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[sterngaze]

I love me some gen threads, especially funny or drama-filled ones, but I am also shamelessly here for shipping AUs. The general Liem-shipping vibe is "I want more than this, but I shouldn't & they can't possibly want me back," so if you're into that, I've got what you need. His default setting is very D&D-like high fantasy, but I'm comfortable playing him in modern fantasy settings as well. Pretty much any prompt can also accommodate Liem being a full vampire instead of a dhampir, if that's your thing. Prompts for inspiration: • Arranged Marriage: Liem's shady vampire family has arranged his marriage to you, but he seems a rather reluctant fiance. • Bodyguard Shipping: It's Liem's duty to keep you safe and out of trouble, possibly despite your best efforts. • Companion to Royalty: Reclusive vampire king Liem and YOU! Are you a gift from a local power? Sacrifice from the townsfolk? Or did you just stumble up the road to his castle during a storm? • Enemies to Lovers: Maybe Liem is a foreign agent trying to sabotage your country or organization. Or maybe you're rebelling against the current regime and he's trying to take you in. • Fake Dating/Fake Married: A relationship is your cover story while you're travelling for some secret reason. Gotta keep up appearances. • Hunter & Hunted: Are you a hunter trying to track Liem down? Or a snack that proved more than he bargained for? • Hurt (Comfort Optional): Whether he's hurt, sick, drugged, or just upset, two things remain constant: Liem needs help, and he doesn't want to accept it. But maybe you don't want to fix him anyway; maybe you want to make him worse. • Living a Lie: Whether you're undercover on a mission, or you lied to cover something up and now you have to commit, you're stuck playing a role until you accomplish some secret objective — or until you can shake off your nosy company. • Loss of Control: For whatever reason, one of you is struggling not to go berserk — or perhaps has already failed. If it's Liem, can you help him come back to himself, or are you the one pushing him over the edge? • Out of the Frying Pan: The classic "tried to help someone in trouble, ended up with a new and possibly worse problem" situation. But at least you're in it together! • Priest/Celibacy: Default here is that Liem is the priest, but it could go the other way. Smutty, or just laden with UST? You decide. • Texting: Stupid TFLN-style text threads, my beloved... • Random Scenario: For if none of the above tickle your fancy. contact. Sporelett | info. Link | permissions. Link

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[sterngaze]

[It doesn't make any kind of sense, that the warmth in Cardan's voice and in the lips brushing his cheek should make Liem just as needy for his husband's touch as does the lewd promise he murmurs in his ear. Even though Cardan's fingers are already inside him, and even though his neck is already bruised with the memory of his kisses, the temptations that his husband dangles in front of him make the thrill in his belly flare with a suddenness that surprises even Liem.

He truly is a glutton for punishment — at least when at the mercy of Cardan's cruelly unhurried hands and Cardan's hypnotizingly soft, affectionate voice. Yearning aches unbearably through him, making him whine softly with impatience as Cardan pulls out of him and moves back to kneel on the covers. And still, he wants what his wicked spouse promises; he wants Cardan to fuck him, to touch him and toy with him and deny him what his body is so desperate for, even if he begs for it.

His want sighs out of him, breathlessly eager, as warm fingers find his neglected erection and stroke. He watches Cardan raptly, his face leant against one bound arm, as he undoes the fastenings of his trousers.]

Oh fuck, [he says fervently, but rather than the oath of a man confronted with his doom, the words are reverent as a prayer.]

[greenbriar]

[ Cardan only smiles -- a sharp, hungry little expression, because no matter how much he might be playing at patience, he cannot change the need that thrums through him every time he looks at his husband. He has ever been a stranger to temperance, and Liem is making it difficult to turn a new leaf -- not when he sighs like that or swears like that, or when he looks so uncommonly open and vulnerable.

He is always so possessive in these moments, and he doesn't know why.

Cardan's hands find Liem's hips, revelling in the feeling of bare skin, of having him like this-- even as he presses in, closer, to slide inside his husband. He doesn't make a sound aside from a single sharp inhale, but his black gaze is locked unerringly on Liem's face, and the look on his face is more serious and more intent than a teasing game should warrant.

It occurs to him, in a moment of mid-coital clarity, that he has probably never wanted anyone so fervently and with such unerring focus as he has his husband.

It takes effort to be slow about it. Inch by torturous inch, he presses forward until he's fully sheathed inside the familiar silken tightness of Liem's body. The tension of restraint is palpable in his shoulders; it's all he can do not to make his grip bruise. He can feel the impertinent lust pulse in his chest, in his throat, in his cock, thump-thump-thump with every treacherous beat of his heart. ]

I want this, [ he says, quiet like a confession, ] each evening and every morning, and every time you make me tally another shitty budget, and every boring banquet where I watch you talk to other people.

[ His smile is wan. ]

But it is my curse to wish for things I cannot have.

[sterngaze]

Ohh—

[Liem sighs again, low and fervent and aching as Cardan presses slowly inside of him. The indulgent attention that his husband gave to his cock has not helped him control his need for him; he feels impossibly alight with it, urgently aware of Cardan's grip on his hips, the unyielding heat of him filling him up, the intent way those dark eyes remain fixed on his own — and of his own helpless lust, teased and inflamed so every shift of Cardan's hips against him makes his breath catch fitfully in his lungs.

It is because of his intoxication, surely — but he wants so desperately to be his. Not even on the morning after the attempted assassination had he been so overcome with this ravening need to be possessed, to be used like a favourite plaything until he had nothing left to give. Cardan's murmur, as he slides into him, only makes the need coiling in his chest writhe, and bite.]

I wish you could.

[In this moment, it seems like the most obvious wish in the world. How much more enjoyable it would be to let Cardan bend him over his desk or spirit him away from a dreary banquet every time the desire struck him. It makes Liem's chest feel strangely tight to imagine a world where he could begin and end every single night with his husband looking at him just like this, like he is irreplaceable.]

Cardan… I wish I could give you… whatever you wanted.

[greenbriar]

[ There is a twitch at the corner of his mouth -- minuscule, reined in as soon as it appears, and yet. It should be pleasant to hear Liem say these things to him; if nothing else, he knows that his husband isn't lying. Pleasure and pain alike pull strange confessions out of people, and Liem has ever been too earnest about things like these.

It's just that whatever you wanted is so easily said by someone who doesn't have to mean every word.

It breaks his resolve just a little bit. He can only take so much-- can only weather so much pleasure, withstand so much teasing, when all he wants is to bury himself in his husband and forget about the world. He leans forward, over Liem, catching himself on one hand as his hips rock into him. And again, and again-- slow, heavy thrusts, holding on to his control only by dint of not wanting any of it to end. His fingers clutch at the sheet, the knuckles white. Liem feels so good, so impossibly tight and perfect-- ]

Whatever I want, Liem?

[ His breathless smile is a little strange. It's like picking at a scab, to ask a question he knows the answer to, no matter what Liem might say.

Well, Cardan's husband isn't the only masochist in the room. ]

[sterngaze]

[He loves this: the way Cardan plays him like an instrument, winding him up and coaxing this desperate need from him, just as he pleases. Liem groans a little when Cardan fucks into him, going taut against the covers as sensation rolls through him in slow, irresistible waves. His cock, bobbing heavily over his stomach, throbs insistently with each deliberate thrust.

In this moment, he would agree to anything his husband asked of him, as long as it meant he wasn't going to stop. He doesn't hesitate for even a moment, his answer spilling out of him on breaths gone short and shallow with need.]

Yes. Cardan—

[How could he not wish for it? How could he think to refuse his husband anything at all, when he wants him so keenly and thinks of him so often? Cardan has laid some faerie magic on him, insinuating himself into thoughts where he has no business being, making Liem ache to be touched at all hours, stealing his peace with his tormenting and still making him yearn for more. Liem is sick with obsession, not even half a year into his marriage. Frustration makes tightness creep into his voice.]

Anything. Everything.

[greenbriar]

[ It is a relief to slide against Liem, to cover his husband's body with his own, even if Cardan is still nearly fully clothed against Liem's nakedness. The pleasure of it sighs out of him, and for a moment, his eyes flutter shut, his forehead pressed against the sheets over Liem's shoulder.

Everything, Liem says in that tense, strained voice, making greed flare in Cardan's belly. He wants everything. He wants to be unreasonable and impractical; he wants to call his husband's bluff and ask for things he cannot possibly have. He wants his secrets and his attention and his trust, and he wants admission to the tight-faced space to which Liem retreats when he's refusing to tell Cardan his troubles, and he wants the gentleness of those cool hands and maybe their violence too, just a little bit. Why Liem would offer him such a thing--

Well, it's because he's drunk and high. Cardan wonders if he'll even remember.

It only takes a couple of seconds to catch his breath. When he drags himself back up to look at Liem, it is with a hungry, lean focus. ]

I want you, [ he says, velvet-soft menace in his voice, ] to be very good for me.

[ His hand finds Liem's bound wrists, wraps possessive fingers around them, and pins them -- unnecessarily -- against the bed. His other trails down to his belly. ]

I want you to not come for as long as you can.

[ Even though Cardan will stroke him, deliberate, to coincide with each heavy thrust. Even though he's already waited so long, even though he must be quite desperate by now-- Cardan is nearing desperation himself, and he hasn't had half the torment he's subjected Liem to. And still: ]

You can do that for me, can't you, Liem?

[sterngaze]

[In that brief, quiet moment when his husband leans down and rests his brow against the sheets just above his shoulder, Liem tips his face toward him — a flower seeking moonlight — and nuzzles gently into the soft hair at his temple. The scent of him is a comfort, as is the long body covering his, warm even through the barrier of Cardan's clothes. Somehow, the frenzy growing inside him has made him just as desperate for Cardan's affection as for his body.

And he is desperate. When his husband pulls back, pinning his wrists against the bed as he regards him with that hungry look, Liem's stomach trembles beneath the trailing path of his fingers. The look with which he meets Cardan's gaze is dangerously eager, his cheeks and throat still bearing that faint, intoxicated flush and his parted mouth yearning to be kissed.

His desire will not help him in the least as his lover again finds his cock and strokes, now in time with the slow and merciless rhythm of his hips. Liem gasps, short and sharp, as Cardan follows his demand with this new trial.]

I— Ah—

[Oh god, of course he can't do it. Even when he swallows and — for a long moment — suppresses his breathing altogether in an effort to quell his own excitement, he can't do anything about the waves of pleasure that roll heavily through him with thrust and each stroke of Cardan's hand. All he wants is to press back against the sheets, squirm into that touch and lose himself beneath the rising tide of sensation.

But still, he murmurs breathlessly,] I will…

[greenbriar]

[ Of course he cannot do it. Cardan has teased him relentlessly for the past hour; he's not entirely sure a man should stay this hard this long, if only for want of going a little insane. It is a cruel thing to ask-- but Cardan is a cruel man, and so he has asked it and is asking it still, with every stroke, every thrust, every unruly beat of his own heart close to Liem's chest.

Perhaps it is payback for the soft flutter of affection that tightens his throat when Liem nuzzles against his temple. How impertinent of his husband to make Cardan feel these things, and so keenly-- ]

Good, [ he says, breathless despite himself, even if his tone is still silken and predatory. He dips down, pressing a kiss to the corner of Liem's mouth, just to give himself time to assuage his own savage longing. ] You're doing... so well.

You wouldn't come before I do... would you, Liem?

[ Surely not. The grin he aims at his husband is terrifically smug. ]

[sterngaze]

[Cardan has to know how mean it is for him to kiss Liem like that, to praise him like that, when he's already trying with everything he has to resist him. His eyes flutter closed for a moment as a helpless, wanting breath trembles unsteadily from him. Even as Cardan asks that smug, silken question of him, he knows already what the answer must be, and the knowledge makes frustration paint itself in tense lines over his features.]

Cardan…

[The whine slips out of him almost pleadingly, though he carries no hope for clemency from his mischievous spouse. It's just that he is so full of him, so helplessly enthralled by his every look and touch. He wants to beg him for another kiss; he wants to feel his teeth; he wants his husband's venom-sweet voice dripping praise in his ear; he wants his gentle disappointment, too, and it's that more than anything else that makes him gasp and rock his hips heedlessly into his touch as Cardan fucks into him. He wants him, wants him, wants—]

Cardan, [he moans, desperate as his husband thrusts into him, fills him up again and again. He can't keep himself together anymore, he can't. Need rushes through him in a torrent, irresistible.] Cardan—

[greenbriar]

[ Of all the shades of Liem he knows and likes, this might be the one he loves best: when he loses himself completely, despite every faculty of his impressive self-control. He loves the look of desperation in that handsome face, loves the struggle in that beautiful body, loves the way he can tell when Liem breaks in his hands by the sound of his breathing and the frantic movement of his hips. It nearly supercedes his own arousal; who would focus on such frivolities when his husband is so breathtaking in his torment?

The sound of his name uttered like that sears into him with a satisfaction so complete, he's not sure he's ever known its like.

And still-- ]

No.

[ His voice is as gentle as he can make it: compensation for the terrifically cruel thing he is about to do. The fingers on Liem's cock wrap around him again, clamp tight and unforgiving just below the head of his cock, and Cardan's hips pull back to leave him empty. (It's a necessity: he does not think he can make it through whatever happens next if he were still sheathed inside Liem's body.) Cardan had told him he wouldn't let him come, and he will be faithful to his word. ]

Not yet, [ he says, a little hoarse with wanting. His weight presses Liem into the sheets, deliberately, seeking to trap him even in this way-- and his eyes are unerringly on his husband's face, watching with rapt, ravenous attention. ]

[sterngaze]

[Swept up in the urgent swell of his own need, Liem whimpers in frustrated objection as Cardan cinches unyielding fingers around his erection and pulls out of him, leaving him suddenly bereft of sensation. He arches helplessly beneath the cage of his body, pressed back into the sheets as he squirms uselessly against him.]

Fuck.

[He swears, eyes falling heavily shut as his head tips back against the covers. This is what he'd wanted — what he'd asked for, in a manner of speaking — but in this moment, with his senses full of his husband and lust thundering through him, he wants nothing more than his touch and his indulgence. If Cardan was not already trapping him against the bed with his weight, he might have fought the hand pinning his wrists just to drag him closer.

He won't beg, he won't — but it's worse that he can't hold onto him, and it's worse that Cardan just watches, when he has never felt so desperate for the warmth of his lips against his skin. When he drags his eyes open again, something of that naked desperation fills them as he looks up at him.]

[greenbriar]

[ Cardan only laughs, so soft it's nearly silent, and leans down to indulge Liem in at least one of his wants. He needs it, too -- needs something to distract himself from the delicious tease of Liem struggling against him, from the spike of lust that pierces through him when his so-measured husband swears. As always, Liem's desperation threatens to infect Cardan, and it is difficult not to shiver and move against him when they are already so torturously close. So Cardan will kiss him instead, hard and obscene, all teeth and consuming need. When he pulls away, his breathing will be hard and his eyes very dark on Liem's face. ]

That was not long at all, [ he scolds, though he doesn't have it in him to mask the affection from his voice. It entwines his arch smugness, makes it sound like something else entirely. ] If I didn't know better, I'd think you weren't even trying.

[ Except of course he was. Cardan has never known Liem to be anything but fully committed, even to impossible tasks. But Liem hadn't ever asked him to be fair; he'd asked him to be selfish and capricious -- traits Cardan has far more talent for, anyway. ]

[sterngaze]

[That kiss only serves to provoke, to tease Liem's wants further as he fits his body desperately against Cardan's, so familiar and so perfect. He covets the heat of him through his clothes, the slide of him against his bare skin — and even when the overwhelming threat of his peak flattens and begins to subside, the demand of Cardan's kiss keeps need fluttering in his throat, in his belly, scorching beneath his skin. When Cardan pulls away again, the eyes following his retreat are just pale rings amidst a sea of black.]

I was distracted, [Liem murmurs, breathless. It's an absurd understatement; he passed through distracted and moved on to hopelessly overwhelmed sometime around when Cardan first put his mouth on his cock. Drinking his blood hasn't helped matters at all.

But he is discovering an alarming degree of desire for the cadence of that smug, soft-edged reprimand. His pale flush of desperate arousal mingles with mortification — because Cardan is right of course; he's been useless at trying to control himself — which is a terrible tease given how sensitive every part of him currently is. He sighs, almost sulkily,]

You're so demanding…

[greenbriar]

[ At times like these, when Liem looks at him with eyes like endless black pools, Cardan remembers that he married not just a man but a natural predator, strange and fierce and never so beautiful as when he is like this. If he's trapped his husband against the sheets, his wrists still bound, his cock still straining against Cardan's unforgiving grip -- it's only because Liem has allowed him to do so.

It should piss him off. But it only makes him feel unaccountably powerful to wield so much undeserved trust. ]

Is the son of a High King supposed to be otherwise?

[ Of course not, though he's not giving Liem much time to say so. His hand slips off his husband's tormented erection to brace against his slim hip; it's so Cardan can pull back, shift his weight and -- press inside him again, sinking into the silken tightness of his body with a shivery little sigh. And if he sounds relieved-- ]

I shouldn't reward you for a performance this terrible.

[ His teeth graze along the sharp angle of Liem's jaw; he nips at the skin right below it, adding to the growing collection of marks on Liem's elegant throat. ]

But I want to come.

[sterngaze]

[Despite his frustration and his cruelly-teased need, Liem's lips curve in a smile at his husband's prideful reply to his complaint. He has no defence against him; not the electric thrill of his touch, nor his charmingly-unrepentant demeanour. Both make that yearning low in his chest flare wildly, making him want to press closer until he can claim that capricious mouth with his own.]

No, I—

[He breaks off with a breathless gasp, shifting against Cardan as he presses back inside of him. If he has any attention at all for his husband's critiques, it is quickly overtaken by his fascination with the teeth at his jaw, nipping the soft skin of his throat. Without thought or hesitation, he tips his head aside to invite Cardan's teasing attention there, eagerness written into the arch of his spine and the cadence of his breaths.]

It's alluring, on you…

[Somehow, despite the wanting arch of his body toward Cardan's, this observation too has the ring of petulance about it. Ah, he is so impatient, still; it just isn't fair. Liem continues to discover, to his own misfortune, that the more capricious and entitled his lover acts, the greedier he becomes for his teeth, his touch, his cock— for every delicious torment that he might tempt him with, even for a moment.]

[greenbriar]

[ Oh, that will not do. Though the sullen note in his husband's voice is endearingly novel, though his closeness and the arch of his body send pleasure dancing down Cardan's spine, breathtaking in its potency, it's Liem's focus that Cardan wants. His unerring, unwavering, stubborn focus; his attention, exacting and precise.

Cardan's mouth moves against Liem's throat, his voice quiet as a brooding storm. ]

Liem.

[ There's something carefully deliberate in his tone. He lifts his face; his hands press to Liem's flanks, just atop his ribcage. When he pushes himself up, it's in a fluid dancer's movement, his hands sliding down to Liem's waist, his hips -- and then pulling him into Cardan, a sharp little thrust punctuated by the piercing regard of Cardan's cruel little smile. ]

Pay attention.

[ To his words. To his reprimand. To the things that Cardan wants of him. The hands on Liem's hips find their way to the small of his back instead. ]

Up.

[ Up, and into Cardan's waiting lap. ]

[sterngaze]

[The more absorbed Liem becomes in the tease of sensation against his skin, the slide of his husband moving inside him, and the overwhelming ache of his own desire, the more difficult heeding Cardan's wishes becomes. It is not for lack of enthusiasm; the sound of his husband's soft instructions still sparks eagerness in his belly, regardless of how cruel his whims are. But how can he avoid distraction when that mouth is still hot and possessive on his throat, and his body is still trapping Liem against the sheets?]

Ah—

[A gasp leaps out of him when Cardan grasps his hips and fucks into him, the reprimand that follows sending a bright, beguiling tremor up his spine. He is distracted, still — but the brisk instruction and the hands at his back propel Liem smoothly upright, his body taut with effort. He loops his bound arms around Cardan's neck, at least partially for want of anywhere else to put them, and shifts his weight to settle more fully against him. The small sigh that slips out of him as he does is hungry.]

I am…

[Sort of. To some things, like Cardan's dick inside him, and how hot that smirk looks on his perfect mouth, and how much he does want to see him come, again, while he's riding his cock.]

[greenbriar]

[ Liem shifts-- takes the length of him more deeply, and his weight in Cardan's lap makes him draw in an abrupt breath and close his eyes for a moment. His arms pull Liem closer, still, as flush against Cardan's body as possible, revelling in the feel of him, the perfect shape of him folding against Cardan. ]

Liar, [ he accuses, indulgent. Liem lies to him so rarely; he cannot help but be fascinated with it when he does, with the ease those words slip past his lips. It is a kind of magic that exists only in Ironside -- perhaps the only real advantage it has over the Faerie realm.

He will kiss that deceitful mouth and slide his hands down to Liem's ass, his thighs, his cock, greedy to keep touching him even though he has done nothing else for the better part of the evening. Maybe, like kissing, this is not a greed that can be sated. Maybe he has been starved of it for too long. ]

If you were, you would know what to do.

[ Cardan's gaze on him is rapt; Liem is beautiful like this, unfocused and bereft of release, so hard he feels like steel wrapped in silk under Cardan's touch. He cannot ever remember wanting anyone this much. The thought almost slips out, poised on the tip of his tongue before he breathes it back in. It's too much to admit to. So instead-- ]

Make me come, Liem.

[ He makes it sound like he's offering Liem a favour. ]

[sterngaze]

[Yes— This is just what Liem wanted. When he’d mentioned the alluring fantasy that lived in his thoughts; whenever the weight of Cardan’s body and the heat of his touch made Liem’s desire too wild to keep tucked tidily beneath his skin. He wanted it then and he cannot help but want it now: Cardan’s indulgent condescension, his hungry hands roaming his body, that soft little breath he takes when Liem settles more fully against him. He wants the desire in that rapt gaze, pinning him in place as Cardan tells him to make him come — graciously, like it’s Cardan’s release that he has become increasingly desperate for over the past hour, rather than his own.

But he finds himself craving that too, now that the promise of it has been dangled before him. Even though that kiss makes lust flare cruelly in his belly, and the touch gliding over his cock has his breath catching, overeager, in his throat.

Everything Cardan threatens, he wants. That wanting only grows fiercer as he shifts up so he can move against him, spilling breathlessly from his lungs with each heavy movement of his hips, as Cardan fills him up again and again — until already, need throbs in his blood, welling at his lip with the desperate bite of an errant fang.

He cannot possibly endure more of this, over and over, in the service of Cardan’s whims. It is too much; he is helpless against the tide of sensation that swells and subsides and swells again, keeping him just shy of frantic with pleasure. It would be absurd to continue — and yet he does, because the look in Cardan’s eyes makes a singular thrill flutter hard against his ribs, and that is more irresistible than any promise of relief.]

[greenbriar]

[ He could be meaner about it. He could keep Liem on edge longer, deny him release even as he himself found it -- and oh, he is closer to the peak of his desire with every breath, every delicious drag of Liem's body against his. The look on Liem's face -- that determined desperation, the need so clearly expressed in his sharp, handsome features -- pierces right through him with an odd, painful yearning. Cardan wants to see it again and again. He wants Liem's desire and his discipline; he wants to see that discipline crack and shatter under the onslaught of pleasure; he wants Liem's hands and the tight sheath of his body and the promise of his fangs, though even he knows that he cannot offer Liem more of his blood tonight. But he wants, and he wants, and he wants, endlessly--

No, he could be meaner about it. But the night is long, and Liem had not asked only for the tease of unfulfilled want: he had asked for exhaustion, to be pushed to the limit of where even his considerable endurance can take him, and Cardan plans on giving him nothing less. This time, when he fucks into Liem, when his fingers curl around his erection, it is only to hurry him along on the sharp ascent of his pleasure.

Hiss free hand curls over Liem's jaw, his cheek, Liem's cool skin a balm against the heat of Cardan's palm. ]

Only when you're like this, [ Cardan tells him, voice tight with wanting, with the control it takes not to gasp through it. ] Only when I'm inside you, Liem--

[ Only then will Cardan let him find release. ]

[sterngaze]

[Liem would be hard pressed in even the hastiest and most spur-of-the-moment circumstances to restrain himself with Cardan's stroking fingers wrapped warm and insistent around his cock. His husband's touch has ever set him alight with eagerness, and when he's like this, wound tight with desperate need and so full of him he can't think of anything else, each frantic movement of his hips and each indulgent stroke of Cardan's hand rocks him with helpless pleasure. His lover is so close, so warm, and so beautiful, with those dark eyes fixed on him. He cannot resist him, he can't—]

Cardan…

[His husband, his lover. His, his, his, and the only one allowed to have him like this — and oh, because it's Cardan, he can have whatever he wants.

Liem leans his cheek into the welcoming touch of Cardan's hand, his lashes dipping heavily as he arches greedily into his relentless stroking. Tipping his mouth into Cardan's palm, he presses kiss after breathless kiss there.

He does his very best to focus only on moving his hips, only on maintaining his rhythm and giving Cardan what he had demanded, but his movements falter, grow frantic as pleasure overtakes him. Desperation claims him entirely, ruling the demanding motions of his hips, the rough cadence of his breaths, the soft, eager groan he nuzzles against Cardan's palm as his climax shudders through him. He feels dizzy with it, unable to focus on anything but his husband's touch. There is just Cardan: the only thing he wants, and the only thing he needs.]

[greenbriar]

[ Cardan almost forgets about his own need in that crystalline, perfect moment when Liem's pleasure claims him. He is too busy watching, his breath still in his lungs and his heart hammering in his chest -- too busy listening to the sound of that gentle groan, too busy feeling the soft caress of Liem's mouth over his palm. He's so absorbed with it, so taken with him, that he fails to anticipate it when pleasure slams into him, making him shudder and gasp and jerk forward so that he can sink his teeth into Liem's shoulder. His desperate rhythm comes undone; he fucks up into his lover once, twice, and then he's there, tense and still and perfect, claiming him once more for his own.

In the silence after, when all he can hear is harsh breaths -- his own, Liem's -- and the hammering of his own heart in his ears, he lets his hand fall to trail along Liem's neck, his shoulderblade, down the elegant line of his spine. Pleasure still shivers through him, electric, addictive; when he kisses Liem, there is no soft satisfaction in it.

Such is not the night he has planned for either of them.

He feels sharp-edged and greedy, focused like a cat on an unwary bird. He wants to tease Liem's desire taut and frantic again; he wants to see desperate frustration on that handsome, noble face. It occurs to him that he has heard Liem pleading far too rarely, and that this is an oversight he ought to rectify.

And so he does. Over and over, he coaxes need out of his husband with his mouth and his hands and his cock; over and over, he denies him, each time a little crueller, a little gentler in his condescension, more demanding on Liem's patience. He's affectionate about it -- pressing ardent, hot kisses to the back of Liem's neck when he flips him over and covers him with the warm line of his own body, rutting into him until they are both at the edge of satisfaction, Cardan's fingers lacing with Liem's, still bound. And still, he denies him release -- except when he doesn't, when he instead demands Liem's pleasure and the impossibly tight grasp of his body in the throes of climax.

Never has anyone called on Cardan to be so exacting a taskmaster.

He doesn't know how many hours later it must be, only that he feels the moonrise in his bones. The sheets are a mess -- rumpled and smelling of sex and the green scent of Cardan's sweat. Cardan has come more times than he has bothered to count; Liem has enjoyed far less of the same indulgence. Distantly, he is aware that his body is tired, but the drug still thrumming through him makes such complaints immaterial -- and anyway, what does he care for corporeal demands at a time like this? Much more importantly: his mouth is on Liem's cock, painting kisses over the shaft while his fingers push inside a body made pliant by the gauntlet Cardan has put him through. This is the longest it has been yet; he has instructed Liem to stay still, to control his desire and exhaustion even while Cardan takes him in his mouth, the expression on his face somehow indulgent.

Though Liem may, as ever, be as loud as he likes. ]

[sterngaze]

[Liem is still gasping with the insistent, heated aftershocks of his climax when Cardan leans in to claim him again with a kiss. Pleasure dances through him like ripples in a rain-dappled pool, shivering from a hundred different places, intensified by every touch to his oversensitized body. He feels wrung dry by the desperate force of his pleasure, and wants nothing so much as his husband's body wrapped around his while contentment settles atop them both like a heavy blanket.

But of course, Cardan is not finished with him. How could he be, when the night isn't over and exhaustion has not even begun to sink its claws into Liem's exquisitely-teased body? And, true to his own confession, he cannot refuse the continued onslaught of his husband's touch or his husband's kisses, or the pleasure of taking his cock whenever Cardan's own need compels him. He is too bewitched by the stubborn greed with which Cardan sucks and bites marks over his body, and by the impunity with which he manhandles Liem and inflicts whatever debauchments he wishes upon him. And most of all, he is too taken by his own desire for him, which only seems to grow wilder as the hours wear on.

He loses track of his sense of shame somewhere along the way, swamped beneath the tide of sensation and need. There is nothing to stop him from begging over and over again for Cardan to make him come; nothing to stifle the sounds of his eagerness or desperation; nothing keeping his husband's name from slipping from his lips endlessly, like a mantra; nothing warning him against naming every single trait of Cardan's that he can't stop thinking about, from his long, clever hands to the feathery curves of his eyelashes to the cruelly beguiling shape of his mouth. He wants so fiercely and so terribly, over that timeless stretch of torment, that he thinks it might have made him insane already.

Desire and weariness both weigh down his limbs as he lies stretched again over the sex-rumpled sheets, trembling with the impossibility of not rocking his hips up, into the seductive heat of Cardan's mouth. His lashes rest heavily upon his cheeks, his breaths languid between each wanting whimper and sigh, but treacherously, his lust has not failed him despite his exhaustion. He has been teased so relentlessly, and for so long, that his frustration makes rest an afterthought to the immediacy of his need for relief.]

Cardan, I can't, [he groans, not for the first time. Also not for the first time:] Ugh… Fuck, you terror…

[And yet, despite the helpless tension in his body and in his voice, not once during this entire time has he flouted Cardan's demands.]

[greenbriar]

[ Liem is lying: he can. Cardan has come to believe in nothing so much as his husband’s ability to endure; if he were inclined to religion, he would surely be compelled to write scripture about it. For all the church services he’s recently attended, he cannot think of anything that feels more sacred than the trembling tension in Liem’s pale limbs, the strain of need in his voice, the exquisite pleasure of a beautiful body pushed to the very limits of pleasure, again and again.

Though Liem is right that Cardan is a terror.

His answering hum is amused. He tips forward, damp dark curls falling over his forehead as he takes Liem deeper into the heat of his mouth, inch by inch — as he curls teasing fingers inside him. He is greedy — still, always — for the feel of him, for the taste of him, for every touch Cardan gets to paint onto his skin. If Liem’s discipline is endless, then it can only be eclipsed by Cardan’s compulsive, relentless focus. He knows no relief and no satisfaction from it; he is starting to realize that perhaps he never will.

He chases it anyway, his throat working to accommodate his lover — a skill he had always thought demeaning. But what could be demeaning about the pleasure of a lover so pinned by Cardan’s whims?

It is only some minutes later that he will raise his head, disengaging his mouth so that he may speak. ]

Am I? I could stop, [ he offers, a little hoarse from his efforts with Liem’s cock. The curve of his mouth is as tender as it is mean. ]

You could stop me. It is only a tie, Liem. [ And sloppily tied, at that; Cardan had not made a good effort at the knot the second time around, when he’d divested Liem of the last of his suit.

He has stopped, actually; instead, he’ll prop himself up on his elbows and survey the landscape of moon-pale skin before him, marked by a calligraphy of fading love bites. Liem looks exhausted, so well-fucked it’s a miracle he’s still erect; it is probably a black mark on Cardan’s character that the sight makes a hot pang of lust pulse through his cock. ]

[sterngaze]

[Even if Liem cannot stop himself from voicing his frustrations as Cardan continues to work him, continues to pleasure and tease him, he has no expectation that his husband will actually grant him respite. That's part of the pleasure of being at his mercy: the knowledge that Cardan has none, at least not for this. Liem has never given anyone rein to torment him so before, and he cannot imagine how someone could take any more pleasure in it than his lover is already doing.

It is so terribly, unfairly intoxicating.

He can only whine and press back against the sheets in the face of the ruthless, indulgent pleasure Cardan delivers. Though he is fervent in his quest to stay still as his lover has asked, he can only blame his exhaustion for the fact that Cardan has been able to tease him for this long. Still, even if the long hours have made ascending the slope of his pleasure to the very peak more challenging, he remains frustratingly unable to refuse the climb altogether. No matter how much Cardan has his way with him, his touch remains as electric as ever; Liem is beginning to fear that there isn't any amount of weariness that could subdue his want for him, as long as Cardan continues to demand it.

And when he doesn't — the abrupt lack makes the ache of Liem's need feel crueller by comparison.]

No, [he complains breathlessly, frustrated.] I want you; I want to be yours.

[How could he wish to resist Cardan, when he looks at him in such a way, on the heels of giving him pleasure, voice still rough from his efforts? Even if he wishes for relief, he wants this even more.]