Chapter Thirteen #2
They kissed and groped, rocking against one another before finally tugging their clothes off, growling in frustration when the cloth didn’t cooperate in their desire to get naked quickly.
Tor gave him another bruising kiss and then asked, “You want to be inside me?”
“Please,” Pel agreed breathlessly. “How would you like it?”
Tor’s eyes were bright. “On my back. I want to see you.”
They got a pillow under Tor’s hips, and Pel stretched Tor open, remembering how worried he’d been the first time he’d done so.
Now his body knew what it was doing even without Pel’s conscious thought, and he delighted in finding the spot that made Tor shudder and moan even before Pel pushed into him with his cock.
He loved watching Tor’s face like this, the openness and affection even Pel could read there.
And if Tor clutched a bit too hard, his fingers digging into Pel’s hips as he thrust into Tor, well, Pel was pretty sure he was doing the same, greedily grasping skin even as he tried to tell himself that it wasn’t desperation or fear that they wouldn’t get to do this again.
Pel wanted it to last forever, but pleasure was building inexorably inside him, and he could see it suffusing Tor’s face, his eyes hazy and yet intent at the same time, staring directly at Pel, like he could see all the way to Pel’s core.
Pel found Tor’s sweet spot and aimed each thrust at it, until Tor was gasping and arching up beneath him as he came, and Pel was spilling inside him. He wanted to stay like that forever, but instead, he carefully eased out and cleaned them both up.
They curled up together afterwards.
“I love you,” Tor told him softly.
“I love you, too,” Pel responded.
He hadn’t known he could love someone so much. And no matter what happened, they could be certain of that.
Either Tor really was fully recovered, or he was having as much trouble sleeping as Pel was.
They roused too early in the morning but didn’t get out of bed, like they could pretend the rest of the world wasn’t there.
Instead, they turned so that they were on their sides, facing one another, the sheet pooled at their waist.
“What are you thinking?” Tor asked.
“Hmm?”
Tor reached out and smoothed a thumb gently over the furrow that was apparently in Pel’s brow. Pel sighed.
“I always come here for a major life event.” The realization had come to him at some point in the restless night. “Deaths, coronations, weddings, naming ceremonies. So now it feels like this is going to be the same. Like it has to be life-changing.”
Tor slipped his hand into Pel’s, and Pel clutched at it like it was a lifeline.
“I certainly hope tying our lives together will be life-changing,” Tor said quietly.
Pel wondered if he was as certain as he sounded, or if he was just stating the future he wished for.
“I hope so, too,” Pel agreed, because the alternative was admitting that he feared that their lives were going to change back to how they had been, that Pel was going to be told he didn’t get to keep Tor after all.
Tor cupped Pel’s face with his free hand. “We’re going to fight for the future we want,” he assured Pel. Then his lips quirked. “Also, this is simply home, and I’d like to share it with you.”
Pel made himself smile and tried to let go of some of his anxiety. He’d actually sort of forgotten about that in the midst of everything else.
“I’d like that,” he said, really meaning it, trying to stuff all the worries far out of sight, where they wouldn’t get in the way.
He couldn’t control what would happen, but he could control how he reacted.
“What do you most want to show me?” Pel asked.
Tor shot him a sly look. “That’s a surprise, obviously.”
Pel smiled even as he rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”
Leaning in, Tor kissed the smile off Pel’s lips, and Pel clung to him.
They made love slowly. There was no question about the desperation in their touches this morning, but they determinedly didn’t mention it, just drove one another to completion until daylight shone in through the window, able to reach them even through the narrow alley, and they knew their time was up.
Tor twined his fingers with Pel’s again. “I know it’s probably a source of stress right now, but I’m really glad you’re with me.”
Pel smiled in spite of himself and squeezed the other man’s hand. “I’m glad, too.”
They rose from the bed to clean up and get ready for the day. Pel got breakfast served upstairs to keep Tor hidden for a few more minutes—not that it did much good, as he spent almost as much time as Pel moving the food around on his plate.
Their clothes had been neatly cleaned, at least, and they dressed looking more presentable than they had on the rest of this journey.
Beluna, Denil, and Cavun knocked on the door when they were finished breakfast, and Tor and Pel gratefully abandoned their meal.
“Did you want to stay here?” Tor asked. “Just until we find out exactly what Forex wrote in his letter to my brother?”
They exchanged glances.
“Yes, please,” Beluna said firmly. “I’d prefer not to be thrown into a dungeon if it’s avoidable.”
“I’d break you out,” Tor assured her.
She smirked.
“We’ll be back with news later today,” Tor told them. “I’m sure my brother will want to see me as soon as possible, and there are still a lot of hours left in the day even if we’re arguing.”
Pel rolled his eyes, and the others didn’t look sure if they were allowed to laugh, since Tor was talking about the High King.
Tor had a way of making things casual, but the High King was the High King.
“As you probably saw when we arrived, there are plenty of taverns,” Tor told them. “If it looks shady, it probably is.” He eyed Beluna. “But I have the feeling you could probably fleece someone at cards.”
She grinned wide and winked.
“I think they’ll be fine,” Pel said with amusement.
It was a nice way to leave, though the light mood didn’t last. Pel tried to concentrate on the city. His family had ridden to both the naming ceremony and the coronation of High King Varex. (Pel had been the one to stay home while the others went to High King Varex’s wedding.)
Pel hadn’t spent time near the wharf, nor had he just walked through the city with no guards.
They’d gone straight to the castle and stayed there.
This felt so very different. He reminded himself that he’d regularly visited his people in Baless and the surrounding villages in Tond.
That didn’t seem to help. He couldn’t decide if it was simply because Nexa was so much bigger than Baless or because these weren’t his people.
Maybe it was just that he was unfamiliar with it, and that would come with time.
(Would there be time? Was Pel really going to get to stay here with Tor?
His stomach swooped like the butterflies were practicing advanced flying maneuvers.)
People were everywhere, even more than last night, still bustling about on their own business. Or maybe they weren’t bothering the two of them because Tor was striding along like he was a man with a mission. Pel had to scurry along at his side.
When Tor realized Pel was having trouble keeping up, he slowed his pace.
“Sorry,” he said, trying to smile and failing miserably.
“It’s fine,” Pel told him. “Clearly, I was hoping for the hurried, silent tour of your city.”
Tor’s lips tipped up in a genuine smile now, his face relaxing. “Oh, I’m sorry, were you hoping that I’d actually be helpful the first time we were heading to my castle? Is that how you think this relationship works?”
Pel could do nothing but grin at the other man, hopelessly, helplessly charmed, because Tor had just turned the worst meeting ever into a shared joke.
“Do you think we’d make a good impression on your brother if I arrived several hours after you because you wouldn’t give me directions to the castle?”
“I doubt he’d be surprised,” Tor admitted with almost the right note of humor, “but it might not be the behavior I’m trying to emphasize.”
“Oh, we’re trying to show your brother how you’re not an ass? I’m not sure I can help with that.”
Tor pouted.
Pel winked. “I happen to like your ass rather a lot.”
Tor chortled. “Oh, make sure to tell my brother that. I would pay to see it.”
“Does your brother have a sense of humor?” Pel asked curiously.
Tor was silent a little too long. “He used to. I’m not altogether certain if it’s gone entirely or if it’s just been buried under miles of…
of royalty and marriage and a belief that he has to be proper to be King.
I guess he was always a bit more serious than me, but we used to get up to such fun together.
” Tor’s gaze softened. “We laughed about everything back then.” His eyes refocused and his face went hard.
“And now, nothing is funny and everything I do is wrong.”
With a lurch to his stomach, Pel remembered that moment when he was sixteen and his father had named him Pelun, identifying his weak magic with such a look of disgust that Pel had known the man didn’t love Pel anymore.
He prayed the connection between Tor and his brother was stronger than that, that it was just a bit tarnished, not warped beyond repair.
And then they rounded a corner, and Pel pointed.
“Oh, I see the castle now. You can’t lead me astray.”
“My evil plan, foiled,” Tor said with theatrical sadness. “Actually, I have a secret to show you instead.”
“Oh?” Pel perked up. “Does it involve making me cover my eyes and count to twenty? Because I’m not going to fall for that.”
Tor grinned. “Good to know. If you’re ever trying to sneak into the castle, this is the best way to do it.”
Pel couldn’t imagine a scenario where he’d need to know that—but he was totally curious. He had not been invited to sneak anywhere on any of his previous visits.