by Piper Scott
“You can strap down my wrist if you want.” Sterling didn’t feel the need to speak with any kind of volume. If he was right, Adrian hung on his every word. “You can restrain me, degrade me, humiliate me, and hurt me.”
Adrian’s lips twitched. The move was so subtle that Sterling almost missed it.
“You have my permission to do what you want.” Sterling looked from Adrian’s face to the cuff Adrian was now tightening. He hadn’t answered Sterling yet, but Sterling knew he was listening. “There are toys you can use in the closet, if you’re so inclined. Nipple clamps, butt plugs, whips, gags, canes—”
“Stop.” Adrian’s voice was strained. He yanked the strap on the cuff tightly, and for a second it bit into Sterling’s wrist before the metal prong fitted into the hole and offered him some slack. “Stop… stop fucking talking for a second.”
“I barely said anything.” Sterling searched Adrian’s face for the trigger that had set him off, but he didn’t find it. Whatever bothered him was deeply buried. “I’m giving you something I’ve given very few—”
“I hate you so fucking much right now.” Adrian trembled. If it hadn’t been for the way his hands quivered, Sterling might not have noticed it. “Just let me… let me do this. Don’t make this something it isn’t.”
The clip secured to the headboard threaded through the metal loop on Sterling’s cuff. His arms were useless. Adrian took momentary control, but Sterling didn’t let it rattle his soul. No matter what Adrian did to him, no matter the demons he needed to express, the power dynamic between them remained unchanged. Sterling would allow Adrian the release he needed because he understood that this was exactly what Adrian needed. The why wasn’t important—not for now. That would come later.
For now, he would let Adrian be selfish.
The first impact rattled him. A gasp slotted through Sterling’s teeth, the sound partially hissed. Heat burned across his cheek, spreading with incredible rapidity until it fizzled out. The sharp sound of skin on skin didn’t register in Sterling’s ears.
Not until the second blow.
Sterling’s cock twitched in time with the slap. A second gasp died in his throat, a strangled sound somewhere between pain and arousal. Fresh, tingling fire spread across his cheek.
Above him, chest heaving, thighs tightened around Sterling’s chest, Adrian looked down at him with rage assuaged by lust and satisfaction.
What was going on in his head? What secrets were buried in those eyes?
Sterling wanted to know.
With tenderness unfitting of the man straddling his chest, Adrian ran his palm gingerly over Sterling’s irritated skin. The contact cooled the pain, and Sterling turned his cheek into Adrian’s caress to benefit from it as much as he could.
The pain was fine, but the aftercare? The aftercare was what turned the experience from senseless violence to something intimate. Sterling enjoyed the pleasure that much more because he knew the pitfalls of pain.
“Get it out.” Sterling’s voice was gritty, but not unintelligible. He arched his back, pulling against his restraints not because he wanted to escape, but because he wanted to show Adrian that power was his, so long as he wanted it. “Whatever it is, get it out. Give it to me. Let me shoulder it for you.”
“Stop!” Desperate this time, the sound of Adrian’s voice echoed through the bedroom. Another slap struck Sterling across the cheek, but it was immediately followed by kittenish affection. Adrian’s thumb worked in small circles, loving, praising, silently telling Sterling that everything would be okay. “Just be quiet. Just… just let me. Let me do what I want.”
Sterling parted his lips, but he elected not to speak. With care, Adrian’s hand traced from his cheek, down his throat, and to the buttons of his shirt. One by one they fell, until the shirt pooled on either side of Sterling’s chest. The restraints prevented him from taking it off completely.
When Sterling’s chest was bare, Adrian caught his eye. He moved his hips in tight, gyrating circles that promised Sterling that more would be coming. Then, without a noise, Adrian slipped farther down Sterling’s body and parted his fly in full.
Sterling’s slacks fell. Adrian guided them down his thighs until he was left in just his boxer-briefs. From Sterling’s position, he was able to observe the tented fabric covering his erection and how Adrian’s eyes were drawn to it.
Cautiously, as though he were afraid of retaliation, Adrian curled his fingers beneath the elastic and lowered it inch by inch down Sterling’s body, revealing the head of his cock first, then every thick inch of his shaft, until Sterling’s heavy balls and the nest of dark-blond pubic hair at his base were exposed.
“Fuck,” Adrian murmured. He drew Sterling’s boxer-briefs down past his knees, then seemed to forget about them. His gaze was locked on Sterling’s cock. “That’s… nice.”
Sterling took the compliment without a word. Baiting Adrian by speaking would be to invite trouble. Now that Sterling knew that there was discord in Adrian’s soul, he wanted to coax it out. If being silent and accepting punishment was the way to do it, so be it.
“I just want to…” Adrian drew a labored breath made heavy by arousal. Sterling saw it in his eyes as plainly as he saw it in his posture.
“You can touch it.” Words were worth the risk. Sterling wanted to know Adrian’s hand, his mouth, and his ass. Over the next twenty-five days, he wanted to memorize the feeling of each. “I want you to touch it. Do what you want to it. It’s hard because of you.”
A divided look crossed Adrian’s face, but his hand ventured forth without hesitation. Just as Sterling had once wrapped his palm around Adrian’s shaft, Adrian now wrapped Sterling in his grip. One short, experimental pump paved the way for more, and it wasn’t long before Adrian was working him with confidence.
Slick precum leaked from Sterling’s cock. Adrian’s hand worked it down his shaft, the added lubrication welcome, but still not enough for Sterling’s taste.
“Lube,” Sterling croaked, surprised to find his voice was that far gone. He tried to gesture to the bedside table, but his arms were bound uselessly above his head.
Adrian got the message regardless. He kept one hand on Sterling’s dick while the other reached for the drawer. Soon enough, the small, clear bottle was in Adrian’s hand. The plastic top snapped open. Lube dribbled from the cap directly onto the head of Sterling’s cock, pooling in his slit until it was so heavily loaded that it wept down his shaft to meet the top of Adrian’s hand. Adrian pumped, letting the lube between his fingers, until Sterling’s cock was slick and slippery.
“Fuck, you’re wet,” Adrian uttered. His hand worked more urgently, like the thought aroused him as much as the extra lubrication aroused Sterling. “God… so fucking wet.”
Adrian’s hand slipped down, momentarily leaving Sterling’s shaft to favor his balls. The excess lubricant worked into Sterling’s skin, and he couldn’t help but suck in a needy gasp as Adrian rolled his balls between his fingers and put pressure in exactly the right place to send pleasure and pain spiraling through his gut.
It wasn’t the first time Adrian had tortured someone’s cock.
Tears beaded in Sterling’s eyes, but with them came all the hallmarks of orgasm. His body tensed. His hips arched. His lungs burned for air. Sterling threw his head back, eyes closed as he prepared to let it all out.
And then the pain stopped, and a new sensation took over.
Heat. Pressure. Overwhelming pleasure. Sterling thought that Adrian had abandoned his balls to start pumping his shaft again, but when he looked down, he saw that it had gone much further than that.
Adrian rocked his body over Sterling’s cock, poised to take Sterling bare.
“Oh fuck.” It was Sterling who spoke this time, voice strained and almost broken. When he took playmates, he used condoms. Never before had he been tempted to go bareback, but to feel Adrian around him and to know that they were connected so viscerally… he couldn’t help himself. Years of self-contr
ol abandoned him all at once. All he could think of was how badly he wanted this.
How badly he wanted Adrian.
“Let me fuck myself,” Adrian panted. He wormed his hips, and as he did, the tip of Sterling’s cock vanished into him. The view was one Sterling swore to never forget. He’d watched himself disappear into other lovers, but with Adrian, it was different. With Adrian, it was right. “Oh god, Sterling, don’t move. Don’t fucking move. Let me fuck myself. I need this. I need it.”
“It’s all yours,” Sterling uttered. The headboard rattled as he instinctively fought against his restraints—more than anything, he wanted to brace Adrian and squeeze his ass as he moved, but that was impossible as long as Adrian kept him tied up. “Fuck yourself on my cock. Make yourself come. I want to see it.”
“Oh god, yes.” Adrian hung his head. His thighs trembled, and with a final push, he sat squarely on Sterling’s cock. There was no deeper for Sterling to go. “Feels so fucking good. Why do you feel so good? Not fair. It’s not fair. A-ah!”
Adrian lurched forward and planted his hands on Sterling’s chest. Breathless, Sterling watched as Adrian worked his hips in a desperate rhythm. Every twitch of Adrian’s body stirred Sterling from the inside, and as he focused on the sensation of Adrian’s body instead of his own rocking motions, he was able to feel the hole he was buried in better than ever before.
Every unexpected clench.
Each pre-orgasmic flutter.
And as Adrian approached orgasm and tightened around him as he rode, Sterling couldn’t take it anymore.
“If you don’t stop right now, I’m going to knot you.” Sterling barely heard himself speak. His body urged him to stop holding back—to swell inside the man riding his cock and lock his cum in him—but his mind knew better. Before instinct, before domination, and before lines were crossed, he needed consent. He wouldn’t knot Adrian without knowing Adrian wanted it, too. “Slow down. You have to slow down. I won’t be able to stop it if you don’t.”
Adrian looked up, his eyes partially lidded and his eyes fogged with desire. His hips worked the same urgent rhythm, riding Sterling’s shaft like he’d been born to do it. If he was testing Sterling’s limits, he was playing a dangerous game.
“I’m not pretending, Adrian.” Sterling forced the words out. Pressure built in his groin. “If you don’t want this, you have to stop. I’m not going to be able to… nngh… I can’t—”
In that moment, in what felt like an impossibly small window of time, Adrian’s gaze met Sterling’s. He stopped moving, but did not lift himself from Sterling’s cock. Eyes locked, Adrian let a beat pass, then he bore down on Sterling’s length and fucked himself with just as much vigor as before.
The invitation was unspoken, but it was clear. With a strangled cry, Sterling pushed up into Adrian, working himself in savage, depraved ways that he would have been ashamed of had he been with any other partner. Orgasm struck, and when it did, it struck hard. Sterling thrust as deeply as he could into Adrian’s ass, then let himself go.
The ecstasy of knotting an ass raw was unlike anything Sterling had felt before. Pure instinct saw him rattle the restraints and shake the headboard as he fought to grab Adrian by the hips and push him down farther. Heart racing, orgasm rippling through him in thick spurts that soaked Adrian’s insides, Sterling stretched the limits of Adrian’s body.
It was wrong. It was irresponsible.
But fuck, was it satisfying.
As his knot grew beyond the point of comfort, Adrian dropped down onto Sterling’s hips and worked himself in shorter, shallower bursts of movement. Their lips locked, and Adrian stole each panted gasp from Sterling’s lips. Sterling was still coming, filling Adrian as their bodies reached total bliss.
Adrian came across his chest, the wet splatter landing in strips that were promptly dispersed as Adrian toppled down onto Sterling’s chest. The kiss broke. Adrian laid up on top of him, unable to go anywhere else. The knot would hold him in place for the next fifteen minutes while Sterling’s seed worked into him.
“I’m sorry,” Adrian whispered. The words were so tiny that Sterling almost didn’t hear them. “I’m so sorry. I… I didn’t mean to, and…”
“It’s okay.” Sterling lifted his head so he could press a kiss against Adrian’s forehead. “I liked it. I liked every part of it. Do you want to play like this again?”
“Yes.”
There was no doubt in Adrian’s voice, nor was there any more argument. He didn’t fight Sterling for dominance—trust had been established, and Adrian had learned that Sterling was safe. Now, coming down from orgasm, they’d found their path forward.
A total power exchange wasn’t going to happen. Adrian wasn’t suited for it, and Sterling wasn’t the kind of man who would force Adrian’s hand. He didn’t want to be. What they shared needed to be organic, and this? This was it.
Pain. Pleasure. Versatility.
Sterling had never given the reins to anyone as freely as he’d given them to Adrian, but he didn’t regret his choice. This was right. They were right.
He was ready.
Adrian lifted his head and reignited the kiss, but the embers had burnt low, and only residual heat kept it alive. It was languid and heartfelt in a way it shouldn’t have been, but it hooked Sterling right in the gut and made him wish it would never end all the same.
Twenty-five days of exploration. Twenty-five days of bliss.
It would be theirs.
8
Adrian
By the time Sterling’s knot deflated, Adrian was exhausted, but he couldn’t keep himself from claiming kiss after unhurried kiss from Sterling’s lips. In the quiet following their coupling, fuzzy affection made its claim on Adrian and erased the anger that had once flowed so liberally through his veins.
Sterling’s cock slipped from his body. Adrian sighed softly and kissed Sterling again, then rolled onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. The room was still dark, but light leeched in from the hallway.
“We don’t need to get you the morning-after pill, do we?” Sterling asked lazily. He dragged Adrian into his arms, and Adrian snuggled close and closed his eyes. For now, while his worries were distant and his body was relaxed, he wanted to enjoy himself. In Sterling’s bedroom he didn’t have to worry about family.
“No. My heat isn’t until next month. We’re fine.” Adrian shifted his hips back and forth, his body still sensitive from how Sterling had stretched him. “The last week we’re together, we should avoid unprotected sex. Sperm is viable for what, a few days once it’s outside of you and inside of me? So just to make sure we’re not in the danger zone, we’ll wrap it once we’re closer to our end date.”
A pang of regret shrunk Adrian’s stomach thinking about the end of his twenty-five days with Sterling. Not even an hour ago he’d been so enraged by Sterling’s behavior that he’d been willing to call the deal off, but after what they’d just shared? If Sterling could keep that up, Adrian had no reason to want to go. He wasn’t suited for submission, but now that he’d gotten the message through to Sterling, maybe they’d be alright.
Or maybe it was just the afterglow of orgasm tinting the world in rose color.
Whatever the case, Adrian relished the now. The scent of sex hung in the air around them, Adrian’s familiar omega signature mixed with Sterling’s alpha. Adrian had been with more men than he cared to admit, but this was the first time he’d found someone he smelled so good with.
Enamored, he rolled over and buried his head against Sterling’s chest. Sterling chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, holding him loosely. In the fifteen minutes following the release of his knot, Adrian had undone his restraints and given him his freedom, but Sterling’s cheek had only just lost its red hue.
“Sterling?” Adrian wasn’t sure why he was prompting conversation. It wasn’t like him to stick around and cuddle after sex, much less engage with his partner, but if he was going to stay, Adrian knew he needed to make his thoughts know
n.
“Mm?” Sterling’s fingers ran in loose patterns through his hair, massaging his scalp and relaxing him further. Adrian couldn’t recall the last time he’d been cherished like this. “What is it?”
“I don’t want a TPE.”
“I know.”
There was no disappointment. Sterling didn’t try to redirect the conversation or beg Adrian to change his mind. The statement was so simple, in fact, that Adrian couldn’t be sure that Sterling wasn’t mocking him. He lifted himself up from Sterling’s chest only enough to look at Sterling’s face, but he found no sign of derision there.
Sterling was being sincere.
“I knew it wasn’t going to work out as soon as I asked for the arrangement and you fired back with terms. TPEs aren’t something you negotiate. It defeats the purpose.” Sterling’s fingers didn’t stop their caress. “I’m not upset. I knew to anticipate this.”
“Then why ask for it in the first place?” Under ordinary circumstances, Adrian’s temper would have flared. He remarked the resounding calmness in his soul and the way his brain had shut itself down, but he didn’t question it. Sex did fantastic things to his anger, and besides that, the strange sensation in his chest was back and bolder than ever.
He laid his head on Sterling’s chest once more and closed his eyes.
“Because I wanted to know who you were.” Sterling spoke the words like they were simple. “When you push a man to his limits, you see the truth of his character—his flaws, his short fuses, his strengths… and I wanted to know what to expect from you. This is less about the sex than it is understanding your spirit. I would have let you back into The Shepherd even if you refused to strip naked, as long as I saw the truth.”
“I don’t think I understand.” Adrian cracked an eye open, but didn’t lift his head. He observed the hills of Sterling’s tight abs and the lines of symmetry of his body. “What do you mean by the truth?”