Page 44 of The Company We Keep

Dust moaned into the kiss and his hands moved frantic to the front of Carrow's shirt, fumbling with the buttons, arching against him. Everything about him was perfect — exactly the way Carrow had imagined it, Dust's tanned skin under his fingertips, the desperation in the way he moved.

He felt as if he didn’t have enough hands in that moment, wanting to trace every inch of Dust’s body, to memorize the planes of each muscle the same way he was now memorizing his mouth, his moans.

Out of breath, he pulled back but didn’t step away. Dust was breathing hard, holding him by the hips and rolling his body up off the wall to meet him.

“Fuck, Carrow —”

“Ansel,” he corrected, equally breathless. For this moment, he could be something other than Carrow — the head of The Company, the man who had lost everything and regained more, the wanted man with his hands in every pocket. For what was left of the night, he could be someone who took risks, who indulged, who let himself feel pleasure and pain.

“Ansel,” Dust said softly, his voice almost reverent.

Carrow leaned in again, pressing a kiss into the thin skin just below his ear. It earned him a sweet gasp from Dust — and instantly Carrow wanted more, one hand keeping him steady against the wall and the other reaching down to strokeover Dust’s groin. He was already hard, the outline of a generous cock straining against the front of his dark pants. Dust arched against the touch, gasping again, and Carrow kept him suspended there for a moment, worrying the skin of Dust’s neck between his teeth while palming him.

Dust let his head fall back against the wall — didn’t attempt to reign in or muffle the sounds of pleasure at what Carrow was doing. He was already unhinged and Carrow hadn’t even gotten his shirt off yet.

Every muscle was still vibratingwith adrenaline. It took all of Dust’s concentration to keep his knees from buckling as Carrow sucked a mark into his neck and worked at his belt buckle. The larger man kept him propped against the wall with his own weight — maybe sensing the fact that Dust might fall to his knees at any minute or wanting to make his bulk apparent. Again, Dust was struck by Carrow’s physical presence — the way he only ever seemed larger than life when he was this close, pressing hands on Dust.

Dust was throbbing hard and lost in sensations, coming out of the moment only when he felt the shock of skin on skin as Carrow got his fly down and worked a big hand into his boxers. The man moved confidently as he growled into Dust’s neck, tracing the shape of Dust’s cock under the garments, thumbing over his head, smeared with precum, before lightly twisting around his length.

Dust wasgone. He was lost in it. He arched into the touch, pressed up against Carrow who only leaned harder on him as he stroked Dust, keeping him pinned against the wall.

Carrow kept his bulk holding Dust there and moved his free hand to cup Dust’s chin, examining him in the dim light as he moaned and worked his hips, urging Carrow to keepgoing. Without thinking, Dust ducked his chin and kissed Carrow’s hand, pressing hot kisses against his palm. Carrow sighed with pleasure and drew his hand back slightly, watching Dust with lust and then surprise as he explored the pad of Carrow’s thumb with his tongue.

He took the first knuckle of the digit into his mouth, stroking it with his tongue and sucking helplessly as Carrow’s other hand stroked his length. Carrow twisted around his shaft and Dust moaned around his thumb in answer before taking the thumb deeper into his mouth.

It was Carrow’s turn to moan, then, as he watched the digit disappear between Dust’s lips, felt his tongue working. His mouth fell open as he breathed harder, watching Dust work for a moment and then beginning his own rhythm, pressing his thumb into Dust’s hot mouth in time with his strokes.

He withdrew the thumb after a moment, moving to stroke Dust’s spit-slicked bottom lip with two fingers. The affection and tenderness was almost shocking. Dust parted his lips in answer, and Carrow pressed in.

Dust had no idea what the hell they were doing — and even less of an understanding of why it was turning him on. There was something raw and wrong about having his mouth claimed this way — and in the same moment, as he sucked around Carrow’s slowly-pumping fingers, something perfect. Exactly what he had needed.

Dust waspliant and lovely there in the dim light — all manic energy and eagerness as he alternately lavished attention on Carrow’s fingertips with his tongue and hipped off the wall, urging Carrow to keep stroking him.

His eagerness to please in itself pleased Carrow, made the man want to satisfy him.

Carrow began to sink down, stopping only as he felt Dust’s knees buckle to follow him. He drew his fingers out of the man’s mouth and planted a firm palm against his chest, keeping Dust against the wall as he took his new position. Dust let out a moan that sounded almost outraged as he understood the trajectory of what was happening and straightened himself against the wall, propping himself up now that he was no longer pinned.

With both hands freed again, Carrow dragged the garments down Dust’s hips, stopping for a moment to kiss the skin now exposed beneath the hem of his undershirt. He worked the tip of his tongue over one side of the deep V that spanned his hips and then moved to lavish attention on the other.

There was no part of Dust that didn’t seem to be perfect, from the noises he made to the reality of his body to the way he moved, still acting as if he were pinned against the wall even as Carrow sank to his knees to begin worshipping his body.

He freed Dust’s heavy cock, pulling his pants and boxers just a few more inches down his thighs, the man’s belt jangling and providing a tinny counterpart to their breathing, to Dust’s moaning. The moment was irresistible, better than it had been even in Carrow’s imagination.

Dust was already so desperate for it that Carrow imagined a scenario in which he could resist teasing the younger man and simply give him the release he wanted there in the dark. Carrow had no such mercy in mind, though, holding Dust’s cock by the base before painting a stripe up the underside, dragging his tongue slow and languid as if he had assessed the situation and could take it or leave it. Dust’s moans wenthigher into the air above Carrow and he couldn’t help but smile at the noise.

The young man was impossible and perfect and Carrow could not recall a moment he had enjoyed quite as much as this one, on his knees in the dark safehouse.

Carrow teased him, slow and relentless, and it was like nothing Dust had ever felt before that night. He’d seen the way the crime lord watched him work, seen the man’s dark eyes dart to his mouth with a hunger that was unmistakable. Dust had imagined that their chemistry would land him on his own knees — that it couldn't be the other way around.

Somehow the realization that Carrow cared enough to want to see him pleased added an extra layer of pleasure as the man continued to tease him, confident and unhurried.

Carrow worked methodically until he was swallowing rhythmically down Dust’s length. He couldn’t keep himself from burying his fingers in Carrow’s hair, curling and — when Carrow hummed around his cock at the contact — daring to tug a little. Everything about the moment was incredible, and when Carrow chanced a look up at him in the dim light, Dust almost lost it then and there at the sight of his hard-on disappearing between the full lips of the most powerful man in Las Abras — and certainly the most intriguing person Dust had met in his short life.

With a flourish, and maybe sensing Dust’s desperation, Carrow pulled off.

“There’s a bedroom,” Carrow said softly, tugging at the waistband of Dust’s clothes. The statement was so obvious it was almost laughable, but Dust couldn’t even muster a dry chuckle — his need for more was too urgent.

As he ledDust to the dim bedroom, his own erection neglected and uncomfortable, Carrow was struck with the odd notion that for the first time he appreciated the fact that Nick Short had kept stashes of lube and condoms in every safehouse.

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