Chapter 31 Bash
Bash
Voices travel down the hallway, the words indistinguishable through the muffled blare of sirens. I peek through the door to find our freshly laundered clothes piled neatly. My nose twitches at the scent of cinnamon drifting in the air, and I hurry back inside to change.
Xeni is sprawled out on the bed, half asleep.
He’s completely naked as his fingertips drift lazily over his stomach, tracing idle patterns on his skin.
The bruises on his torso have faded to lighter shades of purple and blue, and the split on his lip is mostly healed.
In another day or two, physical evidence of his abuse will be gone.
The internal wounds will take longer to heal, but right now, there’s a peaceful smile on his face. It stands in sharp contrast to the urgency I should feel. The world outside demands our attention, while he looks like he could drift off for a few more hours of sleep.
I dress quickly, thankful for the clean clothes, but I frown at the stack of thick hides meant for Xeni. Biting my lip, I set them on the counter.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell him.
He only acknowledges me with a soft grunt as he burrows deeper into the pillow.
He’s blissfully sexed out, with his hair everywhere in wild tangles and his long, lean limbs spread wide across the sheets.
A bolt of lust hits me square in the middle, but the alarms insist that more worship will have to wait.
I follow the delicious smells to the kitchen. Cato and Ego sit at a table with plates loaded full of steaming pancakes, while the human woman stands at the stove.
“Good morning,” I say, and she glances over her shoulder at me with happy crinkles lining her eyes. “Last night was so chaotic, I didn’t have the chance to thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, dear boy,” she says as she turns back to her skillet to flip another pancake. “Caitlin told me everything you went through. Getting your mate out of that place was quite the accomplishment.”
“Caitlin?!” I mouth at Cato, who has frozen with his fork hovering in front of his face. “Your name is Caitlin?!”
“Okay, Garfield,” he snips out loud.
I stifle my laugh as the woman glances over at him in question, but her face is full of motherly affection.
“That monster is a plague on this planet,” she says as she grabs another plate from the cabinet. “He would’ve destroyed your mate if he’d held him too long.”
“That he would’ve,” I agree. “Thank you for the hospitality. We’ll only stay until we come up with a plan. If they start home searches…”
“They won’t find you here.” She gestures at the last seat at the table, inviting me to eat.
I shake my head, though my stomach wails in protest. “I have another favor to ask, if it’s something you can help me with.”
She nods, curiosity sparking in her eyes.
My gaze drifts down the hallway to the closed door where Xeni rests. “I don’t want him to put his uniform back on. It only brings bad memories, and they know he was wearing it.”
The woman tilts her head toward the bedroom we’re sharing. “My wife was quite tall, though a bit thicker than him.” A nostalgic smile spreads over her face as she gets lost in a memory, but she quickly focuses again. “There are things in the dresser that should fit him.”
“I couldn’t ask that of you,” I say.
“Trust me,” she responds as she shakes her head. “She would want your mate to have them.”
She turns back to the stove, flipping another pancake as a fresh wave of cinnamon hits the air. “Your plates will be ready in a few minutes, and they’re better when they’re hot.”
It's an indirect instruction to hurry, so I return to our room with a chuckle. Xeni is still sprawled over the covers, his breath growing heavier as sleep pulls him deeper.
“Nuh uh,” I scold as I walk to his side and lean down to kiss him. “Lazy bones. It’s time to get up and get moving.”
His answering whimper is downright scandalous. He grabs my wrist and guides it lower, where his cock rests on his hip.
I scoff, even as I tease him with my fingertips. “Our food will be ready in five minutes, princess.”
“It’ll only take me two,” he promises. “It’s been so long.”
“It’s been exactly eight minutes,” I argue.
His bottom lip pushes out as he flexes his hips, and I huff a laugh as I kneel beside the bed.
I have never been able to deny him.
“Needy thing,” I murmur as I grab his thighs and twist him toward me, spreading his knees as his cock stands hard between us. My lips close around his tip, and he arches his spine as his fingers fist the sheets. I suck him down as he moans louder.
I tap his thigh as I pull back. “You’ve gotta be quiet. Everyone’s awake.”
“Quiet and fast?” he complains.
I draw him in again, and his hand snaps to his face to cover his mouth. The muscles in his stomach tighten, and his thighs flex under my palms as he rocks his hips up, but I move my hands to his hipbones and hold him in place.
More muffled sounds leave him, whines and whimpers caught by the heel of his palm. I suck all the way down, until his cock is lodged in my throat and my nose is pressed against his skin.
He tries to thrust, but I pin him as I slide back to the tip, and when I glance up, I find him propped on his elbows watching with his lips parted.
I grin at him and stick my tongue out to let a bead of spit drip down onto his cock, and he gasps before biting at his lip.
He tenses as I suck my way back down, his thighs quivering in the telltale signs that he’s close.
So fucking sensitive.
“Bash,” he moans, too loud to stay contained to this room, but we’re too deep in it for me to care anymore.
The blowjob turns sloppy, with fast bobs of my head and strands of spit stretching between us. His head snaps back, and the next time I wedge him into my throat he comes on a gasp. The base of his cock pulses against my lips as I suck harder, and cum floods the back of my throat.
I swallow, but as I try to take him deeper, streams of thick release leak from my lips to pool on his groin. I suck until he starts to shudder, then use my tongue to clean him off as he draws in heavy, panting breaths.
“Fuck,” he grunts as I run my palms along his thighs, then he yelps when I roll him onto his stomach and swat his ass.
“Now that the princess had his third morning orgasm, we have breakfast waiting. Time to return to the real world for a while.”
“Do we have to?” he mutters into the mattress, but obediently rolls over… even if his flop onto his back borders on a tantrum.
“We do.” I lean over him and kiss him before grabbing his wrists.
He rag-dolls his way to sitting as his wild hair falls around his shoulders.
“You’re no fun,” he complains.
“The jizz swimming in my stomach begs to differ.”
A surprised laugh pushes out of Xeni, and his grin is magnificent as he looks up at me. I kiss him again just because I can, and head over to the dresser to search through the drawers.
I feel his presence before his shadow casts over me. “What are you doing?”
“The lady who owns this place said there might be some clothes in here that would fit you. I didn’t want you to have to put the uniform back on.”
Xeni comes closer and wraps his arms around my waist, hugging me from behind. “Thank you for taking care of me,” he whispers.
I pause my search to grip his arms and hug him back. “It was always my favorite thing to do.”
He presses a kiss onto my cheek, and I soak in the comfort of being in his arms.
When we separate, I nod at the pile of leather. “We’ll need to bring those with us. Your eyepatch is with them, along with your underwear.”
Xeni snorts a laugh from behind me as I finally locate a pair of black shorts and a blue t-shirt that look to be his size. I turn in time to watch his naked ass walk into the bathroom, carrying a familiar strip of pink fabric.
I choke on a laugh. “Were you really wearing lacy panties the entire time they had you locked up?”
“I was,” he calls from the bathroom. “And let me tell you, they started chafing my ass after a few days. Two out of ten, would not recommend.”
“Two out of ten? Not zero?”
Xeni pops his head out of the bathroom door and wiggles his brows at me. “I got at least a little enjoyment out of them.”
I toss the clothes at him with a chuckle. He dresses quickly and runs his fingers through his hair to tame it before we walk into the hallway, hand-in-hand.
Publicly displaying our affection is novel, even in the confines of this apartment.
At Ljómur, people had their suspicions, and a few of our close friends knew we were a couple, but we were careful never to act like one in public.
Something as innocent as holding hands could’ve sealed our fates long before Xeni’s slip.
It’s such a small thing, but it brings me endless joy.
We walk into the kitchen to find Cato washing dishes, but Ego has disappeared.
“That was ten minutes,” the woman teases from over her shoulder, insinuation heavy in her tone.
“Apologies, ma’am,” Xeni says, and I almost roll my eyes at the syrupy sweetness. “That was my… fault.”
She turns around with a motherly smile, carrying two plates loaded with food.
Xeni looks shocked. “You?” he finally whispers.
“Sit and eat.” She guides us toward the two empty chairs. “We’ll talk over breakfast.”
Xeni is still stunned as he drops into a seat and stares at the stack of pancakes in front of him.
“You know each other?” I ask after I offer the woman a quiet thanks when she gives me a plate as well.
“We met when I came into the city,” Xeni explains. “Cornelia, right?”
“My friends call me Nelly.”
She sits and gestures for us to eat, and the first bite makes me groan. Fluffy, buttery, and steaming, despite our delay.
“She’s the one who pointed me toward Leif, so really, she’s the reason I found you.”
“Technically we found you,” Cato points out from the sink, and Xeni pulls a face at him before returning to his breakfast.
Nelly chews for a moment before smiling fondly at Xeni. “When I saw you walking in that marketplace, you reminded me of someone.”
“Someone you knew?” Xeni asks.
She shakes her head. “Not exactly, no.” She pauses, seeming to gather her thoughts before she continues.
“I’ve lived in this city my entire life and have been a part of the resistance since I was in my twenties.
Back then, we were a group of people who did what we could, but we didn’t put labels on anything, just tried to help when we were able. ”
“I met my wife a few years later. We didn’t understand what the marks meant for a while, but we knew to hide them.”
She pushes her sleeve up to show us a mark above her elbow. The skin is raised and bunched in a way that signifies her mate died, like a scar that’s been healed for decades.
She smiles at the mark before rolling her sleeve back down.
“This apartment was a haven for mates trying to evade the military. It was used for bootlegging liquor in the world before, and the blueprints for the building never included it. It was safe, and we hid the doorway so no one would see it unless they knew it was there. We didn’t use lights at night, and were cautious of our comings and goings, but when the bakery opened downstairs, the traffic was easily overlooked.
Dozens of mated pairs used this place as their sanctuary, but eventually, the resistance needed more space and moved.
We loved it here, though, and my shop was doing well, so we made it a home. ”
Nelly takes a bite of her breakfast, so Xeni and I do the same while she collects her thoughts.
“My wife got sick of waiting for information,” she continues. “She was always impatient and decided she would get inside the hornet’s nest, so to speak. Nothing I could say changed her mind, so I accepted it, even though I hated it. When she took that job, I had a feeling it would be her end.”
She pauses, then glances at Xeni with tears pooling in her eyes. “I don’t think she would’ve had it any other way.”
“What job did she take?” he asks gently.
Nelly smiles as she wipes a tear from her eye.
“She worked for a very important officer. Small tasks at first… cleaning his house and cooking his meals. She’d serve coffee at his meetings, and collected a lot of information.
The plan was for her to get out before he suspected anything, but she learned something that made her stay.
I wasn’t happy about it, but I understood. ”
“What did she find out?” I ask when she pauses.
For a moment, she only fidgets with the edge of her fork as she stares at her half-eaten breakfast.
“His wife was pregnant,” Nelly says, and she lifts her face to look at Xeni.
“She knew that any child inside that house would have a devastating life, so she promised to stay as long as she could. We had so much love, she said, when he would have none. She was determined to show that child that there was more waiting for him out there in the world. Eventually, she became his nanny, and she loved that little boy so very much.”