Chapter 20 #2
Landen knew this place. He'd seen subs hit emotional walls before; the drop that came, the overwhelm of having said too much, felt too much, exposed too much. He knew what Adriel needed right now wasn't more words. Words were what got them here. Words were what Adriel was drowning in.
What Adriel needed was to stop thinking.
Landen rose from the floor slowly. He brought himself to Adriel's eye level on the sofa, and reached out to cup Adriel's face in both hands. His thumbs brushed the tears away.
"Hey," he said softly. "Come here."
Adriel blinked at him, eyes red, lips parted. Landen didn't wait for him to answer. He leaned in and kissed him.
He felt Adriel tense for a moment, a hiccup of breath caught between their mouths, and then, degree by degree, soften. Adriel's hands came up, uncertain at first, then gripping Landen's wrists where his hands cradled his face, holding on.
Landen deepened the kiss slowly. He could feel the shift happening under his hands; the tension in Adriel's jaw releasing, the breathing slowing, the thoughts quieting.
He pulled back just enough to see Adriel's eyes. They were still wet, but the panic was receding. In its place was something softer, something dazed and wanting.
"I'm going to take you to bed," Landen murmured. "And I'm going to show you exactly what you are to me." He pressed his lips to Adriel's forehead, then the bridge of his nose, then the corner of his mouth. "Is that okay?"
Adriel nodded.
Landen stood. Took Adriel's hand, and pulled him gently to his feet. Adriel came willingly, if a bit unsteadily, and when he swayed slightly Landen steadied him with a hand on his hip, and guided him toward the bedroom.
In the bedroom, Landen undressed him slowly.
His sweater first, lifted over his head with hands that lingered at the hem, fingertips brushing the soft skin of his sides. Then his undershirt, peeled away to bare his chest, his stomach, the warm flush already spreading across his skin.
Adriel stood and let him.
Landen could see the old tension still present; the slight flinch when his sweater came off, the reflexive pull of his stomach inward, the way his hands twitched toward covering himself. But it was quieter tonight. Muted.
Landen's hands returned immediately, palm flat against Adriel's sternum, feeling the heartbeat thundering there. He let his fingers drag downward, tracing the line of soft hair that trailed from chest to navel, watching Adriel's eyes flutter.
His jeans next. Landen knelt to undo them, pulled them down his legs, watched him step out of them. His underwear followed, sliding down his thighs, baring him completely.
Once Adriel was bare, Landen stepped back.
Looked at him.
He let himself look the way he always wanted to and rarely allowed himself in full.
The pale stretch marks at his hips, silver lines against warm skin.
The flush spreading down his chest, staining his neck, his ears, the tops of his shoulders.
His cock, half-hard already, thickening as Landen watched.
He let his face show what he felt, because Adriel needed to see it and Landen was done being careful about this.
Then he undressed himself.
Shirt first. He pulled it over his head, and watched Adriel watch him. Saw the way Adriel's breath caught, the way his eyes tracked over Landen's body with that particular mixture of want and self-consciousness that Landen had started to love.
His belt next. The slide of leather through loops, the soft sound of it falling to the floor. His trousers, pushed down and stepped out of. His underwear, hooked and pulled, freeing his cock, already hard and aching.
Then he stood there, bare in the lamplight, and let Adriel look at him too.
The comparison was there behind Adriel's eyes. Landen could see it forming, sharp and lean against soft and wide. The conclusion Adriel always drew from it, the wrong one, the one Landen intended to dismantle.
He guided Adriel onto the bed. Positioned him on his back. Moved him until he was exactly where Landen wanted him, exactly how Landen wanted him.
Then he leaned over and kissed him. His mouth first, slow and deep. He parted Adriel's lips with his own, slid his tongue inside, tasted him. His tongue stroked against Adriel's, explored the heat of him, mapped the shape of his mouth.
Adriel made a small sound against his lips. Landen swallowed it and kissed him deeper.
Then his jaw. Landen's lips trailed along the sharp line of it, kissing down to the soft skin beneath his ear. He nipped there lightly, felt Adriel's breath stutter, then soothed it with his tongue.
The hollow of his throat. That warm place where his pulse beat close to the surface. Landen pressed his mouth to it, felt the thrum of it against his lips, the quick flutter of Adriel's heartbeat. He licked there, tasting salt and skin, and Adriel's hips twitched beneath him.
"I want you to listen to me," Landen said against his skin, voice low and rough. "I am going to show you exactly what you do to me. And you are going to keep your eyes open. Can you do that for me?"
Adriel nodded, breath already unsteady.
"Words, baby."
"Yes," Adriel managed.
"Good boy."
As the praise left his mouth, Adriel's whole body shivered, his eyes going wide and dark.
∞∞∞
Adriel
Landen started with his mouth.
He kissed down Adriel's body with agonizing slowness; throat first, lips pressing to the pulse point, tongue tracing the tendon there. Then collarbone, kissing along the ridge of it, teeth grazing just enough to make Adriel's breath catch. The center of his chest, mouth open and wet, tasting skin.
He paused at Adriel's stomach. Pressed his lips to the soft skin there, just below his navel. Adriel's hands flew down reflexively, to cover himself.
Landen caught his wrists. He pinned them at Adriel's sides against the mattress, holding them there, and didn't let go.
He kept his mouth where it was. He pressed another kiss, then dragged his tongue across the pale stretch marks at Adriel's hip. Following the silver lines like he was memorizing them.
Then he bit down. Gently at first. Then harder. Teeth sinking into the soft flesh of his hip, marking him. Adriel cried out, his body jerking, his hands straining against Landen's grip without meaning to. The sound that came out of him was broken and beautiful and entirely involuntary.
He was coming apart.
Landen released his wrists.
"Keep them there," he said. Quiet command in his voice.
Adriel did. His hands stayed where Landen had placed them, fisted in the sheets at his sides. He was trembling, his whole body shaking with want and fear and the overwhelming reality of being so completely seen. He was obeying. The realization bloomed hot and terrifying in his chest.
He wanted to obey.
He wanted to be good for Landen. Wanted to hear him say it. Wanted to earn that praise. Good boy. The thought of it made his cock twitch against his stomach, leaking precome onto his skin.
Landen's mouth moved lower.
His hands spread Adriel's thighs apart, firm and unhurried, pushing them wide. The exposure hit Adriel like a physical blow; legs open, body bare, cock hard and leaking, everything on display.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
"Eyes open," Landen reminded him. His voice was rough now. Wrecked with want. And hearing that, knowing he was the reason for it, made something in Adriel's chest crack open.
He forced his eyes open. Looked down.
Landen was between his thighs. His pupils were blown so wide his eyes looked black. His lips were parted, his breathing ragged. He was looking at Adriel like he was the most devastating thing in the world.
The eye contact was almost too much.
Then Landen's mouth was on his cock.
Slow. Wet. Deep.
He cried out. His hips jerked, trying to thrust up into that heat, but Landen's hands gripped his hips hard, holding him down, controlling the rhythm.
His tongue worked him with practiced, merciless skill; the flat of it dragging up his shaft, the tip circling the head, in that way that drove Adriel insane.
He took Adriel deep, deeper than should have been possible, his throat relaxing around him.
Adriel's hands tore at the sheets. His back arched. Sounds poured out of him that he couldn't stop, didn't want to stop. The combination of the mouth on him and the hands pinning him and the command still ringing in his ears was dismantling him completely.
He was going to cum.