Counting Stars #3
LIAM FINISHED his breakfast and put both their dishes in the dishwasher.
Then, conscious that in Josh’s world, the clock was often ticking, he moved behind Josh, who was busy tapping away on his tablet, and slid his arms around Josh’s slender waist, resting his chin on Josh’s shoulder.
This new familiarity thrilled him, but he wanted more.
“Almost….” Josh’s fingers flew on the keyboard.
“Take your time,” Liam murmured, then tickled Josh’s ear with his lips.
“Augh!” There was some honest distress in Josh’s tone. “I didn’t mean to send that!”
Gently, Liam took Josh’s earlobe between his teeth and gave a delicate nip.
“I, uhm….”
Still tormenting the ear (and he loved that Josh’s seemed to be so sensitive), he slid his hands up under Josh’s slim-fitting black shirt and palmed the soft skin of his stomach, the nearly smooth skin of his chest, noting the small but defined muscle groups.
He was careful of the shoulder, although he’d noticed Josh had left the brace off when he’d dressed.
Mindful of the bruised tendon, he stroked the skin.
“How’s this doing?” he asked, making sure his breath tickled the whorls of Josh’s ear.
“Tender,” Josh admitted.
“Maybe you should—” Liam ran his lips down the cords of Josh’s neck. “—take a break.”
“I should resend… oh!” Liam had tweaked a nipple.
“Josh?” Liam murmured.
“What?”
“Later.”
“Oh hell. God. Yes.” Josh tilted his head back against Liam’s shoulder, giving him complete access to his neck, his ear, anything he wanted.
Liam stepped back and whirled the stool seat around so Josh was facing him and took his mouth, because that was the real thing he wanted, Josh’s engagement.
And when Josh opened his mouth for the kiss, hands coming up under Liam’s hooded sweatshirt to knead and explore, the gratification, the reward, was so damned sweet.
How long had they waited? A year? Six months? A lifetime? Like Josh’s capers, time ceased to be linear between them, two magnets whose separation changed nothing about the strength of their connection, except maybe made it stronger.
Josh let out a sound—wanting, pleading, unbearably young—and Liam pulled back and reminded himself for the hundredth time that he needed to let Josh lead, but he was also the one most likely to keep his head.
“Come on,” Liam gasped. “Bedroom.”
Josh complied, and Liam was careful to take the hand attached to the uninjured shoulder, and to guide him gently.
“Grace has sex in all these weird positions,” Josh said. “Are we going to do that?”
Liam grunted. “Can I express my absolute indifference for what Grace does in bed?” he asked.
“Okay,” Josh said, sounding a little lost. “But I don’t have a lot of other—”
Liam sat him on the bed and took the hem of his shirt. “Careful,” he murmured. “Let me help you here.”
Josh allowed himself to be undressed, and then Liam fell to his knees before him. “Josh?”
“Yes.”
“What are you afraid of? We did this last night. It was good, right?”
Josh’s shy smile would be the death of him. They’d be old and gray, and he’d see that hint of embarrassment, of self-effacement, and his heart would have had enough, and he’d be carried to glory a happy man.
“It was wonderful,” Josh murmured. “But you waited for so long―”
“So did you,” Liam told him, taking his good hand. “I know you’re worth the wait. Am I?”
Josh leaned down and kissed his forehead. “Oh yes.”
“I want to make love to you some more,” Liam whispered. “God, if nothing else, I want you to feel like mine.”
Josh cocked his head. “So do you want me to feel like yours, or do you want to feel like I’m yours?”
Liam blinked at him, trying hard to parse that, and Josh laughed.
“Both,” Josh chortled. “Let’s say both.” And then he lowered his head a little more and captured Liam’s mouth in a kiss.
Ah, God. So sweet. And more than sweet was Josh’s laughter, his playfulness, his desire.
Oh…. Liam rose, cupping Josh’s face in his wide-palmed peasant’s hands. Especially his desire. He shed his hoodie and felt Josh tugging at his pants with one hand, grunting in frustration.
Liam took the task from him and said, “Can you, just this once, let me do some of this?”
“I want to see it,” Josh grumbled, but he kept his injured arm in his lap, telling Liam that it hurt more than he’d ever admit.
Liam chuckled weakly, shoved his sweats and briefs to the floor, and stood there naked for Josh’s perusal.
He worked out when he could—swam and ran when he couldn’t—but thanks to that little trip to the Caribbean he’d seen pretty much all the men in Josh’s crew in their swimming trunks and had conceded that he needed to give up ever being the prettiest or the most fit.
But Josh didn’t seem to be disappointed as he gazed at Liam’s body in appreciation.
In fact, he appeared to be in awe.
“You do good things for my ego, boy,” he said softly, cupping Josh’s cheek again.
“You,” Josh told him. And then, using his one good hand and his mouth and his tongue, he took Liam’s cock in his palm and began to explore.
Liam’s breath came out in a long hiss, and he closed his eyes, accepting Josh’s ministrations with as much grace as he could manage.
His nipples were hard in the air-conditioning, and he felt blatantly exposed here in the bedroom, but mostly he was being devoured, kissed, explored by the man he felt like he’d wanted all his life, and he wanted to be enough.
Josh squeezed him, his touch firm and exploratory at once, and then lapped at his head eagerly.
Liam made a noise and threaded his fingers through that glossy black hair, not to pressure, but to touch.
“Good?” Josh paused to ask.
“Amazing,” Liam breathed. “I won’t last.”
That low, self-possessed chuckle almost made Liam spend, and his fingers in Josh’s hair trembled as he knotted them, tugged backward.
Josh gazed up at him like he was something, like he was important, and said, “I’m open to suggestions.”
“Stand,” Liam said gruffly. “Let me help you off with your clothes. Let me lay you back, put pillows down….” Make love to you like you’re precious. Keep you safe and never, ever hurt you.
Impossible, he knew. Even lovers who had nothing to lose inflicted tiny darts.
Alec Lawson had been a horrible snob. Without knowing it, he’d insulted Liam’s family, his mother working two jobs, his siblings—some straight and narrow and some struggling to find their way—and his father, his poor drunken, devoted, bungling, stout-hearted father, at least three times a day.
Liam had put up with it because he’d been younger, and Alec was his superior, and the relationship hadn’t been equal in any sense of the word.
But it had given Liam a sense of what he wanted to do now, which was to keep his tiny darts to himself, to use words and actions to build and not break down.
To touch this fine body, laid out before him, with his soul in his fingertips, his heart in every brush of flesh.
But not with silence.
“Settled?” he asked, after he’d fidgeted with pillows and Josh was splayed out before him, pale and gazing up with dancing eyes.
“Like fine china,” Josh replied. “Are you going to touch me soon, or is this an excuse for another nap?”
Liam gave him a flat look. “I would like this experience to be repeatable, thank you. If you’re thinking ‘Oh God, make him stop moving because I hurt,’ then I have failed at my job.”
Josh’s burble of laughter was almost like a stroke upon his skin.
“I’ll tell you before it gets that bad,” he said. “Now kiss me and fuck me and let me enjoy my decisions.”
“Aye, Captain,” Liam murmured and took Josh’s mouth again, and this time there was nothing to stop them.
Every kiss was fire, and the next soothed the burn but stoked up the heat. In a moment Liam was completely consumed, his finesse and good intentions gone as his breath ratcheted up. His urgency drove him against Josh’s body, needing the headiness of skin on skin.
Josh arched his back, wrapped his legs around Liam’s hips, and bucked, and Liam trembled with need.
His hands suddenly shaking, he reached for the lubricant in the end table and fumbled for it, bringing it between their bodies so he could stroke Josh’s entrance with it and stretch with a gentle finger.
Josh made a sound then from deep inside that spoke of hard want, and Liam thrust two fingers in, not so delicately, and Josh’s next sound was pure need.
“Please,” he whispered. “Please… I’m so ready.”
More stretching, though, and then Liam was there, at the gates of heaven, and careful of Josh’s expression, of his noises, of the urgency of his heels thrusting against Liam’s ass and the vulnerable line of his throat as he gave Liam everything he’d ever needed, Liam thrust.
Gah! So tight! And Josh kept begging for more, for deeper, all the way, please—
“Ah!”
For a moment they were locked together, as close as humans could physically be, and a droplet of sweat plopped from Liam’s forehead to Josh’s shoulder as Liam trembled, his weight on his elbows as he gazed at Josh for permission.
“Go,” Josh begged. “Please. Don’t stop now.”
He started slowly, and Josh’s breathy moans drove him on, faster, faster, harder. Oh God, he should be mindful of the shoulder, of Josh’s inexperience, but as he tried to slow down Josh cried out, his body trembling, agonizingly close to climax, and Liam had no choice.
He drove himself inside with all his force, his want, his need, and Josh’s orgasm announced itself in a roar of completion that tipped Liam over.
He buried his face into the hollow of Josh’s neck and shoulder and groaned, the sound coming from deep within as he poured himself, body and soul, into the one man in the world he’d searched the world for.
His breathing was still coming in harsh gasps when Josh let a little pain sound out, and Liam pushed up off him.
“Do you want I should—”
“Move and I’ll kill you,” Josh mumbled, flushed and happy. “Now kiss me and tell me I’m pretty and tell me that was as wonderful for you as it was for me.”
Liam chuckled, and from the dreamy expression that crossed over Josh’s delicate features, he could tell Josh felt that right where they were joined.
“I hope you’re ready to be saddled with me for life, boy-o,” Liam murmured. “After that, I don’t think I could leave your side again.”
Josh’s smile was still dreamy, and he threaded his fingers through Liam’s hair, probably sending the ringlets into fabulous disarray. “Oh, like I’m letting you go now,” he purred. “Now kiss me, like I asked, or I’ll get pushy.”
Liam’s smile felt like it took his entire body to achieve, and he nipped playfully at Josh’s kiss-swollen lips until Josh took his mouth and ravished him.
And still moving inside his lover, they began again.