Stavros held his gaze, wrist working his cock.

Daniel’s hand went to his own erection, squeezing the base. His entire body threatened to erupt with every command Stavros issued. Arousal had him weak, but not too weak to crawl the short distance to Stavros. Not too weak to settle between his spread knees and press his face to his groin.

Fingers sifted through his hair, pushing him down.

Down.

Stavros leaned back. His legs went up, heels pressing to the edge of the bed.

He offered up himself.

Daniel took.

Palms flat on the underside of Stavros’ thighs. Tongue dragging over his saliva and pre-cum soaked balls. Lower.

Until Stavros was under his tongue, the most intimate part of him contracting with each swipe of Daniel’s tongue. This too, he’d never get a medal for. But he put everything he had into it. Dipping in, swirling. Licking to the rhythm of Stavros’ pants.

Lips on him, sucking until Stavros’ fingers seemed determined to rip away the hair on his head.

Even here, he tasted of that familiar wildness. The pleasure-inducing danger. Even this, Daniel loved. Especially when Stavros pushed down on him, writhing on the bed, gasping, hand abandoning the stroking of his cock to grab the sheets and pull.

Every tremor Daniel felt. Every vibration. Every cry from Stavros’ lips he loved.

“D-Daniel.” Stavros twisted away from him. “Jesus fuck, I could sit on your tongue all day.”

Daniel released him, licking his lips, back to squeezing his throbbing cock. Dios. He would come. Any second now, he’d explode.

“Mouth.” Stavros sat up. “Give me your mouth.”

Daniel squinted. “What—” A hand around his throat hauled him upright, and he found himself on top of Stavros on the bed.

Hands framing his face, eyes fierce, Stavros growled, “I want your tongue in my mouth.”

Daniel blinked at him.

Stavros licked his chin. Then his tongue climbed higher. “You put your mouth on me, I put my mouth on you.” He traced Daniel’s bottom lip. “I don’t give a fuck.” And he slammed in.

Ravaging.

Teeth and tongue tearing at Daniel’s mouth as though he were in search of something. Not that he minded. He never did.

“You eat my ass like that?” Stavros panted against him, cock pressing hard against Daniel’s belly. “You eat my ass and make me forget my fucking name?” He closed his eyes, breath shuddering out onto Daniel. “Damn it, Daniel.”

“Diablo.”

“I want inside you. I need to come, and I’m doing it inside you.” He touched Daniel’s nose. “You understand me?”

He smiled. “I understand you.”

“Good.” Stavros rolled out from under him. “Spread it.”

Daniel did. Right there on his back, thighs apart and knees to his chest. Stavros settled above him, chest heaving, jaw tight, eyes wild as he grabbed the lube and slicked himself up. Their eyes met and held as Stavros lowered himself.

Chest to Daniel’s chest.

Lips meeting immediately. Daniel held him. One hand in Stavros’ hair, the other gripping the sheets. He opened himself up. Offered it all.

And Stavros took, smooth cock head at his entrance, pushing in.

Breaching him.

They inhaled as one.

The pain was there, always the pain. But Dios, every inch of Stavros filled Daniel up. Slowly.

Torturously slow.

Through it all their tongues battled. Greedily lapping at each other, Daniel’s long-neglected cock trapped between them, weeping sticky fluid.

Stavros pushed in.

Bottomed out. Daniel wrapped his right leg around Stavros’ waist, ankle resting at the base of his spine. Urging him on.

His lover broke the kiss long enough to whisper, “I love you.” The he reared back, slammed in, and they were off to the races.

Daniel clinging to his wet skin, arching off the bed with each thrust that seemed to reach deeper than ever. Stavros made love to him with steady strokes, taking control out the gate. Every slam lifted Daniel’s hips off the bed. Every drive brought a snarl to his lips and Stavros kissed it all away. Destroying everything that wasn’t them. Handling Daniel in a way he hadn’t known before.

A way he liked.

So good.

He told him so, meeting every stroke. Opening wider to take him deeper.

Fire ate at him, racing down the length of his spine.

“Fuck.” Stavros panted against his cheeks. “Body so good. So fucking good,” he moaned. “Can’t last.”

“Then don’t.”

“Feel you take me,” he grunted “I feel you take me, agápi mou. Ass fucking greedy for it. Sucking me in.” He threw his head back, the veins bulging. “Goddamn.”

Daniel clenched at his words, dragging a hand between them to stroke himself. He couldn’t hold out, not now. Not with Stavros hitting that spot inside that turned his bones to liquid. “Please.” He couldn’t find any of his Spanish right then. “Please.”

“Yes.” Stavros yanked Daniel’s left leg up, until his knee was almost touching his cheek. “Take it like that.” He looked from Daniel’s eyes to where they were joined. “Ride me. Ride me.”

Daniel pushed back on him, rolling his hips, panting with each stroke. “Dios. Dios.”

“God.” Stavros shuddered, eyes narrowed to slits. Arousal turned his face to the fiercest grimace. “Fucking you is— I can’t breathe when you squeeze me like that.” He released Daniel’s leg to touch his cheek. “Feels like I’m dying.”

Daniel kissed him again, swallowing his words. Stroking himself. It all rushed to his toes, that pleasure. Curled them. Then back up to his nuts.

One stroke.

One last thrust and he exploded with the loudest yell, coming. Coming.

From far away he heard Stavros’ voice. Soaked in their sex, his lover’s tone was cognac on ice. Intoxicating. Burning with the smoothest, deepest stroke. Stavros wasn’t done with him. Mouth on Daniel’s throat, he didn’t stop pistoning in and out.

Didn’t stop talking, either.

“Can’t stop,” he breathed. “Can’t stop watching you come. Can’t stop wanting to watch you come for me. I can fuck you all the time.”

Daniel clenched. Stavros’ breath hitched. His fingers on Daniel’s hip tightened, dug in. His thrusting faltered then picked up speed. Rapid fire.

“Ungh.” Daniel had nothing left. Spent. All used up.

But then teeth sank into his chest, above his heart. Heat flooded him as Stavros released, and somehow Daniel was pulling at the sheets again.

Head flown back again.

A full body clench that locked him down. From his jaw to his toes. His vison flashed white. And he knew nothing until Stavros collapsed onto his chest then rolled to his side.

Bodies slick.

Panting.

Daniel reached between them and took Stavros’ hand. Threading their fingers. He couldn’t tell which one of them trembled more. It didn’t matter. He brought their fingers to his lips.

“Diablo.” When Stavros turned his head to look at him, Daniel smiled. Even sweaty, face red from all that exertion, lips swollen, he was still the most captivating man Daniel had ever seen. “I love you.”

On his side, Stavros touched Daniel’s chest. His mouth opened, but the sound of glass shattering downstairs made both of them freeze.

Stavros was the one to launch himself upright and off the bed first, pulling on his shorts with one hand as he grabbed the guns atop the dresser. Daniel followed him, hurriedly stepping into his pants and catching the weapon Stavros tossed at him.

Together they exited the bedroom and made their way downstairs, Stavros ahead. He didn’t know what awaited them, so Daniel held his tongue, following Stavros’ lead.

In the darkness, it still wasn’t hard to see that the glass in the front door had been shattered. The answer as to how appeared in the form of a figure clad in all black who darted out from behind the couch and fired.

“Stav—”

Stavros went down with a grunt.

Heart in his throat, Daniel fired back, catching the shooter right between the eyes. He fell backward and Daniel didn’t wait to see him hit the floor before he went to his knees beside Stavros.

“Stavros.” He rolled Stavros onto his back, and his lover grimaced as he sat up.

“I’m okay.” Stavros put a hand over his left thigh, blood already soaking his pants. “Bullet went through.”

“What is this? What is happening?”

“Dunno, I—” Stavros’ eyes went wide and his left arm lifted as fire exploded in Daniel’s back.

He pitched forward. Stavros rolled, yelling, bullets firing, but somehow sound was muted for Daniel. What wasn’t muted was the next explosion that hit just under his left armpit.

His body went numb.

Sound went away after that. Blood pooled under him as he lay sprawled on his stomach. Two shots. He watched Stavros shoot Daniel’s shooter in the knees. Both of them. The man crashed to the floor next to his accomplice.

Two men.

They’d been ambushed.

Who?

Daniel couldn’t blink. But he could float.

Dying. He felt it. Felt himself draining away.

Someone spoke to him, the words sounding as if they were being funneled through a wind machine.

“Stay with me.”

Stay.

“Daniel.”

The wrenching sound of his name speared through the fog for a second, and he blinked up into Stavros’ grief-wet eyes.

“Don’t leave me.”

He didn’t want to, wasn’t looking forward to the censure in Petra’s eyes. But of course, with the life he’d led, his destination would be different from Petra’s. He had no control.

“Help is coming.” Stavros’ hands shook as he touched Daniel’s face. “Help is coming, you’ll be fine.”

First time Stavros lied to him. Daniel tried to call him on it, but all that came out when he opened his mouth was a hacking cough. And blood, spilling from lips he’d used to worship the man weeping for him now. “D-Diab—”

“Hush.” Hands on his face, Stavros pressed their foreheads together. “You’ll be fine, and you and I, we’re gonna find out who did this. And we’ll make them pay.”

“S-Sorry.” Daniel tried to touch him, but his hands were too heavy. Too cold. “Sorry.”

“No. No,” Stavros yelled. Agony and panic filled his eyes. “You don’t get to leave. You don’t get to leave.”

But he couldn’t stay.

“I won’t forgive you. Daniel, please.”

He didn’t want to go. He wanted endless forevers with the man kneeling in his blood. He wanted more lovemaking. More of Stavros swearing. He wanted life.

To live.

But death didn’t care.

Death had come knocking.

“Don’t make me do this without you.” Stavros’ broken pleas fell onto Daniel’s face in hot, wet drops.

Breaking his heart.

“Please. Please.”

He didn’t want to leave.

But the doors were already kicked open.

Death walked in.