They parted long enough to remove their remaining clothes, but the moment Felipe sat on the coverlet, Oliver’s hands and mouth were all over him. Oliver kissed the planes of his stomach, down to the tender flesh of his abdomen before pointedly meeting his gaze as he mouthed the base of his cock. The sight of Oliver slipping to his knees before him never failed to send his blood humming.
At Oliver’s questioning look, Felipe nodded and swept the loose, damp hair away from Oliver’s brow. Christ almighty, how he wanted to see him like that. Oliver flashed Felipe a knowing look as he slowly ran a hand over his growing length before taking it in his mouth. Felipe shuddered and shut his eyes, clutching Oliver’s shoulders. This certainly wasn’t what he expected when he proposed this, but he wasn’t about to complain. Falling into the steady rhythm of Oliver’s lips and tongue on his cock, Felipe moaned at the wash of hot arousal roiling across the tether that crashed into his own. Hands trailed over the muscles of his thighs and along the tender flesh of his balls. Pressure built in Felipe’s core, but he took a long breath and pushed it back. Oliver seemed to know exactly what to do to make Felipe’s eyes roll back in his head; his quiet observation extended to the bedroom.
Felipe let out a pained whimper as Oliver slowly released his cock and rested his head against his thigh. His body felt tight as a spring. Even the brush of his cock-bruised lips against his skin was almost enough to make him spend.
“Christ almighty, Oliver.”
His voice came out low and rough as he crooked a finger and asked, “May I?”
Felipe’s hands tightened in Oliver’s hair as he gathered his wits. Just when he thought he couldn’t be any more aroused. “What about you?”
“After.”
At his nod, Oliver grabbed the pot of oil from the nightstand. Felipe shifted back and pulled his knees to his chest. The breath caught in his throat as he watched Oliver dip his fingers into the jar, knowing what came next. There were few men he had ever been this vulnerable with, but with Oliver, there was no question that he trusted him implicitly. Climbing onto the bed in front of him, Oliver paused to hungrily trail his eyes over his lover’s form. Felipe wondered how he must look to him, face flushed and cock leaking with need.
Pulling the pillows lower with his free hand, he readjusted them behind Felipe’s head and caught his mouth in a tongue-laced kiss. “I want to be able to see you.”
Felipe swallowed hard and shut his eyes against his thudding heart as Oliver’s finger pressed against his entrance. As his body slowly yielded, Oliver’s hand closed around his cock. Muffling a moan against Oliver’s shoulder as he pulled him on top of him, Felipe gave in to sensation. His fingers were on him, in him, his mouth mapping his body, his erection languidly sliding against his stomach with every movement. Just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, Oliver’s finger rubbed against something inside him. Felipe’s toes curled, and his mouth opened in a silent cry.
“Oliver,” Felipe whispered, running his hand desperately up and down the slick length of his lover’s cock. Next time, he would take his time unraveling Oliver, but today all he wanted was release and to see that look of abandon mirrored on his face. His lover’s hips jerked against his grasp as he sucked in a breath. “I’m nearly—”
With a final press of Oliver’s hand, Felipe’s whole body convulsed. The wash of sensations gave way to senseless pleasure in an instant. Words and thoughts were replaced by the thickness of the tether tightening in his chest and the hot spurt of his release. All that was missing was Oliver. Half in a daze, Felipe stroked him faster, and a moment later, an echoing wave of pleasure swept across the tether as Oliver hid his face in Felipe’s hair. His cock twitched at the choked gasp halfway between pain and bliss in his ear. Oliver lay there for a long moment with Felipe’s arm wrapped around his naked back and his legs tangled around his hips. When he pulled back, his face was flushed and his grey eyes still glazed.
Kissing Felipe softly, Oliver carefully extricated himself and stifled a grimace at the mess across both of them. Felipe didn’t take it personally. He knew Oliver struggled to deal with the aftermath of sex, even if he enjoyed it. Putting on his robe and slippers, Oliver silently padded out of the room. Felipe didn’t begrudge him needing a minute alone to calm down and clean up. Stretching across the empty bed, Felipe closed his eyes and luxuriated in the pleasantly boneless exhaustion of being thoroughly fucked. He needed to figure out how Oliver did that. He had enjoyed sex in its various forms, but this felt different, like Oliver managed to hit every nerve instead of just one. Early on, he thought it was another perk of the tether, but Oliver explained it was some part of their anatomy that did it. It was too detailed a conversation to follow while sex-addled, and he had forgotten to ask again. At the creak of the bedroom door, Felipe sat up in time to catch the wet washcloth Oliver tossed to him. As he wiped himself off, Oliver collapsed facedown onto the bed beside him.
Felipe smiled and ran a soothing hand across Oliver’s back. “You okay?”
Nodding into his pillow, Oliver mumbled, “It’s been a long day.”
“Should we have not...?”
“No, no, I wanted to. I’m just tired.” Rolling over, Oliver scooted under Felipe’s outstretched arm and rested his head against his chest. His legs dangled off the end of the bed, but he didn’t seem to mind. “Did you enjoy it?”
“You know I did, though I wish I could have done more for you. I’ll have to make up for it later,” he replied with a wicked grin that made Oliver laugh. Twining his fingers with Oliver’s, he brought his hand to his lips. “Maybe next time you can walk me through how to do that for you.”
“Yeah, maybe next time.” He gave Felipe a stiff smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes before half-hiding his face in his robe’s collar. “I’m going to close my eyes for a few minutes. Don’t let me sleep through dinner.”
Tugging the coverlet over them, Oliver curled against Felipe’s side. Within minutes, his breathing fell into a sleepy rhythm, and the arm resting on Felipe’s stomach grew slack. Felipe craned his neck to read the clock on the nightstand. They still had a little while before they needed to go upstairs to grab the food. Softly kissing Oliver’s still damp hair, Felipe held him close and watched the dappled light from the high, lone window travel across the wall. It wasn’t until he was sitting in the quiet trying to figure out what Oliver had done that he realized he had never entered Oliver; it had only been the other way around.
Truthfully, it didn’t bother him. Felipe enjoyed sex with Oliver regardless of position or type, but he knew some men were particular in what they were willing to do. At first, he hadn’t asked because he didn’t want to inadvertently push Oliver to do things he wasn’t ready for. Oliver liked to take things slower than most, and Felipe respected that. During his recovery, Felipe had purposely avoided doing it for fear of hurting Oliver while his wound was still healing, but once they fell into a more normal life again, he had grown so accustomed to how things were that he never thought to ask.
Rubbing Oliver’s shoulder as he mumbled in his sleep, a crooked smile crossed Felipe’s lips. As long as they were both having a good time, he had no complaints. He only wished he could return the favor and give Oliver the kind of pleasure he gave him. But finding out if Oliver was open to it could wait until he was in a particularly good mood or he brought it up again on his own. Slowly shifting onto his side, so they were facing each other, Felipe threaded his legs with Oliver’s. His lover’s lips curled into a sleepy smile, and Felipe felt a wave of contentment pass across the tether. They had plenty of time to figure it out.
***
OLIVER WATCHED FELIPEfrom across the table as he mixed a spoonful of chili oil into his dinner. The society’s cooks had taken to making a bastardized curry on Mondays, which was a vast improvement over the stringy roast beef, but what Felipe called bland gave Oliver a perpetually runny nose even if it tasted good. Blinking back the burn, Oliver tried to will the words free before he completely lost his nerve. Having sex and taking a nap had helped to take the edge off the anxiety growing inside him, but it was still lodged there like an ever-present rock in his shoe. Investigating Herman Judd’s case would mean more days out of the laboratory doing god knows what and going god knows where, and with Teresa home, he could expect an untold number of long, unpredictable trips on top of the obligations they already had. He could hold it together for now, but at some point, it would all come crashing down around him. He didn’t want to get to that point, especially not in front of Felipe’s family or in the middle of an interrogation. He didn’t want to disappoint Felipe, but—
“Can we skip the musical?” Oliver blurted, keeping his eyes on his plate for fear of what he might see on Felipe’s face.
“I don’t see why not. Honestly, the more I’ve thought about it, the less I want to go. I don’t like the circus.”
Oliver released a silent sigh of relief.
“I’ll let Agatha know we can’t come due to the case. Teresa will be disappointed, but we’ll spend more time together at Siegel-Cooper than we would have sitting through a play.”
The twist of disappointment must have shown on his face or across the tether because when Oliver raised his gaze from his rice, he found Felipe giving him a concerned frown.
“Is that all right?”
