Love in the Land of Fire (8 page)

Josiah wants this, wants to accept what Rafe is so obviously offering, but he knows that he can’t. He knows that it’s too much of a switch from the night before to accept it without questions. Instead he trails the hand currently entangled in Rafe’s hair through the clinging strands until he can fully cup the back of the other man’s head and uses his hold on him to tilt the submissive’s face up towards his own. Once they’re looking each other directly in the eye Josiah asks the question that’s currently burning inside of him.

“Why?” It comes out hoarse and rough but Josiah doesn’t care.

All he cares about is the way that Rafe’s looking up at him, emerald eyes soft with fragile trust and need apparent in his gaze. It’s a look that makes Josiah burn, that ignites all of the instincts to dominate and control that live just beneath his civilized surface. It’s the look a submissive gives a dominant when in need, the look that screams out that person’s desire to serve and be loved in return, to give and be cherished in turn. It’s something Josiah’s almost never truly hoped to see directed at himself outside of the pleasure houses.

When Rafe speaks his voice is low, his tone respectful and yet not as meek as his position portrays. There’s a 3subtle fire in his words that sets something within Josiah at ease. There’s a spark in Rafe’s eyes that reassures Josiah that the passion and steel that had attracted him to begin with are still there.

“Last night you showed me something I’d never seen before from a dominant in charge of my care. You showed me restraint. You could have taken what you wanted, could have tried at least, and there would have been little I would have been able to do to stop you. We both know that even though I’m skilled you’re far better. Noah…Frisch, he never stopped no matter what I said or did. That last day, when I finally broke out, he was going to do something new, something with needles and sedatives and I knew that if I didn’t stop him I would never wake up again. I didn’t want to die by his hands, didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, so I ran and when I didn’t see a way out I tried to make one. The guilt eats at me because I know that someone else will be given to him in my place, another made to suffer his sickness no matter how they felt about it.

Mistress Jean is so adamant that our family owes him a debt that she gave me to him even though I never signed a contract. I know she would have given him whoever she could get her hands on.”

Josiah flexes his hand against the back of Rafe’s head, the light action meant to soothe, to show Rafe that he’s here and listening, to ground him in the present and keep him from getting swept away in the past. He’s pleased when Rafe’s shoulders relax slightly, the tension that had begun to build within him lowering a bit as the lines around his eyes and mouth smooth out.

“But you, Josiah, you stopped. You reacted at the first sign of real distress. You stopped and you soothed me, let me speak and have my own emotions, not just the ones you’d decided I had a right to feel. You controlled but you also cared, like I’d always dreamed a dom would.”

Rafe breaks off then, his eyes darting down and away from Josiah’s, and Josiah has to control his displeased growl. He doesn’t like it when Rafe speaks to him without eye contact, doesn’t like the loss of a possible connection between them even though he knows that he doesn’t have the right to demand it. Rafe has made a silent offer but nothing has been settled, nothing has been agreed upon, and thus Josiah has no actual rights.

Not yet.

“Even when I hit you, even then you held tight and didn’t try to punish me, didn’t try to hurt me back.”

“Don’t think for a second that I didn’t want to punish you, Rafe. Don’t think I’m some sort of saint who doesn’t have those urges because I do. I wanted to show you your place, wanted to do so much to you, but I didn’t.”

“That’s my point, Josiah. I deserved it. You wanted to do it and I deserved it, but you didn’t and that’s something that I’ve never seen before. That type of restraint is something that I wasn’t even sure existed.”

Josiah studies Rafe, eyes tracking the way his tongue flits out to lap nervously at his bottom lip, the way his lashes fan out against his cheeks every time he blinks. He damns himself for asking but he knows that he’ll always regret it if they enter into this under false pretenses.

“Are you sure this is what you want? Once we’ve entered into a contract I’m not going to let you go easily. I fight to keep what’s mine, Rafe. You’ll never be a prisoner, but you will be chained to me. You do understand that, don’t you? I’ll own you in every way, and I’ll ask you for everything and will give you everything in return.”

Rafe’s breathing goes shallow and there’s alight blush across the sun kissed skin of his cheeks when he makes eye contact with Josiah again. The sight of it has Josiah licking his lips, wanting to run his tongue across the line of red to see if that blush tastes as delicious as it looks. Unable to resist the urge Josiah leans down and brushes a sweet kiss across Rafe’s parted lips, lets his tongue dip inside briefly but withdraws to run his mouth across Rafe’s cheekbones when the submissive tries to draw him into a deeper kiss.

3He tracks his mouth back across the smooth skin of Rafe’s face until their lips are once again flush with each other in an almost chaste kiss, but this time he speaks so that Rafe can hear and feel his words as he says them.

“So is that what you want? Do you want to be mine, Rafe? To belong to me and only me? To perhaps one day Bond with me so that none can ever come between us? Would you give yourself to me and take all that I would give to you in return?”

Rafe shudders beneath his hand, a move that echoes the night before, and Josiah sees his pupils go wide with desire, a flush of lust lighting his face up even further.

“You would…you would consider Bonding? With me? What of the Disavowal? Would you have me give myself to you only to be shamed in such a way?”

Josiah’s hand tightens where he’s gripping the other man’s hair as the mere mention of Disavowing Rafe sends rage coursing through his veins. He pulls Rafe further up onto his knees by his hold on his hair and bends so that he can nip sharply at the small dark bruises dotting the other man’s throat from the night before. He bites down on one that’s situated just below his ear before pulling back to lap at it with his tongue and then he moves his mouth back to its previous position.

“Never. The Disavowal would never happen. You’d be mine until death ripped one of us away. There are things about me, things about my past that you don’t know, but rest assured that you will never be shamed in such a manner. So give me your answer, Rafe. Is this what you want? Will you honor your offer and enter into a contract with me?”

“Yes.”

Josiah doesn’t wait for Rafe to say anything more than that single word of approval, can’t make himself wait any longer. He knows that overall he’ll have to take things slower than he wants to, that Rafe is still healing mentally and emotionally even if his body is fit and sound. He knows that Rafe isn’t ready for everything Josiah wants from him yet even if he’s agreed to a contract between them. He knows all of this but he refuses to wait to have a taste of him, refuses to be denied this one simple thing.

His hands flow down to grip Rafe’s slick shoulders and he pulls the submissive up with him until they’re both standing, facing each other with barely any space between them. In one swift move he spins Rafe around so that his back is to the table and with a careful hand guides him until he’s sitting on the edge of the thick wood. They both ignore the quiet tinkling of glass shifting as his movement rocks the place setting beside him.

“You made me breakfast. I’d like to have it now.”

Rafe looks at him, confused for a second before he blushes lightly, a display that Josiah is now sure will never fail to attract his attention. Josiah smirks slightly at him, wondering if Rafe for all of his intelligence will really understand what he’s insinuating. He doesn’t actually give him a chance to respond, just surges forward and takes Rafe’s mouth in another scorching kiss now that he officially has the right.

His tongue plunges deep, tracing its way across Rafe’s teeth and tangling their tongues together until the taste of Rafe threatens to overwhelm his senses. His hands are drawn almost magnetically to Rafe, his desire to touch and learn every inch of the submissive overtaking him. One hand finds its now familiar place tangled in Rafe’s thick locks as he props himself up on his elbow above the man’s prone form, while the other trails down over the sleek lines of his collarbone to pluck teasingly at one of his already beaded nipples.

Rafe groans into the kiss, his body surging upwards against the weight of Josiah’s own heavily muscled 3frame. Josiah urges him back down by softly stroking the taunt lines of his abdomen and then ramps him back up by tracing the lines of his muscles with his nails, leaving thin pink lines behind from the pressure. His mouth continues to plunder Rafe’s for a moment before he rips it away only to latch it onto what is fast becoming his favorite spot on Rafe’s neck. He sucks at the ever darkening bruise just below the submissive’s ear, worrying it with teeth and tongue, and growls low in his throat, pleased with the hard edged groan the action rips from Rafe’s throat.

Finally when the bruise is dark enough to satisfy him for the moment he trails his mouth down over those enticing collarbones to latch onto the nipple his fingers aren’t currently torturing. He stays there for a moment, nipping at the bud with his teeth and then lapping at it with his tongue to soothe the sting while Rafe groans lowly beneath him. Finally though his attention is drawn elsewhere, to the feel of Rafe’s cock pressing against his bare stomach through the thin fabric of his shorts.

He presses down for the thrill of hearing Rafe moan at the pressure against his arousal but his own desire, his own need to touch and taste, won’t allow him to tease for too long. So he makes his way down, tongue and lips tracing all of the exposed skin he comes across, savoring the slight almond flavor that comes from the edible oil Rafe’d used earlier. He pulls back, ignoring the way that Rafe strains towards him and grabs one of the man’s wrists in each of his hands. Gently he presses his hands palms down against the smooth surface of the table, telling him with a look to keep them there before he releases him and dips back down.

He pauses over the fabric straining to contain Rafe’s cock and lets the anticipation build for as long as he can stand. He presses the palm of one hand against the flat planes of Rafe’s stomach, savors the rhythmic clenching of his muscles for a moment as the other hand begins to work the tight shorts off of the submissive’s hips. He’s helpless to resist the dips and valleys the tight material bares at it slowly inches its way off. His tongue flicks out to trace the cut of Rafe’s hips, the thin line of dark hair that’s just been exposed, and to dip down inside the shorts, flirting with the still concealed crease of his thigh.

The scrap of black fabric pools at Rafe’s ankles and falls whisper quiet to the floor. The sight of the younger man’s newly bared cock entrances Josiah. He’s hard, his cock straining upwards towards his belly; the head flushed a dark shade of crimson and already drooling pre-cum even though Josiah hasn’t even really touched him yet.

“Oh you do want this, don’t you? Such a needy, wanton thing you are. I haven’t even touched you yet and you’re aching for it already.”

Josiah’s voice is husky, his tone dark and smugly pleased, and Rafe reacts to the sound of it beautifully, his cock jerking in desire and his neck arching back even as his hands remain perfectly in place. Josiah trails the fingers of his free hand back up the tense muscles of Rafe’s thigh until he can bury them in the crisp curls at his base. He runs them teasingly up the smooth skin of Rafe’s hard shaft, fingernails lightly scoring the velvety flesh there, causing light hisses to escape the man below him.

He takes his time exploring, circling the head with curious fingers, spreading the pre-cum that’s gathered there with the pad of his thumb before backing off to rub it lightly with the palm of his hand. His need to possess is satiated for the moment by the feel of Rafe’s velvety skin beneath his fingertips. Rafe squirms beneath him, open and honest with his reactions but always careful to keep his own hands in place. Josiah rewards him by finally wrapping his large hand completely around him, the thin layer of pre-cum that coats his palm easing the way.

He strokes him firmly, twisting his wrist on the upstroke, setting a rhythm that has Rafe arching and squirming even worse than before. The whole time he whispers praise to the submissive in the dark husky voice that he knows affects him.

4“So beautiful. Look at you. So perfect and responsive. Anyone would want you but they can’t have you.

Not now. You’re mine, Rafe. Mine. Mine. Mine.”

Rafe’s cock jerks in his hand and Josiah knows he’s close to coming, can tell by the way he’s getting harder, swelling in his grasp as his orgasm builds.

“Not yet, precious. Not yet. You’ll come when I say, Rafe, and not a moment before.”

Rafe whines at him, a plea in the high pitched tone, but Josiah chuckles darkly and continues to work him for a minute before he finally takes pity on him. He grips the base of Rafe’s cock with the circle of his fingers and squeezes tightly for a second, knowing that the pain and pressure will help stave off his orgasm. Rafe gasps and twitches and Josiah gives him a second to recover before he swoops down and takes his cock deep into his mouth in a single go.

He sucks hard, takes Rafe as deep as he can go and swallows. He enjoys the way the body beneath his arches upwards in a deep bow at the feel of his throat muscles working around Rafe’s cock. He varies the rhythm and pressure, goes fast and light and then slow and hard to keep Rafe from getting used to anything, to keep him undone and give him no chance to gather his composure.

Josiah pulls back for a second to sweep the glistening expanse of Rafe’s body with a searing look. He’s flushed, green eyes heavy lidded and dark with desire, and it hits Josiah with the force of a blow that he’s never seen something so beautiful, so captivating. Suddenly the need for reassurance rails through him.