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He started thrusting and could have sobbed at how good it felt. Konrad was still so tight that Jasper could feel the ridges of his piercings going in every time, and Konrad was nothing but enthusiastic, rocking down to meet him. Perfect like always. Jasper wanted to be so good to him, make him feel appreciated for everything he did.

Jasper realized, as Konrad gasped his name over and over that he wanted that in more than just the bedroom.

He wanted Konrad to be his.

He waited for the thought to stir trepidation that didn’t come. Jasper made a soft, awestruck sound as he drove into him, a pang of softness piercing his chest that didn’t at all match the way he slammed into Konrad’s body.

Konrad had said he would stay.

And seeing him there, entirely trusting, Jasper realized with a rush of emotion that he might just believe him.

“Fuck,” Jasper rasped. He slid his knees from under Konrad and lay over him, kissing him hard, his tongue ring clicking against Konrad’s teeth as he slid his tongue between Konrad’s parted lips. Konrad opened wider and Jasper moaned against his mouth. He really would give me the world, wouldn’t he?

He untied Konrad’s wrists. As soon as they were free, Konrad grabbed onto him, giving him exactly what he needed without even knowing how badly Jasper needed it. Konrad grabbed his curls in one hand and his waist in the other, holding on like he wanted to feel every pump of Jasper’s hips as he fucked him.

Hold on tighter, Jasper thought. He broke the kiss to draw shaky lungfuls of air but kept his forehead against Konrad’s. Don’t let me go.

“Jasper, ah, Jasper, darling,” Konrad panted, his nails digging into Jasper’s hip.

He started getting tighter, and Jasper realized he’d been rubbing Konrad’s cock between them, assaulting his prostate, and Konrad was on the edge again. Jasper doubled his efforts, pushing the leg not wrapped around him up toward Konrad’s chest so he could go even deeper. Konrad shook underneath him, and his gasp almost seemed surprised when he came again. His cock barely had anything to give, but his body locked up around Jasper’s cock in a way that took Jasper to the zenith of pleasure right along with him.

Jasper moaned so loudly he would have felt self-conscious if he had the energy. As it was, he could only surrender to how good it felt, letting the sounds of pleasure and soft utterances of praise fall freely as he rode out his climax in stuttered thrusts.

He carefully withdrew from Konrad’s ass, deciding to put cleanup on hold to lie on his back and pull Konrad to him, and Konrad laid his head on his shoulder. His hand came to rest on Jasper’s chest, right over his erratic heartbeat as he came down from the conjoined rush of euphoria and exertion. Konrad stretched his fingers to trace the moth just below Jasper’s collarbones, the antennae reaching the hollow of his throat. It was almost ticklish with how lightly Konrad touched him. Jasper caught his exploring fingers and pulled them to his mouth to kiss them, his tattooed skin and painted nails contrasting against Konrad’s hand like night to day.

“You should let me give you a tattoo,” Jasper said.

Konrad looked at him with amusement. “Of what?”

“Whatever you want.” Jasper thought about offering to design a memorial tattoo for Anna, but he didn’t want to bring it up while Konrad was still soft and vulnerable from sex, with no armor against the grief that Jasper’s words might aggravate. “It can be tiny.”

“Mm. Perhaps.”

That wasn’t a no.

“Shower?” Jasper asked, rubbing the back of Konrad’s neck.

“A quick wiping off and then a hot bath, I think.” Konrad gingerly sat up, pushing his hair off his face where it had stuck there with sweat. “The thought of standing does not agree with my legs at this very moment.”

Jasper chose to take that as a compliment.

nineteen

Hiyori was almost bouncing in her chair when Jasper got to work.

“Good morning,” she said, clapping her hands together with the effort of offering pleasantries before questions.

“Yes, I kept the outfit on, and yes, your makeup skills were adequately admired,” Jasper said to spare her any further torment. Well, he kept the outfit on until certain activities required its removal, but she didn’t need that detail.

She squealed and spun her chair back to her laptop to print a stencil, then hopped up to grab it from the shared printer nestled in the opposite corner from Jasper’s booth. It used to be right next to it until she noticed how annoyed he got listening to the printer loudly heave out stencils all day. Not often enough for him to get used to it and for the sound become white noise, but too often for it to not bother him. He’d never asked for it to be moved, but one day it just materialized twenty feet further away from his booth and he knew he had Hiyori to thank.

“So,” Hiyori said as she returned from the printer.

Uh-oh.

“Amara wants to meet Konrad,” she said, dropping back into her chair but peeking at him over the wall.

“He’s at the restaurant almost every day.”