The Venetian and the Rum Runner - L.A. Witt Page 0,141

There’d been so much ice between them at the start, and now there was nothing but heat and hunger.

There was always an element of risk when two men sought each other’s company, but Danny hadn’t just gone into a place where men went to find other men. No, he’d let himself into Carmine’s bedroom. He’d come looking for him. At any moment, he could have been discovered and even shot. Confident as Danny was in his abilities, he was smart, and he had to have known the entire time that he was gambling with more than just a degenerate disorderly conduct charge or a workhouse sentence, but still he’d come. He’d gotten into Carmine’s house and into his bedroom, and he’d waited.

He’d come for Carmine, risks be damned.

“You’re crazy,” Carmine murmured against the hot skin of Danny’s throat. “You know that, right?”

“And you didn’t throw me out,” Danny mused, carding his fingers through Carmine’s hair, “so you must be the same breed of crazy.” Carmine laughed, and Danny gasped and shivered, probably from the rush of breath across his skin. Carmine took advantage and nipped Danny’s shoulder, which earned him a throaty, “God Almighty.”

Carmine laughed and did it again.

“Carmine,” Danny breathed. “Carmine, I…” He shivered, arching into him. “Should be… Has to be a sin to want a man as bad as I want you.”

Carmine kissed Danny’s neck again and growled, “Then sin.”

Danny exhaled, and when Carmine lifted his head, Danny kissed him, and they both moaned and groped and ground against each other. Their fingers dug into each other’s flesh and would probably leave bruises behind. Carmine didn’t mind if he could still see the evidence of tonight on his skin days from now. He hoped he did. He hoped Danny could see and feel him for days too.

Don’t you dare stop, he wanted to say, until I can’t move without feeling you.

Time ceased to exist as they held each other and kissed, sometimes with Danny on top, sometimes with Carmine. After God only knew how long, when Danny was on his back with his thighs against Carmine’s hips, he broke the kiss and panted, “I swear I’m no punk. Not… Not usually. But I want you to…” He trailed off into a moan.

Carmine nipped Danny’s lower lip. “I don’t give a damn what you are. Whatever you want, say the word.”

Danny shivered, rocking his hips against Carmine. “Please…”

Just the thought of pushing into Danny had Carmine close to losing his mind. Especially knowing Danny would trust him enough to not only take him carefully without hurting him, but not to reveal to the men of his crew that Danny would let a man take him that way.

Carmine pushed himself up and met Danny’s lust-filled eyes. “Stay there. I’ll be right back.”

Danny nodded, licking his lips.

Without another word, Carmine got up to retrieve the small jar of Vaseline he kept in the bathroom attached to his bedroom. When he came back, Danny was watching, lying naked on the bed and stroking himself slowly. Christ, Carmine could have stood there and enjoyed the view all damn night, but Danny hadn’t come here for Carmine to watch him.

Danny’s eyes flicked to the jar in Carmine’s hand, and he squirmed, biting his lip and slowing his strokes as if he didn’t want to come too soon.

Carmine lay beside Danny again, and neither of them spoke as he opened the jar. He smoothed the Vaseline onto himself, the slickness making him hot with anticipation, and beside him, Danny shifted, his breathing faster now even though his own hand had stopped.

“You done this before?” Carmine asked.

Danny met his eyes, and as he started to speak, there was a flash of defensiveness in his expression, but then he shifted his gaze away as a blush crept into his cheeks. “I, um…”

Carmine lifted Danny’s chin and kissed him softly. “I’m not telling no one. I just don’t want to hurt you.”

Danny looked in his eyes again. Then he swallowed, and he nodded subtly as he murmured, “Aye, a few times.”

“And you liked it?”

With a shy laugh, Danny said, “You think I’d be begging you to do it if I didn’t?”

Carmine grinned. “Turn over.”

Danny put a hand behind Carmine’s neck and kissed him again, letting it linger for a long moment. When he broke that kiss, they met each other’s gazes for a heartbeat or two, and then Danny turned onto his hands and knees.

Carmine made sure Danny was ready for him, and when he was, he