Page 30 of Too Many Beds

Before he could ask what that meant, Xem moved his hands in a complex and delicate cast that was too quick for Asher’s eyes to follow. Fingers flickered and twisted and bent.

The air around him seemed to shudder, and then Asher was plucked from the floor and pressed to the full-length mirror like he weighed nothing. Pinned against the glass with air magic immobilising his wrists and ankles in an unsettling reminder of what had happened in the classroom earlier with the vines, Asher was far from amused.

“Powerful mage, my arse,” he hissed. “It seems you only have one trick.”

He spluttered as Xem waved a hand and an invisible gag formed across Asher’s mouth.

“Oh, not at all,” he assured. He wore a wicked smirk that Asher knew better than to trust, and yet there was a part of him that preened at earning so much of the mage’s attention. Being wrapped up in his magic, those violet eyes staring at him unblinkingly, made Asher feel like he’d won a game he hadn’t known he was playing.

“I’m just picking up from where we left off last time,” taunted Xem, heat lining his gaze at the way Asher strained against his bonds. “And seeing as you got to see me spill, I’mcertainlygoing to be watching you get yourself off in turn.”

Tendrils of air plucked nimbly at Asher’s breeches, undoing the laces. He roared ineffectually against the gag, shaking his head in violent objection. No, if Xem saw what he’d done, how he’d come untouched just from...

“Are you right-handed or left?” Xem asked in an almost conversational tone. He chuckled when Asher merely glared at him. “I’ll free one hand for you to stroke yourself. The rest of you remains pinned to my mirror so I can see your face when you come-”

His air magic finally peeled back Asher’s clothes to reveal his cock.

Xem paused, eyes widening as he stared at the mess in Asher’s breeches.

His face burned with humiliation. He waited for the mage to deliver his usual scathing mockery, but when the man finally spoke, it wasn’t anything of the sort.

“What a beautiful fucking sight you make,” Xem murmured, closing the distance between them. He dipped his hand to trail two long, pale fingers through the cooling cum. Then, seeming mesmerised, he raised them to Asher’s mouth and slid between his lips.

Asher, initially recoiling at the unexpected taste of himself, lunged forward as far as the magic allowed to take more of Xem’s fingers into his mouth. He slurped and licked, hurriedly swallowing down his own cum so that he could better enjoy the taste of Xem’s skin, his cinnamony aura, and the way the mage groaned obscenely as he sucked on his fingers.

Being near Xem was amazing. Feeling his magic had been glorious. But this, the sensation of his skin on Asher’s tongue, wasexquisite.

Hands were precious in most trades, but for mages, were a necessity. Magic could only be cast by hand movement and so this, having Xem’s fingers in his mouth and getting to graze his teeth against his knuckles in playful threat, made Asher’s own physical vulnerability seem lesser. And watching how Xem’s eyes closed with sensual flutters of his long, dark eyelashes, knowing thatAsherwas doing that to him...

His bonds wavered and then failed as Xem lost his concentration over the casting. Yet Asher didn’t move.

“I...stop that,” Xem muttered as though it hadn’t been his idea, stumbling backwards and regretfully stealing from Asher the fingers he immediately needed back between his lips.

The other mage was always so composed that it was thrilling to see him like this, wrecked and helpless. Asher smiled, taking a pace forward for each one that Xem took back so the distance between them remained the same.

Maybe the smile had been a mistake.

“You smell like cinnamon,” Xem snapped, his mouth drawing back into a disapproving line.

Asher’s heart raced. So hedidfeel the soulmate bond between them? Was he as hopelessly drawn to Asher as Asher was to him?

But Xem’s top lip had curled in disgust. “I hate the smell of cinnamon.”

“Who the fuck hatescinnamon?”

“Me.”

Asher huffed out an impatient, eager breath. “It’s not about what it smells like, Xem. It’s what itmeans. As ridiculous as it may sound, you and I are apparently soulmates, and if you’re as clever as you think you are, you know that-”

The other mage glanced away. “What I know, Asher, is that we’re now even. Don’t expect another free show.”

“Xem,soulmates!”

“I heard you the first time. Leave.”

“Don’t you realise what this means?” Asher pleaded as Xem fixed his clothes with curt tugs and began to forcibly usher him towards the bedroom door. “We can’t be apart! It hurts whenever I’m away from you, Xem. Surely you feel it too?”

“No,” he said, the lie making him grimace.

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