Edward Teach was the prettiest man Stede Bonnet had ever laid eyes on.
Stede had signed up for Classical Literature because he was genuinely excited to read such seminal texts as The Iliad and The Aeneid. Ed, he learned after they were assigned to work together on a presentation about Helen of Troy, had signed up for the class because he needed a lit course to graduate and this was the only one that fit in his schedule.
“All this crap about so-and-so, son of so-and-so,” Ed had said over coffee the first time they met outside of class to discuss the project. “Who cares?”
Stede disagreed, of course; he argued that the lineage was incidental and what really mattered was the passion and drama of it all. That turned into a discussion of how much gayer Ancient Greece was than people thought—not an argument so much as an incredibly passionate conversation between two people who agree—which turned into the further chatting, and before Stede knew it, they were being escorted out of the campus coffee shop because they were closing for the evening.
Coffee and library meetups eventually led to a first date at the movies, which had involved far more kissing than paying attention to the film. That had led to a picnic on the quad, and then ice cream at one of the handful of nearby restaurants, and then attending a school baseball game together (Stede barely understood the rules, and Ed was gracious enough not to make fun of him when he called a home run a touchdown).
There was just the one thing missing from their relationship so far: sex. Ed was coming over to Stede’s place tonight, just a casual hangout, he’d said, but even if Stede couldn’t read between the lines on that, he could certainly read the suggestive look in Ed’s eyes when he said it.
It wasn’t as though Stede had never had sex. After all, he and Mary had fooled around plenty in high school, although it was always sort of awkward and unsexy. In fact, it was his distinct lack of interest in sex with Mary—and his very distinct interest in the male halves of the hetero couples in the only porn he’d allowed himself to watch—that made him realize he was gay. Mary was very beautiful, and perfectly attentive in bed, everything he would have wanted if he were even a little bit into women. The fact that he wasn’t particularly interested had eventually clued him in to the fact that perhaps the problem was simply her gender.
The trouble was, it also wasn’t as though Stede had had a lot of sex. That was to say, he’d never had the courage to get further than heavy kissing and hand jobs with the few gentlemen he’d hooked up with since starting college. And those were perfectly lovely, perfectly affirming that Stede could in fact experience the kind of pleasure he’d always dreamed of, but they weren’t exactly romantic.
He wanted romantic with Ed.
So it was that he attempted to turn his on-campus apartment into something less like a perfunctory attempt at student housing and more like a scene from a romance novel. He ordered fake plastic rose petals online and lit several candles with complementary scents. He dimmed the overhead lighting in his bedroom and turned on the fairy lights he’d hung at the beginning of the year and hardly used. He found a sexy playlist on Spotify and played it quietly from his phone. He lined up a selection of condoms and lube on his bedside table.
He still didn’t feel ready by the time Ed texted him that he’d arrived, but there was nothing for it. He shuffled down the stairs to let him in.
“Hey, mate,” Ed said, relaxed, easy, like Ed always was. “How’s it going?”
How was it going? They were about to have sex for God’s sake’s; how was he supposed to answer that?
“All good,” Stede replied, and if Ed noticed his voice pitching up a bit, he didn’t let on. “Come on up.”
Stede led Ed up the stairs to his apartment in comfortable silence. It was strange, this thing between them. Stede had never felt more lost and at home at the same time. Being with Ed was the most natural thing in the world, but it also shook his nerves, made him question himself and his choices. Strangely, when he had uncertainties about Ed, the person he wanted to talk to about it was…Ed.
Well, there was an idea, anyway. As they settled onto the couch, Stede spoke up.
“I’m a bit nervous.”
“What for?” Ed looked genuinely confused as he asked the question.
“I haven’t done this much. I mean, I’ve done a few things, but. Well, it never really felt right with Mary, and everyone since then…I didn’t like them nearly as much as I like you.” And there he went, running his stupid mouth like a babbling idiot. I like you? What was this, middle school?
Ed grinned. “I’ll be honest, mate. I’ve got a decent body count…but I never liked any of them as much as I like you, either.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Ed gently touched a finger to the underside of Stede’s chin. “I’m a little bit nervous myself.”
“Can I kiss you?” Stede blurted out before he could stop himself. That, at least, would be familiar.
“Please.”
Stede leaned in and closed the gap between them, pressing his lips against Ed’s just softly. Ed brought a hand up to cup his cheek, and Stede leaned into the touch. Slowly, they began to deepen the kiss, lips slipping open and tongues sliding together. Stede groaned when Ed ran his tongue along the back of Stede’s teeth, and Ed answered by wrapping an arm tight around Stede’s waist and hauling him bodily into his lap. Stede squeaked, and Ed laughed.
“Sorry, I should have asked. Is this okay?”
“It’s very okay,” Stede answered in a rush. “I’d like to kiss your neck? If that’s all right?”
“Fuck yeah,” Ed said and tilted his head to the side to give Stede better access.
Stede started off with a few gentle presses of lips to skin, Ed sighing and tangling his fingers in Stede’s curls. Gradually, Stede increased the intensity of his kisses, sucking along Ed’s neck and making him groan underneath him.
“Fuck, that’s good,” Ed said, breath heavy with wanting. “God, mark me , Stede.”
Stede didn’t need telling twice. He started sucking harder, adding a light bit of teeth here and there. Before long the skin on Ed’s neck was turning red and Ed was panting, eyes shut and head tilted back.
“Should we take this to the bedroom?” Stede murmured into Ed’s neck, and Ed nodded. Stede extracted himself from Ed’s lap, as reluctant as he was to do so, and took Ed’s hand to guide him to the bedroom. Ed followed him willingly, and soon they were inside Stede’s whole romantic setup.
“This is nice,” Ed said. “You put all this together for me?”
“Yes,” Stede said, blushing as he took in the dimmed lights, the rose petals, the condoms. “I…I wanted tonight to be nice.”
Ed kissed him, pulling him close by the waist. When he pulled back, his forehead resting against Stede’s, he said, “it would have been nice no matter what. Because it’s you. But I appreciate it.”
Stede kissed Ed this time, and then they were falling backwards onto the bed, a tangle of limbs and desire. Ed ended up on top of Stede, straddling his hips, one hand snaking its way up and under Stede’s shirt.
“Has anyone ever told you you’ve got gorgeous tits?” Ed asked him as his fingers brushed over one nipple. Stede shivered.
“You haven’t even seen them,” he protested. It was true; although Ed had felt him up a few times, they’d never taken their clothes off in front of each other.
“Well, maybe we should fix that,” Ed suggested. Stede wiggled until he was sitting up, Ed still in his lap, and pulled his shirt off, depositing it softly on the floor.
“See?” Ed said, eyes running up and down Stede’s chest. “Like I said. Gorgeous.”
Stede started to speak, but Ed ducked his head and took one of Stede’s nipples into his mouth, swirling his tongue in circles around it. Stede let out a whine, feeling his dick growing harder as Ed worked. Fuck, Ed’s mouth on him was good; he could only imagine how it would feel other places.
“Baby,” Stede breathed, and Ed moaned and pulled his mouth off of Stede’s chest.
“Call me that again.”
“Baby.”
Ed pulled his shirt off over his head in one smooth motion. Stede drank in the sight of his bare chest, all delectable-looking skin and black-lined tattoos and a trail of dark hair leading from Ed’s belly button to below the line of his jeans. It made Stede’s mouth water.
“Fuck,” Stede murmured. “Let me touch your chest?”
“Yes,” Ed said back, nuzzling his face into Stede's neck as Stede’s hands touched him slowly, reverently. He traced each of Ed’s ribs with his fingertips, thumbed circles around his nipples, placed his palm flat against his heart to feel it beat. Stede was achingly hard just from this, just from kissing and touching above the waist, and he’s half out of his mind with wanting more.
“Stede, shit,” Ed muttered into his neck. “I could come just from this.”
“Me too,” Stede answered. “But I do want to touch your cock. If that’s all right.”
“More than all right,” Ed said. “God, Stede, I’ve been thinking about it since I first saw you across the room in class. Touch me, please.”
Stede doesn’t let himself think too hard about Ed’s confession, afraid that the mental image of Ed daydreaming about him, maybe even touching himself as he did, would tip him over the edge. Instead, he slides his hands down the planes of Ed’s body until his right hand rests gently over his crotch. Experimentally, he wraps his hand around Ed’s clothed cock and squeezes.
“Fuck yeah,” Ed said again, his breathing growing heavier against Stede’s neck. “Keep going.”
Stede reached for the button on Ed’s jeans, moving slowly to give Ed time to call things off if he needed to. He unfastened the button before sliding his zipper down. Ed wriggled a bit, helping Stede lower his jeans and boxers down to his knees. Stede paused for a moment just to look down, to admire Ed’s erection where it’s trapped between their bodies. He reached down and stroked Ed once from base to tip, and Ed sucked his teeth.
“That feels so good,” he said, and his mouth found its way back to Stede’s. It was all Stede could do to remember to kiss him back while his hand was around the velvety soft skin of Ed’s dick. He started up a rhythm, then, stroking Ed slowly at first and then a little faster. He tried to find the places that made Ed groan the loudest, made his dick twitch in Stede’s hand, and lavish extra attention on them.
Ed pulled back from the kiss and suddenly they were looking into each other’s eyes, Stede’s hand slowing on Ed’s cock as they took each other in.
“You’re incredible, Stede.”
“No, you,” Stede answered lamely, and Ed smiled.
“Let me suck you off?”
“Yes,” Stede said. “Yes, baby.”
Now it was Ed’s turn to undo Stede’s jeans, to shuffle them down until Stede’s dick was bare. Stede started to blush a bit at the hungry way Ed looked at his cock, feeling exposed under his gaze.
The feeling didn’t last long, however, as next thing Stede knew, Ed was swirling his tongue around the head of Stede’s cock.
“Oh, fuck , Ed!” Stede said. “Fuck, that’s incredible.”
“More where that came from,” Ed said, and he licked a stripe up the underside of Stede’s cock, making Stede’s eyes roll back in his head.
It all happened so quickly, then. Ed was fisting the base of his cock, and his mouth was on the head, sucking deeply and bobbing his head up and down Stede’s length. His mouth was so warm, so wet, and it felt so good, and suddenly Stede was shoving Ed’s head backward and off him.
“Sorry!” Stede panted. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s wrong?” Ed asked, seeming more concerned than put off by Stede’s abruptness.
“It’s just—well, I was so close and I—I wanted this to last. I really am sorry.”
“No need to apologize, mate,” Ed said. “‘S all right.”
“It’s just that I’ve never done this before,” Stede confessed.
“What, gotten a blow job?”
“Right. It’s, um. It’s my first time.”
They looked at each other for a moment.
“Well, fuck,” Ed said. “I suppose I’d better make it a good one then, huh?”
“It was good!” Stede reassured him. “Too good, in fact. That was the problem.”
“Don’t worry,” Ed said, pressing a kiss to Stede’s forehead. “I’ll be gentler. Just tell me when you’re ready to go again.”
“Can I have just a moment?”
“Of course.”
For a few minutes they just held each other, Ed’s head resting on Stede’s shoulder, Stede’s arm around Ed’s waist. They didn’t speak, just let their rapid heartbeats and racing breaths slow and calm together. Finally Stede spoke.
“Okay. I’m good to keep going.”
“That’s good,” Ed answered with a grin. “Because so am I.”
True to his word, Ed was gentler this time around. He spent more time licking Stede’s length and lavishing soft attention on the head, getting Stede used to the feeling of a mouth on his cock before returning to sucking, his pace much slower and steadier. Stede felt tension drain from his shoulders as he started to relax, started to give over to sensation and truly let himself enjoy this moment with Ed, this first of what would hopefully be many.
Even at this less demanding pace, Stede wasn’t destined to last long. The reintroduction of Ed’s hand around the base of his cock sped things up significantly, and soon nonsense was spilling from Stede’s lips.
“Fuck, baby, I’m so close, I’m going to come soon, baby, baby.” Stede’s head thrashed back and forth on the pillow it was resting on.
Ed pulled off slowly. “You want to come in my mouth?”
Stede could only let out a horny sort of whine.
Ed chuckled. “I take it that’s a yes?”
“ Yes .”
Ed resumed sucking Stede’s dick, and Stede, realizing too late that he could have been doing this all along, threaded his fingers through Ed’s dark, gorgeous hair. Ed hummed his approval, and the vibrations along his cock were all it took to take Stede over the edge, pleasure crashing over him like ocean waves, overpowering and irresistible, and Ed kept working him through it, sucking and swallowing until Stede whimpered with overstimulation and Ed released him.
Stede blinked blearily as he came down from his orgasm, his eyes on Ed’s gorgeous face. He was so focused on gazing into those beautiful brown eyes that he almost missed the fact that Ed had taken himself in hand, pumping his dick as he looked back at Stede.
Stede could probably watch Edward Teach touch himself all day every day for the rest of his life, but as Ed had just gotten him off in such a spectacular manner, he wanted to return the favor. “Let me?” he said, and Ed removed his hand to give Stede access.
Ed must have been close, too, because he let out a strangled moan when Stede touched him. “Fuck, Stede,” he said. “You feel amazing.”
Stede tried his best to live up to the praise, pumping Ed’s length with enthusiasm if not much finesse. It was enough for Ed, though, because he was panting and thrusting into Stede’s touch.
“Come on me, baby,” Stede encouraged, and Ed did, his release splattering across Stede’s stomach and chest. Stede thought the image might set his spent, oversensitive body on fire, and he quietly tucked it away for future masturbatory use.
They breathe together for a few moments, coming down. Stede played with a strand of Ed’s hair, and Ed pressed a kiss to Stede’s neck.
“We should get you cleaned up,” Ed said eventually, and Stede nodded. Ed rolled off him and Stede hustled off to the bathroom, where he cleaned himself off with a towel that he tossed into his laundry hamper. He returned to the bedroom to find Ed stretched out and naked, an absolute vision, and he smiled for a moment before climbing into bed beside him.
Almost instinctively, they wrapped their arms around each other, face-to-face, hearts beating as one as they held each other.
“That,” Stede said, “was fucking amazing.”
“Oh, yeah,” Ed said, nuzzling his nose against Stede’s. Stede giggled.
“Want to stay the night?”
“Yeah,” Ed said, squeezing Stede. “Yeah, I do.”