I close my eyes, without a single intrusive thought, thinking solely about his strong heartbeat against my back.
“Goodnight, my prince,” I whisper.
Tomorrow.
I’ll worry tomorrow.
Chapter 11
Kyran
I’m exhausted, yet energy buzzes through me as if it’s seeking a way out. I’ve barely slept, taken by the beautiful man resting next to me. The night was nothing short of transcendental, and while exhaustion would settle in every time we climaxed, I was too greedy to stop touching, kissing, stroking my future Companion.
I watched my brother have sex so many times, yet it did not compare to sharing this with another person. Luke was warm, and each time he invited me inside him, my senses erupted with sparks. For him, I wasn’t a monstrous impostor but the man he desired. He saw more of me than anyone else ever, maybe with the exception of my long-gone mother.
I open my eyes, and in the first glow of the moonlight, see his angular face on the pillow. One of his cheeks is squashed, he’s drooling a little, off to the dreamland only humans can enter, and he’s so cute I just want to pinch his small nose and then trace the dark lines of the bat tattoo on his throat.
Despite the arguments we’ve had, despite the new position he’s in, he still opened his legs and called me beautiful. That has to count for something. Everything else will fall into place with time. In a few hours, our shadows will be bound as tightly as a spidermoth in its cocoon, and no one will dare undermine my position at court.
But that will come later. For now, I kiss his naked shoulder and slide my hand over his hip, indulging in his closeness. Even now, when I rub my thigh between his legs, I sense he’s half-hard already. Looks like he can’t get enough of me either.
“My darling... are you up?” I ask with a smirk and roll him to his back as his eyes flicker behind lowered lashes. I roll on top of him, cradling his narrow face with my hands, andmove the tip of my nose across his cheek. I love to feel the proof of his excitement pressing into my stomach.
He blinks, then his green eyes open wider. “Oh. Y-yeah. I’m waking up. Did I…” He glances at the window beyond the silver bars. “Sleep through the day? No. No sun, right? I guess I already got my vitamin D.”
I don’t understand the joke, but he chuckles, so I smile back anyway. My knee trails up the bed until it presses against his balls, and I lick the salt off his cheek. I’m baffled by the way his stubble feels on my tongue, but it’s a good, ticklish sensation that soon makes me grin.
“I’ll give you everything.”
“But freedom?” he asks yet runs his fingers up my arms.
I still as dark clouds dim the fire inside me, but I remind myself that his reaction is understandable. As someone who’s spent all his life in hiding, my individuality and personhood taken away, I ought to understand what Luke is afraid of. But I would never want him to hate me, so I press a kiss to his sweet lips and ask, “What kind of freedom do you want?”
Yesterday, he tried to attack me. Today, despite these silly grievances, he’s docile as a bird drunk on fermented berries. Maybe he needed my body as much as I needed his.
“I want out of this pact. I want to go home,” he whispers, yet instead of looking into my eyes as he pleads, he’s focused on my chest, his fingertips following an eel off my bicep and down my collarbone.
Anger flares up within me, and he takes his hand away as the fish twist faster, reacting to my mood. I take a deep breath and grab his chin, making him face me. “Why? What’s so special about your home?”
A family, friends, things you never had, so you can’t understand, my self-loathing mind suggests, making me jealous of every single person in his life even though Luke hasn’t mentioned a single soul. They have no claim on him, and I do.
Luke swallows, drawing my attention to his cute Adam’s apple. “I just… I want to decide things for myself,” he mutters with a little pout, which chokes some of my anger.
“I don’t plan to keep you in a cage. When we’re married, you will have your own security. You will have access to the whole palace, and I will make sure your every whim is fulfilled. It is an honor to spoil my Dark Companion.”
Luke cocks his head. “Every whim? What if I want to sleep until…” He hesitates, glancing at the rising moon. “Midday, then eat cakes for breakfast, then read for the rest of the day without getting dressed?”
I chuckle and knead his small, warm ear with my fingers. “As long as we don’t have any official engagements that day, you will be free to do that. So you like to read?”
He seems caught off guard by my question but never stops petting me. I’m already addicted to his touch and wish the wedding was over with so that I can spend another night putting my mark on him.Andinside him.
“I do. Especially fantastical stories and horror,” he says as he traces the golden symbol over my heart. “So this… I’m not supposed to tell anyone about it, I know, but whatis it?”
I stall as shame burns the back of my throat, threatening to choke me. He doesn’t know what the sun means, because he isn’t from this realm, but if I tell him the truth, whatever sympathy he feels for me will fizzle out.
I pull away, placing my hand on the symbol, as it’s making me feel stripped bare. “It’s very complicated.”
He sighs, and no matter how ridiculous that is, I’m upset over disappointing him, because I meant everything I said. I want to spoil him, I want to shower him with gifts and affection, I want to leave him a moaning mess. But this answer, I cannot give him yet. It’s not safe for me.
