“Hah, ah, no, wait, I’m-!”
Iberis curled his toes as waves of pleasure washed over him rapidly. His fingers gripping Lucas’s shoulders curled, and veins stood out on the backs of his hands.
“Ha, mmm…”
Desperate, Iberis unconsciously rocked his hips. The sensation of his stomach sinking and his solar plexus tightening made it hard to breathe.
“You can’t go alone.”
“Ahk!”
Realizing Iberis was close to climax, Lucas lowered the hand that had been holding his waist. Then he firmly grasped Iberis’s prominently bulging front. At this touch preventing his release, Iberis’s slender waist sprang up like a coil.
“Let, let go, hnngh.”
The tearful plea was swallowed whole by Lucas’s lips as he tilted Iberis’s chin up. Iberis choked back a cough at the rough kiss that seemed to block his airway. When the hot tongue tickled under his own before rubbing the inside of his cheek, it felt like lightning struck his brain.
Exhaling, Lucas breathed into the panting Iberis while catching his tongue that kept trying to retreat.
“Ple-please, your hand, hah!”
“Do you want to come?”
Lucas asked in a husky voice after breaking the kiss. Keeping his gaze fixed on Iberis, who was nodding frantically, he removed the hand that had been pressing on his lower body.
“Huk!”
Finally free from Lucas’s hand, Iberis inhaled as if swallowing a sob. Just as a chill different from the one tormenting his body enveloped him entirely, his climax arrived.
“Ah, ah…”
Iberis trembled, caught between intense relief and deep shame.
“Your underwear is dirty now, we should take it off.”
Lucas smirked, turning his body while holding Iberis in his arms.
“Hnn…”
Suddenly buried in the soft blankets, Iberis let out a groan.
“Can you lift your hips a little?”
After placing a light kiss on Iberis’s open mouth, Lucas removed his pajama pants along with his underwear. As the heated skin was exposed to the air, his long, slender legs and thin yet firm thighs quivered.
Lucas caressed the skin marked with traces he had left, sliding his hand down. He stopped at the right ankle. His golden eyes took on a strange light as he gazed at the ankle bone bearing his name.
Still looking as if he couldn’t believe it, Lucas traced over the name with his thumb. Every time he saw his name imprinted on Iberis’s body, an indescribable satisfaction welled up inside him.
“…Not too long ago, I was jealous of your name match inscribed on your body, Major.”
“Haa, huh…?”
At the somewhat ominous murmur, Iberis, still breathing heavily, blinked with a dazed expression.
“It’s something I can laugh about now, but there was a time when I considered finding your name match somehow and killing them. It would be troublesome if they showed up in front of us later.”
At this confession tinged with heavy, sinister obsession, Iberis’s silver-gray eyes, now with an unusual reddish tinge, widened. Lucas’s gaze and tone were too serious to dismiss as a joke. Iberis unconsciously shuddered, feeling a chill run down his spine.
“That’s why I’m glad you turned out to be my name match, Major. If you weren’t, I might have committed a crime someday.”
It’s a well-proven fact that name matches are drawn to each other. Even now, there are occasional cases of ability users divorcing or breaking up with their official pairs after discovering their late-found name matches.
Iberis’s earlier question about whether he was attracted to Lucas because they were name matches stemmed from the same context. The pull between name matches was that powerful.
Naturally, Lucas had no intention of standing idly by if a rival appeared. If they had become lovers without knowing they were name matches, he might have tried to eliminate the potential threat that could someday drive a wedge between them.
“A crime…?”
“Why are you so surprised?”
Lucas’s eyes crinkled gently as he smiled at the startled Iberis. It was a smile as sweet as sugar flowers, yet somehow eerie.
“Just imagining another guide performing guiding on you makes me feel like I’ll go crazy. How could I tolerate someone who might take you away?”
Lucas, openly displaying his possessiveness, traced Iberis’s reddened eyes with his free hand. When his body heated up and his face flushed like this, Iberis’s usually clear and transparent diamond-like eyes would take on a soft, rosy hue. He greatly enjoyed this change.
Do you know how beautiful it is when your eyes, pure and clean like snow flowers, fill with desire for me?
Lucas savored the feeling of eyelashes tickling his fingertips for a moment. Sometimes he felt the urge to devour Iberis’s eyes just as he did his lips. His Adam’s apple bobbed noticeably at the sudden surge of hunger.
I’m truly beyond help.
Cursing himself internally, Lucas tilted his head and pressed his lips to the corner of Iberis’s eye. He kissed the reflexively closed eyelid and licked away the tears gathered at the corner of his eye. As the salty taste spread in his mouth, another intense wave of hunger rose up.
“I seem to have said something unnecessary. This must be burdensome for you. I’m sorry.”
Seeing Iberis unable to open his eyes and at a loss, Lucas gave a bitter smile. It was incredibly stupid to reveal such dark thoughts when he should be showing and saying only good things.
“…No.”
Iberis faintly replied, shuddering at the breath tickling his delicate eyelids. While he was surprised to hear that Lucas had considered finding and killing his name match, he didn’t find it scary or strange. Rather, he felt a little happy.
I must be completely insane.
Iberis let out a hollow laugh as he slowly opened his eyes. They say love makes people irrational, and that seemed to be true.
“…I was jealous too.”
Iberis confessed that he had been the same as Lucas, looking straight at him. It was the absolute truth.
After acknowledging his attraction to Lucas, Iberis had also envied and felt jealous of someone whose face and name he didn’t even know. He had worried about what would happen if Lucas’s name match appeared.
If the situation Lucas had been concerned about had occurred, he might have had similar thoughts. No, he would have. Now, he couldn’t even imagine Lucas guiding another esper.
Above all, did he have the right to condemn Lucas for considering eliminating an innocent person when he himself had taken many lives?
If they were to weigh their sins, Iberis’s karma was much heavier for killing not only monsters and villains but also innocent people deceived by Livio, compared to Lucas who had saved espers and patients as a guide and military doctor.
Lucas, as well as Brenda, Adrian, and others, often scolded him for not knowing how to take care of himself and foolishly putting others first, but they didn’t know the whole story.
Although there was a valid reason – that he was just carrying out his duties as a soldier in the defense force – Iberis had still been taking lives for over 10 years.
A savior to some, a murderer to others.
How could he, living such a contradictory life, point fingers at Lucas? That’s why Iberis willingly embraced Lucas’s darkness. And he honestly revealed his own shameful flaws. After all, neither of them was perfect.
“Really?”
“Yes, looking back, we were both worrying about the same thing.”
“That’s true. We didn’t even need to worry in the first place…”
If he had revealed his identity to Lucas earlier, could they have fallen in love sooner? At this sudden thought, Lucas’s hand gripping Iberis’s ankle tightened.
“Ugh.”
“Oh no.”
As Lucas unknowingly squeezed the ankle as if to crush it, a short groan escaped Iberis’s lips. Realizing his mistake, Lucas quickly released his hand. Even though he had only applied pressure for a moment, a clear handprint was left. After checking the ankle, he clicked his tongue in frustration.
“I’m sorry, I gripped too hard. Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Lucas, half-lying in front of Iberis, apologetically placed small kisses on the reddened skin where his handprint remained. The kisses were light and gentle, like a bird pecking.
Iberis bit his lip at the moist breath seeping into his warm ankle and the silver hair tickling his sensitive skin. If he didn’t, he felt like strange sounds might escape. As the soft warmth traveled up from his ankle to his knee along his calf, his toes wiggled of their own accord.
