by Willa Okati
And again with the immediate dislike for medical professionals. Even if Adriano marched straight out of there as soon as he had his head on straight again, Rick thought he’d not be able to rest until he figured out exactly why Adriano recoiled like a spooked rabbit at the thought of a physician.
“Rest easy. I’m neither a doctor or a nurse nor an orderly.”
Adriano relaxed. “Good.” He bit at his thumbnail. “Si. Benne. No doctors, please.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. As to how you came here, well…there’s a long story.” About which I still haven’t a clue, ta very much. “Call me a Good Samaritan for now and we’ll get into the details later. You’re looking better, anyway.” Rick moved toward the bed, figuring he might as well go with it. If Adriano was in a good mood, best to keep him there; getting him all riled up would be of no use whatsoever. “How do you feel?”
“Sore. A slight headache. Otherwise, I feel better, I think. Rested.”
“Yeah, that’d just about figure.” Rick sat down on the edge of the mattress. “You won’t recall this, probably, but as I remember you always could get by on power naps. Twenty-four hours of adrenaline and booze, fifteen minutes asleep, and ready to go for another diurnal cycle.”
“I could?” Adriano sat up fully, crossing his legs in front of him. “You know me, then. And I know you?”
“You might say that. We used to know each other, anyway.” Rick hesitated, feeling strangely uncomfortable. A dazed, dozy Adriano had been far easier to deal with; an Adriano wide-awake and clear if still addled in the memory department was starting to be something more of a challenge. What did he say to the man? Hello, I’m your gay lover, or I used to be before we decided we hated each other, that might not go over so well and Lord knew he didn’t feel like answering those questions at the moment.
Adriano was sitting attentively, every ounce of his focus directed on Rick, though, so he had to come up with some sort of answer, even if it wasn’t the exact truth. “We were friends, once,” he hedged.
“Are we no longer friends?” Adriano’s forehead creased, an expression Rick had never seen on him. The Adriano he’d known would never think to frown in the midst of his carefree life, and if he’d had cause he’d have shrunk away in horror from the threat of wrinkles.
And yet I loved him, for all that he drove me mad, Rick thought. I’ll not lie to myself; it wasn’t only for the sex. Though fuck, was that ever good sex.
No, Adriano, you got under my skin somehow. Invaded me. There were good times, times when I saw underneath your hedonist’s façade and thought I saw a fine man there, one with a heart that could love and a noble nature that only needed awakening…
Sometimes I wish I’d tried to make you see that.
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other,” Rick replied. “And here I’m taking care of you, aren’t I? Just as I promised.”
It wasn’t an answer at all, not really, but it seemed to suit Adriano, whose smile returned without any guile attached. “Benne! I’m glad. You’re a kind man ‑‑” He stopped, clearly puzzled. “Forgive me. What is your name?”
“Sullivan,” Rick returned, giving his surname. As long as he could keep the conversation from turning to the baffling “where is my love?” spiel, he’d count himself content.
Why the hell was Adriano looking for him, anyway? Why was he the one Adriano wanted, and why did he think “his Rick” would be the one who’d help him?
Granted, it wasn’t an incorrect assumption as assumptions went, for that was exactly what he was doing, but still, it made no kind of sense at all, and thinking on it made him more than a little uncomfortable.
A dash of bitterness returned. I’d have been happier never to see you again, Adriano, and there’s the God’s honest truth.
No, Rick’s subconscious immediately fired back. You wouldn’t. Be straight with yourself, you lousy sod. You’ve never stopped wanting him, deep down, no matter how you try to lie.
This, Rick considered, was an entirely unfair moment for his id to jump in with an opinion.
“Sullivan,” Adriano mused. “Your accent. You are British, yes?” He brightened several dozen watts. “You are! My Rick, he is also British. Do you know him?” He caught Rick’s hands in his own before Rick could jump away or think to divert him. The warm, firm pressure of his grasp made Rick flinch and gasp. What he remembered those hands doing in the past…
“I,” he said dumbly and uselessly, “I…”
Oh, hell. It’s not like he’ll remember ten minutes from now.
Rick freed one of his hands and reached to stroke Adriano’s cheek, feathering his thumb across the sharpness of the bone beneath his soft skin. “I do know Rick, love,” he said. “I am Rick. You were looking for me, and now you’ve found me. Can you not see that? Take a good long butcher’s and think hard.”
Adriano flinched back, loosening his grasp on Rick. His fingers crept to his mouth, covering his lips. Over them, his eyes went wide enough for Rick to see white all around the brown irises, confusion mixing with fascination in his stare. As his fingers slowly fell away from his lips, he shook his head and whispered, “Rick? Is it really you?”
“Same as ever and same as always, love,” Rick said, resigning himself to giving up the fight. He could drink away the renewed pain of loving and losing Adriano a second time once he’d recovered and moved on. For now…for now, God help him, he wasn’t going to let this chance at a peaceful moment with the man who still owned his heart slip by. “It’s Rick and no other.”
Adriano peered at him more closely, narrowing his eyes. Then, with no more than a flicker’s warning, he lit up brightly enough to half blind Rick and flung his full, not inconsiderable weight forward, tackling Rick and dragging him down to the bed. Rick squawked, oofed, and tumbled, his center of balance all a-tilt until he found himself pressed into the mattress with Adriano draped atop him, dazzling him with the simple joy in his smile.
Joy, yes, and more than joy. Love. Love pure and true as he’d always yearned to see from Adriano, but never had. It fair took his breath away.
“Adriano,” he whispered, too stunned for a better response.
“Rick,” Adriano replied, delight making him seem almost a different man. “My Rick. My love. I’ve found you at last, and I’ve missed you so. Kiss me?”
Rick didn’t hesitate before complying. At least he’d have some good memories to keep him company during his ride on the express handbasket to Hell. He wound his arms around Adriano, pulled him closer still, as close as two men could get, and pressed their mouths together.
Odd, really. Adriano had been the one to find him, and yet it seemed to Rick as if he himself was the one who’d just come home.
Chapter Six
Some things never did change, even if the rest of the world spun about one hundred and eighty degrees. Adriano still made love with the same zest and passion that Rick remembered, throwing the whole of his being into near-mindless ecstasy.
In short, if a man wasn’t prepared for it, it could feel an awful lot like drowning. Not that Rick minded.
Much.
“Adriano,” he said on a long exhale, breathing the word into Adriano’s mouth. “Adriano.” He remembered how to use his hands and skated them up the smooth line of Adriano’s back, grasping over the taut muscles as they worked.
Adriano growled and deepened their kiss, slipping his tongue insistently along Rick’s lips until they opened far enough to suit him, immediately upon which he took Rick with one hand on either side of his head and held him absolutely still, ravaging him with a kiss so deep and hungry that Rick could barely breathe.
When Adriano finally tore away, dragging in deep, loud breaths, he stared into Rick’s eyes from inches away. Rick slid further beneath the depths, unable to look away from the intense examination. “I thought I had lost you forever,” Adriano whispered, the firm pressure of his hands softening. He slid his fingertips over Rick’s cheeks in a wondering exploration.
“And here you are.”
“You remember me, then,” Rick said breathlessly. His mind struggled to keep up and came to a conclusion he dreaded having confirmed. “You remember…what happened between us at the end, too?” Even if he did, Rick hoped Adriano wouldn’t stop now. His cock lay curved against his belly, pressed between the two of them, and he’d have the world’s worst case of blue balls if Adriano cut this short. So to speak.
Right, so this wasn’t playing fair, but Rick didn’t care. He slipped his hand between their bellies and slid it under the loose waist of Adriano’s pants, glad as could be that he hadn’t provided Adriano with any boxers or jockeys. Nothing extra to hinder him, giving him a straight path to ‑‑
Adriano’s eyes rolled back. “God have mercy upon my soul,” he gasped. “Rick.” He shook hair out of his face and returned his mouth greedily to Rick’s, eating at him as if starving for this.
Rick returned the kiss with even greater fervor, upping the ante by raising one leg and hooking his knee around Adriano’s thigh. He rocked up, hissing into Adriano’s mouth at the delicious pressure of Adriano’s cock pushing against his belly.
Swearing fast and filthily in guttersnipe Italian, Adriano broke away from their kiss and turned his head to a side. His jaw tightened. Rick remembered the signs of old and knew what this meant ‑‑ if Adriano didn’t get himself under control, he’d lose it. The man used to be a master at edging, drawing them both so close Rick thought they’d burst, then backing down. Coming was often as painful as it was a relief. He’d gotten addicted after a while.
This time, if Adriano didn’t get down to the proper business of fucking right now, Rick figured he’d finish whatever job had been started and slaughter the man where he lay.
“Don’t you stop now,” he urged, dragging his fist up the rigid length of Adriano’s cock and squeezing the plump head, finding it already slick from his excitement. “It’s all right if it’s fast.”
Adriano laughed shockily. “So long it’s been. I wanted ‑‑ no, I need for this to last, I still do ‑‑” He kissed Rick desperately, ravenously. “I have dreamed about you so many times.”
“You’re not the only one.” Rick scraped his thumbnail over the slit on Adriano’s cockhead, exulting in the resultant hiss and moan. “You like that, you do. I remember.”
“Remember,” Adriano rasped, dropping his head to Rick’s shoulder, immediately turning to press his lips to the side of Rick’s throat, a ground-zero hot spot.
Rick swore, arching his hips, grinding his cock to Adriano’s. “Missed you.” He choked. “Missed you so much. Missed this.”
“I don’t remember why we parted,” Adriano mourned, his lips tickling the ultra-sensitive skin directly beneath Rick’s ear. He seized the lobe between his teeth and nipped, the shock both painful and dizzyingly arousing. “Why, Rick?” he begged, releasing the bit of flesh. “I cannot understand. Why were we not together? Why did I have to hunt for you?”
“Ah, God, Adriano. Don’t.” Rick threaded his fingers through Adriano’s hair and pulled him up high enough to lay his lips on Adriano’s forehead. “Does it matter? You’re with me now. That’s good enough, isn’t it?” He canted his hips, hoping as much to distract Adriano as for the sake of friction and pressure. “Let it be good enough, for now. I’ve got you.”
“Yes,” Adriano said, relieved in the one way and nicely strung tight with the kind of tension Rick was in the mood for. “You have me. I have you. We are together.”
“Damn right we are.” Rick loosed his grasp on Adriano’s cock and shoved his hand further down to roll Adriano’s balls for a brief moment, then onward to firmly push on the soft dimple of skin behind them. Angle it just right, just so, up and ‑‑
He held on tight as Adriano bucked and shouted, fiercely glad that he’d remembered the exact right angle to stimulate his feisty lover’s prostate the tricky way around.
“Fuck you,” Adriano said, spitting the words out between inhalation and exhalation. “I have to fuck you. Now. Please.”
Rick nodded, reaching automatically out of long-ago habit underneath the mattress, where he and Adriano had always stored lube, condoms and other goodies. He’d not understood at the time why Adriano didn’t rely on the good old clichéd bedside cabinet until in retrospect he knew why the man preferred an extra layer of clichéd concealment.
Naturally, he found nothing there, and cursed himself for a fool twice over. “Oh, no,” Adriano groaned, pressing fevered kisses to Rick’s forehead, cheeks and chin. “Please, do not tell me you have nothing.”
Rick tried to think. A dab of clarity had crept in, damn its logical hide. They’d come too far now to back down, to be sure; he didn’t fancy finding out if a man could die of blue balls and he knew he’d already passed the point where an orgasm was still optional.
But he had neither condoms nor lube. More, he didn’t think he could live with himself if he actually let Adriano fuck him just yet. It’d be poetic, almost, for him to blow out his blood pressure or overload his already-scrambled head, and wouldn’t he have a fine old time explaining to the police how the son and heir of the Dominicis had come to pass on in his bed?
No.
“Shh, shh,” he crooned, stroking Adriano’s arms and back. “I’ll get some lube soon, but I don’t have any now, no.”
Adriano’s impassioned growl told Rick exactly what he thought about that.
“I didn’t say ‘stop’, idiot.” Rick slapped him lightly on the middle of his back. An idea came to him, one he was more than happy to roll with. “Let me suck you. Can I?”
Adriano reared back, pupils blown with lust. “You…”
“Is that a yes, or would that be a yes?” Rick pushed at him. “Roll over.” His mouth was already watering, eagerly anticipating the taste of Adriano’s cock.
“Wait.” Adriano arrested his movement. His gaze was so sincere and concerned that it hurt Rick’s heart. His lips turned down at the corner. “Rick, please…if you do not want me to fuck you…”
“For the love of Pete and his seven sisters,” Rick snarled, fully fed up. “I want you to fuck me, all right? But not now. Soon. I swear. Now roll the fuck over before I decide to bite it off!”
Adriano blinked, seemingly taken aback, and then roared with laughter. “I remember this about you!” he said with open delight. “Let me suck you, too?”
Rick would be damned if he’d turn that sort of offer down. “Move,” he ordered, curtly pushing and prodding at Adriano. Soon enough, he found himself laughing and cursing at the awkward tangle of their limbs but ah, immediately after he was busy with tugging Adriano’s sleep pants down off his hips.
He pressed his lips to the head of Adriano’s cock, licking up the sticky saltiness of precum, eating up Adriano’s heartfelt moan and perversely enough exulting when Adriano lost the tiny bit of control he had and bobbed away from Rick’s throbbing erection.
I love you so much it breaks my heart, he thought.
“Going to suck you so hard you’re fucking well seeing stars,” he said roughly, seizing Adriano’s hips to hold him steady and going for the gold, sealing his lips around Adriano’s cock and gliding almost all the way down. He covered what he couldn’t fit with his fist and let himself go wild. God, but it was better than he’d ever dreamed.
Adriano’s cock fit between his lips as if they’d been made one for the other by some insanely benevolent deity. He lashed the shaft with his tongue, scraped him with the slightest hint of teeth, and hollowed his cheeks from suction, never once ceasing in his pull up and push down. Inside, he laughed a little hysterically at Adriano’s increasingly frustrated attempts to return the favor, thrilled down to his curling toes at how mad he’d driven the man.
Adriano abruptly tugged at Rick’s hair. His chest heaved against Rick’s knees.
Rick made an “uh-uh” noise around his mouthful of cock and kept up the sucking.
“Rick, Rick…close, so close…” Adriano gasped in warning.<
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Rick hummed, deliberately using the vibrations to his advantage. Good, he thought, smug. He worked a finger in his mouth alongside Adriano’s cock, relishing the sting of his lips stretching almost too far, got the digit good and wet, and slipped it fast beneath Adriano’s sac and between the cheeks of his arse.
When he brushed lightly and wetly over Adriano’s tightly clenched hole, Adriano lost it completely. He roared, jerking hard on Rick’s hair, and came in creamy pulses, coating Rick’s tongue, so much that it ran out of the corner’s of Rick’s mouth no matter how he tried to keep it all in and swallow him down.
He could only just barely pay attention to Adriano’s drugged muttering, too busy guzzling down every drop he could catch and rooting for more, and so it took him completely by surprise when Adriano’s unsteady fist circled tight around his cock. Two pulls, clumsy though they were, and he was done for, releasing Adriano’s cock with a wet pop in order to throw back his head and howl as he spurted over Adriano’s face.
Adriano moaned something Rick couldn’t be bothered to interpret, caring only that he sounded drunk with happiness, and collapsed twisted on his side, body going slack.
Rick awkwardly patted Adriano’s hip, fighting back a wave of hysterical laughter from all the crazed emotions flailing willy-nilly all over the place. “Exactly,” he muttered, hiccupping. “It was good for me, too, thanks.”
Adriano laughed sleepily. “I love you,” he whispered.
The effervescence lifted abruptly. Adriano had never. Not once, had he ever said those words. Rick lifted his head, disbelieving. Surely he’d imagined it. “Adriano?”
Too late. He’d already slipped into sleep.
Rick stroked his thigh in wonder. He knew better than to believe him. Men did say all manner of crazy things after they’d come. Adriano couldn’t have meant it, and surely wouldn’t have said it if he’d been fully himself.
But maybe…just maybe…for a few sweet moments, he’d let himself believe. It couldn’t hurt, could it? Just for a little while…
So thinking, Rick dozed off without meaning to, a smile on his reddened lips.