Gilded Agony

by K. A. Merikan

  Domenico squeezed Seth’s hand and looked deep into his eyes. For the first time in a while, he felt that they truly understood one another.

  Chapter 22 - Seth

  The past few days might have been a horror show, but Seth’s soul felt strangely light. As if the revenge taken on Diego’s corpse was what he’d needed to shed the weight of guilt and pain. But in truth, it was probably the shift in his conversations with Domenico that made him so relieved. They talked. For the first time in months, truly talked. The messed up Rubik’s Cube of their relationship was once more aligned into walls of color.

  They didn’t even need to chat on the way home as Seth drove the pickup and Domenico kept scrolling through Diego’s phone faster and faster. Seth could only hope more useful revelations would be discovered this way.

  Every now and then, Domenico would stroke Seth’s thigh, and that little gesture was so welcome Seth smiled to himself every time. This camaraderie was natural. Familiar. For too long they had allowed the unspoken wall to grow. The lack of true intimacy had stunted their relationship, and no amount of physical pleasing or dangerous sex games could have made up for that.

  It was already deep into the night when they reached their home. There was no need to discuss sleeping arrangements. With Domenico’s hand in his, Seth would lead the way to their ensuite, eager to clean the sweat, grime, and Diego’s stench off his body, and sink into Domenico’s arms again.

  Walking back into their home through the back gate reminded Seth of the bitter pill he had to swallow when they passed the hen house. He’d hand-picked all the chickens he’d kept there, watched them grow, and even nurtured Caterina through an illness. But it was too late to cry over spilled milk. They’d both messed up, and the chickens had ended up as collateral damage for their high-strung emotions.

  The house was so quiet that even the faint squeak of the garden door sounded like the laughter of a witch, and Seth smiled at Domenico in the dark. “Feels like I’m a teenager, sneaking into my own house after a night out with an illicit boyfriend. My mother wouldn’t have approved of you.”

  Domenico smirked, pressing his hand to Seth’s chest and gently pushing him at the wall as soon as the gate was locked. “I don’t think there’s a mother in the world who would have approved of me as their kid’s partner.”

  Seth sighed and leaned in for a kiss. “I guess we’d just have to elope.” The touch of Domenico’s lips was so soothing, and so exciting all at once. So many years of kissing their perfect shape, and yet the caress still gave him a thrill.

  And after tonight’s conversations, every touch felt both achingly familiar and new. Domenico’s hair smelled of cigarettes, and briefly burying his face in its strands gave Seth a sense of peace.

  “Or I’d have to abduct you.”

  Seth wrapped his arms around Dom and hugged him tightly. “One look at me and you’d lose your heart, right?”

  Domenico exhaled and stroked Seth’s cheeks with his fingers. Their touch was so gentle it had to be Dom’s way of giving Seth space after what happened last night.

  “Yes. I would. And I would have taken you whatever the consequences.”

  Seth gave him one more kiss and pulled on his hand, guiding Domenico through the garden, past the shimmering blue pool, and to their home. He finally felt like Domenico’s equal again, rather than just his sugar baby.

  “With a face like yours, I wouldn’t have been able to resist anyway.”

  Domenico looked at him in the dark as they entered the living room, moonlight leaving pale streaks in his shiny hair. “Sometimes I think it’s impossible for two people to be so closely connected. Maybe we’ve met in a different life.”

  Seth licked his lips, watching Domenico in silence. He’d usually roll his eyes and laugh at him for pushing it with the cheese, but for once it didn’t feel right. He squeezed the hands of the man who gave shape to his life, knowing that if there was anyone in the world who’d accept Seth with his flaws, ill-temper, or mean words, it was Domenico.

  “We’re two halves of the same rotten apple.”

  Domenico grinned, showing off his even, white teeth as he pulled Seth up the stairs, silent like a shadow no one under this roof needed to fear. “Poisonous.”

  “To Morenos. For sending that fucking dog Diego here.” Just saying that name was making Seth angry all over again, but he remembered the hungry strays munching on the fucker’s balls, and smiled at the irony of it.

  They stumbled into their bedroom sharing a hard kiss, but the promise of hot water and soap had Seth breaking it and pulling Dom along with him. The shower raining down on him was such a relief that Seth found himself exhaling loudly. Domenico hugged him in the streaming heat, and for a moment they stood still, enjoying the closeness of bare skin with the air between them finally cleared.

  “You’re even more handsome than when I met you. Have I ever told you that?” Seth whispered, sliding his soapy hands up Domenico’s strong back. With one shoulder bandaged and in need of keeping dry, he required help. Thankfully, their elongated shower cabin made that easy enough. “As if you’ve made a deal with the devil to increase your charm each year.”

  Domenico laughed. “There’s no infernal powers involved. It’s called pushing thirty. God, I’m so close to being an old man like you,” he said, wiping his slick palm over Seth’s chest.

  Seth pushed back at him. “You ass. I’m in my prime. You’ve got it good with me. You don’t even notice anymore how hard I work on my boxing skills.”

  “I see the visual effects of your boxing training. That’s all I need.”

  Seth couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so at ease with his own husband. He spread his arms and slowly turned around in the steam of their large shower. “I’m guessing you like what you see?” he asked as his own gaze trailed every ridge and every muscle on Domenico’s body—lean yet deliciously strong.

  “It’s not really what I see that counts, right?” Domenico asked, pushing Seth straight back under the raining shower. Hot water washed away soap and any physical traces of their nightly activities, leaving Seth wonderfully clean.

  “I hope so.” Seth entwined their fingers and pulled Dom’s hand to his ass as he bit Dom’s ear. “It’s the inside that matters, huh?” His ordeal with Diego was now over, and he wanted the closeness of the man he loved. Needed to feel who he belonged with and how two bodies could be vehicles for a deep connection, not cruelty.

  Domenico smirked and squeezed Seth’s buttock. With a pull, he brought their groins together and nipped on Seth’s chin. “I wanted to say it’s what I feel that matters, but let’s have it your way.”

  “Oh, Domenico… you will feel. That I can guarantee you.” Seth licked along Domenico’s lips, feeling so liberated now that he no longer had to walk on eggshells around the man who was his other half. He ran his fingers up the solid muscle of Dom’s arms, making sure that this time he didn’t hurt the injured shoulder.

  Domenico reached back blindly and switched off the water before sliding up Seth’s body when he stood on his toes. Their dicks meeting in the tight space between bare stomachs had Seth pushing even closer and shivering against Dom as pleasure flared up.

  “Bed?”

  Seth nodded. “I want you so much.” He didn’t even care about still being damp when ‘bed’ meant rubbing his cock against Domenico and enjoying the touch of his skilled fingers.

  He was so entranced by Domenico that he ended up tripping over the shoes they’d left on the floor, but the landing was soft so it didn’t matter. From his spot on the bed, he had the perfect view on his lover.

  Even now, so domesticated, there was a dangerous sharpness to him. In the moonlight, every bead of water dripping from Domenico’s hair glinted against the olive skin. Seth was jealous of the droplets already, so he pulled Dom close and licked his way up the warm pec with a groan of satisfaction.

  Gravity sent Domenico forward, and he didn’t waste any time, expertly spreading Seth’s t
highs as they fell. With the covers soft under them, Seth stretched and smiled at his lover, drinking the adoration that was so apparent in Domenico’s bright, warm eyes. He didn’t even have to think about locking Dom’s hips with his thighs, but the moment that happened and their groins met once again, the air filled with ragged breaths.

  Domenico’s hand left trails of fire down Seth’s chest and all around his stomach, turning the thick dark hair into a blaze that lit up the room when Domenico leaned closer, pulling Seth into a deep intense kiss.

  “You’re mine.”

  “Always,” Seth whispered breathlessly. He couldn’t get enough of the touch. Up the shoulders, down Dom’s spine, and all the way to that amazing ass, he needed to brush his fingertips over it all. He already knew tonight wouldn’t be about games. They’d entwine in the sheets like two serpents trying to devour each other, only to merge into a chimera with two heads.

  “This reminds me of that night when I remembered who I was and who you were for me. It was like coming back to you as the real me,” Domenico whispered, kissing his way up Seth’s neck and rolling him over so that they lay next to one another with legs already tangled in the sheet.

  Seth ran his hand up Dom’s hip, pressing against Dom’s stomach with his cock. They were two beasts desperate for each other yet too aroused to change position. When Seth ground his hips against Dom, he wasn’t even sure yet whether he wanted to enter his man, or feel Domenico’s deliciously hard cock sliding into him time and time again.

  “To me… this is as if we’d both been sleeping for far too long. Now we’ve finally woken up from a nightmare that made us both very horny,” Seth said and nipped on Dom’s lip.

  Hot breath tickled his mouth, and the moment they kissed again, Dom’s hand slid across Seth’s ass, fingers gently dipping into his crack. “I just fucking need you. I can be dirt poor, I can have nothing as long as I can have this.”

  Those words couldn’t have been more in tune with Seth’s heart. He needed Domenico with him. Everything else was a perk. And when Dom’s eager fingers gently rubbed the sensitive skin between his buttocks, he’d made his choice about how he wanted to connect tonight.

  Still nodding, he pushed Dom back, wary of his shoulder, and straddled his hips. Even as he reached for the lube, he was already rubbing against Dom’s rigid dick, letting his balls drag along its length.

  Dom’s hair stuck to his cheeks and shoulders. His eyes went wide, his beautiful irises darkening as he glanced between his own groin and Seth’s face. “Do you want me inside you?” he asked softly, rubbing Seth’s fingers up and down, and pressing his digits into the warm muscle.

  “Yes.” Seth poured the slippery lube into Dom’s fingers when he held out his hand. “I love the way you fuck me. I’ve never been with anyone who would blow my mind the way you do. You just grab me in this way—” He couldn’t find the right words, and excitement made thinking that much difficult. But who needed stupid things like words when the two of them communicated fine with mouths and hands.

  Goosebumps erupted all over Seth when Domenico spread his legs, effectively forcing Seth to widen his thighs as well.

  “Come here,” Domenico said, pulling Seth forward by the chin, until Seth lay on top of Domenico, dick and balls squeezed between their warm bodies. Hot lips opened to his, tongue delving deeper in a demanding caress that had him drifting off to a world where reality was no longer important. It was him and Domenico—their cocks, and Domenico’s slick digits skillfully rubbing lube all around Seth’s crack.

  Seth rested his elbows on either side of Dom’s head, ignoring the wetness of the hair soaking into their pillows. He whimpered when the tip of Dom’s finger found its way into him, but he only kissed Domenico harder, putting across the depth of his hunger. He slowly pushed back on the finger, rocking his cock against Dom’s stomach at the same time. The coarse body hair covering Domenico never failed to drive Seth wild, but the way it tickled his oversensitive dick almost became too much.

  Domenico met his gaze, flushed, smiling, and more beautiful than the sharp, handsome man who Seth had met in New York. The familiarity between them burned so bright he could already see the future—a nice quiet home somewhere in Sicily. Domenico reading a paper under the lemon tree, and Seth coming over with coffee they would enjoy together.

  He moaned when Domenico’s fingers drilled him with more force, stretching Seth’s sphincter as they kissed—tongues, teeth, and delicious force. Every time Dom’s digits dove deeper, his thumb rubbed circles over Seth’s taint and teased the back of Seth’s balls, sending sparks of arousal up his dick, which was already leaking pre-cum on Dom’s stomach.

  “Go on, fuck me,” Seth rasped, spacing out when the ridges of knuckles drove against his hole time and time again. No other lover had ever known Seth’s body so well.

  Domenico groaned and pushed Seth up, making him hover his hips above Dom’s. Domenico’s slick cock rubbed up and down his hole, and just when Seth was about to beg, the flared head pushed at his entrance.

  Seth pressed his body down and took half the thick cock in, moaning at the electrifying tickle of Dom’s hair on his buttocks. As he stirred his ass back and forth, without taking in much more yet, he fought to keep his eyes open and not lose the intense eye contact they shared. The cock inside him was physical pleasure, but he wouldn’t for a second forget the man he was with, the man he loved having sex with.

  Dom’s eyes fluttered shut, but it only lasted a moment before he grabbed the base of his dick and pushed up, stabbing into Seth. “Take it. Take me into that tight ass,” he hissed, rocking his hips steadily, since Seth was still getting used to the pressure inside him.

  From the strands of wet hair sticking to Domenico’s face, to the beautiful symmetry of his eyes, Seth couldn’t get enough of his lover’s beauty. He lowered his ass with a groan until he sat on Dom’s hips. The flush that originated somewhere in his chest flared all the way to his face.

  “Like that?”

  Domenico clenched his teeth and dug his fingers into the flesh at the sides of Seth’s thighs. “Fuck yes. I want you to swallow my load.”

  Seth whimpered, the words only turning him on more. Maybe Domenico had no pact with the devil, but Seth would sure make one to keep their souls entwined this way forever.

  He rocked his hips faster, and once the pressure became less intense, he clenched his ass over Dom’s cock time after time, milking it just the way Dom liked it.

  When he leaned forward for a kiss, Dom’s dick slipped out almost all the way, with only the tip remaining in the right, well-fucked channel. Seth opened his eyes to look at Dom’s face and squeezed it again while sucking on Domenico’s tongue at the same time. “I wanna be sticky with you.”

  Domenico gave a breathless laugh and grabbed Seth’s ass, spreading it as he pushed his hips up, spearing his dick back in. “Look who’s talking. Mr. Perfect Home.”

  Seth moaned into Dom’s lips, curling his toes and stilling, eager to have Dom come inside of him at the pace he wanted. “I like it dirty.” With one hand by Dom’s head, he had enough stability to venture to Dom’s stomach with the other, and he loved feeling it bead with sweat.

  His last words turned into a broken whine when Domenico rapidly pushed himself up and threw Seth onto the bed without his thick cock fully leaving Seth’s body. He groaned When Dom pushed it all the way in, damp hair licking Seth’s cheek in tune with the thrust.

  “My husband’s wish is my command. Go on. Suck me dry with that hole.”

  The change in position made Seth’s head spin, and now with Dom’s hair dripping cool droplets onto him, he curled his legs closer to his chest, giving Dom all the access he could ever want. One hand reaching up to Dom’s face, the other going down to his own dick, Seth let the rocking motion of Dom’s hips carry him. With his face and belly on fire, he came all too quickly, not even sure if some of the droplets on his face were from Dom’s hair, or his own cum.

  Seth clenched his ass
on the cock, unsure if he wanted to keep moving or stay like this, with Dom’s dick inside him forever.

  “Come on, Dom,” Seth whined, sliding his hand into Dom’s hair, and when he squeezed, the water drizzled down his wrist along with its lemony scent.

  Their faces were so close they could kiss, but breathing was too precious at this point, with Seth folded in two and Domenico’s hips slapping against him in a frantic rhythm. Eyes wide, Seth watched his husband’s face twitch, then twist, only to go slack in pleasure.

  Domenico’s hips pressed hard against Seth’s ass and stayed still for several seconds while his dick throbbed, lodged deep inside Seth as if it belonged there.

  “Oh, yes… you love it,” Dom whispered, withdrawing with a pained expression, as if this physical separation caused him discomfort.

  Seth was panting even as he slowly lowered his legs and wrapped them around Domenico while his hole still throbbed with sticky heat. “I do. No shower till morning.” He sighed and hugged Dom closer, only now noticing the wound in his shoulder had opened, and a little bit of blood soaked through the dressing. “You okay? With the shoulder?” he asked and gave Dom’s cheek a gentle kiss.

  Domenico looked at the thick layer of bandage and rolled on top of Seth with a low groan. “I don’t care. A stitch must have ripped, but fuck it. Only my face needs to have no scars, am I right?” he asked, cuddling up to Seth, all sweaty.

  Seth held him tightly, gravitating into self-satisfied bliss. All the tension that had still been curled up inside of him was now unwound. “You’re always right. Though I’ll probably regret saying that tomorrow.”

  “Why?”

  “‘Cause I’ll say it’s pancakes for breakfast, and you’ll complain that crêpes are better.” He winked at Dom and gave him another kiss. If he had any energy left, he’d gladly make both, if Dom wished it.

  The smile slowly rolled off Dom’s face. “I think there are more important decisions to be made tomorrow.”