Chapter Five

Buttons pinged off windows, the heater and a skyscraper two blocks away as Tan ripped the cursed vest off me. I pressed my lips to his and tugged his naked hips closer to mine. Even satiated and slumbering, the roll of the cock I’d had in my mouth sent a moan racing up my throat. As it escaped from me, I breathed it into Tan’s hungry mouth. A smile of pure orneriness tugged his lips from mine.

Umber taunted me, the color in his irises shifting to a daring black as, one by one, he worked down the buttons on my shirt. There was nothing below it but me in all my scraggly glory. Not pretty enough to work my slim frame, and no chance of putting any muscle mass on in ten seconds. All I had were my skinny torso and thin legs, which were quickly exposed to my greatest crush.

He flitted his gaze down my naked chest while the shirt slipped to the ground. A shiver trembled at the base of my spine, beginning as a fear that he’d turn and run. But when he ran those perfect eyes over my taut but ropey muscles, it transformed into nervous energy.

Tan resumed his look, not even stopping at my crotch, despite the pants still on. No, as his lips salivated, his eyes hungry, he began to tug off the last stitch of his clothing. Hypnotized by the sway of the hem of his rising dark gray shirt, I drank in every revealed swell and pop of muscle. They were all there—the rows of edible lats, the round abs, the smooth and pillowed pecs.

I wanted to rake my fingers through every divot, lap my tongue over the crests. I ached to full-on hurl him to the ground and feel all of him. To know what it was to hold that body carved for making men weep. But I kept still, curling my toes against the cheap soles of my shoes while my dick screamed at me to do something. Just one tug.

“You are…” Tan sighed, twisting his head to the side. His hair fell to a new part as he took one more appreciative gaze down my body. When he took a step forward, I puckered up, slotting my hands around his naked hips. It wasn’t to my remaining pants he reached, but to the basket of goodies. The champagne fell flat and the cheese stood alone. All he wanted was the small box of chocolates.

Leaning so close his hips flattened me back to the table, Tan’s gaze burned in mine as he circled a small square of chocolate around his lips. He lapped the tip of his tongue around the point, licking it deeper into his mouth. Fuck, I’d never wanted to be a candy so badly in my life.

Was I stuttering? Or crying in my throat? Or reciting some ancient curse to raise the Old Gods? All I knew was that my jaw couldn’t stop clicking as he brushed the candy once more over his lips. The heat melted it until sticky sweet chocolate dripped down his palm.

Oh fuck!

Tan pulled the chocolate away from his lips and placed his thumb to them. Parting his mouth, he moved the chocolate closer while rolling his delectable tongue out for a taste. I moved closer, my trouser-trapped dick prodding against his lower abs.

He paused and, twisting his hand, pressed that chocolate-coated thumb to me. Without pause, I licked what he offered me, opening my mouth to re-enact what I had done to his cock. A shiver panted from him, Tan swallowing hard as he watched me.

“Do you want this?” he asked, jerking his head to the candy.

I wanted him.

Nodding, I parted my lips and waited for him to place the chocolate in my mouth. The heat in my gut rose, spreading down my thighs and across my naked chest. On instinct, I closed my eyes, savoring the delight of his body’s warmth filling the air around me. Of the edge of his guiding thumb drawing my bottom lip down as he drew his palm to my chin.

Please. Give it to me.

A touch of dark, creamy chocolate landed upon my lips. I leaned forward to bite down when a palm cupped my dick through the pants. My eyes flew open, beaming into the hungry gaze of the man caressing me like the champagne bottle. Fuckin’ hell! It was too good. It was too right.

Tan bounced his eyebrows once while pumping me. My dick grew so hard it was a wonder it didn’t rip my fly open for his hot palm. Leaning closer, he whispered in my ear, “Do you want this?”

“Fuck, yes,” sputtered free.

He left the candy in my mouth, the chocolate too big for me to take a dainty bite without dropping the back half to the ground. I was momentarily gagged by silky cocoa dripping down my throat while Tan unbuttoned my pants. He took care with the fly, the zipper tiny on such a cheap suit. My salivating lips gummed the chocolate deeper, my voice aching to beg him for whatever he could give.

But when my dick fumbled forward into his waiting palm, I groaned, swallowing the last of the treat.

Death by literal chocolate flashed before my eyes, followed by the fear that I’d have the biggest erection of my life while stuffed in the casket.

Thankfully, I’d nibbled and chewed the candy small enough that while it was a hard time going, it went down. And the hot man holding me in his hand didn’t have to whack me on the back once.

Tan’s worry was evident so I slapped on a fat smile to tell him all was good. Impossibly fantastical, but good. Just so long as I could hang on long enough to not eject before takeoff. That I couldn’t live down.

With the palm that cradled me carefully, he began its knee-quaking slide up. Tan cinched his fist tighter at the crown of my dick, knocking me off my feet. “Oh…” I gasped, prepared to curse for the ten-hundredth time when Tan plunged his lips to smother it. He used his tongue to tug on my bottom lip, and his teeth to nibble it as I had the candy. All the while, I locked my legs in and ordered my hips to stay in place. If I started to thrust, it was all over.

To my shock, Tan’s pumping me to nirvana fell away. A series of very angry disagreements rose from my dick, but I watched Tan. He didn’t look angry, or even disturbed. Judging by the cocky smile and pulsing in his not-so-spent penis, he was enjoying himself.

“Tell me, Jack,” he said while reaching for the basket. Would he go for the mystery box? No. Thankfully not the cheese knife either.

It was the bow. He tugged apart all ten sides of its crimson loops. As the ribbon fell into his hands, Tan coiled the red satin around his palm and snapped it taut. I jumped at the sound, my eyes widening even as my body pleaded to know what came next.

“How do you feel about…” Tan whispered, then parted two fingers down the inside of my wrist, the silken edge of the ribbon slithering over my thin flesh—“this?” Twisting the ribbon the way one worked a corset, Tan knotted up my right hand to the mid-forearm. I stared dumbstruck at the piece of cheap fabric I’d tied so many times, never once wondering how it’d feel pressed to my wrist.

“Yes,” my voice answered without my brain worrying. “Yes, please God, yes!”

The smile from him was worth it even if my body wasn’t in the midst of discovering a new kink. Tan lashed the back half of the ribbon around my left arm, pulling both high over my head. My palms flattened together, the binding so tight I could barely move.

With his work finished, he rubbed my shoulders while watching. “Too constricting?”

Shaking my head despite having no damn idea, I leaped fully into this. Tan beamed, licking his lips. Those dexterous fingers that had bound me in a minute slipped first to my waiting dick. But they didn’t remain long. To my surprise, he continued lower, cradling my balls the way I had his.

Every tug forward invited my hips to thrust. The edge of my dick swept against his arm, a tingle of pleasure rocketing through me from that bare touch. You don’t have to suck me off, or anything else. Just hold it, once more. Tug on it. Please.

“Holy shit!” I gasped, Tan slipped his fingers from my taint up through my clenched crack. He swirled around my puckered anus, a delectable throb of pleasure rumbling through my entire lower half.

“How,” the man with a Cheshire Cat grin delved his forefinger inside me and asked, “is that?”

“Fuck, it’s…it’s…” I tugged on my hands, needing to grab him, to shove his finger in deeper, but they barely flinched against the bonds. Moaning in his ear, I ordered, “Don’t stop.”

He didn’t do as I hoped, and only swirled the edge of his fingertips around the puckered flesh begging for more. I gritted my teeth, trying to find the courage to ask when he cupped my dick in his other hand. As he pumped me, working the shaft while giving the occasional glance to the hardening head, I wondered. Was this how he got himself off?

Was this how he’d tug on his cock while letting the shower run cold? While lying in bed with the sheets tangled around his leg?

“Oh!” A tingle I’d been riding hard turned apocalyptic as the image of Tan bringing himself to the brink nearly shoved me straight off. My mind shifted my body away even as the rest of me wanted to stay to the end. Tan’s finger slipped away to roll over my buttock while he slowed his hand.

“You still with me?” he asked, curling his palms to my naked hips.

My head nodded even as my brain swam with the mounting pressure. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. I wasn’t standing here waiting, hoping for…

The moment of reckoning was upon me. Tan pressed his body to mine, each of our cocks resting upon the other’s belly. I lapped my lips to his, but the kisses were one-sided as he reached behind for the mystery box.

He must have caught my curious look, as he asked, “Do you want to open it?”

“It’s your package,” I muttered, watching in agony as Tan turned out to be one of those paper-saver types. Delicately, he slit open the tape with the finger that’d been inside me.

As the white paper fell away, a stupid laugh snorted off my tongue. A sample pack of condoms and little packets of lube sat in his hands. It was the lube he went for first, Tan sopping his finger with determination while anticipation zapped the last of my remaining brain cells.

He pretty.

Sex good.

“I…I had no idea that was in there.” My mouth didn’t get the memo to stay silent and watch.

Tan darted his eyes to mine as he tossed the opened lube packet to the table. Taking no time, he swirled his fingers over my ass, fondling up and down the crack before plunging deep.

“Holy fuck!” I cried, my eyes screwed tight as he pressed himself deeper and deeper inside.

Hot breath curled down my ear, Tan whispering, “I’m always prepared.”

He pressed the edge of his thumb to my taint as his abs coddled my cock, but all I could focus on was that finger circling and thrusting for the one button to make me scream out gibberish. God, he was almost there. My leg shifted, trying to raise my body onto my tiptoes so he could reach.

“Jack?”

I would never forget his voice saying my name at that moment. How the soft cello crackled with an ache that snapped my eyes open. A soft blush burning on his cheeks, Tan drifted his gaze down to my hard-as-diamonds dick sweeping against him.

“Do you want to…?” He placed the edge of his fingernails to my wrist, swerving all four to trail the ribbons knotting my hands away from him. The question hung upon his lips too far for me to kiss, his eyes softening as he slipped past the ribbons, my arms, down my slim chest and landed on my hip.

Grab it. Take it. Take me! Whatever you want!

“Yes,” fumbled from my mouth in a half-whisper. Catching Tan’s gaze, I thundered, “Yes!”

His nervous laugh transformed into a ravenous growl. While pressing his lips to mine, he swept his tongue across my pathetic stubble and broke into those condoms. He slipped out the finger that’d been the preamble for the main event to assist. I tugged on my arms to try to lube myself when I remembered the ribbons.

Tan caught the move. “Should I free you?”

“Not until you come in my ass,” I ordered. Me. Ordered Tan Nguyen to fuck me senseless.

The smirk deepened his cheek hollows while he smothered his sheathed cock in the last of the lube. I was helpless to do anything but watch, my shoulders straining as I pulled harder on my trapped forearms. The ribbons snared against my skin, digging in deep while Tan swept his slick hands over my outer thighs. Were they trembling? Of course they were—this was Tan…

He hauled me up off my feet, my ass bounding onto the patio table. I heard the glug-glug sound of a bottle of champagne tipped over and pouring onto the ground, but Tan didn’t care. Lifting my legs around his hips, he hauled my ass up for him.

“Tell me this is what you want,” Tan begged. He swerved the head of his cock in a circle around my anus, tempting me to the dark side.

Pulling in a breath so my voice didn’t crack, I looked him in the eye. “All my life.”

Tan thrust forward, the going slow but steady as he had to fight through two years of celibacy. Sweat beading on his brow, he wrapped his hands around my splayed legs as he kept muttering, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, you’re tight.”

My braided hands rested on my stomach, my back tipping towards the table as Tan rose above me. Every inch deeper left me panting, my body screaming that it needed what came next. As he kept up the toe-clenching fight, Tan’s cock reached clear up to the hilt and the crown knocked against my prostate.

“Please,” my shattered voice cried. “Fuck me so hard.”

He answered by yanking his hips back, the pressure flooding away in an instant. Before I could whimper at the loss, his cock filled me fuller than before. Tan’s thrusts became life. He dug his fingers into my thighs and pressed so deep I could feel bruises forming, but I didn’t care. My hands bounced helplessly back and forth, but I barely noticed. My back strained at the awkward angle of the table, but I couldn’t give a shit.

All I knew was that cock thrusting so deep into me I could taste colors. Tan was mumbling incoherently, “God, this is… You are… I’ve never… Fuck!” while he kept leaning back. As if all he wanted was for his cock to touch me. As if that was all I needed.

Sitting up, I lashed my bound hands around the back of Tan’s neck. His wild eyes darted to find me, but as I pulled his forehead to mine, a knowing smile formed. Kissing it away, our tongues pulling on each other’s lips, I thrust my hips down on him. The rhythm thrummed through me, Tan’s pounding hard and determined.

I strained higher in his grip, raising myself for him while my entire lower half buzzed. It pleaded for release. One quick tug on my dick would start it off. But he couldn’t reach me, I couldn’t grab me and fuck, was that hot.

“Come from me,” Tan whispered against my lips, “come from my cock. I have to watch you.”

Pulling my legs to the full stretch, I bundled my ankles around his back and thrust down on him as far as possible. “Fuck!” I screamed to the world, my entire body erupting into a cascade. The pleasure ran down my legs and up to my brain, rubbing it with fluffy sweaters until I could taste sparks on my tongue. A full load splattered from my dick, smearing over my stomach and his.

“Yes,” he cried at the sensation of my semen all over him. Or maybe it was my ass constricting at the tremors of pleasure still racketing through me. “Yes, that’s what I’ve wanted.” Tan pressed kisses to my lips, my cheeks, my nose. His mouth swept and swerved erratically as he leaned back and pounded out his second orgasm of the night.

His hips jerking against me, Tan trembled as he filled me…okay, the condom, but let a man dream. As he stumbled back, my legs falling from his waist, the exhaustion of an unending day snapped at me. I wanted to curl up on the glass table on a balcony in February. It looked more comfortable than a feather bed right then.

But there was still a gorgeous and fully naked man struggling to come back from the land of rainbow explosions. Tan cleaned himself off as best he could courtesy of the shredded paper in the basket. I chuckled at the ingenious move, about to comment, when the rush of silence struck me.

You slept with Tan Nguyen.

Okay, slept made it sound like there were three-hundred-count sheets and the lights were out. He fucked you hard on a patio table and God it was great.

I could do bottoming, even the occasional top should the whim take me. It was the ‘now what?’ part where everything crumbled in my hands. I always convinced myself that I wasn’t that into the guy in the first place. But here? With him? Even I couldn’t be that delusional.

After tending to himself, Tan undid the knots around my wrists. The lines of the bonds dug into my skin even as they slipped away. How hard had I been tugging? As I rubbed the flesh back into shape, he kept absently shaking the red ribbon like a snake.

A rumble in my stomach drew his watchful eye. Tan slicked the sweat from his forehead back through his hair. Sweat I’d put on his brow. Leaning closer, he picked up the small loaf of bread and ripped it in half. “Hungry?” he asked even while giving me the larger end.

“Famished,” I admitted, going full shark-attack on the bread. It was good, crunchy on the outside but still light and fluffy within. A bit cold after all that time on the truck and waiting patiently on the table, but I wasn’t going to argue that point.

Tan chewed more thoughtfully on his half, his gaze drifting past my shoulder out across the city. Yellow and white lights flickered from the hundreds of apartments and businesses all settling down for their own bone-shaking Valentine’s night.

What was there to say? What did I need to say? Something. Anything.

“So,” I rolled the word around in my mouth the same way I did his cock. “You like boys.”

Mental facepalm.

“I, uh.” Tan darted his once blazing gaze to the side as a blush burned over his cheeks. “I suppose I do. Did? Maybe always did. I can’t… Is that how it works?”

I shrugged while swallowing the last of the gluten fuel. My stomach thanked me for it, but the rest of my body was putting out its own lights and asking me to sleep. No sleep, not until the awkward post-sex talk was over with.

“Was this all a”—I didn’t want to ask, but I couldn’t stop myself either—“an experiment? See if you really did like it?”

“No,” he sputtered out quickly, “I don’t think so. I mean, you’re not my first.”

My pride took a stab to the kidneys, but I shook it off courtesy of a sliver of hope blooming in my heart. So I wasn’t just that gay kid he knew from high school to call up and see if he liked dick. And the awkwardness was back, circling around like murderous fog.

I focused my attention on the basket I’d unboxed and carried up the stairs. The cheeses called for me to cram them all in my mouth. I turned to the chocolates and felt a stirring deep inside. Fuck, I might never be able to look at chocolate without getting an erection after this.

Skipping the food, it was the single red rose I plucked out. Twirling it in my fingers like it was a cigarette and me some Grand Dame from the Roaring Twenties, I chuckled. “I almost want to say it’s a shame that your date stood you up. Can feel it sloshing around in my”—lubed-up ass—“gut.”

It was a joke to defuse the conflicting tension, but as I turned back on my half-cheek sit, an oddly guilty look rose on his face. Tan spoke to his feet. “Jack, who do you think that basket was for?”

A girlfriend. Okay, a wannabe girlfriend. A date. Probably off an app, though if Tan ever joined Tinder, the whole thing would catch on fire.

Mostly food. A box of condoms. And the only flower a single red rose. I could feel the solution banging around in my brain, but it wouldn’t take. No. That couldn’t be right. Shit like that didn’t happen to me.

“It’s… You got it for…?”

“I saw you worked at that flower shop and I wanted to talk to you,” Tan confessed, his face burning a hole through the ground as he clawed at his shoulder. He was folding inward, his voice softening with every word. “But you seemed busy, and I didn’t even know where to begin, so I thought… I decided… I hoped that…”

I leaped off the table and stepped barefoot across the freezing-cold balcony to sweep my arms around Tan. I’d forgotten how terrifying this step was. Preening for other men, acting like the only thing I ever wanted was sex while secretly aching to have someone who’d stay the night and longer.

As I pressed my palms around his back, I tugged him to my chest. Tan’s walls broke, and he returned my embrace as we held each other. Sweeping the bridge of my nose across his cheek, I placed my lips near his ear and whispered, “It worked.”

The curve of his cheek curled against mine as he smiled. “I felt, feel relaxed around you. Like I don’t have to…like I can always be me without worrying you’d turn it against me.”

I brushed back that perfect hair I’d messed up spectacularly. “You are…” Pulling his forehead to mine, I breathed against his lips, “Fucking amazing.”

“Jack?” He leaned back to snatch up the rose I’d left behind. Placing it in my hand and closing my fingers around it, he asked, “Do you want to be my first boyfriend?”

A snort erupted at the absurd idea of Tan wanting to be with me, to date me, to fuck me senseless, to kiss me sweetly, to curl up under the covers with me, to hold me. Laughing, I said, “I feel like I should be checking a box on a passed note.”

“Which would it be?”

“Please…” I met him eye to eye, placed the rose in my teeth and answered around it, “You know it’s always been yes.”

Tan kissed me even against the stem, locking his hands around my exhausted ass and hauling me into the air. Waving my airborne feet, I called out in a laugh, “Where are we going?”

“My bed,” Tan shouted as if he wanted the whole world to know, “to rest up for round three.”

While holding each other tight as I pressed kisses to every reachable inch of him, we stumbled in together as a real couple.

I fucking love Valentine’s Day.