Heart (25 page)

Dex slithered across the mattress and put his chin on Seb’s chest. He didn’t speak, but his soft smile said a thousand words.

Seb pushed Dex’s coal-dark hair out of his face and felt a pang of longing for the halo of platinum locks he’d sported when they’d first met. He’d never quite understood the story behind them. “Tired?”

Dex nodded and closed his eyes, but he let his hands roam Seb’s chest. His touch was light and lazy and drove Seb
insane
.

Seb shifted and drew in a shaky breath. “Feels nice.”

“Nice?” Dex chuckled and brushed his thumb over Seb’s nipple. “How about this?”

Seb moaned as the hot, wet heat of Dex’s tongue explored every curve of muscle and flesh on his torso. His dick hardened, and he felt Dex thick and heavy against his leg.

He sat up, rolled them over, and pressed his lips to Dex’s in a sweetly biting kiss. He ran his hands over Dex’s smooth torso, still marveling that, despite his ordeal, Dex didn’t have a single scar on his flawless pale skin. Not a day went by when Seb couldn’t recall the police flatly listing Dex’s injuries from his time held captive on Braden McCulloch’s derelict farm, but Seb tried to save those nightmares for when he was alone.

Dex whimpered and pushed at Seb’s underwear. Seb let him have his way, and it wasn’t long before they were both bare and moving together with a friction that consumed every nerve in Seb’s body. He rolled them again, letting Dex call the shots. Sometimes, it helped his state of mind to know Dex was in control of their encounters. To know Dex was doing it because he wanted to… not because he lacked the ability to say no.

And sometimes, it just wasn’t to be. Sometimes Dex said it all without saying a word. Dex rolled them again and pulled Seb over him, his intent and desire clear.
Take me. I’m yours.

Seb slid careful fingers into Dex, ever mindful of his lover’s fragile body. Dex said sex with Seb never hurt, but Seb watched him like a hawk, just to be sure. Two fingers became three. Dex arched his back and widened his legs. Sweat beaded his chest. Seb lubed his sheathed cock and eased inside him, watching and waiting for that magical moment when the discomfort of being filled gave way to all-encompassing pleasure.

“
Oh.
”

Seb shuddered. Dex’s breathy exclamation always hit him like a train… a train made from feathers and silk, with the bite of a snake. His dick pulsed, putting him right on the edge far too soon. He dropped his head into the crook of Dex’s neck and grounded himself in all that was Dex. “You drive me bloody crazy, you know that?”

Dex shivered and flexed his hips. “You talk too much.”

Seb took the hint and let the natural current between them take over. Their coupling was slow and sweet, belying the crazy desire that sometimes overcame them. Beneath him, Dex writhed and moaned, crying out when release hit him.

Seb watched him through hooded eyes, feeling his own climax sweep over him like a soft summer wave. He loved having sex like this, and he knew, given the chance, that he could watch Dex like this forever.

Twenty-Seven

S
EB
OBSERVED
from the dessert counter as Dex incorporated the tepid water, yeast, and sugar into the mound of seasoned flour and worked it into smooth, elastic dough. He loved watching Dex make bread. The industrial mixer and dough hook were just a few feet away, but kneading the dough by hand was good for Dex’s healed wrist, and he seemed to enjoy it.

Lucky, because the next day was a bank holiday, and Rick had decided the restaurant needed to contribute a stall to the local carnival. Seb had been charged with stocking and manning it, and it hadn’t taken much to rope Dex into helping. Not that Dex knew about the manning part. Seb was saving that bomb for the following morning, hoping Dex would be too shell-shocked by the predawn start to protest too much.

Seb wrapped up his last batch of scones and wandered over to the trays of bread dough Dex had set up to proof overnight. “What are you putting in that one?”

Dex pointed to a muslin-wrapped bundle. “The wild rosemary we found by the stream last week.”

“
You
found,” Seb said. “I was too busy trying not to fall in.”

Dex laughed. Over the summer, they’d spent most of their free time hiking through the woods near the farm where Dex’s elderly horses lived, and Seb had fast learned Dex had a huge knowledge of the wildlife and countryside. Herbs, berries, poisonous plants. The trees and the creatures that lived among them. It was startling, to Seb at least, and didn’t quite match up with his grimly imagined images of Dex’s childhood.

It also underlined his ongoing worry that maybe an inner-city kitchen wasn’t the best place for Dex. He worked hard, and he’d tackled every section in the kitchen, but he’d yet to find the role that suited him best. Perhaps there wasn’t one. Perhaps it was time for a change.

T
HE
NEXT
day dawned warm and bright. Seb dragged Dex out of bed at dawn, and they spent the morning cooking up a storm. By the time midday came around, they had a trestle table overflowing with breads, cakes, and jars of jam made from Dex’s secret stash of wild strawberries.

Seb hustled Dex out of the kitchen to see the fruits of their labor. “What do you think? Looks good, eh?”

Dex nodded, his reactions as muted as ever. “Are we going home now?”

“Nope. Who do you think is going to sell all this?”

“Um, Bernie?”

Seb chuckled. “You wish. Go put a clean jacket on and get your arse back out here.”

Dex’s expression said it all, but it wasn’t his way to protest, and by the time he slunk outside a little while later, Seb was hard at work selling their wares. Years of fronting the family fudge shop meant the patter came easy to him, but it wasn’t long before he realized Dex had hidden himself behind him.

Not today.

Seb handed an elderly woman her change and pulled off his bandana. “Hold the fort, will you? I’ll be back in a minute.”

Dex looked startled. “Where are you going?”

“Inside. I’ll be back.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

Dex opened his mouth and shut it again. Seb punched his shoulder. “You know the prices. The change is in the tin.”

He slipped away without giving Dex a chance to respond, effectively abandoning him on the stall. Cruel? Maybe, maybe not. Dex had worked a hair-braiding stall in Padstow all by himself, handling money and communicating with the outside world. It was all about confidence, and he would never regain it hiding behind Seb.

Seb loitered in the kitchen awhile before he deemed it safe to take a peek. What he saw when he did warmed his bones.

Bernie joined him at the back door. She followed his gaze, watching as Dex sold the last of his rosemary loaves to a burly Afro-Caribbean man, and nodded, needing no explanation. “He’s changing every day,” she said. “I’m so proud of him.”

Seb said nothing, constrained by the lump in his throat, but it was a sentiment he shared with every fiber of his being. Dex was a stone heavier than he’d ever been, and his smile grew every time it appeared on his face.

Yeah. Life was good.

Seb let his experiment run its course and rejoined Dex at the stall a little while later. Dex was less than impressed. “I’m not a mute, you know, and I’m not stupid. I had to take the fares from people at the bumper cars on the fairgrounds.”

Fairgrounds
. Seb absorbed the snippet of information and enjoyed the rare moment of assertiveness from Dex. With his unfathomable gray eyes and surly pout, cross Dex was sexy as hell.

I
T
WAS
early evening by the time they called it a day. They walked home in high spirits, helped along by the pints of free cider Rick had passed their way all day.

They stumbled through the front door. Dex tripped over his feet, laughing, his eyes bright, no longer the sullen vagrant Seb had met on the seafront, but not the broken shadow his tormentor had left him either. This was a new Dex. Perhaps the real Dex, the Dex who had his whole life ahead of him, full of hope and promise and all the love he deserved.

Seb pulled him close, enveloping him in a tight hug that seemed to take Dex by surprise. Seb ignored his bemused gaze and kissed him with all he had.

Dex’s response stopped him in his tracks. Often, when they kissed, Dex fell pliant in Seb’s arms, almost melting into him like liquid silver, but, conversely, sometimes he stiffened, as though the thrill of being kissed hit him too hard. He did neither of those things now. Now he responded with a spirit that had Seb stumbling until his back hit the wall.

Seb broke away, breathless. Dex stared back at him, his chest heaving. He looked like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out, and the longer they gazed at each other, the more heated and heavy the air became.

Dex touched Seb’s face, his eyes wide with wonder, like he’d never touched him before. “I feel weird today.”

Seb absorbed the sensation of Dex pressed against the entire length of his body. “Weird?”

Dex shrugged. “Yeah. Like I need… something.”

“Something from me?”

Dex thought on it a moment, then shook his head. “No. More like something
for
you.”

“For me?” A tremor of anticipation rushed through Seb. He had an idea what Dex was trying to say, even if Dex didn’t know it himself. “Do I need to take my shoes off?”

His shaky attempt at humor seemed to remind Dex they’d barely gotten through the door. Dex blinked and stepped back. He toed off his shoes and laid them deliberately on the rack by the door.

Seb watched, knowing whatever was going on in Dex’s mind couldn’t be forced. “Dex?”

Dex turned to face him, wresting with something only he knew. “I want to do what you want… that thing you don’t want to ask me for, but I need you to tell me it’ll be okay if I can’t do it.”

He wants to top?
Seb considered his options. He was versatile, and he’d bottomed for all his partners before Dex, but Dex had never topped for anyone. He’d never had the choice. “You need to tell me what you want, so I know we’re thinking about the same thing.”

Calling Dex’s bluff was a gamble, and one that didn’t always pay off. Often, he shrugged and walked away before Seb had any clue what he was trying to say.

Dex stepped closer, putting himself back in Seb’s personal space. “I want you to feel like I do.”

I want you to love me.

“I do.”

Seb blinked. “What?”

“I do love you, Seb.”

It was all Seb needed to hear. It was all he’d
ever
needed to hear. He took Dex’s face in his hands and pressed their foreheads together. “Come upstairs.”

They fell into bed, Seb on his back and Dex over him, covering him and consuming him in ways that belied his smaller, leaner frame. Their clothes disappeared. Sweat, heat, and friction. Dex didn’t falter until his condom-sheathed cock was with a hairbreadth of where Seb wanted it most.

Dex pulled away, panting. “I don’t know how.”

Seb tugged him back, widening his legs and creating a cradle for Dex between his thighs. “Yes, you do. Do what you feel, and I’ll feel it too.”

Dex dropped his hands on either side of Seb’s head. The head of his dick nudged against Seb, rubbing, pressing, teasing. “I don’t know how you feel.”

Seb gripped Dex’s chin and held his gaze as he raised his hips, taking Dex inside him in a gently punishing slide. “Yes. You. Do.”

Dex bit his lip and thrust, his eyes rolling back in his head as Seb’s body clamped down around him. “Do you love me?”

“Yes.” Seb shuddered. He’d once believed Dex was no more than a brief summer rain… a ghostlike dream that came around once in a lifetime. Now, with Dex filling him and stretching him until he felt his heart would burst… now it was clear Dex was the sky, and the ocean, and everything to him no one else had ever been.

Above him, Dex groaned, deep and low, and thrust his hips in a rhythm that fast became something primal. Seb closed his eyes and steadied himself on the wall behind him. Dex had a thick dick, but more than that, his heart was huge, and each stabbing dig of his cock set Seb on fire.

Seb felt like the intensity would shatter his body. His heart raced and his breathing became rapid and sharp. He forced his eyes open and found Dex watching him, his face a mirror image of what Seb felt every time they came together in bed: love, life, and a giddy exhilaration that knew no bounds.

Dex rose up on his knees, drawing one of Seb’s legs to his chest to anchor himself as the pace of his thrusts grew in confidence.

Seb braced himself for the increase in pressure, took himself in hand, and let the carnal pleasure of Dex’s cock inside him take over. His faculties left him one by one. Coherent thought and speech, his sight, all seared white. He arched his back and moaned, reaching out blindly for any part of Dex he could reach.

Dex grasped his hand and thrust once, twice, three times, and then pulsing warmth filled the space where they were joined.