Everything’stingling,andmyheart is soaring, and Austin is staring deep into my eyes like he really means what he’s saying. For too long, I haven’t been able to look myself in the eye; I haven’t been able to stand in front of a mirror and feel good about myself.
Even now that the marks Damien left have faded, I still see them marring my skin. Ugly finger-shaped bruises on my throat, eyes black and blue from his fists, lip split open and bleeding—raw from his abuse. When I close my eyes, I can still feel the sticky heat of his cum.
“Yes, really.” Austin brushes my hair out of my face, a small smile stretching his lips. “You’ve always been gorgeous, Luca. But now? Fuck. You’re so beautiful. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Likethis. I didn’t see you before.”
My heart pounds. “Yeah, but we were kids back then.”
Austin snorts, drawing me in closer and rubbing his nose up and down my cheek, then behind my ear, and down my throat. I let my head loll to the side while he breathes me in.
I want his lips on me again. I want his tongue on my body. I want to be spread out under him, sheltered in his warmth and drowning in pleasure. My cock throbs heavily in agreement, but he said just kissing. And I’m okay with that. As long as one day it can be more. “Eventually, we’ll do more than kiss, right?” I ask tentatively, prepared to be shut down.
“Yeah,” Austin breathes, brushing his lips over my pulse point and making a shiver race down my spine. “Yeah, one day.”
My hips jerk forward, pressing my cock firmly against his stomach. “When?” I moan, fighting with all my might to keep my hips still.
Austin groans, burying his face in my throat and sucking at my skin. My head falls back with a ragged moan as I work to keep my composure.
“God, Luca.” Austin grips my sides, hauling me closer, and my dick pulses hard, happy to be trapped between us, the bit of friction mind-numbing after going so long without pleasure.
Even when Damien wasn’t rough with me, he still wasn’t concerned with my pleasure. I know—justknow—Austin wouldn’t be like that. Heat races through me as I think about him holding me with his calloused hands, stroking me, and kissing me.
A warm tongue travels down the length of my throat, and a loud moan rips from my chest. We need to stop. Shit. Not because I want to, but because I want to keep going, and I’m worried that if Austin doesn’t stop touching me like this, I’m either going to implode orexplode. Neither are great options when he just told me no sex.
I breathe in deeply through my nose, trying to maintain some semblance of control. “Feel good?” Austin rasps against my throat, andoh my fucking God.
“Uh-huh. So fucking good. Please don’t stop.” God, we really should probably stop. “Take me to bed. No sex, just more of this; in bed, though. Please.”
Austin hesitates. I can feel it in his body. In the slowing of his lips against my throat. Then I’m being lifted and held tightly. I wrap my arms around Austin’s neck, clinging to him as he carries me into the bedroom.
Without letting go of me, he climbs into the bed. He somehow manages to get tangled up in the blankets and falls forward. When he crashes into me, I’m expecting a wave of fear. What bubbles up instead is a laugh and then another. “I’m sorry,” Austin mumbles sheepishly, but then he’s laughing too, and before I know it, the laughter is dying between our lips as we come together in another kiss.
Austin stretches out over me, his solid weight pressing me into the mattress. He skates a rough hand up my side, and sensation explodes across my skin, goosebumps pebbling in the wake of his touch.
A breathy littleunghtype of sound leaves my lips, and my hips roll up without permission.
“Fuck,” Austin groans against my mouth before sweeping his tongue past my lips and sinking back into the kiss.
It’s slow this time, seeking, and so deep my toes curl and my breath catches in my throat.
With a trembling hand, Austin grips my hip and guides my movement, coaxing another slow roll of my hips. A broken moanvibrates my throat, and he echoes the sound with a groan of his own.
His lips pull from mine but linger close, brushing against them with his softly spoken, “Still feel safe, baby?”
“So safe,” I choke out, gasping when he urges me on again.
He sinks more of his weight onto me, and I drop my legs open further, letting him nestle between them.
“Just kissing,” he pants, like he’s trying to remind himself more than me.
“Just kissing,” I echo, tangling my fingers in his hair and forcing his mouth back to mine.
He rocks against me like he can’t fight it, and God knows I don’t want him to. With each rock of his hips, he plunges his tongue past my lips, swallowing each needy sound I feed him.
“You feel so fucking good,” he mumbles, sounding lust-drunk. Every slow roll of his hips pushes me closer to the edge, and it’s not long before I can’t even begin to slow the frantic jerking of my hips.
Every thrust forces anuh, uh, uhfrom my throat, and I’m practically lost in the desire swimming in my veins. “We have to slow down,” I rasp, tearing my mouth from his when the pleasure becomes almost overwhelming.
Austin’s movement stills instantly, his hand leaving its place on my hip and finding a home in my hair instead. “Luca, Luca, Luca,” he whispers, punctuating each word with a soft kiss to my mouth.
