“Shit. You can’t be doing that tomorrow.” Aidan was suddenly eye level, and Gavin realized he’d levitated.
“Sorry. I promise I won’t do it tomorrow. This sex and bondage stuff is tiring, you know?”
Aidan laughed. “Yeah, especially when you have to train a bratty, sexy new boy.” His grin left him. “Mike didn’t hurt you.” Not a question, but Aidan paused, as if needing an answer.
“No.”
“He likes you. He came hard up your ass.”
Gavin shrugged. “Yeah, and he sucked your cock and looked more than happy doing it.”
They regarded each other with frowns.
Aidan took the cowardly way out. “You should be calling me Sir.”
“And you shouldn’t be so jealous.” Gavin wanted to shout with happiness when Aidan colored. Again. “I’m attracted to him. But you’re the one I want to go down on. You’re the one I want to sleep with, the one I want fucking me, filling me up.” He glanced down and reached for Aidan without asking. “You’re the one I want to swallow, Master.”
Aidan rasped, “Damn it. I’m in charge here.”
“Tell me what to do, Sir. Let me please you. It makes me so happy to serve you.”
Aidan closed his eyes and clenched his jaw tight, but he didn’t move away from Gavin’s hands. Gavin wasn’t sure what Aidan might have done if they hadn’t heard Mike’s footsteps.
Aidan pulled away and glared. Then he unlocked Gavin’s ankles and hefted him over his shoulder.
Gavin let out an oomph, shocked anew that Aidan could carry him with such ease. He felt like a rag doll in the arms of a blond grizzly.
“Oh, that’s a picture. Especially with your dick like a fucking pike.” Mike snickered.
“Shut up and get that fat dildo. The one that’s wider than my dick.” Aidan dumped Gavin onto the bed in the corner of his dungeon. “I want to watch my boy ride it while he sucks us both off.”
“Oh, nice. What about the flogger and the cock ring?”
Aidan’s mean grin made Gavin’s cock twitch. God, he loved the man, and the delight he felt in the knowledge allowed him to brick up his mental shield and hold it tight. Just what Aidan had wanted him to achieve, and knowing he’d make Aidan proud only made his shield that much stronger.
“Good.” Aidan nodded. “The flogger and cock ring? Get them. Time to see what my boy is really made of.”
Hours later, after Mike had come twice more and departed, Gavin lay on his belly like a limp noodle in the middle of the mattress. Toys and devices lay on the tables on either side of the bed. His wrists and ankles were sore from the manacles used on him earlier, and his ass felt like he’d been forced to sit on hot coals. The flogger had given him an amazing rush, and though he’d exploded when Aidan had spanked him while Mike sucked him dry, his ass hurt, not used to such beatings.
He hissed when Aidan ran a cool rag over his buttocks.
“Shh. Easy, baby. That’s good.” Aidan finished wiping him up, then put a soothing gel on his flesh. “You bruise easily. You’ll look well used when we show up tomorrow.”
“Yeah?” Did Aidan ever think about anything other than the mission?
“Sometimes.”
It took Gavin a moment to realize Aidan had answered his unasked question. Since their time on the bed earlier, Aidan had refused to read him.
“What do you think about?” Gavin asked quietly. He turned his head over his crossed arms. The dim lighting in the basement lent a romantic feel to the room, despite the various chains and discipline equipment. “Why are you so alone, Aidan? You have a great sense of humor—when you’re not making fun of me.”
Aidan snorted.
“You’re smart and sexy. Hell, Mike would take you on permanently in a heartbeat. I could see it.” And that annoyed the hell out of him.
Aidan sat on the bed next to him. “Mike’s a good fuck buddy. But that’s it.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not normal. I don’t have normal relationships.”
Gavin remained quiet and hopeful, aware Aidan was opening up when he’d never done so before.
“I read minds.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
Aidan sighed. “I don’t normally pry. I don’t like knowing what other people think. It’s better not to know. People who know what I can do are usually cautious around me. They fear my ability. They hate it.”
They hate me, Gavin all but heard him say.
“Jack keeps me on because I get results. The team deals with me because I’m a peer. We’re not friends.” Aidan lay down on his side, leaned on his elbow, and rested his head on his hand. “Are we friends?”
“No. We’re more than that.”
Aidan nodded. “Partners.”
“Lovers.”
Aidan frowned. “Well, yeah, but because—”
“Tell me something from your childhood. Something no one else knows.”
Aidan’s face went blank.
“Don’t hide from me.” Where Gavin’s sudden sense of confidence came from, he couldn’t say, but he knew he needed to talk to Aidan about something more meaningful than sex or the mission. He wanted to know Aidan, the whole man. Not just bits and pieces of his PWP résumé. So he continued to hold that shield inside him tight. “Can you read my mind now?”
Aidan frowned. “No. You’re doing really well. I could probably push into your thoughts, but it’s not easy.”
“Good. That session with Mike was hard for me. It seemed easy, because you were there. But I’m kind of a shy person.”
Aidan didn’t respond.
“I know I sound like a pussy, but knowing more about you makes this easier to bear. Like, we’re in it together, you know?”
“I guess.”
Gavin nodded. “Now it’s your turn. Tell me something you’ve kept secret.”
Aidan blinked at him. “I’m not that interesting. Really.”
“Why are you so scared? You know all about me.”
Aidan grunted. He reached out and rested a hand on Gavin’s lower back. “Because you won’t shut up.”
Gavin huffed and would have rolled over when Aidan held him fast.
“Fine. My mother died when I was four. I lived with my father and his drug habit until I was ten. Then I ran away. Happy now?”
Gavin stanched the pity he could see Aidan expected and didn’t want. “Did your dad know you could read minds?”
“Oh yeah. He used me to keep us ahead of creditors, junkies, and dealers. Until I turned it against him.” Aidan’s face twisted into a sneer. “I told his dealer my old man was holding out on him, about the stash of drugs he’d stolen, and that my father was a snitch. Then I left. Never heard from the old man again. I’m a hell of a son, eh?”
Gavin forced himself to show little emotion. “That sucks. No gingerbread men for you, I guess.”
Aidan snorted. “Hell, no.” Aidan removed his hand from Gavin’s back, so Gavin reached out to link their fingers together.
“I like you.”
“Bullshit. Your body likes mine. We’re on a mission together, one that requires us to be tight. Adrenaline and need, dude. That’s it. Five days ago, you couldn’t stand me.”
“You were always making fun of me. Why should I have liked you?”
“Exactly.”
“But that’s not the case now, and you know it.” Gavin scooted closer and kissed Aidan’s mouth, his chin, then his cheeks. “Does this happen on all your assignments?”
“Hell no.” Aidan took a deep breath and let it slowly release. He returned Gavin’s kiss with a sweetness that brought tears to Gavin’s eyes. “But we can’t let this get complicated. We have to focus on the mission. Jack needs us to concentrate on finding that book.”
“Success.” Gavin kissed Aidan again, and before he knew it, Aidan had rolled onto his back and pulled Gavin on top of him.