Persuasion
The moon was in wax. Hanging like a sharp sliver of silver white against all the deep velvet black of the midnight sky. Silver white like the hair of the man lying in his bed, sleeping contently now if judging by the slow breaths that made the chest rise and fall.
Noah glanced over at the bed across the room, partly hidden by dark bed hangings and shadows. He could see choice pieces off bared skin, smooth, faintly golden skin spanning over strong, defined muscles. And crossing the skin were the markings, magical markings, Zsien had said and his words had put fear in Noah's heart, as any sensible man or woman would have felt, magic was not to be carelessly dismissed or tampered with. They were beautiful none the less and lent a new aura to the body, an aura of danger for those who dared to venture across the bearer's path.
He glimpsed a wide chest and shoulders, a hand rested across the lower part of the taut belly, the center of all that tantalizing power Zsien exuded. The other arm was flung out across the space Noah had vacated and the palm was turned up as if to beckon him back. He could se both legs, the blanket had slid up across the very top of Zsien's strong thighs, barely concealing the – for the moment – sleeping length which he had made good use of to drive Noah farther away from coherency than he had ever thought possible.
He was still sore, he reflected as he shifted slightly to a more comfortable position in the narrow window seat. Disconcerting to be sore there when he had always considered himself to be meant for women. Attention from the fairer sex had never failed to arouse him, nor a well placed hand or a beautiful smile. He'd had his eye on the thatcher's daughter for almost four months now and had begun saving the money for the proper gift. He'd never asked her father for permission to see her, but it was never wrong to be prepared incase the opportunity presented itself. She had always looked rather fondly at him too.
But then Zsien had dropped into his existence from a clear blue sky – literally – and turned everything upside down. Zsien with his arrogant, possessive, larger than life attitude and seductive looks and innuendos that never failed to make Noah stumble or stutter or stare in open, blatant lust. He had never lusted like this over anyone before and most certainly not over a man.
And Zsien was so infuriating sometimes when he put his mind to it and refused – as he always did – to get his hands dirty or fetch water or bend his back to pick up his own damned – whatever it was he'd dropped.
Noah scowled at the man in the bed and wrapped an arm around his up-drawn knee. How Zsien had managed to talk him into this… this very intimate mating was quite beyond his comprehension when he could hardly stand being in the same room at times.
Oh, but it had been good. So very good to feel the heavy weight of Zsien's body over him and that considerable force deep inside him, driving away all thought of the world outside and all the troubles it held. The initial shock and pain had quickly subsided under Zsien's power, to be replaced by an incredible heat and a thrilling ecstasy emanating from that spot at the core of him. Zsien had stroked it first with his fingers and then with his cock, rubbed it steadily until Noah was liken to burst open from pent up passion and the need for release.
Noah had thought Zsien to be too impatient as he was with everything else, to hold back his own release for very long, but he had taken his time and his pleasure, exploring and touching and tasting, bringing Noah slowly, expertly back to passion in time for his climax and taken him with him. Clever, skilled hands and mouth, an agile, curious tongue that explored every part of him to search out all the hidden places that made him gasp and writhe and moan with pleasure. Quite a skilled lover.
And afterwards he had lay wrapped in Zsien's arms as if they were lovers. He frowned and bit his teeth together. What if that was true? Would this one night make it so? Would he want it to? All the pleasure aside, Zsien was most of the time not very agreeable company and Noah could never see the man do any of the things that needed doing every day to put food on their table or clothes on their back or… No, Zsien was not meant for a commoner's life. He'd fit better at court, his manners and choice of clothes said as much.
Noah sighed and shut his eyes as he leaned his dark auburn head against the cool glass of the window. What if Zsien decided to leave for a better life elsewhere? Would he want him to?
All hells! Why was he thinking these damned things now? He had been just fine on his own before Zsien ever came here, he'd be well and truly fine once he left again.
"So, contemplating existence again?" a deep, velvet voice suddenly murmured in his ear and he started upright in the window seat, nearly sprawling off it if a strong hand hadn't steadied him by the shoulder.
"Damn it! Don't do that!" he snapped when he had gathered his wits and gave the man a withering, indignant glare. How such a large body could move up on him without making even the slight sound of bare feet over rough wooden floor was beyond Noah, and he had always prided himself with his perceptive, forest trained senses.
Zsien just smiled, rather smugly and leaned closer until his chest and belly was pressed against Noah's shoulder and arm. Naked, Noah realized, and unabashed about it. Unaware of the effect it had on him.
Or perhaps not so unaware. He moved slightly to press the groin closer to Noah's hip and rubbed gently back and forth, working up a slow warmth that spread through Noah's body, flushing his cheeks. He glanced warily up into eyes that were blue, as they always were when Zsien had recently woken up; however, they were gradually changing color, becoming darker as his lust grew again. The red streak in his bangs ran like a rivulet of blood amongst the silver down past his right eye, a dark red now in the poor light but adding to the dangerous aura that seemed to be a part of Zsien's sheer existence.
"How sore are you?" Zsien murmured huskily and lowered to let the tip of his tongue play along the edges of Noah's ear, as a hand slid down his lower back to draw a circle across his tail through the linen cloth of his loose-fitting pants. Clever, clever tongue. Skillful, persuasive hand.
"It's not so bad," Noah murmured back and let his eyes shut wholly, pleasure trickling its way back into him. He could feel Zsien's lust like vibrations through the thin barrier of cloth separating skin from skin.
The other hand fluttered along the backside of Noah's up-drawn thigh and fingertips pressed the linen into his skin and brushed against his sac in passing. Noah twitched and gasped against his will, and sprung back to life even though he wasn't sure if he should or wanted to, even though he was sore enough to be uncertain if he could do… that again. He shifted slightly and Zsien's hands stilled on his body.
"Hmmm," he murmured deeply in Noah's ear. "Sore enough to reject even that touch, obviously." His voice lacked the velvet now, Zsien didn't take rejection well. He straightened and removed his hands though he remained close. "I would heal you if I could."
Noah blinked and had to tilt his head far back to be able to stare up at him in shock. That was as close to an apology as he'd ever heard the man utter, as close to saying he actually cared for anyone other than himself. Not so strange then that he hardly believed him. Zsien just stared back from behind thick, dark lashes.
"And you'd do it without ulterior motives? Even if there was no benefit in it for you? Like your own pleasure."
Zsien snorted. Offended now? When wasn't he ever? "Whatever." He turned and went back to the bed to extend his tall body across its length, folding his hands behind his head, only bothering with the blanket long enough to pull it haphazardly across his groin. Such modesty.
Noah looked after him, a chill running down his skin at the loss of warmth from Zsien's body. Or perhaps from the tingling left behind by his touch. He bit his lip in hesitation as he tried to put straight the thoughts rushing through him.
Yes, he was still sore. He had doubts whether or not he should do it again. To get attached – even by lust – to this man would be dangerous. He was certain he'd get hurt one way or another regardless of if Zsien stayed or went. And yet, hadn't he already attached himself? The need he felt now told him so. So what could it hurt to have just a little bit more? To feel just a little bit more?
He licked his lips and slowly, cautiously went across the room to the bed, pushed the bed hangings partly out of the way and looked down at Zsien's reclining form. He stubbornly refused to meet Noah's eyes, as was to be expected when he was sulking. Zsien could be so childish like that sometimes.
Noah sighed, resigned, and pulled the simple linen shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor by his feet. He untied the string in his linen trousers and glanced at Zsien's face. The eyes were riveted on him now, drawn to acknowledge him when he began to undress, a very interesting event and quite enough to break the sullen mood.
He held some power over Zsien, he realized, how small and insignificant it may be. He had something the other man wanted. Feeling more comfortable with himself, less flustered under the intense gaze roving across his emerging body and the slender length of flesh stirring between his thighs, he let the trousers slide down around his ankles and stepped out of them to sit down on the bed next to Zsien, hip to hip, one leg folded under him and the other trailing over the edge of the bed.
He'd expected to be touched then, to be guided into bed under the considerable weight of the other body, but Zsien only looked at him, his eyelids half lowered and his hands still behind his head.
Noah felt slightly lost at first; uncertain of what to do, but refused to be defeated now when he had made up his mind. Lust was a two edged sword, it seemed, with this man at least, to be given only if Zsien was of a mind. Noah would have it anyway.
He reached out a hand and stroked a fingertip along one of the twirling marks down Zsien's chest, following it until he came to another one leading back up across the ribs towards an armpit, circling close to the sensitive skin there only to turn back down across a hard pectoral.
Zsien's breathing deepened and his eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?" he asked even though he knew very well, this game had been invented by him after all.
"Would you really have healed me?" Noah asked instead of answering the question.
"Yes." An honest if a bit slow response.
"Why?" His fingers circled once around a dusky nipple and then continued down the marks towards navel and belly. It must have been distracting because the silence lengthened.
"How can you enjoy our little romp if you're too sore to properly feel me?"
There it was again, that arrogance, and Noah snorted annoyed. "So there'd be a benefit for you after all. Never considered doing it out of pure kindness? Just because you cared?"
Zsien frowned darkly. "I do care," he said and his eyes were narrow, golden slits now, easy to anger when he'd been offended. "I care not for an incapacitated lover, unable to take his own pleasure as well as give me mine. If that's not good enough for you, then you can stop what you're doing and take sleep elsewhere."
Noah planted his palm firmly on Zsien's solar plexus and pressed. "This is my bed and I don't care how highly you think of yourself, if you don't drop this mightier than thou attitude of yours, you can 'take sleep elsewhere'."
Zsien hardly even grunted from the pressure to his chest, but he did bare his teeth. "I won't sleep for many hours still." A hand shot up and caught a fistful of Noah's hair. He hardly had the chance to react before he was pulled down close and his lips covered by Zsien's hungry, demanding mouth. He struggled for a moment but then let lust overflow him and responded to the kiss, his mouth was instantly, deeply invaded by an agile tongue. The grip in his hair loosened to allow him room to move if he wanted to and he let up on the kiss just a bit, enjoying the gentler contact more than the rough probing.
He moved his hand again, sliding it up to brush the previously neglected nipple and the hand in his hair moved down across his neck and shoulder to settle on his hip. He pulled back to look down into darkening eyes, burning with lust and triumph; Zsien would get what he wanted after all.
"This is my choice." Noah felt he had to make that clear. "I do this because I want to, not because you talked me into it."
"Fine," replied Zsien and smiled rather smugly. The hand on his hip began to caress in small circles. Noah managed a glare and then reached out for the jar with scented grease, encouraged by the larger and larger circles on his skin, moving teasingly over thigh and butt.
He knew Zsien was ready without having to look, the man almost vibrated with restrained lust and his large body shuddered briefly when Noah slid back the blanket. The quite impressive length lay hard and leaking against a taut belly and he hesitated to touch it. It had been one thing to play the passive participant and be guided in the act, quite another to lead.
"Touch it," Zsien urged him and it sounded almost like a challenge.
He shifted his eyes to Zsien's face and met a dark gaze. Then he gasped a bit startled as a hand touched his own flesh and it sprang fully to life. Zsien stroked him slowly a few times as he held his gaze and then moved down to cup and caress his sac.
"Touch me," a heated whisper and Noah curled slightly trembling fingers around Zsien's steel and velvet erection. "Yes. Like so."
He knew the man's rhythm – slow, deep, powerful – he'd been acquainted with it only a few hours ago and used it now to make Zsien's breathing fast and shallow, the control over his body unreliable. He did hold power over Zsien.
But the man would not be so easily distracted, he was very determined and set on his goal once he got it into his head to have something and Noah found his power to be a fickle thing. Zsien's other hand moved up his thigh and around the hip to caress and knead a globe of his buttocks, fingertips fluttering along the crevice teasingly, but never touching where he wanted it the most.
The strokes on Noah's erection grew firmer in counterpart to the touch of his buttocks and he lost track of his surroundings for a moment, his head tilting back to expose his throat. Absently he heard Zsien growl deep in his chest at the unconsciously submissive gesture, but the bite to his neck never came.
The world returned with the touch of a finger to his tight opening and he shuddered, willing it to slide in and find that spot within him again. He looked down at the perfect man before him, their eyes met and he pulled a breath that hitched in his throat as the finger pushed insistently. And then it was removed. Noah grunted in disappointment and bit his teeth together.
"Grease," Zsien said and took the jar from his slightly unsteady hand. "I don't want to hurt you anymore than myself, I don't like getting chafed."
"Bastard," Noah grumbled halfheartedly, not knowing if it was truly deserved this time, he couldn't think very clearly at the moment.
Zsien laughed shortly and then his finger was back, slicked and purposeful, sliding in to the second joint and holding there when Noah gasped and cried out loud as his body first tried to repel the invader and then clenched down hard around it, his grip around Zsien's rigid flesh jerked spasmodically.
"Easy, there. I like it intact."
When he had regained coherency Zsien moved his finger again, in and out, slowly making tight muscles relax enough for him to add another digit. Noah took deep breaths and tried to keep his senses about him, tried to remember stroking Zsien as well, one hand around his hot length and the other tweaking a stiff nipple. But it was hard when all he could wait for was the touch to that spot within him.
"I know you want it," Zsien murmured, a teasing tone to his voice, and Noah opened his eyes to look down at him. "You're just going to have to take it," he challenged and withdrew his fingers.
So it was up to him again. To discern if he truly wanted this, if he truly had the courage to lead this time or if he would admit defeat and announce Zsien the victor, allowing the other man to give or take pleasure when and how he pleased.
Noah took back the jar and thoroughly slicked his fingers, holding them up where he was certain Zsien could get a good look. "I don't like getting chafed either," he said pointedly and Zsien grinned at him. Though the grin faded and turned into a sharp exhale as Noah wrapped his fingers around Zsien's erection again, making sure he coated it from root to tip, circling a thumb around the head once just to see the reaction. Zsien bared his clenched teeth and groaned deep in his throat.
Noah wetted his lips and leaned in for a kiss, needing a moment to gather his courage and for Zsien to be distracted enough not to see it. Then he straightened again and slowly swung a leg over slim hips. Kneeling there for a moment, his hands braced on sharp, jutting hipbones, he looked down at the body under him, the sharp featured face and eyes riveted on him, the muscled chest and belly, the rigid, leaking cock ready and eager for him.
He reached a hand down behind him and grasped its root, held it steady while he slowly, as though not to hurt himself, lowered down over the tip. Zsien's strong hands cupped his buttocks and held him, spread him and guided him down, and his legs rose a bit and firm thighs gave Noah a comfortable support.
Noah let out a deep breath once he was firmly seated; circling his hips a little to better feel the firm flesh inside him. Zsien kneaded his buttocks and made a first, slow and shallow rolling with his hips.
"I wouldn't dare presume your stamina is as good as mine," he murmured huskily, continuing his thrusts when Noah took another deep breath.
"You certainly don't hold much confidence in me," Noah replied, grunting approvingly as the tip of the length inside him almost, almost touched the spot. He wanted it.
He rose slightly on his knees to give Zsien more room to move and he understood the gesture, doing what Noah wanted him to do. Holding Noah still above him with strong hands on his hips and buttocks Zsien set into a languid, fluid rhythm, deep and slow, building up the passion with deliberate movements. Noah was happy to close his eyes and go with it, leaning back slightly, bracing his hands on Zsien's upraised thighs and angling his hips to get it right where he wanted it.
Zsien hit his core on the next stroke and Noah cried out, his whole body clenching down around him and the cock surging into him. When he could breathe again he began to circle his hips, making Zsien's strokes brush against that spot every time. He gasped and groaned and his fingers clutched hard on Zsien's thighs. He was nearing his climax and was unable to keep it from happening, reluctant to stop now.
But Zsien changed rhythm; he slowed and pulled Noah firmly all the way down against his groin. "Not yet," he murmured deeply and one of his hands began to move from Noah's hip up across his ribs and chest to brush over a nipple, twisting it between thumb and finger. Noah shuddered at the almost pain playing counterpart to the heat sheathed inside him.
The coiling, unfulfilled passion began to hum through Noah's body and it was almost too much. When he wanted to raise his body again, the grip still on his hip became hurtfully strong and he grunted impatiently and kept still. Noah trembled and stared down into Zsien's dark eyes, waiting for him to make the next move.
The fingers on his nipple trailed down along his chest, tracing the muscles in his abdomen and the jut of a hipbone. They brushed teasingly at the soft patch of hair between his legs and then slowly, gently curled around his neglected erection. Noah couldn't help that his hips bucked and gasped as the shaft inside him pressed for an instant against his prostate. Zsien smiled smugly and began a slow stroke from root to tip, brushed his thumb across the weeping head and then back down again. He kept stroking slowly, keeping his eyes possessively on Noah's face all the while.
Pleasure was building to an unbearable intensity and Noah's eyes drifted shut. He parted his lips to breathe more easily and put his hand over the hand on his hip that kept him still.
"Please…" he whispered, not sure if he was begging or not. "Please." He needed to move.
Zsien let up on his grip and began a deep thrust, pulling almost all the way out by urging Noah to raise his hips and then driving himself inside all the way to the hilt with a grunt, when he lowered again. He matched the strokes on Noah's erection to his thrusts and set up a beat just as deep as before but faster, firmer, not as leisurely, but purposeful. A beat Noah knew was meant to make him come. He didn't much care, he wanted, needed his release.
He leaned back again, raising his arms above his head in abandon and rode the wave. He met Zsien's thrusts and felt the restrained power in the hips between his legs, as if Zsien held himself back, lest he hurt Noah. He looked down then, from where he had turned his face against an arm, his own fingers tangled in his own hair.
"You do care," he whispered and Zsien's eyes flashed dark amber for an instant. "Or you wouldn't hold yourself back like this."
The movements didn't falter even though he saw the disturbance in Zsien's eyes. He didn't answer. He stroked Noah's heated flesh faster, equaling his thrusts, aiming for Noah's core and hitting it every time.
Noah cried out and writhed in Zsien's grasp, closing his eyes to the small sparks of light that flashed in his vision. "Oh… oh, I'm close," he breathed and bit his teeth together against the pulsating that began in the pit of his stomach.
"Let go then," Zsien's deep voice reached him and that gentle urging together with the overwhelming sensations rushing through him, was quite enough to make him lose what little control he had.
Noah came with a shudder and a harsh cry that he muffled against his arm, his body trembling with the shocks of release. After what seemed a very long moment, he breathed again and became aware that Zsien had kept moving through his orgasm. He looked down to see dark eyes absorbing what they saw, enjoying witnessing the display of pleasure as much as Noah enjoyed receiving it.
Noah leaned forward, resting his hands on strong shoulders and lifting his hips slightly to give Zsien a better angle to take his own pleasure. And he did, settling into a faster, firmer rhythm than the one he had used to bring Noah to his release, one solely for his own purpose.
Noah closed his eyes and just breathed, reveling in the power and determination of the man under him, inside him. He braced himself for what could be a long while when Zsien took his pleasure. But Zsien moved into his final rhythm then; deep, urgent thrusts that rocked Noah's body, Zsien's hands roaming across every inch of skin he could easily reach.
"Oh, yes," he husked and Noah looked down at him, closed eyes and parted lips, his silver head tilted back to expose the taut muscles in his neck, the strong pulse beating rapidly there. He was really handsome this man, and so very tempting to keep him, make him stay.
Noah's eyes drifted shut and he shuddered when Zsien pulled him all the way down against him, grinding his hips as close as possible and finally spilling his hot seed inside him, filling him with a warmth that spread through his body.
"Hmmm," Zsien practically purred when his body began to relax, sated and peaceful now that he'd gotten his way. He looked up from behind lowered lashes at Noah still leaning over him. "That was just what I needed."
Noah raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? When don't you ever need it." He made to lift his hips and move off, but was firmly kept seated where he was.
"Is it not comfortable?" Zsien asked, making it sound almost like a challenge, and rolled his hips slightly, making Noah aware of his flesh still hard and noticeable inside.
Noah clenched his teeth and glared down. "I don't know about you, but I don't care for this to dry." He gestured at the white stripes he'd left on Zsien's skin.
"Maybe I'll just have you lick it off, I quite like this view."
Noah frowned. "Always a fight with you, who leads and who follows. Don't you trust anyone?"
An arrogant eyebrow arched. "I trust myself. Especially when it comes to finding agreeable lovers." His fingers flexed around Noah's hips. "You are most agreeable."
Noah stared. This was the second time Zsien had almost said he cared for him. It took Noah off guard and he relaxed a little, sitting back against Zsien's upraised thighs. He lifted a hand and touched a silver strand of hair that ran like a pale rivulet down the smooth skin of a shoulder, twining it gently around two fingers. Maybe, just maybe Zsien was letting him in, in his own most twisted notion of understanding and companionship. Would he want to be let in? Had he the courage to find out what Zsien really was?
"Your thoughts wander," Zsien murmured and Noah met his changeable eyes, turning blue slowly. The color Noah was most comfortable with, because it meant respite was to be had.
He shrugged noncommittally, not willing to voice his thoughts. "Let me get a washrag," he said quietly.
Zsien studied his face for a moment longer and then released him. Noah lifted gently, holding his breath as Zsien's softening flesh slipped out of him, and then moved off the bed.
He knew Zsien watched him when he went over to the nudged washbasin to wet a rag and clean himself; he could feel the eyes. He winced as the cold cloth touched his sore butt and gingerly washed away what was trickling out of him. No blood, though, and he rinsed the rag before bringing it with him back to the bed.
Zsien watched from behind lowered lashes as Noah cleaned his skin, washing away the drying white stripes on his chest and then made a quick but gentle sweep over his soft sex to clean it of grease and remnant semen. He made to get up and return the rag to the bucket by the washbasin, but Zsien's hand moved up his arm to tangle in his hair.
"I know what you're thinking," he murmured.
Noah arched an eyebrow. "Do you?" he wondered disbelievingly.
"You're wondering when I'm going to leave," Zsien said, right on the mark. "When I'm going and leaving you behind to find better company elsewhere."
Noah stared. "I never said as much," he mumbled. How could he know?
"You're easy enough to read. I've seen that look of abandonment in many lovers' faces before, and I left all of them sooner or later." He snorted softly. "Most of them cried when I went."
"I bet they did," Noah replied resentfully, twisting against the grip in his hair to get free.
The grip hardened. "Would you cry for me?" Intense eyes, intense question that needed an answer.
Noah's eyes widened and he swallowed. Then blinked and instinctively narrowed his eyes, trying to hide himself. "Don't flatter yourself."
Zsien smiled crookedly, seemingly satisfied with what Noah had said – or not said – and let him go.
Noah got up and turned away to hide the uncertainty washing over him. He didn't know. No. He wouldn't cry for him, would he? Miss him, perhaps. At least sometimes but surely not all the time.
He moved away from the bed and discarded the rag in the bucket before he washed his hands in the basin. The water ran through his fingers like water always does, resistant to capturing hands. Like Zsien. However much Noah tried he couldn't grasp what Zsien was, his nature, what drove him. He was a mystery.
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