Aether's Obsession
Third-person POV
Two months had passed in a haze of stolen glances and suppressed heartbeats.
Lirian had thrown himself into the work with a ferocity that bordered on obsession. Sample analysis, degradation mapping, Aether resonance charts, anything to drown out the constant, humiliating ache between his legs. The self-lubrication hadn’t stopped; if anything, it had worsened. Every morning, he woke slick and hard, dreams saturated with obsidian horns and violet eyes. He told himself it was environmental. Aether exposure. Anything but the truth: the prince had infected him with a want he couldn’t cure.