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Mo Xi had not meant to rediscover his weakness.
Oh, he knew it. He had always known it. Across the armored tapestry of his life, there had only ever been one stain, one mark. A playful lotus inked in filthy white, a bloody handprint cracking over the threads of his ribs, a bite on his shoulder to muffle screams.
All one mark. All one soul.
Mo Xi had always known his weakness was Gu Mang. He’d never needed the moans to remind him. He’d never minded, not as he unraveled his heart to weave into Gu Mang’s armor. The threads of him draped over the broad shoulders of a beast, and Mo Xi didn’t regret it. He didn’t think he ever would.
Still, knowing the weakness was one thing. Exposing it to Gu Mang’s burning stare was another, but nothing Mo Xi hadn’t willingly done before. This was altogether different.
Mo Xi shivered.
“Princess?”
Gu Mang’s voice pressed quietly around them, caring where it didn’t need to be careful. They were alone now, tangled together in the breaths before dawn. These precious moments did not belong to the war, or to the soldiers, or even to the emperor. They belonged to the two of them, Mo Xi and Gu Mang, shidi and shixiong, noble and slave.
Mo Xi would do anything to guard this time, and he had. He’d slapped a silencing spell down as soon as the tent flap closed behind him, ready to make Gu Mang scream.
That hadn’t happened.
He shivered again, body tingling out of his control.
“Mo Xi? Princess? You alright there?”
Mo Xi, boneless and spread around a thick cock, could only pant in reply. He felt like the ice in his spine had melted away with the first thrust, with the first nudge of Gu Mang’s heat inside him. Before, he’d been ready to fuck Gu Mang into the bed until it cracked, weak as Mo Xi was weak. Before, he’d been crackling with lust.
Now, he was pliant with it.
Mo Xi shivered into a stretch, face buried in Gu Mang’s coat, mouth choking on Gu Mang’s smell, and body owned by Gu Mang. He was so full.
Fingers brushed his neck, soothing circles across his skin. They seemed to hesitate, just as Gu Mang did above him. “Come on princess, look up at me, let me make sure you are alright.”
Gu Mang sounded worried. Distantly, Mo Xi understood why, and distantly, he was annoyed by it. Gu Mang should know that there was no wilting flower in his bed. A rough treatment wouldn’t rip the delicate petals of this beauty, no matter if it was the first time Mo Xi had…
He wouldn’t break. He might bruise, but that was part of this too.
But Mo Xi couldn’t reach the anger. He could barely feel it, watching it tremble on the edge of the world as if it would fall from existence if Gu Mang sunk a little deeper. There was no anger in him. There was hardly a thought at all, hardly a man. Every piece of him, from skin to heart to sparking nerve, was focused on the heat spreading him open.
Gu Mang’s cock felt big. It was big enough he couldn’t think, let alone think of anything else. It soothed the pride Mo Xi had never given up, gentling it as Gu Mang gentled nothing else between them. The stretch sunk in deep and stayed, a brand Mo Xi had bent for.
Mo Xi shivered, clenching down. Gu Mang twitched inside him, hot and claiming. Mo Xi was on his knees, face pressed into thick fabric, knees spread on thick fur. Little panting breaths soaked out of him, not loud enough for moans and not wild enough for screams.
He felt quiet. He was quiet, he could tell. He couldn’t help it. Gu Mang was a beast on the battlefield, and a beast Mo Xi tamed to cry for his cock in bed. He expected the reverse to be true, when he was fucked.
It wasn’t.
It had been long after sunset, in the moments that belonged only to them. It had been quiet then too, snow muffling the world away. Mo Xi had pressed desperately close to Gu Mang, basked in his heat and caged him against against a table. Then he’d asked. He’d asked to be fucked, long before the dawn could break them apart.
Gu Mang, with wide eyes and a breathless smile, had said yes. Mo Xi had known he would. He pressed this small, vulnerable first into Gu Mang’s hands with depressing sincerity.
It was all for Gu Mang. All of him was.
But Gu Mang hadn’t tamed him, as Mo Xi tamed the Beast of the Altar. Gu Mang had barely done anything at all, just slicked a thick cock up and sheathed it inside him nice and slow. How he felt now— boneless and willing— didn’t come from Gu Mang.
This pliant quiet was all Mo Xi.
Maybe it was the inexperience. The only man he’d ever taken was Gu Mang, after all, and Gu Mang was quite a man. Maybe most men lost their pride and wits when they spread their legs for General Gu and his wild smirk. Maybe they all melted into obedience, eager for whatever could spill into them. Maybe Mo Xi was not the first to be so willing.
Mo Xi had no way of knowing, and he never wanted to. No, he knew his weakness. He knew it well. Mo Xi hadn’t been tamed, because he’d never been a beast at all. Gu Mang was the one with fangs and an unbreakable spirit. Mo Xi was ice and iron, unbendable before all but one man.
How he felt now didn’t come from Gu Mang, but it was only for Gu Mang.
A quiet breath left him, puffing out into the gentle cold of early spring. Mo Xi thought he could feel the phantom press of Gu Mang’s cock all the way through his throat. If the man came like this, Mo Xi might be able to taste it, thick and heavy on his tongue.
Mo Xi shivered. He wasn’t sure he’d ever felt so relaxed in his life.
And then it was gone. It was gone.
Gu Mang pulled out of him with a slick pop, cock leaking its way out of Mo Xi’s body and leaving him cold. The noise was lewd and loud enough that Mo Xi realized Gu Mang wasn’t speaking.
Mo Xi could think again, and now, the irritation was close enough to bite.
“What,” he began, turning to press his cheek down into the cloak. The friction was grounding, rough. Mo Xi would have marks across his face from the folds of fabric. It smelled like Gu Mang, like musk and sex and the last ashes from a fire. “What are you doing?”
“I’m stopping,” Gu Mang answered, and if Mo Xi were a stronger man, he would have howled. Instead, he reached back, hand clamping across Gu Mang’s shoulder like it could trap the Beast of the Altar here, in the bed they shared. It wasn’t yet dawn, and the snow hid their moans from the cold press of the world.
It wasn’t yet dawn, and Mo Xi was so desperate. He had always been weak for Gu Mang.
“Princess,” came brushing across his back, helpless. Gu Mang’s voice was deep and smooth, rumbling near enough to burn. “Don’t pull at me like that. Your shixiong doesn’t want to hurt you, alright? Let’s forget about this for tonight. Why don’t you flip me over and fuck me with that nice big cock of yours instead?”
It wasn’t a bad suggestion.
Mo Xi was hungry for it, hungry for every sound he could wring from Gu Mang’s pretty throat. There was little that felt better than spreading Gu Mang’s ass and mounting him like a stallion in rut. If he could stay in Gu Mang for an eternity, Mo Xi would. The blood that dripped through his veins had only ever been kindling, waiting for a spark before dawn.
Gu Mang could ignite him. Gu Mang did, constantly. Mo Xi burned to fuck him.
And yet.
Mo Xi wanted to shiver, but he could only shudder instead, empty and cold. He’d felt so calm. He’d felt warm, like the world had been bleached dry and only Gu Mang was left to lap at his skin. The stretch of Gu Mang inside him wasn’t something Mo Xi was willing to give up, not even for the pleasure of getting his own cock wet.
Mo Xi kept kneeling.
He shifted, slid a little on the thick fur beneath him. The move spread his knees wider, and Mo Xi clenched his jaw so he wouldn’t arch his back like a whore. Gu Mang sucked in a breath, mouth dropping open and tongue flicking out. He looked like a wolf, long starved and standing before a feast.
Mo Xi watched him, eyes half closed. His eyelashes brushed the cloak under him, kissing it with a delicate flutter. He wanted to be kissed too.
He wanted to be devoured.
“Did I ask?”
“What?” Gu Mang was watching him with a fierce intensity. They must mirror each other, but Mo Xi knew his eyes had depths of coals, of a hot and dry kindling. He wanted— he wanted to be wet and soaked instead. His body clenched, aching to be filled, but Gu Mang only watched and did not take.
Mo Xi wanted to break something, from shame or lust he did not know. He didn’t talk during sex, really. He didn’t like to. And yet, if he did not speak, Gu Mang would not fuck back into him.
“I said, did I ask you to stop?”
Silence swept between them, and Mo Xi reached for Gu Mang again, trapped in the moments before dawn. One hand bruised into Gu Mang’s hip, pulling hard muscle flush against him. The long line of a cock rubbed him raw, slicking the skin of his inner thighs until it seemed to burn. Mo Xi hooked his toes around a strong leg for good measure, urging the beast at his back on and on.
It was enough.
“Mo Xi,” Gu Mang said, breathless with realization. The cock between Mo Xi’s thighs twitched like it had been struck by lightning, and Gu Mang looked much the same.
“Mo Xi.”
Gu Mang fucked forward, cock sliding against Mo Xi like flint sparking across iron. Kneeling and spread open, Mo Xi couldn’t bring his legs together. He could only shiver, bucking back.
He needed this. He needed— he needed Gu Mang to fuck him.
“I didn’t realize, I can’t believe I didn’t.” Gu Mang took his wrist, pressed a kiss to his skin, fluttering and hungry. Mo Xi could feel Gu Mang’s breath speeding up like a wolf on the hunt, and groaned under the promise of needy teeth. “You like me in you. You like being filled up by me, princess?”
Mo Xi shivered, burning but unbitten. He felt like his insides had been turned to charcoal, smoking and smoking for Gu Mang. He needed more, needed to be burned and filled until he could breathe fire.
He needed Gu Mang, and Gu Mang delivered, cock rubbing teasing circles across his hole. A layer of slick precum trailed across his skin, cold against his heat.
“You want my cock back in you?” Gu Mang asked, a private revelation, a tease, and a promise all at once.
Mo Xi would destroy nations, would destroy himself, to get it back. He grit his teeth into a nod, Gu Mang’s cloak warm enough to sear his cheek.
If Gu Mang didn’t hurry up, Mo Xi would flip them over and take what he needed.
“Okay,” Gu Mang said, and punched the breath out of him in a long slow slide. Mo Xi felt his lips fall open as Gu Mang’s cock filled him to the brim, on and on until there was no room for anything else. Thoughts scattered, impatience steamed away, and Mo Xi felt completely and utterly owned.
In a single heartbeat, Mo Xi went boneless across the bed. A choked noise brushed over his back, warm and low, like Gu Mang watched him submit and couldn’t quite believe it.
“That’s so hot.” A wall of muscle pressed Mo Xi down, Gu Mang laying over him with a low groan. “You just— you just take it. You are so hot inside. So tight too, so good. You’re so good for me, princess. You’re so meek now that I’m in you. A mild-mannered young master, just for me.”
Mo Xi let his eyes flutter, not closed but overwhelmed. The fur under his knees was soft, even as he was beginning to ache. The thick press of Gu Mang inside him was hard, grinding deeper and deeper. Each twitch seemed helpless, like Gu Mang couldn’t stop fucking in, from taking pleasure in his body. Sweat slicked between them, and each drop washed the rigid pride off Mo Xi and soaked it into the cloak under his cheek. Here, he wasn’t a noble young master with a reputation to burn. Here, he was just Mo Xi.
The only part of Mo Xi that was left stiff was his cock, and that was dripping too.
Dimly, Mo Xi heard the filth pouring out of Gu Mang’s mouth and kissed into his skin. A hundred so good for me, so good, you relax for me so well, you were born for this, let shixiong take care of you now little shidi.
It didn’t stop, but Gu Mang never stopped. He didn’t stop moving either, fucking in with little half thrusts, cock never sliding all the way out. It was like Gu Mang couldn’t bear the risk of leaving Mo Xi, with all the weight that risk carried.
Gu Mang’s hand was braced beside Mo Xi’s head, white and stiff from tension. Mo Xi watched it flex, watched the fingers clench with each thrust, watched the fabric bunch under Gu Mang’s grip. He followed the arm up to a shoulder, up to Gu Mang’s stare.
There was a deadly focus in the way Gu Mang’s eyes watched him, like Mo Xi was a battle to win and Gu Mang had turned every trained muscle of his body towards victory. Sweat licked between them, dripping off Gu Mang’s chest to wet Mo Xi’s back. Each drop seemed to slide along a different scar, worshipping Gu Mang’s body as Mo Xi usually would, with his mouth.
Gu Mang looked good taking him, Mo Xi thought, panting out little gasps with each thrust. The man smiled, crooked with a tease, and Mo Xi felt burned alive with lust.
Gu Mang looked perfect, taking him.
“Panting a little for me? Your lips look so pretty, shidi, I could just slide into them. Ah, fuck, that made you tighter. I can’t take this, princess.”
Every word sunk into Mo Xi’s skin like a brand, catching the kindling in his skin into a blaze. It wasn’t a problem if Gu Mang couldn’t take it— Mo Xi could take enough for both of them. His thirst for Gu Mang was endless, and no matter how deeply he drank, it wouldn’t be enough.
This fire couldn’t be quenched.
He flexed at the thought, melted and lax as he was. He wanted Gu Mang to mark him. It may be filthy, but Mo Xi wanted to feel it as Gu Mang came inside him. Gu Mang, fucking into his willing body, seemed to agree.
“You are going to be the death of me,” Gu Mang bit out across Mo Xi’s neck after more little gasps than Mo Xi could count. He shuddered to a stop in Mo Xi’s body, spilling deep and thick inside him.
Mo Xi’s breath caught on a wounded noise, desperate and shameful. Suddenly, he could understand why Gu Mang so loved being filled. The warmth of Gu Mang alone, rocking forward to fuck slick seed until it could have reached Mo Xi’s throat, made his blood boil. But the slick heat of cum, the pressure of it, the claim—
It was enough to drive a man to addiction. Being filled was intoxicating, and Mo Xi was already greedy for all that he could give and take from Gu Mang. Mo Xi was stained with another man’s seed, and he did not mind.
After a long sigh, Gu Mang made to pull out, hot kisses pressing over the marks of his own teeth.
“Don’t move,” Mo Xi said, desperate fingers sinking into the hips behind him and bruising them closer. He didn’t want to lose that warmth yet, not now, and he didn’t have to. They were young. One round was only the warm up, as far as Mo Xi was concerned.
He needed more.
Gu Mang moaned into his neck, cock weakly twitching inside Mo Xi. “Fuck, we’ve really been missing out. You’re amazing, Mo Xi. So amazing for me.”
They breathed together like that for a long moment, caught before the dawn. Mo Xi was still hard, still aching with lust, but it was a distant thing.
He felt grounded.
Strong fingers brushed across his belly, callouses rough enough to make him shiver. Gu Mang pressed up, pulling Mo Xi flush to his chest. Mo Xi groaned out a quiet breath, legs trembling. Even soft, Gu Mang’s cock was a thick weight inside him, and those fingers seemed to search it out, as if to feel where Mo Xi was stretched and fucked wide.
“If you could bear a child, princess…” Gu Mang murmured, aimless and entranced.
Mo Xi shivered.
Gu Mang froze, fingers pressing up and cock pressing in. “Oh. Oh, Mo Xi, what did I ever do to deserve you. You like that too, huh?”
He did. He didn’t want to. It was filthy, worse than the lewd heat that so often spilled from Gu Mang’s mouth in bed. All of it drove him wild with lust, but this, this was—
This was more.
Mo Xi had never cared about the gap between noble and slave, because he didn’t think they were different. There was nothing Mo Xi could do that Gu Mang couldn’t, no heights of power they couldn’t reach together. But the world saw the difference, and the world would judge. What an illicit affair it would be, if a slave fucked a child into a noble son. What a scandal!
There would be no hiding what was between them, then.
Mo Xi tightened as best he could, flexing the hard-earned muscles of his body. They’d been won on the battlefield and in the sparring ring, but here they were turned to a filthy purpose.
Gu Mang twitched inside him, and began to thicken up again.
As if the heat melted Gu Mang into movement, the fingers traced circles across his belly, swirling lower and lower, gentle despite the callouses. “You want to carry my child, shidi? I wish I could give you one. If I could, I’d fill you up over and over until you’re heavy with it, heavy with me. You do that to me sometimes, shidi. Fuck me enough rounds that your seed takes days to get out.”
Gu Mang pressed Mo Xi’s cock up, palm cradling the weight of it. It brushed his belly, wet and leaking with everything Gu Mang whispered to him.
Mo Xi felt his eyes flutter, once, twice, throat tight to hold back the moans.
“A child of ours would be an absolute menace, and I’d love them to pieces. They’d be so beautiful, just like you,” was sighed against his neck. The hand under his cock moved slow, gentle enough to be idle. Mo Xi was burning to cinders under Gu Mang, taking every filthy word. “You’re so beautiful, Mo Xi. You have the longest legs I’ve ever seen, you know that? The girls talk about them, in the towns we go through. The men talk about them too, but only when they think no one can hear. I wish I could take you on your back, just to see your legs tremble.”
A thumb pressed at Mo Xi’s slit, the idle assault of a strategist. Mo Xi twitched. He was hard enough to pound steel with his cock alone, but it was a distant thing. All of him was sunk into the heat of Gu Mang in him, the lewd drip of cum down his ass. One strand traced the curve of his thigh, and he watched it from below, eyes heavy on the trail of white.
That was Gu Mang’s seed dripping out of him.
Suddenly, Mo Xi needed to move. He grabbed Gu Mang’s hand, pushing it down and away, shook aside the concerned Princess?
He didn’t want to finish like this.
Mo Xi kept moving, shifting his shaking body with a clenched jaw. It was harder to move Gu Mang how he wanted when he was the one spread wide and trembling. Fucking him was easier for that, but Mo Xi was no coward before a challenge.
Gu Mang understood after a moment, strong hands lifting him up and helping him with an okay okay, don’t kick me in the face shidi. It took a tangle of limbs and a grunt of frustration before they were rearranged, but they settled just as Mo Xi wanted them to: with Mo Xi spread out on his back like a sacrifice, legs wrapped around the ruthless hips of the Beast of the Altar. Gu Mang’s cock had never once left him. Neither had his stare, the playful glaze a thin covering for the hunger, the strength, the sheer kindness of Gu Mang.
For the man that Mo Xi—
He breathed out, a rush sliding up his spine. Mo Xi felt content, in the quiet and hopeful way he always felt around Gu Mang. Gu Mang was the fire, and Mo Xi wanted to burn. He wanted a kiss too, so he took it, fingers loose on the curve of a strong neck. Gu Mang bent for him, as he always did.
The hair under his fingers was soaked with sweat, but kissing Gu Mang was still a cool relief.
“It’s good to see your face, shidi.” Gu Mang murmured against his lips. “You turned over so carefully that I never slipped out. Do you want me to worship your legs like I said? I will if you want it. I want it, I want to bite them so they have pretty pink bruises. My bruises.”
Mo Xi furrowed his brow against the flush, but said nothing. He didn’t care if Gu Mang built a temple to his thighs, or bit him bloody. Gu Mang wanted this, and so Mo Xi wanted to see him get it. That was all. That was all it ever needed to be.
All of him was a gift, freely given.
A hand snuck between them, curling around his cock with more pressure than before. It stroked down, tight, and Mo Xi bucked up, spine curving towards the sky, towards Gu Mang. It was exploring, light, and the tiniest bit unsure.
Mo Xi blinked against the realization that Gu Mang had never needed to jerk him off before.
Gu Mang kissed him again, carefully, as if he was precious. “Can you come for me shidi? I want to feel you come around me.”
Mo Xi panted into Gu Mang’s mouth.
The fire in him was eaten up by Gu Mang, fucked into him by Gu Mang, and given back to Gu Mang. He was hard, hard enough to turn brittle and snap, and Gu Mang wanted that from him. Gu Mang wanted his pleasure. Mo Xi wanted it too, burning from ice to ash and water.
He reached down, wrapped his fingers around Gu Mang’s hand and guided it. Gu Mang had moved slow and gentle as he stroked, treating Mo Xi’s body like fine noble porcelain.
Mo Xi tightened his grip, and showed Gu Mang how to strip him raw and rough.
He came quickly, tightening around Gu Mang until the man groaned. Mo Xi’s throat moved around empty words, not gasping but breathless, ragged. It took him a while to blink back into his body, guided by the slick cooling across his stomach and the kisses pressed to his face, his neck, his hair.
“So good, Mo Xi, so beautiful, you are so beautiful for me.” The words sunk in with the kisses and bursts of healing qi, washing him awake. Mo Xi shivered back into himself, and clenched down with a groan.
Gu Mang was hard again. Teeth caught at Mo Xi’s desire and tugged, just as he caught and tugged at Gu Mang’s lip.
He drew blood, and a yelp.
“Ow, your teeth, shidi, be a little gentle. Why are you biting me?” Gu Mang laughed against him, bloody lips kissing a fresh grin across his breath. “Is there something you need?”
Mo Xi thinned his lips into an edge, even as kisses tempted them open. Gu Mang knew exactly what he needed.
He just wasn’t giving it.
“Gu Mang,” he panted after a long pause, distant embarrassment slinking through him. “Move.”
“Move?” Gu Mang was grinning at him, eyes burning on the warm side of playful. “Your wish is my command, little shidi. Where do you want me to move? Do you want me to get up? Run around? Go outside?”
If Mo Xi hadn’t felt melted and pliant as water, he’d have—
Done something, he was sure. Maybe shoved Gu Mang down and fucked him into moans, fucked out the teasing until all that was left was Mo Xi’s cock and seed.
He didn’t want that, now. He still shoved, pushing Gu Mang into a retreat. The man moved for him, rocking back and almost slipping out of Mo Xi, concern shocked across his face. He was always like this; pushing boundary after boundary, but only to the point of kindness. Gu Mang indulged him like Gu Mang cared for his soldiers, bearing their safety firmly on his own shoulders. Gu Mang was taking him, so Gu Mang wanted to shoulder this responsibility too.
Mo Xi swung his legs over those same shoulders before Gu Mang could speak.
“Move,” he said, and Gu Mang’s hips jolted forward with a helpless twitch.
It was deeper like this, Gu Mang’s cock fucking the breath from his lungs and the strength from his hands. Mo Xi threw back his head and fought a losing war for air. Above him, Gu Mang whimpered into a moan, and moaned into a laugh. He sounded happy. “Okay okay, I can take a hint. I’ll stop teasing and move, just like my little princess commands.”
And so he did, snapping his hips forward like Mo Xi was a battlefield, and Gu Mang a conquerer. Mo Xi let his eyes slide closed, relaxed and pliant under Gu Mang. He didn’t need to stay wary. He never needed to be on guard with Gu Mang. This was the gift he gave himself, and the faith he gave Gu Mang. It was a blind and unconditional trust, and Mo Xi parted with it willingly.
Gu Mang came in him again before long. Mo Xi panted at the slick warmth, feeling full and filthy.
It would be alright, if they stated like this until dawn.
Gu Mang didn’t try to pull out again, settling into him with a pleased sigh and nipping across Mo Xi’s calves and ankles. The sparks of pain made Mo Xi twitch. Those teeth were loud and echoing across his skin after all that pleasure. They’d leave marks that he wouldn’t heal. He would feel them when he stood at the head of his own army, tall and commanding. If they fucked for too long into the morning, he’d feel thick seed dripping down his thighs then too.
Mo Xi’s eyes fluttered at the thought, but he didn’t look away from Gu Mang. Gu Mang met his eyes and bit down, controlled strength just a shade too hard. His legs shook, jolting to escape, even as Mo Xi stayed obedient and pliant. Looming above Mo Xi, covered in sweat and glorious with it, Gu Mang was—
He looked beautiful. Mo Xi wished he had the face to say that, even now, filled with Gu Mang’s seed and well fucked.
He didn’t.
Gu Mang did.
“Beautiful, you look so beautiful like this. It’s a shame I can’t mark up all of your legs from here. Your thighs will have to wait until I eat you out, shidi.”
Mo Xi shivered, dark with hunger. It made them both twitch, oversensitive and raw from pleasure.
Gu Mang groaned again.
“That too? Maybe I should be begging you for mercy, princess. Your stamina is really godly. I bet you could ride my face until my jaw gave out. But that’s going to have to wait,” the words were regretful, the teeth on his legs hungry. “We don’t have all night, and I’d want all night to eat you up.”
Mo Xi wanted that too, he thought, and let his eyes slide closed again. Peace seemed to wash at his skin, a calm that wasn’t lazy or listless. Outside, time marched on, and the dawn drew closer, but Mo Xi couldn’t summon anything but warmth.
The dawn could wait for them.
Gu Mang burrowed forward, humming and kissing up Mo Xi’s neck. “If I pull out, will I get my thorny princess back?”
Mo Xi let out a long breath, warm with the fire Gu Mang had burned in. No one could see them here, and there was no one to watch the ice melt from Mo Xi’s lips. He could feel Gu Mang smile into his skin.
He smiled too.
“You already have him.”
⊱ ━━━━.⋅❈⋅.━━━━ ⊰
Mo Xi came awake with a silent shudder. The cold north greeted him, wind slipping beneath the flap of his tent and cooling the sweat.
He didn’t need to look down to see how he’d stained himself again.
It had been a long time since he’d remembered that night. It was a dangerous memory to dwell on, washed in a dreamy red and a trust Mo Xi hadn’t been able to purge from himself.
Gu Mang had been willing enough to purge it for him, but Mo Xi still had the stain.
It was past dawn, now. Mo Xi’s time belonged to the emperor, to his men, to everyone but himself. He burned the cum off his thighs, and dressed to meet the sunrise.
It was long past dawn.