Page 18 of Lovesick Gods (Lovesick #1)

Mal blinked at the most recent message on his phone. Standing by the door dressed to leave, he’d been intent on going to the safe house to work on the schematics he neglected last night. This turn of events had him quickly reconsidering.

Promptly removing his jacket, he replaced it in the closet. Pushing up his plans with Danny a night early sounded like a marvelous idea, especially with a promise like that .

I’m going to take you apart, Ice Man. Slowly.

Looking forward to it, Mal texted back.

Unexpected nerves fluttered through his stomach. Damn Dom for making him second guess this. Mal could worry about the heist later. He could worry about everything else later .

Knock. Knock. Two minutes indeed. Danny must have lightning jumped to reach him.

Mal opened the door with a smug grin. “Impatient as always I s—”

A flicker of lightning was his only warning as Danny rushed him, and Mal had barely enough time to note that the younger man had on a T-shirt and no jacket before the door slammed shut.

His mind went blank at the sudden presence of Danny’s intruding tongue, hands around his back, one already up the back of his sweater.

Mal’s breath caught, swallowing down his heightened sense of fight or flight and shaking off the urge to summon ice over his skin like a shield. Sudden touch, harsh, demanding like this, being held in place—it always had him on alert for something else .

But no violence followed. No pain. Danny kissed him and kneaded the small of his back with long, powerful fingers. He would never hurt Mal outside a fight between hero and villain. He was just starved for touch, and Mal could accommodate.

“Where’s the bedroom?” Danny spoke against his lips, still pulling at them with sharp nips.

Mal got over his shock and reached for Danny, squeezing the other man’s hips possessively. “Upstairs.”

Vertigo seized Mal, as well as the sensation of freefalling, of his stomach plummeting.

Then his back hit his comforter, the view of Olympus City out his window glittering down at him.

Danny had lightning jumped again . Mal knew firsthand that he couldn’t keep that up for long.

Hovering over Mal as he straddled him, he looked wild and windblown and hungry .

He kissed Mal, the dull edge of fingernails scraping along Mal’s stomach, pushing his sweater up, up , where it was easier to see his scars.

No . Mal was fine—he was fine . Better than fine with his nemesis atop him. He just hoped Danny didn’t ask, though if he’d ever looked in depth through Mal’s police records, which he likely had, he already knew that most of Mal’s scars were from one man.

But Danny didn’t seem to care about the change in texture of scar tissue beneath his fingers. He wedged a knee between Mal’s legs, straddled his thigh, and ground forward.

“ Shit , Sparky…slow down,” Mal gasped, gripping Danny by the shoulders and holding him in place.

Danny’s face looked instantly betrayed, even angry.

The last thing Mal wanted was for him to think he wasn’t interested.

Rocking up against Danny with a languid roll of his hips, he reassured him, “Isn’t that what you promised me? Slow .”

Danny’s fierceness remained but the shade of anger vanished in favor of a crooked grin.

“Yeah,” he said, bending to kiss Mal with an unhurried, deep probe of his tongue.

“Yeah…” he said again, echoing the roll of Mal’s hips.

“So slow, Ice Man. You have no idea. I’m gonna ruin you for everybody else.

” Pupils blown when he pulled away, his eyes looked almost black.

“No one will ever be as good as what I’m going to do to you. ”

A fresh shiver swept through Mal’s body. “Promises, promises…”

Danny’s wicked grin was everything Mal had ever wanted of him—all his, in his bed, in his arms, no accompanying speech about goodness . Seemed Zeus wanted to skirt the line of being bad instead.

Hands returning to pushing Mal’s sweater up his stomach, Danny didn’t yet attempt to remove it.

Instead he kissed Mal low, just above his beltline, then trailed his tongue up to Mal’s navel and licked around the rim.

He didn’t pause at the scars he encountered; he kissed or licked them all the same.

Danny moved to Mal’s nipple and bit down hard enough to make him hiss, then licked there too, a contrasting balm, before doing the same to the other side. Finally, he tugged the sweater from Mal’s arms, over his head, and tossed it away so he could better kiss Mal’s collarbone and neck.

Reaching for Danny’s hip, Mal found the edge of his T-shirt and sought out his soft, warm skin. His other hand pushed into Danny’s hair and tugged to urge him on.

Danny whined and bit down on Mal’s neck, licking at the mark left behind with unhurried swipes. “You can be rougher. I won’t break.”

“Fuck, Sparky… I might,” Mal said. Tugging the ginger hair harder as Danny moved to lick his ear, Mal felt Danny’s hand travel down to rediscover the wet trails he’d left behind on his way up.

Still, Mal didn’t pull too hard; Danny didn’t know what he was asking.

Something must have happened to trigger this, to bring him to Mal’s door a night early, desperate and greedy for it.

Mal wondered what it was, but he wasn’t about to ask now.

Turning his head to kiss Danny, he missed his lips as Danny scooted down the bed again.

“Oh, you’ll break. But in such a slow, sweet way. Just you wait.”

Quivering in anticipation, Mal spread his legs wider even.

Danny started to undo his jeans. They were tighter than the slacks he’d worn yesterday, so the relief once Danny tugged them down his hips made Mal sigh in pleasure.

As soon as the jeans hit the floor, Danny palmed him through his underwear.

“Is this why you’re always so confident?”

Mal grunted. “It helps.” His confidence didn’t much matter though when he had trouble getting anyone into his bed, let alone keeping them there. Hazard of the trade; no one worth keeping wanted to fuck a criminal.

Danny laughed and it was a lovely, dark sound. Mal didn’t think a giggle from Danny Grant could be so devious. “Before we get too far,” he said, “lube? Condoms? We’re definitely going to put both to good use.”

Yes , they were. “At your leisure.” Mal gestured at the nightstand.

Nodding once, Danny swooped down to mouth Mal through his underwear. His mouth was so hot. Sucking up along Mal from the base, when he got to the tip, Mal’s own wetness had already soaked through. Danny sucked there just as greedily.

“Your…talents…have been going to waste playing hero,” Mal said. “You look good down there, Sparky.”

“If you’re impressed already,” Danny fluttered his eyes up at him, “then you’re in for some surprises.”

Oh, Mal was counting on it. Hands staying mostly limp at his sides, he was enraptured by the sight of what Danny was doing to him. He lifted his hips when Danny finally moved to rid him of his underwear and chucked them over his shoulder with another wide grin.

The amorous hero had Mal naked on his own bed, and he hadn’t even undressed a shred of clothing himself yet. He’d barely removed his shoes, but Mal saw them, kicked to the floor off the bed. He figured he could forgive Danny that slight, just this once.

When Danny descended between his thighs, Mal tangled his fingers in the foof of red hair again. Having Zeus between his legs made all of this worth it.

Eventually, Danny pulled off of him with one long lick. Sitting up on his knees, he gripped the bottom of his T-shirt, pulling it up inch by inch and eventually flinging it into the abyss of the room. Mal wanted to touch every one of those lean, taut muscles.

He reached for Danny, but the hero ducked between his legs again. Nipping at Mal’s inner thigh, he licked. Bit harder. Sucked . Mal wanted more of that treatment elsewhere . But Danny did the same to his other thigh. Then licked and sucked his way down, down …

“ F-Fuck …”

“Told you. I’m gonna take. You. Apart .”

Another long lick from underside to tip.

Danny hovered, lips parted, eyes flicking up to meet Mal’s.

Then the little shit crawled up and across Mal to reach for the nightstand drawer, dragging the jeans he still wore across Mal’s wet and over-sensitized skin.

Mal hissed, pressing his head into the mattress.

Feeling his skin prickle with goosebumps, he willed his powers to stay calm.

Danny returned with the supplies, grinning impishly and eyeing Mal’s naked body like he was ready to devour him whole. “Roll onto your side.”

“What?” There came that freefalling feeling again.

“Roll,” Danny tapped the bottle of lube against Mal’s shoulder, “onto your side.”

Mal could have sworn he had control over the situation originally. Not that he was never on the receiving end, he did enjoy that, but it was rare that he trusted someone enough to let them see him so exposed. Or at least rare that he was drunk enough not to care.

“Come on, Cho…” Danny coaxed him, settling in lying beside Mal and trailing the hand not holding the lube and condom gently down his chest, around his navel, teasingly into the curls below his waist and lower. “I’ll make it so good, you can’t even imagine. Have you been disappointed so far?”

Mal couldn’t say he had been. Danny’s hand on him alone, thumb passing over his slit, fingernails grazing lightly down his shaft, made him want to give in to every whim, every command given him.

He usually didn’t work that way, in any situation, let alone in bed.

He needed to know he had an exit strategy at all times, that he could always, always gain the upper hand.

“You’re awfully confident tonight,” he said.

“Because I know what I have to offer. Next time you can bend me in half like I promised. Do whatever you want to me. But tonight let me show you how good it can be like this. Remember how much you enjoyed my…party trick?”