The first light bled pale gold across the manor's high windows, but the room still felt heavy, the air saturated with the echo of the night before.
Elias was already awake. He hadn't slept much not with Valen's voice still ghosting through his head.
Let me at least see your real face.
He hadn't answered. Not with words. But he'd felt Valen's presence lingering at the edge of his consciousness all night, like the heat from a dying fire that refuses to go out.
Now, sitting at the edge of the bed, Elias pulled on his shirt with slow, deliberate movements. He could feel him , knew without looking that Valen was standing in the doorway, silent. Watching.
"You never were one to knock" Elias murmured, fastening the last button.
Valen stepped inside. The morning light hit his profile like carved marble, but his eyes were anything but cold. They burned."Did you expect me to wait in the hall? After last night?"
Elias glanced over his shoulder, lips quirking faintly. "Last night was… nothing."
Valen's mouth curved, not in amusement, but in a way that promised trouble. He crossed the room without haste, and Elias's pulse betrayed him before Valen even touched him.
"You say nothing'" Valen murmured, coming to stand just behind him "yet your heart tells me otherwise."
Elias didn't move away. Didn't lean in either. The tension between them was a blade, sharp and deliberate."You want something I can't give you."
Valen's fingers brushed the back of Elias's collar, lingering on the edge of his neck, where his pulse betrayed the truth. "Then tell me what you can give me, Elias."
A pause. A slow inhale.
"Seven nights were all I promised."
Valen leaned closer until his breath warmed Elias's ear. "And yet you're still here."
Elias stood, breaking the closeness, but his gaze didn't falter when it met Valen's."For now."
Valen watched him leave the room, his own restraint stretched thin, the question from last night still coiling in his chest.
He would wait.
But not forever.
Elias was halfway down the grand staircase when Valen's voice followed him low, deliberate, impossible to ignore.
"You still owe me something."
Elias paused, one hand resting on the carved banister. "Do I?"
Valen descended a few steps, his movements unhurried, the kind of unhurried that was meant to corner without touching."One question" he said. "That was the rule. Seven nights. Seven truths."
Elias's lips curved faintly. "And you've asked them all."
Valen's eyes caught his, sharp as glass. "No. I have one left."
He stopped two steps above Elias, close enough that the difference in height forced Elias to tilt his head just slightly to hold his gaze.
"But I don't want a question this time" Valen murmured. "I want a request."
Elias arched a brow. "That wasn't part of the agreement."
Valen's smile was small, but it reached his eyes in a way that felt dangerous. "Neither was you disappearing on the seventh night and yet, here we are."
The air between them thickened. Elias didn't step back. Didn't agree either.
"And what" Elias asked slowly "would you request?"
Valen leaned forward, close enough that his words brushed warm against Elias's skin.
"For one night" he said "you give me truth without words. No games. No masks. No lies."
Elias's breath caught, just for a fraction of a second. Then he stepped past him, continuing down the stairs.
"We'll see" he said over his shoulder.
Valen watched him go, the faintest trace of a smile tugging at his lips. He could wait for the answer.
The manor was silent except for the sound of rain sweeping against the windows soft, steady, the kind of rhythm that demanded closeness.
Elias stood at the center of Valen's private study, a place he had never been invited before. The firelight painted his features in molten gold and shadow.
Valen didn't sit behind the desk. He closed the distance instead, each step a careful promise, until he was close enough for Elias to feel the faint, unnatural warmth that clung to him.
"You agreed" Valen said quietly. "No masks tonight."
Elias's reply was a whisper. "And if my mask is all that's holding me together?"
Valen reached out slowly, deliberately fingers brushing along the line of Elias's jaw. "Then let me hold you instead."
He didn't kiss him at once. He lingered there, studying every flicker in Elias's gaze, as if memorizing the exact shade of defiance and hesitation. Then, with a patience that was almost cruel, Valen's mouth finally found his.
It was not hunger. It was reverence. The kind of kiss that began with a breath, the faintest press of lips, as though Valen was afraid the contact would break something precious. His hands framed Elias's face, thumbs stroking over cheekbones like he was tracing scripture.
When Elias yielded, just slightly, Valen deepened it. The kiss grew warmer, slower, until it curled low in Elias's stomach and stole the steady rhythm from his breath. Valen's mouth moved with intent, coaxing, savoring, tasting like a man starved but unwilling to rush the meal.
Between kisses, Valen spoke ,not in questions, but truths.
"You think I'm fascinated with your defiance" he murmured against Elias's lips, "but it's your silences that undo me."
He kissed him again, slower, his tongue brushing against Elias's in a languid stroke before pulling back just far enough to let his breath ghost over Elias's mouth.
"You hide yourself like a fortress," Valen whispered, "but I've never wanted to conquer you… only to be let in."
His hands slipped down to Elias's waist, drawing him closer until there was no space left to guard. Their foreheads touched, the kiss pausing but not ending, their breaths tangling.
"Let me see you" Valen said, voice almost breaking with the weight of it.
"Even if it's only tonight."
And then he kissed him again,this time with a slow-burning hunger, every movement saying what words could not.You are not a conquest.You are not prey.You are mine to adore.