Chapter Eight #4
Dipping his head, Cameron brushed their lips together very gently. “I’m not going anywhere.” As he broke the kiss, Cameron moved lower and nuzzled Franklin’s shoulder, rubbing his forehead against Franklin’s skin and simply relishing his presence.
“I love you. You know that, don’t you?” Cameron said, although he couldn’t bring himself to lift his head and look Franklin in the eye as he said it.
“I love you, too,” Franklin whispered back.
There was no doubting his sincerity. Cameron closed his eyes as he wrapped those words carefully around him before he finally he had to force himself to pull away. “You should rest, now.”
Franklin caught hold of Cameron’s wrist and tugged him back close.
Every muscle in Cameron’s body tensed as he felt Franklin try to take control, but, unwilling to tussle with his pet when he was already in such a fragile state, Cameron forced himself to allow Franklin to do as he pleased, despite the memories it stirred up.
Cameron’s fingertips brushed against Franklin’s cock as Franklin guided his hand there. Franklin let go of his wrist then, but it didn’t need to keep holding it in place anyway. Cameron’s fingers wrapped around Franklin’s dick all on their own. His mate was already half-hard.
Without even thinking about it, Cameron stroked Franklin’s rapidly stiffening dick with a slow, gentle rhythm. Within seconds, Franklin’s hips rocked forward, trying to push his cock harder against Cameron’s palm. He winced as his back protested against that sort of movement.
“No.” Cameron reached out and settled his free hand on Franklin’s hip, stilling him.
Franklin glanced up and met Cameron’s eyes, but he quickly dropped his gaze. He seemed about to pull back, but Cameron halted that movement, too.
“No. Let me look after you.”
Franklin hesitated. “If you don’t want to—”
Cameron moved his hand from Franklin’s hip to the side of his face. “I’ve wanted you ever since I laid eyes on you. That’s never going to change. Just…” He put everything he had into making his words a question rather than a demand. “Just let me look after you?”
“You’re hurt, too,” Franklin whispered, his voice softer than Cameron had known was possible.
Cameron shook his head, brushing that aside. Leaning forward, he offered another kiss against Franklin’s lips. A moment later, his tongue lapped at his shoulder. From there, he worked his way down Franklin’s body.
Apparently eager to please and give his master an easy angle for the imminent blow job, Franklin tried to roll onto his back. Cameron caught hold of his hip just in time to stop Franklin from being painfully reminded of why that would be a really bad idea.
He kept Franklin on his side as he moved further down the bed. Taking his hand away from Franklin’s now flourishing erection, Cameron wrapped his lips around it and took it into his mouth.
He murmured his own pleasure at the taste of his pet’s pleasure as pre-cum leaked onto his tongue. Another second passed, and he took him deeper. Cameron knew what he was doing. He knew exactly how a man like Franklin wanted him to—
The gentle rocking of Franklin’s hips ceased abruptly when Cameron snarled, but Cameron was far too lost in his memories to pay immediate attention to that.
His pet was nothing like those men.
Cameron pulled back until only the tip of Franklin’s cock remained in his mouth. Franklin was nothing like them. And Cameron was doing this because he wanted to. He could do this.
He slowly caressed the tip of Franklin’s dick with his tongue, then again and again. Franklin gasped. He started to rock his hips slightly again. But he didn’t put his hand on the back of Cameron’s head. He didn’t grab his hair. He didn’t even try to issue any orders. Everything was fine.
Cameron looked up, just in time to see Franklin turn his face into the pillow in an effort to muffle the sounds of his enjoyment.
“No.” Cameron quickly scrambled up the bed until they were face to face. “No. I want to hear you.”
Franklin swallowed rapidly, but he also nodded. “Please?”
The kind of man Cameron thought Franklin was when they’d first met would have pushed him back down the bed. Any one of those rich bastards would have had a death grip on his hair without even thinking about it.
None of them would have asked. None of them would have cared what his answer would have been if they had.
“And if that’s not what I want?” Cameron found himself asking.
Franklin let out a little mew of frustration, but he also nodded his acceptance of his decision as if it never occurred to him to do anything else. There was no impatience in his gaze when their eyes met, only uncertainty, as if he was worried that Cameron was rejecting him.
It really wouldn’t do to let his pet think that he would ever want to do that.
Cameron wasted no more time before encouraging Franklin to roll onto his stomach. The vivid red marks on his back tore at something inside Cameron, and he quickly moved his gaze lower, to Franklin’s arse. His hand quickly followed his eyes’ lead and smoothed gently over the firm tanned globes.
Ryland obviously understood both lions and their mates.
He’d tucked some lube in between the blankets when he’d delivered the bedding to the door, clearly guessing they’d need it.
Quickly retrieving that lube from where he’d stashed it beneath one of the pillows when he’d made the bed, Cameron slicked his fingers.
“You’re going to stay very still and let your master look after you, aren’t you…love?”
There was no laughter at his halting addition of the endearment. Franklin merely nodded enthusiastically against the pillow.
Enough preparation for Cameron to be sure he wouldn’t hurt his mate, but no more than that.
They both needed this too much to waste a second.
Cameron quickly rearranged them until he held himself over Franklin’s body with one hand on the mattress either side of him.
Franklin moaned his encouragement as the tip of Cameron’s cock nudged between his arse cheeks.
Very slowly, very carefully, Cameron rocked his hips forward, sheathing himself in Franklin’s body with more control than he’d ever suspected himself capable of.
With his hands still resting on the mattress either side of Franklin, Cameron arched his spine and held himself up, making sure he didn’t irritate the whip marks on Franklin’s back, regardless of how the skin on his own back protested.
Franklin’s head was turned to the left, and Cameron watched his profile, enchanted by the pleasure that flashed across his expression. Franklin opened his eyes then, and the bliss flooding his scent found new levels.
Frowning with confusion, Cameron followed Franklin’s gaze.
The room had been moved around as it had been prepared for redecoration.
A tall standing mirror had been placed to the left of the bed.
Both their reflections showed clearly in it—Franklin laying beneath him as Cameron loomed over him, his hair falling over his face, his shoulders flexing under the strain of the position.
And the glass showed the emotion in Franklin’s eyes, too.
No man in any club had ever looked at Cameron that way. It wasn’t just lust in Franklin’s expression. It was something deeper. And, in that moment, the only thing Cameron wanted was a man—was this man—to look at him in that way for the rest of his life. Nothing else mattered.
He rocked forward, thrusting deep inside Franklin over and over again and glorying in every sensation that rushed through his veins in response.
When Franklin came, Cameron stopped even trying to hold back.
He opened up his mind and his body to the pure ecstasy that cascaded through him, and for the first time in so long, he felt free to be himself as he came.
He roared his pleasure up to the ceiling while Franklin was still coming beneath him.
Cameron couldn’t collapse forward and keep their bodies together the way he wished he could.
He had no choice but to pull away and move to the other side of the bed, but Franklin immediately turned his head toward him.
He was exhausted and in obvious pain, but all his attention was still on his new mate.
Minutes passed, filled with nothing but heavy breaths and pleasure-addled thoughts, but finally, Franklin spoke.
“You really think this will work?” Franklin asked, very softly.
“Yes.” Cameron was willing to be damned before he’d let any trace of weakness creep into the word. “They’re a good pride. And we’re part of that pride now. And you’re my mate. And I’m your mate. And…”
And, suddenly, the words stopped being an effort to convince himself as much as convince Franklin. Cameron knew it in the instinctive way he remembered knowing so many things a few years before. Everything would be okay. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be okay. Any difficulties would be worth it.
Franklin smiled as their eyes met, as if he understood exactly what his mate was thinking and agreed with every single bloody word of it.
Cameron smiled back then, without any trace of bitterness in his expression. Yes, everything would be just fine.