Page 46 of Taste

I’d never seen him like this before, and I wanted to cry because fuck the world and it’s fucking karma, but Mark was perfect, so bloody perfect, and I didn’t deserve all this perfection. No stupid flexing of defined muscles, just a natural human body in all its glory. His stomach was soft beneath his flat chest, over which he self-consciously knotted his arms and then looked away. A string of tattoos snaked across his shoulder and down his arm, colourful pieces of artwork that made no sense as a whole piece but delighted me just the same because they were sohim.

So mine.

“Why have you got a teacup on your shoulder?” I asked, quickly adding, “I love it, by the way.”

I was climbing all over him before he got a chance to reply. My hands found his hips, stroking the soft skin there, and his arse fitted in my grip like it had been moulded to fit. His moans of pleasure amped the heat in my cheeks as I chanted in my headhe is mine, mine, mine.

“Take me to bed,” he murmured against my neck, which he was licking like I was the most delicious ice cream on his menu. “Otherwise I’ll have to blow you in the hallway, and I’m not sure my knees could handle it, stone floors and all.”

“Nope, baby.” I smiled into his hair, pulling him back up to me. “We’re going to have proper sex. If you’re up for it?”

“What are you thinking?” He winked, and my dick jolted in excitement.

“Wanna…” I stumbled over my words because I’d never asked about these things before, and I’d certainly never offered. I wasn’t comfortable with letting my hook-ups get that close. Even now, wanting to get that close with him, my heart was racing with anxiety. “Do you ever top?”

“Want me to top you?” he whispered into my ear, and my cock sprang to full mast. Who’d have thought that Mark Quinton whispering was enough to make me hard? Actually, Mark Quinton just existing made me hard, and now I wanted him.Hard. I wanted him on top of me, and I wanted him inside me. I wanted him to swallow me whole so he’d never leave me again.

“I don’t know,” I said as he walked me forcefully backwards into his bedroom alcove and I called to mind the huge, messy bed with multicoloured blankets, pillows in every pattern under the sun. And then I was lying on that bed, my legs knotted around his waist as his tongue made a bid for my tonsils.

“Talk to me.” He teased my cock with lazy thrusts of his groin. I could feel his hardness, and I wanted it in my mouth. In my arse. I wanted to get him off. I wanted more than anything to just know this was real.

“I’m… Hang on a second.” I had to be honest because my whole body was trembling. “I’m scared.”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised, his tone soothing and assuring, but I hadn’t meant it like that.

“I’m scared of this not working out, and this not being what you expect. I don’t know what to do with you, and fuck, you still terrify me, in every bloody way. I want this to be real, I’m just…so scared of making more mistakes.”

He bit my bottom lip, tugging it between his teeth, then released it. “Feel that?”

“Yeah.”

“Pretty real. Gonna get you laid in a minute, and that’s gonna be pretty real too. Finn,weare real. We have to be or it’s not worth it. I wouldn’t be here, naked, with you, if I didn’t think this was real. You wouldn’t be here either. So please don’t be scared. I’m yours, okay?”

“I need…fuck, I don’t even know how to put all this into words. Sorry. I just…”

“I can’t believe you want me to top you. I didn’t expect that.”

I loved that we were both being honest about this.

“I want to, for you. I think. I don’t let people in. There has to be…you know…”

“Trust? Yeah, I know. That or being drunk and horny. Not always ideal.”

“I do trust you, but…”

“I know you do. So, what works? Fingers? I have a gorgeous little plug I could tease you with? And I have lube, condoms, beads…”

“What’s this? Some kind of dodgy website?”

“Way better than that. I’m fully prepared for all possibilities and preferences—”

“Sounds awfully slutty.”

“—andneverslutty. I’m a classy lover. So…”

He lifted his weight off me and kissed a trail down my body, leaving little wet smudges.

“I thought you’d be hairy. Didn’t expect you to be this smooth. Last time you were here you were kind of half covered in my dressing gown.” He stroked my chest, smoothing the skin around my rock-hard nipple with one hand while the other rumbled around in a drawer, throwing out items that landed heavily next to me. It would normally have put me off, but this wasn’tmynormal. This was no club hook-up in a dirty bathroom. This was. Real. Fucking wonderfully, terrifyingly real.

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