“No,” I say immediately. “It’s not a bad thing. You deserve to be taken care of, and I…”
Hesitation makes me pause, but he looks like he needs reassurance, and for once, I can offer that. I steel my spine.
“I want to be the one to take care of you.”
“You do?” He watches me nod like he expected me to run instead.
He looks… terrified.
Scared of the intensity, or that I might leave.
“Hey,” I whisper, and his bottom lip trembles as I kiss him again. “None of that.”
“I don’t want you to go,” he whispers back, and I tuck him into my arms. “Not even to grab our food. I can’t stand the thought of not touching you right now.”
My heart aches at his confession, and I nod because I feel the same confusing way.
“Come on, then,” I say as I scoop him up in my arms.
He pushes out a wet laugh as I carry him to the table where our cold dinner waits. We’re both covered in fluids and filthy, but neither of us cares as I settle him into my lap.
We’re completely naked, but I’m not exposed or uncomfortable. Instead, I soak in the connection of our bare skin as we eat. Towards the end of our meal, he wiggles his ass again, and we've barely finished eating before he drags me back to the bed. He works me open and bends me over the side, and the way he moves in me is sweeter than any dessert.
The moon is high in the sky when we finally fall into a pleasure-induced sleep. We wake up wrapped in each other, and Xeni seems ready for more when the sun rises. He tosses the covers aside, and his gasp is so shocked it forces my eyes open.
He’s staring, and I follow his line of sight.
For a long stretch, neither of us even breathes.
A golden glow shines happily from my hip.
Xeni sinks onto his haunches and lets the sheets fall away. A matching mark shimmers on his hipbone. His eyes crawl up to mine so slowly, and for an endless moment, we stare at each other.
Both of us know what this means—the gravity of our situation should anyone find out about it. There should be fear, or trepidation, or at the very least, anxiety.
But there’s none of that.
There’s only a sense of completeness that’s eluded me for my entire life.
A rightness in what I’ve found.
Xeni’s eyes fill with tears, and I clamber to sit and drag him against me.
“Hey… it’s alright,” I soothe.
“How?” he whispers, and I hate how small he sounds. “How could it ever be alright?”
“Because I’ve got you.”
His gaze moves up to mine, his lip quivering as tears streak his face. “You don’t want this,” he says, the words so quiet I barely understand them.
The idea brings with it an immediate sense of panic, and an insistence that he needs to believe what I'm saying.
“Idowant this…” I stress. “I wantyou. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense, Xeni. I’ve wanted you for so long.”
He chokes on a watery laugh as he nods, careful not to scrape me with his horns. “Me too. And I’m selfish, Bash. I won’t… I won’t want to let you go.”
“So don’t.”
