Clockwork Heart: Clockwork Love, Book 1 by Heidi Cullinan

registered also that his lover reeked of strong alcohol—of licorice, in fact, meaning Cornelius had been drinking the devil absinthe, which he knew the French often liked to lace with cocaine. He knew also that this was a public tavern, and while France might be more accommodating than most places, there were still limits and standards of decorum to be observed.
    Then Cornelius’s deft fingers began to undo the buttons to Johann’s trousers, and Johann could only groan, spread his legs wider, and grip Cornelius’s shoulder and waist.
    Cornelius took full advantage of that moan, dipping his tongue inside Johann’s mouth at the same moment his fingers found their way through the trouser flap and past the fastenings of Johann’s pants.
    Johann had no defenses, and what little shame he could resurrect melted under the intensity and skill of Cornelius’s touch. His cock filled Cornelius’s questing hand, and his mouth opened eagerly under the onslaught. When Cornelius pushed his other hand beneath Johann’s shirt, laying a cool palm against the scars on his abdomen, Johann’s belly quivered, and his cock swelled in Conny’s grip.
    “ C’est ça, darling, oui. Laisse-moi te baiser .” Cornelius trailed a wet mouth down Johann’s chin and sucked on the cleft. “ Je te veux dans la bouche. Prends-moi par derrière, là sur la table, et fais-moi hurler de plaisir. Tu veux bien faire cela pour moi, mon doux Johann?” He pumped Johann’s cock with slow, wicked intent and laved the pulse of Johann’s throat with his tongue. “ À Calais, est-ce que tu vas montrer ta belle bitte avant de me la forcer dans la gorge? Dans le cul? ”
    Johann moaned into Conny’s mouth and gripped his lover’s arms as he fought to keep his hips from thrusting. He wasn’t entirely sure what Conny had said—he’d called Johann darling, demanded to suck something, to be pushed onto a table…and someone was apparently meant to scream. Also something about mouths. And cocks.
    It had never occurred to Johann to put a cock in his mouth, but he wanted Conny’s very much right now. He wanted everything about Conny.
    No one had ever kissed him like this. Touched him like this. Mastered him like this, taking away his quiet caution and making him feel, respond, be . He couldn’t stop Cornelius, couldn’t slow him down. He didn’t want to. As Conny began to undress him, Johann felt everything but his clockwork parts give way, every muscle yielding to Cornelius’s heated, lyrical whispers. The clockwork appendages became reminders of how much of Johann was crafted by Conny. Without Cornelius, Johann was barely functional, barely alive in every way. If it pleased him to make love to Johann in a public bar, then he would oblige.
    The moment ended abruptly as Valentin pried Cornelius off of Johann and away to the side. Cornelius mewed and complained vehemently in lewd, surprisingly articulate and eloquent French given how inebriated he was, but Valentin held him fast.
    “You cannot fuck him in the front booth of the tavern. Not at this hour.” Valentin cut a glare at Johann, nodding at his groin without looking at it. “Do yourself up, pirate .”
    Blushing, Johann fumbled with his shirt and trousers as blood rushed back into his head, and with it, a bit of common sense. “We must go,” he said to Cornelius in English. “I’ve secured passage for us on an airship. None of the sea ships had names sounding like games, but I remembered them in case—”
    “What the devil are you saying?” Valentin’s nostrils flared, and his chin tipped up so high he had to look down to glare at Johann. He had spoken in French. “You speak English ?”
    “Yes,” Johann replied carefully, switching back to Valentin’s language. “Better than French. Do you speak it also?”
    “Of course I don’t speak that mongrel tongue. And I won’t have you whispering it in front of me when I can’t understand.”
    Never mind that this had been the entire