Page 36 of Hansel and Gerhardt (The GriMM Tales #3)

Heaving deep breaths into their chests, their attention was pulled towards the oven.

The screaming hadn’t abated, let alone stopped.

A loud, dull clang ricocheted around the room, bouncing off the hard-candy walls, as Herr Candy slammed his limbs into the side of the oven, fighting to escape, screaming, screaming.

But the oven was thick cast iron, the latch strong and unshakeable, no matter how hard he fought.

“Gerhardt, look at me.” Hansel’s gentle hand on his cheek brought Gerhardt’s terrified eyes back to meet his. “You’re all there again. I can see you.”

“Only now he’s burning. Even when I did that, I felt half asleep. I could feel it all over me. It was like a dream. I just… I saw that knife in his hand, and it felt like we were back in the cottage, and…”

“Oh, Gerhardt.” Hansel kissed him and kissed him again.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Gerhardt shook his head, tears falling onto Hansel’s chest. “I’m sorry I let that happen. I was so hungry. And then it was over. One bite, Hansel. One bite, and it was all over, and I wasn’t me anymore.”

“I know. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”

“It’s all my fault. How can you have done this? How can you have stayed here and been strong for me? Hansel, it’s been days. And you never gave up on me. And you haven’t eaten a thing—”

“That’s because I love you.” He stroked the hair back from his cheek, holding his chin up to look into his eyes. “I love you. No life exists out there in the forest or anywhere without you.”

“You could have left me a thousand times.”

“I never could. Not once. Not you.”

Gerhardt’s hand fell on his chest, right by his big, beating heart.

“I know it. I know it now. I’m sorry for everything I said.

I was wrong. You know exactly what you want.

And Hansel, I know it too. I love you.” He threw his arms around Hansel’s neck, pulling him in for a kiss.

The screams and cries and pleas that escaped the oven drifted into the background.

Hansel and Gerhardt became lost in that kiss.

In that moment in time, in their love for one another.

That they’d said it. That they knew it. That they’d made that promise.

A promise of a bright future, starting that very day.

Hansel’s hands ran up Gerhardt’s sides, grasping at the bare flesh he needed to feel to reassure himself he was back in his arms. Gerhardt reacted with twice the passion, grinding forward, wrapping his legs around him.

Breathlessly, Gerhardt said, “That candy… When I ate it, I want you to know… it made me think… of you.”

Tilting his head a little to take in the beautiful eyes, sultry with bashful desire, Hansel whispered, “Of me?”

“Yes…” A becoming blush coloured his cheeks. “It does something. Or it did. To my mind. And whenever I ate it, all I could think of was you. How much I adored you. And… um… how much I… wanted you.”

Gerhardt’s eyes flicked up, and Hansel’s dick throbbed in his lederhosen, already half hard with the feeling of Gerhardt’s ass in his lap. He slipped a hand down to Gerhardt’s thigh and squeezed, the touch of his flesh making his situation more pressing. “Wanted me how?”

Gerhardt, just as desirable as he had been the night before, but with a shy sweetness to him that told Hansel every word he now said was true, every desire genuine and driven by love. “Those things we did… that night…” he whispered. “And I imagined things… more things… that we could do…”

His breath came a little faster, the movement of his body in Hansel’s lap sending Hansel’s desire for him into overdrive. He swiped up some whipped cream on his index finger. “Do you think the magic still works?”

A laugh that was half gasp slipped out of Gerhardt. “No. But I don’t need it to imagine those things. To want you.” Gerhardt tilted his head, looked as though he were about to kiss Hansel, but he stopped just short, sweeping the tip of his tongue along Hansel’s lower lip.

Hansel almost melted beneath him, but just as he was pulling away, he caught his jaw in gentle fingers.

“Let’s see.” Hansel was confident Herr Candy’s magic had lost its hold on Gerhardt.

He brought his finger close to his lips, if only to see the cream smeared all over them.

Gerhardt opened his mouth, but Hansel pulled his finger back at the last second. “Just a little taste.”

Gerhardt gave a small nod, and Hansel, slowly, brought the white delight to his lips.

The tip of Gerhardt’s tongue met the tip of Hansel’s finger, and as the taste hit him, he neither closed his eyes nor fell into his enraptured stupor.

He kept his golden gaze locked on Hansel’s, and Hansel’s dick strained for him.

He pushed his finger a little deeper, and Gerhardt’s hot, wet mouth took him in.

His tongue caressed him, and a new sound broke from him.

A groan, deep and hungry—but not hungry for food. Not just food, anyway.

Hansel’s other hand wrapped around his pert ass and yanked him in, the feeling of him settling against Hansel’s cock providing scant relief for his growing urgency.

Hansel dragged his finger out of his warm mouth, pulling his lip down, leaving a delicious trail down his chin as Gerhardt’s head leaned back a little, as Hansel’s hand landed on his shoulder, toying with the strap of his lederhosen.

“Do you remember what you said last night?”

Gerhardt ground his hips back slowly, deliberately rubbing over Hansel’s dick. His smile turned sly. “I want you to fuck me.”

The way he said that… Hansel didn’t know six words could affect him so profoundly.

He lunged for Gerhardt’s neck. Gerhardt lengthened it for him, leaning against the scrape of his teeth, even as he rose up against his dick again.

His eyelids fluttered closed, yet he reached an arm back, taking up a handful of the first thing his hand met—still-hot sticky caramel bun bake.

He caught a handful of Hansel’s hair and pulled his head back. “First, you are going to eat for me.”

Hansel could no more have resisted than if he’d been a wind-up toy.

He let his head be tilted back. He opened his mouth obediently as Gerhardt lowered the treat.

It was the first food he’d tasted in two and a half days.

The first dessert he’d had in years. His jaw locked with the explosion of flavour, his chest in a vise.

“Good boy, Hansel,” said Gerhardt.

Hansel swallowed the lump hard. “What did you say?”

Gerhardt leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I said you’re good.” He kissed his other cheek. “And you’re kind.” He kissed his lips. “And you’re brave.” Another kiss, where the taste of cream on Gerhardt’s tongue met the caramel on Hansel’s. “And I love you.”

Two strong hands shoved Hansel back, splaying him out, the centrepiece of a broken feast, the one pure and real and delicious thing in all that magical mess.

Gerhardt rose up onto his knees, an idol of excess.

He pulled a strap down over his beautiful shoulder, exposing his firm chest, his hard nipple begging for Hansel’s touch.

Hansel covered his pectorals in full with his big hand.

He squeezed his nipple hard, and Gerhardt let out a dick-throbbing cry, leaning into his touch as he brought the second strap down.

Hansel’s other hand fanned out over his abs, gliding over his body, up to his neck. Gerhardt pressed onto him, the strong hand carrying him at the throat, Gerhardt yielding just right, letting Hansel bring him down onto his chest.

Gerhardt took up a cherry and lowered it to Hansel’s mouth.

The white teeth dug in at the instigation, cherry juice painting his lips red, and Gerhardt rose a little as Hansel’s body arched at the pleasure of the taste.

Gerhardt pulled the cherry away, kissed the sweetness from his lips, then popped the whole fruit back in.

He turned his attention to Hansel’s beautiful neck, the smell of soap and sugar, the feel of him beneath his body. “Eat, Hansel,” he whispered. “Eat your fill.” He kissed his neck. “I never want you to go hungry again.”

Hansel turned his head to catch a kiss. “I just want you.”

Gerhardt paused, a little smile on his face that Hansel wanted to lick clean off. “Very well.” His hand wandered down and down, savouring every inch of Hansel’s wide and beautiful form, until it was a breath away from his cock. “But if you stop eating, I stop.”

“What do you… ohhhhh…”

Gerhardt’s hand closed around Hansel’s deliciously erect cock, stroking over the velvet leather. All the way from the base to the crown, then back again, then tightening when he paused. “Eat, my love.”

Gerhardt’s sweet breath on his cheek, Gerhardt’s soft smile deepening beneath his lustful eyes…

Hansel reached out and grabbed whatever he could find—a plum tart, small, golden, crunchy pastry, bright purple fruit.

He brought it to his lips, Gerhardt’s grin deepened, and that hand began to move again.

“Oh, fuck,” Hansel moaned.

“Bite,” said Gerhardt.

Hansel, wanting only the pleasure of Gerhardt, bit into the treat, letting out a moan over the sensation of Gerhardt multiplied by the ecstasy of dessert.

“Don’t you dare stop,” Gerhardt whispered, kissing his way across his collarbone.

Hansel swallowed a lump, hand grasping over the back of Gerhardt’s neck. “How am I supposed to think about that when you’re doing these things?”

Click went the buckle on Hansel’s lederhosen, unleashing a strap. “You took care of me.” Click went the other strap, thrown over his shoulder. “Now let me take care of you.”