Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
“I’m not saying being able to fight isn’t important,” Finnvid added quickly.
“And obviously you can do other things—with your survival skills, and your physical—well, perfection, I guess. I’m not saying it’s worthless.
It’s very impressive, really. But if someone isn’t as physically blessed as you, or if he just has different interests, he can still contribute, can’t he? He can still be something worthwhile?”
“Maybe he could be an archer, and ambush real soldiers when they think they have a truce.” The tone was cool and casual, but the words cut.
Finnvid’s nod felt jerky. “Aye. Or maybe something better. Maybe he could do something that doesn’t involve taking lives.”
Theos rolled to his knees, and if his wounds hurt, he showed no sign of it on his face. “I’m going outside,” he said, as if it wasn’t obvious.
“What for?”
“Air. A piss. Stretch my legs. Check the weather.”
Finnvid didn’t have a response, and Theos clearly wasn’t waiting for one.
So Finnvid stayed behind and started chopping jerky into tiny bits to put in the broth, and when he was done with that he straightened the blankets and checked that his medicines were in order and then added a little more butter to the lamp. And still, Theos didn’t return.
He was wearing his undershirt and thin leggings.
That was all. He might have passed out, or been attacked, or .
. . he might have . . . run away? Yes, he might have decided he’d rather freeze to death in the wilderness than go back inside the den while Finnvid was in there preaching about how nasty Torians were.
Finnvid sighed and headed for the tunnel. He stuck his head out into the cold, and Theos was right there, crouched down with his hands tucked in his armpits, leaning against the wall of the trench. “Come in,” Finnvid said. He tried to make it sound like a suggestion.
And it worked. Theos leaned forward, almost falling onto his hands and knees, and he shuffled toward the tunnel as Finnvid backed up into the main part of the den.
“You need to drink some broth,” Finnvid said, trying to duplicate the tone of voice that had worked outside.
When Theos wordlessly reached for the cup, Finnvid felt like a genius.
But he decided not to press his luck, and just sat quietly as Theos drank the broth.
Then Theos reached over and pulled a blanket from his bed to wrap around his own shoulders.
“I have sons,” Theos finally said. “Most of them are like me. They’ll be good soldiers. Good Torians. But a few of them . . . I don’t know. They might not. Maybe they’d have been better off somewhere else, somewhere they could be . . . something else.”
Finnvid was afraid to say anything that might break their fragile truce.
But he was even more afraid to say nothing and leave Theos fragile.
“Maybe they can be something else without leaving Windthorn,” he suggested.
“Maybe change . . . maybe it doesn’t have to be bad.
The warlord has done horrible things, and he’s gone about it all wrong.
And it sounds like some of the things he wants wouldn’t be good for most Torians.
Still, maybe there are a few changes that could be made. ”
Theos didn’t answer, but when Finnvid eased over to him and wrapped his arms around the Sacrati’s shoulders, Theos leaned back into him and relaxed.
That night, they slept twined around each other, and the next morning Finnvid checked Theos’s dressings and spread more honey on the deeper wound on his thigh.
The swelling was going down, and the redness was receding, but Theos’s body was still tight under Finnvid’s hand and his breath quavered when Finnvid touched him.
Actually, Theos’s breathing was extremely irregular. Was something wrong?
Oh. Finnvid had been so intent on his task that he’d forgotten the area he was working in. Once he stopped staring at the wound, it was hard to ignore Theos’s cock, still covered by the blanket but hard and erect under the fabric.
“Sorry,” Theos said. “Ignore it.”
No, Finnvid didn’t think he wanted to do that.
Instead, he shifted closer and eased his hand under the blanket.
Just on Theos’s thigh, at first, and then up to his stomach.
He left it there, eased it down a finger’s breadth, and then retreated hurriedly.
He tried again, but lost his nerve and brought his hand back to Theos’s stomach.
Theos groaned. “Are you punishing me? What did I do?”
Finnvid’s laugh was more like a giggle. “Sorry. I just—you know.”
“Not really.” Theos took a deep breath, then released it. “But, okay. I can take it.”
Finnvid kept his hand where it was, his smallest finger tickling and teasing the top of Theos’s hair, and squirmed down so he was lying on his side, pressed up tight beside Theos.
He could feel his own cock hardening against Theos’s leg, and knew Theos could feel it too.
“Really, it’s okay? If I just . . . If we . . . Can I just . . .”
“You can do what you want,” Theos said. He leaned over and kissed Finnvid’s forehead. “You’re a cruel man, but I’m strong.”
Finnvid slid his hand lower, gathered his courage, and wrapped his fingers around Theos’s shaft, and was amazed by how right it felt.
How natural. He slid his hand up and down, shifting the loose skin over the hard flesh, and Theos sucked air in through his teeth.
He moaned a little, his eyes closing, then whispered, “I take it back. You’re very kind. ”
Finnvid was causing that reaction. He was lying in a shelter he’d built, with a Sacrati he was nursing back to health, and he was the one making this strong warrior gasp and groan and tighten his fingers in his blankets.
“I wasn’t exactly appreciated when I was growing up in Elkat,” he whispered.
“I was allowed to look at trees and bugs, but I wasn’t encouraged.
I was supposed to be a man. Supposed to marry a woman.
Men aren’t completely free in Elkat, either. ”
Theos opened one eye. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”
“I was thinking that I want to taste you, but then I thought of what that would make me, according to people at home.”
Theos rolled onto his side, easing Finnvid onto his back, and propped his head on one elbow while his hand moved to Finnvid’s waistband. “Don’t think about them,” Theos suggested. He leaned down and kissed Finnvid, deep and powerful and sweet. “Think about me.”
And that was what Finnvid did. When Theos teased his fingers beneath Finnvid’s waistband and looked a question at him, Finnvid nodded, then pulled away to squirm out of his loose trousers.
They’d often been naked together. He’d seen Theos hard more times than he could count, and while less frequently, Theos had seen Finnvid in the same state. This was nothing new.
But as he turned back to Theos and surrendered into a kiss, he knew everything was new. Everything was changing. And he wanted it that way.
He let himself get lost in the sensations.
Theos’s soft lips, his strong tongue, the rough skin of his hand as he wrapped it around Finnvid’s aching cock.
The smell of their arousal, the warmth of their bodies, the sounds of their breathing and their murmured words.
When Finnvid gathered enough courage to reach for Theos again, they set a matching rhythm, slow and gentle until the end.
Then their bodies arched and thrust in shared ecstasy, and afterward they relaxed together, still touching and kissing.
Theos rolled over onto his back, his strong arms bringing Finnvid along until he was sprawled on top of the larger man’s warm body.
“Did I mention that I’m feeling better today?” Theos asked between kisses. “Still not perfect, maybe, but definitely better.”
“No,” Finnvid disagreed. “I think you’re very sick. Very weak. You need to stay here longer. Maybe forever. With me.”
Theos’s smile was a little sad. “You’ll get tired of eating so much butter.”
“I’m already tired of butter. But I’m not tired of you.”
“Not yet, maybe. But give it time.” Theos didn’t seem upset by the idea, and Finnvid was reminded again that this encounter was only special for him.
For Theos, it was just an enjoyable way to spend his time while stuck in a snow den.
Certainly a better distraction than actually talking to an ornery Elkati.
Yet, no sooner had Finnvid thought that than Theos said, “It’s just you in your family? Your mother only had two children?” He frowned, then said, “Your father only had two children? And he was the king?”
“I suppose he may have had others,” Finnvid admitted. “He and my mother weren’t a love match, they were just good partners. There may have been children elsewhere.”
“May have been? You don’t know?”
“Well, no. It’s not the sort of thing he’d have bragged about. They’re . . .” Finnvid searched for the Torian word. “What do you call . . . well . . . I guess all of your children are born out of marriage. They’re all illegitimate, technically. So maybe you don’t have a special word for them?”
“For children whose parents aren’t mated for life? You have a word for that?”
“It’s an insult.” Finnvid frowned. He shifted a little, so less of his weight was on Theos’s body.
“Ridiculous, really, but . . . it’s an insult.
I might have half brothers or sisters out there, and they’re considered less than .
. . not just less than me, but less than most people, just because their parents weren’t married. ”
Theos was quiet for a while. Then he laced his fingers through Finnvid’s and said, “The world is strange.”