When Jack opened the door, he found a red-faced and sullen Callum on the porch, his eyes boring holes into the wood planks under his feet.

“Kitten,” Jack said softly, holding his arms open.

Callum walked right into them, burying his face against Jack’s chest. He wrapped his arms around Callum and held him tightly, even as Callum’s arms hung limp at his sides. After what seemed like ages, Callum’s fingers tickled against Jack’s waist then looped together around the small of his back.

Jack kissed the top of his head and walked them inside, pushing the door closed.

“Let’s go to my room and talk,” he suggested quietly, still not sure of Callum’s mood or what he needed. Callum nodded, and Jack guided him to the guest bedroom, closing the door behind them. Callum leaned against the wall, eyes narrowed and studying Jack closely.

“I know you want to do this properly,” Callum began, “but did you mean the things you said last night?”

His voice was quiet, and the natural scratchiness of it made it difficult to hear when he spoke at such a low volume. Jack stepped closer and tilted his head down to try and catch Callum’s eyes.

“Every word.”

“You want to,” Callum trailed off and shifted his eyes towards the ceiling as though the words were painted there, “learn the topography of my skin?”

Jack’s breathing hitched at the way the words fell from Callum’s lips.

“Every inch,” he swore.

Callum pushed off the door and stripped out of his shirt, tossing it on the floor. He dropped his arms to his sides and sort of held them there in a pose Jack couldn’t describe beyond an offering.

“Would you then?” Callum’s voice was so quiet now Jack barely heard him. He stepped closer and reached for Callum’s neck, his fingers sliding around the side and cupping him just below his hairline. Callum rolled his head back into his hand with a whimper.

“What’s wrong, kitten?” Jack asked again, tangling his fingers into the wispy strands of hair at the base of Callum’s neck.

He shook his head and pressed a kiss against the heel of Jack’s hand. “I just need you to need me.”

Jack walked him back against the door and kissed him then. Not soft and sweet, but rough and hungry. He poured all of his need into Callum’s mouth, bringing his other hand up to bracket him in place while he plundered his mouth. He pressed his cock against Callum’s hip and sank his teeth into his plump bottom lip.

“I need you like air,” he muttered into Callum’s mouth, tearing them both away from the wall and spinning him toward the bed. He pushed Callum backward, crawling on top of him and keeping their lips together.

Jack braced himself beside Callum’s head with one hand and fumbled against Callum’s jeans with the other, popping the button loose and sliding back down to tug the rest of his clothes off. His shoes, socks, jeans, and underwear landed on the floor in a messy pile, and Jack dragged his thumbnails up the arch of Callum’s foot.

He gasped and made an attempt to yank his foot away, but Jack held him tight.

“Every inch,” he repeated, licking the inside of Callum’s foot to his ankle.

His skin was hot but covered in gooseflesh. Jack worked his way from Callum’s toes to his knees, nibbling and sucking at the skin as he went, committing every freckle and imperfection to memory.

He ran his palms up the wiry hair of Callum’s thighs and dipped his fingers into his waist, pulling him closer for inspection. Jack traced his nose near Callum’s cock, breathing heavily against the stretched and swollen skin. He puckered his mouth and kissed around the root, his lips pressed into the trimmed brown hairs that faded up into the barest of happy trails.

Jack licked his way through the lines of Callum’s muscles, up his chest, paying close attention to the freckles on his breastbone and taking an extended moment to relax and breathe with his ear pressed firmly against Callum’s heart. It was beating like a drum, hard and fast and loud, trying to break the skin.

He continued his ascent, his cock leaving trails of precum up Callum’s body as he went. He nestled his face into Callum’s neck and breathed him in.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Jack said again, even as Callum trembled and shook beneath him.

“It’s like you’re here but you’re not,” Callum admitted, his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“I’m very much here,” Jack whispered, pressing his hips against Callum’s. “Don’t you feel me?”

Callum exhaled a shuddering sigh and reached between them, pressing a hand to Jack’s chest.

“Here, though.”

He covered Callum’s hand with his and looked down at him.

“Look at me.”

Callum kept his eyes closed for a beat. Then they opened, his green eyes radiant and ever glowing.

“Very much here,” Jack promised, pressing Callum’s hand hard against his chest. “Always here.”

He pulled them up to a sitting position, holding Callum’s hand in place.

“Now please tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s just me, I’m sorry,” Callum rasped, looking at their folded legs.

“Please never apologize for being you,”

“You make me want things I didn’t think I could ever have and I’m scared that when I decide it’s okay to want them, you’ll take them away.”

Jack’s heart ached, and he cupped Callum’s face with his hands and held it up. Callum’s hand dropped off his chest and into their laps.

“Anything I give is yours to keep, kitten.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Callum countered, an edge of defiance in his voice. He must have heard it himself because he quickly closed his mouth and pulled his lips between his teeth.

“Who hurt you, kitten?” Jack asked, the picture in his head coming together finally. Of all the things they’d ever talked about, past partners hadn’t been one and he was beginning to suspect Callum carried some substantial baggage.

“Samantha said he abused me, but I don’t think he did.”

Jack’s blood turned to ice and his first thought wasn’t of comforting Callum, but of who he had to go kill. He schooled his rage into something more appropriate and waited to reply until he was certain his voice wouldn’t betray him.

“Who, kitten?”

“Ian. He’s my ex.”

It was always an ex, wasn’t it?

“What happened? What brought all this up today?”

Callum shook his head and snorted a derisive laugh. “Even thinking about saying it out loud makes me realize how dumb it is.”

“Then just get it out and let’s be done with it, okay?”

“We lived together after high school, but he didn’t like it. He liked me, loved me, he said, but he didn’t like living with me. Everything I did was wrong.”

The words were tumbling out of Callum’s mouth rapid-fire and Jack tried to keep up even as he catalogued all the stupid shit this Ian kid had done.

“He especially didn’t like Samantha because she didn’t like him and he said he didn’t want me to spend as much time with her. He said she was a bad influence on me and he was right, like, I was spending time with her instead of cleaning the house or whatever. I wouldn’t have wanted to live with me either.”

Jack reached up and pressed a finger against Callum’s mouth to silence him. He was pretty sure Callum hadn’t scratched the surface, but it was already too much. Too much for Jack and far too much for Callum.

“That’s manipulative,” Jack told him, “and Samantha is right. That sounds like emotional abuse.”

Callum shook his head and pulled Jack’s hand away.

“He said it would be better if we were married, so we were supposed to do that, but he never showed up.”

“What do you mean he didn’t show up?”

“To the courthouse. I waited and he never came, and when I got back to the apartment, all his shit was gone.”

This was awful, this was excruciating, but everything about Callum made infinitely more sense now. From his petulant outbursts when he felt like he wasn’t getting enough attention, even back to the way he was seeking out something online instead of in person. His poor, wounded kitten.

“That’s his loss. My gain.”

Callum scoffed and Jack grabbed him by the chin and held his face steady.

“Everything about you is my gain, kitten.”

Callum swallowed.

“What would make you believe me?” Jack asked. He needed to know how to prove his dedication to Callum, how to show he was in it for the long haul, since moving didn’t seem to do it.

“Nothing,” Callum answered with a defeated shrug. “It’s all in my head. Anything you do, I’ll just think you’re doing for now, not forever. It’s just how I’m made. If that’s too much for you or whatever, I understand."

He sounded so defeated, it split Jack’s heart in two.

“Then I’ll wait you out,” Jack told him.

Callum looked up at him, eyes glassy.

“I’m a patient man, kitten. You’ll see.”

A tear slid down Callum’s cheek.

“I want to see,” he whimpered. “I want to see more than anything, Daddy.”

He threw himself forward with a sob, arms winding around Jack’s body and holding him tighter than he ever had before.

Jack soothed him, running steady fingers down his flanks and whispering sweet promises into his ear. There were things Jack felt that he wanted to say, but he knew now wasn’t the time. So instead, with their hearts again in sync, their breathing in time, Jack thought of the future he wanted with Callum, the dreams and plans they’d make. He whispered them all against Callum’s shaking skin, interspersing the words with gentle kisses and pets.

He held Callum until his crying quieted and his breathing leveled out. Callum’s hands dropped to the small of his back, but Jack was steadfast in his hold around Callum’s body, pressing him against his chest until the spell was broken and Callum wiggled away.

He sniffed and scrunched his eyes together. “Is it super fucked up that I’m horny right now?”

Jack chuckled and shook his head. “No, kitten. You needed your Daddy, and your Daddy turns you on when he takes care of you. Even when you’re hurt or upset. That’s sort of the point.”

“I’ve never got a hard-on from just a hug before,” Callum muttered.

“Was that all that was?”

Callum’s neck turned cherry red and he shook his head.

“You’re emotionally raw right now, kitten,” Jack assessed, dragging his fingertips down Callum’s chest to the erection in question.

Jack debated if what he wanted to do was the right thing to do, or even the good thing to do, and in the end decided that it’s what he was going to do either way. He snaked his hand between Callum’s legs and gripped his cock, drawing a startled gasp from his mouth.

He pushed Callum onto his back and dipped his tongue into his navel, licking down towards the cock in his hand. He flicked his tongue across the slick crown and groaned.

“Daddy,” Callum rasped, angling his cock toward Jack’s mouth with a quick pivot of his hips.

“Tell me how you want to fuck me, kitten,” he said before he swallowed Callum’s cock into his mouth. Callum bucked off the bed and shouted, hands wrapping into Jack’s hair. Jack pushed him back onto the bed and took his mouth away.

“Tell me,” he repeated, sucking his mouth around Callum’s flared tip.

“You’re kidding me,” Callum protested.

“Definitely not,” Jack assured him, swallowing his cock down to the base.

“I just want to make you feel good. Oh, fuck,” he grunted.

Jack continued to suck and lick at Callum’s cock, his own dick restrained in his pants but hot with arousal.

“Stretch you out and make you come,” Callum mumbled.

He tugged on Callum’s balls and swirled a spit-soaked finger around his hole.

“Jesus. Daddy.” Callum’s hips bucked off the bed, erratic and fevered, and Jack pushed his finger inside.

Callum mumbled something incoherent and then, “…come inside you. So hot and tight.”

Jack hollowed his cheeks with a groan and Callum came inside him, although not the hole he’d been imagining. He swallowed Callum’s cum, his muscles working tight against the shaft. The feral sounding cry that left Callum’s mouth was all Jack needed. He came in his pants like a fucking high schooler.

When Callum was satisfactorily wrung dry of cum, Jack discarded his own soiled pants and slid up Callum’s body, wrapping his arms around his most precious kitten and holding him close. Callum breathed heavily against his chest and nodded, breathing deep on a happy sigh.