I’ll never get over how much I love it when they get sassy like this.
I reach down and wrap my arms around their waist, bringing them closer to me.
“Why don’t you get jealous over me?”
“You say that, but neither you nor Imani has any idea how close or how often she came to death over the last few months,” Qiang says, and as much as I know that shouldn’t make me feel all giddy inside, knowing they were jealous over me does something to me.
“So then maybe we should stop wasting time with conversations about jealousy and start talking aboutrewards…” I suggest, while walking my fingers up their spine.
Qiang coyly bites their lower lip as they snake their fingers down my arm and thread them through my fingers. With a tug, they pull me towards the stairs, and before they have a chance to protest, I’m lifting them until their legs wrap around my waist. Between the crowd, the noise, and the booze, no one is gonna notice or care anyway.
REWARD
Marcus’s POV
The din of the crowd gets muffled when I close Qiang’s bedroom door behind us. The bass from the music below still pounds through the floorboards, setting a thrum through the room that keeps pace with the thudding of my racing heart.
Our lips are frantic as the adrenaline from earlier and the anticipation of what’s to come courses through me. Their tongue coiling with mine has a steady heat pulsing through my body; it’s electric and all-consuming, but it’s really when I’m drowning in them the deepest that they choose to drop their legs from around my waist and pull slightly away.
The intention of protesting dies on my tongue when I see something nervous flit across their eyes. They look at me for a moment before focusing on a spot just above my shoulder, a habit of theirs that I’ve noticed whenever they are about to say something that makes them feel vulnerable.
As much as I wish they’d trust me enough to look me in the eye during these moments, I know time will make more progress than pushing them. So I let it be, and just give them my undivided attention. Not that they don’t have that always anyway.
“So, topping you doesn’t really feel like a reward since I said I’d do that regardless, and we’ve been working towards it all week, so it’s a given, unless you change your mind, of course.”
I immediately shake my head, because there is no way in fuck I’m changing my mind. I want this,desperately, from them.
They huff, with slight amusement curling in to join their still-dominant nervousness.
“Well, I did say that there would be bonus additions to tonight, so I thought maybe I could show you something I’ve never shown anyone before–I guess, depending on whether you like it or not–it may not actually be a reward,” they huff towards the end, that ever-increasing vulnerability swallowing them up in the worst way.
I crook my fingers beneath their chin and tip their face up to meet mine. “If it’s you, I don’t think it’s possible not to like it, Qiang.”
Their eyes return to mine, reading the sincerity there before they slightly nod and take a step back. The vulnerable hesitation is still there, but there’s a darkening in their cheeks that slowly moves to a more shy nervousness.
I reach out and trace their bottom lip with my thumb. “You’ve never shown anyone before?”
Qiang shakes their head. “No. No one even knows it’s something I’m interested in. I’ve always thought it was sultry and beautiful. I wanted to learn how to do it, so I used online videos to teach myself, but I never showed anyone because I was afraid that if they laughed at me, it would take away how good it feels to do it. Not even Qi or Natasha knows, which, honestly, it would be easier if Natasha knew because she could help me make the bedlah,” they say, starting to ramble in their nervousness.
“Bedlah?” I raise an eyebrow, trying to figure out what it is, because they haven’t explained it beyond how it makes them feel.
Their eyes widen as if they didn’t mean to actually say that part. “Outfit or costume,” they respond, almost robotically.
I have a gut feeling they are still debating whether to show me. I’m hoping to match their hesitation with enthusiasm and open curiosity, so they’ll ease up and feel safe enough with me to show me.
“Costume? As in role play?”
Not something I’ve ever tried, not from a lack of desire, but simply it’s the kind of thing that takes pre-planning, I think, and I’ve always been pretty much ‘go with the flow’ when it came to hook-ups in the past.
Qiang’s eyebrows scrunch down at that, and they shake their head.
“No. I mean, yes, in theory, I guess. I haven't actually tried it, but it sounds hot. But that’s not–” their voice dies again amidst the nervous rambling, although they seem to be a bit more present in the conversation now than they were a moment ago.
I lean down and flit a quick kiss on their invitingly plush lips. “The suspense is killing me, pretty. You know I’m not the most patient man on the planet.”
Qiang raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Really, because all things considered, I feel like I've done nothing but test your patience,” they say with the barest hint of deprecation in their eyes that has me frowning because I’ve seen that look way too many times today.
“I’m sorry I made you feel like I was impatient with you,” I tell them, trying to take whatever it is in their eyes off their shoulders and carry it on mine for a bit.
