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He grunted in protest when Konrad started to lift him up to pull out. “What about you?” Jasper asked.

“I don’t wish to overstimulate you in search of my own release. I’m just fine.”

“I want you to come.”

“Because you did?”

Jasper didn’t just want him to come out of a sense of obligation. He wanted Konrad to feel good, the way Konrad had made him feel. “Because I want you to.”

Konrad flipped him onto his back without removing his cock. He lifted Jasper’s legs up onto his shoulders. “Tell me if you wish for me to stop.”

Jasper nodded, his curls fanned out around his head on the pillow. He knew he had to look like a mess. He always did first thing in the morning, and his hair had gone through two rounds of sex without any efforts to tame it. But Konrad looked down at him like he was transfixed as he started fucking him. That expression unsettled the same part of him as the grandiose statements that painted Jasper as some indescribable beauty—he was so sure the scales would eventually fall from Konrad’s eyes and he would see how undeserving Jasper was of his stares and his poetry.

“Oh, fuck.” Jasper groaned at how deep Konrad was, his toes curling behind Konrad’s head. He could feel how close Konrad was from the way his thrusts started to lose their rhythm. “Sweetheart.”

Konrad came with an almost violent shudder. He rode it out with short thrusts against Jasper’s prostate that made Jasper feel like his nerve endings were on fire, but he ran his fingers through Konrad’s hair, caressing him through his climax just as Konrad had done for him. Feeling those pleasured jerks of Konrad’s body was worth the overstimulation.

He was equal parts relieved and disgruntled when Konrad pulled out. They were both sticky and sweaty, but cleaning up didn’t seem to be a high priority for either of them at the moment. Konrad moved down to lie between Jasper’s legs with his head on Jasper’s stomach. Jasper rested a hand on his head, playing with his hair again, enjoying how the longer strands slid between his fingers. The grey light beyond the window was paler and brighter than the last time Jasper looked.

“We should probably go feed the dogs,” Jasper said.

Konrad nosed the trail of dark hair below Jasper’s navel. “We will soon.”

“Okay,” Jasper laughed. It was hard to argue when he was so content, exactly where he was.

Konrad was shameless in his efforts to win the affections of Jasper’s ragtag pack of mutts. He served them all breakfast, making them sit first per Jasper’s insistence; he was not willing to let their training go up in smoke just because Konrad wanted to spoil them rotten. And Jasper absolutely did not find it endearing to watch Konrad dote on his dogs. He sipped his coffee, watching them over the chipped rim of his mug. Konrad was good with them.

“How did you accumulate such a pack?” Konrad asked as they cleaned up after breakfast. He was washing and rinsing the dishes while Jasper dried and put them away.

Jasper tossed the hand towel over his shoulder as he stacked the clean plates together and put them up in the cabinet. “I didn’t end up with any of them on purpose. We get a lot of strays out here, a lot of people who think a back road is a good place to put dogs out. Small dogs and puppies are easy to find homes for. The big guys...” He gestured towards the mismatched pile of dogs in the living room, sleeping off their meal. “They end up staying.”

“Us lonely souls are just drawn right to you, it would seem.”

“Kindred spirits,” Jasper murmured.

He’d been lonely too. Before his dogs. Then, in a different way, before Konrad.

Konrad kissed him, his hands dry now but still warm from washing dishes, the heat melting through Jasper’s shirt where Konrad held him by the waist. Jasper deepened the kiss, gently backing Konrad up against the counter. He felt Konrad’s breath catch against his lips.

“I believe it is nearly time for me to take you back to your car,” Konrad said with immense regret. “The restaurant requires my presence today, I’m afraid.”

Jasper brushed his lips over one of Konrad’s sharp cheekbones. “You should have told me you had to work, I wouldn’t have dragged you over here this morning.”

“There is nowhere else I would rather have been.”

“Careful, I might get used to you saying all the right things.”

“That’s something I would very much like for you to get used to.” Konrad caught Jasper’s chin between two fingers and tilted his face up to kiss him again. “You deserve to have a high standard for how you’re spoken to.”

“Oh, god. Okay. Come on.” Jasper walked out of the kitchen toward the front door.

Konrad sounded very pleased with himself as he followed, saying to Jasper’s retreating back, “You’re very attractive when you’re embarrassed, Jasper.”

“Shut up.”

Konrad laughed, and it was such a rare sound that Jasper couldn’t even stay mad at him.

It was a peaceful drive back to Konrad’s, and Jasper found himself reluctant to part ways when it came time to do so in front of Konrad’s house. Konrad said he was welcome to stay as long as he liked, just to lock up when he left, but Jasper wanted to go home and take the dogs for a run. He’d already been away from them longer than he ever was unless he went out of town.