Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“My boss’s boyfriend broke up with him.” Lucius sits on the barstool and sighs.

“The usual?” Ed asks. Lucius works in porn and always orders a pornstar martini. It was a joke, at first, but Lucius discovered he liked the drink.

“Please.”

Ed grabs a few bottles. “Why is that your problem?” All Ed knows is that he works for some kind of porn startup and that his boss sounds kinda insane. He starts pouring the ingredients into jiggers and adding them to a cocktail shaker.

“We’re launching this week.” Lucius sighs. “It’s ethical porn, you know? Sorta amateur. Sam was all set to be part of it, but he broke it off, and now Stede doesn’t have a partner.”

Ed frowns in confusion. “Your boss is doing it too? And I thought it was instructional porn?”

Lucius shrugs. “Little of both. And yeah, Stede wants it all to be real-life partners, and now he doesn’t have one. They filmed some stuff, but Sam won’t let us use it—just as well, he wasn’t very good anyway.”

“How do you know?” Ed asks.

Lucius smirks. “My boyfriend does the editing.”

Once he has his drink, Lucius goes on to talk about the new site in more detail—it’s meant to help people explore their desires and potential kinks without the awkwardness of most scripted porn. His boss, Stede, came out in middle age after divorcing a woman and found porn unsatisfying. Regular porn lacked an emotional component, and instructional porn was often very dry. So he quit his job and found some folks willing to join in the filming with their partners and to help build the site and work on the socials.

Ed is fucking fascinated. “So he decided he should just… What, quit his job and go into porn himself?” Who the fuck does that? He’s suddenly dying to meet this Stede guy himself. Ed has been on camera himself a few times, though it was never distributed beyond his current partner at the time. Always really got off on it, though. Amateur porn–I could do that.

Too bad Ed doesn’t have a partner at the moment, either.

Lucius nods. “Yeah, and it sounded like more fun than my old job as his EA.” He pauses to sip his drink. “But now we’re going to be short of some content without the stuff he and Sam shot. But Sam’s a stick in the mud, I’m not surprised he broke it off with Stede. Anyway, Stede’s gonna shoot some solo stuff to make up for the missing content.”

Sam sounds like a stupid prick, giving up a guy brave enough to start his own porn site. Stede seems like a lunatic, and Ed’s always had a fondness for lunatics. Ed’s eager to see what the site is all about.

Ed clears his throat and asks, super casually, “Hey, you mind sending me the link when you launch?” He is dying to know how this turns out.

“Welcome to Buy Our Booty! Ethically made porn featuring real folks, including some instructional content. We fuck it through, just for you! I’m Steve, and I’ll be your camboy here today.” The blond man sitting on the bed frowns. “Cam man? Not sure I can still be called a boy,” he mutters. He smiles brightly again. “Cam gent, perhaps! We’re here today to learn about anal beads for solo play!”

Ed laughs—they could have edited all that out, but they didn’t, and he’s charmed.

Ed is freshly showered and naked in bed and, as always, his brain is buzzing too much for him to fall asleep right away. A good wank will usually do the trick, so he decided to check out the link that Lucius sent him earlier. Unlike most porn sites, which are just pretty basic—wall-to-wall cocks and holes—it has adorable pirate theming. Ed zeroed in immediately on the one solo video available so far, assuming that would be Lucius’s boss. His curiosity about the man has been insatiable; he’s the most interesting person Ed has heard of in ages.

The man on the stream is… Well, he’s incredibly fucking hot, solidly built with insane legs and an even more insane cock. Even soft, it’s impressive. More than just being hot, Stede seems to glow from within, like he is absolutely thrilled to be teaching the world about anal beads today. Ed knows his way around some anal beads, but he’s thrilled to allow himself to be instructed on them by this man.

That Sam guy who dumped Stede must be an idiot.

Stede winks at the camera (so dorky yet so hot somehow) and says, “If you’re watching this just for fun, skip ahead about five minutes.” Ed is tempted to skip ahead, but Stede is too interesting—he’s so animated when he talks, and so nice to look at, that Ed doesn’t mind waiting for the good shit.

Stede starts by talking through the set of beads he’s chosen, a basic blue silicone set, not too big or long. He gives an overview of why he chose this brand and particular model; he’s even taken factors like ergonomics and cleanliness into consideration. He recommends a different set for beginners and addresses myths about anal training. He also talks through the particular brand of lube he’s chosen. Ed actually makes a note of the information for potential future purchases, since it’s clear that Stede’s done his homework, and he notes that the website has not and will not accept any sponsorships, so his opinions are unbiased.

Once Stede finishes talking through the products, he reclines on the bed, spreading his legs to expose his pretty, unwaxed (nice) hole to the camera.

“You may want to warm up with some prostate massage,” Stede says as he applies some lube to his fingers. “I like to start with the perineum.” He pulls his knees back further and begins to rub his taint with his middle and index fingers. He throws his head back and moans, full-throated and unashamed to indulge himself for the world to see. He’s got a little silver chain around his neck. Ed can easily imagine pulling him close by the chain for a sloppy kiss.

Ed’s cock is already responding eagerly to Stede’s demonstration. If that’s how Stede sounds when he’s just beginning, Ed’s in trouble. He scrambles for his own lube in the bedside drawer. As Stede rubs himself and moans, his cock visibly plumping, Ed takes himself in hand and starts to stroke himself lazily. Not too fast, though, since he doesn’t want to get there before Stede does.

Ed can easily picture himself as the one rubbing Stede’s taint and making him moan, to be the person who slips a finger inside his tight little hole and moves it in slow circles. Sweat is already beading on Stede’s chest as he touches himself, and Ed would lick it off him and suck at his nipples—the pinkest, most tempting ones Ed’s ever seen.

Stede’s cries turn harsher when he, presumably, starts rubbing his prostate. Ed’s own hand moves a little faster over his cock. As porn goes, it’s pretty tame so far, but something about this guy and his unbridled enthusiasm is doing it for Ed. If this guy is fairly new to cam work (from what Lucius said, he is), then he’s a natural.

Ed wishes he could meet this guy and pick his brain. Talking to Stede would be fun, he thinks. What he’s doing here is fascinating, not to mention that he’s hot as hell.

Smiling at the camera, Stede picks up the anal beads, and all the thoughts fly right out of Ed’s head. He’s pretty when he smiles. Ed wishes he were the cause of that smile as well as the filthy noises Stede makes. “I think I’m warmed up enough now,” Stede says. He starts talking about the importance of using enough lube as he applies more to himself and rubs some very carefully onto each bead. “I’m not sure if I’ll take all of these today. I suppose I’ll see how frisky I’m feeling!”

Frisky. Ed can’t believe he’s attracted to a man who uses that word unironically. But oh, he is.

Stede rolls onto his front and then gets his knees and one hand, adorably flat ass facing the camera. “You can enjoy the anal beads on their own,” Stede says as he teases at his hole with the first bead, “but it’s usually more pleasurable with stimulation of the cock—you can use another toy, but for today, I’ll use my hand when the time, er, comes.” He gives the camera another cheeky wink over his shoulder. “Start with just the tip, and go slow. If it’s your first time, deep breathing can help.”

[A sketch style piece by poorlyformed. Stede is seen from behind, on his knees and one hand, and his other hand is inserting anal beads. His face is seen in profile and he is winking.]

Stede inserts the tip of the first bead, audibly gasping at the sensation. Ed has to stroke himself faster and faster as Stede inserts the first two beads, explaining how they feel best when they’re moved in and out. “Fuck, I feel so full,” he growls between beads, his voice hitting a lower register that goes straight to Ed’s cock. “The space between beads provides both relief and—” he starts inserting the next one—“anticipation. Give yourself time to get used to each one.”

Eventually, Stede has inserted every single bead. “This doesn’t feel as good with the more traditional stringed beads, but I like them better—you can fuck yourself with these.” He starts moving them in and out of himself, moaning loudly. Ed feels a sudden rush of heat and nearly comes on the spot—he has to squeeze the base of his cock to avoid it.

Stede is panting now, but he manages a few more words. “Now if you’re a beginner, you may not know this, but the trick is to pull them out slowly as you come—it feels incredible.”

That’s true. Ed wishes he had some beads to hand so he could do this along with Stede. Maybe he will the next time he—inevitably—watches this video again.

As Stede starts to stroke his cock in earnest, fucking himself with the beads, Ed is fucking his own fist in a similar rhythm. “Ah, yes, I’m close, I’m—” As Stede starts pulling the beads out, his words become incoherent sounds. Ed’s fucking his own fist too as he watches Stede start to come, his back arching as he shoots all over his belly.

Ed follows a moment later, heat flowing through his dick as he comes over his own fist.

Ed’s too busy coming down from one of the most intense orgasms he’d had in a while to register what Stede says once he sits up—he notices only how Stede is beaming with pride.

“… I was meant to have a partner, but that didn’t work out.” He makes an adorably annoyed face, nose scrunched up. “So I’ll have some more solo videos for you for a while. You can check out some of our lovely partner videos…”

While Ed’s looking forward to anything Stede puts out, it’s sort of a shame that he doesn’t have a partner. He’d be curious to see what they’d get up to.

They said it couldn’t be done, not by him, anyway, but by golly, Stede Bonnet has done it—he’s launched a porn website! They’ve even had a few subscribers in their first few days, likely mostly friends of his and the other contributors, but it’s a start! They’ll need to add a lot of content over time to build up their subscriber base, but Stede has enough capital to float the operation until that happens.

The only downside to the whole experience thus far has been Sam’s frankly rude and ill-timed dumping. He thought Sam was into the idea of the site, and that they’d been rubbing along together just fine, though Stede supposes he’s been rather preoccupied with work lately. Sam had made a few snarky comments about all the stuff Stede was buying for filming at home: cameras, lights, microphones.

"Production values are crucial!" Stede argued. "We want people to feel like they're really in the room with us!”

Stede couldn't fully make out Sam's muttered reply to that.

The last straw, as it happened, was the special toy Stede bought for them to try. He was very excited about it–he probably spent a bit more than he should, especially with all the other expenses for the site, but it turns out Stede can’t resist fancy, top-of-the-line merchandise, even when it comes to sex toys and paraphernalia.

When the thing arrived, Stede set it up and gave it a spin while Sam was out at work. Stede made him cover his eyes when he got home, until he let him into the room where it was set up.

“Surprise!” Stede cried when Sam stopped covering his eyes.

Sam tilted his head. “What is that thing?”

“A premium sex machine! What would you say to trying that the next time we film?”

Sam turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

In the end, it wasn’t a big fight. Sam calmly told Stede that he was having second thoughts about starring in amateur porn, especially since he was due for a big promotion at work. Stede offered to edit Sam’s face out, but he shrugged. “I don’t want to try all this weird stuff, Stede. And I don’t want to shoot porn. I liked our sex life the way it was.” He sighs. “I was willing to try–you know I was. For our sake. But it’s just not for me.”

Well. Sam had been too stiff (not in the desirable way) on camera anyway, so it was just as well they broke up. Stede was happy to agree to delete the files of everything they filmed together. The two of them clearly want different things out of life, and it was far better to figure that out after only a year of dating than to let things get even more serious.

After years trapped in a comp-het marriage, Stede wants to try everything he can, sexually.

Now that the initial shock is past, Stede finds he doesn’t miss Sam at all, which is telling. He supposes he should not have stuck with the first person he dated seriously after coming out, but he was afraid of being alone at his age. Afraid, too, that no one would want to be saddled with a middle-aged baby gay. Now Stede has to start all over again, or else get used to being alone.

The problem is that now Stede has little hope of getting to do everything he wants to try. He’s not built for casual sex. No, Sam was not a fit, but the idea of trying to find a new partner, someone who shares his interest in kink, is daunting.

The idea for the site originally was to feature couples or partners—unscripted sex being had by people who want to have sex with one another, in any event. Well, at least there’s Lucius and Pete, and Jim, Olu, and Archie. They all work on some aspect of the site as well as creating content, and each owns a share of the company. Stede, as one of the investors, owns an extra share, as does his co-investor, Jackie. Jackie has said that she and some of her husbands may submit videos too. The more, the merrier! Stede wants there to be a wide range of all types of folks participating.

He sighs and refreshes Buy Our Booty’s Bluesky page (they won’t go near Twitter). Another follower!

That brings them up to twenty-seven. Appropriately enough, the new follower’s handle is blackbeard-1980. A fellow pirate lover! Out of curiosity, Stede clicks through.

The account doesn’t have much—the person must be a lurker. At the top of the feed, there’s a selfie of a gorgeous man about his own age in a purple tee shirt who has the most stunning hair—and eyes, and skin, and lips, and tattoos—that Stede has ever seen. Simply looking at the man sends a shiver of pleasure down Stede’s spine. To think that someone this attractive is interested in Stede’s little porn startup!

Just then, a text comes through from Lucius.

Lucius: You’re coming to the Kraken tonight - be there at 7

Stede: There’s so much to do 😭

Lucius: You’re working too hard!

Lucius: We had a successful launch - you should celebrate that

He’s right. Stede has been working very hard, and some socializing would do him some good. Though he doesn’t miss Sam (surprisingly so), he does miss having someone around to talk to.

When Stede gets to the Kraken that night, Lucius accosts him as soon as he gets out of his car. “Wait till you meet the owner.”

“Lucius! Is this a setup?” Stede is ready to turn around and leave. He had pulled this sort of thing before Stede got with Sam.

“No, I wanted you to come out tonight—you’ve been cooped up in your sex room for too long. Alone.” Stede rolls his eyes as Lucius continues, “But the best way to get over someone is to get under someone new. A hookup would be good for you, and this guy is hot.”

Stede groans. He’s never been good at the hookup thing, for all his enthusiastic interest in sex. People find him strange or awkward. Even if he does find someone to sleep with, it’s a one-off. Stede’s not about to get into kink scenes with one-night stands.

“I don’t think that’s for me,” Stede says.

“Why not? It’s a time-honored response to being dumped–”

“I wasn’t dumped! We mutually agreed!”

“Whatever. Fine, just come have a drink, you can ignore the guy if you like.” Lucius smirks, like he knows a secret. “But it’s normal to want to get laid, you know.”

“There’s nothing normal about my situation,” Stede says under his breath as he follows Lucius. He is quite aware that coming out in his forties, divorcing his wife, and starting a porn site as a kind of private “fuck you” to his late, conservative asshole father is not what most people think of as normal.

As Stede enters the bar, he tells himself that he will ignore the supposedly hot owner. He can’t fuck just anyone! He doesn’t find just anyone attractive! He likes to get to know them a bit first, most of the time.

When he and Lucius get up to the bar, there appears to be no one there. Lucius gets up on his toes and leans over the bar. “Hi, Ed,” he says to the empty air.

“Fuck!” a man’s voice yells. A moment later, the owner of the voice pops up from behind the bar, where he was apparently crouched down. The man catches sight of Stede and tosses his long, silvery tresses over his shoulder.

He’s wearing a black mesh top and what look to be obscenely tight leather pants.

He’s also familiar. “Blackbeard!” Stede blurts.

The man grins at Stede, the skin around his whiskey-colored eyes crinkling. “You’ve heard of me?” he asks, amused.

Stede is flustered. He will have to admit to looking at the beautiful man’s Bluesky page, but then again, Blackbeard did follow his account first. “I, um, saw your account—you followed us today?”

Blackbeard leans towards Stede across the bar. “That I did. Name’s Ed. And you’re Stede.”

“You’ve heard of me?” Stede squeaks in surprise.

“Oh, I’ve heard of you. I’ve heard all about you.” His eyes dip down to Stede’s chest. Stede thanks whatever deity exists for the fact that he’d worn a tight button-down shirt today and left a few buttons undone. “I’ve seen you, too,” Blackbeard—Ed—adds. “Your–your site, I mean. I like your site. I like what you all are doing.”

“You—oh!” Stede’s a little slow on the uptake, likely due to being stunned by this man’s beauty. It turns out that hot had been a tremendous understatement. This is surely the most attractive human he’s ever been privileged enough to behold. Lucius thinks this ethereal creature would want to hook up with Stede? Stede has learned to appreciate his own looks well enough, but surely he doesn’t hold a candle to this man.

Ed is speaking, but Stede hasn’t heard any of it, so stunned is he, which is quite rude. “I’m sorry, please say that again?”

“Was hoping to pick your brain. I’m fascinated by the whole thing.” He smiles a bit sheepishly and leans closer to Stede. “I don’t have a partner right now, not sure if you need more solo content, but–”

“Yes!” If Ed wants to do something for the site, Stede would be foolish to refuse. “I’m happy to discuss it with you, if you like!”

“Bet you are,” Lucius mutters. Stede glares at him before looking back at Ed–nothing else here or anywhere is worth looking at, compared to him.

Stede expects Ed to offer to exchange numbers. “Ivan!” he calls out instead.

A man pops his head out from what must be a storage room. “Yeah, boss?”

“Watch the bar,” Ed says. He looks at Stede. “Can I buy you a drink?”

Some liquid courage seems to be in order. “Just a beer is fine,” he says.

Ed gestures with his head towards a booth in the corner as he grabs two pints. “Be right there.”

A few moments later, Stede is sipping a beer and nervously waiting for Ed to speak.

“Why porn, mate?” Ed asks, eyes twinkling with curiosity. The question is not salacious, coming from him–he seems to truly want to know. With only a little coaxing, Stede tells him all of it–his father, his marriage, his urge to explore his sexuality further, and how that led to the idea for Buy Our Booty.

“The porn that’s out there was so scripted at best, and racist or exploitative-feeling at worst,” Stede explains. “I have seen some lovely ethical porn sites, but a lot of the folks on them look the same–white, cis, thin. Young, unless they’re ‘daddies.’ Surely to be ethical, porn should represent a much more diverse array of people?”

Ed nods along. “Makes sense to me. Kinda boring, too, if everyone’s the same, and it’s more fun if you think they want to be there.”

“Yes!” Ed really gets it. “Hence amateur porn, filmed at home with people sleeping with real partners–or at least those they want to have sex with.” Stede hesitates, since if he goes on, he will get into the Sam thing, and Ed likely doesn’t want to hear about his love life.

Ed looks down into his nearly empty pint. “Here’s where I admit I saw your video, man. The anal beads. Fucking great stuff.”

Stede knew in theory that he would talk to people who had seen his videos; hell, people on he works with have, and he’s seen some of theirs. He thought it might be awkward with someone he had just met, but instead he feels a burst of pride that Ed–of all people!--enjoyed his work.

“You, uh, said something about not having a partner anymore…” Ed continues. “Lucius said something about it too, last week.”

Stede sighs. “Yes, my boyfriend and I broke up not long before we launched. We wanted different things.”

Ed’s eyes snap up to meet Stede’s. “Was it because of the site? But it’s brilliant!”

Stede feels his face flush–he’s proud of the whole thing, and Ed’s praise is lovely.

“Yes and no. The site just exposed cracks that were already there.” He sips his lager, thinking for a moment. He hasn’t told anyone the full story, and Ed is so kind and interested. Stede has been worried that he crossed a line with Sam, and that he was right to–yes, fine–dump him for it. Not that he expected Sam to do it if he didn’t want to! Stede would never ask that of anyone. But was it really so over-the-top as a gesture, considering Stede’s line of work?

Ed is waiting patiently, his eyes still bright and curious. Stede feels strangely comfortable with him, so he charges ahead. “Say, Ed, what would you say if you came home one day to find that your boyfriend had brought home a premium, top-of-the-line sex machine as a surprise in the hopes that you’d try it out with him?”

Ed barks a laugh. Stede waits, and after a moment, he stops laughing and frowns. “Wait, serious question?”

Oh, dear, he thinks it’s a stupid idea. I only have stupid ideas, and now this very attractive man thinks I’m an idiot. Still, it’s too late to back down from the question now that he’s posed it. “Yes.”

Brow furrowed, Ed slowly says, “Well, I suppose there’s only one possible thing to say in that situation.”

“What’s that?” Stede braces himself for Ed saying that he’d tell his boyfriend off.

Ed grins for a moment, his mouth turning up higher at one corner than the other. Just as fast, the grin fades, and he does something with his eyes to make them look–well, like bedroom eyes. “‘Where’s the lube?’” he asks, voice low.

Stede’s breath hitches at Ed asking that question in that husky tone. A moment later, he bursts out laughing, and Ed joins him. They garner looks from the rest of the bar, including Lucius, who smirks.

“Of course, I’d want to use the fancy fucking sex toy!”

“Fancy fucking is a good description, considering what I paid!”

That brings about a fresh round of laughter. Once their giggles die down, Ed puts his elbows on the table and leans across it. “You mean this is why he broke up with you?”

“Well, it started the conversation… I suppose you could say we were ill-matched.”

“I’ll say,” Ed huffs. “But hey, it’s a fucking machine, right? You can still try it, for the site, right? Don’t need anyone else!”

Is it Stede’s imagination, a trick of the low light of the bar, or have Ed’s cheeks flushed a little?

“I suppose,” Stede replies. “I am planning to, but, well, I’d rather hoped…” He shrugs rather than go on to say I like to watch.

Ed nods, understanding. He sips his beer with a thoughtful expression on his face, one that shifts slowly into excitement. When he puts his pint glass down, his eyes are sparkling with mischief. “Hey, Stede, feel free to tell me to fuck off, but… Do you want to do something weird?”

Chapter Text

Ed has gone from crushing to infatuated in an alarmingly short space of time.

He’s surprised, to say the least, when the subject of his filthiest fantasies comes strolling into his bar in a tight polo shirt and even tighter jeans. Horny thoughts aside, Ed is sincere in his desire to talk to Stede about participating in Buy Our Booty. He’s been thinking about that a lot over the past few days and was about ready to ask Lucius if something like that was possible, even if he doesn’t have a partner.

Once Stede walks in, Ed wants to hear all about it from the source, and the more he talks to the guy over the next hour or so, the more he likes him and wants to know him better.

He thinks the feeling might be mutual, too. Ed catches Stede looking at his chest in the slutty mesh shirt a few times, heat flaring in his gaze. Ed has been so pent up since seeing Stede’s video that he dressed up with the thought of maybe looking up someone on Grindr after work, though it’s been a long while since he let off steam that way.

All thoughts of that fly out of his head once he meets Stede. Somehow, he’s even more handsome in person—and he already seemed pretty fucking handsome on screen! He has incredible hair and legs, and as for his dick… Ed is trying very hard not to think about that right now.

It’s Stede’s face, though, that’s Ed’s favorite, especially now that he’s seen it in person… So animated, and with a pretty dimple when he smiles.

Stede is open to letting Ed film something, and excitement is fizzling through his veins over it. He never wanted to get into the industry when he was younger, considering how exploitative it seemed, but he was approached about doing amateur porn when he attended clubs and kink events in the past. With Stede’s more ethical brand of porn, Ed feels good about signing on.

When Stede tells the story of the sex machine and how his ex refused to try it, it only seems natural for Ed–impulsive as always–to propose trying it himself.

Stede’s eyes go wide. “Oh, Ed! You’d really want to?”

“Yeah, I would,” Ed said. He cleared his throat, thinking of how to put this because he had to be clear on what exactly he was offering here. “And if you, uh, wanted to be there, maybe make it a little scene? I’d be cool with that.” Ed tries to sound cool as a cucumber, but he’s nearly ready to burst out of his skin with excitement. It was a good thing his leathers are tight, not that Stede can see his dick getting hard through the table anyway.

Stede is silent for a long moment.

Fuck, dumb idea… “Sorry, never mind, not cool to ask you that, but it’s fine, just an offer–”

“You’d really want to?” Stede repeats. “With me?” He sounds dumbfounded.

Ed is puzzled by that. “‘Course. You’re fucking hot, mate.”

Stede’s eyes look like they’re about to pop right out of his head. “I–well, yes! I’d love that!”

The tension melts out of Ed’s shoulders. “Fucking–this is great!”

Ed’s not quite sure what he’s getting himself into, but life’s been boring lately–the bar is successful, and he’s made a killing on some personal investments over the years. He’s been considering retiring from tending bar himself, but never had any better ideas of what to do.

Buy Our Booty could be just the thing he needs. He hasn’t been this excited about anything in years, maybe ever.

If things had ended there for the night, it would have been just fine. Swell, even.

But they keep talking for hours after that, and Ed starts to realize that he really likes Stede. Likes likes Stede, in the drawing their initials together with little hearts in his notebook kind of way. He wants to ask Stede out on a proper date, but he stops himself. He can’t exactly do that, can he? Too fucking weird.

Ed has friends-with-porn-benefits-zoned himself.

Stede 🍆💦: Would you fight 100 duck-sized horses or a 1 horse-sized duck?

Ed: pssh, that’s an old one

Ed: easy, too–the bill on a horse sized duck would be terrifying, no thanks

Stede 🍆💦: True! But just think - a duck that large would be a cryptid! We’d be famous for proving its existence!

Stede 🍆💦: And think of all the noise a hundred horse-sized ducks would make! That alone would have me running away.

Fucking lunatic, Ed thinks as he types a reply. But he’s grinning to himself.

Since the night they met, Ed and Stede have been texting and getting to know one another as Stede’s HR and legal people work out Ed’s contract—something about the company being employee-owned, though he’d only be a contractor to start, not owning any shares. Everyone agrees to get tested regularly for STDs, so Ed gets that done, too, though he goes pretty regularly.

Meanwhile, Ed's infatuation with Stede continues to grow. Offering to shoot amateur porn, even super ethical porn, with someone doesn’t seem like a great route to a relationship. The other folks contributing to the site are already partnered up and have agreed to do this together.

Stede is so fucking funny and kind, though. Totally insane, too, in a way that Ed really digs. They share a surprising number of interests outside kink. In addition to their love of pirates, they both like knitting. He wants to ask Stede out, wine and dine him, and maybe start picking out wedding colors.

Ed knows deep down that the real reason he won’t ask Stede out is that he’s nice, and nice guys traditionally don't want Ed for anything serious. Most guys see Ed as a fun, casual lay, and that’s about it. And in most cases, Ed’s been just fine with that.

But Stede already feels like a friend, just after a few days of chatting. Ed hasn’t had many friends, and he doesn’t want to lose this one. Maybe they can be friends-with-porn-benefits. That could work, right?

Now that all the legalities have been squared away, tonight’s the night. As Ed fluffs his hair and puts on a smidge more eyeliner, he worries that being porn buddies is not, in fact, a thing.

Ed is committed to doing this first video, though—he wants to do it. But he knows he already likes Stede so much that he’ll eventually be hurt. Stede is newly single and has all kinds of people salivating over him. He’s posted a few more solo videos, mostly sex toy instruction, and Ed’s not only wanked over all of them–he’s seen the comments. People think Stede is an entire fucking snack, and rightly so. He’ll eventually want to experiment with other folks, the thought makes Ed a bit queasy–even though it wouldn’t be fair to be jealous.

Ed thinks they’re on the same page about the sex stuff, at least–or complementary pages, from the talk they’ve had already. It will have to be enough.

Still, Ed wants to look his best, even though he doesn’t need to seduce. Once he’s paired his signature leather pants with the sluttiest crop top he owns, he hits the road.

When Ed arrives at the address he was given, it turns out to be a McMansion-sized house. Stede pops out before Ed is even out of the car.

“Ed, hi!” Stede stops and looks him over. “Oh, you look…” Stede hesitates for a moment before saying, “Beautiful.”

Ed had been expecting one of a few different words during that pause: great, hot, sexy. Not Beautiful. No one has ever called him beautiful before. He clears his throat, hoping Stede doesn’t notice the blush staining his cheeks. “Thank you,” he replies softly.

After a moment, Stede regains his composure. “Where are my manners? Come on inside!”

Ed allows himself to be led inside and obligingly takes off his boots in the foyer. The living room of the house, just beyond the entrance, is massive and done up in tones of peacock with gold accents, stuffed full of plush-looking furniture. There’s a fireplace, which, before he can stop himself, makes Ed briefly dream of nights snuggled by the fire. Everything looks classic, though colorful. There are even a couple of huge chandeliers, and shelves full of cook knick-knacks.

“Holy shit,” Ed breathes as he turns in a slow circle. “All this space is just for you?”

Stede blushes. “I know it’s a bit much—”

“Are you kidding? It’s incredible.”

Stede beams brightly at Ed’s pronouncement, and it makes him feel like he just won a million bucks in the lottery. “Yes, well, it seemed like a good use of part of my inheritance. My late father would have hated it.

Ed gets that, since his own dad was a dick, too.

Stede invites Ed to sit down and brings out a laptop. “So boundaries and preferences first, and maybe some ideas for future filming.”

Ed had come prepared, having given some thought over the past few days on these topics. “Yeah, man, but why do we need a laptop?”

Stede blushes as he opens the lid. “I spent a lot of time watching porn—obviously—figuring out what I might like. A lot of it was stuff I never tried, so I wrote it down in a spreadsheet, figuring I could explore. There’s no obligation for any of it, but maybe it will spark some ideas.”

It’s fun to talk through Stede’s list—they laugh a lot. It takes about an hour, but they cover a lot of ground: safety, hard no’s, hell yeah’s. They also cover aftercare preferences.

They’re pretty well aligned on boundaries and hard nos. For example, Ed likes pain and some degradation, within limits. Stede is pain-curious, but has a hard boundary on derogatory language referring to himself. They’re both no’s on watersports, scat, or anything too medical. Breathplay gets an asterisk as something to be researched and discussed further down the road if they wish.

They seem compatible in the things they want to explore, too. It’s hot just talking about this stuff, leaning how much they’re preferences align. They’re both keen on bondage, from either side of it, and on roleplays. Stede wants to explore his more dominant side, though he’s eager to try submission too. Ed, on the other hand, is tired of being seen as a leather daddy, but privately he thinks it could be fun to dom Stede a bit.

“Leather daddy?” Stede asks with interest. “If you don’t mind bringing that out of retirement at least once, that could be fun.” He types a note in his spreadsheet.

“Sure, don’t mind trying that. Just, like, not all the time.”

“Understood.” Stede finishes typing. Ed, who’s sitting next to Stede on the couch, close enough to feel the heat radiating from his body, looks at his laptop screen.

“Pretty good list to start with. But let’s keep it flexible—in case we have other ideas.”

Stede looks over at him and winks in that dorky-hot way of his. “Oh, I’m flexible, alright.”

“I bet you are,” Ed says, as sultry as possible. They lock eyes for a moment, and suddenly Ed is hyper-aware of just how close Stede is. Their bodies are pressed together, and it’s so fucking comfortable and natural.

Ed could easily see this being his life.

“One more thing.” Stede hesitates. “Kissing–should it be on the table? Not everyone–”

“Yes,” Ed interrupts quickly. “I mean, it’s cool with me if it’s cool with you.”

Stede nods eagerly. “Yup! Very cool with me.” He grins at Ed. “Well, I suppose… If you’re ready to begin?” Stede asks.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Ed says. His blood has been running hot over the past few days, thinking about Stede and the sex machine. About Stede watching him with the sex machine. “Do you think that you and I will, uh… do anything, tonight? Or it will just be me and the machine?”

Stede looks eager, yet adorably nervous. “Whatever you’re comfortable with. We can go with how we’re feeling the moment?”

“Sounds good, man.”

Ed wonders if he should pave the way, maybe try to kiss Stede now or something. But then Stede asks if he’d prefer to eat first, but Ed says no, it’s better to wait. The moment passes.

Stede leads him down a hall to another large space, a library filled with hundreds of leather-bound books.

Edd is too stunned to speak, but Stede chatters on as he crosses the room. “I already have supplies set up—plenty of water for you to drink, lube, towels, a robe, and so on.” Stede pauses in front of the bookshelf and turns back to look at Ed. “Now, you can still bail if you don’t like the look of the machine. We can do something else. I have lots of toys. Or you don’t have to do anything at all. We can watch a movie instead.”

Watching a movie with Stede sounds nice—really nice—but Ed shakes his head. He’d never back down from a challenge. He’d sooner die. “I want to do this, and I know I can say no at any point.”

Stede grins. “Good man!” He pulls out a book from the shelf, and Ed gasps as the wall swings away from them.

“Fuck off!” Ed exclaims. Can a house make a person horny? Because this one is. Maybe it’s anticipation, but Ed supposes the house reflects Stede’s weird, amazing mind. He is so fucking into this guy, and he’s practically vibrating with anticipation of what he’s about to experience.

“I had a secret room built in when I moved in here.” Stede’s eyes are sparkling. “Just for fun! Made sense to repurpose it when I started the site.” He opens the door further and ushers Ed inside. Once he’s walked over to stand off by the bed—the one Ed saw in Stede’s video, he gestures at it and says “Ta-dah!”

“Incredible.” There, set up on a bench at the end of the bed on a wooden platform, is the fucking machine, with a very realistic dildo sticking out of one end. There are also some lamps and a camera set up on a tripod by the bed.

“We can adjust it to your height, and you can control it via app. That is, of course, if you’d still like to—”

“Oh, I’m doing it,” Ed says. He’s always wanted to try one of these things, and now he gets to do it with the hottest person in the world watching him, and seeing how hot he is when he’s getting railed? And this is all happening in his secret sex room? Ed could not possibly be more on board than he is—his cock is already thickening, compressed by the tight leather of his trousers.

“Great!” Stede beams at him before turning away to start fussing with some things on a chair near the bed. By the time he turns around with a fluffy robe, Ed has pulled off his top and dropped his trousers. He sees no reason to be shy in this situation.

Stede’s jaw drops. His face goes beet red as he looks Ed up and down.

Fuck yes. Ed smirks—he knows he looks good. He’d decided on a purple jockstrap for the occasion, figuring he’d seen plenty of them in porn. “Should I take this off, too?” Ed raises an eyebrow, hooking his thumb under the waistband and gently snapping it.

Stede’s mouth works silently for a moment before he manages to say, “Up to you! I think you look… incredible. Either way. Your tattoos are stunning, not to mention your piercings.”

“Thank you,” Ed flushes as he looks down at his toes, bashful for some reason, though he’s about to let a machine fuck him in front of this guy. “So you haven’t tried it yet?

When the thing arrived, Stede set it up and gave it a spin while Sam was out at work. “I guess it might be nice to have now I’m alone, though.”

You don’t need to be, Ed thinks. It’s not a horny response, or not purely horny. As eager as he is to try the machine, Ed would much rather Stede fuck him. Even so, the response comes from his heart.

Instead, Ed asks, “Show me how it works?”

This part takes a lot of time, and Ed tries and fails not to fidget since he feels like a pot about to boil over. The machine is great once it’s set up for someone, but it can be fiddly to get to that point.

Stede shows him the range of cocks available. He suggests that Ed start with a smaller one, the one he’d already attached; Ed knows he can take the larger ones, but he agrees, not knowing what to expect in terms of thrusting power and so on.

They spend some time lining it up. Ed gets on all fours as Stede tries to fiddle with the positioning. He huffs and puffs a bit, clearly flustered by having Ed’s mostly bare ass in his face. Ed can hear his breathing, a counterpoint to his own breathing as he anticipates getting fucked while Stede watches.

It would be easier if Stede fucked him, but Ed had promised to try this, and he does want to! He’s just pretty fucking horny by now.

Finally, the machine’s in place. Ed turns and sits on the bed, and Stede hands him his phone. “I already have the app set up. You can control the—”

“You do it,” Ed says quickly, handing the phone back. He doesn’t want to think about optimizing things, just wants to get fucked. Stede likes to be in charge, and Ed doesn’t want to be, plus they’ve discussed all the boundaries and so on. Why the fuck not? For some reason, he trusts Stede implicitly.

Stede’s eyebrows lift. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Thought you might like to, but if not–”

“I would,” Stede says quickly, “if it’s what you want.” His voice drops to a lower register, one that sends a shiver down Ed’s spine. “Be sure to tell me what you like.”

Ed swallows. “Will do. Do we need to come up with a scenario, like I stumble on this and use it?”

“Maybe this scenario isn’t a roleplay since you’re in your, er, already in a jock strap?”

Ed chuckles, suddenly feeling a little anxious. They’re really about to do this. Of course, Ed’s slept with people he’s known for less time, but he’s never felt nervous. Must be the cameras. “Nah, I can just, uh, get right to things. May do a bit of warm-up first.”

“Whatever you like.” Stede smiles gently. As if sensing Ed’s nerves, he reaches over and pats Ed’s bare thigh, just above his knee. “You’ll be great.”

The touch of Stede’s hand, innocent as it is, sends sparks shooting all throughout Ed’s body.

Ed takes some of the lube on offer on a tray by the bed, choosing stuff Stede says would work well for a toy. He applies some to his fingers and lies back against the overstuffed pillows at the head of the bed. “Uh, action, I guess?”

Stede turns on some lights around the bed. He then turns on the fancy fucking camera—anyone else would just use their phone, but not Stede. Ed draws his knees up and exposes his hole in the direction of the camera. His cock is eager already, encased in the jock strap, but he knows if he plays with it too much, this will all be over sooner than he wants it to be, so with some lube on his index finger, Ed pulls back his knees, snakes his hand around under his thigh, and starts teasing at his hole.

It already feels intense, surprisingly so, likely because Stede is watching, and others will see this. Ed takes his time, using light touches and moaning—you know, for the camera.

No, he can admit to himself that it’s mostly for Stede, who is transfixed already. His jeans are sinfully tight, but there’s a noticeable bulge already. He wants me, Ed thinks as the tip of his finger slips inside and he moans.

“Go on, make yourself feel good,” Stede says softly, almost reverently. Ed yelps in surprise. “Oh, sorry, is that not—I thought you wanted me to be part of the scene…?

“Don’t fucking stop,” Ed breathes. Stede’s soft voice is really doing it for him. He keeps going, knowing any awkward conversation between them can be edited out later. He doesn’t want any of this to stop.

Ed starts fingering himself in earnest as Stede says all kinds of stuff to him, stuff that he can hardly take in—how his hole is pretty, how tight it looks, how Ed is beautiful.

How he deserves to feel good.

Being pretty accustomed to anal play, though mostly on his own these days, Ed feels more than ready soon enough, but he draws things out a bit. Stede is responding beautifully as he watches. Ed is watching him back through hooded eyes. Stede is flushed and breathing heavily. He’s so intent on watching Ed that he doesn’t bother trying to hide how affected he is, which is a really fucking hot feedback loop to be part of.

Ed starts to really put on a show about it, too, playing lightly with his balls, pulling them back, and moaning loudly. At one point, he looks over at Stede and asks, “Do I look okay?”

“Better than okay. You’re stunning,” he says. “Can I zoom in?”

Stunning. Ed is more than ready to shove the machine off the bed and beg Stede to fuck him instead.

“Yeah, go for it,” he tells Stede. “As much as you want.”

Ed continues his show, switching his middle finger for his index finger and fucking himself on it. He finds his prostate, throwing back his head as he does. It never feels like much at first, but Ed anticipates what it will feel like as he rubs at it, allowing the pressure inside him to build up a little. P-spot play always makes his cock leak, and there’s now a wet spot forming on the front of the jock strap that he hopes the camera is capturing. He could go on like this for a while, even eventually come like this if he wanted, which is surprising because usually it takes a partner or a toy…

As if reading his mind, Stede says, “We’ll try a vibrator on you next time.”

Ed very much likes to hear We. He whines at the mental picture of Stede using a vibrator on him. It pulls him out of his relaxed groove a little—now nothing he does feels stimulating enough.

“Would you like to move on to the machine?” Stede asks because, of course, he notices the impatience beginning to hum just beneath Ed’s skin.

Ed opens one eye. “Getting boring?”

“Never! It just seems as if you need more, darling.”

The pet name sends a shiver down Ed’s spine.

Ed puts his legs down. “Lube it up.” He gets up and turns, moving on to all fours and backing up towards the machine. He looks over his shoulder. Stede is lubing the dildo up, his hand and thick fingers wrapped around it. Ed has already had a few fantasies about those fingers. His cock twitches, and he adjusts himself in his jock strap.

He keeps his eyes on Stede until he pulls back. “Ready,” he says, looking up into Ed’s eyes with a soft smile.

Ed moves back a bit, reaching around to grab the cock and line it up with his hole. When he’s satisfied, he looks at Stede again. “Then fuck me,” he says.

Stede seems to choke on nothing but thin air. He goes still for a long moment and then, lightbulb having gone off, he scrambles to pull his phone out of his pocket. He withdraws to where the camera is placed by the end of the bed and taps at the phone. “We’ll start slow.”

The part of Ed that doesn’t want to back down longs to say I can take anything you give me, but this is a new experience. The hard-earned wisdom from a lifetime of letting his pride goad him into regrettable choices prevails. (His therapist will be proud, not that he’s eager to explain this scenario to her.)

It’s a good thing that it starts slow because Ed is keyed up, to say the least. “Fuck!” he cries. The dildo, medium-firm and ridged, is a bit much to get used to when he has no control over it, even when it’s just fucking him slowly.

Ed likes it, though. Having no control. Giving himself over to pleasure, feeling himself filled over and over again, while knowing Stede is watching closely. The sound of the machine is loud enough that Ed can’t hear Stede’s breathing like he could before, so he looks back periodically. Stede is looking about as wrecked as Ed feels. Ed groans and pushes his hips back onto the dildo, fucking himself with it as much as it’s fucking him at this pace.

“You’re taking it so beautifully. I think you can take more.” Stede’s voice is ragged. “Do you want more?”

[A drawing by poorly formed. Ed is on a bed in nothing a jockstrap, his ass being filled by a dildo on a sex machine. There is a camera and light. Stede is watching, fully clothed with his hand over his hard cock; his other hand is holding his phone. He says, "You're taking it so beautifully. I think you can take more."

“Yeah, gimme more,” Ed says quickly. He has a sense of what to expect by now, and there’s only one possible answer when Stede asks that question.

The speed increases, and though it’s not much faster, the drag across Ed’s prostate feels more intense.

He could actually come like this, untouched, from the relentless stimulation of his sweet spot alone. His cock hangs heavy, nestled in his jock strap, but he fights the urge to touch it since that will be uncomfortable, along with the prostate stimulation.

“More,” Ed demands again.

“Christ,” Stede groans. “You’re perfect.” The speed becomes a little faster, but it’s enough that Ed is crying out with every thrust. It’s incredible, but he knows Stede fucking him would be even better. He pictures it, imagines looking behind himself to find Stede moving the machine aside and gripping his hips with his thick fingers, slipping his cock inside.

Ed hears a familiar sound over the machine. His arms are shaky with the effort of holding his weight up, but he looks back and catches Stede with his fly unzipped, pulling out his cock. At that moment, the stimulation of his prostate, along with the sight of Stede’s red, leaking cock sends him into orbit. Ed comes so hard that his entire body convulses as he cries out. It goes on and on as he collapses forward onto his forearms, the machine’s cock slipping out of him.

Face down in the bed, breathing heavy, Ed slowly comes back to earth. Just as well, really. If it had gone on much longer, the machine would have been fucking him raw, but that orgasm was incredible–he hasn’t even ejaculated yet, which means he could be up for more! Once he stops having heart palpitations, that is.

Stede is sitting by him now, rubbing soothing circles into his back, his own need forgotten.

Ed has not forgotten, even in his currently boneless state. He turns his head towards Stede and eyes his poor, swollen dick, and his mouth waters. “Need some help there?”

Stede flushes a brighter red somehow—a color that should not be possible in nature. “I couldn’t help myself, and I figured, given the context—”

Those words are music to Ed’s ears–Ed doesn’t want Stede to help himself. He wants to show Stede how very helpful he can be. “You were watching me get fucked. Seems natural you’d get hard.”

Ed heaves himself onto his side and sits up. Stede’s cock was forgotten in his instinct to check on Ed, but it’s still hard and leaking. Though Ed is satiated, he finds himself wanting Stede to come with just as much, if not more, desire than he’d felt for his own orgasm.

“I want that gorgeous cock so deep in my mouth that I feel it in my throat,” Ed says quickly. He’s spent, but he needs this as much as Stede seems to. Every cell in his body is vibrating with want.

“What?” Stede squeaks.

Ed looks him dead in the eyes. “I want you in my mouth till you come. If you want it.”

“You do?” He sounds startled, as if he’s forgotten they’re making porn here.

Before Stede can reply, Ed decides to let his actions speak, too. He crawls to the edge of the bed and lies on his back, letting his head go over the side. This position won’t require much effort on his part, just keeping his mouth and throat open, and Ed loves doing deepthroating—he knows he can do it well, even with Stede’s size. He lets his eyes get large, trying to put all his desire for this man into them. “Want it. Want you.”

Okay, he may be about to show off, just a little, for Stede and the viewers–but mostly Stede.

Stede nods, then seems to remember that he should speak. “Yes. Yes, please take me into that pretty mouth of yours.” He stands and pulls his pants and briefs down. “Just to be sure, I should leave the camera rolling?”

“Fuck, yes,” Ed growls. Let the world see Stede’s fat cock in his mouth. Let them see how it makes Ed want to come again, oversensitivity be damned. Let them see what Ed is pretty confident will be the orgasm of Stede’s life.

Ed may not be boyfriend material, but he’s got near-complete control over his gag reflex.

Once Stede has moved close to him, standing to one side of his head, he strokes Ed’s cheek tenderly. “Tap me twice if you need me to slow down, three times if you need to stop, kitten.” Ed feels his cheeks heat at the endearment. Something about that word makes him feel… cherished. Kittens are cherished, right?

It’s not real. It’s for the camera. That was the point of this site, wasn’t it? Hardcore but tender action? They’d discussed modeling safety and consent in the videos–this stuff won’t be edited out.

“I need your words,” Stede says, still looking at him intently.

“Yes—fuck, yeah, I’ll tap three times if you need to stop. Twice, if I want you to slow down.”

“Well done,” Stede says, and Ed feels his entire body grow warm at the praise.

Ed opens his mouth, and as soon as he feels and tastes Stede’s cock as it rubs against his lips, teasing him, he dissolves into bliss.

Oh, Ed is so fucked, and not just in the fun way.

“Want you.” Ed’s whiskey-colored eyes are wide and a little wet. A better man than Stede could not resist this temptation, he’s quite sure. There’s no universe in which Stede could resist Ed, mostly naked and freshly fucked, saying he wants him.

Stede had some hope that he could control his desire during this shoot. He’d lived like a monk for years, his sexuality repressed, after all. He’s worked hard on his stamina, too, and on controlling his arousal, but it turns out that it was easier when he was alone or with Sam.

Sam is certainly attractive, but he doesn’t hold a candle to Ed. No one could.

Stede could hardly believe his luck, meeting Ed and his suggestion that they partner on this video, and perhaps others. The more they talk about their preferences, the more likely it seems that they will do more together. In fact, Stede likes Ed so much that he’d want to ask him out, except that it would be too weird now, wouldn’t it?

From the moment Ed started fingering himself—hell, from the moment he stripped down to nothing but a jock strap, utterly beautiful and proud—Stede was utterly lost to him. Even though he knows he’ll be hurt, in the end.

Ed might want this, but that doesn’t mean he’d ever want anything more.

Still, for right now, Stede can give him what he needs.

His own cock ached while he watched Ed’s pretty hole take the machine’s cock—and as he came from it, untouched. Stede wished it were his cock bringing Ed to such heights of pleasure. He couldn’t help but want to touch himself as he watched.

Ed noticed, and once he’d come, he wanted to deepthroat Stede. He moved into position for it, letting his head tip off the side of the bed, exposing his pretty throat and opening his mouth. He’s pliant, utterly gorgeous, and, at least for the moment, Stede’s.

Standing to one side of his head, Stede rubs his cock back and forth against Ed’s pretty lips. “Start slow, kitten.” He doesn’t want to rush this, pent up though he is. What if this is the only time, and Stede has nothing but memories—and, well, a recording—to show for it? Sam had decided it wasn’t for him, so Ed might, too.

Ed’s eyes are dark, pupils blown wide. He lets them flutter closed as he starts to lick at Stede’s cock as he rubs it back and forth—little kitten licks, making the pet name Stede had just come up with on the spot especially apt. The way Ed moans at the taste of him makes Stede’s ass clench, and his balls are already tightening up close to his body.

Shit, no, not yet.

Stede takes a deep breath and lets one of his hands drift to one of Ed’s tempting, pierced nipples. He flicks at it a few times, and to his delight, Ed groans, though he doesn’t stop licking Stede’s cock. They must be sensitive. Ed is growing hard in his little jock strap once more. “Do you think you can come again for me, kitten?”

Ed nods, a desperate little “Mmmph” escaping his lips before he uses his tongue to start swirling at the head of Stede’s cock. Stede groans and lets his cock slip farther into Ed’s mouth for a few strokes, pushing against the inside of his cheek. He’s shaking with need, heat welling up deep inside him, but he resists the urge to simply take what he wants, though Ed is licking at him, chasing Stede’s cock with his tongue every time it slips out—like he was born to do this and wants nothing more in the world than to have Stede’s cock in his mouth.

“Such a slut for it.” The words slip out, but it’s okay, they discussed this… Still, Stede’s never spoken to anyone this way before.

Before Stede can reflexively pull away, Ed reaches around and grabs the back of his thigh, as if to hold him in place. His eyes open—Stede can tell it’s an effort–he lets Stede’s cock fall out of his mouth. “Say it again,” he demands roughly.

Holy hell, no one could resist this. Stede fears that Ed is quite addictive, and that he’ll want much more now that they’ve started touching. A problem for later Stede.

“Such a slut for my cock,” Stede groans as Ed’s mouth opens and the head of his cock slips inside once more. Ed hums around it and looks up again. Stede can see the silent plea in his eyes. “I’m gonna go deeper now.” Ed hums affirmatively as he palms at his own cock through the fabric of the jock strap.

Stede can’t believe he is making this man—surely the most attractive human on earth—feel so good. He moves over so that he can put his cock straight into Ed’s mouth and throat. Ed opens his mouth wide. Stede supposes he could put on a show for the camera and slap his cock against Ed’s tongue a few times, but he is too far gone to care about all that.

Stede slides inside as Ed’s head strains towards him, already wanting more. The wet heat of his mouth is incredible, and he takes Stede easily. When Stede reaches the back of Ed’s throat, Ed swallows and does not gag–Stede’s knees nearly buckle at the tight wetness of it. “Fuck, you feel so good, kitten. You love being full of cock, don’t you?”

Ed whimpers in response.

Stede’s body feels like it’s full of sparks, little flames that will all catch fire until he burns down to ash. Stede tries to take it slow at first, for Ed’s sake—he’s so trusting, and Stede will not break that trust and hurt him.

He forgets everything else, though—the camera, the reason they’re together in the first place. Stede loses himself to fucking Ed’s mouth, leaning forward to play with his nipple piercings. There’s nothing anymore but their two bodies and the heat they generate together. Between thrusts, Ed is massaging him with his tongue somehow, bringing Stede closer to the edge.

Stede goes deep a few times, but not too much, not wanting to hurt Ed or make him gag, though there are only a couple of moments when that starts to happen.

Ed is a feast for Stede’s eyes at this angle, all spread out and squirming as he palms his cock. “Take your cock out for me, kitten, let me see you.” Ed whines and moves his jockstrap aside, and his heavy, flushed cock falls out onto his belly. “Gorgeous,” Stede breathes. He was thinking Ed should stroke himself, but he can’t help wanting to touch himself, to make Ed feel even better.

Continuing his slow thrusting, Stede wraps his hand around Ed’s cock, and though it makes him more uncoordinated, the noise Ed makes is worth it. He grabs behind Stede’s thighs and holds him in place, massaging with his tongue, while Stede strokes him.

Ed’s beautiful body is trembling now, his legs shaking, and that’s enough—Stede’s entire body ignites as he comes down Ed’s throat, groaning incoherently. Ed takes it beautifully, swallowing without gagging.

As his cock softens, he lets it slip out of Ed’s mouth. Stede stays in place, doubling his efforts, stroking Ed firm and fast. “That’s it, come for me, kitten, let me see, make a mess, make a fucking mess—”

Ed cries out, voice hoarse, as he comes all over his own belly. His eyes go very wide, then slam shut as his body convulses. Stede has never seen a more stunning sight.

Stede’s not sure if it’s allowed, but fuck it, the post-orgasmic haze is making him brave. He gets on his knees in front of Ed’s still-upside-down head and kisses his mouth. Ed groans and opens to him, meeting Stede’s tongue with his own so that he can taste himself.

Kissing is allowed, which is fantastic. Stede will want to do a lot more of it next time.

If there’s a next time.

The thought chills him a little. He pulls back and watches Ed’s eyes flutter open. They look at each other for a long moment.

Ed’s expression grows anxious. “Did it look good?”

Fuck, the camera. Stede had almost forgotten. He stands up. “I’m sure it’s great,” he says, as he turns and walks over, knees still wobbly, to turn it off. He’s grateful to have something to focus on as he sorts through his racing thoughts. He already likes this man too much to be casual about it. He thought so before tonight, and their encounter has only cemented that feeling.

Ed only wants to make porn with him, he tells himself sternly. They seem to get along and are sexually compatible, but there’s no reason to assume it can be anything more. Stede can’t forget that fact. Ed finds Stede attractive enough to fuck, but surely he’d never stay.

No one has ever wanted to stay.

Chapter Text

The sex machine is as good as Ed imagined it would be—better, because Stede was so turned on just watching that he pulled that magnificent dick out. Stede had mentioned earlier that night that he likes to watch. And hell, that’s great, Ed loves to be watched, but that isn’t enough, not tonight. Ed wants to taste him, to feel the heaviness of that mouth-watering cock.

Very few have been able to get Ed into a pliant, floaty headspace like when he’s deepthroating Stede. In fact, only a couple of people have ever tried. Most preferred for Ed to do the domming. Knowing he could give himself over and trust Stede—as he does, implicitly, after their long talk—makes Ed let go like he never had with anyone before.

He feels free. Free of all the expectations of the Blackbeard persona he cultivated for years on the kink scene. Free of what people expect when they look at him and see long hair, ink, and leather. He can just be Ed with Stede, be good and sweet for him. A slut for him, even, to be used for his pleasure. He feels satisfied, even proud, when he makes Stede come.

After Stede cleans them up, he asks if Ed wants to be held. Feeling a little raw, Ed agrees.

Ed knows—he fucking knows—it’s part of aftercare, but his heart has trouble remembering that. Being in Stede’s strong arms is bliss. Stede says soft, soothing things as Ed gently floats back down to earth.

Stede then shyly asks if Ed wants to shower—together. Ed is so surprised he can’t speak, but before Stede can fully stammer out an apology for offering this “stupid idea,” Ed agrees.

Ed is not at all sure what Stede’s gentle kisses as they shower mean in terms of whatever the fuck they are now, but he does know he can’t get enough of them. They’re both spent, but so distracted with kisses that Ed’s dizzy with it, and their skin is pruning by the time they both manage to get clean.

As they dig into some post-coital delivery pizza, wearing nothing but Stede’s ridiculously plush robes, Stede says that he’s willing to explore things further if Ed is. “For the site,” he clarifies quickly.

Ed’s head is spinning at the mixed signals, but he concludes that the shower was suggested as a means of of getting comfortable with one another, as was the kissing.

“Uh, yeah, sure. For the site, we can, like, do some more stuff.” Ed shrugs, and it’s so nonchalant—he’s never been less chalant. “Was fun.”

Oh yeah, Ed’s already fucked things up by speeding ahead with the “let’s do porn together” idea. Oh, he doesn’t regret it, and he could change his mind at any time, of course.

But damn it, he should have asked Stede out first.

Ed is warm when he wakes up. There’s an arm around him, and a hard cock nestled against his ass.

He opens his eyes slowly, remembering where he is. Looks like the two of them fell asleep together. After their pizza, Stede was buzzing with a bunch of ideas for future videos. They went into the “sex dungeon” to look through some of Stede’s toys, making a list of shit to order, and lost track of time talking and laughing. Ed must have slumped over in bed where he was sitting.

He wrestled his robe off in the middle of the night, likely because he was hot, but Stede’s still in his. He’s clinging close, and Ed is the little spoon, but the cock pressing against Ed is uncovered. He can feel the skin of Stede’s chest, too, so the robe must have come undone at some point.

For a moment, Ed thinks about getting up. He should put his clothes on and leave Stede to sleep. He’s not Stede’s boyfriend, just a complicated sort of hookup, and that’s what hookups do.

But it’s warm here. Between the plush, soft bedding and Stede's warm body, Ed feels cozy as fuck. And Stede smells so good, like the citrus shower gel they used, and Ed feels secure with that strong arm holding him in place. His own cock is stirring in interest, too.

Ed tries to shift away, but Stede holds him fast, mumbling and pulling him closer. He ruts against Ed’s ass a little, emitting a little whimper. It would be incredibly hot if a sleepy Stede used him to get off, but Ed won’t allow that. While they’ve discussed a lot of sex acts, somnophilia hasn't come up. (Although if Stede wanted to, Ed would be open to the discussion at least.)

“Mate,” Ed says, tapping him on the arm. “Wake up.”

“Hmmmnhhh.”

Ed taps him harder. “Wake up!”

“Wha—” The arm around Ed disappears as Stede rolls away from him and sits up. “Oh, Ed, my god, I’m sorry—”

Ed rolls over to face him. The poor man looks mortified. “You’re good.” Ed gestures down at his own semi-hard cock. “We haven’t discussed that sort of thing, is all, but I liked it.”

Stede’s eyes drift down to Ed’s crotch. “Oh! I, um, perhaps… If you like…”

Ed opens his arms. “C’mere.” His tone brooks no argument.

Nodding excitedly, Stede sheds his robe and comes here. He lies down so that he’s on his side, facing Ed, their chests and cocks almost but not quite touching. “Is this alright?” he asks.

“More than." Ed thinks fast, because staring into Stede's pretty hazel eyes makes him feel like all his defenses, built up over years of dating and hookups, are melting away. "And hey, better we get to know what the other likes, right? Will make for better, uh, content.”

Something flashes across Stede’s face, his brow furrowing a bit, but it’s gone, quick as a lightning strike. “Oh, yes! How clever! Practice makes perfect!”

“Practice makes perfect.” Ed has usually skated by in life, finding stuff so easy it’s boring, but this is one area in which he’s willing to work very, very hard. Maybe he can fuck so well that he’ll learn every single thing that makes Stede tick, and to keep him wanting more.

To that end, Ed licks his palm and reaches between them to take both their cocks in hand, pressing them together.

Stede yelps, which is cute as hell. For someone who works in porn, he's so sensitive. He's not jaded at all yet, which is refreshing. “This okay?” Ed asks gently.

“Mmmmhmm.” Stede’s voice is high-pitched, all adorable.

Unable to help himself—can a wave stop itself from crashing on the shore?—Ed presses his lips to Stede’s as he begins to stroke their cocks. He responds eagerly to all of it, kissing back passionately between little gasps and moans against Ed’s lips.

Doing this is Ed’s new favorite thing. The cameras and the viewers don’t get to have this. It’s just for the two of them. They may call it practice, but they both clearly wanted to fuck when they were barely awake. Yet speaking the words, saying he wants this, might burst the bubble, so Ed says nothing.

Ed twists his hand over the heads of their cocks, and Stede groans loudly—that’s when any thoughts about their situation melt right out of Ed’s brain. That needy sound goes straight to Ed's dick. Stede seems to like having his cock stroked just the way Ed does, at a similar pace and level of firmness. Stede’s cock is a satisfying weight in his hand, too, just as he had been in Ed’s mouth. It’s the right size—some girth, more than most guys Ed’s been with, but not to a ridiculous degree. The stretch of his mouth around it was fantastic. It’s got a good upward curve, too. It would be perfect for—

“Fuck me,” Ed says quickly, breaking their kisses. He is trying not to overthink—or to think at all—and he needs that perfect cock inside him as soon as possible. He doesn’t want to wait for whatever scene or roleplay they decide to do first. That stuff will all be amazing, but this morning, Ed doesn’t need all the kinky bells and whistles.

This morning is just for them.

He expects Stede to squeak or yelp again or whatever, but his eyes flutter open—devastating—and he says, in a low voice, “I’d love to fuck you, Edward”—catastrophic—and he rolls them both so that he’s pinning Ed down on the bed—world-ending.

Ed half-expects Stede to just get on with it. And he’d be totally into that, to be clear, since he did tell Stede to do it. He’s ready, and he wants it.

That’s not what happens.

Stede looks down at him for a long moment, his wide hazel eyes nearly golden in the morning sun peaking in through the curtains. He looks at Ed fondly, tenderly even. That soft look pins Ed in place just as surely as Stede’s body does.

After a long moment, Stede dips his head and starts to kiss Ed again, long and deep, his hard cock digging into Ed’s belly. Ed is helpless to do anything but grab the back of his neck and let the tips of his fingers slip in between the soft curls at the base of Stede’s skull.

Abruptly, Ed breaks the kiss. He hears himself make a little disappointed noise as he chases Stede’s lips.

“You don’t have anywhere to be soon?” Stede asks.

Ed doesn’t know or care what time it is—he’s not due at the bar for hours. “Nope, all yours.”

Stede smiles down at Ed, wolfish. “Good.”

Stede proceeds to spend the next however long—could be an hour, could be two hours, Ed has no idea—touching and kissing Ed all over.

He starts by kissing Ed’s neck. “So soft here,” Stede whispers. He politely asks in between presses of his lips if he can leave marks.

“Anything, anything,” Ed says. “Thought we were gonna fuck, though.”

Stede hums against the hollow at the base of Ed’s throat. “Patience is a virtue.”

Ed’s not strong in that particular virtue, nor any of the others, probably (he forgets what some of them are, but he knows chastity is one, and no thanks).

Stede, on the other hand, has patience in spades, not to mention diligence. He kisses his way down Ed’s body, charting courses with his fingers that he follows with his tongue. It seems he wants to memorize the shape of every single one of Ed’s tattoos, exclaiming softly over each one, even the wonky shark on Ed’s arm. “You’re a work of art,” he breathes as he kisses along from the ship on Ed’s chest to one pierced nipple, blowing on it lightly.

“Hnnnng,” Ed replies, just as eloquently. Stede's pretty words effortlessly put Ed right back into that blissful, floaty headspace. 

Stede leaves his own marks on the empty spaces between Ed’s tattoos, as if trying to make himself an indelible part of Ed as well. Okay, foolish thought since they haven’t talked about this. Ed’s brain is now jelly, and his body is quivering like jelly all over, so he’s likely not in a fit state to judge, but this seems like something rather beyond friends with benefits, porn edition.

By the time (a million years later) Stede makes it down to Ed’s inner thighs, sucking on the skin there while petting softly at his pubic hair (a revelation), Ed is sobbing Stede’s name. His hands are in Stede’s hair, trying to move him where he wants him—licking at his weeping cock.

Stede looks up and says, sternly, “Edward, I’m trying to learn what you like.”

Those words have Ed crashing back down to earth. Ah, yup, that makes more sense—it’s all to benefit their partnership, right?

Ed can’t help but be a brat, if only to cover up his confusion, as well as the fact that Stede seems to have turned every single cell in his body inside out. “What I like is a mouth on my cock, mate. Or my taint. Not picky.”

“Hmm.” Stede blows a light puff of air over Ed’s taint. “Maybe later.”

Ed reaches for his own cock.

Stede bats his hand lightly away. “Do I need to spank you?”

“No.” Ed sulks about it—he’s very open to it, but it doesn’t seem right at the moment. “I can be patient,” he grumbles.

“Lovely.” He eyes Ed’s cock. “So hard, and I haven’t touched it. I suspect if I put my mouth on you, you’d come before I fucked you.”

Ed huffs a breath. Stede’s probably right. He wants to be fucked, enough to stop complaining, but he can be a bit pouty about it, as a treat.

Stede refocuses, circling Ed's hole with the feather-light touch of one finger. “Are you sore here at all?"

The dildo last night had been rather firm, but Ed came before it started to irritate him. “No, I feel good.”

Stede gets up from his prone position and sits back on his heels. His biteable chest is flushed, and his cock is, too—hard and glistening at the tip. Ed moans softly as a visceral memory of its taste washes through him.

He reaches for the lube, and Ed exhales. “No finger first?” Stede asks.

Ed had shared that being fingered is not his favorite thing, though he doesn’t mind doing it to himself. “Nah, just use a lot of lube, start slow.” Ed doesn’t want to wait now that he can see how hard Stede is for him.

Stede takes a bottle of lube and squirts some into his hand. Ed quickly applies some lube to himself from one of the many other bottles available. Ed adds a pillow with one of the towels Stede keeps folded on a bedside table, too.

Soon, they’re both ready, and Stede is hovering over Ed. “Like this? Is this alright?” Stede asks, his eyes searching Ed’s.

Pin me down and make me yours.

“Yeah,” Ed says. “Perfect.”

Stede likes himself up and pushes in so carefully that Ed ends up pushing his hips up to meet him until he bottoms out. He keeps his eyes on Ed’s face the whole time, which should be unnerving… but it’s nice. He seems to want to make sure Ed’s comfortable.

It does take a moment, since he’s big; Ed loves the stretch and the weight of his body, but he needs a beat to get used to it. Stede is breathing deeply, patiently waiting. They’re in suspended animation together, eyes locked.

Ed pulls his legs back, bending them. He grabs Stede’s ass and squeezes gently. “You can move.”

Stede starts to move his hips, and the eye contact breaks as Ed throws his head back and his eyes close.

Moaning, Stede bends down to kiss Ed’s exposed neck and his lips as he fucks into him. “You feel incredible,” he gasps.

Ed’s beyond words at all—the drag of Stede’s cock filling him over and over again is too good. It feels like he belongs with Ed, inside of Ed. It’s like Ed’s heart and soul are being fucked, not just his body.

What the hell? Ed shakes the thought off. Stede’s fucking all sense out of him, clearly.

Ed grips his shoulders, and Stede pushes Ed’s knees back towards his ears and then pulls them onto his shoulders. Ed’s entire world goes white hot. “There!” he cries. “Right fucking there, ahhhhh!”

“You feel s—so good.” Stede groans as he picks up speed, pounding into Ed, truly railing him into the mattress, yet somehow he manages to keep kissing Ed’s lips in between their moans and gasps for air, as if his life depends on it.

Maybe it does, for all Ed knows. He hadn’t had good sex a lot, as Ed understands it, likely even after he came out. As for Ed, he can’t remember a better time he’s had, but maybe that’s easy to think when stuffed full of Stede’s incredible dick.

Ed grips Stede even tighter and moans encouragingly against his questing mouth. “So good,” he gasps between kisses, “so fucking good. Harder.”

Stede obligingly pistons his hips, almost every single thrust hitting Ed’s spot. The drag across his prostate is exquisite, almost but not quite too much. He hasn’t even touched himself, but Ed feels close to the precipice, to his surprise, though his cock has only had the stimulation grinding against Stede's soft belly. “Shit, babe, ‘m close.”

Stede’s response is to kiss Ed even more deeply and wrap a hand around his cock. Ed is lost to it, every single possible nerve ending in his body firing until he’s coming all over his own belly. The orgasm crashes over him like a tidal wave.

Stede pulls out and quickly jerks himself, crying out as his hips stutter and he comes all over Ed’s belly. A moment later, he presses himself against Ed once more. He’s saying something Ed can’t make out against his lips, over and over again. Ed clutches him close, ignoring the come drying between their bodies.

Holy shit. If that’s practice, Ed can’t wait to see what perfect looks like. He doesn’t think he’s ever felt better in his life.

Ed feels bereft when Stede rolls off of him and fetches some wet wipes to clean them up. He hardly knows what to say, in fact, so he says nothing at all. Neither does Stede, not until they are both cleaned up and ready to face the day.

“That was—” Ed begins.

“We should—” Stede says at the same moment.

“You go first.”

“Right. I think that was very successful!” There is a pause—successful is not the word Ed would have used, exactly. The right word may not exist in his vocabulary. “We may want to try a few more times, for practice?” Stede looks hopeful.

Practice. Right. Not falling in love or anything like that. Ed knows better than to ever do that, anyway. The air is thick with tension for a moment as Ed figures out what to say. Stede wants to fuck some more, and Ed seizes on that. (He never said he was very smart about this stuff, okay?) “Great first try, but I’m sure more practice would be, uh, beneficial. Can’t practice too much, really.”

Stede smiles, the tension between them easing. “No, I don’t suppose we can practice too much.”

Chapter Text

Stede has never thought he’s particularly smart. Oh, book smarts, maybe, but life smarts? He is rather lacking in that area.

He had not, however, until this very moment, thought that he was the stupidest man on earth. Epically, even tragically, stupid.

We may want to try a few more times, for practice?

In terms of getting to fuck Ed, that’s a spectacular suggestion. Fucking Ed was transcendent, life-altering even.

In terms of Stede’s rapidly growing feelings for Ed, it is without a doubt the worst suggestion of all time. Yet it fell out of Stede’s mouth, just the same, to fill an awkward silence.

Ed enjoyed himself. Stede ensured it; he could see and hear how good he made Ed feel. There was perhaps more kissing than is usual for a hook-up, but Ed’s lips were so soft and kissable, and Stede simply could not help himself. Fortunately, Ed kissed back, rather enthusiastically! He enjoys kissing! So does Stede.

Well, Stede may be the stupidest man in the world, but he knows he’s lucky to spend this time with Ed at all. He’s a treasure.

After he got his divorce from Mary and came out, having sex with men was a revelation, certainly a great deal more pleasant than his marriage bed. As for Sam, though their breakup stung, Stede hardly thinks about him now that his mind and heart are full of Ed. He and Sam had gotten along fine, but with Ed, they seem to connect on a molecular level.

It’s sex with Ed that’s the true revelation. He’s beautiful all over, from the soft, silvery hair at the crown of his head to his elegant feet, but everything in between is flawless. Stede has spent hours daydreaming, trying to pick his best feature, but it’s simply impossible—they’re all his best features. That’s why Stede spent time kissing him all over, marking him—if this was his only chance to learn his body like this, he wanted to remember every single mole, every line of his tattoos.

Ed was delightfully responsive to all of it, in a way that made Stede feel like he had lightning coursing through his veins. He’s pretty sure that, as he came, he blurted out some things that were rather crazy to say, less than twenty-four hours after their first sexual encounter, things he hoped Ed didn’t register. 

I'm yours. Yours yours yours.

Stede tries to ignore how Ed called him babe—it made him feel rather feral to hear it, but surely it was a heat-of-the-moment thing? Ed didn’t seem to notice how enamored Stede was, thankfully. He was amenable to more practice, too! 

And practice they have, often and enthusiastically, over the past week or so. Ed has come over to what he calls the “dungeon” most nights after work. It means Stede’s staying up late, but he doesn’t mind since his job can be done on any schedule. He’s happy to adjust his schedule to spend time with Ed. They’ve fallen into something of a lovely routine, and Stede has had ample opportunity over the past week to continue to learn what pleases Ed.

Ed sucks in a breath when his hair pulled.

Ed whines when having his inner thighs nibbled on.

Ed groans when Stede pulls him into the dungeon, pushes him against a wall, and kisses him.

(One time, they didn’t even get past the wall. Stede dropped to his knees and sucked Ed off while jerking himself off. That had left Ed looking gobsmacked. Stede was quite proud!)

Even more precious were the hours spent after the sex and showering, talking about everything and nothing until they fell asleep.

Tonight, Stede stammers when he asks Ed to sleep in his real bed. They’ve been using the dungeon—all the supplies are there, and the toys, though they’ve been learning each other and not so focused on gear as yet. While that bed is comfortable enough, the sheets on Stede’s own bed have an even higher thread count, and the pillows are exactly right—fluffy but not too fluffy.

Ed looks like a deer in headlights. “Shit, man, I’m sorry I’ve kept you from your bed—”

“No, it’s been lovely—”

“I can go home—”

“No!” Stede absolutely does not want that. He adopts a firm tone as he stuffs down the panic that’s making his heart pound. “It’s three in the morning, Edward. You’re exhausted. It’s not safe to drive.” Ed opens his mouth, but Stede holds up a hand. “No need to order a car, either. Just stay here, like you have been.” Ed looks uncertain, so Stede softens his tone. “Please. I—I want you there.”

Ed’s eyes soften, too. “Yeah, okay. Are you sure you don’t want me to just sleep in here, though?”

Stede thinks fast. “I think sleeping in the same bed is conducive to our morning practice sessions. We’ll bring the lube tray!” They’ve been doing morning practice, too, when Ed sleeps over. A good use of time to get in as much practice as possible, as they’ve chosen tomorrow night to film their next video.

The cameras will change things between them, just through their own awareness of them, but practice is just the two of them. Stede will miss that, if it stops happening, and he's not sure how long he can pretend that practice is the reason for it. 

Ed doesn't seem to mind, for now at least. He grins. “Good point.”

That night, in Stede’s bed, Ed instinctively curls up against him in his sleep. Stede stays awake for a while, basking in this closeness for as long as he gets to have it.

The next morning, they get their practice in—Ed rails Stede into the mattress for the first time. Stede hadn’t been sure there was any pleasure as exquisite as that of fucking Ed, but being fucked by him was equally magnificent.

Stede longs for nothing more than to ask Ed out. He wants Ed to be a part of his life, officially and perhaps permanently. He never wants to give any of this up.

Yes, Stede’s been very, very stupid about this entire situation, and now he has to live with the consequences. Surely, Ed will eventually tire of their odd arrangement and move on, wanting to quit Buy My Booty or to find another partner. Stede will be left alone.

At least he’s used to it.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Stede asks Ed as they set up the dungeon. “We can just have sex, nothing fancy.”

They don’t need to go kinky for their first official time out. Even Lucius, who’s in charge of socials, agreed—their first video already has the most hits on their website, resulting in a wave of new subscribers. Ed had used the sex machine, was a bit submissive, but otherwise, it was straightforward for porn.

“People like you two together,” Lucius had said. “You should shoot stuff together as much as possible.” He tilted his head at Stede. “They’re shipping you two, but most of them assume you’re already boyfriends.”

“We have natural chemistry,” Stede replied, evading the boyfriend comment. He’d watched the video too—gotten off on it a few times, surprisingly given how much he and Ed had been fucking.

Ed was stunning, taking his pleasure, and the memory of Stede’s cock in his mouth—something they have since repeated—was still very fresh.

Still, Stede didn’t want to pressure Ed to do kinkier stuff right out of the gate. Lucius seemed to think their next video would do well no matter what. But Ed has been eager to try this roleplay idea they had cooked up between them. It's loosely mapped out, leaving room for inspiration so it doesn't feel too scripted, and there's a layer of remove to it in that viewers are meant to know that they're a couple doing a roleplay.

“‘Course I want to.” Ed’s wearing one of Stede’s favorite robes, magenta velvet with a bird pattern, over an outfit he won’t yet let Stede see. He wears the robe far better than Stede does, and he silently vows it's only Ed's to wear from now on. “Love a roleplay, love a bit of bondage," Ed continues, oblivious to Stede's quiet admiration. "Classic porn tropes.” Ed pauses, and his face falls. “Do you not want to?” he asks in a small voice.

“I want to!” Stede assures him quickly. They’ve talked through the parameters of the scene, though not all the specifics, to avoid it feeling scripted. Stede is taking charge, but he knows Ed’s boundaries, and they have safe words in place. Stede’s very eager, too, his cock twitching at the thought of the things they’ll do. He can hardly believe that Ed is just as eager to do this stuff for their audience.

Ed smiles. “Cool. Give me five minutes. I’ll knock from inside the bathroom when you say ‘Action!’ See you soon!” Looking rather gleeful, Ed scurries off to the bathroom.

Judging by his barely contained excitement, Ed has something up his sleeve that they haven’t discussed yet, and Stede can’t wait to find out what it is.

Stede is wearing a blue suit with a white button-down shirt and a pink paisley tie. Luckily for the sake of this roleplay, the dungeon has a desk on one side—Stede had thought ahead to future scenes when he refurnished the room. It will look enough like an office to pass muster.

Stede goes over to the cameras—he’s got a few set up for coverage of different angles, luckily Pete is an editing whiz—before going over to the deck chair to sit and wait. There are some papers and folders on the desk, for some degree of verisimilitude.

He waits the five minutes, jiggling his leg. Finally, once enough time has passed, he takes a deep breath and then calls, “Action!”

Ed knocks on the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s, er—Jeff! Your secretary!”

“You can come in!”

Ed opens the door, and Stede’s mind goes completely blank, likely because all the blood in his body is rushing well south of his brain.

Stede’s not sure what he thought Ed would wear--business casual maybe--but he never dreamed it would be this.

If you'd asked Stede a week ago, he'd have said it would be a bit silly in most cases to see a man in his forties dressed like a stereotypical naughty secretary. But Ed doesn’t look ridiculous—he looks like he’s walked straight out of Stede’s filthiest fantasies.

He’s wearing a silky white blouse, low cut and baring much of his chest, including the beautiful hawk tattoo by his collarbone. His gray pinstripe skirt is tight, barely long enough to cover his ass, and he’s paired it with black thigh-high stockings, stopping a couple of inches below the hem of the skirt (Stede wants to mouth at the flesh just above where the elastic is digging into his thighs). Stede will have to ask him where he got black heels in his size. Ed’s long hair is in a high ponytail, and Stede longs to stand up, walk over, and tug on it to pull him close until they’re kissing.

Stede is speechless for so long that Ed shifts on his feet a bit, looking like he’s about to bolt back to the bathroom. Stede hurriedly begins. “Jeff! I have a five o’clock call with L.A.” He allows a note of disapproval into his voice, but he lets his gaze drag up and down Ed’s body, trying to silently let him know how good he looks.

Ed visibly relaxes and saunters forward with a panther-like grace. “Your five o’clock canceled. I’ve come to ask for a moment of your time.” Ed stops in front of Stede’s desk. “I’ve been working here for a while now, and I think I’m doing a good job. I’d like a raise.”

Stede frowns. “I’ll need to get a firm handle on how well you can perform. If you can’t handle an increased workload, I can’t justify a raise. Can you come to grips with more hard work?”

Ed stops in front of Stede’s desk and looks down, as if abashed. “Tell me what I need to do.” He looks up a bit, at Stede, still in his armchair, and bites his lip. “I can handle the load, I promise.” Ed purrs. “I finished compiling all those documents you gave me yesterday. It was long, hard work, but I handled it, and I know you’ll be satisfied with the result.”

Stede hems and haws. “Well, I don’t know, Jeff. Your work is sometimes sloppy when you take dictation, and you don’t pay attention when I give you directions.”

Ed blushes a bit and stammers. “I admit I’m usually distracted during our meetings, sir.”

Stede flushes at the use of “sir.” “Oh? Am I that boring?”

“Oh, no, sir!” Ed blushes once more—he really is quite good at this! “I’m distracted by you, by—by how you look. I can’t concentrate.”

Stede pretends to consider it some more. He adopts a stern tone. “Given that, you’d have to work very hard to earn that raise. Show me that you can really, er, handle that load.”

Ed comes around the desk and gets on his knees by Stede’s chair (Stede had made sure the rugs in this room were plush just for this reason). He puts his hands on Stede’s thighs and looks up at him with huge, pleading eyes. Stede had hardly thought he could get any harder without being touched, but he’s just managed it.

“Jeff! Wh-what are you doing?”

“Showing you how good I am at taking dictation. Don’t worry, I locked the door. We’re alone. I can work so hard if you’ll just give me a chance,” Ed says. He eyes the bulge in Stede’s pants, then looks back up into his eyes. “I can be so good for you, sir. Please. I’ll do anything, anything at all.”

Stede shifts a little in his chair. He raises an eyebrow and lets his voice drop in tone. “You fidget an awful lot. It’s distracted me quite a bit when you’re sitting across the desk from me, shifting around in those little skirts of yours, uncrossing your legs, and flashing your panties at me. What exactly do you think about?”

“Your cock, sir,” Ed says quickly. “I think about crawling under the desk, taking your cock out, and sucking it.”

“And is this why you wear these tiny little skirts to work?”

Ed ducks his head once more and mumbles something.

Stede picks up his chin. “Answer me. Do you wear these slutty little skirts on purpose to catch my attention?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, you have it. You are showing initiative. You say you want to show me how hard you can work. Prove to me that you can come to grips with a big job. Go on, then.” He lets go of Ed’s chin. “Take some long, hard dictation, then, and I’ll think about that raise if you’re a good girl.”

They’d discussed feminization. Ed clearly likes hearing “good girl”—he dives to the zipper of Stede’s pants and rubs his hand over Stede’s cock, still covered by his briefs. Stede hisses at the contact, the muscles of his ass clenching.

“Ooooh, this is a big job, sir,” Ed says as he rubs, eyelashes fluttering. “The biggest job I’ve ever handled.”

“Are you sure you’re up for the task? I’ll have to be quite satisfied with your work.”

Ed licks his lips. “Yes, I’m up for it, alright. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied with how I work.”

“Then take it out, show me what you can do.” Stede tries to keep his voice brusque, but he can hear the wobble in it, belying his “character.” (Whom he privately calls Steve, his porn name… Stevenson. Not very original.) Not that those watching will notice or care much, and if they do, it probably adds to the notion that he and Ed are a real pair instead of… whatever it is they are.

Ed pulls Stede’s cock out, licking his lips, his pupils blown wide. Before Stede can properly absorb how enticing Ed is, Ed’s licking at the head and moaning like he’s never tasted anything better. He makes a fantastic show of it, using just his tongue for now, licking Stede up and down, alternating with swirling his tongue around the head. He keeps his eyes on Stede’s face, which may be the hottest part of it all. Stede could lose himself in those sweet whiskey-brown eyes.

It feels almost too good before Ed is even properly sucking. Stede grips the sides of the chair, but no, that won’t do—he should be touching Ed instead. Since he knows what Ed likes now, he can put all that practice to its intended use.

Stede slides his hands up into Ed’s hair, tugging firmly on the ponytail. To his delight, Ed moans, but Stede tries to keep his face stern to stay in character. “I was promised hard work,” he tells Ed. “Or maybe you’re all talk, and you can’t take my demands.”

Something sparks in Ed’s eyes, then—Stede had already noticed that Ed responds to being challenged. “Oh, I can take you, sir.” He opens his mouth and encloses it around Stede’s cock, taking an impressive amount of it, and looks up, smug. He wraps his hand around the base of it.

The wet heat of Ed’s mouth is incredible. “Impressive. You might earn that raise after all.” Stede winks at him, and to his surprise, Ed moans around him as he starts to bob his head up and down. “That’s it, good girl, taking my cock so well. Beautiful.” He’s supposed to be stern, but he can’t help but praise Ed, too, especially since it makes him flutter his eyelashes and bob his head faster.

He’s allowing himself to drool around Stede’s cock, too, getting it as wet and messy as possible. Stede uses his free hand to wipe a bit of drool from Ed’s face. “Look at you drooling for it. This is what you thought about during dictation, isn’t it? Maybe I’ll have you on your knees down there during my Zoom meetings, keeping my cock nice and warm with your mouth, kitten.”

Ed makes an affirmative noise around him and flutters his lashes once more. He slows down a bit and uses some suction as he brings his head up—something he learned from his practice, no doubt, because it never fails to make Stede’s legs tremble. Though Stede has worked on his stamina, Ed is simply too skilled and far too gorgeous. Stede has to find a way to draw this out, so he taps Ed on the shoulder twice (a discreet signal they'd agreed upon) while pulling his head off by the ponytail.

Ed whines, but sits and waits to see what Stede will do next. “Open up.” Stede takes his cock in hand. He feeds it into Ed’s mouth once more. “Slow down, show me how good you can be.”

“Mmmph.” Ed goes back to ostentatiously licking the underside like a lollipop, letting his tongue tease against Stede’s frenulum.

Stede can’t pretend to be aloof anymore—he groans and grabs the back of Ed’s neck, guiding him to take his cock deeper once more. His pretty eyes drift closed, as if he’s the one experiencing bliss, not Stede. Though Ed's going slower, Stede’s body is responding too eagerly. He has to make a concerted effort to keep from bucking his hips up into Ed’s mouth, stoking the heat that is building up deep in his core. The pleasure he’s feeling is too exquisite not to chase.

It’s time to move the scene along before it’s over too soon. Before he can pull Ed off of him, he notices that Ed’s hand has moved beneath his skirt. He taps Ed’s shoulder again and gently tugs on his hair. Ed pops off, his lips spit slick. Stede longs to lean forward and kiss the taste of himself off those lips, but that doesn’t seem to fit the tone of the scene.

Stede puts his hand under Ed’s chin and tilts it up. “You really can’t keep still, can you? I didn’t say you could touch yourself, little slut.”

Ed gasps. They’ve used this language before, so the reaction means Ed must truly be in the scene! That turns Stede on even more, knowing that the scene is working, and that Ed’s submitting so beautifully.

“Please, sir, I’m so hard,” Ed whines.

“You’re still trying to see how hard you can work,” Stede tells him. “How much you can take to make me feel good. If you show me you can be still and not touch yourself, you can come when I’m done—or not at all.”

Ed takes a deep breath. “Yes, sir. Please, I can be so still, not touch myself, I promise—” he babbles, eyes wide. He looks a bit frantic.

“Shh, darling.” Stede can’t help himself. He leans forward and lets his lips capture Ed’s in a soft, sweet kiss, moaning at the salty-bitter taste of his own precome on Ed’s tongue. He squeezes Ed’s hand twice—a signal they had set up. Ed squeezes back twice, meaning he’s okay to proceed.

When Ed pulls back, Stede says, “Stand up.”

Ed scrambles to his feet and then waits, standing utterly still.

“Well done. Lift your skirt,” Stede commands. “Show me how hard your cock is for me.”

Smiling coyly now, Ed slowly lifts his skirt until he reveals his hard cock, trapped in a scrap of black lace, right at Stede’s eye level. His cock gives a twitch, and his mouth waters to see the effect sucking him has had on Ed.

Stede brushes his fingers around the skin of his inner thighs, above the thigh-highs, teasing Ed but not touching his cock. “You are a little whore—you came here intending to seduce me for that raise, didn’t you?” Stede asks.

Ed flushes. “I hoped you’d fuck me, sir. I’ve wanted you for months, not just for the raise.”

In character, Stede’s self-control snaps at this point, as they'd loosely planned it. He stands up, grabs Ed by the upper arms, turns him, and pushes him towards the desk. Once Ed is facing the desk, Stede pushes his torso down onto it, so that he’s bent over. Stede curls over him to say in his ear, “You need a good cock in you, is that it?” He puts his hand under Ed’s skirt and lifts it, squeezing his bare ass cheek. “Let’s see if you can handle the load.”

“I’ll be so good, so patient,” Ed promises. “I can take it. I won’t touch myself when you fuck me, sir.”

“Not sure I trust you,” Stede growls in his ear. “But I have something for that.”

Ed whines. “Please, anything you want.”

Stede stands up and looks Ed over. His skirt is short enough that most of the curve of his delicious ass is exposed. Stede’s cock is still at eager attention. If he had his choice right now, he’d get on his knees and eat that sweet ass, but that’s not what they’re going for right now—maybe he can practice that another time.

Instead, he opens a desk drawer and pulls out a pair of leather cuffs. “Get on your forearms,” he says roughly to Ed, who scrambles to comply. “I don’t trust you not to touch yourself, so you’re going to wear these.”

This part had been pre-negotiated, but Ed, in character, gasps. “Oh, sir!”

Stede holds them up and raises an eyebrow. “These will help you behave, kitten, to keep from touching yourself—and you do want to behave for me, don’t you?” Ed will not be very restricted in his movements by the cuffs, as they won’t be attached to anything, but the position he’s in and short chain between them would make it difficult to move his hands to his cock. They'd discussed Stede using his tie, for the verisimilitude of it, but Stede argued the lined cuffs are designed to be comfortable. Viewers will be too busy focusing in Ed’s gorgeous ass.

Ed looks into his eyes. “I want to be your good girl. Please cuff me and fuck me.”

“What will you say if you need me to stop at any time?”

“Dictation, of course.” Ed smirks—it’s not their usual safe word, but one they set up for this scene.

Stede makes quick work of it—they’d practiced this part and adjusted the cuffs already for comfort. They’d never done this with Ed’s ass exposed, though, and Stede feels dizzy with need. “Next time we’ll get a spreader bar too, pet, then I can truly have my way with you.”

Ed whines at the unexpected bit of dialogue, and he grinds his hips against the desk, seeking friction for his cock. Stede’s affected, too—he could get the spreader bar, perhaps some proper bondage furniture, really tie Ed down and take his pleasure.

Stede focuses. He had expected Ed to “misbehave” a bit, so he lifts Ed’s skirt all the way up and smacks each ass cheek once. “No getting yourself off that way either. Sit still and wait for my cock.”

Ed groans at the contact in what sounds like genuine pleasure. “Fuck!” He wiggles his ass, “disobeying” and inviting a few more smacks. More blood rushes to Stede’s cock as he watches Ed’s skin turn a warm red from the blows.

Stede makes a mental note to acquire a paddle, too. His cock twitches once more as he turns his attention to Ed’s rosy ass cheeks. The strap of Ed’s thong is hiding what Stede is most interested in seeing right now… and it looks like there’s something else he hasn’t noticed yet.

“E—Jeff,” Stede breathes as he moves the strap aside to see the purple plug with the jeweled end better, “you are a slut, aren’t you? Wearing a plug for me?” This truly is a surprise—and a delightful one. He pulls the panties down around Ed’s legs and grasps the end and gently fucks it more deeply into Ed.

“Wanted—ah!—to be ready for you,” Ed gasps, looking back over his shoulder. “Thought of you when I—fuck!—when I put the plug in.”

“Very well done,” Stede purrs, “showing foresight. You might earn that raise.” He moves the plug faster now, knowing that it’s likely too shallow to provide Ed with the stimulation he’s craving. “Perfect little slut. Have you done this to get a raise before?”

Ed gasps and shakes his head. “No! Only with you, sir.”

The words, part of the roleplay though they are, make Stede feel like his veins are full of fire. Maybe if Stede fucks Ed well enough, he won’t want anyone else. Mine.

Blood roaring in his ears, Stede can’t wait longer to bury his cock inside Ed’s sweet hole. He pulls the plug out slowly, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to wrap it in and putting it aside. He takes a small bottle of lube out of his jacket pocket and applies a generous amount to Ed’s hole and spreads his cheeks.

They groan in unison at the moment that Stede presses the tip of his leaking cock against the rim of Ed’s hole. He eases in, only slowly bottoming out and giving Ed time to adjust—knowing from their practice that he’ll signal when he’s ready for more. Stede needs a moment himself, lest this end too fast.

In this case, Ed does so by whining and pushing his hips back further, clenching around Stede. “Oh, fuck, you’re sooooo big!”

Stede smacks his ass once more as he starts to move. He reaches up and grabs Ed’s ponytail, giving it a firm tug, just how Ed likes it. “I knew you couldn’t stay still, cock-hungry slut like you.”

Ed cries out harshly, but he’s pushing himself back onto Stede’s cock even more—Stede can’t fault him for wanting it just as much as he does. Stede gets lost in fucking Ed, losing himself to his tightness and heat. For a few long moments, there are no sounds but their heavy breathing and the lewd sound of skin slapping against skin. Ed's making little noises and pushing himself back as much as he can, fucking himself on Stede's cock almost as much Stede's fucking him. 

Stede's real self-control is close to snapping, his body creaming at him to fuck Ed harder. He wants to make this good for Ed, though. He leans forward, changing the angle subtly.

Ed whines, high and needy. “Harder,” he gasps. “Fuck me harder, I need it, please, Stede—”

At hearing his own name, Stede loses the plot of their little scene entirely—all he wants is to make Ed feel good. “Can we lift your leg? Will it hurt?”

Ed looks back. “You can lift it for a little while, yeah.” His words are slow to come; he’s in that mental place where speaking is difficult.

A little while is all that’s required. They were supposed to try a few positions, but this won’t go on long enough, so Stede chooses what he thinks will feel best for Ed. Stede slips his cock out and helps him put his knee up on the desk. Stede takes a moment to drink him in—he’s completely open to Stede’s gaze, his slick hole clenching around nothing. Stede’s never felt an insistent need like this in his entire life. His entire body is aflame with it.

“Please, fuck me, need your cock—” Ed begs, voice breaking a bit.

“I got you,” Stede says, sliding back inside slowly. Once he’s fully seated, he starts moving at a steady pace, still holding back, desperately hoping to make this last but afraid he can’t. He bends over Ed’s body and kisses the back of his neck, because it’s there to be kissed, and fuck the silly scene anyway. The heat of Ed's body, pinned and writhing under his, untethers Stede from that last bit of self control. His hips snap forward of their own volition, the pace becoming relentless.

The change in angle must hit the right spot. “There!” Ed cries as Stede kisses the nape of his neck. “Don’t stop!”

Stede fucks Ed till he forgets his own name, and there’s nothing but their two bodies and the heat they’ve generated. No characters, no cameras, no views. Just them.

Ed’s making incoherent noises now on each thrust, his hole clenching around Stede, and the tightness is too much. Stede’s going to come, the pleasure’s too exquisite, his blood burning too hot. “Ed, fuck, I’m going to come.”

[Digital black and white art of Ed in his skirt, thigh highs and white shirt bent over the desk. He’s resting in his forearms and wearing cuffs and he’s got one leg up.  Stede is in a suit, pants down, fucking him from behind. He’s bent over Ed and kissing his neck. He is saying, “Ed, fuck I’m going to come.” An anal plug on a handkerchief is visible on the desk.]

Ed cries out in response as Stede sails off the edge of the cliff and his vision blurs into white heat. He comes hard and long, filling Ed’s hole. There’s a squelching noise when he slowly withdraws, and he sucks in a breath when he sees his come leaking out of Ed.

A pleasant haze is descending on Stede, but Ed’s still left trembling and wanting, unable to reach for himself. He reaches between Ed’s legs and strokes him with a quick but firm grip, whispering in his ear, “That’s it, beautiful, let go, love, you’ve done so well, my good girl—”

Ed comes with a harsh cry, all over Stede’s fist.

They both stay in place, panting, for a long moment.

Eventually, Ed chuckles weakly. “Fuck, we kinda dropped character at the end there, didn’t we?

Stede has to laugh at that, too. “We sure did. I hope Pete can edit out our names.” He’ll edit this conversation out, too.

“Shit, we did use our real names, didn’t we? Is it still usable?”

“If we got all the right angles. Gorgeous creampie, too. You were incredibly hot, darling, and stunningly beautiful, which is all anyone will care about.”

Ed sucks in a breath, as if surprised at that. He shouldn’t be—Ed, bent over and cuffed and begging for his cock, is certainly the hottest thing Stede’s ever experienced.

“Do you feel good?” Stede asks, softly, almost afraid of the answer—of Ed saying it was too much. His comfort and pleasure are the most important things to Stede, especially since things got a little intense there, for what was meant as a kind of silly roleplay.

Ed giggles. “Good? I feel fucking incredible.” Ed turns his head towards Stede. It’s an awkward angle, but Stede leans forward to capture his lips with his own.

When the kiss breaks, Ed bats his eyelashes. “So did I earn my raise, Mr. Boss Man? Think I showed initiative—and that I could take your load.”

“Ha!” Stede stands up and reaches for the sex cleanup wipes he’s got stashed in a drawer. “You did earn the raise. You deserve it.” Stede keeps his tone light, but he’s never meant any words more.

As Stede cleans Ed up and leads him to the bed for a cuddle, he reflects that Ed—so brilliant, funny, and sweet—deserves everything.

Ed could have all of Stede. If only Ed wanted him that way.

Chapter Text

Ed is so fucked.

Literally, in that he was fucked, very well, by Stede, over a desk. It was so good he forgot his character and used Stede’s real name. The best sex of Ed’s life, but then, every time with Stede is the best sex of his life.

Ed had never felt so alive as he had when they’d bantered with the silly puns, or when Stede had called him a good girl. Once Stede was fucking him, Ed went out of himself and into that floaty headspace, where he was in his body but also looking down on himself. His existence narrowed to nothing but the joining of their bodies, his mind blessedly empty and in the moment, free of his normally racing thoughts. He was just Ed—not Blackbeard, not a bar owner, not even a porn actor or a lover, in those moments. Ed in his purest, rawest form.

No one else has ever brought him there like Stede. Something about the words he used, the spanking, the cuffs. He’s gotten there a few times since, not every time—it’s not always the goal. But Ed needs more of it.

Ed has since reviewed the raw footage and finished product, with the names edited out as the camera cut to a close-up of them fucking. He looks fucking amazing taking Stede’s cock—it was a gorgeous creampie, if he does say so himself—so that’s something, at least.

But the footage is damning.

It’s the eyes. Ed’s never spent much time reviewing himself on camera before, but he can see that his eyes are expressive as hell. As a commenter on the video, amidst all the horny thoughts and fire emojis, said, “Jeff is made of heart eyes.”

Ed has to agree. His feelings for Stede are written plain on his face when he’s kneeling at his feet. Stede hasn’t said anything about it, yet his eyes were soft, too, whenever he looked at Ed.

It’s confusing as hell, so Ed starts to consider putting some distance between them.

Over a beer, Ed confides in his friend Fang, who has started to become close to Lucius and Pete after meeting them at the Kraken.

“Lucius and Pete told me that you’re into each other,” Fang tells him. “Why don’t you ask Stede out?”

Ed throws up his hands. “I get such mixed signals! He wants to kiss me a lot, but then he calls it practice when we have sex.” Ed sighs and looks at his own hand, wrapped around his pint glass. “What if he says ‘no’? I think he’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“Hey!”

“No offense! You're my friend, too!  But Stede and I just click on this whole new level. Never felt so comfortable with anyone before. Can't lose him, man."

Ed looks up to see Fang regarding him with sympathy. “What makes you think he’d say no? He’s probably just as confused as you are!”

“I think he likes me, maybe, but I’m sure he’s not looking for anything serious. Don’t wanna be his rebound,” Ed mumbles.

Fang reaches across the table and pats Ed’s hand. “I have a feeling it will turn out okay. Pete was talking about the way he looks at you.”

“Yeah, he’s seen it on camera,” Ed quips. Pete edits their stuff. “Kind of an act, though, isn’t it?”

Fang shrugs. “I don’t know the guy, but Lucius says Stede’s not that good an actor.”

Ed’s not sure Stede is a good actor, either, but he’s not sure he's willing to risk his heart on that assumption.

Ed’s ex, Jack, did a number on him about ten years ago, cheating on him just when he thought they were about to get engaged—and likely lots of times before that, too. Their breakup, the final one of many, had sent Ed into a tailspin for months of depression. It took a lot of work to crawl out of the worst of that headspace, but Ed was left believing that he’d never find love. If someone who had known Ed since he was young, who knew all his baggage, couldn’t love him, then no one else could.

In retrospect, Ed didn’t like Jack half as much as he likes Stede. This fact scares Ed shitless. Ed likes to seem cool and tough, but he knows the glued-together bits of his heart wouldn’t survive Stede.

The desk video’s popular enough that they’ve done a couple more “naughty secretary Jeff” roleplays in the ensuing weeks, including the most recent, in which Jeff got to fuck Mr. Stevenson over the desk himself. Stede is a marvel when he’s being fucked, though it’s a different kind of pleasure. Ed enjoys reducing him to a whining, even bitchy, mess.

There’s been less practicing between filmed scenes, though.

The ostensible reason is that it’s almost summer, which means the bar’s getting busier. One of his best bartenders, Ivan, just quit to move to another town for his wife’s job. Ed’s looking for a replacement, but it has meant long hours for him. He’s too tired to go to Stede’s most nights.

More than that, Ed thinks it’s best to limit his time with Stede. If Ed goes over, they inevitably practice, and the more they do that, the more attached Ed will get. It was foolish of him to allow all the cuddling and the shower kisses and so on when they’re not dating—outside of aftercare for scenes they’re filming. So maybe, just maybe, Ed is slow-walking the process of finding a new bartender.

But Ed’s miserable about it. He can’t quite bring himself to stop seeing Stede entirely. Ed’s having too much fun filming, and hell, just being with him. It’s the quiet moments, when it’s just them, no cameras, that are starting to make his heart ache. Stede's so kind and attentive, knowing exactly how many sugars to put in Ed's coffee. He's so damn passionate about the site, and about exploring kink. Ed has enjoyed seeing it afresh through his eyes after getting tired of the scene a few years go. It was also so boring and serious, but Stede makes it fun again.

It's in the moments when they're just shooting the breeze and laughing about stuff. Those are the moments when Ed sees what a relationship between them, a real one, could be like. The sex is just an incredible bonus.

In the past few days, he and Stede haven’t even managed to schedule another shoot due to a minor disagreement. Ed has seen that Stede has filmed some solo stuff—notably, he finally tried the fucking machine, turning into a whining, sweating mess as he gradually turned up the speed. Ed’s wanked about it a few times, but it’s not the same as being with Stede, so he’s out of sorts.

The video is Stede making a point. Their disagreement is about who should bottom in their next video. Ed argues that he did it last time, but Stede argues that Ed’s got to bottom more. They could do some of each, of course—there are any number of solutions, but they’ve both dug in their heels about the whole thing. Ed is standing his ground ostensibly on principle (that principle being he really loves it when Stede fucks him), and also because he needs some breathing room to try to sort his misguided heart out.

But also, yeah, he's predictably horny and grumpy about the whole thing.

Lucius doesn’t help matters. One night, he comes into the Kraken and takes Ed aside: “You should know that Stede’s ex is sniffing around him now.”

That throws Ed for a loop, but he tries his best to look unconcerned, shrugging. “Yeah, so?”

Lucius smirks. “Classic asshole behavior. Only wants what he lost now that he’s seeing someone else get fucked by it.”

“Shit, you mean he’s been watching our videos?”

Lucius laughs. “Oh, sweetie, of course he has. Wouldn’t you, if you were him? You dump a guy, then not two weeks later he’s fucking someone else on camera?”

Yeah, of course, Ed would have watched if he were in Sam’s shoes. Not that he’d have broken up with Stede in the first place.

Jealousy worms its way into Ed's mind, though he knows he has no right. He can't help but imagine Stede breaking off their partnership to go back to Sam. You've been a great fuck, but I miss my boyfriend. Rationally, Ed knows that Stede is not no so cruel, but fear is not a rational thing.

So when Stede texts later, saying he has a solution to their impasse, inviting Ed over for a later dinner to discuss it, Ed agrees. He's relieved, and he misses the guy—not just his fuck buddy, but his friend—so he puts his hesitance about seeing Stede outside of their cam work aside.

They’re not gonna fuck, though.

They fuck. Before dinner or discussion, any of it.

As soon as Stede opens the door, they’re on each other like bees on honey. All of Ed’s rational thoughts go out the window, and his body takes over, letting him take what he’s been craving for days. At the touch of Stede’s lips and the feeling of his hands, roaming under the hem of his tee shirt and touching his bare skin, something deep in Ed’s soul feels settled for the first time in days, even as his body grows feverishly hot.

Judging by how Stede pulls Ed inside, closes the door, and pushes him against the adjacent wall, he’s in a similar state. He kisses Ed like he’s starving, and Ed is his only possible sustenance.

They kiss and grope each other, quickly opening flies and pulling out cocks and stroking. Everything blurs into a haze of tongues and hands, until Stede roughly demands that Ed turn around. Ed obliges, and any thoughts of whose turn it should be flee as Stede pulls his jeans and briefs down.

A moment later, Stede swears softly. “Fuck, I don’t—stay here!”

Before Ed can react properly and ask what the fuck’s happening, Stede, hard cock bobbing around, is dashing into the adjacent kitchen and coming back with a bottle of olive oil. “Lube’s too far away,” he explains.

Good. Olive oil is good. If it worked for the ancient Greeks, it’s just fine for Ed’s hole as long as it means he gets fucked by Stede as soon as possible. Ed arches his back and sticks his ass out, hands braced on the wall. “Hurry.”

Luckily, it doesn’t take Stede long to slick them both up enough, and he’s sliding inside. Ed’s hole, by now accustomed to the stretch of Stede’s cock, relaxes easily to take him. Still, even now, when they’re both so hot for it, Stede waits until Ed says he’s ready.

“Fucking move already,” Ed growls. Stede does so, slow at first, and the drag of him is torture and bliss all at the same time.

“Oh, Ed, fuck—you’re incredible. I missed—ah!”

“Faster,” Ed demands. There’s no scene here, no dom or sub, just the two of them and their raw need for one another. He revels in this proof of Stede’s desire for him, eager to match it.

Stede’s fingers dig into his hips hard enough to leave bruises—Ed hopes they do. He fucks Ed faster, but this will be over soon on his end. Ed can tell from the noises he’s making. Ed’s own cock needs attention, but the olive oil is on a little table out of reach, so he spits in his own hand.

They quickly find a rhythm. With Stede’s hands on Ed’s hips, every thrust fucks Ed’s cock into his own fist. “Yeah, fuck, like that.”

“I won’t last,” Stede whines, slowing a little.

Ed starts stroking himself faster, knowing his own release won’t be far behind Stede’s, if at all. “Don’t need to last, just fuck me.” Stede snaps his hips again, faster and faster. “That’s it, babe, come in me...”

They’re both silent after that, listening to only the sounds of their bodies—skin slapping against skin and heavy breathing. Ed spits in his hand again when it dries out, mixing it with the precome now leaking from the tip of his dick. When he starts stroking once more, his balls are tightening, and he knows he’s close.

His movements growing erratic, Stede comes with a harsh cry. Ed follows almost immediately, a bone-shattering orgasm that would take him out at the knees if he weren’t propped against the wall. Luckily, most of it gets on Ed’s hand and the wooden floor, not the wall itself.

Before Ed can fully recover himself, Stede reaches up to turn his head for a kiss—an awkward angle, a bit of teeth, but intense enough to send aftershocks down Ed’s spine.

Guess he wasn’t thinking of Sam just now, Ed thinks.

It’s not until they’ve cleaned the floor, showered, and are choosing Thai food to order that Ed realizes this may have been a booty call—or was it? He doesn’t think Stede planned it —he thinks ahead, so he’d have had lube on him if he’d planned to fuck Ed in his foyer.

Stede admits as much, once they’ve placed the order: “I, uh, did have an idea for you, I just… I guess I missed you. When I saw you, I…” He stops and sighs, looking Ed in the eye. “You’re incredibly sexy.”

There’s a moment of silence as Ed looks at him, and he looks back, guileless. Stede looks as open and fond as he always has. Why is that such a turn-on? Can a heart be horny?

“So are you,” Ed replies softly. “Really fucking hot.” It feels a bit like admitting something else, a truth that’s been written in his heart but only fluttering around the edges of his consciousness; he refuses to go there, though, even in his mind.

Stede blushes. He’s clearly not used to hearing that, though Ed’s said it before, but he doesn’t deny it, anyway.

Desperate to change the subject, Ed asks, “What’s your idea?”

“Oh!” Stede looks excited. “I know we could fuck each other in succession until one of us comes, or one of us could finish the other with a dildo or something, but then I thought—what if we could both get fucked at the same time? By each other?”

The majority of Ed’s brains leaked out of his ears back in Stede’s foyer, so it takes him a second, but he slowly begins to see. “Oh, shit, yeah, you mean…?”

“A double-headed dildo!” they say at the same time.

They giggle at that. “We said the same thing.”

In that moment, Ed simply cannot find a flaw in Stede’s logic, and besides, it’s hard to remember whatever principle he was standing up for when they debated about what to do.

“Yeah, mate, fuck each other at the same time? Sign me up.”

In the end, Ed and Stede decide not to make it a scene or a roleplay. They don’t want to wear out the boss and secretary’s welcome, and the costumes for their nurse and doctor and plumber outfits are still being made by Stede’s costume guy, someone named John. Amazing that Stede has found a costume guy for their silly sex roleplays, but like with everything else about him, Ed’s into it. He may suggest a French maid scenario next. It feels like a new spin on these classic porn scenarios, considering that they’re both dudes and about the same age—any power exchanges between them are clearly their choice.

This time, it’s just going to be the two of them and the double-headed dildo. No characters—well beyond their regular noms de porn, Jeff Jefferson and Steve Stevenson—and no costumes. It will be as close to their practice fucking as they’ve gotten, though, of course, they haven’t used the dildo yet. Predictably, Stede says they should wait to try it. “So we’ll really be in the moment,” Stede says with that madman’s glint in his eye.

Ed is defenseless against that glint.

Stede express orders just the right dildo, and they wait until Ed has a night off. In the meantime, Ed’s busy at the bar, so he doesn’t see Stede until it’s time to film.

This time, when he arrives at Stede’s, he’s invited in and not shoved against the wall. A little part of Ed is disappointed, but he knows they have to keep their powder dry for the scene.

Stede is looking impossibly broad in a tight green polo shirt, paired with his tightest skinny jeans, the ones that look painted on. Ed’s got on a loose black T-shirt and black distressed jeans–he’t taken more care with what’s underneath his outfit tonight.

“How do you want to start?” Stede asks Ed on the way to the dungeon. “Already naked, in the middle of things?”

“Nah, let’s start from the beginning. Kissing, clothes on and gradually coming off, the whole bit.” Ed wants what he’s wearing to be revealed on camera for Stede. It’s been fun, surprising him with sexy underclothes.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Stede says. Judging by the excited look on Stede’s face, he may have a surprise in store as well. “Same brain.”

“Same brain.” And isn’t that something? Ed doesn’t think he could have said that about himself and anyone before. He and Stede fit so well…

Stop that. We’re just friends. Who fuck. A lot. It’s safest to remember that, and to try to keep some sort of boundaries around whatever-the-fuck they are. Better than losing it.

Ed tries to ignore the way his heart starts pounding the moment they enter the dungeon. Some kind of Pavlovian sex response. He’s horny, too—more than usual, as he avoided jacking off for reasons he had not cared to examine too closely.

He sits on the bed to untie his boots as Stede flutters around, fussing with the lights, microphone, and cameras. There is some discussion of angles and where best to position themselves. Otherwise, this is less planned out than their roleplays were—the only real plan is to fuck themselves together on the dildo eventually.

Stede brings out a box with the evening’s guest star and pulls it out. He offers it to Ed. “So you can get a handle on it.”

Ed rolls his eyes at the joke, but takes the dildo anyway, eager to know what he’s in for. It’s firm but flexible, a sort of frosted, slightly translucent, lightly purple. About one foot long and a little less girth than Stede is. Ed holds back a smile, knowing it will coordinate with his surprise.

Stede looks a little anxious. “I know it’s a bit big—”

“Ehh, so are you. I can take it.”

Stede smiles. “Yes. Well. It was well reviewed!”

Ed wants to ask exactly how they will use it, but stops himself. They’ll figure it out as they go, and it’ll be a hell of a lot of fun. He hasn’t had the kind of fun he has with Stede in a long, long time.

Stede takes the dildo back and puts it on a side table, along with their other supplies—the mirrored tray of lube, the stack of fluffy towels, and the sex wipes. They never bother hiding all that stuff, since it adds to the notion that the two of them are real guys having real sex. And so they are.

Ed’s already breathless with anticipation for it.

“Is there anything else you need to do?” Stede asks, tilting his head towards the bathroom.

“Nope.” Ed’s done all his prep.

“Me, too.”

They stop for a moment, looking into each other’s eyes and before looking away. Suddenly it’s awkward between them, for the first time ever, likely because the cameras will be on, but there’s no little scene for them to do. Usually, when there’s no scene, it’s when the cameras are off. He’s not quite sure how they’ll begin this time.

Ed’s about to suggest they turn the cameras on, but then Stede pulls out a little remote from his back pocket. “I got a remote for the cameras! Controls all of them!” He takes a deep breath. “When I say ‘Action!’”

“Yeah, mate.”

Stede presses a button on the remote and puts it back into his pocket. “Three, two, one… Action.”

Ed need not have worried. What felt like awkwardness was anticipation, like they were two runners waiting for the starting gun. It takes less than a second before they’re on each other, kissing fiercely, as if they’d been apart for three days and not three hours. Stede’s hand slides up into Ed’s hair, and his other hand curls around Ed’s lower back, pulling him so that their torsos are flush. Ed gets one hand on Stede’s ass and the other on his upper back, clinging to him as Stede licks into his mouth.

Ed makes a noise about it all that he sorta hopes the microphone doesn’t pick up. Stede must like it, though, since he sort of moans into their kiss. The only thing keeping Ed from melting right into the floor is that it would mean the kissing ends.

As it is, he doesn’t know how long it goes on—it could be a few minutes, likely kinda boring for the viewers after a while, but Pete can edit it if needed, whatever. Some part of his brain recognizes the need to move things on, though, so he moves his hands to grip Stede’s fucking solid upper arms, spins him so that his back is towards the bed, and pushes him down onto it. Stede lands on his backside and props himself up on his forearms, his eyes roving up and down Ed’s body. Though his jeans are tight, the bulge in them is visible enough; Ed licks his lips.

Instead of following him down and crawling over, Ed puts on a show. He bites his lip as he slowly begins to lift the hem of his tee shirt. Stede swallows visibly, eyes wide as they follow Ed’s slow movements.

He pauses when he gets to the hem of what he’s got on underneath, flashing Stede a hint of purple lace.

“E—Jeff!” Stede gasps. Ed knows Stede had some idea that Ed’s into wearing lingerie by now, but he’s always right there in the moment and delighted by everything. That may even be his sexiest quality, though there are so many of those to choose from.

Once Ed’s pulled his shirt off, Stede gets those cartoon wolf eyes. Ed knows he looks fantastic in the purple floral lace bra, with his tattoos peeking through, along with glints of the silver nipple barbels he has in. Ed runs his hands over the lace, pausing at his nipples to pinch a little. “You like?” he asks Stede coyly.

Stede’s eyes go from cartoonish to soft and sincere in an instant. “I love.”

Ed’s going to have to do his best to forget he heard that word tumble out of Stede’s mouth.

Ed lets his hands slip down his chest, over his belly, and down his treasure trail to the fly of his jeans. He takes his time unbuttoning and unzipping and then stops, so that just a hint of more purple lace is visible.

Stede sits up, as if he wants as close a view as possible, palming at his cock through his jeans.

It’s not what Ed intended, but inspiration strikes. “You can take it out,” he says, voice husky. “Let me see how eager you are.”

Lightning quick, Stede stands up, unzips his skintight jeans, and shoves them down his legs. It’s a bit of a struggle, giving Ed a chance to admire Stede’s slutty choice of undies—a scrap of aqua blue silk, straining across his plump cock. Is that a wet spot? Already? Ed’s cock grows heavier.

As Stede bends over to try to wrestle the jeans off, Ed sees that it’s a thong, too. “Fuck,” he breathes.

Finally managing to get the jeans off, red-faced, Stede flops back down on the bed so hard that he bounces a little. “I thought you might like to see some sexy underwear, too.”

Too fucking right. Stede is miles of pale, ruddy, freckled skin—much of it covered in a rosy blush—and the bit of silk is a tease, covering the bit Ed wants to see most. Which is what they’re supposed to be getting to. “Take your cock out for me,” Ed says again, for good measure, as he ghosts a hand over his own cock, still encased in lace and hidden by his jeans, which he hasn’t pulled down yet.

Stede pulls the silk aside so that his dick springs free, thick and delicious looking in its nest of golden and gray curls. Ed’s had that cock enough times by now that he should be used to it, but the sight of it, hard and waiting for him, gets him going. Hey, he’s a connoisseur, and this is one of the best he’s ever seen, and by far the best he’s ever had.

Some of their viewers are feral for it, Ed knows from the comments. That reminds him of Sam, watching Stede and Ed fuck. Well, let him, Ed thinks before pushing the thought aside.

Ed refocuses on what’s important. “Such a pretty cock.” Stede visibly swallows.

Ed turns around, since this angle will give Stede the best show as he peels his own jeans off and steps out of them. Ed knows how good his ass must look covered in purple lace, with a bit of bare butt cheek on display. He bends over to step out of each leg of the jeans, and feels triumphant when he hears a sort of choking noise coming from Stede.

The noise is followed by the sound of spitting and a long, guttural moan. Ed stands upright and looks over his shoulder to see Stede giving his cock long, luxurious strokes. “Couldn’t wait for me, huh?’

Stede finishes an upward stroke and rubs his thumb along the slit. “Not when you’re this… stunning.” His eyes dip to Ed’s own cock, filling out the purple lace.

Ed expected his banter to be volleyed back at him; the earnest compliment takes his breath away.

Though he's eager, Ed is in no rush—he’s never seen Stede do this in person, not for more than a few moments, and he’s stunning, too. Ed wants to watch him for a change, a little while, so he brings one hand up pinch a lace-covered nipple while the other toys with the elastic of his panties, close to his cock. Stede’s eyes are half-lidded, but he follows the movement of Ed’s lower hand as he strokes himself and moans softly. Ed feels powerful, knowing that Stede is deeply affected just by looking.

Ed’s cock twitches in response, and Stede catches the movement. “I love looking at you, but come here, please,” he says softly.

There’s that word again.

Ed is trembling slightly as he walks over and stands between Stede’s thick thighs, spread wide to accommodate Ed. Stede immediately drops his cock to grab Ed’s ass with both hands, and that’s so fucking hot—the way he couldn’t wait to get his hands on Ed, even at the expense of pleasuring himself.

The fingers of one of Stede’s hands make their way between the fabric and Ed’s skin, kneading gently. The other moves up to the waistband. Stede looks up, and the heat in his eyes nearly sends Ed tumbling forward into him. “As pretty as these are, they’ll look better on the floor.”

Ed laughs. “Smooth fucker.”

Stede smirks. “Mmm, yes, that’s the idea.” He starts to pull Ed’s panties down with both hands until his cock is exposed to the air, standing at attention. Before Ed can catch his breath—that intense look has him pinned in place—Stede grabs his ass again and leans forward, taking Ed into his mouth.

The angle is a little awkward, but as Stede takes Ed fairly deep, enough to bury his nose in the curls at the base. Stede inhales, moaning like he’s smelling freshly baked bread, not Ed’s private bits. He looks up and starts moving his head back and forth, swirling his tongue around the tip occasionally as he pulls back, and occasionally pausing and swallowing around him. Ed throws his head back and brings his hands up into Stede's hair, and lets the strands flow through his fingers, soft as silk.

Stede pulls off and wraps a hand around him, stroking slowly. “You taste divine,” he growls before diving back in, now using his mouth and hand in tandem.

It feels warm and wet, incredible, but the noises Stede is making about sucking his cock are what take Ed closer to the edge of coming—he sounds like he’s never tasted anything better in his life. Ed doesn’t want to get too close, though—they haven’t gotten to the main event. He tugs on the curls at the base of Stede’s skull, gently. “Babe, stop, fuck! Feels too good.”

Stede moves off of him right away and looks up, squeezing Ed’s ass. “Too good doesn’t sound like a problem.”

“Well, I want you to fuck me, so I can't finish yet.” Ed pretends to pout.

“Oh, that is a problem, because I very much want you to fuck me.”

Ed raises an eyebrow. “What a conundrum. If only we had something for that, Steve!"

Stede’s eyes go wide and excited, in that madman way. Before he met Stede, Ed didn’t know anyone his age who still retained a sense of wonder about the world. Or about double dildo fucking with Ed, but most people are pretty damn cynical about sex. Stede’s a kinky fucker, but he doesn’t seem perverted about any of it due to his sheer enthusiasm.

Stede turns and scrambles backwards on the bed and picks up the dildo. “It so happens we have just the thing!”

Ed smiles as he bends down to take his panties off completely. “So ass to ass, or...?” He takes the bra off, too, wanting them both to be bare.

“I’d rather see you, darling.” The madman's glint in those greeny-golden eyes has melted into softness.

Ed swallows as he kneels on the bed. “Uh, yeah, okay. Sounds good.” Truth be told, he’d rather see Stede, too. (Always, in any situation, but especially this one.)

Mindful of the camera angles, Ed crawls forward across the massive bed until he’s close to Stede. “Take those naughty little briefs off.”

Stede lies down and lifts his hips, quickly discarding his briefs. But before Ed can suggest anything, Stede looks at him with pleading eyes. “Sit on my face first?” He says it like it’s a question, and like there’s some doubt about the answer, which is absurd.

Some clarity is needed, though. “Y-you mean–”

“I want to eat your ass. Please?”

As if Ed’s doing Stede a favor in this case. On the contrary, Ed’s been dreaming of this for weeks, but was somehow too shy to suggest it, which is absurd considering… everything. But he knows that Stede’s skilled with his tongue, and Ed’s always loved having his ass eaten.

“Fuck, yeah.” Ed crawls up his body, stopping for a filthy kiss, before he carefully straddles Stede’s head. “Ready?”

“Yes. Please.” Stede wraps his hands around Ed’s thighs and does the double squeeze—their little signal to each other that everything’s good.

Bracing his hands on the headboard behind Stede’s head, Ed gently lowers himself down until he feels Stede’s tongue start to trace the rim of his hole.

“Baby—fuck!” It feels so good, and it’s been so damn long since anyone’s done this for him. The nerve endings of his hole seem to be connected to every other pleasure center in his body, making him feel like he’s on fire.

Stede pauses to say something that sounds like, “Wanted this for so long.” He’s a bit muffled, though, and it’s hard to tell, and then Ed forgets to try to figure it out as wave after wave of pleasure crashes over him. Stede alternates between circling his hole and poking his tongue just inside, but in an unpredictable pattern that feels so fucking good that Ed wants to weep.

The only thing keeping him fully inside his mind is that he doesn’t want to smother Stede, but he’s pulling Ed down closer to his mouth. He squeezes Ed’s backside twice—the signal that all is well—and spreads his cheeks, so Ed sits down a bit more, trusting that Stede will tap him twice to ease off or three times to stop completely.

Stede’s nose is poking against Ed’s taint, which feels strange but incredible in its own way. He starts licking at Ed's hole properly, flattening his tongue, moaning like he’s tasting the nectar of the gods or some shit. Ed can’t help but wrap his hand around his cock to relieve the pressure that’s already building up in him. He arches his back and sticks his ass out a bit, trying to make a show of it for the cameras, but he doesn’t need to exaggerate much because he feels fucking fantastic.

Stede’s mouth moves to alternate between licking Ed’s taint and his balls, while one finger moves to his hole and starts to gently press inside. Ed leans forward, bracing himself with one hand on the headboard. He’s hypersensitive now, thanks to Stede’s tongue; the finger is incredible but also not nearly enough, reducing him to a wreck. His precome is leaking onto the pillow just beyond Stede’s head–somewhere he’d neglected to put down a towel.

The movements of Stede's tongue and finger send him into some other dimension, so much so that Ed has to, very reluctantly, stop and move off Stede’s mouth after a few minutes. If they keep going, Ed would bring himself off all over Stede’s pretty wooden headboard and wall.

At any rate, he’s feeling more than ready for the dildo. He swings a leg off and kneels next to Stede, bending over to kiss the taste of himself off Stede’s mouth. Stede tries to pull him in for a deeper kiss, but Ed wants more than anything to see to him, so he breaks it and reaches for the lube and the dildo. ”Gonna fuck you,” Ed tells him.

“What about you?”

“I want to see how pretty you look taking this first.” Ed brandishes the dildo before slicking it up, as Stede pulls his knees back to expose his sweet little pucker. Ed applies a lot of lube to Stede’s hole, too, before taking one end and starting to tease him.

Stede’s back arches as he tries to push himself onto the dildo. “So fucking eager.“ Ed pushes the tip of it inside and meets little resistance. Ed takes his time teasing slowly at his hole, pushing the tip in and back out again. There’s a sheen of sweat on Stede’s forehead and chest, and his whole body from the chest up is getting to be a bright shade of red.

His response to Ed’s slow teasing is an impatient whine as he tries to push himself onto it. Ed stifles a laugh and throws one of Stede’s old lines back at him: “Patience is a virtue.”

“Fuck you.”

“We’re getting to that,” Ed says, his own empty hole clenching a bit at the thought.

First, though, Ed pushes the dildo a little farther inside Stede, enough to make him sigh in relief but not quite enough—or so Ed thinks—to truly give him what he wants.

“Fuck me!” Stede demands, affirming Ed’s sense of things.

“Fuck you, fuck me, make up your mind.”

“The point was both,” Stede snaps, and oh, making him lose his mind is fun. It’s giving Ed ideas for next time. For now, though, he does want to get to the point.

“Alright, you greedy thing.” Ed leaves the dildo just inside Stede and applies the lube to himself and the other end of it. He has a moment of sussing out where to put his legs, but he sits down, his ass facing Stede’s, and smooches closer until he can line his hole up with the other end of the dildo, planting his feet on either side of Stede’s torso; Stede does the same, mirroring Ed’s position.

After another few moments of trying to maneuver himself, Ed brings the tip of the dildo inside himself and starts to try to fuck himself on it.

[Digital art of Ed and Stede, naked, facing each other with each end of a double-headed dildo inside of them, their legs intertwined. Their cocks are hard about it. Judging by their faces, they are both very, very into it.]

Stede does the same, trying to match his rhythm to Ed’s, making a sort of back and forth, one fucking himself on the dildo and then the other. Ed takes a deep breath and tries to let it go deeper, but the angle is a bit awkward.

From the point of view of being a visual feast, Ed can see what the fuss is about. It’s incredibly hot to see Stede getting fucked at the same time. Ed’s got a front row seat to watching Stede’s hole take a cock, and to see how his hard dick bounces with each thrust. Stede’s cock is leaking all over his belly, mirroring the state of his own dick.

Ed has the sense that neither of them is going to be truly satisfied with this, but they’re both increasingly desperate to make it work, which is really fucking hot in its own way. Stede is glistening with sweat, whining in that needy way of his that makes Ed want to eat him alive.

Ed knows just how he feels. The dildo grazes his prostate every few thrusts, but it is not nearly enough. “St—Stede, fuck, I need more,” Ed whines.

“I’ve got you.” Stede seems to know just what to do—maybe he studied this. He reaches forward to wrap his right hand around Ed’s cock. A brilliant idea, so Ed does the same. If they’re jerking each other while this happens, they might get somewhere. “You’re so wet for me.”

“You, too–so fucking wet.”

Stede does something else, too. With his other hand, he grips the middle of the dildo and starts moving it back and forth quickly so that it’s fucking both of them. Now it’s filling Ed just the way he needs it, rubbing against his prostate with each thrust into him. Between that and Stede’s firm strokes of his cock, now Ed’s getting somewhere.

Ed’s eyes want to roll to the back of his head, but he keeps enough focus to work Stede’s cock, enjoying how heavy it feels in his hand—and how it’s leaking all over it. From this angle, he can easily see how Stede’s balls are drawing tight to his body. Ed’s balls are doing the same, and he’s got that hot, shaky need starting to glow deep in his core. “That’s it, baby, come on, fuck us both till we come.”

“Oh, oh, E–Jeff, fuck!” Stede tips his head back, and his mouth opens in a silent O as he comes all over Ed’s fist and his own belly. The sight of Stede coming while his hole’s being filled, from this angle, is incredible, so Ed’s own orgasm follows a moment later, his entire field of vision going white hot as he spills all over Stede’s hand and his thighs and stomach.

The next thing Ed knows, Stede has flipped forward onto him and is licking all the come off of his body. Ed’s spent cock gives a valiant little throb, and Stede moans softly, like he’s tasting heaven once more.

Once he’s licked Ed clean, he moves up Ed’s body and starts kissing him frantically, as if he’d missed doing it for the last five minutes or so. Ed kisses back, not caring for a moment that they’re going to get sticky and gross since Stede’s still covered in come. He’s boneless, sated, but always horny for more of Stede’s kisses.

Stede kisses Ed like he matters. For those few precious moments, Ed can let himself believe it’s true.

His brain slowly comes back online, and he coaxes Stede to roll off so they can stop the recording, clean up a bit, and then take one of their customary showers. There’s more kissing, then, with Stede's lips hardly leaving his own, but that’s fucking great.

Ed runs his hands over Stede’s ass, softly, as they kiss. Stede jerks like he’s been electrocuted.

“Sorry!” Stede gasps. “Always been a bit ticklish.”

Ed tucks that bit of information away.

This shower, along with the dungeon, is part of their liminal space, where Ed can pretend there’s something real between them.

Ed crashes back to earth when they get out of the shower. Stede looks at his phone, planning to order them some food, and stops in the middle of a sentence about wanting some egg rolls. A look Ed can’t read passes over his face.

“What’s up?” Ed asks.

“It’s Sam.” Stede sighs. “My ex. He wants to come by and get some of the stuff he left.”

Ed's bubble of happiness shatters around him. “The fuck?” It’s eleven o’clock at night. Sounds like an attempt at a booty call to Ed, an ex sex situation.

He doesn't expect to be thrown out, especially not for sex (Stede is quite satisfied, thankyouverymuch). Ed nonetheless breathes a sigh of relief when Stede rolls his eyes. “I’ve offered plenty of options for him to come get it. It’s much too late. He can come by at a reasonable hour. I'm not even answering him now.” He looks up at Ed, and the tension melts out of his features. “So, egg rolls?”

“Sounds great,” Ed croaks.

As Stede orders, Ed thinks about Sam “sniffing around,” as Lucius put it. He had Stede and gave him up. Now Ed gets to have him instead—at least to an extent. And if he’s watching their videos, so much the better. Eat your fucking heart out as you watch me take that perfect cock over and over.

Not that Stede’s his, but Ed feels uneasy about him wanting Stede back. Whatever the fuck this is between Ed and Stede, Sam likely wouldn’t stand for it to continue if he got Stede back.

Ed cannot lose Stede. Unthinkable.

Ed’s always had a bit of a jealous streak, but he can multitask and make lemons out of lemonade–his jealous thoughts are giving him a fantastic idea for their next video.

Besides, making plans distracts Ed from a thought that sometimes catches him unawares, painful as a gut stab: this thing with Stede, the time they spend together closing out the rest of the world, is precious and fleeting. It’s not real life.

It can’t last forever.