"I panic every time I think about getting hurt..."

Kurt was a beautiful man, but now he can barely look at himself in the mirror. One night, years ago, he had let himself get too drunk, and a sadistic group had taken advantage of the situation. The assault wasn't sexual, but Kurt is reminded of it every time he sees the scars. He knows that, no matter what, he can never let anyone else see the tapestry of abuse on his back.

"I would never hurt you, Kurt."

James already has a busy life. Between his son moving back home during college, trying to help a jilted ex-boyfriend get back on his feet, and his thriving-but-stressful ownership of a wine bar, he knew he didn't have time for any new drama. But when he saw the beautiful golden-haired and golden-skinned Kurt, he knew he had to make time, no matter what baggage Kurt had.

"How about I don't touch you? You can touch me, Kurt. I won't touch you. I won't move an inch unless you tell me to."

Despite a series of missteps by James, Kurt feels his resistance start to break down. Still, even though he feels like he can touch James, he can't seem to make that final leap of trust. However, as James opens up his life to Kurt, Kurt realizes that James is just as emotionally vulnerable as he is. And James has the scars of his history that he tries to hide as fiercely as Kurt hides the scars on his back. Will Kurt allow James to make him whole again, or will he never allow himself to be touched again?

* * *

The kiss broke just slightly, Kurt teasing the tip of James’s tongue with his own, lips clinging. “I kinda left you hanging last night,” he murmured into the kiss, hand falling to rest on James’s bare chest.

This early in the morning, and with this kind of kiss, that simple contact on his chest alone was enough to stir arousal in James’s gut. “I wasn’t expecting anything,” he mumbled, licking back into Kurt’s mouth and letting out the slightest of moans as Kurt’s hand travelled low down his body, lower, beneath the quilt across his waist and down to his groin.

“Hmm,” Kurt murmured against James’s mouth, smirking as his hand closed over James’s erection through his boxers and made him hitch a breath. “This for me?”

“That’s always for you.” He was tingling all over, nerve endings waking up all across his skin, his dick pulsing in Kurt’s steady grip.

Then Kurt pulled the quilt off him completely, got on the bed to straddle him, a wicked, heated gleam in his eye.

“Thought you had to leave,” James breathed. He was awed by this blatant display of sexual confidence, Kurt wanting something and just going for it without hesitance or fear.

“Shh,” said Kurt, hushing him, then leaning down to kiss James’s chest, edging down James’s body. He purred a rumble of pleasure under his breath, mouth slick on James’s skin, making James hiss and tilt his head back, sensation spilling through his veins.

“You’re all warm,” Kurt was saying, peppering kisses in his travels down James’s body, licking and sucking in random places, hands trailing down James’s sides. “So manly, all this muscle and hair. Just wanna touch you forever. Taste you…”

I’ve created a monster, James thought, dazedly, digging his fingers into the mattress on either side of him as Kurt went lower, licked the curve of his hipbone.

He’d created the best kind of monster, a sexual animal, full of tentative confidence and lust and need…