Page 32 of Cloverleaf Station

“And did you … like it?”

“I liked it.”

Elenus huffed with a mixture of exasperation and reluctant charm. “C’mon, work with me here, Kieron. Tell me what you want right now. Kisses? Sitting together, holding hands? Another story? Fucking in your bed? I’m good with anything, but—”

“Fucking.” He cleared his throat. “That sounds good. Let’s do that if … you’re okay leaving Catalina right now?”

“Well, I’m not going to have sex in front of her,” Elenus deadpanned. “So yeah, I’m fine with it. She’ll be all right.” He glanced over his shoulder with a smile on his face. “Look, she’s making the T-Rexes shoot down the rival crew of plesiosaurs. So cute.”

Kieron grinned. It was cute. “Shall we?”

“Let’s.” Elenus stayed right where he was. “You can drive,” he purred. “I’ve got plans for my hands.” They slid down Kieron’s body until his right hand pressed against his groin, and—

Yeah, it was time to go.

Chapter fourteen

The chair got stuck in the door of Kieron’s room. Luckily, by then it didn’t matter, because Elenus didn’t waste any time taking matters into his own hands and bodily lifting Kieron out of the chair and onto the bed, lying him on his back and smothering him with his weight a moment later as he kissed the breath out of his lungs. It felt like Kieron was being crushed with the force of the other man’s desire, drowned in his emotions.

It was so much. It was too much. It was perfect.

Too much sensation was what he needed to force his mind to stay in the moment. More time to think meant he started thinking about other things that came up for him in close proximity to another person’s body. Things like how easy it would be to twist their neck to the point of breaking, how long it would take to dislocate the fingers that were tenderly stroking down the side of his face right now, how simple it would be to grab the shiv that he’d stashed in the wall just behind his pillow and use it to kill the person on top of him in five different ways that would send all his blood flying in the opposite direction.

That was probably the sort of thing that Kieron should discuss with Elenus before they got too deep into this, but … he didn’t want to stop right now. Things were so good, the warmth and pressure against his body reminding him that he was alive, he was real, he was right here, sharing this moment with this man who was so different from him but wanting the same thing for once.

Kieron reached up and let himself touch, ran his own fingertips over the scruffy edges of Elenus’s decorative beard, gave in to the impulse to lick over the pounding pulse point in his neck, to nip ever so gently at his earlobe and listen to his sharp inhale and know that it was because of him.

Kieron had never wanted someone like this before. It felt like intoxication, like the one time he’d let himself become drunk in the presence of someone he trusted. It felt beautiful, like the chance for a release that he couldn’t even imagine, because he didn’t know how to.

A sudden spike of fear—not fear of being hurt, or of hurting Elenus, but of his own deep ignorance, finally drew Kieron out of his daze of desire. He put his hands on Elenus’s chest and pushed back.

To his surprise, Elenus went instantly, no lingering or trying to reposition himself. He just sat back on his knees, eyes closed, and took a deep breath, running one hand through his wild brown hair before finally looking down at Kieron with a wry smile. “Too much?”

“It—it’s not that,” Kieron said, but the truth was it was too much, in a way he couldn’t articulate. “It’s not—I’m not—you haven’t done anything wrong.”

“I’m glad to know that, but that doesn’t tell me a lot,” Elenus replied and held up a hand to forestall Kieron’s urge to get off a quick response. “Which is fine. I don’t want to lay down any sort of law or give you an ultimatum. I just want to be with you, in a way that’s good for both of us. If that means we fuck, or I suck you off right now, or we settle back on your bed and watch a holovid for a few hours without Catalina asking us to make Tyrannosaurus pirate sounds. That’s all fine with me.”

If it had been anyone else, Kieron would have immediately assumed they were lying. Sex could be complicated, but it was also primal, a matter of instinct. Instincts, however, weren’t created equal. There was no way that sitting there and watching a movie in close contact would be as good for Elenus as fucking.

Besides, Kieron wanted to fuck. He just didn’t want to screw things up at the same time by not knowing how to express his enjoyment, how to let Elenus know that it was good and not something he was bearing, where to draw the line between pleasure and something he would bear, for the right person.

And Elenus was the right person. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten this far. Not with Kieron still recovering. He couldn’t imagine making himself vulnerable to someone he didn’t completely trust.

Actually, that thought helped quite a bit. He trusted Elenus. He trusted that whatever happened between them, they could be honest with each other. “I’m not sure what I like,” Kieron settled on at last.

“Okay.” Elenus nodded. “That’s good to know. Do you have any opinions on what you’d like to try?”

“I already told you.”

“Yeah, fucking, but it doesn’t sound like you know that you’re going to like that.”

Kieron sighed. “I mean, I know I like it. I’ve liked it before, but it’s been a long time, and I’m different now than I used to be.”

Elenus tilted his head a bit. “Out of curiosity, who was doing the penetrating before? You or your partner?”

“They were. To me.”

“Huh. I’m a little surprised you allowed that.”