Christopher wondered if he’d ever felt this embarrassed in his life before now, as Maxim Armitage helped him to lift up so that he could completely remove his pantaloons. Leaving Christopher wearing only the white drawers which reached down to and were tied just above his knees.
He felt completely exposed despite that flimsy covering. Not because of anything the duke had done. That kind gentleman had not, by word or deed, expressed the slightest interest in Christopher’s boyishly slender body. No doubt Maxim was used to more maturity in his sexual partners, men with a visible musculature.
Now, when Christopher was wearing nothing but his drawers, was not the time to forget his aches and pains and think of the duke in a sexual way!
His cock took no heed of his warning as it engorged and pulsed with an arousal he usually only allowed when he could be alone with his fantasies.
For the past three weeks, Maxim Armitage had been front and center of those fantasies. With not a single word or gesture of encouragement from the duke to imply Christopher’s interest was returned.
The older man had always been polite to Christopher, but in the same way he was to all the employees at the club. Until this evening, the duke hadn’t shown any preference for Christopher’s company or the way that he looked.
He reminded himself that his being in the duke’s home now wasn’t a preference because of either of those things either, but a feeling of responsibility on the duke’s part for Christopher having suffered a beating at an establishment he owned with his friends.
A realization which succeeded in dampening Christopher’s sexual feelings and causing his cock to return to its flaccid state.
“Let’s get you lying on your back so I can apply the salve to your chest.” The duke’s hand on his nape helped ease Christopher’s descent onto the bed.
He drew in a hissing breath and arched his spine from contact the moment his bruised back touched the bedclothes. “I cannot—” He drew in several deep breaths to erase the sob of pain from his voice. “Perhaps I would find it more comfortable on my front to start with? I’m not so bruised there.”
“Of course.” The duke helped him to roll over to his side and then onto his front. He drew in a hissing breath before muttering. “The bastard shall pay for this.”
“Bruises are often worse than they look, Your Grace.” Although in Christopher’s case, he doubted that was true. He was in so much pain, he almost felt as if he might swoon. And he really did not wish to do that in front of the confident and handsome Maxim Armitage.
There was several minutes’ silence, and more deeply indrawn breaths, as if the duke were trying to regain control of his temper, before he spoke again. “Is lying on your stomach more comfortable?”
It still hurt Christopher to lie on his front, but nowhere near as much as lying on his back had done. “Yes, Your Grace.” His voice was slightly muffled because his embarrassed face was buried in the pillow.
He had explored the sexual side of his nature a little with other boys while he was away at boarding school. It seemed to be something most boys did when there were no girls to experiment with. But mainly Christopher’s experience had been with his own right hand. He’d certainly never been half-naked in front of anyone as handsome and worldly as Maxim Armitage.
“I really must insist you call me Maxim when you are a guest in my home,” the duke bit out impatiently. “Say it now,” he insisted.
“Maxim.” Christopher was glad of the pillow to hide his further blushes at the familiarity.
“Again,” the other man encouraged.
“Maxim,” he repeated obediently.
“Make sure you use it in future,” he advised briskly. “Now, raise your arms and rest them on the pillow beside your head.” The bed tilted slightly as Maxim sat beside him. “The salve might be a little cold at first,” he continued once Christopher had lifted his arms so that they now supported his head on the pillow. “But I will do my best to warm it before applying it to your skin.”
The duke’s method of warming the salve seemed to be by rubbing his hands together until the ointment was heated.
As a consequence, Christopher’s indrawn breath as the salve was applied was not due to the coldness but because of the feeling of Maxim’s large and warm hands upon his body.
They were such big, strong hands, together easily covering half of Christopher’s slender back as they smoothed the salve into his skin with long and gentle strokes.
Christopher’s cock roused again, and his balls also took notice of those caresses. His cock became hard and his sac tightened, much to his discomfort. Thank God he had not still been lying on his back; otherwise, the duke would now be aware of his arousal too.
“I’m not hurting you?” Maxim prompted as he no doubt felt the trembling of Christopher’s body as he continued to add more and more of the warmed salve onto the bruised flesh.
“Not at all.” Not unless Christopher took into consideration the throbbing and aching of his fully engorged cock and the increasing discomfort caused by tight balls.
Christopher gave another gasp the moment Maxim, without a word of warning, pulled down his drawers at the back before commencing to smooth more salve onto the globes of Christopher’s arse.
“These will have to come off completely if I am to reach the backs of your thighs,” Maxim murmured after a few minutes.
Christopher was shaking so badly now in response to having Maxim’s hands touching him intimately that even his teeth were chattering. The most he could manage in reply to Maxim was a muttered hmph into the pillow. This was immediately followed by a low whine when Maxim’s fingers moved to unfasten the string at the front of Christopher’s drawers before gently sliding the material down his legs and then discarding them completely. “Is it very bad?” he managed to prompt when Maxim stilled at the same time as he drew in another hissing breath.
“It is deplorable,” Maxim bit out between gritted teeth. “Not only that, but it is sacrilege for such beautiful skin to have been marred by so much ugliness. But be assured he will pay for doing this,” he added grimly. “Along with everything else he has done to you and the other young men at the Apollo.”
“Thank you.” There was nothing else for Christopher to say to such a vehement promise.
“In the meantime, I hope you will accept my apology for a lack of vision where that monster was concerned.”
“I told you, you could not have known what he was like when he never behaved in such a fashion in front of you or the other gentlemen who own the club.”
“That’s not the point—”
“You are not a mind reader, Your—Maxim,” he corrected shyly.
“Good boy,” the duke praised softly. “And no, neither I nor any of my friends can read minds, but still, one of us should have noticed what the chef was about.”
“You know now.”
“And we shall deal with the matter, be assured,” Maxim muttered. “I am now going to rub salve onto the tops of your thighs. It might sting a little because the skin is broken in several places,” he warned before rubbing the soothing ointment onto the skin beneath the cheeks of Christopher’s bottom.
Christopher’s groans turned to ones of pleasure rather than pain as those deft fingers caressed and soothed the medication into his skin. Each of those assured strokes brought those fingers closer and closer to the crack separating the cheeks of Christopher’s bottom.
“Am I hurting you?”
“No.”
“Sure?” Maxim’s warm breath was so close to Christopher’s ear, he knew the other man must be leaning over his salve-slicked back, seemingly completely without concern for his expensively tailored clothing.
“Yes,” Christopher said shakily.
The duke sat back again. “I have no idea how, but you have several welts actually inside the cheeks of your bottom…” Gentle fingers separated those twin globes to allow the pads of his thumbs to stroke the salve between them.
Christopher’s hips rose off the bed the moment he felt those soft pads rubbing over the puckered skin between the cheeks of his arse. “Please,” he groaned.
Those thumbs stilled. “Am I hurting you?”
“No!”
There was the briefest of pauses. “Then do you wish for me to continue?” Maxim prompted softly.
“Please,” Christopher encouraged again, the pain of his beating having faded to the background now that his cock was leaking pre-cum and his balls were so tight, they ached for release. He could think about the awkwardness of this situation once he was alone. Right now, all he wanted was to find his release.
More warmed salve was stroked between the cheeks of his bottom, those long fingers not quite touching the puckered rosette there but coming close enough that Christopher felt the heat in his balls.
To Christopher’s embarrassment, the need to feel friction against his cock would be denied no longer, and his hips instinctively began to rut against the bedcovers seconds before his body seized in a paroxysm of pleasure so intense, he felt his release shooting hotly down the length of his cock before pumping onto the brocade bedcover beneath him. There was no hiding that release either, when the bedchamber became perfumed with the unmistakable aroma of that salty-sweet release.
“I am so sorry…” Christopher knew his mortification was complete when that brief physical exertion resulted in the rising of nausea at the back of his throat. “Your Grace…?”
“Yes, Christopher?” the duke answered gruffly.
He rolled on to his side. “My apologies, but I believe I am about to be sick!”