43 Hugo
Hugo
Hugo held Eira in their bed, her soft body pressed against him as he woke up from another restful sleep. He felt like a new
man with all of this rest, and at this rate he’d become a version of himself he didn’t recognize.
He pressed his lips to Eira’s neck, a soft sigh escaping her lips as he began to touch her. They had so much to do and were
so unsafe, but in this bed with Eira, Hugo felt like he could shut the rest of the world out. She turned, pressing her body
into him and wrapping her arms around his neck before resting on his chest.
“I’m not ready to wake up,” she whispered.
Hugo brushed his hand over her braided hair, a meticulous bedtime routine of hers he’d never been privy to before Lichton.
Lichton, a town with some of the worst memories of his life, and now some of the best. It was funny how life worked sometimes.
“Mmm, let’s just never get up,” Hugo responded, kissing her forehead gently.
“Or . . .” Eira cocked her eyebrow before rolling on top of Hugo, his body instantly reacting to her.
Eira’s thick thighs straddled him as she sat up, stripping off her chemise to reveal her perfect breasts.
The morning light shone through the thin linen curtains and left her illuminated in the pale winter sun, her silvered stretch marks almost shining.
There was never a woman more beautiful than her, and there never would be.
Hugo was instantly rock-hard, and he knew Eira’s soft depths were right there but as he motioned to position himself to enter her, she stopped him.
“I’m running this show,” she smirked, leaning in and kissing him deeply, her tongue exploring his mouth and his doing the
same to hers.
Eira started moving her hips on Hugo’s shaft, and he groaned in pleasure—a deep, guttural sound that he’d never made except
when he was with Eira.
He reached up to caress one of her perfectly full breasts, fuller on the bottom than the top, and the other grabbed onto her
ample hips, squeezing.
Hugo felt Eira respond to his touch, and he knew what he could do to make her react even more. He moved the hand on her breast
to the spot that he knew could take her over the edge if he touched it just right. His thumb made tiny, gentle circles and Eira instantly sighed, Hugo’s cock somehow getting harder than he even thought was
possible in response to her single sigh.
“Let me fuck you,” he moaned, desperate to feel her.
“Say please,” she sighed, leaning into his ear, a chill rippling down his spine in response.
“Please, Eira, let me inside of you.”
Eira smiled before guiding Hugo’s shaft inside of her, and he instantly started moving.
His thumb continued to make gentle circles as she leaned back, her hands on his shins as he thrust upward, watching her breasts
bounce with each thrust.
Her auburn hair was a mess, and sweat had started to bead on her chest as Hugo brought her closer and closer to climax. He wouldn’t come before her, and he was dangerously close to coming, so he stopped thrusting, allowing himself to bask in watching her orgasm in the morning light.
And sure enough, there it was a moment later. “Oh my gods,” she panted out, her body tense as she moaned, her muscles clamping
around him inside of her and nearly bringing him to climax as she came.
Once Hugo knew she was fully spent, he took the opportunity to sit up, still inside of her. He pressed his torso against hers,
her soft curves melding into his harsh lines. He held her tight as he started thrusting again, softer this time. As she caught
her breath, she turned her mouth to his and started kissing him, caressing his back, his arms, his hair.
“This doesn’t feel real,” Hugo whispered, still in disbelief that Eira wanted him like he wanted her—had wanted her for years.
“It’s very real,” she whispered, her finger tracing the scar on his chin, a scar that Lord General Kerrigan had given him
just a few months ago, before kissing him again, deeply and intensely. It didn’t take much for Hugo to leap over the edge,
quickly pulling out and coming on his own abs.
After he cleaned up, he draped the blanket over Eira’s body and started tracing circles on her back.
“We don’t have to leave the room yet, you know.” He smiled, counting the freckles on her back.
“That sounds nice,” she sighed. “I am hungry, though.”
Eira turned and batted her eyelashes at him, and it was all he needed to know what he had to do. They didn’t need to search
for the witch first thing in the morning; they could wait a little while to try to find her, savor their time together. Hugo
could bring Eira breakfast, and they could do unspeakable things to each other again, and then they could find the witch.
“I’ll be right back with food for my lady, then,” he said, levering himself off the bed and quickly getting dressed before heading out the door, taking one last glance at the perfect woman he’d somehow managed to be with.
He headed downstairs to the still-quiet tavern. The same man from the night before was cleaning glasses at the bar. “Good
morning,” Carth said as Hugo approached, “What can I do for you?”
“Do you do breakfast?” Hugo asked.
“We do,” Carth said. “But if I’m being honest, the food here is not good.”
“Honest. I like that,” Hugo said, chuckling.
“It’s my best quality. There’s a pastry shop about a five-minute walk from here, right on the outskirts of town. You won’t
miss it,” Carth said with a smile.
Hugo saluted with two fingers to his forehead as he turned, tossing his cloak on and heading onto the main road into Luwha.
Luwha was a much bigger city than Lichton. It was the main mining hub of Astra and the biggest city where people lived this
far north. It was also the hardest place for the Iron Empire to have a hold over; the northerners were a wild people. Hugo
remembered trying to rein them in right after the uprising, and it had been a challenge, to say the least.
The road was snow covered, packed down to make it easier to walk on. Hugo walked alongside a few miners who were likely heading
from their forest homes to the central pillar of Luwha: the giant iron mine in the mountain.
While wild and raw, Luwha was one of Hugo’s favorite cities. Buildings scaled cliffsides, carved pathways and swinging bridges
allowing people to travel to the upper levels of the city. They could have built the city just outside of the mountain, but
Luwha’s people had decided to build onto it, as if the rock was a part of who they were. And it was a part of them, he supposed.
Curiously, Hugo noticed no Iron Retinue guards at the city gates, but he just hoped that the luck that hadn’t been on his side for years was finally coming back and continued on, grateful he didn’t need to try to figure out how to not draw attention to himself.
Carth had been correct; Hugo could smell fresh bread as he approached the first buildings in the city, one of which had several
people going in and out. He made a calculated guess that it had to be the bakery in question.
A few minutes later, two bags in hand, he headed back toward the Griffon’s Nest, still pondering why the city guard wouldn’t
have been guarding this morning. It raised the hairs on the back of his neck. It was coincidental and fortuitous, but Hugo
knew he wasn’t a lucky man.
Hugo’s answer was provided to him as he neared the Griffon’s Nest and saw the familiar shape of several Iron Retinue soldiers
approaching him, heading into the city. He looked to his left and right; a few miners were walking alongside him toward their
homes from the night shift. Each of them carried a pickaxe or had one strapped on their backs. Hugo didn’t blend in with his
too-light cloak and a sword strapped to his belt.
He threw his hood up quickly as he formulated a plan, and just as he started to panic he noticed a pathway to his right. It
wasn’t exceptionally busy based on how packed down the snow was, but it would seem relatively normal for someone to head down
that path. Without thinking too hard he turned, following the winding path before turning into the brush and pausing to see
if he could tell who was in the group of soldiers.
As they passed, Hugo crouched low. Three of them walked with a stiffness that he recognized . . . more Soulless Knights. All
six wore full Iron Retinue plate armor, helmets and all. He watched, seeing if he could recognize the gait of any of the three,
but all three of the walking soldiers looked Soulless. The other three sat astride horses, and from this distance, he couldn’t
tell who any of them were. To make matters worse, he heard very little apart from one single sentence.
“Venton is apparently heading this way, so we’ll need to prepare for an execution once we capture him.”
Damned Sylvie and Sanders. Hugo was glad to have Sylvie and Asha on his side now, but they’d given the Iron Empire too much
information. Hugo waited, quite possibly too long, to move once the squad of six had passed him. He turned onto the main road
and came face-to-face with Carth, who was watching him walk out of the mostly unused pathway.
“We don’t like them here either,” Carth said, arms crossed as he watched Hugo. “But not enough to hide when we see them. Care
to explain?”
“I’m good, thanks,” Hugo said, brushing past him.
The tavern keeper whipped an arm out, hand instantly on Hugo’s chest. It happened faster than Hugo would have expected him
to react.
“If you want to stay in my tavern, you’re going to have to tell me if I need to worry about the safety of the other patrons,”
he said, palm pressed to Hugo’s cold leathers.
“They’re looking for me and the women I’m traveling with. If we can get what we need and get out, we’ll be out of your hair
and they’ll eventually leave this place.”
“Why are they looking for you?” Carth asked.
“It’s actually safer for you if you don’t know,” Hugo said, hoping the tavern keeper would bite. If he chose to kick them
out Hugo, Eira, and Evangeline would have nowhere to turn except further into danger . . . or to leave without Eira’s memories
intact. Both were bad options.