by T. A. Creech
“I don’t want to watch you die tomorrow.” The wretched sounds escaped Alegan, despite the effort to hold his tongue, wanting to keep this moment forever. To keep Catli trapped, safe, with him forever.
“What?” Humor laced Catli’s question, bright spots of warmth against the crown of his head.
Alegan steeled his nerves and broke feel of the warm dark shelter of skin and cloth. Fantastical hazel eyes matched the intimate glow of the light, but the amusement confused him. Wasn’t Catli afraid? “I don’t want to watch you die tomorrow.”
The smile etched deeper into Catli’s soft face. “What gave you the idea that I would?”
Alegan’s jaw popped open with surprise. There was no way Catli asked him that question. “Magical contest? Where you have to fight another mage? With fire. Seems like a lethal combination.”
Was it his imagination, or was Catli closer than a moment ago? “We do not have those kinds of contests here, Alegan.”
“I’ve seen mage fights before. Someone always ends up dead.” His eyes burned, but water didn’t gather in them. The choking lump threatened to seal his words away. “I can’t lose you.”
The laughter in Catli’s face faded away like a fog in the summer sun. Yes, Catli was closer than before, he was sure of it. Soft adoration was the only way Alegan had to describe the look on Catli’s face, open and warm with affection. “Mages here are not so barbaric to think death of one’s opponent is the only way to win.”
Hazel eyes seemed to hypnotize him; gold hugged the large pupils, deep green bleeding into a clear brown around the gold. “Ridiculous,” Alegan breathed. Catli’s arched upper lip seemed to taunt him. He wanted to trace the sharp curve of it with his tongue.
“No.” Catli bridged the last gap between them, the last breath holding them apart, and sealed Alegan’s worries away with a gentle meeting of lips. His friend held them there, in that moment, not pressing forward in arrogance and not retreating in uncertainty. His lips were a question. Warm, salty sweet, just present.
Alegan let the tip of his tongue peek out and brush slick across the lush seam of Catli’s mouth in answer. The arm around his back drew him closer in and their chests collided together, fists clutched around their drying sheets bumping past.
Catli whispered a single word against his lips, muffled and smug laced through it. It wasn’t anything Alegan recognized, but the tone of it, that he knew. His friend was pleased by this change between them. Relief tried to ignite in his heart, but the sick swoop of fear was still there.
Something in his kiss must have told Catli about the emotion wreaking havoc on him, since he broke them apart with a couple of pecks at his mouth. “What has you troubled?”
“Are you sure you’re in no danger from this?” Alegan reached up and cupped Catli’s cheek in his hand, the soft glow of the room almost making Alegan’s skin match his host’s.
“Yes.” Catli lifted Alegan’s hand off his cheek and cradled it between both of his own, palm toward Catli’s face. The fabric he had kept closed crawled down in a hiss, brushing along Catli’s beautiful form the whole way. Alegan’s eyes nearly fell out of his head as he looked, but his gaze only made it to Catli’s dark nipples when a teasing nip of his index finger made his attention snap back up to a hot gaze and an impish smirk.
Fingers numb, shocked such a beautiful man had bared himself for Alegan to see and touch, his own cloth slipped away like a feather floating to the floor. Hunger seemed to radiate off Catli. He pulled Alegan’s hand out of his sight, though didn’t let it go, and dragged an appreciative stare from his collarbones to his toes.
The scars weren’t too bad, but Alegan wished they disappeared anyway. He wanted to be unblemished for this man, the same as he was before grief and misery made him into a shadow of himself.
Slim fingertips brushed against the silvery marks on his belly. The scars themselves had no feeling, but the edges of Catli’s finger just touched the surrounding skin. A tingle of sensation burned along his nerves. Pleasurable touch was foreign after he had gone without for so long. Bitter longing whirled in the darker parts of his thoughts. There was a good chance their pleasure would be over before it began. Catli would touch him, take up his shaft in those sleek, magical hands and his seed would hit the floor before Alegan could take a full breath.
“I haven’t been with anyone in the years since…” Alegan’s words faded to dust on her name. He loved Gadal, and always she had a place in his heart, but not now. Not with Catli.
Catli nodded. “If I must, I can rouse you again,” he purred. The first crack of thunder punctuated his words. He pressed in close, those mad fingers strutting their way up Alegan’s chest as the gap disappeared. “We have all the time we need.”
A heavy weight bumped into the crease of his hip. Alegan looked down and his breath hitched. Catli’s pale, ruddy cock was lean and long, much like its owner. Words stumbled past the covetous want to have that beauty in him before the night was over. “I haven’t been with a man in more years than that.”
A hum of acknowledge meant his answer was received, but Catli seemed distracted by some other portion of his body. Alegan looked up and caught Catli staring at his hair, or maybe the scars above his eyebrow. “Catli?”
His named made Catli blink a couple of times, eyes or mind still not quite focused after he met Alegan’s gaze. Fingers trailed from the dip of his collarbone to cup Alegan’s cheek, thumb a faint pressure on one of the scars at the corner of his eyebrow. Catli’s smile was indulgent, wide and wicked, shifting with every breeze that made the candles’ flames dance. Some secret was hidden away in that smile; Alegan felt it down in his bones.
No questions escaped as Catli reclaimed his mouth and moved them with dizzy turns out of the front room, deeper into the house. They bumped into one of the doors, Catli’s back against the springy wood, and Alegan shoved it open with a hard push over Catli’s shoulder. Thank the great fire of the world the doors in this place had no latches, like the ones on the mainland did.
Alegan spared a quick glance at the new space, he hadn’t seen it yet. Shelves cluttered with various pieces of rocks and wood, a plush bed tucked up to the wall opposite the door, a tidy line of shelves to the right held bundles of fabric folded in neat stacks. Clothes if Alegan had to guess.
Then Catli whipped them around and shoved Alegan down onto the soft bedding. Without clothes to discard, Catli hovered over him. Eyes tracked with purpose all over his flesh and it burned down beneath, to his blood and heart. The whole of him simmered under the heat of Catli’s bold stare. He’d never had a lover quite so observant of him.
On the other hand, Alegan was given an unobstructed view of this man, who had come to mean more than a great deal to him. His hair was unbound at the moment and the tips touched the rounded slope of his shoulders. Songs could be written about his stern, knowing eyes and acidic, plush lips. Catli was a lot like the power flowing through the island itself, strong and bright and syrup sweet, until one encroached where they shouldn’t. Alegan imagined Catli’s steps turned even the stones to ash beneath his feet when in a true rage. The heart of a volcano hidden inside a whipcord man, whose only tells about his power were the ruby red stars circling his brow and the rosy tone of hot flesh. And this force of nature wanted to bed him. A static charge, the herald of the lightning strike, zipped through his belly at the thought.
Catli reached for him, knees bent, and settled between them on the bed, hands hot when they skimmed along the insides of his thighs. Alegan was sure ash was all that would be left of him by the end of the evening. His almost lover’s hands settled on his hips, bypassing the hard shaft on proud salute between them. Alegan clenched his teeth shut on the complaint waiting to tumble out. He was patient; he had the restraint to wait for Catli’s attention where he needed it most. A milky drop oozed in the divot of his cock’s crown as the damnedable thing swayed in the moist, sticky air. It had other ideas.
The motion, the faint throbbing that moved his
prick freely, caught Catli’s attention. He looked down at it and smiled, though Alegan blushed at the impertinence of his desire for Catli, so obvious by his body.
The crown of his cock disappeared into a scorching hot mouth without warning, tongue slick and pointed as it dived first to gather up the salty bead on display. Alegan’s breath stopped. He had to stop breathing. If he didn’t, who knew what sort of rash action he would take. Burying his hands in all that thick hair and thrusting up into Catli’s decadent mouth was crass to even think about.
A rough scrap of Catli’s tongue pulled at the tender spot on the underside as he pulled off with a wet pop. Gods, he prayed, let me keep my dignity.
Catli must have read his mind, or the thought flashed across his face, because he gave Alegan’s shaft one more flick of his tongue, one more sinful taste of a hot mouth on him before he shuffled farther up Alegan’s prone body. He came to rest straddling Alegan’s waist.
“Might I suggest we save that intimacy for later?” Catli smiled and reached above the bed, to the shelves. The move pulled his body taut, muscles and bones visible, shifting in the low light from the window of the room, set in the wall to Alegan’s right. The sun had disappeared behind the storm, but only a few specks of water were falling out of the sky to the black earth, seen just beyond the sill. Thunder rumbled, deep as a dragon’s roar in the mountains near his old home.
“I am at your mercy,” Alegan demurred, eyes riveted to his lover’s beautiful form. The scent of fire intensified as Catli brought a little blue pot down. He expected Catli to present it to him, but he was caught off guard when the other mage placed it close to the wall, where he couldn’t see it and the dull chime of the top sounded. The question was on the tip of his tongue.
Catli brought glistening fingers into view and smiled. “Give me a moment.”
Confusion made him frown. He was happy whichever way Catli wanted to take their time together, though he was used to having a solid idea of whom would give and who would receive. Catli’s hand disappeared between them. When Catli gasped, without the slick oil touching his skin, Alegan reached over the curve of Catli’s backside and slid his fingers to his lover’s opening.
A lithe finger was already at work, breaching the soft rim of Catli’s body. Without his input, Alegan’s other hand dug into Catli’s hip, holding him perched in place over Alegan as he rocked on his own fingers. Catli’s face had fallen slack as Alegan investigated, and a little line of concentration appeared between his brows as he shivered in Alegan’s arms.
Another finger slipped in between Alegan’s and into Catli’s hole. The moan breathed into the air between them had an edge of pain to it, from the burn if Alegan had to guess. Catli was going faster than Alegan would have, if he was preparing his lover. He could help take Catli’s mind off the stretch though.
The dusky nipple in front of his face beckoned. Catli was arched and twisted in just the right position to bring the delectable morsel to eye level. He stared at it for a second, calculating. He sucked it into his mouth in one go and bit down on the base of the nub to hold it still. Catli groaned. Alegan opened his eyes and Catli was looking at him sideways, hazel startling and vivid in the twilight.
He kept his gaze locked on his lover’s as he rolled the nipple between his teeth, gentle. The shiver rocked them both when Catli gasped. Alegan rolled the flat of his tongue across the plump head of his treat.
A third finger plunged in and spread apart, forcing Alegan’s fingers wider around Catli’s entrance. Lust sizzled through his mind and heart and belly, burning a little more of his control away. Twice, three times those digits widened before Catli sighed and took them away. He snagged Alegan’s hand on the way out and planted their tangled, slick fingers together on the bed.
Catli grabbed Alegan’s cock with his free hand and held it up. He wanted to tell Catli to be careful. Words fluttered away as his lover eased himself back and down, the inferno of slick skin engulfed his sensitive shaft. Burned everything away. His heart, even, stopped beating.
Catli opened around him like a perfect glove. The delicious ripple of his lover’s body was distracting, though Catli was bowed back as he sank down, wild and stunning when lightening split the sky.
No words passed between them. Alegan didn’t need them at all. Everything he wanted Catli to know, he communicated with his hands. Soft flesh moved under his fingertips in a language all their own, a trust that didn’t need to be said. The boneless sigh of relief when Catli finally settled in the cradle of his hips was more expressive than any song Alegan had heard in the great halls made by masters.
Alegan rolled his hips up into Catli’s pliant, trembling body, it was the best feeling he’d had is so long. Far too long. He gathered up Catli’s hands and pressed them together with his own, and held them against Catli’s hips. He wanted every part of his lover he could touch.
Catli met his thrusts with a lazy wiggle. Like they had all the eons of the world left just for this, to become one often as they wanted. Alegan knew the truth, experienced it before, but he kept their loving to Catli’s pace. The slow build burned bright with every second that passed. Alegan’s heart made itself known again, on the gust of Catli’s low moans. The muscle beat out of control, in time with his lover’s panting gasps.
As Catli rose up a fraction, Alegan shifted lower by the same and a high squeak erupted from his lover as he brushed hard along the sensitive bump inside of Catli. Alegan grinned and tightened his hold and slammed upward.
The amazing sound came again. The flush running down Catli’s neck and chest darkened, though his eyes fell shut. Either ecstasy or embarrassment, Alegan had no way to tell. He drove up and hit the bed.
That squeak, throaty and high, was going to drive him mad. Catli dropped his head back down as Alegan pounded into his warm hole. Dark hair was plastered to his flushed face, the sheen of sweat burnishing his lover’s skin to a dark rose. Catli was lost in his bliss, it seemed. His lover was a magnificent sight.
Coiled tension wound low in his belly and spine. Alegan snarled. No! He hadn’t even begun to enjoy Catli astride him and it was already coming to an end. Muscles constricted around his cock. At least he wouldn’t be going alone.
He managed to pry away a hand from Catli. How, it was impossible for him to say, now that he had felt his lover under his hands; he hated to stop touching him for even a moment. But Catli’s face was pinched in that telltale sign of almost there, as though he needed a little more to reach his peak.
The lean, hard shaft smacked with little force against his belly. Next time he would have it in all the ways he wanted. Alegan skated his fingers over the flushed head.
Catli whined. Seed oozed onto Alegan in fast spurts. His lover dropped down fully on his prick and squeezed.
Thunder cracked, drowning out Alegan’s cry. The coil snapped clean and he was helpless, flung down in the sticky dark. Weight crashed into his chest and he wrapped his arms around Catli’s damp back, sucking down air like a bellows. His cock twitched where it was lodged in his lover, slickness becoming damp with his passion.
A soft cheek pressed into the dark space in the hollow of Alegan’s throat. Catli was just as bad, puffing on the storm wet air.
The grin couldn’t be contained, so Alegan let it manifest on his face.
Catli’s whole chest expanded deeper than a moment ago. Apprehension hooked its claws into Alegan’s ribs and forced his whole body still. He didn’t have to wait long.
“I have something to tell you,” Catli whispered against his throat. Nothing followed for a long moment; however, his lover ran his fingers over the crest of his shoulder. Perhaps buying time? Calm?
“This is not the only time we will find ourselves here, is it?” That fear was the biggest Alegan had, neatly tied together with a great deal of smaller ones. Succinct question for every other question that sprang to mind.
Weight shifted and flesh slid over his, little pops of bliss where their bodies met, as Catli planted his el
bows into the bed on either side of Alegan. He leaned back until Alegan had a clear view of his face. Catli’s eyes were stuck on his scars again, instead. A single fingertip touched the inner most silvery point, but didn’t stay there. It travelled up, close to his hairline.
Alegan could trace out his mage stars in his sleep; they had been there so long. They were so attuned to touch; he felt the whorls on the pad of Catli’s finger as it ran right up along the edge of the star in direct centerline of his eye. Traced the edge of it.
“Given the immediate evidence of my eyes, I think not.” Catli pulled his hand away and carded it through the damp tangle of his bangs.
Lightning illuminated the room after another second and Alegan’s mouth dropped open. Black lines traced the stars on Catli’s skin. “When?”
“That first kiss, I think.” Catli let his hair go and gave him a searching look, eyes darting back and forth between Alegan’s own.
He wound his arms tight around Catli once more and drew him down. When Catli was settled in his original position, Alegan sighed with relief. “Although it is probably appalling manners to talk about another in bed, I don’t want you to worry. Gadal and I were never Bound.”
Catli didn’t answer right away. Maybe discussion of others was a horrendous idea, instead of just appalling. Alegan started to apologize, but Catli spoke before he could.
“Your love for her, the lengths it pushed you to, isn’t a threat to me.” Catli hummed, more to himself than to Alegan it seemed, and continued. “I have no need for jealousy when the other who holds your heart is beyond reach. And if there was only room for one, the Powers would have made her your Bonded, instead of me.”