to know what happened,” Elijah said sharply then quickly dropped his eyes. “You should have told me,” he said softly. Having this discussion was the closest that he had ever come to defiance, but being deceived by someone he loved hurt.

  “What did you hear?” Mitch asked gently wanting to assess the damage.

  “That they didn’t kill everyone after they shot me,” Elijah told him giving voice to his anger. “That the Scavenger’s kept six people alive and brought them to the Camp.” Elijah anxiously bounced his knee under the table. “Nathan said that the Master killed the women before he escaped.” Then he paled and looked stricken. “He still has Gabriel, Mayor,” he blurted and his voice shook. “Nathan said that he...” But he couldn’t finish the sentence. He wiped sweaty palms on his pant legs and found that the sight of his uneaten breakfast was making him nauseous.

  The Mayor stood up and walked behind Elijah’s chair. He put his hands on his shoulders. “Seeing you upset and knowing that I can’t do anything to make it better…” he said feeling helpless. “No, baby,” he said. “I was right not to tell you.” The Mayor feathered his fingers through Elijah’s short brown hair and over his scarred ear and face. Elijah let out a little cry of despair and laid his head back on the Mayor’s hip. His hands felt good on him, comforting. Elijah had been keeping all his pain to himself—an old habit from his childhood—and it was nice to just let go and give into the Mayor’s caresses. He had always been able to make the nightmares go away.

  “Come with me,” the Mayor said and walked from the small dining area to his bedroom. He didn’t look back. He knew that Elijah would follow.

  It had been far too long since they had been together sexually, Elijah thought. Ever since his talk with Nathan when he found out that he had been misled and that the Marauders hadn’t killed everyone in
the bomb shelter, he had let his resentment toward the Mayor grow. He hated that everyone knew the truth, except him—the one person who had the most right to it. The Mayor must have sensed something because he had given Elijah his space these last couple of weeks.

  But Elijah needed him, he thought. He needed their connection. Most of all, he needed to forgive him. He knew that the Mayor only did what he thought was best for him. That he would always do what he thought was best whether Elijah agreed with it or not. For better or worse, it was who he was, and Elijah had to accept that fact if he wanted to continue their life together.

  The Mayor was already undressing when Elijah entered the bedroom. The bedrooms were nice at the Compound, but he couldn’t help comparing them to the Mayor’s quarters at the Colony. All of the husbands were a little homesick. Elijah removed his clothing and stood with his head bowed awaiting the Mayor’s direction.

  He was expecting to be punished for his earlier outburst, so he jumped a little when he felt the Mayor’s hands softly caress down his arms.

  “Look at me, baby,” he said. Elijah looked up past the Mayor’s perfectly chiseled chin and into his mismatched eyes- one was green and one was blue. They were his only flaw and what Elijah found most attractive about him.

  “You should have come to me immediately once you learned the truth,” he said. “And I would have comforted you.” The Mayor caressed Elijah’s scarred cheek. He liked that the Mayor made a point of touching his scars and couldn’t help leaning slightly into his hand. “You should have trusted me instead of becoming angry.” Elijah swallow his retort. He knew that continuing this argument with the Mayor was useless and that it would only make their situation worse.

  The Mayor paused giving him a chance to apologize for his disrespectful behavior, but he couldn’t—not yet. He looked at the wall behind his head. That prompted the Mayor to raise an eyebrow, and he allowed his hand to fall from Elijah’s cheek. “Over the bed then,” he said matter of factly and walked away. Elijah placed himself at the foot of the bed on his knees and bent over. He heard the Mayor as he opened the doors of the chifferobe and started to sweat. He had never truly been disobedient before except during his first days at the Colony, and the Mayor had been gentle with him then. Elijah knew that this time it would be different.

  The Mayor looked over his various instruments of punishment arranged neatly before him. Perfect, he thought, and grabbed a rather plain looking paddle off its hook. His baby didn’t need anything fancy. The Mayor knew that Elijah was nervous, and he was proud of how still he kept himself. He did close his eyes when he saw the paddle, though.

  The Mayor took a moment to admire his husband’s naked body. He was beautiful, he thought, in spite of the scars that decorated his muscular back. His baby had come a long way from the lonely malnourished young man that the Scavengers had shot in the head and left to die in the snow.

  The Mayor put one hand on his back to prop and to hold Elijah down if necessary. “Why are you being punished?” he asked and struck him three times hard across his butt cheeks with the paddle.

  Stunned by the swift attack, it took Elijah a moment to form the words to answer his question. The Mayor waited patiently for him to collect himself. “Because I didn’t trust you to know what was best for me,” Elijah finally managed.

  “Yes, baby.” The Mayor said and gave him five more painful strikes. Elijah’s hands were balled around the comforter on the bed, and his butt cheeks were bright red. But he never made a sound or tried to get away.

  “Do you think that you deserve to be punished?” the Mayor asked him. Elijah nodded, and he jumped a little when he felt the paddle come down hard against his sore butt. “Use your words, baby,” the Mayor instructed.

  “Yes, Mayor,” Elijah said quietly.

  “Why?” the Mayor asked.

  “I should have trusted you,” he said as much to himself as to the Mayor. “I do trust you,” he stressed. “You know what’s best for me, for all of us.”

  “Yes, baby,” the Mayor said gently. “Now let’s finish your punishment so that I can take care of you.”

  By the time that they were through, Elijah was sobbing out his apology into a pillow. He was on his side in the middle of the bed with the Mayor holding him close. When he felt his huge lubricated cock entering his rectum, he welcomed the sharp stretching pain. It had been long enough since they were together sexually that it was an effort to take him all the way. As he sank deeper inside, the Mayor whispered into Elijah’s scarred ear that he forgave him and that he had made him proud.

  Elijah put one of his hands on the Mayor’s hip as he slowly sawed in and out of his butt. He turned his head so that he could see into his eyes. “Do you still love me?” he asked tearfully.

  The Mayor stopped moving and leaned up on his elbow. His expression became so intense that Elijah couldn’t help but believe him. “Nothing will ever stop me from loving you, baby,” the Mayor said and gently took his lips in a kiss.

  James was standing with his butt propped against the edge of the stage of the auditorium watching as everyone filed in and took a seat. Since Reid’s people had joined the Compound, there were too many of them to fit comfortably in the small conference room beside his office. He decided that the auditorium would be the most appropriate place for the discussion ahead. He wanted everyone to have a say in the outcome of this meeting since it was going to affect them all.

  Once everyone had arrived, he began to speak. “As you are all aware,” he said. “We have been keeping tabs on the Marauders for our own safety. What some of you might not know is that a small group of three men appear to have been banished from the Camp and left to survive on their own.” That drew some murmurs from the crowd, and James waited for them to die down before he continued.

  “Two of these people seem to be in relatively good health so far. Since the temperature increase recently, it’s not impossible to survive the surface. But it will be difficult, and I’m not sure if they can last long term in such harsh conditions. Right now, they’ve managed to find a convenience store that hasn’t been scavenged so they have enough food. They’ve been burning paper and wood for a heat source.”

  Approximately twenty-one months ago, a meteor hit Asia. It set off a catastrophic freezing event that killed most of the life on the surface of the planet. It was only in the last couple of months that the snow and ice were beginning to melt, and the rivers were running again.

  James continued, “However, one of the men—an older man—appears to be sick. It’s our opinion that he won’t survive much longer. So… the reason for our meeting today. Should we help them?” Everyone started talking at once. James raised his voice over theirs. “Bear in mind,” he said. “We’ll have to keep them at the Compound. It would be much too dangerous to allow them to leave once they know about us.”

  Nathan Wyatt stood up, and Dr. Ethan Carter rose beside him. “Gabe’s not out there, is he?” The hope in Nathan’s big brown eyes was difficult to crush. But he needed an answer, and it was James’s burden to supply it.

  “No,” James told him regretfully. “I’m sorry.” Nathan looked down, and Ethan pulled him close with an arm around his waist.

  “Ok,” James said addressing the others. “I’m opening this up for discussion.”

  “Fuck that shit!” Hank Causey spat angrily as he stood. He was muscular and thick and sporting an eagle tattoo on the side of his bald head that he had gotten during his many years in prison.

  “I say we leave ‘em to rot. They killed Nick’s father and shot scar-boy over there in the head.” Hank indicated Elijah who was standing in an aisle near his people. Elijah gave him a baleful look.

  “We can’t just leave them to die,” Ethan said. He and Nathan were still standing. “We don’t know if they had anything to do with what happened to Nick and Elijah. For whatever reason, they seem to have fallen out of favor with the Master.”

  “You wanna save ‘em?” Hank said disgusted. “After what the
Marauders did to Nathan?” His tone shamed Ethan enough that he dropped his eyes. Nathan’s lips thinned, and he glared at Hank angrily. Ethan was a good man, he thought, and kind enough that it hurt him to see anyone in pain and not help if he could. Nathan was pissed that Hank would dare to use what happened to him at the Camp as a weapon against his lover.

  Corporal Levi Thomas stood up next. He was a stout black man whose muscles were hidden by a layer of fat covering his body. “I know what the Marauders have done,” he said and laced his fingers in front of his belly. “But I agree with Ethan. I can’t see leaving anybody to die. I mean, wouldn’t we be as bad as they are if we don’t try to help them?”

  “Pff,” Hank snorted.

  “What do you think, James?” Nick asked. He was seated in the front row. James looked thoughtful as he pressed his thumbnail to his tooth. “I think we need intel,” he said and looked out over their faces. “We need to know how many weapons they have. We need to know what their plans are, and if they’re coming for us. This might be our best and only chance to get those answers before it’s too late. I think it’s too good an opportunity to let pass.”

  Everyone went quiet. James noticed that Reid’s people hadn’t spoken yet. “Mitch,” he said addressing the leader of the Colony. “Do you, or any of your people, have anything that they want to contribute?”

  “I think we’re good, James,” Reid said with a smile, his mismatched gaze steady.

  “Right,” James said. He found Reid’s different colored eyes slightly disturbing. “Raise your hand if you think we should rescue these three men,” he said and raised his hand. All of his men followed suit, even Hank albeit reluctantly. He looked to Reid’s people next. Mitch raised his hand, and his people immediately raised theirs. Again, James was struck with how blindly obedient they seemed to be to Reid.

  “So, it’s unanimous,” he said. “We’re bringing them to the Compound.”