“Look closer,cisne.”
“You got a new tattoo?” Lulu reached for Xavi’s wrist and carefully traced his index finger along the edge of the cellophane, fascination in his eyes.
“Yes.”
“What is it?” Lulu swallowed, his eyes locking onto Xavi’s, all wide and wondrous.
“Look closer.”
Lulu’s gaze dipped again. He tilted his head, black locks falling into his face, obscuring it from Xavi’s vision. Then, an almost pained sound left Lulu’s mouth, and shortly after, a few tears landed on Xavi’s hand like sparse spring rain.
“It’s a bear. It’s…” Lulu sniffled as his voice broke, a few more tears meeting Xavi’s skin.
“It’s me,cisne. Right next to you. Where I belong. Where I’ve always belonged.” Lulu nodded, his curls bouncing around his face, then he tilted his chin, looking up at Xavi, tears staining his pinkened cheeks. “Read the words, baby.”Baby. The endearment spilled so easily from Xavi’s lips. So many names he still wanted to call Lulu aside fromcisne, amor, mano.Babywas just the beginning.My love, my world, my everything.As long as there was air left in Xavi’s lungs and blood in his veins, he would find new names to call Lulu, and he had no doubt the English vocabulary—and the Spanish for that matter—would eventually run out of words. But then Xavi was just going to have to learn a third language or a fourth or invent a new one altogether, a language created especially just for the two of them.
Lulu’s lips moved, his eyelashes fluttering while he read the words again and again.You and I, always. Te prometo.
“What do you promise?” Lulu smiled warily.
“Everything. I promise you everything, always. That I’ll do anything in my power to be what you need.” It was true. For Lulu, he would. He would change, shed his old skin, rid himself of the past, be anything Lulu needed him to be.
“You already are.”
“And I won’t look back anymore. I won’t be afraid of looking forward. Not when I have you by my side.”
“I promise that, too. I love you, Xavi. Every part of you. Your lips when they steal my breath away, and your eyes when they see right into my very soul. Your heart, when it beats so steadily against mine, reminding me we are two now instead of just me. I love your hands and your arms because they hold me so close.” Lulu twined their fingers together, ghosting his thumb along Xavi’s knuckles where there had once been two fingers, but were now just scars. As if Lulu could read his mind, he bent down and traced his lips along the marred skin, coating Xavi’s hand in featherlight kisses. “Every scar and every fiber of your being. I love you, too,oso.” Lulu looked up, his eyes piercingly bright. “I love how you make me feel about myself, how you make me see myself.”
“How?” Xavi reached out, tucking a stray lock of hair behind Lulu’s ear, his thumb and index finger lingering on Lulu’s earlobe.
“Possibilities instead of limitations. Hopeful and worthy.”
“You are that,cisne. Worthy.”
“I feel that. Iwantto believe that. When I’m with you, I believe it.Tu y you, mano. You and me, always together,oso. Never apart.”
“Yes,” Xavi nodded, then dropped to his knees between Lulu’s thighs. Reaching for Lulu’s face, he cupped Lulu’s chin in his hands, brushing his thumbs along Lulu’s lips, lips he’d never thought he’d get to kiss, but were now as familiar to him as any other part of Lulu had become. “You belong with me, Lulu, just like I belong with you.Para siempre.”
Lulu was crying in earnest now, tears tracing patterns down his golden skin, making him even more desirable.
“It’s beautiful. I love it.” Lulu’s gaze dipped to the tattoo once again, then he whispered, “I always knew it was me, the black swan, but still… I didn’t dare hope that…” Lulu’s voice broke again.
“What? What, baby?”
“That you could want me as much as I want you.”
“Why not?”
“Because… because you are so… you are everything and I am… I’m just… I’m a mess. I’m a train wreck,” Lulu chuckled dejectedly. “I think I’ll always be. I’m—”
“Mine. You’re mine, Lulu. I knew it then, like I know it now. You aremine.”
“I am.” Lulu’s smile was shy, suddenly wary, as more pink bled through his caramel skin. “I want to try something. Something I’ve never done before. Will you let me?”
“Anything.” The words flew from Xavi’s lips. He didn’t know what Lulu meant, but there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t let Lulu do to him. Even if it meant Lulu fucking him. It didn’t matter. He would never be able to deny him anything.
“I wanna ride you,” Lulu breathed. “I want you hard and naked beneath me, and I wanna ride you.”Fuck.Heat spread through Xavi’s core like a wildfire, his cock going from a semi to full mast in one blinding moment, like he’d been electrocuted.
“Yes, please,” Xavi blurted, then before he could curse himself, Lulu threw his head back, baring his lovely lean neck, laughing out loud, his chest shaking with the sound.
