Goodwasn’t a strong enough word.Wonderfulfelt too contrived. The way Adrian made him feel couldn’t be encapsulated by a single-word statement. It was fire and ice at war in his chest. It was fear and excitement coming together to tug at Sterling’s heart and stiffen his groin in one troubled swoop. The lows and the highs met in the middle, but didn’t cancel each other out. Instead, they deepened hisexperience.
Thatwas how Adrian madehimfeel.
Sterling didn’t want to think about what thatmeant.
Adrian loosened the strap on his wrist and let the cuff fall. If he’d wanted to, Sterling could have broken free from his grasp, but instead, he let Adrian do as he wished. For years, Sterling had been the man in control—the one who called the shots and brought pleasure to his partner in the bedroom, and that wasn’t about to stop now. On the surface, Adrian was staking his claim and playing the part of Dom, but underneath, Sterling recognized a fragile part of him that needed this release in order to feelwhole.
Sterling wouldnurtureit.
The next twenty-five days weren’t going to go the way he’d thought they might, but the unexpected change of direction didn’t bother him at all. He was there to care for Adrian, and Adrian was showing him how he needed to be cared for in the most candid way hecould.
So Sterling would listen. Sterling would learn. And when Adrian came to see that his needs were being met, Sterling hoped that the lost look in Adrian’s eyes would fade away tonothing.
“You can strap down my wrist if you want.” Sterling didn’t feel the need to speak with any kind of volume. If he was right, Adrian hung on his every word. “You can restrain me, degrade me, humiliate me, andhurtme.”
Adrian’s lips twitched. The move was so subtle that Sterling almostmissedit.
“You have my permission to do what you want.” Sterling looked from Adrian’s face to the cuff Adrian was now tightening. He hadn’t answered Sterling yet, but Sterling knew he was listening. “There are toys you can use in the closet, if you’re so inclined. Nipple clamps, butt plugs, whips, gags,canes—”
“Stop.” Adrian’s voice was strained. He yanked the strap on the cuff tightly, and for a second it bit into Sterling’s wrist before the metal prong fitted into the hole and offered him some slack. “Stop… stop fucking talking for asecond.”
“I barely said anything.” Sterling searched Adrian’s face for the trigger that had set him off, but he didn’t find it. Whatever bothered him was deeply buried. “I’m giving you something I’ve givenveryfew—”
“I hate you so fucking much right now.” Adrian trembled. If it hadn’t been for the way his hands quivered, Sterling might not have noticed it. “Just let me… let me do this. Don’t make this something itisn’t.”
The clip secured to the headboard threaded through the metal loop on Sterling’s cuff. His arms were useless. Adrian took momentary control, but Sterling didn’t let it rattle his soul. No matter what Adrian did to him, no matter the demons he needed to express, the power dynamic between them remained unchanged. Sterling would allow Adrian the release he needed because he understood that this wasexactlywhat Adrian needed. The why wasn’t important—not for now. That would comelater.
For now, he would let Adrian beselfish.
The first impact rattled him. A gasp slotted through Sterling’s teeth, the sound partially hissed. Heat burned across his cheek, spreading with incredible rapidity until it fizzled out. The sharp sound of skin on skin didn’t register inSterling’sears.
Not until thesecondblow.
Sterling’s cock twitched in time with the slap. A second gasp died in his throat, a strangled sound somewhere between pain and arousal. Fresh, tingling fire spread across hischeek.
Above him, chest heaving, thighs tightened around Sterling’s chest, Adrian looked down at him with rage assuaged by lust andsatisfaction.
What was going on in his head? What secrets were buried inthoseeyes?
Sterling wantedtoknow.
With tenderness unfitting of the man straddling his chest, Adrian ran his palm gingerly over Sterling’s irritated skin. The contact cooled the pain, and Sterling turned his cheek into Adrian’s caress to benefit from it as much as hecould.
The pain was fine, but the aftercare? The aftercare was what turned the experience from senseless violence to something intimate. Sterling enjoyed the pleasure that much more because he knew the pitfallsofpain.
“Get it out.” Sterling’s voice was gritty, but not unintelligible. He arched his back, pulling against his restraints not because he wanted to escape, but because he wanted to show Adrian that power was his, so long as he wanted it. “Whatever it is, get it out. Give it to me. Let me shoulder itforyou.”
“Stop!” Desperate this time, the sound of Adrian’s voice echoed through the bedroom. Another slap struck Sterling across the cheek, but it was immediately followed by kittenish affection. Adrian’s thumb worked in small circles, loving, praising, silently telling Sterling that everything would be okay. “Just be quiet. Just… just let me. Let me do whatIwant.”
Sterling parted his lips, but he elected not to speak. With care, Adrian’s hand traced from his cheek, down his throat, and to the buttons of his shirt. One by one they fell, until the shirt pooled on either side of Sterling’s chest. The restraints prevented him from taking it offcompletely.
When Sterling’s chest was bare, Adrian caught his eye. He moved his hips in tight, gyrating circles that promised Sterling that more would be coming. Then, without a noise, Adrian slipped farther down Sterling’s body and parted his flyinfull.
Sterling’s slacks fell. Adrian guided them down his thighs until he was left in just his boxer-briefs. From Sterling’s position, he was able to observe the tented fabric covering his erection and how Adrian’s eyes were drawntoit.
Cautiously, as though he were afraid of retaliation, Adrian curled his fingers beneath the elastic and lowered it inch by inch down Sterling’s body, revealing the head of his cock first, then every thick inch of his shaft, until Sterling’s heavy balls and the nest of dark-blond pubic hair at his base wereexposed.
“Fuck,” Adrian murmured. He drew Sterling’s boxer-briefs down past his knees, then seemed to forget about them. His gaze was locked on Sterling’s cock. “That’s…nice.”
