"Yes," Adriel breathed. The word was barely there. "God, yes."
Landen smiled against his chest and then he kept moving; kissed down Adriel's stomach, slow and deliberate, pressing his mouth to the soft skin there.
Adriel braced himself.
Waited for the voice to start, the one that lived in the back of his mind, the one that had been there as long as he could remember.
It didn't come.
Landen's mouth was warm on his stomach. He wasn't moving past, wasn't hurrying over; he was staying. Pressing his lips to the softest parts of Adriel's body with the same attention he gave everything else. His tongue traced the curve of his belly. His teeth grazed the skin just above his hip. His hands spread over his sides, holding him still.
Adriel lay there and felt the thoughts dissolve. Degree by degree. Kiss by kiss. Until there was nothing left except the warmth of Landen's mouth and the weight of his hands and the impossible, overwhelming reality of being wanted.
His sweats came off.
Adriel lifted his hips to help, watched Landen pull them down his legs, toss them aside. His underwear followed.
Then Landen sat back on his heels. Looked at him. All of him. Bare and flushed in the warm lamplight. His stomach. His thick thighs. Every inch of himself he'd spent a lifetime hating, laid out for Landen to see.
Landen's gaze moved over him slowly. Deliberately. Taking him in like he was memorizing every detail.
Then he said, quietly: "Fuck. You're gorgeous."
Adriel's throat closed. He couldn't speak. Couldn't move. Couldn't do anything except lie there and feel the words settle into his chest, warm and impossible andreal.
Landen lowered his head. Took him into his mouth. Adriel's whole body jerked, a sound tearing out of him that he didn't recognize. His hand fisted in Landen's hair, needing something to anchor him.
Landen's palm pressed down firmly against his hip, holding him still. He worked him with his tongue in slow, devastating strokes; the flat of it dragging upward from the base of his cock to the tip, circling the head, his lips tight and warm on the downstroke.
Adriel was making sounds. Continuous and unguarded. Sounds he'd never heard himself make, that he hadn't known he was capable of. His free hand gripped the sheet beside him, twistingit. Every time Landen's tongue circled the head of his cock, Adriel's thighs shook.
"Landen…" His voice was wrecked. "I'm… if you don't stop I'm going to…"
Landen pulled off slowly.
Pressed a kiss to the inside of his thigh. Then looked up at him from between his legs with dark, intent eyes.
"Turn over," he said.
Adriel did. Pressed his face into the pillow, heart pounding, every nerve alive and waiting. The pillow was cool against his flushed skin, a small relief in the heat that had built between them. He felt exposed like this; on his knees, face down, his back arched slightly without him meaning to make it so. Every inch of his body on display, offered up.
Then Landen's hands were on him. Moving over his back slowly, like he had all the time in the world. His palms were warm and sure as they traveled; over Adriel's shoulders, pressing into the muscles there. Down his spine, tracing each vertebra. Following the curve of his waist, the flare of his hips.
Adriel shivered under the touch.
Landen's mouth followed. Warm kisses pressed along the back of his neck, right at the hairline, where his skin was most sensitive. Adriel's breath caught. Landen did it again; slower this time, his lips parting just enough to let his tongue trace the same spot. Then lower. Kisses pressed between his shoulder blades, down the center of his back, following the path his hands had taken.
By the time Landen reached the base of his spine, Adriel was trembling.
His hands spread over the curve of Adriel's ass. Squeezing slowly. Gently. His fingers pressed into the soft flesh, kneading, learning the shape of him.
Adriel pressed his face harder into the pillow and groaned.
"So pretty," Landen murmured.
His thumbs traced the cleft of him. Slow and deliberate. Following the line of it from the base of his spine down to his hole. The touch was light, barely there, but it made Adriel's hips push back instinctively, seeking more pressure.
Landen made a quiet sound of approval.