The Stars Over Bittergate Bay

Chapter 29

29

F or all of fifteen seconds, Sidney thought how gorgeous Jonas’s bedroom looked in the firelight. His fingers prickled as they thawed in the warmth. And then Jonas pushed him toward the bed.

Sidney let himself stumble forward, elbows beneath his chest as he bent over the edge of the mattress. Jonas made a half-feral noise of approval, almost a growl, and Sidney licked his lips.

Jonas seemed to be trying to keep his arousal on a tight leash. Excepting their encounter in the woods that morning, Sidney had been the one to initiate every time. There might have been reasons for that, but Sidney couldn’t help but enjoy being the one to snap Jonas’s tether. Jonas was starving for so many things, and Sidney was absolutely prepared to feed him.

Sidney rolled onto his back, hoisted himself onto the end of the mattress. Jonas’s hands were tugging at the buttons on Sidney’s coat before Sidney had fully balanced himself. He watched Jonas’s brow furrow in concentration. Sidney toed off his boots, before threading his fingers beneath the collar of Jonas’s shirt. Jonas hissed, pulling his shoulders up to his ears.

“Your hands are freezing!” Sidney grinned, trying to slide the offending digits into the crack between Jonas’s chin and his neck. Jonas snorted, reaching up, yanking Sidney’s left hand away with warm, firm fingers. For a moment, Sidney could see Jonas’s mind spinning, and Sidney thought he was going to be pinned down. But then, perhaps surprising them both, Jonas drew Sidney’s hand up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to his knuckles.

It was so romantic that Sidney couldn’t stifle a small sigh. The energy shifted immediately, feral heat replaced with desperate longing. Sidney wanted Jonas. Wanted him so much. Sidney leaned forward, tugging his hand down, replacing it with his mouth, and Jonas moved into the kiss, pulling them together.

Sidney slid off his coat as Jonas crowded him, crawling over him onto the mattress. In one fluid movement, Jonas was over him, their kiss finally breaking, leaving Sidney breathless. Jonas’s eyes skated over Sidney, as he sat back astride Sidney’s thighs, palms flat against his own knees, like he’d been given a plate at a buffet and wasn’t sure where to begin. Encouragement was something Sidney was more than happy to provide.

Sidney began unbuttoning his own shirt. He wriggled his hips just enough so Jonas could feel his erection. Feel the way Sidney wanted him. Jonas bit his lip and spread his legs just enough so that Sidney could have something to grind against. Perfection. Sidney let his cold fingers trail against his bare chest as he thrust up against Jonas’s ass. Jonas’s chest was rising and falling heavily as he dropped his fingers to the sensitive skin just above Sidney’s belly button.

“You’re impossible,” Jonas said. Sidney cocked his head to the side. He caught Jonas’s fingers in his own and dragged them up his chest.

“Thank you?”

“I just mean—” Jonas paused, eyes widening as Sidney lifted Jonas’s hand, kissing Jonas’s fingertips. Then Sidney opened his mouth and dipped Jonas’s first and middle finger down against his tongue. He sucked lightly and Jonas grunted, hips twitching. “Sidney.” Jonas sounded desperate for air. Sidney released his grip on Jonas’s hand, let Jonas’s fingers slide out of his mouth and trail against his bottom lip.

“I want you,” Sidney said, and Jonas descended on him.

The kissing was breathless again, frantic. Jonas’s deft hands made quick work of Sidney’s clothes, and Sidney was pleased to find it was fairly easy to keep up. The dark lines of ink over Jonas’s chest looked etched in the dim light, and Sidney dragged his fingers over them, leaning up to kiss them, lick them as Jonas stretched for his nightstand. Jonas looked down at Sidney between his arms, and Sidney smiled up at him. Shrugged.

“I like your tattoos.”

“I can see that.” Sidney licked his lips and sucked a sharp kiss over one of Jonas’s nipples. Jonas groaned, arms going weak for just a moment before he shifted himself back onto his knees. There was oil in his hand and he tossed a small black tin onto the blanket. Condoms. Good. Fantastic actually. Not that Sidney needed Jonas to wear one, unless, well… unless there was a reason he ought.

Sidney thought back to when Jonas had pushed Sidney off him the day before. He glanced up at Jonas, a question (several questions) on the tip of his tongue. Jonas blushed.

“Not—We don’t have to.”

“It’s perfectly fine with me,” Sidney said gently. “We don’t have to do anything if there’s...” He’d been very close to Jonas’s cock and hadn’t seen anything alarming. How to insinuate your partner might have some kind of sexual disease without killing the mood? “We don’t have to if there’s a reason not to.” Sidney attempted. It wasn’t good. Jonas looked flummoxed, the furrow returning to his brow.

“What do you mean?” Jonas asked. Sidney blinked.

“I know you were a soldier,” he tried to say without insinuation. As though he was teaching a class. “Venereal disease is?—”

“Oh! No. No,” Jonas shook his head with such a fervor that Sidney almost laughed. “God. No. I’m just— I prefer to be careful.”

“Okay,” Sidney said, bemused and appreciative. He sat up enough that he could wrap his arms around Jonas’s neck and kiss him. “That’s actually very sweet.”

“Are you not careful?” Jonas asked, eyebrow arched. Sidney snorted.

“I get off on pretending to be easy.” Sidney pressed a kiss to the corner of Jonas’s mouth as Jonas rolled his eyes. “It’s been a little while for me.”

“Me as well,” Jonas admitted, gaze softening. He wrapped his arms around Sidney’s waist.

Jonas kissed him, laid on top of him. Their bodies were flush and Sidney moaned at the feeling of Jonas pressed against him. The heat of his erection, the firm planes of his muscles.

“I want you so badly.” Sidney rolled his hips and Jonas pressed his forehead to Sidney’s shoulder, grunting, and shifting for more pressure. Sidney gasped at the sensation, wanted more of it. And then Jonas slid his hand into the back of Sidney’s hair and kissed him so deeply that when Jonas pulled away, Sidney was panting.

“I want you inside of me, Jonas. Please.”

Jonas didn’t answer. Instead, he began kissing his way down Sidney’s torso. Soft, reverent kisses that made Sidney squirm with their gentleness. Sidney didn’t think he had a body to be admired, all thin and long and boney. But Jonas hummed against his skin, nipping, groaning like Sidney was a decadent dessert to be devoured slowly. Sidney didn’t know what he liked more, the fevered, frenetic encounters, or this. The slow, languid pace of Jonas’s hands dragging over Sidney’s hips, spreading his thighs, made Sidney squirm and buck. Jonas sucked a love bite into the tender skin of Sidney’s hip crease, and Sidney moaned, as Jonas moved lower, mouth and tongue and hands, deliberate and unhurried.

And then, Jonas answered Sidney’s request. He began to open him up, achingly slow. Soft caresses, firm but gentle. Sidney moaned at the first finger. Began to beg at the second.

“Jonas! Oh, Jonas, please.”

“Don’t rush me, Sidney.” He was smiling, the bastard, his chest flush and gorgeous, looking very pleased with himself.

“Or you’ll—” Sidney couldn’t bite back the groan as Jonas began to fuck him slowly with his fingers. “Jonas!”

“Yes, Sidney?” Jonas purred. Bastard. Sidney arched his back.

“Fuck me! Please, Jonas.”

“I am,” Jonas said. Sidney moaned, grinding down again. He reached up to push his hair out of his face, stretching into the pleasure of it. Jonas grunted his approval and his hand began to move ever so slightly faster. Yes. God. Perfect.

Sidney kept his back arched and dropped his free hand down, sliding his palm over Jonas’s cock. Thick, heavy and leaking. Sidney stroked him, and Jonas’s eyes closed as he rocked forward into Sidney’s fist.

“Like that,” Sidney said. “Please. Yes.” Jonas shifted his hips back, out of Sidney’s grasp, sliding his fingers away at the same moment. “Jonas!” Jonas reached up and grabbed the condom tin off the bed, as he got to his knees again.

“On your back?” Jonas asked, his attention on the rubber. It had a strange, almost iridescent shine to it that caught Sidney’s eye. And then Jonas had it on, and Sidney rolled over, pressing up onto his knees.

Jonas leaned down, kissing the knots of Sidney’s spine, kneading Sidney’s ass. Sidney pushed back against him, wanting to be touched in every place all at once, and he could feel Jonas smile against his skin.

“Greedy, Sidney.”

“Fuck me, Jonas.” Jonas slid his hand down Sidney’s hip, then to Sidney’s cock, stroking him slowly. Sidney moaned. “Jonas!” And then Jonas was at his entrance, pushing into him. Stroking him. Sidney’s arms nearly gave way all at once. He tried to bite back a groan and it still came out a whimper.

“Sidney.” Jonas’s voice was ragged, his body still. His fingers curled into Sidney’s hip hard enough to bruise, and all Sidney could think was that he wanted more.

Jonas bit his bottom lip and tried not to come all at once. Sidney was perfect. Tight, and gorgeous and trembling just a little. Every time he made a sound, Jonas’s hips wanted to thrust. He was trying to be still, let Sidney adjust. And then Sidney grunted and began to slide forward and back, fucking himself on Jonas’s cock, and Jonas lost all coherent thought.

“Sidney. Oh, God, Sidney.”

“Harder, Jonas. Fuck! Please.” Jonas reached around to stroke Sidney, as he slid deeper. Faster. Sidney was begging for him, moaning. Sidney braced himself against the bed and slid too far forward, turning the angle bad. Jonas caught himself on Sidney’s hip, as their bodies slid apart. Sidney looked over his shoulder at Jonas, eyes dark, pupils wide in lust.

“Over there,” Sidney nodded toward the headboard, breathing hard. Jonas went, not a single thought about anything other than Sidney’s pleasure. He would have gone anywhere. Done anything.

Jonas fell back against the pillows, reclining against the headboard. Sidney crawled over to him, kissed him, slow and gentle. Then harder, sliding his hand up Jonas’s slick cock. Jonas twitched and moaned. Sidney stroked him and then pulled away.

Before Jonas quite knew what was happening, Sidney had turned, and leaned back against Jonas’s chest. He kissed Jonas that way, his neck at an angle, the soft, smooth heat of his body pressing against Jonas’s chest. Sidney hitched one thigh over Jonas, and then reached for him, slowly sliding down onto Jonas’s cock.

The space between their bodies shrank as Sidney took him, and Jonas watched, entranced. His body was moving on its own; he slid his hand beneath Sidney’s thigh to help support him, and when he squeezed, Sidney moaned. Sidney rolled his hips slowly, head thrown back onto Jonas’s shoulder as Sidney took him to the hilt.

“Sidney. Fuck.” Jonas gasped. Sidney whimpered, and Jonas kissed him. Kissed his jaw, sucked a love bite into his neck. Sidney moaned and began to move, and then Jonas was clutching Sidney’s thigh, as Sidney rode him.

The pace Sidney set was perfect. Gorgeous. Jonas sank his teeth into Sidney’s shoulder and Sidney cried out, his back arching. Sidney braced himself with clenching fingers against the slick, hot skin of Jonas’s ribs, as he pulled Jonas flush against him. However they’d fumbled before, they were perfectly in sync now. Jonas thrust and Sidney moaned his name. When Jonas shifted his hand down, stroking Sidney’s cock, Sidney whined, nodding, frantic.

“Oh, fuck. Yes! Jonas, please! I’m close. I—” Sidney came, head falling back against Jonas’s shoulder again, moaning into Jonas’s ear, and Jonas spilled inside him.

Sidney’s chest was heaving, flushed and gorgeous, and he leaned up, licking his way into Jonas’s mouth. Somehow, Jonas was desperate for Sidney than he had been when they’d started.

It wasn’t the sex he wanted more of. Or, it was, but it was something else too. Jonas kissed Sidney, could feel Sidney’s eyelashes flutter against his cheek. Jonas wanted to curl around Sidney’s body and cling to him forever. He’d kept Sidney from getting marked but felt like the magic had reversed on him somehow. He was enchanted by Sidney. He might be in love with him, and he was elated and terrified both, by the realization.

Sidney turned his head, shifting forward, off Jonas. Jonas helped as best he could, his energy spent, body aching to be close. Not to let him get too far away.

“Oh,” Sidney said quietly. “Oh, uh.”

“What’s wrong?” Jonas frowned, pushing up off the pillows, the headboard. “Are you okay?” He slid his hand over Sidney’s hip, trying to pull him back, look him over, as Sidney slid to the side.

For a moment, all Jonas could see was Sidney’s back, shoulders. Sidney half collapsed onto his hip, as he picked something up off the bedspread. The condom. Empty.

Dread hit Jonas like a bucket of cold water.

“It’s alright,” Sidney was saying. “I don’t mind, honestly.”

“Are you okay?” Jonas asked. It was the wrong question.

“I’m fine,” Sidney said quickly. He frowned at whatever Jonas’s face was doing. Shit, what was his face doing? “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright. Fine.” Jonas couldn’t stop watching Sidney, desperate to remember if there were any physical signs of a mark he might see. He’d fucked this so badly. He’d tried so hard to be careful. “As long as it doesn’t bother you, there’s nothing to worry about.” Liar. Gods, it made the bile rise in his throat.

“It doesn’t bother me.” Sidney blinked, his cheeks pinking further. “I like it, actually.”

Jonas didn’t deserve the way Sidney’s expression softened. But telling Sidney now would be pointless. The mark would make Sidney stay, even if he wanted to leave. But without an oath or a binding, it wouldn’t last long. A few days at most.

Sidney was saying something. Was grabbing Jonas’s arm and tugging him down on the bed.

“...But I appreciate it all the same. I’m sorry I wasn’t more careful. When we changed positions, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Neither was I,” Jonas said. Stupid. Selfish. Sidney kissed him, and Jonas’s rib cage tightened with guilt.

“That was incredible,” Sidney murmured against Jonas’s chest as he curled against Jonas. Jonas wrapped an arm around Sidney’s waist and tried to breathe.

“You’re too good for me,” Jonas said. Sidney snorted, as though that was an absurd thing to say. As though it wasn’t absolutely true.