statement_ends | (Reply)

The noise Martin makes sends a thrill up John's spine. He'd asked his pointed question and received the answer he'd hoped for, but it's that needy, desperate moan that feels like the true culmination of his efforts. That's what he's most wanted to hear since Martin's mortified admission, since the moment he realized Martin loved him enough to be outright stupid about it. Not an explanation, or an excuse. Not even the acknowledgment that he (still, always) deserves to be treated as magnificently as John knows how. Just the wordless, euphoric cry of a man who has slowly learned to stop apologizing for himself. And now, John wants nothing more than to hear it again.

Martin shivers beneath him, gasping for breath, and John pauses to let him recover himself (and to consider his next move; he doesn't normally start so strong right out of the gate). He isn't expecting to feel Martin's gaze upon him, though, and it's a pull he cannot bring himself to resist. John tips his head to look back, meeting Martin's eyes, his cheek resting against Martin's chest as they take each other in. He looks beautiful, a flustered sun cresting above the rumpled horizon of his undershirt, and John grins in spite of himself. It is broad and self-satisfied — and, admittedly, not entirely conducive to the job at hand. He can't keep applying his lips to the task if he's too busy grinning with them. But he has other tools at his disposal, and his grin takes a turn for the mischievous as a new sort of escalation occurs to him.

Without taking his eyes off Martin's, he tips his chin up and, with cat-like impudence, opens his mouth and catches a roll of Martin's skin between his jaws. It's a firm but gentle clasp that largely utilizes his rounder premolars rather than the more sharp-edged incisors, and it encompasses the area around Martin's areola as well — as much a playful, visual threat than a move in and of itself. But it makes for an intriguing set-up, and John's tongue drags over the peak of Martin's nipple incidentally as much as deliberately.