A Hidden Beauty

by Jamie Craig

  Micah sighed his acceptance, spreading his legs farther to allow Jefferson more room. “How am I supposed to deny you when you touch me like this? I’m yours.” He drew a circle around Jefferson’s nipple with his tongue. “Please tell me that I get to taste you again, though. I cannot get enough of you.”

  Jefferson did not need any more encouragement. He couldn’t get enough of Micah, either. “You can get another taste of me now.” He pushed his finger between Micah’s cheeks. “You can make me slick for you.”

  Micah lifted his head. His eyes were still heavy with sleep, making it possible to see each long lash as he blinked. He looked younger like this, too, even more innocent than he normally did, and Jefferson reached up with his free hand to toy with a disheveled curl.

  “If this is indication of the life we will share,” Micah said softly, “I must marvel at what I have done to deserve such bounty.”

  “Don’t you know what you’ve done to deserve it?” Jefferson waited for a response, but Micah regarded him with perplexed eyes. “You had the courage to make it happen. I think you’re the bravest man I ever met.”

  Slowly, Micah braced against him, pushing himself upright. With a small smile, he slid to the side, readying to take Jefferson into his mouth. As he negotiated the bed, however, he paused, and Jefferson caught the sly glint in his eye the moment before he swung his leg over Jefferson’s chest.

  “I think this will be best,” Micah said, grasping the base of Jefferson’s prick. He lifted his own hips, which made the wet tip of his erection drag over Jefferson’s chest. “Until we get a larger bed, at least.”

  Jefferson’s stomach clenched and his mouth watered. He would have never expected this sort of boldness from Micah, but the younger man was a very fast learner. And very clever. Jefferson was more than willing to show him everything he knew, and then experiment in any way Micah wanted to in order to gain more knowledge.

  Before guiding Micah’s erection to his mouth, Jefferson sucked on two of his fingers, wetting them. The fingers in his mouth muffled his cry as Micah’s lips closed around the tip of his prick. Micah was a very fast learner. He would never be accustomed to the heat of Micah’s mouth. He would never take the soft caress of his tongue for granted.

  Micah settled for sucking on the crown at first, the edge of his teeth just nipping into the hard shaft while he teased the slit, seeking out every droplet of desire he could swallow. Though he kept his hand at the root, he opened it to stretch his fingers, allowing them to graze across the sac already pulling tight into Jefferson’s body.

  Jefferson shuddered. If Micah kept on at this rate, there would be little left to teach before they reached mutual experimentation. He would gladly become a student again to experience such rapture.

  Jefferson slid a finger into Micah’s tight passage, and hot air rushed over Jefferson’s wet skin as Micah exhaled in a long sigh. Jefferson rotated his wrist, stretching Micah’s muscle slowly as he sought out Micah’s prick with his lips. Micah jerked like he had been stung, his body tightening and quivering. Jefferson wished he could keep Micah in bed for days, weeks even, investigating each and every eager response.

  Micah lifted his mouth, though his quick breath fluttered over Jefferson’s length. “I’m suddenly not convinced this was the wisest decision. I cannot concentrate when you do that.”

  Jefferson added his second finger, his balls tightening at the thought of Micah sinking down his shaft, enveloping him, clenching around him, squeezing him until he thought he would break from the pleasure. He pulled his lips from Micah’s erection and murmured, “Don’t concentrate then. Just enjoy it.”

  Micah glanced back, a small line between his fine brows. “I thought you wished to be inside me. Did I misunderstand?”

  Jefferson shook his head. “You didn’t misunderstand.” He wrapped his tongue around Micah’s crown, sampling as much of the heated flesh as he could. He pumped his wrist in and out of Micah’s body, his prick jerking with each stroke. “But I want you to be ready for me.”

  “And you?” Micah resumed his position, angling Jefferson’s length in such a way that his fingers put even more pressure on Jefferson’s testicles, a delicious burning that made Jefferson moan. “You need to be ready too.”

  Jefferson blindly reached for the bedside table. He liked to keep the salve nearby, though they hadn’t attempted penetration since the first time. His fingers closed around the tin after much fumbling, and he tapped Micah’s ribs with it.

  “Get me ready.”

  Their hands grazed across each other as Micah took the salve, and the mattress shifted as he balanced more of his weight on his knees. Closing his eyes, Jefferson focused on the velvety skin against his tongue, swallowing every time more fluid leaked from the tip. It was simple until he felt the first touch of the ointment.

  Micah hadn’t chosen to smooth it on. He’d oiled up his entire hand and stroked Jefferson’s prick in long, hard pulls.

  He couldn’t bite back the shout, and the sound vibrated through Micah’s prick. He jerked his hips, following Micah’s hand with each stroke. How did Micah always know exactly how to touch him? How did Micah always know exactly what would make his head spin and his flesh ache and his blood burn? Accident or instinct, it ultimately did not make a difference.

  “Micah…”

  Micah ignored him, perhaps too caught up in the pleasure of driving Jefferson out of his mind.

  “Please…Micah…”

  “Is that a request for more? Or perhaps there is something else you would like me to do for you?” Micah didn’t wait for an answer before releasing Jefferson’s erection to cup and squeeze his sac, hard enough to border on painful.

  “God.” Jefferson bit out the word, writhing beneath Micah’s grip. He eased his fingers out of Micah and gripped his hip. “Turn around. Straddle me.”

  “Really?” The look on Micah’s face as he swiveled to look back at Jefferson was purely devilish. “You seem to enjoy this.”

  Jefferson didn’t know if he should be shocked or pleased by Micah’s small show of defiance. As soon as Micah flexed his fingers again, pleasure won out. He dropped his head back and squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Yes. Really.” His short hesitation and the strain in his voice almost undermined his words. “I can think of something else I’d enjoy more.”

  “Well. If you insist.”

  But the incorrigible young man used his slicked hand to grasp Jefferson’s erection, using it as an anchor as he stretched to set the tin of salve on the floor. Only then did he turn around, not releasing Jefferson until the last possible moment. His prick rested heavily on Jefferson’s stomach, but the weight lessened when Micah sat up.

  “If memory serves, you prepared me as well,” he said. With a smirk on his full mouth, he reached around, his lashes fluttering as his fingers sank into his waiting hole.

  Jefferson caught his breath, the air heavy in his lungs, momentarily forgetting his desire to feel Micah’s tight muscles stretched around his prick. He was too distracted by the captivating look of pleasure on Micah’s face.

  “You surprise me,” Jefferson said softly.

  Micah paused. “Why?” he breathed. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No. No. Quite the opposite, in fact. You just find new ways to show me how lucky I am.”

  Shaking his head, Micah fell forward until their mouths were only an inch apart. “You are the one who has opened my world. You’ve shown me what is possible and told me I can have it. Insisted I take it. I’m the one who is fortunate.”

  Jefferson gently wrapped his fingers around Micah’s wrist and eased his fingers away from his passage. With his other hand, he gripped his prick and pushed the blunt tip against Micah’s slick hole.

  “Show me,” Jefferson said, as Micah’s breath fanned across his face. “Take what you want now.”

  He felt the muscles quivering against his prick. He felt each exhalation as Micah struggled to compose himself. But most of all
, he felt the thudding of Micah’s heart against his own, a pulse of desire and love he couldn’t hide.

  Slowly, Micah bore his weight down, gasping when the head first breached the ring of muscle. Jefferson saw the exact moment the pain registered, but before he could do anything to soothe it away, Micah pressed their mouths together, lips trembling as he tightened his knees around Jefferson’s hips. It took several seconds for Micah to move again, each one lost in the passion of their kiss. But then it came, and Jefferson thought he’d fly apart from the heat.

  Jefferson rested his hands on Micah’s hips, but he didn’t try to control the rhythm. Each inch Micah moved was excruciating and perfect, and Jefferson didn’t need it to be any faster, or any slower. Micah’s tongue sank into his mouth, seeking out each curve and corner. When they broke apart for breath, Micah rested his brow on Jefferson’s, and they were connected at every point. It felt like there wasn’t an inch of his body that wasn’t touching Micah somehow, wasn’t surrounded by him.

  “This is why I don’t need to dream,” Micah murmured. He sighed as their hips made contact, clenching around Jefferson’s fully sheathed prick. His sac ground into the coarse hair, and he squeezed around the length again, this time making Jefferson groan. “Nothing could ever compare to this, beloved. Except perhaps hearing your declaration from your talented tongue.”

  Jefferson had only one declaration to make. But before he could form the words, Micah claimed his mouth again. The kiss was languid and thorough, and Jefferson felt it all the way down to his toes. Micah slid up Jefferson’s shaft, until only Jefferson’s tip remained in Micah’s hot flesh. He waited for what seemed like an eternity before reversing direction, taking Jefferson up to his sac once again.

  Jefferson moved his hand up to Micah’s face, brushing the curls away from his cheek and ear, then gripping the back of his neck. The kiss broke, and Jefferson opened his mouth against Micah’s lips in a silent moan.

  “Is this what you imagined?” The tip of his tongue outlined Jefferson’s mouth, a soft tease before licking along his jaw to his ear. Micah caught the lobe between his teeth, tugging at the same time his buttocks tensed to hold him deep inside. “Did my comment last night provoke such a fantasy?”

  “No, it’s not what I imagined.” Jefferson tilted his head back, giving Micah more access to his sensitive neck. “My imagination is not equal to the task. It can’t even conceive of the reality.”

  Obediently, Micah nibbled down the side, intermittently lingering to smooth over his bites with his mouth. He eased his hold on Jefferson’s arousal enough to slide back up, but this time, he did not hesitate to take him back in, even quickening his tempo as he did so.

  “Have I told you yet today how much I adore you?”

  “Not today,” Jefferson sighed. “But you are doing an excellent job of demonstrating it.” Micah began moving faster, and the headboard hit the wall in a steady, sharp rhythm. Jefferson hoped Micah would feel comfortable enough to continue to increase the tempo, because he was desperate for the friction. Hunger and pleasure and bliss coiled through him in long tendrils, winding and crisscrossing. “Have I told you today how grateful I am that you’re here?”

  Micah lifted his head, a pleased smile curving his mouth. Instead of answering, he dropped kisses over Jefferson’s brow, dancing down his nose to hover over his lips. He stayed there, his breath growing more rapid with each rise and fall on Jefferson’s prick, and shifted one of the hands holding him up to glide down Jefferson’s arm.

  “Show me instead.” Micah folded his fingers over the back of Jefferson’s. “Touch me.”

  Jefferson slipped his hand between their bodies, his knuckles dragging against Micah’s perspiring chest. Despite the icy wind just on the other side of their wall, Micah’s body was flushed and damp, his skin scorching. The muscles in his stomach trembled and flinched as Jefferson caressed him. By the time Jefferson reached Micah’s prick, they both sighed. Micah’s skin was stretched tight and smooth, and the slit was already leaking with fluid. It was more than a pleasure to close his fingers around the shaft, and Micah squeezed his fingers, silently prompting him to increase the pressure of his grip.

  Together, they began stroking Micah, and with each pull, he slid faster up and down Jefferson’s length. The bed betrayed them, yielding beneath Micah’s speed, but the sound of their skin slapping against each other, the sting of his sac against hot flesh, allowed Jefferson to forgive it. Micah more than compensated, finally swallowing the distance between their mouths to clash almost viciously with Jefferson’s. Whimpers rose in his throat, and Jefferson took each and every one, intoxicated from the heat rising between them.

  Love you. Love you. Always. The words pounded through him in time with Micah’s thrusts. He may have given them voice, but they were lost in the sounds of groans and gasps, tangled around their tongues, caught in their teeth.

  The pleasure completely overwhelmed Jefferson without warning, and he reached his climax before he could even brace himself. The bliss gathered at the base of his spine, tingling and sparking until it erupted through him. He moaned Micah’s name, his moans growing louder as Micah clenched around his jerking shaft, holding him deep inside his body.

  Abruptly, Micah pushed himself up, sitting more firmly on Jefferson’s hips with his length still buried. His desire-darkened eyes fixed on Jefferson as he tightened his hand, forcing Jefferson’s to tighten as well, and their almost violent strokes up and down his prick had him gasping in moments, his back channel clamping down as he cried out his release. Ropes of creamy fluid shot across Jefferson’s chest, clinging to his fingers. The scent made his mouth water, in spite of already reaching orgasm, and he indulged in the urge to capture some on his fingertips and bring it up to his mouth.

  Micah watched him without speaking as Jefferson licked his fingers clean, but as soon as he moved his hand from his mouth, Micah was dropping forward again, smearing his come across his skin and finding Jefferson’s mouth. Their tongues dueled for several heart-stopping seconds, as though Micah was trying to catch each drop of fluid Jefferson had taken from him.

  “I think I’m going to wake you up like this every morning,” Jefferson murmured.

  Micah smiled against his mouth. “All the more reason for me to sleep atop you.”

  “Soon, I shall not be able to sleep unless you are resting on top of me.”

  “What shall you do when we have a bigger bed?”

  “Maybe I’ll just selfishly insist we keep this humble mattress.”

  Micah began licking a path back down, his tongue tangling with the hair on Jefferson’s chest. “Be as selfish as you desire,” he breathed. “I find myself dizzy with the possibilities of what it means to learn such pleasures from you.”

  Jefferson closed his eyes and imagined the path Micah’s tongue could take. The thought of Micah moving all the way down his body again made his prick twitch.

  “And what should we do when I’ve run out of pleasures to teach you?”

  “I can’t believe you will.” He circled a nipple, catching the tip between his teeth. “And if you do, I’m sure we’ll have to return to older methodologies and refresh my skills.”

  Jefferson gasped as Micah increased the pressure of his teeth. “Or I could just lie back and let you continue to experiment.”

  His chuckle reverberated through both of them. “And here I thought I was a student of poetry, not of science.”

  “They’re closely related. Poetry illustrates and illuminates the scientific world, after all.” Jefferson ran his hand through Micah’s hair. “I am curious about just how dedicated of a student you are.”

  Sliding back up, Micah kissed Jefferson slowly, the taste of his spendings lingering on his lips. “I am yours to mold, to guide, to teach whatever you wish. Simply say the word.”

  Micah’s sincerity radiated from him, shining in his eyes, coloring his words. Jefferson knew he would never have a single reason to doubt Micah’s word. He briefly remembered
the chores he still had to see to and the breakfast he should cook. He dismissed the chores, tightened his hold on Micah, then rolled him to the mattress. He covered Micah’s body with his own and forgot about everything except his warm skin and even warmer eyes.

  Chapter 19

  Micah blamed Jefferson and his early wake-up for his indolent behavior that morning. They laid abed long past dawn, and when Jefferson finally rose to tend to the daily chores, Micah rolled over and went back to sleep. He woke aching and smiling, reaching automatically for his lover only to touch disappointment when he wasn’t there.

  He almost went back to sleep. The faint smell of coffee made his mouth water and drew his feet to the cold floor.

  “Good morning,” he said as he wandered into the kitchen. Jefferson was fully dressed, the tub from their bathing the night before gone. In fact, the kitchen looked spotless, and for a moment, Micah felt guilty. “You should have woken me. I would have helped clear the mess we left.”

  Jefferson shrugged and reached for Micah’s usual mug. “How could I wake you when you looked so peaceful? I don’t mind cleaning.”

  There were sausages still warm on the stove, and Micah picked one up and bit into it as Jefferson poured the coffee. “I’ll have to unpack properly today. Unless you’ve done that, as well.”

  “No, I haven’t yet done that. Though, I probably would have if you had slept much longer.” Jefferson sipped his coffee and looked at Micah over the rim. “We should go visit Reverend Deem this morning.”

  “Are we both going? I don’t mind going myself.”

  “You can speak about Joseph with him yourself. But I am concerned for him and would like to see him.”

  Micah shrugged, though he felt anything but nonchalant about the matter. “As you wish. Let me—”

  A quick knocking came from the front door, cutting him off. Though he frowned, Jefferson moved immediately, setting down his cup in order to go answer it. Micah watched him leave, then went to the cupboard for a plate. His stomach was grumbling. After their activities that morning, he was eager for sustenance.