“Not even gonna hurt you. Unless you like that sort of thing.”
“What?”
“See? Easy to wind up. So. Damn. Easy. A couple more minutes of me taking the piss and you’d probably explode.”
“Maybe you’d better stop then?”
“I know just the thing that’ll relieve some of that tension.”
“I am not fucking tense.”
“Oh. Really.” Steven drew back a touch, eyebrows raised in a perfectly-executed, silent, that’ll be fucking right.
“If I am it’s your fault.”
“Maybe I should do something to relieve it then.”
“Uh-oh. I don’t like the sound of this…”
“You’re the only gay guy I know who’d turn down the chance of a blowjob.”
“Will you stop the— What?”
“Ah, see? I knew that’d get your attention.”
“You’re seriously telling me you would…?”
“No.” Steven shook his head and the movement of his black curls drew my attention.
Oh, just the thought of grabbing two handfuls of them and forcing him to—
“I’m telling you I will. “ He leaned in and my first reaction was to back off; God knew why, but it was my reflex. He was right. When anyone got close… But he was too quick, and the settee back held me in place for him anyway. “Jesus. I have no idea why I let you do this to me,” he murmured before curving his hand around my neck, making me hiss back a cool breath. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Fine.” And I was a shitty liar.
“Wondered if it was your neck. Again.”
“No. Neck’s not the part of me that’s all stiff,” I slurred, waiting for him to kiss me.
He’d been winding me up ever since entering the living room and now he had me right where he wanted me—slumped on the settee, frozen with tension and not. Going.
Anywhere.
He gave a quiet laugh and his hand on my neck flinched, tightened. “Are you sure this is all right?”
“Yeah. ‘S fine.”
“Really? ‘Cause if you’re—”
“Steven, just stop fucking winding me up and do it if you’re gonna.”
“You really know how to make a guy feel special.”
“Fuck you.”
“I never bottom. Now don’t tell me. You never top. And what a fine pair we make.”
Steven leaned even closer and my breath caught. “Jesus, you’re…” He sighed and ran his thumb back and forth over my neck, bringing his free hand up to the other side of me. It had been a long time since I’d been cradled like that. “Loosen up, will you? It’s kinda off-putting when you’re getting no response.”
“Oh, I could. But if I do, I’ll…” I bit my lip and tried to avoid his gaze but it was difficult with him inches away from me, so close I felt his breath on my face.
“Yeah.” He nodded, almost imperceptibly, and spoke in a whisper so restrained it was nothing more than a breath against my skin. “I know what you are.”
My surprise at what he’d said distracted me for only a second, but it was long enough for him to kiss me, both hands on either side of my face like he was trying to stop me backing off and running away. Not that I wanted to. Any need to escape disappeared when I tasted his tongue on mine and I melted.
He didn’t exactly break the kiss—his lips still touched mine, but only while he spoke.
Whispered. “It’s bloody obvious.”
“Gay?”
“No, you fool. You’re an all or nothing person.”
I opened my mouth to protest but I couldn’t. There was no point. It was the truth, and he kissed me again before I was able to form any words anyway.
“There’s no middle ground with you,” Steven said, and lifted one hand away from my skin. My neck felt cold then, or empty, if that made any sense.
“You’re a regular little psycholo— fuck.” He hadn’t even touched me, just gone for my belt. “Steven.”
“See, you’re doing it again. That was your panic voice. Your ‘I’m trying to come up with an excuse to wriggle out of this’ voice.”
“You don’t take no for an answer, do you?”
He stopped, drew back and frowned, but his lips still twisted into an almost-smile. I may have infuriated him, but I amused him too. “I would if you meant it.”
“Now you can read my mind.”
“I don’t have to. Anyone can read you like a book. Besides, I know you fancy me. You’re the one with a boner, Blackman.”
Ah. He had me there. I was a shitty actor and an even worse liar, but my cock told the truth.
“If I turned you off, I wouldn’t be doing this now, but…” He shrugged, went back to fiddling with my belt. I didn’t help him. He did all right on his own.
“I don’t know why you’re doing this.”
“Simple.” He shot me a glance before turning his attention to my buckle which eventually—thank God—gave. “I want to. And you want me to.”
“No, I…” But I stopped. The look in his eyes asked me, Do you really want me to stop?
and anything further would have put doubt in his mind as well as my own. “Gary. He could come back—” Ah, Kit, what did you have to go and say that for?
“You just told me they weren’t due back ‘til half ten.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“Fuck no.”
Steven grinned and leaned into me, his weight pushing me against the settee back, making me slump down even farther. “Thought not.”
“God, you’re—” I couldn’t continue. The feel of his palm, his skin on my cock, and I was undone. “You’re, oh Jesus, I can’t…” I had no idea what it was I couldn’t, but Steven ignored me anyway. His knees hit the floor and I realised, no, he hadn’t got me close with a hand-job first—he’d barely kissed me, gone straight for the good stuff, but why the hell did that matter? It was what I wanted, wasn’t it?
I couldn’t see his lips around my cock but I felt them even as that curtain of black hair fell in front of his face.
I had to heave in a breath, gripping the seat cushions on either side of me, just
