"Adriel." Landen's voice was fraying already. "Jesus."
Adriel took him into his mouth. Slowly. Letting himself adjust to the size, the weight of him on his tongue. He went down as far as he could, which wasn't far enough, not yet, and then pulled back, and then went down again. Finding the rhythm. Learning what worked.
Landen's hand in his hair was steady. Guiding but not forcing. His thumb stroked against Adriel's scalp in small circles, encouraging.
"That's it," Landen murmured. "Just like that. You feel so good."
Adriel moaned around him. The vibration made Landen's hips twitch, made a sound fall out of him that was rougher than before. Adriel filed that away. Remembered it. Did it again.
He worked him with his mouth, building a rhythm, learning the sounds he could pull from this man. The way Landen's breath caught when he took him deeper. The way his fingers tightened when Adriel's tongue traced the vein on the underside. The way his whole body went tense when Adriel swallowed around him.
"You're so good at this," Landen said. His voice was rougher now, the composure fraying in real time. "Look at you. On your knees for me. Taking me apart with thatpretty mouth."
Adriel's cock throbbed in his pants at the words.
"Fuck, Adriel." Landen's hips moved now, just slightly, small, restrained strokes into the heat of his mouth. "Your mouth is… you have no idea what you're doing to me."
Adriel looked up at him. His eyes were dark, blown, fixed on Adriel's face. On the sight of his own cock disappearing into thatpretty mouth. His hand tightened in Adriel's hair.
"You like that?" Landen asked. "Being on your knees for me? Having my cock in that perfect mouth?"
Adriel moaned. The sound was answer enough.
Landen's composure cracked a little more. His hips moved faster, as he started to fuck into Adriel’s mouth. His breathing was ragged. His words kept coming, low and rough and filthy.
"So beautiful like this. So perfect. Taking everything I give you." His thumb stroked Adriel's cheek, feeling the stretch of it. "You were made for this, weren't you? Made to be on your knees. Made to be filled up."
Adriel's eyes were wet. He kept going, kept taking him deeper, kept pulling those sounds and those words out of Landen's throat.
"Fuck..." Landen groaned. His voice was wrecked.
Then he reached down and pulled Adriel up. His mouth found Adriel's and kissed him, deep and slow, tasting himself in Adriel's mouth without flinching.
After a moment, his hand wrapped around Adriel's wrist, warm and sure, tugging him away from the window, away from the city, toward the door he hadn't opened during the tour. Adriel followed without hesitation, without thought, his body still humming.
The bedroom was dim. A lamp on the nightstand cast soft gold light across the bed, the dark sheets, the simple furniture. More books. A painting above the headboard. The windows here were smaller, but still looked out onto the city, still let the glittering dark press against the glass.
Landen turned to him. His hands found the hem of Adriel's sweater. Lifted it slowly. His eyes followed the fabric as it rose, watched skin appear, watched Adriel's stomach, his chest, his shoulders come into view.
Adriel let him. Raised his arms. Let the sweater be pulled over his head and tossed somewhere he didn't see. Stood there in the warm light, bare from the waist up, and waited.
The self-consciousness was there. It never fully disappeared. That voice in his head, the one that had been there as long as he could remember, still whispered. Still pointed out every soft inch, every part of himself he'd spent years learning to hate.
But he was past the worst of it now. Past the bracing, the tensing, the waiting for the moment Landen would see and flinch. Because Landen had seen. Landen kept seeing. And his eyes held no disappointment in them.
Adriel breathed through it as Landen's hands moved to his jeans. Unbuttoned them. Pulled down the zipper. He pushed the denim down Adriel's thighs, and Adriel stepped out of them, one foot at a time. His boxers went next.
Landen stepped back slightly. Looked at him. The asymmetry of it should have felt wrong. Adriel naked, exposed, every inch of him on display. Landen composed and clothed.
It didn't feel wrong.
It felt like something else. Something Adriel didn't have a name for yet but that sat low in his stomach, warm and complicated. Something that responded to being looked at like this, being seen like this, being bare while Landen remained covered.
Landen's eyes moved over him slowly. Taking him in. His cock, half-hard already, responding to the way Landen was looking at him.
"You're so beautiful," Landen said quietly.
Adriel's throat closed. He didn't know what to do with the words. So he just stood there and let Landen look at him and tried to breathe.
