“I do like him.” Her eyes suddenly widened and took over her face. “But not like, you know, like him, like him. You don’t have to worry about that.”
He squeezed her foot. “I know that.” He looked past the tear-free eyes to the young woman with a wicked-rough crush on another man. “Now.”
The unspoken “Wyn” factor stiffened her spine. “I’m not ready to talk about that.”
“Fair enough.” Using his hand to brace himself against the arm of the chair, Devlin pushed to his feet. “I’m here if you change your mind, and I promise I won’t go asking Wyn any questions behind your back.” He paused at the door, his hand on the knob. “I’m going to ask you to do the same about Garrick.”
She pursed her lips for the longest time, deservedly making him sweat, but finally said, “You have a deal. ’Night.”
“Goodnight.”
Devlin gently pulled her door closed and went back to his own room. He pushed his door shut with his foot and stripped out of his clothes before crawling back into bed. With an apology to Maddie taken care of, the second Devlin’s naked skin hit the cool sheets, his thoughts drifted right back to Gradyn--Garrick--and what had transpired in the hall. The man had hardly said a word, but his kiss and the way he had touched Devlin felt like a rebranding of the mark of ownership Gradyn had put on his body back in San Francisco.
The sensations of that weekend still deeply imbedded in all of his senses, Devlin closed his eyes against the onslaught of feelings that attacked his body and mind. The memory of the first time Gradyn had taken him was so vivid it had Devlin lifting his arms toward the corners of his bed as he relived the feel of silk binding his wrists immobile, and the hard lips of that near stranger kissing his way toward Devlin’s cock...
*
...Gradyn kissed his way down Devlin’s stomach, pausing to swirl his tongue in the smear of their combined ejaculate, and Devlin’s abdomen quivered in response. He’d never been with a man in quite this way before, and Gradyn’s reveling in everything they did together went right to Devlin’s head.
Both of them.
Devlin’s erection throbbed wildly with renewed life, and it pushed against Gradyn’s neck, leaving new seed in its wake. Every lick Gradyn flicked or laved over Devlin’s lower stomach had Devlin pulling in deep breaths and rocking his hips in anticipation of what would happen next.
Blood flooded his dick as Gradyn inched closer, and Devlin wrapped his hands around the lengths of silk above his bound wrists, searching for a place to cling to that would hold him in this moment. His body buzzed from top to bottom, and when Gradyn poked his tongue into Devlin’s belly button, Devlin yanked against the restraints, his hands aching to shove Gradyn down to his prick. The bindings held firmly in place; a guttural noise scratched Devlin’s throat, full of unparalleled need, and his biceps popped with tension as he pulled and crushed his fingers around the ties.
Gradyn hummed as he finally moved lower and almost wrapped his lips around Devlin’s erection. He rubbed his face and smooth, bald head all over Devlin’s rearing cock, almost like an animal, and delivered hints of contact that had Devlin bucking his hips, searching for an opening to shove his cock inside.
Oh God. Devlin whimpered with the slight touches of cheek, forehead, and nose against the tip of his rigid penis. He spread his legs, silently begging for more. I feel like I’m going to die without it.
The teasing went on. Devlin tried to grab Gradyn again, only to have his wrists snap back against the bedposts. He swallowed a cry, whether from the quick sting of pain or the agony of being denied something for so long, he didn’t know, he just felt poised at the edge of a dark cliff, barely hanging on.
“Denny...” Devlin’s chest heaved with his struggle.
Gradyn lifted his gaze to Devlin’s, and the color in his eyes shadowed past the deepest reaches of a forest. “Christ, the way you say my name.” He slipped his hand between Devlin’s thighs and gently tugged his nuts. “You make me feel like I can’t do anything wrong with you.” His jaw clenched and his voice became scratchy. “You make me care that I get it right.”
“Please...” Devlin heard the frantic rise in his tone but couldn’t make himself stop. “I won’t know if you get it wrong. Just do it now.”
“Breathe through that first punch of need, Devlin.” Gradyn kept his fingers wrapped around Devlin’s sac, and he didn’t break their stare. “Pull it back so you can enjoy this.”
Unable to look away, Devlin fed off the certainty in Gradyn’s eyes. He let his arms go limp, resting in the restraints. His legs opened as they fell to the bed, and he finally inhaled and exhaled half a dozen times, slow and easy, until the maniacal jittering stringing his nerves tightly to the surface of his skin receded and he felt almost human again.
“There you go.” With a soft smile that transformed every brutal line of his face to something breathtaking, Gradyn let go of Devlin’s nuts and stretched himself out between his legs. “Damn, beautiful.” He circled his arms around Devlin’s thighs, dipped his head down, and poised his mouth so close to Devlin’s dick his breath whispered across the slick head like a caress. “You have an amazing cock.”
As those words from Gradyn brushed over Devlin, the man’s sweet smile lifted to something downright wicked, and he batted his tongue across the tip of
