Page 70 of Creatures Like Us

“Lie down,” I order.

Noah lies on his back, so willing to give himself up to me, never questioning what I want. I crawl across the bed and straddle hiships, settling myself heavily on top of him, crotch to crotch. He gazes up at me, face relaxed but eyes shiny with anticipation.

I close my hands around his wrists and pin them over his head in a silent order to keep them there. Then I close my right hand carefully around his throat. His eyes flit closed, and I feel the first stirring of hardness between his legs.

My hand looks tan against the extreme paleness of his skin, but the lack of sun hasn’t done me much good. In summer, my skin shines golden, and freckles dot my nose. The same goes for Ethan. We don’t tend to burn in the sun, except for that one time we went on holiday to Maui when I was twelve, and we spent the day snorkeling. The next morning, the skin on our shoulders bloomed with red and flaked and itched, and we laughed and took turns spreading aloe vera on our burning skin.

I blink away the memories. There’s no need to think about how much I miss my brother. There’s no need to think about anything not related to this moment. To Noah. To us.

I sink my fingers deeper around his throat. I squeeze, testing the give of his tendons, the heat of his skin, contemplating his staggered breaths. How much would he struggle if I bore down for real? Probably not much. He’d probably let me kill him.

The realization has my heart pumping hard, sending hot blood to my groin.

“I’m going to fuck you again,” I tell him.

His eyes are mere slits as they fix on mine, head tipped back in surrender, tongue darting out to wet his lips. “Okay.”

“This time, I want you on your back, like I was.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll keep my hand on you like this while I do it.” I squeeze lightly around his throat. “Is that all right?”

He squirms underneath me, the hot length of his erection lined up against mine. “Yeah. Please.”

“Please?” Smirking, I press down harder, and his eyes flutter shut.

“Ash?…”

“Get these off.” I rip my hand away and start ripping at his boxer briefs instead. “Quickly.”

I need to own him. Need to be inside him so bad, need him to surrender his verylifeto me. Even if I won’t follow through, I want him to give me the ultimate submission.

Fuck, the thought of him letting me kill him is so hot I feel dizzy. Dizzy?…?and disturbed. I barely recognize myself—what I have become, the desperate creature he’s made me into, but damn it if I don’t want to ride this wave for as long as I can. For as long as we’re alive. For as long as it hasn’t yet brought us under and drowned us both.

With our underwear gone, I straddle Noah once more, and I grab both our cocks in one hand and stroke them dry. Noah shudders underneath me.

“You liked what I did yesterday?” I mumble. “Coming on your cock and jerking you off with my cum?”

“Yeah. Loved it.”

“What if I used your blood instead, hm?” The words come out of me before I’ve even registered the thought, but I pretend they don’t shock me as I spit on our cocks and keep stroking us.

“My b-blood?” Noah asks, rib cage expanding and deflating with his quick, shallow breaths. “Okay.”

I chuckle, low and dark. “I just wanted to know if you’d say yes. And you did.” So he’d really let me doanythingto him, beyond what is reasonable. The thought makes something clench in the pit of my gut, and my cock swells to a painful degree.

“But you want it?” Noah asks.

“Maybe later.” I stroke my thumb over the edge of his jaw, lost in thought for a while. “You know what? You should have a word to say if I do something you don’t want. Something other thanno. You should have a gesture too, for when you can’t speak. Like right now.”

Just because I want to see his reaction, I demonstrate needlessly, pinning his throat to the mattress with my hand. He arches his back, and his cock twitches, pulsing out a bead of precum that mingles with my spit and eases the glide of my fist. Smirking, I let off the pressure to let him reply.

“A gesture?” he asks, breathless. “Like what?”

“Anything. Tap my thigh two times or something. Here, try it.” I take his hand, and he obeys, gulping as his fingers meet my skin. “Good,” I mumble. “We need a word as well. That way, you can tell me no, and I can still continue.”

“But what if I don’t want to say no?”