“I never did learn how to fit in with them.I was always the cuckoo in the nest, even when I was little.I got good grades, I did as I was told, but I was always just slightlyoff, slightly out of step.This time, it’ll be different, sir.”
Arslan closed his eyes for a moment, as he began to understand just how terrifying it had to be for Ryland to find himself thrown into the middle of another family that he didn’t quite fit into yet.Even if his disappearance still wasn’t acceptable, Arslan perhaps began to see why his mate had thought fixing everything before he came back to the pride was the only way to keep himself safe.
“You’re safe now,” Arslan whispered.
Ryland nodded.He seemed to make some sort of effort to pull himself together.“And you were right about my instincts, I’ll work on them, sir.”
“Yes.We’ll do that,” Arslan agreed.He stroked his knuckles down Ryland’s cheek.“What do your instincts tell you to do right now?”
Ryland tilted his head back, offering his lips up to be kissed.It was a beautiful invitation, a plea for reassurance and acceptance as much as anything else.Arslan didn’t hesitate to bring their lips together.
As one kiss turned into another and another, he gradually felt Ryland relax and forget about all his worries.Very cautiously, Ryland began to return the kiss.His actions were impossibly tentative as if he expected Arslan to pull away at any moment, and he was determined to have his apology ready as soon as that happened.As the minutes passed, his anxiety seemed to ease.He leaned into the kiss, and his hands moved more confidently over Arslan’s skin.It wasn’t reassurance he was interested in anymore.
As Ryland gained the courage to run his hands up Arslan’s shoulders and thread his fingers into his hair, Arslan began to turn them, guiding Ryland to lie back on the mattress.When Arslan finally broke the kiss, Ryland, stared up at him, wide-eyed and with his lips slightly reddened.
When Ryland swiped his tongue across his bottom lip, as if trying to catch a lingering taste of the kiss, Arslan couldn’t help but think back to the feel of that impossibly soft tongue as it explored his cock back in the office at the university.
As Arslan leaned over Ryland to bring their lips back together, he caught each of Ryland’s wrists and pinned them to the sheet on either side of his head, wondering if he would like that as much as Arslan had always imagined he would.
He’d been right.Being pinned down only increased Ryland’s attempts to wriggle and rub himself against Arslan’s body in a blind search for friction.He made no attempt to free himself.His erection nudged against Arslan’s leg.Yes, Ryland did like that.
Pressed so intimately together, Arslan sensed every little change in Ryland’s body as he lost himself in pleasure and forgot to worry about anything at all.
Guiding Ryland to bring his hands together above his head, Arslan covered both his wrists with one of his own hands.With his free hand, he pushed Ryland’s hair back from his face and traced down his neck.
Desire to possess rushed through him.And even more than that, was the desire to have Ryland acknowledge who he belonged to, for his mate to know that he had found where he belonged, and that he was safe and accepted there.
“Mine,” he whispered in Ryland’s ear.
Ryland nodded.“Yes.”
“Forever.”
“Yes, sir.”The word was whispered in that same slightly awestruck tone of voice, as if he still had trouble wrapping his mind around everything that meant.
Arslan brushed their lips together once more before leaning back and putting some space between their bodies so he could look at Ryland properly.Even after he let go of Ryland’s wrists, Ryland didn’t try to move.He lay there and let Arslan look his fill.
*
“Please?”
The word had left Ryland’s lips before he’d even known he wanted to say it.He wasn’t even sure what he was asking for.Arslan tore his gaze away from his body and looked up to meet Ryland’s eyes.
Possession and desire filled his expression.Now that he wasn’t afraid to make a fool of himself by looking for it, it was easy for Ryland to imagine he could see a deeper, more tender emotion mixed in with them.
Arslan didn’t strike him as the sort of man who said something unless he was sure of it.If he said he wouldn’t ask a man to join his pride unless he was in love with him, Ryland had no reason to believe that was anything less than the absolute truth.
Leaning down, Arslan offered him his lips for another brief kiss, but before Ryland had a chance to appreciate it, Arslan’s mouth was gone, tracing a line down his neck.Arslan nipped at the sensitive bit of skin just above his collarbone.From there, he trailed his lips further down his body, his tongue rasping against his right nipple on the way past.
It didn’t just make it easy to stay in the moment and not worry about what a lion would do in his place, it made it damn near impossible for Ryland to think of anything but the scrape of Arslan’s tongue and the softness of his lips against his skin.
He gasped as he felt Arslan begin to follow a path down the centre of his body.Forcing his eyes open, Ryland watched as Arslan reached his cock and took the tip of his dick between his lips as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
If the sensation of Arslan’s mouth on his body had kept Ryland happily frozen in place, the first touch of a lion’s tongue on his erection made it impossible to stay still for a moment longer.His hands went to Arslan’s hair.He couldn’t stop himself tangling his fingers in the long dark strands.
He’d apologise for that later.And he’d apologise for not being able to keep his hips still, too.He was quite happy to apologise for everything in the world and beg the professor’s forgiveness later.But, right then, it was impossible to think clearly about manners or control or anything else, because his entire brain was devoted to processing every single sensation of Arslan’s mouth wrapped around his dick.
Arslan sucked around the head as his tongue played with the very tip of Ryland’s cock, coaxing him to moan and toss his head back against the pillows.Ryland’s fingers tightened in Arslan’s hair, and he tugged as gently as he could at the long strands, pulling Arslan’s mouth away from his cock.
