And So It Begins (31 page)

And that’s when Kherin knew he had succeeded at last.

Kherin broke the kiss enough to look into the trader’s eyes, but he didn’t blink as the capable fingers loosened his breeches and found entrance. Then he gasped and nearly came when Derek’s hand finally closed around him, and he gave himself to the heat of Derek’s mouth as the trader stroked, hard and sure.

Pulling their hands from the other was unwanted but necessary, though cotton and linen were soon left scattered on the floor, and the moments they spent in each other’s arms with nothing left between them were long and exquisite. Until at last their lips separated and their touches slowly stilled. Then the anxiousness in Kherin’s heart made it beat sharply against his ribs as Derek eased him back, and yet he never looked away from the trader as sure and gentle hands pushed him down to the bed.

The tremors of anticipation shook through him even before the pillows pressed against his back, and he couldn’t take his eyes from the thick and powerful cock pressed tightly to Derek’s stomach as the trader retrieved a small tin from his pack. Full and beautiful, it was what he had felt in the stormy shadows of the way-stop, what he had only seen a hint of in the bath at the Crossroads, what he had seen in full in bathhouse of the Harper’s Den. Derek was every bit as formidable as those brief hints had promised, and Kherin’s fingers nearly shook as he reached for him. Derek breathed a slow sigh of pleasure as Kherin traced the veined and burning flesh all the way to the leaking tip as he crawled relentlessly between Kherin’s legs.

Then as he lifted his eyes to meet Derek’s again, the stark realization that this was Derek at last—not someone he didn’t want, and not merely a fantasy of his own making—hit him hard enough to make his heart stutter. A single simmering moment passed as Derek braced his hands on the pillows at his shoulders. Then Derek’s cock brushed against his as he lowered enough to kiss.

The storm was unleashed. With a sound thick with desperation, Kherin drove the kiss deeper, pushing his hips up from the bed as he pulled Derek down over him. He dug his fingers into the flesh of Derek’s back as the room, the northerners, the kingdom itself vanished under the heat and hunger of this moment. Derek’s shallow breaths swept against his as their kisses became scattered, and his weight grew heavy as he thrust against Kherin. This was what they had experienced in the way-stop, this desperate need for contact, and the friction and heat they found as they answered the hunger of their bodies in the writhing flesh of the other.

But this wasn’t the way-stop, and it wasn’t the need to stop that tightened Derek’s hands on his hips, or the sound of protests that made it through their panting and grunting breaths as Derek ground their cocks together. And it wasn’t enough to settle for this, when it was so much more that both of them wanted.

Neither of their mouths or bodies stopped moving as Derek reached for the tin and clicked it open, and the heavy scent of herb-infused salve drifted over them as Derek pulled away at last.

Kherin was panting as he watched Derek draw the salve out with the tip of a single finger, and the dark, stormy gaze of the trader bore into him as he circled Kherin’s entrance once, then entered him for the first time. Kherin tensed and arched at the careful invasion, and he had to fight to remain still as the skillful fingers stretched and prepared him. He slid his hands down the trader’s arms as a second and then a third finger entered him, and he arched his back again as Derek began to take him slowly, with just the movement of his hand. It was hard to keep his eyes open as he responded to the trader’s careful manipulation, and hard not to leave marks on the trader’s arms as the feel of Derek’s twisting fingers and the rapturous pleasure he saw on the trader’s face nearly made him come without a single touch.

Then a gasp was torn from him as Derek pulled his fingers away, and the presence of Derek moving over him stole the remaining breath from his lungs a moment before the pressure of his cock against his opening froze his heart. Their eyes met and held for one lingering moment, the hunger between them palpable and nearly tangible, and then Derek pushed inside with one long and powerful stroke.

Kherin cried out as he surged up, and the sounds were caught in the heat of Derek’s mouth as the trader fell heavily over him. Soft and mobile lips soothed and calmed as Derek forced himself deeper, and Kherin’s nails threatened to raise marks as the pain slid into pleasure with each longer, deeper stroke. Gods, he had wanted this so badly, and now that he had it, he only wanted more. The gasp that burst from his lungs as Derek snapped his hips hard was caught and deliciously echoed against his lips, and he lifted his legs higher as he rocked against him.

And what began as a short, fast pattern moved quickly into a hard and pounding rhythm.

Their lips were forced apart as Derek rose to gain more depth, and the pounding of his hips became brutal as he took Kherin with all the ruthlessness of Kherin’s fantasies. Gasps sharpened as they were torn from their lungs, and Kherin’s began to break as he took each brutalizing stroke, his body stretching and arching as Derek found the perfect angle and took him without mercy. This was what he had wanted, what he had dreamed about and fantasized over for years, and he dug his hands into the solid muscle of Derek’s arms as he was swept up in the need to be taken deeper, taken harder.

The white-hot flare of orgasm exploded through Kherin faster than he would have thought possible, and his fingers turned bruising as his cock erupted in a hot gush of seed, his cries loud and sharp as his length was stroked and scraped where it lay trapped between their heaving stomachs.

Yet Derek didn’t stop. He grasped the prince’s hips as Kherin twisted and rocked beneath him, and Derek’s labored breathing turned low and feral as his thrusts became ravaging. Both the bed and the prince shuddered beneath him as he drove toward completion, and then a sharp cry was torn from them both as he snapped his hips in a final vicious thrust. Release swept over him as he shot hard and deep while Kherin’s cum still trailed between them.

Slowing in the aftermath was mutual and nearly in unison, and their breath softened to gasps as their rocking eased and their fingers loosened and gentled. When Derek stilled at last, he looked down at the prince with eyes that were dark and sated, the light of the candle giving his sweat-dampened skin a golden glow. Kherin felt the familiar weariness that came after being so well and thoroughly used, but the contented smile that curved his lips was new, and he swept his hands over the trader’s shoulders before pulling Derek down into a deep and lingering kiss. Derek slipped his fingers into Kherin’s hair as he answered the kiss with a gentleness of his own, and the heat of their bodies mixed as they rested with Derek’s cock still buried and Kherin’s thighs still spread around him.

The kiss was long and sensual, but the reality of where they went from here was a weight Kherin felt when they finally pulled apart. Neither of them broke the silence as Derek slid slowly and carefully out of him, and a discarded towel and water from the pitcher on the bedside table provided the tools to clean the sweat and cum from them both. Derek handled the task with gentle efficiency as Kherin’s heart renewed its hammering in his chest. He hoped Derek wouldn’t expect him to leave now that he had gotten what he had come here for…

Although he knew the trader would be right to point out that ensuring Adrien still fared well meant he shouldn’t stay any longer than this. But the fact was that didn’t want to leave.
He wanted to stay.

Understanding filled the trader’s eyes as he lay down beside Kherin, though the words the trader said weren’t the ones he had been bracing for.

“I won’t stop you if you want to return to the hospice”—Derek began threading his fingers through the damp hair at Kherin’s ear—“but I trust the healer to send word if things worsen for Adrien, and it will make little difference if you are there or here when it happens.” A moment passed as he watched the prince’s eyes. “I’m not going to ask you to leave.”

“But are you going to ask me to stay?” Kherin asked the question softly, but the words were direct, and the answer became important the moment the question was asked. Gods, he hadn’t been vague about the reason he had come here, and the sex had been everything he had wanted and craved and hoped for—but he suddenly didn’t want it to be about
sex
. He didn’t want
Derek
to think it was only about sex, not now, not any longer.

But Derek’s laugh surprised him, for all that it was given quietly and kindly. “Ah, my prince, you’re far too used to life under the watchful eyes of your servants and king.”

Kherin searched his eyes to try to understand what the trader meant by those words, and then was surprised again when Derek leaned forward to claim a kiss. The warmth of it eased the tension and uncertainty that had begun to take hold, and though the kiss didn’t last long, he didn’t resist when Derek pulled back. The tattered braid his fingers had found was still in his hand when Derek again met his eyes, and his heart nearly refused to beat as the spark of hope found life at last. The quiet words that came next renewed it to a pounding rhythm against his ribs.

“I’m asking you to stay.”

The relief that bloomed must have shown in his face, as gentle laughter accompanied Derek’s words of, “Come here, my prince.” He pulled Kherin close, and Kherin felt the light brush of lips against his forehead as the soothing stroke of Derek’s hands settled him against the trader’s body.

And the peace that settled over him then was…
overwhelming
.

This
was what Kherin had never experienced with any of the men who had filled his bed before, the warmth and contentment after the act of sex was over, the ease and comfort of sharing a bed after his lust had been satisfied. He had never even
wanted
this after sex—until now.

Because now it was Derek who held him in his arms.

That revelation was stunning the moment it hit him, but even more surprising was the certainty that now that he finally knew the pleasure of giving himself to Derek—and the thrill of Derek taking him—he knew he didn’t want it to be with anyone else. Not in this kingdom nor in any other. That was something he had never expected, something that he and Derek had never talked about in any of their arguments leading up to this—something that would shock everyone who had ever shared his bed in Delfore. But it was the truth.

And the
rightness
of it made him tighten his arms as he pressed into the trader’s warmth—even as his heart was ripped with the knowledge that this moment wouldn’t last.

Because even as the candle was extinguished, even as Derek gently nuzzled his hair before he pulled the blankets over them, and even as the sound of Derek’s heartbeat murmured in his ear as he rested his head on the trader’s chest, his traitorous thoughts reminded him the light of morning would see the trader gone from his life again.

And there was nothing he could do to change it.

T
HE
early morning air was gray and misty, although the rain that had plagued the city of Gravlorn nearly the entire time he had been here was thankfully absent. Derek’s packs were already strapped to the gelding he had ridden into the Defender city what seemed like ages ago, but he had not yet mounted the sturdy beast, and so had yet to begin his travel to Dennor.

Kherin waited silently in the shadows of the Defender stables as the trader made a last check of his supplies, and he was aware of the soggy ground under his feet as clearly as he was aware that the time of departure had finally come. Derek had already paid the innkeeper his due from the accounts he kept in the city, and they had both visited the hospice so Derek could say his farewells to Adrien. And though Adrien hadn’t been fully awake, Derek had spoken to him as if he were, and had settled the blankets around his brother with a care that spoke of the farewell it was. Kherin had walked with Derek to the door when he was ready to leave, and Derek hadn’t argued when Kherin continued to walk with him from the hospice to the stables.

Talk of the previous night had been absent through it all, and Kherin wasn’t sure whether to speak of it, or what words he should offer if given the chance, or even if he would have the courage to do so at all. Derek had been dressed and absent by the time Kherin awoke, and the dread he had felt following their night at the way-stop surfaced again the moment he learned he had awoken alone. Though he knew now that Derek had acted willingly, both here and there, the worry that Derek would regret what they had done last night in the light of day—or worse, relegate it to the mere satisfaction of the prince’s lust and curiosity—had already begun gnawing at his stomach by the time the trader had returned bearing food.

The sound of the trader stepping up beside him was so sudden, it nearly startled him, and the amusement in the trader’s eyes said Kherin’s thoughts must have been written on his face. He felt his cheeks flush, but Derek only gave him a quiet laugh.