Sterling didn’t make a move to draw away. The thickness in the air grew heavier, and when Adrian breathed it in, all he could smell was Sterling. Notes of lavender, a hint of cedar, and through it all, the unmistakable scent of alpha. It tightened in Adrian’s groin and woke that morning’s displacedarousal.
“What about last night?” Sterling asked. The way his lips moved when he spoke was magic, and Adrian couldn’t help but look. God, did he want tokissthem.
Where had these feelingscomefrom?
When he was near Sterling, his mind turned to mush and his stomach filled with helium. The strange sensation in his chest didn’t help. Adrian recalled the distant, dreamy look on Gabriel’s face when he spoke about Garrison, the tint of pink in his cheeks, and the curl ofhislips.
Love.
The feeling in his chest came close. It was foreign and frightening and strange, but it was filling, and beyond that, it was right. Before he knew what he was doing, Adrian lifted a hand and let his fingers curl in the front of Sterling’s shirt. They stood in silence like that, lips mere inches apart, while Adrian’s heart beatfaster.
Sterling hadn’t done anything but come close, but that was allittook.
“Everything about last night.” Adrian’s vision darkened as his eyelids drooped, and he tilted his head to the side in desperate need of Sterling’s lips. “Everything you did to me last night. Everythingyousaid.”
“Imeantit.”
“Iknow.”
The kiss came, and when it did, it was sweet and unhurried. Adrian tasted Sterling’s lips, and he allowed Sterling to taste his. When they parted, Sterling took Adrian’s breathwithhim.
Adrian wasn’t sure his lungs would ever be fullagain.
“I forgive you.” Sterling whispered it, but volume didn’t negate the force those words had on Adrian. If he hadn’t been perched upon the desk, he would have staggered—the statement left him weak in the knees. “I know that you’re hurting. I know that you’re a work in progress. We all are, and that’s okay. Iforgiveyou.”
There was no word Adrian knew that could encapsulate what the things Sterling said did to him. There was no sentence he could compose that was beautiful enough to convey the message of thanks he wanted to return. So instead of speech, Adrian trusted his body to speak for him. He closed the distance between their lips and kissed Sterlingagain.
Sterling didn’t need rope to dominate him. He didn’t need props, or toys, or dungeons. All he needed was softly spoken words and hands that knew Adrian’s body better than Adrian knew himself. It wasn’t like any kind of play Adrian had experienced before—it wasbetter.
In all ways, even when he mouthed off and rebelled, he wasSterling’s.
And in all ways, Sterlingwashis.
Sterling pulled back from the kiss and patted the outside of Adrian’s thigh. Adrian opened his eyes a crack, his lips still parted while his heart beat a telltale rhythm in hischest.
“Go make your call,” Sterling said. “I’m proudofyou.”
And thanks to Sterling, for the first time in a long time, Adrian was proud ofhimself,too.
25
Sterling
Later that afternoon,Sterling opened the alley-side door to greet a pair of familiarfaces.
“Marcus.” Sterling nodded politely at the attorney who stood on thelanding.
“Sterling.” Marcus nodded back. At his side, visibly irritated, was a young man that Sterling had never had the pleasure of meeting in person—Lucian Bracknell, the bartender who’d quit his job for love. “It’s nice toseeyou.”
“Likewise, both to you and Lucian. I was hoping that you might reconsider the revocation of your membership, and that I’d see you again. You know that you’re welcome at The Shepherd. Technically, you didn’t break anyrules.”
“It was a choice we made together, and it’s a choice neither of us regret.” Marcus smiled in a kind way that let Sterling know there was no bad blood between them. “Now that we’re settling into life together, going out on a Friday night isn’t something that interests me as much as it didbefore.”
Lucian said nothing, but the coiled tension in his body was reminiscent of a cobra ready to strike. It looked like one wrong word might set him off. Maybe Adrian wasn’t the only one with an attitude. Clarissa had spared no detail gushing about Lucian and his excellent service, but embellishing the details was a classicallyClarissamove.
“Please, come in. Make yourselves at home.” Sterling stepped back from the doorway, allowing them entrance. “Adrian is in thelivingroom.”
On his way past, Lucian made a face. Marcus, who was taller, looked over his head and met Sterling’s gaze. They shared a small, unspoken moment that left Sterling grinning. Without the possibility of losing his job for acting out, Lucian had his claws out, and it looked like Marcus was as eager to see how he’d get along with Adrian asSterlingwas.
