And, as Cameron stared down at the back of Franklin’s head, he slowly lost any desire to punish him, for what he’d done or for what guys like him had done so many times over the last three years.
In that moment, what Cameron wanted, more than anything, was for Franklin to love—no!
Cameron closed his eyes very tightly.He wanted Franklin to love what they did together.He wanted Franklin to love the way their bodies moved against each other.Yes, Cameron told himself, very firmly,thatwas what he wanted Franklin to love.
Swallowing down any stupid and all-too-revealing words before they had a chance to escape from his lips, Cameron pulled back and thrust forward more carefully.Leaning forward and echoing the shape of Franklin’s body, he let a little of his weight rest against Franklin’s back as he brought them closer together.Letting his chest move against Franklin’s skin with every motion, he thrust into him again, each thrust slow, deep and far more heartfelt than it should ever be for a back-alley rent boy.
Franklin murmured his pleasure as he arched against Cameron, then gasped as Cameron found the perfect angle and hit it again and again, with complete control and precision.Each sign of Franklin’s pleasure rushed through Cameron’s veins, mingling with his own as it headed straight for his cock.
For once, Cameron didn’t add any of his own moans of enjoyment to the mix.He wasn’t putting on a show.There wasn’t anyone he was trying to impress here.Enthusiasm wouldn’t earn him a bonus.
Holding Franklin tighter, Cameron thrust deeper still.
Gradually, as he felt the frustration build toward a tipping point inside him, he reached around and wrapped his hand around Franklin’s cock.Despite their faltering start, Franklin was still gloriously hard.
Pre-cum leaked onto Cameron’s palm, slicking his grip as he stroked.Even while he tried to be careful, it was impossible to make his actions a polite request that the guy hurry the hell up and come.
His touch was pure demand, and Cameron purred his pleasure as Franklin obeyed his order and bucked beneath him as he came.The soft little purr turned into a roar as Cameron tumbled into his own climax after him.
For just a few moments, all the anger and confusion Cameron had ever felt ceased to exist.Bliss raced through his veins, and there was just him and Franklin, with no past or future to worry about, with no payment to be taken.
There was no money.There were no other men.Cameron allowed all his familiar points of reference to slip away and just let the moment pick him up and take him somewhere peaceful and safe.
He stayed there for as long as he could, clinging to the sensations, until he really couldn’t put off the return to reality for another second.Finally, he blinked open his eyes.
Franklin was still half pinned beneath Cameron’s body, panting gently as he tried to catch his breath.
With his brain still not working in quite the way he was used to, Cameron stroked his fingers through Franklin’s hair and down over his neck to caress his back.His tongue flickered out and lapped at Franklin’s bare shoulder.Finally, one brain cell hit into another and told him to stop being such a bloody idiot—to get the hell out of there.
Springing up from the bed, Cameron stumbled back several paces.His jeans were bunched around his thighs.He pulled them up and fastened his zip as he rushed out of the room.
As he took one last glance back, he saw Franklin blink over his shoulder at him.He glimpsed the doubt and the hurt in the guy’s eyes, but Cameron couldn’t worry about that.He had enough problems of his own.
Principal amongst them was the realisation that he may well have found the person he was destined to be mated to, only to discover that he was the last kind of man on the planet that Cameron would ever want to be bound to for the rest of his life.
Chapter Four
“Do you intend to make Franklin your mate?”
Cameron jerked his attention away from where he’d been staring blankly into the fireplace for at least the last hour.He seemed to have been spending far too much time doing that over the last few days.“What?”
“I said, are you and Franklin going to be mates?”Blaine repeated.
Cameron hesitated, well aware that the question had caught the attention of all the other lions present, and they were all looking in his direction now, waiting to hear his answer.
“You have to give them time,” a quiet voice advised from the far side of the room.Kefir smiled across at Cameron as their eyes met.“Important decisions take time.There’s no rush.”
“I can speak for myself,” Cameron snapped, turning his attention back to the fire.Silence descended.He was damned if he knew what to say.He and Franklin were… Franklin was… “I’ve no interest in being any rich man’s whore,” he snarled at the world in general.
His grip tightened around the coffee cup one of the other lions had pushed into his hand at some point that afternoon.He had no idea how long he’d been holding it.He lifted it to his lips and found the liquid disgustingly cold.It was all he could do to stop himself from throwing the damn thing into the hearth.
With very forced calm, Cameron set it down on the coffee table next to him, he even managed to put it neatly on the coaster.
“Is that what Franklin wants?”somebody asked, his tone more than a little wary, as if he was talking to a man standing on a high ledge, or perhaps a man with his finger on a detonator.
Cameron didn’t bother to look up and find out who it was.Almost all the lions in the pride were interchangeable in his mind.Many of them might have been older than his own twenty-two years, but they were still just silly little boys whothoughtthey knew what humans were like.
They didn’t have a clue.Their lives were all safety and security—all tea and coasters.
