The Men of Ramshire

by Diane Lennox

  Leander’s eyes widened. How had Dimitrius known?

  “Did I just bring a snake into my bed?” Dimitrius asked. “Should I be worried that you intend on feeding me to your protective family after all?”

  “No,” Leander replied. That hadn’t even crossed his mind.

  Dimitrius’ hand slid off of Leander’s cheek and slowly, staring at Leander all the while, his hands moved to take Leander’s slender wrists, grabbing them firmly then pinning them to the bed on either side of Leander’s head.

  There were many emotions Leander was sure he was supposed to be feeling at that moment, being trapped by a man he barely knew, knowing he wouldn’t actually be able to escape unless Dimitrius allowed it, but instead Leander felt only one emotion – lust.

  Pinned down with those strong hands and those fierce, untrusting eyes, Leander could feel the blood suddenly rush through his veins and pool below his waist. It was probably obscene and rather strange to feel that way, but Leander couldn’t help it. It felt good to have someone handle him like this, even if the other person didn’t exactly looked pleased with him at the moment. Although, Leander had a bad feeling that was part of the reason it was so arousing.

  “Gods, don’t look at me like that, or I can’t believe you’re truly as innocent as you say,” Dimitrius said.

  “I am!” Leander cried, hating that Dimitrius thought him a liar again. “Please, I am.”

  Dimitrius immediately loosened his grip. “I don’t know what to make of you, Leander. One moment you look so earnest and innocent and the next I swear you look like your plotting my demise like you’ve done this before.”

  “I’ve never been alone with a man,” Leander blurted out. “This is my first time, I swear.”

  Dimitrius completely let go of Leander now. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “I’m not scared, I’m frustrated. I don’t know what to say to make you believe me.”

  “Then tell me what was going on in that head of yours when your pretty little eyes went all dark on me.”

  Leander looked off. How was he supposed to admit what he was thinking?

  “Look at me,” Dimitrius ordered.

  Leander’s eyes snapped back, almost wishing Dimitrius really could read his mind so he wouldn’t have to say the words out loud.

  “Was I right, back at the casino? Do you want to toy with me?” Dimitrius asked.

  Leander shook his head. “No. Not… not in the way you mean.”

  Dimitrius cocked an eyebrow. “In what way then?”

  Leander’s pulse started to quicken as his nerves caught up to him. Gods, why couldn’t that dark ambition ever stay with him? All it ever seemed to do was put crazy ideas in his head then leave him high and dry when he needed the courage that came with it.

  “Are you… sadistic? Is that what that look was about?” Dimitrius asked with a little tilt of his head.

  “No!” Leander cried and covered his face with his hands, feeling like he was going to die from embarrassment.

  Dimitrius’ hands went back to Leander’s wrists, gently pulling them away from his face and pinning them back down beside his head. “Tell me what you were thinking, Leander. If it’s not those two things I can’t imagine it’ll be anything that’ll upset me or make me uncomfortable.”

  Leander swallowed hard, the hands around his wrists distracting him from his embarrassment and leading his thoughts down a far different path.

  “You… you might still get mad,” Leander whispered, still scared to say the truth.

  “Only one way to find out.”

  Leander licked his lips. “I… I was thinking of how much power you were about to give me and I, well I… I want to abuse it.”

  Dimitrius cocked an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?” he asked, sounding curious and not at all angry like Leander feared.

  “I want to ask you to do things until… until it’s hard for you to be a gentleman anymore,” Leander admitted in a near whisper and looked off, his face absolutely burning.

  To Leander’s surprise, Dimitrius let out a low chuckle. “You want to tease me.”

  Leander just nodded. He supposed that was exactly what it was.

  “It’s not often that I read people wrong, but I think jumped to some very incorrect conclusions about you. I think I’m still right in assuming you’ve got a clever mind and a certain darkness inside of you, but I made a mistake in thinking that might be your core. Earlier, when you were twirling and laughing and telling me that my home is wonderful, that’s your core,” Dimitrius said and moved one of his hands off of Leander’s wrist so he could gently stroke Leander’s cheek instead. “And now that I know that I don’t mind the idea of you ordering me around. So tell me how you want to tease me, Leander. Feed that harmless, dark part inside of you.”

  “It’s not harmless,” Leander argued, looking to Dimitrius. “At least, it doesn’t feel harmless.”

  “Does it scare you?” Dimitrius asked.

  “Yes,” Leander blurted out, feeling a strange need to talk to somebody about his worries that didn’t know him well like Simon or his father or his grandfather did.

  Dimitrius’ hand trailed down Leander’s cheek and down his chest over his dark pink sweater until it rested on top of his heart. “You don’t need to be scared of it. Like I said, you’ve got a good core, Leander, it’ll keep you from doing anything truly evil. Personally, I’m a proponent of feeding your dark side from time to time. For one, I think it helps keep it placated, and two, it’s part of you. You shouldn’t try to hide a part of yourself that makes you, you.”

  “Do you have a dark side?” Leander asked, moving his free hand to rest on top of Dimitrius’.

  “Of course.”

  “Tell me about it?”

  “If you tell me more about yours,” Dimitrius replied.

  Leander nodded. He needed to talk about this.

  “Alright then. I’m a hacker. I don’t use that skill to hurt people, but I have used it as a means to get people to stop picking on me. People generally get skittish and leave you alone when you know more about them than you really should,” Dimitrius said with a smirk, his hazel eyes gaining a cunning gleam to them. “I also seem to have a way of getting people to tell me their secrets. I’m good at keeping those secrets, but I still get a power rush knowing I can get it out of them without hardly trying.”

  Leander was now looking at Dimitrius in a whole new light, but it wasn’t a bad one despite the fact that Dimitrius just admitted to being a criminal. “Should you be trusting me with all this?” Leander asked.

  Dimitrius smirked, looking just a touch smug and a little dangerous in a way that Leander was finding disturbingly attractive. “You aren’t going to out me, and even if you did, I’m not worried. Nobody would be able to find any proof of what I do. Now tell me, Leander, what’s this darkness inside of you that you’re so afraid of?”

  “It’ll sound egotistical.”

  Dimitrius shrugged. “There may be some merit to your egotism.”

  “I’m not sure if there is, at least, not entirely,” Leander said before taking a deep breath and continuing on. “I seem to be able to gain people’s loyalty to such a degree that they’re willing to do things for me that I’m not sure they should be willing to do. Or at least things they might not to do for anyone else. It scares me, knowing I have this strange power over people,” Leander said then stopped and shook his head. “No, that’s not what scares me. What scares me is that I like having this power over people.”

  “You definitely have that charm about you.”

  “I think that’s why my eyes went dark earlier, because I was enjoying the fact that you seemed willing and ready to do whatever I asked of you,” Leander admitted, looking away again. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Dimitrius said, his hand moving back up Leander’s chest to cup his cheek. “You aren’t manipulating me into anything, Leander, even if you are using your charms to your advantage. And
I can see why your dark side would be tempted to use this power for your own amusement or gain, but you know what? I think you should let it sometimes. You aren’t taking away people’s ability to say no or to think for themselves, you’re just enticing them into saying yes. It’s not quite as evil as you think it is.”

  “So it’s not evil or cruel of me to want to tease you?” Leander asked softly, daring to look back at Dimitrius.

  “Oh, it’s a little cruel,” Dimitrius said with a smirk as he gently brushing his thumb against Leander’s cheek. “But my gut says you would relent if you saw that it was really starting to mess with me.”

  “I would,” Leander said, feeling an intense relief as soon as he said the words and knew them to be true.

  Now that a complete stranger seemed to be coming to the same conclusions that Simon had about Leander’s fears and his darkness in general, it was easier for Leander to believe those conclusions to be true. Yes, his darkness was real and very much there, but it wasn’t overly evil and it wasn’t something that was likely to overcome him.

  Leander started to grin, feeling a weight come off of his soul.

  “Fuck,” Dimitrius swore softly, his lips parting.

  “What is it?” Leander asked.

  “I’m not entirely sure what just went on in that brain of yours, but something has made you very pleased and just… Fuck. You’re gorgeous, Leander.”

  Leander froze, his brain unable to process the very flattering praise.

  Dimitrius broke out into a quiet chuckle. “You really are innocent, aren’t you?” He asked softly.

  Leander just nodded, not really trusting himself to speak yet.

  “Well, perhaps not totally innocent. You seem to like the idea of turning me into a desperate mess,” Dimitrius said and slid his hand back to Leander’s wrist and gave them both a firm squeeze now that he held both in his hands once more. “Now that neither of us have to be afraid of your dark side, tell me what you want, Leander. I’m at your command.”

  Leander let out a shuddering breath, unable to help himself. Why did having his wrists grabbed affect him so much?

  “You like this, don’t you? Being pinned down.”

  “Yes,” Leander whispered, there was no point lying when he was reacting so obviously to it.

  “And what else would you like, Leander?”

  “I… I don’t know,” Leander said, wishing he wasn’t quite so innocent at the moment. “I don’t know what I want.”

  “Yes, you do,” Dimitrius said then moved Leander’s wrists above his head so he could grab them both with one hand. “You want to make me desperate,” he said then took his free hand and wrapped it around Leander’s neck, giving just the smallest hint of pressure.

  Leander let out a strange, keening whimper, his back arching off the bed. It should have been scary, the position he was in, but all he could feel was the electric pulse of pleasure dancing through his veins.

  Dimitrius let out a low groan. “Gods, help me,” he cursed then leaned down next to Leander’s ear, whispering into it. “Does this feel good, Leander? Does it feel good to feel my hands on you like this knowing I can’t take what I want unless you let me?”

  At that Leander let out a wanton moan and immediately starting blushing right after, horrified that he’d made such an obscene noise.

  Except his embarrassment didn’t last long, not when his arousal came flooding right back upon hearing Dimitrius deep groan next to his ear, sounding both turned on and frustrated.

  “Straddle me,” Leander ordered in a tense, needy whisper. “I want you over top of me.”

  Dimitrius didn’t waste any time in swinging a leg over Leander, his strong, stocky body now hovering over Leander’s, effectively caging him on the bed.

  “I hope your dark side is pleased, because it’s getting what it wants. Do you know how much I want to grind down against you right now? How much I want to move my face just a little and press my lips against yours?”

  “Y-you could,” Leander whispered back, daring to give in to the desire to tease Dimitrius. “I can’t stop you like this. You could take what you want from me.”

  Dimitrius pulled back to look down at Leander as his hand moved off his throat and to his cheek once more, his thumb slowly tracing Leander’s lips.

  “I could, but I won’t, and you know I won’t,” Dimitrius said, staring with very obvious desire at Leander’s mouth. “Has anyone touched you like this before?”

  “No,” Leander whispered, his lips brushing against Dimitrius’ thumb.

  “You know I’m going to fantasize about this later,” Dimitrius said and leaned down to whisper in Leander’s other ear now. “And I’m going to take great pleasure in knowing you’ve never been in another man’s bed, never been all laid out like this, and never made such sweet, sweet noises for another man before.”

  And as if on command Leander made those sweet noises for Dimitrius again, moaning openly for him, loving the way Dimitrius’ thumb felt as it moved over his parted lips, teasing him in ways he never knew he wanted before now.

  Then the thumb was suddenly gone and Leander was about to protest, but stopped as he felt Dimitrius’ hand run through his hair and then suddenly grip a handful of it, giving it a firm pull.

  Leander momentarily lost his mind, his mouth falling open, but no sound came out right away. For a second he was gone, lost no doubt to the lustful hells the folk tales spoke of that made men insane, their addled brains unable to think of anything but the need for pleasure. When the noise finally did come out of him it was choked, needy, and embarrassingly loud.

  Dimitrius answered in kind, his groan deep and almost pained sounding. And even though he felt a little guilty over it, Leander loved hearing the desperate and frustrated sounds coming from the other man.

  “I pity the man you get your sights on. You’re going to tease him until he damned near breaks, but that’s exactly what you want, isn’t it? You want him to snap and then take what he wants from you.”

  “And what do you want to take from me, Dimitrius?” Leander asked, feeling horribly bold with so much arousal clouding his mind. “How much of my innocence do you want to claim?”

  “Dear fucking gods,” Dimitrius cursed and shifted so he could stare down at Leander, their faces dangerously close. “Your lips, Leander. I want your lips.”

  Leander stared back up at Dimitrius, knowing full well the other man simply meant a kiss, but his arousal spurred his darkness on to tease Dimitrius far more cruelly. “And which part of you wants my lips, Dimitrius?”

  It was too much, Leander knew it was, but the pleasure of seeing Dimitrius looking shocked then downright feral in his desire was worth it.

  “You’re going to make me snap, Leander,” Dimitrius warned, his breathing heavy. “Is this really how you want your first kiss to be?”

  Leander reached up with his free hand and moved it over Dimitrius’ cheek, ignoring the way it was shaking a little. “Are you telling me to save it for someone else?”

  “Gods, help me,” Dimitrius muttered yet again and nuzzled his face into Leander’s hand. “I don’t want to listen to my gut right now, but I know I’ll regret it if I don’t. I can’t take your first kiss from you, Leander. Fuck, I want to, but I know I’m not meant to.”

  “And if I asked for it?” Leander asked, his thumb moving to just slightly touch at the corner of Dimitrius’ mouth.

  Dimitrius tilted his head so he could kiss at Leander’s thumb. “I would say no, even though I really, really don’t want to.”

  Leander looked up at Dimitrius who was staring back at him looking apologetic and gentle. The overstep seemed to have broken the steamy mood, but perhaps now that the heat was slowly dissipating Leander could ask for something entirely different that he desired.

  “Will you hold me instead, Dimitrius? Cuddle with me?”

  “That, I can give to you,” Dimitrius said and let go of his wrists and moved to lie down on his side on the bed beside Lean
der. “Where would you like me?”

  “On your back?” Leander asked hesitantly.

  Dimitrius nodded and rolled onto his back as requested.

  Leander shifted until he was snuggled right up against Dimitrius’ side, almost lying on top of him, and sighed contently as he felt Dimitrius’ arms slide around him and hold him close.

  “Good?” Dimitrius asked, his voice gentler now.

  Leander nodded and closed his eyes, just enjoying the sensation of being wrapped up in another man’s arms. It was so warm, comforting, and yes, slightly distracting with how much their bodies were touching, but Leander’s restlessness felt calmed now and this simple act of cuddling seemed the perfect way to end their tiny little tryst.

  After a few minutes there was a hand in his hair again, though this time it was gentle, large fingers just carding through Leander’s long locks as they lay there quietly together.

  “Leander?”

  Leander opened his eyes to look at Dimitrius, those hazel eyes so soft now.

  “If I said I was interested in your friendship, what would you say?” Dimitrius asked.

  “I’d say I could use another friend,” Leander said, smiling at the man beside him.

  “Then, if you’ll have me, I’d like to be at your service on a more permanent basis,” Dimitrius said with a teasing little grin.

  Leander giggled happily, his gut overflowing with a pleased feeling, and Leander knew he had just made a very good decision in accepting Dimitrius’ offer. “And I’d like to be at yours too, Dimitrius.”

  “Well then my first request is that you let me walk you home. I don’t want it to get too late and you probably have school tomorrow, right?”

  “I do, but it’s so comfy here in your arms,” Leander playfully whined.

  “Well you can come cuddle with me again sometime.”

  “Can I really?” Leander asked.

  “If we both like it I don’t see why not,” Dimitrius replied. “It’s pretty damned comfy for me too.”

  Leander beamed at him. “Then we’re definitely cuddling again another night!”

  Dimitrius chuckled. “I promise we will,” he said then slowly disentangled himself from Leander. “Now time to get up.”