“I don’t think we were ever truly over, Xen. I don’t think I could ever be done with you. Can I…”

  He trails off, and his mouth finds my thigh again, his lips more forceful as he travels higher. Hovering over my groin, his eyes are full of grief and fire, but also something much more intimate as they land on mine again.

  “You’ve been hurting for so long, princess,” he murmurs. “Can I make you feel good?”

  Just the thought of his mouth on me sends my breath stuttering, my chest rising and falling too fast. My body answers before my mind can catch up, and his eyes follow the flex and shift of my abdomen. He traces every involuntary twitch, before dragging his gaze back up to mine.

  It might be temporary.

  A stolen hour.

  A fleeting kindness before the distance returns.

  But I’ve always been so damn selfish when it comes to him, and I’ll take whatever scraps of affection he’s willing to give.

  I nod, and it’s all the permission he needs.

  His eyes don’t leave mine as he places a kiss between my legs. It’s soft and sweet, and full of promises as he presses a line of them along the satin of my panties.

  Not wanting to miss a moment, I scramble to prop myself onto my elbows as his mouth grows bolder. He kisses and flicks his tongue, tracing the edges so the warm, wet drag barely teases my overly sensitive skin. His name leaves me in a pleading whisper, and my knees spread wider to beg for more.

  His head twists to the side, and I gasp as his lips meet the crease between my hip and thigh. The contact on bare skin makes my control slip, and my cock starts to push out as a warm rush of slick spreads over my skin.

  Bash groans low in the back of his throat as he stares at the bulge in my panties, then wraps his lips around the fabric and gently sucks.

  “Oh, gods,” I moan as my hips snap forward.

  His low chuckle is pleased as his tongue traces the edges of my underwear. He flicks his tongue underneath the satin to trace the edges of my slit, and my knees spread so wide they nearly meet the mattress.

  The noises that leave me are unrestrained, my body on fire from the contact I’ve been missing for so fucking long.

  Bash gets greedy as he nudges the fabric aside and takes my cock into his mouth. His tongue curls around it, sliding the ring of his lips further until they meet where it extends my body.

  He sucks for a blissful moment before he pulls off me again. “Hold it inside, princess,” he murmurs as he shifts his attention to the crease of my thigh. “I know how much you love to come when it drips out of you.”

  My stomach muscles tense, and I moan again at the fullness as my cock retracts slowly.

  Bash gives another slow, deliberate lick up my center before he slides my panties back in place and returns to his teasing. He licks over the fabric and sucks the tip of my cock as I try to keep it inside. When I’m soaked and desperate, he moves lower until the flat of his tongue drags over my hole. He moans like a starving man as slick pours from me there, too.

  “Gods, I’ve missed the taste of you,” he mutters as he pushes my panties aside once more, and starts eating me out in earnest.

  My heels press into the mattress as my hips roll in a maddening rhythm against his mouth. His tongue dips inside me, and my whimpers and whines get louder as my body demands more.

  Steady, firm hands cup my hips and pull me closer. Teeth scrape and the rasp of Bash’s stubble burns as he thrusts his tongue deeper. His hands drag along my hips before they move under my thighs, and I call out as he pushes my legs into my chest and spreads me wide.

  “Gods, you’re so fucking beautiful.” He stares at me from between my legs, his lips swollen and chin shiny with spit and slick.

  “Bash,” I moan as I try to move, to take more, but he pins me there as he turns my body into a feast.

  I clench as my cock pulses deep inside me, and I gasp as I fight to stave off my release. Heavy streams of slick leak from my slit as my core tightens, and Bash’s eyes snap to the drip of liquid.

  It’s like no time at all has passed as he reads my body’s signals, but he doesn't let me fall over the edge. My panties are soaked as he slides them back in place, sticking to my body like a second skin as he releases my legs to fall against the bed.

  “Come here,” he says as he moves to my mouth, tasting of slick and sex. The kiss feels significant—like coming home after so very long away, and I cling to him, hands and fingers grasping at anything I can get ahold of.

  His shirt, his hair, arms and back and lower, wrapping my legs around him and gasping at the sensation of his cock rubbing against my thigh. He shifts until it presses against my hole, and I pull back to stare at his gorgeous face.

  “Please?” I beg, rolling my body and wanting nothing more than for him to slip his shorts down and take me right now. It wouldn’t take much, and he knows it.

  A few thrusts, maybe only one, and I’d be done.

  “Patience,” he whispers back, driving his hips forward as he claims my mouth again. Our lips part in tandem as his tongue dips into my mouth, and we’re moving as one as he kisses me like he needs my taste to survive.

  Like he’s missed me as much as I’ve missed him, and I can only pray that’s true.

  His fingers tiptoe down my body, and he tears his mouth away as he rubs me through my soaked panties. I call out, spreading my knees and grinding against him as he shoves them aside and slips two fingers into my hole.

  “You’re soaked,” he murmurs, thrusting into me as I fight to hold everything inside. “You’re trying not to come right now, aren’t you?”

  “Y-yes,” I admit in a shaky whisper.

  “You always were so fucking sensitive,” he mutters as he kisses me and adds a third finger.

  “You’re doing so good holding it back, princess,” he whispers as my body pulses. “Give me a few more minutes to enjoy this before you go, okay?”

  It’s a fight to obey, but I give him a rough nod.

  His fingers slide from my body and I ache with the emptiness, but he drags them through my slit and pushes them inside, tracing the shape of my cock.

  “You’re so perfect.” He fingers me with practiced precision, feeling the way my muscles flex with the need to come. “So needy.”

  His name leaves me again as I rock my hips and fuck myself on his fingers. My mouth falls open, slack from the pure bullets of pleasure that rip through my body, but before I can fall over the edge, he pulls out.

  He doesn’t even blink as he grips my arms and lifts me from the bed. We swap places, and his back hits the mattress as he maneuvers my knees to either side of his head.

  Steady hands circle my waist, leaving wet trails along the dips in my abdomen as he encourages me closer. Our eyes meet, and something heavy and terrifyingly intimate passes between us as he guides me to his mouth. The pleasure makes my head snap back, my voice strained as I call out.

  My hips roll and my thighs tense, and his name becomes a chant as my body moves faster. His fingers pit my waist as he encourages me to ride him, and my cries get louder as everything winds tight.

  Muscles tremble, my breath comes in pants, and my entire body tenses. My cock tries to push from my body, and my muscles quake as I fight to hold it inside.

  He knows how much I love it.

  The pressure.

  The deep, throbbing pulses.

  The drip of cum when I can’t take it any longer.

  I lose all sense of rhythm as my spine arches. Nonsense spills from my lips—pleads for more and mindless calls of his name as my fingers weave into his hair. My inhibitions disappear as I soar, and in that moment, everything is replaced by pure, blinding pleasure.

  There’s no pain or sadness, only the sensation of us together and the undeniable rightness of our bodies connected in this way.

  Pressure and tension, coiling and swirling.

  They burn me alive from the inside until I can’t handle it anymore, and when it finally breaks, his name is damn near a scream on my lips.

  Bash

  Fuck, I’d missed this.

  The flex of his muscles under my hands, the heat of his skin against my tongue, and the way his taste floods my mouth like something sacred I’d been starved of for years.

  And the noises he makes…

  Gods, those noises.

  Xeni is loud, untamed, and completely lacking any control once he lets go. It’s a heady thing to be at the center of that desperate attention.

  It’s something I’ve missed every waking moment of the past four years. Not just the sex, but the intimacy. The familiar comfort and all-encompassing bliss I’ve only ever found with him.

  Real struggles wait outside these walls, and Xeni and I have barely begun unpacking the damaged pieces of our past, but right now, I let myself live in ignorance.

  I pretend for these stolen minutes that everything is okay.

  My hands squeeze tighter around his waist, needing to pull him as close as two people could possibly be. When I do, his spine arches, head snapping back with a gasp.

  His long hair tickles my stomach, and the lean, defined muscles of his abs clench as he bears down on my mouth. His thighs quiver and shake, squeezing my head between them in a way that makes my blood roar.

  He’s gone, and I’m utterly enamored as I watch him soar.

  My name falls from his lips and I'm convinced it's a prayer.

  Even through the soaked satin of his panties, I feel his muscles contract in deep, rhythmic pulses. Warm release soaks the fabric as I suck harder, coating my mouth and chin with his flavor while he writhes above me, helpless and perfect.

  His undoing is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

  Control slips entirely as his cock pushes from his body, barely contained by the material and pressing against the satin as another burst of thick release leaks through.

  More whimpers and whines fill the room as his fingers tighten in my hair, and I feel too big for my own skin as he uses me for his pleasure, riding the waves without shame.

  His comedown is just as intoxicating. He trembles, thighs loosening their grip on my head as heavy breaths push from his lungs. Slowly, he scoots back to sit on my chest, and I drink in the sight of him.

  He’s so fucking beautiful.

  Sweat makes his skin dewy, his pale face flushed a deep rose while his lips part on ragged breaths. He bites them when he loses himself, and it leaves them puffy and half-bruised.

  For a moment, the eyepatch jars me, and rage flares hot in my chest at what was taken from him. But then Xeni stares down at me in quiet wonder, and the crippling heaviness he carries seems to lift.

  He’s light and free, and happy in a way that makes it feel like he never left. The tiniest smile tilts his lips as he catches his breath, and for just a moment, I forget I’ve spent the last four years angry.

  Instead, I just feel.

  Everything I’ve tried to bury comes rushing back, and my protective armor strips away as memories flood in.

  Xeni’s smile from across the room when we had to hide our relationship, and the ache in my heart because I couldn’t touch him. The way he’d catch my pinkie in passing or lean his knee against mine under the table, and how it had to be enough until we were behind closed doors.

  How he’d collapse into my lap at night, crying over what he’d been forced to do, and how I felt like the most powerful man in the world because I somehow always managed to make it better.

  The way he made me love like I never thought possible.

  The words hover on my lips.

  That I love him, and that I never stopped.

  But Xeni scoots lower and drops his hands on either side of my head, and his kiss saves me from baring my heart when we don’t know what our future holds. He protects me from my impulses that want to pretend these past years didn’t happen.

  They did.

  They happened, and they broke us.

  But he kisses me with his entire body, and it weakens my defenses further. We’re desperate for that lost connection, both of us shoving at my clothes to remove every barrier. The elastic of my shorts bands around my thighs as Xeni loses patience and reaches for me, fingers wrapping around my cock.

  He pauses, fingertips trailing along my length before tracing the curved barbell at the tip. It’s a feather-light touch, but it sends sparks shooting up my spine.

  “That’s new,” he mutters, his eye snapping to mine with a different kind of heat—dark, possessive, and edged with something sharp.

  A teasing grin tugs at my lips. “Don’t like it?”

  “I don’t like that you got it for someone other than me,” he admits, the words clipped. His jealousy flares hot in his gaze as his thumb circles the piercing again, like he’s claiming it now.

  I arch a brow, letting my hips lift into his teasing. “I got it for me, princess. And besides… three months without sex? You could’ve never lasted that long without breaking.”

  He grunts, the sound wavering between frustrated and amused, even though we both know I’m right.

  His fingers linger, dancing over both ends of the barbell once more before he hooks his panties and holds them aside as he lines us up.

  “It is maybe a little sexy,” he concedes, voice dropping to a husky whisper as he leans forward. His lips find mine in a kiss that’s all heat and challenge while he sinks down slowly, taking me in inch by torturous inch.

  My brows furrow as he cries out against my lips, and I pull back, noting the tremble in his limbs.

  “Easy,” I murmur, despite the burning need to drive upward and bury myself in him.

  “I can take it,” he breathes, voice damn near gasping as he slips another inch inside. “I’m wet… I’m ready.”

  Slick slides down my cock as his body fights to accept me, but when I try to slow him down, he shakes his head frantically.

  “I need this, Bash,” he begs.

  My heart pounds as I push his hair from his face and nod. “Then you’ll have it.”

  He’s so fucking tight, and he moans again as he takes more. I grip his hips, but despite his lean, willowy frame, he’s stronger than me.

  He snatches my wrists and pins them above my head, bringing us face to face. Ecstasy paints his features as he lifts and slides back down.

  My body comes alive for the first time in years. Fire ignites in my heart and spreads like an inferno through my veins. Skin meets skin in sharp, wet slaps, and he keeps me pinned as he takes all of me.

  Both of us call out into the small space between us before his mouth finds mine and our pleasure-filled sounds become muffled. His hips snap forward, and my knees lift, heels pressing into the mattress for leverage.

  His body yields so beautifully, like it was made just for me.

  Designed to be mine.

  So much slick has formed it pools on my groin and thighs, and the sharp, rhythmic slap rings through the room every time he drops his weight. Every sense is overloaded, and it takes no time before my body winds tight.

  “Xeni,” I gasp, pulling my mouth from his, eyes wide.

  His lip lifts in that pleased smirk that shows the tips of his teeth. I try to free my arms, to grab him and slow the pace, but he tightens his grip and swivels his hips in a way that has my eyes rolling back.

  White hair falls around us like a curtain, isolating us from the world as he speeds up.

  It’s my turn to chant his name, but I don’t know if it’s too much or not enough as he rides me. He whines with every lift, then moans as he sinks down again. His cock is fully extended and pinned between our bodies, any remnant of control long gone.

  The dull thump of the headboard becomes a loud, rhythmic cadence that I’m convinced everyone on this side of the building can hear, but I’m beyond caring as my balls draw tight and my muscles coil.

  My name leaves him in a whisper, and he gasps as his body contracts. Warmth spreads over my stomach while his eye flares in surprise.

  It throws me over the edge, and I thrust up into him as pressure breaks in blinding waves. Ecstasy hurdles to every extremity in my body, causing my muscles to pulse and teeth to grit. Even my toes curl against the sheets, and finally, he releases my wrists.

  My hands find him immediately—one banding around his waist while the other weaves into his hair. I hold him impossibly tight as my release pushes the air from my lungs, and our mouths move together, not quite kissing, just desperately sharing breath.

  Xeni’s thighs flex as he rides me through the aftershocks, his slow motions milking the last pulses from my cock until I hiss with oversensitivity.

  He kisses me properly now, deliberate and sweet, then lifts his hips. A mess of fluid leaks between us, and for a few serene moments, we just lie there. His head rests on my chest, listening to my heartbeat like he always did, so careful not to graze me with his horns.

  I wish it could stay like this.

  The high fades as our heart rates settle, and I glance at the clock with a quiet groan.

  Xeni kisses my pec and looks up in question.

  “There’s a lot going on right now,” I say carefully. “I should probably get out there and handle some work.”

  “Did I interrupt something important last night?” he asks, pushing up to sit. Uncertainty crosses his face, and his arms cross over his chest like he’s trying to hide.

  The shyness is foreign on him. Xeni used to parade naked whenever he could, flaunting the body he knew I loved. He’s thinner now, but no less beautiful because of it.

  The insecurity runs deeper, though… and it’s warranted.

  I’m unsure where this leaves us, too.

  “Yeah,” I admit after a pause. “We were wrapping up when you, uh… came in. I need to check on everything this morning.”

  “Is there anything I can help with?”

  His eye flicks up to mine, and he looks so hopeful.

  I hesitate.

  He blanches as if I’ve struck him, then scrambles to mask it, and it’s heartbreaking to watch the walls go up. For years, I saw him pretend to be unbothered and arrogant around others, but never with me.