“Alex?” Laurence asked. He reached out to squeeze his shoulder. “Tell me what’s wrong. What can I do to fixit?”
Alex lifted his gaze. His eyes were partially lidded, the cocky confidence stripped from them. “Kiss me,” he whispered. “I need to see your shade of purpleagain.”
21
Alex
It wasn’t supposedto have gone this way. Alex’s fingers curled in the front of Laurence’s shirt, and he tugged him close to kiss him as the pain evaporated from his heart and cured its cemented cracks. Purple bloomed behind Alex’s eyelids, painting his darkened world in its hue. He committed it tomemory.
It was more beautiful now than it had been before—fuller, richer, and morecomplex.
Laurence’s stubble brushed against his jaw. The hand on his shoulder moved to cradle the back of his head. Alex’s heart trembled, afraid to break again, but too excited for what was happening to deny itself what itwanted.
No man wasdifferent.
No man but LaurenceGwynn.
Alex backed himself onto the supply table, planting his ass on its surface. The kiss didn’t break. Laurence oversaw their passion, but he didn’t turn it selfish. If anything, his touch was forAlex.
All forAlex.
And Alex let it ownhim.
His hands traveled from Laurence’s shirt down to his belt. After so long spent taking what he wanted from men, painting his experience upon them, and then leaving, Alex needed to feel what it was like to be given pleasure. He pulled Laurence’s belt open, then undid his fly and pushed his pantsdown.
It shouldn’t have felt so good. Electricity danced between them, tingling Alex’s skin. His mind had turned to cotton—nothing more than fluff and filler. He lived for touch, breathed for stimulation, and let his heart beat for Laurencealone.
“I need you,” Alex uttered against Laurence’s lips. His tone had dropped, influenced by the stunning energy between them and the way his heart beat so freely, like it had cast off all the wrongs done to it. “Laurence, I needyou.”
Laurence tugged his t-shirt from beneath his jeans. His hand slid across Alex’s bare skin, and Alex shivered. He closed his eyes and worked Laurence’s underwear down, liberating the hardened cock beneath. Too aroused for subtlety, Alex wrapped his hand around it and started to stroke. Precum leaked from the slit of his cock like condensation beading on aglass.
The kiss broke. Laurence widened his thighs to give Alex’s hand more room to move and took his glasses off, tossing them across the supply table. With his mouth liberated, Alex leaned forward and kissed Laurence’s shoulder, moving up to his neck. The sound Laurence made, short and small, yet somehow deeply expressive of the desire growing within him, made Alexshiver.
Purple flooded back into Alex’s vision. Laurence Gwynn had kidnapped his heart. There was noescape.
“I need you,” Alex repeated. His voice trembled, and he pushed his lips against Laurence’s neck to mask his weakness. “Fuck me. Make mefeel.”
Laurence’s hands weren’t rough or demanding, like so many other hands had been. They didn’t grope, or tug, or pull. Instead, they took Alex gently by the wrists and guided his hand from inside Laurence’s pants. Then, kindly, led Alex back from the table so Alex wasstanding.
Laurence backed off, putting some distance betweenthem.
“Laurence?” Alex asked, stunned. He’d never had a man push him away before. Was Laurence going to leave? “What’s—”
But Alex’s question was answered before it was even asked. Laurence dropped to his knees in front of Alex, nuzzled against the bulge in his pants, then worked Alex’s fly open and nosed against the outline of the cock beneath. The air left Alex’s lungs and his knees weakened. He watched, stunned, as Laurence lowered his pants and underwear just enough to expose his hardened length. Then, without a single glance upward to ask for guidance, Laurence took him into hismouth.
“Oh god.” Alex shut his eyes and held onto Laurence’s head, keeping it in place. Any moment now, he expected to dissolve into a puddle on the floor, never to be put back together again. He’d forced Laurence’s hand into a blowjob on the very first night they’d met, when the intensity of the purple speckling his vision had been refreshing instead of haunting, but this time was different. This time, Laurence hadn’t been asked. He’d placed Alex’s pleasure before his own and turned down an invitation to use Alex’s body for his owngain.
Alex couldn’tbreathe.
“Laurence,” Alex uttered, hopelessly enthralled. He pushed into the tightness of Laurence’s warm, wet mouth and knew that he would never escape this. Not like he’d wanted to. Laurence had him by the heartstrings like he was a marionette, and deep down, Alexlikedit. “God,Laurence…”
Here, in the very studio he’d once seduced Laurence in, hoping to break yet another heart, he was being seduced. He had his own fragile heart bared, its cracks and splintered edges on fulldisplay.
But Laurence hadn’t crushed it. He hadn’t torn it into pieces. Instead, he’d taken what Alex had given him and proved, without words, that he could keep a broken heartsafe.
Laurence’s tongue caressed Alex, pushing against him to narrow the space of his mouth. His lips sealed around Alex’s shaft. Without hesitation, he took Alex deep, then pulled back and repeated the movement over again. All Alex could do was run his fingers through Laurence’s hair and watch as the occasional gray was lit up beneath the studiolights.
An older, established man who could have had his pick of lovers had fallen on his knees for Alex and allowed his body to be defiled. Alex’s blood heated and his mind raced. Laurence had done this for him. All forhim.
