He sure hadn’t known there were fucking Mack trucks hanging around. Stefan held himself perfectly still, his body reacting to the trauma of being run over.

  Except he hadn’t been run over.

  “Stay away from her!” a deep, rough voice growled in his ear.

  Stefan tried to curl up into a ball. Flashbacks of the things Johnny had done to him inundated him. He whimpered, struggling to get his arms over his head. Whoever had attacked him was big, heavy, strong—and scary as any nightmare born in hell.

  All this time Stefan had thought he’d been over what had happened to him. Now he knew that, better brain or not, he was still a freakin’ coward.

  “Shit,” that voice swore gruffly, moist hot breath slicking over Stefan’s skin. Images flashed by behind his closed lids. His gut cramped with remembered fear.

  “Hey, kid, stop, okay?” The weight on him lifted off partially. “Seriously, stop. I’m not going to hurt you. Just don’t keep crying. I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

  Stefan tuned out the increasingly rapidly spoken words. As soon as the man was off him enough, Stefan could think and he blasted the stranger with a shout that made his own ears ring. At the same time, he shot up, kicking out hard. His foot caught the man in the neck. Stefan caught a flash of startled green eyes then he was out of there.

  “Stop!”

  But not alone. Stefan’s flight or fight impulses were fully engaged. And that had been a different voice shouting at him than the first one, which meant there were two psychotic spirits out to get him.

  He wasn’t a lost boy anymore, wasn’t helpless or slow. He wasn’t so desperate to be touched that he would let anyone hurt him.

  Stefan tucked his chin to his chest and spiraled through the sky. The graveyard was long gone, and beneath him were fields and crops, farms and ranches as he headed out of town. He could feel the other two following him but didn’t risk a look. If they were newly dead, his quickly hatched plan might get the two goons off his trail.

  If they weren’t, then Stefan wasn’t averse to asking for help. Conner always did like a good fight.

  Stefan headed to Zeke Matthers and his partner Brendon’s place. He could have just blipped himself there, as he tended to think of it. A part of him wanted a little revenge for having been tackled and terrified. Stefan shot toward the largest barn. He soared right past Zeke, who froze, having sensed him. Zeke’s mama was a sweet spirit too, so Zeke probably did have some kind of ability to know when a spirit was hanging around. A sensitivity, maybe.

  “Holy shit!” Brendon yelped, throwing a hand out. “Incoming!”

  Stefan almost giggled at that. Brendon’s eyes were huge as he shoved back a chunk of his hair. Stefan remembered when it’d still been a sandy brown instead of the mostly gray it was now.

  “Oh! The pendulum!” Brendon hollered. Stefan didn’t pay him any mind. He had weirdoes to shake. He turned onto his back and saw two big, muscular shapes coming up on him. Not nearly as fast as he’d gone, but they weren’t slouches, either. He flipped them off and stuck out his tongue, beginning to have fun now that he wasn’t being crushed.

  Stefan went up twenty or thirty feet in the air, straight up. The sunlight made his eyeballs ache, but he was too scared to close his eyes. He wasn’t entirely convinced the sun wouldn’t turn into that Bright Light calling him away. He blinked and cursed the fact that the sun had an effect on him at all—really, he was dead! Why did his incorporeal form still react to that kind of shit?

  His pursuers were rapidly catching up to him. He couldn’t tell if they were furious or drooling fools thanks to the hot white spots dancing in his vision. Figuring they weren’t able to see any better than he was at that point, Stefan didn’t bother flipping them off again. Instead he called out to them, “Well, come on, you jerks! Pick on someone my size, you freakin’ bullies!”

  He didn’t wait for a reaction. He bent until his hands were nearly by his ankles and shot downwards, like he was diving off a platform.

  The tin roof of the barn reflected the sunlight. Stefan could hear birds and cows, regular ranch sounds, as well as Brendon’s whoops of delight. A quick peek and he saw Mrs. Matthers waving at him. Stefan waved back at Zeke’s mom quickly. He didn’t want to miss his next move. Brendon yelled something about a pendulum again but Stefan ignored him.

  His stalkers were closing in on him—because Stefan was letting them. They were still going pretty fast. Stefan knew where he wanted to go. He knew exactly where he wanted them to go. He’d been on this ranch plenty enough times to have every bit of it memorized.

  Three-quarters of the way across the barn’s roof, Stefan came to a sudden stop. He’d done it often enough to be able to go from barreling through the air to completely and utterly stopping in a flash. His pursuers, not so much. They both yelped as they shot past him. He had a flash of two pairs of green eyes, two truly magnificently muscled bodies, white-blond hair topping the head on one of them and raven-black hair on the other.

  Then the two were gone, going right through the tin and wood beneath it. That told Stefan they weren’t very experienced. He dipped his head down through the roofing material just in time to see both men land in the dirty stall. It’d have been better if they’d had a corporeal body, but landing in horse shit wasn’t pleasant in any form.

  Stefan lit out of there, laughing his ass off as he went. He should have remembered that cockiness was a sure-fire temptation karma never could resist.

  He knew the second steely arms wrapped around his calves that he should have just popped on home instead of taking to the air. Stefan pictured his room, his nice bed that he loved even though he didn’t really need it, the laptop and all the pictures Lee had set out for him.

  “Jo, grab onto me!”

  Stefan heard the order even as he dissipated from the air. If those two bozos thought they were going with him, they were wrong. Blipping didn’t work that way.

  His room was just as he’d left it. Stefan sighed and flopped onto the pretty blue and green blanket topping the bed. He stared up at the white ceiling, tense, doubting what he believed to be a truth. When his pursuers didn’t appear after a few minutes, he relaxed and exhaled noisily.

  “What a weird day.” Stefan tucked his hands behind his head. He wondered where Conner was. Later he’d find him and tell him about the two aggressive spirits. Conner would run them off.

  And Stefan was back to being bored. A nap sounded like the way to go, so he closed his eyes and let sleep take him away for a while.

  * * * *

  Confused didn’t even begin to cover how Gideon felt. Jordan wore a stunned expression that probably matched the one on Gideon’s face.

  “How did that little shit do all of that?” Jordan groused. “If that horse shit had really gotten on us, I’d have to find the kid and put him over my knee.”

  “I did attack him first,” Gideon pointed out. “I’m actually kind of impressed. He out-maneuvered us.”

  “Because we don’t know how to be what we are!” Jordan exclaimed, tossing his hands up. “That Conner guy wasn’t exactly helpful with his welcome home speech. I don’t even remember what he said.”

  Gideon didn’t either. They’d both been distracted by the arrival of Jordan’s casket for the burial.

  “Where did he go?” Jordan continued. “Conner said we could go from one place to the other, but we tried that after we died, and look how long it took us to get to McKinton!”

  It had definitely been hit and miss with them. Mostly miss, Gideon scoffed silently. “We were able to get here, we just took the scenic route. It’s not like we were tired or starving. We got here just fine, and we saw a helluva lot of the world.”

  “I hate not eating,” Jordan muttered. “I want to eat. I loved food. I miss it.”

  Gideon nodded, but he could take it or leave it. He’d always eaten because his body had needed the nutrition. It didn’t really matter now.

  “Sex!” Jordan yelped, his eyes positively huge as he sputtered. He finally got a sentence out. “I’m never going to have sex again!”

  “Why not?” Gideon asked, moving over to his friend. He put a hand on Jordan’s crotch and squeezed his junk.

  “Or maybe I will,” Jordan rasped, tipping his head back. “More, Gid? I know we said before, we wouldn’t touch each other, but now…”

  “Before, we were both alive and unwilling to risk damaging our friendship. That didn’t keep us from fucking guys together.” Gideon massaged the hardening length under his palm. Jo had a nice, thick cock. If Gideon were the type of guy who liked to get fucked, he’d be all over it. Hell, if he could even tolerate a dick up his ass he’d stick that big shaft up there.

  However, he didn’t like getting fucked. At all. He’d tried it with guys who’d known what they were doing, and it just didn’t get him off. Jo was a top, too, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still have some fun together.

  “You know we’re still in the air?” Jo huffed.

  Gideon shrugged. “So? We aren’t going anywhere, and there’s the matter of this…” He ran his thumb over the tip of Jo’s cock.

  “Ah, God.” Jo shuddered and quickly worked his pants open. His cock popped right out, heavy and hot where it touched Gideon’s skin.

  “Nice,” Gideon murmured as he took Jo’s shaft in hand. “Push your pants down past your balls, too. Give it all to me.”

  “I don’t bottom, you know that,” Jo snapped, but he didn’t sound quite so firm about it.

  Gideon filed that information away for later. When they’d been serving their country in the Marines, they’d immediately been drawn to each other. It had taken a little bit of talking and not so subtle hints for each of them to figure out the other was gay. Then they’d both confessed to being tops. After a laugh over that, they had settled on being friends who shared when they could, because finding a guy to fuck in the desert could be damned hard to do at times.

  “We kept our hands off each other all that time,” Gideon murmured as he studied the contrast of his darkly tanned hand against Jo’s pink and plum cock. “Not even doing this for each other.” Gideon palmed Jo’s balls and gave them a slight squeeze while at the same time stroking his cock. “We were idiots.”

  “Yeah, we were,” Jordan said in a strained voice. “Fuck, I hadn’t even thought about coming until…until…”

  “Until you freaked out thinking you’d never come again,” Gideon finished as he gave another couple of up-and-down moves, pumping Jo’s dick. “But you’re gonna come for me, aren’t you?”

  “For me,” Jo muttered stubbornly. “You’re not my top.”

  “Maybe not.” Gideon leaned close until he had his lips right on the delicate curve of Jo’s ear. “But maybe I will be. Would you like that, Jo? Like for me to fuck you?”

  “I—” Jo gasped and reached up to pinch at his own tits. “Oh God, fuck! Don’t bottom,” he got out.

  “So you said.” But Gideon could see it, the need in Jo’s eyes, the hunger there before they glazed over. “We were both playing it safe. I think maybe you like the idea of me fucking you. Have you ever been fucked?”

  Jo didn’t answer, not verbally anyway. His cock pulsed and hot cum jetted from it. Gideon massaged his length through the climax, then he bent down and licked the sticky stuff off his hands.

  With that cleaned up, he then lapped at the glistening liquid on the crown of Jo’s shaft.

  “Fuck,” Jo dragged out repeatedly while Gideon gently sucked his softening cock. Jo’s spunk had a burnt, almost bitter taste to it. Gideon liked it, a lot.

  “No fucking me,” Jo said a few moments later when he grabbed Gideon by the hair. “I don’t have to try slicing off my own arm to know I wouldn’t like that. I don’t need to be fucked to know I don’t like it, either.”

  Gideon released Jo’s cock with a wet sound. He looked into Jo’s green eyes. Jo’s eyelashes were tipped with blond, almost white, like the hair on his head and at his groin. The man was sexy as sin and he knew it.

  He was also dead wrong in his way of thinking. “Even I tried it a few times before deciding anal sex wasn’t for me—not if it meant being on the receiving end, at least. It’s not something you should rule out if you haven’t done it enough to be sure you hate it.”

  Jo narrowed his eyes. “Really. And just how many times did it take you to figure it out?”

  Gideon held up one hand. “I gave it a shot five times, with a few different guys. All of them were good with the prepping and all of that. Just didn’t do anything for me to have them fuck me.” He shrugged. “I wish it did, but I hated it every single time. I’d still suggest you try it before swearing off of it.”

  “Let me guess.” Jo crossed his arms over his chest. “You’d be willing to make the sacrifice and be the one to fuck me?”

  Gideon shot up until he was almost nose to nose with Jo. “Don’t try to make me into a dick. I’d love to fuck that ass of yours, sure, but not at the expense of our friendship. If you think that’s all I’m after, then—”

  “I don’t,” Jo said, cutting him off. “Look, let me think about it, okay? I don’t know that I’ll ever want to try it, but maybe you’re right. Lots of guys sure have enjoyed having a dick in their ass. A lot. I might, too.”

  “Maybe.” Gideon was still a little hurt but he let the matter drop. They were both having to adjust to an entirely new reality.

  “You need some relief?” Jo asked.

  Gideon shook his head. His erection had waned when the talking had gone to shit. “Nope. I can wait. We should go back to check on your mom.”

  Jo shivered and rubbed his arms. “I don’t want to. I can’t handle seeing it, knowing…”

  Well, Gideon actually understood that. He didn’t know where the bits and pieces of his dead body were, but there’d be no one to claim him. His parents had died of drug overdoses a long time ago. There’d been no extended family, either.

  Gideon examined his friend. Jo looked like he was close to bolting, and Gideon didn’t want that. If something happened and they were separated they might never find each other again.

  “We could go search for the kid,” he suggested, even though he was certain the ‘kid’ was anything but a child. That’d been an adult man glaring at him and Jo, and it’d been a firm, mature sexy male body under Gideon’s when he’d tackled the stranger. “He was interesting.”

  “He was cute even with the attitude,” Jo agreed. “Maybe we can entice him to the dark side.” The seductive smile on Jo’s handsome face would have brought anyone over to their side, in Gideon’s opinion. The man was too good-looking for his own good. Gideon had always thought so, but since they’d both declared themselves tops, he’d left that train of thought alone.

  But now he’d actually given Jo a hand job and had sucked his dick, tasted his cream. Gideon wanted more. The face of the kid—no, the man—that he’d tackled flashed before his eyes. The man had thick, wild brown hair with fat curls making it look pettable. Large brown eyes framed with thick lashes, a short, slightly upturned nose and plump mauve lips, all on a face that could have been sculpted by the finest artist in the world.

  “He was actually better than cute,” Jo mumbled.

  Gideon snapped out of his musings and frowned at his friend. “Can you read my mind?”

  Jo snorted. “Of course not. I was lost in my own thoughts about the guy.”

  Gideon could understand that. “All right. You want to find him?”

  “I—” Jo stopped and tipped his head back, examining the sky. His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. He angled his head down again and met Gideon’s stare with his own. “I need to check on Mom, you’re right about that. Maybe she’s not in the graveyard anymore. We can start at the house. After that, I’m all for finding that whirlwind who dumped us in the stall.”

  “We dumped ourselves there,” Gideon pointed out.

  Jo hitched up one shoulder. “Semantics. He knew we didn’t have a clue how to stop like he did, and he sure as shit knew where we’d be landing.”

  “Ha ha,” Gideon grumbled over the ‘sure as shit’ part of that.

  “I want to know how him and Conner do that popping away sort of thing. Teleporting, or whatever it is.” Jo nodded. “Yup, need to know that, and to find out how to do it, we need to talk to the slippery stud who got away.”

  “Or Conner,” Gideon said. “He’d know how.”

  Jo wiggled one finger back and forth. “No, no, no. We’re going to find that sexy man and have him explain it to us.”

  Gideon saw a flaw with that logic. “He’ll probably just disappear on us again if we find him.”

  “Not if I beg pretty enough, he won’t. I hope.” Jo smirked. “Think I can get him to hear us out?”

  “With that smug grin, you can probably have the guy naked and bent over in two seconds flat,” Gideon informed him.

  Jo laughed and rubbed his hands together before reaching to pull his pants back up. “Well, all right then, there’s even more incentive to find him now!”

  Chapter Five

  Jordan was still rattled by being dead and not so dead. Dead and a spirit. How does that even happen? Conner had been a friendly enough guy, and insistent that they be called spirits not ghosts. Jordan kind of thought that was because everyone would then be referring to Conner as Conner the Friendly Ghost. Somehow he was pretty certain that would irk Conner. Jordan couldn’t think of a logical reason for them not to be called ghosts, but he supposed it didn’t matter in the end—he was still dead.

  He snuck a peek at Gideon. The big, growly soldier had been a solid friend, and they’d had good times together. Jordan had kept his crush on Gideon buried deep inside. Having Gideon touch him earlier had been a culmination of some seriously repressed fantasies.

  It’d been fucking perfect. Gideon’s grip had been firm and rough, but not painfully so. He had a confidence about him that was sexier than it should have been. Jordan had worked hard to keep from ever making any kind of a sexual move on Gid, but now that line had been crossed. Chances were good it’d keep on being crossed.