23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

ELIO

“I can’t believe you bullied that doctor into giving me Oxy,” Orion mutters around a chuckle, following me into my apartment… our apartment. The triage nurse looked like she was about to piss herself when I turned up again tonight, holding the bloody shirt to Orion’s oozing gut. At least she didn’t give me attitude this time before scurrying off to get Doctor Anderson.

Lucky for her, because no matter how many times he insisted he was fine, I wasn’t above pulling out a gun to get things moving if necessary to get Orion taken care of in a timely manner.

I snort and look over my shoulder at him as I toe off my shoes. He’s wearing the wrinkled, blood-soaked shirt. Unbuttoned, of course. His tie was abandoned a long time ago, and is now wadded up, the tail of it hanging out of the pocket of his pants. He looks hot in a ‘my boyfriend just rose from the dead’ kind of way.

“I didn’t bully him, I asked .” I scoff, lining up my shoes on the rack, then dropping to my knees to untie his. A momentary shiver runs through me with the leftover terror from kneeling just like this earlier, peeling his shirt open and not knowing what I would find. I swallow that feeling down and lean into his touch when he drags his fingers roughly through my hair again.

He purses his lips and quirks an eyebrow, calling me out without having to utter a single word. It’s probably fucked up that his disapproval makes my cock spring to life so damn easily, but I’m past giving a shit about whether my kinks are mentally healthy or not. They work for me, and Orion isn’t complaining.

“Right, I’m sure he felt completely free to tell you ‘no’ if he thought the pills were overkill,” he says dryly.

“You were shot , Boss.” Just saying the word makes my insides burn with rage. I almost wish he hadn’t put a bullet in that fucker’s head before I got there. I would have woken him up and made him suffer a little first for what he did.

“I was grazed.”

I roll my eyes and lean in closer, loving the sting along my scalp as he tightens his hold on my hair, then flick my tongue teasingly along the trail of hair under his belly button. He groans and jerks his hips.

“Don’t take them then.” I shrug and nip at the same spot that I just licked. “I wanted you to have them if you needed them, that’s all.”

Orion yanks on my hair, tugging my head back sharply.

“Thank you.”

The soft words in contrast with his rough treatment is a level of fuck yes, I didn’t know I was craving. A needy sound tightens in my throat the same way my briefs pull snug around my thickening cock.

“Anytime, Boss,” I choke out, licking my lips. “Do you want to go to bed? It’s pretty late.” I actually have no fucking clue what time it is, but I’m guessing he’s crashing from all the adrenaline, and regardless of what he says, he has to be hurting from that graze wound.

“Shower first,” he grunts.

Using one foot to nudge his shoes out of the way, he doesn’t wait for me to get back to my feet. His fingers clench tighter in my hair, forcing a heated gasp from me as he starts down the hallway and I have to scramble on my knees to keep up with him. The hardwood underneath me makes my knees ache almost instantly, my breath catching and my head spinning as all the blood in my body rushes to pool between my legs. My cock throbs and my balls twitch.

I stumble a few times, tears springing to the corner of my eyes from the pain radiating through my scalp. The tender throb in every single hair follicle pulses through all the cells in my body until I feel scorched from the inside, fucking desperate, and humiliated in a way that makes it hard to catch my breath.

When we reach the bathroom, Orion releases me and I sag forward, bracing my palms on the cold marble floor. He slides his fingers gently through my hair, soothing the hot pain with a delicate touch. A sob tears from my throat, and a few of the tears that were prickling at the corners of my eyes a few seconds ago spill over to run down my cheeks.

As soon as they break loose, it’s impossible to keep more from following. I’ve walked into a hundred life or death situations, but I’ve never been scared like I was tonight having to watch Orion do it. Everything I shoved down deep earlier, every worry and doubt that I locked behind a wall of confidence and indifference comes spilling out with a few more heavy gasps. My body quakes with embarrassing, uncontrollable tears.

“Come here, sweetheart.” Orion’s words are so gentle, they make me cry even harder.

He joins me on the floor, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. I bury my face in the crook of his neck, my tears slicking his skin instantly. I can still smell the faint odor of gunpowder lingering under the heavy metallic scent of his blood. I cling to him harder and stop trying to fight the flood.

“Alessio and Sal had to physically hold me back when that fucker took your gun. I was about to storm in there and blow the whole thing,” I confess when the tears finally start to slow.

“Well, no one would have thanked you for that. Especially not those kids,” he says, kissing the side of my head.

I nod and sniffle, feeling like a little kid myself for a few seconds. Even when I was a little kid, crying like this wasn’t acceptable. I pull back and use the backs of my hands to hastily dry my face.

“I can’t lose you, Orion. If anyone ever takes you from me, I’ll fucking kill them, and their whole goddamn family.” Part of me is expecting the usual reprimand, a reminder that violence isn’t the answer, that I’m spoiled and a little warped for wanting to solve every problem with bloodshed. But it doesn’t come.

He smiles and puts his hands on either side of my face, tilting my face up and leaning in to claim my lips in a biting, possessive kiss that I feel all the way down to my toes.

“I think I would too,” he murmurs, then nips my bottom lip. “So let’s not let that happen. Deal?”

I nod, bumping our noses together. “Deal.”

“On your feet,” he says gruffly, pushing himself up to standing again.

The simple instruction grounds me. The crashing waves of fear recede, not leaving anything in their wake except for the glistening dampness on Orion’s shoulder and the stickiness on my cheeks. My legs wobble under me, but it’s not a problem for long. As soon as I’m upright, he backs me up against the bathroom counter, pinning me there with his sturdy body. I sigh and sag into him, my cock swelling rapidly all over again.

He puts a hand under my chin and uses it to tilt my head back. My muscles relax and tight knots deep inside me loosen. I’m more than happy to let Orion position me however he likes, undress me, order me around for the rest of the night… hell, the rest of our lives if I have anything to say about it. Outside of these walls, in front of everyone else, I’ll carry the weight I have to, but in the quiet of our apartment, all I want is to be owned and used and hurt and fucking cherished by him.

He undoes my tie, then works open the buttons on my shirt one by one, undressing me slowly like we have all the time in the world. To anyone else, his expression would probably look impassive, stoic even, his eyes roaming over my face and then down to follow the inches of skin he exposes little by little. But I’m starting to learn the subtle twitches of the muscles around his eyes, and the almost imperceptible curves of his mouth. Like the slight part of his lips and the crease that deepens between his eyebrows as he drags his fingertips along my exposed collarbone. Heated, teasing, hungry for me. I lick my lips and my cock jerks, heavy and needy.

“You’re fucking desperate for me, aren’t you?” he murmurs.

A whimper vibrates on my lips, and I nod. “I stole your towel once,” I confess, barely above a whisper.

He cocks his head, his loose hair tumbling to one side, his eyebrows pulling closer together. “What?”

He unbuckles my belt and my cock twitches again, drooling warm, sticky precum that slicks the tip and dampens my briefs.

“A month or so ago, after your fight, you threw a towel at me in the locker room and told me to fuck off,” I remind him.

His hands are warm and demanding as he slips them past the waist of my underwear, reaching around to squeeze my ass cheeks, kneading them without any tenderness or mercy, digging his fingers into my flesh hard enough that I’m sure it will leave bruises. I hope it does. I moan and cant my hips, dragging my aching cock against the stiff outline of his.

Understanding dawns in his eyes and he chuckles.

“What did you do with it? I don’t even need to ask, do I? I bet you barely even got inside with it before you had it down your pants, humping it like the pathetic slut you are.” He lifts me up onto my toes and flicks his tongue along the seam of my lips, his breath fluttering against my tongue when I dart it out to try to catch his.

I nod again, bobbing my head. “I jerked myself off with it right up against the door. Shouted your name so loud they probably heard me three floors down.”

Orion growls possessively and slams his lips fully into mine again. The kiss is all teeth and tongue, the head of my cock catching against his through our clothes, over and over as he kneads my ass cheeks and feeds me muffled moans.

“You’re mine, Elio Moretti,” he rasps, biting my lip hard enough to draw a hiss from me.

“Yeah, Boss, I am,” I murmur, pushing his open shirt off his shoulders.

He yanks one hand off of my ass and grips my jaw instead, holding my gaze with a dark intensity that makes my heart beat even faster.

“And don’t you dare get any bright ideas about proposing, Brat. I’ll spank your ass so good you won’t sit down for days if you beat me to that too.”

I suck in a gasp, then rattle out a dizzying laugh. “You got it, Boss.”

He takes a step back, and I stumble forward at the unexpected loss.

“Finish undressing.” He shrugs off his ruined shirt and tosses it towards the bathroom trash.

Orion turns his back to me and strips out of his pants while he reaches into the shower to crank the water on. His pants and underwear fall below his sculpted ass, giving me the perfect view of the butterfly tattoo on his right cheek. I lazily palm my erection through my clothes, then do as he says and finish undressing. My gun ends up on the counter next to the sink, and the rest of my clothes are scattered on the floor. I’ll need to sort out which ones have too much of Orion’s blood on them to be salvaged, but that’s tomorrow’s problem.

He sticks his hand under the spray to test the temperature, then jerks his head to wordlessly call me over. As soon as I’m close enough, Orion grabs me by the back of the neck and hauls me into the shower. I trip over the small stone ledge and tumble into him, bracing my hands on his chest. His skin is slick within seconds, rivulets of water running between my fingers and soaking his hair.

I poke at the waterproof bandage the doctor used to protect his sutures, and Orion growls and bats my hand away.

“I’m fine .”

“You’re stubborn is what you are,” I grumble.

Both of his eyebrows go up, and a shiver of excitement zings down my spine. “What was that?”

I twist my lips into a smirk. “You, Orion Barros, are stubborn and pigheaded. And, frankly, a little fucking holier than thou.”

I know I’m pushing my luck when his eyes flash dangerously. He slides his hand from the back of my neck to my throat in the blink of an eye, before he spins me around and backs me up against the shower wall. The decorative stones have just the slightest bite against my back. Not as rough as the brick building when he fucked me in the alley, but enough to make me moan and squirm, just to feel it a little harder.

He chuckles, the low, menacing sound reverberating off the walls. “Okay.”

I blink, waiting for him to say more. Waiting for the tantalizing threats, the ball-tingling promises to teach me some fucking manners. He leaves his hand on my throat and reaches for the shampoo bottle with the other.

“Hand,” he demands, using his thumb to snap the cap open. I swallow, my throat bobbing against the firm press of his palm, not tight enough to stifle my breathing. I hold out my cupped hand, and he pours a generous amount of shampoo into it. My knees wobble, and I search his face for any hint of what kind of punishment he has planned for me, but he’s not giving anything away.

Orion puts the shampoo back on the ledge, then releases his grip on my throat and sinks to his knees. Even in this position, standing over him for a change, there’s not even a fraction of a second when I question which one of us is in charge. His blond hair is dark from the water, hanging heavy on his shoulders, the spray cascading over him. He blinks at the stray droplets that land too close to his eyes, but other than that, he’s perfectly stoic, holding me captive with nothing but his eyes boring into me, shampoo running out of my palm as I stare down at him.

“Wash my hair.”

The demand is so far from what I expected that it takes me a few seconds to process it. I’m not sure what I thought the shampoo was for, but it wasn’t this.

“You want—” I break off with a sharp gasp when he flicks the tip of my cock. It twitches heavily, an electric jolt tightening in my gut and making my toes curl against the slippery stone under my feet.

“You heard me,” Orion says gruffly. “Wash my hair.”

He bends his head forward. I’m not sure I understand the game, but I suppose I don’t have to. Actually, there’s a new kind of thrill in the off-center feeling. I bring both my hands to his head, massaging his scalp, and start to work the shampoo into a lather. He moans quietly and leans in to drag his tongue over the length of my hard, needy cock. He traces a scorching path from balls to tip, catching the clear string of precum that dribbles out of my slit.

“Oh, fuck,” I rasp, jerking my hips forward. My eyelids droop closed and my fingers go still, tangled in his hair.

“I didn’t say stop,” he growls.

Oh, right. I pry my eyes open, my chest heaving with a trembling breath, and try to focus again on gathering all the loose strands of his hair and working the rich, pine scented lather through them. Orion does it again, skipping the straight path this time and taking a more leisurely route from root to tip, tracing every throbbing vein with the tip of his tongue while heavy droplets land on my cock from the shower spray, making it feel like at least three tongues are on me at once.

I manage to keep my fingers moving. Barely. When he reaches the head of my cock again, he grazes his teeth along the roll of my foreskin, and I pant and whimper.

He braces his hands against the wall on either side of my hips and leans his head back into my touch, closing his eyes and moaning. The sound settles in my balls, tingling and tightening, my cock bouncing eagerly for another lick, for his hand, for anything .

“Orion,” I whine, canting my hips and fruitlessly trying to drag his head back, to bring his mouth to where I’m fucking desperate for it.

Orion lets out another low, deep chuckle. Fuck . I just figured out what the game is.

“You wanted stubborn, Brat? You’ve got it.” He smirks and then purses his lips and blows on the tip of my cock. The contrast of his breath against my overheated skin and the scorching water makes my eyes roll back. “Keep washing,” he reminds me.

“Sorry,” I gasp, forcing my fingers to move again.

“Mmhm,” he hums with amusement.

He catches my head between his lips, and I huff out a frantic breath, using every ounce of willpower I have to hold still and keep working on his hair. Maybe if I’m good…

Orion purses his lips around the swell of my head and sucks, lapping at the unending drip of precum that dribbles out. The rest of my shaft throbs in protest, thickening even harder, swelling between his lips.

“Please,” I gasp, losing the battle with my own self-control and thrusting my hips.

He’s ready for it though. His hands come off the wall instantly, his fingers digging into my thighs as he shoves me back into place with bruising force, the mildly rough stone dragging against my bare ass like sandpaper. He releases my cock with a wet pop and wipes the back of his hand over his lips as he looks up at me.

“You like having a tongue in your hole, Brat?”

Normally? Yes. The way he’s likely planning to do it to punish me…?

I whimper again, just as pathetic as he labeled me earlier, and nod eagerly.

“Yes, Boss.”

“Then rinse my hair out and turn around.”

My hand is shaking so badly it takes me two tries to unhook the spray nozzle from the wall. When I manage it, Orion closes his eyes and hums softly as I rinse the suds out of his long locks, watching them run down his skin and disappear down the drain.

While his eyes are closed, I stare down at him greedily. The cut on his jaw is an angry pink line now, no doubt preparing to leave a scar, and the bumps on the bridge of his nose tell the story of at least a few breaks. Every inch of him is rugged and real and so goddamn perfect it hurts.

“I love you.” I untangle my remaining fingers from his hair and ghost my fingertips over that pink future-scar.

He opens his eyes and bares his teeth in a feral kind of smile that sends another shiver down my spine.

“Sweet talk isn’t going to save you, Brat. Turn around.”

I huff out a laugh, replace the shower nozzle, and then do as he says.

ORION

Elio’s hands braced on the shower wall, his legs spread, that pretty pucker peeking out from between the cheeks of his ass is an entire fucking wet dream of its own. I lean in close and sink my teeth into his left cheek. He gasps and shoves his hips back towards me, always the eager little pain slut. I bite down a bit harder and bring my hand down on the other cheek, the resounding thwack of the slap echoing off the bathroom walls, almost loud enough to drown out the ball-clenching moan he lets out.

I pull back and drag my thumb over the bruise left by my teeth, rumbling a pleased, possessive growl in my throat. Taking his cheeks in both hands, I part them, letting the stream of water from the showerhead pummel his pucker, watching the way it clenches and twitches, his heavy balls jerking and pulling up tight.

I drag the flat of my tongue through his trench, slurping up the water that pools on my tongue, carrying the muted, musky flavor of his skin. When I reach his hole, his breath hitches, and his legs tremble. With a wicked grin, I tease the very tip of my tongue along the rim.

“Oh fuck, please, Boss.”

“I wish I could, Brat, I really do,” I murmur, brushing my lips back and forth over his hole. “But I’m stubborn and pigheaded. And what was that last thing you said?”

He squirms and whines. I tease the tip of my tongue in a slow circle again, waiting for him to answer.

“Holier than thou,” he repeats through clenched teeth.

“That’s right. Not sure I know what that one means, but it didn’t sound like a compliment.” I nip at his rim and his hole quivers.

“I’m sorry. I was just winding you up,” Elio pants.

I hum, lapping at his hole with a bigger lick this time, feeling it flutter under my tongue, softening and opening, desperate to be filled by my tongue, my fingers, my cock… probably all three tonight if he can work on his attitude. “Maybe you need to say some nice things about me, and I’ll see how stubborn I feel after that.”

I knead his ass cheeks hard, then shove my tongue roughly into his hole, licking him deep. He wails and jerks his hips, trying to fuck himself on my tongue. I pull one hand back and slap the back of his thigh just as hard as I slapped his ass before. Elio yelps, and his balls bounce against my chin.

“I love that you’re stubborn,” he says breathlessly. “You’re brutal and fucking dangerous, but you have a kind soul. Probably the kindest soul I’ve ever met, considering all the shit you’ve been through.” I’m not sure what I was expecting. Shallow, filthy compliments maybe. Praise for my dick or the way I’m licking him. His words hit a place inside of me I didn’t know I needed him to see though.

I hum again, then take another deep, long lap over his pucker. He gasps when I let go of my grip on his ass cheeks and get back to my feet. My cock has been achingly hard for what feels like hours now thanks to a combination of adrenaline and Elio. I put my hands over his, pressing them against the wall, and slip my cock into the crease between his cheeks.

He shudders and groans.

“What about your stitches?” he pants, grinding himself up and down my length shamelessly, the muscles in his back tightening and his fingers curling under mine.

“You’re right, I have to be careful.” I reach for the shampoo again, feeling the flutter of his impatient, greedy hole against my shaft, the warmth of his supple cheeks clenched around me.

I fill my palm with shampoo then tilt the bottle to drizzle some between us, watching it slide down his crack to coat his hole. Gripping the base of my cock, I pull back, line up, and then fill him with one slow thrust. Elio’s inner muscles squeeze tight around me, gripping my cock as he tries to catch his breath between whimpers and moans. I close my eyes and savor the feeling of his hot channel rippling around me, the heavy rise and fall of his back against my chest with every gulped breath, my hips pressed up against the perky globes of his ass cheeks.

Then I open my eyes and bring the shampoo that’s filling my palm to his head.

“What are you…?” He twists his head, trying to look back at me, clenching hard around my cock.

I groan and my balls jump, but I don’t pull out or move at all, except to grind just a little bit deeper.

“You said I needed to be careful. You’re right. I can’t hold you up against this wall and fuck the cum out of you. I’m bound to tear a suture like that.” I massage the shampoo into his hair the same way he did with mine.

“Oh my god, you’re so mean,” he groans, using the small amount of space he has to bounce on my cock, managing short thrusts that keep my cock deep inside of him where it’s hot and tight.

“Mean?” I scoff. “You can’t possibly want me to wrap my hand around your throat and pound your prostate with long, hard, painful thrusts.” I purr the words right next to his ear. My cock jerks inside of him, and he grinds against me again, more frantically this time, whining and whimpering my name.

I grunt and use my hips to press him even more fully against the wall, pinning him there so he can’t move another inch. His cock is trapped against the rocky wall, his hands flattened underneath mine again, leaving the suds in his hair to trickle down his neck and shoulders.

“Fine, make yourself come, Brat.”

“I was trying.” He squirms again but can’t manage to move.

“Like this,” I rumble, nipping at his earlobe. “Make yourself come.”

His disbelieving huff turns into a moan when I bite his ear harder.

“I don’t…” He pants. “Say more dirty things.”

I grin and drag my nose along the shell of his ear. “When you first started coming around, showing up to all my fights, barging into the locker room to bother me after, I didn’t give a fuck who you were. I wasn’t scared of you, I wasn’t intimidated, I just wanted to wipe that cocky, entitled grin off your face. I used to imagine grabbing you by the hair and shoving my cock into your mouth to shut you up. I lost track of how many times I jerked off in that shower, wondering if you were on the other side of the door and what you would do if I put you over my knee and spanked the entitlement right out of you.”

He moans long and low, his inner muscles clenching and twitching around me.

“More,” he rasps, his body trembling and his breath coming in short, stilted gasps.

“I still want to spank the entitlement right out of you, Brat. Maybe we should have a standing appointment every night. I can turn your ass red and make you cry the way you deserve.”

Elio lets out a sob and bobs his head. “Yes.”

“Yeah? That’s what you want, isn’t it? You need someone to put you in your place every day, remind you that being the underboss of the high and mighty Morettis isn’t the be all end all. And then, if you’re good and you take your spankings the way you should, maybe I’ll let you ride my cock every night too. How does that sound?”

“Yes,” he moans again. “Yes, yes.”

My cock throbs and pulses inside of him, my balls painfully tight, my muscles aching with the urge to pound him the way we both want. He’s fucking close, I can feel it in the hitch of his breathing and the desperation dripping off of every sound he makes.

“Come for me like a good boy, Elio. Come for me like the eager cock slut you are.”

The sound that tears from his throat is fucking feral—half wail, half moan, entirely undone. He starts to pulse around me, hard, his inner muscles squeezing rhythmically around my cock, over and over as he sobs and gasps my name. Without even a twitch of my hips, I follow him over the edge, roaring as my balls clench and the heat in my gut explodes.

I bite and kiss the back of his neck, unbothered by the taste of the shampoo that coats his skin. I wrench him away from the wall just enough to wrap my hand around his throbbing cock, covered in his cum. I grind my hips, filling him deep with pulse after pulse of my release, stroking him through the lingering waves of his, until we’re both breathless and spent, and the water starts to run cold.

“Hey, Boss,” he says breathlessly.

“Mm?” I grunt, my softening cock still buried in his ass as I reach for the shower nozzle to rinse the shampoo out of his hair.

“When you said you didn’t want me to beat you to a proposal…”

“Don’t you dare, Brat,” I growl.

He gives a tired chuckle, tilting his head back to help me with the shampoo.

“I was just going to ask how long you’re going to make me wait.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about that,” I suggest, placing a few lingering kisses along the back of his shoulder.

I put the shower nozzle back and my cock slips out of his hole. After I turn off the water, I part his cheeks again and groan with satisfaction at the sight of his reddened pucker and my cum leaking out of it. I use my thumb to gather the stray droplets and push them back inside. Elio moans and shivers again.

“Hey, Boss?” he says again, and my lips twitch with a smile.

“Yeah, Brat?”

“I love you.”

My heart swells so big inside of me that it’s a wonder it doesn’t kill me. Emotion tightens my throat, and I wrap my arms around him again, nuzzling the crook of his neck and slowly breathing in the warm, wet smell of his skin.

“I love you too.”