Page 58 of The Wild Charge

Reese’s throat felt tight. “I thought…” He didn’t know what to think.

“Is it because you’re nervous, love? Because this is our first date? Because you want me so badly?”

Well. Now he knew a little of what to think. Reese frowned. “You’re acting,” he accused. He poked him in the side with his finger. “You’re not being the real you.”

Tenny’s fingers stilled, a moment, and then resumed, pads trailing lightly down the sides of his throat. Something flickered in his expression. “A little bit,” he admitted. “But I’m flattered you think there’s a ‘real’ me.”

Reese huffed a protest, and a frown tugged at Tenny’s mouth, there and then gone. Then he was all suave Date Night Man again.

“It’s okay to be nervous, darling.”

“I’m not nervous.”

Tenny laced his fingers in the hair at his nape, and drew him in closer; he was a fraction taller, so Reese had to tilt his head back to meet what he hoped would be a kiss – but which was only the warm press of Tenny’s lips to his cheek. “Relax, sweetheart.” Real or fake, that tone of voice wasdoing thingsto Reese. “I promise you’ll like it.”

Reese stopped resisting, because he really didn’t want to at this point. He let the tension melt out of his body. Tenny smiled against his skin, gripped his shoulders, and turned him around.

That was no good: Reese wanted a kiss, wanted a whole mess of them, wanted to see Tenny’s face.

Tenny chuckled, as if reading his thoughts. “It doesn’t always have to be all rush-rush to the main event.”

“What–”

Warm fingers pushed up his hair, and Tenny kissed the back of his neck, warm lips, hot breath.

“Oh.”

“Mmhm. Relax,” he said again, and drew Reese’s cut down off his arms. It hit the carpet with a soft sound. “I’ve got you.” He lay the flat of his tongue against skin that Reese had never before known could be so sensitive, and slid his hands up beneath his t-shirt, mapping bone, and muscle, and skin. His lips trailed down, until his mouth fastened at the join of neck and shoulder, and he cupped Reese’s chest, thumbs flicking over his nipples.

Reese startled forward into the touch with a sharp inhale. He knew the club girls liked to be touched there, but he hadn’t thought it would send pleasure shooting through him like this; that it would make his cock twitch in his pants.

Tenny muffled a chuckle against his skin, and pressed with his teeth; trailed his thumbs back and forth, and then pinched at his nipples until they were stiff and aching. He tucked his hips in close against Reese’s ass, and he could feel his growing erection, an aimless grinding through their clothes.

Reese thought of last night, and the hotel room, and wondered if that would happen again tonight, if it would go further, now that they had time, and were at home.

Home. It didn’t matter if it was a dorm room in a communal clubhouse; this place was home, here with Tenny, and his books, and his weapons, and the fire kindling low in his belly.

Tenny raked his nails lightly down his stomach, teasing at his ribs, and then the trail of pale hair that snaked down from his navel. Lips brushing Reese’s skin, he whispered, “As much as I like what you had on last night, I like you like this better – when nobody else can see what I know’s underneath.”

Reese had no idea what to say to that, so he kept silent, enjoying the teasing touch.

Tenny unbuckled his belt. “You don’t even know, do you?” Unfastened his jeans. “That you’re pretty.” Reached beneath the waistband of his boxers and palmed his half-hard cock. “That you look like a fucking underwear model. Do you?” A wet, sucking kiss to his throat, and a sure, steady grip, stroking as well as was possible within the confines of his jeans. “And yourface. Christ, your face. And you’re good in bed because you’re good at everything, aren’t you? It doesn’t matter if you can’t carry on a conversation, and you don’t like movies – you don’t miss a bloody thing, do you, darling?”

Reese was panting, hips twitching forward in aborted little thrusts. “Tenny…” There was a whine caught in the back of his throat, and he’d never made that sound before, but, well, all of this was new, wasn’t it? New, and exhilarating, and he wanted so much more of it.

“What, love?” Right in his ear. “What do you need?”

“More.”

Tenny spun him back around, and Reese caught only a glimpse of his face – flushed, feverish, pupils blown – before they were finally,finallykissing properly. Hungry and fierce. Sloppy and wet. Kiss after kiss, with hushed words pressed between. “Do – do you – want me?”

“Yes.”

Tenny gripped his hips and ground them together, through their clothes. “Tell me.” He drew back just far enough for Reese to see that he looked more than a little wild – he looked possessed, all his sophisticated acting vanished. “Tell me. Say, ‘I want you.’”

The buttery lamplight caught the faint shine of the scar on the side of his throat, the place where Reese had tried to hold his blood inside his body. Reese ducked his head and pressed his lips there. “I want you.” He felt Tenny’s pulse leap against his tongue, felt the sharp intake of breath. “Tennyson. Baby. I want you.”

“God.” Tenny shoved him back – and started stripping off his clothes with too-fast, shaking hands.

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