Page 47 of Fire & Ice

“I thought perhaps it would be easier to try something that we know you had a positive response to in the moment, when you were already on your knees. Also, light scarification was marked as an interest on your kink list, so this feels apt.”

Dry-mouthed, Tripp nods, maybe not entirely sold, but definitely willing to see where this is going.

“Relax, Tripp,” Leander says softly, leaning down to press a kiss to the side of Tripp’s neck. “It’s important that you know this is not a punishment. This is me giving you something you feel you need. You can slow things down or bring them to a stop anytime you like, and if you do, you will not be disappointing me. There’s nothing to live up to here but the expectations you set for yourself. What is your safeword?”

Tripp has to clear his throat, and in an unprecedented move, Leander exchanges the razor between his fingers for the orange juice, cracking the lid and offering Tripp a sip before they begin.

Licking the sweetness from his lips, Tripp nods and says, “Halligan.”

“And are you using it?”

Another deep breath. “No,” he replies firmly, clearly, surprised to find that he means it. Tripp’s eyes are drawn to the glint of the nearest candle’s flame and the way it reflects off the metal sitting atop its little box. Setting the juice down, Leander fits a hand to Tripp’s cheek and redirects his wayward gaze to his own face.

“Focus on me,” he commands, leaning forward to kiss Tripp slow but thorough, licking his tongue into Tripp’s mouth and grinding down in his lap. It’s exactly what he needs in the moment, and he finds himself melting into all of Leander’s touches.

This might be the softest his friend has ever been with him during a scene—in fact, if Tripp closes his eyes and lets himself pretend, he couldalmostbuy that they’re a normal couple. Just two boyfriends, about to make love and swap undying declarations of devotion afterward, or whatever it is normal couples do, Tripp wouldn’t fucking know.

But Leander—he’sgentle,tonight. He threads hands through Tripp’s hair, cups him around the neck, works his body up to a needy frenzy with his hands and his hips like the two of them have all the time in the world. Eventually, he slicks up Tripp’s cock and pulls his own plug before sinking down onto it, settling in Tripp’s lap and pulling his body forward so he can tuck his legs behind, wrapping himself fully around Tripp’s torso.

Once again, Tripp takes full advantage of the moment, pressing his face to the curve of Leander’s neck and against the top of his chest, nipping at his collarbone and leaving open-mouthed kisses on his skin. No marks, because Lee didn’t say that he could, but he also didn’t say that hecouldn’t.

For a few minutes, they rock like that, Tripp’s hands finding their way to Leander’s hips as he circles his pelvis,teasing. It’s nice, but the stimulation and movement aren’tnearlyenough to even come close to getting either of them off.

When it happens, Tripp is neither looking for nor expecting the complete one-eighty Leander does, though in hindsight, that feels a bit naive on his part. The hand tightening in his hair, yanking his head back—that, at least, is familiar territory—and Tripp relishes it, moaning happily as Leander jerks him around by his roots, dipping down to bite at his neck,justover the line to where it hurts. When he does let go, Lee immediately drops his hand to wrap it around Tripp’s bicep, and it stays there.

“Color, Tripp,” Leander demands, and Tripp, still achingly hard inside him, aroused as hell and fully fired up for whatever comes next, doesn’t so much as blink.

“Green, Sir.”

“Good boy.” The next sensation is cool and wet on his skin, replacing Lee's hot palm on his upper arm for just a brief few moments before it returns. “Alcohol swab,” Leander murmurs softly. “Cleanlinessisnext to Godliness, you know.” He laughs at himself and then clenches the muscles in his ass intentionally, and not for the first time, Tripp wonders what kind of a lunatic his best friend really is.

The first drag of the razor’s edge against Tripp’s skin doesn’t feel like much of anything at all. Just a scratch—Tripp’s had more painful stubbed toes. Nonetheless, he jumps a little, and Leander pauses what he’s doing to kiss him reassuringly on the mouth.

“Color?”

“Still green, Sir,” Tripp replies, if a little breathlessly, flexing his fingers against Leander’s hips to ground himself in the moment. He fills his lungs slowly and deliberately asLeander brings the razor down again, letting the corner of the blade sink into his skin onlyjustenough to draw pinpricks of blood before pulling it along.

In Tripp’s mind, the conflicting sensations start to war and blur and blend, in a shockingly delicious way that surprises him quite a bit more than he expected. His hips start moving of their own accord, flexing up into his Dom more and more with every stinging swipe of the razor while his torso relaxes back, allowing the man above him to do whatever he wants and trusting him completely.

Lee lets him cope, doesn’t comment on Tripp’s touching or his movements, except to occasionally ask him to keep his left arm still, if he’s able. The more Lee cuts, the more it hurts, and yet, the more excited Tripp becomes. He doesn’t hold back any moans and groans, and when tears prick at the corners of his eyes, he lets them fall.

A particularly long drag of the razor has him reaching for Lee, winding an arm around his back and gripping his shoulder before deciding that isn’t enough. Pulling that hand back, he trails it up Lee’s chest, over his jaw to thread fingers in his hair, andthatfeels good.Intimate. The whole thing is so weirdly intense and bizarrely romantic—Lee in his lap, his focused face only inches away from Tripp’s, the heat building steadily between them and the pain in Tripp’s arm becoming layered and complicated, all of it laced with the pleasure of Lee trying to make him come.

The superficial stinging in Tripp’s bicep morphs into a deeper throbbing, and contrasted with the tight, wet heat surrounding his cock, Tripp would easily call thisbliss.In the back of his mind, he even feels relief.There are so many things he carries with him, so much guilt over victims and families he couldn’t save, couldn’t help, and it all just builds and builds withnooutlet,noescape,nopressure relief valve toventand help him let it all go.

And yes, right or wrong, on some level Trippwantsto be punished for what he views as his failures, his short-comings. This pain—it’s more than an enhanced orgasm to Tripp, it’s a fucking benediction. It’s a way to atone, a reason to forgive himself, and he can’t forget that Lee isgiving that to him.

Somehow, as Tripp slips further into subspace, Leander works them down to the bed so that Tripp is no longer leaning against the wall and he has more leverage to ride him. Tripp barely even notices when the cutting is finished, only registers the hot trickle of blood running down his arm, and it’s so fuckinggood—he feels so good, so free, so unencumbered for the first time insovery long.

Leander goes back to yanking his head around by the hair while he picks up the pace on Tripp’s dick, riding him hard and murmuring a veryLeemix of praise and dirty talk that has Tripp nearly short-circuiting with arousal and desire, and—fuck it—love. He gasps and reaches behind him to grab at the headboard as his orgasm builds and crests, the burning heat in his arm and the waves of pleasure washing over him sending his eyes rolling back in his head, making him call out with every ounce of breath he has left and then leave him sobbing.

Lee is merciless then, grabbing Tripp by his uninjured bicep as he slides off of his softening cock, only to haul him up and over, throwing him down onto his stomach.

“Ass up, shoulders and head down,” Leander demands, and Tripp complies as well as he can, still rippling with the aftershocks of his orgasm, still crying openly into the sheets his face is unceremoniously shoved into by Lee's hand curved firmly around the back of his head.

The plug comes out and Lee wastes no time in replacing it with his cock, no niceties or time for adjustment, just sliding all the way in to the hilt with what feels like half a bottle of lube slicking the way. He grunts as he fucks Tripp hard and fast, making him wail when he strikes his prostate, but for the most part acting generally indifferent to his sub’s existence.

He chases his own pleasure and Tripp adores it,lovesfeeling like Leander is using him like a toy when they’re like this. Half-out of his mind, Tripp relishes every damn semi-dehumanizing moment of Lee nearly ignoring him completely, even as his eyes continue to leak and his arm oozes blood onto the crisp, white sheets.

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