Cobalt Blue Ch. 07

Pleased with the choice of silk sheets, even if they were high maintenance and the candles that were all ready to light when Jaze came home, Stewie decided to have a break and have a drink. He went downstairs and froze outside their lounge. Inside sat Karl with a coffee pot and two mugs. Their eyes met and Karl rose.

"I came back so I could apologise," he said indicating for Stewie to come in.

"How did you get in?" Stewie asked.

"Jaze's key," Karl said holing it for Stewie to see. "He probably doesn't even realise he doesn't have it.

Stewie looked at him sharply. He looked sincere, but the younger man wasn't so easily convinced. He stepped warily into the room, sitting in the chair furthest from Karl. He watched as the other man poured two coffees and put one in front of Stewie before hugging the other to his chest.

"Guess you could say I was jealous of Jaze," Karl said. "He's rich, intelligent and successful. Then there's you."

Stewie picked up his own mug and took a few swallows of the bitter brew.

"A friend should be pleased for Jaze," Stewie said. "He's worked hard to get where he is."

"You have no idea of his wealth do you?" Karl asked incredulously.

"We've never discussed it," Stewie said sipping nervously. Jaze had only ever inferred that he was well off.

"He is generous," Karl said sitting back as though about to recount a tale. "If I ever needed some financial assistance, Jaze has always been good for help and never asked for repayment. Last night, he had no idea how much the drinks bill came to. He paid for it on his card, no questions asked. It was so easy to slip vodka into his beers. He had no clue as to why he was getting so drunk."

"You use him," Stewie said outraged. "Why are you telling me all this? It doesn't sound like an apology."

"I've always used him," Karl said. "Just like I'm going to use you," he gave a lascivious leer.

Stewie leapt to his feet, but the room swayed.

"You've drugged me," he said disbelievingly. "Do you honestly believe you can get away with rape?"

"By the time that little cocktail hits you full force you won't even remember your own name," Karl said sneeringly. He threw a handful of condoms and lube on the coffee table making Stewie's stomach roll fearfully. "I'll have my fun. No DNA, no struggle. When Jaze comes home there'll be half a bottle of Barcardi inside you and you'll be passed out and in your bed. I'll reek of the stuff myself and be down here. I'll be gone in the morning, before you'll be fit to wake."

Stewie could hardly believe the other man's arrogance. It also sounded suspiciously like Karl had successfully done this before and the fear sent adrenaline pounding through Stewie's veins. He could feel the insidious pull of the drug and knew he had to act and act fast. His thoughts were becoming jumbled, but he knew he had to put distance between himself and his would-be rapist. He clutched at his stomach, bending forward to obscure the touch to his watch as he activated the distress/homing signal.

"Getting to you is it...babe?" Karl's hateful voice sounded closer. "Soon you won't care. I would have preferred you fighting but..."

He got no further as Stewie straightened suddenly, exploding into action. His knee rammed hard into Karl's crotch and as the man went slack-jawed, Stewie's fist slammed into his nose. Karl fell heavily.

Stewie didn't waste time checking on his assailant. He flew to the door, but found it was locked. He whimpered as his knees threatened to give out. He wouldn't be able to run far enough to save himself. Instead, he staggered upstairs as his childhood became confused with the present. He staggered almost blindly to his refuge and hid himself. He huddled in the darkness biting on the cuff of his sleeve to muffle his breathing. His father...no Karl... wouldn't find him and beat him in his drunken rage if he just stayed there quietly. His mum ...no Jaze...would find him when it was safe.//Please come soon// he prayed in the darkness.

Stewie tried to keep still and quiet and fight off the darkness that was invading his mind. He could hear muffled sounds and whimpered almost silently into the bitten cuff.

"In here," he heard and began to tremble. He felt movement and then there was light above him.

"Don't touch me," he screamed in fear as large hands reached to pull him from the bottom of the linen hamper.

Strong arms held him immobile and he struggled frantically with diminishing strength. Then a realisation came that the hands weren't trying to hurt him and that soft words were being crooned into his ears.

"Look at me, please. Stewie, it's me, it's ok."

Stewie's eyes finally focused on the face etched with fear and worry.

"Jaze," he whispered before surrendering to the dark.

Stewie's eyes felt lead weighted as he tried to open them. He tried again and felt a hand squeeze his gently.

"Stewie?" The voice sounded worried and Stewie knew it was important he gave some kind of assurance. He tried to squeeze back, unsure whether his body had obeyed.

"It's ok, baby," the voice continued. "It may take a little time for you to wake properly. But I'm here and you're safe. If you can, try and open your eyes, honey."

Stewie gave several aborted attempts before the lids finally obeyed him and he blinked at the bright sterile light. Then his eyes focused on the welcome sight of his lover, even if Jaze looked unusually concerned.

"Wha' 'ppend?" he said frowning at his mouth's lack of co-operation.

"Do you remember anything after I left for work, love?" Jaze asked.

"Bed," Stewie said. He had wanted to change the bedclothes. Had he?

"You changed the sheets," Jaze said correctly interpreting Stewie's meaning. "Anything else?"

Stewie frowned. There was something...no someone. Someone blond and threatening.

"Karl," he gasped. "Coffee. Blackness."

"Shh, shh, baby it's ok," Jaze crooned stroking Stewie's brow. "It's all over, he can't hurt you again."

"Touch me?" Stewie asked his eyes afraid.

"No, baby," Jaze assured with a growl to his voice. "He didn't touch you. You did a great job defending yourself and hiding."

A tap to the door had both men turning towards the sound. Leo walked in, his right arm in a sling.

"How're you doing, Stewie?" he asked.

"M'ok," Stewie decided. "You're hurt." Stewie was pleased to find his body was beginning to respond better.

"Not told him yet?" Leo asked of Jaze. At the brief shake, Leo perched at the foot of the bed.

"When Jaze told me what had happened with Karl, I tore a strip off him for leaving you. Then I called Shaz and she got another pair to cover us. I was bringing Jaze back..."

"And intending to stay with us," added Jaze, with a small smile.

"Exactly," Leo agreed. "When we got your distress signal. We were close by and as Jaze went to the front, I went round back. I heard Jaze shoot out your lock and then Townsman came haring out back. I told him to freeze and he stopped and slumped." The detective gave a sigh. "I didn't see the knife till it caught my arm. We wrestled for control." Leo stopped and looked at Jaze.

"I saw Leo and Karl fighting," Jaze continued. "Then all went still. The knife had speared Karl. I pulled him off Karl to look for you. I remembered where you said you used to hide when you were scared as a child. It made sense you would try and hide in the same place."

For a minute the room was silent as Stewie struggled to make sense of what he had heard. Then it hit him.

"Karl is...dead? Oh, Jaze..."

Before Stewie could utter another word, Jaze's lips covered his. Breaking the kiss Jaze pressed his fingers to Stewie's lips.

"I'm not sorry, love. He tried to ...hurt you. He got all he deserved. He can't hurt anyone else now."

Before they could say anything more, Stewie's doctor breezed into the room. With a smile and gentle ushering, Jaze and Leo were left to wait anxiously outside. It didn't take long for the young medic to re-join them.

"Mr Donovan is responding very well. We managed to pump a fair bit of the drug from his system as you know. I'm keeping him in to make sure there are no side effects and if not he can go home tomorrow. You can go back in now if you want." The medic resumed their rounds leaving two relieved men in their wake.

Jaze sat in the den awaiting Stewie to finish his shower. He had drawn the thick curtains, opting to have the glow from the lamps instead. Normally they would shower together, but the big man felt he had forfeited that pleasure. He had failed his younger lover and failed him badly. He had failed as a cop. He had failed to recognise Karl for the sexual predator he had been and Stewie had almost paid the price. How could he expect Stewie to feel safe with him? He dropped his head into his hands. How could he make this right? A noise had Jaze looking up and a gasp escaped him.

Stewie stood naked before him. His blond hair was damp and clinging to his face and his skin, pinkened by a hot shower, seemed to glow from the light of the den's lamps. He looked exotic, ethereal and erotic and Jaze's body instantly responded.

"I know you, Jaze," Stewie said as he moved towards the bigger man. "You're sitting here blaming yourself for everything. I let you get away with not sharing my shower," Stewie now stood looking down at his mate. "But no more." He sat astride Jaze's powerful thighs. He clasped Jaze's face tenderly. "I'm not a child and it was my choice to give him the benefit of a second chance and sit with him. What he was doesn't affect who you are. You're a good cop, a good friend and the man I love. Karl can't affect what we are and what we share unless we let it. And I," he kissed Jaze's eyes. "For one," he kissed Jaze's nose. "Won't let it," his mouth covered Jaze's.

Jaze moaned and Stewie slipped his tongue inside his mate's mouth. His slick muscle coaxed and teased at Jaze's larger one until both slid and twined together. One of Stewie's slender hands caressed Jaze's head whilst the other undid the bigger man's shirt to stroke the powerful plains and the fur of Jaze's chest. As the kiss ended, Stewie slipped from Jaze's lap and picked up a large cushion. Placing it on the floor between Jaze's legs, the naked young man knelt between Jaze's knees. His tongue gently lapped at one thick brown nub that peeked through Jaze's chest hair. As he would suck and nibble the one, his fingers caressed the other until each was hard and throbbing. As he licked his way down the lightly furred abdomen, Stewie undid Jaze's jeans and buried his face in the 'v' inhaling Jaze's musk. His teeth tugged gently on his lover's fur and Jaze's hips instinctively thrust towards him.

"Up," Stewie commanded softly. As Jaze stood, so did the smaller man. He removed Jaze's shirt before kneeling again to remove jeans and underwear. He let his tongue lave Jaze's strong thighs before placing gentle bites alternating with teasing nips to the sparser hair of the bigger man's sensitive inner thighs. Finally Stewie's tongue licked the heavy, haired sac that hung with unspent need beneath the thick hard flesh that jutted upwards.

"What do you want, Jaze?" Stewie asked gazed up at his dominant mate from his submissive position.

Jaze gazed downwards with a mix of love and desire. Stewie's position was the more vulnerable, but at the moment the smaller man was the one with the power.

"Anything you want, baby," he panted. "I love you, need you so very much." Jaze didn't want to choose. He would enjoy anything his mate decided they could do with their bodies. He saw the incandescent smile that was so much a part of his lover and realised just how much he had missed that simple expression of joy over the past couple of days.

"Sit," Stewie said. He then handed Jaze one of their tubes of lube as he re-straddled his mate, his hands on Jaze's broad shoulders. He leant into Jaze's ear, slipping his tongue into the tiny channel before whispering huskily; "Make me ready for you."

Jaze's moan vibrated through both their bodies making Stewie's tremble in arousal and anticipation. Their erections rubbed gently together, both weeping tears of need that slicked the twin shafts. Jaze coated his fingers and reached behind Stewie to find his mate's hidden opening. As one long, thick finger pressed inside, Stewie's back arched. Jaze's mouth sucked first one then the other of Stewie's chocolate nipples. As he pressed a second finger inside, he stroked Stewie's hidden jewel and his teeth lightly grazed and tugged each sensitive nub.

"Yes," Stewie moaned in response, his hips undulating on the fingers impaling him. "Please," he begged as a third finger entered his tiny channel, arousing, stretching, and preparing him to accept Jaze's sex within him.

"Ride me," Jaze groaned deeply. He helped Stewie to lift and position himself over long, hard, needy flesh. Jaze threw his head back with a drawn out moan as his throbbing length was enveloped in searing tightness. Every centimetre of his organ was surrounded by his mate's velvet heat. He heard Stewie's own moan of pleasure as the younger man flexed his toned thighs to raise and lower himself whilst adding an undulation of his hips on the downward move. Jaze's hands and mouth feasted on Stewie's soft, warm skin as the slender man performed the intimate erotic dance on the shaft that impaled him. Jaze thrust his hips upwards with every downward move of his mate to bury his need more deeply in the tiny channel.

"Need more, Baby," he ground out after long minutes of sublime pleasure.

Stewie held Jaze's face as he gazed into impassioned hazel eyes.

"I'm yours, Jaze," Stewie whispered. "Take me, love me, and give us what we both want, what we both need."

Jaze saw the fire of need and love in Stewie's cerulean depths. With a low guttural groan, Jaze surged to his feet, pushing his erection deeper inside the willing body of his lover. He whirled and took the couple of steps necessary to lower his mate to the day bed. He now loomed over the smaller man and the angle allowed for deeper penetration of the lithe body so pliant beneath him. He moved Stewie's legs to drape over his shoulders, surging over the smaller man and plunged hard and fast into molten heat. He relished Stewie's scream as he raked over the sensitive bundle of nerves again and again. Jaze's mouth fastened on the flesh of Stewie's neck and shoulder, sucking, biting and marking his mate. One hand moved greedily from one breast to the other, pinching, rolling and tugging at the already over-sensitised nipples. In response, Stewie thrashed and mewled incoherently, lost in the maelstrom of passion.

As Jaze's hand pressed between their bodies and surrounded Stewie's engorged flesh, Stewie screamed at the final stimulation. Heat that had pooled in Stewie's groin now radiated outwards and enveloped his body. He arched as the flames of his climax devoured him. His loins turned into liquid heat that flowed like lava to anoint both their bodies.

Jaze saw his mate consumed by his powerful orgasm and it triggered the bigger man's own climax. As Stewie erupted beneath him, Jaze's shaft was squeezed with an almost brutal intensity. Jaze threw back his head and roared the noise a primitive, primeval sound of passion and possession that seemed to shake the walls. His mate was lost in pleasure and Jaze's passion was flowing deep into the welcoming body to mark Stewie as belonging to him and him alone. Pulse after pulse of Jaze's seed surged deep into the clenching channel until finally both men lay panting, sweat-damp and spent. With a sound like a purr of contentment, Jaze nuzzled at the bruise to Stewie's throat. His lover, his mate marked inside and out and lying satiated beneath him. He allowed Stewie's limp legs to lower to the bed as he kissed at lax lips. He rolled their bodies to the side to avoid crushing the slender form as his shaft softened and slipped from Stewie's sated body.

"Love you, Stewie," he said his voice hoarse.

"Love you, Jaze," Stewie affirmed in little more than a whisper. "Sorry, love, so tired," he added as he tried to stay focused on his lover.

"Bed or here?" Jaze asked, quickly reaching for wipes to perfunctorily cleanse their bodies of the evidence of their shared passion.

"Here. Snuggle?"

"Try to stay with me a minute, baby," Jaze said. He moved swiftly to put on a CD of quiet jazz music. He scooped up the boneless younger man and sat in their chair with Stewie in his lap. He smiled as Stewie wriggled for a moment to snuggle against the larger body, his head pillowed on Jaze's shoulder. As he heard the contented sigh, Jaze pulled a thick cover around them to cocoon them safe and warm.

"Love you," Stewie whispered a last time as exhaustion and lassitude overwhelmed his body.

"I love you, Stewie," Jaze crooned as he felt the lithe body go fully lax. He tightened his grip around the very special young man in his arms, knowing without doubt, Stewie was the one that completed him. As Stewie slept, Jaze pondered on how to express the commitment he felt towards the younger man.