Page 56 of The Queer Principles of Kit Webb
Kit murmured his assent and then groaned when Percy swallowed him again.
“Because,” Percy said when he pulled off again, in the same slightly snide tone he had used a moment before, “let me tell you, this isn’t even particularly skillful. I wouldn’t even consider my talents above middling in this arena.” And then he resumed sucking and licking and doing miraculous things with his tongue.
Kit was—there was no other word for it—overcome. He expected his good leg to give out any minute now. Not only was Percy’s mouth hot and wet and wonderful, but it was mocking and impatient and a little mean. It wasn’t that Kit liked Percy being mean—well, no, he definitely did like it, which was something he would think about some other time—but it was who Percy was. The person giving Kit this pleasure was the same manwho held a sword like an extension of his arm and told him secrets like they were blood oaths. It made Kit feel unspeakably fond.
“I adore you,” Kit said, and the worst part of it was that he had paused a full second before speaking to weigh his words as well as his lust-addled mind was able, so he couldn’t even blame his frankness on the sort of whim that struck a man right before coming. “I adore you,” he repeated for good measure.
Percy glanced up at him, openly skeptical and maybe a little pitying, but his only answer was to take one of Kit’s hands and bring it to the back of his head, and to remove his own hands from Kit’s hips.
Kit opened his mouth to ask whether Percy was sure, but Percy must have anticipated this because he was preemptively glaring up at Kit. Kit tilted his hips forward, his palm cradling the back of Percy’s head. Percy put up one knee and braced a hand on the door behind Kit. Kit heard himself make an unhinged, desperate sound.
After that it was just pleasure and sensation, tempered by the hope that he wasn’t hurting Percy and the vague sense that Percy would be very cross indeed if Kit expressed this concern aloud. Kit gasped out a warning and came with his eyes squeezed shut and his hands fisted in Percy’s hair.
Percy kept at it, slowing his mouth, moving almost tenderly, until Kit could take no more and attempted to haul Percy up. That, unfortunately, was when his leg finally gave out, and he would have landed in a heap if Percy hadn’t neatly caught him with one arm.
“You’re strong,” Kit said as he lowered himself into the nearestchair. His words came out regrettably soft and sweet, when truly Kit had meant it as no more than an observation.
“You’re delirious,” Percy scoffed, and Kit grabbed him by the hem of his coat and pulled him down for a kiss. He had the satisfaction of realizing that Percy was, momentarily, startled. Percy so seldom let himself be seen as anything other than controlled and composed.
“Your turn,” Kit said, fumbling with the inscrutably complicated opening of Percy’s breeches. Beneath the silky fabric, he felt the hard ridge of the other man’s erection. “How the hell do you get this thing out?” he grumbled.
Percy sighed and got his breeches open with what appeared to be one deft flick of his wrist, then stood before Kit, his erection in his hand. Kit, at eye level with Percy’s groin, had never been this close to another man’s cock before, and rather wished the room weren’t so dimly lit. He hooked a finger into Percy’s waistband, thinking to draw the man closer and return the favor.
“I think not,” Percy said tartly. “If you think that what I did was so marvelous, I shudder to imagine what mediocrities you plan to visit upon my cock.”
Kit grinned. “Coward.”
Percy narrowed his eyes. “Fine, then. Have it your way.”
Before Kit could decide which one of them had just goaded the other into this, he firmly tugged Percy’s breeches lower and cupped his hands around the swell of the other man’s arse, pulling him closer.
It was almost certainly true that whatever he did was mediocre at best, but Kit grasped the fundamentals. He got the first inch of Percy’s cock into his mouth, using one hand to stroke the base.Whatever he was doing, it couldn’t have been too awful, because it wasn’t long before Percy’s breaths were coming fast and his fingers were tangled in Kit’s hair.
When Percy came, Kit swallowed because he couldn’t figure out any other way not to ruin Percy’s clothes, and he was so appalled with his priorities that he nearly choked himself laughing.
“So pleased you found that amusing,” Percy said, fastening his breeches. “One strives to entertain.”
“I do adore you,” Kit said, gazing up at him with an expression that caused Percy to become intensely interested in the buttons of his coat.
“You really shouldn’t,” Percy said.
“You can’t stop me, you know,” Kit said. “I’ll care about you as much as I please.”
Percy pressed his lips together and left the room without another word.
Chapter39
Downstairs, Percy found Betty behind the counter.
“I have a favor to ask you,” Percy said. “It relates to your other line of employment.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Kit ought to know better than to talk about that.”
“Give Kit some credit. Givemesome credit, for that matter. I’ve been here most days for a month. I have noticed things.”
She sniffed. “Hand it over and I’ll give it a look later on.”
He passed her the bag in which he had stowed all the teaspoons and other knickknacks that Marian had evidently taken to pinching. Percy decided that Marian turning thief was not even on the list of the ten most troubling things he was contending with at the moment, and therefore he was not going to worry about it at all.
