Page 88 of Free Heart
“Capitalism begs to differ.” I go back to balance carefully on the board. “We’re commodities. Isn’t that what Peggy Jo and you wanted me to work on before now? We’re all bought and sold.”
Sejin frowns even more, but then he tosses his phone aside. He pulls me into his arms. “Some things are just ours, though, right? We’re not sellingeverything,are we?”
“Hell, no. There are some things I’ll never share.” I palm his ass to demonstrate. “This is mine.”
He must feel reassured by that, because the next thing I know, he’s got me on the sofa, and a few minutes later, his mouth is on my dick.
The cats scamper around in aggravation like they often do when we start up, but soon I pull him off by his hair and tug him up to kiss me.
“Get that hole out, Doc,” I whisper against his lips. “I haven’t worshipped it nearly enough lately.”
Not long after, and only once Sejin’s breathing is coming in hitches and sobs, do I murmur, “We can sell a lot of things, but no one can ever buy this. No one will ever have you like this. Just me.”
“Just us,” Sejin whispers. “God, Dan, I just want us.”
“Mm.” Time slides sideways as I fall back to lapping and licking and sucking and biting my favorite man in the world until he’s ready for me to mount him and fuck him from behind.
“Missed this,” I whisper, as I rut into him hard, happy to be able to put weight on my leg again. “Love you.”
Sejin grips my leg and shudders beneath me. He’s so close I can taste his orgasm and smell it on the air. Any second now—
“Dan! Fuck!” he bursts out, and I smile.
This is how we began, locked together like this. If I have my way, this is how we’ll end too. I don’t want to die on El Cap. I want to die right here, warm and welcome in Sejin’s flesh, caressed by his pounding pulse.
“I love you, Danny,” Sejin whispers. “Don’t want to lose you.”
I take his hands in mine and twist the ring on his finger as I thrust into him. I press my forehead against his back, panting when I say, “I’m always here.” I touch his ring. “And here.” I grind into him, feeling him grip me. “No matter what.”
“And here,” Sejin says, bringing our hands beneath his body, so I can feel his heart thumping. “Always here.”
“Oh, baby,” I groan, and rub my face against his sweaty hair, breathing in his scent. I draw out slowly, and then push back inside his heat, squeezing him tightly as I come.
He’s the only thing that matters to me. Yet, even as I shake and unload into his body, I can’t turn my back on the wall.
In the distance, Heart Route is still calling.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Sejin
Seven weeks since free solo attempt
“Hey.”
I glance up, surprised to see Sailor standing beside me with her camera.
“Uh, hey. Good morning.” I gesture at the open tables all around, indicating that she has a wide range of choices. Moving my head to SHINee’s cover of “Last Christmas” in a single earbud in my left ear, I imagine more choreo for the kids. It isn’t until the next chorus that I finally notice Sailor hasn’t moved on, even as I put the dishes in the bussing tray and then wipe the table clear of crumbs.
Fumbling for my phone to turn off the music, I straighten. Worry that something’s wrong with Dan whispers through me. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she says, and then cocks her head, her blonde hair gleaming in the morning sun coming through the windows. “It’s time, don’t you think?”
I flick my own annoying and too-short hair away from my cheekbones. “Time for what?”
She holds up her camera. “For that interview you owe me.”
“I don’t owe you anything.” I’m already irritated with her attitude.
