Pasha did, up on his elbows to watch as Ed reached back with slick fingers, his breathing speeding up when Ed talked him through what he was doing to himself, and he quickly shifted on the bed so they switched positions.
“Yeah, make sure you can see.” Ed lay on his back and spread his legs. Pasha knelt in the space he made, stroking his cock like he didn’t even realize what he was doing. “When we’ve got time,” Ed said, and rubbed a wet circle where Pasha’s gaze was focused. “When we’ve got all the time in the world, I’m going to open you up like this.” He pushed a finger into his own hole. “Take my time until you can take me.”
“You like that?” Pasha hadn’t raised his eyes, staring and intent, hand moving a little faster on his cock.
“Yeah. Prefer to fuck, if I’m honest, but this is good.” He closed his eyes for a moment when he pushed in another. “I’d love to fuck you, Pash. Fuck you until you come around my cock. That’s what I want. What I thought about this week.” He wet his lips only to see Pasha do the same thing. “My dick in you. Making you come.”
Pasha’s grip on his cock tightened and his hand stilled.
Ed said, “Finding out what works takes time. I don’t get fucked often, but getting opened on a cock is better than on myown fingers for me. You want—?” He didn’t get to finish his question. Pasha fumbled with a condom and spilled enough lube for half-a-dozen fucks before looming over Ed, pressing their mouths together, wet and desperate. “Go on,” Ed encouraged. “Do it. Do me. Right now.”
Pasha’s expression wavered somewhere between hell and heaven, brow furrowed and the fingers of his free hand digging into the ridges of Ed’s stomach as he guided himself in. He lurched forward an inch, shoulders hunched, and then let out a held breath as he eased in farther. “Oh.”
What was awkward at first—two long-limbed men trying to fuck and touch and kiss at the same time—soon smoothed into a steady push and pull that brought them close together.
Pasha widened the spread of his knees and slowed his pace. He braced a hand on the bed next to Ed’s neck and kissed him again before straightening, groaning each time he pushed in. “So good.” His thrusts became irregular, short and shallow, touching Ed somewhere inside that set free a spurt of precome. “Wow.” Pasha stilled before slowly repeating the exact same movement, his smile finally breaking free when Ed grasped at the sheets, belly wet and cock leaking each time Pasha fucked in. Ed whimpered when Pasha stroked him at the same time as thrusting again, and Pasha tilted his head back and laughed.
Ed came, Pasha’s grin locked in his field of vision, melting into something soft and so sweet after his own orgasm swept through him.
The touch of Pasha’s fingertips tracing the contours of his face afterward was a surprise. Ed watched him hesitate before Pasha leaned down to touch their lips together. The arm he leant on shook, and Pasha’s whisper was as soft as the touch of his lips. “Are you okay?”
Ed nodded.
When Pasha asked, “WasIokay?” Ed heard a note of uncertainty.
“Not bad, for a beginner.”
The silver ring through Pasha’s eyebrow glinted when he frowned. “Not bad?” Then he grinned when Ed chuckled. “You tosser. I was brilliant. Admit it.”
“You want me to rate your performance?” Ed stole another quick kiss. “You definitely have potential. I recommend lots more practice.”
They lay side by side in the ruin of the hotel bedsheets once Pasha got rid of the condom. He let out a satisfied sigh and his eyelids drooped, but he snuggled close and kissed Ed one more time before rolling onto his back.
“Still like boobs,” he said, blindly reaching out and patting the planes of Ed’s muscled chest. “But cock’s not bad either.” His yawn was impressive. “Maybe I’m a little bit gay.”
Ed smiled at the ceiling instead of commenting.
Pasha yawned again. “How’d you know where to find me?”
“Luck.” Blind luck in a city this size. “Why’d you go to Trafalgar Square so early?”
“Couldn’t sleep.” Pasha was quiet for a long time before he added, “It’s one of the few places I remember going with my mum….” He paused, and sounded wary when he continued. “She left me when I was a kid.”
Ed had guessed as much. He found his hand and threaded their fingers together.
“I was five when she went.” Pasha’s voice had no inflection. “The last clear memory I have is of being with her at Trafalgar Square. The lions looked so huge. I ran after pigeons, and she laughed. Mum was so happy that day instead of pissed off. That’s what I remember. Wasn’t until years later I found out she was there to meet some bloke who promised she’d make it big singing in clubs on the Costa del Sol.”
Doors slammed farther along the hallway, and somewhere close by chambermaids gossiped loudly in a fast-paced language Ed couldn’t interpret. He hardly noticed, stuck on the mental image of a kid only a few years older than Joe running through clouds of startled birds to make someone he loved laugh, treasuring their pleasure.
“She left me so she could make the big time. Social Services found her sister, thank God, but that took a while.” Pasha let go of his hand, and rolled his way to settle in the crook of Ed’s arm. “Who does that?” he quietly asked. “Who leaves the people they’re meant to love just to chase after a prize?” He swallowed. “And what kind of idiot spends years trying to make it bigger than she ever managed just to show her what she’d missed?”
His laugh didn’t sound happy. “That’s why I wanted to take the prize home. And that’s why I freaked out when I read that “True Liars” headline. I thought a reporter had found her. But it doesn’t matter. She’s yesterday’s news, and now I couldn’t give a single fuck about her.”
Ed wondered if that could be true.
Pasha stared at the hotel room wall, but his eyes were glassy. “Pathetic, right? I bet you don’t see big brave soldiers acting like saps.”
“You’d be surprised.” Ed offered his own experience. “My dad passed away years ago, but the last time I painted something I could hear Dad telling me which colors to mix as clearly as if he was kneeling beside me. Pretty sure I cried in front of the whole platoon that day. Sobbed like a baby.” He drew in a slow breath. “We all have people we miss.”