Morien’s heart thumped as it always did when he narrowly escaped one of Safir’s advances. In fact the floor might have felt cold to his knees and toes if he weren’t practically glowing with pride for his idea.
It’d been another close call when Safir asked how he’d known of the ring. He’d thought his heart might leap right out of his throat at the question.
But he’d covered his tracks there too. Not only that, but Safir had willingly bound himself for Morien’s educational advancement.
He wasn’t so fractured a fellow after all. A rogue, yes, but a thoughtful one.
And a damned compelling one. Gods, the sight of him like this, cock and sac circled tightly by the ring, legs splayed so Morien could take in every angle.
“How does it feel?”
“Tight. When I’m fully hard, it will be frustrating. Maddening, even,” Safir said, though his voice didn’t sound as if that were a terrible thing. When Morien dragged his gaze from the man’s nether parts, he found his dark eyes shining in the firelight. “But it also gives me a sense of security. Or maybe that’s you.”
Surprise rippled over his skin like a wayward spring breeze. “Me?”
“I don’t know you well, Morien. But I’ve come to know you a little better. I realize now I had a limited notion of who you were. The man I see before me… I respect you, for a start. And I’m charmed by you. And I know you wouldn’t harm me.”
“Oh.” He wouldn’t, but it was something to hear it said.
“I also think you can be quite cheeky.”
“Cheeky! What.”
“You heard me. You like to pretend you’re above playing, but you take part in your share of games.”
“With Gally, perhaps, or Medraut.”
Safir laughed again, and it caused his cock to bob. As it was on the level of Morien’s chin, he was momentarily distracted.
If the man wanted a game, he could play this one. He’d done well enough in the stable, after all. He stroked his fingertips up the underside of Safir’s shaft.
Safir hissed. “You aren’t helping your case.”
“What case is that?”
“Your claim you aren’t cheeky. That you don’t play games.”
His voice was fairly quivering. Morien grinned. “Maybe a few. Maybe you’re a bad influence.”
“I am definitely a bad influence.”
Morien laughed despite himself.
Which seemed to please Safir. “But you’re playing. And you started it.”
“You’re the one who slipped the ring on.”
“You’re the one who suggested it.”
Dangerous territory. Divert, divert. “Are you complaining?”
“Not yet. I’d continue not to complain if you used your lips.”
Now who was cheeky?
He was learning from a master, apparently.
Leaning close, he brushed his lips over the head of Safir’s cock. The resulting groan fired his own cock, and it grew heavy in his trousers. He was going to have to slip outside tonight, most likely, and stroke himself off. There was no way he’d be able to sleep blood-hard.
But he could endure it for now. He kissed the length of Safir’s shaft. It strained, stroking his cheek as if it were biddable.
“Ever licked a man’s balls?” Safir said.
“What do you think?”
“I think you’d be good at it.”
He couldn’t decide whether he should be proud of the man’s confidence or outraged at his obvious manipulation.
But he was having too much fun to examine it closely. “The best virgin pupil you’ve ever had.”
Safir chuckled and swore under his breath. “Prove it, then.”
There was proving, and then there was convincing beyond any doubt.
He took aim at the latter and, opening his mouth wide, took both Safir’s stones in his mouth. Safir groaned loudly—possibly loudly enough to alert their neighbors that they were up to something, but just this moment, he couldn’t bring himself to care. Safir’s balls lay warm and firm against his tongue, the skin protecting them ticklish with hair. His cock pressed heavily against Morien’s cheek, and his scent where Morien’s nose was pressed into his groin was nearly overwhelming. Warm, spicy, dark with promises he’d never thought existed. He’d gotten a whiff in the stable, but training his ears on Safir and Bedwyr at the same time—and making ready to hide at a moment’s notice—had dulled his other senses.
Not so now. Drawing a deep, intoxicating breath, he pushed his nose into Safir’s heady scent and gave his tight stones a suck.
“Fuck. You’re making this difficult.”
He grinned and pulled back. “Frustrated yet? Maddened?”
Safir shook his head. His cock shook too. Morien sucked it between his lips, teased its hot, delicate skin with his tongue.
Safir’s fingernails scraped his neck. He didn’t realize what the man was about until the cord of his pendant tightened. He withdrew from Safir’s cock and covered his hand. “Let go of that.”
“Come up here.”
He looked up instead, unsure for the first time. “Am I doing it wrong?”
Safir glanced away so that the firelight flashed over his eyes. He seemed to sigh, and then he tugged a little at Morien’s necklace. “You’re doing very well. It’s me who’s failing you. Come up here, please.”
Confused, he rose and sat on the edge of the bed. Safir didn’t release his pendant. “Let go.”
“You collect seeds, don’t you?”
“This isn’t yours.”
“No,” Safir said, “but I’ve given you many, many others, haven’t I?”
Fear sliced through his middle as quick and clean as a new-honed blade. “You haven’t. I get them in the forest, in meadows—”
“Morien.”
His breath caught in his throat. Safir had a way of saying his name that did that, only this time…
“I know, Morien.”
…this time he couldn’t stop shaking. “You don’t,” he said. “Know what?” he added, realizing too late that that was what he should have said first.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Safir said. “I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“Tell them what?”
“That you visit my chamber at night. As a magpie.”
He gasped. Fuck fuck fuck, the man knew. “Don’t.”
“I won’t,” Safir whispered.
But when had the man’s whispers ever been a safe thing? “Please. You can’t… Don’t…”
“Morien—”
“Don’t tell them. The others.” Safir was shaking his head, but Morien forged on because the man couldn’t understand. “Bedwyr. Palahmed. They wouldn’t trust me. They would run me off.”
“I wouldn’t let them.”
“Please, they’ll think I’m an animal, some beast, not human—”
Safir’s hands came up to hold his face. They were warm and gripped him hard enough to stop the panicked flurry of his thoughts. Safir pressed his thumbs into Morien’s cheekbones. “I won’t.”
“Do you promise?” What was he saying? This man didn’t make promises. He avoided them at all costs.
“I promise you.” Safir held his gaze. “I promise you, Morien. It won’t go beyond this chamber. Beyond us.”
Morien stared into his eyes, wanting to believe it.
And also: us.
“Look, I just put it together. I never suspected. I doubt you’ve given yourself away to anyone, if you’re worried about that.”
He hadn’t been.
Now he was.
“I’ve made you a promise,” Safir said. “Will you make one to me?”
“What?”
“That you won’t run if I let you go.”
It was not a promise he wanted to make. Every fiber in him wanted to refuse. He wasn’t even sure why he hadn’t simply torn away already, damn the pendant. He could get another…
Except that he couldn’t. This was the one that mattered, the one that reminded him not to settle for just any man.
Not even the one he dreamed about. The one he longed for with every breath and blood-beat.
The one he’d deceived for years, acting aloof toward him in daylight but slipping into his chamber at night and taking what small gifts he could.
It was mortifying.
“I won’t run.”
Safir’s shoulders slumped and he let Morien go, though the fingers of one hand trailed down his neck. Then Safir looked down at his own lap and sighed. His cock was no longer rampant but looked quite tame. He slipped off the ring and set it on the table. “I told you I wouldn’t tell, and I won’t. But my intentions weren’t honorable.”
Honorable? When had such a thing ever mattered—
Oh. It hadn’t. Not to Safir.
The man was worried about what Morien thought. That was new.
“Your intentions?”
“When you held up the ring, everything slotted into place in my mind. I was going to turn things around on you, use the ring to catch you out. But then there you were again, between my legs again, serving me, again—” Safir looked at him. “I don’t like putting you in that position as it is, but this felt even worse. It wasn’t fair to you, and I’m sorry for it. I didn’t think how frightening it might be for you to be confronted the way I’d planned to do.”
He hadn’t expected any of that. “I like being between your legs.”
“Will you lie down with me? I only want to talk. On level ground, as it were.”
Morien nodded, and they climbed under the blanket. He lay on his side and Safir did the same, facing him. Morien’s body blocked the light from Safir’s face, but he could make out his eyes. They were his favorite feature of the man’s. They’d always welcomed his nighttime visits. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Safir whispered.
“For deceiving you.”
Safir watched him, waiting.
“I came to your chamber, enjoyed your company. Took your gifts.” He looked away to the wall. “But then didn’t give you a glance when we met as men.”
“Well. Yes.”
He closed his eyes. Guilt felt like a lead ingot in his belly.
“Did you like the gifts, or were you only humoring me?”
“I did like them. I passed several on to Gally, though. I visit him too, in a different way.”
“Different how?”
“Gally’s a child and my charge.” He couldn’t avoid Safir’s eyes any longer and not feel a coward. “You’re a man.”
“And what am I to you?”
He took a breath. Faltered. Swallowed. Searched Safir’s face. “The man I want.”
He couldn’t say what reaction he’d thought that might cause, but it wasn’t the radiant smile that stole over Safir like a sunrise. Not a trace of smugness, either, only pleasure.
“You aren’t angry?”
“I’m not angry.”
“Truly? No, you lie. You’re angry. At least a little.”
“Not even a little.”
“Impossible!”
Safir laughed, and it was unlike any laugh Morien had ever heard. Soft and low. And just for him.
“How can you not be angry?”
“Look, a quarter hour ago, I was. I was quite put out, and embarrassed that you’d gotten the better of me. Hurt that you had used me.”
Morien’s tongue felt dry against the roof of his mouth.
“But something happened when you owned up to it. All those hard feelings blew away, like the thistledown the other night, because you couldn’t have told me before—doing so might have exposed you to danger. And because, all along, you wanted me.”
Was that the smugness he’d expected? Didn’t sound like it. “Why does that make you happy?”
“Because you’re the man I wanted.”
Tread with care. “You want every man there is.”
“Not every man.”
“Most of them.”
“Some of them. But I could never convince you.”
“That only makes me a conquest.”
Safir touched his chest with gentle fingertips. “I might have thought so, once. Now I think you’re quite someone else. Someone much more special.”
“Because I’m a shifter?”
“No. Well, yes, of course that makes you special, but no. Even if you weren’t, I suspect I’d feel this way.”
“What way?” He wasn’t even sure Safir could hear him. The words had slipped out of him unbidden and supported by no breath at all.
“As if I’ve discovered something—someone—in you that I’ve never found with anyone else. Never even realized I might want. Or need.”
The old instinct, well trained and practiced, rose up, telling him to beware the man’s words. Safir dealt sweet ones the way a farmer cast seeds in a field. Don’t believe him, the voice said, you know better…
And yet.
This felt different. The instinct trying to protect him seemed unsure itself, shield raised only halfway.
“How do I know these aren’t just so many more words?”
Safir shrugged. “You can’t know, I suppose. But they’re true, and I hope you’ll let me try to make an honest man of myself.”
His gaze was so intent, as if he truly did want that. This wasn’t the laughing, jesting Safir Morien was accustomed to, but neither did he seem sad. Instead, he seemed humbled. And earnest. Hope bloomed in Morien’s chest like one of the great flowers in his mother’s garden that only opened under the light of the moon.
Which was how he knew.
Night was their time. Always had been.
“Kiss me,” he said.
Safir hesitated, but only for one thunking heartbeat, and then his lips pressed softly to Morien’s.
He closed his eyes to better feel them, warm and smooth except for the brush of Safir’s mustache. Suddenly hungry, he licked into Safir’s mouth. This time there was no hesitation. Safir opened to him. Gave him his tongue.
Always gifting things, this man. He was generous, and Morien had never credited him for it.
He broke the kiss. “I want you to touch me.”
The whites of Safir’s eyes shone as he searched Morien’s face. Then his hand came to rest on Morien’s arm.
“No, my cock. I want to feel your hand there. If you want to. If you feel safe.”
“Of course I feel safe.”
“It’s only…afterward…you mustn’t lick your fingers.”
Safir’s cheek twitched, and he smiled. “All right.”
“I’m serious, Safir. My seed mustn’t enter your mouth. Or any other orifice.”
“I understand. I’m only laughing that you know me so well.”
“Not so well.”
“But you trust me?”
Here it was. His last chance to decide that, actually, no he didn’t, and perhaps they should just roll apart and go to sleep, for the next day was bound to be a test, and probably some other reasons. Myriad reasons. All of which he should say now, before the sensation of Safir’s hand on his skin became something he couldn’t do without.
Only, it already was.
“I trust you.”
May the gods preserve us both, he added silently.