Moonstruck Mini-Fic - Jericho meets Kendra (Patreon)

“Ho-ly shit.”Jericho paused, his drink halfway to his lips, doing his best to follow his brother-in-law, Avi’s, line of sight. At first, he

“Ho-ly shit.”Jericho paused, his drink halfway to his lips, doing his best to follow his brother-in-law, Avi’s, line of sight. At first, he saw nothing. The event was crowded, the music was grating, and Jericho’s collar felt like it was choking him. Atticus had jokingly said it was because Jericho never stopped working. Jericho had countered that it was manhandling Atticus in bed that was to blame.Whatever the case, he felt like he was being strangled. More so when he saw where Avi was pointing. No. Fucking. Way. Jericho’s whole body went hot, then cold, his jaw clenching. His fingers found his collar, tugging his tie loose and undoing his top-collar button, before he exploded out of the material with rage like the Hulk.She stood across the room, wearing a dress the same ice blue as her cold dead heart, her overly pointy features on full display as she gave a fake laugh to the weak-chinned old white dude standing beside her. Jericho heaved an irritated sigh, draining his drink in one go before slamming it back on the bar.“Still up to her old tricks, I see,” Asa said with an eye roll.Kendra. Atticus’s ex-fiancée. Even the word fiancée when uttered in reference to his husband made him…stabby. She had tried—and almost succeeded in getting her hooks in him for years. The idea of Atticus shackled for life to that…woman… Yeah, no. He could feel his chest heaving, his pulse racing. He had never truly hated a stranger this much, but he’d truly loathed her from the moment he’d looked up her Facebook page the night he and Atticus had met.“She looks like shit in that dress,” Felix said. “It totally clashes with her fake tanner and her patchy highlights.”Jericho smiled at his brother’s observation. It wasn’t true. She looked flawless physically. Despite her callousness, her coldness, and devious nature, she was…conventionally attractive, he supposed. If one was into the ice princess type. Which he wasn’t.“Now, now, kitten,” Avi chided, teasingly. “No need to mock the less fortunate. Imagine having to fuck that decrepit old dude just to pay for that ugly ass dress.”“She’ll be lucky if Adam doesn’t find her,” Asa murmured. “He’s wanted to kill her from day one.”“It’s weird how possessive of Atticus Adam is,” Zane noted. “Like, he pretends he hates him, but he really hates her.”Adam and Atticus had a strange relationship, it was true. It was only to be expected. The oldest and the youngest in any family were bound to clash, especially two who were so different personality-wise. Adam was a true psychopath, lacking in any empathy or remorse. If not for Thomas, Adam would have no qualms about taking out people who even slightly inconvenienced him, starting with Kendra.Atticus, on the other hand, was a slightly more complicated creature. Prickly, narcissistic, a little sulky, some underlying psychopathy for sure, but if not for Thomas, Atticus would have never been a murderer. It just wasn’t in his nature. But he probably would never have had the chance to be the success he was either. Not where he started in life.“I’m not going to lie,” Felix said, leaning his back against Avi’s chest, “I would pay a lot of money to watch Adam go up against Kendra.”“Same,” Zane and Asa said at the same time.Jericho tried to tamp down the irrational fury pouring through him. It was only a matter of time before they came face to face. They’d dodged so many bullets with fundraisers and galas and silent auctions. They all moved in the same circles, after all, whether Jericho liked it or not.He scanned the room, looking for the shock of red hair that usually stood out in a sea of gray. He found Atticus standing in a circle of people with his father. But he wasn’t paying attention to them. He was giving Jericho a quizzical look, like he could sense something was wrong but couldn’t figure out what.There was no way he could see Kendra from where he stood in the crowd. The only reason they could see her was because the bar was raised in the center of the room, giving them all a bird’s eye view.Jericho gave him a nod and a dirty smile, hoping it reassured him that everything was fine. Atticus shifted uncomfortably, his hands jamming into his pants pockets. He was always so easily riled. God, that was hot. Jericho could feel himself hardening behind his zipper.“You good?” Felix asked. “Asa, Avi, and I have a”—he looked around cautiously—“thing.”“Zane’s not going?” Jericho asked absently.It was rare for the four of them to separate for any real length of time. His gaze drifted back to Kendra, who suddenly looked in his direction, her gaze snagging, then catching and holding, like she just realized who he was. He didn’t break eye contact. Let her squirm.Felix shook his head, looking to Zane, who said, “No, I have to edit my latest video highlighting the ‘mysterious vigilante’s’ latest suspected victims. Besides, the last time I went on a job with them, someone shot an arrow dangerously close to my face.” He turned and glared at Avi.“It was nowhere near your pretty little face,” Avi teased. “As if I’d risk my brother’s wrath by damaging his precious little chew toy.”“It’s Felix’s wrath you should be concerned with,” Asa murmured. “I’d just kill you. He’d play with you first.”Jericho ignored their banter but did ask, “Do you need a ride home?”“No, August and Lucas are going to drop me at the apartment when they head out,” Zane said.Jericho nodded, still glowering at Kendra.Felix put a hand on Jericho’s shoulder. “Don’t waste your energy on her. She lost. You won.”“I’m good,” Jericho murmured. “Be safe.”He felt the others drift off, only then breaking contact with Kendra to turn towards the bar and flag down the bartender with a look, pointing to his glass. The man hurried over, refilling his whiskey before darting away to a woman in a red dress who was snapping her fingers impatiently.“So, you’re him, huh?”Jericho sighed. He hadn’t expected her to approach him and was tempted to ignore her, but, instead, he turned, placing an elbow on the bar, giving her another dismissive once-over. “Him?”She gave a coy smile, like she knew what he was doing. “The grease monkey who snagged the heir to the Mulvaney throne. He’s going to inherit everything. But I suppose you know that.”She took a sip of her champagne, her overly long nails curling around the stem, like diamond-covered claws. She was wrong. Totally wrong. Atticus wasn’t going to inherit everything. Thomas’s money would be split among all his children and grandchildren equally, which would leave every one of them with more money than any single person could spend in ten lifetimes.None of that mattered. They would continue to spend the money on exactly what Thomas wanted—ridding the world of monsters. But he wasn’t about to tell her that. “I didn’t marry him for his money.”She scoffed. “Hey, I have nothing but respect,” she said mockingly. “Don’t hate the player and all that. I mean, with his sparkling personality and clingy, weird family, I’m sure you’re earning every penny. You know his father probably had you investigated.”Jericho grinned briefly. “He did.”When Jericho didn’t engage further, she tipped her head, her mouth curling into a sneer. “You deserve the money just for the sex alone. Fucking him was like having sex with a cardboard cutout.”Jericho shook his head with a smirk. “If you say so.”Kendra shrugged one narrow shoulder. “I suppose if he was gay, that might explain a lot. But even your dick couldn’t possibly have fixed that personality or his godawful taste.”Jericho took a deep breath and let it out, reminding himself that he didn’t throat punch women. She was trying to get a rise out of him. She wanted him to cause a scene or maybe to let slip some tidbit of information she could run to the tabloids with.He gave her a cruel smile, leaning closer. “What do you see happening here right now? Do you think we’re besties? That I want to shit talk my husband with you?”“Did I strike a nerve?” she asked, fluttering her lashes.Jericho snorted. “Listen, I know you’re bitter because you squandered your best years trying to Anna Nicole Smith your way into the Mulvaney fortune, but that has nothing to do with me or him.”When she opened her mouth, he raised a hand, cutting her off. “I could spend the next hour telling you about my amazing marriage or the insanely, filthy, hot sex we have every single day. Sometimes, several times a day.” Her face twisted into disgust, but he wasn’t done yet. “I could tell you about how much my father-in-law loves me and how Atticus’s brothers have never treated me as anything but family. I could remind you that I’ve been running the same successful business for over a decade and that Atticus supports that. There are so many fucking things I could tell you.”He scanned the room, making sure he kept the bored look on his face, his gaze landing on a now extremely stressed-looking Atticus, who gawked at the two of them, panicked.Jericho sighed. “But I won’t do that. I don’t have to. Because, at the end of the day, you’re just a sad, pathetic, money-hungry, trash goblin, who is going to have to go home with Father Time over there to pay your rent, and I’m going home to the love of my life and a life you’ll never have.” He set his glass down.  “See ya.”Jericho left her gawking, cutting across the room, where he found a red-faced Atticus rushing to meet him. Jericho didn’t say a word, just hooked his arm around his husband’s arm and dragged him towards the exit.“What’s going on? What’s wrong? What did she say?”Jericho didn’t say a word, just followed the exit signs until they dumped the two of them in the alley. He slammed Atticus against the wall, his hand gripping his jaw gently. “Open up, Freckles. Gimme that tongue.”Almost immediately, the tension melted from Atticus’s body and he did as Jericho demanded. He captured his mouth, tasting champagne as he sucked on his tongue. Atticus’s hands found the lapels of Jericho’s jacket, clinging to him as they kissed.Jericho loved kissing Atticus, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. He plunged a hand into his pants, making an approving sound when he found Atticus half-hard just from his kisses.“Already hard for me, Freckles? Jericho jerked him roughly as his mouth worked over his jaw. “I want to fuck you.”“Again?” Atticus teased breathlessly.“Mmm,” Jericho said against his lips. “Right here. Right now. Don’t say no.”Atticus glanced around the seemingly empty alley with its anemic street lamps and garish green garbage bins, his tongue darting out to sweep over his lower lip.“Yeah, okay,” he said, his gaze going hazy.Jericho growled. Atticus loved fucking in risky places. The idea of getting caught seemed to really turn him on. Jericho tore at Atticus’s clothes, yanking the tails of his shirt free before attacking his belt and zipper. He shoved his pants and underwear out of his way, spinning him to face the brick wall. Jericho slipped his fingers into the crevice between Atticus’s cheeks, groaning when he found he was still sticky and full from their adventures in the car on the way there and earlier before they’d left.“Fuck,” he muttered, his cock throbbing as he attempted to get his own clothes out of the way.He wasn’t usually the kind of person to let someone get under his skin, to let someone rile him the way Kendra had, but the thought of how different things could have gone—of what might have happened had their world’s not collided… It was tearing a hole in him. No Atticus? No life together? Not being able to wake up to him in the morning or curl up with him to watch trash television at night?No. Jericho’s life didn’t make sense without Atticus. He pressed himself against Atticus’s hole. “I kind of want to tear you apart right now.”Atticus gave a soft laugh. “I think I can take it.”Jericho groaned as he slammed home, as much from the heat surrounding him as the gasp that ripped from Atticus’s lungs. Every time. Every fucking time Jericho pushed inside him, Atticus made that breathy little sound, like he couldn’t breathe without Jericho inside him.Jericho pressed his face to Atticus’s shoulder, his hand wrapping around his cock to work him in time with his thrusts. Atticus canted his hips, reaching back and gripping Jericho’s thigh, like he needed more. Jericho fucked into him harder, driving up on his tip-toes to bury himself to the hilt.“Fuck. I love you. I love this. You know that, right? You know I’m the lucky one, right?” he rasped. “God, you feel so fucking good. Still so full of my cum. I just want to take you home and fuck you all night until you’re covered inside and out. I want every part of you to smell like me, to taste like me. I want everybody to know who you belong to.”Atticus said nothing, but his breathing grew labored, his fingers spasming around Jericho’s thigh where he held on for dear life. Still, he said nothing.“You’re mine. You’re just fucking mine. Forever,” Jericho swore.“I am yours. That’s never in question,” Atticus promised, voice raw.Jericho was too far gone, his orgasm imminent, those shocky sparks of pleasure heating the base of his spine. “Just mine,” he said again.“Just yours,” Atticus swore again.Jericho’s orgasm slammed into him, his hips stuttering as he spilled inside him. Atticus batted Jericho’s hand away, jerking himself with two or three hard tugs before he gave a harsh cry, body spasming around Jericho’s already softening cock in a way that gave him goosebumps.He didn’t pull out immediately, just stood there as he tried to pull himself together. Even when he finally pulled free and they fixed their clothes, Jericho still felt like this wasn’t enough. He wrapped his arms around Atticus, clinging to him in a way he rarely did.“What the hell did she say to you?” Atticus asked, voice bewildered.It wasn’t that. It wasn’t anything he was sure he could put into words. “Nothing. She didn’t really say anything. She was just so…”“You got Kendra’d,” Atticus said, understanding seemingly dawning. “It happens to the best of us. She’s vile.”“It’s not that. I mean, she’s a nightmare, for sure. But the idea that, if we hadn’t met…if I hadn’t showed up at your work or if you hadn’t come to my apartment… The thought that we wouldn’t be together just scared the shit out of me, Freckles. There were so many times we could have just not shown up for each other and we wouldn’t have any of this. And I can’t imagine my life without you.”Atticus’s eyes went wide, his lips slightly parted. “I-I can’t imagine my life without you either. But we don’t have to. Ever. Right?”The way he hesitated when he said right made Jericho’s heart twist into knots. “Never ever,” he promised. “Can we go home?”Atticus snorted. “I think we have to. I’m pretty sure these pants will be ruined by the time we get there. That was your third…deposit of the day.”Jericho growled, biting at Atticus’s throat. “It’s not my last.”“Oh, I heard,” Atticus teased. “You were quite vocal about your plans for the rest of my night.”“We both know you can’t wait. You love being bred. Can’t get enough of it. Hell, you begging for my cum is the reason we’re banned from your father’s car service. Guess those partitions aren’t soundproof.”Atticus flushed. “Guess not.”Jericho laced their fingers together, leading them the long way around the building towards the valet.“So, really, what did Kendra say?” Atticus pressed, changing the subject.Nothing that Atticus wouldn’t internalize and stew about for the rest of the night. “I don’t know, Freckles. Her voice was like shards of glass in my ear canal. I just tried to tune her out.”“I know when you’re lying to me,” Atticus said, tone both clipped and a bit superior. “But I’m going to let it go because she’s not worth my time. Let’s just go home.”Jericho kissed his cheek. “Let’s go home, Freckles.”