by Megan Derr
He was hot, nearly overheated, slick with sweat that dripped into his eyes as he was held by Sula and fucked by Harren. The slap of skin and the ragged panting of their breaths, mingled with stuttered moans and deep groans, filled the bedroom.
Harren shuddered and moaned as he finally came, sinking in deep and filling Cadmus thoroughly.
Before Cadmus could get his breath back, or the wherewithal to demand someone finish him off, he was shifted to his hands and knees and taken hard and fast from behind, Sula's long, deft fingers holding tightly to his hips, cock driving in deep over and over, until Cadmus was howling as he came, spilling on the bedsheets, shuddering with his head pressed against Harren. Sula continued to fuck him, use him, sending shivers and shudders through Cadmus's over-stimulated body.
He whimpered as Sula finally came and whined slightly when he gently pulled out a moment later. Cadmus was going to be sore in the morning, being so thoroughly put to work after going years—decades—without more than his own fingers and the occasional toy. But what a wonderful reason for some minor aches and pains.
Harren discarded the ruined blanket and fetched another while Sula slipped away to fetch a couple of rags. When they were cleaned up, Harren pulled the fresh blanket up over them, and Cadmus lost himself in the new, delightful pleasure of being snuggled between them. It was the safest and warmest he'd felt since finding his shop ransacked.
They dozed for a time, until Sula stirred and called for food. When it arrived, Cadmus accepted a dressing robe he offered, made of blue velvet decorated with gold, silver, and pink stars. He yawned as he sat at the table servants had brought in so they could eat in Sula's room. "Gossip must be buzzing in the downstairs," he said with a snicker.
Harren snorted. "Downstairs? It's already spread clear across the city."
Sula laughed. "Just so." He poured them all coffee, then set to devouring the food. "Speaking of the city, you have to leave soon."
Cadmus nodded. "I was thinking of going to the mountains. There are plenty of cottages that let rooms to people for months at a time, and I could take an additional one for my hoard and work."
"I have a better idea," Sula said.
"He's been plotting this since before your sentence was determined because he thought you might want to get away from the city anyway. Your sentencing almost delighted him," Harren said dryly, and grunted when Sula kicked him under the table.
Cadmus smiled, looking between them, happiness a warm glow in his chest. "I like seeing you two flirt openly with each other, instead of it being lost in friendly banter."
Harren looked strangely shy again, but he smiled at them both before retreating into his coffee. Sula blossomed like one of his flowers in sunlight. "I do like how everything has ended, though I could have done without the bit in the middle where you were tormented by that bastard. Anyway, anyway—I have a country estate."
Cadmus blinked. "Most nobles do?"
Sula gave him a look. "I mean that you could go there for your banishment. Harren has been strongly encouraged to take a long leave of absence after all the people he irritated during your, ah, incident. And though they seem to be doing all right, I don't think it would hurt Serena and Temnis to get some fresh country air to clear out the last of that damnable potion. I'm also trying to minimize the scandal of everyone realizing they're engaged when he's already engaged. They've promised they'll keep it quiet, but then he went and gave her that flashy ring—" He broke off with a sigh. "Youth."
Cadmus laughed. "If they're anything like their parents, everything will work out in the end."
"Oh, gods, that's just what I need, our children taking a page from our book and running off with the princess in a scandalous threesome."
Sula groaned. "Enough. You'll turn my hair completely gray. I'm going to let that mess play out on its own. I'm not interfering anymore. Goddess knows what they'll try next. What do you say to coming to the country with us, Cadmus? There's even a room I think would be perfect for a workshop for you, and we can arrange something so you'll know your hoard is safe. The three of us and our two troublemakers set loose in the countryside."
"I think that sounds perfect," Cadmus replied.
FIN
Bonus Short
"This is what I do with my time," Sula said, and reached out to touch a rosebud. It thrummed beneath his touch and turned from a pale pink to a beautiful blush, opening wide to the air. "Flowers, fruits, and vegetables that are hard to get here and more. This is my private garden, and most of its contents go to friends and family only. I have a larger one at the edge of the city, and my lands in the country provide even more. I may only be half-faerie in blood, but I am all faerie in heart."
He loved his plants and flowers with all his heart. He was deeply fond of the luxurious life that being born the son of a duke afforded him, but he'd give it all up in a moment if that was what he had to do to keep his beloved gardens.
Cadmus smiled, as sweet and warm as sunlight. "You smell too much like flowers and earth for me to have ever thought otherwise."
Sula smiled back, hoping desperately that his thoughts, his feelings, did not show. Bad enough he'd been hopelessly in love with Harren for longer than he cared to think about or would ever admit. But now to be pining over Harren's new lover? Wrong. Possibly pathetic. What was wrong with him that he wanted to torture himself so?
He never should have invited Cadmus to linger, but the thought of sending him away instead of taking the chance to bask in his presence was untenable.
It didn't help at all that Cadmus looked like he struggled with similar thoughts. And wasn't that a strange, dazzling thought? Probably he was deluding himself. Either way, Sula did not dare let his thoughts stray to something so illicit. He was tormented enough with wanting the impossible—for Harren to see him. He wasn't going to pine after the completely insane.
Despite telling himself not to be stupid, he couldn't resist reaching out to brush back a stray bit of hair that had fallen to rest on Cadmus's cheek. It was even softer than it had looked, and his skin softer still, and so warm, as Sula's fingers brushed it, tucking the escaped strand back behind his ear.
The slight hitch of Cadmus's breath was positively deafening in the quiet garden. Was it possible, really possible, that their thoughts were so in sync? "Toymaker—"
"Paali! I need you to—" Harren stopped cold, frozen on the landing, gaping wide-eyed. Then his expression closed down, eyes going hard and cold in a way Sula knew far too well.
He stepped away from Cadmus. "Harren, it's not—"
"If you say it's not what I think, Paali, I will break your nose," Harren snarled. "I'm not stupid. I know what it looks like when two people desire each other. How long has this been going on? Is there a reason you couldn't simply be honest and decided to play me for a fool?"
Cadmus stepped back like he'd been slapped hard. "You think I'm cheating on you? That either of us would do that?"
"I told you—"
"I know what you said," Cadmus snapped, and mercy he was a sight when he was angry. Sula could not decide between terrified and aroused. "I know you like to lash out first and apologize later. You do it a lot. I didn't mind when you were worried about your daughter, but I won't tolerate my lover thinking me some sort of—of hussy or strumpet or cheating bastard. Good day to you both." He stormed away, yanking back when Harren tried to grab him, and vanished quickly down the stairs.
Sula waited until Cadmus was well and truly gone, even the echoes of his footsteps on the marble stairs faded, then rounded on Harren. "I see you're determined to be a jealous, insecure bastard yet again. A rude, inconsiderate, assumption-making cad who jumps to thinking the absolute worst of people he purports to care about and trust! A suspicious scoundrel who loses his mind at the slightest hint—"
"You don't get—"
"I get to lecture you all I damned well please," Sula snarled. "Cadmus is better than you'll ever deserve, just like Sharon was, and just like with her, you are lett
ing your damned insecurities and temper get the better of you—and over something that didn't even happen!"
Harren bristled like an angry cat. "It was going to happen! How many times do I have to tell everyone I'm not stupid? I know what you look like when you want to kiss somebody, Sula. When you want to fuck somebody. I just never thought you'd be so low as to go after the first lover I've had since my wife died."
Sula wanted to hit him upside the head. Or throw him out the window. Something unreasonably violent that would express his complete and utter vexation with the world's stupidest being. "I can't believe after all the years we've been friends, you actually think I would ever do something so contemptible."
"I saw your face, I know—"
"You don't know anything!" Sula bellowed. "If you knew even half of what you think, you'd have noticed that I want to kiss you, you stupid, jealous, possessive, ill-tempered bastard!"
"I am going—wait, what?" All of Harren's anger vanished as he stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at Sula.
Oh, goddess. Had he really just said that? Sula wanted to die. "Nevermind. Forget I said anything. I didn't mean—"
"You didn't mean to say you want me?"
"Want you? God, you really are the stupidest creature alive, Harren. I didn't mean to say I love you." Sula closed his eyes, then pressed the heels of his hands to them. "Nevermind. I'm the stupidest creature alive." He dropped his hands and forced his eyes open. "Can we forget this whole part of the conversation? It's not the point, which—"
"Shut up, you idiot," Harren said, grasping the lapels of his jacket, yanking him down, and taking his mouth in a hard, artless but devastating kiss.
Sula shuddered, eyes stinging, disbelief making him freeze for a single moment. Long enough that Harren stilled and started to draw back.
No. Sula was not permitting that. This might be his only chance to know what it was like to kiss Harren, to hold him close, to feel how they fit together. He wrapped his arms around Harren's waist and drew him in, dove back into the kiss with all the things he'd held back over the years, every wish and want and desire.
Fingers sank into his hair and then slid down so Harren's arms wrapped around his neck. Harren kissed him ravenously, ardently back. Like Sula had seen him kiss Sharon a few times. Like he probably kissed—
Like he probably kissed Cadmus.
Sula froze. Drew back. "Harren, we can't—"
Harren jerked, stared at him, then shook himself and drew back. He raked hands through his hair, disheveling it hopelessly. Sula ached to fix it for him, as he had so many times with his ex-wife, who'd always fussed with her hair when anxious or angry.
He resisted, mostly because his thoughts were catching up to him. Harren. Had kissed him. Had initiated the kiss.
Sula licked his lips. "Harren…"
That got him a glare filled with frustration. "Why didn't you ever say something, Sula?"
"I… I was worried that if you turned me down, it would ruin our friendship. Then you fell in love with Sharon. Then you mourned her and didn't seem interested in life without her. Then I just didn't know how. And then it was too late yet again." He looked away. "I swear I never meant to make a mess of all this. I've been happy for you. Cadmus is good for you."
A hand took hold of his, compelling him to look back. Harren's eyes were intense. "You're good for me. You always have been, Sula. You're my best friend. I'm sorry I'm so good at solving mysteries and finding killers, but so terrible at realizing I've been quietly in love with you this whole time." He sighed. "But I care about Cadmus too. What a mess."
Sula smiled crookedly. "Assuming you can make amends with your dragon, perhaps we could discuss an unconventional arrangement?"
Harren's breath caught, and he met Sula's gaze, offering that charming smile that Sula had loved for so long. "I think that is definitely a discussion we should have."
About the Author
Megan is a long time resident of queer romance, and keeps herself busy reading and writing. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she's not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers, and can be found all over the internet.
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