“This is going to hurt,” Jonah muttered.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Cas grumbled back, mood souring by the minute.
Cas squeezed his eyes closed, gripping the pillow beneath him until his fingers ached as Jonah removed the staples one by one with a special tool, his touch gentle, his breathing heavy. When he’d removed them all, he cleaned the wound with Betadine before Cas heard the telltale sound of the spring-loaded staple gun and flinched.
“You ready?” Jonah asked.
“Just fucking do it.”
It took Jonah twice as long and twice as many staples. By the time he finished, Cas’s body was coated in a fine sheen of perspiration, tears and sweat trailing down his cheeks as his body shook.
“All done,” Jonah finally said, pushing Cas’s hair off his forehead in a move that was far too cryptic for Cas’s frazzled nerves. He lifted his head, glancing down at the perfectly symmetrical row of staples. Jonah was nothing if not a perfectionist. Cas dropped his head back to the pillow, expecting Jonah to replace the bandage, but, instead, Jonah shifted, tugging the sheet from Cas’s lower half, leaving him exposed. He tried to grip the sheet, but Jonah stopped him. “Don’t.”
Jonah did replace Cas’s bandage then gently pushed him onto his belly. What the fuck? Cas’s lungs constricted until he could barely breathe, his cock taking an interest once more as Jonah’s fingertips teased over the welts that remained from Jonah’s previous…interrogation. Cas sucked in a breath at the strange pleasure/pain that flayed his nerves raw as Jonah touched him like he had a claim.
“What are you doing?” Cas finally managed, voice hoarse.
“Making sure you’re okay after…” Jonah trailed off.
“After you spanked me like a child while I was naked in the middle of a massage parlor?” Cas asked, but his words lacked heat.
Jonah chuckled as he palmed the generous swell of Cas’s ass. “Well, when you act like a child, you get treated like one,” Jonah said, his hands touching Cas in a way that wasn’t even remotely fatherly.
“So, are you saying you’re planning on spanking me again?” The question was meant to be sarcastic, but Jonah’s fingers traced the cleft between Cas’s ass, and, instead, it came out sounding breathless and a little hopeful.
“I guess that depends on you. Are you planning on throwing a temper tantrum every time I make you mad?” Jonah’s maddening exploration continued down one of Cas’s thighs and up the other until Cas was, once more, grateful his dick was trapped between his body and the mattress. He couldn’t suppress the moan that escaped as Jonah’s knuckles grazed his balls.
Are you planning on getting blowjobs from random strangers in club hallways?“You could just stop pissing me off?”Cas felt like he was having a stroke or maybe had slipped into some alternate reality. One where Jonah touched him like a lover but interrogated him like an enemy and disciplined him like a child. It was making his already jumbled thoughts even more dizzying.
“You could stop overreacting,” Jonah crooned, clearly egging Cas on.
Cas came up on his elbows, craning his head to look at Jonah. “I’m not sixteen anymore. I haven’t been for a really long time. You missed your chance to play Daddy. I’m all grown up.”
The look Jonah was giving Cas’s naked body could definitely never be described as fatherly. Jonah’s gaze met his, and the air between them seemed to sizzle. Cas licked his lower lip, his gaze falling to Jonah’s hand now resting on his lower back. When he met Jonah’s stare again, his hand moved up Cas’s back, tracing the ink up his spine. There was a question in Jonah’s look. He was asking Cas if he wanted him to stop. Cas laid his head back on the pillow, looking away, hoping it was answer enough for Jonah to keep going.
“What’s it mean?” Jonah asked.
Cas knew what he was asking. “It’s a trident.” He evaded the question, even as Jonah traced the three points.
“I know what it is, you mouthy little shit. I just don’t remember you being a big fan of the ocean.”
Cas didn’t give a shit about the ocean. “The Hindus believed that Shiva used the trident to ward off negativity and evil,” Cas lied.
“I didn’t realize you were now into Hinduism.” Jonah’s trailed his fingers over Cas’s ass. He wanted to rub off on the sheets again like he had at the massage parlor. Jonah’s touch was maddening.
“I’m just full of surprises,” Cas bit out.
The room fell silent as Jonah continued to pet Cas, his touch trailing over the nape of his neck, the shell of his ears, up into the damp thick mess of Cas’s hair. Part of him was relieved Jonah hadn’t pushed the issue. Cas didn’t know what this was happening between them, but if Jonah knew the truth behind the trident, he’d bolt for sure.
Cas had gotten it for Poseidon, but not because of rough seas or tidal waves. Jonah didn’t need to know that, though.
Jonah’s hand disappeared, and Cas mourned the loss, but then his touch skated over a thin white scar just above his ass. “Where’d you get this?”
That one he didn’t have to lie about. “Kazakhstan, trying to jump over some razor wire to get into a government installation.”
Jonah didn’t ask for further details. “And this?” he asked, trailing over the scar just under Cas’s right armpit.
“I don’t remember. I woke up in an opium den in Thailand and there it was.” Cas suddenly wished for more injuries; running out of scars meant Jonah stopped touching him, and even though he was achingly hard and still a little pissed off, Cas never wanted Jonah to stop touching him.
