Rey squeaked as Eli didn’t wait for an answer, but pressed his mouth to the tip of Rey’s cock and swallowed him down.
He choked almost immediately, throat fluttering around him, but Eli was a stubborn bastard and held onto Rey’s thighs as he adjusted. The tight, wet heat of his mouth was almost too much, but Rey couldn’t move as he was, and had to lie there and clutch the sheets while Eli slowly, methodically worked his cock.
“You know,” Eli said, gasping a little as he drew away, “This is the first time I’ve seen one up close.”
“Oh, take your time,” Rey said, equally breathless.
Eli chuckled, and a shudder ran through Rey’s body.
Eli kept him on edge for what felt like hours, until Rey’s legs hurt and his jaw was sore from gritting his teeth, and he was achingly hard when Eli let him sit up at last, hooking a finger through Rey’s harness. Rey tasted himself on Eli’s mouth when he kissed him, and Eli dragged Rey down the bed until he was crouched over Eli, hard cock rubbing against Eli’s stomach.
“I want you to fuck me,” Eli said. He untied Rey’s hands and guided them between Eli’s thighs, let him feel the slick wetness of his folds, and practically stretched like a spoiled cat when Rey slipped two fingers inside.
“Now you do look like a princeling,” Rey said, and Eli looked too pleased with himself to chide him. Rey moved between Eli’s legs, rubbing him almost idly. “You don’t mind? Some men do.”
“I can take it, Rey. I want to.” Eli tugged playfully at the harness, and Rey rutted against him, making them both gasp. Still, Rey took his time pushing inside, watching for any sign of pain or discomfort. Eli just moaned and tipped his head back on the pillows, red curls a mess beneath him on the sheets.
Eli tugged on the harness, just enough to remind Rey that the ropes were there, and Rey involuntarily jerked forward. Eli bit his lip and ran his nails up Rey’s neck and through his hair, and Rey fucked him slowly, going deeper, watching Eli fall apart beneath him.
“You’re doing good,” Eli said, still tugging at Rey’s hair. “Good boy. Very good boy.”
Hearing it made Rey’s natural submission flare like a fire burning through his veins, and he fucked Eli a little harder, just enough to make him dig his nails deeper, and let out a rasping, throaty moan that nearly tipped Rey over.
“Please,” Rey whispered. “I’m going to…I need to…need to come.”
“Get me off first,” Eli said. “Then let me see you come.”
Rey groaned and reached down to rub Eli as he thrust into him, straining not to come even as his whole body shook with pleasure, and when Eli went tight around his cock and let out a breathy cry of release, Rey almost fell over the edge anyway. Instead, he breathed hard into Eli’s shoulder for nearly a minute before he pulled out, and Eli watched him frantically bring himself off, kneeling on the bed before Eli with a blush making patchy red marks over his chest and neck.
“Yes, youarea good boy,” Eli said, and oh, how Rey wanted to be. Eli sat up to kiss him, and Rey’s thighs trembled and his hair fell in tangles over his shoulders and back.
They bathed together in the tub afterward, never mind how small it was, and lay on the mattress with the sheets pushed to the foot of the bed and Eli curled into Rey’s side. It was raining again, and Rey let the drumming of rain on the roof and the low rumble of thunder lull Eli to sleep before he got up and went downstairs.
The carriage was a black shape in the rainswept dark of Duciel, and was quickly soaked as he went to the back and took out the box of coins. The necklace was there, beads clicking as he lifted it out, and Rey took an unsteady breath before he closed his fist around it.
He went to the small lot at the end of the street where people threw their refuse, and he tossed the necklace into the heap. It disappeared in the muck, and Rey took a step back, shivering.
“Go fuck yourself,” he said. He walked shakily back to the house.
Inside, Eli was still asleep, sprawled over half the bed with his mouth open. Rey dried himself off and slid in next to him, and Eli wrapped an arm around his waist, warm and smiling.
Chapter
Ten
Aman stood at the edge of a field just after sunset, watching the sky go dark.
Eli knew this dream. It still came to him sometimes, like a half-remembered word hovering in the back of his mind. The grass had grown since the last time he’d dreamed of it. Now it almost touched his knees, and he could see fireflies blinking between the stalks as he walked toward the figure at the other side of the field.
He was easier to see now. There was a line of clothing visible, a leather pauldron, and the glimmering metal of chain mail over his shirt. He didn’t appear any closer, no matter how far Eli walked, but he tilted his head as though he could hear him, and lay a hand on the pommel of a sword that looked more like smoke than steel.
“I am not ready,” he said. Eli couldn’t tell if his voice was deep or high, soft or booming. There was no accent or burr—the words just appeared in his mind and faded away, like a shadow of a fish under the water. “I am still becoming.”
“What are you becoming?” Eli asked, but the man didn’t answer. A wind blew over the field, and Eli could hear laughterin it, scraps of sound tossed about in the dark. “Are you Sabre? My father?”
“The Hunt wants to ride.” The man nodded toward the horizon. “Even now, the king tries to blow his broken horn.”
“Sometimes I wonder if he could have been something else,” Eli said. “A guide for the dead instead of their tormentor. People should be allowed to pass on peacefully.”
