Yes. Come back to me. Meridian ran the flat of his tongue along the saltiness of Ex’s throat and kissed him softly near his Adam’s apple. How was his partner sweating but his skin was cool to the touch? He was always so cold. Meridian’s own heart rate began to slow, and his head no longer felt as though someone was hitting him with a bat to get his attention. He didn’t know why but this felt like the most natural thing to do. Ex had stopped bucking and he was no longer fighting, but Ex was still asleep, so he held him while he tongued at his taut skin. “That’s it. Concentrate.”
“Mere,” Ex practically moaned.
Meridian felt Ex’s thigh ease up and his hips lift towards him. He unclenched his fingers and dragged his hands up Ex’s sides, one stopping at his waist, and the other he grazed down Ex’s cheek. Meridian had his eyes closed, and his body pulsated with the power he felt. At knowing he’d been the one to take Ex from the frantic state he was lost in... to this. To soft and compliant from his voice, his touch. Meridian started to feel intoxicated as he kissed him some more when Ex’s breath hitched.
“Wake up, Ex,” Meridian half moaned, half whispered as he sucked delicately on Ex’s skin.
“I’m awake,” Ex said, his body still.
Jesus. Meridian had never wanted to sink into a hole in the earth and hide as much as he did right then. He’d had his hands all over Ex and he was hard. He was so damn hard his dick was sore. Meridian could feel the shame and embarrassment flooding him. He was supposed to be comforting his partner from his nightmare. Not acting like some creeping pervert and taking advantage of him while he slept.
Meridian could do nothing but pull his lips away and raise his body from where it’d been deliciously wrapped around Ex under the pretense he was keeping him restrained. Ex had calmed down a while ago and probably would’ve drifted back into a peaceful sleep, but Meridian hadn’t gotten off him. He’d stayed and indulged himself, and it was a rotten thing to do.
He could feel Ex’s eyes on him as he left the hot room, his blood even hotter and pooled around the base of his cock. There were no words he could’ve spoken to justify any of what he’d done. Meridian may very well have just damaged a very vital relationship—one his entire existence depended upon. His and Ex’s relationship was built on years and years of trust but if that trust was violated... it’d be almost impossible to earn back. They weren’t wired to forgive.
Meridian closed himself inside his room and slid down the door until his ass hit the floor. He draped his arms over his bent knees, staring down at his bare chest and the straining erection he could see through his thin lounge pants. He knew Ex had felt it too. He wouldn’t take himself in his hand and satisfy the ache he felt all the way to the soles of his feet. He didn’t deserve it and his throbbing balls would be his penance. Meridian ran his hand through his messy hair and knocked the back of his head against the door a couple of times. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Meridian rolled his eyes. He’d never been so careless and self-serving. Being back in the United States was obviously messing with his head. Had to be something in the air.
Or a video you recently watched. Meridian didn’t sleep anymore. Instead, he got himself ready to go to Langley in a few hours.
God steered his truck off Claire Drive onto Lakewood Avenue. This would be the third time they’d cased the area where Evan Martin had been shot while on his way to his mentoring job at the Metro Boys and Girls Club. He had Day next to him in the passenger seat and his two enforcers, Ruxs and Green, in the back. It wasn’t common for him to accompany his guys in the field, but he was hoping that by showing his face he might be able to convey the seriousness of this crime and that his team wasn’t letting up until they had a conviction. Not only for Evan, and his mother, but for Atlanta. She wanted justice.
Since their grounding a few months ago by their SWAT captain, Hart, they’d been trying their best to salvage their reputation. God desperately needed to make some arrests for the morale of his department. Every one of his guys loved and bled for Atlanta. To see her and her citizens in such a dire state was affecting them all.
It was a little after three in the afternoon, working hours for most law-abiding citizens, but the members of the Warlords didn’t have nine-to-fives. Their jobs were to get rich poisoning the people in their own neighborhoods, and God was hoping he’d run into a few of them while he was canvassing. He’d just passed the entrance to the Boys and Girls club when he saw some young guys hanging around the side of an Exxon gas station, beneath a clearly posted No Loitering sign.