Page 34 of Troubled Skies (Blue Skies #3)

It was Ren’s turn to laugh as he climbed on the bed and lay down next to Adrian.

Tenderly, he brushed a stray lock of hair from Adrian’s forehead and gave Adrian the gentlest of kisses.

But that wasn’t good enough. Adrian reached up and pulled Ren to him, bringing their mouths together so he could taste himself on Ren’s tongue.

A telltale dampness against his hip told him he didn’t have to worry about reciprocating until later.

Ren had come as well, and that made Adrian unbelievably happy that he could turn Ren on so much the man came without being touched.

He sighed as they parted, Ren’s fingers still running through Adrian’s hair, his still buried in Ren’s.

“Happy, poussin?” Ren asked softly.

“This might have been the best day of my life. The tour. The lunch. You.”

“I am happy I was able to give it to you.”

Adrian opened his eyes to stare into Ren’s dark brown ones. He was always surprised at how expressive those eyes were when they often showed no variation in color. Right now, they were guarded, careful, almost as if Ren were anticipating rejection or something equally unsavory.

“You know it isn’t what you give me that matters, right? What made today so incredible was who I spent it with. You don’t have to buy my affection with five-star meals and luxurious gifts, Ren. I’d have been happy with a bicycle ride and lunch from a street vendor.”

“I know, poussin, but if I can give you more than that, why would that not make the experience better?”

Adrian could tell Ren truly didn’t understand what he was trying to say, and a plan started to form in his head.

In another day and a half, they would dock in Athens to refuel again.

He’d need to talk to the captain and Sylvie, and probably Rigo as well.

If they all approved, maybe he could show Ren what he meant rather than trying to explain it.

“Today was amazing. I don’t think any of my fantasies even come close because I could never have imagined you.” He kissed Ren again, drawing him into a deep and sensuous exploration and tease in which he could lose himself.

They continued to caress each other, sharing lazy kisses and nonsense talk until they both drifted off to sleep.

The gentle roll of the yacht told Adrian they were underway as soon as he woke up.

He lifted his head and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows seeing nothing but water and sky and a few smaller boats.

The light told him it was almost sunset.

Letting his head drop back to his pillow, he looked over at Ren and found that he was awake as well.

“How long have you been awake?” Adrian asked.

Ren shrugged. “Only for a little bit. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“I wouldn’t have minded.”

“I know, but I like watching you sleep.” Ren frowned. “I hope that does not sound deranged. I only mean that—”

Adrian put his hand across Ren’s mouth. “It’s fine. A little weird, but it’s not like you broke into my room to watch me. We’re sleeping in the same bed.”

“As we are, oui.”

“What fascinates you about me sleeping?” Adrian asked, a tease in his voice. “Is it the drool coming out of my mouth? The way I snore? Do I talk in my sleep?”

Ren laughed and drew a finger down the side of Adrian’s face. “Non. You are quite beautiful when you sleep, and I like how soft your breathing becomes, the way your lips part ever so slightly.” Ren’s fingers moved to tracing Adrian’s mouth. “And when you lie on your back, the line of your neck…”

Now Ren was gently stroking Adrian’s jaw, his throat, the juncture of his shoulder and neck, the ridge of his collarbone.

It was sensual rather than sexual, but Adrian knew it could turn in an instant if only because the soft touches were making his skin tingle, his senses heightened to a new awareness as Ren’s fingers glided over his face and throat.

“I do not think you know how exquisite you are, Adrian, how beautiful inside and out.”

Adrian swallowed hard as tears pricked at the corners of his eyes.

“I think you’re right,” he whispered. “It’s difficult when you’ve had a lifetime of being told the opposite, of not being good enough, of wanting…

” Adrian stopped himself before he said something he would regret if Ren pulled away from him.

“C’est vrai,” Ren whispered. “Your pain is not mine, but I understand. I am the spare prince, the one who only matters if something happens to my brother before he has an heir, or if he is incapable of producing one.” Ren smiled, but it wasn’t the warm, mirthful curve of his lips Adrian was used to seeing, and the corners of his eyes had turned downward as well.

“The only thing that truly matters about me is my semence, my seed, the hope my line will continue even if my brother is unable to be the one to do so. Is that not something to aspire to, poussin? My entire existence justified by my ability to ejaculate and impregnate a woman?”

The anger in Ren’s tone was so uncharacteristic, as was the flash in his eyes, the rigidity of his muscles. Adrian was touched by his willingness to show this unexpected vulnerability and reached out to trace the lines of Ren’s face, sketching across his cheekbones, his nose, his lips and chin.

“You are worth so much more than that,” Adrian whispered. Shaking his head, Adrian moved closer to Ren, entwining their legs. “So much more than that.” He kissed Ren lightly.

Then they were kissing in earnest; long, lazy kisses and gentle, sensuous caresses with nothing driving them forward except their desire to be close. They were both hard, cocks rubbing as they slowly rocked against each other.

Sighing, Ren rolled onto his back, pulling Adrian on top of him without breaking their kiss. It put their cocks into complete alignment, and the feel of it made Adrian moan, a breathy, soft sound he couldn’t have stopped even if he wanted to.

He folded his hands over Ren’s chest and rested his chin on top of them. “I have never met someone like you,” he said.

“Of course you have not,” Ren said with a smug smile. “I am a prince. There are not so many of us in this world.”

Adrian shook his head. Kissing Ren’s face, his eyelids, his cheeks, the tip of his nose, Adrian hoped to show Ren that he was more than his title.

He nibbled his way along Ren’s jawline and nipped at the soft skin above his Adam’s apple.

Burnished by the sun, Ren’s skin positively glowed in the dimming light that shone through their cabin windows.

Adrian swore he tasted of caramel and vanilla, the smoothness of Ren’s skin like velvet as he ran his tongue over the contours of Ren’s shoulder.

“Oh, poussin,” Ren sighed. “Chéri.”

Ren’s words dissolved into a whisper of French that Adrian was barely able to make out let alone translate, but the emotions underlying his words mirrored Adrian’s perfectly, and he hummed in agreement as he slipped lower on Ren’s body.

He trailed kisses down the center of Ren’s chest, hands smoothing along Ren’s arms then using his fingertips to tease along his ribs and up to his taut nipples which Adrian took into his mouth, first one, then the other.

Ren’s hands fluttered by Adrian’s head, seeking a place to land but ultimately returning to the surface of the bed, fingers clutching at the sheet as Adrian’s ministrations turned teasing.

Adrian wasn’t in a hurry, he wasn’t rushing Ren’s arousal or his own, merely letting the intoxicating feel and taste and scent of Ren’s body lead him onward, letting the sounds coming from Ren dictate where he lingered with his mouth and hands as he moved lower.

The sensations in his own body, the way in which his skin came alive where he and Ren connected, even the friction on his cock as he shifted to concentrate on Ren’s belly, were all secondary to Ren’s pleasure.

The more Ren enjoyed Adrian’s ministrations, the more Adrian wanted to do to him.

Nuzzling around the base of Ren’s cock without touching it, Adrian hummed in response.

He nipped the tender skin and reveled in the hiss that came from his prince.

His prince? Adrian faltered for a moment, picking his head up to look at Ren’s blissed-out face.

In this moment, Adrian realized with blinding clarity that there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Ren. His prince.

Adrian waited for the feeling of dread to pang in his stomach, but it never came.

Instead, he was filled with a sense of calm, a sense of peace he’d never experienced during sex.

This was good. It was right. It was beyond the simple, animal pleasure of the body, and it was everything he’d hoped to feel with a lover but never had.

This connection. This acceptance. This…joy.

Adrian nearly laughed out loud at how absurd it was that he had been with so many men and joy had never been a part of his sex life. Not like this. Not until now. Ren called him a treasure, a revelation, and that was exactly what Ren was for Adrian as well.

“Poussin, you are an exquisite lover,” Ren sighed as Adrian traced the ridge of muscle that led to the juncture of thigh and groin with his tongue.

With a groan, Ren reached for Adrian, and Adrian reached back, their hands connecting, intertwining.

And then Ren pulled Adrian back up, gently urging him to his side so they could lie face to face again, kissing him as soon as Adrian’s head was next to his, Ren’s fingers tangling in Adrian’s hair, bringing their mouths together with gentle force.

They kissed until Adrian was dizzy, then continued to nuzzle at each other as they broke apart to catch their breath.

And when Ren gently rolled Adrian onto his back, when he teased him open with his tongue and fingers, then guided his cock inside Adrian’s body, Adrian kept his eyes open, his gaze fixed on Ren’s gorgeous face.

“Mon trésor,” Ren whispered, his tone reverent as he stilled, transfixing Adrian with the intensity of his desire.

Adrian hooked his ankles behind Ren’s back, and the two moved together, rocking back and forth in gentle waves until Adrian couldn’t stand it any longer and begged Ren to fuck him.

Harder. Faster. Adrian cried out as Ren withdrew from his body on a long, slow slide, then buried his cock in one thrust that had Adrian groaning.

“Don’t stop,” Adrian told him.

He reached for his own cock and began to jack himself off, grinning as Ren cursed then praised him as he redoubled his efforts.

Adrian felt the orgasm gathering, felt his balls draw up, and tried to stave it off because he wanted this moment to last forever, but it was too late.

Tumbling over the edge, he spilled into his hand, crying out, his entire body humming with the force of his orgasm.

He cried out as Ren tumbled over the edge as well, heat filling him, searing tender tissue, ears filled with the sound of Ren calling out his passion.

Ren lowered himself on shaking arms, kissing Adrian as he came to rest on Adrian’s chest, then rolled them to the side. His softening cock slid from Adrian, and Adrian felt the loss of their joining, but then Ren’s fingers circled his opening, and pushed back inside.

“You are fire, poussin,” Ren said. “Your hair, your very being, what you do to me.” He shifted his fingers, the tips grazing across Adrian’s prostate and sending sparks throughout his body.

Adrian groaned, shifted closer to Ren and brought their mouths together as Ren continued to stroke him. Rocking back against Ren’s fingers, he tucked his head against Ren’s neck and let his hands explore the man’s firm chest and shoulders.

“Your skin is so smooth,” he murmured as his fingertips traced the lines of Ren’s shoulder blades.

He gasped as Ren’s fingers teased him again.

Post-orgasm penetration had never been entirely comfortable for him, but the way Ren kept his touch gentle and slow while he stared at Adrian, his movements guided by Adrian’s pleasure…

Adrian felt the first tendrils of arousal pulse through his languid body.

He felt vulnerable, unfamiliar emotions rising to the surface that made him seek comfort in the feel of Ren’s body against his own.

French words floated past him, the murmur of Ren’s voice and the vibration of it against his chest, the gentle glide of soft caresses, and the press of Ren’s fingers deep inside his body…Adrian found his thoughts drifting.

He may have dozed, he didn’t know, but he became aware of a deep rumble and lifted his head.

“We are leaving, poussin,” Ren murmured, and Adrian opened his eyes to find Ren’s beautiful face right in front of him.

With a soft smile, Ren dipped his head and kissed Adrian, then sighed and touched their foreheads together.

“I do not want to think what this moment would have felt like if you were not here with me as you are. I would have been leaving a part of my heart behind.”

Those words should have had alarm bells going off in his head, and Adrian tensed in anticipation, but they never came.

“I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to have been left,” he said and brought his mouth to Ren’s once more.