The following chapter contains explicit sexual content with dubious consent and is intended for mature readers only. Please use your own discretion. Feel free to PM us if you have any questions about content.

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Hazy clouds of steam spiralled up from the pool. The plumes passed silvery through the rays that dappled through the skylight, misting over the clear blue water, the white stone, and blurring the shape of two figures entwined in the depths of the water.

Umbra’s hands were upon his skin, sliding over him, soap flakes dissolving under his palms. In broad strokes, he painted the scented water up Esra’s sides, between the wings of his shoulder blades, to the nape of his neck.

Esra let out a soft, nervous moan at the intimate contact. His entire body was trembling, tense with the effort of holding onto himself. His narrow hands perched so lightly upon Umbra’s powerful shoulders, that it was like he was barely touching him at all, so fearful was he at making contact.

“You needn’t be so embarrassed,” Umbra said, as he eased his palms over the softness of Esra’s skin. His hands were patient in Esra’s undoing, with such slow, considered touches that he seemed to be trying to relearn the shape of the youth's every line and limb.

Esra marvelled at the span of the knight’s hands across his body, the soothing press of his caresses. He was being carefully unwound, with every touch, with the hum of Umbra’s voice in his ear, and the fragrance of autumn drifting upon clouds of steam. The fear that rippled under his skin seeped away from him, until he had no resistance left. His flesh became pliant, and slowly he relaxed into the arms of his captor.

“Look at you.”

The knight’s deep voice was so close it seemed to come from inside Esra's head.

“You look like a painting...”

He ran his long fingers through the silken length of Esra’s wet hair and watched, pale eyes fervent, as the youth’s cheeks pinkened.

Esra’s heart raced to hear such a compliment, overcome with a giddiness that he’d never felt before, and he had to look away, too shy to bear it.

The intimacy of the position was overwhelming. He could hear Umbra’s breathing, could feel the heat radiating from his powerful body. If he looked up, just a little, he could see the knight’s masculine jaw twitching as it tensed, and further still, his bonfire eyes, burning beneath heavy lids and dark lashes.

Those eyes were fixed on him.

Umbra leaned in, and closed the small distance between them, melding their mouths together. Esra yielded with a soft moan, his face upturned.

He was caught in his knight’s embrace, with nowhere to retreat, and a thread of fear shot through his chest. Yet Umbra remained gentle, slow and languid. Esra’s heart pounded with the thrill of him; he wanted to stay submerged in this forbidden luxury, to indulge in it.

Tendrils of steam rose above them to hang in the air with the flowers that bloomed from the vines, as Umbra’s clever mouth undid him. Esra moved his arms further around him in a careful embrace. Umbra held him tight in return.

When at last they separated, Esra was left panting, breath taken. He clung to Umbra’s shoulders as the knight descended upon his skin.

The heated mouth tasted the line of his jaw, kissing down his sensitive throat, sucking a wet kiss at the junction of neck and shoulder before trailing down to his panting chest. He cried out as Umbra’s mouth, hot and hungry, latched upon a nipple and sucked, teasing it with his tongue.

Instinctively, Esra recoiled, whimpering at the sensation, but Umbra only pulled his hips forward, insistently closer. In a burst of startled, almost painful pleasure, he felt his prick slide against Umbra’s. They both shuddered to feel it, Esra gasping as Umbra’s carnal moan echoed softly against stone.

"Umbra," he breathed, his eyes blurring wetly. He ached with desire, in a way he had never ached before, with a body that now understood the meaning of pleasure.

He caught a glimpse of Umbra’s expression, dark with barely restrained passion, before he was kissed with a ferocity that sparked tremors down his body to where their flesh conformed.

But Umbra’s hunger, his sheer size, terrified him. He was afraid of pain, of inciting the beast that took him without mercy. Esra was still so sore from the day’s journey, that despite the desire that bloomed in his body, he feared he could not withstand the knight’s brutal passion.

When they broke apart, Esra was trembling.

He shivered in Umbra’s arms, fearing being thrown over the edge of the pool and ravaged. Yet he dared not protest, having learned the dangers of refusal.

Umbra, breathing heavily, buried his face in the sensitive crook between Esra’s neck and shoulder. Esra felt him inhale deeply. His grip around Esra’s waist was half caress, half hurt.

“You shake so violently,” came the deep voice.

“I-I’m sorry, I…” Esra stammered. His skin, so sensitive, throbbed where Umbra had tasted him. “I’m... still in pain,” he confessed, “from the journey.”

When Umbra pulled back to look at him, Esra had to close his eyes. Umbra must feel it, how Esra's legs quavered, pressed against his. How his arms couldn’t stop shaking.

Esra wanted, badly, to be perfect, pleasing, for the black knight who held his fate in his hands.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, soft as a prayer.

Umbra’s keen grip on him relaxed, just a little. “I won’t hurt you, Esra.” He felt fingers at his jaw, his cheek, tilting his face. “Esra… look at me.”

When he opened his eyes, Umbra took up his whole vision.

“I won’t hurt you,” said Umbra again.

Esra’s heart thudded with the promise, the desire to believe it. “Umbra…”

A slight smile. “There are other ways we can both reach our pleasure.” The knight’s gaze swept over him. “After all… you’ve been so good.”

The praise washed over Esra, took him so completely that he felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. In that moment he felt at once so weak, yet so treasured, that it sent his head spinning.

He leaned forward to his knight, wrapped his arms around the strong neck in gratitude, and pressed a shy kiss to the corner of his lips. Umbra’s face lit up in wonderment at this sweetness. Enchanted, he tilted his head to catch Esra’s mouth before he could withdraw.

In the steaming water, they kissed with a slow passion.

How easy it was then, to surrender, give himself over to the intoxicating soothe of Umbra’s mouth on his.

But one of Umbra’s hands left his hip, and moved to the poolside, to dip into the bowl of thick, scented oil. He eased it between their bodies, and Esra had to pull away in shock to gasp and writhe as Umbra’s hand encircled them both, and squeezed deliciously. Esra shook with the feeling, his startled moan echoing through the room.

Umbra’s breath quickened by his ear.

Heat razed through Esra's skin, his body helpless, hard and aching. When he looked down to where they were joined, he saw the obscene image of it blurred through the water, flesh pressed against flesh, the underside of his prick flush against Umbra’s. Umbra’s oiled hand wrapped hotly around them both, squeezing, sliding up, then down. Every time his palm slipped over the sensitive tip, Esra cried out again, hips twitching, voice shaky.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Umbra punctuated his question with tighter, faster, pulls.

Esra tried to speak, but the words were lost to his tongue, tangled up in soft cries. He could only nod in response, and then whimper as Umbra released them, rolling his hips uselessly for contact.

Umbra took one of Esra’s hands by the wrist and brought it between them. His eyes were fixed on Esra, bright with desire.

“Now you.”

Esra sucked in a breath, hand trembling. He had never even touched himself before. It seemed too forbidden an act... but Umbra held him firm, and guided him forward, so that his palm brushed against Umbra’s manhood. He shuddered to feel it, the thickness of his knight, how hard he was. Just the knowledge of what he was touching made him flush.

But Umbra’s steel eyes were so intently focused upon him, and he groaned at even Esra’s shy, tentative movements. His hips pushed forward into Esra’s hand, rubbing himself against Esra’s prick. That lustful sound, that sensation, the rush of approval, all of it caused the heat to rise in Esra’s body. It gave him reason to be bold. When he closed his fingers around them both, he heard Umbra’s sharp inhale, and gasped himself at the burning velvet pull between them.

His handspan was not Umbra’s and his movements were clumsier. But when he squeezed, and slid his hand, they shook together in pleasure.

“That’s right,” the knight urged him. “Here…”

He brought Esra’s other hand beneath the water, guided his fingers to lace together around the heat of their erections. This firmer pressure had him groaning, shifting fitfully in the knight’s lap. With every nervous stroke of his hands, the youth made such a sound in the back of his throat that the knight felt the need to gentle him, murmuring his name and calling him good.

It was such bliss that Esra somehow wanted to cry.

Strong hands swept down his sides, mapping out his waist, squeezing his backside. Esra shuddered, whimpered in nervous shock when a slick finger slid down his crease, over the sensitive skin of his hole.

“Such sounds,” growled Umbra, pressing again as Esra flinched and cried out. “They do call to me...”

He kept Esra close with an arm around his waist, while his oiled fingers slid between his cheeks.

Esra felt pinioned, unable to escape. He moaned, his eyes clenching shut when a fingertip breached him. He briefly struggled. Umbra held him fast, his mouth pressed to the side of Esra’s neck as he sank deeper into Esra’s body. Esra shuddered against Umbra, not daring to move, his hands stilled in shock.

“Keep moving,” Umbra urged him.

Esra shakily obeyed.

There was no pain, only that strange slide inside of him that made him quiver, at once terrified and intrigued with the sensation. When Umbra rubbed deep, just right, it pressed into the spot that made pleasure arc through him, bright as lightning.

The sensations that surrounded him left him breathless; Umbra’s strong hands that held him down and penetrated him, teasing out the dark pleasure that shivered through his core, connected to the shock of silken heat between his legs as Umbra’s cock rubbed against his own.

He shouldn’t want it.

He knew that he shouldn’t want a lot of things that he found himself craving now.

His hips were twitching with each curl of Umbra’s finger, bright heat built in him, sensation twisting down his belly, racing up his thighs. When Umbra sank in a second finger, Esra felt his cock pulse under his palm.

Umbra must have felt it too, for his grip tightened, and he groaned as Esra stroked their flesh with tremulous hands. Esra felt the need in Umbra’s voice as if it were his own, a rumbling tremor through his heart, an aching in his soul. When the knight dipped closer, Esra met his lips gladly.

The knight’s hot hard body surged against his own, muscles coiling as he kept Esra close. Esra let him, conquered by the dragon-like strength of him. He moaned against Umbra’s tongue as he was breached by a third finger, that incredible pressure against that rapturous place, a deep and intense burst of pleasure that made him writhe, his hips shuddering forward.

It was too much to take; a wave of sensation crested, broke upon him. Esra drowned in it, gasping for mercy as he came, shivering in the burning water.

Umbra’s fingers withdrew, and he shuddered at the sudden hollowness. He was still shaking from his climax, too weak to do anything but moan as Umbra took him by the waist and lifted him up, closer, so that their chests pressed together.

The thick head of his cock caught against his entrance. Esra, suddenly gripped with fear, clung to Umbra’s shoulders, tears pricking at his eyes at the betrayal. But in the next moment he was breached, and his sharp cry dissolved into a decadent moan as Umbra slid deep into his core.

He’d been well prepared. There was no pain, only a stretch, and a fullness so satisfying that he felt helpless against it.

He could feel it, the throbbing heat of Umbra’s cock, the pulse of it inside of him, hard against where he was sensitive. Being filled seemed to only prolong his pleasure. His prick twitched with every push of Umbra’s hips, deep and slick within him.

Esra panted, open-mouthed and wanton, completely undone by his shameful desire. His fingers clawed into Umbra’s back as their bodies writhed together. There was a debasement to being used like this, and a thrill too, one so dark and secret that he sobbed with it.

One final thrust, deep enough to make Esra’s tears fall as he lost himself to monstrous ecstasy. Umbra gripped him tight, spilling inside Esra’s shivering body with a satisfied groan.

* * *

When they stilled at last, Esra dropped dazed, boneless, into the knight’s embrace. He lay there, languid, as Umbra stroked lazily over his skin, his cheek resting on the broad shoulder.

If only they could stay like this...

He gasped a little when Umbra pulled out of him, and shuddered, but Umbra held him through it, content to simply pet him.

Their panting breaths slowed, and the beat of their hearts softened.

“Think we’ve been in the water too long,” the knight said eventually, his voice low.

Esra gave a small shy nod, and allowed the knight to pull him to his feet. He felt a strange reluctant pang as his hands slipped from Umbra’s powerful shoulders. Gently, he twisted the scented water from his damp hair, unsure of what was expected from him.

The tall knight stood close before him, watched him for a long moment.

Then, there was a faraway look in his eyes.

“Unwise to keep a God waiting, I suppose,” he said eventually, and tilted his head towards the exit. “Come along, Esra. His Majesty awaits me, and I must first get you settled.”