Zain stripped. Efficient. Military. Seth watched from the bed with the unashamed appreciation of a man who had stopped pretending he wasn't staring weeks ago.
"The Arabic on your ribs," Seth said. "You still haven't told me what it says."
"Later."
"You always say later."
"And you always keep asking." Zain climbed onto the bed. Over him. Bracketing Seth's body with his arms, knees on either side of his hips. "Some things are earned."
"I haven't earned it?" Seth's fingers walked up Zain's chest. Traced the script along his ribs, the flowing lines that Seth couldn't read but that his fingers had memorized by touch. "After everything?"
Zain caught his hand. Kissed his knuckles. The gesture that had become theirs. "You've earned everything. I'm just not done making you work for it."
"Control freak."
"Brat."
"Your brat."
"My brat." Zain lowered himself. Pressed the full length of his body against Seth's, skin to skin, and the sound Seth made was gratifying in a way that never got old. "My impossible, infuriating, mouthy, beautiful brat."
"Keep going. I'm accepting compliments."
"Shut up and kiss me."
"See, when you say shut up, all I hear is -"
Zain kissed him.
Seth melted. Every time. The bratting, the defiance, the sharp edges that kept the rest of the world at bay, all of it dissolved the moment Zain's mouth found his. Not because Seth was weak. Because Zain's kiss was the one place Seth had decided he didn't need to be strong.
The kiss went deep. Slow. The frantic urgency of their earlier encounters had burned down to something hotter, somethingwith a longer fuse, the kind of heat that could take its time because it wasn't going anywhere.
"I want to ride you," Seth said against his mouth.
Zain's brain briefly disconnected from his body. "What?"
"You heard me." Seth pushed at his chest. Rolled them. Zain went, too surprised to resist, and then Seth was on top of him, straddling his hips, looking down with an expression that was pure sin wrapped in green eyes and a crooked smile.
"New position," Seth said. "I'm in charge."
"You are absolutely not in charge."
"I'm on top. That makes me in charge. That's physics."
"That's not physics."
"Shut up. Where's the lube?"
"Nightstand. Left side."
Seth leaned over him to reach. The stretch put his chest directly above Zain's face, and Zain took advantage, pressing his mouth to the center of Seth's sternum, then lower, catching a nipple between his teeth.
Seth fumbled the lube. Nearly dropped it. "That's cheating."
"You keep using that word."
"Because you keepcheating." Seth sat back up. Uncapped the lube. Slicked his own fingers.
