by Willa Okati
Dennis helped Cade with the fastening on his jeans, still laughing at him. They crashed knuckles in between hot, salty kisses. His mouth, by God. Cade wanted to fix himself in place and stay there, but one by one those buttons were coming undone and he had so much more skin to touch and taste and mark with his mouth. His nipples, small and furled tight, crinkled between the light pressure of Cade’s teeth. Dark red-blond hair tickled his nose.
In his hand, Dennis’ cock grew slick enough to stroke, and far be it from Cade to pass up a golden opportunity when it presented itself.
“Oh.” Dennis tipped his head back heavily.
Cade knew how to use his fingers, five points of prickling pressure that dragged Dennis closer still. Barely gave them room to maneuver with any finesse, but Cade didn’t care. He had Dennis’ cock in hand and the taste of Dennis’s skin in his mouth.
“Oh God, Cade, don’t stop.”
Stop? As if!
Dennis kissed him like he could spend hours doing nothing else, and the man had skill. Though it was far from Cade’s first time around the block, he could have happily given up the need to breathe for just…one…more stroke of Dennis’ quicksilver tongue, delving deep into his mouth and shutting him up for once.
“Who taught you to kiss like that?” he demanded.
“No one. It’s a gift,” Dennis answered, drawing air through his nose and chuffing when it escaped through his parted lips. “You’re not too bad yourself. Get back here.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice. God, I want you,” Cade said. Like he’d rarely, if ever, desired a near-stranger.
Dennis wasn’t usually like this, but every time he tried to question himself, Cade swooped in with a distraction, like—
“Then have me,” Cade said.
Like so. Dennis tried and failed to take a steadier hold of Cade, but it seemed as if the man slipped too easily between his fingers now and he couldn’t slow down to catch up and take a proper hold. Their chests and shoulders knocked together with every breath, turning that simple act into a playful fight, but Dennis found he couldn’t stop grinning. Even if his grin did have edges. Hungry hunter’s edges.
“Bed, I said,” he rasped out between presses of mouth to mouth, as they finally came close enough for him to feel the edges of the mattress behind him. “And bed, I meant.” He seized Cade by the unfastened belt and gave a pull, toppling him down. Dennis followed after, already tugging at the jeans. “Get these off.”
“Bossy, bossy, bossy.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
He wasn’t worried Cade would. The man proved surprisingly good at taking matters in hand. Pun intended. Dennis wouldn’t admit it on pain of pain, but he adored puns, the worse the better. He adored a good hard working man’s hand, too, wrapped so snugly and securely around his aching hard-on that it made him gasp and swear he’d do anything for the privilege of having that feeling on tap.
“Like that?” Cade asked, nuzzling at the side of Dennis’ neck. Playfully, he nipped the skin.
Dennis turned his head to nip at Cade, tit for tat. He tasted fan-fucking-tastic, salty and sweet at the same time, and he shuddered gorgeously when Dennis dragged a hint of teeth across his skin. Normally he wasn’t much of a one for chewing on his partners, but he couldn’t resist when it came to Cade.
“More,” Dennis demanded.
More Cade gave him. Dennis could feel it coming, easy and sweet and fierce, somehow rushed and languid at the same time. Sort of like sinking into a hot bath after a long, hard day. A flash-bang of sensation and a bone-deep sense of yes, there, like that.
He wound his arm around Cade’s neck and drew him down into a hard, hard kiss. When he came, he dug in his nails, wrenching the poor guy to a stop. If Cade hadn’t kept hold of him, he might have fallen from the exquisite shuddering of his body that seized his muscles and drew him into a tight arc.
God. Not bad at all.
“Needed that, didn’t you?” Cade teased.
Dennis rolled his eyes and replied nonverbally but—he thought—efficiently, mouth to mouth with the man who had been a stranger not so very long ago, but would never be again. He stroked Cade’s cock, keeping him good and slippery. He hadn’t gone down far himself, and wondered—could he go again?
But first things first, fair being fair, and all that jazz. Dennis tugged the slip-sliding dark glasses off his nose and thrust them at Cade. “Toss them on the bedside table, would you?”
From the sound of it, Cade perched the glasses atop his own head instead. Dennis didn’t mind. He was reasonably certain Cade’s hair was thick enough to hold them in place. “Why?” Cade asked. “Got something in mind?”
“Maybe I do,” Dennis said. He still hadn’t gone soft. “If you’re up for it.”
Cade rumbled with appreciation. Oh, but he did love bad boys. “Then what are you waiting for?”
“For you to ask.” Dennis poked him in the chest. Even breathless and damp with sweat, half dressed and vulnerable, the man had a hell of a fine spirit. Though he grimaced at the tackiness and hissed, over-sensitive, when he tucked himself away, he didn’t hesitate. “Turn over and lie on your back.”
“Really, now?” Cade sounded delighted.
“Very really. Do it, or I’ll do it for you.”
“Can’t have that.”
Between the two of them, they managed to turn Cade over to lie on his back. Dennis arranged Cade’s hands by his sides and pressed down, flattening them against the mattress. Tangled sheets, tsk. He’d forgotten to make the bed earlier. Not that he thought Cade minded. “Stay there, if you can.”
“I’m not the best at taking directions.”
Dennis flashed a grin at him. “Learn.”
He appreciated the fine frisson of a shiver that traveled through Cade at that. Someone liked to be bossed around, hmm? Very nice. Dennis stored that in his mind and got to work with his body.
By using Cade’s limbs to guide and support him, Dennis eased down to a position between Cade’s thighs, pushing them farther apart to give himself more room to move.
Cade only stopped him once, catching him by the nape to ask, “Sure you want to do that?”
Dennis scoffed, but with a bright edge to it. Wild and maybe a little drunk, as if he’d been constructed of effervescence and fireworks instead of flesh and blood. “Are you saying no?” He snapped his teeth on a bite of air.
“Like hell I am. Yes… No… Yes, whatever it takes, but don’t keep me in suspense.”
Dennis blew warm breath over Cade, laughing when Cade groaned and his stomach muscles jerked. “Fuck, you’re hard.” He savored the weighty, solid feel of Cade’s cock in his hand. Gorgeously shaped. “How long’s it been?”
“Not that long.” Cade tweaked the tip of Dennis’ ear. “Must be you’re just that good.”
“Might be that I am,” Dennis said. “Lie still. Lie very still. I want to see how long you can manage it.”
He bent his head to take Cade into his mouth.
Oh—my—sweet—God.
Lying still had never been Cade’s stock in trade, and it didn’t come easy. In fact, at the moment it came very extremely hard. He could feel it in the way Dennis’ mouth moved on him, and see it in the bulge of Dennis’ cheeks. More so when Dennis drew off to rub his cheek against the length. Stickiness clung to his lips and chin, startlingly vivid in the dim city light. When he lifted his head to strain for a look down, he saw Dennis hadn’t gone soft either.
Huh! So it’s not just me.
God, he could do this all night if he were allowed. Cade stretched out his legs as long as he could possibly make them go, and pointed his toes until they touched the foot of the bed. He’d never known anyone who had a footboard as well as a headboard. Mostly he never saw headboards, either.
Then again, he didn’t always take his one-night stands to the best of places. He’d go so far as to consider himself a connoisseur of alleys and doorways. A quick side trip to scratch the itch, and d
one. He couldn’t count how many men he’d fucked around with over the years.
Not a one of them had been a thing like Dennis.
And why was that, really? Once it’d fleeted across his mind, Cade couldn’t get the question out of his head. He’d met men he could tease. Men who gave back as good as he dished out. Handsome men, and men who weren’t in the least bit attractive until they smiled and their personalities lit them up. Bartenders saw it all. If he wanted, he could cut and run to any of the taverns that littered the city and find someone who ticked all the same boxes Dennis did.
Except for the one that made him unmistakably himself. Maybe it was the sheer, savage joy he showed. Look at him, going to town as if he’s having the time of his life! Cade hissed between his teeth as he shoved Dennis’ hair back for a better view of his face.
“Fuck, but you’re good at that,” he said, grinding the words between his teeth to get them out at all.
Dennis winked up at him. “I know.”
Cade laughed, breathless, and put his hands to his own head instead, clamped down against temples and forehead as if he were trying to keep his brain in. He wouldn’t be at all surprised if the top of his head popped off when he came, and that wasn’t far off now. He could feel it, the pressure winding as tight as a steel coil. He curled his toes, pointing his feet without effort or intent now, and arched his head back.
“Den— Dennis—”
“That’s it. That’s what I like.” Dennis rubbed his hip, soothing with one hand while the other kept busy. He palmed Cade’s balls and stroked with only the tip of his thumb, a ghost tickle that made Cade swear at the top of his lungs. “Come on. Give it up for me.”
Well. There was no way to say no to that.
Cade tried to bite his lip, but that didn’t work, and when he let go he cut loose with a shout that left his throat feeling raw and ripped. Dennis held his legs down with one arm, and draped the other across his waist to keep him lying still, and as maddening as that might be, it wasn’t a bad idea. Cade thought he would have bucked the poor man off otherwise.
Maybe. Cade had the idea that Dennis tended to get what he wanted out of life. Cade admired that in a man.
Dennis kept his mouth busy, licking drops that fell on Cade’s skin, hard at work until Cade finally drew in a clear breath and pushed at him. “God, enough! Not unless you want to drown on dry land.”
Not an exaggeration. Cade might have taken the edge off, but give him half a chance and even a morsel of encouragement, and he’d flip Dennis over to fuck straight into him. The muscles in his groin twitched at the very thought, tempting Cade to do exactly that.
Dennis laughed at that, reaching down to stroke himself. Still hard, and good to go.
Hot damn.
“Fuck me,” Cade said reverently.
“As soon as I catch my breath? You can count on it,” Dennis replied. He hitched himself up the bed—Cade giving him a wobbly and uncoordinated hand as he went—and dropped half lying on his side, half draped over Cade like a particularly erotic sort of blanket. His cock snugged hard between them, ready to go right fucking now.
Cade’s, too. Even nearly too sensitive to touch, it rested full and fat on his stomach.
“What are you made of, lust dust and aphrodisiac juice?”
Dennis snorted with laughter. “I could ask you the same thing. What the hell, man? I guess that’s what they call chemistry. I wouldn’t have minded stumbling over you sooner.”
“I’d rather you didn’t stumble, unless that’d mean you fell right where you are now.”
“Done and done.” Dennis tucked his chin against Cade’s shoulder much as he had done earlier.
Funny how well he fitted there. Cade turned on his side facing Dennis, the better to appreciate the view and to see if he meshed just as nicely.
Dennis gentled as Cade flopped on top of him. Smoothing down Cade’s curls, or trying to—they didn’t cooperate for anyone—he said, “How about that? Just right.”
Cade snorted. Dennis’ chest hair tickled his nose, but not in a way that made him want to sneeze. More like it reawakened his curiosity. “What kind of soap do you use?”
“You’re seriously asking that now?” Dennis shoved at his head.
“What? Inquiring minds want to know.” Cade sniffed a trail from nipples to armpit, partly to chase that scent and partly to see if he could rile Dennis into properly wrestling with him. “Oof!”
Apparently, Dennis’ answer to that was to grab his head in an arm lock and render the question moot.
“Let me up, let me up!”
“You’re plenty ‘up’,” Dennis said, feinting a grab for Cade’s cock. He relented easily enough and let Cade push him onto his back, then sling a leg over and straddle him. “Hmm. Not bad.”
“Neither are you.”
Cade rested his palms on Dennis’ chest. He’d admit he had a weakness for burly men. Nature had done half the work, but he’d bet a commitment to cardio was responsible for the rest. He was so solid. Like he could prop Cade up for as long as he wanted, or even as long as he needed. “I am glad I came tonight.”
“Right back at you,” Dennis said, content. His lips curved into an easy grin. “I meant it when I said I wanted to fuck you.”
“And I meant it when I said, please and thank you.”
“You didn’t say that.” Dennis reached up to cup Cade’s face in his palm. “But I took it as a given.”
“Smart man.” Outside, the party rocked and rolled on. Cade hadn’t been paying attention, but he felt certain Nathaniel would tell him later if they’d given him and Dennis a standing ovation.
If they hadn’t, they should have done. He’d give them a second chance at it. Any minute now.
First, he wanted to chase that scent. If it wasn’t a soap or a cologne that Cade could borrow, he’d end up coming back more than once for a fix. He pressed his nose to Dennis’ collarbone, swatting him away when he spluttered and laughed, and worked a trail clear up to the soft sweet spot beneath Dennis’ ear.
He touched his tongue to the beating pulse in the side of Dennis’ neck. “Sweet.”
Dennis hummed a sigh. He reached down to stroke Cade, urging him closer. Even though his cock lay trapped between them, he seemed content to savor what they had in the moment, pressing so close that to get any cozier they’d have to share their skins.
Cade opened his mouth over the beating pulse. He could feel the vibrations on the flat of his tongue, as well as taste the sweat of Dennis’ skin, slowly but surely revving his motors to a fine fever pitch.
Wider still, he worked his jaw and set his teeth over the thumping rhythm of Dennis’ body, as packed with life as a plum was with juice. He tasted a bit like a salted citrus, Cade decided. Sweet and tart and tangy.
“You are something else,” Dennis whispered. He kneaded Cade’s hip. “Cade, mmm. What are you—?” He stilled. “Cade. Cade, get off.”
Cade heard him, but couldn’t make himself move farther than Dennis’ nape. The skin changed texture there, but was no less tempting. He nibbled once, light and playful, then harder—
And the force behind Dennis’ shove knocked him clean off the bed. Ass over teakettle, thump, thump, thump, down to a cold, hard landing on the floor that rattled his teeth.
He could taste Dennis still, on his lips and tongue.
He could—
Oh holy shit. He stared up at the man who’d nearly followed him off the mattress, and who had stilled in a very visible reflection of the shock that had knocked Cade down flat to the floor.
A faint, but perfect and very real circle of tooth marks marred his neck. Cade had seen its like before, though never on a man he’d taken to bed. A soulmate’s claim mark. Dennis touched it, and came away with a bare smudge of blood.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Cade growled. “Oh, come on! I’m never going to live this down!”
Chapter Four
“Come on. Really? ” Cade touched the side of his n
eck questioningly. Dentition marks, no blood. Unlike poor Dennis, who looked as if he’d been gnawed on by a vampire who lived on love.
Cade could see the bite mark quite well, as Dennis had starfish-flopped on the bed. He lay on his back. Pressing his hands to his face didn’t muffle his low, steady stream of muttered cursing.
Cade wasn’t any too thrilled himself, thank you. He rolled to his hands and knees, then popped up onto his feet to point himself in the direction of what he dearly hoped would be an en-suite bathroom. “Got a mirror in there?”
Dennis dropped his hands to frown at Cade. “Of course I have a mirror. It came with the apartment, and it’s a handy cover for the medicine cabinet. You think I go around dismantling stuff like that because I don’t have a use for it?”
“No,” Cade said over a spike of irritated injury. Normally he couldn’t have given two testicles for what anyone thought of him when he insulted them on purpose. Guess I understand now why Dennis’ opinion matters. Fuckity fucking fuck. “It’s a figure of speech, isn’t it? ‘Do you have a mirror?’ means, to most people, ‘Can I use your mirror?’, that’s all.”
Dennis’ frown shifted gears into a glower. “Then why not ask that in the first place?”
“Can I use it or not?”
“For the love of— Fine, go ahead.” Dennis rolled onto his side, presumably to follow the track of Cade’s voice as he stalked across the bedroom floor. “Why?”
Cade had set one foot into the bathroom. Now he popped back out to dish Dennis a serving of his own glare. “Checking for a soulmark. What were you thinking, that I wanted to fix my hair?”
“Pfft. Your hair’s too short for fixing. Except that patch on your chin. What is that, the little goatee that couldn’t?”
Cade clapped a hand to his beloved soul patch, and protectively fingered the luxurious mustache above. “You don’t like it?”
“You care if I do or don’t?”
“Considering I was just naked and half a step away from giving you a rim job, yes!”
