22. Christian

Maybe I'd been ridingsome kind of sexual high since Kale had choked me out with his cock earlier in the day, but I was certain I'd never been happier. Every nerve ending in my body hummed with approval, swaying like a tide until I found myself leaning toward Kale. He closed the space between us, pressing our mouths together in a kiss that quickly went from soft to ravenous. He wrapped his arms around my waist and hauled me onto his lap, hands roaming desperately over my back while his tongue explored the depths of mouth. I wondered if he could still taste himself there.

The energy of the kiss once again shifted, from furiously hard to something far more languid. The new kiss spoke of having nothing but time when I knew that couldn't have been further from the truth. I waited until he'd had his fill, which unfortunately went on forever. I didn't want to care, but my mind was loud as it ever was, and I was ready to take my clothes off right there in front of the crowded room and promise Kale Sheffield the whole goddamn world.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered against the corner of his mouth.

My lips tingled, and I let his body hold my weight. It was a surreal thing, to have someone to hold me up like that. Sure, I had Parrish, but our relationship was supportive in the way best friends were supportive. Much the way I'd watched Ford and Brooks offer Kale support, though their attitude was far more biting than Parrish's. Those dynamics mattered, but they weren't the same, and I'd never been as sure of anything as I was about that when Kale pressed the side of his head against mine.

"Are you talking about long term?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Let that be a problem for future us," he said, shifting and kissing my temple. "Right now, let's just enjoy the time. Enjoy each other."

"It's not going to be easy," I whispered.

I wasn't sure if it was even possible.

I had no idea what a future looked like for the two of us…for me. It wasn't something as simple as packing my things up and moving to America. There were rules and I was still a prince. It was a conversation I needed to have with Phillip, with my father, but I could already hear it playing out in my head.

You don't know him, Christian.

He's a commoner, Christian.

He's not from here, Christian.

You're embarrassing yourself, Christian.

No one would understand, because marriage in my family had always been a strategic game. Even though Phillip was of course fond of his wife and had affection for his family, the match had been orchestrated. Was it archaic? Of course. But it was generations of that kind of machinations that had made me a prince in the first place. The credit was owed where it was due. I wouldn't have met Kale if not for decades of everything going the way it had for my family.

"I'm not scared of a challenge," Kale said.

I leaned back, reaching up and curling my fingers around his neck. His skin was warm and his pulse thrummed under my palms, a steady beat that helped me to catch my breath.

"I need you to be sure about this, though," he went on, dark eyes scanning over my face. "This changes your life much more than mine and you're a little high on?—"

I interrupted him, pressing my fingers against his bottom lip. I was not interested in hearing his ideas about the things that made me fall in love with him. "I have my wits about me."

He puckered his lips and kissed the pads of my fingers.

"We have time to make a plan," he said.

"There you are." Ford's voice rang out like an unwelcome alarm, and he threw himself down on a couch opposite where Kale and I sat. I closed my eyes, sucking in a deep breath and lifting my leg to untangle myself from Kale's lap. Insistent hands around my waist stilled me, and then his mouth was right beside my ear.

"You can stay as you are or you can get on your knees again," he whispered, smiling. "Or you can tell me no, and I'll let you sit however you want. I know we haven't discussed this yet, but?—"

"If we had discussed it?"

"Here or the floor," he answered.

Heat rushed down my spine and between my legs. My cock was already hard enough to be indecent if we were to step out of this little club of theirs and the command didn't help the situation at all. It was another new thing, another interest I didn't know I had until Kale showed it to me. I quietly weighed the options he'd given me, testing how I imagined each of them would make me feel.

If I sat beside him on the couch, we'd be equals. I'd have a funny conversation with his arrogant friends and we'd have some drinks and then call it a night. There wasn't anything wrong with that, but we'd done it over dinner.

If I went back onto my knees, there's be no doubt in any of our minds about who I was and who I was to Kale. Not that I imagined there was any doubt at this point. We all knew what kind of man he was and what kind of man he attracted. We were, after all, in a club designed exactly for that. The third option had the most open ends.

If I stayed on his lap with my back to his friends, what would that play out like? Would they pretend I wasn't there? Would they still try to engage me in conversation even though they couldn't see my face? The position would reduce me to that of a sex toy, a distraction for Kale to play with while he talked with his friends. I was more than that to him—I knew it and I knew he knew it, but…

"I'll stay," I finally said.

The curiosity for the unknown caused gooseflesh to prickle up the back of my neck, and at my answer, Kale let out a satisfied groan that rattled through my thighs and down my legs.

"Here we are, indeed," Kale said to his friend, shifting me more to one thigh than both so he could look over me and talk to his friends. Heat radiated off of him, his face so close to mine, even though we faced opposite directions. I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against his shoulder.

"Where is Brooks?" Kale asked Ford.

"Chatting up a thick young thing with a pain kink," Ford answered.

"Just you and me, then?"

I groaned, body coming alive.

Ford chuckled. "Seems like it. Let me get you a fresh drink and we can people-watch awhile."

"Thanks." Kale moved, passing his empty glass to Ford, then he kissed the side of my head and spoke to me, "I want you to come tonight. While we're here."

"Right now?"

"After Ford is back. I want you to touch yourself while he and I are talking. Is that something you're comfortable with?"

My cheeks burned. "Please don't ask."

"I need to know."

"Just tell me," I begged, my brain already starting to misfire for how much I wanted exactly what he was asking me.

"What if I asked you to jerk off while you sucked my cock?" he asked, flicking his hand toward the couch Ford had just vacated. "While he sat right there and we talked about that twink across the room who's about to get railed against the window."

I didn't even bother looking toward the window because the twink in question didn't exist to me. The only thing that mattered was Kale and the insistent ache that had taken up residence in the middle of my chest and right between my legs. Like a tether ran between the two focus points, I was pulled taut at his whim.

There was appeal in the question, and sucking his dick in public, in front of his friends…it was something so far out of the realm of my comfort zone it gave me pause. I swallowed, sucking in a breath and drawing myself back into the moment with him, focusing on the warmth of his hands and his body against mine.

"Not yet," I answered.

The sound that left Kale's mouth sounded like the happy hum he made after he got off. I leaned up so I could see his face, finding a small and very content smile resting against his mouth.

"I'm proud of you, princess," he said, licking his lips. "You can always tell me no."

"I never want to."

"But I need you to know that you can."

How was everything with Kale so much? So different? How did he give me so much control over my life while actively also taking it away?

"Can I still stay on your lap?" I asked.

"Always."

"Can I still come?"

Kale laughed, and Ford was back, handing off a tumbler full of amber liquid and ice. He didn't acknowledge me in any way.

"You'll be in big trouble if you don't," Kale confirmed, raising his glass to my lips. I took a small sip, the scotch burning as it slid down my throat. "You'll also be in big trouble if anyone in this room sees your dick, princess. So show some discretion."

He leaned close and traced his tongue across the seam of my lips, licking off a drop of scotch I hadn't managed to get into my mouth.

And then I was dismissed.

It should have been demeaning, but my body reacted as if it was anything but. I closed my eyes, content to listen to Kale talk to Ford about mundane things that had no bearing on me in any way. At home, I attended many meetings and councils where my presence was demanded, but not needed. Sitting on Kale's lap with my back to his friend and a rock hard cock between my legs while they both ignored me should have resonated in my chest the same way that other kind of dismissal did, but…

I did have something to do. There was instruction I'd been given. Kale wanted me to sit on his lap, he wanted me to keep my cock hidden, and he wanted me to come. My presence was important, and I had things to do. I struggled to try and piece together the comparisons, the understanding of why I was so hard for this flavor of being demeaned and not the other ones that had made up my whole life. My dick started to deflate, and I grunted, squeezing my eyes closed while I tried to quiet the argument in the back of my brain.

"Excuse me one moment," Kale said, not to me. His hands bracketed my waist and he pressed his mouth against my ear so hard, the sound of his voice was muffled when he spoke next, that time to me. "I've made men with soft cocks come before, but it's not my job to get you off tonight."

"I'm overthinking this," I admitted.

"You don't need to think at all. You just need to grind against my leg like the horny little cock slut we both know you are." He moved me against his thigh, the friction of our bodies and the rough material of our pants almost immediately sparking my dick back to life.

I groaned, less frustrated, but still far from where I wanted to be.

"If it's too much?—"

"It's not," I said quickly. "It's not. It's just new."

"I know," he whispered. "You're being so brave."

"Don't patronize me, please."

He pinched my side, and I grimaced, yanking my body out of his reach. His other hand was still firm around my waist, making it impossible to get far. His fingertips squeezed, a fatty piece of skin caught between them, and then he pulled and twisted, drawing a soft cry out of my mouth. My head fell forward and I gasped, hips doing a slow circle against his thigh as he tugged again at my skin. My brain caught up to my body, and my hips made another circle, pressing down hard against his thigh, pushing into the crook of his stomach.

"Oh," I breathed out.

"So brave," he murmured again, letting go of the spot where he'd pinched me.

Disappointment rushed through me, but before I could express it, he had his fingers digging into my skin again, another flash of pain radiating through my ribs. My lashes fluttered until my eyes fell all the way closed, and I swayed right into that comfortable and floaty place I'd been unable to find on my own.

"What do you say?" he asked, kissing the shell of my ear.

"Th…" Words were already hard, sensation and feeling washing over me like a rougher than usual sort of high tide. "Thank you, Mr. Sheffield."

"On with it, then," he said, releasing a piece of my skin and digging his fingernails into the small sliver left between his fingers.

My hips bucked, then began to move on their own. Kale resumed his conversation with Ford, sipping slowly at his whiskey. Every now and then, his fingers grazed over what was undoubtedly a blossoming bruise on the bottom of my rib cage and my balls throbbed at the touch. Their voices behind me turned into a quiet hum, like background noise to the steady beat of my pulse in my ears.

Kale once again pressed his glass against my lips and I tried to drink, but the amber liquor dribbled down my chin instead. He flattened his tongue against the spot and licked, a hot stripe over my skin and across my mouth. My cock jerked and spasmed, shooting cum against the already wet cotton of my underwear, the expensive wool of my slacks. On his lap, my body undulated until my muscles ached from the uncontrolled force of my orgasm, the aftershocks finally dying down into a sporadic twitch.

Kale kissed me, more a sound than actual contact of his lips against mine. I was tangled and messy in his lap, but if it bothered him, he didn't give me any indication. Slowly the voices came back into focus. I recognized Brooks' voice, even though I had no recollection of when he'd sat down beside Ford. It was almost like a switch flipped when my awareness slipped back into my body.

I didn't know how Kale did it.

I didn't understand how he'd taken all of these things I hated about my life and made them powerful, put them in my control. Kale had somehow given me back my life when I hadn't even realized I'd lost it.

"I love you," I whispered the words against his shoulder, turning my head to the side and collapsing against him. I hoped the confession hadn't been loud enough for Ford to hear, because the feelings felt so new and secret. I wanted it to be ours for a little while longer. Everything was going to change in a matter of days, and I wanted to stay in this bubble with him for as long as possible.