Landen stepped forward. His hands came up to Adriel's hips, thumbs pressing into the soft flesh there. His forehead touched Adriel's.
"I want to try something," he said. His voice was quiet.
Adriel's heart picked up. "What?"
"I want you to trust me."
"I do," Adriel said. "Trust you."
Landen's eyes softened. Just slightly. "Can I tie you up?" he asked.
Adriel's breath caught. His mouth opened. Closed. He didn't know what he'd expected, but it wasn't that. His mind spun through implications, through images, through the sudden heat that flared in his stomach at the thought.
"What…" He stopped. Started again. "Tie me up?"
Landen's mouth found his neck. Kissed there while he spoke, which was possibly not entirely fair. His lips moved against Adriel's skin, warm and distracting, while he said, "Just your wrists. To the bed. Nothing else."
Adriel's eyes fluttered closed. He could feel it already; the idea of it, the image of it.
The heat in his stomach flared hotter.
"Yes," The word came out before he could think about it. Before he could second-guess, before the fear could catch up.
Landen kissed his neck once more. Then pulled back. Looked at him.
"Don’t move," he said. He crossed to the wardrobe. When he turned back, he held a tie in his hand. Dark silk. Soft. Folded once over his palm.
He approached him slowly. His eyes were on Adriel's face the whole time. The tie hung loose in his hand, harmless-looking, but Adriel knew what it was for. Knew what was coming.
His heart pounded.
Landen took his wrist gently, lifted it, guided him toward the bed. Adriel went willingly, let himself be positioned, let himself be laid back against the dark sheets.
Landen tied his right wrist first. The silk was soft against his skin. Cool at first, then warming. Landen wrapped it aroundhis wrist, around the bedpost, once, twice. His fingers worked carefully, tying knots that were firm but not tight enough to bite. When he finished, he tugged gently, testing.
"Okay?" he asked.
Adriel nodded. His throat was too dry for words.
Landen moved to his left wrist. Did the same thing. When he finished, Adriel was spread beneath him; arms stretched above his head, wrists bound to the bedpost, completely immobile.
The feeling was overwhelming. Raw. Exposed in a way that went beyond nakedness; naked and tied and completely on display, unable to move, unable to cover himself, unable to do anything except lie there and be seen.
Landen stood above him, still fully dressed. Looking down at him with dark eyes and parted lips, his breathing slightly shallow, his hands loose at his sides.
Adriel felt shame. It rose in him, familiar, expected. The voice that saidlook at you, like this, pathetic. It was there, the way it always was.
But something else ran alongside it. Something he'd kept buried so deep he barely had a name for it. Something that responded to being laid out like this, held in place, offered up. Something that looked at Landen standing above him and felt not fear but want. A hunger that frightened him a little, that made his cock fill further against his thigh, that made his breath come faster.
He looked at Landen's face. At the blown pupils. At the way his jaw was tight. At the hand that lifted, finally, and traveled slowly down Adriel's body.
Landen wanted this.
Very much.
The evidence of it was everywhere; in his eyes, in his breathing, in the way his hand trembled slightly as it traced down Adriel's chest.
Something in his chest settled. Just slightly.
