He met her passionate, desperate kiss with one of his own. “Why don’t I show you, and you can pick?” he said against her lips.
Her exhale was a moan. “I can do that.”
God, the most exciting, fucking wonderful thing about this night was Mish being turned on by him. By his body. By his bag of dicks. The normalcy of it.
There’d been little awkwardness—and what had been had come from him. “You’re fucking magical, baby.” He claimed another kiss.
She smiled against his mouth, then laid a hand on his chest and pushed. “Dicks.”
He laughed at that and crawled to the foot of the bed to retrieve his harness and cocks from his duffel. He handed the bag that held the dicks to Mish. Three dildos, all pretty much the same length, but of varying thicknesses. Different colors, though.
He enjoyed that he could have a purple dick. Or neon blue. Why not? They were an extension of him—might as well have some personality.
The one Mish had pulled out of the bag was the thickest. She turned it over in her hands, her eyes a little wide. “It’s...tie-dyed.”
Not exactly the response he’d expected, and he laughed. “It is, yeah. I liked the colors.”
“It’s also huge,” she murmured. “God, David. I can’t even imagine.”
He couldn’t help his grin or the gravel in his voice. “You don’t have to imagine, you know.”
She shivered, and handed that one to him. “Yeah, all right.”
He tucked away the others and pulled out a condom and some lube. No questions from Mish. She’d probably been around toys before, which didn’t surprise him, though he did wonder if she had her own collection of strap-ons.
“Can I watch you put it on? I know some people don’t like that, but...”
The way she sat, how her eyes were wide and shaded toward green, the flush of her body. “It turns you on to watch,” he murmured.
“Fuck yeah, it does. It’s... I don’t know how to describe it.” Her gaze traced over his body. “More intimate than being naked.”
That wasn’t far from the truth. “I don’t mind.” Other lovers had minded watching him, even back before he’d transitioned, so he’d usually step into the bathroom to avoid the awkwardness.
But Mish cut through all that. He let her watch as he strapped his dick on, and god, it did turn her on. Enough that she was fingering herself, which only made him want her more. “Fuck, baby. We should have done this ages ago.”
She laughed, breathless and full of joy. “Yeah, probably. Except we haven’t known each other that long.”
Three weeks. That’s all. Seemed short and far too long.
He closed the distance between them and devoured that mouth of hers. She answered back hungrily until he had to break the contact to catch a breath. Before he could say anything, she lowered her head and took the tip of his cock between her lips.
The sight of her mouth spread wide and the pressure against him had him raking his fingers through her hair. Might was well be his dick—hell, it was his dick. Every bob, every pull sent fire pouring into him.
Mish hummed, a content sound. Same one she’d made sucking him off before. Beautiful, with her copper curls between his hands and falling around her face and her lips stretched around the festive colors of his cock.
But after a few more times swallowing him, Mish pulled off. Her breath came in huffs and her pupils were huge with desire. “I need you inside me. David. Hard. Fast.”
He paused just long enough to slip the condom and some lube over his dick, then crawled over her. “I can do that.”
He was glad for the lube, ’cause she was tight. And moaning, and demanding that he just fuck her already.
“Yes, ma’am.” Was more breath than anything else.
Mish slapped his ass. Hard enough that he hissed at the pain and the afterglow of pleasure. “Don’t you ma’am me, David fucking Altet.”
He laughed and claimed her mouth. Didn’t take long before he was sliding his thick length in and out of her, which had her nipping at his lips, her eyes closed and every inch of her meeting his strokes. “Yeah, like that. God.”
“Rock queen is a size queen,” he murmured. He pistoned in and out of her, enjoying her cries and the shivers that ran through her body.
Mish grabbed his hair with both hands and dragged him down into another bruising kiss. When she let him go, her eyes were fire and her smile devilish. “Shut up and fuck me.”
He did. His hands on her hips, thrusting as fast and as hard as he could. Nails scraped against his skin, and Mish threw back her head, each breath a groan of pleasure that only served to turn David on even more.
God, he was going to come. So was Mish, if the tremors in her body and the changing pitch of her cries were any indication. He shifted his angle, licked his thumb, and found her clit.
Mish’s eyes flew open and lighted on his. “Oh fuck.”
Then she broke apart beneath him, coming hard and fast and so damn loud. Yeah, he was gonna get some stares tomorrow from her bandmates.
David didn’t fucking care, because he was there, too, his own groans as loud, his vision a haze, and his body one long, trembling mess.
He pulled out, then sank down next to her, his breath sharp and heavy. Legs still tangled with Mish’s. Fuck, that had been something else. Blinding, wall-banging sex. With Mish Sullivan.
David stared up at the ceiling. Holy shit.
Fingers traced over his jaw, through his beard. “Hey.” Mish’s voice was soft. “You okay?”
He started at that and propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look at her face. “Isn’t that my line?”
She snorted. “Not if I get there first.”
He let himself fall back onto the mattress. “Yeah. I’m fine. Better than fine. Just...you blow me away.”
She caressed his cheek again. “Ditto, David. Ditto.”
Warmth spread through him, even as his mind whirled. He’d take that, too.
“Stay the night?” She pressed a finger into the cleft of his chin.
“Baby, yeah. If you want.” He wasn’t really sure he could walk that far anyway, and the idea of spooning up with Mish sent little sparks of pleasure through his arms and legs. How long had it been since he’d held someone during the night? Been held?
“I want,” she said.
They both rose to clean up. Condom ditched. Dick cleaned and put back in its bag. David brushed his teeth, leaning heavily against the counter. His reflection looked very much like a man who’d just had some of the best sex in his life. But also a guy who was about to fall over from exhaustion. It was late, and after a concert.
“Glad there’s not much going on tomorrow,” he said when he exited the bathroom.
“Mmm.” Mish had slipped under the sheet on the bed. “We do that on purpose. Give ourselves some time to fuck off.”
“Or fuck?” He bent down to retrieve one more item out of his duffel bag: Marly.
“Or fuck.” Her reply was a soft echo of his, and she eyed Marly curiously. “You have a bear?”
He did. An old, somewhat worn teddy bear. The one thing he had left from his childhood. His dog tags were looped around Marly’s neck. “He’s...a talisman, I suppose. A touchstone. Was in the desert with me. And also high school.”
She shifted under the covers. “Which was worse?”
He laughed, but considered the question anyway. There was also some truth there. “The desert, but not by much.” He set Marly down on the nightstand, then crawled into the huge bed.
Mish drew him into her arms, into her warmth, and her smile tumbled all the emotions he’d shoved off into the back of his brain. Hope. Fear. Longing.
“I’m glad you brought him,” she said.
“Why?”
“’Cause it means you trust me. And it means yo
u wanted to stay. Planned to. Weren’t just gonna fuck and run.” There was a bitterness there.
“Oh, baby, no. If you’d wanted me to go, I’d have gone, but I want this. Not—”
Not a one-time thing.
She laid a palm on his cheek. “Things are gonna get interesting, David.”
“You don’t say...”
She smirked, then rolled over enough to turn off the lights. In the darkness, they curled into each other’s arms, and David fell asleep with the scent of Mish’s hair close by and the warmth of her body pressed to his.
It was heaven.
Chapter Twelve
Morning came slowly to Mish. The whir of the hotel’s air conditioner, the smell of the sheets, the warmth of David next to her and the pleasant ache of her body, both from the concert and the intense, fantastic sex she’d had with him.
God, even thinking about that sent a shiver of goose bumps over her arms. David was all that she liked in a partner—giving, snarky, passionate, and willing to let her lead. His body was tantalizing and perfect.
She ignored the voice in the back of her head that wondered if this was wise, if they could remain professional now that they’d fucked. None of her bandmates cared—they’d rather she be happy with David.
But she’d been happy with Sasha and Dane on tour before, and neither of them had stuck around. Granted, she hadn’t said that they should, nor really wanted them to—they’d had their own lives and dreams. David, though...
She moved slowly, to not disturb his sleep, and looked over the bare expanse of his back, marked with scrapes and scratches from her nails, to gaze at the teddy bear that sat on the far nightstand. Marly had been obviously well loved, but also well cared for. Mish focused on the dog tags looped around his neck. There were times and moments David would likely never speak of, that he’d shared with this bear, this touchstone.
She’d never dated a man ten years older than her, and maybe that was the strangeness of it all, the way everything felt deeper and—more. Or maybe it was because everyone else in her band-family was, for all intents and purposes, married. Couldn’t tell.
Her aversion to older masc lovers wasn’t fair, but too many of her mom’s boyfriends had taken an interest in her during the bad days when they’d scraped by and moved around and her mom—
Mish ended that line of thought. She missed her mom something fierce and with a pain that would never go away. She hoped that if there was an afterlife, her mom was pleased with how her daughter’s life had turned out, with her chosen name and with the family she’d found.
Her gaze drifted to Marly again. There were things she’d never tell anyone else, too. Parts she’d never share. Dollars to donuts that David would understand that.
When she shifted, he stirred, propping himself up on his forearms. “What time is it?”
She had no idea, mostly because it didn’t matter. Or shouldn’t. Except they had plans to meet with the band today. “Don’t know.”
“Be right back.” David slipped out of bed. God, that body. There were more marks, too. On his shoulders and ass. She hadn’t realized how rough-and-tumble they’d been last night.
He headed into the other room, and returned with his jeans and cell phone, frowning at the latter.
That wasn’t the look of a relaxed lover. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just some emails from Adrian.”
Fuck. “They up already?”
He laughed, and the tension washed out of his body. “Well, it’s after eleven, but given these came in five minutes ago? I doubt they’ve been up that long.” He tossed his jeans onto a nearby chair and set the phone down next to Marly. “Gonna take a piss.”
She rolled her eyes. “Didn’t need the announcement.”
Another chuckle. “Didn’t want it to seem like I don’t wanna crawl back in bed with you.”
She waved him toward the bathroom. “Go, and go. I’ll order some coffee from room service.”
He got a look she knew—at one point, every member of Twisted Wishes had gotten it when one of them had suggested doing something abnormally expensive. “There’s a maker—” David pointed at the wet bar.
Yeah, there was. It was even one of those pod types, and stocked with better than average coffee. She scrunched up her nose. “After practically living with Adrian for this long, that coffee doesn’t cut it. Neither does the room service stuff, but it’s better, and there’s more of it.”
He shifted back and forth. “The delivery fee alone’s gotta be more than the coffee.”
It was, practically. “David. I’m a fucking rock queen.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “Okay. Coffee would be good.” With that, he turned and headed into the bathroom.
She flopped back down onto the bed and groaned, regretting her last words. She loved being Mish Sullivan, loved her life, but she’d had a suspicion she’d opened up a gulf between her and David she desperately wanted not to exist.
She was a rock queen, though. No denying that. That hadn’t been her only existence, however. Twisted Wishes had fought their way up, and before that, she’d clawed her way to playing at bars and clubs. Before that...she’d been a teenaged daughter of a disadvantaged single mother with cancer.
That ache and nausea that came when she dwelled on her past too much crept into her gut and helped propel her out of bed. Yeah, coffee. And yeah, from room service, partly as a fuck-you to her past. If David couldn’t handle her present, then he wasn’t the right person for her.
She could explain her past to him—but she’d buried parts of herself with her mother, and those she didn’t want to unearth. She called down to room service and ordered the damn pot of coffee.
After she hung up, she sank onto the bed, this time on David’s side, and picked up Marly. The fake fur was soft under her fingers, especially the inner ear portion. The dog tags bore David’s name.
David’s name.
She was running her fingers over the text when he came out of the bathroom. She didn’t look up, just started talking. “I know it seems like a waste of money—the coffee—but it’s also a small pleasure. Past me would be horrified, too. But past me hasn’t gone through what I did.”
When she finally looked up, David nodded. He stepped lightly through the room, grabbed his briefs from his jeans, and put them on. Then he sat next to her on the bed, gesturing for the bear in her hands. She handed Marly over.
“We all have pasts.” David touched the tags on the bear.
She nodded at the bear. “Your name is on those tags.”
“Yeah. I had another set made after I transitioned. If my name weren’t on those tags, I couldn’t live with them now.” He stroked her cheek. “The past can stay where it is, Mish. Unless you want to share.”
She didn’t. She did. The past was a part of her, the foundation. The heart. She snorted, mostly to herself, but David raised an eyebrow.
“I was thinking about Dom and Adrian and when they met. Dom was so anxious about telling Adrian who he was, and I didn’t understand his fear. I really should’ve.”
“Different situations are different.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.” She knocked her shoulder against his, garnering a chuckle.
“Pre-caffeinated me isn’t pretty,” he said.
Morning David was stunning. All mussed hair and sleepy eyes and that lovely, nearly naked body. “I wouldn’t say that.” Mish kissed him on the cheek and rose from the bed. “My turn.” She headed to the bathroom.
When she returned, David was murmuring thanks to someone at the door to the suite. Hopefully that was their coffee.
Indeed, David stepped to the door to the bedroom, holding a tray with a stainless steel pot, ceramic mugs, and all the fixings. “Where do you want this, Ms. Queen?”
Delight shivered down her spine. She loved
his mouth and his voice and those words. “In here.”
They ended up at a little table by the window, each in their own chair. She’d found her panties and her tee and put those back on. Neither of them spoke as they took the first sips of coffee. David grunted appreciatively.
The coffee was good. Not Adrian-good, but enough that she knew where David was coming from. After a few more sips of her own, she asked a question that had been flitting through her mind all morning. “Did you enjoy last night?”
David nearly choked on his coffee. After a short coughing fit, he pinned her with disbelief. “Fucking hell, Mish. Did you really just ask that?”
Heat to her face. “Okay, foolish question. But was everything okay?”
He set his mug down. “Baby, last night was perfect. Couldn’t have asked for better.” He tilted his head. “You okay with everything we did?”
Her turn to give him the skeptical look. “Yeah. Of course.”
“Then where’s this—” he gestured between the two of them “—coming from?”
That was a decent question, and the coffee unlocked a little more of her brain. “I don’t know what you like in bed. I mean, other than the obvious.” Fucking her. Going down on her. Her going down on him.
“Well, that’s part of this.” Once again, he gestured between them. “Right? We’ll discover all that.” He gave her that quizzical look again. “You want something, just ask. I’m not gonna be offended.”
“So not a one-time thing?”
His smile was full and warm. “I’m game for more, if you want that. I would like to find out what more you like in bed.”
Everything, including fucking him, if he was willing. The intense desire came as suddenly as a possessive streak, and both blazed through her hard, leaving her breathless. Hadn’t felt like that for anyone in forever.
She sipped her coffee. “Oh,” she said. “Good.”
Whatever David was going to say was cut off by the ringing of Mish’s cell phone. They both jolted, and she scrambled out of her chair to find the damn thing because it was Ray’s ringtone. She didn’t ignore that one.
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