28. Strong Enough to Bow
STRONG ENOUGH TO BOW
ASHER
“ I said you could draw me a bath, not treat me like a sickly Victorian wife.”
Asher had only consented to Lev’s titillating offer to draw him an epsom bath in the hope Lev would join him.
Lev patted his arm. “You’re so cute when you’re cross.”
“I’m not cross.”
Lev had taken Asher’s injuries personally, as if he’d been the one to shove him to the cobblestone and nearly drown him.
At first it was flattering, especially when Lev insisted on tending to him by draining Asher’s balls with his mouth so he wouldn’t have to lift a finger. But after three days hidden in the cocoon of Lev’s room, Asher was tired of being treated like one of Theo’s glass sculptures.
The tub was already nearly full. Lev bent and twisted the tap off, averting his gaze as Asher stepped out of his sweatpants.
“Can you make sure I don’t fall on my ass?”
“Of course. Your arse will be in the safest of hands. I have a vested interest after all.”
Asher groaned. “I think that’s the worst joke you’ve made so far.”
“It’s an excellent joke. I’m told I’m hilarious.”
“Yeah, because you’re hot.”
Lev gasped. “People always laugh at my jokes.”
“Because you’re hot.”
Lev pursed his lips.
“I’m joking.”
“That wasn’t very funny.” Lev took both of Asher’s hands, spotting him as he stepped over the lip of the tub.
“Yeah, because like I said, you have no sense of hu—” Asher hissed as icy pinpricks pierced his cold feet and highlighted every point of broken skin as he sank into the hot, herbal-scented water.
“Are you alright?” Lev asked.
“Mmhm,” Asher hummed, gripping the sides of the tub as he closed his eyes, tipped his head back, and let his body float. “Thank you. I needed this.”
When Asher opened his eyes, Lev hadn’t moved, though his expression had changed from concern to desire.
“Are you waiting for an invitation?” Asher asked.
Lev blinked. “What? Of course not, unless… What I meant to say… Only if you’d like me to…”
Asher laughed. “Get in here.”
Lev pulled his tee over his head, revealing broad shoulders dusted with nutmeg freckles and lighter cinnamon speckling the rest of him. Asher wanted to connect the dots with his tongue.
“My eyes are up here, Blakely.”
“I know where your eyes are,” Asher retorted, gaze trailing down Lev’s abs and along his Adonis belt. He forced his gaze up. “You’re so fucking hot.”
“I’m glad you think so.” He rubbed the back of his head, drawing Asher’s attention to the hair under his arm. “I don’t have the body of a twenty-five-year-old.”
Lev’s concerns were absurd. “Your body is better than mine. Hand to bible, Lev, you’re the sexiest man I’ve ever been with. Your age doesn’t matter to me.”
“One day, it will.”
“Then we live in the now.”
“Live in the now,” Lev repeated. “I like that.”
“Good. Now turn around and take off your pants.”
Lev barked a laugh. “You mean my trousers?”
Asher rolled his eyes. “No one likes a pedant.”
Lev laughed and acquiesced, dipping his thumbs into his pants, on the precipice of pulling them down, then dragged his pants slowly over the curve of his cheeks, and dropped them.
Asher mapped Lev’s glutes with his palms and squeezed, then grabbed his hips and tugged him closer.
“What are you—” Lev staggered backwards and stopped right before falling into the tub. “Oh.”
Asher parted Lev down the center, just to peek—or at least that’s what he told himself until the sight of Lev’s hole was so irresistible his tongue took on a mind of its own.
Lev gasped. Asher moaned as he laved his tongue along the ridges and valleys of him with a feral sort of fervency.
“ Fuck me, Blakely.”
Asher kissed up Lev’s lower back and wrapped his hand around his length.
“Pay close attention, Marks. I’m going to show you how I like to be fucked.
” Asher modeled the speed he preferred while focusing his attention on the first few inches at the end of Lev’s cock.
“You’re big, and I need you to start slow and shallow until you break me in. ”
Lev made what would have been a whimper, if his voice wasn’t so low and graveled.
“I’m tight.” Asher squeezed. “Tighter than this. Once you open me up, I like it harder and a little faster.” He shifted his hand to stroke more of Lev’s cock. “And when I’m ready to come, I want you so deep, I feel you in my throat.”
Using the thumb of his other hand, Asher exposed more of Lev’s hole. “Mm. You’re tight, too.” He bent his head and devoured Lev’s hole like a deity bingeing at a bacchanal.
“ Ash , ” Lev said in a long, fuck-drunk moan. “ Fuck. Oh my God.”
Asher did feel like a god, exalted by Lev coming undone.
“I’m close,” Lev said in a rush.
Asher hummed, a nonverbal nudge of approval, as he jerked Lev in fast pulls all the way to his base and back up.
Lev lost all decorum, no longer a gentleman, but a man driven by need, a god stripped of his power and forced corporeal, willing to risk death and eternal damnation for even a fleeting second of mortal pleasure.
“I’m going to…” Cum spilled over Asher’s hand before Lev finished his sentence.
Asher pulled Lev tighter against his mouth and eased him through the aftershocks until he was done.
“Bloody hell, Blakely.” Lev turned, breathless and awestruck, cheeks and chest flushed.
Asher licked the come from his fingers with a grin, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Are you sure you’re real?” Lev cupped Asher’s face. “Sometimes I’m afraid my mind conjured you.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Let me hold you, little dormouse.”
“Don’t call me that,” Asher said automatically, but this time he didn’t mind, not when Lev looked at him like he wanted to eat him.
Leaning forward, Asher made room for Lev, who then climbed in behind him and pulled Asher between his legs. Asher rested back against Lev’s expansive chest and tilted his head to meet his gaze.
“You are everything,” Lev said and kissed him tenderly. Too tenderly.
It wasn’t enough. Asher tried to tell him as much, pillaging Lev’s mouth with his tongue and digging his fingernails into his thighs.
Instead of returning Asher’s aggression, Lev laughed, pulling back. “You’re always so prickly. Trust me to take care of you.”
Before Asher could tell him exactly how prickly he could be, Lev finally took Asher’s cock in hand, and stroked him with long, languid pulls. He reclaimed Asher’s lips, transporting him back to the gentle kiss that wasn’t them.
Trapped by Lev’s forearm against his chest, Asher tried to thrust upward into Lev’s grip. He even nipped Lev’s lip. But he tired out quickly, still weak from his race against high tide.
“Relax. Don’t you want to be good for me?”
Asher surrendered. The trade-off was worth earning Lev’s praise. “Yes.”
“There’s a good lad.” The weight of Lev’s arm on Asher’s chest lifted as Lev brushed Asher’s hair from his brow and kissed him. “Let me love you.”
Asher finally understood. Lev wasn’t teasing him. He was promising Asher was safe with him. This wasn’t about getting off. This was Lev making love, and Lev’s love was as soft as it was rough. It was as stable as it was tumultuous. Strong, but willing to bend, strong enough to bow.
When Asher came, his orgasm simmered through him without waning as Lev wrung pleasure from him slowly, still holding onto Asher as if they were lost at sea and he would sooner drown than release him.