Page 38 of Artifacts

“It all adds to the anticipation.” Darrell believed that about button-fly over zippered jeans. He liked being able to open all five buttons in one quick and satisfying series of pops when speed was of the essence, and also drawing it out to tease a partner by popping one at a time. Now, though, with his dick grateful for each slow centimeter of freedom Aldric gave it, Darrell feared he’d come sooner than he wanted to.Think about Fuentes. And Miller. Ugh. That helped.It almost helped too much. Still, it did the job, pushing back his urge to come in minutes.

“Let me do the rest.” He toed off his shoes and socks then shoved his pants and briefs off as well.

“You’re just right.” Aldric tipped his head to one side, like he had in the museum. “All those muscles, but they’re not too big and bulky.”

“Thanks.” Darrell stripped Aldric, leaving his glasses on his naked body.Jesus, Darrell found that sexy. He gave him a gentle push onto the bed before he could cross his arms around himself or cover his groin. “You’ve got nothing to hide either.” Darrell positioned Aldric on his back and eased down the bed.

Aldric’s face creased. “But I wanted—”

“In a minute. I want to taste you some more.” Darrell pushed him flat when he tried to sit up and stroked Aldric’s soft, pale inner thighs, feeling the skin quiver and pebble under his fingertips. The crease where leg became hip had always been a favorite body part for Darrell and he feathered along Aldric’s now, enjoying the gasps escaping from Aldric’s lips in response.

Darrell bent low to trace his tongue down the path that his fingers had forged, and Aldric’s dick jerked. A pearl of pre-cum leaked from Aldric’s slit. “Gotta clean that up,” Darrell murmured. He licked Aldric’s cockhead clean, slowly scooping into the slit with the tip of his tongue.

“You tasted there already,” Aldric whined when Darrell tongued the vein he’d investigated before, now following it home to the base of Aldric’s shaft.

“Okay, fine. But not here I didn’t.” Darrell’s reply came out muffled when he nosed into Aldric’s balls. He sucked one into his mouth and Aldric’s hips jerked off the bed in an almost violent reflex. “Because I want you in my mouth as well, we’re gonna have to do something we haven’t yet.” He made quick eye contact with Aldric as notice of what he intended to start next, and Aldric biting into his lower lip had Darrell’s cock jumping in response. “Don’t do anything you don’t feel like, okay? And if you try something and it doesn’t feel good to you, stop. Same as you’d tell me to stop if I do anything you’re not enjoying.”

He waited for Aldric’s nod before lying on his side next to him, but the wrong way around. Or the right way for what he had in mind. His cock was level with Aldric’s mouth, but Darrell wanted Aldric to find his own way to it. There was no rush. He had plenty to play with—plentybeing a good name for Aldric’s dick, which had a nice, thick girth Darrell was swirling his tongue around.

Aldric’s curiosity won out over any nervousness he might have had quicker than Darrell had imagined it would. The tentative wet swipe to Darrell’s tip was a thrill, knowing he was the first that Aldric had done this to.Or am I?Darrell had made a couple of assumptions about the timid, naïve guy before, only to discover they were wrong. And just because he’d never had anal sex didn’t mean he hadn’t given head. He tried to assess whether the laps of Aldric’s tongue spoke of experience.

Aldric’s ministrations earned him a spurt of pre-cum, and Darrell wondered how he’d deal with that. A second later, Aldric swallowed. Well, that answered that, and it made Darrell throb harder. He hoped Aldric could take his thickening-by-the-second cock. Within a minute, it was clear that Aldric was following Darrell’s lead. Literally, as in mirroring what Darrell was doing to Aldric. Well, trying his best—if Darrell’s assumptions were correct. He couldn’t expect to take Darrell as deep as Darrell was swallowing him.

Darrell gave an experimental hum around Aldric’s cock, enjoying the full-body shiver it produced in Aldric, who then hummed around him.Okay.Darrell stuck a finger in his mouth and wet it with a mixture of his saliva and Aldric’s pre-cum. Keeping one hand on the base of Aldric’s shaft, he stroked down his cleft with the other. Their position on the bed, with their legs bent to allow access, meant there was no need to part Aldric’s cheeks.

Aldric had tightened up again, his sphincter muscles taut around his hole, but he relaxed enough when Darrell rubbed him there, and Darrell slipped his finger in easily, making sure to rub his knuckle against Aldric’s walls. He might have been considering angles and depth, but then he wasn’t thinking at all when Aldric’s finger breached him.

The fuck?Darrell was used to toys and occasionally liked a dildo in his ass while he fucked a partner. Hell, Ric, before Mateo, had enjoyed sliding Darrell’s thinnest wand in and out as foreplay, seeing how long Darrell could take it before he flipped Ric over and pounded into him. But this, feeling Aldric’s warm living flesh inside him, now retreating, now surging back thicker when Aldric added a second finger—thiswas a different story.

He clenched around the penetration as Aldric was doing to him, wondering if he could take a third digit and if he wanted to take something even bigger that wasn’t made of silicone. But he was a top, not a bottom or vers. Taking a dick up the ass wasn’t what he did. Wasn’t who he was. In his mind, it connected to the feelings of vulnerability he’d had earlier—not so much the injury he’d sustained, but the way Aldric had reacted to it, caring for Darrell as if he were weak.No.

He sucked harder, flickering his tongue, wanting Aldric to come first. Repositioning Aldric’s top leg and his own hand, he fondled Aldric’s balls, then worked his hand over them to tease his taint, wanting to stroke over his prostate from the outside. In some guys it was easy to find. Some liked it and some didn’t feel anything. Aldric gave an immediate shudder, and he jerked upward with a sharp, high cry.

The stream of cum that flooded Darrell’s mouth seconds later caught him by surprise and almost choked him. He swallowed and carried on sucking until Aldric was writhing under his hands, shaking and babbling out nonsense words. The way he said Darrell’s name, the reverence in his voice, lit fires everywhere from Darrell’s belly button to his thighs and detonated his release, had it tearing through him like lightning streaking the sky.

Aldric gagged, and Darrell tried to pull free. He should have known that, stubborn as he was, Aldric wouldn’t let him set the pace. Aldric clamped his hands to Darrell’s butt, holding him where Aldric wanted him, and sucked until he’d milked the last drop from his cock. When Darrell was allowed to slip out, he turned on the bed to check on Aldric and saw the sexiest, most perfect sight ever—Aldric, sweat-mussed hair, flushed face, dazed eyes and swollen lips, from which a trickle of Darrell’s cum was escaping.

Aldric raised an unsteady hand to his mouth and wiped at the liquid with the back of it. If he’d intended that as an innocentwhat’s this happening to little ol’ megesture, the sly flicker of his eyes toward Darrell’s undercut it, and the contradiction, the paradox that was Aldric engulfed Darrell and made him want more.

He scooted up the bed to wrap an arm around Aldric’s neck and bring him in for a kiss, knowing he still tasted of Aldric’s release, just as Aldric did his. Aldric returned the caress, nuzzling into Darrell. Darrell had been intending to grab a washcloth from the bathroom and clean them up, but Aldric’s weight on him bore him down. He barely had time to settle on his back, Aldric on his chest, before Aldric was asleep. It wasn’t the most comfortable position for Darrell, with his bruised ribs, but he wouldn’t move.

Darrell was tired too—exhausted, even, but his mind kept poking him back to wakefulness every time he dropped off. The case, the second attempt on Aldric, the identity of the thugs—none of that was going through his mind. Instead, how he’d felt when Aldric had played with his ass obsessed him and the thought of Aldric fucking him consumed him. Aldric had barely penetrated him, but Darrell ached to feel him deep inside. Although…he feared he already did, and deeper than any other penetration could ever be.

* * * *

“Darrell?”

Aldric’s half-whisper had Darrell wide awake. “What time is it?” he demanded.

“Early. Well, ish. I can take you to your apartment. I have to take the van back.” Aldric held out a cup. “Only decaffeinated. I try not to have caffeine in the house.”

“You make it sound like a loaded gun.” Darrell scanned the nightstand for his. He felt exposed, caught out. Had Aldric watched him sleep? His phone buzzed and a glance at it showed him Mateo’s face. He had to change those settings.

“Not answering?”

“It’s what voice mail’s for.” Darrell swung his legs to the floor. Aldric stood there, and Darrell sighed. He needed coffee for this, but… “I was hooking up with him until recently. I broke it off the same day I met you, actually.”

“Oh. How did he take it?” Aldric’s soft face was creased in concern.

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