He was mine and I was his.
I came hard and was lost at the bottom of a wave that rolled and drowned me before I rose up to cry his name.
His tongue lapped my neck as he leaned back, ramming harder, faster before he came, heaving out a litany of words I didn’t catch, only the sound hitting me, the obvious meaning as he confessed his heart, pumping me full of thick, hot cum.
We were frozen there together, and then I heard the most horrifying sound possible.
“Are you done claiming your consort, my darling?”
Oh… no.
His mother was there. Right there. Probably sitting at the island with whoever else. Turning my head slowly, I looked over my shoulder at him.
He was flushed, panting, and the look on his face, half happiness and half pain, made me smile in spite of the embarrassing situation we found ourselves in.
“Yes,” he croaked out in answer. “I’ll be right… there.”
“Excellent,” the queen replied, “because your father is getting annoyed waiting for the call to come see you.”
He whimpered.
“Jason darling, once you get out of the shower, I must speak to you.”
Second time in a twenty-four-hour period that I had made an ass of myself in front of my mate’s mother. Could it get any worse? “Of course,” I agreed as Varic slowly eased from my still clenching, clasping hole. I might have needed him out, but my body clearly wanted him to stay.
I was going to get up, but he toppled me sideways so I didn’t get driven into my own semen splattered over the blanket, but onto a clean part of the comforter. It was something he was always careful about. He came down on top of me, face pressed into the hollow between my shoulder and neck, arms wrapped around me, and breathed. His weight, pressing against me, brought unexpected tears.
“I love you, Jason,” he murmured into my skin, “and my heart, ancient and flawed as it is, is yours.”
“I love you too, and you know that.”
“I do,” he said, and sighed deeply, content.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on.
“I can’t have you hurt, but we can work together to make sure that, though guarded, you will not be limited. We’ll find the balance.”
“I like the compromise of us.”
Apparently, from how tight I was held, he did too.
Ten
Fresh from the shower, dressed in old jeans, a T-shirt that had seen better days, and nothing else, I felt sore but good, my soul grounded and my body well-used by the man I loved. I couldn’t have asked for better. The cool air coming in through the windows soothed me, the beach breeze and the scent of clothes drying on a line, slow days rolling into sultry nights. And it was fall, but it didn’t feel that way, and I was thankful for what felt like the summer weather of Malta.
The screens were gone when I came out, and I saw Varic’s mother in the kitchen with Dae-Jung, who was in navy shorts and a gray Henley and sneakers. His hair was pulled back into a tiny ponytail, with loose strands tucked behind his ears. The queen was in leggings and a flowing off-the-shoulder tunic, her own hair pulled up into a messy bun. They couldn’t have looked more ordinary, aside from the fact that they were both breathtaking.
Varic was sitting by the windows, reading, but as soon as he saw me, he put down his iPad and crossed the floor to me.
“Listen,” he said softly, facing me, taking both of my hands in his. “My father is on his way here, so as soon as you see him, you need to invite him in so that there is not a moment where he can’t cross into our quarters.”
“Of course.” I agreed quickly, because I could only imagine how bad it would be if the king himself was unable to enter his son’s quarters. What explanation could I hope to give that would be received well.
He nodded, let one of my hands go, and held the other, tugging me after him as we crossed the floor. Leaving me about ten feet back from the entrance, he then walked to the door and rolled it sideways. I got it then, his concern, because the entire landing in front of our loft was packed with people.
Varic was back at my side instantly, using that speed of his, and I turned to look at him as he stood there looking pained.
“Why don’t you invite them in?” I asked him. “It’s gotta be rude for them to just congregate out there, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” the queen said as she joined us, taking hold of my bicep and leaning in to plant a kiss on my cheek. “But he can’t, my darling, and I had no idea.”
I turned to her.
“I’ve heard of a matan, and that they are a conduit of power for a royal, for their mate, but this is unprecedented.”
“You didn’t know about the barrier?”
“I did not.”
“He didn’t tell you about my apartment at home?”
“Again, no,” she said, shooting a death ray out of her eyes at her son. “And I suspect I know the reason.”
“What is it?”
She cleared her throat. “Even though it was joyous news to learn that our son found and claimed his consort, it would have been more difficult had the king been told about your gifts.”
“I don’t understand.”
The breath she took, like she was girding herself, freaked me out just a bit. “Last night, you claimed Dae-Jung. Do you understand why that was necessary?”
“Because of some kind of rules about gifts, right?”
“Yes. Only you, as the prince’s consort, could step in and claim him after the head of your house turned the gift down. No one else, not me, not the king, no one else was allowed.”
“It’s a stupid rule.”
“Yes, but you have to think that ages ago, when gifts were given and not received, clans would go to war over such things.”
“Why is it clans and houses?” I asked her.
Varic groaned beside me, and she smiled at me. “You have an inquisitive mind.”
“I just don’t understand certain things and why you all do them.”
“A house is a bigger entity; it denotes the strongest clan in a certain group. So your clan name could be Pitt, but all of you, all the Cheadles and Damons and Caans, all belong to the house Clooney.”
I grinned at her. “You used an Ocean’s Eleven example.”
She smiled at me. “I just adore that George Clooney.”
“Me too,” I said, grinning at her, leaning sideways to kiss her cheek.
We were having a moment, the two of us, when Varic stepped in front of me. “My mother’s allowing you to change the subject, but I need you to understand that, had my father known that you’re able to raise this barrier that’s holding Alrek out but allowed my mother to pass through as though it’s not even there—he would have had me bring you here before he allowed me to claim you.”
“You lost me.”
He slipped his hand around the side of my neck. “And since you’re mine, and I know that like I know my own name—he and I would have clashed.”
It hit me then, what he was saying. “Your father would have claimed me as a what—as a courtesan or something?”
“He might have,” the queen said softly, but I didn’t turn to look at her, staring into Varic’s face instead, seeing the warmth there, and love. “And he might not have. I will soothe your concern and say that I truly don’t believe he would have, as again, we were both so thrilled that he found his mate. But Varic simply didn’t want to run the risk, and though the king has stepped aside before––”