Unable to help myself I recalled the game we’d begun to play.

As he squeezed tight around my cock I brought a hand down low, my body trembling as I smacked his ass, hard. His flesh jiggled, and my dick flexed inside him as his cheek squished beneath my fingers.

“That’s one,” I grunted, punctuating the slap with a roll of my hips.

“Oh fuck,” Luca mewled, trembling. My hand tingled where it had met his skin, and I couldn’t help but chase the sensation a second time.

“That’s two.” This time when I pulled my hand back he howled, all shuddery and sweet, his brow knit together. I smacked three against his other cheek, and though the pain had been brief, it wasn’t until his ass stung red with my hand prints that he finally seemed to really let go.

Relaxed.

Open.

Eager.

Happy.

Luca stared up at me enraptured, his gaze traveling over my shoulders as they flexed and burned, his brow scrunched up as he dropped his grip behind his knee, and used both hands to trace reverently over the muscles in my torso. Slowly, slowly, inch by inch he worshiped my tattoos. His skin left burning trails in its wake. The flowers he’d drawn on my body blurred in my peripheral vision as I circled my hips and he hissed his pleasure, fingers skittering and pausing—before they started moving again.

Down, down, down they went.

Till they traced the rim of his hole. His groan sounded amazed as my dick bumped against them, the slick sound of it squelching in and out, only made more filthy by the sight of his tan fingers toying with where we were connected.

I reached for his cock, shifting my weight onto one hand, suddenly desperate to lose myself within him, to feel him take every last drop of my pleasure like he was meant to do so. All it took was two twists of my wrist before he came between us, his face scrunching up, his eyes rolling back as his tongue curled inside his lovely open mouth.

I followed after him, snapping my hips, once—twice—as I filled his body with a quiet growl.

I kissed him.

And kissed him.

And kissed him.

He tasted like heaven as I rubbed my tongue against his and made myself at home on top of his body. Luca trembled and twitched within my grasp, overwhelmed and gorgeous, his muscles quaking. He looked glorious. Well-fucked. Well-loved. He was a vision with paint smeared across his skin. Littered with bruises that were a symbol of his strength, not weakness.

He checked the hallway twice before we stumbled into the bathroom to clean ourselves off. Luca’s laughter fed my soul as we huddled under the warm water and I sucked bruises into the side of his neck overtop the ones already there.

He was soapy and sweet—giggly, and sex-stupid, as I got on my knees, twisted him toward the wall, and sucked my cum from his puffy pink hole. The musky sweetness of his taste was quickly becoming my favorite flavor. His fingers dug into my hair, pulling tight as I ate him out till he was nothing but a panting, breathy mess.

When we stumbled to bed, we skipped over the mess we’d left on the floor.

Our masterpiece lay abandoned.

And it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, aside from its co-creator.

I stared at it as Luca snuggled into the bed beside me, slinging his long limbs over mine, his nose pressed against my neck. I let him hold me because he wanted to, my head spinning as I realized the implication of what we’d just done.

Things couldn’t go on as they had been.

They’d changed.

I didn’t care that he had secrets.

The picture I’d stolen of him lay hidden where I’d tucked it safe inside our shared backpack while he showered. The weight of the truths he had given me, proving if nothing else, that he was far more precious than anything I’d ever known.

Maybe our future was uncertain, but one thing wasn’t.

I couldn’t let him risk his life for me, deal or not. I pressed my lips to his hair, inhaling the sweet scent of him—sex and strawberries—and closed my eyes as I committed to memory every last second of the time we’d spent together.