Chapter Five #3
Without any warning, Cameron leaned over Franklin’s prone body and took the tip of his cock between his lips.
Hot, wet perfection surrounded his dick.
A few swirls of a rough tongue, a couple of caresses from an impossibly soft pair of lips, and Franklin was already on the edge.
His head spun. His hands scrabbled at the table.
His feet kicked out as he fought desperately for control.
Nothing helped. A few moments in Cameron’s talented mouth was all it took.
Franklin tossed his head from side to side but didn’t have the breath to do anything more than gasp.
Just for a few short seconds, all that existed was bliss.
There were no doubts about what he should be doing, there was no guilt, no decisions, no game plan.
And, when he blinked open his eyes, he suddenly realised that didn’t need to change.
Cameron glared down at him, so serious, so intense and so determined to be in control of everything. Franklin blinked up at him as he tried to regain some sort of focus.
Maybe this was what guys meant when they said it was good to just relax and let someone else take charge for a while?
Some part of Franklin understood now, in a way he never had before, what a certain number of his friends had been trying to tell him—what a few of the submissives he knew had tried to explain to him in the past.
Franklin quickly pushed that thought away in favour of concentrating on one that was so much easier to wrap his mind around. Cameron in control was hot!
Without any warning, Cameron reached out and pulled him up off the table. Franklin tried to get his feet underneath him, but only the very tips of his toes could reach the carpet. The rest of his weight was easily supported by Cameron, and Franklin had no choice but to trust that.
Cameron smiled once more, just a fraction, but again with far less bitterness.
Very slowly, he lowered Franklin back to the floor and took his arm from around his waist. Turning away from the table, Cameron led him out of the dining room and up the stairs without a word.
Within minutes, they were slipping into what Franklin was quickly coming to think of as their bed, and to hell with Arslan assigning them to different rooms.
The only fly in the ointment was the way Cameron chose to arrange them in that bed. If he’d lain any further toward his side of it, the lion would be in danger of falling off the damn mattress. At the last moment, Franklin bit back any comment he might have wanted to make on that.
Cameron was in charge that night, and it was Cameron’s choice where he slept—where either of them slept. Just acknowledging that fact inside his own head eased something inside Franklin.
Letting his eyes drop closed, he expected his newfound sense of peace to see him falling asleep within seconds, but it didn’t happen. He was still wide awake several minutes later, running through all the things that had been said before his clothes had been ripped off.
Cameron thought he had…
Charles had tried to—
Franklin’s trail of thought deserted him when he felt the mattress move slightly as Cameron turned over.
Franklin held back a sigh as he caught himself hoping Cameron might be moving closer to him. This wasn’t supposed to be all about what he wanted. The sooner he learned that, the better.
The mattress wobbled again. This time, there was no need for Franklin to hope. Cameron had definitely moved nearer. Franklin forced himself to keep his breathing rhythm slow and steady as he sensed Cameron creep closer still.
A moment passed, and the heat of the lion’s body caressed Franklin’s back. Several seconds of stillness followed before he felt Cameron’s arm sneak over his side as the lion carefully spooned in behind him.
Cameron’s forehead came to rest on the back of Franklin’s head for a moment.
He sensed Cameron’s chest rise and fall and felt Cameron’s breath in his hair as he inhaled and exhaled deeply.
A minute passed, then another. The changes were so small they were almost imperceptible, but gradually, Cameron moulded his body against Franklin’s skin and snuggled up against him while doing his damnedest not to wake him.
Franklin closed his eyes a little tighter. Cameron wasn’t merely hot when Franklin give control over to him and let him call the shots. Cameron was sweet, too. Sweet and…
Franklin frowned into the darkness.
Cameron had control over the whole world. He could have done anything he wanted with him, yet he’d still waited until he thought he was asleep before approaching him.
Snugly wrapped up in the warmth and safety of the lion’s embrace, Franklin found himself wondering what kind of bastards the guy had been dealing with, that he couldn’t even believe that he’d be welcomed if he wanted to snuggle with his boyfriend after sex.
All at once, Franklin was more wide awake than he had ever been in his life.
Thoughts rushed through his mind quicker than he could process them, and the only thing that kept him perfectly still was the knowledge that Cameron would probably flee to the other side of the bed for the rest of the night if he realised the man he’d snuggled up against was awake.
Of course, Franklin knew exactly what kind of bastards Cameron had been dealing with! The lion had been dealing with men exactly like him. Men who’d have happily bought a piece of whatever, and whoever, they wanted without thinking twice about—
Hell, without thinking once about who would get hurt in the process.
Franklin fought to keep his breaths slow and steady. For almost the first time he could remember, he couldn’t sense anger pouring off the lion. And that was the moment when he realised just how much right Cameron had to be angry.
It was so easy to imagine how the various men who’d paid for the pleasure would have treated him.
Franklin knew what they were like when they were determined to screw a man over in the boardroom.
That would be nothing compared what they’d be like with a dancer who had no one to stand up for him, no one to protect him.
He’d always liked to think that he had treated his dates better than that, but was he kidding himself?
No wonder Cameron wanted to take control of things between them. Maybe…maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to let Cameron make the decisions for a while.
Franklin silently cursed himself as he felt Cameron drop off into a deeper sleep just an inch behind him.
Yeah, that was right. He’d hand over control because he was a nice guy who wanted Cameron to get whatever he needed. He wasn’t doing it because he wanted it for himself…
Franklin sighed quietly to himself in the darkness, even as he snuggled a little more securely back into Cameron’s embrace.
If he’d ever needed any proof that he really was a selfish bastard, this was it.
* * * * *
The sheets rustled on the bed behind him, but Franklin didn’t take his eyes off the view through the window. He just stared fixedly at the sunrise as if his life depended on it.
“Okay,” he said. To his immense relief, the word came out calm and steady
Franklin felt the lion’s eyes scanning over his body. He obviously had Cameron’s full attention.
Taking a deep breath, Franklin pushed the last of his reservations aside and marched on. “You want to be in control of what happens between us? Okay—I’ll go along with that.”
Cameron’s hand came to rest on his shoulder.
Franklin jumped. As stealthy as a bloody cat was right. He hadn’t even heard the man leave the damn bed!
Taking a deep breath, he tried to pretend he hadn’t made a fool of himself and continued to stare out of the window he’d been gazing through for the last half an hour.
“You’re offering to submit to me?” Cameron asked, very slowly as if choosing each word with great care. “To be my pet?” His other hand snaked around Franklin’s waist and pulled Franklin back to rest against him.
“Pet?” Franklin said. Every muscle in his body tensed at the idea.
“That’s what lions call the humans who submit to them, who belong to them,” Cameron informed him, his tone of voice just slightly wary.
“Oh…” Franklin stared at the tree visible from the window.
“Is that what you’re saying you want?” Cameron pushed.
Cameron’s hands moved. There was no nudging, no polite little request for Franklin to face him. Cameron simply turned him around bodily until Franklin was where he wanted him to be.
“This isn’t a game,” Cameron snarled, annoyance suddenly filling his words. “When a lion becomes a human’s master, it means something. If you’re going to run away every time you want to play the rich boy then—”
“I’m not going anywhere.” It wasn’t until the words hit the air that Franklin realised just how serious he was about them.
A light came into Cameron’s eyes, as if he was pleased by Franklin’s decision. But he didn’t seem to have any idea how to show that. A curt nod was his only response.
A tiny feeling of acceptance shot through Franklin, but he quickly pushed it aside.
“Last night, at the restaurant,” he began.
Cameron’s eyes narrowed.
“Whatever happened between you and Charles, I had no idea what he intended. I would never have made you part of any deal.”
Cameron seemed to stare at him for a long time, as if judging his sincerity. Finally, Franklin received another abrupt little nod.
Swallowing down his nerves, Franklin forced himself to keep going. “Did he hurt you?”
Cameron blinked at him. He stared again, this time in obvious confusion, as if he didn’t understand the question. He only looked away when Franklin’s words finally seemed to sink in. “I’m fine.”
Striding quickly away from the window, Cameron headed into the bathroom. Franklin trailed slowly along behind him but paused on the threshold, not entirely sure of his welcome.
Cameron looked over his shoulder and glared at him, one eyebrow raised in query as he approached the hand basin. “Why are you still out there?”
Franklin stepped obediently inside the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Even if he wasn’t sure about everything else, there were certain things that had always been easy between them.
As Cameron’s lips covered his, and he lifted Franklin up so his arse rested on the very edge of the countertop by the sink, everything became very simple, and very, very perfect.