Dearly Despised (Calluvia's Royalty 5)

He didn’t.

“Hey,” he said with a weak smile.

Warrehn frowned, his blue eyes flicking over him. “Everything all right? You’re trembling.”

“It’s just chilly here,” Samir said. “Temperature controls must be malfunctioning.”

“Hm,” Warrehn said, his gaze becoming heavy-lidded. Leaning in, he nuzzled his ear and bit his earlobe lightly. “I can warm you.”

Samir inhaled shakily, his mind becoming slow and foggy. He smelled so good. “I…” he said. “Warrehn, we need to—”

Warrehn kissed him, his strong arms pulling him flush against him. And Samir’s thoughts scattered. A small whine rose up in his throat, and he kissed back hard, feeling ravenous and desperate in ways he’d never felt before. He would tell Warrehn that the drug was out of their systems—just a little bit later. Some more kissing wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?

Right?

Much later, Samir was staring at the ceiling blankly, still panting after his orgasm, pinned under Warrehn’s larger body, Warrehn’s cock softening in him.

“I’ll move,” Warrehn said into his neck, his voice still sounding a little wrecked. “I’m too heavy.”

Samir grabbed his shoulders when he attempted to pull away. “No,” he said, wrapping his limbs around Warrehn as tightly as he could. “Don’t. Please.” Stay in me.

“You’re weird today,” Warrehn said, but he complied, sucking a bruise on Samir’s neck lazily.

On any other day Samir would have protested—he hated being forced to use dermal regenerators all the time—but the words got stuck in his throat now.

He wanted those bruises now. Something to remember this by. As soon he told Warrehn that they were back to normal, this would stop. There would be no more kisses, no more late-night conversations in bed, no more of this intimacy and warmth. Warrehn would go back to hating him and his mother, even more so if Samir suddenly started giving him the cold shoulder, as his mother wanted. Either way, this was… pointless. Hopeless. There would always be a gulf between them. There was no real choice for Samir. He couldn’t allow his mother to be arrested; he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. But he couldn’t imagine letting his mother hurt this man, either. There was no acceptable solution. It was a lose-lose situation.

A crushing wave of despair swept over him, making it hard to breathe.

Warrehn stopped sucking on his neck and lifted his head. “Samir?” he said, his eyes looking at him searchingly.

Fuck. He’d forgotten what a strong telepath Warrehn was. He must have projected some of his thoughts and emotions.

Samir forced another weak smile. It was fine. He was fine. It wasn’t as though he had serious feelings for Warrehn. Of course he didn’t. He didn’t. He had just gotten… a little infatuated. A little too used to him. To his touch. To his scent. To the feeling of utter safety and contentment with the world while in his arms.

“I… Can you stay for a while? I know you have a meeting with the councilors soon, but…” He trailed off, despising himself for his inability to rip the bandage off and be done with it. “I just feel down, I guess. You know how sometimes you wake up already in a bad mood, anxious about something you can’t put a finger on?”

Warrehn nodded, settling his weight back on top of him. It made breathing significantly more difficult, but Samir didn’t mind, relishing how wonderfully solid, firm, and grounding he was. The cock in him started hardening again, and Samir smiled, kissing Warrehn’s shoulder. “Another round?” he said eagerly.

“Aren’t you sore?” Warrehn said, looking at him with a slightly puzzled expression.

He was. He didn’t care. He wanted to feel this for days.

“No,” Samir said, burying his fingers in Warrehn’s thick hair, hating how needy he felt. “Kiss me.”

Warrehn did, and the rest of the world faded away. There was only Warrehn’s warm, sensual lips, and his powerful body moving on top of him, inside of him. It felt achingly perfect.

“Deeper,” Samir asked, digging his fingernails into his back. “Want you deeper.”

Warrehn gave it to him deeper, but no matter how good it felt, Samir didn’t feel him deep enough.

He came with a frustrated cry, his eyes wet and his heart aching.

Chapter 19

Rohan wasn’t a huge fan of balls. He would rather spend the evening at home with his bondmate and little daughter, but unfortunately, they did have to make public appearances once in a while. And this evening was one of those occasions. On the bright side, he got to see his best friend at social functions like this, which was pretty rare these days, due to both of them being very busy with their respective countries’ affairs and families.

Though it probably wasn’t accurate to call Warrehn’s so-called relatives family, not with the way Warrehn was looking at Prince Samir across the ballroom.

“You should try to be less obvious, War,” Rohan murmured.

Warrehn made a noncommittal noise, his gaze flicking back to Prince Samir. Rohan wasn’t even sure he’d heard him.