18. Antonio
Antonio
Please. That’s what it took to soften the chip on his shoulder.
Just a gentle request from an omega who smelled like saltwater taffy and made him think all the joy in the world was housed in Lucky’s ocean eyes.
Mateo was going to tease him again. He was so far gone on Lucky, it wasn’t funny anymore.
He wasn’t sure it ever was… Maybe just pitiful.
“My mother is from Spain, I’ve mentioned that. Her name is Andrea Saavedra. She came here for a vacation, fell in love, divorced, and returned home after I was old enough to fend for myself.” He sighed, tipping his head back to look up at the stars. “My family was not a happy one.”
“Even if it’s unhappy, I want to know.” Lucky pressed a kiss to his chest like it was that simple.
“I’m not used to people staying for the hard parts. Mateo did but… well, he’s part of the story.” Antonio shook his head.
“You pulled me out of my bed to cheer me up because you’re someone who stays when it’s hard.
I’m sorry you haven’t had many people do the same for you, but I’d like to be one.
” Whether Lucky knew what those words meant to him didn’t matter.
He pulled Lucky close, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.
“You already are.” But the hardest part was still to come, and Antonio couldn’t help the ball of ice sitting in his stomach.
He’d have to just treat it like a bandaid.
Rip it off and hope the pain was short lived.
“My father was the official responsible for the land sale. He was the one who took the money, who created the reason for selling off the land, and who eventually was ousted for his corruption.”
Lucky stiffened but Antonio wasn’t ready to hear what the omega might say. He forged ahead with a desperate need to smooth the situation over, to defend himself in the face of a legacy he tried so hard to hide from.
“He was a terrible person. Whatever my mother saw in him, I never did… He resented her family, resented that she came from what he wanted—money. I was four when the sale went through and six when his corruption was discovered. I saw him drink himself into rages that shook the foundations of this very house…” Antonio shook his head, “He died in a wreck when I was ten. People called it a tragedy but I…”
“Whatever you felt was valid. Grief or not, complicated sorrow, or even joy. No one gets to tell us how to handle something like that.” Lucky’s fierce words were a balm to old scars.
He swallowed thickly. “Yeah.” A ragged breath helped ease the tightness of his throat before he continued, “At eleven, I met Mateo. We were put in the same class, and on the first day of the new school year, we got in a fight. I said something obnoxious… He called me a rich boy. I shoved him. He punched me in the face.” Antonio pointed at his nose, “Permanently disfigured my face but… he became my best friend in the entire world.”
“I really can’t wait to meet him.” Lucky cupped his cheek, “And for what it’s worth, you are not your father.”
It took him a moment to realize he was crying. “…Since we found out about Playa del Tesoro, I’ve been trying to figure out how to confess. I didn’t know how to tell you that it was my father who paved the road to this…”
“I’m starting to think you have a bad habit of blaming yourself for things you didn’t do.” Lucky rubbed his thumb under Antonio’s eye, brushing away the tears.
“It still feels like something I need to apologize for.” Antonio whispered.
“My mom had cancer. She fought hard… really, really hard. But that wasn’t enough.
And towards the end, when she was filing the paperwork and writing her hypothesis…
She got defensive of her independence. She knew she needed help but god she fought not to let us see it.
I’m not saying she did anything wrong but…
The final document she signed was for ten years, not the fifteen she would have wanted.
And it was caused by what looked like smudged ink. ” Lucky smiled sadly.
“None of that is your fault, Lucky. You couldn’t have known.” Antonio stood by his feelings on the matter.
“Logically, I know that. And with your every reassurance, I’m trying to believe it.
But the point is that… that’s how blame works.
It’s not your fault that your father sucked.
It’s not my fault the paperwork is wrong.
It’s all just… sad.” There was exhaustion in Lucky’s voice but for the first time it felt like the omega believed this was something out of his control.
“It’s not our fault.” He agreed, “…but it does feel like we’re the ones left picking up the pieces.” Or picking at old wounds and stitching scars that keep reopening…
“We have each other though.” Lucky raised his glass, turning away to take a sip.
Lucky was beautiful. With messy hair, with dark bags under his eyes, with a bone deep tiredness lining his face, he was still beautiful.
“I love you.” The words slipped out. It wasn’t the grand confession he planned in his head. It wasn’t some big moment. But under the stars, with everything spilled out between them, with strong wine blooming courage in his veins, it was the best moment.
Lucky choked on his wine, coughing into his elbow as he sat up suddenly. Antonio patted his back, laughing just a little at how startled Lucky looked.
“Say it again.” Lucky demanded, breathless as he cleared his throat.
“I love you.” Antonio repeated, “I know it’s fast, I understand if it’s too much…”
He didn’t get to finish. Lucky climbed into his lap, kissing him soundly before the confession could be soured by insecurity.
Their wine glasses fell, forgotten, onto the cushions.
It would stain and Antonio couldn’t have cared less about it.
Not when he wrapped his arms around Lucky.
His fingers sank into Lucky’s hair as he kissed the omega hungrily, trying to pour every ounce of his feelings into him.
“I love you too.” Lucky breathed against his lips, the words almost lost as Antonio devoured him.
“From the moment I met you.” Antonio whispered in the space between kisses.
“Fast. That’s just us.” Lucky added before another deep kiss licked the sound from his mouth.
This is who they were.
A rush of feelings, a rush of desire, a rush of affection, and suddenly he was tipping Lucky backwards into the haphazard nest he carved out for them beneath the stars. Lucky’s arms looped loosely around his neck as Antonio stared into blue eyes reflecting millions of stars overhead.
“I love you.” It does not feel like enough. Saying it once, saying it a hundred times. It feels as though he has been waiting years to say it, when it has only been weeks.
“I love you too. I kept wanting to say it, but it felt like… like I was waiting for the perfect moment.” Lucky laughed softly, eyes closing when Antonio pressed kisses to his cheeks. There was such joy in the sound of his laughter. Lucky was warm, solid, safe.
He tasted like home when Antonio captured his lips once again.
The night air was warm. A breeze worked up from the cliffs for which the district was named cooled his skin as Lucky worked long fingers under the hem of his shirt. He pulled back to strip the shirt over his head.
“I want you.” Antonio knelt between Lucky’s knees, staring down at the omega sprawled across the blankets.
“You make me feel desirable.” Lucky curled a hand around Antonio’s hip, sliding his palm up the curve of his waist. “You make me feel foolishly happy even at the lowest moments. Even when I feel shattered into a million pieces.”
Antonio brought Lucky’s hand to his chest, holding it over his heart. “Because you bring me unimaginable joy, mi amor.” He heard Lucky’s breath catch at the term of endearment, “Shatter as often as you need. If there is one thing I’m confident in… it is being the person who comes to help.”
Lucky’s eyes went misty in a way that made his heart stutter. The softness of his smile, the way his face relaxed and brow smoothed like all the weight of sorrow had lifted just for a moment. “I want to be the person who comes to help you too, love.”
“That’s the beautiful part of love, isn’t it?” He lowered until he could press their foreheads together, “Being there for each other.”
The ragged pull of Lucky’s breathing was followed by the omega’s other hand sinking into his hair. “Have me then. Make love to me, Antonio.” Then he was pulled into a hungry kiss sweet with wine.
He needed no further invitation.
Undressing Lucky from his own clothing felt like a gift.
Neither of them seemed eager for anything fast and rough despite their amusement at their own speeding relationship.
This moment belonged to them and the stars.
Something soft, slow, tender. The brush of his fingers over Lucky’s stomach as he peeled the oversized shirt from his body.
Bathed in stars and moonlight, Lucky nearly glowed. He was beautiful in ways poets would wax on about for eons. But Antonio was no poet, he could only admire the art of Lucky’s form and consider himself blessed to be the one touching him.
His fingers pressed divots into Lucky’s skin. He smelled of lavender from the bath, and that sweet saltwater taffy, and that extra sugary scent of his slick like the burnt sugar topping of a crème brulé.
Mouthwatering.
Where his fingertips brushed, he followed with his lips.
Teasing nips along Lucky’s collarbone, the drag of his tongue along the dip between them.
Small bites and sucking kisses to the buttery soft skin of Lucky’s chest. When he took one pink nipple into his mouth, Lucky arched into him with a sweet moan.
Lucky wasn’t passive in his pleasure. He curled fingers in Antonio’s hair, stroked the back of Antonio’s neck, and squeezed his sides. His hands couldn’t seem to stay still. They touched and tasted each other with a singular need.
Antonio took his time. He spread his attention between Lucky’s nipples until they were stiff and reddened.
He left marks across Lucky’s chest. Pink ones that would darken to bruises.
He would leave parts of himself all over Lucky, not out of possessive want, but in a bid to reassure.
They were one. They had each other wholly.
Further down, across quivering stomach muscles where he dipped his tongue into Lucky’s bellybutton to free a laugh from the omega’s chest, and lower still to the delicate skin where his thigh met his groin.
“Mi amor. Mi amor I want to devour you always.” He whispered into soft flesh, words followed by nips and kisses.
“What a way to go.” Lucky breathed. His legs parted in welcome.
Antonio pulled Lucky’s legs over his shoulders.
His fingers dug into the ample flesh of his ass, fingers sliding through the slick that gathered between his cheeks.
He would never tire of this. Of the taste of Lucky on his tongue, of that first lick when Lucky’s thighs clamp around his head.
He laughs into him and gets a moan in response.
He ate Lucky like a man starved. His own cock ached between his thighs, hard as steel and eager to be sheathed deep inside the warm omega. But it’s Lucky’s pleasure he wanted. To taste him as he unraveled, to revel in the knowledge that he brought Lucky to that peak.
Lucky’s fingers brushed through his hair but only one hand stayed tucked amongst the short strands. The omega’s other hand fisted his cock, stroking himself as Antonio devoured him.
With the stars as their only witness and sweat gathering in the base of his spine, Antonio was certain this was heaven. Pillowed between Lucky’s thighs was certainly a place worth dying for…
It didn’t take long. Between lapping hungrily at Lucky’s twitching hole and the omega pleasuring himself, Lucky was a whining, gasping mess. He came with a cry, nails biting into Antonio’s scalp.
He licked Lucky through it. Antonio drank the slick down, coaxing more as he worked Lucky open. The sweet taste was intoxicating.
Antonio only lifted his head when Lucky went limp. He kissed his way up to Lucky’s lower belly, licking the spend away. Lucky whined in response, trembling.
“More?” He whispered the question into Lucky’s skin.
“More.” Lucky purred the word, utterly lax for the first time since he pulled the omega from his bed.
Sinking into Lucky was like coming home.
He was so soft and warm as Antonio pressed inside, limbs pliant and muscles lax.
Long arms wrapped around his shoulders, cradling him.
He rested against Lucky, only propped up enough on his forearms not to crush the omega.
They were both sticky with sweat now, skin clinging to each other.
The space between their mouths grew hot with moans.
“You are everything, carino.” He pressed their foreheads together.
Antonio took his time. Each languid roll of his hips dragged shuddering whines from Lucky’s lips. They had nowhere to be, nothing to worry about, no one to think of. It was just them and the stars.
They were like the tide, rolling across the shore with a steady, endless push. And when the end came, it was the crash of a wave. A last shock, limbs seizing, muscles clenching, and then the sweet release as Lucky spilled between them and Antonio’s knot caught deep within him.
He buried his face in Lucky’s shoulder, shuddering through the orgasm. But it was gentle. It was lazy in a way that made him think of pancakes and sundrenched beaches.
“You are love.” He whispered. Not simply in love. The essence of the emotion itself. He isn’t certain he ever felt it before, not really, not when he pulls back to look in Lucky’s eyes and sees it reflected in those ocean depths.
A moment of silence stretched, placid and sweet as Lucky swallowed. “I want this. No matter what else happens, this… this I want.” Fingers dug into his sides, holding him closer.
“I’m yours. Through this, forever… yeah.” He finished haphazardly, unworried by the weight of the words because if they weren’t forever, he wasn’t convinced there was such a thing. “Whatever comes next, I’m here.”
“Next…” Lucky smiled, lifting his head to press a kiss to Antonio’s sweaty shoulder. “Now that you’ve cleared the cobwebs from my head, I have an idea what comes next.”
“I’ll look forward to it.” Antonio pressed a kiss to Lucky’s nose as his fingers teased sensitive ribs. The laugh he coaxed out was a joyful end to the night. It was everything they needed. Tomorrow, they’d face in the sunlight. Until then, the night was theirs.