Pleasure sparked through Corin, his emotions projecting outward, making the air around them warm and charged.
Jamie didn't pull away. If anything, his grip tightened, one hand moving to Corin's hip.
"Is this okay?" Jamie murmured against his mouth.
"More than okay," Corin gasped, chasing the contact, the friction, the building pressure.
He'd wanted this—touch, intimacy, desire—for so long. The fact that it was Jamie and not Azelon felt secondary to the overwhelming relief of simply being wanted.
Until it didn't.
The thought of Azelon crashed through the haze of pleasure, a cold shock that made Corin falter. Images flashed through his mind: Azelon pulling him from the drowning dreamscape, Azelon's arms around him during countless nightmare-filled nights, Azelon's rare, fleeting smiles.
The glow of his markings in darkness. The way he always knew when Corin's emotions were about to spiral out of control. The infuriating, impossible devotion to duty that kept him forever out of reach.
Corin broke the kiss abruptly, pulling back. "I can't. I'm sorry."
Jamie didn't try to hold him, hands falling away immediately. "It's okay."
"It's not." Corin sat up, running both hands through his hair. "It's really not okay. I'm using you as a replacement and that's... that's not fair to either of us."
"I'm a grown man. I knew what I was getting into."
"Did you?" Corin laughed shakily. "Because I'm not sure I did."
He expected Jamie to push him away, to be angry or at least hurt. Instead, Jamie simply sat up beside him, not touching but close enough that Corin could feel his warmth.
"You're in love with him," Jamie stated.
It wasn't a question, but Corin answered anyway. "Yes."
"And that's not going to change overnight."
"No." Corin drew his knees to his chest. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Jamie leaned back against the headboard. "Feelings are complicated."
Corin risked a glance at him. "You're being very understanding about this."
"What's the alternative? Getting angry at you for having feelings?" Jamie shook his head. "I've had to learn that those can't easily be controlled, and anyway, I know he has feelings for you too." He paused. "I shouldn't get in the middle of that."
"It doesn't matter," Corin said. "He doesn't want me."
"I don't believe that."
"Then why does he keep pushing me away?" His pain threatened to overwhelm Corin once more. The lights flickered overhead, then burned out, plunging them into darkness.
"Hey." Jamie drew him close again. "I don't know why Azelon is being an idiot, but he clearly cares about you."
Corin swallowed hard, willing himself to calm down. How pathetic was it that he needed so much help with that?
That he had so little control over his magic?
Was it any wonder his family had chased him away?
Chapter
Seven
