Chapter 4 #2
“No,” Smoak admitted. “I don’t want to but I feel your will and that it’s in harmony with mankind. Unfortunately. There is no hunger for power or a demand for obedience and you only seek one man’s devotion. It’s incredibly boring.”
“What can I say?” Nox held up his hands.
“It’s hard to care about other men when I have Nelson.
Have you seen him?” He moaned appreciatively as he bit a knuckle, picturing Nelson in the shower.
“Speaking of…” Nox leaned and craned his neck to check the study but no one was there.
Clancy and Merlin had left and Nelson must have gone up to bed.
“Like I said, incredibly boring,” Smoak replied, his tone dry as he dismissed Nox, waving at the terrace doors. “Don’t let me get in the way of your evening.”
Nox offered him a cheeky wink. “I won’t!” he said as he dashed up the steps.
He set the conversation with Smoak aside until he could brief everyone in the morning.
There wasn’t much they could do about Dùbhghlas until they knew where he was hiding so Nox was putting his time to better use.
All of the locks were checked and the security system was activated within seconds before Nox flew to the top of the stairs, restless and urgently in need of Nelson.
He took a moment to calm down, then opened the double doors at the end of the hall and casually strolled into their bedchamber.
“How did it go with Smoak?” Nelson asked from the bed. He had already showered and was reading something faded and tattered from the study.
Nox wrinkled his nose, shaking his head as he headed for the bathroom.
“Not great but it’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow.
” He kicked off his Converse in the closet and dropped his clothes in the hamper.
“The good news is: Smoak’s definitely on our side now.
No more threatening to tell Niall if he won’t help us.
” Hopefully, that would cheer Nelson up and distract him.
“He called you boring but he didn’t mean it. ”
That made Nox giggle as he quickly bathed himself in moonwater and a soul-soothing herbal body wash, but Nelson didn’t appear to be amused. “Why did Smoak have a sudden change of heart?” he asked when Nox slid under the covers and reached for him.
“He’d have to have a heart, first, in order for it to change,” Nox murmured as he kissed Nelson’s shoulder.
“Stop deflecting, please.” Nelson turned a page in his book, silently threatening to ignore Nox if he didn’t behave like an adult.
Nox scraped his teeth over his lower lip, slowly walking his fingers along Nelson’s arm, towards the book.
“It’s very hard to focus when we’re both naked and you’re reading.
You know this counts as foreplay,” he complained playfully.
Everything Nelson did was sexy but nothing drove Nox wilder than naked Nelson with his nose in a book.
The book snapped shut and Nelson held it up and to the side, threatening to drop it.
“I could put on pajama pants.”
“Come on!” Nox yanked on Nelson’s arm but it wouldn’t budge.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Nelson began and Nox perked up.
“Go on…”
“Give me the wave tops and I’ll read to you.”
He was bringing out the big guns because Nox was a slut for story time.
Nelson could reduce Nox to a drooling, babbling, horny mess by reading a phone book.
“Okay,” Nox replied weakly, licking his lips as he rewound his conversation with Smoak and deleted the bits that would upset Nelson and kill the mood.
“Don’t leave out the important parts,” Nelson warned, narrowing his eyes at Nox.
“I wasn’t going to!” he lied. “Smoak said that Dùbhghlas is gone. He left his compound in Beartown, killed a bunch of demons, halflings, banshees, and other magickal beings to cover his tracks, and he definitely has a valkyrie.” He had buried the lede about the mass slaughter of demons and prayed that Nelson wouldn’t notice.
“Damn it!” Nelson whispered, lowering the book back onto his lap.
“Smoak also called you boring.” In case Nelson forgot about that.
He rolled his eyes. “I’ll take that as a compliment from him. What about the rest of it?”
“I don’t know,” Nox confided in a whisper, his mask slipping for a moment. “I need everyone to make sense of all that’s happened but I have to wait until tomorrow to burden them with this.”
“Alright…” Nelson pushed out a hard breath and nodded. “As long as that’s why you’re putting this off, not because you’re a horny idiot.”
Nox pulled in both of his lips and bit hard, fighting back his conscience. “Of course not! Whatcha reading?”
“Oh. Um…” Nelson picked up the book and flipped until he found the proper page. “I asked Merlin to find something about Manannán mac Lir.”
“Man-uh-non mac leer,” Nox corrected Nelson’s pronunciation as he checked the book’s spine. “Folk-Lore of The Isle of Man,” he read and hummed in approval. “Manannán is pretty badass.”
“Is he…?” Nelson cleared his throat suggestively.
“Real? Awake?” Nox confirmed but shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. Not that I necessarily would be, if he was.”
“Right. But Manannán is like Poseidon4?”
Nox couldn’t help smiling fondly and hoping there was a Manannán out there.
“Sort of. But he’s also the guardian of our resting places.
He’s said to be in the mist that rolls over Ireland, curling around our mounds and stones, protecting and blessing them with his grace until the sun rises and gifts us with a new day. ”
“That’s…what this says, but not quite as…nice,” Nelson said and started to close the book.
“Not so fast! We had a deal,” Nox reminded him, purring as he kicked away the covers and shifted so he was between Nelson’s thighs. He hugged Nelson’s middle and made a contented sound as he got comfortable, resting his chin in Nelson’s navel. “It’s story time!” he announced excitedly.
“Fine. I don’t know why you call it that, though. We never read more than a paragraph or two.”
“True…” Nox conceded and placed a kiss on Nelson’s skin.
“We could call it the see-how-many-words-Nelson-can-read-with-Nox’s-lips-around-his-dick challenge but that’s a mouthful!
” He waited to see if Nelson would get it and crack a smile but he just blinked back at Nox.
“Because you’re a mouthful,” he whispered. “Get it?”
“I guess story time works.”
“You know it does! Now, get to reading,” Nox ordered, licking between Nelson’s abs.
Nelson made a weary, suffering sound but complied, calmly and steadily reciting a sentence while Nox scooted lower.
He opened wide and lapped at Nelson’s semi-hard cock, wrapping his lips around it and sucking as he listened.
Fingers sifted through his hair, scratching affectionately as Nelson read out loud and setting Nox’s soul alight.
Nothing could be more sensual or stir Nox’s soul the way this could.
Loving Nelson with his mouth, tasting him as he learned was bliss and a kink Nox hadn’t known he needed.
“The Druids called him ‘the Son of the Sea…’” Nelson paused, swearing as he opened the bedside table and passed a jar of lube to Nox.
He was hard and Nox knew that Nelson could feel how aroused he was.
For Nelson, that was everything, when it came to sex.
His own arousal was a passive, quieter force that Nelson preferred to keep at a low simmer when they were intimate so he could feel Nox’s arousal building.
Through Nox, Nelson gloried in the wilder, more intense heat of his desires and the hot, vivid rush of Nox’s orgasms.
“Don’t stop,” Nox crooned against the head of Nelson’s cock while sliding two slick fingers into his own ass. He moaned as they twisted and stretched, opening himself up as he sucked and slurped, getting Nelson good and wet.
Once Nox was ready, he rose on his knees and got into position, making Nelson lose his place again. “Nox!” he groaned as Nox guided the head to his hole and sank all the way down. “Are we done with thi—” he went to drop the book on the bedside table but Nox stopped him.
“Keep going,” he commanded and leaned back so he could brace his hands on Nelson’s thighs. He rocked his hips, grinding his prostate against the base of Nelson’s cock and let out a ragged whimper. “Gods, that’s good! I’m not gonna last long.”
Nelson answered with a strained grunt, one hand locking around Nox’s hip as the other maintained an iron grip on the book. He bucked his hips, filling Nox to the hilt and lifting him off the bed.
“Oh, Nelson! Don’t stop reading!” he begged and rocked faster.
“‘He was the first ruler of Mann,’” Nelson ground out, his fingertips digging into Nox’s flesh and driving him even wilder.
“Yes…!” Nox pinched his nipple and squeezed tighter around Nelson, gasping in delight as every nerve in his body flared and sparked.
The pressure winding tighter and tighter in his core was exhilarating and excruciating as Nelson mumbled bits of sentences and Nox’s name.
“I’m so, so close!” Nox cried out and reached for his cock for relief but was thrown onto his back as the book toppled off the bed and onto the rug.
“Now,” Nelson commanded, pinning Nox to the bed as their hands connected and interlocked. Their palms were pressed together, above Nox’s head, and Nelson was ruthless, driving harder and faster with every thrust of his hips.
“Gods! Yes!” Nox screamed in ecstasy, shattering into a million embers as heat and pleasure burst from his core.
Nelson followed a heartbeat later, sobbing Nox’s name as he jerked and shivered, then crashed onto the mattress next to him. They were breathless and laughing as their limbs tangled, kissing and stifling yawns.
“I dare him to call you boring after that,” Nox said with a contented hum and rubbed the tip of his nose against Nelson’s.
He responded with an embarrassed whimper. “The whole house probably heard us, but who cares? I’m boring. It’s not like it was a secret.”
Nox reared back, offended. “You are not boring. You might not mind, but I have taste, Nelson, and I know a baddie when I see one.” Nox gave Nelson’s sternum a severe jab when he pulled a face.
“I mean it! Do you know how hard it is to carry off a suit these days? No one looks at you and wonders if you’re on your way to court or a big interview.
You’re just a fine-ass man in a well-tailored suit.
We’re talking class, baby! And you’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. ”
“Merlin knows…everything, probably,” Nelson argued but Nox shook his head.
“Probably, and it has yet to make him smart. Clancy is a professor and knows everything too but I don’t think he’s as wise as you.”
“Stop.” He was blushing. It made Nox burn just a little bit brighter for him. He could love Nelson for a thousand years but his hidden smiles and tender blushes would never cease to make Nox’s heart flutter.
“Make me.” Nox kissed him, cherishing the way their lips clung and the heaviness of Nelson’s eyes as he grew drowsier.
“And you’re strong, Nelson. You don’t know how many times I’ve been afraid and relied on your integrity and courage to get me through something.
I would have folded a dozen times after New Castle if I didn’t have you. ”
“Thanks.” Nelson’s arms tightened around Nox and he received a firm kiss. That was how Nelson signaled that he was tired of talking about himself. “That means a lot more to me than Smoak’s opinion on just about anything. Goodnight, Nox.”
“Goodnight. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Nelson’s fingers sifted through Nox’s hair and massaged his scalp, shutting down the rest of his brain.
“You matter the most, Nelson.”
It was the absolute truth and Nox’s last thought as he drifted off was that he’d find a way to prove it.