Chapter 87: Please, Fuck Me!

"You prick!"

A punch landed on Elias’s jaw hard enough to snap his head to the side and he staggered back two steps in the corridor outside Kai’s door before wiping blood from the corner of his mouth and letting out a short, sharp, completely humorless laugh.

"That’s rich coming from the bastard who just announced a marriage proposal like he was ordering wine."

Lucien’s eyes were cold and the formal composure from dinner had cracked and left something rawer underneath as he answered.

"You don’t get to decide what I say about him."

"And you don’t get to claim him in front of your entire family like he’s already wearing your crest." Elias stepped in and drove a fist toward Lucien’s ribs but Lucien blocked it with his forearm and shoved him back into the opposite wall hard enough to rattle a hanging crystal sconce. "Kai belongs to me."

"No. He belongs to me."

Another exchange of blows followed and the hits stayed short and vicious and controlled enough not to bring the entire palace wing down but loud enough that anyone nearby would have heard the solid impact of fist on flesh. They were not using full power because they did not need to and the corridor was narrow and their anger was already more than enough.

Inside the room Kai sat on the edge of the bed with both hands in his hair and stared at the locked door as another dull thud vibrated through the wood.

"System," he muttered. "Options. Now. How do I fix this without someone dying in a royal hallway?"

[Current situation analysis: Candidate 002 and Candidate 004 are engaged in low-to-mid intensity physical conflict driven by competing romantic claims. Probability of escalation to Mystic Ability use inside the palace is 34% and rising.]

[Suggested approaches:]

[1. Direct verbal intervention carries a high risk of both parties redirecting anger toward Host.]

[2. Temporary separation is possible if Host requests palace staff intervention though political complications may follow.]

[3. Emotional de-escalation targeting Candidate 002’s sense of responsibility and Candidate 004’s possessiveness remains uncertain in success rate.]

[4. Host may issue a clear personal rejection of the proposal to both parties simultaneously and this will reduce immediate territorial conflict but may create secondary emotional fallout.]

Kai let out a long and shaky breath and spoke under it.

"I am not marrying anyone. Not now. Not like this."

[Acknowledged. Host’s position is noted and communicating that position clearly remains the most efficient path to short-term stability.]

Another impact shook the door and Elias’s voice carried through rough with anger.

"You were not there when he was still figuring this world out. I was. I stayed."

Lucien’s reply came quieter but no less sharp.

"Presence is not ownership and you do not get to rewrite his future because you as you claimed stayed!"

"Future? You are talking about marriage after a handful of months and a few shared disasters and that is not devotion. That is impulse dressed up in a title."

"And what you offer is better? A life of constant danger and running from the next thing that wants him dead?"

Kai closed his eyes because the argument had shifted from pure possessiveness into something messier that touched morality and timing and the question of who could actually give him a life worth living after everything he had already survived. Part of him wanted to open the door and tell them both to shut up while a larger part of him wanted to sink into the floor and disappear.

His thoughts drifted unbidden toward a quieter place that was not his original world but the crumbling estate and the dusty halls of House Valerius and old Edmund the steward who had stayed when everyone else left and who had looked at him after the transformation like he was seeing a ghost and a miracle at the same time. It had been more than five months now and Kai made a quiet mental note to find a way to check on him later once the current disaster stopped multiplying.

A soft sound from the balcony pulled him out of the thought.

[Secondary presence detected on the balcony and the energy signature is familiar.]

Kai was on his feet instantly with his body tensing for a fight until the curtain shifted and Rhydian stepped through as if entering through a balcony three stories up was the most normal thing in the world and Kai’s shoulders dropped at the sight of him.

"Oh. It’s you."

Rhydian raised an eyebrow.

"You don’t sound too happy to see me."

"Well I am not really in the mood right now."

Kai sat back down on the bed while outside the muffled sounds of the argument continued though they seemed to have moved a few doors down. Rhydian glanced toward the hallway and then back at Kai and read the situation with uncomfortable accuracy before he asked the question that had been waiting.

"What do you think of the proposal? Will you take it?"

"Absolutely not." The answer came fast and flat. "I like Lucien and I do but I am not ready to settle down yet. Not even close."

Rhydian stayed quiet for a moment and then spoke in a tone that was almost too casual.

"Do you like him as much as you like me?"

Kai’s head snapped up.

"I am not answering that."

"That bad, huh?"

"That is not what I said."

"You did not have to."

Kai dragged a hand down his face and let out a short and tired sound that might have been a laugh under better circumstances. Rhydian watched him for another second and then nodded toward the open balcony with an offer that felt like a door cracking open.

"Would an evening aerial stroll help you make a decision?"

Kai looked at the night sky beyond the railing with its floating city lights and clean air and open space and felt something in his chest loosen by a fraction.

"Hell yeah."

"Come on."

They stepped out onto the balcony where Argent was already hovering just below the railing with slow and powerful beats of his wings and silver-black feathers that caught the palace lights. Rhydian dropped into the saddle first and then reached back so Kai could take his hand and swing up behind him and Argent rose at once.

The whole view was beautiful in a way that made the chaos of the lower world feel distant and almost unreal.

The wind stayed cool and the rhythm of Argent’s wings stayed steady and for a while neither of them spoke so Kai could let the quiet settle around him and feel his thoughts slow for the first time since dinner.

Eventually Rhydian’s voice carried back over the wind.

"We can go back to my room instead of yours in case the nut jobs decide to keep arguing outside your door all night."

Kai knew exactly where that suggestion led and he was not stupid. An empty room and the two of them and the residual tension still sitting under his skin like static left only one way for the night to end and right now the idea of something physical that required no politics and no proposals felt less like a complication and more like a pressure valve.

"Alright," he said and he felt the slight shift in Rhydian’s posture and the way the other man kept his reaction carefully contained and almost smiled at it.

Argent banked and carried them toward a different wing of the palace and they landed on a wide private balcony where Rhydian dismounted and gave the griffin a firm rub along the neck before he murmured the order that sent him home.

"Back to the keep. I will come with treats jn the morning"

Argent made a low and pleased sound and launched back into the night while Rhydian glanced at Kai with a small explanation.

"He loves sweets."

Kai nodded and filed the detail away and followed him inside.

The room was larger than the other guest quarters and cooler with an open layout and a very large bed. The door had barely closed before Kai reached for the fastenings of his borrowed formal clothes and he did not rush as he undid each one deliberately with his eyes on Rhydian the entire time and let the fabric slip from his shoulders and fall.

Rhydian’s voice came out rougher than usual.

"Oh this is a dangerous game, Kai."

His hand had already dropped to the obvious and heavy bulge that strained against his trousers and he rubbed once through the fabric like he could not help himself while Kai stepped out of the last of his clothes and stood there bare in the low light with an expression that was openly seductive.

"Let’s play."

Rhydian crossed the space in two strides and caught him around the waist and lifted him clean off the floor as if he weighed nothing and the kiss that followed was immediate and hungry. Kai made a low sound into it and wrapped his legs around Rhydian’s hips while the other man spoke against his mouth.

"God you are so fucking hot."

"I know."

Rhydian carried him to the bed and dropped him onto the mattress and then stepped back and started stripping with far less patience than Kai had shown. Shirt first and then boots and then trousers and when the last of it came off Kai’s mouth went dry because Rhydian was built like a problem with thick muscle and hard lines and a torso cut into sharp definition that looked almost unfair under the soft palace light and between his legs the sight alone sent a nervous jolt of heat straight down Kai’s spine.

Even half-hard the man was massive and long and thick and heavy enough that want and caution hit at the same time. Kai wanted every inch of it and he also had the sudden and very rational fear that his body might not forgive him in the morning.

[Host is displaying elevated physiological stress mixed with arousal and temporary pain modulation and pleasure amplification are available upon request.]

Do it, Kai thought immediately.

[Administered.]

A warm and subtle ease spread through him and the sharp edge of apprehension dulled into something hotter and more manageable so Kai slid off the bed and dropped to his knees and took Rhydian in hand. Even with both hands it was a lot and he leaned in and wrapped his mouth around the head and stretched his lips around the thick girth and still could not get halfway down without his throat protesting.

Rhydian’s breath left him in a low moan and one hand settled in Kai’s hair without forcing and only rested there as his hips gave small and involuntary nudges. Kai worked what he could with his tongue pressed flat and his eyes watering slightly until he finally pulled back with a wet sound and looked up through his lashes hungry and already wrecked and Rhydian’s breath hitched hard at the sight.

"Lay on the bed. Ass up."

Kai obeyed without hesitation and climbed onto the mattress and settled on his elbows and knees and arched his back. For a second there was only the quiet rustle of movement behind him and then Rhydian’s hands spread him open and his mouth followed and the first long and thorough lick dragged a broken sound out of Kai’s throat.

Rhydian did not tease and he licked into him like he had all night and intended to use it with his tongue working deep and wet and relentless until Kai’s arms shook and his cock dripped steadily onto the sheets. The rimming alone pushed him over the edge and he came with a muffled curse and trembling thighs and his face pressed into the bedding while Rhydian eased back just enough to speak with a voice that had gone dark with satisfaction.

"Still want it?"

"Please fuck me."

"With pleasure."

The thick head pressed against him and even with the System’s help the stretch was intense and sweet and burning and overwhelming. Kai moaned into the sheets as Rhydian pushed in inch by careful inch and the thick length forced him open and the pressure grew so full it edged toward too much before it settled into something devastatingly good. When Rhydian finally bottomed out with his hips flush against him Kai felt stuffed beyond reason and still wanted more.

Then the thrusting started and it stayed slow at first and deep and every stroke dragged against sensitive places that made Kai’s vision blur. Rhydian’s hands gripped his hips hard enough to bruise as he set a steady rhythm and the wet sound of skin on skin filled the room. When Kai pushed back to meet him Rhydian answered with sharper snaps of his hips and angled deeper until every thrust punched soft and helpless sounds out of Kai’s mouth.

They shifted positions more than once with Kai on his back and his knees pushed wide and then Kai straddling him for a stretch of rolling and grinding movement and then Rhydian folding him nearly in half and driving down with controlled power that made the bed frame complain. Time blurred into heat and friction and the low and rough praise Rhydian kept spilling against his skin until Rhydian finally came with a deep and punched-out groan and the pulse of it felt endless and hot and heavy and flooded Kai so thoroughly that he could feel it in his stomach.

For a few seconds neither of them moved and then Rhydian eased out carefully and Kai felt the immediate and messy leak of it down his thighs and could not bring himself to care. He lay sprawled on the bed with his chest heaving and his body loose and used in the best way while he managed the words between breaths.

"That was great."

Rhydian cleaned himself off with a cloth from the side table and then stretched out beside him with one arm behind his head and looked entirely too composed for a man who had just fucked someone senseless before he spoke again.

"So how much would you say you liked me now?"

Kai turned his head and looked at him and kissed him instead of answering and the kiss deepened fast. Rhydian made a low sound into it and Kai felt him harden again against his hip thick and heavy and already ready so still floating on residual lust Kai pushed himself up and swung a leg over Rhydian’s hips and sank down onto him in one slow and shuddering motion that pulled a moan from both of them.

Kai was sensitive enough that the stretch bordered on overwhelming all over again but he did not stop until he was fully seated and Rhydian’s hands settled on his waist with a rough edge in his voice.

"You are a slut and you feel so good."

Kai braced his palms on Rhydian’s chest and started to move.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes."

The rhythm built quickly and Kai rode him with rolling hips and short and needy drops while he chased the friction and Rhydian thrust up to meet him. The room filled with the sound of skin and breath and the creak of the bed and Rhydian’s grip tightened as he spoke between the motion.

"So why not marry me instead?"

The words landed between moans and almost easy like they had been waiting for the right moment of weakness and Kai stopped moving. For a second he just sat there full and breathless and stared down at the man underneath him before he exhaled slow and deliberate and started riding him again with the same steady pace as before.

"No."

Rhydian laughed and thrusted harder making Kai moan.