forward, sucking the drop of blood from Madi’s still bleeding lip before plunging his tongue inside, letting Madi taste himself.
“Were?” Madi grumbled, his pupils dilated in the dim light, his hips still rising to meet each of Az’s lazy downward thrusts.
Az dropped down to the mattress beside him so they both looked up at the ceiling fan spinning lazily above them. “Mm, but my revenge will have to wait until morning. I’m too tired, and I refuse to exact my revenge quickly. You’ve cost me half a million dollars. But more importantly, you’ve cost me the one thing I hold most precious. My sleep. So, now, you can wait.”
“Morning?” Madi asked, his tone borderline hostile. “What makes you think I’ll still be here in the morning?”
“Because I have a proposal for you, and I know your curiosity will be too piqued to leave.”
Madi’s responding snort was filled with derision, but he didn’t deny the claim, just turned onto his side away from Az, possibly to contemplate what fool’s bargain might be in store for him.
Az took advantage of Madi’s position, curling against him, his arm snaking around the man’s waist and pulling him back into him.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Madigan whispered, sounding vaguely horrified.
Az frowned. “An ancient Pakistani death ritual,” he snarked before answering Madi’s question with the most obvious answer. “Sleeping, what does it look like I’m doing?”
Madigan snorted. “Snuggling me. You think I’m going to let you turn me into the little spoon? I am not a little spoon.”
Az smiled in the dark. Most often, when one of them spent the night, they kept to their own side of the bed, making it far easier for one of them to slink off, leaving the other none the wiser. But not this time. This time, Madigan would not be slinking off in the dead of night, Az would make certain of it. “You would prefer big spoon? I am not one to get hung up on things such as this. Big spoon, little spoon, teaspoon, soup spoon. It’s all the same to me. I didn’t think you’d be so toxically masculine, but I suppose it does not surprise me coming from a man who nearly let me fuck him with a knife handle.”
Az flipped over to face the door, waiting expectantly for Madi to fulfill his role as big spoon. Madi flopped over onto his side, his hand awkwardly resting on Az’s waist, like they were slow dancing at some American prom. Az canted his hips back against Madi with a snicker. “Come on, motek, you can get closer. Pretend you’re simply guarding me so I don’t escape and you want to keep me very, very close.”
Madi let out a snort for the nonsensical suggestion and Az grinned into the darkness. Seeing the man this flummoxed from simply forcing him to snuggle might be better revenge than tying him down and licking his wounds, both literally and metaphorically. Who would have thought such a tough man could be brought to heel simply by making him a little spoon?
“If you don’t stop grinding your ass into my dick, it’s going to be me who ties you up and bleeds you while I fuck you.”
Az tilted his head as Madi’s fingers threaded his hair, tugging hard. “Don’t threaten me with a good time, Mr. Smith.” He sighed as Madi closed his hand around Az’s cock, working him in loose strokes. “I haven’t showered in three days.”
Madi yanked Az’s head back hard enough for him to growl, capturing his mouth in a dirty kiss before saying, “I like the way you smell.”
It shouldn’t have been a compliment, but Az’s pulse fluttered just the same. It was the heart of it, Az supposed. Even covered in dirt or blood, underneath it all, their scents called to each other. Pheromones, perhaps? Az didn’t care what it was called. Regardless of whether or not they despised each other, their bodies didn’t. There would always be that underlying need to crawl inside each other, fuck and fight and feed off each other. It wasn’t love. Love was for romance novels and teen girls in fairy tales. What they had was something baser. Something raw and dirty.
Az thought it was better.
“If I can’t fuck you and you’re too tired to fuck me, then tell me your deal. Or are you exacting your revenge by keeping me awake with imagined indecent proposals?”
“What I want is sleep and for you to be here when I wake in