Az kicked it away.
As soon as the door fell shut, Az put his forearm against Madi’s neck, pressing until his cheeks began to turn pink. In the past, Madigan would have snatched Az’s arm, twisting it behind his back and shoving his chest up against the wall, but, this time, he simply exposed more of his throat.
“Fuck you, Madigan,” Az snarled, suddenly turning away, back heaving, not with exertion but frustration.
“Look—” Madi started, moving away from the wall.
Az spun back around, shoving him hard, getting in his face until they were breathing each other’s air. “You missed me? How can you even say that with a straight face? You said we were better apart. You said you thought I set you up. Now, here you are, telling me that, while I’ve been feeling like somebody scooped out a bit of my insides, you’ve been fucking vacationing.”
Madi’s expression softened into something that was much too close to pity for Az’s taste. “Az—” Madi tried again, but Az wasn’t having it.
It was like something had broken inside of him, and he just couldn’t stop speaking. “No. No. You don’t get to talk. When you talk, chaos fucking follows and I forget who I am. You make me forget that I prefer being alone. You make me forget that nothing good comes from letting somebody in.” Az wanted to punch him or stab him, wanted to do anything that would make Madi look on the outside the way Az felt on the inside. “You missed me,” he spat again. “Fuck you.”
Az needed space, but when he turned away this time, Madi put a hand on his shoulder.
Az spun on his heel, letting his fist fly and clocking Madi hard enough for the other man’s teeth to clack together. Any other time, Madi would have swung back, would’ve pulled his knife and cut Az free of his clothes, maybe made him bleed, and then they would have tumbled into bed. But, this time, Madi just stood there, rubbing his jaw where Az had struck him.
“Feel better?” Madigan cocked a brow.
“No,” Az admitted, nostrils flaring. He needed Madigan to fight back. But he didn’t. He wouldn’t. Instead, he began to undress, and it shook Az to his core. “What are you doing?”
Madi didn’t answer him, just continued to undress until he stood naked. When he closed the distance between them, Az should have moved, but he was frozen by the sight of Madi stripped bare before him. He was so beautiful that it took a whole minute before he realized Madi was searching Az’s pockets. “I know it’s here somewh—Aha,” he said, pulling Az’s knife free of his pocket like a magician freeing a rabbit from a hat.
“You’re not ruining this suit,” was all Az could think to mutter.
Madi opened the knife, the razor-sharp blade looking dull in the soft light of the hotel lamps. “It’s not for me.” He presented it to Az, then turned his back on him and went to lie face down on the bed.
This, Az could do. This was familiar. This they’d done many times before. He took his time getting undressed, letting his gaze roam over the slopes and angles of Madigan’s body, the broad shoulders and muscular back covered in tiny white scars, the dip of his back, the generous swell of his ass, his thick thighs dusted with hair.
Once Az was naked, he knelt between Madi’s legs, kissing his ankles, sliding his palms over his calves before separating his thighs. When he perched himself on top of Madi’s ass, he leaned forward, letting the knife blade dance along one shoulder blade. “I could kill you, you know,” Az murmured as he teased the knife’s blade up to the spot where Madi’s shoulder met his neck. “Slit your throat. Puncture your kidney. Stab you through the heart.”
“If you want me dead, then do it and get it over with,” Madi growled.
Az pressed his erection to the dark furrow of Madi’s ass, letting him feel how hard he was. “If I could kill you, I would, but, somehow, you would manage to take a piece of me with you.”
Madi’s silence twisted something in Az. He used the tip of his blade to slice a slanted line into Madi’s flesh, high above the others, groaning when Madi hissed, his ass clenching around Az’s cock. He leaned forward, dragging his tongue along the wound, and then gripped Madi by the jaw and twisted him around to plunge his tongue between his