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@schizofurina
hes fine
Eight-all Fever
The basement light was the color of old whiskey and cigarette ghosts. One low-hanging lamp swayed slightly every time someone walked too heavily upstairs. The green felt of the table looked almost black under it.
Zhenya chalked his cue with slow twists, eyes never leaving Taekjoo’s hips where they leaned against the rail. Taekjoo had already lost his hoodie somewhere between the third and fourth rack. Now he was down to the thin black tank that stuck slightly to the small of his back from the humid air.
“Strip rules again?” Taekjoo asked, voice lazy. He rolled the cue ball back and forth under his palm.
“You already lost your shirt two games ago.”
“I’m playing for your pants this time.”
Zhenya snorted, but the sound came out rougher than he intended. “You break like shit when you’re hard. Everyone knows that.”
Taekjoo grinned, teeth catching the lamplight. “Then make me miss.”
The break cracked like a gunshot. Balls scattered, nothing dropped. Taekjoo cursed under his breath, mostly theatrical. Zhenya stepped up, circled the table once like a shark, then bent low over the twelve. His shirt rode up just enough to show the sharp line where spine met waistband.
Taekjoo moved before Zhenya could shoot.
He pressed himself along Zhenya’s back, chest to spine, hips slotting tight against ass. One hand slid around to flatten over Zhenya’s stomach, the other wrapped loosely around the cue, guiding it instead of taking it.
“Still your shot,” Taekjoo murmured against the shell of Zhenya’s ear.
Zhenya’s breath hitched. “You’re cheating.”
“Distraction isn’t against the rules.”
Zhenya managed to sink the twelve anyway, more muscle memory than aim. The eleven followed on the next stroke, Taekjoo’s palm now slipping under the hem of his shirt, thumb brushing the lowest rib.
By the time Zhenya lined up the nine, Taekjoo had both hands inside his jeans. Zhenya’s forehead dropped briefly to the cool wood of the cue.
“Fuck—move or I scratch.”
Taekjoo laughed low. “Scratch and you lose the pants.”
Zhenya sank the nine. Barely.
Taekjoo rewarded him by popping the button and dragging the zipper down with excruciating slowness. The denim stayed on, riding low enough that every time Zhenya leaned forward the waistband cut into the top of his thighs.
They kept playing.
Taekjoo stripped his own tank off between shots, tossing it over the eight ball like a surrender flag. Zhenya finally lost the jeans after missing the six (Taekjoo had bitten the back of his neck right as he stroked). Boxers followed two turns later when Taekjoo sank three balls in a row while grinding slow and filthy against Zhenya’s ass, cue still in hand.
Now it was skin on skin.
Zhenya was bent over the table again, cue bridged between fingers, trying to line up the seven. Taekjoo was behind him, completely bare now, cock sliding hot and slick between Zhenya’s cheeks, teasing the crease, letting the head catch every few strokes.
“Shoot,” Taekjoo said, voice wrecked. His palm pressed between Zhenya’s shoulder blades, keeping him down.
Zhenya’s arms were shaking. “Can’t—fuck—can’t breathe right when you do that.”
“Good.”
The seven dropped. Somehow.
Taekjoo pulled back just enough to spit into his palm, then reached around and wrapped slick fingers around Zhenya’s cock. One slow pump and Zhenya’s hips jerked forward; the cue tip skidded across the felt.
“Foul,” Taekjoo whispered, delighted. “My turn.”
He didn’t even pretend to play fair.
Taekjoo pushed inside in one long, steady slide. Zhenya’s moan cracked halfway, turned into a bitten-off curse. The cue clattered to the table. Taekjoo caught it before it rolled off, pressed it back into Zhenya’s hand.
“Finish the rack,” he growled against Zhenya’s neck. “Or I stop.”
Zhenya laughed breathlessly. “You’re insane.”
“Play.”
He played.
Every thrust Taekjoo gave rocked Zhenya forward into the next shot. The cue ball kissed the five, sent it spinning into the side pocket. Taekjoo rewarded him with a harder snap of hips, deep enough that Zhenya’s vision whited for a second.
The four went down on a combination. Taekjoo’s hand closed around Zhenya’s on the cue, helping him draw it back, helping him follow through while he fucked him in short, punishing strokes.
Zhenya scratched on the three.
Taekjoo pulled out immediately.
Zhenya made an actual wounded sound.
“Table scratch,” Taekjoo said, smug. “You know what that means.”
He flipped Zhenya onto his back—ass on the rail, legs spread wide over the edge, cue still clutched in one hand like a lifeline. Taekjoo stepped between his thighs, lined up again, sank back inside in one smooth glide.
“Now you watch me run the table,” Taekjoo said.
He played one-handed.
Left hand on the felt, right hand braced on Zhenya’s hip, cock buried to the hilt. Every time he leaned forward to line up a shot he sank deeper. Every time he drew the cue back he pulled almost all the way out. Zhenya was shaking, head thrown back against the green, one hand white-knuckled on the rail, the other still holding the damn cue.
Taekjoo sank the eight on a bank shot.
Game over.
He didn’t stop.
He just dropped the cue, gripped Zhenya’s thighs, and fucked him properly—hard, fast, no more games. The table rocked under them. Balls clacked together like scattered applause. Zhenya came first, untouched except for the friction of Taekjoo’s stomach against his cock, crying out loud enough that someone upstairs probably heard.
Taekjoo followed maybe ten seconds later, hips stuttering, burying himself as deep as physics allowed and spilling inside with a low, broken groan.
They stayed in that position for a long minute, reeking of sweat, come, chalk dust, and spilled beer from two nights ago.
Finally Taekjoo pulled out slow, watched it drip onto the felt with something like pride.
“…We’re cleaning this,” Zhenya rasped.
Taekjoo grinned, already reaching for his phone to take a picture of the mess.
“After the rematch.”
He racked the balls again.
Zhenya groaned, but he was already sitting up.
“Strip rules?” he asked, voice wrecked.
Taekjoo leaned down and kissed him.
“Iʼll win this time.”
The rematch began.
The eight ball still sat smug in the corner pocket where Taekjoo had left it. Chalk dust floated in the lamplight like slow snow. Zhenya hadn’t moved off the rail yet. His legs still dangled, thighs shiny with sweat and everything else, chest rising and falling like he’d run suicides. His cock lay soft against his stomach now, twitching every few seconds like it remembered what just happened.
Taekjoo racked the balls with the same efficiency he used to tie shoelaces or light cigarettes. Plastic triangle clicked into place. He lifted it away slow, letting the perfect diamond of color gleam under the lamp.
“Same rules,” he said without looking up. “You start naked. I start dressed. Catch up or lose more.”
Zhenya let out a hoarse laugh that ended in a cough. “You’re wearing less than me right now.”
“Exactly.” Taekjoo tugged his boxers back up and zipped his jeans just enough to keep them on his hips. Shirt stayed off. “Advantage.”
Zhenya slid off the table. His feet hit the concrete floor with a soft slap. Come trickled warm down the inside of his thigh and he didn’t bother wiping it. He picked up his cue, twirled it once like a baton, then chalked the tip with exaggerated slowness while staring Taekjoo down.
“Your break,” Zhenya said. “Since you won so convincingly.”
Taekjoo’s grin was all teeth. He stepped to the head string, bent low, ass flexing under denim. The break was vicious; cue ball exploded into the rack like a grenade. Two solids and two stripes vanished instantly. The nine rocketed toward the side pocket but lipped out at the last second.
“Shame,” Zhenya murmured. He was already circling, predatory now, cock starting to thicken again just from watching Taekjoo’s back muscles shift.
Taekjoo missed the twelve on purpose and left it hanging in the jaws so Zhenya would have to lean deep over the table to reach it. Zhenya did. Chest pressed flat to felt, ass presented, legs spread just enough. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Taekjoo stepped up behind him before the cue even touched the cue ball.
His fingers dug into hips. Cock, still half-hard from round one, ground against the cleft of Zhenya’s ass through rough denim. The zipper rasped against skin.
“Shoot,” Taekjoo ordered, voice gravel.
Zhenya’s hand shook on the cue. He still managed to pocket the nine in a clean, satisfying clunk. Taekjoo rewarded him by popping his own fly open again, shoving jeans and boxers down just past his thighs. Bare cock slotted hot against Zhenya’s crack, sliding up and down without pushing in.
Next shot: the ten in the corner.
Taekjoo reached around, wrapped a fist loosely around Zhenya’s cock and gave one slow, twisting stroke from root to tip. Zhenya’s hips punched forward; the cue skidded. White ball kissed the eleven but didn’t drop it.
“Miss,” Taekjoo said happily. “My turn.”
He pulled back, stepped to the other side of the table, jeans still around his thighs like shackles. Sank the twelve, thirteen, and fourteen in three efficient strokes. Each time made sure Zhenya had to watch the flex of his forearm, the way his cock bobbed untouched between his legs.
Zhenya was fully hard again, flushed dark red, tip glistening. He didn’t touch himself. Rules were rules.
Taekjoo lined up the fifteen. Paused. Looked up through his lashes.
“Come here.”
Zhenya walked around the table on unsteady legs. Taekjoo caught him by the nape, kissed him once, then turned him so his back was to the table, ass on the edge again.
“Hold the cue,” Taekjoo said. “Bridge it. Like you’re about to shoot.”
Zhenya obeyed, ridiculous and obscene: cue balanced across his open thighs, tip pointed toward the far cushion, hands trembling on the wrap.
Taekjoo sank to his knees between Zhenya’s legs.
He took the head into his mouth without warning. Hot, wet suction that made Zhenya’s spine arch off the felt. One hand braced on the rail, the other still gripping the cue like it was the only thing keeping him upright.
Taekjoo didn’t tease. He worked Zhenya deep, throat relaxing around him, nose brushing pubes on every downstroke. The cue rattled against the wood every time Zhenya’s hips jerked.
When Zhenya was panting, thighs shaking, Taekjoo pulled off with a wet pop.
“Still your shot,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Seven ball’s waiting.”
Zhenya stared at him like he might actually murder him.
He missed. Badly. Cue ball spun into the side rail and died.
Taekjoo stood, shoved his jeans the rest of the way off, kicked them somewhere under the table. Naked again. He climbed onto the felt and straddled him without sitting down yet.
“New rule,” he said, voice low. “Every ball I sink, you take another inch.”
Zhenya’s laugh was half moan. “You’re gonna kill me.”
“If you beg nicely.”
Taekjoo reached back, lined himself up, sank down agonizingly slow until just the head was inside. Zhenya’s hands flew to Taekjoo’s thighs, nails biting in.
Taekjoo leaned forward, chest to chest, and lined up the seven from this ridiculous angle—half-impaled, cue in one hand, bracing himself on Zhenya’s shoulder with the other.
He stroked.
The seven dropped clean.
He sank down another inch.
Zhenya’s head thudded back against the rail. “Fuck—”
Another ball. Another inch.
By the time Taekjoo had the last three solids lined up, Zhenya was fully seated inside him. His cock throbbed, untouched, smearing precome across Taekjoo’s stomach every time either of them moved.
Taekjoo ran the table in that manner; riding slow, deliberate, every successful shot rewarded with a grind down that made them both gasp.
When only the eight remained, Taekjoo paused.
He leaned down, lips brushing Zhenya’s ear.
“Call it.”
Zhenya’s voice cracked. “Eight in the corner. Your corner.”
Taekjoo smiled against his jaw.
He took the shot one-handed, hips rolling in tiny circles that had Zhenya whimpering under him.
The eight dropped.
Perfect.
Taekjoo tossed the cue aside. He braced both hands on Zhenya’s chest and started fucking himself roughly. The table creaked under them again. Zhenya’s hands roamed everywhere: on his ass, waist, nipples, throat, gripping, clawing, holding on.
Zhenya came with a broken shout, spilling hot inside Taekjoo, hips snapping up hard enough to lift them both an inch off the felt.
Taekjoo followed right after. His cock untouched, pulsing between their stomachs, painting Zhenya’s abs and chest in messy stripes.
They collapsed together, panting, sticky, laughing into each other’s mouths.
After a long minute Zhenya rasped, “We’re… really cleaning this table now.”
Taekjoo kissed the corner of his mouth. “After best two out of three.”
Zhenya groaned, already half-hard again inside him.
The balls were still scattered from the last game, lazy constellations on green felt. Taekjoo lay sprawled on his back across the middle of the table. His legs hung off one long side, arms flung wide, chest heaving. Come streaked his stomach in drying lines as his thighs trembled faintly from the aftershocks. He looked wrecked in the best way.
Zhenya stood between his dangling knees, still buried to the hilt inside him, breathing hard through his nose. He hadn’t pulled out yet. Hadn’t moved much at all since they both came apart.
Taekjoo cracked one eye open. “You done already? Thought you wanted best two out of three.”
Zhenya’s mouth curved slowly. He pulled out in one smooth slide, watching Taekjoo’s hole clench around nothing, slick and flushed. Taekjoo hissed at the sudden emptiness.
“Not done,” Zhenya said quietly. “But weʼre changing the rules.”
He reached down, grabbed Taekjoo by the ankles, and yanked. Taekjoo slid half a foot down the table with a surprised grunt. The felt dragged under his back, balls clicking against his spine as they rolled. Zhenya climbed up after him, knees bracketing Taekjoo’s hips, caging him without touching yet.
Taekjoo tried to sit up. Zhenya planted one palm flat on his chest and shoved him back down. Hard.
“Stay.”
Taekjoo’s laugh was breathless. “Bossy now, huh?”
Zhenya didn’t answer with words.
He leaned over, snagged the abandoned cue from the rail. He held it horizontally across Taekjoo’s throat. Taekjoo’s pupils blew wide.
Zhenya shifted lower. He dragged the smooth length of the cue down Taekjoo’s sternum, between his pecs, over one nipple until it pebbled, then the other. Taekjoo arched into it without meaning to.
“Hands above your head,” Zhenya said, voice low. The tone he used when he was about to take something apart piece by piece.
Taekjoo obeyed reluctantly. Wrists crossed over his head, fingers curling around the edge of the table. The position stretched his torso long, ribs sharp under skin, cock already twitching back to half-mast against his stomach.
Zhenya rewarded him by leaning down and biting the inside of one thigh, hard enough to leave teeth marks, but not hard enough to break skin. Taekjoo jerked, cursed in Korean.
“Quiet,” Zhenya murmured against the fresh bruise. “Or I stop.”
Taekjoo bit his lip instead of answering.
Zhenya sat back on his heels, knees still pinning Taekjoo’s hips. He reached for the chalk cue and dragged it once across his own palm, coating it. Then he pressed that chalky hand flat to Taekjoo’s chest, right over his heart, and dragged it downward in a slow, teasing stripe. Pale blue line over flushed skin, past navel, stopping just above the base of Taekjoo’s cock.
“Marking territory?” Taekjoo rasped, trying for cocky. His voice cracked on the last word.
Zhenya’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Reminding you who’s playing now.”
He wrapped chalk-dusted fingers around Taekjoo’s cock that made Taekjoo gasp, and gave one slow, twisting pump from root to tip. Taekjoo’s hips punched up instinctively. Zhenya pinned them back down with his free hand.
“No moving.”
Taekjoo groaned. “Sadist.”
“Brat.”
Zhenya released him, reached behind for the small bottle of lube they’d left on the shelf earlier. He clicked it open one-handed, then poured a generous amount straight onto his fingers. Cold slick dripping onto Taekjoo’s balls, running down his perineum.
He pushed two fingers in without warning.
Taekjoo’s back bowed off the table. “Fuck—Zhenya—”
“Shh.” Zhenya crooked them, found the spot on the first try, and rubbed in slow circles.
Taekjoo’s thighs shook. His hands flexed white-knuckled on the rail. He was painfully hard again, cock leaking steadily now, smearing the chalk line into a messy blue smear.
Zhenya added a third finger and watched Taekjoo’s face the whole time. Every twitch, every bitten-off sound.
When Taekjoo was panting open-mouthed, hips trying to rock despite the hold, Zhenya finally withdrew his fingers.
He lined himself up, still slick from before, still hard, and pushed in slow. One long, unbroken slide until their hips met. Taekjoo’s moan was wrecked, head thrashing side to side.
Zhenya stayed buried deep, but didn’t move.
He leaned down until their foreheads touched.
“Beg for it.”
Taekjoo’s eyes snapped open. “What?”
“Beg. For me to fuck you. Properly.”
Taekjoo laughed shakily, disbelieving. “You’re kidding.”
Zhenya rolled his hips in a tiny, shallow thrust that dragged over Taekjoo’s prostate just enough to make his toes curl.
“Try me.”
Silence stretched. Taekjoo’s chest heaved. His pride fought for maybe ten seconds.
Then—
“Please,” he breathed. “Fuck me hard. Please, Zhenya.”
Zhenya’s control snapped like chalk.
He pulled almost all the way out and slammed back in. The table rocked. Taekjoo cried out, loud enough to echo off concrete walls.
Zhenya set a punishing rhythm, every thrust shoving Taekjoo higher up the felt. Balls clacked and rolled around them like dice in a shaken cup. Taekjoo’s hands scrabbled at the rail, then at Zhenya’s shoulders, nails digging in.
Zhenya caught both wrists in one hand, pinned them above Taekjoo’s head. He used the leverage to fuck deeper.
“Look at me,” he growled.
Taekjoo’s eyes fluttered open.
Zhenya angled his hips, hit that spot on every stroke now. Taekjoo was babbling half Korean, half broken English, pleas and curses and Zhenya’s name over and over.
Zhenya reached between them, wrapped a chalk-smeared hand around Taekjoo’s cock, and jerked him in time with his thrusts.
“Come,” Zhenya ordered. “Now.”
Taekjoo shattered. His back arched so hard his shoulders left the table, come spilled hot over Zhenya’s fist and both their stomachs in thick pulses. His hole clenched rhythmically around Zhenya, dragging him over the edge a heartbeat later. Zhenya buried himself to the root and came with a low, guttural sound, filling Taekjoo until it leaked out around his cock.
They stayed locked together, shaking.
After a long minute Zhenya eased out slow. He watched his own come drip onto the felt. He collapsed half on top of Taekjoo, forehead pressed to Taekjoo’s shoulder.
Taekjoo’s voice was raw. “...You win that round.”
Zhenya huffed a laugh against his neck. “Best two out of three?”
Taekjoo groaned, but his arms came up anyway, wrapping loose around Zhenya’s back.
“Give me five minutes. Then rack ’em again.”
Zhenya kissed the bruise he’d left on Taekjoo’s thigh.
“Deal.”
The lamp swayed gently overhead.
The balls waited.
looking at myself in the mirror after reading smut
Russian Roulette
The dim light of the villa's dining room created long shadows across the polished mahogany table. Six crystal glasses stood in a neat row, each filled with clear liquid that shimmered under the chandelier. Only one held death, or so Kwon Taekjoo believed.
Zhenya leaned back in his chair, legs crossed, a lazy smile playing on his lips as he swirled his own untouched glass. His pale blond hair caught the light like frost, and his ice-blue eyes never left Taekjoo's face.
"Russian roulette, but with drinks," Zhenya murmured, voice low and amused. "One glass has poison. Fast-acting. Painless, mostly. The winner, the one who doesn't drink the bad one, gets to walk off this island. Free. No more games, no more me. The loser... well." He shrugged elegantly. "You die. Simple."
Taekjoo's jaw clenched. Sweat beaded at his temple despite the cool air. He'd been trapped here for days—weeks?—forced into Zhenya's twisted games of chess, fishing, hunting, each one ending with Zhenya's hands on him, his mouth, his body. This was supposed to be the final bet. The escape hatch.
He hated how his pulse hammered. Hated that part of him still hoped.
"Pick," Zhenya said softly. "Or I choose for you."
Taekjoo reached for the second glass from the left. His hand didn't shake; he wouldn't give Zhenya that satisfaction. He lifted it, met those mocking eyes, and downed it in one swallow. The vodka burned clean down his throat. Nothing else.
Zhenya's turn. He chose casually, almost bored, and drank. Then another round. And another.
By the fourth pass, Taekjoo's shirt clung to his back. The glasses dwindled. Four left. Three. Two.
Zhenya took the penultimate one. Taekjoo stared at the final glass, the one that had to be poison now. His last chance had slipped away.
He lifted it with numb fingers. Zhenya watched, expression unreadable.
Taekjoo drank.
The liquid was slightly sweeter than the others. Almost... floral.
For a long moment, silence.
Then Taekjoo laughed once, harshly. "You bastard. You rigged it."
Zhenya tilted his head. "Did I?"
Taekjoo's vision blurred at the edges. Heat bloomed low in his belly, sudden and vicious, spreading like wildfire through his veins. His breath hitched. Skin flushed hot. His cock twitched traitorously against the confines of his pants.
He staggered back a step, gripping the table edge. "What... the fuck..."
Zhenya rose slowly, predatory grace in every movement. He crossed the room in three strides and caught Taekjoo by the jaw, tilting his face up.
"Aphrodisiac," he said, almost tenderly. "Strong one. Custom blend. You'll feel like you're dying of need instead of poison. Much more interesting, don't you think?"
Taekjoo's knees buckled. Zhenya caught him easily, hauling him against that solid chest. The scent of him—vodka, expensive cologne—hit like a drug all its own.
"You... sick fuck," Taekjoo gasped, but the words lacked bite. His body arched involuntarily, seeking friction. Every brush of fabric against skin felt like electricity.
Zhenya's thumb traced Taekjoo's lower lip. "You lost, zaika. That means you're mine tonight. Again." His voice dropped to a whisper against Taekjoo's ear. "But this time, you won't be able to pretend you hate it."
Taekjoo tried to shove him away. His arms felt heavy, useless. Instead his hands fisted in Zhenya's shirt, pulling him closer. A broken sound escaped his throat.
Zhenya chuckled, low and dark. He lifted Taekjoo effortlessly, carrying him toward the bedroom like he weighed nothing.
The door clicked shut behind them.
The room spun as Zhenya lowered Taekjoo onto the massive bed, the silk sheets cool against his overheated skin. Taekjoo was already clawing at his clothes, desperate for relief from the suffocating fabric. His shirt hung half-open, buttons scattered across the floor from his frantic tugs. Pants shoved down his thighs, his cock sprang free—hard, leaking pre-cum. The aphrodisiac pulsed through him like liquid fire, making every inch of his body scream for touch, for friction, for something to fill the aching void inside.
Zhenya stood at the foot of the bed for a moment, just watching. His eyes raked over Taekjoo with raw hunger, drinking in the sight of him writhing, hips canting up into empty air. "Beautiful," he murmured, shedding his own shirt with deliberate slowness, revealing the hard planes of his chest, the faint scars that mapped his violent past.
Taekjoo cursed him in Korean, words slurring into breathless gasps as his hand drifted down to wrap around his own cock. He stroked once, twice but Zhenya was on him in an instant, pinning his wrists above his head with one iron grip.
"Not yet," Zhenya growled, his free hand trailing fire down Taekjoo's chest. Fingers pinched a nipple hard, twisting until Taekjoo arched with a sharp cry. Zhenya's mouth followed; his teeth grazing the sensitive bud, tongue laving it soothingly before biting down again. Pain and pleasure blurred under the drug's haze, making Taekjoo buck helplessly.
Zhenya's hand slid lower, between Taekjoo's thighs, parting them with ease. He teased the underside of Taekjoo's cock with feather-light touches, thumb circling the slick head, smearing pre-cum until Taekjoo was whimpering. "So wet for me already," Zhenya whispered, voice thick with satisfaction. His fingers dipped further, brushing against Taekjoo's entrance and teasing the tight ring of muscle without breaching.
Taekjoo thrashed, hips chasing the contact. "Bastard—do it—"
Zhenya chuckled against his neck, sucking a bruise into the skin. "Beg properly, zaika."
The words stuck in Taekjoo's throat, pride warring with the inferno raging inside him. But the aphrodisiac won. "Zhenya," he choked out, voice wrecked. "Please—fuck me—need it—"
Zhenya's smile was feral, victorious. He released Taekjoo's wrists only to flip him onto his stomach, yanking his hips up until Taekjoo was on all fours, exposed and trembling. Cool air hit his hole, making it clench involuntarily. Zhenya reached for the lube on the nightstand, slicking his fingers generously before pressing one inside.
Taekjoo moaned, pushing back onto it, the intrusion burning sweet. Zhenya added a second finger quickly, scissoring them, curling to hit that spot that made stars explode behind Taekjoo's eyelids. "Fuck—yes—more—"
A third finger stretched him wider, thrusting in and out with deliberate slowness, twisting to open him up. Taekjoo's arms gave out; he buried his face in the pillow, muffling his sobs as Zhenya worked him thoroughly, prostate abused until he was leaking steadily onto the sheets.
Finally, Zhenya withdrew, leaving Taekjoo empty and aching. The blunt head of his cock nudged against the loosened hole. He pushed in agonizingly slow, inch by torturous inch, the stretch splitting Taekjoo open in the best way. Zhenya was huge, filling him completely, bottoming out with a groan that vibrated through both of them.
Taekjoo arched off the mattress with a raw cry, nails digging into the sheets. The world narrowed to heat, pressure, the rhythm as Zhenya started moving—slow at first, deep rolls of his hips that dragged his cock against every sensitive nerve. Taekjoo's body clenched around him, greedy, pulling him deeper.
"Faster," Taekjoo gasped, broken Russian mixing with Korean curses.
Zhenya obliged, grip bruising on Taekjoo's hips as he slammed in harder, faster. The wet slap of skin on skin filling the room. Each thrust punched the air from Taekjoo's lungs, cock grinding against his prostate until he was seeing white. The aphrodisiac amplified it all—the drag, the fullness, the way Zhenya's balls slapped against his ass.
The first orgasm ripped through Taekjoo like a storm—untouched, his cock pulsing, spilling hot cum onto the sheets in thick ropes. He screamed Zhenya's name, body seizing, hole fluttering around the unrelenting intrusion. Zhenya didn't stop and fucked him through it, prolonging the waves until Taekjoo was oversensitive, whimpering.
Zhenya flipped him again, onto his back, hooking Taekjoo's legs over his shoulders. He drove back in with one brutal thrust, folding Taekjoo nearly in half. The angle was deeper, hitting places that made Taekjoo sob. Zhenya's hand wrapped around Taekjoo's spent cock, stroking it back to hardness with slick, firm pulls.
"Come again for me," Zhenya demanded, voice rough, accent thick. He leaned down, capturing Taekjoo's mouth in a filthy kiss.
Taekjoo came a second time, vision blurring, cum splattering between their stomachs. Zhenya followed soon after, burying himself deep with a guttural moan, flooding Taekjoo with heat, pulse after pulse until it leaked out around his cock.
They weren't done. The aphrodisiac kept Taekjoo hard and needy. Zhenya pulled out only to manhandle him into his lap, impaling him again. Taekjoo rode him desperately, hands braced on Zhenya's chest, hips grinding down as Zhenya thrust up. Sweat slicked their bodies; Zhenya's mouth latched onto a nipple, sucking hard while his fingers dug into Taekjoo's ass, spreading him wider.
Hours passed, positions shifted, orgasms crashed one after another. Zhenya whispering filthy praise in Russian: "Good boy. My perfect zaika. Look how beautifully you break for me. Take it all—every inch, just for me."
When it finally ended, their bodies spent as the drug's fire ebbing to embers, Taekjoo lay trembling in the ruined sheets, cum drying on his skin, hole sore and leaking. Zhenya curled around him from behind, possessive arm locked over his waist, cock softening against his thigh.
"You didn't die," Zhenya said softly, lips brushing Taekjoo's damp hair. "You just became mine a little more."
Taekjoo closed his eyes. Exhaustion pulled at him, but the truth lingered sharper than any poison.
He hadn't escaped.
And worse, he wasn't sure he wanted to anymore.
Jeremy von Neuschwanstein stood at the edge of the forest where they'd found her body, his hands clenched so tightly his nails drew blood. Eight months had passed since Shuri died alone among the trees, and still he couldn't walk these paths without the guilt threatening to drown him.
He'd been awful to her. Not in any single catastrophic way, but in a thousand small cruelties. He'd sided with Elias' sneering remarks about her "foreign ways," the cold shoulder he'd given her at every dinner, the distance he'd maintained as if her very presence contaminated his mother's memory. She'd tried, God how she'd tried, with her careful attempts to understand their family dynamics and her quiet support when Father wasn't watching. He'd mistaken her kindness for political maneuvering, her care for schemes to secure her position.
But the truth was so much worse than he'd ever imagined.
The letter had been found in her chambers after her death, a half-written thing she'd never finished, addressed to no one. In it, she'd laid bare the suffocating loneliness of her position, the way she'd felt like an intruder in a house that would never accept her, the exhaustion of trying to be a mother to children who looked at her with contempt, a wife to a man who saw only duty in their union. She wrote of the Neuschwanstein estate feeling like a beautiful prison, and how perhaps a faraway place might offer her the peace she could never find here.
"I cannot continue as Marchioness Neuschwanstein," she'd written in her elegant script. "Perhaps by leaving, I might finally find a place where I belong, where my presence brings comfort rather than resentment. The children would be happier without the constant reminder that I am not their mother. They would be free to find someone they could truly accept. And I... I might finally stop feeling like I'm slowly disappearing."
The letter had been dated three days before her death.
She'd been running away not from responsibility or scandal, but from them. From him. And she'd chosen the forest route because it was faster, more discreet. Because she'd been so desperate to escape that she'd risked everything for a few hours' head start before anyone noticed she was gone.
Jeremy had learned from the surviving maid that Shuri had left before dawn, taking only a small bag and wearing a simple traveling cloak. She'd left behind all her jewelry, all the markers of her station. She'd even removed her wedding ring, placing it carefully on her dressing table beside a white camellia.
The bandits had found her around midday. They'd been the usual desperate men from the mountain passes, but Jeremy couldn't bring himself to care about their circumstances. They'd killed the guards she'd brought, and then they'd turned on her.
By the time Jeremy discovered she was missing, it was already late. When the maid confessed where Shuri had gone, panic had seized him.
They'd found her as the sun was setting, painting the forest in shades of red that matched the blood on her torn cloak. She was crumpled at the base of an old oak, her traveling bag a few feet away, its contents scattered. Her eyes were open, staring at nothing, and there was an expression on her face that Jeremy would never forget. Not even fear nor pain, but something like resignation. As if she'd expected this. As if she'd known that even escape would be denied to her.
Jeremy had fallen to his knees beside her, had gathered her head into his arms though rigor mortis was already beginning to set in. He'd screamed her name until his voice broke, had begged her forgiveness until his father's men had to physically pull him away.
Elias had grown quieter, something guilty lurking behind his usual bravado. Even Rachel, young as she was, seemed to understand that something irreplaceable had been lost. The estate felt emptier now, colder, as if Shuri's absence had taken all the warmth with it.
Jeremy had read her unfinished letter so many times the paper had grown soft with handling. Each word was a knife in his chest, each line a testament to his cruelty. She was only young when she was thrust into a marriage of convenience with a man who grieved his first love, expected to mother four children who despised her.
And she'd tried. God, she'd tried so hard.
He remembered now with agonizing clarity, all the small gestures he'd dismissed. The way she'd learned each of their favorite foods and ensured the kitchen prepared them. How she'd quietly settled disputes between the servants to keep the household running smoothly. The books she'd left in the library—histories and philosophies she thought might interest him, never mentioned, just placed where he might find them. The time she'd stayed up all night nursing Rachel through a fever, though the girl had cried for her real mother the entire time.
Shuri von Ighofer had given everything to a family that gave her nothing back, and when she'd finally broken under the weight of it, she'd tried to slip away quietly, without fuss, as if even her departure should inconvenience no one.
Instead, she'd died alone and terrified in a forest, bleeding out on frozen ground, her last thoughts probably of a convent she'd never reach.
Now Jeremy walked the forest path daily, retracing her final journey. He brought white camellias to the spot where she'd fallen. It was the flower she'd loved, the flower that meant "you're adorable" in the language of flowers, though no one had ever given them to her while she lived. He read aloud from the books she'd studied, trying to understand the woman he'd refused to know.
The worst part was the small details he kept discovering. The maid mentioned that Shuri had been learning to embroider because she'd wanted to make each of them something personal for Yule. The housekeeper revealed that Shuri had been using her own allowance to fund repairs on the servants' quarters, asking that it be kept quiet. The estate steward admitted that she'd been studying the account books late at night, trying to find ways to make the lands more profitable without raising tenant rents.
She'd been so much more than he'd ever bothered to see. And he'd driven her to such despair that death in a bandit-infested forest had seemed preferable to another day as Marchioness Neuschwanstein.
The young lord who'd been so certain she was a scheming outsider had died with her in those woods, leaving behind a man who understood, too late, that she'd been the best of them all. That her only crime had been trying to love a family determined to hate her.
Jeremy von Neuschwanstein would carry that weight until his own death. And he knew, with bitter certainty, that it was exactly what he deserved.
Present
The ballroom of the Imperial Palace glittered with a thousand candles, their light reflecting off crystal chandeliers and gilded mirrors. Jeremy von Neuschwanstein stood at the edge of the crowd, a glass of wine in hand, watching the dancers with the detached interest of someone fulfilling an obligation rather than seeking pleasure.
His father had insisted the family maintain their social presence this season. "The Neuschwansteins have never hidden from society," the Marquess had said, though there was no warmth in his voice. So here Jeremy was, at seventeen, playing the part of an eligible young lord while finding the entire affair tedious.
He was contemplating an early escape when he noticed her.
She stood near one of the tall windows overlooking the palace gardens, slightly apart from the clusters of young ladies engaged in their careful social warfare. Her dress was elegant but without the excessive ornamentation that marked the others as desperate for attention. What caught his eye, though, was her expression: analytical, almost amused, as if she were watching a play rather than participating in one.
Something about her self-possessed stillness drew him across the ballroom.
"You look as though you're studying a particularly complex political landscape," he said as he approached, offering a slight bow.
She turned, and her eyes were startlingly intelligent, assessing him in a single glance before her expression warmed into a smile that seemed genuine rather than practiced. "Is it so obvious? I was thinking that these gatherings reveal more about power structures than a hundred diplomatic meetings."
"How so?" Jeremy found himself genuinely curious.
"Watch." She gestured subtly toward the dance floor. "See how the Duke of Westerling's daughter seeks partners from families with military connections? Her father's trying to secure his position after last year's border disputes. And there, the Countess Amelie dancing with Baron Richter's son. A match that would merge their territories and create a voting bloc in the House of Lords. Every dance is a negotiation, every conversation a chess move.
Jeremy blinked, impressed despite himself. Most young ladies he'd met could discuss fashion and gossip, little else. "You have a strategic mind."
"My father insisted I receive a thorough education," she said, a hint of dry amusement in her tone. "He said ignorance in a daughter was a liability, not a virtue. Though I suspect that makes me odd by current standards."
"Jeremy von Neuschwanstein," he said, offering his hand properly.
"Shuri von Ighofer," she replied, accepting it with a graceful curtsy. Her grip was firm, confident. "The Marquess's eldest son. Your father's land reforms have been quite progressive. The reduction in tenant obligations while maintaining productivity through crop rotation, it's elegant policy."
Jeremy stared at her. "You follow parliamentary proceedings?"
"I read the transcripts," she said simply. "Politics shapes everything, doesn't it? Seems foolish not to understand the forces that govern one's life."
They talked for an hour, then another, drifting from the window to the terrace where conversation came easier away from prying eyes. She had opinions on everything—the economic implications of the new trade treaties, the philosophical tensions between traditional authority and emerging republican thought, the delicate balance required to modernize without destroying social stability.
But she also laughed when he made a sardonic comment about the absurdity of measuring a family's worth by the height of their wigs. She listened when he spoke, truly listened, asking follow-up questions that showed she was engaging with his ideas rather than simply waiting for her turn to talk.
"Your mother was the late Marchioness Alice von Neuschwanstein," Shuri said at one point, her tone careful. "I was very young when she passed, but my father spoke highly of her charity work. He said she actually cared about the people she helped, rather than using them for social advancement."
Something in Jeremy's chest tightened. "You knew of her?"
"Only by reputation," Shuri said gently. "But reputations built on genuine kindness are rare enough to be noteworthy. You must miss her terribly."
The sympathy in her voice was real, without a trace of the calculating pity he'd learned to recognize in others who saw his grief as an opening. "Every day," he admitted, surprising himself with the honesty.
She didn't push, didn't probe. Just nodded with understanding and changed the subject to something lighter like a humorous observation about the orchestra's conductor, who seemed more interested in impressing the soprano than keeping proper time.
When she finally excused herself to return to her father's side—"He worries if I'm gone too long, thinks I'll say something undiplomatic"—Jeremy found himself reluctant to let her go.
"Might I call on you?" he asked, then caught himself. "Properly, I mean. If that would be acceptable."
She studied him for a long moment. He had the distinct impression he was being evaluated, weighed against some internal standard. Finally, she smiled. A real smile that transformed her entire face, lighting it from within.
"I'd like that, Lord Jeremy. Very much."
"Just Jeremy, please," he said. "When we're speaking privately."
"Then you must call me Shuri." She extended her hand once more, and when he bowed over it, she added quietly, "Fair warning: I'm told I can be rather intense. I ask too many questions and have too many opinions. It's driven off more than one suitor."
"Good," Jeremy said, meeting her eyes. "I prefer intensity to vapidity. And opinions to empty-headed agreement."
Her smile widened. "Then we shall get along splendidly or argue constantly. Either seems preferable to boredom."
Riding home that night through lamplit streets, Jeremy couldn't stop replaying their conversation. The way she'd tilted her head when considering his arguments, the quick flash of intelligence in her eyes, the complete absence of simpering or false modesty. For the first time in his twenty-two years, he'd met someone who felt like an equal, someone who could challenge him, surprise him, make him want to be better than he was.
He called on her three days later, bringing books on economic theory he thought she might enjoy. They spent two hours in her father's library debating the merits of various approaches to land management. She disagreed with him on at least half his points, and he found himself exhilarated rather than offended.
Over the following weeks, he visited regularly. They walked in gardens, attended concerts, debated philosophy over tea.
He introduced her to his siblings, watching carefully for their reactions. His younger brother Elias was suspicious at first—fourteen and protective of their mother's memory—but Shuri won him over by asking intelligent questions about his fencing lessons and treating his opinions seriously. Rachel and Leon only eight, were shyer, but warmed when Shuri didn't talk down to her or try to mother her too quickly.
Six months after their first meeting, Jeremy asked her father for permission to court her formally. The elder von Ighofer had studied him with the same measuring intelligence as his daughter.
"My daughter is not a ornament to grace your household," he'd said bluntly. "She has a mind and will of her own. If you seek a decorative wife who'll smile and stay silent, look elsewhere."
"If I wanted that, I wouldn't be here," Jeremy had replied. "Your daughter challenges me. Makes me think. I don't want her despite her intelligence. I want her because of it."
The old man had smiled then. "Good answer, young Neuschwanstein. You have my blessing. Whether you have hers is another matter."
But he did. Shuri accepted his proposal in the same garden where they'd first debated philosophy, and when he slipped the ring onto her finger, she'd looked at him with such open affection that his chest had ached.
"I'll try to make you happy," he'd promised.
"Just see me," she'd replied, cupping his face in her hands. "That's all I ask. See me as I am, not as what you wish me to be or fear I might become. And I'll do the same for you."
It seemed such a simple thing.
They married in spring, when the cherry blossoms were blooming. His father gave his blessing, seeming to recognize that this match was different from the political calculation of his own second marriage. Elias served as his groomsman. Rachel and Leon scattered flower petals with solemn concentration.
And when Shuri von Ighofer became Shuri von Neuschwanstein, when she smiled at him across the altar with joy and hope and trust in her eyes, Jeremy made a silent vow: he would spend the rest of his life ensuring she never regretted choosing him. That she would never feel alone or unwanted in his house. That she would always, always be seen.
This time, this blessed time, he knew what he had before it was too late. And he would guard it with everything he was.