Two for Joy - Louise Collins Page 0,66

watched him brand Marc with the number one. His eyes weren’t scared, or repulsed, they were intense, and focused. He didn’t shy away, not even when the smell of burned flesh hit the air. He was right there next to Romeo, so close he could feel the heat of his skin, hear his fast breathing.

Romeo admired the number one, and froze in the moment, in his victory.

They stayed there, no speaking, or moving until the cigar had almost burned out, then Romeo stubbed the end out on the bedside table. He slid off Marc, got to his feet, and approached Chad.

Both his nostrils were bloodied, his torso was red raw, and covered in sliced numbers, but Romeo didn’t focus on that. He looked into Chad’s eyes, no longer pained and tortured, but awed, relieved, with a spark of something different, something new. Chad leaned his body forward, and fidgeted his fingers at his sides, as if waiting for some kind of go ahead from Romeo.

Romeo gave it to him in the form of a kiss.

Chapter Eighteen

Romeo’s mind tugged in two different directions. He knew he should’ve ended the kiss, knew Chad was hurt, and needed help, but he couldn’t stop. Even though he tasted blood, and Chad holding onto his face hurt, he couldn’t stop kissing as they backed out of the room. He couldn’t work out the exact number of days, hours, minutes since he’d kissed Chad. All he knew for certain was it had been far too long.

Romeo didn’t know where to put his hands without causing Chad pain, and cautiously held onto his sides as they moved down the corridor. He saw glinting on the floor and looked down to see glass from when Chad had knocked the picture frames off. Romeo wore shoes, couldn’t feel it, but Chad, bare-footed, walked straight through it, no wince, no grunt, as if he was too far gone to feel it. He kept tugging Romeo’s hair, and kissing his lips, and grinding his pelvis into Romeo’s.

Romeo suspected shock, but every time he leaned away, wanting to see Chad’s face, Chad gripped the back of Romeo’s head and forced him forward to resume the kiss. It was too tempting not to, and when Chad pushed him into the first bedroom, he went, collapsing back on the bed. The bed Chad had been hurt in. The bed covered in his blood. The bed that smelled of sweat and fear.

“Hold on—

A kiss stopped him from saying more, and when Chad sucked on his tongue, he damn-near gave in, Chad was riding on adrenaline, shock and lust. He wanted to crack open Chad’s mind, unravel it, work out what was going on, what Chad was thinking, what he was feeling after he’d just seen Romeo kill a man.

“Let’s talk.”

“Let’s not.” Chad gasped.

He straddled Romeo, wiped his thumb across the slice on Romeo’s cheek, then leaned down to kiss it. The attention was addictive, Romeo had been so convinced Chad had run from him, but there he was, back again, kissing the shit out of him, demanding … sex? Romeo wasn’t quite sure what, but he wasn’t protesting.

He hadn’t scared Chad. When Chad rubbed his crotch against him Romeo felt his hardness. He wasn’t repulsed, but turned on. It was all too easy to sink back into the kiss, and grab the back of Chad’s head, and force him impossibly closer. They were pressed so tightly together Romeo didn’t know which of their hearts he could feel, or whose chest was heaving, or who was moaning softly, or whose blood he could taste.

He knew he should stop, Chad was hurt, and using every inch of his willpower he managed it, tearing his mouth from Chad’s lips.

“Why?” Chad said, before nipping the edge of Romeo’s mouth. “Why stop?”

Romeo’s lips didn’t sting, they tingled. Chad kept using his teeth, addicting nibbles that made Romeo’s heart thump and his cock jolt. He was hard, he shouldn’t have been, but he was.

“Because we should.”

“Fuck should.”

“Chad…”

“I need you.”

Chad picked at the buttons of Romeo’s pants, then yanked them down, hard enough to bust the zip, and tear the expensive fabric. Romeo wasn’t wearing any underwear, and he looked down, hating his traitorous cock for bobbing with excitement, looking all sticky and eager, unconsciously lifting as if trying to get to Chad’s mouth, as if it could sense him nearby. Chad’s lips lifted, and a pleased gasp left them.

“Chad—”

Romeo’s reservations dissolved in the heat of a mouth. His eyes rolled up