Chapter 86

Hm? This… What is this?

The moment Elwin inhaled, he realized the night would be far from the simple rest he had anticipated. Leon’s sweet, subtle fragrance permeated his senses with that singular breath, acting as an unintended catalyst. Though Leon merely patted him through the thick blanket, a slow, insistent heat began to coil within Elwin’s body.

Something was irrevocably wrong.

Initially, he reasoned the blanket might be too thick, yet heat alone could not explain the persistent, maddening itch radiating from his lower belly. If he were merely exhausted, his mind would not be this agonizingly alert.

Elwin attempted to suppress the sensation and succumb to sleep, but his focus betrayed him, drifting toward the soft pressure of the hand against his back and the faint, grounding warmth of Leon’s presence. Once he surrendered to the reality of the person beside him, the awareness became impossible to banish. He was lying next to the man he cherished, after all; there was no escape from this proximity.

It felt an eternity since they had been this close, body to body. In truth, it had only been two days since their arrival in the capital, yet the turbulent events that followed stretched that time into a lifetime. Naturally, Elwin burned to touch him, to be touched in return, and to surrender to the intoxicating scent of his lover. But…

No. I played the part of a gentleman and insisted on restraint. How could I possibly break that resolve now? I need to compose myself. I must find sleep.

The more he struggled to calm his nerves, the more erratic his heart rhythm became, his breath hitching in the silence. Surely, Leon would notice. He considered turning away, but the risk of their skin brushing sent a jolt of panic through his chest.

While Elwin remained frozen in his internal dilemma, Leon’s hand abruptly ceased its rhythmic patting and withdrew. It seemed he had sensed the tension radiating from Elwin.

Perhaps he had decided that sleep was impossible and intended to retreat to his own quarters. Stung by the realization that his secret agitation had been detected, Elwin felt a crushing wave of disappointment and shame at the prospect of Leon leaving him behind.

Should I beg him to stay? Should I promise to remain still?

Before the thought could manifest into action, Leon rendered the concern obsolete. He slid his hand beneath the blanket and hauled Elwin back into his embrace. As their bodies locked together, Leon’s scent enveloped him, thick and intoxicating. A breath ghosted against the nape of Elwin’s neck, inciting a sudden, violent shiver of gooseflesh across his skin.

“Ah, hng…”

Elwin bit his lip to strangle the sound, but Leon’s hand had already begun to wander, fumbling along the hem of his shirt. Even as his conscience screamed that this was improper, Elwin reached down, lifting his hem just enough to grant Leon entry.

Leon’s fingers wasted no time, slipping beneath the fabric to find his skin. Elwin had already been in a state of high arousal, and the friction of Leon’s hand against his bare stomach was enough to leave him breathless and reeling.

“Elwin. You cannot sleep, can you?”

Leon’s voice was a low, dark vibration against his ear, followed immediately by the sensation of his earlobe being drawn into Leon’s mouth. Startled by the intimate, wet graze, Elwin released a ragged moan before he could check himself.

“Ahh, nn…”

“I thought as much. I should help you.”

Elwin found himself paralyzed by the assertion. He could hardly argue that his previous sound had been a moan rather than an answer, especially as Leon’s fingers turned increasingly wicked. The fingertips that had been stroking his flat abdomen suddenly teased the taut, hardened peak of his nipple. As Leon pinched that sensitive point, his lips continued to grind against the shell of Elwin’s ear.

Wet, rhythmic sounds echoed in his mind, and the sharp spike of pleasure threatened to dissolve his remaining composure. Even as he began to melt into the sensation, a singular, nagging question remained.

Is this truly acceptable?

Then, Leon’s fingertips moved from his chest, tracing a deliberate path downward toward the cord of his trousers. The uncertainty vanished, replaced by an absolute, terrifying clarity.

As I feared—this is certainly not acceptable!

Elwin seized the back of Leon’s hand, his voice a desperate, breathless whisper. “Leon, you specifically said you would not do this.”

“Ah, is this what bothers you?”

Leon reached out, removing the signet ring he had placed on Elwin’s finger moments prior. While the gesture eased a fraction of his guilt, the fact remained that they were in the palace. Elwin squirmed, desperate to create distance.

His struggle was futile. Leon caught him instantly, locking a powerful arm around his waist like a shackle and pulling him flush against his body. He leaned in, whispering a cryptic, maddening promise.

“I will not truly do it. Not to the end.”

Elwin, in his innocence, was utterly bewildered. If he wouldn’t do it truly, did that imply he would do it falsely? And what did he mean by not reaching the end?

While Elwin struggled to parse the logic, Leon tugged the cord of his trousers, baring him in one fluid motion. The humiliation of being half-undressed in the palace burned, but Leon was far from finished. He pressed his own body tight, forcing Elwin to feel the undeniable, heated outline of his erection against his backside.

Elwin did not need to see it to know what was pressing into him. Leon began to grind his hard, rigid cock against Elwin, the friction sending jolts of electricity through his spine. He swallowed hard, his resolve crumbling.

“L-Leon…”

“Yes, Elwin. Once you are refreshed, you will fall into a peaceful sleep.”

Elwin had not been particularly desperate for sleep, but Leon offered no space for dissent. He reached around to the front, wrapping his hand firmly around Elwin’s exposed cock.

“Ah, no, ahh…”

To his intense mortification, his own body had already betrayed him; he was fully erect, just as he had been since they first laid down. Feeling that his final excuse had evaporated, Elwin squeezed his eyes shut, resigning himself to the tide of sensation.

As his resistance died, Leon began to stroke him in earnest—a rhythmic, sticky, and agonizingly slow dance. His large palm enveloped the shaft, working up and down with practiced expertise, and helpless, broken gasps escaped Elwin’s throat.

“Hnh, ahh, Leon, if you do this, this is truly…”

“No. This is far from truly doing it.”

Was it? Elwin found himself swayed by the soft, persuasive weight of Leon’s words. In truth, the pleasure was too overwhelming to permit any coherent thought at all.

“Do you like it here?”

“Hnnn…!”

As Leon’s palm kneaded the back of his head with broad, sweeping strokes, a sharp jolt of electricity surged through Elwin. The rational part of his mind, which insisted this was illicit, scattered into nothingness; his body responded with a desperate, unvarnished honesty. His breath hitched into shallow, ragged gasps, his cock surged into a rigid ache, and his scent ripened, hanging heavy and thick in the air.

Deep within, the reaction was identical. His lower belly coiled into a tight knot, and he grew slick, his body betraying him with every slide of Leon’s flesh against his own. His entrance clenched in rhythmic, involuntary pulses, as if yearning for the very thing it demanded.

“Haaah, Elwin.”

A fierce, ragged exhale brushed against the nape of his neck before Leon gripped his buttock, kneading the soft flesh with a possessive strength. His entrance, already twitching and raw, parted to weep clear, slick moisture.

Elwin heard his name murmured in a low, vibrating rasp. Leon angled his hips, driving his engorged, hard pillar of flesh into the narrow cleft between Elwin’s thighs. The hot head of his cock slid over the perineum, already slick with their shared nectar.

Leon’s fingers continued to stroke Elwin’s own, a touch so deliberately suggestive it pulled the memory of their first night in Addlington to the surface of Elwin’s mind.

As Elwin stiffened under the unfamiliar friction, Leon drew his hips back, only to grind them forward again with rhythmic, punishing intent. The sound of wet flesh colliding echoed in the quiet room as Leon thrust between his thighs. The motion was persistent, mimicking the primal act of penetration.

“Ugh, hnn, this feels strange, hnnng…”

“Does it?”

While Elwin had intended to express the sheer, bewildering novelty of the sensation, Leon interpreted the words as a sign of unadulterated pleasure. Though his ambiguous answer rankled, Elwin lacked the will to correct him. He found himself lost in the momentum of Leon’s hips.

This act—nameless and illicit—felt undeniably, dangerously good. The scrape of Leon’s cock against his inner thighs and the heavy, rhythmic drag over his perineum brought a cocktail of pleasure, pressure, and weight he had never experienced before. Every time the hard head of Leon’s shaft prodded beneath his sac, his body convulsed in an autonomous, reflexive spasm.

“Ugh, ah, ahh, hng.”

A sob of pleasure threatened to breach his throat, but Elwin forced it down, fighting to steady his ragged breathing. Seeing the way Elwin bit his lips to silence himself, Leon grew only more wicked, his movements intensifying.

He drove his shaft between Elwin’s thighs with renewed, slippery force, drenching his skin in a cloying, heavy scent. Simultaneously, his hand toyed with Elwin’s own cock, treating it like a captive toy. He found the sensitive tendon behind the shaft, then traced his fingertip along the sensitive slit, raking it until stars exploded behind Elwin’s vision.

“Ngh, hnnn…!”

Elwin finally broke, a sharp, nasal cry escaping him, thick with breath and shame. The wet, sticky sound made his face burn.

“Ahh, Leon, s-stop. Hnn, someone will hear…”

“Yes, Elwin. It is a lovely sound. Ngh…”

Though Leon understood the plea, he answered with a deliberate, maddening misdirection. Determined to push Elwin to the edge of his limits, he maintained the steady, rhythmic friction until Elwin lost the last vestiges of his self-control and surrendered to the gasping haze.

“Ahh, ngh, ha, hnnng.”

Despite his efforts to remain composed and uphold the etiquette of his station, Elwin’s climax arrived with a violent, shuddering force. Sticky, white fluid splattered across the elegant, pristine bedding of the palace guest room.

As Elwin shuddered in the wake of the pleasure that left his lower belly throbbing, Leon buried his face in the nape of his neck, inhaling deep, greedy lungfuls of the pheromones released at his peak. The more he breathed in that thickened, heady scent, the more his own shaft swelled against the backs of Elwin’s thighs.

“Ngh, Le-Leon…”

Elwin’s body jolted each time he was touched, his skin now vibrating with an unbearable sensitivity. When Elwin called out in a voice choked with tears, Leon shifted, lifting his upper body to force Elwin’s head to the side. He crushed their lips together, effectively swallowing the rest of Elwin’s protests.

Their tongues tangled in the dizzying, hazy afterglow of the act. The intimacy was overwhelming, draining the last of Elwin’s reserves. He was pinned, shaken, and utterly undone; with his breath stolen by the kiss, his consciousness began to fray at the edges.

“Hnn…”

With a low, final exhale, Leon stilled his tremors. Holding Elwin tight in his arms, leaving no space between them, he followed him over the edge. A heavy, rapid heartbeat pulsed through their pressed flesh, and the boiling heat that radiated from Leon seemed to melt the very air around them.

“Elwin.”

Leon whispered his name, his voice tender as he pressed a lingering, damp kiss to the sweat-slicked nape of his neck. Sounding entirely refreshed, he murmured, “See? I kept my promise.”

Elwin was left dumbfounded. How could he speak so casually after leaving him a limp, trembling puddle? Yet, he lacked the strength to argue. Between the exhaustion of his journey and the sheer intensity of the encounter, his fatigue had hit a terminal point.

Lying slack against the mattress, his heavy eyelids fluttering, Elwin managed to fix Leon with a weary, lingering look. Leon only offered an innocent, lopsided grin and patted Elwin’s chest with a warm, steady hand.

“I did not go all the way, did I? Now you should be able to sleep deeply.”

Whether it was the comfort of sleep or the sheer relief of unconsciousness, one truth remained: Elwin would not stay awake a moment longer. As he fought to keep his eyes open, they finally surrendered to the dark. As his consciousness submerged, he could hear Leon beginning to tidy their mess, wiping Elwin’s skin and straightening his own trousers with practiced calm.

Leon cast a glance down at the ruined sheets and damp trousers, murmuring an exaggerated, “Oh dear.”

It is fine. I will just sleep like this. There is another pair of pajama trousers in my bag.

Elwin wanted to voice the thought, but his lips were too heavy to move, and the pull of sleep was far too absolute.