Chapter 2: Tender Aftermath in the Shower
The steam rose first, a thick, billowing cloud that swallowed the small room whole. Marcus guided him, a firm hand on the small of Leo’s back, past the crumpled towels on the floor and into the spray. The hot water was a shock, a lance of pure sensation after the cool ache of his spent body. It sluiced over his shoulders, washing away the dried sweat, the city grit, the evidence of what they’d done against the glass.
For a long moment, Marcus just held him there, both of them under the downpour, heads bowed. The only sound was the drumming water and their own slowing breaths. Then Leo felt the bar of soap in Marcus’s large hand, slick and smooth, followed by the rasp of his work-rough palms sliding over his skin.
It was a different kind of touch.Deliberate.Almost reverent.
Marcus started with Leo’s shoulders, kneading the tension away with a strength that was now focused, controlled. The soap smelled of lemon and sage, cheap and clean. His hands moved down Leo’s spine, over the curve of his ass, and Leo shivered, not from cold. Marcus’s thumbs pressed into the slight hollows at the base of his spine, then out, tracing the contours of his hips.His touch stilled. Leo knew why.
In the misty light, the blossoming bruises were just shadows, but Marcus saw them.His fingerprints, purpling against Leo’s pale skin. A low sound, almost a growl, rumbled in Marcus’s chest.He didn’t apologize. Instead, his touch grew softer. He traced each one with the pad of his thumb, a slow, circular motion that felt like a question.
“Okay?” Marcus’s voice was rough, scraped raw from his earlier shouts.It was a single word, loaded with more meaning than it should hold.
Leo leaned back into him, his head resting against Marcus’s solid chest. “Yes.”
Marcus resumed washing him, his movements becoming methodical. He soaped Leo’s arms, his chest, the flat plane of his stomach.His hands were everywhere, mapping him, learning him. When his fingers skirted a nipple, Leo gasped, and Marcus paused, then did it again, a deliberate, twisting pinch that made Leo’s cock, soft and spent, give a feeble, interested twitch.
Then Marcus sank to his knees on the wet porcelain.The sight was overwhelming. This huge, powerful alpha, on his knees in a cramped shower, looking up at him through the steam with those dark, unreadable eyes. He took Leo’s foot in his hand, lifting it, and washed it with the same focused care he’d given his back. He massaged the arch, the heel, each toe.He did the same with the other foot. It was absurdly intimate, more so than the fucking had been.
His hands moved up, suds sliding over Leo’s calves, his knees, his thighs.The world narrowed to the sound of the shower and the heat of those hands. Marcus’s face was level with Leo’s groin. He was so close Leo could feel his breath, hot and damp, against his skin.
Marcus’s hands stilled on the insides of Leo’s thighs.He didn’t look up. He just leaned forward, his head resting against Leo’s belly for a heartbeat. Then his hands moved around, cupping the curve of Leo’s ass.His thumbs found the cleft, pressing gently, spreading him.
Leo felt the cool air of the bathroom, then the warm trickle of water running down the channel of his ass.And something else.Something warmer, thicker.
Marcus’s thumb brushed over his hole, not invading, just feeling.Leo flinched, oversensitive, raw. He could feel it—his own body, slack and open, leaking Marcus’s spend. It was a filthy, undeniable truth between them.
“Look at that,” Marcus murmured, his voice a low vibration against Leo’s skin.His thumb swiped through the mess, gathering it, spreading it. “My come’s still dripping out of you.”
Leo trembled, his hands finding Marcus’s shoulders for balance. “Marcus…”
“Shh.” Marcus stood in one fluid, powerful motion. The water sluiced over the hard planes of his own body, over the dark hair on his chest, the thick muscle of his arms, the renewed, heavy erection jutting from his groin. He backed Leo up until his shoulder blades hit the cool, slick tiles, a shock against his heated skin.
Marcus caged him in, arms braced on either side of his head. He looked down at him, water beading on his lashes. “You’re a mess,” he said, but his voice held no disgust.It held possession.He kissed him then, deep and slow and thorough. It was nothing like the bruising assault from the hallway.This was a exploration, a tasting. It was an apology in the shape of a tongue.When he broke the kiss, he was breathing hard. He hooked one of Leo’s legs around his waist, opening him up. The head of his cock nudged against Leo’s tender entrance, a blunt, insistent pressure.
“This time,” Marcus whispered, his lips against Leo’s ear, “I’m gonna go slow. You feel every fucking inch.”
He pushed in.It was a different kind of stretch.Deeper. More deliberate.Leo cried out, a sharp, broken sound lost in the steam. Marcus swallowed it with another kiss as he slid deeper, and deeper, until he was fully sheathed, a hot, immovable presence inside him.He didn’t move. Just stayed there, buried, letting Leo’s body adjust, accept.“Fuck,” Marcus breathed against his mouth. “You’re so tight.Still so fucking tight around me.”
Then he began to move.
It was a slow, rolling rhythm, a tide rather than a storm. Each withdrawal was agonizingly deliberate, each thrust forward a deep, grinding conquest.Leo felt every ridge, every vein. He felt the way Marcus’s pubic bone pressed against him, the way his own body clutched and fluttered around the invasion.It was overwhelming in its intensity, this slow, unwavering possession.
Marcus’s hands came up to cradle Leo’s face, his thumbs stroking his cheekbones.Their foreheads touched. Their breaths mingled with the steam. The only sounds were the slap of wet skin, the patter of water, and their mingled, ragged gasps.
“That’s it,” Marcus coaxed, his voice thick.“Take it. Take all of me, baby.”
The endearment, raw and unexpected, shattered something in Leo.A sob welled up in his throat. He’d been split open, fucked raw, marked and washed, and now he was being cherished in the midst of being claimed all over again. His own cock, trapped between their stomachs, hardened anew, a slick leak of pre-come adding to the mess.
The pace stayed deep, relentless, but a tremor began to work its way through Marcus’s giant frame.His control was fraying. His thrusts became less measured, more urgent, seeking a specific, devastating angle.
“Right there,” Leo begged, his voice a thin whine. “Oh, god, right there, please—”
Marcus snapped. With a guttural curse, he drove into that spot, again and again, no longer slow, just deep and perfect and brutal. Leo came with a silent scream, his body seizing, his nails digging into Marcus’s back. The convulsions around his cock tore a final, shattered roar from Marcus. He slammed in one last time, holding himself there as he pulsed, another hot flood joining the first inside Leo’s trembling body.
They slumped together against the tiles, the water cooling around them.Marcus’s weight was a crushing, comforting anchor. His face was buried in Leo’s neck, his breath hot and harsh.Long minutes passed. The water ran tepid, then cold.
Marcus finally reached out and shut it off with a loud, metallic squeak.The sudden silence was deafening.Dripping, they stepped out onto the bathmat. Marcus grabbed a clean towel and wrapped it around Leo, rubbing his arms roughly through the fabric. He used another on himself, a few quick, efficient swipes.
He stood there, towel around his waist, looking at Leo who was small and swaddled and utterly ruined. The conflict was back in his eyes, sharper now, edged with something like fear.
“I should go,” Marcus said, but he made no move toward the door.
Leo just looked at him, water from his curls dripping down his nose.He didn’t plead.He didn’t speak.
Marcus looked away, ran a hand over his jaw. “Fuck,” he muttered, to himself more than to Leo.He glanced around the steamy bathroom, at their discarded clothes on the floor. His gaze settled on Leo again, on the fresh, vivid bruises on his hips, clearly visible now in the unforgiving light.He let out a long, tired breath. “You got any coffee?”