Page 34 of Too Many Beds

It was his room now, but the door had been closed when he dragged his small valise up the corridor of wet, resettling students, and he felt like an intruder.

Plus, it was Xem. He’d probably appreciate Asher showing the courtesy, especially considering what had happenedlasttime Asher had been up this end of the hallway.

Compromising by giving a quick rap on the wood and then pushing the door open without waiting for an answer, Asher stopped short after taking a single step into the room. His breath left him in a quick, startled huff, as though he’d been hit.

Where his bed should have been—the bed he’d spent the trimester fighting for, had earned from Pippah with his literal blood—there was only empty space, a dusty floor, and a slightly scuffed wall.

Asher felt like falling to his knees and crying. Which wasstupid, and Xem wouldn’t hesitate to verbally lacerate him for it, but…

“It occurred to me that there were too many beds in here, Asher.”

His name, spoken so softly and with a tenderness Asher had rarely spied through Xem’s prickliness, didn’t do anything to help his breathless state.

He turned slowly on his heel. His bed had been pushed up against Xem’s over on the other side of the room, turning the two narrow cots into a more spacious sleeping space. The dark-haired mage himself was tucked up under the covers, the shape of his long legs beneath the blankets showing that he was shamelessly sprawled across both beds.

“You should see your face.” Xem chuckled and rolled onto his back, stretching insolently. “I’m almost tempted to let you continue to believe I’m trying to screw you over, for I’d love to end that argument with you rendered helpless by my magic again. But no, Asher, I’m not stealing your bed. I’m offering to share it.”

He shuffled sideways to free up a couple of inches of space, and lifted the corner of the blanket invitingly.

Asher’s mouth went dry.

Barely remembering to close the door, he dropped everything he was holding and moved towards the bed with an eagerness that had him tripping over his own feet. His mumbling apologies earned him wry amusement from the watching mage.

Yet when Asher began to slide beneath the covers, Xem scowled and dropped his hand, blocking his way. Asher faltered.

“I saidyoucould come in,” Xem said in that silkily dangerous voice of his, violet eyes flashing. “I said nothing about your clothes.”

Oh.

Oh.

Asher stripped out of his uniform, sending boots, suspenders, and breeches flying. He flushed when he caught Xem staring at his body with open appreciation, and climbedhastily into the bed. Searching hands slid under the blankets to grasp his hips and yank him close, and at the slide of bare skin against his own, he realised Xem was also unclothed.

The other mage rolled on top of him with an elegant twist of his hips and Asher groaned when their bare cocks brushed against each other, heavy and leaking. Xem was all at once light and weighty, warm and cool, over-intense and not enough, and it was overwhelming in its sheerperfection.

Pouncing on Asher, Xem devoured his mouth. The kiss was brutally possessive, delivered the same way that he cast: ruthless, uncompromising, and with enviable skill. His tongue searched Asher’s mouth as though he owned it—and he did, there was no question—and cinnamon spice flooded Asher’s tongue with floaty, desperate need.

When Xem finally drew back for air, his eyes were wild and his lips abused and red. It was the most unkempt Asher had ever seen him.

“Fuck, how I’ve wanted this,” Xem breathed from above him, tightening his hold on his arms.

Asher smiled hazily, his mind pleasantly emptied.

“Me too. You know we could have had it the day I arrived.”

“No we could not,” Xem said coldly, and Asher blinked at the abrupt change of tone. “Because I do not dance to the whims of fate.” Fingers reverently traced Asher’s jaw before coming to rest over his lips. “Why should anyone but us control our own destinies?”

So that was why he hadn’t believed they were soulmates—or he had, but he’d refused to let it bind him to Asher other than by his own decision. Stubborn prick.

As if he could tell what he was thinking, Xem smirked and slid his fingers into Asher’s mouth, pressing down on his tongue and driving them to the back of his throat. Asher gagged. Xemheld him down with his weight and waited patiently, evidently enjoying his suffering.

“You are in this bed only through your own hard work, Asher,” he said conversationally, as if he wasn’t making Asher more turned on than he’d ever been in his life. “Because you wanted something and made it happen, and fought like the damn Devil today to win, even against me. Because I corrected Allarie’s fuckup when I could have said nothing.” Arousal danced in his violet eyes as he watched Asher choke on his fingers. His cock twitched against his thigh, hard and needy. “You are my soulmate, Asher Larsen, not because fate said so. But becauseIsaid so.”

Xem withdrew his fingers and granted Asher the air he’d been struggling for, but which he now only wanted for the way it let him taste Xem’s heady aura once more.

“Now,” Xem purred, rocking back to sit up on his heels and expose Asher’s shivering body to his hungry gaze. “Shall we consummate our soulmate bond?”

There was only one way of doing that, andconsummatewas the right word for it.

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