It made sense. “I don’t think I would be good company right now.”
“I don’t expect you to entertain anyone, just walk on the beach, swim, read, sleep.”
I nodded.
“I would like to send Dae-Jung with you.”
“Is the villa big? He needs his own quarters.”
“It’s got fifteen rooms, so yes.”
I exhaled deeply.
“And Zev, of course.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “But that’s all.”
He cleared his throat. “I asked for volunteers who, of my dreki, would want to leave my service and enter yours. It’s not much of a change when we’re here, at the palace; it really only matters when we leave, and if, of course, we were ever attacked.”
“That’s not fair,” I said, my hands gripping his shoulders tight as he stroked my thighs under the water. “They’ll be bored out of their minds following around after me.”
“And yet, recent events would say different.”
“Recent events, if you think about it, would have the same outcome. No one knew Gideon was a traitor, so no one knew not to trust him.”
“Well, the rules have changed, and now Zev will command four members of your own newly conscripted private guard, and he will not leave your side unless I am with you.”
“You’ll exhaust him from boredom,” I told him, tightening my legs around him, getting closer as his hands slipped to my ass.
“He’s been a soldier a long time; I think he’s ready for a different life.”
“Who,” I murmured, dragging my thickening cock over his abdomen, “of your people volunteered to come with me?”
“Brenna and Eris, which I doubt surprises you,” he said thickly, “and Sibel, who was a surprise, because I didn’t know she really knew you, and has been with me since my first campaign, and finally Kamari, who has only been with me three centuries.”
Only three hundred years. Crazy.
I smiled at him. “I have all women guarding me.”
He shook his head. “Kamari is not female, nor are they male. I have never asked, and I have never been told how they identify. All I do know is that with Kamari, your guardians, together, are probably more than you will need once we return to New Orleans, but as I’m not certain exactly when that will be, I’m grateful that they all have made the choice to serve you.”
He was purposely ignoring the fact that I was basically rubbing my leaking cock over his muscled abs, but I was ready for him to take me in hand.
“I have found, after losing friends in battle—my brother, and now Nerilla—that there is something about death that is soothed by the act of mating. It’s an affirmation of life,” he told me, fisting my shaft as he used his other hand to anchor me to him as he slowly took the steps out of the water.
It happened to me as well; when I lost friends on missions, grief twisted to a need for more than comfort, and normally, there was no one there who could make me feel safe and sheltered and alive. But now there was Varic, and arousal mixed with the overwhelming need to put my life back in balance, to make everything make sense.
There were towels covering an oversized chaise, and Varic put me down gently before he pinned me under him and kissed me.
It was the kiss I craved. The kiss I needed. To be claimed and protected, cared for and loved. All of his desire was conveyed in the heat of his mouth, with each drugging, languorous slide of his tongue over mine and the way he feasted on me like I was precious.
The warm oil on my cock was a welcome surprise, and even as I wondered where it came from, he broke the kiss to lean sideways and reach over the side of the chaise. There had to be a bowl there, something, and I was thankful for his, or whoever’s, foresight in placing it there.
Lying down beside me, he rolled me to my side and then took my cock in hand, stroking me slowly from balls to head as he curled his arm around my neck, turning my head to the side so he could whisper in my ear.
“I’m going to be so gentle with you, with your bruised and broken body, and you’ll know, because you’ll be able to feel it, that you’re my whole life, Jason.”
His cock slid between my cheeks, its wide head opening me as he pushed forward, and the twinge of pain, the stretching that was required, lasted only a moment as he tightened the slick vise of his grip on my length and pressed inside of me, not stopping until he was fully seated.
We lay there together, his breath warm on the side of my face, his fingers slipping into my mouth so I could suck on them as he continued working my flesh as my channel clenched around him.
I was full and I wanted more, needed more. When I arched my back, taking him a fraction deeper as my muscles relaxed and gave, he slid half his length out and then ground back inside, driving to my core, holding me so tight as I lifted my arm, that had been useless an hour before, and reached behind me to bury my fingers in his hair.
“Your body is trying to pull me deeper,” he moaned, kissing my ear, dragging his cock nearly free and then shoving into me again, then again, undulating against me, setting a rhythm that was constant and fluid and had me gibbering for more. “You’re so hot, Jason, and you feel so good, but I don’t want to hurt––”
“You’ve never hurt me, and you’re being so careful, but please,” I rasped, “Varic… Varic, I need you. I need more.”
He unfolded his arm from around my neck and rolled me to my back, both arms over my head as he lifted my leg, took firm hold of my thigh and opened my legs wide.
“You should see how beautiful you are.”
“Oh, Varic, please,” I moaned, and it came out desperate, filled with yearning, and he gave me what I craved and thrust deep.
He was holding me, moving inside of me, and there was no question that I was his and he was mine, and I was where I needed to be, with him. Always.
“Varic!” I cried, my heart as ready for him as my body.
He hammered into me, harder, faster, and I didn’t worry about moving or kissing him or anything but taking and gorging on the sensation of the orgasm that was flickering inside of me, sizzling up from the base of my spine, getting hotter and bigger, until there was only him. And then he pulled out once more and flipped me onto my stomach before lifting my ass, one hand splayed on the small of my back, his other on my hip as he gave me exactly what I needed to bring me to a consuming climax that had me chanting his name.
He was locked into the brutal, glorious pounding, the motion primal, my muscles clamping down around him as he came but didn’t stop, needing, I knew, to claim again what was his.
When he could finally stop, the savage need in him sated, he slid free of my body in a gush of fluid, hot and messy, and immediately rolled me to my side and took me in his arms. He clutched me so tight that it felt like his heart was beating in my chest.
The sobs that tore out of me were not a surprise, and he held me as I came apart, listened without judgement as I told him everything, from start to finish, and spooned around me when my eyes couldn’t remain open a moment longer.
“Thank you for loving me,” I murmured as I savored the feel of his warm skin on mine.
He didn’t say anything, but his lips pressed to my nape, and his arms tucked me even closer to his chest. It was all the answer I needed.