by Tricia Owens
“I’ll join you shortly,” Max replied, feeling the tension across his chest loosening. Inaction bothered him, but he was determined to carry through with this game of chicken, counting on reason to prevail among his clients. Worrying wouldn’t serve him, but it was difficult to let it go. Coming home to Ethan felt like falling into an embrace where he could put his troubles aside, at least for the night.
In the bedroom, he stripped down to his boxer briefs and refreshed himself in the bathroom. He followed the enticing smell of homemade tomato sauce to the kitchen.
Ethan had just finished uncorking a bottle of Barolo. He smiled at Max and poured him a goblet of red wine. “Welcome home,” he murmured before pressing his lips to Max’s.
He tasted of spices and wine and Max caught him gently behind the head to lengthen the duration of the kiss. When he finally allowed Ethan to pull back, his green eyes sparkled.
“Do I taste delicious?” Ethan asked.
“You always do,” Max replied before trying the wine. “This is also pleasant.”
“It had better be. It’s from your collection,” Ethan said with a smile. “Your taste is impeccable, as far as I can tell.”
“It mirrors my taste in men.”
“Smooth.” Ethan leaned against the counter, his gaze drifting across Max’s face, though he wouldn’t find anything amiss. Max made sure of that. “After dinner, I’d like to show you something.”
Max took another drink while returning the scrutiny. Ethan seemed relaxed on the surface, but Max had spent a lot of time staring at his husband and noticed the tiny lines of tension around his eyes.
“Alright,” he said quietly. “I’m curious.”
“It’s no big deal.” Ethan ran a finger around the rim of his glass. “Hopefully it settles some things.”
“It’s about Merrick Felix.”
“Yes, and it’s nothing. So don’t let it spoil your dinner or else Analisa will have a word or two with you.”
“The warning is appreciated,” Max said, amused. It brought a smile to Ethan’s face and diffused any mounting tension between them.
Which was a good thing, because dinner was delicious and it would have been a shame to be too distracted to enjoy it. They ate quietly, appreciating the food, until all of it was gone.
“My mom called right before you came home,” Ethan told him as he sat back with a groan of apparent satisfaction. “She says my dad is doing great and they both wish they were here, enjoying the buffets.”
Max toasted them before finishing off his glass of wine. “Any references to a wedding?”
Ethan laughed. “I can tell she’s holding herself back from asking if we’ve set a date. So that’s a heads up: the timer is ticking.”
“Indeed.” Max hadn’t given much thought to a physical wedding lately, but it was something that awaited on the horizon and engendered equal parts excitement and dread, much like the expansion of The Elite Poole Worldwide offices. The dread wasn’t from lack of interest, but of the secret fear that the ceremony—and the opening of the offices in Europe—wouldn’t live up to the expectations that Max set for himself. All must be absolutely perfect or else he’d view them as failures.
“Let’s go to the living room,” Ethan suggested, drawing Max out of his musings. The blond wore a soft smile with the barest hints of nervousness tickling its edges. “We can cuddle on the sofa.”
“I’m a fan of cuddling,” Max admitted without shame.
“Why do you think I suggested it?”
They moved to the living room, but as Max took a seat on the sofa, Ethan disappeared into the bedroom. He emerged a few moments later with his laptop.
“Open your legs,” he ordered as he set the computer on the coffee table.
With an arched brow, Max obligingly parted his knees and Ethan sat on the sofa cushion between them. Max indulged them both by leaning forward until his chest rested against Ethan’s back. He brought his arms around his lover and gently stroked his inner thighs while Ethan booted up the laptop.
“Are you trying to distract me?” Ethan accused as he opened a browser and typed an address into the URL bar.
“If that will help,” Max murmured into his ear. He rested his chin atop Ethan’s shoulder as he watched the screen fill with photographs. “Are we shopping?”
“Like I need any more clothes.” Ethan clicked through the apparel options onscreen until he lifted his fingers off the keyboard. “There.”
Max continued to idly stroke Ethan’s inner thighs as he looked at the web page. “I presume this is the ad campaign you worked on with him.”
“One of them.”
The image on the screen was one Max would have stared at had he not known who Ethan was. In it, the blond was bent backwards to lean his shoulders against the wall of a car mechanic’s shop. Ethan was naked save for a pair of white boxer briefs and the artfully applied streaks of black grease on his thighs and smeared across his chest. In one hand he held a wrench, while in the background a mechanic dressed in overalls that had been peeled down to his waist stared at Ethan lustfully.
“I’d let you change my oil,” Max commented.
Ethan snorted.
“May I see more?”
Ethan clicked through to find another image. This time he was modeling red briefs and was bent forward at the waist, palms flat against a tractor as he looked back over his shoulder at the viewer. Cowboy boots protected his feet from the field of dirt. In the foreground, off to the left side of the image, stood a fully-dressed cowboy holding a coil of rope.
“If you say you’d let me round up your sheep I’ll hit you,” Ethan muttered.
Max nuzzled behind his ear. “Am I allowed to tell you I think you’re gorgeous?”
Ethan leaned into the touch with a soft hum. He tilted his head to the side, giving Max more room to kiss the edge of his jaw and down his neck. Any tension that had existed in Ethan through dinner slowly melted away beneath Max’s attention.
“These are the kinds of photos I did for Merrick,” Ethan said quietly. “Different settings, different clothes and co-models, but nothing sexier than this, Max.”
“I never doubted that.”
“I know, but…I needed you to see it.”
Max reached up and caught Ethan’s chin between his thumb and forefinger, holding it in place as he nibbled on Ethan’s ear. “Trust is what binds us, Ethan. My trust in you is inviolable.”
“I’m glad. I trust you, too.”
A nip of the earlobe had Ethan shifting restlessly between Max’s legs. They were heading on a trajectory and Max didn’t mind the destination in the slightest. “How was it between you and he when you were away from the cameras?”
Ethan’s hands migrated to Max’s thighs, where they lightly squeezed. “He…offered to be my sugar daddy.”
Max didn’t stop kissing him, though this was the confirmation he had worried about. It didn’t surprise him that Felix had wanted Ethan badly enough to attempt to buy him. In a way, Max had attempted something similar early in their relationship. Oh, he liked to tell himself that their situation had been different, that Max hadn’t explicitly promised to care for Ethan, only to help him build a life here, albeit within Max’s condo and company. But when it came down to it, Max had attempted to buy Ethan. Only a small part of him was ashamed, though. Some men were beautiful and submissive in a way that inspired certain men to want to possess and care for them. It seemed to be a fact of life. Ethan was a man to inspire the need to covet, which meant Merrick Felix might be similar in some ways to Max.
“I wasn’t tempted,” Ethan went on, fingers pressing into Max’s thighs. “Money has never motivated me that way.”
For Ethan, at least, his conscience was clear. He’d made the same claim since day one, and never proved otherwise.
Max tightened his legs around the outside of Ethan’s. “How did he respond to your refusal?”
“He was disappointed by my answer, but he didn’t pressure me.”
“I’m relieved to hear that.” It was an understatement. Had he learned that Felix had harassed Ethan, there existed the strong possibility that Max would do more than cancel the contract. With stresses rising, Max couldn’t say he’d behave like a professional or a gentleman.
Ethan sighed, as if with regret. “That was the end for us. I called it off after I knew he thought I could be bought. It was insulting. Maybe I should have felt flattered, but it made me look at him differently, as though he’d suddenly become shallow even though his personality and treatment of me didn’t change at all. Only my perception of him did.”
“Sex makes men greedy, which in turn can lead to desperation and the making of desperate offers. Men could be driven to do nearly anything to have you.”
That drew a smile from Ethan. He slid his right hand back between them, until his fingers curled around the bulge in Max’s boxers. Max’s breath caught as talented fingers measured his length and girth.
“Feels desperate, alright,” Ethan remarked, his tone sensual. He rubbed Max through the fabric, his touch confident and demanding, one of the rare times that Max appreciated giving him control. Ethan easily coaxed the flesh to greater hardness and length, his touch filling Max with heat and hunger because he could tell how much Ethan wanted him. “The only time I ever considered selling myself was when I met you,” Ethan confessed. “I think I would have done anything to be yours.”
“Define ‘anything,’” Max breathed against his skin.
Ethan shivered. Goosebumps rippled across his shoulders. Max could feel Ethan’s buttocks clench and unclench as though he were squeezing the puckered entrance that Max intended to breech soon.
“You have no idea how much I ache for you,” Max whispered into his ear. “You drive me to obsession.”
Ethan released a shuddery breath as his body fell back against his. Max moved the other man’s hand out from between them and slid his own hands beneath Ethan’s thighs to lift and drape his legs over Max’s, spreading him wide and taking power from him. The bulge of Max’s erection pressed against the seam of his buttocks, sliding up and down as Max flexed his hips.
“Are you going to fuck me here?” Ethan asked softly as he let his head roll against Max’s shoulders. His rapid fall into submission stole Max’s breath.
“Would you like that?”
Ethan reached up and behind him to curl his fingers into Max’s hair. “Feels like you’re hard enough to. It’d be a shame to waste all that power.”
Max dragged his tongue down the curve of his throat, feeling him shiver. “You’re right. I should use that power. All of it. To fuck you senseless.”
“Fuck. What was it that got you going, Max?” The hint of a taunt was in Ethan’s voice. “The photos of me half-naked? Or hearing that another man wanted to buy me but I wouldn’t let him?”
Losing himself in Ethan was the only solution to a bad day, especially when Ethan was all but begging Max to fuck him.
“What ‘got me going’ was your presence in the world,” he replied.
“Romantic,” Ethan murmured. His breath hitched as Max cupped him between the legs, fingertips dipping beneath the soft pouch of his balls to stroke his perineum through the cloth of his underwear. “R-Raunchy,” he stammered.
“Mmm, which would you prefer?” Max rubbed the tip of his middle finger across Ethan’s hole.
“Raunchy,” Ethan gasped. He tilted his hips so Max’s finger pressed more firmly against the pucker. “Fuck me. Fuck me dirty, Max. You’re the one who owns me, so do what you want to me. I’m yours.”
Possessiveness surged through Max at the words. He pushed his hand into Ethan’s boxer briefs, caressing the flesh that the barrier of cloth had denied him. He stroked the tip of his finger over Ethan’s warm entrance, feeling the twitch of the ring and the jumping of his balls against Max’s wrist.
Max bit into the meat of Ethan’s shoulder. “Get the lube.” He wrapped his free arm around Ethan’s waist to hold him in place as he continued to torment and tease his pucker with gentle strokes and taps.
Ethan groaned as he twisted to dig the tube of lube from beneath the cushions. He cursed when he squirted too much of it over his fingers but that didn’t slow him down. He shoved his hand into his underwear and sloppily smeared the lubrication over Max’s fingers and between his own buttocks, giving a squeeze to his own cock while he was down there.
“There,” he panted. “I’m ready. I need you.”
“As good as you look modeling underwear,” Max told him as his teeth worried the skin of his shoulder, “it’s a barrier if you want my cock inside you.”
Ethan didn’t need to be told twice. He yanked the garment down his hips as far as he could while straddling Max’s lap backwards. It was far enough for Max to touch him again, fingers dipping into the smooth suction of his entrance. With two fingers, he quickly stretched him and spent some time teasing the pillow of nerves inside.
“You’re going to ride me,” Max told him as he squirmed and panted.
“Yes. God.” Ethan used the arm of the sofa for balance as he lifted up high enough for Max to position his cock beneath him. He sank down slowly, swallowing Max inch by slow inch, the tight squeeze forcing Max to grit his teeth to hold back a groan. Entering Ethan’s body and filling him with his cock was a physical and mental triumph he would never tire of, nor ever stop fantasizing about.
“You’re going to take me now,” he ordered, injecting authority into his voice. “Take me until I tell you to stop.”
Ethan’s shoulders rounded as he curled forward and shuddered. “The way you said that…”
Max dragged his fingernails down his spine, making him hiss and arch and tighten around Max. “I know. You like me to take charge of your body, to force your surrender. Always about the conquering with you, isn’t it, Ethan?”
Ethan braced his hands on the sofa and moaned as he began to ride Max’s cock. “Yes,” he gasped. “You’re right. So tell me…”
More heat pumped through Max, accompanied by a nearly painful possessiveness that had him clamping his hands tight around Ethan’s hips to control his pace.
“You already know what to do,” he said as he drove up to meet Ethan coming down, the sound of their flesh smacking together echoing loudly around the room. “You know you’d better take my cock no matter how many times or how hard I fuck you with it. You know you’re not allowed to come until I’m done using you, which may not be for a long time. Maybe I’ll stop and force my cock down your throat for a little variety.”
Ethan’s head fell forward again, one hand clutching Max’s knee with an iron grip. “Yes. Fuck, yes.”
His pliant acceptance made Max’s cock throb. “Feel me against your prostate—yes, just like that—you like that? Let me hear you. I know you want to be good for me.”
“I do,” Ethan whimpered, sounding tortured. “I do.”
The words fanned the flames of Max’s need for him. This man was his husband. No matter what the public demanded of them, nothing would ever change that vital and unbreakable fact.
“I love you,” Max gritted out.
Ethan’s muscles tightened. Max could tell he’d surprised him with the declaration in the middle of dirty talk. But then Ethan threw back his head and ground himself down into Max’s lap, taking him to the hilt. He fucked himself hard several times and with a choked sound, began to shake and tremble.
Realizing that he was on the verge of coming, Max wrapped his arms around Ethan’s heaving, slickened abdomen and breathed into his ear, “Who told you you could come?”
The words were exactly what Ethan needed to hear. He fell apart in Max’s arms, calling out Max’s name as he climaxed with powerful shudders of his body. Max held him tight through it, driving up into him with power, claiming ownership of him with every thrust.
“Take it,” he ordered. “Take it.” Take me. Again and again no matter what the world wants from us.
He reared up, dumping Ethan
across the other end of the sofa. Ethan sprawled onto his belly and then cried out when Max plunged back into his ass. Braced with one foot on the floor and a hand on Ethan’s nape to keep him pinned, Max fucked him hard and fast, feeling frenzied as he sought his release. Ethan goaded him on even as his breath burst out of him with every thrust. He didn’t beg Max to stop even though the stimulation had to be intense for him. His willingness to surrender to Max’s demands, to his need, was all it took to carry Max to the end.
With a deep groan, he pumped himself deep into Ethan, shivering as the glide of his cock grew smooth and slick. Ethan murmured nonsense to him, as if comforting a horse that had run its hardest. The comforting sounds brought Max down from the ragged, strung out high of his orgasm. Even after he’d fully spent himself, he couldn’t bear to withdraw. He continued to rock slowly, pushing his come into Ethan and hoping irrationally that it would remain there. When he eventually withdrew his softened cock and lowered himself to his knees beside the sofa, Ethan smiled tiredly and regarded him with amusement.
“You’re alright,” he murmured. He reached out and stroked his fingertips down Max’s chest, riding the rapid rise and fall of it as he regained his breath. “I love what you do to me, Max. Every time.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
“We’re okay? With Merrick Felix?”
“We were never not okay,” Max told him. “If I have a problem with him, it will be with him, not with you.”
Ethan blew a strand of hair out of his eyes. “Something was bothering you when you came home. Are you—”
“It’s nothing,” Max interrupted. He stroked a finger down Ethan’s shoulder. “Nothing that time spent with you didn’t fix.”
Ethan’s eyes were soft with worry, but he smiled and beckoned Max to kiss him. “We’re going to be alright,” he whispered. “I promise.”
Max kissed him gently, reluctant to lift his lips. So he didn’t. Eventually Ethan slid off the sofa to join him on the floor, where they made out for half an hour and Max thought of nothing but his husband.
Chapter Five