Yes, some people really do have these kinds of places on their bodies, like the inside of the elbow or knee, or the back of the neck. It varies from person to person. I'm not just making this up for the sake of good sex.

Baralai had this spot, at the back of his neck. It was near the junction of his neck and shoulder, and a simple touch there was all that was required to reduce him to near incoherency.

The first time Gippal found it, it was by accident. He was fixing the collar of Baralai's robes, and his fingertips brushed along the back of Baralai's neck. Right away, Gippal noticed a reaction – subtle, because of course Baralai wouldn't want him to know. But there was the slightest widening of his eyes, and the very smallest intake of breath, and his shoulders drew tight for a split second before he forced himself to relax.

But Gippal didn't forget it. He knew people – had touched both men and women and could read people quite well, if he did say so himself. He knew what was pleasure and what was pain, and what was mere surprise at an accidental touch. There had been a distinctive flare of desire in Baralai's eyes – well hidden beneath layers of decorum.

So when Baralai had him pinned to the wall of his office, tearing off his epaulets and fumbling with the button of his pants, something clicked in Gippal's mind and he leaned a little further into their kiss and began to stroke along the back of Baralai's neck.

It would have been funny, if it hadn't made Gippal so painfully hard – the sounds Baralai made, the way he arched into the touch, the melting of his muscles until Gippal was almost holding him up. That he could do this to Baralai – cool, calm, collected Baralai who could talk the sky out of being blue – it thrilled Gippal to no end. It wasn't the power over him, nor the fact that most often these touches resulted in especially fantastic sex. It was the trust – it was that Baralai wasn't pushing him away, pretending he had merely fallen on Gippal's lips and it couldn't happen again; it was that he wasn't hiding his pleasure or lying about it. It was that he trusted Gippal enough to see this – trusted Gippal enough to hold him up when his knees gave way.