Chapter Four #3
“No, you are not and thank the sun goddess for it. You’re above the machinations of the courts, and I find that a joyous respite.
As for your second point…it is quite sad that the mainlanders still cling to such outdated and choking ways.
If. That is a clever word, is it not? It is based on supposition or conditions.
There is no predicting the future unless one is a prophet of Shamsira, which, sadly, I am not.
What I do know, Pasil, is that we desire each other.
The want floats on the air like the sea spray from the Silvura. Surely you can smell it, taste it?”
“All I can smell or taste is sand sage. It haunts me.”
And the truth was freed. Would that I could pull the words back but I could not for they floated on the salty wind like morning vespers.
“As does your aroma of lavender and leather, horse and man, steel and honor.” He placed his tea on the table and walked to me with sure strides.
This man knew what he wanted. Ihdos bless me for a fool, I seemed to be what he desired.
“I’ve sat before you, the wind at my back, and found myself working to keep my head in the negotiations instead of wondering if the skin of your back carried the scent of lavender.
” He stepped before me, hands at his sides, gaze as hot as the sands of his homeland.
“Now, I present myself to you if you would have me?”
“We should not,” I repeated even as a shaking hand rose to tug at the silken ties holding his shift closed.
His throat worked as he swallowed. The backs of my fingers brushed his glistening flesh as I pulled gently.
The tie fell open. The robe glided down off one shoulder, baring his biceps and one taut nipple to my hungry gaze.
I wet my lips. Unsure in the blink of an eye and then certain beyond any question the next. “This is going to end badly.”
He shrugged his covered shoulder. The robe slithered to the floor.
“I do not see why it would.” He placed his hands on my chest. My heart thundered now.
“Taking pleasure in the open arms of a willing lover is the path the goddess has laid out for us. Loving others, taking them into our hearts, into our homes and lives, is the truest way to discover the joys of divinity.” Words froze on my tongue.
I feared for many things as I stood there with his hands on my breast, his gaze questioning, waiting…
“I would bring no dishonor to your name, Pasil. My people are more open and giving when it comes to sex and the joys of the flesh. No one would look askance at you and me sharing a bed.”
“None of your people,” I replied, the words raspy as a bog toad’s croak.
“We are the same people, Pasil. Elven blood runs through all of our veins. Elven hearts beat in our chests. The only difference between us is the tone of our skin. So perhaps for the time that I am here, you and I can begin to breach the divides that keep us apart?”
The man knew how to speak. Hundreds of years as a diplomat and negotiator had not gone to waste. I let my hand settle on his shoulder, reveled in the feel of his slick skin under my calloused palm, and lowered my head to taste those red tea-stained lips.
Never had I tasted anything so divine.
His tongue slipped out to tease mine, sliding back into his mouth where I chased it, delving deeply into his mouth as his fingers bit into my chest. My hands found his lean hips, locking him against me, then pulling him tighter as I tasted the pungency of ginger, the sweetness of cinnamon, and the bite of the famed Black Sand peppercorn.
Saffron and sumac mingled with a fruity undertone that I could not place.
Not that I cared overly if it was yellow apricots or purple rukah pears.
His taste blurred the line I had tried so diligently not to step over.
As did the pulsing heat of his cock as it rode alongside mine.
“I feel your tension still,” he whispered into my mouth when the kiss broke suddenly. “In this chamber there is no ambassador or guard, Pasil. There are only two men who have finally folded under the weight of the yearning they have for each other.”
My hands moved up his silken sides, fingertips growing slippery from the oils clinging to his skin.
I cupped his face, my thumbs grazing the soft whiskers around his swollen lips.
I had never kissed a man with facial hair.
I found the scrub of it against my face and thumbs wildly erotic.
I gazed into eyes as dark as the tiny cocoa breads that Widow Poppy served the children for afternoon treats.
“Then, if I take command of our evening, that will not bring a rebuke down upon me when the moons fade at dawn?” I rolled my hips. His mouth parted with a sigh as my cock moved over his.
“The only rebuke you will get from me is if you do not fuck me into a delirium this night.”
He rose to his toes to seal his mouth over mine, a hand sliding from my chest to find my hardness straining against the ties of my trousers.
A madness of lust overwhelmed me. With a grunt, our lips broke apart as I lifted the smaller man from his fragrant feet and toted him in my arms like a bundle of kindling to his bed.
With a toss, he flew into the air and landed on the plush mattress with an OOF!
that sent the cat scurrying over and leaping into a tall chair with a dark blue velveteen pillow.
“Apologies, Pehdra,” I mumbled while yanking my shirt over my head. Teryn lay back among the pillows, his sight roaming over me as I rushed to strip down. He wet his lips when my cock was revealed.
“You are truly a fine man,” he purred much like the feline sitting atop her pillow watching us from across the room.
“I knew you would be crafted by the hand of the goddess. Come to me now, lie with me, and let us forget the days filled with bickering advisors, tedious arbitrations, and dialogue over dock dimensions and ferry taxes.”
“Your tongue is silvery and smooth like the face of a pond under the moons,” I confessed, kneeling on the bed, cock standing out, the head peeled free of the foreskin, a droplet of seed on the tip.
“I’ve heard you talk Umeris into things that only Ihdos himself would have been successful at doing.
” He smiled at me with a smile that told me he knew his skills were vast. I knee-walked closer, between his spread thighs, and took his prick in hand.
The smugness left his face, replaced with the softening glow of pleasure.
“Perhaps your desert magicks are at play not only in the negotiations but here in your chambers as well.”
He chuckled as I stroked his shaft, squeezing it softly to urge a pearl of cum to ooze free. “Pasil, do you think I needed to use magicks to get you here?”
No, I knew that as surely as I knew the sun would rise in the east tomorrow. “No, I do not think that. I was lost the moment you emerged from your bath and smiled at me.”
Those long lashes blinked as he thrust into my hand. “Your hand is rough, your fingers strong. The hand of a warrior. Crafted over years of wielding a sword. I would have you run those calloused hands all over me, Pasil.”
And so I did. I released his cock so I could explore him fully. I tasted his mouth, intrigued by the taste of a tea that I’d yet to try. Perhaps I would after we were done fucking. For now, I would sip from his lips.
“You are delicious,” I ground out as I moved from his mouth to his ear.
I took the chain between my lips as I flicked a nipple with my fingernail.
He gasped. A light laugh mixed with arousal.
I gave the elegant chain a tug, the charms resting on my tongue.
I tasted metal and oil. Releasing the charms, I took a moment to study them as they fell onto his shoulder.
Intricate golden shapes I was not familiar with.
Sandrayan letters, I could only assume. I kissed each one as they rested on his flesh and returned to his mouth.
He eagerly returned my kisses. My head spun, my cock throbbed, and my balls held tight to my body. I walked a fine line of restraint.
“That is…so lovely. You are so lovely. So broad and hard.” His fingers skipped down my shoulders to my biceps and then back up, down my ribs, pressing into the flesh to feel each curved bone. “By the goddess, if you do not sink into me soon I shall spend all over my stomach.”
He writhed under me, his skin slick with bath oils.
As I ran my hands over his skin, the oil clung to my fingers.
His nipples were darkest brown, tight little nubs that I plucked with one hand while I delved under his balls with the other.
Seeking his hole, I toyed with the furled edges, and Teryn cried out softly.
He lifted his arse off the bed as he clawed at me.
The bath oils had spread between us, my skin now coated as well.
I ran my finger into the crease where his leg joined his body to gather more of the scented attar.
As my mouth worked a hard nipple, my finger returned to his hole, sliding effortlessly inside.
“There…” Teryn sighed as I worked a finger inside his heat. My cock kicked as if jealous of the digit now embedded inside this glorious man. “There, yes…Pasil, that is…yes…I am ready for you. I have been ready for you since the moment I saw you on the dock.”
I eased that finger out, ran my palm over his belly, and then slathered the sand sage emollient—a smell I would forever associate with this man—over my weeping cock.
Glancing at Teryn, I could not help but smile. He was spread out for me like a buffet of treats from a land that I had never seen. I vowed I would taste every inch of him before the morning bells for prayers, but now I had to ease into him.
“Your gaze sets me on fire,” he whispered as he wrapped his slim fingers around his cock. “Burn me with your love, Pasil.”