Rom slid his hands up, pulling Colton’s arms down so he could tuck them under his legs. Then he climbed up his body, Colton’s mouth automatically opening for him, ready, willing.

  He stared down at him, this sweet, gentle god of his, Adonis incarnate. Hopefully without the bittersweet ending to that tale. Then he felt Colton’s hands on his ass, nudging him forward, hints of a smile in his eyes even as he opened his mouth wider, wanting Rom’s cock.

  Rom gave him what he wanted, both of them moaning as he slowly plunged his cock between the man’s lips, deep, over his tongue. Moaning again as Colton swallowed and took him even deeper, to the root, into the tight heat of his throat.

  Sex had never felt so good, so fun, so perfect with anyone before. Those were qualifiers Rom hated admitting because it made him vulnerable, made him want more with the man.

  Made him want everything with Colton.

  A ring and a vow and a lifetime together.

  Those were what he really wanted with the man, and it terrified him at a visceral level.

  It meant he could be hurt and heartbroken, and those were things he avoided like the plague.

  Heartbreak could kill.

  Heartbreak in the wrong hands could end lives.

  Rom backed off, allowing Colton a chance to breathe, but the man’s fingers buried in his ass cheeks pressed again, a silent plea to not stop, to give him more.

  Rolling his hips, Rom started fucking Colton’s mouth. Colton massaged his tongue along the underside of Rom’s cock, teasing beneath the head with the tip of his tongue and trying to snake into the slit for another taste at every chance.

  God, the man’s mouth was a miracle, a sinfully sexy impossibility. Rom wasn’t sure if he wanted to blow there or in his ass.

  Finally, he asked Colton. “You want Sir’s cum like this, or do you want a fucking?”

  “Mmmm.” He squeezed Rom’s ass, making it obvious which he was choosing.

  “Okay then, baby. Settle in and get comfy.” He shifted position just a little, bracing his arms better and slowing his speed to make it last a while.

  That was the drawback to this, that Colton could easily suck one out of him while barely even trying, he was that good with his mouth. It wasn’t that Colton enjoyed giving blowjobs, or that he was good at them, it was that he obviously wanted the recipient to savor them and enjoy them. It wasn’t merely a chore for him.

  Usually, Rom wasn’t a jealous man, but he didn’t want to contemplate the existence of anyone Colton had ever gone down on before him. He wanted to live in a universe where he was the only one privileged enough to enjoy this man’s oral talents, past, present, and future, even if he had to fib to himself in the process about it.

  Colton’s hands kneaded his ass as Rom closed his eyes and fucked Colton’s mouth.

  This could be forever.

  The fear added a sweet edge to his pleasure, making it that much harder for him to hold back. He didn’t want to blow too soon. He wanted to forever feel Colton’s lips and tongue on his cock, the sweet heat and delicious suction eagerly working on him.

  Forever meant vulnerability, though.

  He fisted the covers and tried to hold out. Even though his balls began to tighten. Even as he felt more blood filling his cock, that point of no-return rushing up headlong to meet him.

  Colton splayed his fingers along Rom’s ass, the tip of one finger finding the seam and gliding down it, pressing against his rim.

  The explosion felt like it’d twist his spine right off at his hips. He threw his head back, back arched as he plunged his cock deep one last time.

  Below him, Colton’s eager moans vibrated through his balls, the way his hands squeezed his ass—everything.

  It threatened to rip his heart out, and he knew it.

  The question was, could he make himself take the risk? Because, damn, it sure felt like one worth taking.

  Catching his breath, he pulled out a little despite Colton trying to hold him there. Rom finally sat up and back, so he could stare down at his boy.

  He ran his hands through Colton’s hair. “Such a good boy for me.”

  Colton responded with a playful smile around the limp cock he refused to relinquish, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

  “Okay, your turn.”

  But Colton still squeezed Rom’s ass, replying with a muffled, “Uh-uh.”

  “How about you let me turn around and I’ll let you keep playing with it while I play with you?”

  Colton released his cock with a playful pop that made Rom laugh. “I thought that’d change your mind,” Rom teased.

  He quickly turned around to go down on him in a sixty-nine, and Colton’s hands once again sought out his ass, holding on and squeezing Rom’s cheeks like he was the man’s personal stress toy or something.

  Not that I mind.

  The man’s huge, meaty hands perfectly cupped his ass. It all circled back to feeling like he had a very large, powerful, and potentially dangerous pet at his willing command.

  And Colton’s mouth quickly sought out and sucked down Rom’s cock. Rom doubted he’d be able to get it up again quite this soon, especially with the sweet distraction of Colton’s cock in his own mouth.

  He chuckled to himself at the muffled, sexy swearing and moans erupting from Colton when Rom swallowed his shaft, licking and sucking, teasing him.

  Beneath him, the larger man’s body writhed, using Rom’s body for leverage as he rocked his hips and tried to coax him into going deeper, faster.

  Harder.

  Rom swallowed him until his nose brushed against Colton’s balls, the warm, musky scent of the man filling his lungs.

  There wasn’t a damn thing about his boy that he didn’t love.

  That he was quickly starting to feel like he needed.

  That brought more fear.

  Tonight, he didn’t care. He wanted more of Colton—all of him. He slowly pulled off and swirled his tongue around the head. He wanted to make him blow, to get him to fill Rom’s mouth with ropes of hot cum, wanted his boy to give it all to him.

  Every last bit of him. He didn’t want to just own him.

  He wanted to possess him.

  The thought of dragging it out and making him beg for it briefly crossed Rom’s mind, but then he decided no, he wanted to make him come. Wanted to make him make those noises.

  Wanted Colton to come totally undone for him.

  A string of muffled and unintelligible swear words rolled from Colton as his cock hardened even more against Rom’s tongue. His hands clamped tighter around Rom’s ass. When the man came it was obvious—a long, low moan that vibrated through Rom’s body, too. Followed by his cum pumping over Rom’s tongue.

  That’s what I’m talking about.

  Rom finally sat up and turned around so he could lean in and kiss Colton. He pulled him in and tangled his legs around Rom’s, snuggling tight against his chest with Rom’s arms around him.

  His big, sweetly sated snuggle puppy.

  “Better?” Rom asked.

  “Mmm-hmm,” Colton mumbled, already halfway to falling asleep.

  That was fine, because so was Rom. And falling asleep with the man in his arms felt like a little slice of Heaven to his Hell-scorched soul.

  Chapter Ten

  Sunday morning, Colton lay awake with Rom still asleep in his arms. Overnight, he’d ended up the big spoon, and he didn’t mind at all. The other man’s body perfectly fit along his, and he was struggling not to grind his morning semi along the seam of Rom’s ass and wake him up.

  This was real. This was happening.

  It was too damned easy to start spinning out fantasies, of life together, a wedding, a honeymoon—them snuggled together just like this twenty or forty years from now, loving each other.

  A sweet perfection he desperately wanted to make real no matter how soon it was now.

  He wanted Rom.

  Eventually, he stirred in Colton’s arms, rolled to face him, one arm slipping around Colton’s waist. “Mmm. I hate mornings.” He tipped his face back for a kiss from Colton. “But waking up to you makes them more bearable.”

  “Ditto.”

  “How quiet do we have to be today?”

  “We probably shouldn’t risk spanking, but this bedroom is over the storeroom, so we should be safe enough that way. Unless you wanted us to go back to your place.”

  “Uh-uh. I want to stay here.” He sighed. “But I do want coffee.”

  “I stocked up on breakfast food, and got stuff for us for dinner.”

  “Oooh, someone just earned a blowjob from Sir later. Once I’ve had coffee.”

  “I can take a hint.”

  “Good.” Rom kissed him again before letting him out of bed.

  After a quick stop by the bathroom, Colton headed out to the kitchen. It felt weird staying totally naked, but he’d closed the blinds last night.

  And one of Rom’s rules was that Colton stayed totally naked when alone together.

  He had a feeling he’d quickly grow used to it.

  After a few minutes, he heard the toilet flush in his bathroom and Rom joined him in the kitchen. “One more thing I want to talk about,” he said.

  “This sounds serious.” Although it was difficult for Colton to think with Rom standing there deliciously naked in front of him.

  “It is. Don’t tell me you love me unless you mean it for life,” Rom quietly said. “I don’t want to be played. I’d rather spend time together without that hanging over our heads, than you say it and have to take it back later. I’ll do you the same courtesy. If I tell you I love you—that I’m in love with you—it means I’m ready for forever with you.”

  Colton nodded. “Me, too.”

  “I’d rather you show me. Words mean nothing. I’ll show you how I feel, and you show me how you feel.”

  “Yes, Sir. I want that, too.”

  “Good.” He smiled. “Sorry to go so heavy and dark there, buddy.”

  “No, this is good. Don’t apologize for honesty.”

  Rom pulled him in for a kiss. “I’m almost afraid to tell you how good this feels to me. I don’t want to jinx it.”

  Colton draped his arms around Rom’s neck. He actually liked that the other man was a little shorter than him, and that he had a slimmer build. He liked feeling protective of his Sir, that when they were together, it was his job to keep an eye out for him.

  Him.

  Rom’s gaze narrowed as he looked up at him. “What did you just think?”

  “Why?”

  “Because you got that dreamy look in your eyes.”

  Colton’s face heated. Rom had an annoyingly accurate way of pegging him when his mind went off somewhere, and he had to close his eyes as he admitted it to Rom.

  But Rom chuckled.

  “I kind of like having an attack pet, too,” he said.

  Colton opened his eyes to Rom’s playful smile.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah. I can be your Sir and still like feeling safe with you.”

  “I mean, I’m not a ninja or something. I haven’t had to get into a fight since I was out of high school. Usually, people see my size and back off and don’t want to fuck with me.”

  “That’s what I mean—I like that. It’s sexy. Big guy like you willingly bends a knee for me and only me. That’s fucking hot, man. You have no idea how hot that is.”

  “Yeah, well, if more guys knew how good you were in bed, I’d be fighting them off you.”

  Rom smirked. “Nah, you don’t have any competition, buddy. Trust me, I’m not going anywhere.”

  * * * *

  A week later, the next Sunday found them waking up in Colton’s bed again. This time, Colton now wore the leather cuffs and collar Rom had ordered for him, and which had arrived Friday.

  And he’d buckled them on Colton Friday night before bending him over the couch, reddening his ass, and then fucking his sweet boy.

  Rom had spent a couple of weeknights with Colton now, as a test to see if he could handle the early mornings.

  Early mornings sucked. But Rom realized the trade-off was more than worth it, that was for damn certain.

  Colton still seemed to be crazy about him, and he was definitely crazy about Colton.

  Even after learning about Rom’s hot mess of a history, it hadn’t scared Colton off.

  Even after meeting über-protective Chad and Ina, Colton still wanted to be with him.

  All they had to do was figure out exactly what this was, if it was forever or not.

  Rom was in no hurry, either. He’d seen what hurrying could do, how careless words and thoughtless actions could destroy people.

  Literally.

  He’d rather coast along gradually and build up speed over time versus plunging head-first off a cliff.

  What they were doing now, to him, wasn’t risky. Not if they didn’t rush things.

  There were no deadlines to meet, no arbitrary timeframes to adhere to.

  He didn’t want to get his heart broken, and he didn’t want to break Colton’s, either. They’d both suffered enough heartbreak to last them the rest of their lives, thanks to the actions of others.

  Actions, not words.

  The longer they were together, and the deeper this felt, that was proof.

  That was worth something.

  By week four of doing this between them, and now spending every night together, usually at Colton’s, Rom realized it was more than a habit or a craving—it felt like forever. They’d even exchanged keys, and Rom had figured out new favorite morning jogging routes. He didn’t jog every single morning, but he preferred to go alone to help clear and center his mind. And it was a moot point when Colton had his early morning gym clients, anyway.

  Aunt Roberta and Uncle Mike had dinner with them and Chad and Ina, and both sets of family were in total agreement the boys should think about making this permanent.

  No pressure, though, haha, no, seriously, when’s the wedding?

  Every time Colton perfectly took care of Rom’s laundry for him, without him even asking, or how, on weekday mornings, he left Rom a cup of coffee in a thermal mug next to the bed before kissing him good-bye.

  Every willing kneel, bowed head, upraised hands awaiting his cuffs and collar.

  That showed Rom how the man felt.

  It thrilled him in terrifying ways, because it would be so easy to think of this as forever when they had a ways to go yet. It’d only been four weeks.

  Four.

  Weeks.

  And it was hard to remember they’d known each other barely a month, because it was growing more difficult by the day to remember a time when Colton wasn’t in his life or in his bed.

  Or embedded deep within his heart and soul.

  “I want you to come up with a simple greeting ritual for us,” Rom told him that morning when they were cooking breakfast.

  “Sir?”

  “You heard me. I want it to be your ritual for us. A formal version we can do when we’re alone, or among the right kind of friends, and a vanilla version that’s under-the-radar when we aren’t. Since it’s something you’re going to be doing, I want it to be something that’s meaningful to you.”

  “But…what about you?”

  “If it’s meaningful to you, it’ll be meaningful to me. What makes it meaningful to me is that it is meaningful to you.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “By Wednesday evening,” Rom added. “You don’t have anything that night, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Okay. So I’ll come over after work, and before we have dinner or anything, you’ll greet me as soon as I get here.”

  “You…you don’t want me to run it past you first?”

  Rom shook his head. “Defeats the purpose of it being your ritual. I will come up with plenty of rules and protocols over the years, don’t worry. But when I tell you to do or pick or choose something, I mean it. This is yours, all yours, and after you complete it, I want you to demonstrate the vanilla version, too, and then explain your rationale and the deeper meaning to me. Understand?”

  Colton nodded. “Yes, Sir. I think so.”

  * * * *

  Strangely enough, Colton already knew what he wanted it to be. It was something he already did, just not formally.

  Rom liked to be the one to buckle Colton’s cuffs and collar on him, and he loved it when Colton knelt and held them up to him, presenting them.

  Colton loved the quiet bliss that settled in his mind at the feel of the leather enclosing his flesh, of the way Rom always stroked his head after buckling the collar on him.

  He absolutely was a pet, and loved being Rom’s pet. He hadn’t yet found a “mode” the man had that Colton didn’t love. Whether it was them just being a couple and watching TV, or Rom being a vicious Dom, or even veering into playful Daddy territory with sensually teasing games that left Colton simultaneously begging for relief and release as well as begging for more torment.

  He loved belonging to Rom.

  And, yes, he’d already put up signs and warned everyone about Rom’s allergy.

  Rom had even started keeping his spare EpiPen in Colton’s nightstand drawer, just in case. They were usually sleeping over at Colton’s, anyway. He had a larger bed than Rom did, a king-sized one.

  And, at night, no neighbors to complain about the spanking.

  He was ready Wednesday evening when Rom showed up and let himself in with his key. When he walked through Colton’s door, Colton was naked and awaiting him.

  He walked over and knelt in front of Rom, holding up his hands the way he did to present his cuffs and collar, except his hands were empty. He left the cuffs and collar on the floor next to him.

  Rom set everything down and watched him, finally holding out his left hand when Colton wiggled his fingers at him, motioning for it.

  Colton brought Rom’s hand to his mouth and kissed his palm, then pressed it to the top of his head and leaned in to rest his head against Rom’s hip. “Welcome home, Sir. Your boy missed You.” He closed his eyes and inhaled, peace settling over him, even without the cuffs and collar.