Platonic (19 page)

“God.” Mark kisses below Daniel’s ear. “Always.” And again. “Always.” He scratches his teeth down the column of Daniel’s neck and says his name. “Daniel.”

Stumbling even though he’s standing still, Daniel’s fingers twist into Mark’s hair to hold himself steady so he can look at him again. “We’re doing this together, okay?” Mark stares at him, sees the desperate passion in his eyes, the way he’s grasping at him with words and hands, asking again and again just to make sure that tonight is theirs, that it’s real. “No matter what happens, we keep going, we stay friends, we keep talking. I can’t lose you again.”

“Yeah.” Mark kisses him again, mouth curling into a broad smile against Daniel’s. “God, I missed kissing you,” he mumbles.

Daniel hums his agreement against Mark’s mouth and licks inside messily, pulls back and kisses the tip of his nose and then takes his face in his hands and kisses one cheek, then the other, then comes chastely back to his lips. Just as they used to. Mark beams at him with closed eyes and tries to lean into a proper kiss, missing and getting Daniel’s chin and latching on there anyway to suck, making a wet noise.

And just like that, the weight of the moment shifts and they’re both giggling and chasing each other’s mouths for quick, teasing kisses, one after the other, until Daniel’s teeth catch Mark’s bottom lip and bite, tug, and Mark’s hips rock up against Daniel’s.

Their mouths come apart and their hands race for the waistbands of each other’s pants, their foreheads leaning together as they try to see down to the mess of shaking fingers and material.

Mark is the first to find success, his fingers tugging the button of Daniel’s jeans free and making quick work of the zipper. He lets out a victorious “Yes!” as his hands move under the waistband and push down the worn-thin denim so it drops to below Daniel’s knees and leaves him there in—

“
Dan!
” Mark’s knees crack loudly against the floorboards as he slides down between the counter and Daniel’s body to stare. “These are…” he trails off as he dares to trace the outline of Daniel’s cock with his fingertips. “When did you start wearing briefs?”

Daniel’s eyes snap shut and he stutters, “Oh God, well… I mean, I didn’t expect you to
see
them. I wasn’t thinking of… I just threw them on because they sit well under the jeans and—”

Mark mouths against Daniel’s hip. The hot pressure of his lips there makes Daniel stop suddenly and breathe out harshly through his open mouth. The briefs are gray and small, the elastic digging in to Daniel’s skin and the cotton stretched over his erection. They’re nothing like the loose cotton boxer shorts he used to wear.

Above him, Daniel is looking down and blushing and swallowing hard. On his knees, Mark stares up at him, mouth open. He watches Daniel for a moment, the redness of his cheeks and the hang of his hair around his face in a halo of light brown. Then he turns his attention back to where his fingers shift by small degrees over the fabric and around Daniel’s dick, watching the outline and licking his lips. He looks back up and says with near-comical reverence, “You never ever used to wear briefs.”

Daniel laughs lightly and threads his fingers back through Mark’s curls. “You never used to cut your hair short; I used to have more to hang onto,” he teases, breath catching as Mark’s hand moves to cup him through his underwear and his mouth puffs hot against the crease of Daniel’s thigh. Not that Daniel ever hung on—their blowjobs were tame, controlled experiences.

This time Mark doesn’t look up. “Do you really like my hair this short?”

Daniel slides his fingers into the thickness of Mark’s hair, twisting the inch of length there around his fingers and tugging. He opens his mouth to say something, but Mark is impatient and presses his mouth, hot and open, around the base of Daniel’s cock, heat and wetness going straight through the cotton and making Daniel’s voice die in his throat, replaced by a breathless whine. His hips rock up against Mark’s mouth and then Daniel calls for him. “Mark,” he says, and tugs sharply at his hair. “Come up here.”

Sighing heavily, feeling lightheaded, Mark mouths at him once again and promises himself that he’ll get his mouth properly around Daniel’s cock before the night is over. He rocks back and up onto his feet and when he stumbles, Daniel catches him by the hips and pushes him back against the counter. They kiss and Daniel moans, rubbing up against Mark’s crotch as though he can’t help it.

Mark doesn’t even notice the sneak of Daniel’s hand between them, deft and searching, undoing his jeans. Daniel kisses up his jaw, wet and sucking, and stops at his ear.

“What do you want to do?” Daniel asks as if it’s all that matters, as if it’s all he cares about. That’s so contrary to what Mark knows Daniel is usually like it makes him pause and savor it, because Daniel back in Illinois was selfish to a fault, demanding, taking what he wanted and even in their emails, Mark had guessed he would still be forceful in getting his way in all aspects of life.

And yet Mark can’t really think what he wants. “Everything,” Mark breathes out. “Everything or anything or—”

Daniel gets Mark’s shirt off in one quick move, dragging it up and over his head and throwing it over the counter toward the dining table. He lifts Mark’s glasses from where they’re still perched on his head at an odd angle and skates them across the bench for safekeeping. Mark forgets to speak or move, so Daniel tugs his own Henley and the undershirt beneath it up and off and throws it in the same direction.

“God, you’re even more beautiful now,” trips from Mark’s lips, and Daniel squares his shoulders and laughs and then sinks slowly to his knees, kissing Mark’s chin, his sternum and just to the side of a nipple as he goes.

“You got hairy,” Daniel mumbles against Mark’s skin, tracing his nose through the hair on Mark’s chest. It must tickle, because his lips curve. “I like it,” he adds. “A lot.” He kisses lower. “And you smell different. Better. Less like body spray and more like… like what I want. Fuck, you’ve grown up so much.”

He licks a circle around Mark’s belly button and bites at the skin, pulling at it before letting it slip from between his teeth and then kissing it. His hands make quick work of Mark’s pants now, pulling them from hips to ankles before Mark even realizes what’s going on.

Mouth still on Mark’s belly, Daniel has his eyes closed and is seemingly content to just taste and savor the skin under his lips. Mark can’t stop little shivers from rippling through the muscles of his abdomen and he’s sure Daniel must be able to feel them; he can read pleasure on his face so easily. Daniel reaches blindly for Mark’s crotch, hand smoothing over Mark’s hard cock and the softness of his balls under too-thin cotton and making Mark buck because God it feels good and he wants more now.

But Daniel just kisses once more at the trail of dark hair under Mark’s belly button and breathes out harshly. He nuzzles the soft skin over the defined abs of Mark’s belly, and Mark’s settles his hands to play in Dan’s hair, pushing his loose bangs back over and over again. Finally, Daniel shifts on his knees and pulls his face back from Mark’s belly and opens his eyes.

Mark’s sure he’s about to get some sort of proper pleasure, some sort of friction, but instead he hears, very suddenly, Daniel’s soft, startled giggles. Then Daniel buries his face back against the warm skin of Mark’s hip, stifles his laughter and teases, “Sexy, Mark. Very sexy.”

“Wha—” Mark looks down and realizes just what he slipped into after his shower: tight little boxer briefs with horizontal pink and lavender stripes. They’re actually not the worst pair he owns, not nearly. “Oh.” He pouts and when Daniel looks up he laughs again. “Clearly, neither one of us expected to be seen in our underwear.” Daniel reaches up to press his hand to Mark’s cheek, except Mark turns his head and sucks a finger into his mouth before Daniel can stop him and holds him there with his hand tight around Daniel’s wrist. He sucks until Daniel moans and slumps against him a little, face back against his stomach. Mark is quickly coming to the conclusion that this is exactly where it should always be.

He licks the skin between Daniel’s thumb and forefinger and says, “You try dressing like an assistant D.A. every day of the week and then tell me you wouldn’t do exactly the same.” Daniel reclaims his hand and uses it to stifle another laugh, pressing his lips to the jut of a hipbone afterward.

When he speaks again, Mark’s voice dips low and husky: “Take them off.”

Daniel’s eyes go wide, as though he suddenly remembers why they’re here. His thumbs slide under the purple waistband and he stares up, holding eye contact with Mark as he drags the material down Mark’s legs.

He kisses Mark’s belly again and Mark groans from both impatience and sensory overload. “Dan, please.”

Shushing him, Daniel takes his time casting his gaze down Mark’s body, resting his hands lightly on Mark’s hips and giving him nothing more than that. He takes in the lengths of Mark’s legs, paler than they were in high school, the hair coarser and muscles thicker. He eases one of Mark’s feet up, then the other, and slips his pants and underwear off.

And then Mark is completely, gloriously naked, leaning back against the counter and waiting for Daniel to look at him. “Fuck,” Daniel breathes as he sits back slightly on his haunches and stares up at Mark’s body.

Mark laughs, voice pulled taut over the words as he says, “That’s the plan.”

Mark expects Daniel to laugh, but all he gets is a quick nod and then Daniel drops his gaze back to Mark’s cock. He breathes Mark’s name again and again as his fingers curl, slow and easy, around his length. Mark’s whole body shakes with the effort of holding back, his knuckles white against the kitchen counter.

“You’re more stunning than I remember,” Daniel mumbles, the words hitting Mark’s skin warm and wet and making him whine high in his throat.

“Daniel, come on,
please
…” He’s undone already.

Daniel’s hand slides the length of his cock, Mark’s hips immediately rocking up to meet the touch in mismatched movement. And then Daniel pauses with just the light touch of his hand stilled on Mark’s cock as his eyes flick up and he smiles and it’s dirty and wanting.

“What do you want, Mark?” He kisses at a hipbone again and his hand moves with the same rough friction. “Tell me what you want.” Daniel bites the skin and keeps biting, marks it with a red splotch that will fade to a lingering purple by morning, and Mark moans.

“Suck me,” tumbles from Mark’s mouth and he knows it’s what Daniel wants to hear even if they were never anywhere near this vocal when they were young. Now, Daniel is like this—clearly—and Mark loves it, will ask for exactly what he wants because Daniel offers so happily to give it to him. “Suck my cock,” Mark says again, just to get the reaction, everything made even hotter when he sees Daniel reach down between his own legs to press the heel of his hand to his own cock. Mark watches his fingers move gingerly to pull his waistband down, press at his balls and free himself. That’s all, though.

“God, I need your mouth,” Mark says.

Daniel licks across his teeth, and Mark tries to remember how good Daniel was at blowjobs ten years ago, his foggy mind tripping over a dozen memories of tentative and sloppy attempts, and learning how to do it together.

He watches Daniel, who seems to be thinking about the same thing. Then Daniel drops his gaze from Mark’s eyes to his cock, takes it in his fist again and lets his mouth fall open around the head.

Mark makes a choked-off sound and rises up on his toes. He knows his instant, visceral reaction to Dan’s mouth on him is teenaged and desperate but he doesn’t care because Daniel has made him wait and now Daniel is sucking at him, swallowing pre-come and the taste of skin and moaning. Already it seems as if he can’t get enough, as if he’d forgotten how good sex could be. He swirls his tongue around twice, licking at Mark’s slit and chasing the bitterness there, humming his pleasure. Mark can only moan and try to keep his balance with a hand in Daniel’s hair, twisting it roughly as Daniel keeps sucking at just the tip, his hand caressing Mark’s hips and ass.

Mark feels Daniel take the deep breath through his nose, but he’s still not ready at all when Daniel’s hands grasp at his hips and hold him still so Daniel can sink his mouth all the way down, swallowing tight around Mark and making his skin feel as if it’s on fire.

Hot inside Daniel—who gives a fuck if it’s just his mouth for now—Mark is as deep as he can get, bottomed out, and the light stubble of Daniel’s chin scratches against Mark’s balls and it’s hot for so many obscene reasons. Daniel shifts back, and it’s a welcome relief even though all Mark wants to do in the next moment is grab Daniel’s head and pull him back down.

Daniel has to say it twice to get Mark to hear him: Mark’s head has lolled all the way back, so he’s staring at the ceiling until Daniel’s voice registers. “Look at me.”

Mark does and as Daniel slips his mouth down, stretched wide and red and spit-slick, Mark’s gaze flickers from this sight to Daniel’s eyes, amber, gold-brown and open wide, the corners creased with pleasure. Daniel moves his mouth like that a few more times, sucking the taste of Mark from every inch of his cock and taking him all the way in. His technique is impeccable; it is more than Mark could have hoped for to see his cock disappear all the way inside Daniel’s mouth, to feel it held there so deliciously tight and watch Daniel revel in the act itself and the mumbled praise Mark gives him.

“Oh, God,” and “Daniel,” and “Perfect,” and “Fuck.”

Mark moans low and loudly as Daniel takes his cock all the way in one last time before he moves back to settle on his haunches and kiss lazily at the head, licking off the slickness as it beads there. Mark’s head flops from side to side and then forward, his hair sweated into curls around his temples and his cheeks, he’s sure, stained red. He feels the temptation to come abate a little and stares down at Daniel, on his knees.

“Where did you—” voice raw, Mark stops to swallow, distracted for a minute by his hand back in Daniel’s hair, angling him and directing his lips in an open-mouthed slide down the side of his cock. “If you’d been able to do that to me ten years ago I would have had some serious performance problems.”