deep breaths, the tremors subsided, so he shrugged and spread Zack's damp things out on the drying rack and headed down the hall to the bedroom. If Zack was tired, he'd appreciate the chance to snuggle in and nap, and if he wasn't, Michael had a new toy he was dying to test drive.
The back door slammed. Cheerful whistling drifted down the hall. Zack turned the corner, stark naked, still toweling his hair dry, the hard muscles in his arms bunching and flexing. Not too tall, not too bulky, he would never be a stand-in for his cousin Heracles, but his proportions were perfection, his movements fluid art. Michael stared at the long line of thigh leading up to gorgeous, muscular glutes and a suffocating heat raced up from his knees. Stomach trembling, he took a step forward.
"Zagreus…"
"Hmm?" Zack raised his head, a hesitant smile tugging at his mouth. "What? What's that look for?"
"I… I don't…" Michael's body moved before he could form a complete thought. Three swift steps and he slammed Zack against the wall, seizing his wrists and pinning them over his head.
"Someone's feeling aggressive today." Zack's eyes narrowed, but his expression was otherwise unreadable.
"I want you. Now." Michael pressed hard against him, nipping at his chin. "I want to make you scream."
"Mmm." Zack lifted his chin to give Michael better access to his throat, gasping and squirming when Michael latched on and sucked hard. "Does that mean you have something in mind?"
"Yes. Something new. Please, Zack."
"Hey, hey…" Zack wrestled an arm free and seized Michael around the waist. "Easy there. Since when do I say no to you? Ever? Let me get some water and I'm all yours, okay?"
Panting, Michael pulled back with a little laugh, shaking his head. "Okay. Sorry. I don't… I don't know what's wrong with me."
"This something new must be really wicked if it's got you this worked up." Zack gave him a wink and ducked under his arm to hustle to the kitchen.
I have to calm down. Am I getting sick? Can I get sick now? Michael counted out his breaths, slower and slower, forcing himself to focus on an image of clear, still water. When his heart had stopped its frenzied racing, he finally trusted himself to get out the items he wanted and turn down the sheets.
* * * * *
Colored light danced over the sandstone kitchen tiles. The sun had moved around the house far enough to illuminate the menagerie of suncatchers in the kitchen window.
"Don't look at me like that, Leonard," Zack muttered to the stained glass polar bear. "It's just… not usual."
He guzzled a second glass of water to give himself a moment, staring out the window through the glass animals. Michael grumbled that they obstructed the view of the garden, but he never made any move to take them down and he helped pick a name for each new addition. Leonard sat between Hortense, the otter and Priscilla, the cardinal. Farther down were Norbert, the squirrel and Brunhilde, the seahorse and so on. It had become a game, trying to outdo each other with wildly inappropriate names.
Michael's sudden aggression excited the hell out of him, sure. His hard cock bumped the counter, defying him to say otherwise. But there was that strange shadow feeling again clouding his arousal. Something was off. Zack had no direction for the feeling, no trail, so it most likely had nothing to do with Michael.
Still.
"You think I'm imagining things, don't you, Kingsley?" The red and black glass ladybug, Michael insisted it had to be male, had no answer for him. "Smoke and shadows. I should call Dad tonight, though. Just in case."
His odd misgivings dissipated when he returned to the bedroom, mist shadows banished by a break in the clouds. Michael lounged naked on the covers, the early afternoon sun burnishing his perfect skin to rose gold and setting sparks in his hair. A plain black box sat in front of him, long and slender, piquing Zack's curiosity.
"Whatcha got there, gorgeous?"
Michael shook his head with an
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