Showdown

by Cindy Dees

  A gasp.

  Zane smiled and dribbled a bit of the coconut oil onto his finger, still lodged just inside the tight opening. The oil ran down his finger, dripping onto the clenched muscles. Using his other hand, Zane massaged it in all around his finger. And then he dipped a little deeper.

  This time Sebastian hissed a sharp breath in through his teeth.

  “Tell me if I hurt you,” Zane murmured.

  “Uh-huh,” Sebastian panted.

  “Uh-huh, I’m hurting you or uh-huh, I’ll tell you?”

  “I’ll tell you.” Sebastian’s vocal cords sounded stretched on a torturous rack of pure pleasure.

  Thoroughly enjoying himself, Zane eased his finger a little deeper, turning it back and forth as he inserted and removed it, in and out, left and right, until Sebastian was groaning in the back of his throat and starting to squirm. Pressing forward with his finger, rotating and hooking the tip to catch Sebastian’s prostate from the inside, Zane massaged up and down, stimulating Sebastian slowly and mercilessly.

  Sebastian was swearing under his breath now.

  Using his unoccupied hand, Zane reached beneath his other wrist and captured Sebastian’s balls, rolling them gently in his palm. They were hard as rocks and practically vibrated with tension. Given that the guy’d had an epic orgasm yesterday, Zane had to admit he was impressed. Poor man was loaded for bear and ready to blow again. He reached lower still and grasped the hot, throbbing column of Sebastian’s cock.

  Sebastian’s hips surged up off the bed, and Zane leaned forward, using his body to press him back down. He dragged his well-oiled fist downward to the base of Sebastian’s erection and back up to the tip, tugging lightly on his whole cock.

  “What do you like, Sebastian?” he asked. “Do you like it slow and sensual or hard and fast?” He demonstrated both as he said the words.

  “Yes,” Sebastian groaned.

  Zane smiled against Sebastian’s back and bit the skin beneath his mouth lightly before pushing back up to his knees.

  “What do you like?” Sebastian mumbled from between gritted teeth.

  Leisurely pumping his fist up and down the rigid hot flesh filling his hand, he answered, “Honestly, I prefer to bottom. I love being driven into hard and deep. I’ll like it when you spread me wide, grab my hips, and pull me up to you as you take me like you own me. I’ll love it when you tell me not to come until you tell me to. When you reach around me to stroke me to climax at the same time you explode inside me. I like it dirty, and raw, and hot as hell.”

  With every word he uttered, Sebastian became more agitated, his hips grinding more urgently into the mattress.

  Zane leaned forward to whisper in Sebastian’s ear, “Would you like that? Do you want to bend me over and do me like you’ve never done anyone before? I can take anything you can dish out. I don’t want you to hold back. I dare you to lose control. If I turn you loose, will you do that?”

  “Yes. Oh God. Yes,” Sebastian groaned into the pillow.

  Using one hand to fumble in his back pocket, Zane found his wallet and pulled out a condom before he dropped the wallet on the floor. Sebastian lifted his hips as Zane tore the packet open with his teeth. He reached under Sebastian’s hips, sheathed him in ridged latex, and rubbed Sebastian’s now safely protected cock with more coconut oil. Then, at long last, Zane moved off the pants that had been holding Sebastian down.

  Instantly Sebastian surged upright, rolling off the bed and to his feet, his erection standing up proud and huge. A burst of trepidation coursed through Zane. Maybe he shouldn’t have dared Sebastian to lose control.

  “Clothes. Off,” Sebastian said, low and dangerously.

  Chapter Fourteen

  SEBASTIAN WAS so blinded by lust he could hardly breathe, let alone form coherent thoughts. Never, not once, had he ever cut loose in the way Zane had given him permission to. Hell, dared him to do. Sex had always been a hasty thing for him. A secretive, furtive physical release to be taken as quickly as possible and then left behind so he could get back to his regularly scheduled life.

  But tonight, they were completely alone. Locked in. Nothing but time stretched in front of them. And the man had just told him to try out every fantasy he’d ever had. This could take a while. All night even.

  Frantic to get Zane naked, he helped Zane disrobe when he didn’t do it fast enough. His T-shirt went flying and Zane’s jeans skinned off his hips.

  “Commando?” Sebastian blurted. “I pegged you for thongs.”

  “Nah. No cock pockets for me. I like to live dangerously,” Zane purred.

  When Zane was fully naked, Sebastian just had to stop for a moment and look. “You’re living art,” he murmured reverently.

  Zane smiled a little. “Thank you. I’m glad you find me attractive.”

  That sounded like a canned response. Guy must get told all the time how pretty he was. His automatic answer bothered Sebastian.

  “It’s more than just how you look, Z. It’s how you carry yourself. How you move. How… aware you are of yourself and the world around you. It’s not just how you look.” He searched for the right words to express himself. “It’s… who you are. You’re so much more than just a pretty face. You’re smart and mouthy and disrespectful. Just cocky enough to be hot, but not so much as to be arrogant. I’ll bet people underestimate you a lot, don’t they?”

  Zane looked startled. And then something akin to gratitude shone in his light green eyes. “Yeah. I guess they do.”

  “Erebus sure as hell did.” Sebastian snorted. “I’d lay odds they thought you were some half-witted pretty boy who would do exactly as you were told and be completely cowed by the first threat they muttered at you.”

  Zane grinned. “Oopsies. The pretty boy didn’t go along with the program, did he?”

  “Thank God,” Sebastian murmured fervently.

  “Wonder if the pretty boy will go along with your program tonight. Shall we find out? Are you man enough to tame me?”

  He really didn’t need the dare. But it was a fucking turn-on. As if he wasn’t already so hard he could barely stand under the pressure of the blood pounding through his fully loaded surface-to-ass missile.

  Sebastian grabbed Zane by the shoulders and dragged him forward for a deep, carnal kiss that was all restless mouths, clashing tongues, and seeing who could suck who harder. Zane was clearly as turned-on and ready for this as he was. Abject gratitude made his knees weak until impatience to be inside this man, to possess him and mark him forever, to make Zane his, overcame him. Still grasping Zane’s shoulders, he guided him forward, away from the bed, over to the back of the leather sofa.

  “You okay with this?” Sebastian muttered.

  “I’m the one who dared you. Show me what you’ve got, big guy,” Zane challenged.

  Laughing, Sebastian pushed him down, face-first, over the sofa back. “Where’s that coconut oil?”

  “Shit. Over by the bed.”

  “Don’t move,” he ordered Zane.

  Sebastian raced to the bed, grabbed the oil, and turned back. The sight of Zane’s lithe body bent over the sofa, sculpted thighs spread wide, his body offered up to Sebastian in willing sacrifice, made something in his heart crack open.

  He stopped, taking a moment to memorize the sight of this amazing man offering himself to him. “I’m glad as hell I didn’t sleep with you when we first met,” he said in awe.

  “What?” Zane asked. “Why?”

  “Because you’d have been a trophy then. A notch on my bedpost. ‘Hey, look at me. I fucked the hot model dude.’” Zane frowned, and Sebastian added hastily, “But now I know you. I’m attracted as hell to you. I want you. The person. Not just the poster boy. This means so much more to me.”

  “Don’t go making me all emotional and sappy, now, Seb. I plan to blow your mind tonight. Give you a night you’ll never forget.”

  A rush of emotion poured through him, and he stepped forward slowly. He leaned down over Zane and dropped a singl
e, slow, reverent kiss between Zane’s shoulder blades. “It’s already a night I’ll never forget. In case I forget to say it later: thank you.”

  Zane wiggled his ass impatiently against Sebastian’s crotch, and they laughed together.

  He took his time lubing up Zane’s ass and returned the favor of massaging oil into Zane’s privates until the guy was doing his own squirmy dance on the sofa.

  “Would you beg me to take you if I asked you to?” Sebastian asked. His voice was more breathless than he’d expected. Dang, Zane made him hot.

  “You don’t have to ask me to beg, Sebastian. Please, for the love of God, fuck me.”

  “Is the dare still on?” he asked, fingering Zane much the same way he’d been fingered earlier.

  “You don’t play fair,” Zane panted.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. At least, not too much.”

  Zane groaned and his legs collapsed, planting all his weight on the sofa back at exactly the right height for Sebastian. He couldn’t resist any longer. He placed himself at the small, rosy entrance, as perfect and beautiful as the rest of him, and pushed a little.

  Zane groaned again.

  “Are you sure you can take me?” Sebastian asked in concern. “I’m not exactly tiny.”

  “Take it slow and give me a little time to adjust.”

  And that was what he did. Bit by bit, he pushed past the first resistance. Zane was panting hard, and he paused, waiting for the muscles gripping him to relax. When they did, he eased deeper. The heat, the tightness of Zane’s body, the sight of those pale buttocks clenching and unclenching—it was almost more than he could stand. Gritting his teeth, Sebastian eased all the way into Zane, seating himself to the hilt. Just knowing that he was buried inside Zane was nearly enough to make him come. He stood perfectly still, fighting for control, fighting off the massive explosion his body was begging to let loose.

  Zane began to squirm a little around him, and Sebastian grinned. He would take that as permission to proceed. He withdrew partway and then pushed forward all the way in a slow, smooth stroke.

  “You okay?” he checked in.

  “God, yes.” Zane shuddered and let out a long groan. “Again. Please. Again.”

  Sebastian obliged, putting a little more force into the thrust. Most of his lovers cried uncle at about this point, declaring him too big to get rowdy and insisting that he stick to little baby rocks of his hips.

  “More,” Zane demanded.

  “You sure?”

  “Fuck me hard or swear to God, I’ll walk out of here,” Zane complained.

  Sebastian threw back his head and laughed. Finally, after all these years, he’d found a compatible lover. He thrust his hips forward hard, and Zane muttered, “Oh yeah. Better.”

  He hooked his fingers around Zane’s hip bones, pushing him down into the sofa and at the same time pulling him back, deeper onto his cock. Zane’s hips rocked rhythmically, and Sebastian took up the rhythm. As Zane picked up the pace, so did he. Flesh slapped on flesh loudly. Zane grunted a little as the thrusts deepened even more, and Sebastian realized, with no little surprise, that he was swearing in a steady stream.

  Gritting his teeth, he tried to hold back, but damned if Zane didn’t throw his legs even wider open and cry, “I dare you!”

  That was it. He let go and pounded mindlessly into Zane’s body, which clenched him spasmodically with each thrust, lifting to meet him, offering him everything. And he took it all.

  Their bodies grew slick with sweat, and all elegance fled in the face of their mutual groans and their bodies slamming into each other. He’d waited his entire life to do this, like this, to this man. He just hadn’t known it till now.

  “Yes, Sebastian. Yes!” Zane cried.

  Sebastian strained forward, seeking the core of Zane’s pleasure. His entire body clenched and he gathered himself for one last, apocalyptic moment. “For you, Zane,” he cried out.

  Zane froze beneath him as well, quivering with his own imminent climax. Sebastian leaned forward, reached around in front of Zane to clutch his erection, and then went for the gusto, surging forward into Zane in a wild flurry, his fist moving in time with his hips, faster, faster, faster.

  Zane shouted his pleasure just as his own explosion blinded Sebastian, emptying his entire soul in an exquisite, endless release of pleasure so intense it made his legs collapse and his spirit weep for joy.

  At some point, he realized he was draped on top of Zane, no doubt crushing him.

  “Can you breathe?” Sebastian gasped.

  “Don’t move.”

  Well, the guy could talk. He wasn’t suffocating. They rested for a while, catching their breath. And it was… nice. Intimate. He started to pull out at one point, but Zane mumbled a protest, and he stayed put.

  Then Zane’s muscles flexed around him. Even in the satiety of the moment, that felt amazing. “Do that again,” he muttered.

  Zane’s muscles flexed again, this time a little more strongly. Shockingly, Sebastian’s cock stirred with interest. He propped himself up on his elbows on either side of Zane, still lodged deep inside him. His cock began to fill and harden again, his lust bright and sharp, highly sensitized by his recent climax.

  He moved his hips experimentally. Oh yeah. He wanted Zane again, right now.

  “Are you kidding me?” Zane muttered.

  “Are you okay? Will I hurt you?”

  “Never. If you were going to hurt me, you already would have.”

  “Still—” He started to pull out, aware that he’d already used Zane pretty hard.

  “I double dare you,” Zane declared.

  He laughed richly. “Well, in that case….”

  Chapter Fifteen

  ZANE WOKE up slowly, into total darkness, disoriented by the utter lack of any light, any visual reference to where the hell he was. He moved slightly. Cotton sheet beneath his cheek. More cotton sheet over his feet. He reached out with one hand and encountered warmth. Flesh. Human skin.

  Sebastian.

  Awareness of where he was, who he was with, burst across his mind. Along with reminders of last night. He was sore, his arms and legs and ass achy, but whether that was from the epic sex they’d spent hours sharing or from the strenuous photo shoot beforehand, he couldn’t tell.

  He rolled over onto his back, smiling up into the darkness. He felt made love to from head to foot. And he pretty well had been last night. Once Sebastian’s reservations had been shattered, the guy was a relentless and thrilling lover. Zane was flattered as hell that Sebastian had felt comfortable enough to go to that intimate place with him, to bare his fantasies and then act them out with him.

  A pang of insecurity shot through him.

  Surely, that wasn’t morning-after regret. He wouldn’t give up last night for anything.

  Poking at the nervous jitters in his gut, he identified their source. Fear. Please God, let last night be more than a casual one-night stand to Sebastian. So often in Zane’s life, he’d been a conquest. A thing of beauty to be pursued, possessed, and once conquered, discarded. That was him. The throwaway lover.

  He sat up quietly, trying to orient himself. If he was correct, the bathroom was over that way.

  “Need a light?” Sebastian mumbled sleepily beside him.

  “I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep,” he whispered.

  “Computer. What time is it?”

  A male, British-accented voice answered, “It’s 10:56 a.m.”

  Holy shit. Almost eleven in the morning? With no windows to let in any light, he’d had no idea!

  “Computer: light, ten percent,” Sebastian murmured.

  Tiny halogen lights illuminated all over the ceiling of the safe house.

  “Thanks,” Zane murmured quietly, trying not to wake up Sebastian further. The guy’d had quite a workout himself last night and deserved to sleep as long as he wanted to.

  He climbed out of the bed, used the restroom, and then wandered over to the kitchenette. Sp
ying a coffeepot, he found pods of coffee and filters and popped some into the coffee maker. Blearily, he stood there and watched it brew.

  He jumped when something warm touched his shoulder. Sebastian had come up behind him and leaned down to kiss his neck. “Good morning, Zane.”

  “Good morning, Sebastian,” he replied, startled. While most of his lovers didn’t throw him some cash and kick him out, they rarely showed actual affection the morning after either. But then, most of the guys he slept with came out of the fashion industry and were fully as self-involved as most models were.

  “It is a good morning, isn’t it?” Sebastian murmured against his shoulder, his lips moving lightly across his sensitized skin.

  “Wow. You’re sounding relaxed.” He glanced over his shoulder, smiling at his lover.

  “Aren’t you?” A frown started between Sebastian’s dark eyes.

  “I am. Thank you for last night.”

  Sebastian laughed. “No, no. It’s me who owes you the thanks. That may be normal for you, but I’ve never had a night like that in my life.”

  “Trust me. That wasn’t normal for me either.”

  “Are you okay—” Sebastian started.

  Zane turned around and slid his fingers down Sebastian’s nose to his mouth to stop any more words. “I’m fine. Better than fine,” he confessed. He started to lean forward, intending to loop his arms around Sebastian’s neck for a good-morning kiss and whatever it might lead to, but a bell rang somewhere behind Sebastian, who tensed cautiously.

  “What’s that?” Zane asked, alarmed.

  “Phone. Only a few people have the number. I’ve got to get it.”

  “Of course.”

  Sebastian moved away, and Zane fiddled with heating a frying pan and pulling eggs and bacon from the refrigerator. God bless Etienne.

  Across the room, Sebastian said, “Go ahead. Oh, hey, Pere.” He listened in silence for long seconds. Then, “That’s great. Glad you’ve got a trail to work on. The plates? Yes, we’ve still got them. Why?”