The Gentleman and the Rogue (32 page)

Jem caressed the side of his face, then let his hand trail down Alan's neck and chest in a slow glide. “I like you in the country like this. You're much more at ease. As for a cross-country ride, me bum's just beggin' for more torture, especially after my ridin' lesson the other day.”

“You'll only get better the more you try. At least you don't sit in the saddle like a sack of meal any longer.” He smacked Jem's hip. “Come with me. You'll enjoy it.”

“Ah, sir, I can't refuse the offer of a ride with you. The only thing I'd like more is a ride
on
you, with me holding the reins this time.” He paused and quirked a brow at Alan. “Is that something you'd ever consider, Lord Bumbuggerer?”

Alan hadn't believed anything Jem could say would shock him any longer, he'd grown so used to the lad's irreverent comments. But the teasing title Jem bestowed on him, coupled with the suggestion he might like to be the one doing the driving for a change, stole Alan's capability for speech for a moment.

Jem waited, watching him with those dancing, devilish blue eyes. “Tell me you've never thought about being buggered, never wanted to surrender control and find out what that's like.”

When he could breathe again, Alan replied, “I honestly never considered it.” Which wasn't strictly true. In the deepest recesses of his imagination, the parts he'd barely acknowledged to himself, he had wondered what it would be like to play the female role in a coupling. What different kind of pleasure was to be gained that way?

“You should,” Jem replied. “You might like it. I'd be more than willing to help you find out.”

Alan noted his tone, amused and teasing, yet serious underneath. This was something Jem wanted, something he was requesting for himself. Until now their relationship had been weighted in Alan's favor, with Jem working for his pleasure and deferring to his decisions—more or less. Now he was letting Alan know he would enjoy trying a different role in their relationship. After everything Jem had done for him, the joy he had brought into his life, the least Alan could do was agree and submit.

Submit. The word sent a surprising shiver of excitement through him. His cock, which had flagged somewhat during this exchange, hardened once more. As he'd learned to do on the battlefield, Alan made an instant decision.

“Very well. No time like the present. What shall I do?”

Both of Jem's brows shot up, and his eyes widened. “Good gracious. You needn't sound like I'm marching you to the gallows. This will be a pleasure for both of us. But I hardly expected you to decide in a moment. 'Twas merely something to think about.”

“I've thought. I'm ready. Tell me what you want, and I'll do it.” To prove his commitment, Alan reached out and took Jem's cock in hand. Solid, rigid, the blood pulsing beneath the smooth, warm skin. He supposed the way to begin was to suck Jem's cock for a bit. Well, that was something he liked to do, an easy way to start.

Alan slid down in the bed and fondled Jem's balls in one hand while taking his penis in a firm grip. He drew the tip into his mouth. A swirl of the tongue around the shaft, and then he sucked it deep. Jem's quiet gasp and thrusting hips were his reward.

This is all for you. Your pleasure, what you desire
. The thought sent a glow of warmth through him and another surge of lust to his cock. Surprising how the idea of giving pleasure could cause great pleasure.

Alan labored lovingly on bringing Jem to the brink of orgasm, sucking until he tasted musky juices on his tongue and massaging with even strokes until Jem thrust rhythmically into his hand.

“Lord, sir, I'm going to spend if you keep that up.”

Releasing Jem's erection, he crawled up beside him, taking a moment to retrieve the bottle of oil from the bedside table. “Shall I anoint you with this?”

“Give me a second. One touch and I may spill.” Jem smiled. “Kiss me first.”

Alan obliged, slipping his tongue between soft lips and rubbing it sinuously against Jem's tongue. After he'd kissed him breathless, he pulled away and moved his lips all over Jem's face—kissing his forehead, his eyelids, his cheeks and jaw, and then his neck. He kissed across the hard plane of his chest and nibbled on the tight buds of his nipples, first one then the other. The salty taste of his lover's warm skin, the sight of his face tense with pleasure, and the sound of Jem's quiet groans and sighs made a heady aphrodisiac for Alan. His pulse pounded, and his cock ached like his wounded leg on a rainy day. But he ignored his desire to bury himself balls-deep in Jem's tight bum. This was Jem's turn, and he would make sure it was everything his lover wanted it to be.

Alan uncapped the bottle of oil and poured a little in his hand before setting the bottle on the table. He warmed the oil between his palms, then wrapped his hand once more around Jem's shaft and massaged it from base to tip and back again several times. The thick length glistened with oil and shone a dull red, it was so suffused with blood. Jem's cock was beautiful.

He glanced up to see his lover's avid gaze fixed on Alan's fist around his cock. Jem licked his lips and swallowed. They remained parted and moist, inviting more kisses—or an eager cock thrust between them.

“Now, my lad, I've got you ready. Will you do the same for me?” Alan made his voice a throaty whisper as he moved up to lie beside Jem. His buttocks clenched in anticipation of Jem's entry. Nervous excitement pulsed through him, and he realized he was looking forward to this.

What had begun as an attempt to please Jem seemed likely to open doors to all sorts of new pleasure for himself as well. And while God might be looking down on him with disfavor for engaging in the act of sodomy, Alan thanked Him nevertheless for bringing Jem into his life. His world had been turned upside down over the past few months, and surprisingly, for a man who'd always insisted on control, he liked it that way.

Jem stared at his own cock jutting erect and proud from his tawny tangle of pubic hair. It was shining from the oil Alan had massaged it with, slick and ready to push into Alan's tight rear. Jem wanted that with all his heart, but he was a bit nervous too. There hadn't been many occasions in his life when he'd had the opportunity to be the man in control, so to speak. Because of the nature of most of the men who came trolling for street boys like him, he'd been more apt to receive a good rogering than give one.

For that matter, much of his trade had been limited to hand or mouth work. Somehow those poor benighted gents who craved a man's touch but denied their own natures had been able to justify a tug or a suck, but actual sodomy was a step too far for many of them.

And so, Jem's experience at fucking rather than being fucked was limited.

He wanted to do this right. Make sure Alan enjoyed it and not lose control and release too soon. But the way he felt right now, he was about ready to fly out of his skin with excitement. He wanted to mount the other man, give him the banging of his life and howl to the rafters while he did it. One of these days they must ride somewhere far out into the country, where no one could hear them, and do just that.

For now, Jem would settle for a quieter coupling. He reached out to push a lock of Alan's dark hair back from his forehead, then leaned to kiss him softly.

“Are you ready for this? I promise to go slow.” He trailed a hand down Alan's chest, brushing his fingers through the smattering of crisp hair that covered hard muscles. For a moment he let his palm rest flat, feeling the fast beating of the other man's heart. It's beating for me, the whimsical thought came to him, and he smiled.

“Best you lie on your stomach, sir,” he suggested. “Face-to-face is more loverly like, but 'tis easier from behind.”

“Jem.”

“Yes, sir?”

“I think you can stop calling me sir when we're alone like this.”

“Yes, s—Alan. I'll make a note o' that.”

Alan rolled onto his stomach, his face in profile against the white pillow. For a moment, Jem simply admired him. He was beautiful like this. The hard planes and angles of his face and body were relaxed—although the muscles in his rear flexed. The warm yellow glow of the light sneaking between drawn curtains limned his every curve in gold. Appeared it was going to be a fine, sunny day out, but for now they'd let the night linger in their room a little longer. No one would come to disturb them. The servants had strict instructions not to rouse Alan in the mornings or even come near his room until after he'd risen and come downstairs. This gave Jem time to return at leisure to his own chamber every morning.

It was a necessary fiction which sometimes grated. One would think a man as rich and powerful as Sir Alan could do as he liked in the privacy of his own home, but it seemed to Jem the nobility were nearly as shackled as the prisoners in Newgate.

But now, right now in the bar of early morning sunlight that splashed across the bed, he and Alan were free to do as they pleased. And what pleased Jem was to reach out and stroke both hands the length of Alan's body, from those strong, broad shoulders, down his long back, to his narrow waist and hips. The taut buttocks rippled again, quivering from the tension in the man.

Jem slapped his bum lightly. “Ease up. Squeezing tight will do neither of us any good.”

He stretched full length on top of Alan, groin to buttocks, belly and chest to back, and pressed kisses to his shoulder. “Relax yourself. Trust me.”

“I do.” The reply was muffled, as Alan's mouth was half-buried in the pillow. He glanced at Jem over his shoulder. “I'm merely…aroused.”

Jem rocked his hips, gliding the throbbing length of his cock in the groove between those glorious buttocks. It felt heavenly. “That's good,” he murmured.

He sat up and straddled Alan's hips, then massaged his shoulders and back. The tense muscles relaxed beneath his kneading hands. Jem moved lower, between Alan's legs, which he pushed apart. Time to concentrate on his backside. He stroked his hands lightly down the sides of Alan's hips and up the slope of his buttocks.

The firm cheeks filled his hands nicely as he squeezed and massaged, moving ever closer to his goal. Alan moaned and shifted when, at last, Jem slid the edge of his thumb whisper-light down the crack between. He reached for Alan's balls, tickled them with his fingertips until the man squirmed, then rolled the soft sac in his hand. Alan lifted his bottom, a sign of offering that made Jem's cock throb even harder. He was desperate to drive himself balls-deep between those luscious cheeks.

Jem reached for the oil on the bedside table and poured a little in his hand. Once more he slid his fingers between Alan's tensed buttocks, but deeper this time. He found the tight aperture there and rimmed it with one finger, a gentle, teasing demand for entry. The ring of muscle clenched then released, and he dipped his finger inside.

Alan made a quiet sound in his throat and lifted his hips again. Jem added a second well-oiled finger, stretching the tiny opening while he took hold of his cock and stroked it. When he could move two fingers freely, he added a third, slathering oil in and out of the ring of muscle.

Alan tilted even higher, and Jem guided his cock to his entrance. The tip breached the portal, and he pushed against the initial resistance, which seemed impossibly tight at first. Jem sucked in a breath and drove harder, his excitement mounting at the sensation. Alan's hot channel surrounded him, and instead of rejecting his cock, it now seemed to be pulling it in deeper. With a groan, Jem thrust and filled the other man deeply.

“Good Christ, sir,” he muttered, forgetting he was to call his lover by name now. Sir he'd been for so long, and sir he probably always would be to Jem.

His belly rubbed against Alan's lower back as he rocked against him. The nape of Alan's neck and the softly curling hair there filled Jem's vision. He wanted to bite that vulnerable curve of flesh and not let go while he ravaged the other man with hard thrusts of his cock. The animalistic urge took him by surprise.

He pulled out and thrust again, still slowly and carefully. “Is this all right?”

Alan nodded, his dark head moving against the pillow. “More,” he grunted. “Harder.”

“You like it, then?” Jem was pleased.

“Burns,” was the terse reply. “It's good.”

Smiling, Jem set a faster pace. His cock receded from and filled the tight channel over and over—a little less carefully now, a little faster and deeper. He knew when he hit Alan's sweet spot inside, because the man grunted and jerked. Ah yes, right there.

Jem drove deeply, reveling in the heat and pressure surrounding his cock and in the hard body beneath him. He gripped Alan's shoulder with one hand and his hip with the other, and fucked him hard. It was a different feeling up here, on top, and Jem enjoyed the sense of mastery. And because he was Jem, his pleasure came out in words.

“Like it rough, do you? Tell me.”

“Yes.” Alan gasped as he thrust back onto Jem's impaling cock. “I like it.”

Jem pummeled him with rapid jerks of his hips. “More. Tell me how it feels to be fucked.”

“Good.”

The man was absolutely no use at dirty talk. Jem sighed and gave up. This was a lesson they could work on another time. Warmth unrelated to his rising climax rushed through him at the thought of all the future times they would have together. Alan had assured him of a home for the rest of his life. They would be a pair, as devoted to each other as any married couple. Jem had a home at last with an odd, makeshift family that included Annie and a crusty old badger.

Somehow the warmth of that knowledge mingled with the baser pleasures of the body and became a powerful force. Waves of bliss rolled through Jem, caught hold of his cock and brought it along for the ride. He pushed deep one last time, burying himself inside Alan, and he spent and spent.

He shuddered and shook against the big, strong body beneath him. When he finally opened his eyes and came back to himself, Jem blinked and focused on the back of Alan's neck again. He was draped over the other man like a blanket, fused to him by sweat, and happy to be melted together that way. Alan's back rose and fell with his breathing, giving Jem a gentle ride.