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“No.”

“Yes, aethera. You do.” He licked his teeth, then brought them close to Ryneth’s mouth, loving how the other man trembled. “Show me, baby. Show me what you want.”

Ryneth writhed on the pillow, heels digging into the silk as he tried to drag himself higher, away from that mouth. “No,” he gasped, even as his thighs shook around Daven’s shoulders. Then he fell apart with a broken sob and grabbed Daven’s hair with trembling hands.

“That’s it,” Daven praised when Ryneth fisted his hair and guided him back down. “Put my mouth where you need it. That’s it. Be good for me.”

“You freak,” Ryneth breathed.

Daven smiled against the skin of Ryneth’s stomach, making sure to leave a wet stripe until he was back at that wet, throbbing cock. “But I’m your freak. Take what you need, aethera. Let me hear you shriek when I finally let you go.” Without waiting for any further complaints, Daven swallowed him whole again, working his cock with hunger.

“Fuck… so good, fuck—” Ryneth babbled. His hips rocked forward, driving his dick deeper into Daven’s mouth. It hit the back of his throat, making him gag, spit and precum dribbling down the corners of his lips.

Daven fucking loved him like this, fighting for breath even as he pushed for more.

Popping off his dick, Daven loved the whimper that escaped Ryneth’s mouth. His fingers tightened in Daven’s hair, dragging him back down.

Looking up through his lashes, Daven took him in like this, stripped of all that fight. His mouth was open. His hands were shaking in Daven’s hair. “Tomorrow, you sit beside me at the Academy. I will guide you. If you need anything, you come to me. And only me.”

Daven freed his own length from his trousers. It was thick and aching. “Do you understand me?”

Ryneth’s pupil-blown eyes gazed down, unseeing. His mouth had gone slack, and his face was flushed with arousal. He nodded.

Daven’s heart jolted at the small victory. “Good boy,” he mumbled instead, as he climbed up and kissed him properly this time, holding Ryneth’s mouth under his for a few long seconds before nipping at his lower lip and smiling when Ryneth moaned for him.

“Fuck you,” Ryneth breathed, furious and wrecked all at once.

Daven grinned, brushed his thumb over Ryneth’s wet lower lip, and tightened his grip on both their cocks. “Now, look at me. Look at what you’re making me do. Every time I’m near you, the humming under my skin won’t fucking stop.” He leaned in until their foreheads touched. “It’s like my own blood recognizes you. It’s screaming for you.”

The resistance snapped. Ryneth unraveled, every muscle in his body tightening before he finally broke. He came with a strangled shout, his hips jolting into Daven’s hand. The release spilled over the sheets in white ropes.

Daven watched Ryneth’s face, silver irises blown wide with the aftershock. His breath turned jagged.

Then he broke. He came hard, the friction of his hand and the sight of Ryneth enough to push him over. He spilled over his own stomach and the sheets, his heart hammering against his ribs.

Ryneth’s eyes stayed on him for one last hazy second. The tension drained out of his limbs in slow waves. His lashes fluttered once, then again, heavier each time. “Why me?” he whispered, the words already slurring as his head lolled to the side.

His fingers twitched weakly against Daven’s wrist, then went still. Before the last tremors had even left his body, sleep dragged him under.

“I don’t know why,” Daven whispered. He pulled the silk over them and pinned Ryneth against his side with the weight of his arm. “But you are perfect.”

10

RYNETH

Ryneth opened his eyes to the silver-silk sheets.

He didn’t remember falling asleep. The last thing he recalled was the thick, syrupy heat of the opium. The weight of Daven’s mouth.

He felt better rested than he had in months.

Sitting up, he took in the expansive glass walls. Outside, the city below sprawled in a vertical labyrinth of neon and chrome. Zephyr, Daven had called it.

He turned to the other side of the bed. It was empty, but the silk was rumpled, and the pillow had a shallow dimple where Daven’s head had been.

Daven had slept there. Next to him.

Heat rushed into his face so fast it made him dizzy. The memory hit in ugly flashes. Daven’s mouth on him. Daven’s air around him. The way his own body had shaken and given in like it had wanted it. Shame crawled hot under his skin. Why had he let that happen? Why had he let a captor touch him like that?