The Cruel Prince

SOUL BINDING

How easy would it be, she thought. Just to let everything go and start new, let the tug of her energy bring her where she's supposed to go.

She already belongs to him one way or another and it'll be futile to even escape the bond that ties her to his soul. She merely breathed and buried her face to his chest while Banye closed his arms around her in a snug embrace.

"Comfortable, Fei?" He buried his nose to her hair.

"Yes. I am."

Her thoughts flowed through her head one after another, like and endless stream of river. Her heart careening to her chest and she's well aware Banye call feel and hear them, her thought was like a book to him, reading them, listening to them, soaking them.

She didn't dare move, she kept herself cocooned in his embrace, she hasn't yet given into him, but something tells her it was not her decision anymore to make. He'd already taken what belongs to him.

Her heart is beating fast, so fast that she's screaming in silent panic. The warmth, the smell, the and the taste of him...

The taste of him...

Her mind was running fervent. She clenched her hands inside her chest, trying to calm her careening heartbeats.

She hasn't expected it to be like this, this has taken her by surprise and she's not nearly prepared for it.

Banye was different, the feeling was different. She was raised to love Jian, to be his wife, to have no one else in her life. Her old life was difficult, it had been all calculated precisely to everyone's benefit including hers. She loved Wang Jian, she loved Wang Jian very much...but this...this had been different.

"Is everything alright?" He purred by the shell of her ear.

"Yes." She murmured muffled by his chest. "I'm just...."

"Shsshhhh...it's okay, you don't have to say anything, because what you're feeling, what you're thinking is making me nervous just the same. I'm trying my best to calm down while I have you in my arms, your body pressed against mine...in my bed. I'm trying not to move, because all I could think of was to ravage you and take you as savage and feral as I can."

Slow...slow and gentle, she thought, aware he could read her mind.

"Slow, and the gentlest way you want." He purred, kissing her head.

Still as she can, wrapped inside his arms. His chosen. She's nothing like his dead wife. His wife was all savagery, power, ambition, she'd been there when he thought of taking over both dimensions. Working by his side, trying to ensure both their dreams would pan out.

Banye breathed, he hadn't thought about her in a while. The guilt he felt. The shame. He had wanted no other but her then. He had been a different man then.

In the thousand years he lived. He's never had a human lover, he never believed in their fragile emotions. Human emotions are easily swayed, easily influenced, they live and die so fast that they're unpredictable, unfaithful.

But Ying Yue, no, Fei Hung, he wanted to call her by the name he'd given.

There was a point in time when all he wanted to do was kill her, tear her apart from limbs to bones all for spite, all for his hatred, for retribution.

But then, he had never seen anyone who loved so much, endured so much punishment for the one she loved. For the first time he wanted what it's like to be loved like that. Without condition, without expectation, to love someone for the pureness of it and nothing else.

He wanted her to love him so purely, so raw, the way she loves her husband.

He had fallen in love long before he realized it.

He glanced down at the woman in his arms who dared not look at him right now.

He can feel the churning in her stomach, the tension, like she could throw up in bed now. He could read her mind, every bit of it, the most sensual images she's thinking that could put her to shame if she were to find out he knew.

And her thoughts are making him squirm just the same. He inhaled a sharp steadying breath.

"Would you like to get out of bed?" Saving himself from losing it completely. He tried to sound casual, even if every part of him screamed otherwise.

"My wound, it's healed completely." She touched the side of her body where she bled only a few days ago. Her skin was smooth, without remnants of the wound being there at all. Like it never existed.

"Yes, I burned it close. You're safe now." He cooed, "nothing can ever hurt you when you're with me."

She muffled a groan. "Yes, I would like to get out of bed."

"Yes, breakfast, breakfast for us both."

Banye yanked the covers off and slid out of his bed. He at least was descent enough to wear a shirt this time. Perhaps he remembered how fast she jumped out of bed last time.