No One Should Be Alone

by Tinnean

  “No presents, Mark?” I murmured to myself. How sad that there wasn’t a single gift under the tree.

  I removed my suit jacket and placed it over the back of the couch. I started to reach for my tie, then paused. Mark had said he’d wanted to undo it.

  “Mark,” I called. “May I turn on the fireplace?”

  “If you want, but it’s just for show.”

  “Oh?”

  “It’s one of those faux things.” He entered the living room, with two snifters on a tray and a decanter of brandy. “The logs are fake, and there’s an electric element behind them that lights up. It looks good, but it doesn’t give off any heat. Before this year I wasn’t home often enough for it to matter.” He put the tray down on the coffee table. “Uh… I’d have—I didn’t—it was here when I moved in.” Oddly, he looked a little embarrassed.

  “Well, let’s go for the ambiance anyway, shall we?”

  “Knock yourself out. The switch is right beside it.”

  I crossed to it and pressed the switch. The “flame” shot up and gave the impression of burning merrily, and I was tempted to lean forward and warm my hands before it.

  Instead, I crouched down and stroked the brown pile of the rug. “Very nice, Mark. Very luxuriant.”

  “Yeah.” His voice sounded strained, and I glanced over my shoulder to ask what was wrong.

  His eyes were fastened on my ass, and his hands clenched—as if he wanted to have them on my body but was holding his desire in check?

  My erection, which had finally subsided, returned so quickly it actually ached.

  “Sometimes I’ll take off my shoes and walk on it barefoot.” He must not have realized I’d caught him staring.

  “I’m not surprised. It is very plush. Did you buy it, or was this something else that came with the apartment?”

  “No, this I bought.”

  “Because it looks good or because you had hopes of someone rolling around on it with you?” Where had that note of jealousy come from?

  “Both of us naked?” He grinned easily, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t picked up on it. “If I’d intended to do that, I wouldn’t have bought brown. It would show the stains.” He became serious. “I don’t bring people home, Quinn.”

  And yet he’d brought me. “You’ll have to come to my town house one evening. I’ve got a gas fireplace. And a white rug. I think you’ll like that.” I knew I would. I smiled at him.

  “You want me in your place?”

  “Why not?” I rose and went to the multimedia stand.

  If he wasn’t going to touch me, I saw no reason to torment myself. And I still had a confession to make.

  “You seem to have quite a selection.” I stooped to examine the tapes that were neatly labeled and shelved in date order. Biographies, movies, TV shows.

  “Hmm?” This time Mark was staring at my lips, and I couldn’t help parting them.

  I ran my tongue over my lips. Would he come to me, slide an arm around my waist, and pull me into a kiss that would cross my eyes?

  He did come to me, and I straightened and leaned toward him, but he didn’t kiss me. He picked up a tape. “I like A&E.”

  “I can see that.” I ran a hand through my hair, brushing the lock out of my eyes. “Mark, I think there’s something you should know.”

  “You’ve changed your mind.”

  “Excuse me? No! Why would you think that?”

  He shrugged.

  “Wouldn’t it bother you if I did?”

  “Why should I let it?”

  “Oh, very nice, Mark! Now you’re answering a question with a question?”

  He grinned. “Get used to it.”

  “You—” I swatted his arm.

  “So what do you have to tell me?”

  This could very well cost me my career—although just being here with Mark could do that—but I thought he and I could have something special together. And… I trusted him, as insane as that might sound.

  “Quinn?”

  “Making love with you wouldn’t exactly be a new experience for me.”

  “No.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Trust me, Quinn. If we’d made love before, I’d remember.”

  “Mark….”

  “Yeah?”

  “Look. I’m telling you that I’ve had a number of male lovers. That… that French person who called me mon ange and mon coeur—he was a boy.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  I flinched.

  “So you’re saying I don’t have to treat you like spun glass.”

  “I’m not a woman, Mark, but I hope you’ll treat me with courtesy, just as I’d treat you.”

  “Okay.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “As hard as this might be to believe, I don’t get off on hurting my partners. I might handcuff you to the headboard or fuck you in the shower, but I’m not into S&M, and I won’t take you without lube or a condom.”

  “Will you let me fuck you?” I had the feeling this was something he’d be reluctant to do, even though he’d said he’d give me everything I wanted.

  “This means that much to you?”

  “Yes, it does.” I’d enjoyed bottoming for my first lover, and I’d enjoyed topping my other lovers. What I wanted was a partner who would be willing to alternate.

  “We’ll talk about it, okay?”

  “All right, Mark.”

  “Now, what did I tell you I was going to do after I got you into my apartment?”

  I thought for a moment. “Give me a brandy.”

  He frowned at me, and I swallowed my smile. I could play games as well as he.

  “After the brandy.”

  “Oh, then. Undress me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Shall we take this to your bedroom?”

  “Didn’t I say we’d be doing this on the rug in front of the fireplace?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “All right, then.” He reached into a pocket, pulled out a foil packet and a tube of lubricant, and held them up. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

  Chapter 9

  Quinn didn’t say anything at first, just stared at the condom and the lube. Then the corner of his mouth tilted up in a smile that had me tossing aside the supplies and reaching for him.

  If that wasn’t like a spook. Here I’d been worrying all evening—well, since he’d told me he’d come home with me—that he’d get the jitters about having sex with a man and change his mind at any time, and he’d already done this.

  He laughed and backed away from me.

  “Don’t get coy on me now, baby.”

  “I’m sorry.” He glanced back at the rug. “I just can’t resist!” He removed his shoes and socks and walked onto it, flexing his toes in its lush softness.

  I groaned. Damned if the sight of his naked toes didn’t give me a hard-on. Well, even more of one than I’d already been sporting. I wanted to drop to my hands and knees, crawl toward him, and suck those long, elegant toes one by one into my mouth.

  “Mark?”

  “Your toes, Quinn.” I’d never had a fetish for toes before.

  He looked down at them. “They’re the same toes I’ve always had.”

  “Fuck it!” I pulled him into my arms. His body was more muscular than the clothes he wore hinted at. I stroked down the line of his spine to his ass, then kneaded the firm curves of it.

  “Mark? What about the brandy?”

  “It’ll keep. Now, shut up and kiss me!”

  “My pleasure. Oh, my very great pleasure!” He tipped his head back, and I bent my head to meet his mouth.

  I’d learned how to kiss well because that was what being the best meant, but kissing Quinn—that was like holding a live wire, like being struck by lightning, like going up in flames, like….

  Why was I even thinking of anything but the smoky taste of whiskey that lingered in his mouth? I rubbed my tongue over his tongue, against the smooth tissue of his inner
cheek, against the ridged roof of his mouth.

  He moaned deep in his throat, wrapped his arms around my shoulders, and just held on.

  By the time we had to break away in order to breathe, we were both shaking. There was a dazed look in his eyes and a flush high on his cheekbones. I ran my thumbs over them.

  He leaned into the touch and raised his hand to stroke the curve of my cheek. “Kiss me again.”

  “Until your eyes cross?”

  “Mmm, yes!”

  I groaned and buried my hands in his hair, flexing my fingertips. I licked and nuzzled his lips until they parted, then settled my mouth on his.

  His tongue met mine, thrust and teased and challenged, and he echoed my groan. His cock prodded my inner thighs, while mine nudged the crease where his hip and thigh joined, but the material of our trousers was in the way, interfering with our pleasure.

  “Naked! I want you naked!”

  “Yes!”

  Quinn tossed my loosened tie over his shoulder while I went to work untying his tie, which I left dangling. We undid buttons, unfastened belts, unzipped zippers, kissing all the while.

  And I almost lost my mind just from kissing him.

  “Goddammit!” I muttered against his mouth as my pants got tangled by my shoes and I nearly fell on my face.

  His laugh was breathless. He wasn’t having as much trouble with his clothes, since he’d already removed his shoes. He tugged off his shirt and shoved his pants and shorts down his legs, and somehow he managed to keep his mouth on mine all the while.

  I had to look, though. He was pale—I’d need to get him out in the sun come the summer—his muscles perfectly defined, nipples a pale beige, and a treasure trail leading from between his pecs down past his navel to flare across his groin. And jutting out from that dusting of hair was a cock that was thick enough, long enough to make the angels weep.

  I swallowed and licked my lips. I needed to get them around that cock, but first I had to remove my shoes and my pants. I hopped on one foot and then the other, desperate to get them off.

  Finally naked, I tumbled Quinn onto the rug. He sprawled on it, for all the world like The Naked Maja, and his eyes widened. “Oh, my God! That feels fantastic!”

  “I haven’t done anything yet!”

  “The rug, Mark! The rug!” He stretched luxuriously and smiled and reached for me.

  I balanced my weight on my arms. The sight of him spread out before me, open and vulnerable, made my mouth go dry.

  “I want to watch you as I take you!” My voice was so hoarse I barely recognized it.

  Quinn’s cock was hard and oozing precome. “Don’t take too long, Mark! I’ve wanted this for a long time!”

  “Have you?” I ran my fingers through the hair that surrounded his cock. It was as dark as the hair on his arms. I laughed at myself for thinking of such a thing at such a time.

  “Mark?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Quinn.”

  “I’m a big boy.”

  “Yeah, you said that before. And when was the last time you were fucked?”

  He froze.

  Shit. I should have phrased that differently. Guys as classy as Quinn probably weren’t used to hearing such forthright Anglo-Saxon terms, not aimed at them.

  I dipped my head forward and lapped at the precome—God, he tasted good!—then drew the flushed head into my mouth. I swirled my tongue around the shaft and sucked.

  When he gasped and bucked up, I knew I’d successfully distracted him.

  He gasped again and stroked my hair. “S-sorry!”

  I pulled off him. “Don’t worry about it, baby. I can take it.” This time when I took him back in my mouth, I rubbed my tongue against the thick vein on the underside of his cock. Then I relaxed my throat and let him fuck my mouth.

  He was careful, a gentleman all the way. I’d need to come up with a way to make him lose control, but not yet. I wanted this to last.

  “Mark!” He pushed at my shoulders.

  “Jesus, now what, Quinn?”

  “I’m going to come!”

  This fast? Okay, granted, I was the best at whatever I did, but I’d only been sucking on him for about five minutes. When was the last time he’d had sex?

  “Not just yet, baby.” I squeezed the base of his cock just enough to stave off his climax.

  He shivered and relaxed, and I began nuzzling his navel, the crease where thigh and hip joined, the soft sac of his balls, all the while coating my fingers with lube.

  Finally I began the stretching process. God, he was tight!

  Quinn was shaking. “Fuck me, Mark! Please!”

  The neediness in his voice was almost too much for me. I began cataloging the parts of my Glock and how they fit together as I scrabbled to get the condom out of its wrapper and onto my cock.

  “Mark? What the hell are you doing?”

  Shit! I hadn’t realized I was talking out loud. “Nothing.” I rolled the condom on and carefully coated it with lube.

  “You’re—”

  I lined up my cock with Quinn’s hole and began a steady push.

  He whimpered.

  “Am I hurting you?”

  “No! Just—it’s been—don’t stop!”

  “I’m not stopping, baby. I’m gonna make you come so hard you’ll feel like you’ve shattered into a million pieces, and when I come, you’re gonna feel it all the way to your throat!” I nuzzled his jaw, then nipped it gently. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

  “Full! Oh my God, so full! How much more—”

  “Almost there, baby. Ahhh!” And then I was balls-deep in Quinn, in my lover, and I began thrusting in a steady rhythm.

  Each brush of my abdomen over his cock left a trail of precome on my groin, and I braced myself on my forearms and undulated my hips. I was gonna fucking drive him wild.

  He locked his ankles behind my ass, urging me on, and he purred. He honest-to-God purred!

  And if I hadn’t been so busy fucking him, I would have strutted with pride.

  Instead I rocked back onto my knees, bringing Quinn with me so that he sat on my lap, impaled on my cock.

  “Ride me, baby!” I got my hands under his ass and raised him, then let his own weight bring him down.

  His eyes were wide, almost black with passion, and he panted and rose and fell, his lip caught between his teeth.

  “You—you’re gonna split your lip.” I nudged his mouth, trying to get him to let go. “Let me hear you!”

  “The—the neighbors!”

  “Fuck ’em.”

  “I’d—I’d rather fuck you.”

  “Jesus, you’re not gonna let that go, are you?”

  “For Christmas, Mark? Please?”

  I hated that I’d reduced him to begging. If he wanted it that badly— “Okay, fine.”

  He cried out and began to come, the hot fluid splashing up onto my navel.

  Holy…. I did this! I thought smugly. I melted the Ice Man!

  His movements became erratic, his heart pounded against my chest, and he panted as if he’d run a marathon. The sweat that beaded at his temples slid down his cheeks, and his internal muscles rhythmically squeezed my cock.

  “Mark?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Not yet, baby.” I eased him down onto his back and continued rocking into him. Sensation snaked down my spine, curled in my balls; they tightened and drew up, and I clamped down on my sphincter, determined to hold off my climax.

  But then Quinn reached around and ghosted his fingertips over my hole, dipping in slightly, then deeper. How did he get hold of the lube? I thought I’d—

  He found my prostate and gave it a teasing rub. The top of my head felt as if it were going to explode like a skyrocket. How the fuck—no one’s ever—

  My orgasm overtook me, and I fucking howled.

  I shook and wheezed and continued to thrust into Quinn’s passage—God, he was so snug!—as I filled the condom.

  “Jesus, God! That was….” The cl
enching of his inner muscles milked the last of my orgasm from me.

  “Yes. I’ve never….”

  Well, yeah. He’d never had me as a lover before.

  With a satisfied groan, he released his legs and let them slide along my hips to cradle my body.

  “You made me come too fast,” I complained. I softened and started to slide out of him, and I grasped the condom so it wouldn’t spill its contents.

  “I thought that was only fair, since you did the same for me.” He brought my chin up so I’d meet his eyes. “Would you promise me something?”

  I frowned at him. “I already said you could fuck me.”

  “Make love to you, Mark,” he corrected. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to coerce you.”

  “No one coerces me.”

  “If you’re sure—”

  “Jesus, don’t make me sorry I said you could.”

  “All right. Thank you. At any rate, that wasn’t what I wanted you to promise me.”

  “Then what?”

  “Don’t… don’t leave the CIA yet.”

  “What?”

  “Did you think I couldn’t see how frustrated you were becoming with the Company? Give us a chance to prove to them how good we can be together.”

  “Is that what this was about? A Christmas fuck to persuade me to stay. Does the CIA appreciate the lengths you’re willing to go to for them?” I tied off the condom, chucked it aside, and started to get up.

  With a single quick movement, he rolled us over until he was lying on me. “The Company has nothing to do with you and me and tonight. I haven’t lied to you. I’ve been thinking of us in bed. Please, Mark.”

  “How long?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “If I say yes, how long do we stay together? Would it just be tonight?”

  “If that’s what you want, yes, although I’d prefer it to be longer.”

  “All right.” I didn’t let him see how relieved I was. This had been an excellent night, and screwing Quinn was only part of it. Bantering with him, snarking with him, just talking to him…. It was nice. “But how long do you expect me to wait? I’ve already been with the Company for a year—”

  “Not quite.”

  “Close enough.” I pinched his ass. “I’m not going to waste my talents with people who don’t care a fuck how good I am.”