Ingenue's Choice (8 page)

“I…I trust you.”

“You don’t sound so sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“In that case, I can paint you.”

Ingenue’s Choice

57

Zara felt strangely awkward watching Keir and Patryk together, even though neither of them could see nor hear her right then.

She floated through the apartment door out into the hallway for a break.

Zara told herself they didn’t need her breathing down their backs anyway, that they didn’t need her help. But the truth was, she had never felt so embarrassed and shy around two guys making out before, and she had seen the spectacle enough and been around enough gay guys—especially when she had hung out with Quincy in college and at clubs—to be comfortable in her voyeur-dom.

She’d initially felt this bashfulness in the shower with Patryk, had been as tongue-tied as a girl confronted with her lifetime crush when Patryk alluded to his masturbating.

It’s not like he had anything she hadn’t seen or used to her pleasure before, and she’d been about to tell him this before something stopped her.

Had her angels taken something from her, something like her boldness?

Worse, had they taken her libido?

It is called maturing, child
.

That’s it? Nothing else? I’m not losing, my, uh…mojo.

You are still you, Zara. And no, you are not losing your mojo.

Zara heard the laugher in Jamaereh’s voice and wondered if this maturation was the natural progression from human to angel-in-training to full-fledged angel.

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She certainly hoped so. She didn’t know how long she could go on hanging around with all the love in the air and not be affected by it all.

Would she love again? Were angels allowed to fall in love, or was she now doomed to a sexless, loveless life of altruism and hooking up other people?

Remember what we said, human. You are not there for your pleasure. You
are there to do a job. Stop whining about what you have lost and concentrate on
your assignment.

I beg your pardon, I’m not whining!

Not exactly anyway.

Leave it to that grouchy, infernal Micah to intrude on her woolgathering with an insult. Sheesh, he was like her parents! She could do no right in their eyes either.

I will acknowledge your accomplishments once you accomplish
something.

Like she hadn’t just busted her ass getting those two opposites together!

Just make sure Keir and Patryk get together. Yeah sure, like it was so easy. She’d like to see Micah try it when those two had more baggage between them than she’d ever taken on a two-week Caribbean cruise, and that was saying something.

It is not supposed to be easy or fun. That is why it is called earning your
wings. It is a job, human.

All right, already. I get the message.

Come, Micah. Leave her alone to work. You have interfered enough.

Thank God for Jamaereh.

I heard that.

Zara laughed as she floated through the door back into Keir’s loft apartment to see how things were progressing.

* * * *

Ingenue’s Choice

59

Patryk stood in the cool, airy bathroom looking around and admiring the mint-green and blue color scheme and décor before stripping out of his clothes.

He neatly folded and placed each item on the hamper opposite the large marble sink, imagined what Keir would say about his finicky behavior, and almost dumped the clothes on the floor in a “manly” heap.

Naked, he looked at the navy bathrobe hanging on the peg behind the door but hesitated putting it on despite shivering. He was more anxious than chilled and wondered how and why he had so easily fallen into taking orders from an almost complete stranger. He wondered why he looked forward to Keir’s domination like a school kid anticipating summer vacation.

Maybe Derek was right and Patryk liked taking orders and submitting.

Okay, fine. That wasn’t a problem as he saw it, especially if he was submitting to the right person.

Was Keir the right person? Everything within Patryk said that he was, that
he
wasn’t making a mistake in trusting Keir, but he had been wrong before.

Patryk closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reached for the robe, immediately drawn by the downy softness of the terrycloth as he brought it around his body. He slid his arms into the wide sleeves and pulled the sides together, moaning as he inhaled the masculine scent of Keir on the material.

God, he didn’t think he would ever get enough of his smell. The aroma was so spicy and virile with a life all its own, one that called to Patryk on a level way beyond the physical, a level that was primitive and visceral.

A knock sounded against the door and Patryk jerked up his head with a start.

“You didn’t fall in, did you?”

Patryk laughed.

He used to get that one all the time when he was a teen and his mother thought he had been in the bathroom too long for a mere bath or shower. She made it a habit of checking up on him like the dutiful mother she was, concerned that Patryk had discovered and was using drugs like all “the young people nowadays.” She’d had no idea that he had discovered something far more addictive and sinister than drugs—the art of pleasuring himself.

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Gracie C. McKeever

She’d walked in on him once when he forgot to lock the door, and next to his coming out a few years later, it was the biggest eye-opener his genteel and snooty mother had ever had.

“I’ll be out in a sec,” Patryk finally responded.

“Remember what I said.”

Heat suffused Patryk at Keir’s sexy murmur. “I remember.” He waited a minute until he was sure that Keir had stepped away from the door, then tied the belt snug around his waist and took a deep breath before reaching for the knob and turning it.

Everything’s going to be okay, Pat. Just breathe.

He glanced up, following the general direction of Zara’s voice. “I must be crazy listening to you.”

You’re not listening to me. You’re listening to your heart.

“You actually believe in that corny drivel?”

You did too, once.

Yeah, he had believed it once. He’d believed in a lot of things before Derek turned him completely inside out and had him believing that he was no good for anyone or anything unless Derek allowed him to be.

The best thing to do was get this over with as fast as possible.

That’s the wrong attitude to have. You want to go in and savor the
moment, every sensation, like it’s your last.

“I’ll remember that when he’s chopping me into little pieces,” Patryk grumbled before opening the door.

Are you still on that ax murderer crap? Just go out there and enjoy him!

He felt a hard shove against his back and practically flew into the master bedroom, stumbling right into Keir’s arms.

“Whoa, aren’t we the eager beaver.”

“Guess you could say that.”

“Nervous?”

“No.”

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Keir looked at him as if he doubted Patryk’s word, and he wondered if it was the tremor in his voice that gave him away. “Here, let’s get you up nice and straight.” Keir pushed him back to his feet, smoothing down the arms of the robe as he stared at Patryk as if he wanted to eat him up in one bite.

“So, where do you want me?”

“Oh, all kinds of places, but over there by the bed will do for now.” Keir pointed Patryk toward the ocean-size, four-poster bed that dominated the room.

Patryk noticed the Velcro cuffs attached to each post, walked over to the foot of the bed on suddenly shaky legs, and waited for more instructions.

Keir stood before his easel on the other side of the room, head tilted at a slight angle and a thumb and forefinger cradling his chin as he peered at Patryk.

Patryk averted his eyes, briefly catching the image of Keir’s bare feet peeking from the bottom of the pair of faded jeans he’d changed into. He dragged his gaze up from the well-worn hem, glancing over Keir’s strong, denim-clad thighs before finally landing on his fly. He let his gaze linger for a moment, noticing the huge bulge, focusing on the sexy way the jeans hung on Keir’s slim waist and accentuated his ripped abs.

There wasn’t an ounce of fat on the man’s frame and Patryk’s mouth dried up at the idea of Keir’s six-foot-four, lean-muscled body dominating him before he quickly dropped his gaze back to the floor. The sight of Keir’s brown toes curling against the plush gray carpet turned Patryk on as much as the idea of being at Keir’s mercy.

Oh, please put me out of my misery and take me now. Please!

Patryk cleared his throat before finally taking in Keir’s contemplative face again. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing at all.” Keir came over to the bed and stood a foot in front of Patryk. His body immediately reacted to Keir’s closeness. His legs weakened until all he wanted to do was collapse back on the bed and let Keir do whatever he wanted to him.

“Don’t be afraid.” Keir cupped his face.

“I’m not.”

Keir gave him a yeah-sure look as he reached for the belt of the robe and slowly unknotted it with one hand.

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Patryk gasped as the robe fell open, and Keir rasped his thumbs over each of Patryk’s firm, hypersensitive nipples.

Keir slid his arms around Patryk, pulled him close, rubbing a thigh over his balls, the rough denim material making his cock throb with need. “Don’t move.”

Patryk didn’t. He just moaned and fisted his hands at his sides to keep from reaching for Keir the way he wanted.

“You follow instructions well. I like that.”

He followed instructions very well, even when it killed him, and with the way the man was torturing him, Patryk thought he would die long before he felt the heated pulse of Keir’s dick inside him.

“I want you primed and relaxed when I paint you.”

Oh yeah, painting. That’s what this was about. Not screwing. Not yet. Just
painting. Right. Got it.

But all of those thoughts flew out of Patryk’s mind when Keir grasped his shaft and lightly pumped it up and down.

“Are you relaxed?”

“Mmm.” Was the man kidding? Relaxed? Wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t communicate more eloquently beyond Neanderthal-like groans and grunts evidence that Patryk was balancing on a fine razor edge of lust and
wasn’t
relaxed at all!

“Maybe this will help…” Keir thumbed the creamy pearl of pre-come from Patryk’s slit, lazily sucking the liquid from his thumb before sliding to his knees in front of Patryk.

Yeah, that just
might
help.

“Remember. Don’t move unless I tell you to.”

“I won’t.” Patryk stood rooted to the spot as if already bound by Keir’s cuffs, and couldn’t help thinking how Keir’s deep voice and calm words did more to restrain him than Derek’s binding or disciplining him ever had.

Christ, he barely knew this man!

“Oh, and one more thing, Patryk…”

Ingenue’s Choice

63

He panted when Keir licked the head of his cock then glanced up at him with those dark eyes that would have had Patryk turning into a useless puddle on the floor if Keir weren’t holding him up. “What’s that?”

“I don’t want you to think about anything except what I’m doing to you.”

He could do that. That was probably all he could do.

“Don’t think. Just feel…” Keir took Patryk into his mouth in one long swallow, the light stubble on his chin tickling Patryk’s scrotum as Keir sucked Patryk’s cock hard.

Patryk almost flung back his head until he remembered Keir’s decree. He did close his eyes, though, and moan as Keir thrust his mouth up and down on Patryk’s hard cock.

He was close, so very close, and went to the edge of the cliff when Keir eased one then a second finger into his ass.

Patryk just barely managed to not jump off into that abyss of release, automatically tensing his ass cheeks around the digits as Keir sucked him off and explored inside him.

He fisted his hands at his sides again, wanting so badly to run his fingers over Keir’s intricate cornrows and to tug. It was all he could do to keep from screaming.

Keir surprised him again when he quickly found Patryk’s prostate and firmly massaged the muscular, glandular tissue until Patryk couldn’t help but pump his hips forward.

Keir pulled up until Patryk’s dick almost popped out of his mouth, then slid back down to the base of Patryk’s shaft, grazing Patryk with his teeth on the way as if in warning.

Patryk immediately stopped moving and felt the taunting pressure of Keir’s finger against his G-spot and Keir’s mouth on his cock again.

Without warning, Patryk cried out and came, felt Keir’s mouth relentlessly tighten around his shaft as Patryk spurted his come down Keir’s throat. “Oh God…Oh Christ…” Patryk shuddered, holding himself upright by sheer force of will as the powerful climax moved over him like a steamroller.

Keir put his hands around Patryk’s waist and came to his feet. “Don’t move or I’ll have to punish you.”

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Patryk just barely got an “I won’t” passed the lump in his throat. Curious to know what Keir’s idea of punishment was, he knew he wanted whatever it consisted of.

“I want to look at you.” Keir lazily slid the robe off Patryk’s shoulders, fondling his skin and muscles along the way until he had the garment completely off and discarded it across the room. “You are so beautiful. I hope I can do justice to this hot little body.”

The lump in his throat grew, almost choking Patryk with emotion.

“Up on the bed.” Keir smacked his ass, the sound jolting Patryk out of his reverie and to attention as much as the sting.

He eagerly climbed up onto the bed. “How do you want me?”

“You like asking loaded questions, don’t you?” Keir crawled up on the bed with him, straddling Patryk as he bent his head to whisper, “I had no intention of taking you so soon, but you were just so tempting I couldn’t resist.”