Page 53 of Flesh and Fury
“Yeah, like buckle bunnies,” Chris said. “They’re girls who hang around and screw rodeo cowboys.”
“I know what a buckle bunny is,” Eoghan replied. “I just didn’t know there was a name for guys.”
“There is,” Roy replied. “Anyway, I moved on after I learned neither of them were interested. There’s always a guy willing to suck a fat cock on the rodeo circuit. Half the cowboys I know get on their knees one minute and the next are outside with their arm around their fat wives, kissing them on the mouth. There’s tons of cowboys in the closet. You’d be surprised.”
“So, if you’re so happy with Binks, why’d you cheat with Roy?” Ari asked Chris.
“Like I said, he finally wore me down.” Chris smiled at his boyfriend and then leaned down, taking his mouth in a soft kiss. When he leaned back, Binks turned to Roy who kissed him too.
“And I guess the cheating’s forgiven,” Rana said under her breath.
“What?” Binks asked, as he looked up, the picture of innocence.
Rana grinned knowingly and cleared her throat, glancing over at Eoghan and Ari. “Yeah, I think we’re done here.” She looked around the alleyway before swearing under her breath. “Dammit.”
“What?”
“My spare clothes are in the truck which is out in the parking lot,” she said. She glanced at Andy. “Please tell me you have clothes,” she said, watching him pick up his ripped jeans, look at them helplessly, and then drop them again.
“In the truck.”
“We’ll get them,” Eoghan said, sounding happy to have something to do other than stare at all the gorgeous, naked skin on display. There was one thingallthe shifters Ari had seen in the buff shared, which was how remarkably fit and toned they all were. There were no fat animals here, even Roy the tomcat whom he thought looked so much like Garfield. The cowboy was simply built sturdy.
Rana retrieved her keys from her jeans and walked over, dropping them into Eoghan’s outstretched palm. “Thanks for this, Sapphire.”
“Anything I can do to help,” Eoghan said with a grin. Ari watched him walk over to Roy and take keys from him as well as Joe. They got descriptions of everyone’s vehicles, then Eoghan asked, holding up the keys, “Shall we?”
“Yeah.” Ari looked over at the group of shifters who huddled in two groups near each other. “We’ll be right back.”
“Thanks, guys,” Rana said, waving at them as they walked away.
“That could have been a disaster,” Eoghan said as soon as they turned the corner and were far enough away that they couldn’t be heard by sensitive shifter hearing.
“I’ll say,” Ari replied. “Apparently, all it takes is the sound of a panther’s snarl to keep every cat everywhere in line.”
Eoghan chuckled. “Well, I’m glad we met with Andy and Rana. I’m sure that with a little luck, both of their clans will be joining us. I’m happy as hell we’re coming to an end with this long assed case.”
“Let’s just hope there’s still good vampires left on King Townsend’s reservation. Once the fighting begins, it’d be nice to see them stand up for him. The poor guy probably has ulcers,” Ari said, hoping he was right about the good vampires. The very idea that innocent people—vampires or not—were starving to death was very upsetting. “I can’t imagine beingtold that I have to toe the line under a new king and his minions, or not get my ration of food. It’s awful.”
“It’s the same across this country with human food insecurity as well,” Eoghan said. “One of the things that I hate most is thinking that children starve for no reason. It’s such useless loss.”
“Well, there aren’t a hell of a lot of child vamps, but I know what you mean, Eoghan.” Ari watched as his partner held out one of the set of keys and clicked the key fob. A black truck several aisles over beeped and they headed toward it. After retrieving everyone’s clothes from their trucks, they also got some from Roy’s car. “It figures Roy drives a red sports car,” Ari said, shaking his head. “That guy’s a douche.”
Eoghan laughed as they returned to the back of the building and handed everyone spare clothes. Ari had to wonder how often the shifters tended to rip out of their clothing, leaving shreds of fabric on the ground and without a helper nearby like Ari or Eoghan. How often did they have to wait around until dark so no one would see them streaking through a parking lot buck naked.
“We’ll meet you inside the restaurant,” Eoghan said.
Ari glanced over at him. “You still want to eat here?”
“Fuck yeah, I’m starving, aren’t you?”
“Actually, now that I think of it, yeah, I really am hungry.” He looked at the others. “See you inside,” Ari said, motioning to them and watching them nod before turning on his heel and following Eoghan.
The truth was, all Ari wanted was a stiff drink and room service in their room, but he didn’t want to do that to Joe, Alo, or his new shifter friends. But that feeling didn’t extend to breaking bread with Roy, Chris, or their cute little bartender, Binks. He was glad when the cowboys headed for the bar andtook up their original places on stools while Binks went back to serving them.
After a nice meal with their friends, old and new, they stood in the lobby of their hotel. Ari was so glad they’d be flying. He was anxious to get home and really happy he didn’t have a long-distance drive starting first thing in the morning the way they normally did when they left town after a job.
Between going to meet up with the werewolves, then coming here to meet with everyone else, he was tired of trying to bring all the varying coalitions together. Not only that, he wanted the case to be over. It seemed that ever since he’d met Eoghan and begun working the Townsend case with him, things had been crazy. They’d spent an incredibly long time burning up tire tread on the road, and he’d not had a moment’s peace unless he was lying in Eoghan’s arms on a rare day off together.