Page 35 of The Frog Prince (The GriMM Tales #6)

The dulled green brightened up instantly, soaking up the water and coming alive under Otto’s care. The healer in him rejoiced at the sight. The man in him reveled in the trust Alwin was putting in him.

He poured more water over Alwin’s bony shoulder, watching it trickle down his thin arms and disappear into the waistband of his breeches.

He followed each rivulet as it painted its path down Alwin’s skin and wished he could follow it with his lips.

He traced the darker green markings on Alwin’s back with the tips of his fingers, mesmerized by how stunning they looked. Like tiny works of art.

Before he knew it, the water from his flask was gone, but Alwin’s skin still had patches of dryness on it that the limited supply couldn’t cover.

Mind made up, he dropped the flask and spread his open palms over Alwin’s shoulders.

Alwin stiffened under his touch. “Otto.”

“Let me,” Otto whispered before running his hands over Alwin’s back, spreading the water everywhere it hadn’t reached, making sure not a single inch of Alwin’s skin was left dry.

He felt Alwin shiver under his fingertips. Felt his chest rise and fall with heavy breaths and swallowed words.

He wanted to hear them all. He wanted Alwin to tell him everything. But he refused to break the moment between them by talking.

He rested his hands on Alwin’s shoulders once he was done and lowered his head until his forehead was nearly touching the nape of Alwin’s neck. Cool fingers skirted over his own before tugging at his hands, bringing them around Alwin’s shoulders and pressing his palms over his heart.

He covered the vulnerable spot with his hands and let Alwin’s hold them there.

Breath on his neck.

Breeze on their skin.

Magic around them.

Otto wasn’t sure why, but the moment the tiny frog in his shirt sleeve croaked again before hopping out to find some food was the moment he realized Alwin was his.

He looked up and saw that the marks along Alwin’s spine weren’t green anymore, they were a deep, rich blue, and he startled.

“Your marks changed colors,” he whispered. Alwin’s skin prickled when Otto’s breath hit it.

“I… Yes,” Alwin said. “I suppose they would.”

“What does that mean?” Otto asked, fascinated. “Can you control it? Did you do it on purpose?”

“No, it is beyond my control. It’s a frog trait. I… It happens when I’m trying to…mate.”

“Mate?” Otto asked, eyes wide and the front of his breeches getting uncomfortably tight at the ideas blooming in his head.

“Some frogs change colors when they’re trying to attract a partner.” Alwin folded in on himself, speaking as though this was a secret he didn’t want known.

“Are you trying to attract me, my prince?”

Alwin sucked in a quick breath before turning his head to look over his shoulder, those impossibly green eyes locking with Otto’s.

“It would appear so,” he said, small and guarded, but so within reach that Otto could feel his fingers tingling. He ran them down Alwin’s fragile spine, mapping out the dark-blue marks. The symbols of Alwin’s desire.

“It is working,” Otto said, splaying his palm over Alwin’s back and resting his chin on his shoulder. He kissed his cheek, catching the corner of wide lips and nuzzled in. “You have me. If you want me.”

“If I…” Alwin gasped, leaning into the touch, his eyes slipping shut. “Otto…”

“Our deal still stands. I will not mind being pushed away.”

“Pushing you away would mean denying what my very soul craves,” Alwin whispered.

Otto closed his eyes, heart lodging in his throat at the words. “You’ve got me, Alwin. My prince.”

It felt like a dam broke. With a broken little cry, Alwin turned in place and crawled into Otto’s lap, grabbing the sides of his head and leaning his forehead against Otto’s.

“Do you really want me?” Alwin asked into the sliver of space between them, his breathing echoing loudly in the little clearing. “This is not out of duty, or a sense of gratitude or obligation?”

Otto splayed his fingers over Alwin’s small behind, tugging him closer until he was sitting on his hard cock.

“Does this feel like obligation to you?” he asked, rolling Alwin’s hips into his own and swallowing his soft moans. “I want you. I have wanted you for longer than you know. I’ve dreamed about you.”

“You have?” Alwin asked, fingers slipping down to Otto’s shoulders to hold himself steady.

“Since the first night I came back home after meeting you. I’ve dreamed about you naked with me, kissing me, touching me, making me see stars. Alwin, I want you.”

“You have me, Otto,” Alwin whispered. “I am no prize, but you have won anyway.”

“It is a prize if the winner values it. And I will count myself lucky for as long as I have you.” Otto reached down to unfasten both of their breeches.

His hand slid around Alwin’s waist and he lifted him up for a moment to pull his breeches down. It left Alwin naked and exposed on Otto’s lap, and Otto swooped in to kiss the worry and doubt off his face before it could take root.

Alwin was nothing short of beautiful to him. Never would be anything else. There was no place for insecurity in Otto’s arms.

His wide but fragile chest, painted green and speckled with marks, was calling for Otto. He gave in, kissing his way down Alwin’s neck, over his shoulders and bony upper arms. He made his way to the center of his chest, licking and sucking dark bruises into his green skin.

He made one bloom right over Alwin’s heart in the very center, different from a human’s but no less beautiful. Soothing it with his tongue, he looked up to find Alwin watching with transfixed, lust-filled eyes.

“Stunning,” he said, just to make sure Alwin didn’t go back to that place where he thought the worst of himself. Where he didn’t think he deserved any kindness or affection.

Alwin’s fingers reached into his hair and tugged until Otto tipped his head back, and then he was being kissed.

Devoured was a better word. Alwin kissed like he’d suffocate without Otto breathing into his mouth.

Like he’d die if they broke contact. His long, thin tongue wrapped around Otto’s without hesitation this time as it licked and allowed Otto to taste him back.

His hips rolled into Otto’s repeatedly, seemingly without conscious thought, and Otto felt like he might explode with need.

“Alwin,” he whispered against his lips, dipping his fingers into the barely noticeable swell of Alwin’s ass.

Instantly, they were coated with a thick, slippery liquid, and he moaned at the feel of it, silky and warm on his skin.

The evidence of Alwin’s desire was tangible in his hand.

Alwin tilted his hips slightly away from Otto as if trying to escape, but Otto held him back, one hand still buried between his cheeks and the other holding him in place.

“No,” Otto said. “I want this. I want all of you. Everything.”

He dipped the tip of his finger deeper and found Alwin’s opening fluttering under his touch.

“Yes,” Alwin moaned at the contact and Otto pushed just the tip of a finger in, reveling in the sounds slipping from Alwin’s lips. He pushed farther in, feeling the resistance, feeling Alwin’s body struggling to open up. Still guarded, still hesitant, and Otto wanted none of that.

“I want to be inside you, my prince,” he said. “Let me.”

Another one of Alwin’s walls crumbled into rubble.

He moaned and pushed against the intrusion, and Otto’s finger slid all the way in, the silky walls of Alwin’s body welcoming him.

He fucked him slowly, the slick Alwin was producing making it easy and filthy and maddeningly addictive. Otto’s entire hand was coated, it was dripping from his knuckles and matting into the hair on his wrist, but he didn’t want to stop. He needed Alwin like he’d never needed anything else.

“Otto…” Alwin moaned, shivering in his lap. “Please.”

“Please what, my prince?” Otto asked. “Ask and it will be yours.”

“I want you inside me. I can take it.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” he said. “I promise you won’t, just please.”

“Your wish is my command.” Otto reached between them to pull himself out of his breeches. He lifted Alwin off his lap once more, only to bring him back down over the head of his length.

“Yes,” Alwin hissed, and Otto lowered him down, his cock sliding into him, wet and warm and aching.

“You feel perfect, Alwin,” Otto said, trying to hold himself still until Alwin got used to him.

“You feel right,” Alwin replied, and Otto kissed him. Once, twice, a billion times as they sat, joined together, learning each other.

“Beautiful,” Otto said as he used the hold he still had on Alwin’s waist to move him gently up and down. “I wish you saw what I see.”

“What do you see?” Alwin braced his hands on Otto’s shoulders, bouncing up and down making Otto’s eyes roll in his head.

“The incredible green of your eyes,” Otto said, realizing Alwin was doing the work so his hands could roam. “The calming reflection of the forest on your skin. The silk of your hands in mine and the contrast our bodies make together.”

Alwin closed his eyes as Otto spoke, his cries coming out broken and breathy from pleasure, as their hips picked up speed.

“Otto…”

“You’re stunning,” Otto said, his hands finally stilling in their spot around Alwin’s back, holding him close. “You’re everything I never thought I needed.”

“Yours,” Alwin said, burying his head into Otto’s shoulder as he shook in his arms. He tugged at Otto’s shirt, fastening his lips on Otto’s skin, his body pulling him deeper inside with each wet-sounding thrust.

“My beautiful prince,” Otto said.

Alwin whimpered softly before Otto felt gush after gush of cum burst out of Alwin’s untouched cock between them.

It soaked Otto’s shirt, coated his belly beneath it, and dampened his breeches still uncomfortably bunched below his ball sac.

It was a tidal wave of Alwin’s release, and Otto reached down to grip Alwin’s pulsing cock in his hand, getting it soaked with his seed.

A primal part of him reveled in it. Wanted to spread it over his entire body and never wash it off.

He was the one to bring Alwin so much pleasure.

He was the one to make him feel safe and seen enough to be let inside.

Not just Alwin’s body, but his heart, his home, his kingdom.

Otto was the only one allowed, and the thought made him wild.

He bucked his hips and fucked up into Alwin, who was pliant and spent on his lap.

“Yes,” he whispered softly into Otto’s neck, nuzzling in closer and gluing himself to Otto as he took the pounding Otto was giving him. “Want to feel you inside me.”

Perfect.

A perfect mate for Otto.

He thrust into him mindlessly, out of control, only feeling and knowing the carnal pleasure he’d never experienced before. Not with any of his past lovers. It all paled in comparison.

Alwin was moaning gently, tiredly, his body limp as Otto chased his own peak. He thrust harder. Alwin released the softest little croak, and that was what did it in the end.

That sound, so uniquely Alwin, was enough to send him over the edge. He came, holding Alwin in place speared on his pulsing cock as he painted his insides. Otto held him close, refusing to let go. Refusing to let it end.

A flash of fear came over him that Alwin would regret it. That he’d wake up and move and break their connection and make it all turn sour.

Instead, he got a cuddly, whimpery mess of a frog prince, burrowing into his lap, hiding against Otto’s body, using the folds and nooks to disappear as best as he could.

Otto ran his fingers down the knobby spine, catching sight of those dark-blue marks fading back to green as their breathing evened out.

He hooked his chin over Alwin’s head and rocked them back and forth slowly, softening inside Alwin’s body but unwilling to pull out just yet.

He stared out at the clearing, even more beautiful now that it held the memory of their first time. The lush green of the forest, the midnight blue of the rings of mushrooms, the sparkling beams of weak autumn sunlight bouncing off the ground.

He started humming into Alwin’s shoulder as he watched, mind drifting, body spent and relaxed.

“That’s nice,” Alwin whispered. “What is it?”

“Just a song Gisela used to sing with the other kids in the village,” Otto said. “A game, I think.”

“Sing it for me?”

Otto held him closer, shutting his eyes and recalling the words of the silly rhyme Gisela had spent months chanting around the house when she was little.

“ If you ever come across a glowing ring of midnight blue,

Don’t just stand there trapped in silence, here is what you ought to do.

Take one closest to your heart and hold it in your palm,

Make sure your grip is tender and your breathing deep and calm.

Crush the petals slowly, gently, make your fingers let it go,

Watch it while it flutters down, and wait for it to lose the glow.

Then take the twin from on the right, and do it all once more,

But this time as it tumbles down, remember what you swore.

To keep your heart and spirit kind, and only do good deeds,

For only when you’re pure of heart, the blue your wishes heeds.

Pick the fallen from the ground and use it as you’d like,

But if you ever go astray, the midnight blue will strike.”

“That sounds more like an instruction manual than a game.” Alwin chuckled once Otto had finished.

Otto froze.

Rings of midnight blue.

“You don’t think…” he said, and Alwin lifted his head from his shoulder and finally met his eyes, that clever mind catching what he was implying in an instant.

He looked around them, mouthing the words of rhyme silently. “It’s possible.”

Otto felt his heart hammer in his chest. “But it’s a silly game.”

“Sometimes the biggest things hide in the minds of the most unassuming people. Children know more than we give them credit for.”

“But…” Otto struggled to comprehend.

“You’ve tried everything else, and we did come here for answers. What does it cost to try?”