Page 53 of Hamartia

“Dunno, Jae, felt a lot like I was the one who just got fucked.” An image of him fucking himself on my dick projects itself onto my brain and my cock hardens all the way.

“And then I suppose you are disappointed?” he says. “Disgusted perhaps? Yourexperimentdid not turn out how you thought it would.”

I feel like he’s slapped me across the fucking face. “Experiment? What are you talking about?”

He narrows his eyes and turns towards the bathroom. “If you want to leave, then go.”

I’m after him in an instant, curling my fingers around his wrist to stop him, tugging him back to face me.

“You think I’mdisgusted? Disappointed?” I’m not sure which is more insulting. “I told you it was incredible?” He doesn’t pull his wrist from my grip, but I see the insecurity on his face. It’s so completely unexpected. This perfect fucking force of a human being…vulnerable about anything. I take a step closer to him.

“Jaehyun,nothingabout you is disappointing. Not a fucking thing. And I’m certainly not disgusted. Fuck. It was…” I scrub a hand over my face.Life-changing. Soul-shifting.I settle on: “Perfect. It was perfect.”

He studies me a second, checking my sincerity, then his expression transforms. The shadows lift from his eyes and his mouth reshapes into this adorable pout that makes my stomach flip over.

“Then why do you want to leave?”

The vulnerability in his voice almost brings me to my knees.

“I don’t. I thought that’s what you wanted. I thought you were done with me.” I shrug and gesture toward the bathroom. “You said you wanted to take a bath and I assumed you wanted me to leave so you could do that.”

“Then I am sorry,” he says. “For not being clear with you. I enjoy taking a bath after sex and I thought you would enjoy taking one with me.” He has this soft little smile on his face now and it has the same effect that his hand wrapped around my cock would have.

“I…” My throat feels dry and my head fried. “You want to take a bath with me?”

He lifts one shoulder, nonchalantly, and then reaches out to slide his hand under my shirt, scraping his blunt nails over my abdomen. “Or you can watch…I don’t mind.”

I almost groan from the mental picture that provides. Jaehyun in the bath. Wet, pink, glistening, his hair soaked to his skin.

“So then…you don’t want me to go?” I smile, reaching out to him with my other hand, sliding it over his waist and then around to his ass, squeezing gently.

He sighs, airily. “No, Raphael. I don’t.” He drops his eyes and his hands to my belt buckle and pulls at it playfully. “I am annoyed that you put these on again. I like looking at you naked.”

I grin stupidly. “Yeah? I really like looking at you naked, too.”

When I lean in to kiss him, he makes that soft mewling noise that goes straight to my dick. Then I feel him, his hardness, bare and tempting. I want nothing more than to sink to my knees and take it into my mouth. But I also really wanna take a bath with him so figure I can wait until we’re in there and kill two birds with one stone. He steps back from me and watches while I undress again, eyes roving appreciatively over my tattoos, watching my hands as they undo my belt and unbutton my jeans.

“Nothing about you is disappointing either, you know,” Jae says very quietly and I’m certain my heart stops beating for a second. “You are also very beautiful. Like a bright American sunrise.”

I can only stare at him, stupefied. Maybe I do affect him then? In some way at least. I want to sing from how happy that makes me.

“Does that make you a dark Korean sunset?” It sounds cheesy as fuck and I regret saying it until he gives me the most incredible smile I’ve ever seen. Open mouthed and bright, perfect white smile glittering as his cheeks pull up, eyes seeming to disappear.

He rolls his eyes. “You have never seen a Korean sunset; you have never been to Korea”

“Baby, I’m pretty sure I was in Korea about ten minutes ago.”

I raise my eyebrow and he bursts into laughter.

“You are ridiculous,” he says and saunters into the bathroom.

“But not disappointing! And as beautiful as an American sunrise!” I call after him as I finish undressing.

His laughter is musical as it bounces around the bathroom. “Hurry up, the bath is ready, you big American idiot!”

Camille and I never shared a bath.

That thought occurs to me as I stare at Jae across the lightly fragrant steaming water. Now I’m sharing a bath with a guy I’ve been intimate with twice—like it’s the most normal thing in the world—and yet not once with the woman I was going to marry. I don’t take a lot of baths generally, but there’s intimacy here. The echo of the water every time one of us shifts, the brief touches of wet skin beneath the surface. Is he hard under there? I am. My skin too warm and my head too light from the steam. I’m both tired and yet very, very alert at the same time.