small indentation. Then his hand moved lower. His grasp was both urgent and possessive, though not in the least uncomfortable. Lyrion longed to touch him back, but his shackles made that impossible.
“All my life, I have wished for a man like you—one who could produce the heir I need to secure my dynasty. When I discovered that the Hidden Ones did indeed exist, I decided I would spare no effort in locating them.”
“You…you also call us the Hidden Ones,” Lyrion said, swallowing as the prince’s hand roved over his cock, stimulating him to a state of rigidness and even coaxing a tiny bead of moisture from the tip. At first he worried that the prince might be repelled, but instead he seemed to enjoy rubbing the warm fluid into his palm. “Yet I have never thought of us as hidden. My people are as visible to one another as you and I are at this moment.”
“No doubt that is true. However, your people’s survival has remained secret from mine for longer than anyone alive can recall. It took many centuries for the scroll to return to the world’s surface. I feel fortunate it did not take another century to locate one of you. My kingdom might have been lost before that…or I would have been forced to take a mate who did not please me in the slightest. Perhaps I have been selfish in my distaste for that course of action. Many men greater than I have made far greater sacrifices.”
Lyrion raised his chin and met the prince’s eyes directly. “I don’t find it selfish to desire a mate who is to your liking. In fact, I have some knowledge of such matters myself.”
“Indeed.” Talek seemed interested in his reply. “I have no doubt that many have desired you.”
“I would not go so far as to say many. But of those who have, not one has aroused a similar feeling in me.”
“Until now, I hope you mean.” Without removing his hand from Lyrion’s cock, Talek drew closer until his embroidered codpiece touched Lyrion’s bare flesh. Lyrion felt the rasp of the straining cloth and the prince’s own erection shifting behind it.
“Yes,” Lyrion said. His lips felt parched, and his heart thudded in his chest. He was so totally focused on Talek that the sound seemed very far away. “Until now.”
Slowly, the prince’s other hand came up to touch his cheek. Lyrion closed his eyes as Talek stroked along the curve of his jaw. Then he leaned in and covered Lyrion’s mouth with his own.
No one had ever kissed Lyrion before, though of course he had seen such gestures of affection between Da and Fa and some of the other bonded couples in the village. He’d even gone so far as to press his own fingers to his lips and try to simulate what it might feel like. He had, it turned out, vastly underestimated the pleasure a man’s lips could bring.
When Talek broke away, his eyes seemed to glow, and the pressure of his cock against Lyrion’s burned more insistently than ever.
“Not even in my dreams did I imagine my soldiers would find one such as you,” he said. His fingers left Lyrion’s cock, making Lyrion catch his breath with need, and curled instead around the gold chain still encircling his waist. Slowly, he pulled Lyrion toward the bed.
“Lie down,” Talek said, parting the tapestries to reveal the soft mattress the soldiers had talked about earlier. Lyrion could see why they were so intrigued by it the moment he sank into its softness. As much as he longed for his own bed back at home, it could not rival this one for comfort or size.
He watched with widened eyes as Talek began to shed his own clothes, starting with his belt and tunic and working his way down to his leggings and finely crafted pointed slippers. Soon he stood as naked as Lyrion, who didn’t think he had ever seen so perfect a body on any man, living or imaginary. He watched in rapt fascination as Talek crawled onto the bed beside him and straddled his chest. Again Lyrion instinctively reached for him, only to feel his bonds pull his