Julian lifted his hand finally, his fingers still a little tense, but he laid it against the side of Archer’s neck where his pulse beat, rabbit-fast. “Does he know what you do for a living?”
It hit Archer then—like a physical blow, and he almost took a step back. Julian didn’t know. He thought…fuck, he still thought that Archer was an escort. He thought the brother to the governor was an escort, and was still here for payment.
“I,” he said.
“I thought not.” Julian’s words cut him off, and the rest of his statement was swallowed down by a kiss—more vicious and needy than he’d taken on the dance floor. More wanton and all-encompassing than on the terrace.
Archer let himself be pushed back toward the bed, let himself go entirely pliant as Julian’s clever fingers began to work the buttons on his shirt, then spread them open to reveal his bare chest. Archer squirmed, kicking off his shoes, trying to reach for his belt, but Julian grabbed him by the wrists and pinned his hands above his head.
“Let me. Let me take my time with you. I know this can’t last,” he murmured, kissing along Archer’s neck. Archer groaned and Julian froze there, lips open and waiting until Archer moaned again, and then he resumed the trail of laving along his collarbone. “I know what this is, but I need you to just let me pretend…”
“No,” Archer said, pushing himself up onto his elbows. He lifted one arm and cupped Julian’s cheek. “You don’t understand.” He wanted to tell him the truth—tell him everything. He wanted to strip himself down, peel away his layers and leave himself utterly and completely exposed—down to his very atoms. And he would.
But he was selfish, and he knew it would take rebuilding. He knew that if Julian learned that none of this was real, the guilt would eat at him, and Archer wanted at least this moment to treasure if they could never put what they had back together.
Still, he couldn’t go further if Julian didn’t know how he felt. “This is real. I need you to understand,” he said. He sat up all the way, dislodging Julian from where he was crouched on all fours, and somehow he ended up straddling Archer’s lap. His weight pressed against Archer’s achingly hard cock, and he thrust up against it, devouring the groan that ripped from Julian’s chest. “This is real to me. It’s not nothing. This isn’t a transaction, okay? I have been attracted to you from the moment I laid eyes on you, and it’s…it just keeps getting worse. I can’t escape it. I want to burn this place to the ground because I think it might make you smile.”
Julian did then—he smiled. It wasn’t as large as before, but it still lit up his eyes, it transformed his face into a man that should exist for every second of every day because it meant that someone—him, maybe—was making Julian happy. “You can’t be real.”
“I am,” Archer vowed. He shuffled back, taking Julian with him until his back hit the headboard, and then he curled his hands into the front of Julian’s shirt. “I’m real, I’m here. I want this. And I don’t know if I can let you go when it’s over.”
Julian’s eyes fluttered closed, and he took in a shaking breath before he opened them again. Archer thought maybe he had rejection on the tip of his tongue, or reluctance. Instead, he just had more kissing. He pressed his entire body against Archer, grinding themselves against each other, hands searching under clothes until somehow, they were scattered at the edge of the bed and along the floor.
Archer let Julian drag him down. He let Julian pull him apart with careful drags of blunt nails until those clever, perfect fingers had curled around his cock and were stroking him in time with the way he pushed his tongue into his mouth.
“God, I,” Archer said, his eyes shut because he knew if he looked at the way Julian was watching him, he’d come. “More. Please.”
“Anything,” Julian vowed. He released him, but before Archer could cry out to be touched again, Julian followed a path of wet, sucking kisses down his torso, over his belly, and then stopping to nose along his cock. “Let me…”
“Just don’t make me come,” Archer said, tracing a fingertip around Julian’s half-open mouth. “Not yet. Not without you.”
Julian’s entire body shook once, then he took Archer in with a