Page 34 of Zero Confusion

Physical strength was nothing new to Miles, but as he loomed over Zach, pinning his legs to the mattress, he knew this control wasn’t purely physical. He wasn’t forcing Zach into submission with his strength—it was being offered to him freely. Zach was sharing more than his body. He trusted Miles to see him. To take care of him. To love him the way he deserved to be loved.

A rush of power coursed through his veins like a shot of adrenaline. His head swam with desire, with an unmistakable, all-encompassing need for Zach. He’d known it would be like this. Ever since their lips had touched, something inside him had shifted. The world suddenly made sense.

This was what he wanted. Where he belonged.

But before he could let loose, he had to clarify. Find boundaries. Get full consent. Despite his lack of experience with sex, he’d done enough research over the past few days to know the important basics.

“Tell me what you want.”

Zach didn’t stop to think about his answer for a second, immediately blurting out, “Everything.”

“When you say everything…”

A needy whimper left Zach’s lips. “I mean everything. Whatever you want. Do it. Please. Do it before you change your mind.”

Miles ghosted his hands across the dark chest hair and rolled the hardened nipples between his fingers, watching Zach’s ribcage rise and fall with each harsh breath. “I’m not changing my mind,” he promised, increasing the pressure until Zach flinched with a loud gasp. “What’s your safeword?”

Zach caught his breath, his eyes wide with shock at the question he obviously hadn’t expected. To be fair, until this week, it wasn’t a term Miles was intimately familiar with.

He rolled his hips, dragging his trapped erection against Zach’s. There were too many layers between them to feel anything except teasing pressure, but it got his point across.

“Yes, yes, I get it. You can use your sex appeal as a weapon,” Zach muttered and dropped his head onto the pillow. “My safeword is red.”

“Do you want me to use your cuffs?”

Zach bit his lower lip and nodded, which was all the encouragement Miles needed. The box of toys was conveniently close, under the edge of the bed, right where Miles had dragged it after lighting the candles. A presumptuous move, but he’d been strangely sure that Zach wouldn’t reject him.

Miles pulled out the leather cuffs and circled Zach’s thin wrists with the soft material. Zach didn’t struggle, letting Miles lift his arms and attach him to the headboard, but his breathing became noticeably quicker and shallower. After rattling the restraints to test them out, Zach sighed with pleasure and murmured, “Fuck, Miles.”

His name on Zach’s lips, whispered in a haze of lust, was the sexiest sound in the world. He wanted to spend hours, days, years wringing every delicious gasp and whimper. The thought should have been scary, but it felt inevitable.

He sat back on Zach’s thighs and took in every detail of the lean, graceful body in front of him, committing the moment to memory. Deep down, deeper than he’d ever gone before, he knew he’d been waiting for Zach. That was the real reason why he’d never had a serious girlfriend, why he didn’t hook up like the rest of his classmates, why he’d traveled hundreds of miles to a strange city.

There was only one person for him. His best friend.

Unhurriedly, he leaned down and sucked Zach’s full lower lip into his mouth. It was sweet and minty, like the first time they’d kissed, but this time with an added hint of frantic passion that intensified its potency. Losing himself in the delicious flavor, he took his time tasting and exploring every inch of Zach’s mouth before letting go. Zach tried to follow, to keep the kiss going, but Miles had a few things to say before getting completely carried away.

“You’re beautiful, Zee. I love looking at you. I love tasting you.” He punctuated each word with wet kisses down Zach’s neck. “I’m gonna wring every bit of pleasure out of you tonight.”

Zach’s breath hitched, and another whine escaped his throat. Just as Miles’s lips brushed against his smooth collarbone, he heard, “I’m yours.”

The admission went to Miles’s head like a shot of whiskey. Exhilaration pumped through him at those two little words, at what they meant. His heart beat so hard inside his chest that he half expected the walls of the room to pulse with the same staccato rhythm.

Conversation time was over. He lunged at Zach, barely waiting for their lips to connect before shoving his tongue inside. His need for Zach vibrated through every atom of his body. The crushing, overwhelming need to savor him, to dominate him, to make him cry with pleasure, to be everything he could ever need.

Since reading up on Doms and subs, Miles had spent far too much time thinking about Zach’s submissive side. Would he act weak and timid? Feisty and bratty? Devoted and subservient? Ten seconds into the kiss, it was clear that weak and timid weren’t on the menu. Zach had plenty of fight left, his lips and tongue attacking Miles’s in return.

When his lungs screamed for air, Miles tore himself away, and a thrill traveled up his spine at Zach’s kiss-swollen lips. He’d done that. He’d brought that debauched, faraway look to Zach’s face. And he would keep going, wouldn’t stop until Zach was mindless with lust, begging for something only Miles could give him.

That was the goal.

Many of the D/s dynamics he’d researched in the past week had terrified him based on description alone, but a few seemed right up his alley. Particularly pleasure Doms. No scary props, no pain, nothing that could potentially go wrong. If Zach needed those things, Miles could learn, but for now, he wanted something simple, something he could handle—like being a Dom who focused on giving his sub pleasure. He was determined to find every sensitive spot on Zach’s body and drive him wild.

The intoxicating rush of being in charge of Zach’s moans was the only thing on Miles’s mind as he slowly traveled down, kissing and licking through the trail of dark hair on Zach’s chest. He stopped at his nipples, flicking one with his tongue before sucking on the other. Above him, Zach hissed and rattled the headboard, fueling Miles’s confidence and setting his nerves at ease.

Honestly, he’d expected to be more worked up. A few make-out sessions with perfunctory, haphazard groping at college parties were the closest thing he’d ever had to a sexual encounter, and until now, he’d never understood what all the fuss was about, assuming casual hookups just weren’t for him.

But this—this was for him. Zach’s begging whimpers, his heated skin against Miles’s tongue, the smattering of hair around the dip of his belly button. No, Miles wasn’t worried. Not about his first time in a power play scene, and not about losing his virginity.