“Mmm,” Daniel sighed happily. He licked his way from the base of Asher’s cock to the flared head and then dropped his mouth over it and sucked hard.
“Daniel!” Asher shouted and bucked. He glanced down and met Daniel’s chocolate eyes before the man looked back down, his entire focus centered on Asher’s dick. That hot mouth felt so good that Asher couldn’t think about investigating Daniel’s reactions to pain, not while he was so consumed with appreciating the pleasure he felt from Daniel’s ministrations.
Later, he thought briefly. He’d think about what Daniel was into and how to tell him what he himself was into later.
“TELL me how you met Chase. Were you guys together a long time?”
Asher hoped his questions didn’t sound as awkward out loud as they did in his head. After all, why should he care where Daniel met his ex and how long they were together? It wasn’t as if it was his business, or impacted him in any way. But Asher’s curiosity won out and the questions slipped out.
“Mmm,” Daniel sighed and pressed his lips against Asher’s skin. “I’m glad you like to cuddle.”
They were lying in bed together, the shower plans forgotten. Daniel was resting his head on Asher’s shoulder; he was combing his fingers through the hair on Asher’s chest and belly and rubbing his calf against Asher’s knee. Okay, so Asher could understand how their current positions might look like they were cuddling to the untrained eye, but in reality, they were just suffering from postorgasmic melted-bone syndrome. He was about to correct Daniel’s misimpression of him being cuddly when Daniel kept talking.
“Chase and I met on a cruise. We were both working onboard and we were assigned as roommates, which was great because we really hit it off.”
Daniel kissed Asher’s chest again, this time darting his tongue out for a fast taste.
“So you were living together?” Asher asked, his words coming out too fast, voice sounding too loud and high-pitched. What the hell? He took a breath. “Sounds serious.”
There, that sounded better. Less panicky. Still nosy. Why was he asking these questions? Asher usually didn’t ask for a last name, sometimes not even a first name, and here he was taking a dating history. Damn that Vegas air.
“Well, we were together during the year we were on board, but we were more friends than lovers so when we moved on to other jobs, it was understood that we were moving on personally too. He’s still one of my best friends, though. It’s not like there were hard feelings or anything.”
That description relaxed something in Asher’s gut. Maybe it was indigestion. Had to be. Nothing else made sense.
“He seems like a nice guy,” Asher said magnanimously.
“Oh, please,” Daniel scoffed. He raised his head and met Asher’s eyes, chuckling. “You can’t stand him. If looks could kill, I’d be down one friend today. And from what I saw, he wasn’t treating you any better.”
Asher raised one side of his lip in what started as a snarl and ended as a snort. “Yeah, okay. So Chase and I didn’t make a love connection.”
Daniel crawled on top of Asher, propped his forearms on Asher’s chest, and peered into his eyes.
“Or even a like connection.”
Asher smacked his hand down on Daniel’s naked ass. It wasn’t meant as a punishment, just a tease. But when the brown eyes that had been looking at his with a melty, half-lidded gaze suddenly widened in surprise, Asher thought he might have stepped over an unknown boundary.
That is, until he felt Daniel’s cock harden against his thigh. He smirked knowingly.
“You like that, do you? Want me to give you a spanking?”
Daniel stared at him, seemingly trying to gauge whether he was kidding. Eventually he must have realized it wasn’t a joke, because he shook his head. “I don’t, uh… let’s get in the shower, okay?”
Asher decided to let it drop. He didn’t want to push Daniel too far too fast, didn’t want to scare him away. That realization was like a kick to the gut and it had Asher hesitating, catching his breath and rubbing a hand over his stomach while Daniel climbed out of bed and started walking toward the bathroom.
What was going on with him? He’d just met this guy and he was, what, going to go vanilla?
“Ash?” Daniel said with one hand on the hallway wall, his head turned so he was looking back at Asher over his left shoulder. “You coming?”
Asher raked his gaze over Daniel’s body and paused at his pert, white ass. White, that is, except for a pink mark the shape of Asher’s hand. He groaned. No, he wasn’t going vanilla. He was just biding his time. He got out of bed and strutted up to Daniel, cupped his left ass cheek and gave it a rough squeeze, knowing it’d be a reminder of the slap that was still smarting. When Daniel inhaled sharply, Asher smirked and sauntered past him into the bathroom.