Marcus didn’t pull away.
He let Daniel take the kiss deeper, slow and unhurried, tasting salt and the last of the heat still clinging to both of them.
When Daniel’s teeth grazed his lower lip, Marcus made a low sound in his throat and shifted, pressing back until there was no space left between them.
You’re going to leave a mark, he said again, quieter this time, like he wasn’t actually complaining.
Daniel’s mouth moved to the side of his neck, just below the jaw. He sucked there, not hard enough to hurt, hard enough to stay. Marcus’s fingers tightened on Daniel’s wrist.
That’s the idea, Daniel murmured against his skin.
His thumb kept those lazy circles over the V of Marcus’s hip, dipping lower, not quite starting anything, just reminding him he was still there. The sheets were already ruined. Neither of them reached for a towel. The candle on the nightstand guttered and righted itself, throwing gold across Marcus’s shoulder.
Another car passed outside. The headlights dragged across the ceiling and vanished.
Marcus turned farther into him, enough that Daniel could feel the hitch in his breath. “Don’t disappear in the morning.”
Daniel’s hand flattened over his stomach, possessive, warm.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said,
Marcus exhaled, long and uneven, and let his head fall back against Daniel’s shoulder. Daniel kissed the mark he’d just made, then the place beside it, then the corner of Marcus’s mouth when it found him again.
They stayed like that. Sweat cooling, Sheets wrecked Candle burning down.
The room smelled like sex and laundry detergent and the cheap vanilla Marcus always lit when he wanted the night to feel like more than two bodies colliding.
Tonight it did.
Marcus turned his head enough to find Daniel’s mouth again. This kiss was slower. Messy still, but quieter. Like they were trying to remember they had names.
You’re going to leave a mark, Marcus mumbled against his lips.
That’s the idea.
Daniel’s thumb stroked lazy circles over the V of Marcus’s hip. Neither of them reached for a towel yet. The sheets were already ruined. Outside, a car passed and the headlights dragged across the ceiling and were gone.