Ethan sobbed atop him. His knees clenched tight around Max’s hips in a futile effort to control what was happening to him. But he loved it, Max knew. The more control that was taken from Ethan, the freer he felt to enjoy every sensation.
The tortured, bound length of his cock called to Max, who wrapped his fingers around the shaft and carefully squeezed. Ethan’s sobs grew louder. Max no longer had to thrust up into him. Ethan slammed himself down as hard as he could, seeking that elusive peak that Max teased him with by running his thumb around and around the leaking head of his cock.
“Beg me,” Max taunted.
When Ethan only moaned, Max sat up and grabbed a handful of blond hair. He pulled tight, bending Ethan’s head back, and Ethan only moaned louder. His cock leaked copiously in Max’s hand.
“Beg me,” Max ordered again.
“Please. Please, Max. Master.”
Max mouthed at his arched throat. “Please, what?”
“Please let me come—oh, god, please.”
“How does that happen? What do you need, little slut?”
He kept his voice low and gravelly and found great satisfaction in Ethan’s full body shudder.
“I need you to fuck my brains out, please,” Ethan whispered. He licked his lips, every inch of his body bleeding submission. “Show me you’re my master in all things.”
Desire gripped Max’s cock. If he wasn’t already sheathed in Ethan’s body, he would have flipped him face down and fucked into him hard. He decided to do it, anyway. Ethan let out a cry of protest, but Max ignored him as he rolled, pushing Ethan off him and onto his face on the bed. Max grabbed him by the hip and pressed the heel of his other hand against the side of Ethan’s head, pressing his face firmly into the pillow.
“Is this what you wanted?” Max asked him as he thrust back in without warning.
Ethan yelled into the pillow, the sound muffled. “Yes!”
Max pushed his face deeper into the pillow. “Then come on my cock like a good boy.”
He drilled him ruthlessly, keeping Ethan immobile the entire time, so he was barely more than a hole for Max to pump into. Ethan couldn’t rub his cock against the bed. He couldn’t turn his head. All he could do was take it, and Max gave it to him as hard as he could, burning up the energy that had been eating him up for most of the evening.
The sudden rhythmic clenching around his cock told him he’d succeeded in half of his mission. Ethan cried out into the pillow as his body seized with contractions from his orgasm. Max dropped atop him and ground his hips down, rotating his cock against Ethan’s prostate. The high-pitched cry he milked out of Ethan was enough to drive him to his own climax. Groaning against the back of Ethan’s neck, he pumped his seed deep into his husband’s body, planting himself as best he could.
“I love you. I love you,” Ethan panted out, sounding delirious.
Max pressed an open-mouthed kiss against his neck. “I love you, too.”
The comedown lasted a while. Max didn’t bother moving during it, choosing instead to surround Ethan protectively and provide him with a sense of security as he regained his senses. Max valued these moments when he could be strong and powerful for Ethan in a non-traditional manner. It allowed him to reveal a tenderness that he felt deeply, but didn’t often display. He kissed the sweat sheening Ethan’s neck, the back of his shoulders, the top of his spine—anywhere he could reach. He couldn’t seem to stop, but that was hardly unusual. Ethan was highly kissable.
Later, after they’d showered and returned to bed, Max guided Ethan to cuddle against him. It was imperative that he get snuggle time with Ethan. It made the night feel complete.
“If your parents aren’t able to make it,” Ethan said softly as he drew hearts on Max’s abdomen with a fingertip, “will you be hurt?”
“It’ll be expected.”
“That’s not an answer, Max.” Ethan kissed his chest and looked up at him. “You can tell me. It’s alright.”
Of course, it’s alright. I’m allowed my feelings. But the resentment was purely defensive, Max knew, and he wisely kept it to himself.
“I’ll be disappointed. I want to believe that our breakthrough in Barcelona meant something. Though it bothers me that I’ve done it, I’ve opened myself to the hope that we’ll be a proper family at some point.”
“I know we will be. I’ll lay money on the line. It might not be as easy as we want, but the need is there. Your parents adore you in their weird, repressed way. You’re everything to them. They just need to learn to show it. It’s coming.”
“And if it’s not, it won’t matter,” Max said stubbornly. He couldn’t help maintaining the wall. To lower it completely was too terrifying, and few things frightened him.
“We’ll be okay,” Ethan assured him.
Max hooked a finger beneath his chin and tilted his face up for a kiss, grateful that Ethan didn’t call him out for clinging to his protective ways.
“Was it like this for you? With me?” Max asked as the thought popped into his head.
Ethan turned his head slightly so he could kiss Max’s fingers. “Do you mean in the beginning? When you kept insisting you were only my sugar Daddy and I was your boytoy? By the way, we should revisit that.”
Max sighed at the mischievous smirk he received. “Yes, that’s what I’m referring to. You wanted emotion from me that I deliberately withheld.”
“It was tough. I won’t lie. I tried not to become infatuated with you, but you’re Maxmillian Poole. You’re irresistible, and in the beginning your aloofness made me want you even more. But you held me away and I tried not to wear my heart on my sleeve because I knew you’d tear it apart.” Ethan smiled wryly. “I did it anyway. You didn’t hate me for it. I lucked out.”
Max remembered it differently. The poison hook of fear he’d experienced when Ethan was kidnapped by Peter Monahan’s rivals had opened his eyes to his own idiocy. The drama in Argentina had spurred him to take the final step and acknowledge and express his feelings. Fear had been the deciding factor, and he saw the parallels now with his parents. He and they feared the same thing: opening up only to be left hanging. How foolish they were when they were, in essence, on the same page and in search of the same thing. Would a dramatic, terrible incident be needed to finally make them see it?
Tired of pondering the complexities of his relationship with them, Max hugged Ethan tighter to him.
“You lucked out, but I was the fortunate one. I ended up with the perfect companion and lover.”
“And one who’s not such a hick anymore.” Ethan smiled. “What happens if we go back to Indiana and I revert to my roots? What if I suddenly decide that boxed red zinfandel is a great wine?”
“I’ll spank you back to your senses. Failing that, I’ll leave you there.”
Ethan huffed a laugh. “You’d like to think you could leave me. You may be the dom, but I’ve got you wrapped around my finger, Max.”
Max didn’t bother refuting him. Ethan was one hundred percent correct.
Chapter Six
“This is preposterous.”