A Collar and Tie (Ganymede Quartet Book 4) (60 page)

“Come up here, Henry,” Martin urged. “Come hold me, please.”

Henry turned himself around and stretched out at Martin’s
side and held his arms open. They clung together, shivering and wet-eyed and
laughing at themselves.

“You think I’m the romantic one,” Henry said, “but you’re
crying, too.”

“I’m not
crying
, Henry,” Martin insisted, “but I
am
very emotional at this moment.” He gave a wet sniff and smiled at Henry, teeth
gleaming.

Henry pulled him closer, coaxing him to rest against his
chest. “You never did say, though, Martin.”

“Never said what?”

“If you forgive me.”

Martin laughed. “Oh, I didn’t, did I?” He rubbed his cheek
against Henry’s chest. “Of course I forgive you, Henry.”

Henry hesitated a moment before asking his question. “Do you
forgive me because you’re my slave and you have to? Or do you forgive me for
real, in your heart?”

Martin touched Henry’s cheek and smiled up at him. “For
real. Everything I feel for you is real.”

This made Henry feel warm and expansive, full of love not
just for Martin, but for everyone. “Thank you for apologizing, by the way. You
didn’t need to, not anymore, but it’s still nice that you did.”

“Do you forgive me?”

“I do,” Henry affirmed. He bent and kissed the top of
Martin’s head, his shorn hair. “I don’t want to fight with you ever again.”

“We’ll have to work hard to understand one another when we
disagree, then. We’ll need to understand the other person’s point of view.”

It sounded easy, though obviously it was not. Still, Henry
felt confident. “I can do that,” he said, “and I’m sure
you
can.” He
petted Martin’s head and thought of something else, another thing he was sorry
about.

“There’s another thing I need to apologize for,” he said,
blushing in the dark. “I doubt I’ll be able to forgive myself for it, so I
don’t expect you to, either, but I need to say it anyway…” He found himself
suddenly hesitant to speak, his throat tight.

“What is it, Henry?” There was a hint of concern in Martin’s
tone.

“Your hair, Martin. I’m so sorry I cut it. I loved it, you
loved it, everyone loved it, and I ruined it. It’s going to take years to grow
back, isn’t it?” Henry was despairing by the end of his little speech, near
tears.

Martin seemed delighted, however. “I can grow it long
again?”

Surprised, Henry said, “Of course.
I
don’t want to
keep it short.”

“Oh, that’s such good news! You’re right, of course, that I
loved it and was very vain about it, so I didn’t like having it cut at all…but
I’m so happy you’ll let me grow it again!” He squeezed Henry tight and gave a
happy wriggle. “It’s really good news!”

“I still have your tail, you know. It’s been keeping me
company all these weeks.”

“You have it? Where is it? I want to see it, please.”

“It’s in the drawer. In the cigar box with my talismans.”

“Oh! That’s a good place for it.” Martin rolled out of
Henry’s embrace and sat up. He got Henry’s cigar box out of the drawer and
turned to face Henry. “I don’t want to mess around with your talismans. You’d
better open the box.”

Henry sat up, too, and leaned back against the headboard. He
flipped open the lid of the box and the tail lay inside, coiled around the
straw man and the stone. Martin gave a happy gasp when he saw it. “Can I touch
it, Henry? Please?”

“Of course. It’s your hair, after all.” Henry drew the tail
out of the box and it uncoiled with a bounce as he put it in Martin’s hands.

Martin laughed. “It seems so soft. I’d forgotten.” He rubbed
it against his cheek and smiled.

“I’ve done that, too,” Henry admitted, his cheeks growing
hot. “I wanted to feel you and smell you, so I rubbed it on my skin.”

Martin chuckled and gave Henry a knowing look. “Henry, did
you ever…?”

Henry turned a darker shade of red and averted his gaze.
“You know I did. How could I not?”

“Well, I didn’t have anything like this, so I had to use my
imagination. And sometimes, when I took our laundry down, I would stop on the
stair and smell your clothes and hold onto that memory until I was alone in
bed.”

Henry decided he needn’t admit to his own laundry-sniffing
activities, and then remembered with a guilty pang that he still had Martin’s
spunk-stiffened handkerchief in his drawer and hoped that Martin would not see
this.

Martin handed him the tail. “You’ll keep it, won’t you,
Henry? You won’t decide to throw it away?”

Henry coiled it back into the box, snug around the straw
doll and Martin’s stone. “I’ll never get rid of it, Martin, I promise.”

Martin put the cigar box back but did not shut the drawer.
He settled at Henry’s side, leaning on him within the curve of his arm.

“Henry? Even if I’m going to grow my hair long again, I’ll
still need to have it trimmed a little or I’ll look very unkempt as it grows
out. I look a bit shaggy even now.” Martin poked at his hair in desultory
fashion, pushing the strands one way and then the other.

“Do we need to get it cut soon, then?” Henry kissed the side
of Martin’s face and rubbed his nose against the ruffled short hair.

“If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to have it cut
before the party. I want to look my best for your guests.”

“We can do it tomorrow or Friday,” Henry suggested. “I don’t
have any other plans.” He thought a moment. “Hey. What time is it? Is it
tomorrow already?”

Martin reached for the alarm clock. “It’s twenty after
twelve.”

Henry grinned. “Well, all right, then! Happy Birthday,
Martin.”

Martin gave him a shy, pleased smile. “Oh! You remembered!”

Henry scoffed at this. “How could I forget? Do you want to
do anything special?”

Martin laughed and made a sweeping gesture with his hand
that took in their naked bodies and the rumpled bed. “Besides this?”

Henry laughed, too, and kissed him. He didn’t have a present
for him, of course, but he wished he did. He remembered, then, the idea he’d
had months ago, after Jesse’s party, that he might give Martin a couple of
specific experiences as a gift. One of them—exploring Henry’s ass—had already
come about on its own, but the other…he could agree to the other if they
adhered to some very strict parameters.

“Martin, there’s something I want to do for you,” he said.
“As a present.”

“You’re going to give me a present?” Martin seemed purely
delighted.

“Well, I don’t have anything for you to unwrap, but, like I
said, it’s something we can do, if you want. I was reluctant before, but…a lot
of things have changed. I’m willing to try. For you.”

“What is it, Henry? Tell me, please!”

“I’ll have a lot of rules,” Henry cautioned. “I hope it will
still be fun with rules.”

Martin laughed and gave Henry an impatient shake. “Henry!
What is it, please?”

Henry took a deep breath and let it out. “We can play
Jesse’s game. If you want. If Jesse still wants.”

Martin made a sharp, excited sound and began to laugh in
gleeful cackles. He threw his arms around Henry and hugged him tightly.
“Really? You’d do that for me?”

“I’d do anything for you,” Henry told him. “But with rules,
Martin, lots of rules.”

“I can follow rules, Henry. That’s not a problem.”

“It’ll just be watching with no touching. I can touch you,
and you can touch me, but they can’t touch us and we won’t touch them.”

“I’m fine with that. Really, I am!”

“No swapping. None at all.”

“That’s all right. I only want you anyway.”

“Is it a good present, Martin? I’m a little nervous about
it.”

“It’s a wonderful present! I’m very excited.” He was, too,
his cock very hard between them. “What can we do while they’re watching?”

Henry hadn’t really thought about this. He supposed Martin
would want to show off how good he was at everything, and with the mood Henry
was in right now, it seemed like there was little material difference between
one sexual act and another. Jesse knew what he was like with Martin, after all.
Recklessly, he said, “Anything. Whatever you want, we can do.”

Martin gasped happily. “Really? Are you sure?”

“Jesse knows we do these things anyway,” Henry explained. He
shrugged. “I’m in a good mood, Martin, and I want to give you a good present.”

“So if I wanted to kiss you and suck you and ride your cock,
we could do that?”

“If that’s what you want,” Henry agreed. He opened his mouth
to say that he could suck Martin, too, but then closed it again. It might be
enough to be watched, enough to let someone see them kiss.

Martin shifted to sit astride Henry’s lap and put his hands
on Henry’s shoulders. “I’m very excited.”

Henry laughed. “I can see that.” He touched Martin’s cock
and it flexed in his hand.

Martin whimpered and his eyes fluttered closed. “I know
you’re a little nervous, but I think it will be fun. Mr. Wilton is such a
caring friend. I’m sure he’ll do everything he can to make it nice for you.” He
gave Henry a reassuring kiss and touched his face.

It would be great if Henry actually had fun, too, but this
was really all for Martin. “As long as you’re happy, I’ll be glad I did it,” he
claimed, and it was probably true. “It’s not quite up to Ganymede standard, I
know, but—” and here Henry pictured Martin in the midst of a seething mass of
bodies, hard pricks everywhere, and bristled a little “—I need to take things
slowly.”

“Please don’t worry about doing
advanced
things for
me, Henry. Let’s just have fun with your cousin and see how we feel after
that.” Martin looped his arms around Henry’s neck and they kissed sweetly and
deeply, Martin panting in Henry’s mouth and rocking against his cock.

“I’ve missed your cock so much,” Martin whispered. “All I’ve
had inside me these last weeks are my fingers, and they certainly don’t
compare.”

“You fingered yourself?” Henry whispered back, intrigued by
the picture this brought to mind.

Martin chuckled in his ear, low and seductive. “I did, and I
thought about you while I did it. I tried to imagine my fingers were your big
cock stretching me and filling me up, but it just made me long for the real
thing.” He reached down between their bodies and stroked Henry’s cock, the
foreskin making wet, slippery sounds as it slid over the head. “Those nights
when I came to you? I couldn’t stop thinking about how it felt to have your
cock inside me, thrusting in and out, and I wanted you so much it hurt.”

“I’m sorry, Martin. I’m sorry I turned you away. I could
tell it was hard for you to ask, but…”

“You were angry,” Martin said with a shrug, clearly not
interested in holding a grudge. “But we’re done with that now, aren’t we?”

“We are,” Henry avowed. He cupped Martin’s ass in both
hands, squeezed the cheeks and spread them apart. “I’d be happy to make up for
those times now, if you want.”

Martin grinned. “Let me get the oil.” He leaned over and got
the bottle out of the open drawer. “How do you want me?”

“On your back, knees up, showing me your hole.”

Martin lay back and drew his knees to his chest and let them
fall open with a sigh. The sight of him spread and waiting sent a hard surge of
blood to Henry’s cock that left him lightheaded. Henry knelt with his knees to
either side of Martin’s hips and ran his hands up and down the backs of
Martin’s thighs. Martin trembled, his eyelids fluttered, and his breathing was
fast and shallow.

“What is it?” Henry asked. “Are you okay?”

“I missed you so much, Henry.” Martin’s voice broke and he
clutched at Henry’s hands.

“I missed you, too. Let me make it up to you, Martin. Let me
try.” He squeezed Martin’s fingers and let them go, then pushed on the backs of
his thighs, folding him in half.

“Henry, oh,
Henry
!”

“You love this, don’t you?” Henry spit on Martin’s asshole,
which clenched in response, and watched his saliva slide down the cleft. He did
it again, and this time bent and licked the wet hole, feeling the muscles jerk
under his tongue. Martin gave a ragged cry and pawed at Henry’s head, stirring
his hair into disarray. Henry licked him up and down in long strokes and
drilled into his hole with determined pressure while Martin sobbed and bucked
beneath him.

Henry found himself growing emotional, his throat tight. He
had so missed this! Martin’s musk, Martin’s textures, Martin’s hoarse cries.
Though Martin had never said anything, he suspected it was odd how much he
loved Martin’s hole. He loved putting his mouth on it, loved thrusting his
tongue inside, loved shoving his fingers deep, and loved stretching it with his
cock. He was full of tender feelings for Martin anyway, but he felt especially
protective of Martin’s hole. He lifted his head and looked down at Martin’s wet
cleft and heard Martin whimper, wanting more.

“I’m going to fuck you now,” Henry said. He wiped spit off
his chin with the back of his hand and knelt up again, knees outside Martin’s
hips. He oiled Martin’s hole, a perfunctory slicking, and applied the oil liberally
to his cock.

The pressure from Martin’s beloved hole squeezing all around
the head of Henry’s cock made his eyes roll back in his head. Martin let loose
a wail that made Henry shiver. Had it always felt this good, this intense? He
could feel every beat of Martin’s heart in the flesh stretched tight around his
cock. He pushed in until his hipbones came to rest against Martin’s ass and
stayed there, wracked with shudders and full of emotion.

“D-do I feel good to you, Henry?” Martin’s voice quavered
and he had high color in his cheeks.

Did he really have to ask? A great, spangled bubble of
tender feeling burst in Henry’s chest and his voice shook, too, when he said,
“You feel amazing, Martin. Am I like you remembered?”