It was, as Jay put it, “an experiment.”
At exactly six weeks from the date of Jay’s surgery, he invited Sebastian over with a perfunctory text — then jumped him the moment he stepped through the door.
Sebastian quickly abandoned any hope of keeping up and simply held on for dear life. It was not unlike being affectionately mauled by a feral cat; Jay’s hands darted from Sebastian’s arms to his neck to his waist, clutching at him as he took Sebastian’s mouth in a frenetic, biting kiss. Jay was tense under his hands, his heart pounding where their chests pressed tightly together.
And then Jay was panting against his mouth and saying, “I want to try something.”
Which led to Jay lying back in his own bed with Sebastian over him. Sebastian kept most of his weight off Jay’s body, leaving him room to move or pull away; his mouth was at Jay’s neck, kissing down the side of his throat.
Jay didn’t like Sebastian touching his chest. They’d established that early on, and Sebastian hadn’t questioned it since. But here they were nearly two months post-surgery, and already something was different — the way Jay carried himself, the way he moved. There was an ease to it that wasn’t there before.
Hence, the experiment.
Jay was stripped to the waist, the sweat on his skin catching the light where it pooled in the hollows of his collarbone and along the new, flat planes of his chest. The surgical scars encircling his nipples were healed, but still raised and pink. His sternum rose and fell in deep, deliberate breaths, the line of his throat taut as he tipped his head back to stare intently at the ceiling.
Sebastian eased back, propping one elbow on the bed. “We don’t have to do this.”
Jay blinked; his head rolled to the side, looking at Sebastian with a perplexed expression. “What?”
Sebastian raised an eyebrow at him. “You look like I’m about to start torturing you.”
Jay gave him a flat look. “I asked you for this.”
“I know.” Sebastian let the follow-up question go unspoken.
Jay glanced away for a moment, teeth dragging over his lower lip. “I want to know.” He met Sebastian’s eyes again. “Even if I hate it, I want to know for sure.”
There was such naked trust in those words that Sebastian nodded and again lowered his mouth to Jay’s skin, laying open-mouthed kisses along the length of his collarbone. He placed a hand on Jay’s stomach, stroking slowly upward, and Jay relaxed under him with a soft breath.
When Sebastian’s thumb traced the underside of a pectoral muscle, Jay made an uncertain noise low in his throat.
“All right?” Sebastian asked, lips brushing Jay’s skin as his hand retreated a little.
“It’s numb,” Jay muttered, as if to himself. “Feels weird.” He touched his fingertips to the back of Sebastian’s neck, scratching lightly through his hair. Reassurance, and encouragement.
Sebastian let his mouth drift lower.
Scar tissue was unpredictable. Jay’s scars might be numb, or the exact opposite — painfully so, even. Sebastian’s open mouth hovered over one nipple, breathing over it; that didn’t get much of a reaction, so he risked brushing his lips across the scars, tongue slipping out to taste the sweat on Jay’s skin.
Jay exhaled in a contented little sigh, rolling up into the touch of Sebastian’s mouth. His nails scratched across Sebastian’s scalp again, harder this time.
Thus emboldened, Sebastian switched to the other nipple and dragged the flat of his tongue over it.
A pained, gasping yelp escaped Jay’s mouth. His whole body twitched and curled in on itself, knees drawing up in reflex; one of them collided sharply with Sebastian’s side.
Sebastian grunted at the sudden strike to his guts and rolled off, collapsing onto the mattress.
“Oh, fuck.” Jay scrambled up into a sitting position and bent over Sebastian. “Sorry, I’m sorry — ”
Sebastian caught enough of his breath to grind out, “That one’s sensitive, then.”
Jay winced. “Yeah.” A short, nervous laugh slipped from his mouth; he clamped a hand over it, but it was too late. He’d already set Sebastian off.
As the two of them dissolved into snickering laughter, Jay reached out to touch where his knee had hit Sebastian’s side. Sebastian playfully batted his hands away.
“No, come on,” Jay insisted, draping himself over Sebastian. “Let me kiss it better.”
Sebastian relented with a groan, and Jay pushed the hem of his shirt up to press a slow, lingering kiss to Sebastian’s skin. Then he met Sebastian’s eyes with a mischievous look and did it again, a little lower this time.
Shifting against the mattress, Sebastian watched as Jay reached for his belt and the direction of his intent became obvious.
A little breathless, he asked, “Experiment’s over, is it?”
“Temporarily suspended,” Jay replied, and tugged Sebastian’s fly open.