Master Kane’s warning came back to me then. “Hunger sharpens the focus, Mercier. You will craft this perfectly or you will starve.”
“He sounds as strict as you,” Cedrych remarked.
“Even more so,” I assured him, shaking off my former mentor’s voice. At the time, I thought his methods were simply meant to make me stronger. Now, as an adult, I recognized that Master Kane may have had a sadistic streak.
“I like it,” he murmured, “Your cage, the control you have over me. I think it will be good for me.”
“You like structure, discipline, and rewards. All things I am more than happy to provide.”
My hands drifted over the planes of his skin–those impeccable shoulders and sculpted chest, muscles strengthened from extensive swordplay and military drills. My eyes kept alighting on the now faded mark of my bite. As if knowing my lingering desire, Cedrych said, “So, will you bite me, my lord?”
A second vampyric claim might bond us for longer than the duration of this betrothal. It would be reckless to do so, but I wanted it all the same.
“My mark will show,” I told him. “Our attendants and guards will see it. And it will last longer this time.”
“I still want it,” he said.
“Why do you want it, Cedrych?”
Expelling a long sigh, he began, “Ever since my father died, I’ve been floundering, lost and alone. With you, I finally feel at peace. I have purpose and someone who listens. Who sees me and cares about me beyond just court appearances or what I can do for them. I want to belong to you, my lord, in all the ways that a temporary betrothal will allow.”
The last of my resolve drained away, for his words were achingly true, an echo of my own yearnings. “Very well, my prince.” Cradling his head in my hands, I waited until he’d relaxed his neck and shoulders. I ran my thumb along the vein in his neck, feeling his pulse quicken along with his breath. The spike of his heart rate was yet another aphrodisiac to the predator within me. “I’m going to take more this time,” I warned.
“Take as much as you like, my lord.”
My canines dropped and I was sinking my teeth into the prince’s supple flesh before I even knew it. He moaned with pleasure and grabbed hold of his cage, his desires thwarted by my metal. My satisfaction grew tenfold.
“Mercier,” he murmured in complete surrender.
The use of my first name, so intimate and right, caused me to whimper in response. I took only a handful of swallows, but the taste of him invigorated my senses and robbed me of breath. Fae blood was a drug, and his bloodline was particularly potent. I licked the puncture wounds with my tongue, lapping at them slowly, tenderly. The prince trembled in my arms, and were itnot for the cage around his cock, he probably would have given me another spectacular orgasm. I teetered on the edge of climax myself.
“Cedrych, are you all right?” I swept the hair from his temple and placed a gentle kiss there.
“Yes. I’m simply floating in the clouds again. Thank you for indulging me, my lord.”
This was far more than an indulgence, more like an oath. My heart, which had laid dormant for so many seasons, was now aching, throbbing, as it reached toward the light. Painful and alarming, I didn’t have the words to express the influx of emotions the prince inspired. Not yet anyway.
“You’re welcome, my sweet boy.”
Chapter 12
Prince Cedrych
Ishifted in my seat, silent in my suffering, but even with the plush cushion underneath me, there was no relief to be found. The sly grin on Lord Vasil’s face conveyed more than words about his perverse desire to torment me. How long was the ride to the tournament grounds?
“You’re awfully fidgety, Cedrych,” Vasil said, playfully taunting me. He was impeccably attired in a dove gray suit topped by a royal cloak in elvish blue and matching wide-brimmed hat, all of which set off his dark skin handsomely. His beard was freshly trimmed and his eyes flared with that dark desire, at turns terrifying and intoxicating. In his right hand was his vanadium rod, the same material as the cage around my cock and its newest addition, a pear-shaped plug tucked snugly inside my hole. I’d need training if I was to accommodate his girthy cock. Or so he’d told me.
“Torturing me in private wasn’t enough for you, my lord?” I asked.
His smile widened, making him look positively demonic. “Not when I could torture you in front of my entire kingdom. How are you feeling three days into chastity, Your Highness?”
Gone was the stiff formality. Now, my title was said with a teasing banter and infused with affection.
“I’m terribly pent up,” I admitted. Contained and penetrated, I was wholly incapacitated by the smug sorcerer sitting across from me, but at the other end of this agony was my reward. All I had to do was follow Vasil’s exacting instructions.
“Anything else?” he asked, eyes glittering.
“Damp,” I said, for that was my other condition. We fae eliminated our waste through sweat and urine, which meant our interior sex organs were purely for pleasure (and childbirth.) My tissues were slick with serum and the walls of my channel ached with a desire to be filled. My ex had never inspired such a response, and I’d never craved to be the receptive partner before Vasil. These revelations were an adjustment to say the least.
