Hayce’s lips traced back to Ehlian’s bond point, as if he couldn’t let it go, couldn’t let anyone claim it. “They?”
“Those omegas all over you.”
“No one is quite enough.” Hayce’s hand slid down to the small of Ehlian’s back, dipping beneath the waistband of his trousers. “You’re too persistent in my head.”
A faint alarm rang in Ehlian’s mind, but it vanished the moment Hayce’s finger stroked over his wet hole and pressed inside. Ehlian hadn’t been touched there since prison, and his neglected, hypersensitive nerves flared to life, sending sparks through him.
“Bed,” Ehlian whispered as he loosened the buttons of his own trousers, the word barely slipping out, swallowed by ragged moans and gasps. Unheard.
Hayce grabbed one of Ehlian’s legs, curling it around his hip for better access. When Hayce’s second finger joined the first, stretching him deliciously, Ehlian’s knee buckled. He let himself fall forward against Hayce’s steady chest, burying his face in the curve of his neck. His moans spilled there, pressing into Hayce’s tight skin—teeth grazing lightly whenever Hayce deepened the pace, hitting every nerve.
“Don’t come yet,” Hayce ordered, his voice more a throaty whisper than a command. Ehlian barely registered he was working open Hayce’s buttons, sliding his hand into his trousers and curling his fingers around the thick length, feeling its pulse against his palm.
Normally, he would’ve listened. He liked the way that command made him shiver, liked to obey. He wanted Hayce inside him, but he already knew he wouldn’t last under the relentless thrusts of Hayce’s fingers.
“I can’t tonight,” he panted against Hayce’s neck. “Can’t hold back. You let go too.”
He ground his cock against Hayce’s hip, mindless and relentless, pressing harder, faster. He tried to match the rhythm, stroking Hayce just as fast, and he wasn’t even sure if he’d managed to bring Hayce off when his own climax hit, leaving him still as waves of pleasure consumed him.
It took a while before his breathing returned to normal. It felt like a year’s worth of weight had been lifted from his body, his unsatisfied needs finally met. But it came with a cost. The room and the strong presence of Hayce suddenly felt painfully sharp.
The faint alarm in his head was still there, now blaring louder and louder.
No one is quite enough.
He didn’t need to peel back the words one by one to know what they meant, what he had suspected all along these past few weeks. Those balls weren’t just for rebuilding old alliances. Hayce had had whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and when those omegas didn’t give him the same thrill as Ehlian did, Hayce conveniently came back to him.
Ehlian refused to reduce himself to a fuck toy again. He’d had no choice in prison, but here on Arox, he could have as manyas he wanted. Hayce wanted to slip back into their old dynamic, but Ehlian wasn’t going back there. Not in a thousand years.
His voice was tight against Hayce’s throat. “Will you send a lawyer after me again if I become an inconvenience in your life?”
The cords in Hayce’s neck tightened.
Ehlian untangled himself, leaning back against the door.
Hayce’s face was carefully blank. For a moment it looked as if he might speak, but he decided against it.
“I know you had something to do with it,” Ehlian pushed. “So don’t bother pretending otherwise.”
Hayce’s lips tightened. “Only you could find a problem with being given a chance at an early release.”
“You know that’s not the fucking point,” Ehlian threw at him angrily. “You wanted me to go.”
“Yes, I wanted you to go,” Hayce said tightly. “We nearly bonded, Ehlian. The odds of my plan failing were far higher than succeeding. And if it failed, I was never getting out. You wanted to end up like that omega who threw away his life just to get back to his bondmate in prison? If you cared about yourself, maybe even about me a little, you’d never take that risk.”
“You can’t compare us to them,” Ehlian said sharply. “Our near-bonding was an accident.”
Hayce scoffed drily. “Sure it was.”
Ehlian’s face burned. “Don’t put this on me.”
“I’m not putting it on you.”
“Yes, you are,” Ehlian said. “You didn’t trust me. You could barely look me in the eyes those last few weeks, making me feel like…” He swallowed. “I knew the risk. You had no reason not to trust me.”
“I had every reason not to trust you’d withstand it a second time,” Hayce said, his jaw tightening. “But I trusted myself even less.”
The confession stirred something warm in Ehlian’s chest, but seeing the amber sparks in Hayce’s eyes dim and twist with darker emotion doused it.
