Coolwas such a weird and funny word. It brought a tumble of a laugh out of Takashi, and that morphed into a hiccupping sob.
With a quick tenderness, Zack rolled Takashi over and wiped his tears. He stared at the bloody water on his fingers. A bubble of primal fear expanded in Takashi, but it was cased in a dense layer that made it feel far, far away. Zack must have noticed it, though, because he jumped a little and then rubbed his hand on the comforter to get rid of the tears.
“Maybe we should stop,” Zack muttered.
Takashi whined, and the note was high and demanding and a pitch foreign to his ears. He hadn’t made a sound like that inages. And in case his whining wasn’t obvious enough, he raised his knees up and parted his legs wide for him. “Please.”
“You still haven’t told me what I wanted to know,” Zack replied.
Wait? What? Oh, that. Somehow, Zack had held on to that? Takashi was twisted into a thousand knots, ready to burst if he didn’t find releasesoon, and Zack wasn’t drowning in the samesea of lust? With a groan, Takashi arched back against the bed. His ass was sensitive, throbbing almost as much as his dick was.
“Takashi,” Zack chided.
On his back, Takashi couldn’t even rub against the bed and find some relief. Wriggling around, he managed to twist so he was on his hip, but that brought little friction to his cock. He met Zack’s ruby-red gaze. “Please.”
A stony expression slid across Zack’s features. He pushed Takashi onto his back again, grabbed the bondage tape, and used it to tie Takashi’s ankles to his legs, keeping them bent. Though Takashi had the strength to snap through all of these bonds, there was an electric intensity in staying as he was told.
“I want you to keep being good for me,” Zack said, never raising his voice, though the authority in it compounded. “Because this has been amazing. But I can feel you holding back. There’s that little desire to hide something from me. I’m picking up on that one. And it seems connected to that fear I probed.”
Takashi slid his gaze to the side and then pressed his cheek against the comforter. He couldn’t hide anymore. All of this had been his stupid idea.A part of you hoped he’d take you this far. That he’d lay you bare and see you.
Zack leaned in and grabbed Takashi by the chin. With minimal nudging, he coaxed Takashi to look at him again. “I know that fear. I’m having to strangle my version of it right now.”
Tears were leaking out, and Takashi blinked them away. “I don’t want you to hate me.”
“Just be honest with me,” Zack said.
Zack wasn’t a centuries-old, skilled liar, but Takashi had had mortals rip out his heart before. Zack wasn’t that either, and he wasn’t shielding his longings. He was bare, too. And Takashi found a soothing relief in finding that same fear in him. Hissurface desires yearned for sex, but almost as loudly, he was crying out for connection.
Takashi knew that shape intimately.
Zack put his forehead to Takashi’s. “Please?”
“Ambition,” Takashi whispered hoarsely.
“You were having fantasies about the future?” Zack murmured. “Figuring out our next move?”
A plastic click happened, but Takashi was caught up in Zack’s proximity. “Figuring out our forever.”
“Our forever.” Zack smiled. He pressed lube-covered fingers against Takashi’s hole and began to work them in. “What happens in our forever?”
Takashi moaned. Suddenly, Zack stopped. Takashi choked on a sob, but dim realization dawned. He’d stopped talking, so Zack had stopped. With a whine, he said, “We take the coven.”
“Mmm, we’ve had that planned for a while.” Zack hummed a few notes. His fingers delved farther into Takashi, ruthlessly working to spread him wider. He still had his underwear on, and his cock pressed up against Takashi’s leg while he leaned back and dripped more lube onto his fingers. “We kill Seamus, and Roger sits on the throne.”
“Roger is no king,” Takashi whispered.
The moment stretched as Zack looked up from what he was doing to meet Takashi’s gaze. The weight of it dragged on the tightrope Takashi had been walking and threatened to buckle every ounce of trust they had placed in each other.
“You?” Zack asked, though the look in his eye said he knew that was the wrong answer.
Takashi shook his head.
“Me?”
Takashi nodded once and braced for Zack to wrench away in disgust.
Zack had one hand flat on Takashi’s stomach. The dominant persona he’d inhabited slipped away to reveal a cautious young man. He frowned in gentle confusion. “Roger’s in our forever, right?”
