Paolo became the sum of his sweat and moans, of the deep, searching thrust of his cock inside Luis. He fell forwards. Luis wrapped his legs around him like a vice. Paolo fucked him harder, and Luis writhed beneath him, a beautiful flush darkening his bare skin.
They kissed, tenderness forgotten in a mess of frantic lips and clashing teeth. Crushing warmth uncoiled in Paolo’s gut, unloading more heat than he could handle. He dug his fingers into Luis’s hips, his chest, his rigid biceps, and fought the inevitable. “Fuck, I’m gonna come.”
Luis arched his back and drove up to meet Paolo’s torturous thrusts. They met in the middle, over and over, pressed together with a hard desperation that forced the breath from Paolo’s lungs. He reached for Luis’s cock, but Luis was already there, jacking himself, eyes screwed shut.
Paolo gripped his chin. “Look at me. I wanna see you when you come.”
Luis’s eyes fluttered open, and the need swirling in them drew Paolo closer.
He fell forwards again, the change in angle driving him deeper. Madness overcame him, and every nerve seized up as he surged inside Luis. “Shit—”
Luis cried out, ragged and hoarse. “Fuck, I’m coming. Fuck.”
He threw his head back, wet warmth spurting out of his dick, and clenched around Paolo so tight Paolo saw stars. Orgasm rippled through him, convulsing him, no inch of his body untouched. He was so fucking beautiful. Paolo watched him, entranced, but too soon, his own climax rushed him, and he shot deep and hard, his vision whiting out as he groaned loud enough to rattle the walls.
It seemed to go on forever. Paolo shuddered with aftershocks, and beneath him, Luis shivered, chest heaving.
Paolo let his dick ease from Luis’s body. Luis made a soft sound that wasn’t all pleasure. Paolo moved to roll away, but Luis caught him.
“Don’t. Not yet.”
He pulled Paolo down for a sticky, consuming kiss, and Paolo forgot about the condom he needed to bin, the mess of come and sweat between them, and the fact that Luis had double locked the front door the moment it had shut behind him. He forgot about everything except how it felt to lie naked with Luis, breathless and awed, as they kissed until Paolo was hard again.
The urge to fuck Luis again was so strong it almost blinded him to the fact that Luis was halfway to sleep, but as he gazed at Luis, the ache in his dick was easy to ignore. He pushed Luis’s damp hair away from his face and stroked his scruffy jaw. Luis sighed, and it was as peaceful as Paolo had ever seen him.
Paolo ditched the condom, hustled him under the covers, and turned the lamp off. Luis pulled him close, burying his face in Paolo’s neck, and immediately knocked out. It was cute as fuck, but sleep didn’t find Paolo for a long time. For hours, he switched between gazing at Luis and staring at the ceiling. Convinced he’d see the dawn, he turned his alarm off, but eventually, he fell asleep.
It was light when he woke, and he knew without looking that he was alone. He opened his eyes to an empty bed. Luis was gone, leaving only rumpled sheets, his borrowed phone, and two full beer cans to show he’d been there at all.
20
Luis waited outside the industrial unit, his back to the lashing rain, transfixed by the crumpled photograph of Paolo’s grandmother’s nursing home. It had come through Paolo’s door in the early hours of the morning. Luis had found it on a stumbling trip to the bathroom and had returned to bed to find it had been sent to his phone too from yet another unknown number.
A burner, no doubt, but the message was clear. Dante knew Luis had lied, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do to punish Paolo if Luis didn’t come through for him on this job.
Yeah? And then what? You think you’ll do this for him and that’ll be it? That he’ll let you go?
Of course he wouldn’t. But Luis didn’t give a shit anymore. He’d spend the rest of his life muling rock if it kept Paolo safe. He stared at the grainy picture again, as if he needed reminding what was at stake, that his own pain was nothing compared to how Paolo would feel if something happened to Nonna.
Something that would be Luis’s fault for being so fucking weak. “Come home with me . . . please?”
Hazy memories of what had come next haunted Luis in the best and worst ways. His body was wonderfully sore, but his heart ached so fierce he could hardly breathe. You should’ve said no. Then you’d never have known what you’d lost.
But that wasn’t true. Even without the mind-blowing sex, Luis had left a piece of himself with Paolo that he’d never get back.
The door to the unit started to open, drawing Luis from his maudlin thoughts. On alert, he braced himself, waiting for Dante’s contact to emerge. Years ago, it had been Fat Mo from the meat market, but life had moved on since then, and Luis had zero clue who was coming.
He kept to the shadows, watching and waiting. But instead of a person, a nondescript estate car emerged with Dante at the wheel. The car pulled up to where Luis loitered, and Dante opened the window. “Get in, brother.”
Luis scowled. “You never said you’d be here.”
“You didn’t ask.”
Truth. Based on past experience, Luis had assumed Dante would steer clear of his scuzz work, leaving the risk to anyone and everyone except himself. In fact, the only positive to his dawn appointment with a package of coke had been the certainty that Dante wouldn’t be there. Fuck my life.
Luis got in the car. “Where did you find this heap of shit?”
Dante gunned the engine and peeled out of the industrial estate under the mist of the early morning. “Gumtree five years ago. I’ve been saving it for a job like this.”
“Why? You told me to get the train. Besides, I haven’t driven in years. I don’t even know where my licence is. If I get pulled, they’ll clock me for sure.”
“Who said you were driving?”
Luis scowled. “No one. But as there’s no one else here and you’re too precious for the street, I made an assumption.”
“Well, you know what they say about assumption.”
“Actually, I don’t. Explain it to me.”
Dante drove out of the city and settled into the parade of trucks and lorries already on the road. “You said I didn’t have the balls to come with you.”
“So? That’s always been true. You don’t do jack to make your money ’cept play with people.”
“What’s wrong with that? The result is the same.”
“You’re a piece of shit, and you know it.”
“If you say so, brother.”
“Call me that again and I’ll throw you out of this damn fucking car.”
“Do it. You think I haven’t got peeps outside your boy’s house, waiting for my word if you fuck with me?”
Violent hate sluiced through Luis, malignant and sharp, eviscerating any emotion that had come before it. He eyed the oncoming traffic. It would be so easy to grab the wheel and steer the car into the path of the speeding HGVs. It would kill him too, but if it kept Paolo safe, who the fuck cared?
Luis’s hands twitched. Only the fear of hurting an innocent trucker kept him still. He had enough blood on his conscience.
The road to Coventry was clear. Two hours later, they crossed into the city. Luis kept track of landmarks, re-planning escape routes now their method of transport had changed, but as hard as he tried to keep his head in the game, his mind kept drifting to Paolo and the wrench of pain he still felt at leaving him behind.