When the Third Prince removed the jade handle, Mu Xueshi’s face had already gone pale. The prince turned him over, parted his legs, and moved closer.
“Please…” Mu Xueshi clung tightly to the Third Prince and pressed his head against the prince’s chest, resorting to the tactic that had always worked before.
And once again, it worked. The Third Prince stopped abruptly and said coldly, “If you do not want this, then I will stop.”
“It’s not that I don’t want it,” Mu Xueshi said miserably. “I’m just scared. If you can promise it won’t hurt, then I’ll let you.”
The Third Prince snorted. “I cannot.” Then he lay back and truly stopped pressing the matter.
That only made Mu Xueshi feel worse. He really was not unwilling; he had even enjoyed some of their intimacy before. What frightened him was what came next. Yet seeing the Third Prince fall silent with that dark expression made the awkward fear seem easier to endure than the silence between them.
Suddenly Mu Xueshi brightened with an idea. He climbed over the Third Prince and said excitedly, “What if we do it the other way around? You stay below and I stay above. Problem solved.”
The Third Prince said nothing. His expression grew colder by the second, and a chill climbed Mu Xueshi’s spine. Mu Xueshi slowly backed down again, rested his head against the prince’s chest, and muttered, “Forget it. You’d still be the one hurting then. I’ll take the pain instead.”
The Third Prince’s chest tightened. A quiet warmth spread through him. He still said nothing, but the hard lines of his face softened, and both hands closed around Mu Xueshi’s.
When they finally joined, Mu Xueshi’s face went white. He bit down hard on the corner of the blanket, his expression twisted with pain. The Third Prince’s heart contracted. He leaned down, kissed Mu Xueshi, and asked, “Does it hurt badly?”
Mu Xueshi’s nose stung. His feelings were tangled and difficult to name. He shook his head. “Do what you need to do. I can endure it.”
The Third Prince began moving carefully, though his restraint weakened as the intimacy deepened. Looking down at Mu Xueshi’s beautiful face only made his feelings more intense.
Mu Xueshi bit the sheet harder and harder until he could no longer hold back his tears. The Third Prince, already overwhelmed by emotion, struggled to stop immediately despite Mu Xueshi’s crying.
Gradually, Mu Xueshi’s sobs weakened. The sharpest pain eased, his crying faded into uneven murmurs, and color slowly returned to his face.
A strange tingling sensation spread through Mu Xueshi’s body. The pain was no longer as fierce as before, and it was now mixed with unfamiliar pleasure. Little by little, Mu Xueshi stopped resisting the sensation.
The Third Prince touched Mu Xueshi in a way that intensified the pleasure, and Mu Xueshi involuntarily began responding to him. Hearing the sounds escaping his own mouth made Mu Xueshi flush with embarrassment, which only made the emotions more overwhelming. Before long, both of them were close to losing control.
At last, the tension broke for both of them. Mu Xueshi went blank for a moment, followed almost immediately by renewed soreness once the Third Prince pulled away.
Mu Xueshi stared at him dazedly. “Was it good?”
The Third Prince narrowed his eyes, a cool smile curving his lips. “It would be even better if we did it again.”
“Ahhh!” Mu Xueshi immediately let go of his hand and cried out, “No… absolutely not… Heaven and earth, have you lost all sense of justice? Heaven, how can you confuse good and evil like this… mmph…”
Mu Xueshi lost track of how long the night lasted. By the time the Third Prince finally carried him away to bathe, it was already well past midnight.
Mu Xueshi slept restlessly all night. He kept hearing someone whispering beside his ear, but whenever he opened his eyes, there was only the Third Prince. Seeing that handsome, unruly face so clearly before him made Mu Xueshi feel vulnerable in a way he never had before.
Ignoring the lingering discomfort in his body, Mu Xueshi moved closer. The Third Prince had been holding him already, but this time Mu Xueshi wrapped both arms tightly around him as well.
“Don’t forget me…”
Mu Xueshi murmured the words, then, exhausted beyond endurance, immediately fell into deep sleep again.