#daily excerpt

Daily excerpt from today’s writing, Smoke in Autumn chapter 4:

‘Do you…do this a lot?’ Mosk said carefully when Augus touched his fingers lightly to a bad patch of bruising. He could tell the skin had scabbed in places. He felt like he’d been flayed raw at the time, but he’d just assumed he hadn’t been. He didn’t know someone could do that with their hand.

‘Not like this,’ Augus said.

‘Not this hard?’

‘Oh, definitely this hard,’ Augus said, running his hand along an unmarked stretch of the back of Mosk’s thigh. Mosk squirmed and then sagged back down, tired. ‘But not like this, all the same. Have you ever used your safewords? With anyone?’

‘No.’

Augus was quiet, still stroking his thigh along the hamstring, down to the back of his knee and back up again, languid, easy caresses that weren’t ticklish at all.

‘Have you wanted to?’ Augus asked finally.

‘I don’t believe in them. It doesn’t matter what I want, I don’t like the premise.’

‘Your reason for not using them is philosophical?’

Daily excerpt from today’s writing! Chapter 4 of Smoke in Autumn:

‘You’re going to roll onto your hip, and stay there,’ Augus said firmly. ‘I’ll help you.’

‘I don’t-’

‘Hush, kitten,’ Augus said, gently thumbing Mosk’s hipbone. ‘You were being so good.’

Was he? Was he really?

So Mosk shut up and carefully drew back onto his side and was proud of himself for making no sounds of pain at all, because really, this wasn’t that bad. But the pain wasn’t good. The blanket slid down Mosk’s shoulder and exposed his chest, and he saw Augus’ eyes on his nipples and swallowed and felt every inch of his nudity even though he was still partially covered.

Augus looked sad for a moment, and then picked up the tablets. ‘Are you allergic to codeine?’