And he knew, though he wasn’t about to ’fess up to Gid, that he’d let Gideon fuck him. Just not yet. Jordan liked Gid, respected him, thought he was a stud. He still wasn’t eager to offer up his ass to the guy.

  Now, the idea of finding the sexy fucker who’d left them behind, that was intriguing. Jordan’s cock was hard again just thinking of the man. He’d never recovered so quickly from such an intense orgasm before. Maybe being dead imbued him with super-dick powers or something. The laws of a living man’s refractory period certainly weren’t applicable to him, not now. Good. Being a spirit should have some bonuses.

  Jordan wasn’t sure why he was still on Earth. He’d been hurting so bad, and yeah, he’d been scared, knowing he was dying, knowing he was alone. Then he’d seen Gid floating above him. Hope had chased away some of the fear, and when Jordan had died, he’d gone to the man he’d fought side by side with during the last two tours. It only seemed right that they stay together.

  “Seeing Mom almost killed me all over again,” Jordan said to Gideon as he floated beside him. That was more emotional than anything Jordan might have ever admitted to in his former life, but he just didn’t see the point in keeping it in now. He was dead, for Christ’s sake. Maybe that meant he didn’t have to be such a rigid guy.

  Gideon reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “She’ll be okay. She has that guy she’s dating to help her, so at least she’s not alone. Plus the whole town seemed to show up for your funeral.”

  “Yeah,” Jordan mumbled. He didn’t ask Gideon if he regretted coming with Jordan. He didn’t want to hear it if he did, not yet at least. Gideon didn’t have any family to mourn him, and Jordan couldn’t imagine it’d be a good thing for Gideon to go off and brood about. They needed to be there in McKinton together.

  “She’s not at the graveyard,” Gideon told him as they neared it.

  “Thanks for checking.” Jordan didn’t know if he’d ever be able to stand there and look down at his grave. It was fucking creepy seeing it. “Let’s swing by the house.”

  “No need.” Gideon pointed when Jordan glanced at him. “She’s in the parking lot with Craig.”

  “Craig.” Jordan wasn’t sure how he felt about the man his mother seemed to be in love with. “She hasn’t dated anyone seriously in…ever. At least not since she got knocked up with me.”

  “Your old man take off?” Gideon asked. “You’ve never mentioned him.”

  Jordan watched Craig help his mother into the truck. “Nah, he died. Killed himself, Mom said. He had problems.”

  “Sounds like it,” Gideon agreed. “Still, I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks.” Jordan hovered in the air about ten feet off the ground. It was so bizarre to see himself doing that. Almost as strange as it was to look over and see Gideon suspended in air. “I wonder how we go about finding Conner? He has to know who the guy is we’re trying to find.”

  “Seems like it.” Gideon put a hand above his eyes, shielding them from the sun. “I guess we just start popping in places.”

  “I heard my name spoken.”

  “Jesus fucking—” Jordan spun around as he slapped a hand to his chest. “If I wasn’t already dead…”

  Conner snickered and gave him a thumbs up. Gideon was still cussing.

  “Seriously, Conner. What are you, a genie?”

  “A genie?” Conner stopped chortling long enough to ask Jordan.

  Jordan didn’t have a good explanation. Didn’t stop him from trying. “You just pop up out of nowhere because you heard your name spoken? What else could do that?”

  “Me,” Conner said. “Except I really didn’t. I came back to see if you were still stunned stupid by seeing your own burial. It was just my good fortune that I got to sneak up on you, too.”

  “He does that a lot,” another man said as he materialized out of thin air.

  Jordan just barely kept from squeaking. Gideon cussed again. The newcomer was lithe and beautiful, with shiny black hair and finely chiseled cheekbones.

  “He’s mine,” Conner said companionably. “But I can’t blame you for looking at Ro. He’s perfect, isn’t he?”

  Ro’s honey-brown skin darkened over his cheekbones, but he turned a pleased smile on Conner. “Flatterer.”

  “Honest,” Conner countered with as he looped an arm around Ro’s shoulders. “Ro, this is Jordan, and the cussing wonder is Gideon.”

  “Hey.” Ro waved. “Sorry to meet y’all like this. Did either of you happen to see a guy here earlier, cute and slender, dark curly hair? Stefan? His name is Stefan.”

  “Stefan.” Just saying the man’s name made Jordan horny. “We didn’t meet him, exactly, at least not the traditional way. Not at first.”

  It shouldn’t have been possible for a spirit to look so intimidating, considering they were all already dead. What else could happen to them? Yet the expression on Conner’s face surely could strike fear into the heart of any being.

  “I kind of tackled him,” Gideon admitted.

  “Kind of?” Conner repeated in a soft tone that somehow projected his turn from friendly to fierce immediately.

  Jordan suddenly had a very bad feeling that they were in deep shit. “He—”

  Before he could get another word out, the air around him seemed to tighten. It wasn’t possible for air to grow dense and heavy like cement walls pushing him on all sides—but it was happening. Gideon’s open-mouthed, stunned look told Jordan that he was experiencing it too.

  “You do not fuck with Stefan,” Jordan heard Conner say right before everything went dark.

  Almost as suddenly as that happened, it was light again. Jordan blinked in confusion. They were in a room he didn’t recognize, and Conner was there, along with the pretty man, Ro.

  More importantly, there was another man in the room. Stefan frowned at Jordan and Gideon before turning a fierce look on Conner. “Why in the world did you bring these two bullies here?”

  Jordan still felt restricted—almost completely. He tried to speak but Conner held a hand up and spared him a cold glance.

  “One, I wanted to make sure you’re okay—”

  “What’re they gonna do to me?” Stefan interrupted, huffing slightly. “I’m already dead.”

  “You can still be hurt,” Conner explained, and the invisible bands around Jordan tightened. “What happened?”

  Stefan examined Jordan and Gideon each for a moment before turning back to Conner. “What’re you doing to them?”

  Conner shrugged. “What happened?”

  Stefan planted two large, bony hands on his hips. “First I want to know how you’re doing that, and what you’re doing.”

  Conner sighed like he was the most put-upon man ever in existence. “Stef, now’s really not the time to explain either of those things. I mean, Jordan and Gideon are both right here and listening to everything we say.”

  Stefan spared them another glance. “Yeah, well, can’t you plug their ears or something?”

  Jordan sputtered almost as loudly as Gideon did, not wanting Conner to be fucking around with his hearing.

  Conner ignored them. “Nope. I’m not a god, despite how sexy I am.” He buffed the nails of one hand on his chest then examined them. “I can see where anyone might think so—ouch!” he yelped when Ro popped him on the back of the head.

  “Quit tormenting everyone.”

  Conner snapped a smart salute to Ro and winked at him. “Yessir.” Then he pointed at Jordan and Gideon. “Try anything funny and I’ll have you both bottled up and tossed into the ocean.”

  “You can do that?” Stefan asked excitedly.

  Conner’s lips thinned. Jordan took that as a no, but he wasn’t going to test it.

  “Seriously, can you?” Stefan asked again. “Because if you can, you have to share the how of it just like you have to tell me what you were doing to them.” He jabbed a thumb toward Jordan. “You can’t keep all that knowledge to yourself, it’s just not fair.”

  Conner arched an eyebrow at Stefan. “Gonna stomp your foot, too?”

  Stefan cocked a hip. “Maybe.”

  “Children,” Ro said sharply. “Behave.”

  Conner and Stefan both broke into chuckles. “Fine,” Conner said. “Later, Stef. I won’t talk about it in front of anyone other than you and Ro.”

  “Deal.” Stefan pivoted around and marched right up to Gideon. “I had enough of being bullied when I was alive.”

  Gideon’s cheeks turned ruddy. Jordan was sure his did, too.

  “I thought you were going to hurt Jo’s mom,” Gideon muttered.

  Stefan looked at them both like they were crazy. “Why would I do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Gideon answered as he turned his hands palms up in front of him. “I’ve been fighting in Afghanistan for the past two years. I just got killed by a suicide bomber. Forgive me for being jumpy and suspicious.”

  Stefan seemed to shrink a little as he stepped back. “Well, I feel like an ass.”

  “I don’t.” Conner glared at Gideon.

  “It’s okay, Conner.” Stefan gestured at Conner, a sort of wave as if he was shooing off Conner’s ire. “Seriously, I guess I can understand, and I did lead them out to Zeke and Brendon’s for a dunk in the shitty stall.”

  Conner’s laughter rang out as he held up a hand.

  Stefan high-fived him. “It’d have been better if they’d gone solid when they hit, though.”

  Jordan cleared his throat. He was guessing he could speak now without incurring Conner’s wrath. “How would we do that, the go solid thing?” He looked around the room. “And how do we just appear somewhere else?”

  Conner narrowed his eyes at Jordan. “If either of you ever fuck around with Stefan again, you’ll regret it.”

  “We won’t,” Jordan assured him, wondering what, exactly, Stefan was to Conner. The big blond spirit was certainly protective of Stefan. “We aren’t assholes. We just don’t know anything about any of this.” He waved a hand around the room in general. “One minute we were alive, then Gid was dead and I was dying. Then we were both dead, and confused. It took us a week to get here, and now I’m thinking we could have probably gotten here a hell of a lot quicker.”

  “Yup,” Stefan said before Conner even got his mouth opened. “You sure could have. All you do is—”

  “Stefan,” Conner growled.

  Stefan didn’t even acknowledge Conner. “Think of where you want to be. It’s hard at first, but you kind of picture it, or the idea of it if wherever you’re going isn’t somewhere you’ve actually seen. And don’t freak out if you appear in a wall or a sidewalk. It’s not like you’re stuck, you know. You just float out of it.”

  “I was going to explain it,” Conner was whispering to Ro. “I wasn’t going to be mean.”

  “The firming up is harder,” Stefan continued. “We can touch each other.” Stefan’s smile was devastating as he approached Jordan. He placed his hand right over Jordan’s heart, which fluttered wildly. “See? No problem. And you can touch me, too.”

  Stefan used his other hand to grab Jordan’s right wrist. “Like this.” Jordan sucked in a noisy breath when he felt the warmth of Stefan’s body through his clothes. Stefan was slight of build, but he wasn’t too thin, and he was simply gorgeous with those big eyes and that trusting expression.

  “Are you—” Conner broke off with a grunt. “What, Ro?”

  Stefan used the hand he’d grabbed Jordan’s wrist with to touch Gideon’s chest. Jordan knew the ticking at the joint of Gideon’s jaw was a sign of arousal. He’d seen it before.

  “But touching another spirit is different from touching something more…” Stefan pulled his hands back and rolled his eyes up to stare at the ceiling as he seemed to search for a word. Finally he looked at them again. “Something more substantial, for lack of a better word. We only have substance here, in our afterlife, not in the real world that the living are in. It’s weird, but what can you do?” He hitched a shoulder up and let it drop. “It is what it is. You have to really concentrate to have an effect on things. If you don’t want to fall through a barn roof, for example, you just concentrate on not doing that.”

  “Think stop,” Ro said. “Envision yourself doing it.”

  “Instead of panicking,” Conner added. “See?” He turned to Ro. “I can be helpful.”

  “Conner says it gets easier to do the more you practice,” Stefan said. He moved over to his laptop and tapped a button. Porn music blared as a raunchy video began playing.

  “Seriously?” someone hollered from another room. “Turn it down!”

  “Whoops. Forgot about the volume.” Stefan tapped a button and the sound was turned off.

  Conner shot over to get between Stefan and the laptop. “Don’t stop the video on our account. I haven’t seen this one before.”

  “Why don’t we watch it somewhere more private?” Ro asked, gliding over to press up against Conner’s side. “Now that you know Stefan’s okay, and these two weren’t trying to hurt him.”

  Conner gave Jordan and Gideon a stern look before looping an arm around Stefan’s neck and knuckling his hair. “They give you any shit, holler.”

  “I will.” Stefan giggled and slipped out of Conner’s grasp. “Have fun.”

  Ro hugged Stefan. “You, don’t have too much fun.”

  “I’m not a kid,” Stefan said gruffly.

  Jordan warmed up inside. He knew he was probably reading more into Ro’s words and Stefan’s reply than he should, but Stefan was a sexy young man and Jordan…

  Jordan couldn’t affirm that he was still alive by having rough, mind-blowing sex, but he could remind himself that at least he and Gideon weren’t completely gone.

  Chapter Six

  Maybe he was being presumptuous, but Stefan was pretty damned sure that’d been lust he’d seen in Jordan’s eyes. Gideon, he couldn’t read, but Jordan had this hungry look about him, and now that he knew neither of them was out to harm him, Stefan could admit they were both gorgeous.

  Not model-perfect, but rough paragons of masculinity that made Stefan want to drop and worship at their feet. These weren’t boys, either, like Johnny had been. No, Gideon and Jordan were grown men, with more experiences in their too-short lives than Stefan could ever hope to have.

  Both men had darkly tanned skin, and crow’s feet spreading from the outer corners of their eyes. Gideon had a single shallow line running almost fully across his forehead. Jordan had two thin ones right in the center of his brow.

  They looked hard, lived-in and sexier than anyone else Stefan had ever seen. Jordan watched him with something that Stefan could only describe as hunger. He peeked at Gideon. Nope, he couldn’t read that man’s expression at all.

  “What do you think, Gid?” Jordan asked, never looking away from Stefan. He reached down and adjusted his cock. Stefan wanted to offer to do it for him, but that was more forward than he could be just then. He’d flirted, touched both men, then flicked on the porn just to see if he got a hit on either being gay. He knew Jordan was, at least. Gay, and interested.

  Gideon didn’t answer, but he watched Stefan steadily.

  Stefan cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his hair. He felt warm, flushed and aroused but above all of that, he experienced a sudden surge of trepidation. Something was going on that he couldn’t quite grasp and that he wasn’t ready for after all.

  He looked over at Gideon then flicked his gaze to Jordan. “I, um. Have to—” Stefan didn’t know what to do with his hands. They seemed to be fluttering in front of him all of their own accord. Damn, he was nervous. “Gotta go. Feel free to watch the video.”

  Stefan whirled around and would have left had Gideon not decided to speak.

  “Wait, please.”

  Oh damn. Stefan’s cock was hard as a steel girder as soon as Gideon spoke.

  “Jordan and I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Gideon said in a softer voice. “Just like I didn’t mean to be a jerk earlier. I just saw a spirit hovering over Jo’s mom, and I freaked. I tend to be protective of wounded people.”

  The woman had been in so much pain. That was one of the reasons why Stefan hadn’t been able to resist touching her hair.

  “He’s also protective of his friends.” Jordan had a slightly higher-pitched voice, but it was every bit as stimulating at the moment as Gideon’s. “I wasn’t handling the whole seeing my own grave thing very well, and my mom, Jesus, that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to see, her sobbing over my casket.”

  Stefan forgot about his hard-on, and about his raging hormones that kept telling him he wanted to get fucked then petering out before he could go through with it. Jordan’s words penetrated his own selfish musings and wants, calling him out on them as shallow, vain worries of an immature youth. Despite his age, Stefan wasn’t as mature as he’d thought.

  He set aside everything having to do with him and moved to stand in front of Gideon and Jordan, who were shoulder to shoulder. “I’m sorry,” Stefan got out past a lump in his throat.

  “For what?” Jordan asked, sounding genuinely confused.

  Stefan forced himself to look both men in the eyes, though he felt like he was watching a tennis match, bouncing his gaze back and forth between them. “I’m sorry that you both died. I’m sorry that you”—he tipped his chin at Jordan—“had to see your mother torn up over your death. At least she loves you, and that is a big, big thing. I’m even sorry about earlier, kind of.”

  “Kind of?”

  Stefan looked at Gideon and couldn’t quite keep from smiling. “I had fun out-maneuvering you both. I mean, come on. Y’all are these big”—he raked them both over visually—“strong, masculine guys who just exude sex appeal.”

  “We do?” Jordan asked.

  Gideon snorted and stood a little taller. “I do.”

  Jordan smacked his shoulder. “Not.”

  “You both do,” Stefan clarified before they could start really bickering. “Y’all are sex on a stick, even though I don’t know what the hell that means. It doesn’t make sense, so maybe I should say y’all are the sexiest fuckers I’ve ever seen.” Stefan wished he could take the admission back. Fear tingled along his spine as he moved back several feet.