Those groans turned to a gasp when Lucius bit down on the tender flesh, taking it between his teeth and tugging gently on the nub before sucking deeply at the same time as he flicked the sensitive bud with his tongue.
It became like an addiction to pleasure first one sensitive nipple then the other, Lucius’s fingers plucking and pulling on whichever one was not in his mouth. He did it so that he could hear Toby mewl and groan and cry out when that turgid flesh became oversensitive, and he lifted his head to watch the almost pained expression on Toby’s face as he became totally lost to that pleasure bordering on pain.
“Please…!” Toby groaned in protest when Lucius ceased that dual torment.
“There is so much more of you to pleasure.” Lucius claimed Toby’s lips in a searing kiss for long drugging minutes before ending it so that he might rise up and roll Toby over onto his stomach.
Toby resisted the movement by digging his elbows down into the mattress. “No!”
Lucius ceased all movement. “Toby?”
His jaw tightened. “You told me I might say no.”
Lucius studied him closely. “You are saying no to me turning you onto your stomach?”
Toby gave a fierce nod. “I do not want to be facing away from you. I want to see you, to look at you, and have you see and look at me, when you make love to me.”
Lucius frowned. “Is this because of my previous lovers? Have no fear, Toby, they meant absolutely nothing to me, and I know exactly who you are,” he assured gently.
Toby continued to outstare him. “And I know who you are when we are facing each other.”
“Toby, what—”
“You told me you would stop if I did not like something,” he repeated stubbornly. “I do not like being asked to face away from you.”
Lucius remained silent for several moments, and then he nodded. “Then we shall find another way for what I wish to do to you.”
He hooked his arms beneath Toby’s thighs, his hands on each rounded bottom cheek as he easily lifted the younger man to pull Toby up so that his arse rested on Lucius’s thighs.
“You are far more flexible than me,” he teased after pushing Toby’s legs back until his knees touched his chest. This new position easily revealed the pink rosette between those delicious globes of flesh. “You are beautiful here too,” he murmured shakily. “Dear God, I need to taste you!”
Toby had no idea what to expect next, but it certainly wasn’t to find his arse being lifted higher still at the same time as Lucius lowered his head, and then to feel the moist and hot pressure of Lucius’s tongue against his flesh. The other man licked a wet and erotic path from Toby’s balls to the puckered rosette between his bottom cheeks.
He had barely recovered from the shock of it before that hot tongue lingered to lick against that sensitive rosette, moistening and softening the entrance before his tongue probed against that virgin tight ring.
To look down and see what Lucius was doing to him was… It was…
More erotic than Toby could ever have imagined.
It hardly seemed possible that was Lucius’s head between his thighs. Lucius hands kneading and squeezing his bottom cheeks. Lucius’s tongue seeking entrance inside that forbidden rosette.
“Relax, Toby,” Lucius encouraged hoarsely, his breath hot against Toby’s wet pucker. “Relax and let me in, love.”
Toby drew in deep breaths, desperately wanting to please Lucius. Even so, it took several seconds for him to force the tension to ease from his body, only to then quiver and shake in ecstasy as his body responded to Lucius’s every touch.
His hands.
His lips.
His teeth.
His tongue.
Oh God, Lucius’s wicked, wicked tongue…
It was inside Toby now, probing longer and deeper than he could ever have imagined. It was so deep inside him, it caused black spots to appear in front of his eyes and then fireworks of pleasure to erupt behind his lids as he squeezed them tightly shut.
He arched his back and pushed down instinctively, wanting Lucius’s tongue deeper still, knowing there was something more, if only he could get Lucius to go deeper.
He groaned in protest as Lucius withdrew his tongue completely, only to respond eagerly when that wet tongue was replaced by a long and probing finger.
It touched inside where Toby wanted to be touched, stroking, pressing, and sending Toby to a level of mewling and begging ecstasy he had never dreamed existed.
Lucius was watching him as a second finger joined the first, stretching Toby wider as those fingers began to thrust. Each time, that thrust was accompanied by a light stroke of fingertips to that place inside Toby that made him beg for more.
Lucius intended to give him more. He would give his shameless and responsive lover whatever he wanted and needed. Would happily let Toby take and take until Lucius had nothing more to give.
“Push out as I push in, love,” Lucius encouraged huskily as he added a third finger, allowing Toby the time he needed to adjust to this further stretch and fullness before he began to thrust again. Thick pulses of pre-cum escaped and then glistened on the bulbous top of Toby’s cock.
Toby was so beautiful in his pleasure, almost feral, his fingers digging into the flesh of Lucius’s arms as he begged and pleaded for more more more. He seemed to have no awareness of how Lucius’s heated gaze watched intently as Toby’s flesh stretched about his fingers, that delicate and lovely body demanding and then meeting each deep thrust.
“Come for me, Toby,” he encouraged as he bent to take that beautiful cock into the heat of his mouth.
It was as if Toby had only been waiting for that permission, his body tensing, the muscles inside him tightening about Lucius’s fingers. His cock throbbed and jerked before long spurts of molten cum flooded Lucius’s mouth to slide down his throat.
“You did not take your own pleasure again,” Toby muttered almost shyly minutes later, after Lucius had risen from the bed to collect a damp cloth and a towel. He had bathed and then dried Toby with them before disposing of them and joining Toby beneath the bedcovers.
“I have all the pleasure I need in watching you,” Lucius assured, his arm about Toby’s waist as the young man lay beside him with his head resting against Lucius’s shoulder. “Your pleasure is my own.”
“That does not seem altogether fair.”
“We are not in a competition,” Lucius indulged. “You come so I must also? No, we will do this in our own way.” He kissed Toby’s damp curls. “At our own pace and in our own time. Tonight was not for me, but for you. I did not go too far too quickly?” he prompted uncertainly. “You seemed a little hesitant in the middle of our lovemaking.”
Toby’s gaze avoided meeting his. “I do not like how impersonal it is to be on my stomach facing away from you.”
“I understand.” Lucius nodded. “But it might be easier for you to be in that position when I penetrate you.”
“We will deal with that situation when it occurs,” Toby maintained stubbornly.
“And the…other? Having my tongue and fingers inside you?”
Toby snuggled closer. “It was magical.”
Lucius breathed an obvious sigh of relief. “That is good to know.”
Toby lifted one lid to look at him. “Surely you already know this?”
He shrugged. “I have seen others’ reaction to the intimacy, but have no knowledge of it myself.”
“Why not?”
“I have always been the one in charge of my sexual encounters.”
Toby didn’t particularly enjoy hearing about Lucius’s other “encounters.” But of course there would have been many other lovers before him. Toby had known that. But it still hurt to be lying in bed, in Lucius’s arms, awash with emotion in the aftermath of pleasure, and hear Lucius speak of other men.
Toby frowned. “Are you saying no one has ever done those things to you?”
“I tend to like control in the bedchamber,” Lucius acknowledg
ed.
“I believe I had already guessed that!”
Lucius smiled in acknowledgment of the tease. “It has never been a problem in the past. Most men tend to defer to the title, if not the man.”
“Even in bed?”
“Even then,” Lucius drawled. “I do take my pleasure, obviously, but always under my own terms.”
“And what are they?”
“I do not lose control, and I never allow myself to be penetrated. In any way,” he added as Toby continued to stare at him.
“Never?”
“No.”
“Then I intend to be your first,” Toby stated firmly.
“You have already been that.” Lucius glanced at him. “I have never been on my knees to another man before you either.”
Toby gave a groan. “I still blush to think I dared to order you to do that.”
The older man chuckled. “I still blush to think that I did not hesitate to do it.”
He eyed the other man curiously. “Why didn’t you?”
Lucius felt as if years of a protective barrier about his emotions were slowly being peeled away from him, one layer at a time.
By Toby.
By his honesty.
By the younger man’s totally uninhibited response and pleasure in their lovemaking.
The same response and pleasure he insisted on giving to Lucius.
Each time they were together, even talking quietly like this in the aftermath of Toby’s release, another protective layer was removed from Lucius’s emotions. Until in the end, he knew there would be no barrier left, and he and his heart would be totally exposed. To Toby. Because of Toby.
A part of him instinctively wanted to distance himself from Toby. Physically, as well as emotionally. But another part of him knew it would do no good to do so. Toby was already buried beneath his skin, and it would cause both of them excessive pain for Lucius to rip him out again. He would never, could never, hurt Toby.
Instead, he answered with the honesty Toby deserved. “Because it was you who asked it of me.”
“No one else has ever done that?”
His lips twisted into a rueful smile. “They would not have dared step over the lines I had stated they were not allowed to cross.”
“You let me.”
Lucius’s smile was rueful. “You have no respect for my lines.”
The younger man scowled. “I am starting to heartily dislike the selfishness of your previous lovers,” he snapped. “In fact, I do hate them. Every single one of them. Because they had you first.”
“They did not have me, Toby,” Lucius corrected with a frown. “When I have needed physical release, I found someone to provide it and gave them that same release in return. There was never any emotional involvement, nor any relationships.”
“None?”
“No,” he confirmed.
“That is…sad, in a way, and must have been lonely.”
Lucius could not deny that he had often been suffused with loneliness. But to some extent, it had had been of his own choosing. None of those other men had meant more to him than a fuck or two.
“I cannot undo my past,” he said gently. “But I can and do intend to do better in future. Now that I have discovered there is such a gem as you in the world,” he added indulgently.
There was a teasing glint in Toby’s eyes. “You did not seem to think me such a gem on the day the solicitor read my father’s will and you were named as my guardian.”
“I knew of the arrangement before that day, brat.” He landed a smack on Toby’s arse. “I told you, your father had discussed it with me before he died. What did take me by surprise was the beautiful man you have become.” Lucius still could not believe how close he had come to never having this with Toby, because of his own stubbornness in believing he was not the right man to become Toby’s guardian.
Daniel had known better. In fact, he would not put it past Daniel to have hoped something like this might happen all along. The other man had certainly seemed convinced that Toby’s future happiness somehow lay with Lucius.
In the short term, Lucius reminded himself firmly. He must not ever fall into the trap of believing whatever was between him and Toby could become a permanent arrangement.
“Go to sleep, love.” He rested Toby’s head against his shoulder. “There will be more pleasures for us to discover together tomorrow.”
And the day after.
And the day after that.
For many more days and nights, Lucius hoped.
He knew within minutes, when Toby’s breathing evened out and deepened, that the younger man had fallen into an exhausted sleep.
But Lucius remained awake for many more hours, reluctant to give up even a minute of the pleasure of holding Toby in his arms.
Chapter Eleven
“You truthfully do this every year?” Toby used the material of the shirt tied about his waist to wipe the sweat from his brow as he paused in his labors. His breath caught in his throat as he looked at a bare-chested Lucius working alongside him.
The older man grinned as he straightened. “Every year.” He lifted a ladle of water to his lips, several drops escaping to drip down his bared chest.
Toby licked his lips as he watched a bead of water slide down Lucius’s muscular and tanned chest and then over each ridge of his abdomen.
He had thought Lucius was jesting this morning when he woke Toby at what had seemed like the crack of dawn to tell him it was time to get up and dressed for breakfast. Even more annoying that Lucius had resisted all Toby’s efforts to tempt him into staying in bed even a little longer. Over that early breakfast, Lucius had explained that this morning, the two of them were to assist with bringing in the estate’s harvest.
After Toby had changed into some of his old clothing, the two of them had then strolled down to the fields to join another dozen or so men cutting down this several acre field of ripe corn. Half a dozen young boys ran between the men with buckets containing water and a ladle for them to drink from.
They had been at work for several hours now, and Toby inwardly admitted that his shoulders and back ached from scything down the sweet-smelling corn. But he also had a deep inner sense of satisfaction, both from the physical labor and from the way the other men included the two of them in their often ribald jokes. It was the first time Toby could ever remember feeling accepted without comment for the slight gentleman he was.
Lucius had given this to him.
In the few brief days Toby had known him, Lucius had given him many things.
This sense of acceptance for who and what he was.
The freedom to be himself and express his desires.
An appreciation of Toby’s accomplishments, even if they were not the same as other men’s.
Acknowledgment rather than mockery of Toby’s intelligence, despite his youth.
Lucius allowed him to be, and by doing so was allowing Toby’s self-confidence to blossom and grow.
And with each minute that passed, Toby knew he was in danger of falling even more in love with the other man.
He had realized these last few days that his previous feelings for Lucius had been nothing more than a young man’s fantasy. Now, living with the older man, getting to know the kind and caring gentleman he was beneath the gruff and arrogant exterior, and making love with Lucius, Toby knew that the other man was so much more, so very perfect for him in every way, than he could ever have dreamed possible.
Lucius was not only the handsomest gentleman Toby had ever met, he also gave Toby so much pleasure, and completely unselfishly. Most of all, being with Lucius, their companionship having become so harmonious in so short a time that hardly a word needed to be spoken between them, was beyond anything Toby had ever experienced before.
His chest actually ached with the welling of love inside him for the tall and handsome gentleman standing beside him.
For Lucius Percival Grenville Cranfield, the Duke of Sheffield. A man Toby had feared ever le
arning his secret of forbidden desires just a week ago.
Toby blinked in an effort to control the sudden tears in his eyes. Happy tears. Because he was here, beside the man he loved, and it did not matter what they did, as long as he and Lucius were together. Because he felt whole with Lucius, complete, in a way he had never known before.
“You are looking rather…flushed. Are you quite well?” Lucius frowned his concern as he placed a callused hand against Toby’s cheek. “There will be no judgment of us here,” he assured as Toby glanced self-consciously toward where the other men were working.
He swallowed. “You have brought other men here?”
“Never,” Lucius assured gently.
“Truly?”
“I will never tell you anything but the truth, Toby,” he vowed. “As for my touching you out here in the open for anyone to see… Has anyone here cast sideways glances at us for preferring to always work side by side? Or made whispered remarks about the two of us?”
“I… No.” Toby and Lucius had sat together beneath the shelter of a tree, thighs touching, when they joined the other men in their ploughman’s lunch of thick wedges of bread and cheese.
Lucius nodded. “My father was the duke of this estate for many years, and he chose a vicar who accepts that love is love, in whatever guise it presents itself. My father regularly stood in the pulpit himself and preached of tolerance of people who are sometimes different to themselves, to his workers and the local gentry alike. He taught that we are all made in God’s image. All. Whatever form that image might take. That we all deserve to love and be loved, no matter how socially low or high we might be.”
Toby had to blink back another sting of tears. “I would have liked your father.”
“And I know he would have liked you,” Lucius assured gruffly. “Have you had enough of cutting corn for one morning?”
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