You dragged him right in by his shirt and kicked the door closed, trapping the shadows outside. As long as the candle, fairly short now, burned, they didn't seep in.

You pushed him onto the bed and threw your arms around him, wrapped in each other's embrace. His arms were so strong. His broad hands covered most of your back. His face was warm, pressed into the divot of your collarbone.

You were disrobing him, fingers fussing with the buttons of his shirt. Your heart wasn't in your chest, drumming everywhere in the room as his hot lips met your neck and oh how you keened, abandoning his shirt to run your fingers through his auburn hair. "I can't believe this," you sighed.

He agreed with a submissively needy "Hhm," biting just under your jawbone. You grappled at his broad shoulders.

"Tell me what you need," he said, voice much lower than usual, ragged with breath.

"I-I can't," you apologized.

"Fair enough." He wrapped an arm around you and spun you around, throwing you back-down on the bed as he climbed on top of you. True to his word, he undressed you, with practiced finesse that would have bothered you if he wasn't so clearly smitten. Your face felt bright hot and he kissed your cheeks almost lovingly.

You felt so exposed, gripping the sheets in a subconscious effort to cover yourself. He took your lead and snatched them up out from under you, throwing them over the two of you like a tent.

"Better?" he asked.

You nodded, moaning instead of a yes. As he kissed and bit your neck, he pulled down his trousers and exposed…everything to you. You diverted your wide eyes to the auburn trail of hair running from his belly button to that…place you wished not to look.

"Look in my eyes," he said, breath hot against your neck.

You could feel that lower part of him against your soft thigh. He rocked a little. Heat built between your legs; heat and dampness. You felt very shy.

One of his hands ghosted over that secret area and you recoiled, not wanting him to feel you leaking like that.

"That's normal," he said, kissing your lips, slipping his tongue briefly between them. "That's good," he said. "I don't think you're ready, though."

"Okay." You just kind of went along with it. Clearly he had had experience.

He pulled at your hips, pulled and pushed, kneaded. His lips stayed on your jaw and neck, collarbone. His teeth, as well. Scraping softly, biting a little harder. You felt your nipples perk up against his strong chest.

He chuckled breathily and grabbed your breasts. "Is this okay?"

"God. Yes."

So he began working on those, pinching your pert nipples between his firm fingers. You felt sparks of pleasure through your whole body and let yourself moan like a desperate slut, pressing the rest of your body against him.

Your hands needed to be somewhere. They felt awkward just…laying there, not being in his hair. So you reached up and tugged it and when you did he made the most primal, animal noise of encouragement.

"I've only dreamed about touching you like this," he said, hands moving down your sides, grabbing and kneading again. You wanted them back on your chest, but this felt pretty great, too.

Speech trapped behind your tongue, you managed to say, as your fingers scratched at his scalp, "I wish I could have your hands over all of me at once."

His eyes, warm and close to you, melted into yours. You felt the smile on his lips as he kissed you, and then proceeded to do the best he could.

Sitting up on his knees, throwing the blankets back, he directed you to straddle his lap and then tried to grab all of you at once. One hand rubbed the back of your neck while the other slid around your back and grabbed your side; the first one slid down between your shoulders and the second one around to your front. Both hands grabbed your shoulders, your arms, breasts, hands, legs, backside, never stopping for a second. You had to hang onto him to keep upright, and when you closed your eyes you could feel each individual digit; his thumbs at the crease of your hips, his index finger along your collarbone, his pinky lingering on the inside of your thigh.

You kissed him fiercely, unsure of where this sudden confidence came from. And then it occurred to you that you were kissing his lips, his soft perfect lips you'd only imagined the feel of, and they were so much warmer and more passionate than you had allowed yourself to believe.

"Mm, mm. Mmh." He got louder, breathing included, and when he parted from your lips it was to take your gentle earlobe between his ivory teeth. You shuddered, icy pleasure trickling through you as a cloud of his hot breath unfurled against the back of your neck. You moaned along with him, to which he was very responsive, daring to open his mouth for an "Oh" when your nails accidentally sank into his broad shoulders.

"Sorry."

"Don't be," he huffed, kissing your neck rewardingly. "Don't. I like it."

"It doesn't hurt?"

"It does," he said, covering one of your hands with his to make you grip harder. "It stings. Please keep it up."

Confused, you nodded and complied.

Looking down at his heaving, sweating chest as he pleasured you, you grew hot and needy, and felt it was unfair for him to be doing all this to you if you couldn't even so much as explore his pleasure. You grabbed his hips like he'd done for you. You grabbed harder. He made a sound. You grabbed again, pulled him closer. The way his body curved toward yours, the way his muscles moved in his torso and chest and shoulders as he held you more intimately made your heart skip several beats.

You closed your eyes again, grabbing blindly at him like a child. He didn't seem to care that you weren't quite at his level.

You felt yourself tipping forward and opened your eyes to find him lying on his back. You straddled him and tentatively kissed his neck, then his ear, which he definitely appreciated. Eyes closing again, you listened to the breathing between both of you.

You felt a little awkward on top of him, however. You didn't know what you should be doing.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sensing your mild distress.

"Would…you get back on top of me, please?" you said, instantly feeling you shouldn't have said anything. But he smiled and kissed your breasts, wrapping an arm around you to roll you back over onto your back. It sent a thrill through you to have him kneeling between your legs.

You laughed. Just happily, giddily. He laced his fingers between yours and shifted back on his knees, kissing down your bare stomach. For a moment, you felt self-conscious again, watching carefully as he kissed lower.

And lower.

Forget dampness; you were definitely soaking wet. "Hans?"

"Is this okay?" he kind of mumbled against your lower stomach. His hands had stopped roaming your body. They were only framing your hips. His bright eyes looked up at you as his sharp nose pressed into your skin.

"I…what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to kiss you," he said, "right down here." One of his hands disappeared under his chin, fingers patting the bush of hair concealing your most intimate parts from him. "Is that okay?"

You nodded and looked away, back to awkwardly clawing at the sheets.

Two of his fingers spread you apart; you throbbed nakedly just under the warm breath of his nose. He lowered his face and nuzzled, soft pink lips pillowing your clit. You couldn't keep back your whine; somehow you expected this to be a disappointment, but it definitelywasn't. Everything just swirled into more intensity, the tingling in your core building up. You were so eager for friction you actually started rocking against his mouth.

He hummed a chuckle, lips vibrating as they parted over you and he suckled. A sort of gently throbbing sucking as he lewdly, noisily sucked you up.

"O-oh my god."

"Good?"

You laughed breathily. With another tug on his hair, you elicited a deep groan from Hans. He shifted his position, hooking his arms under your legs until your knees slid over his broad shoulders.

You squirmed as he feasted, having to physically restrain your legs from clamping around his face and suffocating him. But the way he nuzzled and snuffled deeper into you made it seem like he wouldn't have minded. The scratch of his cheeks began to irritate your thighs, but it didn't come close to cancelling out how good this felt.

You began to recoil, like you couldn't stand to take anymore. "It's—v-very intense," you squeaked. "Ah!"

"Should I slow down? I'm sorry, my love." He kissed the insides of your thighs and replaced his lips with a hand, fingers pointed downward as he massaged you softly. He smiled up at you, lips slick with the wetness of yourself. "You're trembling."

"I…I feel like I need to cool down," you said, face flushed. You tugged the sheets self-consciously over yourself.

Almost bashfully flattered by your request, Hans batted his eyes and looked down, biting his lower lip. "It's all good, though, right? All of it's good?"

You nodded.

"I want to show you something now," he said, and he got up from all fours to kneel again. You could see him in all his naked glory, standing firm and rigid and attentive before you. Your eyes widened and your stomach flipped. As the young prince's hand wrapped around that long, slightly curved and veiny shaft, you recognized the desire that you wanted that thing inside of you.

"Is…that's…"

"This is what I was doing at the start of tonight," he confessed, stroking himself lazily. His voice was heavy and lusty. A little smile curled his lips. "Incidentally, this is nearly what I was envisioning…"

You covered your face with your hands.

"Mmm…tell me when you wish to continue."

"Now," you mumbled, still covering your face.

"Already? Are you sure?"

You peeked through your fingers at him, nodding. So again he leaned forward, hovering above you. One of his hands drew yours away as he pressed his forehead against yours. "Sure?" You nodded again, slowly, touching your nose to his. He took a deep breath; you mimicked him.

Instead of the tip of his cock pressing into you, one of Hans's fingers explored first. You were grateful for that; you had underestimated how ready you were to accept something so big.

"Calm down, my dear watcher."

Soon he could fit a second finger in there. Your heart was going mad. You could barely hear much above it.

And then Hans moved his hand, rocked his hips forward, and buried himself in you, forehead pressed tightly to yours as you inhaled sharply together.

Hans redirected any possible discomfort by kissing your neck. You cradled his head, your eyes wide as you forced yourself to relax and accept him inside of you.

"Ohgod focus on…my voice," he said, and began to mutter sweet nothings in your ear. Honestly, you couldn't focus on his words as he began rocking into you, and you felt more and more wet and hot, especially when he slid an arm under you and lifted you just slightly.

You did your part to keep it going, hugging your legs around him to draw him closer and deeper. Soon every thrust seemed to drive you deeper into the mattress as he pounded away fervently, kissing you and breathing erratically and lacing the fingers of his free hand into yours. His back arched and he pressed his scruffy face into your chest.

It was too much again, but you let it be too much. You wanted to feel more; you felt like it could get there. Instinctively, you knew there was an end to reach, and you knew it was coming quickly.

You didn't know when you had started saying it, but you were repeating Hans's name in between moans and yesses, tugging on his hair with your free hand. Your legs wobbled as you tried to squeeze them closer and spread them further at the same time, and then suddenly there it was, a hot golden raspberry sunset between your thighs that spread and grew and then blossomed all at once and "oh, oh, oh god," you cried, trying to take him deeper into you, and then you felt him burst inside of you. He offered you the most ungodly moan, spreading his lips over the corner of your jaw and nipping, almost biting. His hand squeezed yours and shuddered.

—

You felt suddenly so tired. Hans stood up and offered you your clothes, but you shook your head, wrapping the sheets around yourself instead. You could barely get up on your knees, and as Hans stood, he was shaking a fair amount himself.

"Well?" he asked.

"Well…well I…wish I'd let you in sooner," you croaked, clearing your throat. He seemed so genuinely touched by that, smiling as he pulled his trousers up and sat sideways on the bed, raking his fingers through his damp auburn hair.

Before he could really reply, the two of you both realized the same thing.

"We're safe," you said.

Hans looked from the burnt-out candle to the shadowless bottom of the door. He turned his head; you followed his gaze to the window, to where he walked to open the drapes. Nothing was there except the gray-blue promise of dawn. "Wait…what?"

"We're safe," you repeated, still trying to make sense of it. You still had several minutes until 6AM. "The…the shadows didn't come in. Are they gone?"

You stumbled as you stood up, having to kneel to get your hands on the mirror. Climbing quickly back into bed to cover yourself, you called on the mirror to show you through the castle. "I…I don't see any of them."

There was some silence as you put the mirror down, confused yet incredibly relieved. Had you dreamed all of this?

Well…no, you couldn't have dreamed a feeling that intense.

Then a trickle of a laugh came from Hans. And then it built. You were mildly concerned. He hopped back onto the bed, beaming at you, beholding you. "You…I can't believe it. You broke the curse!"

"I what?"

"You broke the curse, I'm free. I'm free! Look, nothing's going to come through that door and steal me away to my room when the clock strikes six." He smiled so big with his nice white teeth, his doe eyes. "You saved me."

"I…I did?" You couldn't help smiling along with him. "I did. We did. Something! Sure! I-I mean we're both safe, right? So something happened."

He wrapped you up in an instant hug and you leaned right back into it. Without noticing a transition, you two were kissing again, and after a few moments more of "I can't believe this!" and celebrating and more kissing, it looked like you were headed for a second go.

Until there was a knock at the door.

You covered up immediately, hiding yourself in the bed. Hans, contrarily, leapt right up off the bed and opened the door. "Ed? Edvard, it's so nice to see you again!"

"Wh—Hans? But you're—why aren't you—where—"

"Oh, she's still in bed," he practically bragged. You were sure Prince Edvard could see you blushing through the sheets.

You peeked out tentatively, and when you noticed he was looking right at you, you resigned to showing your shame-ridden face. Quietly dressing yourself under the covers, you greeted, "Good morning, your highness."

"I—good m-morning." It sort of helped that he was more wide-eyed and red-faced than you were. "I'm sorry to have disturbed—ah, hum…what? Happened?"

"The curse is broken, Edvard," Hans explained. "She broke it for me. Now you can go back to bed, I'll take care of sending her home."

"But—" The door shut in poor Edvard's face. He didn't knock again, though. Probably a little relieved.

Finished dressing, you swung your legs off the edge of the bed. "Home?"

"Yes," he said, sitting beside you on the bed again. "So you can pack your things! I want to go away with you. I don't care where. Anywhere but here."

"Away—! But, but what about…my family, my obligations?"

"Oh, please, you took a night job in a questionable castle looking after a cursed prince," he said, "do you expect me to believe you have obligations?"

"Well…"

"It'll only be for a little while," he said, voice so full of life. "A few months." He took your hands in his, kissing your knuckles. "Or longer, if you like. Just anywhere but here. Please? We…we don't have to call it love. It's just a thank you. I can show you so many beautiful things."

"Well I…I'd love to," you said. He hugged you again, kissed you again. You kissed back with twice the effort.

"But first, first thing's first," he breathed, half-lidded eyes so close to yours. "We're going outside. A picnic breakfast. Right now. I have to see the sky."

"Your first sunrise out of doors," you said, certainly not expecting that to be the thing to make him cry.

He tried to shake it off. He kissed your cheek. He thanked you again and again.

"And just for the record," he said. "You don't need to say it back, but I do love you."