10. A Quick Release
A QUICK RELEASE
NOBLE
Noble did his best work under a deadline. In school, working as lead planner at the estate, even when competing with Morgan at a sport.
And making love to Aria had one bright, dawning clock that he had to beat, because Noble knew not if he would ever have this chance again. Aria yearned to be touched and wanted and loved, and Noble gave him all of that, but—
Daylight would soon break, casting all that they did in shadow, and what would Aria want then?
The hours Noble had were few. And he knew not every detail of fucking a man, but he was nothing if not a teachable lover in bed. It'd taken only minutes for him to find the right pace, cadence, and rhythm of his first, second, and third fingers pumping in and out of Aria's tight pink hole.
Aria had no voice with which to speak, with which to tell him what worked.
Noble studied his face. And when Aria went to hide it within the pillow, or the sheets, or behind his arm, Noble pulled him close again, to gaze into his dazed blue eyes, to watch as he reached one near call to the next.
Noble hadn't even touched his cock yet, and it was already twitching hard against his pale white belly, spilling wet arousal over his skin.
He hadn't any expectations for his first time with a man, except that it would be different. He hadn't imagined how deeply he'd enjoy Aria’s flushed face and trembling thighs caging him in. He should have known, though.
Aria was perfect. Every quiet, pleading sound he made could have been the bells of a church.
Noble knelt in worship between Aria's legs, fucking him with his fingers, kissing the breath from his lips. He was a pious man, and he asked for nothing from Aria, except to taste him more. When Aria’s hard pink cock twitched hard and splattered them both with cum without even being touched, Noble felt as if he’d been anointed by holy oil.
Aria, still trembling from his orgasm, made a quiet noise of confusion when Noble pulled back. “Wait,” his hoarse voice whispered. “Where are you going?”
“To fetch a cloth,” said Noble.
Aria shook his head no, grabbed Noble’s arms, and hauled him close again. “Please. I want you to…” His eyes fluttered shut, damp face growing deeper red. “Please fuck me, Noble. I need you.”
Noble’s mind left him entirely. He gazed down at Aria, awed. “Okay, sweetheart.”
Aria’s brilliant white hair stuck to the sides of his face, damp with sweat, and he continued to breathe heavily, and silently. His cock was half-mast between his love-bitten thighs.
Noble said, “If I make you spend while I’m fucking you, I'd like to see your face. Will you show me?”
Aria shook his head and explained, “Noble, I can't come again.” Like Aria believed Noble did not yet understand the limitations of sex with a man.
Noble knew. And yet. He closed his damp fingers around Aria's spent cock. “Can I try?”
A tear slipped from the corner of Aria's eye. He breathed through it before he released a sigh, and a plea. “Please.”
And after several weeks of sex where he'd had to try hard to come, he truly hadn't expected this. As the thick shape of his cock pressed into Aria's entrance, the vice-like grip nearly made him spend. Noble released a groan, barely maintaining his hold on reality.
A hold that was lost as his soul said, finally. Finally. Finally!
Noble gritted his teeth as he slid home. “Finally,” he whispered, and the word sounded like an echo off a cavern, like it came from a place beyond time. I missed you, he very nearly said. But that was nonsense.
Noble pulled back an inch, and pressed in again, harder this time.
He said the first thing that came to him—breathless and awed.
Another thing he hadn't expected when fucking a man: “Aria, you're so wet.” The vial of oil worked, and the lube slid out from around his cock, dampening the bed below Aria.
How could he have ever thought he wouldn’t enjoy fucking a man?
But Noble had to take the fucking slowly, because his own orgasm threatened to approach, especially as Aria's mouth opened in a surprised, “Oh.”
“What is it?” Noble asked, holding one thigh in each hand, carefully rocking his cock in, and out, and in.
Aria's eyelids fluttered as he struggled to speak, voice a hoarse whisper. “I may—” His mouth dropped open again, and his eyes welled with tears. “It feels good, Noble. I may come again.”
“Yeah?”
Aria managed to nod. “When you—” Again, his lips formed an 'o.
' “Th-there.” As Noble slid in, Aria shuddered.
Noble did it again. And again. And faster.
Then, harder. Aria grasped the pillow behind his head with one hand, and used the other to touch himself.
His eyes rolled back, and Noble knew, if he'd had his voice, that he would have screamed as he came.
Noble held himself together for long enough to pump at the same hard, fast pace, fucking Aria through it, until a second hot splatter of his cum landed upon his belly. Aria's eyes closed as he fell limp beneath Noble's hands. Noble said, “Hey,” and slowed his movements.
Aria bit his lip as he managed to meet his gaze, but his eyes seemed to barely register Noble's face.
“Will you look at me as I spend in you?” Noble asked. Please. If this was the only shot he got—if this was the moment he'd have to revisit again for the rest of his life—he needed it to be right. “I want to see your eyes, sweetheart.”
Aria reached up to cup Noble's face, eyes aglow, and he whispered, “Come in me, then.”
He did, and neither one looked away, even as Aria’s gasped a quiet sound at Noble’s spend. As the sky outside turned pink from the rising sun, Noble saw only Aria's midday-blue stare, and the stars, and, somehow, the source of magic itself.
It was gold. Warm. A shining light that surrounded them both. Was this the veil that elves could see?
Noble closed his eyes and basked, for just a moment, in the moment. Perfect. It was perfect. His soul wept tears of relief. Him.
After some time wrapped together, Noble pulled out, he tucked Aria against him, and kissed his pointed ear. His hands wandered, and he couldn't stop. He needed to feel all of Aria that he could. Aria dozed beneath the idle worship, eyes fallen shut, and Noble settled him upon his chest to sleep.
“You're so warm,” Aria whispered against Noble's skin. “I fear anyone I touch after you will be terribly cold.”
“Don't touch anyone else again,” Noble replied. “Be with me.” And then he said, unable to help himself, “Aria, I love you.”
All was silent except for the beating of Noble's tender heart pounding within himself. When Aria said nothing else, Noble looked at him upon his chest. To his relief, Aria was fast asleep.
He had beaten the sun, but not Aria's exhaustion. Then, tomorrow was the day. Noble was going to confess. Properly. He’d take Aria as a husband. As an adame. As anything.
He just wanted to be together. And his soul agreed: together.
ARIA
“I need not to have seen this with my own eyes,” said Morgan from the doorway, covering his face with one hand, “But thanks be to the Sun God that it happened, finally.”
Aria sat up in Noble's bed, heart thundering, and he gathered the blankets to more thoroughly hide his naked body. His naked, kiss-bruised, very-thoroughly-fucked body. There was no denying what happened. They hadn’t even closed Noble’s door.
Because Aria hadn’t intended to fuck him. He really hadn’t.
Noble's chuckle, at his side, made Aria's stomach cartwheel. “Sorry, Morg. You can head downstairs. I'll be down in a bit.”
“Shit,” Aria said, wiping his face. His voice cracked—still hoarse.
“It's alright,” said Noble. “Morgan's most certainly seen worse.” He sat up, his deep, dark eyes twinkling and his wide, white smile peaceful. “Sorry. You probably only got an hour of sleep, huh?”
Aria sniffed and croaked out, “Not your fault.”
“Well, it mostly is,” said Noble, leaning over and tucking a stray strand of Aria's hair behind his ear.
He seemed utterly at ease—and why wouldn't he be? It wasn't as if he'd done anything wrong. But Aria? Aria had kissed Hampenstead goodbye on Noble's stoop, and then marched upstairs and fucked another man. His fake-patron. What had they done?
He'd soon be sick as he crawled to the edge of Noble's enormous mattress, to climb down, and into a shower. His legs were shaking as he tried to find his discarded clothing on Noble's floor.
Noble came up behind him. When Aria stood up to pull the dress back over himself, Noble stopped him short, and pulled him into a hug. “Are you going to bathe?” Aria could only nod. “Me too. Come with me. My bath is big enough for us both.”
Aria's shaking grew more pronounced, and he squirmed out of Noble's touch.
Noble wore his confusion plainly. “You don't want to?”
Aria's wants had ruined him. What he wanted had led him to betrayal, time and time again. Betrayal by someone he loved, betrayal to himself. Even this—Noble had fucked him, and clearly enjoyed it, but this wasn't what Noble wanted. He said it himself: he wanted a wife. Aria could never be that.
He’d ruined his relationship with Noble. Turned their home into a mirror of what he had with Ellor.
“Sweetheart,” Noble said, closing a hand upon Aria's chin, tilting his head. Their eyes met. “What's wrong?”
Aria was like glass with a fissure running through, and if he didn't repair the damage now, he'd snap in two. “Please don't call me that.”
Noble blinked. “Call you…?”
“Sweetheart.” Aria loved the sound of it, the way it rolled off Noble's tongue like spellwork. That name alone could have shattered him to pieces. “Please don't.”
Noble's hand on Aria's face tightened, gently. “Tell me what you're thinking, Aria.”
Aria couldn't look away as he spoke, words cracking from his battered throat.
“What have we done?” When Noble raised an eyebrow, he said, “I've been going with Lord Hampenstead. I was with him last night. I kissed him not a half hour before you—” Aria winced, shuddering at the memory, and backed away from Noble's hands.
“Stop going with him,” Noble said.