Page 36 of Epidermis

He sat up and the room door opened. Konrad walked in, fully dressed and presumably showered, carrying a paper bag and a cupholder with two coffees.

Jasper smelled food and dared to let an ounce of the weight in his stomach lift. “You… got us breakfast?”

“I would have preferred to cook for you, but this will have to do. Besides, I thought you might be growing tired of what room service has to offer.” Konrad stepped out of his shoes and presented Jasper with his coffee first, and then some kind of fancy breakfast sandwich, because of course he couldn’t just get cinnamon rolls like any rational human. He sat on the end of the bed to sip his own coffee, half turned so he could face Jasper. “How are you feeling?”

Like the world dropped out from under my feet until you walked through that door.

Like you left.

Like everyone does.

“I feel fine,” Jasper said. He started eating so Konrad wouldn’t ask him any follow-up questions, and Konrad probably noticed, but he let him get away with it. Hopefully he attributed it to Jasper being embarrassed to talk about post-coital soreness with him.

He went to shower after breakfast and wasn’t even surprised that the bathroom door opened all of five seconds after he’d stepped under the spray. Jasper slicked his wet hair back from his face and said without opening his eyes, “Hi, Konrad.”

“Do you require assistance?”

“With… showering?”

“Yes.”

“Um… no?” Jasper shook the water off his lashes and finally opened his eyes. Through the frosted glass door, he could see Konrad leaning against the wall. Jasper blinked. Oh. “Unless you just want to. Because that’s fine. I’m not… opposed to assistance. I just can’t be late.”

“Fuck, right there!”

Jasper’s head smacked back against the tiles, his legs wrapped around Konrad’s waist as Konrad fucked him against the shower wall. He was trying to hold onto Konrad’s back, but they were both too soaked for him to get a good grip.

“Touch yourself for me,” Konrad said, punctuating it as a command with a particularly hard thrust against Jasper’s prostate. Jasper made a distressed sound at the prospect of letting go, however precarious his grasp was, and Konrad grinned against his neck. “I won’t drop you. I promise.”

Jasper usually took a firm stance against believing promises, but Konrad was so fucking convincing. It helped that Jasper had felt his strength firsthand and knew Konrad was very much capable of holding him up without any help. So he grabbed his cock and started jerking himself off quickly, shamelessly, his cries growing louder as Konrad pounded him into the wall. He felt Konrad’s teeth graze his neck and he immediately tilted his head back. “Yes, come on, do it.”

Konrad bit his neck and Jasper came all over himself. He didn’t know which of them made a truly feral snarl, but he felt Konrad spill inside him a moment later so it really could have been either of them. Jasper reached past Konrad to rinse his hand under the spray of the shower.

Holy fuck. He didn’t know where Konrad found the energy first thing in the morning, but Jasper was getting addicted to this man.

Jasper laid his head on Konrad’s shoulder, letting Konrad hold him up, his arms draped loosely over Konrad’s shoulders without making any effort to support himself. He was going to be so late.

“Whoa,” Hiyori said.

Jasper pointed at her. “Don’t.”

“I guess I don’t have to ask who topped, given how you’re walking.”

“Hiyori.”

“Did you call him daddy? I would.”

“The thought didn’t cross my mind.”

“It will now.”

He dropped into his chair and then winced. Hiyori burst out laughing, and he glared at her.

At the end of the day there was a final photoshoot for all the award winners, which Jasper begrudgingly joined, ready to get it over with. Konrad was lingering at the edge of the crowd waiting for him. They’d been texting on and off all day between Jasper doing tattoos, and had agreed to go out to celebrate a successful convention, with Konrad studiously ignoring Jasper’s reminder that their trip to the nightclub had already been for celebratory purposes. He thought about telling Konrad he didn’t need to make up an excuse to take him out somewhere, but that sounded an awful lot like dating. Sure, they’d been on a date, but that wasn’t the same thing.

Jasper slipped away before anyone could force him to exchange pleasantries, taking Konrad’s offered hand so he could be led through the crowd.

He’d worn simple, comfortable clothes for the last day of the convention, but when they got back to their room, he dug for something a little more presentable before taking a quick shower that Konrad insisted wasn’t necessary since Jasper “would need another one later.” He said it so confidently that even Jasper’s cock stood to listen.