Chapter 18 #4
Adriel gave it. He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Landen's cock through his boxers.
The sound Landen made was low and rough and exactly what Adriel wanted to hear. He did it again, feeling the shape of him through the thin fabric. Landen's hand finally landed on the back of his head, fingers threading through his hair.
"Fuck," Landen breathed.
Adriel smiled against him. Small and private and pleased with himself. He hooked his fingers in the waistband of Landen's boxers and pulled them down just enough.
Landen's cock sprang free, heavy and hard, the tip already wet. Adriel looked at it for a moment; taking in the size of it, the shape, the way it curved slightly. His mouth watered. His heart pounded. He wanted this. Wanted it in a way that surprised him.
He leaned forward and licked. Just the tip. Just a taste. Salty and warm and distinctly Landen. He heard Landen's breath hitch above him, felt the fingers in his hair tighten just slightly. He did it again, longer this time, dragging the flat of his tongue across the sensitive skin.
"Adriel." Landen's voice was fraying already. "Jesus."
Adriel took him into his mouth. Slowly. Letting himself adjust to the size, the weight of him on his tongue. He went down as far as he could, which wasn't far enough, not yet, and then pulled back, and then went down again. Finding the rhythm. Learning what worked.
Landen's hand in his hair was steady. Guiding but not forcing. His thumb stroked against Adriel's scalp in small circles, encouraging.
"That's it," Landen murmured. "Just like that. You feel so good."
Adriel moaned around him. The vibration made Landen's hips twitch, made a sound fall out of him that was rougher than before. Adriel filed that away. Remembered it. Did it again.
He worked him with his mouth, building a rhythm, learning the sounds he could pull from this man.
The way Landen's breath caught when he took him deeper.
The way his fingers tightened when Adriel's tongue traced the vein on the underside.
The way his whole body went tense when Adriel swallowed around him.
"You're so good at this," Landen said. His voice was rougher now, the composure fraying in real time. "Look at you. On your knees for me. Taking me apart with that pretty mouth."
Adriel's cock throbbed in his pants at the words.
"Fuck, Adriel." Landen's hips moved now, just slightly, small, restrained strokes into the heat of his mouth. "Your mouth is… you have no idea what you're doing to me."
Adriel looked up at him. His eyes were dark, blown, fixed on Adriel's face. On the sight of his own cock disappearing into that pretty mouth. His hand tightened in Adriel's hair.
"You like that?" Landen asked. "Being on your knees for me? Having my cock in that perfect mouth?"
Adriel moaned. The sound was answer enough.
Landen's composure cracked a little more. His hips moved faster, as he started to fuck into Adriel’s mouth. His breathing was ragged. His words kept coming, low and rough and filthy.
"So beautiful like this. So perfect. Taking everything I give you." His thumb stroked Adriel's cheek, feeling the stretch of it. "You were made for this, weren't you? Made to be on your knees. Made to be filled up."
Adriel's eyes were wet. He kept going, kept taking him deeper, kept pulling those sounds and those words out of Landen's throat.
"Fuck..." Landen groaned. His voice was wrecked.
Then he reached down and pulled Adriel up. His mouth found Adriel's and kissed him, deep and slow, tasting himself in Adriel's mouth without flinching.
After a moment, his hand wrapped around Adriel's wrist, warm and sure, tugging him away from the window, away from the city, toward the door he hadn't opened during the tour. Adriel followed without hesitation, without thought, his body still humming.
The bedroom was dim. A lamp on the nightstand cast soft gold light across the bed, the dark sheets, the simple furniture. More books. A painting above the headboard. The windows here were smaller, but still looked out onto the city, still let the glittering dark press against the glass.
Landen turned to him. His hands found the hem of Adriel's sweater. Lifted it slowly. His eyes followed the fabric as it rose, watched skin appear, watched Adriel's stomach, his chest, his shoulders come into view.
Adriel let him. Raised his arms. Let the sweater be pulled over his head and tossed somewhere he didn't see. Stood there in the warm light, bare from the waist up, and waited.
The self-consciousness was there. It never fully disappeared. That voice in his head, the one that had been there as long as he could remember, still whispered. Still pointed out every soft inch, every part of himself he'd spent years learning to hate.
But he was past the worst of it now. Past the bracing, the tensing, the waiting for the moment Landen would see and flinch. Because Landen had seen. Landen kept seeing. And his eyes held no disappointment in them.
Adriel breathed through it as Landen's hands moved to his jeans. Unbuttoned them. Pulled down the zipper. He pushed the denim down Adriel's thighs, and Adriel stepped out of them, one foot at a time. His boxers went next.
Landen stepped back slightly. Looked at him. The asymmetry of it should have felt wrong. Adriel naked, exposed, every inch of him on display. Landen composed and clothed.
It didn't feel wrong.
It felt like something else. Something Adriel didn't have a name for yet but that sat low in his stomach, warm and complicated. Something that responded to being looked at like this, being seen like this, being bare while Landen remained covered.
Landen's eyes moved over him slowly. Taking him in. His cock, half-hard already, responding to the way Landen was looking at him.
"You're so beautiful," Landen said quietly.
Adriel's throat closed. He didn't know what to do with the words. So he just stood there and let Landen look at him and tried to breathe.
Landen stepped forward. His hands came up to Adriel's hips, thumbs pressing into the soft flesh there. His forehead touched Adriel's.
"I want to try something," he said. His voice was quiet.
Adriel's heart picked up. "What?"
"I want you to trust me."
"I do," Adriel said. "Trust you."
Landen's eyes softened. Just slightly. "Can I tie you up?" he asked.
Adriel's breath caught. His mouth opened. Closed. He didn't know what he'd expected, but it wasn't that. His mind spun through implications, through images, through the sudden heat that flared in his stomach at the thought.
"What…" He stopped. Started again. "Tie me up?"
Landen's mouth found his neck. Kissed there while he spoke, which was possibly not entirely fair. His lips moved against Adriel's skin, warm and distracting, while he said, "Just your wrists. To the bed. Nothing else."
Adriel's eyes fluttered closed. He could feel it already; the idea of it, the image of it.
The heat in his stomach flared hotter.
"Yes," The word came out before he could think about it. Before he could second-guess, before the fear could catch up.
Landen kissed his neck once more. Then pulled back. Looked at him.
"Don’t move," he said. He crossed to the wardrobe. When he turned back, he held a tie in his hand. Dark silk. Soft. Folded once over his palm.
He approached him slowly. His eyes were on Adriel's face the whole time. The tie hung loose in his hand, harmless-looking, but Adriel knew what it was for. Knew what was coming.
His heart pounded.
Landen took his wrist gently, lifted it, guided him toward the bed. Adriel went willingly, let himself be positioned, let himself be laid back against the dark sheets.
Landen tied his right wrist first. The silk was soft against his skin.
Cool at first, then warming. Landen wrapped it around his wrist, around the bedpost, once, twice.
His fingers worked carefully, tying knots that were firm but not tight enough to bite.
When he finished, he tugged gently, testing.
"Okay?" he asked.
Adriel nodded. His throat was too dry for words.
Landen moved to his left wrist. Did the same thing. When he finished, Adriel was spread beneath him; arms stretched above his head, wrists bound to the bedpost, completely immobile.
The feeling was overwhelming. Raw. Exposed in a way that went beyond nakedness; naked and tied and completely on display, unable to move, unable to cover himself, unable to do anything except lie there and be seen.
Landen stood above him, still fully dressed. Looking down at him with dark eyes and parted lips, his breathing slightly shallow, his hands loose at his sides.
Adriel felt shame. It rose in him, familiar, expected. The voice that said look at you, like this, pathetic. It was there, the way it always was.
But something else ran alongside it. Something he'd kept buried so deep he barely had a name for it.
Something that responded to being laid out like this, held in place, offered up.
Something that looked at Landen standing above him and felt not fear but want.
A hunger that frightened him a little, that made his cock fill further against his thigh, that made his breath come faster.
He looked at Landen's face. At the blown pupils. At the way his jaw was tight. At the hand that lifted, finally, and traveled slowly down Adriel's body.
Landen wanted this.
Very much.
The evidence of it was everywhere; in his eyes, in his breathing, in the way his hand trembled slightly as it traced down Adriel's chest.
Something in his chest settled. Just slightly.
"Look at you," Landen said quietly.
Adriel's breath caught. His skin prickled with awareness; every inch of him alive under that gaze, every part of himself he'd spent a lifetime hiding laid bare and examined and, impossibly, wanted.
Then Landen moved. He sat on the edge beside Adriel's hip. His hand reached out, palm warm against Adriel's stomach, and rested there.
"Okay?" he asked.
Adriel nodded. Swallowed. "Yeah."