Chapter Sixteen
James
In the middle of the night, James was woken up by the feel of Cassian rutting against his backside, the man’s pre-ejaculate wetting the night shirt he’d borrowed to sleep in.
He was still trying to clear the fog from his relatively heavy slumber when Cassian let out the softest moan from behind him.
His own cock started to stiffen, and he hummed contentedly as he rolled over to face Cassian, who immediately stopped moving.
“I woke up hard,” Cassian explained. “I needed to take care of it.”
James wondered if he was perhaps feeling embarrassed over having been caught masturbating, especially since he’d been using James to do it.
“I can see that,” James said. “Or, more precisely, I can feel it.” He hooked a leg over Cassian’s torso and tethered their hips together, pressing his own hardness against Cassian’s stomach. “And now, I’m a little hard, too.”
“You were the one who said that I could have whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it,” Cassian reasoned. “And I liked the sound of that. I’m merely following through.”
James chuckled. “Yes, I did say that. And I meant it.” He pressed a light kiss to Cassian’s soft lips. “I’m not bothered by being woken up. I liked it. I’m yours, Cassian. All of me. Whenever you want.”
Cassian kissed him back.
“So, I’m entitled to this,” Cassian said. “I’m entitled to you.”
“You could say that,” James said, laughing a little more. He thought it over while they kissed a couple more times. Entitled to you. It made James’s stomach flutter, and his cock began to throb. He broke their kiss. “Actually, yes, that’s exactly right. ‘Entitled to you.’ I like that.”
“Good. Because I like it, too,” Cassian purred. “But what happens if, someday, I want to take what’s mine, but you aren’t . . . in the mood to indulge me?”
“That won’t happen.”
“It might.”
“Alright, well, if that ever happens—which it very likely won’t—I’ll be honest with you about it. How’s that?”
“Yes. Perfect.” Cassian captured his mouth in a kiss and then shoved James backward. “Now, let me finish what I started.”
Chuckling, James began to roll over but stopped. He considered whether or not he ought to propose something else to Cassian instead.
“Do you want . . . more, though?” he asked.
Cassian was quiet for a moment, and then James heard the sound of the blankets rustling.
“Are you asking me if I want to fuck you?” Cassian asked, as bluntly as ever.
Hearing Cassian say those words made James’s stomach flutter for a second time.
“Yes,” he breathed. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking.”
Suddenly, Cassian’s lips were on his, the kiss fierce and hard and filled with passion. James tried to match Cassian’s intensity, kissing him back with equal fervor.
James’s mind started to work to figure out how they could make it happen.
Unfortunately, Cassian probably didn’t have lubrication here in his stateroom.
Tomorrow, James could probably find something in the kitchen.
Cooking oil, maybe, or even butter in a pinch.
But tonight, they’d have to resort to saliva.
It wouldn’t be a problem. James was no stranger to using it.
But he’d have to be relaxed enough when Cassian penetrated him.
He broke their kiss.
“Are you comfortable with me, uhm, explaining things to you? I’d be happy to explain how we can make sure that I’m . . . ready, for instance,” James said. “Ready for you to fuck me, I mean.”
Cassian kissed him again. Afterward, he buried his face in the crook of James’s neck and began to kiss him there, too.
“You can tell me, James,” Cassian said between kisses, his voice soft and low, as though he could barely bring himself to admit to his inexperience, even only through implication alone.
Moving his hand through Cassian’s hair, James pressed a kiss to the top of his head and then sat up to flick on the reading lamp that was mounted above the bed. After hiking up his bed shirt a bit, he moved to settle back on the mattress but froze the moment he saw Cassian.
Cassian’s hair was a mess, completely mussed with pieces sticking up every which way. His beautiful brown eyes still seemed somewhat sleepy, his eyelids heavy looking. And with the first two buttons of his nightshirt unfastened, James could see some of his chest hair, too.
He looked perfect.
“Oh, God, Cassian,” James said through a contented sigh. “Are you really mine?”
“No.” Cassian smirked. “You’re mine.”
Staring lovingly into Cassian’s eyes, James felt his lips curl into a lopsided smile.
“Even better.”
Keeping his shirt lifted, James lay on his back and curled his legs, bringing his knees to his chest. Knowing that Cassian might find it a little less embarrassing to be shown, rather than told, James found Cassian’s hand and brought it to his lips. He took two of them into his mouth.
Cassian chuckled. “Does licking my fingers somehow relax you?”
James laughed a bit too. He brought Cassian’s fingers to his hole and pressed one of them to the opening. Understanding flashed in Cassian’s eyes, and his smile faltered.
“One at a time,” James whispered.
Cassian searched James’s face for a moment before pushing his finger in. James sucked in a breath through his teeth and made a little mmfph sound. Cassian stilled.
“Sorry,” James said, his face warming. “It’s, uhm, been a while. Sometimes it’s like I forget the, ah, the sensation.”
“I’m not hurting you, am I?” Cassian asked.
“Not at all. Keep going.”
“Just . . . move my finger, you mean?”
“Yes, exactly.”
Slowly, Cassian began to move his finger. In and out, in and out. While doing so, he continued to stare into James’s eyes, watching him intently. After a while, he pressed a second finger inside, and James’s mouth fell agape. Cassian’s mouth ticked up into a small smile.
“You like that, James?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Cassian captured James’s mouth in a brief kiss while he continued to pump his fingers, but he then paused. He pressed on James’s knees, wordlessly instructing James to curl his legs even more, and then he moved lower.
“I’d like to watch,” he crooned as he began moving his fingers again. In and out. In and out. “I can’t wait to fuck you.”
James’s breath caught. He couldn’t wait either. But he felt as though he still might not be relaxed enough yet. He wanted Cassian to be able to fuck him as hard as he wanted.
“Cassian, I’m about to ask something of you, and I have no idea if you’ll be amenable to it,” James said.
“You can say no. It won’t mean that you can’t penetrate me later.
But I think that this might help me relax a little more.
Enough that you won’t have to restrain yourself so much when you’re fucking me.
Only a little, maybe. Because of the lack of lubrication. Other than spit, I mean.”
Cassian paused and crooked an eyebrow.
“Are you finished rambling?”
Cheeks burning, James pursed his lips to contain a smile. “Yes.”
“Alright, then, ask me,” he said. “I brought you that brandy earlier. Obviously, I can do things for you, too, on occasion.”
James rolled his eyes. “On occasion,” he repeated.
“Be nice to me, James,” Cassian retorted, leveling a look. “I have my fingers in your ass.”
James rolled his eyes a little more, intentionally being cheeky, and then Cassian moved his fingers in and out as though to make a point. James squirmed and laughed.
“Jesus, Cassian, you really are a bastard sometimes,” he said. “Anyway, my ask is that you lick me, uhm, there.”
Cassian pursed his lips for a moment like he was considering James’s proposal. James’s face began to burn.
“Yes, fine, I’ll kiss your pretty little hole, as long as you’re sure that you’ll like it.”
“I will. I know I will.”
“And will I like it?”
“I think so. George—”
James clapped a hand over his own mouth. Fuck. Cassian wrinkled his nose.
“George liked it?” he asked.
“Yes,” James said through a wince. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, you shouldn’t have. Dammit, now it feels like I have no choice but to like it.”
Regret settled in James’s stomach, making it churn unpleasantly. He shut his eyes.
“No, Cassian, that’s not what I want. I want you to like it of your own volition. I want—”
“James,” Cassian said, retracting his fingers.
James opened his eyes to see Cassian coming up higher on the mattress. He shifted his positioning, looking somewhat uncomfortable.
“I shouldn’t have said what I said, either.
Because I know I’ll like it. I’ll like it at the very least because it seems as though you will like it.
” Cassian looked into James’s eyes with a kind of sincerity that made James’s heart flutter.
“And I want to please you. I will like pleasing you.” His lips curled into an impish smile.
“Almost as much as you like pleasing me, perhaps.”
James couldn’t help but smile back. Cassian nuzzled his nose and continued.
“Let’s not linger on this,” he said—an order, not a suggestion.
Breathing a sigh of relief, James nodded. “Thank you.”
After one more kiss, Cassian moved between James’s legs.
James took a breath and held it as he waited to feel Cassian’s touch.
One second passed, or maybe two, and then he felt the warmth of Cassian’s tongue.
Despite the fact that he had been expecting it, he startled a little, and then finally registered the pleasurable feel of the warm wetness over his hole.
Over and over, Cassian swept his tongue across James’s skin, even swirling in circles a couple of times, and the sensations sent little shivers of pleasure up James’s spine.
James’s cock began to leak pre-ejaculate and throb with need.
Desperate for friction, James began stroking himself, though he needed to keep his movements light and slow, pausing intermittently, so that he wouldn’t finish too soon.
After a while longer, the pleasure became too much.
“Cassian, I need you,” James rasped. “Please.”