Chris popped his head around the door to Ariel’s office. “Mme. Dupre?”
Startled by the unexpected sound of a voice, Ariel sat up quickly, smoothing both hands over her suddenly hot cheeks. Ariel disliked being caught at a disadvantage, and the past 24 hours was severely trying her control.
“Ahem....” she cleared her throat. “Yes, Chris?”
“I just wanted to give you a message. A very important message,” Chris said solemnly. He probably wouldn’t tell his sister, but the fact that she had trusted him with this all-important mission was something he would hug close to his heart for a long time. Chris cherished the role of apprentice knight the way other children might being the new pitcher on the softball team.
Ariel smiled faintly. Chris was a very straightforward boy in so many ways, and yet inexplicably, he could become an enigma, a mysterious figure who seemed both ageless and timeless. Having met his parents, she could see his father in him, but she believed what he truly was was an amalgam, a curious blending of the most powerful and the most compelling of their personality traits.
And yet, for all that, she thought he was a true original, someone who fiercely believed in following his own heart. Someone who truly *knew* his own heart. And that was a rarity at any age.
So it was that Ariel was not attempting to humor Chris or placate his knightly aspirations...she simply didn’t realize that his “message” could have anything to do with her.
“Oh, an important message,” she said with a smile in her voice. “Well, I must make very sure to hear it then.”
Chris’ blue eyes glowed with renewed fervor for his task at hand. “I hope you mean that, Madame.”
“I do.”
“Good. Because it is my honor and my duty to tell you that there is someone who wants to be with you, no matter what it takes.”
“My goodness....” Ariel said with a now uncomfortably tight smile. It was on the tip of her tongue to declare that the entire topic was somehow inappropriate for a boy Chris’ age to discuss with a woman Ariel’s age. But then it happened.
Chris got that enigmatic look, the one that put her in mind of his father. The one she was increasingly certain was dangerous.
Chris moved closer, taking one of Ariel’s hands in his. “You don’t think you’re a good person. You don’t think you deserve to be happy,” Chris said with an assurance that was well beyond his years and experience. His perceptions literally stunned Ariel.
“I...” Ariel wanted to protest that it wasn’t true. But it was. No matter that it came out of the mouths of babes, as it were.
Chris stroked the back of Ariel’s hand and the repetitive movement grounded her in the moment. “You want to believe that he’s not a good person, too. You want to make that the reason that you can’t be with him. But it’s not true.” Chris looked deeply into Ariel’s startled hazel eyes.
“He’s just as much a knight as I am.”
Faith ran up the staircase and into the main hallway of the academy. Skidding to a stop, she suddenly became aware that Walter was standing directly in front of her, arms crossed, face set in an unforgiving moue.
“Grandpa!” she yelled in a startled voice.
“Did you think I wouldn’t miss you?” he asked sternly.
“No...I mean, yes! I just had to--”
“Had to what? What was so all-fired important that you couldn’t get here on time? You know how worried I was? You know I had to send Davenport out to look for you?”
Faith looked suitably chastened, but only for a moment. Her face suddenly brightened as a thought occurred to her. “I beat Uncle Dav?”
“What do you mean, beat him?”
“Well....” Faith’s mouth curved into an ingenuous version of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. “...he didn’t find me, did he?”
Walter’s eyes crinkled at the edges and all at once, he laughed. He sounded surprised. “Why, you little....” he said gruffly, but his blue eyes continued to twinkle and sparkle with genuine amusement.
“So where were you?”
“Helping a...friend.”
“Helping them what?”
“Helping them find out what they really want.”
“Oh?” Walter thought Faith must mean that one of her new schoolmates had a problem and dismissed it. If he only knew. He might have been concerned that Faith was taking an interest in things so far beyond her experience. At her age, she wasn’t expected to worry about anyone’s happiness but her own.
And her interest in someone, especially someone of the opposite sex, especially someone of Indigo’s age, might have alarmed Walter if he knew. But then...there was nothing untoward in Faith’s preoccupation with the handsome young janitor. He was a stray cat. And like her mother before her, Faith collected strays with the same enthusiasm Nikita showed.
Faith admired Mme. Dupre, so much so she couldn’t imagine not helping her realize the same dream her own parents shared. For all her sometimes unfortunate disregard for the rules, Faith believed in the example her parents set. She was a hopeless romantic. Both with Connor, and with Mme. Dupre.
But she wasn’t sure if she was ready to reveal that secret to her adoptive grandfather. It wasn’t precisely a weakness in her eyes, but it did make her feel vulnerable in a way she couldn’t quite explain.
“Grandpa?” Faith asked in a voice that was more tentative than usual.
“Yes, honey?”
“Do you believe in true love?”
“I sure do, honey. What brought this on?”
Faith shrugged, still reluctant to express her desire to further the cause of love between Mr. Indigo and Mme. Dupre.
“Faith?” Walter queried again.
With a decisive sigh, Faith finally answered the question. “Well...Mr. Indigo and Mme. Dupre...um...they’re in love.”
“They are? That’s great, Little Sugar.”
“But...um...they don’t...I mean.....”
“What?”
“They don’t know it.”
“I doubt that, honey.”
“I don’t mean they don’t know they’re in love, they just don’t know they both feel the same way.”
“And you were helping them?” Walter guessed astutely as his powers of observation finally kicked in.
Faith nodded. “Me and Chris.”
Walter waited for Faith to continue. “And? How did things turn out?”
Faith looked crestfallen. “I don’t know.” Biting on her bottom lip, she said, “But I hope Chris had better luck than I did.”
Indigo came to a decision. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain by telling Ariel how he truly felt. He might very well scare her to death. Hell, he scared himself to death thinking about how much he needed to be with her. But he’d felt desire before. And this wasn’t just desire.
He’d even felt love before. And this wasn’t just love. He wanted to take care of her, he wanted her to find her safe place in his arms, but not for just one night. He wanted her forever. He wanted to fill in all the blanks in her life and know that there was no other way their story could be written.
That was the part he was afraid would scare her to death. So he stood outside her office door, cursing his cowardice and thinking about taking the path of least resistance.
***
Chris cast a startled look at Walter and gulped. “Grandpa!” He glanced quickly at Faith, an indecipherable “twin” look passing between them. She nodded without speaking and Chris plunged both hands into his back pockets, abject eyes on the floor between his feet.
“Now there’s a look I don’t see on *your* face very often, Chris. Your sister giving you a hard time?”
Chris shook his head mutely. “No,” came the eventual reply. He was convinced what they were doing was right. He hadn’t needed much persuasion to carry out his part of Faith’s hastily thrown-together mission. He believed in what they did. So why was he staring apologetically at the floor? As if it fascinated him? He wasn’t sure.
Walter smiled kindly, appreciating the young boy’s difficulty in acknowledging his feelings. “It’s okay, son. You can tell me.”
“I know,” he agreed. “I’m just not sure what to say.”
“How about...what did Mme. Dupre have to say?”
Chris abruptly realized that Walter knew about the “secret mission”. With a sigh of relief, he admitted, “Not much.”
Faith nearly stomped her foot in frustration. “Did you try really hard, Chris? You know? To tell her about Indigo?”
Chris nodded solemnly. A knight always kept his word. “I did, Fee.”
“But she’s got to talk to him!” she wailed.
“You did the best you could, Little Sugar.” Walter patted Faith’s shoulder affectionately.
“Sounds like it’s just time for nature to run its course.”
Faith looked vaguely alarmed. “Grandpa! If we do that,” she said, drawling out the last word for emphasis, “they might never ever get together.”
She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth in disapproval. I mean, God, Grandpa, what did you think I was trying to do?
***
While Walter was herding the remaining reluctant children into the waiting car, Indigo rapped nervously in Ariel’s office door.
Opening the door a crack, Ariel peered through the crevice. “What do you want?” she blurted out ungraciously, clapping both hands over her mouth. What a glorious beginning that was.
Indigo flinched visibly, and the painfully constricting fist clutching Ariel’s heart tore away from her, leaving tumultuous waves of anguish in its wake. And yet, once these waves had washed over her, she felt something else, too. Feelings she had refused to acknowledge before. Feelings of love.
“Robin....”
“Please.” Indigo’s eyes bled tears that he refused to let fall.
“Come in,” she whispered sharply, pulling at his wrists as if she meant to physically drag him into the room with her.
“What are you doing?” Indigo whispered back, allowing himself to be led for once.
Ariel shoved the door closed behind her and leaned heavily on it, cheeks flushed, eyes dilated until they were almost black.
“Ssh....” She put her fingers to his lips. “I’m trying to listen to my heart...for once.”
Indigo stared at her, his heart in his mouth. “Ariel....”
She touched his cheek experimentally, deciding instantly that she liked the feel of his skin. “You’re so soft....”
Indigo closed his eyes, and the tears he’d kept at bay slowly fell. “God....”
Stricken, she caressed his face with her fingertips, instinctively seeking his mouth with hers, brushing it so lightly, it barely registered. “I’m sorry, Robin....”
His eyes opened slowly, reluctantly, tears making them even darker and more luminous than usual. “Don’t be...sorry, Ariel. Please....”
“Do you still want me?”
Like I need to breathe, he thought, his lips twitching gently in such close proximity to hers. “But...I need to tell you something.”
“You don’t have to, Robin. That’s not the price I’m asking for sleeping with you.”
Indigo’s eyes flared brilliantly, but whether this was from the thought of making love to her or from anger that she misjudged what he wanted so desperately was hard to tell. Maybe both. Then he spoke.
“I don’t want to sleep with you.” His tone was so vehement, so adamant, Ariel cringed inwardly. Now she’d really made a fool of herself. Throwing herself at his head.
But she was wrong.
“I want to make love to you.”
“Oh.” One small word. Uttered barely above a whisper. “Oh,” she repeated, but this time with a completely different inflection.
Standing so close to her was taking its toll on him. All at once, he swallowed convulsively and leaned on her, his cheek sliding against hers, his mouth nuzzling her ear. The words were in his head first, and then, before he knew it, the words were in his mouth. “I love you.”
He heard her sharp intake of breath and he drew back to look at her for a long moment, as if he were memorizing her reaction. Without thinking about it any longer, he kissed her. A real kiss, this time.
Her hazel eyes slid shut, her lashes fluttering restlessly across her cheeks, as Indigo’s mouth captured and claimed hers. A tiny whimper escaped her, and that was all the opening he needed. “I love you,” he repeated against her mouth, willing her to say something, anything. His nerves were stretched taut, and he didn’t think he could honestly survive the not-knowing much longer.
He kissed her eyelids tenderly, and his lips lingered, warm on her now-cool pale skin. “If there’s no chance you’ll ever care for me, please tell me now. I promise to cut my losses and run out of here with my tail tucked neatly between my legs. But if you even think...you could ever love me--”
“I can. I do.” Her breath caught on a sob, and he kissed her again, more fervently than before. “Oh, God, I do. Robin, how did this happen?”
Indigo smiled at her indirect admission of love. Thinking of the twins, he said, “We had a little help from our...friends.”
Her eyes widened. “You too? Chris visited you?”
He shook his head. “Nope, I had a visit from an angel. A guardian angel. Named Faith.”
“They’re twins,” she exclaimed joyfully, as if that somehow explained everything.
“Great minds,” he said, looking incredibly pleased.
Her entire face softened, making her look years younger as both her pain and her loneliness were lifted from her. Suddenly she giggled and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. “I love you, Robin.”
As if the words gave her courage, she said them again, chanting them over and over as she kissed his face, his neck, and finally his mouth. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
He was almost afraid to take a breath. He felt her fingers in his hair, and he sighed peacefully. His head fell back as she gently pressed forward, her mouth sealed to his. Again and again they kissed, the fine outlines of their mouths blurring as they came together.
When Indigo felt Ariel’s hands stray to his belt buckle, he stilled for a moment, stopping her by clasping her hands in his. “I don’t want our first time to be here on a couch in your office,” he whispered hoarsely.
“Oh!” Ariel gave a startled gasp, then chuckled softly. Suddenly she felt impossibly young and light-hearted and yet almost shy. All these conflicting emotions filled her with a curious buoyancy. Indigo made her feel like a young girl again, about to give herself to him for the very first time.
There was more than love or passion at stake here. There was respect and trust and compassion in those dark blue eyes. She was giving her body to him, along with her love, but he was giving her back to herself. He was giving her something she knew she’d lost long ago. Self-respect.
“Well,” she said, suddenly overcome. “I don’t want to go to my house. Or what was my house. My God, I don’t even know what to do with it,” she added bitterly.
“Sell it. Burn it. But don’t hang onto it, Ariel. I don’t want you to hurt anymore. You’ve hurt long enough.”
“But where can we go?”
Heaving a great sigh, Indigo’s hands unconsciously tightened on Ariel’s shoulders. “Maybe we should wait. You’ve just lost your husband...Remy....”
“A husband who never loved me. A husband who treated me like a thing to be taken out and paraded around for other people’s vulgar admiration. I don’t miss that. How could I?”
“What about Remy?”
“Remy...Remy never loved me. He was like Henri, only more devious. He pretended to care about me, but his only interest was Henri’s money. I’m not glad he’s dead, but I’d already broken off with him.”
“Be-because of me?”
“Because of me. Because I knew I deserved to be treated better.”
Indigo’s unusual eyes flickered over her face. “I’ll treat you better.”
“You already do, Robin. You treat me better than I do myself.”
“But never better than you deserve, Ariel.”
“I love you so much,” he whispered against her mouth. He nuzzled her cheek, more affectionately than passionately, heady with the idea of finally being able to express his feelings so openly.
The gentle vibration of his soft laughter reached her, and she turned questioning eyes to him.
“Am I scaring you yet?”
“Scare me some more,” she said, right before she kissed him.
Birkoff popped another kernel of popcorn into his mouth and chewed as quietly as possible. He was watching an old tear-jerker on television, and even though he had the sound turned way down, he didn’t want to wake Declan. Declan was so tired, he managed to make it through dinner, on sheer determination. Afterwards, he pulled off his brown corduroy jacket, slinging it over the back of the couch. He sat on the couch, intending to watch television with Sey, but moments later, he had fallen asleep.
Now Declan was still sitting, his head lolling on the back of the couch in what looked to be a terribly uncomfortable position, while his lover stretched out the entire length of the couch, his head in Declan’s lap. Sey gave Declan a cursory glance, noted that he was still asleep, and rolled his eyes. “God, now I know you’re tired,” Birkoff giggled softly. Even now, his cheek rubbed lightly against Declan’s thigh.
Sighing contentedly, Sey returned his attention to the movie. Declan’s hand slid off his other thigh, and the movement jarred him awake. Or perhaps it would be better to say, half-asleep. His hand wrapped itself rather insistently around Sey’s neck, and Sey pulled at the constricting extremity. “Hey, I’m kind of fond of breathing, Dec.”
Declan grinned sleepily at his lover, leaning forward, which caused his long red hair to trail lightly over Sey’s face, tickling his nose. “St-stop that, I’m ticklish.”
Declan chuckled, his tobacco-and-whiskey voice giving him a throaty purr. “I know.”
“Don’t tease me, love. You know you’re out on your feet.” Birkoff pouted, suddenly looking young enough to be Sasha’s brother instead of his father.
“I like teasing you, acushla. It’s what I live for,” Declan said dryly.
Birkoff put the bowl of popcorn on the floor beside the couch. Shifting so that he lay on his back in Declan’s lap, he gazed expectantly up at Declan. “Tease away.”
True to his word, Declan bent over Sey, long curling tendrils of his hair grazing his cheek and neck. Someone shorter might not have been able to reach, but Declan touched his mouth to Sey’s, caressing it more affectionately than passionately. Seeing the love reflected in Sey’s dark eyes, feeling the sudden upward spike of his heartbeat, pulsating under the fingers he lay against his lover’s neck, Declan basked in the sheer unadulterated joy of the moment.
“I love you, my little love thief.”
Declan’s voice was like warm honey, pouring its mellifluous contents over Sey’s heart. Heating him, healing him. “Am I your love thief, Dec?” Sey asked drowsily. “How come?”
Declan nuzzled Sey’s ear and neck. “Cause you stole my heart, that’s why.”
Birkoff’s face relaxed under Declan’s gentle ministrations. “Couldn’t help it. You’re just so damned irresistible.”
“Tell me the words, baby,” Declan whispered, his lips warm and moist against Sey’s ear.
“I love you, Dec,” Sey answered, but not out of blind obedience. Sometimes his heart felt so full, he had no choice but to tell Declan how he felt.
Declan kissed him several times before he drew back with a sigh. “I wish I wasn’t so tired....”
Birkoff’s dark eyes glittered fiercely. “Switch with me.”
Declan blinked. “How so?”
“I’ll show you.”
A few moments later, Declan lay stretched out on the couch, considerably more comfortable than before, while Sey lay in his arms, his back to Declan’s chest, his lower body between Declan’s legs. “Is that better?” Sey asked, knowing it was.
“Aye,” Declan said, wrapping his arms around Sey’s shoulders. “Any time I can hold you in my arms is good, acushla.”
“Good. Now let me watch my movie.”
Several moments passed in utter silence. The anticipation grew and grew until...Declan couldn’t stand it one more second. “Okay, Sey, what the devil are you watching, anyway?”
“Casablanca.”
Declan snorted. “Sey, you always cry at the end. Why are you watching this?”
“I love this movie,” Birkoff declared defiantly. “And you’d cry, too, if you ever watched it long enough. The ending’s sad.”
Declan slowly stroked his hands through Sey’s long brown hair, soothing even as his fingers moved smoothly through the silken strands. “I wasn’t disagreeing with you, baby. I know it’s bloody sad. Just wondered why you wanted to do that to yourself. On top of everything else we’ve been through this week.”
How could he explain it to Declan? His real life pain was sometimes unbearable, usually because it was beyond his control. But the movie wasn’t real, and he could shut off the pain with a flick of the remote. And of course, there was the added benefit of lying in the relative safety of his lover’s arms while watching television. He could enjoy the movie without feeling overwhelmed. All because Declan was there.
Birkoff gave Declan a shy grin. “It’s sad, but it’s romantic, Dec.” He shrugged. “Sometimes I love romance more than anything else.”
Declan kissed the top of his head. “I love you more than anything else. Even if you insist on watching movies with unhappy endings.”
Birkoff curled up on his side, ostensibly so he could get a more unobstructed view of the television, but Declan knew better. He could feel Sey snuffling his chest. Any moment now, the movie would reach its conclusion, and Sey’s tears would penetrate the thin material of Declan’s T-shirt.
“Well,” Sey whispered against Declan’s body, “you’re in charge of making all our happy endings.”
“That’s a tough job, baby,” Declan murmured, his breath ruffling Sey’s hair.
“I trust you to make things right, Dec. You always do.” And with that, Sey pulled Declan’s arm around him, bringing his hand to his lips for a tender kiss.
Declan felt the slow trickle of hot wetness on his fingers and glanced quickly at the television screen. Just as he suspected, Rick was bidding goodbye to Ilsa...and Sey was crying.
“Turn it off, Sey. Please.”
Sey clicked the remote once and let it drop to the floor as Declan’s arms came around him again, hugging him fiercely. His vision blurring from tears, Sey whispered brokenly, “Maybe I watch it cause...I’m always hoping that it’ll be different. That Ilsa won’t leave Rick. Or Rick won’t let her. People...people who love each other...shouldn’t leave...each other.”
“Oh, God, baby.” Declan pulled Sey up, forcing him to make tearful eye contact with him. When Sey saw that Declan’s eyes were wet, too, he gave up the struggle to hold in his feelings. But just as Sey would have averted his face, Declan’s fingers reached out and seized it, holding it captive.
Declan seemed at a loss for words, but eventually, he found them, where he least expected. In his mouth. They had successfully traversed the distance between his heart and his mouth. “I will...never...ever...leave you, acushla.”
It was like melting. It was as if every bone in his body had suddenly turned to water. No, not water. Something with greater consistency than water. Ice cream. Yeah, ice cream. Only not cold. And wetter. Much wetter.
“Dec-lan....” Sey’s voice caught on a sob. He wasn’t crying anymore. At least, not with grief. But his emotions were still close to the surface.
They had been together long enough now to read each other’s moods without saying a word aloud. Declan looked into Sey’s heart and saw what he needed. It was an easy matter, then, to give it to him. Their lovemaking was often passionate, occasionally even dramatic, but it was seldom slow. Time was something neither of them had a surfeit of these days, and it seemed almost wrong to waste it. That was why when Declan touched Sey with such utter and deliberate sweetness, he was undone.
His breath stirred Sey’s long dark hair, and Sey felt like he was breathing Declan. Literally. Though they still lay entwined on the couch, Birkoff was now facing Declan. The room was dimly lit and silent, the television shut off long ago. The children were long asleep; the house was quiet. It was as if no one else existed but the two of them.
Declan’s hand clasped the back of Sey’s head, his fingers restlessly caressing until Sey’s eyes slowly closed. Moving inexorably towards his lover’s mouth, Declan kissed Sey, so lightly, he might have imagined it but for the whisper that followed. “Ta gra agam duit. Ta tu go halainn, Kieran.”
Sey understood the tone of the Gaelic phrases warmly echoing in his ears and his heart. But for once, he asked for explanation, and Declan obliged. In another loving whisper. “I love you. You are so beautiful.”
“I’m n-not,” Sey replied almost inaudibly, seeking to hide his face against Declan’s chest.
“You are, y chree. To me.”
“You’re the only one that matters, Dec.”
“I feel the same way, baby. Give me your mouth...I’ll show you.” It was a poignant kiss, one that felt bittersweet, and yet, left both of them aching.
Declan’s hands slid under and into Sey’s hair, and their mouths met once more. “Give me your sadness. I’ll make it mine.”
Sey’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I don’t want you to be sad, Declan. Isn’t it enough that I am?”
“And I don’t want you to be alone, acushla. Let me take your pain.” Declan’s voice broke in mid-sentence, his lips trembling, not unlike his lover’s. It was rare for Declan to acknowledge his need to be strong for Sey, even more rare for him to admit that it was sometimes impossible to do.
Sey touched Declan’s mouth with his fingertips. “Only if I can have yours.”
Declan moved his head slightly, as if he were about to shake it negatively, but he caught himself. Sometimes Sey could be so intuitive. Perhaps he was right. They needed to do this. For each other.
“When Sasha was...t-taken...all I could think of was...what little time we’d been given...and how he was never going to know how much we loved him....” Declan looked pained, his brows furrowing in remembered anguish.
“He knows, Dec. He does.”
“And I was so afraid that if we l-lost h-him....” Declan trembled. All over. He didn’t know if he could speak his fear. His greatest fear.
“Tell me, love. You can tell me anything.”
Declan’s silvery eyes glittered like crystal. Sharp, brittle and beautiful. “I thought I’d lose you, too.” The words, when they came, came in a rush, all together, spilling from his mouth like so many pieces of a puzzle.
“No....” Sey began shaking his head. “You can never lose me, Declan. I’m part of you now.”
“But it would have destroyed you!”
Sey bent his head and rubbed his cheek against Declan’s hands, which were tightly clasped across his upper chest. Pulling his hands apart, Sey kissed each finger in turn, his lips tender and gentle, despite the turbulent flow of emotion inside him. “As bad as it would be, Dec, it couldn’t destroy either one of us, as long as we have each other.”
Declan sighed, even as he lost the battle to keep the tears out of his voice and off his cheeks. “We’ll always have each other, baby.”
Sey’s tongue flicked out and licked the salty wetness from beneath Declan’s eyelid. Abruptly sliding his own damp cheek against Declan’s, he rubbed until their tears blended and it became impossible to tell whose tears they were.
“I love you, Declan. When you came into my life, everything changed. Everything that’s happened has been for a reason. Even this last...tr-trial. But I could never regret loving you...and I will never want to be with anyone else.” Sey’s voice, for all its softness, held true conviction.
And so it was...that Sey ended up comforting Declan, instead of the other way around. But it made no matter. For they were well and truly soulmates, and each of them held the key to the other. Halves of the same whole.
“Let me love you,” came Sey’s whispered cry, and Declan heard, “Give up control. This time.”
“Let me love you,” said Sey softly, and Declan heard, “It’s okay to fall. I’ll be there to catch you.”
“Let me love you.”
Declan closed his eyes, and hot tears spilled down his cheeks. He bit his lip, almost until it bled, and still no actual words came forth. But Sey waited patiently, and finally, finally one word made its solitary way to his ear. One whispered word. “Please.”
Sey kissed him, felt his tortured lip throb, soothed it with love. Raising himself up on his elbows, he nuzzled Declan’s chest through his T-shirt, finding the flat male nipples when they responded to his touch by forming razor points. Declan made no attempt to assume control of their lovemaking, and Sey’s heart rejoiced. This was his gift to Declan. And Declan showed every sign of accepting it.
He pushed up Declan’s T-shirt, exposing his flat, firm abdomen. His tongue swirled inside Declan’s navel, the warm skin moistening under Sey’s ministrations. He licked a path to Declan’s belt buckle, and suddenly Declan’s hand clutched at Sey’s hair, tightening almost painfully. Sey stopped and looked up at Declan, so much love and passion lighting up the darkness inside him, Declan could not refuse him anything.
His hold on Sey’s hair loosened, and Sey smiled gratefully. After undoing Declan’s belt buckle, Sey unsnapped his jeans and pulled down the zipper. Spreading his hands wide inside Declan’s jeans, he slowly pulled them away from his increasingly heated skin.
He pressed a fervent kiss to the tip of Declan’s burgeoning arousal, feeling the answering response throb beneath his lips. Nuzzling his groin, the wiry hair tickling his face, Sey proceeded achingly slowly. Anticipation drove Declan to thrust against Sey, but he would not move any faster.
Gradually, Declan’s thrusts became stronger, and Sey took him in his mouth. Suddenly Declan relaxed, his breath hissing out in a long, sweet sigh. “Yesss....”
Again and again, Declan’s fingers twined through Sey’s silky hair, holding him fast to his chosen task. Again and again, Sey brought his lover to the very brink of the precipice, never allowing him to go over the edge. Eventually, when neither of them could stand the sweet disturbance of the senses another second, Sey begged Declan to make the leap. Without him.
Declan’s eyes flew open, vague and unfocused, seeking his partner. When they found him, Declan said only, “Why?”
“Just this once. So you know you can.”
“I don’t want to go without you, baby.”
“I want to give you this, Declan. Please.”
Sey’s hand tightened around Declan, and Declan shuddered. In the end, his mind still ambivalent, his body made the decision for him. He poured his life essence into the waiting vessel of Sey’s love, the climax almost catching him by surprise.
After it was over, Sey blinked sleepily at Declan. Climbing over his lover’s still-breathless body, Sey settled between Declan’s legs again, this time close enough to kiss him. He caught the enigmatic expression in Declan’s eyes, and he knew that Declan was already regretting losing control.
Sey leaned on Declan, kissing him, licking him, letting him taste himself. Declan groaned, even as he gave in gracefully. “God, I love you.”
“I know.” Sey smiled peacefully, knowing the gift was given to both of them. They truly were one.