takecourage | (no subject)

Living with Darlington is a very different experience to living with anyone else that Alex has ever shared space with. With Mira, there was all kinds of attempts at rules and structure that never really worked out, while Ground Zero had been chaos of the ugliest kind. Her dorm room had been nice, the girls there for company, the sound of Mercy breathing at night. She'd never really had a chance to sleep at il Bastogne.

But here they are.

They haven't really done anything all day, just slept late and then lazed around in each other's company. She'd even managed to talk Darlington out of going for a run. Now, they're lying on the couch, their legs tangled together comfortably. Darlington's reading and Alex is idly flipping through cable channels. She nudges him with her heel against his thigh.

"Your turn to cook," she says, glancing at him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

more_magic

He's been enjoying the ease and laziness with which they've approached the day--in all its facets--but he can't deny the slight flip his stomach does when she asks him that. "A bit," he admits, looking through the pantry and the fridge for the ingredients he needs and laying everything out on the counter. "What about you? Any clever ideas?"

From:

takecourage

They'd had sex that morning, all lazy kisses and slow movements, but this is something else. Alex glances at him over the rim of her wine glass, moving around in the kitchen, just casually objectifying him for a minute.

"I don't think it really ought to be up to me, babe."

From:

more_magic

Even from here, Darlington can feel how Alex watches him, something possessive in the flash of her eyes when they glance his way. It's almost become commonplace.

"We're both in this together," he reminds her, unwrapping the chicken and starting to season it with a blend of salt and pepper. "Making sure we're each okay with what we want to try. You get a choice in this too, Stern."

From:

takecourage

"We are," she says, and there's something very comforting in that. She gets more comfortable so that she's not craning her neck to look at him. "But it's more about something that you're figuring out about yourself, Danny. I'm into it, I promise. And if I'm not, I'm a big enough girl to tell you."

From:

more_magic

"All of that's true," he says, adding oil to a skillet and setting it on the stove to heat. His experience, up to now, hadn't included much of anything like their push and pull of obedience and control--at least not consciously. But he wouldn't have trusted any of his prior partners with it the way he does Alex. He knows the truth of that, too. "And god knows there's been plenty to figure out."

When the oil is shimmering in the pan, Darlington starts adding the chicken, the skin sizzling as it begins to brown. Though he's focused and quiet, he hasn't stopped considering Alex's question. "Would you tie me down?" he asks after a moment, one corner of his mouth tilting up as he looks over at her. "Or up. I've thought about both."

From:

takecourage

Alex thinks about that for a moment. She hates the idea of being tied up or down herself, but only because it was something that Len had wanted to try a couple of times and it hadn't turned out particularly fun for her - like so many things Len had wanted to try.

Eventually, though, she nods.

"Yeah. I'd do that for you."

From:

more_magic

He waits as she thinks it through, giving her that space to consider and knowing instinctively that he'll accept whatever the answer turns out to be. It doesn't work any other way. When she nods, he smiles.

"Okay. Thank you, Alex."

From:

takecourage

"What do you want me to do to you once I've got you tied down?" she asks, shifting her hips under the blanket, working hard to ignore the flicker of warmth between her thighs as she watches him, what he's doing with his hands completely incongruous with the conversation that they're having.

From:

more_magic

"I'd be a little at your mercy, wouldn't I?" he asks, trying to ignore the shiver of need that goes through him at the thought. He turns the chicken over, starting it browning on the other side. "Could do just about anything."

It's not an answer, and not even the kind of evasion he wants to give. Darlington cooks for another few minutes in silence, thinking. "Toy with me," he says, and though his voice is a little low, he knows Alex will be listening for every word. "Pull my hair, play with my nipples, stroke me until I'm hard and on the edge. But make sure I know I'm not allowed to come, until you say."

From:

takecourage

"You would," says Alex. She takes another sip of her wine, her mouth suddenly gone dry at the thought of it, especially when he starts listing what she could do to him while he's like that. "Would be a good time to play with things that hurt you, too. If you wanted."

From:

more_magic

He nods, not trusting himself to speak--not trusting himself to drop it entirely, given the sudden images that spring to his mind--as he slides the skillet with the chicken into the oven to finish roasting. "Nothing new, I don't think," he says at last. "At least at first. Only ways you've hurt me before."

He washes his hands, then sets the dial on the kitchen timer and finds a knife in the block by the stove. "You could ignore me almost entirely, come to think," he says, striving for that conversational tone from before even as the need that settled in his belly grows a little stronger. "Tie me down, then get yourself off while all I can do is watch." He'd washed some new potatoes at the start of his dinner prep; now, he halves the ones that are a little too big to roast whole, adding them to a bowl along with some spears of asparagus.

From:

takecourage

"That does sound like it would be fun," says Alex, shifting her weight so that she can turn to look at him properly, watching him as he moves around in the kitchen. "But not as much fun as getting to play with you would be."

From:

more_magic

"Can't argue with that," he says, tossing the potatoes and asparagus with some olive oil and a sprinkling of the flaky sea salt he'd picked up at a gourmet shop downtown the week before, then spreading them all out on a pan and adding it to the oven to roast. "What if you combined the two? Played with me, and...used me, for your own pleasure?"

Darlington sets the items he's dirtied already in the sink, aware as he moves that he's already started to grow hard. He bites his lip, adjusting his sweats. "Tie me down. Sit on my face. Whatever you'd like."

From:

takecourage

"Now that sounds like something that would be really fun," she says, with a broad grin. She watches the way he adjusts him, sweats doing nothing to disguise the hard line of his cock. "Use the crop on you too?"

From:

more_magic

He groans at that, low and immediate. "I think I could permit that."

There's more he could do while the chicken and the vegetables cook, things he could prepare for the pan sauce, but he goes back out to the living room--to Alex--instead. "Don't know if we could manage any of that right now," he says, "but there's twenty minutes to go until I have to take everything out of the oven."

From:

takecourage

"Might have to wait until after we eat," she says, lifting the corner of the blanket and raising her eyebrows. "But I'm sure we can think of something..."

From:

more_magic

"I have no doubt."

Alex lifts the blanket, some gorgeous and infuriating smirk on her face, and Darlington slides back onto the couch with her, their legs tangling together once more as he kisses her. He knows she could already tell the effect their conversation had had on him, but pressed this close, it's undeniable--if he'd even wanted to deny it at all.

From:

takecourage

He presses close when he kisses her, his cock hard against her hip, and Alex pushes up against him.

"Definitely open to suggestions, boo."

From:

more_magic

The roll of her body isn't quite a grind, but it's close enough to intensify the low throb of his own need and send a shiver down his back. "Could just act like a pair of horny teenagers," he says with a grin, one hand already moving to slide beneath the waistband of her leggings. "See how far we get."

From:

takecourage

Alex lifts her hips as his hand slides under her waistband.

"Danny Arlington," she says. "Are you going to fingerbang me like we're on the basement couch?"

Alex has never lived anywhere with a basement, but she has watched an obscene amount of TV in her time.

From:

more_magic

The tone of her voice is crass and blunt when she says it, and he laughs, and in some strange way the mood is only enhanced by both of those things. "Call me Danny Arlington like that, and it really will feel like I'm back in high school," he says, groaning as he feels once again how slick she is. He teases his fingers along the furrow of her cunt, against her clit, listening for the panting hitch of her breath.

From:

takecourage

The tease of finger isn't enough and he knows it. She squirms her hips.

"Tell me about the first time you did this to someone.."

From:

more_magic

The squirm of her hips is needy and almost instinctive, and the touch of his hand gets a little firmer. Still not enough, but building towards something all the same. "You love making me spill all my sordid secrets, don't you?" he says. It's a lopsided game, because he'd never ask these same questions of her; too many of them lead down dark halls that are better left unwalked, and they both know it.

"The summer between sophomore and junior year," he starts, his voice low as he lies there beside her, his hand moving between her thighs. "When I was in high school. One of the guys I was in orchestra with had his parents go out of town for the weekend, so, true to the cliche, he decided to throw a party." His cock brushes against the ridge of her hip, and he lets out a shivering breath. "I started flirting with this girl, and after a couple cups of...god, something horrible you probably have to be underage to fully appreciate, I can't even remember what, she dragged me upstairs to make out."

From:

takecourage

His hand moves between her thighs, under her sweats and Alex rolls her hips smoothly up against his fingers. Her fingers smooth against the side of his face.

"Making out," says Alex, smiling, and tugging him down for a kiss. "Mmm. Tell me about it."

From:

more_magic

Darlington turns easily into the touch of her hand to his cheek, easier still into the heat of the kiss that follows, something as slow and languid as so much of what they've been doing all day. "It took a few tries, ones that turned out a bit embarrassing for all involved," he says, smiling against her mouth, "but we eventually found an unoccupied room."

Shifting his hand, he starts to press a finger into her. "I say she dragged me, but I went more than willingly. And even more so, once the door was shut behind us. It was all a little frantic and fumbling." Once his finger's pressed deep, he starts to rock his hand in time with the sway of her hips. "And I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn she was the one who took the lead."