Tier guided his head back again. Maybe he could spend all day here.
“You know, if that’s the card I’m thinking of, I never went to that party.”
“So it was yours?”
“It was. But I couldn’t bring myself to go when there was this sweet, shy man who kept bringing me food. That was the first week you started visiting me every day, and I couldn’t focus on anyone else.”
“Wow,” Ro breathed. He was finally beginning to believe all of this.
“But just because I’m into this, doesn’t mean you have to do any of it. I realized I might have been a little rough with you last night.”
“No.” Ro breathed in again, pulling Tier’s scent deep into his lungs. “Just the right amount.”
Tier stroked his jaw gently. “There are so many filthy things I want to do with you.”
Ro moaned. He couldn’t help it. “Like what?”
“Like keep you on your knees here all day. Or bend you over this table and take you hard.” Tier’s soft caresses didn’t match his rough words, which only made them feel dirtier. “Would you like that? In your kitchen where you made a beautiful meal for me?”
“Mmmmm… Yes. I want that.”
“I don’t want to rush with you, though. Our first time should be special and last night was a bit frantic.”
Ro laughed, noticing how Tier’s cock jumped in his pants each time he exhaled. “Last night was our first time. Our next time will be special because it’s you, but last night was already perfect. And it wasn’t frantic. You made me wait forever.”
“You don’t want me to lay you down on your bed and make love to you?” Tier’s voice was gently teasing, but it also seemed like an honest question.
Ro would have felt embarrassed, but he was already kneeling between Tier’s thighs, hands clasped behind his back with his mouth pressed to his dick through a thin layer of fabric. With his face buried, he felt like he could say anything. “I mean, if I get a choice, I’d take the table.”
Tier laughed, loudly and freely. “You are perfect for me.” He pressed Ro’s face farther into his groin and slid one bare foot up to cover Ro’s cock.
Ro’s heart pounded and he sucked in air. Tier pressed harder with his heel, until the force was almost painful on his trapped length. It was amazing.
“You gorgeous, dirty boy,” Tier said fondly. “Go get the lube. And when you come back, I want you naked.”
It took Ro a moment to make sense of the words, and when he did, he stood up too quickly. He realized he had to stretch out his legs before he could walk. Tier put a steadying hand on his back. “Take your time. This isn’t a race.”
Ro stretched again, then quickly traced the few steps to his room to get supplies. It might not be a race, but he was still eager.
Taking his pajama pants off proved a little harder. When he’d first noticed that Tier was dressed, he’d thought he was leaving. Now all he could think of was how exposed he would be, standing there naked while Tier was fully clothed.
It was deliciously nerve-wracking. He hoped Tier liked what he saw.
Tier’s heated glance when he saw him again started to change his mind, though he still worried. “Turn,” Tier commanded.
Feeling uncomfortably on display, Ro complied. “I’m sorry I’m so… large.” He couldn’t think of a better way to explain it.
Tier’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t ever want to hear you say that about yourself again, either. Bend over the table.”
That was even more embarrassing. Tier could see everything. Yet somehow it just made Ro’s cock harder. Tier stepped up behind him, pressing so close that his belt pressed into Ro’s bare skin.
Tier ran a gentle hand down his back. “Do you know what I find so sexy about you?”
Ro made an inquisitive noise.
“Your strength. Your bulk. The way that you could lift twice my weight, and yet you’re so willing to kneel at my feet. It’s exquisite.”
“Oh.” Ro hadn’t thought of it that way. He shivered.
“That’s right. All of those delicious muscles are mine to command.” He slipped his hands around to Ro’s belly, where it pressed into the table. “I love how thick you are, how solid and powerful. It makes me want to pin you down and make you scream.”
Oh, yes. That was what he wanted. And he could see it now from Tier’s perspective, the rush of controlling someone so much stronger.
“Hands on the edge of the table,” Tier snapped.
Desperate to please, Ro spread his arms, gripping the opposite sides of the board he rested on. His cock strained against the wood, thrilled by the rough commands.
Tier continued the gentle strokes over his back. “You brought condoms. Do you want to use them?”
“I haven’t been with anyone in a decade. I, um, picked these up at the clinic a while ago, but I never had any reason to use them.”
“As I told you, I haven’t been with anyone for just as long.”
Tier’s fingers dipped lower, teasing along his crack. “Tell me if you don’t like anything.”
Ro nodded. “I’m really not that fragile.”
“I know. That means I can be rough, but I’m still going to take care of you.” He twisted one dry finger just inside Ro’s hole.
Ro moaned. The penetration felt invasive and harsh, especially when Tier circled it around. Tier drizzled lube down his ass, withdrawing for a moment, and then pushing back in.
Even with the slick gel, it was a little too fast, and Ro gasped at the burn.
“Too fast?” Tier continued the soft stroking down his back while he thrust aggressively with his finger.
Ro whimpered. “Yes, but it’s good.” In fact, it was starting to feel amazing, the harsh motions and the sweet ones mingling together with the twinge of pain.
Tier added another finger with the same vicious speed.
Ro cried out this time, loving the feeling of being helplessly penetrated with that edge of torment.
“That’s good,” Tier praised. “So good.”
Ro loved pleasing him, maybe he even loved accepting the pain just because it was what Tier wanted. He started to get used to two fingers, rocking back into the pleasure, when Tier added a third.
Ro whimpered, tears springing to his eyes. It hurt, but in an achingly splendid way that started to swirl into the soft touches at his back. Then Tier pulled his fingers over his prostate and every sensation was magnified and glorious.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Ro gasped. He wasn’t, but he was becoming addicted to that feeling of violent claiming.
Tier’s fingers withdrew for a moment, leaving him empty and desperate. When Tier’s cock started to push in, it was exquisitely overwhelming. He breathed into the pain, trying to relax and accept all of it. Tier moved slowly, rocking in inch-by-inch, until Rohahen was completely, agonizingly full.
Ro whimpered again, and Tier reached around to stroke his cock. “You’re still hard,” he murmured.
He was. The ache inside him had become something beautiful.
Tier leaned forward, the buttons of his shirt sliding across his spine. He’d forgotten that Tier was dressed, and it made him feel decadently vulnerable and helpless.
Tier set up a slow rhythm, kissing and biting along his shoulders. He punctuated each thrust with a few words.
“Do you know how perfect you are? Laid out for me like this? Naked and exposed just for me. Uhn…” He thrust in deeply, hitting Ro’s prostate and setting off explosions inside. “I can’t get enough of you.”
Tier traced down Ro’s arms and then circled his wrists with his hands. “I don’t even have to hold you down, because you submit so easily to me. But I’m going to anyway. Because I want to see you in chains.”
Ro cried out, desperate at the idea and the cock deep inside him. He already felt so helpless, trapped by his own fingers that gripped the table so hard that they ached. He could only imagine the freedom of having them constrained for him.
Tier bit into his shoulder, hard enough to leave a bruise to match the ones that already decorated his front. “Open your eyes,” he commanded.
Ro’s sight landed on an empty plate and the jar of honey. They were incongruously innocent and mundane.
“I like fucking you right here. On this table where you cook for me and feed me.” Tier thrust into him harder and faster.
Ro moaned. He hadn’t expected Tier to understand how important this was to him, but he got it.
“This is where you give me everything that I need, isn’t it? The plants that you grow, the food that you make, and your tight, sweet ass to use whenever I want it.”
“Yes,” Ro tried to say, but it came out as a yell. That was exactly it.
Tier trailed bites over his shoulders, licking in between them, while his breath got ragged and his rhythm fell apart.
Ro felt himself growing close, too. He was floating in the mingled pleasure of Tier’s cock and the agony of his bite. Just a few more strokes would push him over the edge.
But Tier didn’t give them to him. Instead, he issued a wordless command, the strength of it burning in Ro’s throat. Come.
Ro let out a roar while his body helplessly complied. This wasn’t a natural build-up, but an external demand, the power of it taking over his swollen balls and forcing them to shoot. Ecstasy overtook him, his own body completely owned by the man above him.
Bliss shook through him in waves, and he trembled as he felt Tier pulsing inside him. The feeling built, taking him over and turning him inside out. Making him truly submissive to Tier’s control.
As the feeling ebbed, Tier rested heavily against his back. His weight held Ro tethered and safe. Tier lifted Ro’s hands from the table, lacing their fingers together. His breath tangled in Ro’s sweaty hair, intimate and quietly magnificent.
“Want to hold you, too,” Ro finally murmured as his heartbeat slowed.
Tier slowly pulled out, making Ro whimper again. He was delightfully sore and already missing that fullness. Tier didn’t let go of Ro’s hands, though, walking behind him and guiding him toward the bedroom.
He released him only at the edge of the bed. Ro flopped down on his back, then pulled Tier on top of him. It made it harder to breathe, but he didn’t want to be anywhere else.
Feeling languid and loved, he let himself drop off to sleep.
Chapter 7
Rohahen
When he woke up, the sun was slanted sharply across the sky, making patterns on his walls. Tier had drifted over to the other side of the bed. Apparently he needed his space to sleep.
He was gorgeous in repose, the bags under his eyes almost gone. Ro felt a little proud of himself. He was the one that had made Tier sleep so restfully.
He snuck out of bed to use the bathroom, but by the time he returned Tier was sitting up and rubbing his eyes. His hair was beautifully disarrayed, and his clothing crumpled.
He looked down at himself. “We should go back to my place to get some clothes for tomorrow. Unless you want to get your own clothes and stay over there.”
Ro shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to me. I just want to be where you are.”
“Alright. I’ll slip over to grab a few things, and then maybe we can eat dinner over here?”
Ro beamed. He liked that Tier was just assuming that he would cook. Maybe not every night, but for now it was just what he wanted.
“I’ll come with you,” he offered. “It’ll just be a quick walk there and back, and I think it would be nice to get outside for a quiet stroll.”
Tier tilted his head to the side. “We’ll be crossing the courtyard so it might not be that quiet.”
Ro glanced at the clock. “That’s alright. Everyone will be heading to dinner, but we can just slip through.” He tugged on a clean outfit, even though he’d need to shower later. The shifters with more sensitive noses would be able to scent what he’d been up to today, but he didn’t expect to be that close to anyone.
With a final stretch, Tier rolled out of bed and tried to straighten his clothes.
“We could shift, you know. It might be easier that way.”
Tier shrugged. “I’m not ashamed. And like you said, everyone will be at dinner.”
They walked out the door, holding hands.
As soon as they stepped out onto Ro’s porch, someone called out a greeting. Ro’s mother stood on her own porch with a large white bundle over her arm. His grandmother sat beside her. “Look what I found!” his mother called.
He couldn’t quite tell from this distance. A sheet, maybe? “What is it?”
She gave him a look like he was crazy. He could see that expression perfectly clearly. “Deerskin. We can start working on his moccasins today.”
Ro buried his head in Tier’s shoulder. This was so embarrassing.
He heard another voice behind him and recognized it as Tier’s mother, the head of the Healers. What was she doing here? “Didn’t you ask him, Tier?” she called out loudly. “Why is he hiding?”
Tier wrapped his arms around Ro, holding him close. “I’m sorry. I may have gotten a little overzealous,” he whispered.
“You already asked them?”
Tier nodded. Traditionally, matriarchs from different clans would match up their offspring for marriage, sending the young men to their brides’ longhouses with barely a meeting first. Now inter-clan relationships were common, and it was more a custom to ask the women and heart-singers in the family for their blessing.
Rohahen had spent two days sulking while Tier had been asking permission to marry him. It was a little bit amazing and a lot overwhelming.
He picked up his head without turning around. “Can’t we get any privacy around here?”
Several voices joined in laughter. Maybe six or seven people, both men and women. Who else was here?
“I brought porcupine quills,” someone said. That was Ro’s sister-in-law, though she was almost fifty years older.
“Can we go back inside?” Ro asked. He loved his family, but he hated being the center of attention. It was even worse that Tier’s family was here, too.
Tier stroked his back. “They’re excited for us, love. Though I wasn’t expecting them to ambush us at the door. We’ll just say thank you and keep going.”
True to his word, Tier thanked everyone, and Ro eventually gave in to the good-natured teasing. His mother collected all of the small gifts.
He was excited about making Tier’s moccasins with the soft leather and tiny, sparkling beads. In a world of mass-production, making a gift for his groom with his own two hands, aided by his family, would be a sacred and symbolic act. He was even more excited that their families seemed to assume that it would be his role. Unless maybe Tier had told them that, too.
When they finally detangled themselves from relatives, they proceeded to the courtyard. They weren’t even holding hands, but it seemed that everyone had a neighbor to visit or an errand to run along the way. Usually he might wave to two or three people and maybe stop and chat with a fourth. Today he must have said hello fifty times.
“Everybody knows, don’t they,” he muttered as they reached the middle of the open lawn.
“I swear I meant to be more subtle,” Tier laughed. “I had everything planned out for a private conversation. But you were ignoring me, and Declan pushed me to speed things up a bit.”
“Oh, good. That means it’s Declan’s fault.” He would tell him that, too.
“When’s the feather dance?” someone called out loudly.
He looked at Tier. Now that was just ridiculous. Weddings were scheduled by the Council of Elders, and they’d only been together for two days.
Tier swung around to face the crowd of busybodies and pulled Rohahen against his side. “Can I tell them?”
“You might as well,” Ro grumbled. He was looking forward to their wedding, but he would have liked a little time to be quietly excited on his own.
Tier raised his voice to project to t
he crowd. “I am pleased to announce that we will be holding our wedding feast on the full moon of August. And I am honored to present to you our new Guide.”
Everyone cheered.
Ro turned in Tier’s arms. “I didn’t think you were going to tell them that! How do we even have a date? And… did you really just tell everyone that I’m going to be the Guide? That’s not… I wasn’t…”
Tier looked concerned and pulled him in close. “I’m sorry. Was I not supposed to say that? I’m messing this all up. I wanted this to be special.”
Ro sighed. “It is special. It’s just… not what I was expecting.” He narrowed his eyes. “And you were awfully sure of yourself.”
Tier shook his head. “No, I was terrified. I came so close to losing you. After that, I was desperate to make things work out between us. Are you angry?”
“No, it’s fine, I guess.” People were cheering all around them while they held their whispered discussion. “But no more surprises. And no more making important plans without me. That’s not even like you.” Usually he weighed in on almost all of Tier’s decisions, or so he thought.
Tier gave him a brief kiss, which started another round of cheering. “I promise I wasn’t trying to. And no more surprises, I hope. I wasn’t expecting this either. But listen to them. Everyone loves you. They’re excited for you.”
Ro finally took a look at the crowd. Each person in the courtyard was dear to him in some way. He had listened to their concerns and helped settle their disputes. He had encouraged their ideas, celebrated their joys, and mourned their losses. He had learned from the Elders and mentored many of the youngsters. It was still overwhelming having them all watch him, but when he thought of each one of them, it was a hundred little boosts of courage.
“Smile and wave,” prompted Tier. “Or say something if you want to.”
Hopefully being married to the Chief wouldn’t be this public all the time. He waved broadly, overcoming his shyness. “Thank you. I’m honored.” He wasn’t sure how loud he was, but Tier gave an approving squeeze on his shoulder.
He met people’s eyes, looking around the courtyard. Imagining himself as their Guide made him feel protective and paternal. His tribe looked joyful and content. They trusted him. He truly was honored by their trust.
The Hummingbird's Gift (Hummingbird Tales Book 2) Page 8
