“Oh,” Zelli realized out loud, only for his revelation to slip away. Tahlen brought a hand up to the spot, then turned to look at Zelli from very close. His gaze was a night sky without fog. “Beautiful.” Zelli was burning up. “Like nothing else.”
Tahlen said something.Zelliagain, airy and light. Zelli burned and ached and rolled against him, but he answered, because Tahlen seemed to want him to. “Please, Tahlen. Tahlen, please. I’ve waited so long.”
Tahlen pressed his mouth to Zelli’s again. “Only a moment, Zelli. I want you. Only one moment.”
Zelli turned his head to sink his teeth into wool. He shivered for Tahlen being away from him again but spread his legs as he watched the spill of oil onto Tahlen’s hands and reached for Tahlen even before Tahlen had come back to him.
Tahlen’s hands were larger than Zelli’s. Zelli held his breath for the slide inward, the way Tahlen held him as if he thought Zelli might wriggle. Maybe Zellididwriggle. He was fairly certain he was moaning. The window was open. There were rooms around this one. A part of him registered that this might embarrass him later. The concern vanished nearly as he had it.
Tahlen pressed his fingers deeper, still not letting Zelli rise to take more. Zelli turned to bite the wool again, glaring at beautiful Tahlen for not knowing Zelli had taken his fingers many, many times and with much less care. His moans continued around his mouthful. His limbs were shaking, his blood hot. Zelli closed his eyes but Tahlen stroked inside of him, and petted his prick too, until Zelli spat out the bit of his cloak in his mouth and tried to pull Tahlen to him.
Tahlen was back over Zelli almost instantly, taking Zelli’s hand and guiding it to the slippery length of his cock as if he thought Zelli wanted more sport. Zelli did, awed by the weight and the heat and how every touch seemed to make Tahlen’s eyes impossibly brighter. But he eventually tugged his hand away to curl his arms around Tahlen’s back. He used his fingernails like claws at last and was nearly satisfied. “Tahlen,” Zelli insisted, eyes meeting Tahlen’s, “now.”
Tahlen snapped to obey, muscles tense as he arranged himself, his gaze searing as he began to push inside.
It was not at all like fingers. Zelli stopped moving, aware of his shallow breaths, of Tahlen’s worry, the faint scent of the oil. He curled and uncurled his fingers. He wet his lips, remembering the cuts from his own teeth, tasting his warm blood and wishing… wishing for things that made him swallow. He smoothed a hand down Tahlen’s spine over and over, soothing Tahlen’s shivers.
He pushed his palm into the small of Tahlen’s back.
“Good,” he murmured for Tahlen, then shifted so Tahlen would keep going.
Tahlen grunted but let him. He let Zelli do it again a moment later, but only moved when Zelli growled. Tahlen’s gaze was still hot but less focused as he took Zelli by the hips and pulled Zelli onto his cock until Zelli had all of him and Zelli’s chest was heaving.
Zelli drew Tahlen to him with his arms and then his legs, moaning quietly at first with Tahlen’s careful motions, then for the whole valley to hear when Tahlen began to take him. Tup him. Fuck him. Zelli could not decide on a word. None of them were enough. Likebeautiful. Tahlen was more than beautiful. This was more than fucking.
Zelli ached and he didn’t. He was burning but it didn’t matter. He whined because it felt good and he didn’t know what else to do but be loud and tug on Tahlen’s hair and run his hands over Tahlen’s skin.
Tahlen kissed his brow, brushing his mouth over Zelli’s temple before he pushed Zelli’s legs up higher. It stole Zelli’s breath but allowed Tahlen to thrust deeper. Zelli shook uncontrollably and still could not find enough air. He was hot along his skin and beneath it. Hot inside, bright as Tahlen’s eyes, full andtaken.
He drew his fingers up the length of Tahlen’s back, wanting Tahlen to feel like he did, like he belonged in this moment. He wanted Tahlen in him always, and to hold him without marring him, and then to mar him too.
He pictured scratches in Tahlen’s skin that matched his fingers, how they would frame Tahlen’s thick braid, and his vision went white.
“Tahl…” he tried to say, gasping, but could not get the name out as he arched up beneath Tahlen’s weight, Tahlen’s cock pressed inside of him in a way that seemed to draw out the sharp pleasure of his climax. Or that was Tahlen, motionless now except for little exhalations in Zelli’s hair while Zelli trembled and painted them both.
When Zelli collapsed to the bed, Tahlen started to lower Zelli’s leg. He stopped when Zelli whined, and stared down at Zelli, worried and exquisite, as though he hadn’t been the one to do this to him.
Zelli should reassure Tahlen that he wasn’t broken. He drifted instead, reveling in the shocks in his blood and the momentary lack of any ache or urgent need. He opened his eyes and only then realized they had fallen closed.
His throat hurt. His skin stung in strange places. He was too warm. Tahlen was fretting. Kind Tahlen. Beautiful Tahlen.
Zelli pulled him down to kiss his perfect mouth, swallowing another gasp for the slight change in position. He clumsily petted Tahlen’s hair and then the back of his neck, his disturbed braid, his smooth shoulders. “More than fighting,” Zelli told him earnestly so Tahlen would finallysee.
He could not move much as he was, but stopped Tahlen again when Tahlen tried to pull away. “I like how you feel.” This was said in earnest as well, though it made Tahlen knit his brow and it sent more, less pleasant shocks through Zelli whenever Tahlen shifted. Tahlen was not rocking his hips, but Zelli thought he might want to.
Zelli struggled to think clearly. “If I trust you with me later, wouldn’t I trust you now?”
Tahlen closed his eyes. Zelli sought out another kiss, which Tahlen gave him.
A violent shudder went through Tahlen before he opened his eyes. His voice was gravel. “You’ll be sore as it is.”
Over Zelli’s soft, pained protests, he separated them, then lowered Zelli’s legs, which offered relief Zelli wasn’t aware he’d needed.
“Ah,” Zelli murmured, but had no time for any more embarrassment to seep into his foggy contentment. Tahlen covered him once again, watching Zelli closely while drawing Zelli’s hand to his cock. Zelli ran his thumb over the thick head, wanting it inside of him again, wanting to keep it in his hand, curious how it would taste and regretting his fangs.
He did not have much time to regret. Tahlen turned his head, baring a shoulder already reddened and marked.
“Please,” Tahlen requested of him, eyes down.
