City Knight 04 - Knights Out (CMS) (MM) Read Online Free PDF

enlisted and ended up deployed with Desert Storm. And of course, I…”
    Large hands reached down Ben’s back and settled on his ass. They held him in place, not in a sexual way, Ben knew, but in an unconscious cry for closeness. Marcus’s body was begging for touch and comfort and assurance. Ben slid his arms under Marcus and hugged him close.
    “That’s when I met Chance and Wick and…well, we had another friend at the academy but he’s not important, not now. Anyway, we all ended up as buddies and—fuck, you’ve seen them. I was already…curious. I…I never cheated on Vanessa, but I knew what I wanted to do, and that I wanted it to be with a man. So I told my parents, and I told them why. And they went crazy. Said I couldn’t ever talk to Frankie again, since he was in Iraq, and I was never to contact them again. Vanessa understood, I mean, she knew I liked men at least a little, but it still hurt her when I told her I wanted to be with one . She offered to let me…do it…but I couldn’t cheat.”
    Of course you couldn’ t. You’d be alone the rest of your life before you’d do that to someone, you…you big fucker.
    “I got a letter from him , wanting to know what was happening, that my parents had told him Vanessa and I were going to get a divorce and what the hell was I doing. And I was afraid, Benjamin. I was so afraid. I didn’t want my little brother to hate me.” Ben had to squeeze him extra tight here. He could feel the slight trembling against his chest. “So I sent him one letter. I told him“—his voice broke—“that I wasn’t worth it and to forget about me.”
    “Oh, Marcus.” Ben relaxed his grip from the tight hug and pulled himself up face-to-face, snaking one hand behind Marcus’s head and grabbing a handful of the hair he’d allowed to grow out. “Never. Never. You can’t believe that.”
    The tears dripped down the corners of Marcus’s eyes, but Ben wouldn’t say anything about them. “He needed to focus on himself. Not worry about his brother. His fag brother with the failed marriage who was the shame of the family.”
    Ben couldn’t let that pass. He tightened his grip on Marcus’s hair and slammed his mouth against his in a brutal kiss. Their teeth clashed as Ben forced Marcus to open to him. He could taste the bitter tang of blood, but didn’t let it stop him. Fi nally, he pulled away, gasping. Words failed him.
    But he needn’t have worried. Marcus never ceased to surprise him. “It broke my heart. But, Ben…every heart needs breaking sometimes. It just means you’ve let it get too hard.”
    God, I love this man .
    “He’s living here in Atlanta, Ben.” Marcus’s voice was small, pained. So unlike him. “He married my ex-wife, had two kids, joined the DeKalb County PD. He’s been living his life—my life—within fifteen miles of me for ten years and I didn’t know it. Now he’s divorced, and, Ben? He and the kids live ten minutes from here now.”
    Holy. Fuck .

Chapter 5
    The house was nice. A simple brick three bedroom, two bath, fifties style structure. He was willing to bet it had been gutted and renovated and was homey as hell. A bike in the front yard, hedges nicely trimmed. In one of the neighborhoods that had already made it over the hump of gentrification. Funny, Marcus thought, that it was in what was considered a relatively “gay” area.
    He and Benjamin sat in the Jeep across the street . Neither said a word, and Marcus knew it was killing his Benjamin to not ask him a million questions, not demand to know when he was going to get out and walk up to the front door and ring the doorbell. When he was going to grow a set of balls and say hello to his brother.
    Before Benjamin exploded, Marcus reached over and laid a hand on this thigh. “I just need to see him first. I know you probably thin k I am six kinds of chickenshit, but—“
    “Now , you stop it right now. Yeah, I want to see the Prater brother that’s closer in age to me,