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Lawful Restraint
Once upon a time, Rafael Barba believed in moderation.
He believed in self control and keeping one’s vices well-disciplined, knowing all too well how they could run rampant and leave nothing but rubble and ashes in their wake. Never the drunk at a party, never the experimental drug user, never the unbridled libertine when he could have gotten away with any and all of the above. While he had a taste for liquor, fine fabrics, and inordinately confident athletes whose dirty little secrets he was all too happy to keep, all those vices were well within his ability to handle. Even as he aged and his drinks grew more expensive, his suits bespoke, and his lovers more refined — Rafael was always in charge. No drink rendered him incompetent, no shirt or jacket or tie tempted him enough to spend more than he could afford. No man or woman ever put Rafael in a position he hadn’t already planned for.
Until Manhattan.
Until blue eyes the color of a summer sky had turned on him across the squad room and he’d been reduced for the first time in his life to a creature of wants and needs.
Sonny Carisi had brought all the desires he’d spent his life suppressing roaring to the forefront. Needy, begging for attention. Preening and basking in the warmth of Sonny’s fervent attention because none of Rafael’s former lovers had been emotionally invested, either. It wasn’t something he thought he needed until he was all Sonny could look at if he happened to be in the room. Until he delighted in useless texts throughout the day and good-natured scoffs and the feeling of Sonny’s hands reaching out for him in the darkest part of the night.
Now Rafael wanted a lot.
Now Rafael found himself needing a lot more than he ever would have allowed himself even five years ago. Before the highlight of his night was getting home to strip off his fine fabrics and soak under the scalding hot spray of his shower because Sonny was working late and promised to bring takeout if Rafael was wearing his Fordham shirt when he got home.
Clearly they were both going to starve.
“Who are you arguing with?” a familiar voice asked outside of his shower and Rafael started, rinsing the lather from his hair even as his heart leapt at the sound of Sonny in his bathroom. “You’re grunting under your breath. You’re either having an imaginary argument or you’re doing something a lot more fun.”
“Arguing is fun for me.”
“I figured. You should try it out as a career choice.”
Rafael scoffed.
“So witty this evening,” Rafael called over the sound of falling water and reached for the deep green bottle of soap on his shelf. “Next you’ll suggest I take up medicine for my bedside manner.”
"Dr. Barba does have a nice ring to it," Sonny said casually, and Rafael rolled his eyes. "But I don't like to recycle the lines you've used on me.”
Rafael snorted. "Oh, we're considering that a line now? Bit of revisionist history, don't you think?"
"What, you think it was just your charm that won me over?" Sonny asked, and Rafael pulled the shower curtain back slightly to scowl at him as he leaned casually against the bathroom counter, suit coat missing, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, one curl already falling loose from the humidity in the bathroom.
"If you think I had to do anything to win you over, we clearly have moved into revisionist territory," he said dryly. "Now are you done letting all of my warm air out?"
"It's plenty warm where I'm standing.” Sonny waggled his eyebrows, actually waggled his eyebrows, and pulled his tie loose in an exaggerated manner. Rafael rolled his eyes and turned his back to Sonny, half in exasperation and half to hide his smile.
When Sonny made no move to actually leave, Rafael glanced back over his shoulder at him. "Did you need something?" he asked pointedly.
Sonny smiled at him, too soft to be a smirk, even if his tone was teasing. "Just admiring the view."
"Admiring the view my ass," Rafael huffed under his breath.
"That too," Sonny said, eyeing the ass in question with clear appreciation.
Rafael rolled his eyes. "Had I known this would turn into a show, I would've charged admission." Sonny laughed, and Rafael's heart skipped a beat at the sound, and to hide how painfully obvious he was fairly certain the idiotic grin on his face was, he yanked the shower curtain closed. "Well, show's over."
"Really?" Sonny said mildly, drawing the curtain open again to leer at Rafael. "It looks like it's just beginning to me."
As tempted as Rafael was to just let him watch, he decided maintaining the upper hand was temporarily more important. "Unfortunately, we've reached the audience participation point of the evening, so unless you're planning on joining me and ruining that tie that I am just so fond of..."
“You think I won’t come in there after you?”
Rafael tipped his head back, letting the water spill down his shoulders and chest and knowing that a certain pair of blue eyes would be magnetized to the sight of it, following every drop and rivulet as it fell down the length of his body. Rafael felt himself swell to hardness, felt his heart beat a little heavier in his chest at the look on Sonny’s face. The gleam in his eyes was back, the hint of darkness that made Rafael suspect Sonny had turned into a creature of wants and needs too.
“You could come in here before me too,” he offered lecherously, letting his eyes do their own wandering. “Provided you keep your mouth shut and let me open mine.”
With hardly a blink Sonny started forward.
Pulled back the shower curtain, leveled fiery eyes on Rafael just long enough to step inside and under the hot spray that soaked his clean white shirt through and forced his hair out of place. He cornered Rafael, caged him in with long arms braced against the warm tile wall, and dipped his head low enough for their noses to brush and no further. Not close enough for Rafael to get much more than the drift of warm air as Sonny breathed in the scent of Rafael's soap magnified tenfold by the humidity in the air around him. There Sonny held them. Just on the brink, a tease and a promise of something more if only Rafael would bring himself to ask for it.
“I missed you today,” Sonny murmured, eyes threatening to slip closed as steam curled up and around them. “Court sucked, I heard.”
Rafael nodded.
“Understatement of the decade.”
Sonny understood, he knew, but Rafael wasn't after understanding. Rafael was after the stunning length of man in his shower, soaked through because he wanted Rafael more than he wanted his clothes or the comfort of being stripped bare. Arching against him, rolling his hips slow and easy, he just managed to brush the hard ridge behind Sonny's zipper and the man sucked a quick breath through barely parted lips. Rafael repeated the motion, going slower. Harder. Wrapping long fingers along the slope of Sonny’s waist as though either of them had any intention of moving anywhere other than closer.
“Watch it,” Sonny warned playfully, even as his voice grew rough. “Keep squirming and I'll cuff you to the shower head.”
Rafael's eyes darkened at the thought. "Don't make a promise you don't intend to keep," he said.
Sonny looked at him evenly. "Who said I don't intend to keep it?"
"I don't think you will. You like what I do with my hands too much." As though to make his point, Rafael slid a hand between them and palmed Sonny's cock fully where is strained against his zipper.
"I like what you do with your mouth, too, but that wouldn't stop me from gagging you." Sonny's eyelashes fluttered prettily as Rafael unbuttoned his ruined slacks and slipped his hand inside. Rafael loved how responsive he was, the way he breathed in sharply when touched, how he crowded him closer to the wall.
"Mmm, now that is an idea," Rafael murmured, wrapping his hand around Sonny's cock and giving it a lazy tug. "Bound, gagged, wrapped up so nicely for you..."
The breath seemed to catch in Sonny's throat in a way that had nothing to do with Rafael's grip and he paused, ignoring the way Sonny's hips stuttered in a desperate attempt to continue the motion. "Hang on," Rafael said, tilting his head slightly. "Are you serious?"
Sonny's expression was unreadable, save for the way he licked his lower lip when Rafael twisted his hand at the top of his prick. "Maybe," he managed. "Do you want me to be?"
Rafael blinked, as taken aback by the turn this had taken as Sonny's somewhat casual — if thoroughly wrecked — tone. As if he had thought about this.
As if he had thought about this more than once.
Rafael swallowed, hard, at the thought, that the teasing might be more than that. "We should—" he started, but Sonny just shook his head.
"Next time," Sonny gasped and finally swooped down to capture his lips the way Rafael had wanted him to since he knew Sonny was in the room.
Sonny came with Rafael's hand still wrapped around him, twisting and tugging until Sonny melted in his grasp and came in long stripes over Rafael's stomach that slipped down his torso and onto his thighs under the scalding spray.
Rafael came with the idea of handcuffs tight on his wrists.
…
Sonny thought that sometimes Rafael forgot he was a detective. Forgot how good Sonny was at little details, flicks of the eye, twitches if the hand. How good he was at reading people. It was the only explanation. Otherwise, why would he let his gaze linger on Sonny's handcuffs where they hung from his belt? Surely it was because Rafael wanted him to know that he hadn't forgotten the exchange between them weeks before, heated for reasons entirely other than anger.
At first he had convinced himself himself that it had been dirty talk, that day in the shower. Just Rafael running his mouth the way he always did, faster and filthy enough to make Sonny's head swim.
But then Rafael's eyes kept returning to his handcuffs, to the point where Sonny couldn't get the idea out his head either.
He worried it was becoming an obsession. He couldn't loop them onto his belt in the morning without thinking of Rafael's arms stretched over his head, straining. Unable to reach out and grip his hair, his arms. The meat of his ass as he thrusted deep and stayed for long seconds before pulling out again. The fantasy was persistent enough now that he could no longer stay unaware of their existence. They were heavy on his hip, hot over his clothes. They would jingle when he stood up from his desk mid day, and the images became so consuming that he had to jerk off in the precinct bathroom just to get any work done.
And perhaps it was inevitable that one evening, as Rafael's eyes tracked the motion of Sonny taking his handcuffs off his belt that Sonny blurted, "Can I?"
Rafael's eyes snapped up to his. "Can you what?" he asked.
Sonny hesitated, then held the handcuffs up in a wordless question.
Rafael blinked, as though he thought he must have misheard him, and then he steeled his expression. A look Sonny knew so well, from the face of every perp who lied to him, trying to cover their sin in disdain and casual indifference.
"You can't be serious," Rafael said, though his eyes flicked back to the handcuffs. Like a guilty soul to the scene of a crime.
"And why not?"
"You use those on criminals. Real ones," he added spitefully but they'd been together long enough now for Sonny to be able to see the desire behind the bluster. "And now you want to put them on me?"
"No," Sonny corrected easily, "You want me to."
Rafael's eyes darkened. "Classic projection, Detective," he scoffed.
Sonny's lips curved into a smile. "And that's not a denial."
Rafael's eyes flickered to the handcuffs and back to Sonny's, and he licked his lips slowly, deliberately. "Let's say, hypothetically, that I did," he said carefully, and Sonny barely managed to avoid rolling his eyes that Rafael would bother equivocating right now. "What did you have in mind?"
"You, in our bed," he said, voice low and sultry mostly against his will while he crept into Rafael’s space. "My cuffs around your wrists, tight so you can't use your double joints to slip out of them. Loose enough so I can hear them rattle against the headboard while I'm fucking you."
Rafael opened his mouth to respond but nothing seemed to come out. Sonny allowed himself a momentary — and it really was only for a moment, if only because his heart was racing at what he had finally given voice to — feeling of triumph. Then, with just a hint of hesitation, he asked, "What do you think?"
"What do I think?" Rafael repeated, a little faintly. "I..."
He trailed off, and Sonny felt his sense of triumph return. "Rafael Barba, speechless?" he said lightly. "I never thought I'd see the day."
"I'm not speechless," Rafael spat, though no amount of bravado his the look in his eyes, nor the way he leaned just a little bit closer toward him, as though drawn in by his own desire. "I'm appalled."
Sonny only grinned. "You're hard."
"The two are not mutually exclusive," Rafael said, glowering at him.
Sonny stayed close, close enough that he could easily close the gap between them and silence Rafael's smart mouth with his own, and said nothing. He stared into the other man's green eyes, letting the silence draw long between them. Letting the anticipation build, until—
He shrugged, casually, breaking eye contact and clicking his tongue as he stood up.
"Oh well."
He dropped the handcuffs onto their dresser, next to his badge and a bottle of Rafael's cologne.
Rafael let out a noise that might charitably be considered regretful but would be more accurately described as a whine. Then he forced his expression to neutral and shook his head, a smirk tugging at his lips. "I knew it was a promise you never intended to keep."
Sonny just shrugged, not looking over at him as he tugged his tie loose. "Not without my partner's explicit consent," he said calmly. He paused and cocked an eyebrow at Rafael. "Which I appear to be lacking."
Rafael rolled his eyes. "What do you need, a signed consent form?"
"I mean, I'd take it," Sonny said. "I'd settle for hearing you say it aloud." He paused. "And God knows I'd love to hear you beg."
"Oh, so you're into role play now," Rafael said with mock innocence, just a hint of a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
Sonny glared at him. "Yeah, you playing the role of the mouthiest lay ever," he grumbled. "You might say you were born for it." Rafael smirked and Sonny took a deep breath before asking, "Safeword?"
"Aria." Sonny's glare returned and Rafael shrugged. "When you're the one being restrained, you can pick the safeword. Besides, there's very little chance of me accidentally shouting the name of your ex." He paused. "One of my exes, on the other hand..."
"Ha ha," Sonny said dryly, pronouncing the syllables rather than actually laughing. "I was more thinking along the lines of, you say no or stop and I stop."
As much as Sonny wanted this, wanted Rafael restrained and begging for it, actually hurting him was the last thing he would ever want, and besides, they'd both heard too many stories of people saying 'no' or 'stop' only to be ignored. Something shifted, softened in Rafael's expression, and he nodded, even as he complained, "Fine, but if you didn't actually want my opinion, you shouldn't have asked." Sonny rolled his eyes and Rafael's smirk widened. "Problem, Detective?"
"Just reconsidering whether I want to gag you," Sonny said sourly.
"And if you did, the only one you'd be punishing is yourself," Rafael said with clear satisfaction as he undoubtedly remembered taunting Sonny about what his mouth could do. Sonny's eyes darkened at the memory and he reached out and caught Rafael's chin, holding his head in place as he ran his thumb over Rafael's lower lip.
"Oh Rafael," he sighed. "You're making it very easy for me to be rough with you."
Rafael's smirk sharpened. "Good."
Sonny chuckled, the sound deep in his throat like a warning, and he closed the gap between them. He brushed his lips against Rafael's, a touch so light as to barely be felt.
"Don't move," he said, a breath against the other man's lips. He took his time between each featherlight kiss, the tip of his nose brushing against Rafael's, ghosting his lips over his open, wanting mouth. It was calculated; the longer he kept him waiting, the greater the anticipation became. He could feel as Rafael tried to tilt his chin up to meet his teasing mouth, but Sonny held him fast.
Eventually Rafael made a soft sound of protest, half a whimper that must have been involuntary, because it was followed by a nervous laughter that made Sonny lean back, smiling.
"I feel ridiculous," Rafael said as Sonny released his chin. There was a flush high on his cheeks.
"Are you nervous, Rafael?" Sonny asked, already knowing the answer. He couldn't stop the fond grin that spread across his features.
"No," Rafael lied, clearly trying to look more irritated than he felt.
"Come on, you have to have done something like this before. Tied up some old boyfriends or girlfriends with a Burberry tie."
Rafael paused. "Not so much, actually."
Sonny gaped and tried to suppress the thrill that ran up his spine at the thought that he would be the first to introduce Rafael to this.
The first and only, the back of his mind supplied against his express orders.
"Try not to act so shocked."
"I'm just surprised. You're so adventurous," Sonny squeezed Rafael's knee. It was true, and given the rough handling that the older man liked, Sonny had just assumed that he would have experimented.
"And you seem so wholesome, but apparently you're a regular Marquis de Sade."
"Nah. Nowhere near that, considering he had to drug people to participate," he said and smirked. "My participant is perfectly willing and was hard at little more than a suggestion."
He kissed Rafael before the man could utter another argumentative word, taking his long fingers to lace them between his own as the kiss lengthened. It was so easy to lose himself in the drag of Rafael's tongue and the warmth of anticipation in his chest but while he could feel Rafael in one hand he could feel the cool metal handcuffs in the other and he could only anticipate so long before the need started to nudge at him. Spurring him on, taking the kiss deeper until he was able to back Rafael against the bed with hardly a whimper of surprise from the man who would, in a few short minutes, be begging Sonny to restrain him.
There was nothing to ease someone from their nervousness like something with which they're comfortable. And Sonny knew Rafael was more than comfortable kissing him. They'd become experts at the taste of one another's mouths, the soft press of lips and the stroke of tongues, the flashes of teeth. Sonny missed him to breathless, using the same hand that held the handcuffs to grip the tail of Rafael's tie, pulling the knot undone in one expert, sharp stroke.
The sound Rafael made in response was best described as a growl, and Sonny smiled against his mouth. He suspected that somewhere in Rafael's arousal was also a hint of warning. “Don't manhandle my ties."
He pulled the strip of silk free from the other man's collar and dropped it, quite deliberately, to the floor.
Sonny was in charge now.
Rafael could argue with him about this later.
Rather than let Rafael stew Sonny reached out and found the buttons of Rafael's waistcoat, neatly parting them until it took hardly a push for it to fall from his shoulders. He pulled the checkered shirt from Rafael's waistband and toyed with the button of his fly. Slowly, deliberately, purposefully drawing out the action until Rafael rocked into his touch before changing his mind and going elsewhere. To the line of buttons down his shirt, prying them loose from the very top button to the last as slow as he could manage just because it thrilled him to see and feel Rafael vibrating with anticipation.
It was the anticipation that would take Rafael apart, Sonny knew. To make his expect his touch, to be sure of what was going to happen, so ready and filled with such wanting that it was as though Sonny's hands were already on him... and then to do something completely different.
He pushed the shirt back off Rafael's shoulders, pleased at how the other man accommodated him by letting his arms hand down to let the shirt fall loose. When Rafael reached for him, however, Sonny caught his wrists and pulled back a fraction of an inch, shaking his head.
"Mm-nnn," he risked, and kissed Rafael softly. "Just relax, and let me. You don’t touch me unless I tell you otherwise."
He released Rafael's wrists and grazed his fingertips along his sides.
Rafael shivered.
Not shook, not trembled
Shivered.
A movement so fine it moved like a ripple over the length of his body, ending with the slight shutter of eyelids hanging heavy now as Sonny traced the outlines of ribs and the thick curls of chest hair over Rafael's heart. Sonny watched him sink slowly into the sensations, accept and embrace them, and felt the exact moment Rafael melted into him. The moment his shoulders ceased to carry tension because he'd started to lean into Sonny rather than hold his own weight; he'd grown content to wordlessly encourage his touch rather than snark his way into it.
Sonny rewarded him with a finger running under his waistband. Slow, sure. Teasing at contact but never really giving it so that Rafael was forced to lean in further. To whimper under his breath when Sonny's hand left his waist and instead ventured up to circle one flat nipple. Rubbing it to a hard nub so painstakingly slow that Rafael reached out to grip his bicep in hopes of spurring him on.
At once, Sonny took a small step back. Rafael swayed toward him and blinked his eyes open, confused and frustrated and absolute wrecked with desire. It took all Sonny had not to step back toward him, crowd him close against the bed and feel all the pleasures of his body. It took all his willpower to stand his ground.
"What did I say?" he asked, and was startled by how thick his own voice had become.
It took a moment before Rafael realized that Sonny expected him to answer. The realization dawned over his face in a mix of annoyance and arousal, and he huffed a sigh.
"Well?"
Rafael stared at him a long moment before his tongue darted out to wet his lips. "You said... not to touch you."
"And I meant it."
Briefly Sonny considered a consequence but knew from the stubborn set of Rafael's jaw and the flicker of nerves in his eyes that it wouldn't go over well. It wasn't necessary for Sonny to enforce anything, as though he had something to prove rather than something to show Rafael about what sex could feel like when you put your faith so completely in your partner. So instead of a punishment, a deprivation, he brought his hand back to the button of Rafael's slacks and pushed it through the opening. He drug the thin metal zipper down slowly, purposefully, watching as Rafael's green eyes dilated further in the low light of their bedroom.
"Get on the bed," Sonny suggested softly, eyes direct enough that it might be considered an order. "I wanna see you all spread out and waiting for me."
Sonny watched Rafael, the way his thoughts played out across his face. The impulse to refuse on principle was clear in his hesitation; Rafael was nothing if not argumentative. This was a man who carried a toothbrush in his briefcase just in case he was held in contempt of court. Sonny couldn't help but smile, then, when Rafael rolled his eyes and decided to play along. He was pleased, but wasn't surprised. For all his pretenses, he was still hard.
"I feel ridiculous," Rafael said, even as he stretched out on his back.
"Yeah, maybe, but I'll make you feel good."
Wandering to stand at the end of the bed, Sonny watched as Rafael settled and pulled himself up at the head of the bed. Head on the pillows, torso bare and erection prominent through the loosened fly of his pants. Sonny couldn't help the impulse to lick his lips and Rafael noticed, because of course he did. Rafael grinned, dark and wolfish, and ever so gently levered his hips off the bed as he settled so that Sonny could observe the slight hint of darkened cloth where his prick was hard and leaking against the thick cotton.
Arrogant, insufferable bastard.
Sonny took a deep breath, reached for the small buttons at the end of one sleeve as he parted them and started to roll the fabric up to his elbows. Slowly, baring forearms he knew tempted Rafael beyond reason. It was the closest to a striptease Rafael would get from him tonight so he made it count, moving so that muscles shifted under his skin as he worked. Sonny tucked one sleeve up, completed, and reached for the next only to find Rafael with his hands on his cock, lazily gripping himself over clothing tight enough to make a breath hiss out from between his teeth.
Sonny arched a brow, tried to pretend he wasn't a hair’s breadth from giving in to impulse and collapsing this carefully constructed world around them.
"I don't remember saying you could jerk yourself off."
Rafael pulled a little harder, slipped the waistband down so the thick head was resting over the elastic band and glistening with precome.
"You said I couldn't touch you," he pointed out as he swiped his thumb over the head, fluid slicking his way. "You didn't say anything about touching myself."
"You're such a lawyer," Sonny said with a sigh, managing to make the word sound more like a slur than an esteemed profession. "And a brat."
Rafael only smirked and stroked himself again, swiping his thumb over the leaking head of his cock. "I've stuck to the letter of the law."
Sonny's mouth was watering. It took everything he had not to climb into the bed and jerk Rafael's slacks and boxers down over his hips, to take him into his mouth and drink down every drop of him, but Sonny had self control and anticipation was half of the game.
He took his time rolling up his second sleeve, turning the cuff up right above his elbow, and maintaining eye contact with his smirking lover all the while. He picked the handcuffs up off of the dresser and held them up, his mouth schooled to stern but his blue eyes mirthful.
"If you can't behave on your own, I'll have to make you behave."
Rafael laughed, and Sonny's scolding mouth broke into a smile. He loved the sound of Rafael's laughter; it was so fucking rare.
"You think this is funny?" Sonny asked, and while he did his best to keep his voice serious, there was no hiding his smile.
"Yes, you're like a naughty cop. You should have put the police jacket on." For all his joking, Rafael reached up above his head, gripping the posts of their headboard with both hands. He quirked an eyebrow, his smile all challenge.
Sonny took a step closer. "That can always be arranged," he said, still smiling. "Want me to Mirandize you, too? Because God knows you have the right to remain silent, even if you refuse to exercise it."
"I have the right to an attorney, too," Rafael said, smirking. "Shall I call Rita? Invite her to join us?"
"Now you're the one making a promise you don't intend to keep," Sonny scoffed. "Besides, there's no way you can afford her."
"She gives me the 'friends and former lovers' rate," Rafael said. He ran his fingers impatiently across the wood of the bed posts. "Now are you going to actually proceed or do I need to file a writ of mandamus?"
For all the talk, for all the teasing, Sonny had known Rafael far too long to think his banter was anything other than a distraction. A way to cover the fact that his breath hitched every time he looked at the handcuffs, every time Sonny stepped even an inch closer.
Still clothed, Sonny lowered himself to his knees on the foot of the mattress. Knelt closer, took his place in the space between Rafael's spread legs. Watched his skin flush as he leaned close, braced himself on his hands over the length of Rafael's body. Rafael looked so good like this. Hard, aching. On the precipice of demanding Sonny get the hell on with it. So good Sonny had no choice but to rear back on his knees and press a long, wet kiss to the trail of hair below his navel. Another night he would have followed it, would have taken Rafael so deep the neighbors would be able to hear him spewing filth and sweet nothings until his voice went hoarse. Tonight, Sonny had other plans.
Plans that involved tasting his way up Rafael's body rather than down it.
He nipped at Rafael's side, the faint mount of a fleshy hip that made the man buck up into Sonny's hard frame.
Bit into the soft pectoral muscle over his heart.
He kissed a thin white scar at the bottom of Rafael's sternum, wrapped his lips around a pert brown nipple and sucked. Softly at first, a tease of pressure, before pressing it up in the flat ridge behind his teeth and pulling hard enough that Rafael levitated off the mattress and forgot all about Sonny's single direction, long hand wrapping around the back of Sonny's neck to pull him closer.
It felt so good, to be gripped by Rafael's strong hand, to be pulled closer to where he wanted to be anyway, that he almost forgot himself. A heartbeat passed and he remembered, and caught Rafael's nipple in just enough of a flash of teeth that he would feel it. A reward for bad behavior, disguised as punishment.
And then he pulled back.
Sonny slid his hand along Rafael's arm and wrapped long fingers around his wrist, pulling it up in a stretch above the other man's head as Sonny too leaned up, his breath a warm ghost of a kiss against Rafael's lips as he spoke.
"You really are incorrigible." Someone less practiced might have fumbled, but with the clinking of chain and the click of a catch, Sonny had the handcuffs secured around Rafael's wrists, the loop around a post of their headboard. He dipped his head and kissed him, slow and deep and dirty, once the cuffs were applied.
And then, he sat back, to admire his handiwork.
“I’d tell you to hold still,” Sonny said, looking down his nose at the man in front of him, “But I don’t really want you to.”
Rafael shifted his wrists experimentally, his expression cautious. Then he looked at Sonny and smirked. "Is that all you've got?" he asked, but Sonny could tell by the low pitch of his voice that he was as turned on by this as Sonny was.
The way his cock twitched as the metal shifted against his skin was a pretty big indication as well.
Sonny allowed himself a smirk of his own as he reached up to loosen his tie even further, slowly pulling it off. "Not quite."
"What are you doing?" Rafael asked, smirking. "Change your mind about the gag?"
He smirked back.
"Not quite."
Sonny made sure Rafael's eyes followed his every movement as he wrapped the satin tie around the length of one hand. Looped it around twice, handed the remaining length into his left hand to wrap it there. The body of the tie hung loose between his wrapped fists. Rafael had gone still, lips slightly parted while he watched Sonny lower the drape of fabric to his bare torso. The contact was minimal at first — a whisper of material against skin — but Rafael followed the movement like his life depended on it anyway.
"See, I know you Rafael," Sonny started casually, mouth tipping up in a smile. "And I know what you like. Hell, I should. We've been together long enough."
Rafael nodded absently, still transfixed on the teasing drag of the tie as it drifted upwards and over his chest. Catching on nipples still erect, still straining from the attention Sonny had paid them with lips and teeth and tongue.
"And I happen to know that you like the rough stuff. And hell, so do I when it's you mouthing off to tell me to fuck you harder." Sonny tightened the tie as it reached Rafael's shoulders, turning it into another impromptu restraint to keep Rafael pinned to the bed. "This, though? This is something I don't think you've ever gotten in your life. Someone who can listen to your mouth and ignore it in favor of something better."
"Yes."
Rafael was breathy, distracted.
Sonny loved it.
"So I'll tell you what we're going to do," he continued, loosening the tie over his shoulders and looping it around the back of his head until it rested on his neck. Sonny tugged it lightly, until Rafael knew to look up. Green eyes fixed on his lips instantly and Sonny rewarded him with a knowing smile. "I'm gonna do whatever the hell I please, and you're going to lay there and let me."
Rafael whimpered. An actual, honest to God whimper.
Sonny was so hard.
He pulled the tie tighter, tight enough to lift Rafael's head off the pillow for Sonny to steal a kiss. Rafael complied readily, unconsciously pulling at the cuffs so that they rattled against the bars as their lips met.
"Oh Rafael," Sonny breathed against his mouth. "I'm gonna take you apart."
"Please," Rafael breathed against his mouth, a wrecked and desperate sound, as though he'd been edged and tormented for hours. It was the closest thing to begging that Sonny had ever heard him.
He was going to hear far, far more before they were done.
Sonny stayed just out of reach, a breath away from Rafael's even as he strained up toward his waiting mouth. The angle made him tug against the cuffs again, and Sonny marveled at the way it made Rafael moan, made his hips jerk.
"Please," Rafael gasped, louder this time, and Sonny smiled. That smile would be the last thing Rafael saw before Sonny slid the silk of his tie over those pleading green eyes and expertly knotted it off to the side, blindfolding him.
Only then did Sonny truly kiss him.
Rafael's mouth was desperate against his, desperate in a way Rafael would readily deny later, though Sonny knew the truth, and filed the image away for later. He kissed Rafael deeply, enjoyed the taste of his tongue against his own before pulling back, smirking when Rafael subconsciously tried to follow his movement, his desperation clear even with his eyes covered.
"You seem eager," Sonny said, smacking the inside of Rafael's thigh lightly, enjoying the way Rafael's entire body both tensed and relaxed at the feeling.
"Just ready to get a move on," Rafael said, though Sonny sensed an undercurrent of anticipation mixed with genuine concern, and he sought instantly to sate the later, leaning in to cup Rafael's cheek with his hand, stroking his cheekbone with his thumb, the movement familiar and gentle and grounding.
Rafael instantly relaxed under his touch, his clenched hands uncurling, his neck and shoulders easing back against the soft, fat pillow behind him. He leaned into the touch, turning cheek into Sonny's palm. Sonny kissed him again, softer and sweeter than before.
"You good?" he asked, softly, tilting his head to kiss just behind Rafael's ear. He wanted to tear his lover down to his foundation, to tease and torment him with pleasure until he cried and begged for it and fell to pieces, but he wanted to make sure the proud man had an out if he wanted it.
"Better if you'd decide if you wanted to fuck or talk me to death."
Sonny chuckled. "I think both, thanks."
Hands on Rafael's hips, mind firmly in the gutter, Sonny placed a final kiss on parted lips, and hooked his long fingers beneath Rafael's underwear to feel the scalding heat of his skin. He dragged the last vestiges of clothing from Rafael’s body, pulled them down toned legs darkened with hair and bronze skin until they were gone. His ample ass arched into Sonny's grip, flexed and clenched at the dig of fingers into the muscle. Pulled the round flesh apart, kneaded. Sonny wanted him all too aware of his anatomy. Especially now, when he couldn't see it. Sonny wanted him anxious for every touch and trembling with the weight of all the possibilities.
Sonny was determined to play Rafael's body like an instrument, to hear the full range of moaning, gasping, crying music he knew the other man had within him. He brushed featherlight kisses over the curve of his stomach and grazed his hip with his teeth, then pulled his head back and waited until he tensed with anticipation, uncertain of what Sonny would do next. Only then did he lean close enough for Rafael to feel his breath warm against his prick, for one moment, and another.
Then he dipped, and sucked a love bite to the inside of his thigh.
Rafael moaned, low and wanton. "Fucking tease," he hissed.
Sonny just laughed as he sucked languidly against the mark he had already left. "That is the idea."
The sight of the purple mark on Rafael's thigh gave Sonny a thrill he hadn't expected. He sometimes left marks on Rafael, where he gripped his hips with his fingertips or scraped him with his teeth, but never like this, and never so deliberately. He couldn't help himself, and added two more just like it, each one just a little higher on his thigh.
The higher he went, the more Rafael squirmed, shifting his hips against Sonny's hands and canting them toward his mouth, as though by will alone he could leverage Sonny into sucking him.
"Do something," Rafael finally panted, a hint of desperation in his voice. The handcuffs rattled on the headboard, and Sonny couldn't help but groan. He dipped his head, and sharply bit the curve of Rafael's ass.
Rafael yelped, the sound cut off into a breathy gasp, and Sonny chuckled darkly.
"So goddamn mouthy." Hooking a hand under Rafael's knee, he roughly shoved his leg up without warning, causing Rafael to jerk against his bonds.
"Fuck!" Rafael swore, but he didn't say stop, and so Sonny didn't. Instead, he immediately shoved Rafael's other knee up into the air, and this time Rafael only moaned pitiously as his body was bent and his asshole was unceremoniously exposed.
"God, look at you," Sonny growled, his voice low as he grazed his teeth along the cheek of Rafael's spread-open ass. "You're panting and whining already, and I haven't even gotten started yet. You really are desperate for it, huh?"
"What do you expect me to say?" Rafael asked, his voice little more than a whine, even as his hips canted up in search of purchase that they wouldn't find.
Sonny slowly, deliberately dragged the flat of his tongue against Rafael's asshole, relishing in the entire cinch of his body, the tension that radiated from his head on down against the pleasure and pain equally wrought from the move. "Again, any time you'd like to beg..."
"Dammit, Sonny," Rafael gasped, with a quiver of uncertainty like a man already on the verge of breaking, so close to doing the kind of begging that only twenty minutes ago he never would have considered.
Sonny was almost ashamed of how much it turned him on, to have Rafael Barba blindfolded and bound and twisting helplessly under his hands. Each whimper and gasp, each clatter of the handcuffs, was like a jolt that went straight to his prick. Here was Rafael, already losing himself to the sensation of being powerless, and Sonny just wanted to take advantage.
"I'm waiting," he said, and then went back to the pleasures spread in front of him. He didn't tease now, didn't build up slowly, only thrust his tongue hard against the still clenched ring of muscle, pushing Rafael's knees up and out to spread him even further.
Rafael made a sound — something low and pitifully horny — but nothing recognizable as words, instead reduced to strings of syllables groaned to the ceiling while Sonny worked. Licked into him, fucked him open with the taut blade of his tongue on quivering muscle.
Rhythm, timing.
Sonny had long memorized what it took to work Rafael into a frenzy, what warmed him to the point of rolling flame.
Now, though.
Now Sonny didn't need memory.
Now Sonny could rely on his own whim, on the sounds being spewed into the otherwise quiet room by a man incapable of finding any language other than the rattle of metal on wood and the insistent tremor that washed over him with every press of Sonny's tongue against his walls.
Sonny took his time, far slower and longer than he needed to, still licking into Rafael long after he was open and ready and wet. As tempted as Sonny was to push on too fast, to press his fingers deep into his lover just before he was ready, to hear him gasp and feel him jerk and clench against the sudden and delicious rough intrusion, there was something he wanted more.
He wanted to hear Rafael's wordless whines and moans turn to something more. He wanted to hear them as they turned to whispers, to pleas, to the desperate pleas he knew he could draw out of Rafael if only he persisted. If Rafael wanted Sonny to fuck him, and oh how Sonny knew that Rafael wanted him to fuck him, he was going to have to beg for it.
And so Sonny was relentless, his tongue as deep as he could thrust it into Rafael's ass, his hands pushing hard against his knees. He was in complete control.
Control was never something Sonny even knew he wanted.
Not until this moment, until Rafael had trusted him with it enough for both of them.
It was Rafael's trust that kept him tethered to earth, dedicated to his task to prove to both of them that this was something he could do. He could pace enough for both of them, could work enough for both of them. Could bring them both up and get them both off so spectacularly Rafael would never balk at letting Sonny in the driver's seat again.
It was another way to please Rafael, in the end. To make him forget all the stress and the pressure, the way his job wore on him, the self doubt that plagued him though he hid it so well. He could free Rafael from all that, at least for a little while, and instead let him lose himself in bliss. In letting go.
If only Rafael would just ask.
And then, he did.
Whether Sonny did something that felt particularly good, or if the extended pleasure and sensory deprivation and bondage had all become too much for him, Rafael broke.
"Please," he said, his voice wrecked and wanton and desperate. “Please, Sonny, please, please, please. Put your fingers inside me, fuck me, god, please fuck me, please, do something!"
It was all he wanted.
The slur of words thrown so recklessly into the world, propelled by the sound of Rafael's broken voice.
He pulled away, removed his tongue from his lover's body, and listened for the long keen of displeasure as he sat up again. It came just as Rafael realized Sonny's absence and it preceded another long litany of begging that made Sonny's vision blur and his head swim while every available drop of blood in his body made its way south.
It was easy to forget himself in those moments. To forget that he was hard to the point of pain, to forget that he was still mostly clothed. All he could think of was Rafael's desperate pleading and the body worked open and waiting for him to stop marveling at his good luck and get with the program. The program being the lube in their nightstand and the deepening scowl on Rafael’s face the longer he took to get to it.
He reached himself across the width of their king bed to pry the drawer open, finding the curvy bottle in less than a second. It was the sound of the cap flicking open that drew the smile back to Rafael’s face, even as his feet planted in the mattress and his back bowed off the bed to try and get closer to Sonny.
“You begged so good for me,” Sonny rasped as he parted his own fly with one hand and started a slow drizzle of lube over Rafael’s length. The man flinched against it at first, just long enough for him to recognize the sensation and arch up for more. “God, you look so good like this. All tied up and waiting to see if I’m going to fuck you or just leave you here.”
The whimper was back.
Rafael’s hands rattled against the headboard in protest but Sonny was quick to lean down and reward him with a kiss, just to dispel the notion that there would be any world in which he would walk away from the sight in front of him. There wasn’t. Sonny could think of no reason to ever leave Rafael wanting, not for time or attention or sex that turned them both inside out. In fact, Sonny was all too happy to wrap one hand around the flagging swell of Rafael’s dick and start a slow, hard pull upward that earned him a deep-throated moan and thick thighs tightening around his waist.
“You’re hard as rock, Raf,” Sonny observed as he moved. “How hard are you going to be when I get my cock in you?”
“Mm, Sonny—”
“Yeah, Raf?”
“Sonny, please.”
“I’m going,” he allowed playfully but still moseyed, even as Rafael whined in argument. Sonny removed his slick hand from Rafael’s body and instead focused on working his clothes down the curve of his hips. Not far — just far enough for his prick to spring free, to slap against his lower stomach hard enough to leave strings of precome connecting his head to his stomach. He gripped himself roughly at the base, squeezed so that the feeling of impending climax receded for a few moments.
“Sonny—”
“Do you know what you look like, Rafael?” Sonny asked, ignoring the plea before Rafael had even finished.
Rafael shook his head.
“You look amazing,” Sonny told him as his hand abandoned the hard grip and stroked leisurely upward instead. His way was slicked with warm silicone and the distinct sound of slicked flesh sliding over itself seemed to echo in the quiet room, accompanied only by the low groan that punched itself out of Rafael’s chest. “Do you know what I’m doing, Raf? Can you hear it, feel it?”
Rafael nodded.
“Do you wish you could see it for yourself?” he whispered and moved a little faster. Applied a little more slick. “I’ve been hard for half an hour now and you’re lucky I haven’t come already just at the sight of you. Arms pulled up over your head, cock heavy and full. Wrists red under my handcuffs because you’re too fucking needy not to fight them.”
Sonny moved faster, harder. Imagined how Rafael must be desperate to get away from the blindfold and watch what Sonny was doing to himself.
Taking mercy on both of them, Sonny settled again on his knees and lifted Rafael’s legs to hold around his waist. They stayed there, shaking as Sonny lined himself up with Rafael’s softened hole and slid inside. Hard, slow. Sinking into the ungodly heat that was housed inside Rafael even as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes against how perfect it felt. How perfect Rafael always felt in these moments, when he was so hard and so eager.
“Yes,” Rafael whispered roughly as he clenched and unclenched his hands. “Yes, please Sonny. More.”
Sonny gave him more, retreating from the inferno only to push in again before the very tip of his cock had even registered the cold outside Rafael’s body.
“Are you going to thank me, Rafael?” Sonny asked, pulling out again only to push in harder on his next return. Rafael gasped, arched. Pulled at his restraints because now was about the time he would be touching every inch of Sonny he could reach. “Are you going to thank me for cuffing you, for blindfolding you? For fucking you so good, just the way I know you like it?”
A plaintive moan tore itself from Rafael's throat as he turned his head to the side, as though even with the blindfold he couldn't face the humiliation of being asked to express gratitude on top of begging. Sonny might have worried, if it weren't for the way that the request also made a his lover's hips cant up toward him, hungry for more.
"I can't," Rafael choked, and at once Sonny thrust in hard against him, rocking his body forward and jerking his wrists against the cuffs.
"You can," Sonny replied, in a voice he barely recognized.
"Thank you." It was a whisper at first, and then a whine as Sonny thrust into him again. "Thank you for — oh, fuck, God... — thank you for fucking me, please, don't stop, don't stop!"
Sonny had no intention of stopping. The sight of Rafael before him, his cheeks flushed and his mouth open, trussed and tied and all for Sonny to do with as he pleased, was too good to resist. And it was nothing compared to the way Rafael felt around him, slick and tight and hot as hell. Trusting him to take care of him rather than ordering and demanding even as he placed himself entirely at Sonny’s feet to treat how he pleased.
"I won't," he soothed, even as his body kept the promise, continuing to roll his hips forward, each slow but powerful thrust causing Rafael to cry out or hiss in breath sharply. "What else did you want to thank me for, Rafael?"
"For — for handcuffing me," he panted, and tensed his legs tighter at Sonny's waist, as though he wanted to pull him closer. "For blindfolding me... for doing this to me, fuck, for fucking me, please, please Sonny, faster..."
Sonny could never deny Rafael's requests.
How could he be expected to do so when Rafael was so completely at his mercy, and begging so prettily?
He picked up his pace, the snapping of his hips taking on a positively punishing rhythm, and Rafael cried out, rattling the shackles that restrained him. The pained whimpers interspersed with his pleasured gasps and moans would have cooled Sonny's ardor if it weren't for the way Rafael began to beg again any time Sonny started to slow or gentle his movements. He was careful enough not to hurt him, but even so, he'd never fucked him this hard before.
Sonny wasn’t entirely unaffected by their roughness either, it seemed. His own mouth was starting to get away from him. He wouldn't be able to keep this up for long.
"Oh God, Rafael, you feel so fucking good. So fucking good around me. I love your body, love your ass... and you're all for me, aren't you? You don't let anyone else touch you like this, never let anyone else do this to you before, huh? Isn't that right, Raf? Aren’t you all mine?"
"Yes, yes, Sonny, yours, fuck, God," Rafael moaned, and Sonny was so pleased with his answer that he released Rafael's hip with one hand and instead gripped the bound man's leaking prick, jerking him roughly at the same speed at which he was fucking him into the mattress.
Rafael's cries became one long, wrecked moan as his hips jerked up toward Sonny's hand.
"Sonny, Sonny," he gasped and babbled as he came, painting his chest and stomach with pearly streaks of come. "I love you, oh, God, I love you, I love you, I love you...!"
Any other night, the sound of these words in his ear might have made him crumble.
He would have softened and reveled in the sound of them on Rafael’s tongue, would have smiled and kissed him senseless and fucked him slowly for half the night before finally letting himself reach his end.
Not tonight.
Tonight Sonny stroked him through his orgasm, until Rafael was breathless and flinching at the sensation of Sonny’s hand moving over him, before letting him go and instead wrapping both arms around Rafael’s lower back. He gripped the man tight, more than tight enough to bruise as he spread his legs a little wider and hauled Rafael up into his lap, onto his slick cock throbbing to be back in Rafael’s body. The rattle of handcuffs was loud in his ear — the strains of a melody layered over Rafael’s harsh breathing — and Sonny’s arms were tight metal bands across Rafael’s back as he thrusted forward and simultaneously speared Rafael onto him. Hard, deep. Angled just enough so that Sonny slammed into his prostate on every go and Rafael flinched and shuddered and strained against his bonds.
For a man addicted to the knife’s edge between pleasure and pain, being fucked post-orgasm was as close to ecstasy as Rafael Barba ever got.
“Like that, don’t you?” Sonny asked, planting his legs wide and bracing his back to fuck into Rafael’s shaking body. He could feel sweat slipping down his neck, trickling down the rigid column of his spine. “You like how I’m going to keep fucking you even after you’re done. You’re gonna lay there and take it and wish you could come again because I’m fucking you so good.”
Rafael whined, pulled more at his handcuffs. Sonny was aware of the dark red rings around the man’s wrist — visual evidence of how much Rafael was dying to touch him — and delighted in it. Soaked up the sight for himself with the added benefit of Rafael blinded with one of his ties, head tipped back and mouth open to spill all the minute noises Sonny fucked out of him.
“I hope you remember this for a long time, because I’m going to,” Sonny babbled mindlessly, feeling the pressure building at his core and spreading outward. “I’m going to remember what you look like tied to our bed, with my handcuffs. Blinded by the tie of mine you hate the most while I fuck you into submission. I’m gonna wear that tie every week now and think about where it’s been. I’m put it on and wear it around the precinct and every time you see me I want you to think about how you laid there and begged me to within an inch of your life.”
Sonny sped up.
The sparks were lighting now, his muscles tensing.
He held Rafael tighter, pulled him closer.
His eyes closed.
“Ah, God, Raf,” he gasped. “God, you feel so good. So perfect. Where do you want me to come, Raf? I might pull out, come all over your prick while it’s still hard. But that’s not what you really want, is it? I know what you want, what you always want. You want me to come inside you, don’t you Rafael? You want me to fill you up, give you my come so you can feel it drip out of you when I finally let you stand up.”
Sonny heard a muffled groan, something that approached a word.
“What was that?” Sonny groaned, thrusting deep.
“Please,” Rafael whined and Sonny came.
Pushed so deep starbursts exploded behind his closed eyes as he gripped Rafael tight and shook and flooded Rafael’s waiting hole. He jerked his hips through it, bucked and thrashed and cursed so loud the neighbors would complain, until every drop had left him and he felt hollowed out down to the deepest part of him. Hollowed out so that when he came back to reality, when his eyes blinked open again and the lights burned his eyes, he looked down at Rafael and felt the flood of warmth well up in his chest that surpassed everything else.
Sonny loved him.
So much it hurt, so much he had to struggle to feel anything else.
He took a long moment to breathe, to get his heart under control before he slipped his softening prick from Rafael’s body and admired the beads of thick white that slipped out after him. Sonny let him go, removed his arms from around Rafael’s hips and let him rest gently on the bed again. He rubbed comforting circles into his sides, his thighs. Gave gentle caresses and murmured endearments rather than commands as he reached up for the handcuffs binding Rafael to the headboard.
He made quick work of them, uncuffing Rafael almost as quickly as he had cuffed him in the first place, his touch gentle as he rubbed the dark red rings that circled his wrists. Slowly, he lifted first one wrist than the other to his mouth, to press soft kisses against the marks. Then, finally, he tugged his tie off from where it still covered Rafael's eyes, watching as Rafael blinked slowly, his pupils still blown wide, eyes focused somewhere in the distance.
Rafael lay quiet and pliant, still coming back to himself, and Sonny brushed a kiss against his forehead before whispering, "Be right back."
He went to the bathroom for a washcloth, and returned, finally lowering himself to the bed, pressing against Rafael as he gently began cleaning the cooling come from Rafael's belly. Rafael didn't watch the process, instead lifting his hands slowly, an utterly sated look on his face as he eyed the red rings.
"That was perfect," Sonny told him. " You were perfect." He kissed Rafael softly. "How are you feeling?"
"Well," Rafael said contemplatively, his voice still a little hoarse, "You're going to have to remind me not to roll my sleeves up for a few days, but other than that..." He trailed off, a smile as close to blissful as Sonny had ever seen on him stretching across his face. "That was better than I expected," he admitted.
Sonny laughed lightly and massaged his arms, knowing that his muscles would be sore. "Good," he said, "because it was even better than I thought it would be, too."
Rafael watched as Sonny continued his ministrations down his arms, returning to the red rings on his wrists and rubbing gentle circles against them with his thumbs. Comfortable silence stretched between them, Sonny's focus fully on Rafael, and making sure he was comfortable. Cared for.
Loved.
"Are we going to talk about it?" Rafael asked, and Sonny’s eyes snapped up to his, his brow furrowing.
“Talk about what?”
Rafael rolled his eyes but made no move to sit up, clearly enjoying the attention Sonny was lavishing on him too much to shift positions. “What I said.”
“What you—” Sonny broke off, realization hitting him. “Uh, we don't have to.”
“Don't you want to?”
Rafael made the question sound simultaneously innocent and entirely loaded, and Sonny shrugged, returning his attention to Rafael’s wrists. “Nothing to talk about, really.”
Now Rafael did shift, propping himself up on one elbow. “I tell you that I love you and you think there's nothing to talk about?”
“A coerced confession is inadmissible,” Sonny said mildly. “Or do I need to quote Miranda v Arizona to you?”
Rafael rolled his eyes again. “I was unaware that this counted as a custodial interrogation.”
“Orozco v Texas would say it was,” Sonny told him. “As would, you know, the fact that you were handcuffed to our bed.”
“And enjoying every minute of it,” Rafael murmured almost lazily, and Sonny chuckled and leaned in to kiss him lightly. “Doesn't change the fact that this wasn't an interrogation, and if you try to quote Rhode Island v Innis …”
He trailed off, mock-threateningly, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, and Sonny just shook his head. “Wouldn't dream of it,” he said. “You'd just counter with Harris v New York anyway.”
Rafael smirked, though there was nothing sharp in his smile. “I was thinking Oregon v Hass, but same general conclusion.” Sonny shook his head and made as if to pull away but Rafael caught his hand. “If you'd prefer, Detective, I'll say it again. Voluntarily, free of coercion, in full waiver of my Miranda rights.”
“Rafael—” Sonny started, but Rafael ignored him.
“I love you."
"And you're not just saying that because I handcuffed you to our bed and fucked you senseless?"
Rafael rolled his eyes so hard it looked painful, and Sonny grinned. "Just wanted to verify."
He leaned in and kissed Rafael, slow and sweet, but when he pulled back, Rafael's expression had shifted into something like bored indifference. "Is that all you have to say?"
Sonny blinked at him. "What do you want me to say?"
Rafael huffed a sigh. "Normally this is the part of the conversation where you'd say, 'I love you, too'."
Sonny suddenly recognized the emotion playing in Rafael's eyes, no matter how good he was at keeping it off his face: nervousness. "Oh," Sonny said, his grin widening. "Well, no shit."
Rafael sighed exasperatedly. "No shit," he repeated, incredulous. "And they say romance is dead—"
Sonny caught the rest of Rafael's complaint with an open-mouthed kiss, cradling Rafael's cheek as he licked into his mouth, eager as always to drink in whatever Rafael would give him, eager even more so now that he knew, now that Rafael had finally voiced the three words Sonny had felt for so long but hesitated to say before he knew Rafael was ready.
"I love you, too," Sonny said finally, his chest warm and full at the words.
Rafael smiled. "Good."
Sonny kissed him once more before standing, and Rafael whined at the sudden loss of heat. "Where are you going?"
"To actually change out of my clothes," Sonny said. "Unless you want me to sleep in my suit."
Rafael eyed him critically. "Honestly wouldn't make much difference to it," he murmured, and Sonny rolled his eyes and disappeared into the closet.
"We should do this again sometime," he called.
"Which part?" Rafael asked, and Sonny could hear the smile in his voice.
"All of it."
Sonny reemerged and Rafael's grin softened. "I think I can be persuaded."
Rafael snorted and Sonny laid down next to him again, snuggling in close and kissing him once more. "I love you, Raf."
"I love you, too," Rafael returned.
They were quiet for a moment before Rafael added, "Maybe next time I'll handcuff you to the bed."
Sonny just laughed. "Maybe next time I'll let you."