The two men stood naked before each other. His uniform of stiff soldier blue came off with his boots and his rings. Devon’s camp bed was there.ĭevon lifted his crown off his head. He took Xan by the hand and led him back to the Sovereign’s private compartment within the Imperial tent. Devon’s lips brushed Xan’s palm as Devon murmured, “I might agree to that.”ĭevon stepped back. Give me all the beats of your heart and I will spend all my days trying to make up for what I’ve done to you and all my nights worshipping you.”ĭevon leaned his cheek into Xan’s hand. I had no idea you were the incredible being you are. “From the first moment I saw you in your gilded box, the young tyrant who sent me to die, you have ruled all my thoughts. Xan took Devon’s face between both hands, his thumbs brushing Devon’s cheeks as he answered, “No.” He said, wry, “Next time, don’t defend my honor.”ĭevon’s voice came out breathy.
“Whoever just called you a Krasian whore.”ĭevon touched a finger to his lip, expecting blood. “Whom did you slap? Devon or the Sovereign?” “I normally express wrath with the edge of a sword.” He told Xan, “I am getting tired of that.” It took him a split second to realize he’d been slapped again.ĭevon touched his face. “Because I go down for you like a Krasian whore?”ĭevon blinked, his mouth stinging. Xan’s voice turned to bitter irony, “Or does she eat his head after he’s serviced her?” Does that make her less powerful? Why her and not you? And does she not lie in her man’s arms afterward? Do they never join in pleasure and comfort each other in sorrow?” That means she has allowed a man inside her. She is required to feel a heartbeat inside her other than her own. “I know that a woman rules the mighty Raenthe Empire. “I know the Supreme Reigna has a consort,” Xan said. “Love?” Devon tried to say, but his voice failed. “Is that it? It that all? You cannot go down for love?” Xan said, “You want me as badly as I want you.”ĭevon shuddered as if in great pain. Desire it must be, because Devon dared not call this feeling love. “The Sovereign is not so cruel.”ĭevon locked his gaze on Xan’s chin, the golden beard stubble there, the blade scar. “Is this Devon or the Sovereign who says so?” Xan’s eyes shifted back and forth across his face, searching.ĭevon looked down. The warmth of his touch made Devon shiver. Devon’s heart was well past any point of possible return.īut he still had his station, his unassailable sovereignty.
Devon needed to keep some detachment, even if the very idea of detachment was an unholy sham. Of course Devon meant the ordeal, the betrayal, the flight across the wild lands. “I have had little enough cause to smile.”Īs if he had found no joy at all in Xan’s touch. “I have seen you smile, so I know you can,” Xan said.
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