Raze (Riven 3)

We melted together, after, kissed slow and sweet. I winced when he pulled out and he slid two fingers inside me to soothe the sting, stroking gently at my hole until I was jelly on the bed, moaning. He cleaned my spent cock with his mouth, licking and sucking me so gently I wanted to cry.

Finally, I pushed him onto his back and kissed him softly.

“Stay here.”

In the bathroom, I got a wet washcloth and, after a moment of hesitation, grabbed the Sharpie Dane kept in the toothbrush holder. It had gotten a lot of use lately. I was going to give it a little bit more.

I’d been reading about Frank Herbert on the bus home from Baltimore. It made sense to me that he’d be one of Dane’s favorite authors.

He looked up as soon as I came out of the bathroom, fear naked on his face. When he saw the washcloth, he relaxed back onto the bed.

“You okay?” I murmured, cleaning him off.

His eyes went soft and unfocused at my touch. He nodded.

“You?”

“Yeah, I’m great.”

I kissed him again and tossed the washcloth into the laundry hamper. Then I eased back onto the bed beside him, palm flat on his chest to keep him from sitting up. I held up the Sharpie and he looked away.

“Can I…give you a different quote?”

He bit his lip but nodded. I straddled him and his hands came up to steady me at the hips. I kissed his chest and stomach, then I wrote the quote I’d liked so much when I read it on the bus.

There’s hope left in these dusty chords. There’s a song left in our rusty hearts. We are torn and frayed but love remains.

“That’s…that’s Frank Herbert,” he said when I capped the marker and put it aside, voice a low scratch.

“Yeah. But it’s also me. I…I know it hasn’t been that long. I know we still have a lot to talk about. But I love you, Dane. I love spending time with you. I feel better when I’m around you than I feel anywhere else. I want to cook with you and listen to podcasts with you and do all those things that you do when you’re…” I stopped myself from saying a thing. “When you’re together. Like, really together. I want to figure things out together.”

“Together,” he murmured, like it was the key to a lock he’d stared at for years.

He pulled me to his chest so hard I nearly cracked my nose on his chin, and his arms came around me, holding me tight.

“Felix,” he said, voice choked. “Sweetheart.”

He squeezed me and wouldn’t let me go. He didn’t have to say anything else.

“I got you,” I told him. “It’s gonna be okay.”

Chapter 15

Huey

I dreamt I was in a cocoon of warmth and woke with Felix sleeping directly on top of me, naked, thighs splayed and tangled hair tickling my neck. I stroked up and down his smooth back and he made sleepy sounds of pleasure against my shoulder. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to make him come so hard he screamed again or savor the comfort of waking up slowly, skin to skin.

Watching Felix come was the hottest thing I’d ever seen in my life. His abandon, his need, the way he didn’t try to hide how affected he was. Scorching hot. Add to that the way his big brown eyes squeezed shut when he threw his head back and screamed his release, and I wanted to make him come over and over again.

But then he made a little snuffling sound and hooked his chin over my shoulder and all I wanted was to lie here with him forever.

Last night I had been so overwhelmed—by the amazing sex, by the words he wrote, by the things he said—that all I’d been able to do was clutch at him. But now…

I let my fingers drift up to his scalp, scratching softly in his hair. He nuzzled into me and my heart was so full I could hardly think. I could sense I was starting to get overloaded, so I just kept petting him, loving the feel of his smooth skin and soft hair. I let my hand go lower and lower, until I stroked all the way from his scalp to the swell of his ass.

He squirmed closer and I felt his cock start to fill.

“Felix,” I murmured, so softly it was only breath.

“Mmm?”

“I love you.”

Saying the words shattered me nearly as much as hearing them had. I’d only said them to two other people. One of them had died when I was twelve and the other had been destroyed by her death.

“Hmm?”

I smiled. It felt like my heart had swelled to twice its natural size.

“I love you.”

“Sayngn.”

“What, sweetheart?”

He curled around me, awake now.

“Say it again.”

“Felix, I love you.”