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“Would you be cross if we brought one another off like this?” Rath broke their kiss, his teeth far sharper than Asha remembered. He leaned in and nipped Asha’s lower lip.

“You mean to—without touching?” Asha was painfully na?ve when it came to sex. Most things he’d heard were the bawdy mumblings of the stable boys bragging about their exploits. And whether those had happened or not was always up for debate.

He’d heard plenty said of the flower boys, though, of their desires for men, their profaneness. Shame burrowed into Asha’s mind, but he forced it back. None judged him in the land of dragons.

Just like a Saurian concubine. Nothing but a sleeve for some dragon’s cock.

Asha’s eyes stung, and he bid the thought away. It wasn’t like that. There was no profanity, no shame in what they were to do. It was right and good.

“Without removing our clothes. But we could do it like this, yes. Or I can…” Rath’s hand drifted down Asha’s waist, around to his front, claw-tipped fingers cupping gently over Asha’s cock.

Asha swallowed hard. He’d touched himself, played with himself, but something rose up within his heart, snarling at the prospect of sex.

His backside ached, an empty feeling echoing through him.

Coming, he was certain, wouldn’t be enough, but it was something.

Better than nothing. Asha choked on a breath and tried to form words, syllables breaking on the tip of his tongue. “Please. Yes.”

Rath had been sincere about consent, but he hesitated, nosing over Asha’s cheek. “Push your breeches down. I’ll not have you soiling my brother’s clothes. And after—we’ll talk.”

Asha did as he was told, unable to hold back the tremble in his body and tears trailing his cheeks. The hot then cool trails made their way down his neck and shirt collar, unrelenting as Rath’s warm hand caressed him to a higher plane of bliss.

Telling him there was an after , and a clear expectation of release, made Asha’s mind spin.

As much as he wanted to shed the expectation of pleasure, to pretend that they didn’t need to release or have sex, he knew it was an inevitability.

Dipping his toe in the water, so to speak, felt great. The water was just right .

Rath knew how to move his hand, and the thought of where he’d learned to please a man like that made him irrationally angry.

It made him want to have Rath, to own him, to greedily take his attention and pleasure.

All hesitations whited out in his mind as he shamelessly ground his hips into Rath’s hand.

And if Asha’s thigh pressed up, relishing in Rath’s hardness, letting it remind him of the dragon’s mutual attraction, so be it.

Something inhuman slithered under Asha’s skin; the scales that had dotted his body in odd patches seemed to shift and wrap him in strange ways; his nails—pearlescent and curving into their new shape—bore down into Rath’s shoulders as a sputtering hiss shot over his tongue through sharpening teeth.

Such a noise Asha had never heard or made before.

So, when Rath’s muffled hiss and growl echoed his own, Asha came undone, his entire body pinging with pleasure pure and glorious as a cold sweat melted over him.

His cock bucked, breath hitched, and through pulsing release, Asha sagged, harsh breaths filtering through his teeth until Rath pinned him possessively.

“There’s a good boy. You’ll forget any other man you’ve ever touched or been touched by. You’ll be mine alone.”

“I’ve told you. I’ve never done anything. I’m untou— well, not anymore.” Asha choked on a half laugh and silenced under an almost-chaste kiss. “I should be demanding you forget all other men.”

“Is that why you finished so harshly, my dear Ashen one? Thinking of me with another?” Rath pulled away; the front of his breeches stained with a copious wash of his own release. It made immense pride rise up in Asha’s chest.

“If I said yes, would it make sense?” Asha sagged a little until Rath aided him, steadying his feet.

He shamelessly stripped his undergarments and retrieved another pair, wiping down without a second glance to Rath.

Until his face went fierce and near feral, Asha didn’t think twice about it. Rath made him too comfortable.

Quietly, Rath rummaged around in a chest of drawers and retrieved a fresh pair of undergarments and a robe for himself while Asha gathered their sullied clothing to stow away someplace inconspicuously.

“Leave it out. Let the staff know we’ve been naughty.” The dark chuckle that curled in Rath’s throat made Asha draw to him obediently, cheeks aflame with something akin to desire but tamed. “Now about that talk.”

Asha sighed heavily and leaned his head forward, forehead warm against bare flesh.

The bare trace of pointed nails down Asha’s spine made pleasant sensations ripple through him. Avoiding the bed, he used that allure to draw Asha to their sitting place before the hearth, where it sat dim and cold.

Asha had never given the fire much thought, but that evening, it caught his attention.

The logs were nothing more than stones carved in the shape of logs, so when Rath gave Asha a cheeky wink and leaned in, breathing a fierce breath toward the hearth, it all made sense.

Magic flared, and the fire came to life with a wash of warmth. “There.”

Asha stared in quiet wonder as Rath blew a little puff of air upward. A flick of flame danced on his lips before smoke curled. “Doesn’t Jeron tend that, often?”

“When I’m not around to light it, yes.” Rath laughed. “But you’re comfortable with magic now. You’re comfortable with me. You’ve seen what I feared you’d fear most. Does the eternal dream not bother you?”

“What bothers me is waking one day alone, dying in pain, or drawn-out old age. The thought of sleeping away the years when I become unneeded seems rather poetic.” Asha offered Rath a soft smile and earned another kiss. This one was softer, a reward of a gentle brush of lips.

“Then that is how we shall live.” Rath pulled away and traced his fingers over Asha’s hand. “Now tell me all of what this Earl Tippen had done to you.”

Asha froze, his blood running cold as ice for two beats of his heart.

“Why?”

“Because I’ve a wedding gift to obtain. And there’s a reason I was born the prince of wrath.” Rath’s voice went low and sensual, and all Asha could do was speak.