The Torches We Carry

by L. A. Witt

  As soon as we were clear of the core of the noise, the day’s fatigue started pressing harder on my shoulders. It was like we’d broken a spell by getting away from the thrum of voices and energy, and now I was really feeling the last several hours.

  Sleep. Oh sweet, sweet sleep. Come to Daddy.

  Marcus seemed to be dragging a bit too, and neither of us spoke on the way to the elevator. He jabbed the button, and we both stared at the numbers above the door as the elevator took its sweet time coming down. Finally, it did, and we shuffled inside.

  As the doors closed, he broke the silence. “You’re right. I’m exhausted. If I never see another person, it’ll be too soon.” He paused, then turned to me. “With one notable exception.”

  Our eyes locked.

  My stomach flipped.

  “Yeah?” I managed.

  “Mmhmm.” He stepped closer, his presence pushing me flat against the wall. “And just my luck, we’re sharing a room.”

  “Y-yeah. We are.” I gulped. “So we—”

  He kissed me, and my whole body sagged between him and the wall. Holy shit. One minute we were both collapsing under the weight of a long day. The next… this. Oh my God, this.

  Marcus had never been a gentle kisser, and tonight, his kiss was almost violent. Crushing. Possessive. Demanding. I gripped the front of his shirt, moaning softly because it was the only way I could audibly beg for more. He pinned me harder to the wall. The bar bit into my lower back, and the wall wasn’t exactly comfortable behind my head, but holy hell…

  The elevator stopped. We didn’t. Marcus’s hand slid down between the wall and my ass, and I pressed my hard-on against his. Where all this energy had suddenly come from, I had no idea. I’d been dog-tired all day, but it was like Marcus’s lips gave me a second wind. There was no way in hell I could deal with more people or handle another product demonstration. Fucking Marcus into the mattress? God, yes.

  He broke the kiss and went for my neck, and I arched off the wall with a soft whimper. “God, Marcus…”

  He groaned against my throat. “I’m so tired I can barely stand up,” he said, his breath hot on my skin. “But I want you so bad right now.”

  If my brain had any objections, they were lost in the rush of arousal and the prickle of goose bumps as Marcus’s talented lips explored beneath my jaw. I opened my mouth to suggest we get back to our room, but right then, the world shifted out from under me.

  Marcus jerked back and looked over his shoulder. He cursed, and I realized it hadn’t been my balance abandoning me—the elevator was moving again. Before he could redirect it back to our floor, though, it stopped. We pulled apart, muttering curses as we tried to mask our predicaments with our clothes. The doors opened, and damn them, a couple of guys I recognized from—well, some other company I didn’t care about right then—joined us, offering polite smiles as I prayed to God they didn’t look down and see our hard-ons.

  They pressed the button for the lobby. Marcus and I exchanged glances.

  Apparently we were on the same page—the one where there was no way in hell we were riding down to the lobby and back—because without another word, he caught the closing doors, and we stepped out of the elevator and we headed for the stairs.

  Chapter 8

  Marcus

  All I had to do was touch the keycard to the reader on the door, and we’d be home free. With Reuben’s kiss still tingling on my lips, though, not to mention my hard-on straining the front of my pants, this stupid door might as well have had a twelve-digit cipher lock and a retina scanner.

  By some miracle, I lined up the keycard with the reader, the light turned green, and the lock clicked. We moved into the room, and as soon as the door was shut, I had Reuben in my arms again. Kissing. Groping. Stumbling. I wasn’t quite sure how, but despite being almost completely focused on exploring Reuben’s mouth, I found enough coordination to toe off my shoes and not trip over his as he did the same.

  I shrugged off my jacket. His had disappeared at some point too. Though we’d both been dragging when we’d left the bar, there was no sign of fatigue in either of us now, and no shyness in him. He pinned me to the wall and kissed me hard, grinding his erection against mine as I tugged the back of his shirt up. From the low growl to the roughness of his touch, he was in charge now, and I was putty in his hands.

  Fuck, no one had ever kissed me like he did. He could be so shy and uncertain, but in the bedroom, he was self-assured and unapologetic. He touched me like he meant it. Kissed me like he knew damn well I wanted it that hard and hungry. Fucked me like he had every intention of breaking every piece of furniture in the room before he was done with me. There was nothing tentative about him, and nothing had ever aroused me like watching the switch flip between his shy self and this. Being on the receiving end of his needy, demanding desire was the single biggest aphrodisiac I’d ever encountered.

  Small wonder I couldn’t get through this week without putting my hands on him, and now that I had, there was no stopping either of us. We made out. We pulled at clothes. We ground together. If it weren’t for the occasional gasp when he touched me just right, I probably would’ve forgotten to breathe at all.

  Reuben pulled me away from the wall and across the remaining distance to the bed. He dragged me down, and as soon as we’d landed on the mattress, we were fumbling with each other’s pants. Somehow, I got his zipper down, and we both inhaled sharply as I closed my fingers around his cock. A moment later, he made it past my clothes too, and then we were kissing hungrily and pumping each other’s cocks.

  He nudged me onto my back, and then moved like he was going to go down on me, but I stopped him.

  “I’ve got a better idea,” I murmured, and gave him a quick kiss before I shifted around so we both had easy access to each other’s cocks. He turned on his side to mirror me, and I moaned as I took him into my mouth in the same moment he took me into his.

  Yes. Oh God, yes. This was everything. This was the kind of sex I’d been missing for so long. Reuben moaned around my cock, stroked it, licked it—he sucked dick like he was single-mindedly driven to do anything and everything it took to send me into the stratosphere. It was almost impossible to concentrate while I was at his mercy like this, but I had that same determination to turn him inside out, and every time he took me higher, I poured that pleasure into returning the favor. He did the same, and we were locked in a delicious feedback loop of spine-tingling pleasure and the need for not just our own orgasms, but each other’s.

  I caught a glimpse of us in the mirror, and holy shit this was the most pornographic thing I’d ever seen. The two of us, sixty-nining across a still-made bed, both of us still dressed, ties loose and shirts half-unbuttoned, our pants undone just enough to get to each other’s dicks.

  The sight of us drove a groan out of me, which sent a shiver through him, and he gave my cock a mind-blowing lick before he deep-throated me. I did the same, and was rewarded with a low moan. Over and over, we drove each other on until I couldn’t resist rocking my hips, pushing my cock into his mouth, and he moaned again. Some guys didn’t like that, but Reuben? Oh, just the thought of all the times he’d begged me to fuck his mouth…

  I forced myself deeper, and his cock got even harder and thicker between my lips. His balls pulled up. So did mine. We were both breathing fast, panting as we hauled each other toward the inevitable.

  Reuben lost it first. He whimpered around me, and the first drop of salt on my tongue took me right over the edge with him. I grunted, fucking into his mouth as I stroked and licked him, and I came so hard that if my mouth hadn’t been occupied with his cock and his cum, I’d have woken the entire hotel.

  He exhaled. Then I did. We rolled onto our backs and stayed there for a moment, just catching our breath while the room spun. When I was sure I wouldn’t pass out, I sat up. So did he. We came together in a salty kiss, and the scratch of his nails across my scalp made me moan against his lips. We both should have been collapsing under the w
eight of orgasms that powerful. We should have been falling asleep in a cloud of pure bliss. Any other night, a climax that strong would’ve knocked me out in no time.

  Tonight? Not a goddamned chance.

  Neither of us was twenty-five anymore—hell, I hadn’t been for twenty damn years—but that didn’t stop us. Maybe we weren’t hard anymore, but I had no doubt we would be before long. In the meantime, we had six years of lost time to make up for, and so we kissed and groped and pushed clothes off. I needed his naked body against mine right fucking now.

  It didn’t take long—minutes after we’d gotten each other off, our clothes were out of the way and we were on our sides, cocooned beneath the covers of my bed as we kissed like our lives depended on it. When we’d had that threesome back in December, there hadn’t been a lot of opportunity for this. There’d been sex, of course, and it had been hot when it wasn’t awkward, but it hadn’t been the time or place for this unrestrained intimacy. Maybe this wasn’t the time or place either, but I didn’t question it and Reuben didn’t hold back.

  Even after all this time, I still had every inch of his body memorized. Oh, we’d both changed over time. He’d lost weight. I’d gained a little. We’d both gone grayer—him more than me. There was a scar on his arm that hadn’t been there before, and I hadn’t had the tattoo on my ribs back then. But the planes and angles were mostly the same now. He still loved my lips on his neck. I still couldn’t get enough of his fingertips gliding up my back or digging into my ass cheeks. He still made that soft, breathy sound whenever I nibbled his earlobe, and I still shivered every time he carded his fingers through my hair. We picked up where we’d left off before we’d split up, and if not for the scars and ink and gray, it would’ve been like the last few years hadn’t happened at all.

  I had no idea how long we lay like that—kissing, sliding hands all over skin, holding our naked bodies as close together as we could get. For all I knew, we should’ve been getting up and going downstairs for the trade show. Or maybe it had only been a minute or two. Didn’t know. Didn’t care. There was literally nothing that could pry me out of Reuben’s arms right then, and time wouldn’t matter again until I’d had my fill of him.

  Unsurprisingly, we both started getting hard again, and as soon as there were erections involved, the intensity ratcheted up. He didn’t just run his fingers through my hair—he gripped it tight enough to sting. I didn’t just kiss up and down his neck—I sank my teeth in. Before long, we were both out of breath just like we’d been in the moments after we’d sixty-nined into oblivion. Our bodies moved of their own volition and fell into sync, rubbing and rocking as if to tell us we needed to stop fooling around and fuck.

  I nipped his collarbone, making him gasp and arch, and I growled in his ear, “Fuck me.”

  Reuben inhaled sharply, fingers twitching against my sides. “Did you bring any condoms with you?”

  I stiffened. Then swore. “Did you?”

  “No.” Reuben exhaled, pressing his forehead into mine. “Damn it.”

  “Damn it is right.” I pushed myself up. “The hotel has a shop downstairs. It might still be open.” I paused. “Or…”

  His eyebrows rose.

  I swallowed. “I haven’t been with anyone in months. Nobody except you and…”

  Reuben licked his lips. “It’s only been you and her for years.”

  Our eyes met.

  He gulped. “What about lube?”

  I thought fast, and glanced toward the bathroom. Hand lotion was usually a winner, and hotels always seemed to provide it. “Let me check for hand lotion.”

  “Oh, good idea. I hadn’t thought of that.”

  I bit back a comment about how he probably didn’t have a lot of impromptu sexual encounters that required improvisation. No need to tip my hand about how I’d spent the first couple of years after we’d broken up.

  In the bathroom, there was the usual display of complimentary toiletries, and—yes. Hand lotion. I gave it a quick sniff to make sure it didn’t have any strong scents that might burn—lesson learned the hard way in the past—and skimmed over the label. Nothing set off any alarm bells. Perfect.

  When I came back, holding up the tube of lotion like a prize, Reuben grinned so wickedly I almost dropped the damn thing.

  As soon as I was close enough, he took it from me. “Turn around,” he ordered. “I want to do you from behind.”

  I bit my lip as I climbed onto the bed. He still knew how I liked it, didn’t he?

  Oh yeah, he did, and he also knew the easiest way to turn me into a trembling wreck—prep me for ages. He teased me with lotion-slicked fingertips. When he pressed them in, he took his sweet, sweet time sliding them in and out, fingering me like he absolutely could do this all fucking night. I gritted my teeth to keep my frustration under the surface; I knew all too well how long he could do this if he knew it was torturing me this much.

  Come on, I wanted to beg. Gimme your dick. C’mon.

  But I kept my mouth shut and let him finger-fuck me. It felt amazing, especially since I hadn’t bottomed for anyone in a long time. It just wasn’t his thick cock. And he did this slowly and gently—exactly the opposite of what he’d do once he was in.

  Finally, he slid his fingers free and shifted behind me. The sound of him stroking lotion onto his cock made me claw at the sheets with anticipation. Yes, yes, please, yes.

  He lined himself up, and with a low groan, pushed himself in. For a second, the whole world vanished except the head of his cock moving into me, and I whimpered as he withdrew and pushed in again.

  Reuben leaned down, and he buried his face in my neck as he eased his dick into my ass. “God, Marcus…”

  I just moaned, overwhelmed by the heat of his body and the stretch of being penetrated. The head of his cock slid past my prostate, and my elbows almost dropped out from under me. It had been long enough since my orgasm that I wasn’t uncomfortably hypersensitive, but the sensations were still overwhelming and intoxicating. I rocked back, desperate for more, and he exhaled as he pushed in deeper.

  “You still like it hard?” he purred.

  “You know I do.” I gripped the edge of the mattress as he sat up behind me. “You still like to give it—”

  He answered with a thrust so violent I almost choked on my own breath, and he didn’t stop. He gripped my hips painfully tight and slammed into me over and over and over, and thank God we’d both already come once tonight because I would have gone off way too soon like this. I wanted him to keep going until neither of us could walk.

  “Oh, yeah,” I moaned, almost sobbing with both pain and pleasure. “Yeah, baby…”

  He slid a hand up to my shoulder. Then the other. I squeezed my eyes shut, my whole body humming with sensation as he used his newfound leverage to fuck me even harder. Everything around us disappeared. It was all sensation—pain, pleasure, tension, relief. I was delirious. Drunk. Desperate.

  Then Reuben slowed down a little, panting hard as he kept up a slower but still frantic rhythm. The gentler pace let my vision come back into focus, along with my brain, and I was slightly more aware of everything. Of our surroundings. Of muscles trembling with exertion. Of hot hands sliding across my skin, which was wet because we were both sweaty now. He sounded even more out of breath than I was.

  “Lemme get on top,” I panted. “So you… so you can have a break.”

  Reuben slowed to a stop. “Mmm, I like the sound of that.”

  I grinned over my shoulder. “You’ve always liked letting me ride you.”

  He slammed in, driving a grunt out of me. “You know I do.”

  “Then get on your back where you belong.”

  He responded with another punishing thrust, then pulled out and rolled onto his back. I climbed on top, and in seconds, had his dick in me again, and despite the ache in my thighs, found a fast, hard rhythm I knew he’d like.

  And… dear God. I’d thought our sixty-nining reflection was hot, but this? Reuben flat on his back,
skin flushed and gleaming, sweat plastering the hair to his chest and darkening the edges of his gray to almost black again, features screwed up as he groaned helplessly under me… fuck, this was the sexiest man I’d ever seen.

  He opened his eyes and met mine as he ran his hands up my chest. One hand slid around the back of my neck, and I instantly recognized the subtle pressure of his fingers: come here.

  I leaned down, and he threw his arms around me as our lips met. As if this couldn’t get any more perfect, now I was kissing him, holding him, and riding him—the perfect trifecta of letting myself be completely consumed by Reuben.

  He held me tighter and thrust up into me, and as we always had, we found an effortless rhythm even in this slightly awkward position. He hit every nerve ending just right, and from the sounds he was making, I had the same effect on him. Just like when we’d blown each other earlier, I wanted nothing more than to drive him over that peak, and he fucked me from below like he had the same single-minded goal.

  “You want me to come like this?” he asked shakily. “Or pull out?”

  “Like this.” I let my head fall forward beside his, squeezing my eyes shut as my own orgasm closed in fast. “God, yeah.” My voice came out as a shaky near-sob as I said, “Come, baby.”

  And just like that, he did. His body arched under mine and his dick pulsed inside me, and every sharp gasp and curse cooled the side of my neck, and his fingers dug in painfully. He took a few more deep, needy thrusts, and then he dropped onto the mattress, panting and trembling—the most beautiful wreck I’d ever seen.

  Without even giving himself a chance to recover, he reached between us, and I shuddered as he started pumping me. I was so close to the edge anyway, and his shaky, sweat-slicked strokes were more than I could take. In his hand, I wasn’t a middle-aged guy who’d already come once tonight. I was a twenty-something with a hair trigger, and in seconds, he had me shooting cum across his stomach as I cried out and damn near cried.