Kael lies back at my urging, the lines of tension still coiled tight in his frame. But he’s watching me now—no masks, no royal duties, no distance—just open, vulnerable need. His markings glow softly in the dimness of the room, like a quiet storm beneath his skin, each flicker synced with the cadence of his breath.
I straddle his thighs gently, still in awe of the sheer scale of him beneath me. My hands explore his torso first—his chest, broad and firm beneath my fingers, rising and falling with a rhythm that speeds with every stroke. His skin is warm and smooth, slightly slick in a way that’s foreign but not unpleasant, and the subtle pulse of energy beneath his surface makes every touch feel alive.
“You okay?” I ask, my voice soft. “You can rest if you need to. We don’t have to?—”
“No.” His voice is a low, gravelly thrum, and his hand comes to rest lightly against my hip. “I want this. I want you.” His eyes blaze with honesty. “All of it.”
The way he says it—like I’m not just something he wants but something sacred—nearly undoes me. I smile, slow and sure, before leaning down to press a kiss to the curve of his collarbone. “Okay, then,” I whisper against his skin.
I explore him slowly, reverently, mapping out every inch with my fingers and mouth. The ridges of muscle that line his abdomen twitch beneath my touch, his glowing lines flaring brighter every time I kiss along them. The taste of him is different, too—clean and faintly mineral, like mountain air after rain—and something about that feels right. Other, yes, but also his.
Kael’s hands fist in the sheets, his chest arching slightly as I continue down, my lips pressing against the delicate trail of light that runs from beneath his ribs to the edge of his hip. The groan that escapes him is raw, primal, and I feel it echo all the way down to the soles of my feet.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmur, tracing the flare of light along his side. “It’s ridiculous.”
His breath hitches. “You… mean that?”
“Kael,” I say, meeting his gaze, “you’re like a walking, glowing wet dream. You know how long I held out thinking I hated you?”
A small, stunned laugh breaks from him, and it’s like watching thunder soften into sunlight.
“I thought I didn’t deserve to be seen,” he admits. “Not after I abandoned you.”
“You do,” I say, firm now, the gut punches I’ve previously experienced nowhere in sight. “Every piece of you.”
When I finally reach for him, he shudders. His cock is long and thick, a darker shade than the rest of his skin, the tip already slick with a pale, faintly glowing fluid. The difference in anatomy should freak me the fuck out—but it doesn’t. Not with the way he looks at me, not with how his body trembles under mine.
I stroke him slowly, curiously, watching his head fall back and the markings across his chest shimmer in response. His hands grip the sheets again, his breath coming in ragged gasps now.
“I—” He tries to speak, but his words melt into another groan.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper, leaning down to kiss the centre of his chest, where his heartbeat thunders under my lips. I swear I can feel the bond tugging at me again—not painful, not overwhelming, but real. A tether. A promise.
Kael reaches for me, pulling me up with surprising gentleness. “Come here,” he murmurs, his voice thick with emotion and want. “Let me touch you.”
I let him. I want him to.
And wrapped up in heat and hunger and something dangerously close to love, I realise I would give this man, this Glowranth, everything. Even the pieces of myself I thought were long gone.
Kael cups my face like I’m made of something sacred, and there’s an admiration in his gaze that nearly undoes me. His hands—broad, strong, careful—trail down my neck and over my chest, fingertips brushing over the lines of my collarbone, thecurve of my pecs. He studies each shift of my breath, each flicker of my muscles like I’m a text he’s only just learned to read.
“You are…,” he breathes, almost to himself. “Bright. Alive. I never knew what it meant to want something so much and fear it all at once.”
His fingers skim my abdomen, and I shudder. I guide his hand lower, letting him touch the hard, aching evidence of how much I want him. He swallows thickly, his expression raw as he strokes me slowly, carefully, like he’s terrified he might break me. But I’m the one breaking apart under his touch.
“You feel…,” he whispers, shaking his head, like there are no words in his language—or any—for this.
“You’re doing good,” I manage to say, half breathless, half undone. “Too good. If you keep that up, I’m gonna embarrass myself in about three seconds.”
Kael grins softly. “Embarrass? You would not.”
I huff a breath, catching his wrist and pulling his hand gently away before I go off like a firecracker. I shift lower, eyes locking onto the thick length between his legs—impossibly flushed, glistening at the tip.
“Can I…?” I glance up at him. “Use my mouth?”
Kael blinks. “Mouth?”
I pause. “You don’t do that?”
