Wrong place, right time.
Carter
O’Conner exemplifies the term wrong place, wrong time when he gets
between a hitman and that hitman’s prey. Sure he’s the next to die, he
steels himself, refusing to give the killer the satisfaction of seeing
his fear, even though he’s shaking like a leaf on the inside.
Antony
Rosetta can’t ignore the man’s interesting reaction. Accustomed to
begging and pleading, he respects the male escort’s strength… and
struggles to forget the man after he walks away. As the weeks pass, his
fantasies propel him to search for Carter and see what makes the man
tick.
Carter doesn’t want to head out on another assignment but,
after weeks of denial, he’s nowhere closer to paying his tuition bill.
Accepting the address from his handler, he winds up before the hitman,
afraid he’ll face death after all.
Instead, he confronts a passion too much for him to handle. Can these two broken men become whole in each other’s arms?
Warnings:
MM, Gay, Anal Sex, Bondage, Paddling, Spanking, BDSM, Forced Seduction,
Exhibitionism, and Extreme Scenes of Violence and Murder
The
crack of palm on flesh reverberated through the air. Pain lanced through his
face. The coppery tang of blood filled his mouth. Carter lifted a hand to his
lip, knowing it was split.
“I
paid for your time,” Enzo spat.
“You
haven’t paid me shit,” Carter yelled back without thinking.
Another
strike caught him on his left cheek, the pain blossoming strong. Old and small
he was, but Enzo’s hands packed a wallop. The man was used to violence. Carter
had felt danger coming off the guy in waves. Carter felt dazed from the second
blow, his mind numb. He climbed to his feet, ready to get the hell out of the
room, but Enzo was right behind him, quicker than Carter could’ve imagined.
Another
hit came to his face. It felt as if he’d met a brick wall. Hard.
Carter
saw stars. Enzo lifted his hand to strike him again…
And
then a hole burst from the side of his temple, blood splattering from his head
and coating Carter’s face. Enzo lingered there a moment, as if time had
stopped. The hate and anger in his eyes melted into a numb, glassy stare. He
fell to the floor, a lump of flesh, with tangled arms and legs jutting out at
odd angles.
Carter
backed away, staring at the mass that had, seconds before, been beating him.
The
slider skidded open and a dark form emerged through the billowing curtains. A
man stood in the opening, a handgun hanging from one hand.
The
sounds of the city exploded, the open door letting it all rush in to him, the
cold air cold. Not that he truly felt it.
Carter
backed away more, until his ass met wall. He stood there trembling, knowing
he’d traded one killer for another. The man walked over to what was left of
Enzo, checked for a pulse, and then rose back to his feet. He lifted the gun
and put three more shots into the body, each one making Carter jump with fear.
And
then the killer turned back to Carter, his expression unreadable. A cold sliver
of fear crossed him, but it soon faded. He wasn’t sure why… there was
everything to fear.
The
guy towered well over Carter, he could tell even from across the room. His body
was thick, but in a way that suggested hard muscle hid under his clothes.
He
was dark and dangerous.
His
skin was deeply tanned, his hair and stubble black as the night he’d emerged
from. His clothes were black as well, covering him from shoulder to feet. Even
his hands were covered in dark gloves.
His
eyes, they weren’t dark. They were the color of caramel and, when the light hit
them, they shone with a brilliance that made Carter’s stomach twist in
something besides fear. But the fear was too great for him to fully register
the sensation in that moment. Later, when he was recollecting on this moment
and trying to burn the man’s face into his brain, he’d think about those eyes
and how beautiful they were. He saw a cold detachment there. Yet, when the
killer stared at him, emotion swirled in the depths. Carter felt a kinship to
this man somehow. He recognized the emotion. He saw it when he looked in the
mirror.
Loneliness.
How
much he craved to look into those eyes as the man slid deep into his body over
and over again, forcing his own solitude away.
But
he wouldn’t recall pondering all that until later. All he thought about in the
here and now was the fact he was about to die. His heart thundered in his ears
and he felt his knees wobbling under him, but he did everything in his power to
hide his body’s responses.
The
killer drew something from his pocket. A switchblade opened as his long legs
ate up the floor. Carter sucked in a breath and watched the light shine along
the knife, knowing it was about to plunge into his chest.
Or
his neck, slicing open his throat. He’d feel the warm curtain of blood coating
him any second. And then it would all be over. A pointless existence. Another
tragic case where no one would miss the poor, dead whore.
The
killer stopped when his body was millimeters from touching Carter. He lifted
the knife and Carter steeled himself… only to watch as the man shoved the blade
into the wall. He dug the blade in a few times… before extracting the bullet
that had taken Enzo’s life.
He
showed it to Carter, looking somewhat proud. Whether that was meant to scare
him, Carter didn’t know. When the knife flicked closed, he startled. The killer
shoved the bullet, and then the knife, into his pocket.
Carter
looked down to the gun still held in the man’s other hand and saw his own
cock—red, angry, and rock hard—lightly pressing against the man’s thigh. His strong thigh. The desire to rock his
hips and enjoy the friction of the tight black denim encasing those thighs hit
him out of nowhere. He hadn’t been able to get it up for his john, but there he
was stone hard and ready for a killer. What
the fuck is wrong with me?
He
lifted his gaze and met those golden eyes. Up close, the man was handsome. Past
handsome, he was heartbreakingly gorgeous, his features refined. A scar running
along his strong jaw only accentuated his good looks instead of taking anything
away.
It
amplified the danger.
The
killer said nothing. He didn’t move. He just lingered there, close enough that
Carter could feel the heat coming off the guy in waves. He smelled good. Real
good. Like leather and spice, and it filled his nose, making him want to lean
in closer and fill his lungs. He knew he’d remember the particular scent for
the rest of his life.
Which
was insane.
