Page 21 of The Frog Prince (The GriMM Tales #6)

They snuck across his back first, featherlight and burning like fires. Draping over his shoulders, fingers joined under his chin, the knuckles pressing just slightly into his collar. It was enough to have Alwin losing all his breath, squeezing his eyes shut, and not daring to move.

“Is this okay?” Otto asked, his voice barely above a murmur.

“Yes,” Alwin said, quick and hitched.

Otto tightened his grip a little more, making Alwin roll his lips into his mouth to prevent any sound from escaping them, feeling wetness begin to leak from his hole and his stiffening member.

It was mortifying. The things this body did to ready itself for mating. Primal and greedy to fill or be filled.

Skating his hands down Otto’s sides and past his trim hips, he brushed over his full thighs and found the backs of his knees. He gripped tight as he pulled them up to clench around his own skinnier hips.

He felt a small exhale against his neck, skating down his collar as they connected, cool breath against sensitive skin, and closed his eyes against an answering croak; desperate, needy.

They were plastered together, wet clothes clinging like lovers not wanting to part.

The water didn’t dampen any feeling for him, it enhanced it beyond bearing.

He felt Otto’s thighs clench and he was sure he was about to sink to the bottom of the pond.

Forcing himself to move, he stepped forward, tilting his body in the water. Otto’s weight shifted heavier on his back, their bodies pressing even tighter as Alwin lifted his legs off the ground.

They floated.

He felt weightless, despite Otto clinging to him.

It was one of the only things he truly liked about his form—how in tune with nature he could become. How easy it was to let it run through him and envelop him down to his core.

If he ever broke the curse, this would be the one thing he’d miss.

He began to swim, each frog-kick of his legs pressing them together and then apart. The friction was hard to ignore, his mind conjuring images of Otto behind him for a different reason entirely.

Eight years of forced celibacy plus a man who had stepped directly out of his fantasies was a lethal combination.

Still, he made it across with little effort, his feet touching the muddy bank just a few moments after they’d set off.

He walked until he was certain Otto could stand as well, the water only up to their waists, then paused. The other man didn’t move, his legs and arms still locked around Alwin tightly.

Alwin wanted to let him stay. To keep standing there, one with the water and glued to the beautiful healer he had found by chance.

He wanted to keep his hands splayed over Otto’s strong thighs and his fingers wrapped around the backs of his knees, relishing the closeness of another person for the first time in eight years.

He wanted to have the right to use that grip to pull Otto closer and hold him there, feeling his breath skate across wet skin and those lips brushing against his bare neck.

He wanted so much.

But he couldn’t.

“You can stand here,” he whispered, and Otto lifted his head from where it seemed to be buried in Alwin’s shoulder.

“Oh.” Otto’s voice came out shaky and quiet, yet he still made no move to disentangle himself from Alwin.

Alwin felt him turn his head a few times before he finally loosened his grip around Alwin’s neck and slipped down a couple of inches.

Alwin didn’t react in time.

He didn’t let go, and Otto stayed up on his back, a gasp escaping his lips and an unmistakable hardness between his legs now pressing against Alwin’s backside.

Alwin couldn’t smother his croak this time, high and whiny. And he couldn’t stop his own body from reacting. He felt himself stiffen completely, taut and tense at the feeling of Otto’s desire.

“I’m sorry,” Otto whispered, pushing against Alwin to get down.

“Stay,” he begged against his better judgment. More wetness leaked from him into the surrounding water, and his eyes slipped closed, his chest heaving. “If you want.”

Otto squirmed on his back, that stiffness brushing against Alwin and making his eyes roll in his head. He could almost feel Otto’s heartbeat against his spine, his breath expanding his rib cage and pushing into Alwin.

Like they were merging into one right here in the water where Alwin felt whole.

Otto’s arms wrapped back around his neck, putting more pressure against the sensitive skin, and his forehead fell to Alwin’s shoulder as his hips rolled. Once, tentative. Then twice, harder.

“Alwin…” His voice came out small and shaky, and Alwin trailed one hand higher on his thigh until the tips of his fingers brushed against Otto’s ass, encouraging him on.

“You feel so good,” he said softly.

He felt like a person for the first time in so long.

Wanted and needed and able to fulfill someone’s most primal desires.

He wished he could turn around and hold Otto properly.

Touch him and feel him as he came undone.

He wished he could line their erections up with each other and rut the way Otto was doing.

But he knew it would break the spell.

With his back turned and most of his body underwater, he could pretend he was anyone else. Could imagine his body was the old one. One that attracted the eyes of others and turned heads. Otto could pretend too.

Lips brushed against his damp neck above the stiff collar, and he let out a quiet whine, using the hold he had on Otto’s legs to pull him forward and press them harder together.

They fell forward against a large, muddy rock jutting out of the bank, dirt coating their skin and the incline taking the weight from Alwin and allowing Otto to find a little leverage.

Otto’s body against him felt warm despite the chill of the pond, and Alwin’s body reacted despite all warnings from his brain not to.

He couldn’t help it.

He was bringing pleasure to someone he was convinced he already loved, despite how mad that was. He didn’t think anything would ever feel better.

His hands got bolder as the rolls of Otto’s hips got faster, running along his thighs and ass, gripping and pulling and helping in any and every way he could think of while he tried desperately to ignore his own need.

He wanted to feel Otto pulse against him as he reached his climax. Wanted to smell it in the air around them and carry it in his lungs forever. He wouldn’t take anything else for himself from this. He didn’t think he deserved anything more than that.

It would be enough.

Enough to last a lifetime , he thought as Otto groaned into his ear and Alwin felt the muscles beneath his fingers spasm.

Another roll and Alwin choked as he felt Otto’s member throb against his back, warmth flooding through the chill of the water as he spent himself.

He closed his eyes and held him through it, wishing it would never end. He’d take forever just like this. With a spent Otto in his grip and the memory of his pleasure behind his eyelids.

He felt the exact moment Otto came to his senses. His body went from pliant and relaxed to stiff and tense.

Alwin pulled his hands lower, pressing them safely behind his knees again until Otto released his hold and slipped down into the water.

Quiet, save for the labored breaths echoing around them.

The water sloshed when he stepped back.

“I…” he started, but Alwin realized he didn’t want to hear whatever he had to say. He didn’t have it in him to have this moment ruined by whatever would come out of his mouth.

He didn’t want to hear that this had been a mistake.

“There’s no need to talk about it,” he said, his erection deflating as reality set in.

“Alwin—”

“Please,” he said. “You can pretend it was anyone else but me. Or that it never happened. Just don’t say anything.”

“I—”

Alwin scrambled from the water, digging grooves in the mud behind him.

“Alwin!” Otto called, splashing after him. “Wait!”

Alwin didn’t get far before Otto caught him against a tree, boxing him in with his arms and preventing escape. It was ridiculous. The mighty Frog Prince, cowering and shaking like a leaf.

His only saving grace was that Otto looked far from steady himself, his mouth moving but no words forthcoming. His eyes were begging for understanding, but Alwin didn’t have any answers to give him, only a beaten heart that ached and yearned.

All that could be heard was their shuddering breaths.

“Are you okay?” Otto asked eventually, reaching out to trail his thumb over the space where Alwin’s ear would have been but not actually touching.

Alwin nodded in jerky movements, covering as much of himself as he could.

Otto stepped back to give him space. He was dripping wet, his shirttails pulled out of his breeches and his chest fully visible through all the clinging layers.

So handsome. Everything Alwin no longer was.

He looked away, grasping his collar and holding it in place.

“We’ll have to find you some water back at the village,” Otto said unexpectedly. “Something large we can submerge you in. I didn’t realize you were so uncomfortable before. I’m sorry.”

Alwin whipped his head back around, shocked.

“I…didn’t tell you,” he eventually managed to say. “I can find water when I need it. It was my own fault for waiting so long. It’s not your responsibility.”

“You offered to stay with me when you didn’t have to. You shouldn’t be suffering because of it,” Otto said, stubborn chin rising. “I’ll find something.”

All Alwin could do was stare. He’d been caring for himself for so long that he’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone else do it. “Thank you.”

He couldn’t manage more. Felt like if he did, it would open up the floodgates and he’d never be able to close them again.

Otto nodded, giving him a small, closed-mouthed smile that Alwin was sure he would see in his dreams later if the universe was kind.

“The…” He cleared his throat when his voice failed him and tried again, reaching for the royal in him. “The Blue Moons are this way.”