by Cameron Dane
Colin chuckled. He sat up straighter, arching a brow as some of Marek's burden lifted off his shoulders. “You probably don't admit defeat very often. I bet that was why.”
“Yeah.” As quickly as the softness had entered Marek, it left him, and he lifted a chilling stare on Colin.
Colin rubbed the goose bumps popping up on his bare arms. “What is it?”
“You know the horror he suffered in that parking lot,” Marek said, his voice raw. “You know what Payton lived through in the end, on that ground, being beaten to death. He was terrified and in terrible pain. Wasn't he?”
“No.” Colin shook his head vehemently. Goddamnit, no. “You don't want to do that to yourself.”
Marek lunged and grabbed Colin's arms, digging his fingers into flesh and muscle. “You say you want to help me. Tell me this.”
Colin grabbed Marek's face and looked into his eyes, fighting to understand. “How will this help you?”
“I need to know. I should share his burden. I owe it to him.” Marek looked like someone tormented him, but still he did not look away or let go. “He must have been so scared. I know he was.” Marek's wet blue eyes and bruising hold attacked Colin on multiple levels. “Tell me.”
“Yes.” Please, God, let this be the right thing to do. Colin squeezed his eyes shut and breathed, searching for some semblance of order among chaos before he faced Marek again. “Yes, okay? Yes. The night I was beaten and knifed was the most awful, frightening time in my life. I never felt so alone and like nobody would ever hear the screams in my head for help.” Colin jerked, unable to keep the reaction at bay. He grabbed his stomach, clutching it, as he hadn't been able to do the night one of his assailants cut him open. “I remember terrible pain, but I remember the fear more. Recovering afterward, physically anyway, I think hurt more than the attack itself, but in that alley, I was terrified in a way I've never come even close to knowing again.”
“I thought so.” Marek let go and dragged Colin's hand off his face. “Thank you for telling me. Christ.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to Colin's temple, holding his mouth there for a prolonged beat of time. He whispered, “I'm so sorry,” got up, and ran out of the room.
Colin sat in a stupor as Marek sprinted away, leaving him again. His muscles ached with tension after suffering the recurrence of the dream and then reliving the emotions that gripped him during it, but righteous fire got him to his feet.
You're not running. Not this time. Not after what we just shared.
With every step he took, Colin's feet felt melded to the floor, making each movement a chore. Swirls of tingling spiraled up his legs and into his arms, crippling him. He tilted forward, reaching for the wall to help hold him upright. As soon as his hand hit, shards of overwhelming emotional pain knifed into his palm and up his arm, infecting his bloodstream and slamming him into the door frame.
Emotions that somehow became abstract pictures assaulted Colin's mind; enormous slashes of vivid red became drenched in black, snuffing out life itself. Colin gasped and tried to move, but the pictures created in vibrant crimson only to be doused out in soot kept flashing in front of his eyes, forcing him to see. Something powerful and full of gripping strength attacked Colin's body, locking him in place like fingers clawing up from the floor and wrapping around his ankles, holding him prisoner.
Wordless shrieks filled his head, drowning out everything else but the screams. Colin stumbled under the onslaught, and his back made full contact with the house. A language without words, one full of loss and need, became clear to Colin in a way he could feel deep in his marrow, and he finally understood.
What you're doing to this place, Marek, and to me. Pushing away from the wall, Colin tried to shut out the unbearable hurt snaking its way into his very being. Oh God. He begged without a voice. Please stop.
The house wouldn't let go of him, and Colin cried out in shared grief and pain as he hit the floor.
The shout from Colin sliced a chill through Marek, and the crash got his heart racing and him tearing back down the stairs.
“Colin!” Marek screeched to a halt as he spotted Colin curled on the floor. “Shit.” He found his legs again, scrambled to Colin's side, and dropped to his knees. Slipping his hand around Colin's neck, Marek gently tilted his face up from the floor.
“It's you.” Colin blinked, revealing such brightness in his eyes it stole Marek's breath. “And this.” He darted his gaze all around the house and scraped his hand across the wall.
“Jesus Christ.” Marek pulled Colin to a sitting position and ran his hands all over the man, checking for damage. He didn't have the skills to get into the guy's head. “What the hell happened to you?”
Colin reached out and brushed his fingers over Marek's heart. “You have to stop being so sad.” He climbed on Marek's lap and buried his face in the crook of his neck. “We can't take it anymore.” Strong arms squeezed around Marek's shoulders, and Colin burrowed in closer. “Please.” His voice was muffled, and his words didn't make any sense, but the desperation seeped into Marek's very flesh. “Please. Please.”
Marek gathered Colin in close and rubbed his palm up and down the length of his quivering back. “Shh, shh. It's all right. Just breathe.” Marek pressed soft kisses to Colin's shoulder and nape. “Everything is going to be all right. I'm taking you up to my bedroom. Okay?”
Colin nodded against Marek's neck and held on even tighter.
“Okay,” Marek said gently, trying his best to soothe.
Shifting to his knees, Marek curled one arm around Colin's back and the other under his legs. He shoved to his feet, his back holding strong even with such a big man in his arms. In this moment, Marek's burden somehow felt precious and fragile, even though Colin was covered in probably close to two hundred pounds of sinewy muscle. Marek climbed the stairs at a steady pace, one at a time, all the while pressing his lips into Colin's hair and whispering words that he would make everything better. Marek didn't know how in the hell he planned to keep that promise; he was hardly a success at keeping his own life held together. He would try though.
He couldn't bear to see and feel this level of hurt in Colin ever again.
Marek entered his bedroom and set Colin on his feet beside the bed, holding his elbows until Colin got his footing back. “Just hold there for a second.” Marek peeled back the lightweight comforter and folded it out of the way. “All right.” He helped ease Colin down onto the mattress. “In you go.” A brisk, after-storm breeze entered the room through the open window and brushed a slight chill across Marek's bare back. He immediately grabbed the comforter again, asking, “Do you want the cover?”
Colin shook his head. He rolled onto his back and lifted a hand out to Marek. “Make love to me.” His gaze burned past the color of emeralds. “I want you.”
The fabric slipped out of Marek's hand, falling in a pillow of white to the floor. The man was beautiful, but fear of his strange state stalled Marek in place. “Are you sure?”
“It's okay.” A husky timbre added a new layer to Colin's voice, but his eyes were definitely clear now. “I know where I am. I'll remember having asked you in the morning.”
Relief washed through Marek as powerful as desire, and both had him giving in to the pull of Colin's offer. Taking just a second, without looking away, Marek grabbed a bottle of lube from his nightstand drawer and tossed it on the bed.
Colin reached out and rubbed Marek's leg, just a sweet little nothing touch, and it made Marek half hard and his testicles swell, as if his body couldn't help creating seed for this man.
“The power you don't even know you have.” Marek braced his hand on the bed and came down on top of Colin, sliding one leg to rest in between both of the other man's. He lowered his head but paused with his mouth less than an inch away from Colin's. He stopped, and looked into Colin's eyes. “You scared me.” The accusation—fear—slipped out of Marek without censure.
Colin looked up, his eyes so big and sincere. He covered his hand over
Marek's heart, as if he could hold in the emotion. “I didn't mean to.”
“I know.” Marek's voice caught, but he couldn't help it. “Try not to do it again.” He dipped down and captured Colin with a clinging kiss before he confessed anything more.
Colin melted beneath Marek, and Marek sank all the way down into the solid presence beneath him, settling his weight over every square inch of hard, male body. It had been so long since he shared closeness with anyone that the fuel of aggression immediately pumped hot inside him, demanding he take charge and dominate. Right then, Colin sighed and trembled, reminding Marek of the vulnerability he'd so recently felt in the man he carried to his bed.
Marek pulled back from taking over Colin's mouth and brushed his lips across his jaw, cheek, and into his hair instead, ending at the man's ear. “Just relax.” He nipped the lobe and tugged. “Let me do everything.”
Colin only dug his fingers into Marek harder.
Kissing his way down Colin's neck, Marek felt the tension and stopped. “What is it?”
Colin exhaled, ruffling the hairs on top of Marek's head. “I'm not used to letting go.” His hands let up the grip on Marek's shoulders, though, and slid down to his biceps.
Marek smiled against Colin's shoulder, suppressing a chuckle. “I believe you.” He figured Colin's relentless pursuit for answers to his dreams was probably a good indicator for the rest of his personality. “Give it a go anyway.” He nudged his groin against the bulge already forming in Colin's sweats, biting down a moan of pleasure as his own cock stiffened even more in response. “I'll make it good.”
The man shook a little bit again but let his hands fall to the bed. “Okay.” He folded one leg up into a butterfly position and rolled his hips into Marek's crotch. “God.” A low noise rumbled through his whole body. “I want to feel you inside me again.”
Still pushing for a little bit of control. “I'll get there soon enough.” Marek bit Colin's collarbone and dragged his mouth across his skin, tasting once more. The smell of rain and the salty taste of spray from the ocean still lingered, infecting Marek's senses and tingling on his tongue. Closing his eyes, he let Colin's body warm his sensitized lips as he teased his way down the man's chest, licking, enjoying, and blindly searching for a nipple. His chin grazed against the tiny, hardened protrusion, and when it did, Colin inhaled at first touch. Oh yeah. Dipping down, Marek opened wide and latched onto the textured circle of skin, swirled his tongue over it, and took the whole area into his mouth. Marek suckled, and Colin bucked, jamming his lower body right up off the bed.
Colin tilted his head back into the pillow and tunneled his hands into Marek's hair, holding Marek down on his chest. “Mmm…” He rubbed his straining cock into Marek's stomach, burning his shape into Marek's skin. “More.” Colin guided Marek across the span of his chest until Marek's lips found and tugged on his other nipple. “Yeah…bite it.”
Growing more aroused with every verbal and physical command, Marek sank his teeth into Colin's chest and swiped the flat of his tongue across the man's flesh, all the while wondering if, when he finished, his teeth marks would linger. Marek bit again, telling himself he did it because Colin wanted it, but deep down he knew something primal in him craved evidence on this body tomorrow of what they did tonight.
“Oh fuck, that's good.” Colin moaned and pushed Marek's hand to his neglected nipple, closing Marek's fingers around him. “Keep going. Don't stop.”
My little director. The thought popped into Marek's head unbidden, scaring him with another layer of possession. There wasn't anything little about Colin, and Marek didn't have him, no matter the sex they were having and Colin's dreams.
With the unspoken betrayal between us, I never will.
Marek had started this seduction wanting to go slow, to give Colin something gentle to soothe his earlier upset. But fear of discovery ate at his conscience and did battle with every other piece of his mind and body that needed to be close to Colin, to absorb his heat and life. Marek ripped Colin's arms off him and pinned them to the bed. Where before he intended to linger, now Marek licked straight down the centerline of Colin's stomach to his sweatpants and shoved his face in the man's crotch, inhaling deeply, shooting him the rest of the way to a consuming desire to fuck.
Yanking Colin's sweats down his legs and off his body, Marek nearly came undone just gazing upon the sight before his eyes. He enjoyed a repeat feast of golden skin, lightly haired legs, flat stomach, wide chest, sleekly constructed arms, and a long, beautiful cock that bowed upward from a thatch of dark hair. “You have the most amazing body.” Staring at Colin, Marek unzipped his own pants and pushed them down to his knees, shifting from one side to the other to get them the rest of the way off, leaving him nude. “My legs go weak just looking at you.”
Colin ran his hand down Marek's stomach to his cock, and Marek sucked in his breath, feeling the slight contact all the way down to his toes. Looking up, Marek watched a little smile turn the edge of Colin's mouth. “Your perfection makes me nervous.” His fingers drifted off Marek's erection and onto his own as red slashed across his cheeks. “But excited too.”
“Not even close to perfect.” Marek couldn't look Colin in the eyes, not without spilling every secret in his soul. He grabbed Colin's hips and rolled him over in a rush, needing his ass. “I wish I was.” Marek licked two fingers and pressed the heel of his other hand to one of Colin's ass cheeks, holding the taut flesh aside and revealing the tightly shut hole. “For you.” The words slipped out just as Marek rubbed his digits over Colin's rosy pucker. He barely let Colin become accustomed to the contact and then forced one finger through the resistance of the powerful little muscle to the other side. Colin gasped at the invasion, and his steaming, damp channel rippled all up and down Marek's finger. Needing his own oblivion before he lost his mind, Marek quickly pushed a second finger in and buried them both in Colin's ass as far as they would go.
Colin's passage squeezed tightly all around Marek's digits, searing his skin. “Oh, God.” Colin groaned and pushed the side of his face into the pillow, but he bumped his buttocks upward, wiggling himself back on the repeated slide of Marek's fingers into his ass.
Marek grew painfully erect, and with every second he watched himself finger-fuck Colin in the ass, he only got harder. “Do you need more than a couple fingers and lube to let my cock inside?” His voice was rough, his prick projected straight out, heavy, thickly veined, and dark with blood. Withdrawing his fingers, Marek couldn't wait and slicked up his cock with lube. Fuck, I need to take this man again. He pushed Colin's legs wider apart and lay down between his spread thighs. “Tell me now if you do.”
“No. I want it.” Colin's voice sounded as stripped bare as Marek felt. “Fuck me, Marek.” Colin even reached back and held himself open, offering his reddened bud. “Now.”
Jesus fuck. Marek held himself upright with one hand planted on the bed. His other shook a little as he wrapped it around the base of his prick and guided himself to Colin's asshole. With one strong push, Marek broke through and buried his cock inside Colin's ass.
Colin's hands slipped away from his buttocks and spread wide across the bed. “Ohhh…” He convulsed at first full penetration, and his rectum closed in a suffocating hold around Marek's dick.
White fire burned a blaze right through the length of Marek's body, starting and ending in the blinding pleasure found in Colin's hot, snug ass. Needing more connection, more touching, more ties, Marek covered Colin's arms with his and tucked them, tangled together, under the other man's body, sandwiched between the bed and his chest. Marek held Colin fused to him in the trap of his arms, covered him completely, and rocked forward with force, driving his cock deep into the man's scorching channel.
Colin cried out and dug his fingers into Marek's hands, begging for more. Marek held him tighter, pounding his hips in an unforgiving pace and fury, spiraling to a place of unparalleled need. He took Colin's passage in fast, rough slides, and he bit and licked the man's head,
uncaring that he got a mouthful of hair. He would take anything, before it became too late; he delved down to the curve of Colin's neck, breathing in his intoxicating scent. The body beneath him was a solid wall of straining muscles, heaving for every breath. Colin struggled to push his ass up to receive every thrust of Marek's cock. All of it combined to attack Marek's discipline and will and had his balls pulling up hard with the need to come.
Turning his head on the pillow, Colin brushed his cheek against Marek's. “So good.” His voice was breathless but full of want and lust. “You feel so good.” His words snaked into Marek and shoved him, full body, toward coming.
Marek bit his lip, drawing blood as he tried to stave off release. “No. Fuck. Fuck.” He slammed into Colin's chute one more time, tucking into the farthest reaches, and locked his body completely still, fighting the inevitable. “Too fast.”
Colin untangled one of his hands and delved it into Marek's hair, holding their faces close. He pressed his mouth to Marek's jaw. “Want it. Give it to me.” He flicked his tongue against the edge of Marek's lips.
That one small motion triggered the end. Marek groaned low and needful; his cock swelled almost unbearably and pulsed, unloading jet after jet of semen into the tight confines of Colin's ass. Colin jerked, but his channel didn't contract on Marek's cock, so he knew the other man hadn't yet come.
Marek shifted them to their sides in a rush and slipped one hand down Colin's abdomen, while still keeping himself embedded in his body. He took Colin's erection in hand and fisted his velvety-hard length in tight, fast strokes, to Colin's moaning delight.
Colin tilted his head back on Marek's shoulder and pumped his prick through the snug grip of Marek's fingers, searching for his orgasm. His hand slid down and back, taking hold of Marek's thigh in a crushing grip that only spurred Marek to jerk Colin off harder. He slipped his other hand into the mix and tormented the head of Colin's cock while continuing to stroke the length with his other. He teased the wide slit cutting across the tip of the shaft, slipping just the edge of his short fingernail into the fold.
