Chapter 16

The quiet, wet sounds against his bare chest made Si-woon curl his toes into the mattress in acute embarrassment. Does doing that actually feel good for him?

Bent over his sternum, Je-hee seemed completely absorbed in kissing and lightly sucking at his nipple. Si-woon couldn’t fathom what was so captivating about a flat chest like his own, and he felt a twinge of guilt that the sensation registered as little more than an odd, ticklish pressure. Still, having Je-hee occupied down there carried one major advantage: Si-woon could look at the man’s face as openly as he pleased. Against that fair, porcelain skin, the glimpse of Je-hee’s red tongue looked almost impossibly vivid. Am I really allowed to touch someone who looks like this?

“Hm?” Spotting Si-woon’s hand hovering uncertainly in the air near his crown, Je-hee glanced up.

“Ah, well—”

When Si-woon froze mid-reach, Je-hee simply leaned his head into the waiting palm, inviting the touch without a word. His hair is so soft. Threading his fingers cautiously through the fine brown strands, Si-woon felt a warm tingle travel down his wrist.

“You can touch me anywhere you want, Si-woon-ssi,” Je-hee murmured, rising to gather him into a close embrace until their chests pressed flush together and Si-woon’s racing pulse began to steady.

When Je-hee lifted his chin for another kiss, Si-woon met his mouth willingly, letting the slow tangle of their tongues send a deeper warmth spreading down his spine. As they shifted against each other, their bare chests brushed—and at that light friction across his damp nipple, an unexpected gasp broke from Si-woon’s throat. Barely a minute ago he had felt next to nothing there; now that single brush sent a sharp jolt straight to his groin.

“That feels a bit different now, doesn’t it?” Kissing Si-woon’s fluttering eyelids, Je-hee slid a warm palm down the curve of his lower back. “And what about here?”

“Hngh… mm. I think… that feels good.”

“And here?” Moving with patient, methodical care, Je-hee seemed intent on mapping every square inch of skin that drew a reaction from him.

“Why… ah, down there too?” Tugging helplessly at the hair at Je-hee’s nape, Si-woon felt his face burn. Having his shoulders, chest, and thighs caressed he could understand, but the warm mouth trailing kisses across his navel and the taut dip of his lower abdomen was mortifying.

Glancing up from his stomach, Je-hee paused. “Did you dislike that?”

It was hard enough trying to swallow the strange sounds rising in his throat without having to give a verbal report on every single touch. Wishing he could pull the duvet over his head and vanish, Si-woon averted his eyes. “It’s not that I dislike it. I’m just… embarrassed.”

“All right. If I ever do anything you don’t like, just tell me right away.”

Because Je-hee asked with such genuine care, Si-woon couldn’t bring himself to stay silent—even when answering only drew another breathless sound from his own lips. Caught between mounting pleasure and sheer mortification in the dim bedroom, he flinched as Je-hee’s warm breath brushed directly against the shell of his ear. “Ah… ngh.”

“Is that uncomfortable?” Je-hee asked, lifting his head at once in concern.

“No, it just… tickles so much.” Looking down at him with flushed cheeks, Si-woon could barely recognize the unsteady voice coming out of his own mouth.

“It tickles?” Pulling him into a warm embrace with a soft smile, Je-hee pressed his forehead to Si-woon’s shoulder. “Still, you don’t hate it, right?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it… I just worried it might sound strange to say so,” Si-woon murmured, lowering his gaze.

“I love hearing every bit of it,” Je-hee assured him softly. Settling between Si-woon’s parted thighs—where his own erection strained unmistakably against the front of his pajama trousers—he added, “So don’t try to hold your voice back tonight. Tell me what feels good, all right?”

“Ah, ngh… ah!”

As Je-hee slid one palm beneath Si-woon’s heavy scrotum to trace the sensitive seam of skin behind it while steadying his hip with the other hand, a full-body shudder rippled through Si-woon. Every light brush drew another fractured breath from his parted lips, his cock standing flushed and rigid against his stomach with a bead of clear fluid glistening at the slit. Lifting a trembling hand partway toward his groin before forcing it back onto the sheets, Si-woon fought the urge to touch himself while Je-hee was watching.

Pausing a beat to search his eyes, Je-hee asked gently, “Are you sure you’re comfortable doing it this way?”

When they had discussed how to go about their first time a few minutes earlier, Je-hee had made it clear that they didn’t have to go all the way tonight—or that if Si-woon preferred to take the top role instead, Je-hee was willing to try anything so long as neither of them forced himself. To Si-woon, however, the choice had seemed straightforward:

“I don’t really know what to do yet… so could you lead me through it together? If you help prepare me this first time, I’ll make sure to prepare on my own beforehand next time.”

“You don’t have to take that role on my account, Si-woon-ssi. It can be physically taxing, and there are plenty of other ways for us to be close.”

“I’m a little nervous because it’s all new to me… but I don’t think I’ll dislike it. Besides, I’m bigger and physically sturdier than you are, so doesn’t it make more sense for me to take the harder part?”

Remembering how speechless Je-hee had looked at that explanation, Si-woon met his gaze steadily now. “Ngh, yes—I’m sure. What were you thinking about just then?”

“Ah.” Blinking, Je-hee brushed his thumb across Si-woon’s warm cheek and kissed him. “You. I was thinking about you.”

Studying him through his damp lashes, Si-woon murmured, “…I want to see you take your pants off, too.”

“What? Right now?”

“Yes. Hurry.”

Letting out a breathless laugh as if he recognized his own commanding phrasing from the night Si-woon had untied his necktie, Je-hee untied the drawstring of his pajama trousers and pushed them down, revealing the damp tent at the front of his briefs.

“Your underwear, too.”

“…”

Clearing his throat as a flush climbed his pale neck, Je-hee hooked his thumbs into his waistband and peeled the clinging briefs down his thighs. The moment his erection sprang free between them, Si-woon’s throat bobbed in an involuntary swallow, his entire body going still as he stared down at the size of it. Earlier, he had assumed that having broader shoulders and a sturdier build meant taking a partner would be manageable; looking at the reality in front of him now required some rapid mental recalculation.

“…May I touch it?” Si-woon asked quietly.

“Yes.”

Reaching out with unmistakable caution—as though verifying by touch what his eyes had just measured—Si-woon wrapped his warm fingers around the base of Je-hee’s shaft.

“Haah…” A sharp breath hissed between Je-hee’s teeth at the first tentative squeeze. As Si-woon slid his palm experimentally up the length to the flushed crown, Je-hee’s hips jerked forward of their own accord. “Kh-eup, hngh…! Ah, that feels… ngh, really good.”

Clear pre-cum smeared slickly beneath Si-woon’s palm and dripped onto the sheet below. Reaching around Si-woon’s waist, Je-hee pulled him upright against his chest until their hard lengths pressed flush together. “Don’t just look at it… ngh. Come here.”

“Ha-ah…” The slick slide of skin against skin drew a simultaneous gasp from both of them. Rolling his hips against Si-woon’s, Je-hee sent a sudden, overwhelming jolt through Si-woon’s groin.

“Ah-eut—all at once, that’s too—” Si-woon gasped, clutching at Je-hee’s shoulders as his legs trembled.

“Can you feel… ngh… how wet it already is between us?” Reaching down between their pressed stomachs, Je-hee rubbed his thumb over the weeping slit of Si-woon’s cock, where their mingled fluids made every glide effortless, and Si-woon sagged against his collarbone with a broken cry.

“Ah, wait—I’m gonna—ngh—!”

Abruptly bracing a hand against Je-hee’s chest to push back an inch, Si-woon clamped his own fist around the base of his shaft, his shoulders shaking as he fought to hold back his release.

Je-hee stilled his hand at once, looking worried that he had gone too far—until Si-woon looked up at him through damp lashes and panted, “I don’t… ngh… want to finish by myself.”

At that, Je-hee’s dark eyes blazed. “Mmh, yes—just like that. Let me have your tongue.” Capturing Si-woon’s mouth in a deep, hungry kiss, Je-hee rocked their lower bodies together again, neither of them willing to yield an inch as the friction climbed higher.

“Ah-euk, Je-hee-ssi, please—just a little… more—” Breaking the kiss with a ragged sob, Si-woon wrapped his large hand around both of their erections at once and stroked them together in a frantic rhythm, his thighs falling wide against the sheets as he watched their joined lengths through half-shut eyes.

“Hngh, kkh…!”

“Kh-eut, ah—”

Barely a heartbeat after hot white jets spurted across Si-woon’s stomach and chest, Je-hee groaned into the crook of his neck and came hard against his palm.

“Haa… ah-heu…” Lowering his shaking hand, which had tried in vain to catch the mess, Si-woon sank back onto the pillows with his chest rising and falling rapidly.

Blinking up at the dim bedroom ceiling as his pulse slowly receded, Si-woon felt as though every bone in his body had turned to water. Even when he relieved his own urges in private, the release had never left his limbs humming with this lingering, heavy warmth. Beside him, Je-hee was gently stroking his upper arm, looking ready to fetch a warm towel and call it a night so Si-woon could rest.

“My body feels much more relaxed now… so I think I can manage your fingers,” Si-woon said before Je-hee could rise. Drawing his knees up, he parted his thighs and reached back with one hand to show what he meant. Where on earth am I finding the nerve to act like this? At any other hour of his life, he would have died of mortification before exposing himself so brazenly, yet having come this far, he refused to retreat halfway. “Trying to take everything at once might be too much, so if you help loosen me up a little first… You’ll help me, right?”

Staring down between Si-woon’s parted thighs, Je-hee went motionless for a long beat, his dark eyes tightening with a mixture of concern and unmistakable heat. Reaching to the nightstand for the bottle of lubricant and a finger condom he had set out earlier, he rolled the thin latex over his index finger.

Growing acutely self-conscious as he waited in that exposed posture, Si-woon shifted on the sheets. “Should I turn over onto my stomach?”