The Venetian and the Rum Runner - L.A. Witt Page 0,146

eventually, he’d let it go, apparently satisfied Danny was either keeping his proclivities out of sight or had properly decided to be a man.

Before coming here tonight, Danny had been certain somehow that Carmine would think less of him. Some men did. And showing this side of himself to a man he’d so adamantly distrusted in the beginning? It was dizzying, how much things had changed between them now—that he’d gone from being hesitant about even being in the same room as Carmine to all but begging him for the pleasure he craved from him and only him.

He’d been afraid Carmine would look at him differently afterward, but he didn’t. He still kissed him just as fiercely. Still held him just as tightly. Still clearly wanted him just as much as he had when they’d kissed for the first time tonight.

“Tell me what you want,” Carmine whispered, his voice ragged.

“You.” Danny swallowed. “The same way.”

Carmine made a quiet sound like he’d tried to hold back a moan. Then he pushed himself up and reached for the jar again, and Danny’s heart went wild.

Yes, yes, please, yes.

After Carmine had slicked himself up, he gestured for Danny to get on his knees, but Danny shook his head. Instead, he pushed Carmine onto his back and climbed on top, and they sank into another long, decadent kiss. From the low, muffled growl and the way he gripped Danny’s hair, Carmine had no objections.

Carmine slid a hand between them. Without breaking the kiss, Danny lifted his hips, and Carmine guided himself in. Danny eased down, squeezing his eyes shut as Carmine moved into him inch by slick, tight inch.

“Danny…” Carmine’s callused hands drifted up Danny’s thighs to his hips as he murmured something in Italian.

Danny rode him slowly. He couldn’t handle fast and hard this time, not so soon after he’d come, but he felt too dizzy and drunk to move any faster than this anyhow. Instead he savored every stroke, every breath, every surge of sensation as Carmine filled him up. Everything was slow and perfect. The world had been so chaotic, so painful, so damn terrifying lately, but here and now, it was all warmth and pleasure. He didn’t have to worry about a thing except losing himself in dark, lust-filled eyes and the intoxicating bliss of riding a man he was quickly making peace with wanting in every way imaginable.

“Danny.” Carmine licked his lips and reached for him. “Come down… Come here.”

Danny leaned down, and Carmine grabbed the back of his neck and kissed him deep and hard, and Danny moaned against his lips. It was such a delicious contradiction—their bodies moving so slowly and fluidly while their lips and tongues clashed and demanded.

Time didn’t matter. The world outside this room didn’t matter. Blood didn’t matter, apart from what pounded in Danny’s ears. Homelands and surnames and gangs and crimes—none of it mattered. Right here, right now, he had everything he desired in the world, and it left him breathless and overwhelmed and hungry for more.

Carmine broke the kiss with a gasp, but he didn’t release his iron grip on Danny’s neck. “Danny… oh God.” He thrust up, breaking their slow, easy cadence in favor of something needier and more frantic. “Danny.”

The sound of him saying his name—pleading his name—had Danny dizzy with arousal, and he moved faster just to make Carmine gasp like that again. The shudder that went through Carmine reverberated through Danny, and he could feel himself nearing that precipice, careening toward it with every roll of his hips. Carmine’s hands went to Danny’s hips and pulled him down, and he thrust up, hard and fast, until a hot, ragged breath rushed through the space between their mouths as he forced himself as deep as Danny could take him, and shuddered.

Carmine had barely started to relax before he grabbed Danny’s neck again, and he kissed him hard as he stroked him between their bodies, still rocking his hips just enough to move inside Danny and drive him over that peak with a gasp, a shiver, and a kiss-muffled whimper of release.

Danny shuddered once more, then exhaled, holding himself up on shaking arms as he shared a long, breathless kiss with Carmine.

“I’ve been wanting this for ages,” Carmine panted against his lips.

“Aye. Me too.”

Their eyes met. He could feel the unspoken thoughts on both their minds—was this all they could have? Tonight and only tonight? In the world they lived in, that was entirely possible, but Danny refused to