by Cardeno C.
Moaning, Hugh ran his hands over Johnnie’s body. “Because you’re young and inexperienced and I’m not a small man.”
As Hugh sat beside him, Johnnie dragged his gaze over Hugh’s dark muscles and eventually settled his focus on Hugh’s groin. His full balls hung low under a thick, veined shaft that was so heavy, gravity pulled it down. There was no disputing Hugh’s size or his own lack of experience, and while twenty-six was well past the age when shifters left their mothers’ dens and lived with other adults, compared to a person born in 1912, Johnnie would always be young.
“That’s true.” Johnnie reached his hand into Hugh’s lap and gently fondled his dick. “But you said you want me despite those things, right?”
“Yes,” Hugh hissed as he closed his eyes. “I want you so much that I don’t know how I’ll drain my seed with anyone else again.”
Anger, hot and bright, surged through Johnnie.
Hugh’s eyes snapped open. “What was that sound?”
With his jaw clenched tightly to the point of pain, Johnnie couldn’t answer.
“You growled at me.”
Instinctively, Johnnie shook his head. A lion didn’t growl at his Premier.
“Yes, you did.” Hugh grinned at him. “And you can relax your grip a little there.” He flicked his gaze to his groin, where Johnnie held his balls. “My nuts aren’t going anywhere.”
“Sorry,” Johnnie mumbled in embarrassment. He gentled his hold and carefully slid his fingers over Hugh’s sac in apology.
“Tell me what’s going on in your head.”
Though he didn’t want to confess an emotion that was distinctly not natural for shifters, his desire to be honest with Hugh, always and in all things, overrode his shame. “I was jealous of you having sex with anyone else.”
“Jealous?” Hugh studied Johnnie’s face. “Why?”
Of course Hugh wouldn’t understand. Unlike humans, who joined in pairs and created family units, or wild lions, who lived in small groups where the few males mated with most of the females, lion shifters lived in prides as large as their leader could handle and had frequent sex with their pridemates, regardless of gender. A Premier Pride, especially one led by a Premier as experienced and powerful as Hugh, often had over a thousand adult lions and, other than females who were interested in getting pregnant, those adults fucked one another with the same casualness and ease as a simple conversation or a handshake.
“It’s part of that making love concept we were talking about,” Johnnie explained. “When humans love each other enough that they think of sex as making love, they usually don’t do it with anyone else.”
“I don’t interact much with humans,” Hugh said. “But I’ve been around enough of them to know they’re not monogamous.”
“Not all of them,” Johnnie agreed. “But some of them are.” He swallowed hard, drew in a deep breath, and gathered his courage. “I want to be.” Johnnie looked into Hugh’s eyes. “I don’t want to have sex with anyone other than you.”
A loud rumble sounded from Hugh’s chest. He curled his lips, bared his teeth, narrowed his eyes, and raised his shoulders, like a lion readying himself for a fight.
“Hugh?” Johnnie asked worriedly.
Faster than Johnnie’s eyes could track, Hugh pounced. He lay on top of Johnnie, pinning him to the bed. “You’re mine,” he growled, and then he clamped his teeth onto Johnnie’s throat, not breaking skin, but holding him tight enough that Johnnie couldn’t escape. Not that he wanted to do anything of the sort.
“Yes.” Johnnie tipped his chin up and gave Hugh more room. “I’m your Siphon.”
When Hugh removed his mouth, his jaw ticked and his nostrils flared. “Not just as a Siphon. All of you. I want all of you for myself.”
“We’re saying the same thing,” Johnnie said breathlessly, his arousal shooting up sharply. “I understand your duty to lead and protect the pride and I understand my role in that now, but I want this”—Johnnie moved his hands over Hugh’s nude chest and shoulders—“to be just between us.” He gazed into Hugh’s eyes and watched him carefully, needing to assure himself that his next question would be answered truthfully. “Can I be enough for you?”
“Yes,” Hugh responded without hesitation. He paused, seemed to think it over, and then said, “Definitely.” His brow crinkled. “Which is unusual. Not just because shifters aren’t monogamous but also because fucking one lion has never been enough to drain my seed. But with you…” Hugh dragged his lips over Johnnie’s forehead, down the bridge of his nose, and over his mouth. “Being with you calms me soul deep. We don’t even have to fuck for me to be sated.”
“But we’re going to, right?” Johnnie asked. His pucker tingled in response to the way Hugh had been touching it and he wanted more. Based on the stiffness of Hugh’s dick poking his thigh, he was certain the feeling was mutual. “You said you wanted to.”
Instead of answering, Hugh buried his face in Johnnie’s neck and inhaled. “I love the way you smell.” He breathed in deeply. “Like citrus and lavender.” He swiped his tongue across Johnnie’s skin. “You taste good too.” Slowly, he returned his hand to its spot between Johnnie’s legs and slid his fingers into Johnnie’s crease.
“Ah,” Johnnie gasped.
“That’s a happy sound, right?”
“Uh-huh.” Johnnie nodded and folded his legs up on either side of Hugh, planting his feet on the bed. “Feels so good when you touch me there.”
“I’m glad.” Hugh kissed him softly. “Because I like touching you here.” He rubbed the hidden area. “Your skin is smooth and warm.” He skated his fingertip over Johnnie’s pucker, making him gasp. “And really sensitive.”
Hugh lay over Johnnie, tucked between his spread knees, braced on one forearm, touching him intimately. He watched Johnnie intently, and Johnnie returned his gaze, enjoying the tenderness in the usually impassive face.
“Before, I fucked to drain away tension and hormones,” Hugh said. “I did it to keep myself sane and calm. But making love must be different because I want to taste you.” He lowered his face to Johnnie’s chest and lapped at his nipple before taking it between his lips and sucking. “I want to explore every inch of you.” Hugh moved to Johnnie’s other nipple, swirled his tongue around it, and then took it into his mouth. “I want to make you feel good.”
“Hugh,” Johnnie moaned, arching his chest.
“You taste delicious.” Hugh kissed and licked his way down Johnnie’s belly, over his hip, to his balls.
“Oh. Oh. Oh.” Johnnie panted and writhed when Hugh flattened his tongue and smoothed it over his sac.
“Turn over,” Hugh said, his voice gritty. He dropped his mouth over Johnnie’s testicles and sucked them in.
“Ah!” Johnnie clawed at the mattress and thrust his hips up.
“Never mind.” Hugh grasped Johnnie’s thighs and rolled him up until his knees were near his armpits and his spread ass faced the ceiling. “This position works too.”
“What—”
Hugh nipped at Johnnie’s butt, stealing his voice. He started at the fleshy part of Johnnie’s ass and nibbled his way toward the center, occasionally flicking his tongue or sucking up a mark. When he reached Johnnie’s channel, he flattened his tongue and licked from the base of Johnnie’s spine to his perineum.
“Ungh,” Johnnie moaned as Hugh explored every inch of his crease with lips and tongue. “Hugh.”
“I can’t get enough of you,” Hugh said quietly. He traced Johnnie’s hole with the tip of his tongue. “Tasting you here makes my dick so hard, Johnnie.” He pressed the tip against the center of Johnnie’s hole, pushed it inside, and flicked it. “So wonderfully hard.” In and out he went, deeper every time, until eventually he pushed his lips against Johnnie’s hole and plunged his tongue as far as it could go.
With every movement of the slick muscle within his body, Johnnie climbed closer and closer toward orgasm. His moans became louder and more desperate. He grabbed the backs of
his thighs and spread his legs even farther. Though he wanted to encourage Hugh, Johnnie was too turned on to speak. All he could do was stare at Hugh as he worked him with mouth, tongue, and hands.
“I want to make you come like this someday, but right now, I think I’ll lose my mind if I don’t get inside you.” Hugh cupped each side of Johnnie’s ass, massaged the firm globes, and then slid both of his thumbs inside. “I’ve never wanted anything this much.”
With two digits buried in Johnnie’s ass, Hugh rose and gently kissed him. “I want to give you pleasure,” he said as he pumped in and out of Johnnie’s hole.
“You are,” Johnnie assured him, arousal making his words thick and slow.
After another few seconds gazing into Johnnie’s face and fingering his ass, Hugh leaned toward the nightstand and retrieved a bottle of lubricant. Kneeling between Johnnie’s thighs, he propped Johnnie’s ankles on his shoulders, drizzled the slick liquid onto his channel, and pushed it inside. Once Johnnie was slippery, Hugh rubbed the lube onto his own shaft.
“Part of me wishes more than anything that you’d had a normal life and been included in the pride like the rest of the lions.” Hugh pressed the tip of his cock against Johnnie’s hole. “But the selfish part of me is glad you didn’t because it means I’m the first person who gets to do this with you.” He gripped Johnnie’s hips, gazed into his eyes, and slowly pressed inside. “The only person.”
“Never wanted a normal life,” Johnnie bit out, his words strained. He curled his hands around Hugh’s forearms and held on. “Just wanted you.”
“You have me, Johnnie.” Hugh continued his even, deliberate slide until his balls squished against Johnnie’s ass. “You have all of me.”
“Oh Lord.” Johnnie’s eyes rolled back and his mouth dropped open. The stimulation of previously untouched nerve endings stole his breath. “That’s so good.”
“For me too.” Hugh moved Johnnie’s legs off his shoulders to around his waist and then planted his hands on either side of Johnnie’s torso and began rocking his hips. “You feel… Ungh,” Hugh groaned.
“Kiss me,” Johnnie whispered, suddenly needing more contact. He curled his palms around Hugh’s neck and tugged. “Please kiss me.”
Without any hesitation, Hugh lowered his face, pressed his lips to Johnnie’s, and slipped his tongue inside. As soon as their flavors blended, both men moaned. Though the pace of Hugh’s thrusts stayed the same, the sensation in Johnnie’s passage became more pronounced. He felt as though dozens of tiny fingers were caressing him and every time Hugh dragged his cock past Johnnie’s prostate, those fingers tapped it one by one.
“Johnnie,” Hugh said, his voice hoarse, breathless, and confused. “Something’s different.” In and out he went, not slowing down or speeding up. “My cock is…” He arched his neck and gasped. “There’s more… I feel it everywhere… I…” Leaving one hand to hold himself up, he slipped his other between their bodies until he reached the area where they were connected. “What is that?”
“Please don’t stop.” Johnnie had no idea how to answer Hugh’s question. He had nothing to compare to this moment so he couldn’t know if it was different, but he had never felt anything so powerful, so exquisite, so fundamentally right, and he didn’t want it to end. “Please, Hugh, don’t stop.”
“I won’t,” Hugh promised. “I can’t. But—” Without ceasing his back and forth movement inside Johnnie, Hugh rose to his knees and glanced at their joined bodies. “Holy hell.” He jerked his gaze up to Johnnie’s face and then back down. “How?”
Awash in sensation and pleasure, Johnnie had trouble concentrating and speaking, but he managed a weak, “What?”
“I have spines.” Hugh slowed his movements to a crawl, as if to let Johnnie feel every inch of his dick pushing in. “That only happens in lion form. Besides, I’m a Premier. Our cocks never grow spines because they’re for procreation.” He slid out just as slowly. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either,” Johnnie said. And his mind was too clouded with lust and need to figure it out. “We can think about it later.” He pushed his ass toward Hugh, hoping for more contact. “But right now, it feels incredible.” When Hugh snapped in again, his angle shifted so the spines dragged over new parts of Johnnie’s internal walls and then over his gland. He trembled from head to toe and cried out Hugh’s name.
“Look at you,” Hugh rasped. “So beautiful.” He lowered himself over Johnnie, curled his hands under Johnnie’s arms, grasped his shoulders, and began pumping in earnest. “You’re gorgeous, Johnnie, inside and out.” Sweat shone over Hugh’s dark brow. “And you make me feel so good. This is so so good.”
As Hugh moved above him and inside him, Johnnie stared at his handsome, strong face, inhaled his spicy scent, and gave his body over to pleasure so profound he was sure he’d been made for this very purpose, for this very man.
“Yours,” he whispered.
“Yes.” Hugh pulled all the way out and then slammed back in. “Mine.” He wrenched his dick out and then shoved inside again. “My Siphon.” Out and back in. “My Johnnie.” His nostrils flaring, gaze glued to Johnnie’s face, and lips parted, he slowly pulled out until only his crown was inside. “My love.”
“Hugh,” Johnnie choked, his throat thick with emotion. “I love you.”
With a nod, Hugh lowered his face and slanted his mouth over Johnnie’s. He moaned and sucked on Johnnie’s tongue voraciously while he snapped his hips harder and faster, over and over, until Johnnie screamed into his mouth from the force of his orgasm. Seed sprayed between them, coating their skin in Johnnie’s essence as white-hot pleasure tore through his body and brain.
“Yes!” Hugh yelled triumphantly. “Lord, yes.” He buried his cock to the base and ground against Johnnie, his balls rubbing against Johnnie’s backside as they emptied deep inside him. “Yes,” he said quietly, his eyes closed and face slack. “Yes.”
After several long moments gasping for air and clinging to Johnnie, Hugh kissed his cheek, his jaw, his neck, and his chest. He then rolled onto his side, pulled Johnnie into his arms, and brushed his lips over the top of Johnnie’s head.
“What was that?” he asked breathlessly. “I’ve never experienced anything like it.” He squeezed Johnnie tightly. “Never.”
“It sounded different.” Though Johnnie had never personally experienced penetration, he had watched Hugh screw hundreds of times, always longing to be the lion underneath him.
“Completely different.” Hugh breathed in deeply, sounding satisfied. “What we just did bears only a surface resemblance to sex as I know it.”
Based on Hugh’s noises and expressions while they were coming together, Johnnie knew that was true. The man he’d seen rutting with others had been stoic and robotic, focused on his end goal but not deriving pleasure from his task. But when the two of them were joined together, Hugh’s face had been awash in yearning and joy.
“I understand what you mean now about making love.” Hugh nudged Johnnie’s head until he looked up and their gazes met. “Do you think that’s why I had spines?”
“That’s never happened before, right?” Johnnie asked as he thought over the question.
“No.” He shook his head. “Even though I haven’t come across many Premiers, over the years, I have met some. A few, I’d even consider friends. And of course I’ve heard stories about our ancestors. As far as I know, male shifters develop spines on their cocks during sex in lion form to help the female get pregnant. I’ve never seen it happen in human form, I’ve never heard them say it feels special, and I’ve never heard of it happening to a Premier.”
“Because you can’t procreate?”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Well”—Johnnie moved his hand to Hugh’s groin and gently fondled him—“this isn’t the first time your body reacted…” He tried to think of the right word. “Differently to sex with me.”
“It isn’t only sex. You’re special, Johnnie.”
Hugh traced his thumb over Johnnie’s jawline. “Talking is different with you. Sharing meals is different with you. Sleeping is different with you.” Hugh paused and gazed into his eyes. “I’m different with you.”
“I’m different with you too,” Johnnie answered, his voice cracking. “I’m whole now. I’m happy.”
Hugh wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug.
“Maybe it’s as simple as that.”
“What?” Hugh asked.
“Maybe—” Johnnie licked his lips and thought over what he was about to say. Wanting something as much as he wanted Hugh, made objectivity impossible. “I mean, I could be wrong. It could be wishful thinking, but—” He sucked in air and then let the words spill out. “Maybe we were meant to be together. Maybe our bodies were made for each other. Maybe this is what we were supposed to be and do all along and that’s why it feels good and right and whole and…” He ran out of air, sighed, and whispered, “Maybe.”
“Maybe,” Hugh repeated, his lips turned up at the corners and his eyes looking happy.
“You’re not upset about that?”
“Why would I be upset that an incredibly intelligent, handsome, sweet person was made for me?” Hugh shook his head. “That might not have been my… What did you call it? A wish? But that’s only because I’ve never thought about wishing for something for myself. Everything I’ve done or wanted has been for the pride. That’s what a Premier is for—the pride.”
The only Premier Johnnie knew was Hugh and there was no doubt about his devotion to his lions. He worked to ensure their safety and happiness all day, every day. And Johnnie spent that time focused on Hugh, devoted to Hugh.
“That could be true. A Premier could be for the pride,” Johnnie said. “And a Siphon could be for the Premier.”
“Could be.” Hugh smiled at Johnnie, brushed his hair off his forehead, and leaned in for a kiss. “My brilliant Siphon.” Their lips met time and again, softly, tenderly. “My precious gift.”
For so many years the word Siphon had evoked feelings of resentment, loneliness, and frustration in Johnnie, but now, being cradled in his Premier’s muscular arms and held close to his huge body, Johnnie felt fortunate to have been born for this role, for this pride, for this Premier. Joy, affection, purpose, and pleasure filled his life now. He wouldn’t give that up and he wouldn’t let anyone take it from him. He wouldn’t let anyone take Hugh.
