Page 71 of Night's Templar (Vampire Queen 13)

The thought had more than one aspect to it, though. Kel wasn't simply the object of his desire and love. He was Kel's, and that gave the thought a problematic dimension. One that transformed this moment into something different as he turned on his knees and faced the Fae Lord. Keldwyn had stood up, but Uthe stayed on his knees, relishing the reactive spark in Kel's eyes, the set of his jaw that enhanced the thin, precise slash of his mouth, the column of his throat. Uthe tugged the leggings down his thighs, bent to remove his boots. Kel's fingertips whispered over the curve of his spine as he adjusted his stance.

Then Uthe slid his hands up the outside of his thighs, thumbs on the smoother terrain of his inner thighs. Uthe wanted to lean in and press his mouth against his testicles, the base of his cock. Kel hadn't given him leave to go down on him, but it wasn't exactly about that. He wanted to pay homage, try to touch Kel's soul through a worshipping of his flesh. Try to tell him...

I accept your care of me, even as I want you to know I understand what it has cost you. And what it may cost you in the end. It is that which breaks my heart, even as it overwhelms me.

Kel's hand fell on the crown of his head. A tremor went through his upper thigh where Uthe's palm still lay upon the Fae Lord.

Be easy on all of it, Varick. This moment is just us. Do as I bid you. Remove my clothes.

Uthe finished that, then rose. As he moved around Kel, Uthe laid his hands on his Master's hair. He spread the strands like an ebony cloak over Kel's shoulders. Sliding his arms under the other male's, Uthe pressed against his back, heart to heart. His cock pulsed against Kel's firm ass as Kel closed his hand over Uthe's clenched fingers.

"Varick, you steal my breath," he said in a thick voice. "Get back down on your knees for me."

Uthe placed a kiss on his nape, his shoulder, sliding the hair out of the way to do the same to the pulse in his throat, his heart thudding as Kel tilted his head to the right, giving him more access. "What are you doing?"

"Being offensive, my lord." Uthe smiled against his flesh. "I respect your rule, but you are far too appealing. Your body and all that you are, it's impossible not to touch, to kiss, to steal every possible moment to give pleasure and derive joy from it."

Kel closed his eyes, the thick, dark lashes fanning his high cheekbones. "I am ever glad your courtly language was not leeched away by your years in the modern world. When you speak to me this way, time stops where things are as they should be. It does not have to start again until we wish it."

"And we can have that back during any moment we make into this."

Kel's fingers slipped up to Uthe's wrist, his answer. He squeezed hard. Uthe was expecting the counter, but it was still breathtaking, how quickly the Fae could move. A twist and slip, and Uthe was on his knees beneath him, Kel leaning over him, pressing Uthe's wrist against the small of his back, Kel's knee pressed against Uthe's buttocks. "On your elbows, vampire. As before."

This time, Keldwyn added some lubricant to ease his passage, yet Uthe still felt the demand of it. The stretch made him groan, his lips stretched in a grimace of need and desire as the Fae pushed in to the hilt. "You will hold out for me," Kel said. "First your Master takes his pleasure."

Uthe had distanced himself from it, the games between vampires and servants. Intense games, yes, ones that could have serious political underpinnings, yet games all the same. Though when he'd seen the devotion in Mariela's eyes, had watched the whole, vibrant language between Jacob and Lyssa spoken without any words, he'd known there was a deeper level to all of it that superseded whatever base machinations came from it at vampire gatherings, or the structured roles of vampire and servant. He felt it now, as Keldwyn spoke the words.

In his breast, a desire rose, strong and irresistible, to pleasure the Fae Lord in ways Keldwyn might never have experienced before Uthe. He didn't mean some type of carnal acrobatics or skills learned through sexual experience. He meant whatever would match the ecstasy of surrender Uthe felt under Keldwyn's touch. A way to slip away from all the grief and pain, to find the wonder in all of it again, through love. Through this give and take, through offering all he was to the Fae Lord.

"Varick..." Keldwyn was in his head, could hear any of that he chose. Kneeling over Uthe, he banded his arm around his chest to the point it was good that Uthe didn't need to breathe, though the integrity of his ribs might be compromised. You overwhelm me as well.

His hips rose and fell, offering Uthe a sweet, prolonged promise that built into a churning in his testicles, a painful rigidity in his cock. Yet when Keldwyn covered him again, pressing mouth and teeth to his nape and the taut skin between his shoulders, Uthe embraced the agony of denial.

In his pretty clothes, with his ethereal masculine beauty and the magical power that emanated from him, Kel had seemed reassuringly unattainable. Then had come the casual interactions that turned into chess games, debates over morals and history over wine. At some point, the Fae Lord had become part of his daily schedule, in ways large and small. Yet it was now, feeling the press of his damp skin, the heat of his breath on his shoulder, the passion and urgency of his lust pounding into Uthe, that he was blissfully real, as much in need and in love as Uthe himself.

He moved his body in rhythm with Keldwyn's, lifting his hips to give him a deeper penetration, though it tested his own restraint unmercifully. Kel plunged and thrust; Uthe grunted and made feral noises of encouragement. When he started constricting all his muscles on that thick shaft invading him again and again, Kel's breath left him in a ragged moan. He climaxed, flooding Uthe with his heated response, a charge that Uthe felt from brain to genitals, that surged through his chest, his loins, even the palms of his hand upon the earth.

"Now, Varick," Kel demanded. Uthe's hips jerked, convulsed, and his come spewed forth into the grass beneath him, drops splashing against the blades. They splattered against his wrists, his belly. Kel's hold around his chest was still there, secure, holding him together. When Uthe finished, his cheek was pressed to the ground between his elbows. Kel adjusted him so they were both on their right sides. He was still inside Uthe and they were spooned together on the soft ground. A firefly Fae landed on Uthe's limp hand. Several more landed on his thigh.

The one on his hand crawled up his arm to the bend of his elbow, sat down and started to chirp on a tiny lute.

"They have no manners at all," Keldwyn said, his voice hoarse. "They tempt one to get a flyswatter."

Uthe chuckled. Closing his fingers around the Fae's on his chest, Uthe dipped his head to press his lips against his knuckles. Kel let out an incoherent but pleased sound, shifting his hips to shoot a tingling aftershock through Uthe's testicles and spent cock.

They dozed for a time together. Nothing to do, no battles left to fight. It was a unique feeling. Uthe opened his eyes at times to watch the firefly Fae, who had congregated around his elbow and had turned it into a stage, all of them playing wind instruments. It was a quiet, soothing noise, like distant birds. He didn't want to disturb it in any way, but there was something he needed to say. He said it in his head so if Keldwyn was asleep, he could practice it a few times. If he wasn't, well...it needed to be said.

Kel, I cannot third mark you. And I need your promise that, if the Ennui gets too advanced, you will take my life before I become a burden.

No. Because there is no scenario in which you would ever become a burden, Lord Uthe. To me or any who care for you.

Keldwyn gripped Uthe's wrist, manacling it against his chest, against his thudding heart. Uthe closed his eyes, sighed.

"If it was just pride, my lord, I could bear it. Becoming no better than a child, with no sense of who I am or how to care for my own needs or how to protect myself, is terrible enough to me. But if the aggression takes me, where I would hurt another, an innocent..." Uthe pressed his body into the curve of Keldwyn's. "I will not take my life preemptively, before God has done with it, but if I reach the point that I might harm another vampire if they tried to do the task...that I could

not bear. You have the ability to destroy me without even touching me. You are the only one I trust for it, Kel. Please. If you care for me, swear you will do as I ask."

Kel let out a quiet curse, but then he nodded against the back of Uthe's neck, one quick jerk. "You have my word. But it changes nothing about my demand that you make me your third mark."

"Nor will it change my refusal. I will not bind my life to yours if it could mean the certain end of it. I will do anything else."

"Hush. I will not speak further about this right now. You are ruining it. Enjoy the afterglow of a good fucking and we will fight about this later. At which time, I will win."

Uthe closed his eyes with a light smile on his lips, though a weight on his heart. But he agreed with Kel, that he didn't want to lose the pleasure of this moment. Like it or not, the subject would come up again. They would deal with it then.

"Anything else? Including grow out your hair?" Kel scraped his teeth against the back of Uthe's neck and then bit his shoulder, which sent a jolt straight to Uthe's cock. The Fae was getting too good at playing Uthe's body to his desires. His smile deepened.

"It could never compete with yours, my lord. There are female vampires who want to chop yours off while you sleep and weave it into theirs."

"I've seen Helga eying it covetously. I will stay on guard." He stroked long fingers over Uthe's scalp, sending a pleasurable ripple through him. "I merely want yours long enough I can tug on it when I'm inside you, remind you of my claim."

"That might be sufficient incentive."

"Might?" Keldwyn's voice was sleepy again, but with a touch of affront. "Do you need more?"

I have lived an ascetic's life, my lord. It has brought me comfort and guidance. But it doesn't seem to apply to this. Whenever I think of you, all I want is more.

"Your way of speaking from the heart is more potent than any level of charm, Varick." Keldwyn pressed closer to him, releasing Uthe's wrist to wrap his arm around his chest once more. The Fae spoke against his ear.

"Before we leave my world, would you like to ride a dragon?"

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