JJ’s response is immediate. “You.”
A grin jumps onto Cass’s face. “You already have me. Be more specific.”
“I…” JJ licks his lips nervously. “Everything. I—I want everything. With you. With, um.” He looks away, fidgeting. “With the understanding that I, uh, basically haven’t done anything before today.”
Not for the first time, Cass is struck by just howdeeplyJulian Jackson trusts him. “That’s okay,” he murmurs. “We’ll go slow, yeah? Figure out what you enjoy. All you have to do is tell me if you really like something, so I can do it again, or if you reallydon’tlike something, so I don’t do it anymore. I’ll handle all the little details, okay?”
JJ’s smile is shy. “Okay,” he whispers back. “I—I liked the neck thing.”
Obediently, Cass dips back down, pressing kisses to the line of JJ’s pulse. “Like this?”
“Y—Yeah.”
Cass goes slower this time, cataloging JJ’s every shiver and hitching breath, before reaching the neckline of his shirt again. Lightly, he tugs at it with his teeth. “Can I get you out of this?”
“Yes.”
“Great,” Cass says, and he snaps his fingers, sending all of JJ’s clothes back to the laundry room at their house.
Without warning, JJ jerks underneath him, letting out a strangled noise.“What the?—?”
“JJ?” Cass flinches away, eyes widening. “JJ, are you okay?”
“I—” JJ sucks in a ragged breath. “I didn’t expect you toteleport awaymy clothes, Cass!”
“Oh.” Heat flames into Cass’s cheeks, and he smiles awkwardly at JJ’s mortified expression. “Sorry, it—it’s sort of an automatic spell. I, uh. Didn’t think to modulate it. I canprobablyreplace everything? I can?—”
Frowning with concentration, he waves his hand precisely. A shirt and a pair of sweatpants settle into place over JJ’s frame, although the shirt is inside out and the pants are actually Cass’s. “Better?”
JJ throws his arm over his eyes, looking embarrassed. “It’s, um. It’s fine. You can get rid of all of it.”
Cass’s heart skips a beat. “You sure? Because we can do this the human way. I can—” Gently, he tugs at the bottom hem of JJ’s shirt. “I can actually peel this off of you, all sultry and seductive and such, and then we can work on the pants, and?—”
“Just—” Suddenly, JJ laughs. It’s amused and carefree andfond,and Cass instantly decides that he wants to make JJ laugh like that every single day. “I mean, you’re already naked. Iampretty overdressed right now.”
Grinning, Cass snaps his fingers again, leaving JJ’s toned body bare and welcoming beneath his own. “Well, you don’t have anything to be ashamed of,” he says, and he glances down past JJ’s belly. “Like, literally nothing at all.”
JJ covers his face with his hands again.“Cass.”
“JJ.” Cass laughs, grabbing JJ’s wrists to wrestle them away. “JJ, come on. I want to see you. I want to kiss you again. I want?—”
JJ pushes himself up to sitting, silencing Cass with another kiss. Cass settles himself comfortably in JJ’s lap and drapes his arms over JJ’s shoulders, rocking his hips forward and swallowing JJ’s heady moan.
“I also want a lot of this,” Cass murmurs against JJ’s lips.
“So do—so do I,” JJ manages, and he pulls away to meet Cass’s eyes. “Should we, um. Should we go back home? To, you know, your bedroom?”
“Mm.” Cass wrinkles his nose, considering. “If you want this to happen on an actual mattress, we can definitely go home. But I don’t mind making these memories here. Actually, I’d—I’d really like it if we stayed.”
JJ’s eyebrows furrow. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I have…” Cass looks back towards the sky, towards the canvas of blue and white surrounded by a circle of trees. Even two and a half centuries later, the view has barely changed from the day he was summoned. “I have mixed memories here. This place is important to me, but it hasn’t always been good to me. And I’d really like to rewrite some of those bad memories with good ones. With—with memories of you.”
JJ’s smile is soft. “I’d like that, too,” he says, and he hesitates. “In that case, though, do we—do we need lube? And condoms?” He tilts his head to one side, intrigued.“Dowe? Since you’re a demon?”
Cass waves open a pocket dimension and starts rifling through it, pulling out anything they might need. “Demons can’t contract or transmit STIs, so condoms aren’trequired,but some people prefer them—and I also have flavored ones, depending on how things go. Lube should be in here somewhere, and?—”
“You have apocket dimensionforsex?”JJ looks incredulous.
