Page 21

21

Roman

S ilently, he watched.

In the weeks since Roman had moved into the beach house overlooking the cliffs, Aldous had been gradually unpacking his shit box by box. More than once, Roman had suggested getting a moving company to unpack it for him.

Aldous was rich beyond most people’s wildest dreams, and moving houses—moving continents —was a pain in the arse. Who wouldn’t utilise that wealth to rid themselves of such a mind-numbing task? It was the weekend. Aldous actually took the day off rather than slaving over his laptop. There were a million things he could have been doing.

But nope. Since Bri had gone out for the day with Reina, Aldous had spent the morning unpacking and setting up his exercise gear in the garage. And, judging by the fact he was currently securing his hands in his wraps, he was about to start using it.

Roman said nothing, watching him go through his warm-up routine. It was nothing special. Lunges. Some rotations. Shadowboxing. Some teeps. Roman crossed his arms as Aldous moved into bagwork, wanting to see what he could do.

And also admiring the way his grey sweatpants outlined the muscles in his thighs. Not that he was a creep or anything.

I am not a pervert, he reminded himself. I am not a pervert.

Roman eventually broke the silence. “You’re pretty good at that.”

“Surprised you didn’t go with Bri.” An ear-splitting slap ricocheted around the room as Aldous’s shin connected with the bag.

Jesus, that high kick was perfect. “Koa’s with her. He’s more than capable of handling her and Reina together.”

Another kick. “You trust him?”

Roman nodded, making a mental note to stand out of kicking distance the next time he pissed Aldous off. “He’s one of my closest friends. Where did you learn to kickbox?”

“I had a personal trainer in London. Been doing it since I was a kid.”

Roman winced as Aldous threw a rapid cross punch into the bag. He was only a tiny bit aroused.

“Where did you meet Koa?”

“When he was in the Special Forces.”

Aldous’s chest heaved with exertion. “Is he yet another ex?”

The edge of his lip hitched in a sly smirk. Roman took a risk and stepped within punching range. “Do you think I’ve fucked all of my friends?”

“Feels like it,” Aldous grumbled quietly, slamming another punch into his target—thankfully not Roman.

“You’re quite a jealous thing, aren’t you?”

When Aldous didn’t deign him with an answer, Roman supplied his own.

“No, I haven’t fucked Koa. No, I’ve never touched his tra-la-la. Or his ding-ding-dong.”

“The fuck does that mean?”

Daringly, he stepped between Aldous and the punching bag with a smile. “Ding-ding-dongs aside, I am kind of enjoying your jealousy, I have to admit.”

A muscle twitched in Aldous’s clenched jaw.

“What?” he murmured, letting the word curl around his tongue. “Am I not allowed to talk about what this is between us?”

For a moment—for one brief moment—there was the bluster of anger. The danger that a punch would come flying his way, but then it crumbled. Uncertainty replaced it in Aldous’s expression, amber eyes usually so closed off in anger reached out to him for help. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

The change left him off-balance, but Roman seized it with both hands, knowing how much it cost Aldous to have said it. “You’re perfect. Everything you’re doing is perfect.”

Aldous tore off his boxing gloves and hand wraps, throwing them on the floor. He ran his hands through his hair. Hair that Roman knew was deceptively soft. “You know my history.”

Anger pulsed through him. “I do.”

“Then you know I—I haven’t…” Aldous’s voice drifted away on a panicked edge. “I’ve never…”

“Had sex,” Roman finished for him. It wasn’t difficult to guess. The man couldn’t stand to touch someone, let alone be intimate with them.

Aldous’s swallow was heavy. “Apart from when I was a ki—”

“That doesn’t count,” Roman interrupted sharply. “Sex is consensual.”

“It’s why I wanted you to be the one to take Bri’s virginity. I didn’t want to freak out and end up hurting her. She deserved it to be you.”

The confession made sense, but it tugged at his heartstrings all the same. “Does she know that?”

He shook his head. “I just told her I’m not ready.”

“ Are you ready?”

Aldous looked away, his mouth opening to answer—before he snapped it shut again. He shrugged.

“Perhaps we can figure it out together.” Roman’s voice was soft as his touch found Aldous’s. Relief swelled in his chest when Aldous let their fingers intertwine. “I’m more than capable of defending myself if you lash out. I can be your little guinea pig.”

When Aldous said nothing, Roman couldn’t help himself from making a high-pitched wheek.

That got a response, all right. Aldous rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You’re ridiculous,” he muttered, despite his lips hitching in a grin.

“I like making you smile,” Roman purred, leaning in to brush his lips over his, hopefully soon-to-be, lover. He groaned when Aldous pulled him closer, until the only thing separating their bodies was desire. “It happens so rarely that I’m starved for them.”

Aldous hummed into their kiss. “Maybe you just aren’t that funny.”

“Impossible.” Roman backed him into a wall, moving the kiss to Aldous’s neck as he let his head fall against the concrete. He filled his lungs with the man’s scent, inhaling until his chest was about to burst.

“ Fuck , Roman.” Aldous’s growly moan had his cock roaring to life.

“Tell me where I can touch you,” Roman begged. He itched to touch him, to pleasure him.

“I—I don’t know.”

He nodded. “Then tell me when to stop, okay?”

Aldous’s amber eyes filled with uncertainty, but he agreed. “Okay.”

Roman started slow, his touch moving down Aldous’s neck to avoid surprising him and getting a reflexive knee in the jingle bells. Not after seeing how quickly the man moved.

Aldous’s collarbones shifted beneath Roman’s lips, his breathing laboured with apprehension. The musculature on this man was phenomenal, and he ached to be able to see the furrows between the broad swathes of muscles. To feel Aldous’s chest swell beneath his fingers, to follow the grooves with his tongu—

“Stop .”

Aldous’s panicked command darted around the room just as Roman felt a raised seam of skin beneath the thin shirt, and he had a horrible idea what he’d just stumbled across. A scar. “Okay,” he replied gently, his hands at his side.

And then he realised he was going about this the wrong way.

Touch .

Roman thought back to their night at the Silvas compound. Bri’s entire body had been pressed against Aldous’s back then. And minutes ago, hadn’t the front of his body rested against Aldous’s?

It wasn’t touch that Aldous feared—not strictly. It was someone touching him with their hands .

He pinched his bottom lip between his teeth, looking around for something that could be of use.

And then his searching attention landed on the hand wraps that Aldous had oh-so-casually discarded.

“What?” Aldous asked, following his gaze.

Roman snatched one of them up, the long strip of fabric dangling from his grip. “I have an idea.”

Aldous directed a worried look at the hand wraps before bouncing back up to lock eyes with him. “Why doesn’t that fill me with confidence?”

He bundled the wrap into Aldous’s palm before turning away from him and positioning his hands behind his back. “Tie my wrists together.”

“Excuse me?”

Roman sighed. “Just do it.”

Aldous’s reluctance was almost tangible as he neared, but a shiver of anticipation wracked his shoulders as the fabric was fastened around his wrists. “I didn’t peg you for a submissive.”

He threw a snort over his shoulder. “You haven’t pegged me at all yet.”

The answering choke was adorable. Truly.

“As for the submissive thing… depends on what kind of mood I’m in.”

Aldous’s hands coasted over Roman’s restrained arms, all the way up to his neck and into his hair. Roman let out a hiss of pleasure—until those fingers locked in place and yanked him backwards, his ear brushing against Aldous’s lips. “What kind of mood are you in now?”

“ Fuck ,” Roman bit out. When was this man going to stop surprising him? He let out a hiss through his teeth as Aldous’s lips caressed his neck. “The kind of mood where I can’t stop thinking about the way you sounded when you came that night.”

The kind of mood where he was up for fucking anything , so long as Aldous was the one doing it to him.

Aldous stilled, but Roman turned to face him.

“You wanted to touch my cock that night, Aldous. I could see it in your eyes. I could feel you looking at it, so I’m offering myself up to you here and now. Use me. Undress me. Touch me. Fuck me. Suck me. Take your pick. I consent. ” He shrugged—as much as a bound man was able to. “And I know for a fact I give one hell of a blow job.”

There was a glazed look in Aldous’s eyes. “Are you sure?”

“I mean I don’t exactly have Trustpilot reviews, but anecd—” His words were shut off as Aldous’s hand was slapped over his mouth. Instead, he offered up a nod. He didn’t know what Aldous had in mind, but he very, very much wanted to be part of it.

Roman shuddered out a breath when his shirt was pulled up over his head, falling to dangle over his bound wrists. His eyes darkened with arousal as Aldous trailed his hands over his torso, the edge of his lips curling upwards in a seductive smirk. His breathing quickened as Aldous directed his touch lower, fiddling with the button on his trousers.

“I just want to look at you.” The words were a hushed murmur on Aldous’s lips.

“I’m all yours,” Roman assured him, as his trousers and boxers were shucked down his legs, leaving him naked and exposed. His cock hung heavy between his legs, curving upwards as pulses of need shot through him.

That made Aldous smile. “You are, aren’t you?”

“Every inch.” He nodded, sucking in a breath as Aldous’s touch returned, skimming his hips on either side. Roman let Aldous build up his confidence slowly, but there never was a sweeter torture. Just when he was sure the man’s touch would finally land on his cock, it moved away again, beginning the torment all over again.

“Every inch?” Aldous purred, as though he didn’t hold Roman’s life and soul in his fucking hands. Everything apart from my cock. There was a cruel glint to his smirk. “Remind me, how many is that again?”

“You’re enjoying this,” Roman realised. As though giving him control over the situation also gave him confidence. Makes sense.

“Maybe I am.”

If that was what Aldous wanted, then Roman had no qualms about playing the part. “Touch me,” he begged, long since having sagged onto the wall behind him, a half-melted puddle of need and heat. “ Please .”

Aldous crowded him, one hand coming up to cradle his jaw.

“Not this head,” Roman panted, fixed onto that amber gaze. “The other one.”

There was a hint of amusement in Aldous’s glare, but Roman’s head emptied of thought when warm, strong fingers wrapped around his cock.

Roman’s eyes fluttered as he let out a hiss of ecstasy. “You have the best hand in the world.” A harsh groan escaped him when Aldous shifted his hand up and down. He shuddered at the intensity as Aldous’s grip slipped over the head. Everything in him wanted to reciprocate, to give Aldous the same electrifying pleasure he dealt out.

Roman let out a rasped grunt as pleasure licked up his spine. “I want to taste you,” he admitted, too far gone to keep his thoughts in his head. “I need to taste you.”

“You gonna get on your knees for me after this?” Aldous asked, a sheen of desire darkening his gaze.

The first hint of heat simmered at the base of his spine. “Fuck, I’d get on my knees for you right now.”

A wolfish grin flashed on Aldous’s face, but he didn’t cease the blissful rhythm of his hand on Roman’s cock, twisting over the head until it felt like he was going to come out of his skin. “I want to see you come first. I want to see you come for me .”

Roman’s vision blurred as the heat grew into an unstoppable force, exploding from him like a shockwave of incoherent pleasure. Moans and gasps and grunts left him, but the need to latch onto Aldous reigned over him from start to finish. “I need you,” he choked out, still crawling out of his mind as the last of his cum spurted from his cock.

The truth was in there. He did need Aldous, just as much as he needed Bri.

But there was another emotion lingering in his chest as he collapsed against the wall, heavy breaths and unsurmountable pleasure wracking his frame. One he knew he couldn’t name for fear of scaring Aldous away.

Roman half-expected Aldous to be scared away regardless. Anyone’s first same-sex experience was bound to be equal parts need and equal parts nerves—even Roman’s, way back when.

Before Aldous’s fears manifested into something tangible, Roman let an audacious question slip through. “Can I… can I see you?”

To his surprise, Aldous didn’t dismiss the possibility out of hand. “Which part of me?”

It took him a second to catch his breath. “Whichever part you’d like me to put my mouth on.” He nodded down at the boxers he’d stepped out of back when Aldous was undressing him. “While you’re deciding though, fancy cleaning me up?”

Aldous’s tongue swiped over his bottom lip, and for one brief, glorious moment, Roman thought he might use something other than the discarded boxers. His hopes died as the rapidly-chilling cum was cleaned up with something other than Aldous’s tongue. One day.

“So...” Roman’s gaze travelled the length of Aldous’s body. “Which part of you did you want my mouth on again?”

Aldous opened his mouth, but no answer came forth.

“Shall we start here?” Roman suggested, pressing a gentle kiss against his lips. “And maybe here.” He moved down to Aldous’s neck. He ached to run his hands through Aldous’s dark hair, almost as much as his shoulders ached from his arms being restrained.

“And,” he carried on. “Maybe down here on your collarbone too.”

A rumbled gasp left Aldous, but it wasn’t a refusal—so on he went. Aldous’s shirt inhibited his kisses somewhat, but a burst of triumph flared inside him as he kissed his way down to his waist.

Roman had been right. Aldous didn’t have an issue with touch; it was hands .

With his own bound behind his back, the transition from standing to kneeling was a little bumpy, but—thankfully—he narrowly avoided headbutting Aldous in the plums, rounding off his descent with a light kiss to the outline of Aldous’s erection beneath his grey sweatpants.

Aldous sucked in a breath, but he didn’t step backwards.

His own cock rapidly hardening once more, Roman snagged his teeth on the drawstring, pulling it free of the knot. It sagged around Aldous’s hips, exposing a sliver of skin beneath his navel and a smattering of hair.

But then Aldous’s hands were there, slowly pushing the sweatpants down to expose the thick, rigid length hiding beneath.

“Fuck,” Roman breathed, swallowing down the hunger pooling in his mouth. He couldn’t tear his eyes away, following the vein travelling along the underside, all the way to the reddish purple head wet with arousal. “I think that might just be the prettiest dick I’ve ever seen.”

And the biggest.

Because holy shit, who knew Aldous was carrying this kind of heat around with him?

Roman didn’t wait for an answer. Need was reviving his cock in record time, but he ignored it, opening his mouth wide and letting Aldous’s steel heat glide across his tongue.

Above him, Aldous grunted into a closed fist. “Jesus Christ.”

With a smirk, he sent up a wink. “Oh, you can call me Roman.” Diving down lower, he tongued Aldous’s balls, gently sucking each one into his mouth one after the other—and enjoying the shocked moan he received. Roman went deep on the next slide, groaning as his salty taste traversed the length of his tongue.

Aldous’s voice was a barely-there whisper. “Go fuck yourself.”

“Fuck me yourself.” Roman’s grin morphed into a moan. The back of his throat closed around Aldous—and almost toppling him off balance, concentrating more on sucking dick than staying upright. And who could blame me, because look at that thing. “I need you to hold my head and fuck my mouth,” he bit out, realising how much having his hands tied behind his back threw him off balance.

“Is that a thing people do?” Aldous asked, his eyes glazed.

Oh, my sweet summer child.

He nodded, fitting his mouth over Aldous’s cock and taking him to the back of his throat in a blaze of heat. He felt Aldous’s hands land on either side of his head, and he groaned his encouragement, knowing the vibrations would be driving him wild.

“Fuck,” Aldous snarled.

Each stroke sent Aldous’s cock deep into his mouth, hitting the back of his throat harder and harder, but Roman didn’t give a shit. He just needed more. The movements of Aldous’s hips were slow to begin with, but they ramped up when Roman hummed more encouragement. The sight of Aldous like this was electric, chest heaving, mouth panting, almost overtaken by ecstasy as he lingered on the edge of his orgasm, finally trusting Roman enough for this to be possible.

A puddle of pre-cum was leaking beneath him, but all he could think of was Aldous’s cock slamming past his lips.

“ Roman .” It was a choked plea, but Aldous wasn’t done. “Look at me,” he growled.

He couldn’t do anything else. Come for me , he wanted to demand, feeling Aldous’s grip tightening as it grasped his hair. Come for me.

Roman was held captive by that amber stare as Aldous balanced on the edge of ecstasy—but then he fell with an almighty groan. Aldous’s hips juddered as hot spurts of cum filled Roman’s throat, but he swallowed it down, as eager to taste Aldous’s release as he was to watch it.

It ended sooner than he would have liked, but Roman would have gladly stayed in that moment for an eternity.

Aldous staggered backwards slightly, tucking his cock back into his sweatpants and coming to rest on a stack of unpacked boxes. There was something chaotic in his eyes as he glanced over to the door. “I…”

He licked the last of the cum from his bottom lip, afraid that this was the moment Aldous was going to baulk. “Don’t leave.” Not now. Not after this.

With one final look at the door, Aldous pulled himself away from it, instead stepping towards Roman and holding out his hand as though to help him up. “I won’t.”

Roman wanted to sag with relief. Thank god. “I’d love to accept…but I’m still trussed up like a Christmas turkey.”

Embarrassment spread across the top of Aldous’s cheeks, but there was a little, self-deprecatory smile on his face. “I forgot,” he murmured, coming behind Roman in a crouch.

He snorted, feeling the hand wraps finally coming loose, alongside the shirt that had been dangling over his wrists. “Easy for you to forget.” Goosebumps spread up his spine as Aldous’s breath brushed against his neck—before a kiss was planted there.

“Thank you.” Aldous’s voice was a low rumble, as though he hadn’t just done something unutterably adorable.

“For the blow job?” Roman asked, puzzled, climbing to his feet. It wasn’t usually something he was thanked for.

“Not the…blow job.” There was that blush again. “For waiting. For being patient with me.”

“I would wait a thousand years,” he promised quietly, sincerity lined in every word as he pulled Aldous against him. He’d only intended for the embrace to be a quick one, but emotion choked his throat when he felt Aldous’s strong arms locking around him in turn. The same emotion as earlier, knitting itself into his very soul, until he breathed it in with every inhale and tasted it with every swallow, until he could no longer remember what his life had been like before Bri and Aldous entered it. “I would wait an eternity if it meant holding you in my arms for one more minute.”