It took Ari a moment to realize he was doing it to call attention to the shirt Ari had bought him, which he now wore. He’d guessed the sizing right exactly. It fit snugly across the chest and shoulders, and the mustache—
Ari reached out to touch it before he could stop himself, somehow hypnotized by the ludicrous fake fur between Jax’s pectorals. Only when he had his palm flat on Jax’s chest did he realize what he was doing.
He jerked his head up and met Jax’s gaze, an apology on his lips, but before it could gain any traction, Jax stepped into his space and kissed him.
Brunch could wait.
When Jax walked him backward into his bedroom, they were already half naked, tearing at each other’s clothing. Jax tripped out of his jeans, but he landed on his back on the bed, and Ari followed him down, preventing as much as helping Jax disrobe. Jax bit at his lip again, groaned when Ari tightened his hands on his hips.
“Ari,” Jax gasped as Ari mouthed down the line of his neck, determined to gauge the color of the bruises he’d left two nights before. “You gotta do something for me.”
Ari would write him a symphony. “Name it.”
Jax fisted a hand in his hair—Ari’s dick jerked—and yanked until they were eye to eye.
Then he said, “Take off your pants and fuck me.”
Well. Ari did owe him for accidentally ghosting him, after all.
He leaned in and kissed him, hard. “It would be my pleasure.” He untangled Jax’s hands from his hair and briefly pressed his hands into the mattress. Jax let out a delicious moan that Ari filed away for later. He knelt and undid his pants and pushed them off as quickly as he could. Beneath him, Jax wiggled out of his own clothes, and they came together again, kissing frantically.
“Like this?” Ari asked, meaningOn your back?Jax panted openmouthed in approval. Ari had never been much for talking in bed, but Jax’s reaction inspired him… and perhaps the uncharacteristic dialogue would remind him he shouldn’t form a romantic attachment. “I could bend you in half. I bet you like that, knees around your ears?” Jax pushed up into him, desperate and hungry, like he couldn’t get Ari’s dick into him soon enough. “Or,” Ari said, “maybe on your stomach or your hands and knees.” Jax dragged his nails down Ari’s back. “Me on my knees behind you, plowing into you, gripping your hips until they bruise.”
“God yes,” Jax said fervently. “Please, that. Do that.”
Ari didn’t need to be asked twice, but he was pretty sure Jax would do it anyway. He knelt to give Jax room to move and reached for the nightstand drawer.
But when he returned his attention to the bed, he could barely process the image in front of him: Jax with his knees spread, the firm, round bubble of his ass pushed up for Ari’s appreciation. His skin was tanned to the waist, as though he’d spent a great deal of time shirtless out of doors over the summer, but his cheeks were cream pale. And—
Oh God.Ari traced his fingers over the dark ink on Jax’s right cheek, which he had somehow missed in their earlier encounter. “What’s this?”
“A story for after,” Jax promised, undulating under the touch. “You’re killing me.”
Ari flipped the top on the lube and generously coated his fingers, then wasted no time sliding two of them deep.
Jax arched his back on a moan, and his body yielded immediately. Ari knew logically that Jax’s temperature wasn’t any warmer than anyone else’s, but the heat around his fingers still sent a shock of lust through him. He thrust gently, mostly to distribute the lube since Jax didn’t seem to require stretching. But then he nudged Jax’s prostate and Jax’s spine went positively liquid. He made a noise that began deep in his chest and ended curled tightly around Ari’s cock, and Ari had to add another finger and make him do it again.
Finally Jax said, “Ari.Are you going to fuck me like you promised, or do I have to do it myself?”
Ari pressed into his prostate again—hard. Jax’s elbows buckled and he fell to them with a grunt.
“Fuck,” Ari breathed. Jax’s ass looked even more inviting with his shoulders pressed lower. He grabbed a condom and yanked his fingers out of Jax’s ass at the same time, eager to move things forward. As he slid the condom onto his dick, Jax scrambled back onto his hands. It somewhat ruined the view, but….
Impulsively, Ari leaned down and followed the swooping curve of the tattoo on the meat of Jax’s ass with the tip of his tongue. The design was unfamiliar to Ari but was clearly a letter of some kind. A shocked noise—part moan, part whimper—flowed from Jax, and Ari licked the design bottom to top, then, after another look at the appealing curves, bit it.
“Oh my God, Ari.” He sounded drunk with lust and impatience. “Later you can show me everything you can do with your tongue, I promise, but please, I need—ungh!” His begging turned into incoherent moans as Ari pushed his dick in deep with one unerring thrust. Jax pressed his knees wider and his belly down, apparently eager to get more of Ari, faster. Fuck.
“Bossy,” Ari admonished. He resettled his hands on Jax’s hips and assessed his balance. If he was going to give it as hard as Jax wanted, he didn’t want to fall over.
“Only when I need to be.” Jax squirmed delightfully, perhaps in an attempt to entice Ari into movement. Or maybe he just couldn’t stay still when full of cock—he certainly couldn’t manage it at any other time. Another avenue to explore later. “Jesus, are you going to just stay there? I thought you were going tofuck me.”
“As you wish,” Ari said drolly. With a light squeeze of Jax’s hips, he pulled out and slammed forward. Jax yowled and arched his back, trying to press into Ari’s thrust, so Ari tightened his grip and began in earnest. Now that he knew Jax could take it—lovedtaking it—all bets were off.
Time blurred as Ari thrust hard and fast, doing his best to meet Jax’s many demands for harder, deeper. His elbows buckled and he fell to them a second time. The curve of his back, his trim waist, round ass, like the most beautiful violin, was a sight to behold, and Ari didn’t want to take his eyes off the flexing muscles under smooth skin, or his own cock moving in and out.
But those shoulders made a tempting offer Ari couldn’t ignore. Shifting forward, he planted his hands on the mattress next to Jax and, once curled around him, applied his mouth to Jax’s trapezius. The soft moan-filledahs that pushed out of Jax were music to Ari’s ears.
He sucked hard below Jax’s jaw. Jax fell forward, and his face hit the mattress. The new angle pushed a series of turned-on moans out of him, but it didn’t allow Ari to indulge his new obsession with that delicious neck. He snaked an arm around Jax’s chest and hauled Jax with him until they were both on their knees.
