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“You?” Ryneth prompted softly.
Daven shook his head and took another bite.
“It’s very beautiful.” Ryneth looked around, clearly impressed. “Can I ask you something?” Ryneth looked at him, and for a moment the silver of his irises seemed to glow. Then he ducked his head, as if the words had surprised him more than they surprised Daven.
“Sure, baby.”
Ryneth let out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “Do you—I mean…Good Light—”
“Do I what?”
Ryneth huffed softly. “The food’s delicious, by the way.”
Daven snorted. “Stop dancing around the question that’s clearly making you shy.”
Heat crept up Ryneth’s neck and cheeks. “Do you ever wonder if the bond could make a mistake?”
“No.” Setting his own empty plate aside, Daven crawled forward and nudged Ryneth’s plate off his lap onto the cushion beside him before straddling his thighs. “You don’t get to say things like that.”
The thought hit Daven harder than it should have. After the run. After the class. After the way Ryneth had looked at him all day like he was trying to peel him open and see what was underneath, the idea of doubt felt wrong. It pissed him off. He didn’t want distance tonight. He wanted Ryneth under him, warm and flushed and looking up like he already knew where he belonged.
For a second, neither of them moved. Then Daven gathered the dishes from between them and set them aside on the low table, the soft clink of porcelain the only sound in the Waltr. When he turned back, Ryneth was already watching him, flushed and quiet, his mouth parted just enough to make Daven’s pulse kick.
Ryneth let Daven cup his cheeks and tilt his head so they could look each other in the eye. He let himself be kissed, humming contentedly as Daven’s tongue slid inside his mouth.
“You weren’t given to the wrong man, aethera,” Daven muttered when he finally pulled back. They were both panting. “You were given to me.”
“But I don’t know much about you. You’re this prince, and I’m just…me.”
“If you want to know about me, just ask. You know what food I love now. And I know that you love this Waltr, which makes me glad, because I got it specifically for you.”
“Really?” Ryneth’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Of course I did, aethera. There might be things we don’t know yet, but we’re learning more every day. Plus, we have a whole lifetime to get to know each other.”
“So what do you know about me?” Ryneth’s voice became hoarse when he tilted his head back to give Daven space to kiss his throat and collarbone, opening the buttons of his shirt to expose Ryneth’s skin.
“I know you get snappy when you’re scared.”
Kiss.
“You reach for the shadows because it’s the only place you thought you could exist.”
A sharp nip.
“You’re intelligent. And passionate.”
His tongue traced the sensitive skin again.
“You love your family.”
Ryneth moaned when Daven’s lips closed over a nipple, sucking on it until it pebbled. His other hand pinched the other, teasing it until Ryneth bucked his hips and let out a soft groan.
“And I want to get to know myself too,” he mumbled, surprised when Ryneth gripped his hair in a tight fist and guided their mouths together.
He bit on Ryneth’s tongue, grinning when his aethera moaned against him and rolled his hips sluggishly.
“I thought you’d reward me for today,” he slurred when Daven pulled back and pressed him into the curved glass, knocking the back of Ryneth’s head lightly against the cool pane.
