Page 35 of Cinder
Somehow, the option to back out made Cin even more determined. “Then be sure to keep your eyes on me,” Cin challenged.
He ignored the pinching of pain between his ribs as he lowered toward the prince’s stomach, unbuttoning him the way he’d started for Cin. His cock pressed free with little urging, already half-hard and just as thick as Cin remembered. It wasn’t beautiful—Cin didn’t think a cock could quite qualify as that—but the sight of it and the way the prince shuddered as Cin drew his fingertips down its length made Cin imagine the pressureand fullness of it sliding deep inside himself, leaving a wanting deep in his core.
He didn’t think he was ready for the reality of that quite yet, but just the vision, aching through him, made it so easy to press his lips to the head of the prince’s cock. He licked, then sucked, sliding Prince Lorenz further into his mouth as he wrapped his hand around the cock’s base. The prince’s eyes were still on Cin, his cheeks flushed as his lower lip quivered.
“Damn, you’re the most handsome thing I’ve ever seen,” he whispered as he caught Cin checking on him. “Keep— Keep doing that. A little faster, if you wish, a little deep—Ahh.” The prince’s words turned to a ragged moan as the tip of his cock brushed up against the back of Cin’s throat.
Cin nearly gagged, but he focused on the growing want between his legs, empty and hungry, and sucked harder, adding just a little teeth as he bobbed back. Prince Lorenz responded to that with another sound, deeper and even more desperate.
“You are doing brilliantly,” he said, his voice breathless and a mess with hitches, “Oh you gorgeous, ingenious creature, how do you fuck me up like this, I don’t—”
Cin used his teeth against the prince’s shaft again and pressed the tip of the prince’s cock against the back of his throat with intention this time, squeezing around its base.
Prince Lorenz bucked toward Cin, cursing and grabbing onto Cin’s hair with one hand, and then suddenly he was coming, warm and tangy into the back of Cin’s mouth. Cin almost choked again, then swallowed, and swallowed a second time before gently releasing Prince Lorenz’s cock from his mouth. It was softer and smaller now that he’d come, but the giddiness of doing that, of seeing the prince melted on his cloak on the grass, flushed and grinning at Cin, was enough to keep Cin just as desperate as ever.
He didn’t know how to ask for what he wanted—but it turned out that didn’t matter, as the prince scooted back, motioning for Cin to lay down in his place. It took Cin a little more effort than his lover to open the front of his pants and undergarments enough to give Prince Lorenz room, but just the sight of that small part of him laid bare seemed to give the prince great pleasure. He brushed his fingertips through Cin’s lower hair, stirring up fresh tingles of desire with each drag of his nails.
“Still the most handsome thing I’ve seen,” he murmured, and dropped his head between Cin’s legs.
Cin found he couldn’t watch after that, not for lack of wanting, but for the way his chest tightened and his lashes fluttered with each deft stroke of the prince’s tongue. Every inch of him felt on fire, the blaze gathering in his most tender of places as Prince Lorenz skillfully used his mouth to stoke, licking and sucking and scraping his teeth in such perfect rhythm that every time Cin thought he could take no more of it—no more without either sliding out of his skin or coming in a conflagration—the prince switched.
Before long, Cin found his fingers in Prince Lorenz’s hair, little noises escaping him that sounded ridiculously like pleas. “Oh God, oh God, oh God,” he whispered.
Those towers had to be magic after all.
As the prince settled in on the nub of Cin’s pleasure point, Cin could feel he was a goner. He held his breath to the rush of burning bliss, white hot through him as his body strained to take it all in, feasting upon the ecstasy the way the prince feasted between Cin’s legs. He trembled out of it, gasping into his contractions.
As they faded into a sloppy, fizzling happiness, Cin couldn’t help but grin. He stared up at the night sky, at the prince, at the soft touches of light and dark, long shadows between, andeverything felt suddenly beautiful. Still beaming, Cin tipped his head back, and laughed.
Prince Lorenz settled beside him. He chuckled as well, brushing stray hairs out of Cin’s face. “What is it, my dove?”
“You,” Cin snorted. His smile felt so real, so right. “You’re too perfect.” He turned toward Prince Lorenz, curling into his space. “I don’t think you should get married, because there’s no one good enough for you.”
“No one good enough for selfish little me in my perfect royal life?” the prince teased, and there was no bite to his voice, and only a little sadness.
Cin brushed a strand off his forehead in turn. “I was wrong about that—or, misdirecting, at least. You can’t help the life you’ve been given, and despite your stupid, beautiful castle and all your servants and parties and power, it wasn’t easy to lose your brother like you did; having to suddenly step into his shoes.”
“You’re right, it wasn’t.” He tugged at the front of his shirt as he said it, seeming mindlessly to probe at the skin below. “But I— I’ve made do.” There seemed to be more there, beneath the darkness of his gaze, but the prince only quirked his mouth in a half-smile and kissed Cin on the forehead. “Thank you for this.”
Cin almost rolled his eyes. “I’m sure you’ve had better sexual partners.”
Prince Lorenz opened his mouth like he was going to protest, but instead he looked confused with himself, his brow tight and his gaze distant, as though working through a difficult problem. “More skilled sexual partners, perhaps,” he said, finally, “But not... you.”
The prince’s odd phrasing pinched in Cin’s chest, and he chose to save them both from the awkwardness, sitting himself up—oh, God, did his sides hurt beneath his chest binding—and hold out a hand to the prince. “You should head back.”
“You have the only horse,” Prince Lorenz put in. He accepted the help, and collected Cin’s cloak after, patting it off and helping Cin secure it back onto his shoulders. The garden was cold suddenly. Like it knew they were leaving. “And my parents will be all the more peeved at me if I don’t at least return to the castlewithsomeone I’ve conceivably wooed. You know, if I play my cards right, you could even stay the night.”
The thought made Cin strangely sad. He smiled through it. “I have to be here in the morning.”
“Tragic,” the prince complained.
“How much trouble will you be in for all this?”
“Oh, heaps, certainly. But what can they really do to me? Take the crown I’ve never wanted in the first place?” Prince Lorenz shrugged. “My parents will lecture me and I’ll be roped into the very most boring meetings around the castle for the rest of the week with three guards trailing my every step.” He wrapped his fingers through Cin’s and squeezed. “It’ll be an annoyance well worth the night.”
“In that case, I won’t pity you even a little.”
The prince looked absolutely cheeky. “Not even enough to ride me back?”
