Aaron stopped and turned on Griffin. His lips were pinched. “But they could. And I don’t want anyone to talk. To see.”
Griffin caught his arm and dragged him toward the billiard room behind them. He pushed the door shut and leaned against it, staring at the man he had given pleasure to just a few hours before. Aaron wouldn’t even meet his eyes now.
“You’re afraid they’re going to see that we want each other,” Griffin said softly.
Aaron nodded. “Yes. Yes, because I am having a hard time hiding it.”
Griffin’s lips parted at that admission, and he moved toward Aaron in one long step. He reached out and caught Aaron’s hand, pulling him a little closer. Until they were a breath apart.
“Come to my room tonight,” he whispered.
Aaron squeezed his eyes shut, clearly caught between what he wanted and what he felt was right. “No,” he said, his voice shaking.
Griffin cupped Aaron’s chin, letting his thumb stroke across his full lower lip and feeling Aaron’s breath hitch. “Please,” he murmured. “Please.”
Aaron’s entire body was tense, and for a long moment he was silent. But finally he let out a long, deep sigh. “Very well. I’ll come to you after midnight.”
“I’ll leave my door unlocked,” Griffin promised.
Aaron stepped back, breaking the contact between them. “We should join the others before our absence is noticed,” he said. He turned his back, walking to the door in a few long steps. But there he paused, resting his forehead on the wood. “It’s just been a long time for me, since Noah. A long time since Iknewa man I wanted to be with, Griffin. Knew him outside of a brothel or a club. It makes me worry, especially when you couple it with my fears of hurting Letty.”
“I understand,” Griffin said slowly. “I’ve never had a lover in Society. Nor one who was linked to my family. So it is fresh ground for both of us. And we’ll both be mindful of it, we’ll both work to make sure we aren’t discovered.”
“I hope so,” Aaron whispered as he walked out into the hallway. “I hope so.”
Aaron stood in the hallway, staring at the door to Griffin’s room. It was after midnight and the house was quiet and still around him. Yet he didn’t feel comfortable in what he was about to do. Once he did it, there would be no going back.
His heart raced as he lifted his hand for the third time and held a fist before the door.
“Do it or don’t,” he muttered to himself through clenched teeth.
Finally he forced his knuckles to brush the door, knocking softly. When it didn’t immediately open, he spun to walk away, but he hadn’t made it a step when the door opened behind him.
“Where are you going?” Griffin’s low voice asked, like a rope thrown out around Aaron’s waist, drawing him back.
Slowly Aaron turned and faced him. His breath hitched. Griffin’s jacket and cravat had long been discarded, leaving him in a half-unbuttoned shirt, trousers slung low around trim hips and no shoes or stockings. His hair was slightly mussed, almost bed-tossed, and it made Aaron want to shove his fingers into it and tug his mouth to Griffin’s.
Instead, he cleared his throat. “I wasn’t sure you were in.”
Griffin arched a brow. “Well, I am. Join me.”
Those two words were like a siren’s song. With a sigh, Aaron followed it, walking past Griffin into his bedroom. He heard Griffin shut the door and then he caught Aaron’s arm, pulling him back to flatten him against the barrier. Griffin’s mouth crushed down on his and his tongue pierced through the thin line of his lips.
Aaron’s mind emptied as he opened, arching into Griffin as his arms came around the other man’s shoulders. Their mouths merged for a while as the air around them crackled with wild abandon and passionate surrender. Griffin’s hands moved and Aaron didn’t resist as he unbuttoned Aaron’s jacket, untied his cravat, opened his shirt.
Griffin pulled back as he slipped all the layers above Aaron’s waist away, and Aaron’s stomach clenched at his wicked smile as Griffin looked him up and down. “Better than I dreamed,” he growled.
“You too,” Aaron agreed, opening Griffin’s shirt in turn and shoving it aside. Griffin’s skin was hot when Aaron touched it, smooth, and when he leaned down and pressed his mouth to Griffin’s shoulder blade, he tasted as good as he smelled.
Griffin sucked air in through his teeth as Aaron nibbled lower, rolling his tongue over his nipple and loving how Griffin’s body tensed in response. He wanted to learn every one of this man’s pleasure points, he wanted to use them against Griffin until he was panting and begging for release. He wanted to play with him until he couldn’t take it anymore.
It had been a long time since he felt such a powerful longing. In the brothels and the clubs, sex was a perfunctory action, a way to slake a desire. This was something different.
This was pulsing, driving need, and it felt like a wave that washed up over him and tugged him to the bottom of an endless ocean. He was helpless to it, he no longer had the strength to fight it. At least not right now.
He dropped to his knees and let his mouth move lower, flattening his tongue over Griffin’s toned stomach muscles as he loosened the other man’s trousers. A thick erection was already outlined in the rough fabric and Aaron held his breath as he peeled them away and revealed Griffin’s cock. It was gorgeous. Griffin was tall and had a wiry strength, and his cock reflected that body type. Heavy and hard, but not too thick, not too long. Just perfect.
Aaron glanced up the naked length of Griffin’s body, meeting the other man’s eyes as he wrapped his mouth around him. Griffin let out a low moan, but didn’t break the intense eye contact as Aaron began to suck him. He took him deep inside, almost all the way to the back of his throat, while he held tight to the base of Griffin’s cock, gently stroking the length his mouth couldn’t accommodate.
