Rob had always thought it was perfectly fine, if done for the right reasons, but Rob was a madman.
Percy evidently took Kit’s silence for disagreement. “I see that I’ve shocked you,” he said slowly, his eyes searching Kit’s face. “Was I supposed to say that I think we’re very bad men?”
Kit laughed, some combination of amusement and relief—although relief at what, he could not quite say—bubbling up inside him. “No,” he said, and then his hand was on Percy’s jaw. “It’s just that sometimes, you actually make sense. A man’s allowed to be shocked.” The words came out stupidly tender, an impression that was probably only compounded by the thing his thumb was doing to Percy’s cheekbone. He was afraid it was a caress, that he was actually caressing Lord Holland. Lord Holland who had made an argument for the virtues of crime, Lord Holland who was Percy, who maybe thought Kit wasn’t so bad—
He wasn’t sure which of them moved first to close the gap, but that was a lie because it was definitely Kit, it was definitely, lamentably Kit who put his hand to the back of Percy’s head and held it there very carefully when he leaned closer. He moved slowly, carefully, as if giving Percy a chance to think twice.
His hand slid into Percy’s hair at the same moment their lips met. It felt familiar—not the brush of lips over lips, not the fact that he thought Percy might actually be smiling—but everything else. The way their bodies fit together. The sound of Percy’s breathing. The way he smelled like lemons and soap. The sure grasp of his hand at Kit’s hip. All the fighting had made them familiar with one another’s bodies, and God knew they were used to wanting one another, so the only thing that was different was the actual fact of their mouths touching, the pure sensation of it.
And Percy was smiling, damn him. Kit could feel it with his own lips. It was probably that smug little smile that Kit really shouldn’t like half so much, and Kit was going to tell him to stop it, he really was, and that was why he opened his mouth. He got distracted by Percy’s teeth closing around Kit’s lower lip and biting down, not particularly gently. Kit gasped, like an idiot, like someone who needed to have the mechanics of kissing and possibly the anatomy of mouths explained to him, maybe with charts.
Percy licked into Kit’s mouth, and that was when Kit realized he wasn’t in charge of this kiss, not in the slightest. And that was good, but it was also like falling out a window, so he backed Percy up against a very conveniently located tree. He kept his hand at the back of Percy’s head, so he didn’t get hurt. Percy grabbed Kit’s hat and threw it to the ground. “In the way,” he muttered against Kit’s mouth, as if Kit needed an explanation, as if Kit gave a damn about hats, or anything that wasn’t Percy’s mouth.
Their bodies were flush against one another, and Kit was simultaneously relieved and embarrassed to discover that they were both hard. He felt like he ought to be cataloging all the ways this was different from kissing a woman, but it wasn’t, really. Not in any of the ways that mattered. He thought that he might be on the verge of some kind of profound revelation when Percy slid a leg between his own, and all Kit’s thoughts evaporated, only to be replaced by the finally, finally, finally that his heart seemed to say with every thumping beat.
Kit dragged his mouth away from Percy’s and began kissing his way down to the hinge of his jaw, then to the soft curve of his neck. He felt the flutter of Percy’s pulse beneath the thin skin there. He bit that spot, then gentled over it with his tongue. Percy groaned.
Kit pulled back to look at him, to take in the sight of Percy with his eyes half-closed and his lips swollen and wet, his cheeks red from rubbing against Kit’s stubble.
“I should stop,” Kit said.
“You should fuck me,” Percy countered. “You can, you know.”
There was something about Percy’s tone on those last words—prim, matter-of-fact—that made Kit feel slightly hysterical. He started to laugh.
“Oh, delightful,” Percy said. “Precisely what a man wants to hear in the middle of a tryst.” He shoved Kit half-heartedly with one palm.
“I can, can I?” Kit asked. “Christ. Everyone who’s