by Susan Lain
"How does this feel?" Alek asked.
Eliot hummed in response. Alek smiled and continued to knead muscles and tendons, flesh and skin, enjoying the feel of another human being under his tender touch. He considered applying lotion to smooth—
Suddenly Eliot started to giggle and squirm uncontrollably. "Stop! Stop!"
Shocked, Alek raised his hands immediately. That hadn't been either of Eliot's safe words, and distress wasn't really the word to describe the situation.
"What did I do wrong?" Alek asked in alarm.
Eliot kept laughing and tossing back and forth. "Not you. Unless you're the one licking my feet. God, it's tickling so bad."
Alek jumped off the bed—and saw the swarm of puppies who had hopped onto the bed to lick and nip Eliot's bare feet. Eliot had been unable to move his feet because Alek had sat on top of them. Alek had heard the puppies moving about in the apartment, but as soon as he'd gotten Eliot under him, he'd forgotten all about monitoring them. He'd even missed the bed moving and dipping. Man, Alek was losing his touch.
"Holy shit. Fuck, Eliot, I'm sorry. Shoo, you fiends. Shoo." He herded the small dogs out of the room, even though ushering them proved a challenge due to their number. "Stay put. Stay," he commanded with a stern tone as he closed the sliding door, turned around, leaned against it, and blew out a breath.
On the bed, Eliot just kept on cackling like a hyena, kicking his feet about. He was good company, Alek mused, given he was able to see the humor in the situation too.
"At least you didn't have to use your safe word, which would've been awfully apropos," Alek quipped with a smirk, the word hallux fresh in his mind.
Eliot winked at him, his cheek resting on the pillow, only one eye visible. "I put the apt in aptitude." The way he phrased, the word sounded like attitude.
Alek grinned. In the bedroom Eliot's wisecracks seemed to be in their element. "Careful. Your sharp tongue is writing checks your red ass can't cash."
At the warning, Eliot merely laughed. "You had your chance to shut me with your cock, but you took that treat away from me. Now it's too late."
"I'll shut you up with my cock up your ass," Alek cautioned with a growl. He knew it was an empty threat; Eliot wouldn't likely let anal sex deter him. "Raise that butt of yours in the air," he ordered as he scrambled onto the bed and knelt between Eliot's splayed legs.
Despite his sass, Eliot obeyed, shimmying forward to bend his knees and lifting his butt level with Alek's groin. He couldn't manage very gracefully, not with his hands tied to a pole of the headboard. But after some finessing Alek had an unobstructed view of Eliot's perky bottom, the luscious white mounds of flesh and the little pink hole in the crease between.
"How's the skin?" Alek asked softly, caressing the still red-hot behind.
Eliot shivered, his shoulders drooping as his upper body face planted into the bedcovers. "A little tender." He glanced at Alek over his shoulder. "But you can still fuck me hard."
Alek bared his teeth and gripped Eliot's hips, his erection fitting perfectly between Eliot's buttocks to slide back and forth in the groove there. "Are you telling me what to do? You trying to top from the bottom?"
Eliot rocked closer, but Alek's tight grip prevented him, and Eliot released a frustrated sigh. "Why? You not up for it?"
The urge to smack Eliot's battered rump a few more times for good measure increased in Alek but he resisted. He was the Dom; no one made him do anything he didn't want to it.
"Just for that remark, I will go practically medieval on you."
When Alek climbed off the bed again, Eliot threw him a fretting glimpse, worrying his lip. Alek walked to his closet, retrieved the items he wanted, returned to kneel behind Eliot, then wormed his hands between the man's legs—and attached a black leather cock ring around the base of Eliot's prick that already dripped warm, sticky droplets in a steady slow stream. The bittersweet smell of precome perfumed the air.
"No coming until I say," Alek warned. "Or I might not let you come tonight at all."
That threat finally worked. Eliot snapped his mouth shut. Alek filed the information away for future scenes. He realized he definitely wouldn't mind doing this again with Eliot. He tugged on Eliot's pretty pink cock a few times to ensure the guy was still in sensual agony.
"How you holding up?" Alek teased with a purr, and was rewarded by Eliot's fierce glare. Oh yes, this tactic was working nicely. Two could play at this game.
Resuming his earlier position, Alek glided his cock between Eliot's buttocks, and then he tapped it against the still warm skin. Eliot babbled something under his breath. Were they curses? Alek quirked an eyebrow.
He reached for the tube of lube he'd retrieved from the closet along with the cock ring and a small box of condoms. Alek sheathed his dick, covered his fingers with lube, and tested the tight ring of muscle blocking his access to Eliot's beautiful body.
"Any pain?" Alek had to know even though he hadn't slapped Eliot's hole once.
"No," Eliot murmured, out of breath. "Feels amazing."
Alek would have wanted to learn Eliot's body intimately and discover the secrets of each and every inch. But the day had been long and tiresome; they both had to sleep soon. So there was precious little time for leisurely exploration. This time, at least.
Alek slipped a thumb inside wet heat, the pressure constricting his lonely digit. Eliot let out a stifled whimper and his body jolted. Alek slid in and out with a slow and sure pace, allowing his lover to get used to penetration. The squeeze of Eliot's channel proved without a doubt that it had been a while since the last time Eliot had had anal sex.
"Okay?" Alek inquired. He wasn't about to ask for more specifics at this stage.
"Uh-huh," Eliot breathed out. "More, please."
"Well, since you asked so nicely," Alek retorted, pleased at Eliot's cracking tone. Despite his cheekiness, Eliot wasn't immune to sensual stimulation—or a touch of torment.
With deliberate care Alek added another finger, soon a second, and then a third.
Eliot responded beautifully. He moaned deep and quivered all over. His body was putty in Alek's masterful hands. Alek smiled in satisfaction and continued to open his sub's channel. Soon they were both gasping for breath, their skin hot and sweaty and hunger growing.
Using his other hand, Alek lathered his own cock with lube. "Ready for me?"
Unable to find his voice, Eliot merely gave a weary thumbs-up and buried his face in the covers. He trembled so bad that Alek worried Eliot's knees might give out any minute. But he had to trust that Eliot knew himself well enough to be able to speak his mind if something was wrong. Subs had to be familiar with their own limits if they meant to test or exceed them but also to warn when things didn't go as planned.
Alek aimed his cockhead at Eliot's twitching hole and pressed in. Copious dollops of lube and ample prep had made Eliot malleable and supple, and Alek popped in without much resistance. Eliot sighed and went pliant in Alek's hands.
"Oh God, feels so good, so goddamn good," Eliot whispered, his words slurred in delight.
"Yes," Alek agreed quietly.
He pushed in steadily, encountering no problems, until his hips made contact with Eliot's by now cool, still pink buttocks. They both relaxed. Alek closed his eyes, loving the feeling of how a man's body surrounded and clung to his shaft, like a warm velvet glove, setting his nerve endings alight. The sensation was so overwhelming after a long dry spell that Alek was fast losing his self-control.
"This'll be quick," he confessed with regret. He'd wished he could make this last.
Eliot shook his head. "I…I won't last either. Need to come."
That was when Alek noticed Eliot's arm shuddering. He'd already unrestrained his hand, fisted his dick, and started to jerk off. Alek started to admonish him but stopped himself. They were both on edge, high-strung by the ordeals today, so they had to alleviate the stress, preferably with swift, encompassing orgasms.
So Alek pulled out almost all
the way and then rammed in hard and deep. Eliot cried out, his body shaking. Alek set a brutal pace designed to get them both off fast, plunging in and out of Eliot with wild abandon.
Eliot made keen mewling sounds, grasping the sheets with his free hand. But no safe words emerged from his hoarse throat. Alek made to ask but changed his mind. Eliot would tell him if he was mishandled.
Alek watched with fascination as beads of sweat popped out on Eliot's skin, his back and shoulders, a few drops gathering at the indentation of the small of his back. That paleness covered with patches of flushed skin, a testament to Eliot's passion. Alek was mesmerized by the sight.
He wrapped his arms around Eliot's waist to pull him close. The act brought his prick in direct contact with Eliot's sweet spot within. Eliot thrashed about. Alek grabbed his waist tighter and blanketed Eliot's back with his own chest, placing kisses on Eliot's upper back and nape. Eliot wound his free arm around the back of Alek's head to bring him in, craned his neck, and crashed his mouth over Alek's in a sloppy, awkwardly angled kiss.
"You're an arrogant prick, but you kiss like a devil," Eliot murmured against Alek's lips.
Alek grinned. "Electrifying you, am I?"
They both laughed at the jest made at the mythkin's expense.
After that it was a race over the finish line. Neither was able to hold on. Alek pounded into Eliot, the musky smell of man and sex increasing in dabs. No matter how badly they clearly both wanted to keep kissing, their positions proved that impossible. So Alek buried himself balls deep in Eliot, his hips snapping faster as his nuts drew up, threatening to spill over.
"I'm coming. You?"
Eliot nodded frantically. "Yeah. Right there. God, harder. More, please."
Alek lapped up sweat droplets from Eliot's neck and surged inside Eliot. Somehow he got a hand crooked lower and gently pulled off Eliot's cock ring. The sob Eliot released told Alek he'd acted just in time. Alek didn't even have time to withdraw his hand when it was coated by a shower of hot, creamy pearls of come.
That feeling of Eliot's orgasm pushed Alek over the edge too. His balls hiked up and his cock erupted, shooting out jets of come into the latex. Waves of pleasure crested and washed over him, filling him with bliss. He clutched Eliot close to his chest as his hips continued to convulse in aftershocks. He was flying high and couldn't see the ground anymore.
Only when Eliot slumped onto the bed, his knees caving, did Alek rouse back to reality.
"Y-you okay?" Alek asked with a voice as shaky as his body. His cock dislodged from his lover's channel, so with trembling, sweaty fingers he discarded the condom into the trash can in the corner.
Eliot exhaled deep. "Yeah. God, I needed that."
Alek rose to sit on his haunches, his taut muscles protesting the posture. He needed to lie down and sleep for a month.
He observed that Eliot was dead to the world, soft puffs escaping past his lips. He'd fallen asleep fast as lightning. Alek smiled. They had burned so much energy with sex tonight that it was a small miracle they hadn't summoned any mythkin here.
With wobbly legs, Alek stumbled into the bathroom, cleaned up, moistened a terry towel, and then returned to the bedroom to serve his lovely sub as well. He wiped excess lube from Eliot's hole and then added another layer of soothing balm over Eliot's buttocks. Cautiously he snaked his hand beneath Eliot and cleaned what jizz he could from the sheets and Eliot's belly. Back in the bathroom Alek washed his hands, checked on the puppies that had taken up residence on the den couch or on warm little blankets on the floor and then found his way back to bed to lie next to Eliot, turning off lights as he went.
Staring up at the ceiling, Alek wondered what the next day would bring. His arm ached but it was a dull sensation, nothing after the ecstatic experience he'd shared with Eliot. He was buzzing still. The two of them hadn't connected at first, but as colleagues they had eventually found a good working relationship—and in bed they were perfectly compatible.
As wonderful as the night had been, the nightmarish day had proved that there was something happening beneath the surface. They were making someone nervous since they had been attacked so blatantly in a government parking lot. But those thugs had been human.
What did they have to do with malfunctioning mythkin? Nothing…or everything?
Chapter Fourteen
"You an only child?" Eliot asked over breakfast the next morning, sitting at the table with Alek, drinking hot cinnamon coffee.
Alek paused mid-drink. He liked having Eliot in his house. He really liked fucking Eliot, and they had done so again this morning, swapping delectable blowjobs. As Alek had hoped, Eliot tasted amazing, a sweet briny goodness to his flavor, his dark rosy cock fitting in Alek's mouth so well, as if created for that sole purpose.
What Alek didn't like, however, was a chatty, intrusive Eliot before Alek had had his first cup. No, Alek wasn't a nice morning person, not by a long shot.
Finally Alek grudgingly admitted, "No, I have two sisters and three brothers." When Eliot whistled low, Alek grunted. "My family's prolific. Lots of cousins, second cousins and so on." To avoid going into details, he asked, "You?"
Eliot shook his head with a sad smile. "No. I'm an only child."
"Figures," Alek commented dryly. When Eliot's face shuttered down, Alek added hastily, "It explains your bratty sub behavior."
Eliot actually smirked at that, composed again. Alek blew out a breath of relief. "Ha! Are all your family scientists?"
Alek burst into a quick laughter. "God no! My sisters are cops and my brothers were in the military."
Eliot hummed, appearing pensive. "Just like you."
"I suppose." Alek shrugged. "We did it mostly to gain discipline which is important to our mother and grandmother who run the family business."
"Oh?" Eliot's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "A business? Is that what made you wealthy?"
Alek grimaced and blushed. This wasn't a topic he relished. Too many jokes. "Yeah." He cleared his throat. "I chose science because…I don't know why exactly. Wanting to learn more?"
Eliot cocked his head, his eyes narrowed. "What does your family do?"
Alek sighed. There was no getting out of this through polite means. "Saroyan Sausages."
Instead of dirty chuckles, Eliot remarked, "Oh hey, I know those. They're really delicious. Spicy and sweet. You make kosher sausages too, don't you?"
Alek straightened up. "Yeah. But it's not really me. I don't work for the company."
Eliot nodded, not a lewd remark or a dirty look in sight. "I understand. My family used to be farmers in North Dakota. When that didn't pan out, my father turned his carpentry hobby into a job. I'm good at woodwork too but my heart was never in it. My mother's the academic. I followed in her footsteps."
Alek frowned in bafflement. "You have a scientist's education—yet you work in customer relations."
This time it was Eliot who frowned, seemingly annoyed by the implication. "I'm doing work that's beneath me, is that what you're saying?"
Alek rolled his eyes, feeling his prickly armor rising back up. "No. If you're happy in your job, that's all that matters."
Eliot's frown remained but a touch of puzzlement seemed added to it. "That's unexpected from you."
"Because I'm a condescending, arrogant asshole?" Alek finished for him, his back ramrod straight, all his defenses up. He should have known this would happen, that even Eliot would find him unbearable as human being. This was why Alek didn't do relationships. They were minefields of loaded silences and explosive emotions.
Eliot's lips tightened. "I've made no secret of my dislike of some of your attributes but I'd thought I was starting to see a decent person behind the thorny exterior. Was I mistaken?"
Alek looked away, angry and hurt and disappointed with the way things had gone downhill so fast. As always. "Only you can determine that."
For a while silence reigned. Alek sipped his coffee. The liquid wasn't scorching anymore, so he could have finished i
t one sitting. Was he subconsciously hoping to continue their talk so that Eliot wouldn't leave?
When Eliot next spoke, the sound startled Alek.
"I liked learning new things at university," Eliot said with a slow, hushed voice that Alek listened to intently. "But while I appreciated that aspect of education, I was alone a lot."
Alek met Eliot's gaze, completely flummoxed by the admission. "You're the most sociable person I've ever met."
Eliot worried his lower lip. "Meeting new people wasn't the problem. There are two kinds of people at university. The ones who live for their studies, and the ones who find whatever means available to blow off steam. The people who live for their studies can't talk about anything else, so hanging out with them was like being back in class. I wanted off hours to be free of shoptalk, you know?" Alek nodded a little, understanding dawning on him. Eliot went on, "Then there were the others, the high-strung ones who studied hard and partied extra-hard. That was where I got into bondage and dominance play."
Suddenly it was all so clear to Alek. "You had a bad experience."
Eliot chuckled without much humor in it. "The sex was intense. But after a while the play became much too intense. Things I wasn't ready for. Guys I didn't trust. Play without limits. It was scary. And they were kind of blind to my plight because they had to de-stress somehow. They didn't care if someone got hurt. Not physically but emotionally, you know?"
Alek felt like a heel. He'd made wrong assumptions and behaved like a cad. "So after you graduated, science felt, what, tainted?" When Eliot didn't reply, his silence spoke volumes. Alek closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, Eliot."
Eliot's demeanor hardened unlike Alek had ever seen before. "Despite the bad rep customer service gets, I like my job. It answers a professional kink of mine, where I get to be in charge of the situation. I like to submit in bed but at work I'm no one's fool or slave. Plus, like you said, I am a sociable person, and I like interacting with people, solving their problems, figuring shit out. I wanted to work for CEPA. I want to work there. I'm not ashamed and I'm not sorry."