“I will always miss you. Every second you are not in my arms, every breath when you are not in my eyesight, is too long and torturous for me. I need you more than a dragon needs his hoard,” Warin easily replied, but he might have cleared his throat when North lifted one questioning brow at him. “But Gunter might have reminded me of the confetti bomb. You are safer in my arms.”
North’s wonderful laughter rang out over their heads and waltzed around the room. “There is no place I’m safer than in your arms.” North slid his hand behind Warin’s neck and snuggled even closer. He tilted his head up, and Warin didn’t hesitate to capture those offered lips in a sweet kiss.
“I love you, my mate,” Warin murmured against North’s mouth.
“Shouldn’t that be ‘my mate-to-be?’”
“No. Even if we never bonded, you would still be my mate. I’d always be able to find you no matter where you were in the world. You hold a piece of my heart. You are half of my soul. You are the greatest treasure in my hoard.”
“God, I love when you get all poetic,” North growled before kissing him again. His tongue slipped inside Warin’s mouth, tangling with his, and stoking a fire that never seemed to go out. He couldn’t imagine ever not wanting this man. One hand tightened on North’s back while the other slid down to cup one ass cheek through his trousers.
North moaned into his mouth and pulled away. “We need to behave. We’re surrounded by the clan.” His words were nearly a whimper of need.
“But I saw our king and consort sneak away just a couple of minutes ago while sharing a very heated look,” Warin whispered in his ear. “They probably sought out a private place for a few minutes.”
“Oh really? But you don’t think we should leave our own party?”
Warin nearly hesitated on his answer, but as North finished speaking, his groin brushed against Warin’s, revealing he’d grown quite hard in his pants. Nope, that settled it.
“I think we should. I feel most would expect us to sneak away,” Warin said. “It..it’s…”
“It’s our duty as an engaged couple,” North finished for him. Thank goodness because the blood had stopped traveling to brain, and it was shutting down all but the most basic functions.
“Exactly. The door nearest the refreshment table…leads to the south wing hall. Halfway down—”
“There’s a bathroom. I’ll go first. You follow in five minutes,” North quickly said. He smacked Warin’s lips with a loud kiss and started across the ballroom, an overly wide smile on his face. Warin stood blinking for a moment, dazed by what was happening. When exactly had they stopped dancing?
Taking a deep breath, he wandered over to the sidelines, only vaguely aware of the questioning looks and smiles he was receiving. He nodded and smiled back, accepting congratulations while trying not to look at his watch. North had said five minutes. Surely it had been two minutes already. How was he going to wait five entire minutes? North had to have been exaggerating. Five full minutes? Three hundred seconds apart when he needed his mate now? That was rather extreme.
No, North had to be teasing.
Enough time had passed.
Trying to seem casual and not caring how badly he failed, Warin followed in his mate’s footsteps across the great hall and out the door near the refreshment table. As he stepped into the hall, he immediately spotted North jumping away from the bathroom door, his face bright red.
Warin picked up his pace, hurrying to his side. “What’s wrong?”
North grabbed his arm and ushered him away from the bathroom. “I think Alric and Cam have already claimed that spot,” he said in a low voice.
“Are you sure?”
“Oh yeah. I heard someone moan…loudly…before I could try the knob. We need another spot.”
They didn’t get far before Warin stopped them. He shoved open a door and pulled North into the dark room. Closing the door behind him, he quickly flipped on the light to reveal two walls lined with metal shelving holding cleaning supplies. There were also an assortment of brooms, mops, and buckets.
“A broom closet?” North snickered.
Warin grinned at him. “But it’s also a doorway to heaven. Would you like me to show you?”
“Yes please,” North moaned.
Warin was only too happy to oblige. He kissed his mate deeply, exploring every inch of his mouth while running a hand down his chest to cup the hard cock straining against the front of his pants. His preference was to peel off all of North’s beautiful clothes to get to his perfect body below, to spend hours worshiping each centimeter of flesh until his lover trembled beneath him, but they didn’t have time for such things. He needed to make his man lose all control and scream his pleasure.
Breaking off the kiss, Warin pressed North’s back to the door and dropped to his knees. He attacked North’s pants, getting them out of the way so he could pull down his briefs enough to free his cock.
“Warin,” North moaned. “I don’t think I can be quiet.”
Warin could only grin and lick North’s length like an ice cream cone. “Then don’t be.”
He wasn’t, and Warin found his own heaven. There were few things better in the world than the sounds North made when Warin was pleasuring him. Taking North’s dick into his mouth, he sucked him hard, running the flat of his tongue up and down the length while the most wonderful shouts and moans left his puffy lips. English blurred into German, proving that his language lessons had sunk in. Slender fingers dug into Warin’s hair and twisted. North’s control was crumbling as he swelled in Warin’s mouth. He gave a little thrust of his hips before he could stop himself, and Warin hummed around him.
A loud string of swearing filled the tiny room as North’s only warning before he started fucking Warin’s mouth. He could only relax his jaw and throat, welcoming North’s abandon while his own dick throbbed and begged for attention on his pants. His lover choked his name one last time before he came hard.
Warin eagerly swallowed down every drop and then licked every inch of him to make sure he got it all. Only when he heard a soft whimper of sensitivity from North did he finally let his slide free of his lips.
“Up,” North panted.
“What?” Warin was still trapped in a haze of pleasant and need.
“Up. My spot. Now,” North ordered. He grabbed Warin’s arm with one hand while tucking himself away with the other. There was some awkward shuffling, but Warin found their positions swapped in a blink of an eye. He stared down at North’s beautiful disheveled hair while his lips stretched around Warin’s rigid cock. He found his own climax in a disturbingly short amount of time, but then he’d been balanced on the edge while drinking North down.
His orgasm slammed through him, knocking a shout from his parted lips while lightning sizzled through his frame. The world blacked out, and for a moment he was adrift in a velvety night of pure bliss. He blinked and found North tucking him away again while pushing to his feet.
“There. We’re both presentable again. No one will know what we’ve been doing,” North declared, snuggling against Warin’s chest.
Except for the fact that his lover’s lips were swollen and his eyes had taken on a slumberous, blissed-out quality. Warin had a feeling he looked much the same. Any fool would take one look at them and know what they’d been up to. And Warin didn’t care.