Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Even if it never should have happened.
He bit his lip, guilt washing through him. He was a selfish fuck, wasn’t he? Thinking about turning over a new leaf and then immediately turning around and doing something like this. He shouldn’t be here, tucked into Brand’s arms like this, abusing the man’s loyalty.
Taking advantage of the paycheck that bound Brand to him, if only for the sake of his livelihood.
Swearing under his breath, Ash closed his eyes, then gingerly shifted to extricate himself. Slowly, he eased himself out from under the heavy weight of Brand’s arm, slipping a pillow into his place so as not to disturb the man, and started to swing his legs out of bed.
“If you are going to practice stealth, young Master,” Brand murmured at his back, velvety with sleep, making him freeze with his stomach plummeting, “you need a good deal more practice.”
Fuck.
BRAND HADN’T EXPECTED TO WAKE after his young Master—though he had risen only minutes after, he thought, even if he’d kept his stillness and his silence as Ash traced his face, his body, with a feather-light touch that soaked a pleasant, soothing warmth into his skin. But when Ash had withdrawn, Brand had opened his eyes.
Only to catch a glimpse of that crestfallen, terrible expression on Ashton’s face, before the young man swung away to give him the sleek line of his back, starting to rise from the bed.
“If you are going to practice stealth, young Master,” Brand said, “you need a good deal more practice.”
Ash winced, hunching, slim freckled shoulders upthrust to either side of his slender neck. “…sorry.” He turned a wary look over his shoulder, eyes a little too wide. “Did I wake you?”
“I was already awake.” Shifting onto his stomach, Brand pushed himself up onto his elbows and reached around Ash for his glasses, then unfolded them and slid them on. “And you are attempting to sneak out as if afraid a jealous spouse will catch me in your bed.”
Ash winced again, then shifted to ease back onto the bed, slipping his legs back under the covers and sitting up against the headboard. “It’s not that. I just…felt like I didn’t belong here.”
“It is your bed.”
“And you’re in it. And I’m naked. And we had sex.”
Brand couldn’t help a faint smile. “I had not forgotten.”
Nor could he forget Ashton clinging to him, flushed beneath him, slim and smooth and lovely with his lips parted on soft cries that were half-pain, half-pleasure; half begging him for more, half begging him to stop. Again and again Brand had slowed, reining himself in by the thinnest thread to let his young Master adjust, to give those soft cries a chance to become no, stop—but they never did.
Ash had only clutched to him harder, arched up against him, begged him with the sweat and silk of his body, with the tight heat of his flesh, with the press of desperate lips teasing sweet and soft and light against his, kisses like drops of rain against his skin.
His young Master’s mouth was still swollen and red from those kisses, even as he darted his tongue over his lips and watched Brand nervously, trepidation flickering in dark blue eyes. Brand wondered, then, if his young Master had regrets. If perhaps he regretted sleeping with someone so much older; sleeping with a servant; simply sleeping with Brand, as often as they had sniped at each other.
Brand was already preparing himself to wall away behind the barrier of proper formality, if only for the sake of his young Master’s dignity, when Ash blurted out, “I’m sorry.”
Brand stilled, tilting his head to one side. “…I don’t understand what you’re apologizing for.”
“Last night…” Ashton looked down, twining his fingers together, then tugging them apart, then twining them again. He swallowed audibly. “Last night wasn’t right. I…I took advantage of your position, and…” He looked away, mouth trembling, and fretted a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. It shouldn’t have happened. I…I understand if you want to quit.” He smiled bitterly. “Fuck. I understand if you want to sue me.”
Of all the things Brand had expected…it wasn’t that. It wasn’t something that mature, that reasoned, that considerate of either Brand’s feelings or the implications of what they’d done. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Ash had the capacity in him.
It was just that he didn’t think to see it so soon, or that Ash would be so forthright about it.
So brave.
It only made Brand want to pull Ash into his arms and cradle him, shelter him from the storm he was tossing himself through, his emotions written on his face.
But that might, right now, complicate the matter.
He turned over his response, working through the best answer, then said, “Last night was a matter of mutual consent, young Master. You did not pressure or obligate me into anything.” He searched dark blue eyes. “But if it makes you uncomfortable, we shall not speak of it again.”