Nightcrawler (Trackers #1)

Chapter Eighteen

RAVEN

When we got back to my house, Mike let us out and followed us up to the door to talk to Dolly, assuring her that we’d only been taken in for questioning and it was being cleared up. He left the reasons vague with Nana’s new nurse and for that, I was grateful. I’d fretted all the way home about what she thought about me, but Miguel sat beside me holding my hand the whole time in Mike’s backseat as he drove us home, and that helped. Dolly took Mike’s words to heart, smiling at the calm, older man’s explanation of the day’s events, seeming to take them in stride.

“Oh, I know the LAPD can overreact,” she’d told him. The sweet-faced, older, black woman hadn’t left it there. “I live in Compton, and we’ve seen our share of the LAPD overreact… um hmm …you can set a clock by it.” She’d gone into Nana’s bedroom with me and watched as I knelt at her feet and apologized for all the shouting she’d heard and all the worry she must have felt as Miguel and I were taken out of the house that morning.

“ Shh …Raven…” She stroked my hair. “I knew they’d made a mistake.” She leaned down, speaking quietly into my ear, “I really like Dolly. She’s very sweet. You don’t have to worry about a thing, hatsóí ashkiígíí .”

I loved it when she used the Navajo word for grandson. It took me back to memories of my childhood with her which had been happy ones. With my head in her lap, I nodded and then looked up into her cloudy eyes, leaning in to kiss her wrinkled cheeks. I loved her so much and her calming influence that always made me feel better whenever I was in her orbit. I patted her cheek, helped her into bed, and promised to bring a cup of tea for her, before walking back outside with Miguel and Mike. After giving Mike a tight hug, Miguel and I stood on the driveway and watched him drive away.

I glanced over at Miguel and offered him a tiny smile. “I’d better make Nana’s tea and then rustle up something for dinner. I’m starving and I know you probably are too.”

He smiled at me as we walked back into the house. We spotted Stanley sauntering into the living room and when he lifted his head, he gave Miguel a plaintiff cry. He grinned as he met the kitten halfway across the floor as Stanley came running, picking him up. “I can eat a horse and this little guy probably can too.” All I could do was smile.

When I walked into the kitchen, I was surprised at how Dolly had not only cleaned up the dinner dishes we’d left lying out the night before, but she’d also put away the leftover pasta which had been sitting on the stove. I found leftover salad in the fridge and figured we should finish it off so it wouldn’t go to waste. I couldn’t stand food waste and was pleased that it looked crisp enough to eat. As Miguel heated the pasta, I made tea and dished up the salad.

Miguel opened a can of cat food which brought Stanley running from the other room, and I brought Nana her tea and a light supper Dolly had already prepared for her. I gave her the last of her daily supplements and made sure she was comfortable before wishing her a good night. It was nearly seven by the time we sat down and demolished the food I’d made the night before. We even managed to finish off another bottle of wine between us and after that, I was buzzing comfortably, ready for a shower and bed.

“Why don’t you go first while I check the garage for extra clothes?” Miguel said as we walked into my bedroom. “I’ve been wearing these for two days.” He held out his T-shirt and sniffed at the pits before grimacing. When he looked up, I simply laughed. He looked so good, I hadn’t even noticed they were the same clothes.

“There’s another half bath in the hall and a tub in Nana’s bathroom but I don’t want to disturb her,” I said, glancing through the open door into my bathroom. “Are you sure you don’t want to go first?” I wanted to mention that it might be nice to shower together, but mutual blow jobs didn’t really mean he wanted further intimacy, so I left it at that.

“I’m fine. Please, go first, Raven.” He dragged me into a hug, and I went easily, circling him with both arms. I noticed that for the first time in almost three days, the gunshot wounds weren’t pulling when I did this. I felt greatly relieved.

He let me go after a minute or two. “Let me check your bandages before you shower.” Before I could reply, he was pulling my T-shirt over my head. He looked down and prodded at them. “There’s no leakage but I’d like to get new bandages on these wounds,” he said, examining them closely. “I’ve got clean bandages and Tegaderm in a box. Let me go dig those out.”

I smiled at him. “You take good care of me.”

“You’re very precious to me,” he said before walking out of the room.

I sat on the bed pondering what he’d said with a smile and peeled off the used Tegaderm and bandages. The wound on the front looked good, closing nicely. I grinned to myself as I thought about how quickly vampires healed and put those silly thoughts out of my mind as Miguel returned, bandages and extra clothes in hand.

“Okay, let’s have a look.”

I stood and let him examine both wounds. He looked relieved at how they were healing as he reapplied some antibiotic cream, the bandages, and covered them up with the plastic adhesive Tegaderm so I could take a shower. I left him behind in the bedroom with a kiss.

MIGUEL

I took a seat on the end of Raven’s bed and thought about everything that had happened. It was hard for me to leave everything in Cassidy and Mike’s hands, even though I knew they were capable. And because of our long friendship, they’d do whatever it took to get Ned Jeffries to drop his stupid charge against Raven. The very idea that the sweet man who’d come to mean so much to me in the last week could be capable of doing what Ned claimed was crazy, not to mention the fact that he was barely able to tend to himself and his healing injuries. If it came down to it, the very idea that he could break Ned’s wrist or dislocate the man’s arm with two extra holes in him was ludicrous.

I absently glanced over at the bookcase in Raven’s room and ran my gaze over the book titles, realizing for the first time that my desire to know more about the man I liked was growing stronger with every passing hour. The titles of a couple of the books were interesting. Catcher in my Eye , Sunset over My Hammie —” I stood up, frowning as I pulled that book out, knowing it sounded familiar from my Bestreads account. I opened the paperback and began reading, smiling as I located the short story I’d read reviews of. When I realized it really was the story Nightcrawler had reviewed from the anthology of college men, I laughed.

I replaced the book and picked out another one. This one was The Mount of Minty Cristo . I’d read that review too…also by Nightcrawler. I put it back and looked at the other titles, running my finger across the spines. Mobile Dick…How to Train Your Flagon…To Kill or Not to Kill a Mockingbird…Silence of the Toe Jam… I’d read reviews of all of them and they’d all been written by Nightcrawler. My interest peaked as I sat there, wondering about the thoughts going through my head as to the identity of who this reviewer could be. I couldn’t imagine anyone would actually read any of this trash, much less the intelligent man who was currently showering off the day in the bathroom.

Now, more than interested, I turned and walked over to Raven’s bedside table, picking up the paperback he’d been reading when I’d woken up this morning. Raisin in my Bum. I set it down and went over to my phone, scrolling until I found the Bestreads site, and pulling up Nightcrawler’s reviews. My eyes ran over the list and then I returned to the bookcase, phone in hand. There were paperbacks matching those titles and many more written by Nightcrawler. Lord of the X-Files… I couldn’t believe my eyes. Raven had read all these books. All the reviews I’d found so entertaining for so long were right here for me to see. A bolt of lightning struck me square in the face as I sank back down on the edge of the bed. Raven Mathis and Nightcrawler were one and the same.

He’d told me that reading was one of his favorite pastimes but seeing the evidence that he was also my favorite book reviewer, threw me for a loop. I scrolled to the reviewer’s bio and began to read it.

“I’m just a normal guy who loves to read. I think about my next review and my next blog post all the time. Whenever I put up a funny two-star review, I dream of the guy who might be at home reading it, but I’m pretty sure the kind of man who reads me, is probably living in his mother’s basement. Still, I’m a romantic at heart. Someday I might just run into him in one of my stories. Someday.”

As I heard the water shut off in the bathroom, I sat there, stunned. Nightcrawler is a gay man. He’s the man with the beautiful cobalt eyes I’d grown to love whenever he looked at me. Raven was funny, a fantastic cook, and he had the biggest, purest heart of any man I’d ever met in my life. Nightcrawler was Raven Mathis, the man I was…falling in love with.

RAVEN

When I walked out of the bathroom with a towel around my waist, Miguel was sitting on the end of my bed right where I’d left him. He looked up from where he’d been reading his phone and sent me the most ridiculous smirk I’d ever seen on a man. I walked over to him, returning the smirk with a smile.

“What’s up?” I asked, almost hesitant as his smirk morphed into a grin. He tossed the phone on the bed and reached for me, grabbing my hips, and smiling up at me.

“Oh…nothing much. What’s up you, Nightcrawler?”

For a second, I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. I frowned and then looked down at his phone. The bio section of my Bestreads reviewer site was open on his phone. I couldn’t help but be both a little nervous and a little happy that he’d figured out my reviewer identity. At the same time, I was slightly worried he’d be somehow angry that I hadn’t admitted to being Nightcrawler when he’d brought it up before, telling me I was his favorite reviewer.

I looked down at my bare feet for just a moment and then, surprisingly, let out the loudest snort of laughter. I glanced at him guiltily under my lashes. “Are you angry I didn’t tell you who my secret identity was as soon as I realized you’d been reading my reviews when you talked about Nightcrawler?”

He grinned up at me, sliding his hands around to squeeze my ass through the towel. “Your secret identity?” He laughed. “No, I’m just surprised by your description of me as a basement dweller.”

I frowned for a second. “What?”

He broke the gaze and let go of one ass cheek, gesturing around the room. “I mean, I am temporarily homeless, but this is definitely not my mother’s basement.”

I felt my whole body flush, and knew my cheeks had gone bright red. “You’ve been reading my bio, huh ?”

His hand returned to my ass cheek and massaged it through the towel. I’d never been jealous of a towel before, so I had to admit, this was new. He stared at me with smoldering eyes which glinted with mischief. When he broke the stare, it was so that he could lower his mouth to my very interested cock through the fabric. I groaned at how hard I was, needing the material to be absent. He was obviously thinking along the same lines because he silently returned his eyes to mine as he unwrapped it, looking down only when my leaking cock made an appearance. He glanced back up with a wicked grin as he reached out and wrapped it in one big hand.

“I read your bio with all your reviews, and I have to admit a whole new level of respect in your humor…and your selection of reading materials.” A moment later, he bent his head and sucked my cock into his mouth.

My hands went immediately to his head, twining my fingers into the short strands on top…pulling. He must have liked what I was doing because he groaned which made me only pull harder. He deep throated me, sucking and licking as he retreated, only to suck me down even deeper. In moments, I was edging at my climax with this man’s hot mouth on mine. He’d been practicing this which I both adored and hated in equal measure, since I’d begun to think of Miguel Huerta as being mine alone. When he spat on two of his fingers and slid them into my ass, I automatically widened my stance, giving him access to my entrance, as I enjoyed the expert blow job he delivered.

“Miguel,” I gasped as he circled my hole with one long finger. When the tip of it entered me, I gasped again. He sank into me, sucking me hard as he twisted the single digit, only joining it with the second finger when I was thrusting my hips back and forth. I adored the feel of it, knowing where this would lead, and loved the very idea of it. When the fingers twisted, finding the gland buried deep inside, I cried out, unable to stop my spill which he sucked and swallowed, licking me clean as I felt my knees going weak, barely able to stand upright.

I groaned as he pulled off, wiping his swollen lips with the back of his hand as he smiled up at me. I let go of his hair and leaned down, taking both stubbled cheeks in hand, before kissing him long and languidly. When I finally pulled back, he was smiling again. He abruptly stood and picked up the clean clothes which still lay on the bed. The erection through his jeans was apparent and the wet spot staining them was tempting as hell, but I reluctantly stepped back as he gently put me aside.

“My turn to shower and then we’ll continue this horizontally. What do you say to that?”

I reached out and ran my hand over his bulging jeans as I gazed up at him. “That sounds like a well thought out plan.” I kissed him again, unable to bear leaving his lips behind, but forcing myself to do so as he broke the kiss and went into the bathroom. I caught sight of him watching me from the crack of the door as it closed, noting his amused smile for a split second.

I bent and picked up the towel just as Stanley sauntered in and took a running leap at the cat tree. He’d scaled the two stories to the top and curled into a ball on the carpet covered perch, almost before I could blink. I looked around the room as I hung my damp towel over my desk chair in the corner, trying to take it in from Miguel’s point of view. It was comfortable and livable. I didn’t think it was pretentious with the white duvet cover and soft throw pillows in earthtones I often put behind my head as I typed reviews. I heard the shower turn on as I climbed into bed and glanced over at the paperback on my table. With a grin, I picked up my tablet, deciding that it might be the perfect time to post my latest review.

And if Miguel caught me, so be it. The cat was out of the bag now.

Book title: Raisin in my Bum

Author: Sir Nicholas Margate

Publisher: Self-published

Genre: M/M Black and African American erotic fiction

Review/rating by Nightcrawler: Two stars

Synopsis:

Set on the South Side of Chicago, this book tells the story of a struggling middle-class African American family as they learn to cope with their son who’s just come out as gay.

My Review:

Let me say first of all, in honor of the author…blimey! Secondly—on a personal note—I really need to double check the categories of the books I choose more carefully. This one takes the cake. I’m giving this review a two-star rating which is more than it deserves, primarily because the author, Sir Nicholas Margate, whom I suspect is a foppish English lord, has pulled off something nearly incomprehensible. Somehow, he’s gotten in the minds of a black family and laid out their trials and tribulations of how they fare in daily Chicago life, as they try to figure out how to deal with a son who’s just told them he’s gay. Or, as the British say…bloody hell!

As far as plot, I’d give this a four-star for the first six chapters. It kinda goes downhill after that…or better put, it plunges into the negative-star rating. One night after work, the father of this family, Levar Jackson, opens the door to the family’s only bathroom to find his son Leonard pleasuring himself against the wall of the shower impaled on a dildo the size of a traffic cone. I found this scene fascinating, though, after much research, I know it’s nearly impossible to find such an item on a cursory Internet search. Leonard must have found a specialty site. Well…good for him.

Levar immediately tells the rest of the family who’d come in just in time to see Leonard going off like a firehose. They drag him out of the bathroom, leaving the offending object suction-cupped to the shower wall, to have a conversation about the Lord our God. Leonard, God bless him, lets them have it, dressing them down—a term I use with great irony since he’s certainly not dressed—and the family decides to try to cope with this new knowledge.

PUH…LEEZE

Had this reviewer somehow suffered being watched during my “special toy time,” I’d have covered up and run for the hills, but not before yanking my monster dildo off the wall. And the very idea of my mother trying to “understand” her little boy’s private moment splashing all over the bathroom rug is hilarious. She would have thrown a pair of shorts at me and pointed me to the nearest Home Goods store to replace the rug, not stopped to understand my sexual orientation.

All in all, I have only one thing to say to Sir Nicholas Margate. Crikey!

I chuckled and posted the review as I heard the water shut off. I placed the tablet back on the table just as the door opened. A god hovered in the doorway. Miguel Huerta stood there much the same as I had, wrapped in a white bath sheet, water droplets glistening in his dark hair and on his chest. The Marine Corps tattoo on his bulging bicep was not to be missed or unappreciated. He was more beautiful than I remembered. The uncertain expression on his face couldn’t be missed either and I lifted my arms, beckoning him over to assuage his uncertainty. His mouth turned up at the corners as he walked around the bed and dropped the towel.

My eyes went immediately to his half-hard erection as saliva filled my mouth. But a blow job wasn’t what I was after this evening. I wanted everything from this perfect specimen of man. I threw the covers aside, knowing he’d see me in all my glory. I wrapped my hand around my shaft, jacking myself slowly, and began a show for him.

“I want you, Miguel.”

Our eyes met as he dragged his gaze away from what I was doing. He slowly shook his head. “If you think I’m going to screw you when you’ve just started to recover, you’re crazy, Raven.”

At least he was quick. I shook my head and released my cock, reaching for him. At this angle, I could only reach his furry thighs, but he got my meaning as I sat up and tugged him closer. I kissed his belly, just above his thatch. Looking up at him under hooded eyes, I nodded. “Yes, I do. I’m fine. Look.” I waved at the bandages under their plastic covering. They were clean without any sign of blood or fluid. “I definitely want…need you to screw me.”

He looked uncertain but climbed onto the bed, rolling so that he was on my opposite side, and propped his head in one hand as he put the other on my chest. “I don’t want to hurt you, Raven. You’re just beginning to recover,” he said, making small circles with his palm. “The wounds could open again and—”

I rolled toward him and stopped his words with my mouth. In seconds, he responded to the kiss, using his free hand to latch onto my hip, and gently turn me toward him. His body was giving off incredible heat this close to mine, and though his hair was damp when my fingers sank into it, I reveled in our nearness. We kissed for a while that way, making out like teenaged schoolboys. I loved it. I couldn’t get enough of this big man or his talented tongue. The way he took my breath away as he kissed me was remarkable.

After some time, he broke the kiss and looked into my eyes. His own were a picture of lust. “I want you, Raven, but I don’t want to hurt you. It’s too soon,” he repeated.

I quirked my lips, looking into his glittering, brown eyes. “I suppose it all depends on the position.” I showed him what I was thinking by rolling him to his back and levering myself up and over his hips to straddle him. He took hold of my hips, eyes focused on my leaking dick for a few seconds before he grinned widely and looked up at me.

“I suppose this could work. You’re sure it won’t pull on the wounds too much?”

“Oh, I’m counting on it working just fine, Miguel.” I leaned down and captured his lips in mine, kissing him until we were both breathless, before sitting back again. “As far as the wounds go, I told you, I’m fine…a quick healer. You just don’t believe me.”

He reached out and ran gentle fingers over the bandage on my front, looking up at me. “I want to. I just can’t afford to lose you to infection or something else and the very idea of seeing pain on your face again, is terrifying.”

My heart did a flip-flop as I realized the man beneath me had well and truly grown feelings even greater than simply liking me. As for myself, I’d fallen the moment he’d come to my rescue and practically dragged me out of James Passantino’s house, bleeding and helpless. The rest up to this point, had just made me fall even more in love with him. I stopped for a second, trying out that thought just a little too long when he grunted. I realized I hadn’t said anything to him in reply to his confession. I smiled and leaned down, kissing his concern away once again as I thought about the night to come.