“Okay.” She hesitated, then stepped closer and reached up to cup my jaw. When she gave my head a gentle tug, I ducked down eagerly, my eyes sliding shut in bliss as her soft lips pressed to mine.
It was a sweet kiss, not deep or filthy, but fire still raced through my veins as she let go of my face and smiled up at me. I stared down at her, my hearts pounding, my prick waking back up.
“I don’t want to go back to work,” I heard myself blurt. Beryl chuckled.
“Well, the sooner you do, the sooner you can finish for the day. And then we can have stew and watch Gloom Falls. Or maybe a movie? Ooh, or wrestling.”
“No, Beryl, I mean…” I swallowed, wordlessly opening and closing my mouth a few times before blurting, “Do you want to hang out in my room?”
I immediately winced. God, what was I, fifteen? Should I ask if I could touch her boobs to really round off the embarrassing question?
Beryl blinked in surprise, before something that made my insides squirm with anticipation heated her gaze. I heard her breath catch as her eyes darted to the side, down the hall to my bedroom door.
“Sure,” she said slowly. “We can do that. If you really don’t have to get back to work.”
“I got a lot done this morning, so it’s fine.” I set down the coffee cup, then picked it back up, then set it down again. “I’ll have that later.”
I cringed again, worried she thought I was assuming… stuff would happen.
God, I hope stuff happens.
“You don’t have to,” I burst out. “We can just hang out in the living room. I wasn’t—I’m not trying to—”
“Greid.” She took my hand again, giving me a smile that made my cock jerk eagerly in my pants. Calm down, buddy. “Show me your room.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Beryl
Greid’s room was exactly how I’d imagined it.
Not that I’d been able to picture it, but it just fit him. Black panelled walls covered in artwork and tapestries. A huge bed with a wrought iron frame that sat low to the ground. It was unmade, of course, and piled high with blankets and pillows.
An ashtray sat on the nightstand, fighting for space alongside several half-full glasses of water and a stained-glass lantern with a melted pillar candle inside. Clothes were strewn everywhere, including all over the enormous beanbag in the corner under the window. A huge TV dominated the wall opposite the bed, above a wide, dark wood dresser cluttered with candles, strange knickknacks and random items like deodorant and a hairbrush.
I looked around with interest, taking a few steps inside. There was a closed laptop on the other nightstand, the bottom drawer of which was hanging open. I spotted something bright green and definitely phallic in shape before Greid rushed past me to kick it shut with his foot.
My mouth twitched as he sheepishly said, “Sorry. Uh, sorry for the mess.”
“It’s fine. It’s your room. You can have it however you want.”
It wasn’t dirty. The bedding looked clean, and all the surfaces were polished, the air smelling sweet and smoky—a mix of shade and the scented candles Greid loved so much. It smelled like him. I wanted to get into that bed and breathe it in.
Greid was hovering nervously by the bed, looking like he had no idea what to do with me now that I was in here.
But he’d invited me in for a reason. He was just too shy to say it.
Be brave, I thought even as my belly fluttered with nerves at the notion of dipping my toe into Domming—not that we were going to jump in at the deep end. We hadn’t discussed it enough yet, but I had a good idea of how to make this a memorable experience for both of us.
I didn’t think there was a seductive bone in my body, but I tried to make my slow walk toward him look somewhat sultry. I had no idea if I succeeded. Greid was frozen in place, his yellow eyes wide as he stared down at me.
It had been comforting to see his familiar, handsome face again when he’d shifted back to this form down in his deeproom, but I hadn’t been exaggerating—his true form was beautiful. Alien and beastly, the lines of his long body somehow strangely sensual. He was almost lizard-like in that form, especially his face, with its long, pointed snout and the frilly spikes decorating its bridge and the slope of his forehead. His skin had still been jet black but more textured. Tougher looking. Like it repelled dirt.
It had been cute and a little creepy to see that full, lustrous head of hair still flowing around his monstrous face and rangy shoulders, his frondy ears poking up between the gleaming strands. His muscles had grown lithe and sinuous as his limbs elongated from his increased height, and I would’ve assumed he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him if it hadn’t been for the adorable curve of his belly he’d still possessed in that form.
That didn’t mean he hadn’t been almost intimidatingly strong and agile. I’d grown a little breathless watching him run around his deeproom. The speed at which he’d moved. How quick and sure-footed he’d been scaling the wall and leaping between the stalactites.
But I loved this side of him too—the more human-looking side. The long, gangly, slightly awkward limbs. The little belly giving the front of his baggy sweater a slight curve. The unfairly gorgeous, model-esque hair and sharp planes of his face, and the cracking smile lines giving me hints of his sharp teeth.
“I think…” I reached out and tangled my fingers through his, feeling his hand immediately tighten on mine. “I think you deserve a reward for being so good and answering all those questions for me.”
Greid’s breath caught, but he still didn’t move except for the bob of his throat. “R-really?”
I smiled up at him, sidling closer and sliding my other arm around his hips. I could feel the base of his tail under his sweater, and god, I wanted to slip my palm down and grip his ass. I ogled Greid’s ass every chance I got—which wasn’t often, given how much he lived in his giant hoodie.
My cheeks grew hot as I parted my lips to speak again. I felt a little awkward, a little embarrassed, but I pushed through it. It was just a new muscle I had to strengthen and grow. Hopefully it would come easier with time. “You were such a good boy for me, Greid.”
His reaction was instantaneous, his breath hitching again, his yellow eyes softening and turning pleading. Heavy. His cock—his ridiculously long cock—bucked against my stomach, still half hard from when we’d been talking downstairs. I couldn’t feel the barbs through the layers of our clothes, so I pressed closer, a grin tilting my lips when a tiny croak escaped him.
“Do you want your reward now, Greid?” I purred, the words coming easier in the face of how they affected him. The urge to give him whatever he wanted burned in my belly.
This sweet, kind demiurgus who’d given me so much—who’d given me freedom. But that wasn’t the reason why I wanted this with him. It wasn’t a trade. I just wanted him.
He swallowed thickly, still clutching my hand, his palm clammy. “Y-yes,” he whispered. “Please.”
That ‘please’ was so sweet, so genuine, that it made me fist the back of his sweater as I tamped down my desire. I’d heard pleas from partners before—when they’d been begging me to let them come after teasing them for a long time. When they’d whined for a blowjob because I’d told them they couldn’t fuck me. That one guy who’d begged to ‘just put the tip in’ because surely it wouldn’t hurt me. I still wasn’t sure if he’d known how much of a self-burn that had been.