Page 9 of Distant Heart (Vicious Valentine)

Rexton woke to the sound of wood popping and crackling and turned his head to find he was laid out on his stomach in front of a roaring fireplace. The heat had already seeped into him, making him feel sleepy and languid, and he almost didn’t notice that he was still naked.

“What did you do to me?” he asked, staring at the flames. He could sense the other presence in the room without having to see him there. “Where are we?”

“My wing of Castle Black,” Illya’s rich voice started on the other side of the room and made its way over to him as he approached. “And I’ve cleaned you out and ran you a hot bath. Do you not remember?”

Vaguely, but only in bits and pieces. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Not long. I only left a few minutes ago to get the oil.”

“Oil?”

Illya straddled him suddenly, planting a palm over the back of Rexton’s neck to keep him down. When the move wasn’t met with resistance, he slowly eased his hand away and the pop of a cap sounded. “What’s wrong, xa’us, too satisfied to continue fighting?”

“You’ve already got me locked up in your room. I think we’re past the point of it being inevitable.” Rexton rested his cheek on the soft carpeted floor and sighed. “What happens next?”

“I’m still worried you’ll get sick from being out there,” Illya said. “This is phisto oil, it’ll help penetrate—”

“Don’t say that word like I don’t know where this is leading.”

“—your tissue and warm you up internally.”

Rexton rolled his eyes. “I’m not na?ve.”

“Coming from the man who chose to run out into the middle of a snowstorm, that doesn’t hold much merit.”

“You’re the one who told me to run.”

“Yes, because I didn’t think you’d leave the building.” Illya rubbed his hands together and then brought them to Rexton’s shoulders, grunting smugly when Rex instantly moaned. “You have a lot of knots.”

“That’s your fault too,” he griped, but he didn’t tell him to stop. “Where are my clothes?”

“I left them in the woods.”

Rexton scowled, but before he could say anything, Illya dug his thumbs into a particularly tense spot and he hissed.

“You won’t need them here,” Illya reassured.

Or maybe threatened.

Rex honestly couldn’t tell.

So he changed the subject instead.

“Do this often?” He risked a glance over his shoulder when the Black Hart momentarily paused at the question.

Illya recovered quickly enough though. “Which part?”

“Any of it?” he asked, then added, “All of it? Don’t think I forgot what your friend said at the party. So, how exactly did you spend your Cor Nights before me, Ill?”

“Are you jealous?” he seemed far too pleased by that possibility. Then his hands roamed down the length of Rexton’s back. “What does it matter?”

“It matters because—” Rexton tried to turn and then noticed there was a band around his right wrist that hadn’t been there before. It was black and metallic, and when he turned it, a tiny blood-red bead with an I engraved into the center flashed in the firelight. “What is this?”

“We tried the running game,” Illya stated cryptically. “While it was fun, I think we can retire it.”

Rexton blinked, a feeling of foreboding cutting through some of the relaxation he’d started to experience under Illya’s skilled hands. “What the hell does that mean exactly?”

Illya’s palm came down on the back of his thigh hard enough he yelped. “There you go, cursing again.”

“You curse too!” Rex bit his tongue when that earned him another slap. “All right, all right, I’ll stop!” For now. “Just answer my question. What is this, Illya?” He waved his wrist, and the bracelet, in the air.

“It’ll only upset you. It can wait until morning.”

Rexton rose to his knees, moving to sit and face the other man, only partially registering that Illya had allowed him to get up once their eyes met. The Black Hart was still fully dressed, which only made Rex feel even more at a disadvantage. He held up his hand. “Remove this. Now.”

“No.”

“Illya.”

“It’s not happening, baby. Save your breath. You and I had a deal, remember? You lost our little game, now it’s time to pay up.”

His spine stiffened. “Is this a tracking device?” When he was met with silence, a burst of anger overcame him. “Did you put a tracking device on me?! Like I’m some kind of fucking pet?!”

Illya shot forward, taking him down onto his back. One of his hands, still slicked in oil, covered Rexton’s mouth, while the other reached down and undid his pants. Once his cock was free, he ground himself down between Rexton’s thighs pointedly. “Nod your head if you’ve decided to be good, baby.”

He hesitated but in the end…Rex conceded defeat. He nodded.

“You can’t actually mean to keep me here,” he said as soon as the hand was gone, though he was careful to keep his voice down. “That’s insane.”

“Is it?”

“It’s certainly kidnapping.”

“No one will fight for you.” Illya tilted his head in thought. “Maybe that friend of yours will. What do you think? Do you think Aneski will come storming onto the planet, pitchfork raised, ready to defend your honor?” He lowered his face close enough all Rex could see were the mismatched colors of his eyes. “Could that be what you really wanted?”

“What?” He frowned. “No.”

“No?”

“Why would I want to drag my best friend into this?”

“Because he’s dating a member of the Brumal mafia,” Illya replied. “Do you wrongly assume they’d get involved for you? Flix is a high-standing member, true, but my connection with the Imperial family of Vitality is more than enough to keep him from risking a falling out.”

It occurred to him what was really going on here, and Rex wasn’t happy about it. “You’re leading me to my own conclusion, aren’t you. I don’t like being toyed with, Ill.”

“How ironic, because neither do I.”

He held his gaze for a moment and then exhaled. “Fine. I’m sorry. Let’s just forget—”

Illya captured his wrist and pinned it to the floor, then slowly shook his head. “The night isn’t over, xa’us. Don’t spoil my fun. I think even you can agree you don’t have a right to.”

It was a cryptic statement, but he got the point.

“And trying to get me to see that I don’t have a way to fight you? Is that part of the game too?” Rexton wasn’t buying it. “You want me to know that I’m powerless here.”

“You already knew that,” he said. “You knew the second you stepped foot on Usurn, you were leaving yourself open to this.” One of his thumbs traced the edge of the bracelet. “This stays on. I’m the only one who knows how to remove it, and it’ll signal me immediately if someone tries to tamper with it. I’m warning you, Rexton. You’ve tested my patience enough.”

“I have a life on Vitality.”

“A life that no longer fulfills you.” He rolled his hips. “Not the way I can.”

“Don’t.” Despite his protest, Rexton’s eyes slipped shut and his unbound hand made its way to Illya’s waist. The next time he rocked into him, Rex’s body lifted to meet him.

“Should I fuck you again, xa’us?” Illya’s silky words were breathed against the side of his neck. He planted a soft kiss there and moved to lick at the curve of his ear. “Do you think you deserve that with how you’ve been behaving?”

“I think,” though it was becoming increasingly more and more difficult to do so, “you’re going to want to.”

“Really? Enlighten me.”

“You’re trying to convince me to stay, aren’t you?”

Illya quirked a dark brow. “You’re suggesting I fuck you into submission? If I’d known all I had to do was give you one massage and warm you up, I would have started with that.”

“I’m suggesting new rules,” he tried his luck, knowing it was a long shot. Sure enough, Illya’s expression immediately shuttered.

“No.”

“I haven’t even said what they’d be yet.”

“Let me guess, some version of whoever comes first gets to make a demand of the other, or some such nonsense.” Illya rose onto his knees and grasped Rexton’s thighs, pulling them up to angle his ass. He didn’t hold back, driving his cock deep into him with one solid thrust. “You aren’t getting away. Stop tormenting yourself further and just accept it.”

Pain and pleasure zapped throughout Rexton’s body as soon as he was penetrated and he struggled to remain cognizant enough to keep up the conversation.

Rexton pushed himself up, effectively seating himself fully on Illya’s hard member in the process, but that didn’t deter him. He shoved Illya onto his back. “And what does life here for me look like in your mind, Black Hart? Hmm? You want to turn me into a sex toy and keep me locked up in your creepy castle like some storybook princess?”

Castle Black, A, wasn’t a castle, and B, wasn’t creepy, like, at all, but he didn’t bother correcting himself, barreling forward even as his body started to ride Illya with the same passionate fervor as their coupling in the woods.

“I’d keep you here, with me, forever,” Illya told him, “but you wouldn’t be a prisoner or a toy, xa’us. You’d simply be mine.”

“Aren’t I yours now?”

“Mine from afar isn’t really mine at all.”

Rexton frowned and stilled.

“Enough.” Illya wrapped his arms around Rex’s waist and lifted, carrying him from the spot in front of the fireplace over to a king-sized bed on the other side of the room. “We’ll discuss this more in the morning. For now, it’s still Praeda, and I liked part of your suggestion at least.”

Rexton sucked in a sharp breath when he was tossed onto the bed, but he barely had enough time to blink before Illya was over him once more, pinning him down and driving his cock back into his body.

“I’m curious to see how long it’ll take for me to fuck you into submission,” Illya said, hips snapping as he screwed Rexton hard and fast enough it had his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

“This isn’t over,” Rex somehow managed to get past clenched teeth, desperately trying to keep from moaning since he knew that would only entice the Black Hart further.

“Of course not,” Illya agreed. “Between us? It never will be.”

Any remark he may have been able to come up with fled his mind, and the rest of the night was spent with Illya making good on his promise.

He fucked him so many times, the last thing Rexton saw was the first rays of sunlight rising outside the window before he passed out from exhaustion.

With Illya’s cock still pounding his abused hole.