Body Count (Wayward Sons #1)

by L. Eveland

When I saw the dive bar sign from the freeway, I’d felt that tug at my subconscious, the one that said this was where I was supposed to be. Yet as I looked around, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why.

The strip of black leather around his pale neck stood out like a sore thumb. The O-ring in the front sat perfectly over his Adam’s apple.

oh hell no

I found the dead much more interesting to be around. They couldn’t lie and had no ulterior motives. What you saw was what you got with the dead.

But I didn’t want to play with the little redhead across the bar, at least not in the normal way I liked to play with people. I wanted to possess him. I wanted to take him and put him up on a shelf like the little porcelain doll he was, place him where no one else could reach him. Maybe he would fall from that great height and shatter, and maybe I would put him back together. I needed to know which way it would go.

I, on the other hand, knew that some people were more useful as fertilizer for my mushroom garden than taking up oxygen.

“Are you going to run away from me, Theo? Because if you run, I’ll have to chase you, and if I chase you, I will catch you.”

“I don’t want you to worry about that,” River said. “If he comes for you, I’ll kill him, too.”

River looked over at me, his expression blank. All the anger that had been in his voice a moment ago was suspiciously absent, as if he were somehow able to flip a switch and turn his emotions off.

I closed my hands around his. “It means that you’re done sleeping with other people. You’re not going to let anyone hit you, and you’re going to take care of yourself. That means eating every day, drinking plenty of water, and sleeping in a bed. My bed.”

He turned his head, eyeing the shower. I turned his face back to me. “We don’t have to have sex, but you’re going to stay with me now. I want you close to me.” “Because I’m yours?” I smiled. “Now you get it.”

I wanted him to want me.

“Has anyone ever told you your nipples are the same color as bubblegum?”

dude💀💀💀💀

“I hope your cock’s not the same color, because then all I’ll be able to think about is putting it in my mouth when I see it.” I unbuttoned my jeans and kicked them off. Theo froze with his fingers over the worn brass button on his jeans. “You’d want to suck my dick?” Was that so unbelievable? I shrugged. “Sure. Why not? And technically, since I own you now, it’s my dick. I’m allowing you to have bodily autonomy.”

i am so 💀💀💀

In other words, I own your dick, but I won’t suck it without your permission, no matter how much I want to.

how kind 😃

I held my breath. What had I done wrong? I’d tried so hard not to disturb him.

“You’re safe here,” he promised. “This is the safest place, Theo. They’re never going to hurt you again.”

“Why me?” I whispered in the dark. “Why’d you save me?” “Because I wanted you for myself.”

“You do realize, River, that most people don’t consider murder a romantic gesture?” War asked. “Most people are boring.”

He closed his hands over mine and lifted them to his lips. “I have my family, and my mushrooms, and now I have you. I don’t need anyone else.”

I bit my lip while he scrolled through the options, unsure of how to answer him until I saw a familiar poster for an animated superhero movie. “That one!” I said excitedly and pointed, only to immediately blush. “I mean…I’ve seen that one before. It’s good.” River laughed and selected the movie. “Okay, Spiderman it is.” He put his arms around me and pulled me into his lap, kissing my cheek. “This okay?”

cute

“Nothing about me is pretty, River.”

ouch

I didn’t know how to answer, so I kissed him again and palmed his erection through his pants. When I reached to free him, he grabbed my hand. “I want to make you come too,” I whispered hoarsely. “You said after…” “I didn’t say when after,” he replied smugly and released my hand before sitting up. “And right now, I want ice cream.” I frowned as he kissed my cheek and gently pulled my pants up over my hips. “But what about…”

oh hes smart

River was quiet for a long time, letting my heart race in my chest without a reply. When he spoke, his voice was soft, almost childlike. “You don’t want to be with me?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly and put the glass on the bedside table. “You didn’t do anything.” “Then why would you want to leave me?” he asked again in that quiet voice.

“You want to fuck me,” I said. River’s finger stilled. “I want to do more than that, little finch. I want to mark you, sink my teeth into that pretty, soft flesh and leave bruises behind. Not because I want to hurt you. Because I want everyone to see my mark on you and know that you’re mine. Especially Shepherd. I didn’t like the way he was looking at you tonight. I don’t like the way anyone looks at you. Every time they do, all I can think about is biting that pretty neck and sucking on the bruise until it blooms. I want to hold my teeth over your pulse and feel it flutter for me. I want you to ache for me. Only for me.”

“Go on,” he said, lying flat again and putting his hands back where I’d held them. “I’m yours to do with as you wish.”

OH YEAH HES COOKING

There was something about how his voice came out all whiney and desperate, so vulnerable. I needed more of that like I’d never needed anything before.

You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Not with me.”

Xavier sighed and hit a button on the remote. “How about some Scooby-Doo?” I frowned at him. “You don’t have to treat me like a kid, you know.” “Bro, what? Seriously?” He rolled up his sleeve, revealing a tattoo of the cartoon dog. “Not everything is about you. Maybe I just like Scooby-Doo.”

mood

River’s hands closed over mine. “We make our own normal.”

“My whore? Just for me?” I licked my lips. “Yes. Only for you.”

“Don’t go somewhere I can’t follow, little finch,” he murmured, teeth tugging at my ear. “Stay with me. Let me show you how much better this can be.”

“The things I would do in your name… There isn’t any line I wouldn’t cross for you. You understand that, don’t you? I’d burn this whole world to ash just to have you. I own you, but you own me too, Theo.”

“Come for me. Be completely mine. All of you, Theo. Even the parts you try to hide from me. Be mine, and I’ll be yours.”

You don’t even answer my calls for years, and when you finally do, it’s only because I’m useful to you.” “Xion,” warned the social worker, “let’s save our feelings for group.” “No!” shouted Xion, rising. “I have a right! They abandoned me, treated me like I was nothing! Well, I’ve got news for… Let me go! I’m not finished!”

awww

“Hannibal is a fictional boogeyman,” said Shepherd as he unrolled his tools. “An austere and refined gentleman monster. He had a sense of justice, a moral code that limited his choice of victim to those who he felt had personally wronged him. Thankfully, I have no such compunction.”

“Thank you, River.” He cocked his head to one side. “What for?” “For being you.” He laughed like my statement was ridiculous and feathered his fingers through my sweaty hair. “Who else would I be?”

“I don’t.” River pulled my head back, darkness flashing in his chestnut eyes. “If anything ever happened to you… Fuck the Russians. Fuck the Greeks. Fuck them all, Theo. Everyone who isn’t us. I would rather burn it all down than lose you.”

Let him see how fucking perfect we were together, how much River needed me and I needed him.

Theo was everything I wanted, and I was everything he needed.

“What I want is to see you every day for the rest of my life. I want to see you when I wake up every morning, and every night before I fall asleep. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I want to feel you next to me. I want to be the one to hold you when you cry and when you laugh. I want to sit with you on the couch downstairs and read my science articles while you watch your silly animated musicals that I hate. I want to wash your back, and taste your skin, and still be the only one to make you come.” He punctuated each sentence with a kiss along my jaw. “And that applies now, as well as when you’re eighty and your teeth are falling out.”

“And when we die, I want to be with you then, too, Theo. I want us together forever, until we’re nothing but ash and memory.”