“Maybe.” Wyatt fidgeted with the buttons of his shirt. “I... I liked being hit.”
“Why the hell would you like it?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Wyatt’s cheeks burned. He looked down, Grandma’s face swimming into his vision. Bad children should be punished. You like punishment, Wyatt? “I’ve been terrible.”
Raph slanted him a look. At a stoplight, he caught Wyatt’s chin, turning his face up. “You’re serious about this.”
Wyatt nodded. “That’s what he.... he meant by ‘twisted soul’. I thought you should know.”
“I don’t need to know things you aren’t comfortable with sharing,” Raph muttered. He leaned in, pressed a soft, wet kiss to Wyatt’s lips, and Wyatt groaned.
The car behind them honked.
Raph pulled away, stepping on the gas again. “Can we do this without hurting you?”
“I need to be hurt, Raph. That’s the point.”
“I don’t want to.”
Wyatt sighed. “I stayed so long with Max for a reason, Raph. I wanted to be hurt.”
Raph glared. “Why?”
“Because—” Wyatt swallowed “—because I shouldn’t have seduced you. You’re my stepbrother.”
“You’re my omega now,” Raph said. “You’re carrying my baby. I don’t care if people think it’s wrong.”
“I still care.” Wyatt leaned back into the headrest. The trees and storefronts flew by outside the car. Next to him, Raph’s eyes were dubious. But he didn’t judge Wyatt for his inclinations, and that was a relief. “Pain... pain absolves me of the wrongness. Can we try it? Just once?”
Raph flicked on the turn signal, before pulling them into Wyatt’s apartment complex. He didn’t look convinced. Wyatt squirmed in his seat, his cheeks prickling.
“I trust you to stop when I ask you to,” he added in a small voice. “Max didn’t.”
Raph slammed on the brakes. The car jolted, and they jerked back into their seats. Raph glared, baring his teeth. “Fuck that bastard.”
“I know.” Wyatt brought Raph’s hand up to his lips, kissing his knuckles. “I trust you to hurt me. You’re the only one who can.”
Raph sucked in a shaky breath, and the car began to move again. He turned them into a parking lot, cut the engine. Then he breathed out, long and slow, his gaze locked with Wyatt’s.
“Fine. We’ll try it, just this once.”
Wyatt’s twisted heart gave a quick, excited beat.
21
Raph
Raph had no idea what the hell he’d just agreed to. Hurting people wasn’t his thing. Hurting Wyatt? That was insane. But Wyatt had asked, trusting Raph, and hell, Raph couldn’t say no to those eyes.
So here Wyatt was, stripped down in front of him, his skin pale in the golden lamplight of the bedroom. Raph stroked the planes of his chest, the very-visible bump of his belly.
“You’re sure about this,” Raph said, staring down at the spread of Wyatt’s legs, his creamy thighs, his balls relaxed against his taint.
“Which part of this says I’m not sure?” Wyatt lifted his hips, half-hard. Raph leaned in, pressed his nose to Wyatt’s soft balls, breathing in his musk, mingled with magnolia and honey.
He was going to hurt Wyatt. What kind of alpha did that willingly?
“How do I know when to stop?” Raph asked. He pressed a kiss to the silky skin of Wyatt’s cock, then down the crease of his thigh, supporting his ass with one hand.
Wyatt squirmed. “If—if I start to push you away. Or if I say ‘Enough.’ Then it means I don’t want more.”
“Okay.” But it still didn’t sound right. Raph looked down at his own clothes, unbuttoning his shirt. It felt like he had too many clothes on, next to Wyatt. But Wyatt had asked for this, too. “How... how do I start?”
“Come closer.” Wyatt reached out for him.
Raph shuffled, so his thighs pressed against the curve of Wyatt’s ass. He glanced at the door again—it was locked. No interruptions tonight.
So he leaned over Wyatt, kissed him slowly on the lips. Wyatt parted for him with a sigh, his damp tongue tracing along Raph’s lower lip. “Tell me I’m a slut,” Wyatt whispered. “Say it like you mean it.”
Raph froze. And Wyatt looked back at him, his gaze solemn, almost hesitant. “This—” Raph swallowed, his stomach turning. “This is what you did with that bastard? He shamed you?”
A ruddy flush washed over Wyatt’s face. He looked away, his neck red, his chest red. “You don’t... don’t have to say the exact same things,” Wyatt mumbled. “And you don’t have to hit me very hard.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Make me believe you hate me.”
Raph’s stomach dropped. How could he do this to his omega? To someone he loved?
Wyatt chanced a look back at him, biting his lip. “We’ll try it for ten minutes. Please, Raph?”
The thoughts swirled in his mind, conflicting. Wyatt wanted to be hurt. Raph had agreed to it. But by making him believe it was real... “You’ll know that I still love you, right? Regardless of what I say?”
Wyatt nodded, his throat working. “I think so.”
He didn’t seem fully confident. Which meant Raph needed to make him feel safe after this, make him feel loved. Raph could do that. “All right,” he said. “Ten minutes.”
Wyatt’s eyelids fluttered shut. He relaxed into the bed, his lips catching between his teeth. “You could tell me how little I’m worth. Or you could slap me.”
Raph swallowed. Wyatt wasn’t worth nothing. But Raph had agreed to play along. Slowly, he said, “You’re a slut.”
Wyatt’s cheeks darkened. He sucked in a sharp breath, his lips pressing together. “You really think that?”
Raph hesitated. They were playing; this wasn’t real. “Yeah.”
“Oh.” Wyatt grimaced, and his cock twitched.
That gets you off? Raph stared; he wasn’t sure what he could say next.
“More, Raph. Don’t just stop there.”
“I can’t think of ways to shame you, damn it. I love you.”
Wyatt cracked his eyes open, his lips curving into a tiny smile. “Make me believe you hate me. That’s all I want.”
“That’s it?”
Wyatt squirmed. “Ten points if you make me cry. Twenty if I sob. And... and then make me come.”
“I don’t get how any of this is
