Page 76 of Callous Shot

I pulled off, gasping for breath. “Yeah.” Diving back down, I swallowed around him, breathing through my nose as I took him deeper and deeper. He thrust up, holding my head in place, and I closed my eyes, choking on his cock as he fucked my face until I felt his dick jerk, unloading his cum down my throat.

As soon as I could breathe again, I collapsed onto the bed, burying my face in the sheets. A hand, slightly shaky, landed on my nape and squeezed before sliding up into my hair. Blunt fingernails scraped against my scalp, and I shuddered beneath his touch.

“My baby,” Lincoln murmured, almost too quietly for me to hear.

My heart exploded.

“Do your friends know you’re bi?” I glanced over at Lincoln, curled up on the other end of the sofa, cradling a mug of tea. I’d been meaning to leave for the past few hours—I had an early lecture in the morning, and I still had to finish up the final part of my assignment that was due. But after we’d fucked, then showered, then gone for a round of epic sixty-nining, we’d ended up curled up on his sofa, half watching the hockey highlights while we talked about anything and everything. Then, a couple of hours into our conversation, right in the middle of him telling me how he’d coerced his little cousin into playing Zelda and, in the process, turned her into the world’s biggest fan, he’d announced he was making tea and asked if I wanted one…

Now, here we were, halfway through our second mugs of tea and still talking with no signs of stopping. Lincoln’s car keys lay on the coffee table between us, and we were both basically pretending they weren’t there.

“They know, but no one speaks to me about it.” His shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I’ve mostly been with women, so it hasn’t come up much. I don’t know…conversation with my friends is normally superficial. We mostly stick to uni and hockey talk. We don’t really confide in each other, or at least, they don’t confide in me, and vice versa.”

I watched his Adam’s apple bobbing as his throat worked, and I was struck by a realisation. Carefully placing my mug down on top of a Cheltenham Storm–branded coaster, I crawled across the sofa, taking Lincoln’s mug from his hand. I placed it next to mine and then wrapped my arm around him, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “Confide in me. Tell me something about you. Something no one knows. You can trust me.”

His lips kicked up at the corners. “Hmm. How about the fact that I need an exorcist to rid my apartment of a demon who’s taken up residence?”

“Lincoln.”

“Okay.” He sighed, his smile disappearing. After a long silence, he cleared his throat. “Uh…I had a brother. He was stillborn.”

What? I inhaled harshly, struggling to get my emotions under control. “When?”

“A year after I was born.” His breath hitched. “He never got the chance to live, and I’m here and healthy, and⁠—”

“Link.” I wrapped my arm around him as tightly as I could, burrowing into his side as I kissed his gorgeous face and downturned mouth.

“Yeah. I’ve never been allowed to forget it, believe me.” His lip trembled, and my heart ached. “W-what about you? Do your friends know you’re bi now, or whatever you are?”

I jumped on the change of subject because my rival was hurting, and I couldn’t fucking stand it. “Bi, yeah. I think. Uh…Neo knows, and King. I can’t hide anything from him. He has a way of working things out, even when I haven’t said anything.”

Lincoln’s hand found mine, his thumb circling my palm. “Do you care if they know, when you were straight before? Unless you were lying to me about that.”

“I wasn’t, I promise. I thought I was straight until you started messing with me, you asshole.” He snorted, and I grinned at him before continuing. “Maybe I was always bi, and I just didn’t know it. Whatever. I don’t care if people know. I mean, I guess I’d have to, like, not flaunt it in front of Volkov’s family—uh, the Bratva have rigid views that can be a bit archaic or whatever. That’s an understatement, by the way. But other than that, who cares? If people wanna talk shit about me, then that’s nothing new. Believe me, I’ve heard it all. Criminal, bad, worthless, scum…what’s one more insult? If they say it to my face, then maybe they’ll get a meet-and-greet with my knife or my knuckleduster.” I paused. “Like you did.”

He huffed out a breath. “You never hurt me.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Baby.” Turning his head, his lips skimmed over mine. “I’m sorry for all the things I’ve said about you. You’re— I don’t even have the words. You’re Daniel fucking Hoyton, and you’re so fucking good.”

I shivered. I’d never get used to him calling me good.

His lips curved up against mine. “My good boy,” he said teasingly. It was as if he could read my mind, and I buried my heated face in his throat, giving his skin a punishing nip when he chuckled against me. “You are, though, Dan. You’re not bad. You’re good, in all the ways that matter.”

Shooting upright, I stared at him, my brain processing the last few things he’d said to me. Things he’d said outside of a sexual situation. “Does…does all this mean you don’t hate me anymore? Because I’m not sure I could deal with that.”

“Oh, no. I have plenty of hate to give you, my beautiful little menace.”

“I’m not sure I like all these nicknames you keep coming up with for me. And please, can we drop the ‘little’? We’re literally the same height.”

“Hmmm.” He smiled, his hand coming up to cup my jaw. When my breath stuttered, his smile turned evil, and his hand slid down to my throat, squeezing.

“Fuck you, you bastard. Don’t start something you can’t finish,” I warned him.

“Who said I can’t finish? Tell me something about you.” Dragging his teeth over my jaw, he nipped at my skin before dipping lower, sucking yet another one of his possessive marks into my neck. Fucking vampire.

“Uhhh, fuuuuck. Uh. Red gummy bears. Haribo.” I couldn’t even think with his other hand rubbing over the rapidly increasing bulge in my joggers.