Page 28 of Lay It Bare

“Yes. Believe me. I know the side effects.” Raska had enjoyed that night.

The muscles around Ellisandre’s eyes tightened.

Sevastyan sighed. “Use it when we’re alone, somewhere safe. I’ll feel sick after, but normal during. It will be dangerous to interact with anyone else.”

“I’ll have to clear my schedule. So will you.”

“I’m not sure . . . I’m not certain if I can go through with it if I know you’re going to use it.”

Ellisandre stared him in the face. “Rate how much you trust this chemist.”

“More than a hospital pharmacy.”

Ellisandre dragged the paper bag off the table and palmed it, putting it into their coat. “I don’t like this.”

Sevastyan met their gaze steadily. “I spent the price of an expensive car on it. I don’t know how much time is left. I don’t know how much of me is left. One month. Two months?” He shrugged. “I’m tired, Elli.”

Sevastyan

Sevastyan eased himself through the door to the condo. It was quiet inside. He pulled off his shoes and hung up his coat. The suitcases he left by the couch in the living room. Barefoot and with his hands empty, he padded into the bedroom.

Rei and Lisa were in bed together, Lisa wrapped around Rei from behind. Their legs were tangled under the covers. As if he could tell he was being watched, Rei’s eyes fluttered open. He sat up, blankets sliding down his chest as he blinked. “Master.”

Sevastyan held up his hand. “Stay.” Rei blinked and nodded, sinking back down into the sheets. Lisa stirred, half lifting his head. He didn’t rise, though, taking his cue from Rei.

A bit more of the tension went out of Sevastyan. He wasn’t going to think about what he’d given Ellisandre, about what would happen when his deux chose to use the drugs to pull the truth out of him. There was this moment and nothing more. He wrapped it around himself, memorizing the shape of Rei in the blankets.

Rei would survive this.

Sevastyan went to the bathroom, stripped off, and got into the shower. He brushed his teeth while the water flowed over his head, and shaved by touch. A bone-deep weight settled into him. It was done. He’d set the trap for himself, handed the person he trusted most after Rei the very weapon he had promised himself to never be subjected to again. The beginning of the end. Except it felt like the beginning of the end had been the beginning itself. His thoughts were fragmenting.

This moment. Just this one moment. No past. No future. Sanity was dependent on standing still exactly where he was at.

Rei was here. Rei was his. Rei was safe.

His cock hardened. He stroked it once, then twice, then left himself hard and wanting.

He dried off and raked leave-in conditioner through his hair. Naked, he returned to the bedroom. Rei’s eyes fluttered open, watching him. Sevastyan lifted the covers on the free side of the bed, opposite Lisa.

“Master.” Rei rolled out of Lisa’s arms and onto his belly, spreading his legs. Sevastyan braced himself on his elbow and covered Rei with his larger body. Rei groaned. A touch between his buttocks proved that he was already wet with lube. Sevastyan pressed his lips against Rei’s shoulder. His slave arched his back, rubbing his buttocks against Sevastyan’s hips. Sevastyan’s chest ached. He nuzzled the arch of Rei’s spine and stroked Rei’s side, warning him that he was about to enter him. Rei groaned softly, pushing back. Sevastyan grabbed his shaft and found Rei’s hole.

Entering Rei was coming home. It was sunrises and sparkling wine, swirling color on an impressionist painting, and the pleasure burn of guiding a kayak down white-water rapids.

One moment. No past. No future. Just this single instance. Sevastyan hid his face against Rei and gathered the smaller man beneath him, grinding into Rei’s body, feeling the clench of Rei holding him deep inside.

A gift. Every time was a gift. One he did not deserve. He kissed Rei’s neck and across his shoulder down to his arm. Warm golden skin. The smell of sleep, sweat, and languidness. The scent of his person. Ellisandre was the deity for which he went to his knees. Rei was the warmth in his chest that made him roar.

Rei stretched out his arm, found Sevastyan’s hand on the mattress and slid his beneath, tangling their fingers together and giving him more points with which to hold him down.

Sevastyan rolled his hips. Rei trembled, breathing through the burn as Sevastyan sank deeper and settled fully inside.

Sevastyan lifted himself higher, drawing out his cock. “Breathe, little one.”

Rei’s ribs expanded. Sevastyan pushed in, slowly, steadily, and all the way to the end, forcing air out of Rei’s lungs and replacing the space with himself. Rei’s hips tilted towards him.

He wanted to come now, to just spill into his slave and then hold him and sleep. He fucked in and out, holding himself up on one hand and one elbow, fingers still tangled with Rei’s. His boy had his eyes closed, his whole focus on where his master was joined with him. His insides rippled as he worked to give pleasure. Now and then his fingers tightened around Sevastyan’s.

Sevastyan rested his head against Rei’s arm and pumped hard, his body tingling and pressure building in his loins for the first time since he’d left. He came with a hitch in his breath, Rei’s channel becoming suddenly flooded. He caught himself before he completely crushed Rei into the mattress.