His skin on fire, unable to remain still, Devlin moaned a hoarse “No.” He thrust his hips and dug his bitten-down nails into Gradyn’s buttocks. “Please...” He lunged up and tried to pull Gradyn flush against him. “Need you. Oh, shit, shit...” Devlin’s prick leaked a stream of early ejaculate and he couldn’t stop grinding himself against the solid barrier of Gradyn’s stomach. “My cock hurts, and I think my balls might explode.” His chest squeezed so tightly he thought he might have a heart attack. “I feel like I could rip you to shreds with my bare hands if I keep touching you.”
“Okay then.” Gradyn pushed himself into a sitting position. He straddled Devlin’s stomach, and Devlin could feel the tension coursing through his limbs. “So maybe you’re not feeling so good after all.”
Stricken, Devlin surged upright. “I’m sor--”
Gradyn slapped his hand over Devlin’s mouth and pressed him back down into the mattress. “Don’t apologize. You’re not doing anything wrong. A few hours ago, I felt pretty close to what you’re feeling right now. The difference is that I can’t go at you hard and fast the way you could with me.” Gradyn’s lips thinned to a tense line. “That’s not gonna work for your first time.”
Coarse, rough skin abraded Devlin’s lips where Gradyn held his mouth closed. Devlin dipped out his tongue, licked at that palm keeping him quiet, and looked up with what he hoped was a plea in his eyes.
With a jolt and a “Damn, I’m sorry,” Gradyn whipped his hand away.
Devlin rubbed the tips of his fingers over his mouth and could still feel the tingles and swelling from their kisses. “When I said I was good, I just meant that I’m not scared about what’s going to happen, not that I know the right things to do.”
Gradyn leaned down and pressed a kiss high on Devlin’s cheek. “I’m not knocking your inexperience, honey.” He grazed his knuckles up Devlin’s jaw, over his cheek, and into his hair. “I promise.”
This fierce looking, almost-stranger petted Devlin with such tenderness Devlin feared he might cry. “It’s hard to control myself with you,” Devlin said. As had happened all evening, Devlin looked into Gradyn’s eyes, luxuriated in the feel of their bodies touching one another, and this bizarre sense of belonging had him spilling things he’d never dared admit to other potential lovers. “I just want you so much, and every time you touch me, I swear I can feel it all the way down in my goddamned toes, and I can’t help pushing against you or grabbing for more. Something inside me says that if I don’t I’ll explode.”
Gradyn sat quiet for a moment, drumming his fingers against Devlin’s chest in an easy way that put Devlin in mind of longtime partners rather than weekend lovers. Then Gradyn’s hands suddenly curled into fists and he straightened fully upright.
“Don’t freak out on me,” Gradyn prefaced, “but what if I restrained you? Just your arms,” he added quickly, before the first wave of shock rolled through Devlin. “And only for this first part.”
Gradyn reached back and ran just the tip of his finger along Devlin’s cock. Devlin reacted as if someone had put a fully juiced defibrillator to his flesh.
“See that?” Gradyn said. “I love how you respond to me, but I need to bring you down a few notches so that you can relax and enjoy it when I touch you. Right now, you’re strung so tight with anticipation that I know the feel of my hands is going to hurt you just as much as it makes you feel good.”
Only the memory of Gradyn’s raw display of need earlier this evening kept Devlin from pulling a pillow over his face to hide. “Yeah. It’s kind of like that.”
A small, endearing smile turned the edges of Gradyn’s mouth. “Don’t get red and shy on me, beautiful.” He pressed kisses to each of Devlin’s heated cheeks, which apparently the bad lighting in the room had not concealed. “Everything is okay.”
Devlin blinked and looked away, befuddled that it had taken a full minute for it to cross his mind that at the first mention of restraints any sane person would have shoved this big man off him and gotten the hell out of this room as fast as his legs could carry him. This guy wants to tie you up! Twenty-three years of gathering knowledge and life skills screamed that very thing in Devlin’s head. He then pictured his wrists strapped to a bed in a strange motel room, his body at the mercy of this man--a virtual stranger--and no alarm bells sounded in his head.
I don’t understand it.
Devlin shifted and looked into green eyes that shouldn’t be able to speak to him so completely without words so quickly, yet somehow did.
“If I didn’t like it and told you to let me go, you would?” Devlin asked.
“In a heartbeat.” Gradyn’s stare and tone did not waver as he made that vow. “I’d sooner cut off my arm than frighten you. Even for a second. It will only work if you believe you can trust me. If you’re tense and scared that I’m going to take advantage of you the whole time, or not let you go afterward, then binding your wrists will only make everything worse.”
One little bead of cold tickled down Devlin’s spine. “Have you ever bound someone before?”
“No.” Gradyn frowned. “But I swear I know enough not to cause you pain or discomfort.”
The shot of ice melted, and Devlin let out his held breath. “I wasn’t worried about you hurting me. I don’t know what made me ask that.” As soon those words left his mouth, Devlin wanted to snatch them back. “No, that’s not true; I know why.” He swallowed through a thickness clogging his throat and forced himself not
