It was out before he could swallow it back. There was something in his pride that wanted to stifle it, hide that, rather than be a silly king who lost his marbles in living bondage.

But they coiled all around him and felt exquisitely soft and hot. The kiss he returned was messy and almost desperate, a product of a man teetering on that sweet edge, wordlessly begging to be put out of his misery.

It tore through him. The move to hold him just so paid off as his back sharply arched, his outcry hoarse and breathless. He shuddered as he came, body tingling as his mind spun off into god-knows-where.