Epilogue
Adriel
Adriel surfaced from sleep slowly, in fragments.
Warmth first; the sheets, the pillow, the heavy comfort of Landen’s bed that still felt like a luxury every time he woke in it. Then sensation, hazy and indistinct, something pulling him upward out of the dark before his mind caught up.
He became aware of his body before he became aware of why.
A heaviness in his limbs, a heat pooling low in his stomach, a tightness that didn’t belong to sleep.
His hips shifted without his permission, a small, involuntary movement, and then a sound escaped him; soft, confused, caught between dreaming and waking.
Then he opened his eyes.
Landen was between his legs.
The sheet had been pushed down to his thighs.
Landen’s mouth was on his cock, and Adriel’s brain short-circuited so completely that for several seconds he just lay there, blinking at the ceiling, trying to reconcile the soft morning light with the devastating heat of Landen’s tongue dragging along the underside of his cock.
“Oh my… fuck…” Adriel gasped, his hands flying to the sheets, fisting them, his hips jerking upward before Landen’s hand pressed flat against his stomach, holding him down. Landen took Adriel deeper, cheeks hollowing, and hummed; the vibration of it running through Adriel’s cock like electricity.
“Landen… what… oh God…”
Landen pulled off just long enough to press a kiss to the inside of his thigh. His eyes lifted and the sight of him there, between Adriel’s legs, lips swollen and wet, hair falling across his forehead, was so obscene that Adriel’s cock twitched hard against his stomach.
“Happy birthday,” Landen murmured against his skin.
Before Adriel could respond, before he could say anything at all, Landen’s mouth was back on him, and all coherent thought dissolved.
Landen worked him with agonizing slowness.
His tongue dragged up from the base to the tip, flat and wet, pressing against the sensitive underside like he was tasting him, savoring him.
When he reached the head, his lips closed around it, soft and tight, and he sucked gently, just enough to make Adriel’s breath catch, just enough to make his hips twitch against the hand still pinning him to the mattress.
Then his tongue circled the head, tracing the ridge like he was mapping it with his mouth.
Adriel’s fingers clawed at the sheets. “Landen…”
Landen’s eyes flicked up. He held Adriel’s gaze as his tongue moved, as his lips parted and he took him deeper, inch by inch, until his mouth was full and his nose brushed the soft hair at the base.
He swallowed around him, a reflexive muscle movement that made Adriel see stars, and then he pulled back just as slowly, letting his lips drag along the shaft, letting the suction linger, letting every nerve ending in Adriel’s cock scream at the loss.
Before Adriel could catch his breath, Landen’s mouth descended again.
This time his hand joined the rhythm; wrapped around the base, gripping tight, twisting in counterpoint to the movement of his lips. He worked them together, mouth and hand, a relentless, coordinated assault that had Adriel’s thighs trembling within minutes.
Landen knew his body by now. Knew that the spot just below the head made his breath stutter. Knew that suction combined with the twist of his hand made his hips chase. Knew that the low hum he vibrated against Adriel’s skin travelled straight to his spine and lit him up like a live wire.
Adriel’s hands flew to his hair without conscious thought. The sounds coming out of him were broken, wordless, punched from his chest with each pass of Landen’s tongue.
He was close. He could feel it building, that tightening coil at the base of his spine, the pressure behind his balls, the way his whole body was starting to clench and strain toward release.
His hips were fighting Landen’s restraining hand now, trying to fuck up into that wet heat, trying to chase it.
Landen doubled down. His mouth moved faster, his hand twisted harder, his tongue flicked against the head with every pass, and Adriel was there, right there, on the edge, his whole body drawn taut as a bowstring…
And then Landen stopped. Pulled off. Wrapped his hand around the base of Adriel’s cock and squeezed, just enough to pull him back from the edge.
Adriel sobbed, a broken, wrecked sound, his hips chasing nothing, his cock throbbing and desperate, leaking against his stomach. The denial hit him like a physical blow, the pleasure receding instead of cresting, leaving him shaking and empty and aching.
“Not yet,” Landen said, voice low and rough.
Adriel whimpered. He already knew what this meant. His body knew, already bracing and aching for it in equal measure.
Landen reached for the lube on the nightstand without hurry.
The first finger was gentle. Landen’s hand, slick and warm, pressed against him while his mouth returned to Adriel’s cock; licking, long lazy strokes that kept him hard but didn’t push him anywhere near the edge. The finger circled his entrance, pressed, slid inside.
Adriel gasped around the intrusion. It was familiar by now, the stretch, the burn, but every time it felt like the first time; intimate and exposing and overwhelming. Landen’s finger moved slowly, crooking, searching, while his tongue traced patterns on the sensitive head of his cock.
When he found what he was looking for, Adriel’s whole body jerked.
“There,” Landen murmured against his skin. “There it is.”
He pressed against that spot while his tongue worked the underside of Adriel’s cock, and Adriel was already climbing again, already rising toward that peak, his body so sensitive, so desperate, so completely at Landen’s mercy.
He got close. His breathing sped up, his hips started to move, the sounds escaping him pitched higher…
Landen’s mouth lifted away. His finger stilled.
Adriel made a sound of pure frustration. “Please…”
“Shh.” Landen’s finger started moving again, slowly, while his free hand wrapped around Adriel’s shaft and stroked him with infuriating laziness. “Not yet.”
The second finger came next. The stretch was deeper, fuller, and Landen worked them both inside him, scissoring, opening him up, while his hand kept stroking and his mouth pressed kisses to the inside of Adriel’s thighs.
He was everywhere, inside him, around him, on him, and Adriel couldn’t focus, couldn’t think.
He climbed again. Faster this time. His body was learning the rhythm, learning to chase it, and he could feel himself hurtling toward that edge, could feel the wave building…
Landen’s fingers curled against his prostate. His mouth closed over the head of his cock. Adriel was going to come, he was going to come right now, he couldn’t stop it…
And then Landen stopped.
Adriel sobbed. Actually sobbed, his whole body shaking, his cock leaking onto his stomach, his hole clenching around nothing.
The denial that time was almost unbearable.
He was so close, so desperately close, and Landen kept pulling him back, kept refusing him, kept him hanging on that knife’s edge without release.
“I can’t,” he gasped. “Landen, I can’t…”
“You can.” Landen’s voice was calm. His fingers pressed inside him again, just one, just enough to remind him he was there. “You can. You’re doing so well, baby. So good for me.”
The praise cut through the desperation, a warm thread in the chaos. Adriel clung to it.
The third time, Landen added another finger. Three now, stretching him open, working him loose, and his mouth was back on Adriel’s cock, and the combination was obscene; the fullness inside him, the wet heat around him, the way Landen’s fingers curled and pressed against that spot with every pass.
Adriel climbed and climbed. He was whimpering constantly now, a stream of broken sounds, his hands fisted in the sheets, his legs trembling around Landen’s shoulders.
He could feel himself getting close, could feel that familiar tightening, and this time, this time he was going to make it, he was going to…
Adriel screamed. Rage and need and desperation pouring out of him as Landen pulled away again, as his fingers slid free, as his mouth lifted and left Adriel shaking and empty and so hard it hurt, his cock purple and leaking, his whole body a single raw nerve.
“That’s three,” Landen murmured, stroking his thigh. “You’re doing so well, Adriel. So beautiful like this. The sounds you make…” He shook his head, something like wonder in his eyes. “I should do this forever. Keep you right here, on the edge, shaking and begging, and never get tired of it.”
Adriel was crying. He realized it distantly, felt the tears tracking down his temples, wetting his hair, but he couldn’t stop, couldn’t do anything except lie there and shake and want.
His body was beyond his control now; trembling all over, his cock throbbing with every heartbeat, his hole clenching around nothing, desperate to be filled.
“Please,” he gasped. “Please, please, I’ll do anything, please let me… please, Landen, I need… I need…”
“I know, baby.” Landen’s voice was soft, even as his eyes remained dark with hunger. “I know. You’ve been so good for me.”
He reached for the lube again. That time, when his fingers pressed inside, there were three immediately, working him open with purpose, stretching him, preparing him.
His mouth didn’t return to Adriel’s cock, instead, his free hand wrapped around it, stroking him slowly, keeping him right there on the edge while his fingers curled and pressed.
Adriel was beyond words now. The sounds coming out of him were raw, formless; plea and prayer and worship all tangled together. He was crying freely, tears streaming, his whole body shaking, every nerve ending screaming for release.
Landen watched him. Studied him. Took in every twitch, every gasp, every desperate sound with an expression of reverence.
Then he pulled his fingers free.