There was nowhere in the world Zeph wanted to be more than in River’s arms. Except maybe grinding up against him, both of them already naked as they hit the bed.

“You’re such a tease,” Zeph murmured, running his hands up River’s back and kissing along his spine.

“I try my best,” River beamed over his shoulder, then jerked his chin, prompting Zeph to lean in for a kiss.

“And so demanding.”

“Another constant struggle,” River sighed and flopped his head against the pillow.

“And cheeky.”

“Mmhmm,” River hummed. “I hope you appreciate all this effort.”

Zeph slapped that perky little ass. “I sure do.”

“Ooh! And that effort, too? I’ve been doing more squats lately.”

“On my dick?”

River giggled. “And you say I have a dirty sense of humor?”

“That’s cause you do.” Zeph kissed River’s top vertebra, then slowly worked his way down his spine, pressing slow, unhurried kisses along that sweet skin.

Hell wasn’t a place for him anymore. It was just the path he was trying not to walk: running from his feelings, from the hard work of himself.

And to have the chance to do this every day—make River squirm and tremble with pleasure, make those tiny noises of pleasure spill from his lips? That was as close to heaven as he needed.

He grinned when he reached River’s lower back and River gave a frustrated little moan. “Waiting for something?”

“Fucking tease. Good thing I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Zeph breathed. Then, he licked and kissed his way between those firm cheeks, along the opening and around it until the sensitive nerves had to be on fire.

River gasped and whimpered, pressing his body into the bed as his thighs twitched.

God, no matter what they did in bed from vanilla missionary sex to tying each other up with whipped cream and goddamn rimming, Zeph was satisfied. How one man had worked his way into his heart one no-strings-attached fuck or saucy joke at a time, he’d never know. He just knew he never wanted River to leave.

He slowly pushed his tongue inside the tight rim, then brushed his lips around the outside again, licking his way slowly down the perineum until he teased his balls. All soapy from River’s shower just minutes ago, but he could live with that. As long as he got to wash the taste away with River’s sweat when, later, he got him so turned on he was vibrating out of his skin.

“Gonna drive me nuts,” River whimpered.

“Good.”

“Gonna come too fast.”

“I’ll just make you come again.” And Zeph meant it—if he had to wait until River was hard again, he could kiss him from head to toe and learn every damn sensitive nerve ending in his body in the meantime.

River whimpered under his breath, his knees digging into the bed. “Yes, please.”

Even from this angle, he could tell that River’s dick was hard. He nudged him onto his side and shifted his weight to lie on his side next to him, head between River’s thighs. He slowly kissed the side of the velvety shaft, then wrap his lips around the head, playing with his hole with two fingers while he sucked the shaft into his mouth and all the way down to his throat.

There was only so much he could take: feeling the hot skin pressing against him, every twitch of the muscles under his hands; smelling River’s sweet shampoo; tasting the mix of salty precum and soapy skin; hearing every whimper and breathed utterance of his name; but most of all, seeing River’s body spread on the bed for him, tight with pleasure, chest heaving. He was hard now, but he didn’t stroke himself yet. He wanted to save every fucking moment for River’s gorgeous little ass.

“F-Fuck,” River whispered, clenching around his fingers. “Jesus fuck!”

Zeph closed his eyes, pushing River onto his back now so he could get a better angle, crouched above him, bobbing his head slowly first, and then faster. He tightened the suction, pulling in his cheeks and flicking his tongue the way he thought River did to him.

River was already whimpering with pleasure, his toes curling. “Babe, I’m… you’d better not.”

Zeph pulled his head slowly up and licked the tip while he whispered, “You know I’ll swallow.”

“No,” River whispered. “Not yet.”

Zeph pulled away, kissing the tip once and eyeing River. “What?”

“Shut up,” River breathed out, his lips tugging into a slow smile. “I just want my first orgasm with my boyfriend inside.”

“You romantic,” Zeph teased, but was he ever happy to oblige. He was already aching with need, so it only took a quick smear of lube across his hand and shaft before he was inside.

“No, I’m not,” River retorted. “Just greedy.”

“Uh huh.” Zeph winked, moving his hips in a slow, steady rhythm at first to ease every inch of him inside. “I’ll let you believe that.”

River breathed out, “Sure. Nothing says romance like I want you coming so much in me tonight that I’m wet for days.”

Zeph knew River was trying to get a reaction, but he couldn’t help the blush that washed across his cheeks. They burned despite himself. “Sounds like our kind of romance.”

“Yeah.” River’s gasp when Zeph bottomed out and slammed into him again was mixed with a moan toward the end, so Zeph repeated it. “Yes!”

“Oh, yeah,” Zeph growled, pushing into him hard and fast now.

River grabbed both of his hands and pulled them to either side of his head, then laced their fingers.

Zeph felt exposed suddenly, even though he was on top, driving into River hard and fast. When River looked at him like this, it was like his fucking soul was bare, and he had nowhere to hide.

But he didn’t want to hide. He wanted River seeing and feeling every bit of him as River wrapped around him, as Zeph pushed into him, whichever it was… both at once.

“I love you,” River breathed out and used their interlaced hands to haul his head down for a kiss.

Zeph’s lips pressed hard against River’s, and their tongues slid against one another’s as their hands dropped to the bed again. His body slid against Zeph’s, hot and sweaty already, his hard cock trapped between their stomachs, but he was whining with need like he was close to the edge already.

God, he was fucking beautiful, and Zeph wanted him to come so damn hard. But when he tried to pull his hand back, River wouldn’t let go.

“Let me get you off.”

River’s voice was breathy, reedy. “I’ll come like this,” he promised. “J-Just like this. Fuck, baby. Yes!”

Zeph pressed his knees into the bed to anchor himself so he could thrust harder, deeper, while he kissed every curse word off River’s mouth. His own body was throbbing and tightening, and with the most sensual sight in the world right in front of his eyes, no wonder.

River rolled his head back and bared his throat. “Baby, so close… oh, fuck. Please, yes, Zeph…” Words were spilling from his lips faster than he could form them, coming out as senseless noises as his hips started to rise off the bed, his back arching. “Y-You’re so fucking perfect in me.”

“You’re the sexiest fucking man I’ve ever known,” Zeph breathed out against River’s throat, pressing kisses along the sensitive spots, all the way to behind his ear.

He’d just reached that spot when he found the magic angle, or when River just couldn’t hold out any longer.

Either way, River’s body tensed hard around him and then he cried out, his body clenching and quivering in rhythmic waves of fucking gorgeous muscle pressing up against him.

They always said you’d know love when you saw it, and Zeph had never known a moment like this: watching his lover come utterly undone under his own lips, burying himself with every thrust to the base of his shaft in him, smiling like there was no tomorrow.

The tightness around him made it impossible to hold out. It took just a couple more thrusts before he was there, too, his fingers squeezing River’s hard as he gasped River’s name into his neck and collapsed on top of him for a few last, hard thrusts.

Spilling every fucking last drop of himself inside, the way River wanted, but also pressing himself against River like he wanted to lose himself utterly in this man for every moment of his life.

Their grips loosened on each other’s hands as they came down from the sex, but neither of them let go even as they lay together, softening and cooling off and regaining the ability to speak.

“Not bad, for a first orgasm,” River finally announced. “I’ll grade subsequent ones on a bell curve.”

Zeph laughed until he couldn’t breathe, and after a few moments, River joined in.

When they finally unlaced their hands, his hands were numb, but he still kept River pulled against his front.

“Feels like we can do this,” Zeph admitted at last.

“Fuck all night long? If your dick won’t break off, we can try,” River agreed.

Zeph laughed. “Us, you. I mean us.”

“I know.” River pressed his lips against Zeph’s cheek and neck.

“I’m ready to try this… real relationship thing. Work on myself. Talk about shit, and… stuff,” Zeph murmured, closing his eyes as River snuggled into his side.

River chuckled gently. “And I’ll try not to push stuff at you when you aren’t emotionally ready for it.”

“No,” Zeph murmured, cracking his eyes to peer at River before he pressed their lips together softly, just because he couldn’t help himself and those soft, beautiful lips were right there. “No, that’s when you do need to push me. I see what you have: your friends, your… your optimism. The way you love the world. The way you see it. I want that. I want to let people in.”

River was gazing softly at him, his hands rubbing slowly along Zeph’s chest and side. The touch was grounding, helping him form words. “Yeah?”

“I’m ready to try. I… I think I might want to make a difference for other people who’ve been hurt the way I have. I never told you about anything, really, did I?”

“You never had to.”

“But I want to,” Zeph told him. “You know when my parents died, I bounced around a bunch of foster homes? A couple of them were abusive. One in particular. And his brother was a priest who… well.”

“Shit,” River breathed out, his hand curling into a fist.

Zeph raised his hand to his lips, kissing those bruised knuckles until it relaxed. “Yeah. But I left the system as soon as I could, and then… Well. You know about Anton now, too. That was pretty big. I guess that’s most of it.”

“Okay.”

Zeph eyed him carefully, checking for signs of freaking out, but River just gave him a small, knowing smile.

“I knew you long before I knew any of that stuff. You’ve let enough hints slip out. I love you for all your tangled past, and I’ll keep loving you,” River murmured, patting his chest gently.

“Oh.” Zeph couldn’t think of much more to say that wasn’t thank you, and that sounded obnoxiously grateful somehow, so he just looked away and cleared his throat. “Right. Okay.”

“But thank you for telling me officially.” River cupped his cheek and pressed his lips against Zeph’s again. “Put yourself first. You heal first, and then you can help heal others.”

“I know. I’ll work on it,” Zeph promised. “But I think this would help me.”

“Okay.” River pressed his head against Zeph’s shoulder and rubbed his chest again. “I’m proud of you.”

“And I of you.”

“Not just for beating down that Jack asshole?”

“Well, yeah. Mostly that. God, you’re hot when you throw a punch,” Zeph murmured with a grin at River.

It was River’s turn to burst out laughing. “The way to a fighter’s heart is through his knuckles, huh? Good thing it’s not your stomach. Your meals are disgusting.”

Zeph snorted with amusement and pulled River against him. “Shut up. You didn’t mind my pre-fight meals.”

“Yeah, I did. I totally pretended to like them.”

“Liar.”

River pecked his lips. “Uh huh. I’m secretly going after your job.” He flexed a bicep. “Can you see the difference already?”

Zeph wrestled River for that comment, letting him get on top when it became clear there were benefits to losing this match. Because when River was settled on his hard cock again, rising and falling at his own pace, he threw his head back and a mile-wide grin spread across his face.

Zeph was pretty damn sure he’d never known happiness like this.