Chapter 23: In This Moment

"Aah... are you sure he’ll receive it?"

Leo’s head fell back, throat bared to the room’s low amber light, the question splintering into a gasp as Marcus’s grip on his waist tightened. Each upward thrust nudged him higher on the armchair’s leather, his thighs quaking around Marcus’s hips. The chair groaned beneath them. Leo’s fingers slid over into the ridge of Marcus’s shoulder, where ink twisted from deltoid to clavicle—a serpent of black and gray scales—and dug in.

Marcus’s voice came out tight, strained by the effort of not slowing down. "I’m sure he will."

A breathless moan broke halfway into a startled yelp from Leo when Marcus rose without warning. The armchair scraped back across the floor as he stood, lifting him as though he weighed nothing at all.

Instinctively, Leo’s hands tightened their hold.The movement drew a rough grunt from Marcus, the muscles across his chest flexing beneath a sea of dark ink. Coiling koi wound across one side of his torso, fierce talons stretched over the other, and a compass rose rested above his heart. Aside from his face, there was hardly a patch of skin untouched by tattoo ink.

Leo wrapped his legs around Marcus’s waist, clinging to him. The wolf’s head inked across his back shifted with the arch of his spine. Marcus carried him the three strides to the desk, each step sending a jolt through Leo that stole another sharp breath from his lungs. With one sweep of his forearm, Marcus sent a stack of folders and a coffee mug skittering to the floor. The ceramic cracked, a clean, crystalline sound.

Leo’s bare back hit the cleared surface. The massive wolf head spanning his back seemed to howl as he arched, his shoulder blades pressing flat against the wood. Marcus crowded between his thighs, drew him closer, and drove back inside with one hard thrust.

"Oh, fuck—" Leo’s cry broke apart into a breathless gasp.

Marcus leaned in, his mouth finding Leo’s. The kiss stole the rest of the words before they could escape, leaving only a wet, consuming sound. Leo tasted copper and salt. His thoughts frayed into sensation, the thrust, the fullness, the relentless rhythm Marcus set without breaking the kiss. The wolf’s head on Leo’s back flattened against the wood again, and his left arm, the one sleeved in ink from wrist to shoulder, coiled around Marcus’s neck, pulling him closer.

Marcus broke the kiss, breath ragged. He braced one hand beside Leo’s head, the other sliding under Leo’s thigh, hitching it higher. The new angle drew a stuttering cry from Leo’s throat. Marcus watched him and began to move again, deep and deliberate.

"Don’t you think we should be getting a response by..." Leo’s words dissolved as Marcus snapped his hips forward.

​"Nngh—"

Marcus’s forearm pressed across Leo’s abdomen, the weight of it pinning him to the desk. Sweat beaded on the wolf’s snout inked into Leo’s back, the moisture catching the light. Marcus’s voice dropped to a rough murmur that vibrated through Leo’s ribs. "Stop worrying and concentrate on what’s happening here, with me, in this moment."

He didn’t wait for a reply. The pace quickened. The desk’s legs groaned against the floor in a steady, jolting rhythm. A pen rolled off the edge and clicked against the floor.

Leo’s right hand flew to the desk’s edge, knuckles whitening. The other hand scrabbled at Marcus’s back, nails raking the enormous wolf’s head tattooed there, the beast’s jaws stretched wide across Marcus’s shoulder blades, its fur a storm of black lines and dark shading. Leo clung to it as his vision blurred with heat.

"At some point," Marcus said, voice hitching between thrusts, "you’re going to have to trust that you’ve done everything you can."

"What if... hnng—" Leo’s hips bucked, words failing as Marcus swallowed them. His mouth came down again, capturing Leo’s lower lip, then his upper, a slow, messy sealing that left Leo gasping. The kiss broke with a slick sound. Marcus’s lips trailed sideways, and his tongue traced the faint scar that ran along Leo’s jawline, a sliver of silver under his stubble.

"If I hear one more word that is not about how well my dick is working you," Marcus breathed against the scar, "I swear I will gag you."

The desk legs bucked. A drawer slid open an inch, then shut with each surge. Leo’s sounds had distilled into a string of breathless ohs and ahs, his eyes half-lidded, the sheen on his throat glistening with sweat.

Marcus withdrew.

Leo let out a whine, high and desperate, his body spasming at the sudden emptiness. "Marcus—"

"Shh." Marcus’s hand found both of Leo’s ankles, lifting his legs and pressing them together. Calves met, knees kissed. Marcus held them with one palm, fingers wrapped firm around Leo’s shins. The new posture raised Leo’s hips off the desk, exposing the flushed, pulsing ring of muscle.

"It’s okay," Marcus murmured. "I’ll fill you up soon."

Leo squirmed, his left arm thrown over his face, his breath hitching.

Marcus’s other hand guided himself. The head of his cock nudged Leo’s entrance, smearing the slickness there. Then he thrust in with one long, groaning stroke.

Leo’s back bowed off the desk. A guttural sound tore from him, half-shout, half-sob.

The room spun.

"Tell me how good my dick is," Marcus said, pulling back and then sliding home again, the slick slap of their bodies filling the silence that followed his words. "Tell me how much you’re enjoying this, boss."

Leo’s mouth worked, but only a strangled moan came out at first. Then, words, broken and raw: "It’s... it’s so deep, Marcus. I can’t—I—it’s so fucking good—don’t stop."

The desk’s rhythm quickened, the legs thumping in a frantic beat.

"Faster Marcus—your cock, it’s perfect, it’s—" Leo’s voice caught on a sob of pleasure. "I love how you fuck me, I love it, I love—"

Whatever else he might have said dissolved into a high, keening wail. Marcus’s thrusts turned punishing, the sound of skin on skin echoing off the walls. Sweat dripped from Marcus’s jaw, landing on Leo’s chest, tracing a wet line down to his collarbone.

"I’m cumming," Marcus ground out, voice fraying. "Cum with me. You can come by just taking my dick, right, boss?"

Leo’s answer was a scream—thin and ragged and glorious. The clamp of his body around Marcus’s length pulsed once, twice, and then Marcus groaned, slamming in to the hilt. Their release came in a shared, shuddering cascade, hot and liquid, the desk giving one final, violent jolt.

For a breath, only their panting filled the air. Leo’s legs fell limp as Marcus released them. Aftershocks rippled through Leo’s thighs.

Marcus scooped Leo off the desk and cradled him against his chest. Leo’s head lolled into the crook of Marcus’s neck, his breath hot and uneven. Marcus carried him across the room and gently laid him on the couch.

The cushions sighed beneath his weight. Leo’s arm tightened around Marcus’s shoulders, refusing to let him pull away.

"Let me go get something to clean you up," Marcus said, his voice gentler now.

Leo’s fingers curled around Marcus’s shoulder and held fast. "Please don’t go. Not yet."

His voice cracked on the last word.

Marcus stilled.

"Stay with me for a moment," Leo whispered.

For a few seconds, Marcus simply stared at him. There was something in Leo’s eyes he had not seen in a long time. Beneath the exhaustion sat a rare vulnerability, one Leo showed almost no one. The fierce gang leader who could stare down armed men without blinking was gone for the moment. In his place was the man Marcus knew best, the one who overthought everything and could spend hours trapped in his own head whenever something threatened the people or things he cared about.

Without another word, Marcus sat down beside him and pulled him closer. Leo immediately leaned into him, settling against his chest as though he belonged there. Marcus wrapped an arm around him and exhaled quietly.

It had been a long time since Leo had been this clingy.

And every single time it happened, something was wrong.

Marcus hated seeing him like this. Leo might be the leader of the Wild Hounds, but he was Marcus’s first. Anything that made him worry, doubt himself, or look this defeated immediately became Marcus’s problem too.

He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to Leo’s forehead.

"I won’t let everything you’ve built collapse," he said quietly. "We’ll figure this out. If the prince doesn’t accept the invitation, we’ll find another way. There is always a way, Leo. There always has been."

Leo released a slow breath and leaned into him even more, some of the tension finally easing from his shoulders.

Then a knock sounded at the door.

Marcus frowned. "Who is it?"

"Captain," a voice called from the other side. "That new prince is here to see the boss."

Both men froze. Leo immediately tried to sit up. Marcus tightened his hold and pushed him right back against the couch.

"Stay put."

Then he raised his voice. "Keep His Highness entertained. The boss and I will be down in a minute."

"Yes, Captain."

Footsteps retreated down the hallway.

Marcus waited until they disappeared before looking back at Leo.

"Were you seriously about to run downstairs looking like this?"

Leo rubbed a hand across his face. "I don’t want to keep him waiting."

Marcus stared at him. "The prince can survive a few extra minutes."

Leo opened his mouth to argue.

Marcus pointed a finger at him.

"Not a word."

Leo immediately closed it again.

"First," Marcus continued, "we’re going to clean you up and make you look presentable."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Aye aye, Captain," he said with a playful salute and a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

The sight immediately eased something in Marcus’s chest. He found himself smiling back despite everything.