Then, Kane poked out his tongue. There was a smudge of blood on it—Everet’s blood.
Everet automatically glanced down at his hand. The little bugger had bitten down hard and broken the skin. He looked wonderfully proud of that achievement.
“Careful, Kane, you’re not the only man in the bed with teeth.”
Everet still sat over Kane’s legs. The top half of the magpie’s body was free. Kane made the most of that and sat up.
Watching him warily, Everet allowed the other man to retain that little bit of freedom for a few moments. Catching hold of Everet’s wrist, Kane guided his hand up to his mouth.
He very gently kissed and licked at the wound, doing what he could to clean it and make it better.
It might have looked like an apology, but when Kane glanced up at Everet’s eyes, his gaze was all seduction. No one should have been able to make licking an open wound look erotic, but somehow Kane managed it.
Everet took his hand away. Lifting his leg over Kane, he got off the bed completely. Kane opened his mouth, no doubt his complaint already rushing to his lips.
“Remember the rules,” Everet warned.
Kane stopped short, unable to say a single word without bringing the game to a halt. Folding his arms across his chest, he settled for lifting one eyebrow in silent challenge.
“Take off your clothes,” Everet ordered.
Kane held Everet’s gaze for a moment. Then, a smile curved his lips. He pulled his shirt over his head and threw it aside.
Everet made a mental note to make tossing clothes on the floor against the rules in future. He wasn’t about to play the maid and pick them up.
Kane reached for his fly. Everet had seen the other man naked a hundred times before, but it felt different this time. This time they were both thinking about sex. Everet sent up a silent prayer that what they were both doing was for the right reasons. It was too late for him to back off now. The only one with a safe word was Kane.
Kane flung his jeans to one side. Everet looked so bloody serious about it all. But, if he really thought there was any way in hell that what happened between them that night wasn’t going to completely alter everything between them, he was far more of an idiot than Kane would ever have taken him for.
Kneeling in the center of the bed, Kane waited for another order, no doubt just as Everet intended him to. It wasn’t as difficult to do that as he expected it to be. Not talking, now
that
was a challenge.
Kane bit down on his bottom lip as he fought to keep words back. There were no particular words that he wanted to say, but that was irrelevant. The urge to speak, to be heard, to prove he was worth hearing, was almost overwhelming.
Everet finally stopped doing his statue impression. He pulled his own shirt over his head and set it on the chair in the corner of the room. Other items of clothing followed. Kane watched every movement, taking in each line of muscle revealed to him.
The raven wasn’t pretty, he was too strong to suit a word like that, too male. There was so much raw power in him it almost took Kane’s breath away, and he had a truly gorgeous cock.
It really was a case of no payment necessary in Everet’s case. The guy was so—
What the hell? Kane shook his head at himself. Other men thought with their cocks, he didn’t think with his. There bloody well had better be a pay-out on the cards! Otherwise, he was—
“Second thoughts?”
Kane opened his mouth, but quickly settled on silently frowning at Everet.
“You’re allowed to speak to answer a direction questions.”
“I’m not having second thoughts,” Kane said. “I’m ready to go, aren’t I?” He waved a hand at his flourishing erection.
“You shook your head.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Everet said nothing. He just stood there, stern and disapproving.
“And even if I did, it doesn’t mean you have to stop everything.”
“Yes, it does,” Everet said. “I have no interest in an unwilling partner, remember?”
He said it so patiently, as if it wasn’t already the millionth time he’d said it, as if he’d say it another billion times if he thought he needed to.
Kane glared at him, remaining perfectly still while his brain went into overtime.
Everet meant what he said. And he wasn’t going to be easy to fool. Nest security. Nest cop. Being lied to all the time would have given him a really good built-in lie detector.
There was only one way to proceed with a man like that.
Kane looked inside himself, searching out that part of himself that wanted to believe that the version of reality Everet spoke about actually existed for a magpie like him.
It was far easier to find that part of his psyche than it had been any other time. Kane had turned to his tactic of last resort. Barely a split second had passed before that side of Kane stepped forward, more than ready and willing to take over.
It would be good to be able to have sex and just enjoy it rather than be focusing on any kind of end game that didn’t involve an orgasm. Yes. Being aware of his own pleasure rather than the need to constantly please someone else so they’d be inclined to give him what he wanted…
It was strangely freeing, undeniably scary.
Kane let it all flood right to the front of his mind, safe in the knowledge that the regular part of him was still there in the background, ready to resume control once it was in his best interests to do so.
He looked up and met Everet’s eyes. The raven’s frown deepened. Kane didn’t even blink.
Everet moved forward, until he stood with his legs pressed against the edge of the mattress. Kane remained perfectly motionless as the raven dipped his head and brought their lips together for the first time.
The kiss was simple and strangely sweet. For the first time he could remember, Kane didn’t keep his eyes open in order to monitor his lover’s reactions. He let his lids drop down so he could better focus on the way the other man’s mouth felt against his.
Everet’s lips were far softer than he expected. There was nothing insistent or demanding about the way they moved against Kane’s mouth. It was all very, well, very un-raven like.
Kane parted his lips, curious if Everet would accept the invitation. He didn’t jump at the chance to claim Kane’s mouth the way Kane hoped he might. Instead, he slid his hand into Kane’s hair and encouraged him to tilt his head back.
Kane allowed Everet to do that. Yes, that was right. He
let
Everet do it. Kane was the one in control, whatever Everet might think. He was the one who could stop it all with a word. And, for once in his life, it really felt like that was what would happen if he demanded the game stop.
Everet wouldn’t simply grin and keep going, enjoying himself all the more because the man trapped beneath him was in the middle of a panic attack. Ravens were an honorable flock—more fool them.
Kane shifted on the bed, impatient for a real kiss. Everet ran his tongue gently across Kane’s bottom lip. Frustration bubbled up inside Kane, demanding more, demanding movement.
Lifting his hands from his sides, Kane slid them into Everet’s hair. Tugging hard at the thick, black strands, he pulled the raven down toward him, demanding that Everet deepen the kiss
now
and not just whenever the hell the mood might strike him.
Everet made a grumbling, pissed off noise in the back of his throat as he swayed, almost lost his balance, and quickly recovered. A strong stable lover was an invitation to use them as a climbing frame as far as Kane was concerned. He let Everet take his weight and practically left the bed as he fought for control of the kiss.
He nipped at Everet’s bottom lip, demanding to be allowed to explore the other man’s mouth. Everet took no notice. So bloody controlled!
Kane tugged at the raven’s hair so hard he knew it had to hurt. With each movement he made, his bare cock rubbed against Everet’s torso. Everet’s hard shaft rubbed against his body in return.
Everet made that sound in the back of his throat again. A tingle of expectation raced all the way down Kane’s spine. He moaned his approval as he pressed himself ever more firmly against Everet’s body.
One moment Kane hung from the raven’s shoulders. The next, he lay flat on his back. His eyes snapped open. He stared up at Everet in shock. The raven still wasn’t smiling, but at least he didn’t look like a man inclined to be sensible and do his thinking with any part of his body that resided above his waist. That was a definite improvement.
Even better, Everet looked like a man who was ready to screw. As if to confirm that possibility, Everet grabbed a tube of lube from the drawer in his nightstand.
Kane immediately twisted around, to put himself on his hands and knees.
“No, stay on your back. I want to be able to see your face.”
Kane gave a mental shrug and rolled over again. Everet had already coated his fingers with lube. Kane barely had a chance to pull his knees back toward his chest before the other man’s digits slid against his hole, smearing the lube around the tight ring of muscle.
As Everet knelt on the bed alongside Kane, he loomed taller than he had any right to appear. Without any warning, the raven turned his attention from Kane’s hole to his face.
“You remember what you need to do if you want me to stop?” Everet asked.
It was a bloody stupid question. Kane glared at him in annoyance. Everet’s fingers stilled, halfway inside him.
He was waiting for an answer? Seriously?
Kane squirmed, trying to push himself farther onto Everet’s fingers so the tips of them might rub against his prostate. The raven was as stubborn as a rock.
Finally, purely because it was in the interests of gaining his own pleasure, Kane nodded. Yes, he knew what he needed to do to make Everet stop. He just wished he knew what to do in order to get the other man to hurry the hell up.
As if someone had flicked a switch inside Everet, the moment Kane nodded, his fingers started moving again, working their way deeper inside him, stretching him, preparing him to take another man’s cock.
The whole time, Everet kept looking away from what his fingers did, and staring at Kane’s face. It was completely unnatural. All the interesting stuff was going on elsewhere, damn it!
“Just because you’re not allowed to speak, that doesn’t mean you can’t let me know what you like.” Everet crocked his fingers, obviously looking for Kane’s prostate.
On the second try, he found it. Kane gasped. That wasn’t obedience, though. It was an uncontrollable instinct. He couldn’t have kept it back if it would have saved his life.
Everet smiled slightly. He crooked his fingers again. A wave of pleasure rolled through Kane’s body. It wasn’t like the bliss that came from quicksilver, but it felt good, and his body was quick to latch onto it as a replacement, however ineffective it might ultimately be.
Kane moaned, arching his back and pushing himself down on Everet’s fingers. It was easily the most wonderful sensation he could ever remember feeling. If Everet wanted to be soppy and try to make it good for the guy he topped, Kane wasn’t going to complain.
Five minutes later, Kane changed his mind. He bloody well would complain. He didn’t want Everet’s fingers. They weren’t good enough. He wanted Everet’s cock. Now!
Dizzy with a combination of pleasure and frustration, Kane reached out and wrapped his hand around Everet’s shaft.
A surprised grunt escaped from Everet’s mouth. His cock slid against Kane’s palm, slicked with a liberal supply of pre-cum but Everet’s free hand grasped Kane’s wrist before he could deliver more than a few strokes.