Captive Mate BL
Chapter 193: + - 193+

Chapter 193: +Chapter 193+

"Did you do this yourself?" Caspian asked rhetorically when Asher’s hands closed around his waist.

"Yeah," Asher tucked his face in his neck and breathed in deep, preferring his scent from the true source.

"The sugar scented candles were the easiest to set up, I kept crushing the petals as I tried to lay them out."

Asher’s words painted such a vivid image in Caspian’s head, of the Alpha meticulously placing down candles, and cursing at the ruined petals.

It made him laugh and pull Asher’s head back into the curve of his neck, the shallow part of the pool barely reaching his waist.

While Asher sat on the wide custom steps that seemed to be designed more for sitting than to be used to get in or out of the pool.

This brought them eye to eye, the sway of the water making the petals undulate and spin.

Caspian pulled Asher’s hands from around his waist and brought his wet hands up to his face, and when he did, the scent of violets was strong enough to make his nose twitch.

"I didn’t expect to hear that you did it yourself," He said in a wowed voice, making Asher’s hands cup his face.

The Alpha positively glowed at his words, his chest puffed out. "I didn’t want anyone else to see it."

Caspian picked up on the sensation of Asher’s rings and pulled his hands away by his fingers to better see them.

His hands looked even smaller holding on to a couple of Asher’s fingers to move them around as he wished.

He had taken his nails out a while back, but that didn’t stop him from painting them himself.

"Taking off your rings might have helped with that," He pointed out lightly, getting distracted by the accessories.

The mild look of alarm on Asher’s face, showed that the Alpha had completely forgotten he still had them on, and when he went to pull his hands away, Caspian held on tight.

"Don’t take them off," He implored, his blue eyes darker in the low warm light. "Crushing the petals makes the most of the scent."

"You’re not a petal," Asher said, but he stopped trying to take his rings off.

Caspian beamed, it wasn’t often Asher hinted or outrightly said that he wasn’t physically fragile - but in his defense, most people would be physically fragile when they faced Asher.

"And you don’t like me leaving my rings on in the bath."

"But for this one time," Caspian didn’t back down, closing the distance even further between them by resting his knees on either side of the wide step that Asher was sitting on.

Their bare skin making contact in the warm water was sinful, purple petals clinging to their wet skin as they slid in tandem.

He guided one of Asher’s hands to his waist and left the other on his face. "We don’t get to do this often."

"I’ll do it every day for you if you want," Asher’s hand tightened around his waist, the edges of his hair damp.

"Our skin would go wrinkly if we spent hours in the pool every day," Caspian said with humor. "I’m more than content with this one time. I couldn’t be any happier."

As he spoke, he gave back Asher control of both hands, placing his on the Alpha’s chest in turn, the candlelight not bright enough to pick out the patterns on his neatly groomed painted nails.

Asher caressed his face, his expression tender, "You let me get off too easy. You should ask for more."

Caspian held his gaze, looking up with a wide expectant expression...

Asher really shouldn’t have set himself up like this.

"Even your mating mark?" He asked softly, expression beguiling.

Asher expression only shifted a little bit, accommodating as he replied. "Yeah, even that."

He had been working up the courage for this ever since his last episode, so Caspian didn’t even need to ask because it was the reason he had prepared such a grand stage.

The threat that he would get a little too excited and lose control constantly hung over his head like a thunder cloud.

Caspian’s eyes widening in surprise made his chest twinge, it made him want to be stronger than the monster that lurked in his head.

And with surprise came the realization of why he had put in so much effort to set things up thus.

This wasn’t how Asher had planned for things to go, he had wanted to ask Caspian confidently, but the Omega was so delicate in the violets dotted pool water, it made his confidence waver.

Caspian opened his mouth and closed it again, finding it difficult to get his words out.

Asher didn’t need him to speak, his hand sliding down the side of his face to gently but possessively wrap around his neck.

Caspian came easily when Asher tugged him in for a kiss, a shiver coursing through his body that had nothing to do with the pool water when the Alpha’s piercing touched his tongue.

He had slowly begun to resign himself to the fact that he would never get Asher’s brand on his neck, and with enough time, he would eventually accept it.

After all, he had spent three years with Noah with their marriage signed on legal papers and that had meant nothing.

But...

He leaned into the kiss, giving as much as he took, his hands scrambling to find purchase on Asher’s wet back.

Caspian could lie to himself that he would be fine not being claimed when there was only a slim chance of it happening.

But now that it was handed to him on a pool of violets, he was desperate, clinging harder to Asher, pressing closer.

Caspian moaned into the kiss when their bare lengths slid together, the water making the glide impossibly smooth.

Asher had to still him by a firm hand on his waist when he chased the pleasurable sensation, making him pout in impatience.

The expression faded away when Asher pulled him in for another slow kiss, his lips parting like the petals in the part of the pool they sat in.