The King's Dancer

Chapter 17

Before Xie Lian even had the time to blink, Hua Cheng was already holding him in his arms, pressing Xie Lian's back to his chest firmly. He threw one leg over Xie Lian's hips, and nuzzled against his neck once more. This time Xie Lian made sure to keep in control of his thoughts, and relaxed into the embrace. The action caused Hua Cheng to hug him tighter, as well as a pleasant rumbling sound in the king's chest.

The room had already been full of Hua Cheng's smoky cinnamon smell when he entered, and the anxiousness in it was hard to miss. However, now that Hua Cheng was so close to him, and cuddling him, his smell slowly lost that sourness, which relieved Xie Lian to no end.

"San Lang... I'm not scared of you. Don't ever think I could be scared of you. Please. That won't ever happen", he tried to reassure Hua Cheng quietly, for which he got hugged even tighter.

Hua Cheng didn't reply verbally though, and Xie Lian figured it was because he simply couldn't. He could only speak from his own experiences with heats, but he knew he'd been overcome with all sorts of feelings and desires to the point where he had only been able to make the most primitive noises like whining, for example. He hadn't been able to form words, much less sentences, and he figured that Hua Cheng was facing the same issue.

Hua Cheng kept cuddling and nuzzling him for a while, which, honestly, did feel rather nice and put him in a much calmer state of mind. However, after some time Hua Cheng lifted one hand to loosen Xie Lian's collar, and pulled it over his shoulder in a rather rough manner, which startled Xie Lian a bit, but when Hua Cheng just kept nuzzling him afterwards, he saw no reason to become alarmed, and he let himself relax again.

Xie Lian wasn't naive enough to think that Hua Cheng would spend the rest of the time of his rut cuddling him like this; the alpha most definitely had other urges to take care of as well, but Xie Lian would deal with that situation when it happened. It wasn't like he could leave either; the chances of damaging their relationship if he did were too big for him to be willing to risk it. After all, to Hua Cheng it wouldn't just be him leaving, it would be him abandoning the alpha in his time of need. And even if the rational side of him would probably understand why Xie Lian would leave in a situation such as this, his innermost instinct would tell him for the rest of his life that Xie Lian couldn't be trusted, not completely, and couldn't be depended on, not in critical situations. And Xie Lian refused to have it come to that.

He did jump slightly however, when Hua Cheng stopped nuzzling him, and started kissing his exposed shoulder instead. Figuring that this was still okay, he didn't protest, and let Hua Cheng work on his shoulder as much as he wanted. It did... something to him though, and he started wondering if maybe he'd have to start reciting the ethics sutra at some point to keep his mind clear.

Hua Cheng proceeded to kiss his shoulder for what turned out to be quite a long while; the sky had grown completely dark in the meantime. Xie Lian would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the alpha's attention on him, which he felt a bit guilty for. Wasn't he taking advantage of Hua Cheng, just a little bit? The guilt was why he tried not to react much to Hua Cheng's actions, no matter how much of a challenge it was.

Eventually however, Hua Cheng's finger took the liberty of flicking Xie Lian's nipple, before he played with it, and after flinching in surprise at the sudden sensation, and that damned feeling in his gut, which had come back with a vengeance, Xie Lian knew that this was where he had to draw the line.

First he started reciting the ethics sutra in his head, then he grabbed Hua Cheng's wrist to pull his hand away from his chest, and then turned to lie on his back in order to see the alpha better.

Unfortunately, Hua Cheng seemed to take it as an invitation to sit up, and because his leg had already been thrown across both of Xie Lian's, it had the effect of him hovering above him. Once he was above Xie Lian, he leaned down again, no doubt in order to kiss Xie Lian again, only aiming for his lips this time.