I took his hand as I led him back into the inn and immediately upstairs, avoiding the gazes of the crowd as well as what I could imagine was Ed’s disapproving scowl.

Once we passed the threshold, I could not contain my desire for a second longer. As soon as I had locked the door, my arms reached out to pull him in for another kiss.

I worshipped his lips with silent praise as my hands cherished the soft skin that encased the nymphlike body that enchanted me so. Nothing inspirited me more than his eyes, however. Brightly burning as if cast in a magical blue light, the heated desire radiating from them covering layers of intricate emotions underneath that I couldn’t wait to unravel.

“Elijah…” I breathed against his lips as his hands slowly travelled south.

“My Prince.” He replied, his lips curving up in that mischievous smile that slayed me every time.

I caught it between my lips and sucked in his lower lip, my fingers instinctively reaching back to his jaw, his neck, his hair. My fingertips trailing though his thick brown locks, caressing the encasing of that beautiful mind inside, I kissed him more. As if my lips could possibly convey the whole of my overwhelming adoration.

“Will you be mine?” I breathed against his mouth, I wanted nothing more than to hear him say it.

“I’m yours, my Prince.” He answered, his breath as uneven as mine.

I tentatively brought my hands to his shirt, carefully undoing the first unopened button I encountered. I lifted my eyes back to his after doing so, to confirm his consent to move on, although I was aware that I already had it.

His gaze however elicited a tremble throughout my body. He was caressing my hair, trailing it though his fingers, looking at it like it was magical. As his eyes shot back to mine, he almost seemed shy. A sentiment unlike any he had shown this day or the days before. And it only made me want to love him more.

I leaned forward so that our noses touched. “I will never hurt you.” I told him, watching his eyes as I did so. The flicker of complex emotion that shot through them did not escape my notice. He covered it up swiftly, closing his eyes and placing his soft lips on mine, but I had registered something. Whether it was pain, fear, or anything else, I could not discern with certainty. But there was something there.

His kiss was searing hot, and clouded my mind before I could ponder Elijah’s inner turmoil any further. As a soft gasp escaped me, his tongue found access to my mouth and tasted mine. The mere taste of him was more arousing than anything, and I couldn’t help myself pressing against him.

As our hips collided, I could feel I was not the only one in this particular predicament, so I set back to work on those buttons. Faster now, for the urgency with which my body yearned for more skin contact was hardly manageable.

When I finally undid the last button, I pulled his shirt over his shoulders and freed his arms. The undershirt he was wearing I pulled over his head, breaking our kiss for just a second, before capturing his lips with mine again.

As my hands roamed his delicate lilywhite skin, he caught my jaw in his hand.

“Not fair, my Prince.” He teased, pulling at one button of my embroidered vest. The way he used my name was like an enchantment. Teasing and light, but heavy with adoration and awe at the same time.

As I let my lips trail down over his slender hairless chest while undoing my own vest, I wondered if I should tell Elijah my real name. I probably ought to, at some point. But I couldn’t yet phantom the notion of someone calling me by my birth name again. No one had since I skipped town after my mother’s passing. And nobody could now, for it was a secret I had dearly kept all those years. It would certainly be fitting to let that go for him now, wouldn’t it?

“My Prince, you smell so good…” Elijah sighed, his face buried in my hair, pulling me out of my musings and back to the glorious reality.

Yeah, my real name can wait.

I shed my embroided vest as I teased the pinkish protrusion of his nipple with my tongue, eliciting a sharp intake of breath and a shivering moan from my lover.

My lips curled up in a smile as I looked up and found my fated completely flustered, a red hue tainting his cheeks and neck, his breathing ragged, his blue eyes blazing.

I took off my undershirt in one clear swoop and captured his lips again, our torsos skin-to-skin, his pale chest flush against my darker and hairier one. Our bodies revelling in their union whilst our hands were already exploring other places yet to undress. As I slowly grinded my hips against his, I could feel his groin throb with need and his breath shudder against my lips. I licked them in reply and was answered passionately by his eager tongue.

As soon as his pants fell away, I palmed his manhood carefully, applying soft pressure against the tender skin, causing just the right amount of friction to make my lover gasp and twist his hips upward.

“My Prince…” He sighed again. And I was sure I would never tire of hearing those syllables escape his soft lips.

I decided on some worship of my own, and lowered myself to my knees to commence prayer. My fingers explored the divots of his hips, then dug into the firm flesh of his curved behind, as I took him in my mouth, his taste saline and luscious on my tongue.

His sensual sounds evolved from mere shivering breaths to whimpers to full-blown moans that would have been audible outside our room were they not stifled by Elijah’s clenched fist. They set my loins on fire and made my erection pulse with anticipation. But when I started to taste the first traces of his upcoming release on my tongue, A sharp tug on my hair pulled me upward, and back to my lover’s lips.

He kissed me hard and deep and passionate, as his leaking hardness twitched against my own.

“I love you, Elijah.” I told him, my heart beating out of my chest. “I adore you. I worship you. And I want you so, so bad…”

“I’m yours, my Prince.” He answered, taking my hand and settling down on the bed, pulling me on top of him. His slender legs opening for me as those beautiful eyes trained upon mine.  

I caressed him gently, not sure of his familiarity with this form of coupling, and not willing to ask right this moment. However, Elijah surrendered fully to my touch, and persisted in his affirmations while I prepared him to receive me.

When I finally slowly sank into him, it was like nothing I had ever experienced. Whereas sexual intercourse had always been one of my favourite pastimes, not once had it felt as transcendent as this. It was as if our hearts merged when our bodies joined together, and my soul cried out in exaltation even before our bodies finally succumbed to bliss.

Elijah’s flustered visage as he reached his apex will be burned on my retina forevermore, and the sound of his beseeching whimpers replaced my mother’s singing voice as my most cherished sound. But the way he looked at me after: dishevelled and panting in my arms, his bright blue eyes heavy with a raging storm of emotions, pupils blown out and lip trembling, that was everything,

He twisted one corner of his mouth in that boyish smile of his, but faltered.

“Fuck…” he sighed. “I really fell for you.”

And it was the truth.

I could feel it in the way his pale fingers skid over my caramel skin in seemingly random motions, the way he buried his nose in the crook of my neck, the way his foot unconsciously rubbed mine as he lay there in my arms.

Watching the rise and fall of his smooth chest in which that heart beat in synch with mine. The way his unruly brown locks fell over his pretty face, his breath the breeze on which they swayed. The fluttering of his dark eyelashes, contrasting the brightness of his irises as he looked up at me. All of that made it so crystal clear I had finally found the meaning of life, as my mother had promised me so many years ago I someday would.

My destiny was here in my arms, and I knew would never let him go.