He hadn’t meant to speak those words. Hadn’t intended to beg forgiveness. A man like him didn’t do forgiveness. But the man he was, was kiss-close to something too precious to lose.

He knew what it felt like now. That thing you’d kill to keep. Five minutes. He’d had this all of five minutes and he’d beheaded a man to protect it.

He hadn’t lived and breathed it for the better part of two decades. Hadn’t built a family and a home. What he felt now, he’d stolen it away from Daniel. What he felt for Daniel now demanded he pull his weight.

Own up to what he’d done.

He slid his hands up, circling Daniel’s waist. Dragging him close. “I took her,” he whispered. “Stole away your future.”

There was an ache in Daniel’s eyes. It made him wonder if his lover was even with him, if he was seeing Stavros as he was now. Or as he’d been then. Because how could he forgive it? How could Stavros forgive anyone who even thought to remove Daniel from his life?

“I forgive you.” Daniel closed his eyes, and the sensation of being closed off made Stavros dig his fingers into Daniel’s back.

“Why?” His voice broke, and that had Daniel’s eyes flying open. “Why do I get forgiveness?”

His touch gentled in Stavros’ hair. His eyes, where they rested on Stavros’ face, they were soft too. Softer than any touch he’d given Stavros before this moment.

“Because I needed you, and to have you I had to forgive you.”

Something inside Stavros broke apart and he jumped to his feet, causing Daniel to stagger backward, putting space between them. He didn’t want space, didn’t need it. But Stavros took it anyway, stalking across the room to the window, giving Daniel his back.

He wasn’t as brave as he once was. It all felt so delicate, precarious, like standing on rapidly thinning ice. He’d fall.

No doubt about that.

Would he survive the plunge?

“I don’t deserve it.” The sheet of ice under his feet cracked, but he took another step anyway. He turned his head to the side, but still didn’t look at Daniel.

“Diablo.”

Stavros fisted his hands. “I’ve never been tethered,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I’m forty-two years old, and I’ve never had someone feel for me what I feel for them. I’ve never been someone’s anchor, never had someone be that for me.” He spun then, found Daniel a touch away and nearly reached for him.

Nearly.

“I have never been given a chance, because no one chose me.” He trembled, that ice becoming increasingly unsteady under his weight. “I’m not the person you go to for forever. I wouldn’t go to me for forever. But you—” He touched Daniel then.

On his throat. That scar. It wasn’t that he needed reminders. But that scar ensured he’d never forget how much of a monster he was.

“Someone chose you. Someone kept you tethered. Someone promised you forever.” His voice devolved into the barest of breaths. Grief. Regret. Disgust at himself. They all sat on his shoulders, bowing them as he whispered, “I made her into a liar.”

Daniel shook his head, eyes narrowed, but Stavros kept stepping out on that icy ledge.

“I didn’t know what it meant,” he confessed. Inside his chest, his heartbeat thundered, echoing. Surely Daniel heard it?

Boom. Boom.

“Not until Felipe threatened you. Not until he threatened to take what kept me tethered.” One last crack of the ice and he went crashing in, feet first. Neck deep in truths that baptized him in breath-stealing, lung-numbing fear. “I know what I took from you now.” He kept his chin steady, dropping his hand from Daniel’s throat. “If what I feel for you is even the barest bit of what you felt for her, what you had with her, there can be no forgiveness.”

Daniel’s eyes glittered and Stavros couldn’t tell if they were tears or not. He watched Stavros intently. His thoughts, they were hidden, leaving Stavros to wonder, flounder, as he fought to keep his head above the icy waters.

“Are you the one who lost that night?” Daniel asked quietly.

Low. Stavros sunk low. Low. Low. “No,” he rasped. He’d lost nothing. So he shouldn’t be this hollow inside.

He smiled. Daniel Nieto smiled at him. Not good-looking or gorgeous. But compelling. Captivating. Blinding.

“You are forgiven.” Stavros opened his mouth, but Daniel yanked him closer. Hand fisted in the front of his shirt, squeezed between their bodies. Chest to chest. “You have been forgiven.” Warm breath chasing away the cold.

Thawing limbs turned stiff with chilling fear.

“You’ve said a lot, diablo. Now it’s my turn.”

Lips brushed his and Stavros closed his eyes.

“Ábrelos.” Open.

Stavros opened his eyes just as Daniel lifted his head.

“This tin man has a heart, diablo. And it is yours.” He caught Stavros’ hand and brought it up to his chest. Over his heart. “It beats for you.”

Stavros opened his mouth, breathing that way because everything felt so big. Everything felt so huge. Under his palm, Daniel’s heart beat steady. Strong.

For him.

A gift he didn’t deserve, but he was nothing if not selfish, so he grabbed on. Using those vibrations under his touch as lifeline, a way out of that freezing hell he’d fallen into.

Shaking. How could he not? He’d never been speechless before. Never handed himself over into someone else’s safekeeping before. Daniel trusted Stavros with his heart after everything. He could do nothing other than reciprocate.

It took nothing at all. No effort to say, “You. You are my heart.” Easiest words he’d ever spoken. It was true what they said—whoever they were.

The truth made everything better.

When Daniel grinned, Stavros’ pulse tripped all over itself. He stared, wonderstruck. He’d been in love.

But it had only ever been one-sided, all on his side. He’d hidden that weakness, didn’t want anyone to witness his humiliation of wanting but not being wanted. But in the depths of Daniel’s darker than dark eyes, Stavros saw the flames that flickered and grew stronger.

Burning for him.

How?

All those questions crammed into his brain didn’t quite make it to his lips. Daniel got there first. Firm lips gentled over his, but his tongue pushed inside.

Licking.

Taking the remnants of Stavros’ breath, heating him to boiling in no time at all. Stavros clung to him, shuffling closer on legs that seemed iffy on holding him upright. Lucky for him, Daniel gripped him tight.

Lucky for him.

All the trust he’d never given to anyone, he gifted to the man who’d once been his mortal enemy. Heads twisting this way and that as they ate at each other. Stavros moaned, hips jerking. Body aching in that uniquely intoxicating way he attributed to Daniel.

He brought his hand down between their bodies, yanking on Daniel’s shirt, pushing it off his shoulder before flattening his hand over his torso. Daniel grunted into his mouth then bit down on Stavros’ bottom lip.

Sharp.

Painful.

He held on while putting a hand on top of the one Stavros touched him with. Circling Stavros’ wrist and dragging his touch down.

Down. Past a hard, flat stomach that contracted for him.

Down. To his crotch, over the bulge in his black pants that throbbed under Stavros’ palm.

Stavros squeezed him, and Daniel made a whimpery-grunt sound that settled in Stavros’ nuts.

Fuck.

He fumbled with Daniel’s belt, yanking on him. Fingers uncooperative as he drew the zipper down and reached inside.

“Diablo.” Daniel moaned into his mouth, low and long, hips pushing his shaft into Stavros’ palm.

Stavros stroked him, his already wet shaft getting soaked with each stroke up and down. Daniel fucked his fist, hips slamming forward.

Grunts.

His.

Theirs.

The smell of them…

“Let me love you,” Stavros begged. “Don’t stop me.”

Daniel lifted his head to squint down at him with low-riding eyelids. “Can I stop you, diablo?” He eased himself in and out of Stavros’ fist slowly, cock so hard. Throbbing.

“Yes,” Stavros whispered. “Yes.” Daniel could stop him. With a word. A look. A sound.

The only one who could. He had that power.

His lover smiled, and Stavros knew then that no matter how many times Daniel smiled, he’d always see it as a first. It would always hit him square in the chest. The gesture would always put his knees to the floor.

“I want inside you.” Desperation had his voice and balls jacked up. “I want your legs around me, my dick in your ass, and you on your back speaking Spanish.”

Daniel’s lashes were lowered, but Stavros felt his reaction to those words. The swelling of his erection, the whoosh of his breath across Stavros’ cheek.

“Así que toma lo que es tuyo, diablo.” So take what’s yours.

He took that offering, stripping Daniel in record time before pushing him backward on the bed and climbing him. Hot skin wrapped around him as he devoured Daniel’s mouth.

He’d never made love to someone he loved, who loved him.

So even as he licked his way up and into Daniel’s mouth, he tried to make himself slow down. Tried telling himself to savor. The fingers scraping his spine, he arched into them. They made him moan and grind against Daniel’s thigh.

Lips that broke away from his to glide down the length of his throat, he leaned into the touch. Breath shaking, grabbing on tight to the sheets on either side of them.

Daniel bucked under him, cock as hard as Stavros’. Begging for it with every lift of his hips off the bed.

Jesus.

Stavros held himself still long enough to look down at his lover. His skin glistened already with a fine sheen of sweat. Face flush, lips parted as he panted. Stavros kissed him again. Fuck, but he was addicting. There was something about feeling Daniel’s lips under his. Something about their bodies writhing. Something about the way they gave each other pleasure.

He loved it.

Loved the man gripping his ass with a large palm.

Stavros stroked his chest then bent, licking the path his fingers took. Tasting salty skin, biting nipples.

“Diablo.” Rusted and worn, that voice was a fucking weapon.

Stavros shuddered, licking his way down Daniel’s torso. Fingers in his hair pulled tight, forced him lower. He went with his mouth open and his eyes closed. Tasting cock, sucking it down as Daniel thrust, and Stavros fucked the bed.

“Diablo, por favor.” He gave Stavros those words, coated in thick, drugging Spanish. Dripping like fucking honey down his spine. “No pares.”

Don’t stop.

Stavros would have chuckled at that, but his mouth was full. He hollowed his cheeks, dipped his head, grunting when Daniel throbbed on his tongue. Eyes rolling back at the taste of him.

He brought his slick fingers slower, circled Daniel’s hole.

Trembling thighs lifted to the sky.

He dipped in.

“Dios, diablo.” Yeah, but he pushed back on the digit, rolled his hips.

Fingers and tongue in his ass, Stavros ate him. Loud and wet, but not loud enough to drown out Daniel’s cries. Words he didn’t even understand. Shit he was pretty sure made no sense.

But he ate that ass until his jaw threatened to lock up on him. Finger-fucked him until his knuckles ached. Then he pulled away quickly, surfacing only to wipe his face with the back of his hand and get the lube.

Daniel looked fucked out already, and Stavros hadn’t even made him come yet. Stavros wanted to wait until he was inside him.

“Legs around me,” he gritted. Fuck, he wanted to go slow, but now wasn’t the time. His balls wouldn’t let him. Every slide of Daniel’s hot skin against his ripped control away. He wanted inside. Wanted to rut.

Wanted to spill.

Legs wrapped around his hip.

He tossed the lube away and brought himself to Daniel’s hole.

Daniel flinched. Stavros smoothed a hand over his knee.

He forced words past his locked throat. “Can’t go slow for you, agápi mou.” My love. “Want you. Want your body.”

“Cógeme, diablo.”

Take me.

Stavros surged forward, dick sliding up Daniel’s crack.

Fuck.

His hands shook. Daniel’s body vibrated.

Tip to his hole, Stavros held his breath. Pushed in. And Daniel pushed back.

His crown popped in.

Stavros immediately lost the ability to breathe.

Daniel uttered a soul-deep growl.

“God. Damn.” He went in, eyes closed. The heat. “Nothing better.” And he hadn’t even bottomed out yet. Eyes flying open, he pinned Daniel in place with a stare. “Nothing fucking better.”

Daniel’s expression was all hunger and pain. And Stavros got off on both. He buried himself with one deep thrust, noting the flare of Daniel’s nostrils and the tightening of his legs. His chest heaved, and for a second there shock flashed across Daniel’s face.

Stavros circled his hips, lowering himself with one hand next to Daniel’s head, he whispered, “Hang the fuck on.” He reared back and slammed in.

Daniel cried out.

His hole clenched.

Stavros hissed. “Jesus. Fuck.” Daniel’s body fisted around him, choking him. Hot and tight, and every time he moved, Stavros had to fight his orgasm. He thrust in and out, shoving his tongue inside.

Fucking Daniel’s mouth.

Taking his ass.

His lover matched him stroke for stroke, hand on his ass, fingers digging in. He better leave his marks.

They devolved to just grunts and growls, even those muted because they stayed in each other’s mouths. Daniel as greedy as him. Hands and mouths everywhere.

And Stavros, pounding in and out of the best ass he’d ever had the privilege to slide into. He told Daniel that too. Or at least he tried, because Daniel didn’t release his mouth to allow to him to talk.

Talking was overrated.

What wasn’t was Daniel shoving a hand between them to stroke himself off. Body arching, he came with a garbled sound that Stavros ate, sticky cum immediately gluing them together. His ass contracted around Stavros, restricting his movements.

Strangling.

“Unngh.” His toes curled into the mattress as the spasms hit, locking his limbs while the orgasm ripped through him.

Under him, Daniel shuddered, grabbing on to Stavros’ shoulders with a grunt.

“Me inside you.” He wasn’t sure if his tongue was working, but Stavros tried. “That’s me inside you.” He collapsed onto Daniel’s heaving chest. Arms went around him immediately and he hummed in blissful satisfaction. “Give me five minutes and we’re doing that again.”