Staccato (Magnum Opus #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,124
lines and edges against the pads of his fingers. He wished the light was on, but he knew he wouldn’t regret this moment—not for a single second.
“Are you going to answer me?” Nik asked, giving a sharp thrust upward.
Adam groaned, then sank his teeth into the top of Nik’s shoulder, making him hiss out in pain. “Was it a serious question?”
Nik said nothing, and he used his hands to gently lower Adam back down to the sofa. He cupped his cheek, thumb running over his jawline, his lips puffy with kisses, down his chin where his throat bobbed with a heavy swallow. “I should have asked you months ago. I should have asked you the day we met, because I knew then. Even when I was shit-scared of what loving you would do to me, I knew. So yes. I’m serious.”
Adam closed his eyes—not that it made a difference in the room right then—and he let his hand fall over the top of Nik’s. “I trust you, you know. I trust you’re not going to run again. That this is a sure thing.”
Nik let out another breathy chuckle, then thrust once—then twice. He picked up speed with a sudden ferocity, his other hand moving to Adam’s dick, and he rubbed in time with the motion of his hips until they were both panting, and groaning, and coming.
It felt like it dragged on forever—for half a lifetime. And eventually Nik slipped out of him, and he turned onto his side. The sofa was barely a love seat and didn’t fit them, but Nik kept him wrapped up close, kept his grip tight.
The only sound around them was the gentle rise and fall of their breaths and then the faint murmur of a leaving crowd. The others were probably looking for them, but Adam knew they probably wouldn’t look very hard.
“I’m not asking you to marry me so you feel secure. I’m asking because…” Nik hesitated for a long moment. “I was always on the fence about marriage, you know? I never really understood the point. If you love someone, you love someone. I can’t even tell you why I want it now—why it feels like it matters so much.”
“I hope you know I’m not going anywhere,” Adam whispered, and Nik let out another quiet chuckle, missing his lips when he kissed him, grazing his chin instead.
“I do.” Nik fell quiet another long moment. “It feels possessive—to have you like that. To bind you to me. And maybe it’s wrong how much I want that, but…”
Adam let the feeling of rightness settle in his bones before he shifted all the way onto his side, wrapping his leg around Nik’s thighs. He tucked him as close as he could, then felt for his mouth before kissing him. “Someone is going to come in here and turn the lights on and find the most intimately awkward scene ever.”
“I have no doubt,” Nik said with no small hint of joy. “A man and his lover.”
“A man and his fiancé,” Adam corrected softly, and he felt Nik’s body give a single jolt.
“Did…are you…”
“Yes,” Adam said. He cupped Nik’s face between both hands and just held him that way. “It didn’t make sense until you said it that way. Possession. It’s probably fucked up, but I mean, we are who we are.”
Nik laughed, and the sound was a little watery. “Nicolas is going to kill us if we try to plan a wedding while he’s trying to finish that opera.”
“I’m not scared of him,” Adam lied, and Nik laughed before kissing him again. And then again. And then again.
“We’ll shoot for a winter wedding,” Nik told him when he finally pulled away. “Vows and kissing under the snow.”
“Sounds like a fairy tale,” Adam confessed.
Nik leaned in and pressed their foreheads together. “Well, at the very least, it has our happily ever after.”
FIN
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Isaac for sensitivity reading Nik. To my beta readers who motivated me to get this book published, and to my readers who have been there—some from the start, and some new—who inspire me to keep going every day.
Afterword
For latest updates, subscribe to E.M. Lindsey’s newsletter and receive links to short stories set in both Irons and Works and On the Market universes.
To join in the rest of the reader fun, head over to Lindsey’s Liaison and enjoy Teaser Tuesdays, WIP Wednesdays, and memes galore, and finally for the most up to date access on new releases, follow them on Bookbub.
Also by E.M. Lindsey
Broken Chains:
Book One: Tidal Wave
Book Two: Backfire
Baum’s Boxing:
Book One: Below the Belt
Book Two: Fortune and Fate
Book Three: Fringe Contender
Breaking the Rules:
Book One: Renegades
Book Two: Temptation
Book Three: Forsaken
Irons and Works:
The Complete Series With Bonus Content
Book One: Free Hand
(In German)
Book Two: Blank Canvas
(In German)
Book Three: American Traditional
Book Four: Bio-Mechanical
Book Five: Stick-and-Poke
Book Six: Scarification
To Touch the Light- An Irons and Works Holiday novel
Love Beyond Measure
The Edge of Heaven
Love In Slow Motion
Magnum Opus Series:
Verismo
Stand-Alone Novels:
Like Water Catching Fire
Forget-Me-Not
Heartbeat Repeating
Paranormal Romance as Ariel Millar
Carpe Noctem:
Book One: Cold Hard Ground
About the Author
E.M. Lindsey lives in the south east United States, close to the water where their heart lies.