by Brynn Paulin
“Don’t,” Toby said, again pulling away.
“Have I made you angry?”
“No. We can’t…” He waved his hand as if to indicate everything they couldn’t do.
“Not here.” Wyn sat back, his arm draped over the back of his chair and regarded Toby. His face was full of displeased speculation. “We are not the only gay couple in this room,” he said quietly. “Why are you different? Why can’t you publicly show affection? They are. No one is staring at them.”
Toby looked around. Indeed there were other men who were obviously involved. None were overt about their affections, but they were discretely touching as they dined. Guilt heaped upon the self-reproach he’d already been experiencing. A fear he couldn’t explain to Wyn kept him from following suit to the others in the room.
“This is a different world, Tobias. Are we to live like we did in thirteen hundred? Are we to hide who we are and pretend to be society’s concept of normal? I don’t know that I want to live life with that mask on anymore. I want people to know I love you.”
“You’re being unreasonable.” Wyn stared at him and Toby knew his words were a misstep and had hurt Wyn. Anger simmered in Wyn’s eyes. “We had better leave before I do something else
untoward. I might be tempted to touch you again. I might be so overwhelmed that I pull you onto the table and fuck you right here.”
He shoved his chair away and got up. All eyes in the room followed him as he left then they turned to Toby and he rested his forehead in his hand. So much for discretion.
* * * * *
Toby tossed and turned on his lonely side of the bed. Every time he woke, Wyn was hugging the other side of the mattress, his back turned to Toby. Toby stopped trying to sleep. He stared up at the shadowy ceiling, watching the occasional lights from cars on the street reflected onto the plaster overhead.
He couldn’t understand his reluctance to show his affection for Wyn any more than Wyn understood it. Sure there were the surface things. It wasn’t readily accepted by society. If the administration at Grand Riverside found out, his job would be in jeopardy. Were those strong enough reasons to hurt the man he loved?
What was he not remembering? He knew it was bad, but why was he so scared? “Do you really want to know?”
He glanced over, startled to see the angel seated beside him.
She brushed the hair from his forehead. A tingling energy surged from her
fingertips. It seemed to seep into his mind, shifting his thoughts.
“Do you really want to know what you have locked away deep inside here?” she
asked.
“Yes,” he whispered.
She closed her eyes. Her head bowed as she took a deep breath. The energy
intensified. “I’ve kept it hidden from you all these years…”
“Show me. I need to know before I ruin things with Wyn—if I haven’t already.”
“Your love is not ruined.” Her fingertips brushed over his eyelids. “Sleep. The memory will come to you in your dreams.” The angel’s voice seemed to grow farther and farther away as he traveled through a swirling tunnel of light to his past. Fear, no terror, grew inside him and suddenly he was back in the vision that had horrified him that morning. Iron pokers heated in the fire and he was tied facedown to a rough table. No matter how hard he fought, he couldn’t free himself from the bindings.
This was how King Edward had been killed five years hence, punished and murdered in a way relevant to his lifestyle, for it was rumored the king had had a male lover who’d been beheaded as a traitor.
His body shook as a group of five men entered the room. “Please…” he begged. “Do not.”
“Silence, sodomizer!”
He struggled for control. His eyes burned from the smoke from the fire and the tears streaming down his face. “I am not. Let me go,” he pleaded.
They ignored him. Two of the men roughly parted his buttocks while two others held down his shoulders and pushed his head into the table.
“No!” he bellowed as the final man pulled a poker from the fire.
“I can take you from this.”
Tobias’ eyes went wide at the sight of the ethereal woman standing before him. He could barely see her for his position, but a light glowed around her while everything else around him slowed. She was not of this Earth.
“Please,” he begged.
“You will leave it all behind. Have a new life.”
“No… Wyn…” he murmured.
“See he calls for his lover,” one of the men cackled. “He will not save you, sinner.”
“You must choose,” the woman’s calm, nearly dreamy voice continued. “Life or your lover, though you must know your life is but moments from ending. Tell me and I will take you from this.”
“Life,” he said. The heat from the poker seemed to already burn his anus as it drew near. “No!” he screamed.
Suddenly rain fell on his face and he found himself alone in a field. Alone. Pain free.
“Tobias!” A voice pierced his loneliness, a voice he’d never thought to hear again. He looked around but there was no one in the field with him. Tears streamed down his face at his loss.
“Tobias!” His body started to shake and he felt iron compress his shoulders. “Tobias! God’s teeth, wake up!”
Slowly he opened his eyes and found himself staring up at his lover—no longer in the past but in the here and now. “Wyn.”
“You screamed. God’s teeth, Tobias. That scream.”
Toby sat up and pressed his face into Wyn’s chest, wrapping his arms tightly around his waist. Tremors ran through him as he tried to anchor himself in the present while the physical and mental anguish of the past racked him as strongly as if they’d just happened.
Wyn gently pulled Tobias across his lap then eased Tobias’ head away from his chest so he could see his face. Tobias shuddered and Wyn was struck with the need to protect him from whatever he’d seen. “What did you see? What was this vision?”
By all holy, he wished he could keep these visions from Tobias. They tortured him so and Tobias’ reactions often terrified Wyn. Though he was still angry over his lover’s cold rejection earlier at the restaurant, he loved this man.
“They were…” Tobias’ voice shook. He clasped Wyn’s arm as if drawing strength. “They were about to kill me. Like Edward. With the poker.”
Wyn was silent for a moment as he realized what had plagued Tobias’ dreams. “A memory, not a vision,” he murmured. “I know of this thing. I found your body afterward. I have been to war, have seen many horrific sights, but I had never been so gutted as when I found your body.” His head bent to Tobias and he buried his face in his hair. “The things they did. For years I have lived with my guilt. I could have saved you—”
“The angel came to me,” Tobias interrupted. “The one we saw at the museum today. She came to me then and gave me a choice. Leave you and have life…or stay.” His body shuddered with a silent sob. “Wyn…I chose to leave you. I abandoned you.”
“My God, Tobias. You had no choice. I would never have you go through that torture. You had to decide as you did. If you had not, you would be dead. We would not be here.”
“I wish I could go back and keep us from going through all this.”
Wyn lifted Tobias’ chin and kissed him lightly. “If not then, it might have happened another time.” He shifted so Tobias was beneath him on the bed. Their naked bodies rubbed together as they enjoyed the feel of being alive and together. “I seem to remember some talk earlier about being together.”
“Having you so deep inside me that we think we’ll never be parted,” Tobias supplied. Reaching between them, he tweaked Wyn’s nipple then rolled the supple flesh between his fingers.
“We will never be parted,” Wyn promised.
“Kiss me. Kiss me hard,” Tobias breathed. “Then fill me again. I need you so much, Wyn. No matter what I do, I need you.”
“I know.”
Wyn let out a long breath as their hips undulated against each other. Their cocks dueled in the ancient dance of warriors, each parrying for dominance, both knowing who’d win but enjoying the challenge. Wyn’s balls dragged over Tobias before he retreated. This time between them would be slow. They could savor the perfection of being together. All adversity disappeared when they were in each other’s arms.
Tobias spread his legs and wrapped them around Wyn. His hands dragged over Wyn’s back to his ass. “My knight, take what is yours.”
“In time, squire.” He raised Tobias’ arms, clasping hands with him for a moment. Then he moved his lover’s hands to the headboard. “Hold on and do not let go for any reason. Understand?”
The muscles in Tobias’ arms flexed as he shifted. “Yes.”
Wyn straddled him. He licked and nipped his way down Tobias’ right arm, rediscovering how sensitive the inside of Tobias’ elbow was. He sucked at the tender flesh until Tobias moaned for mercy then he moved lower to bite his lover’s straining biceps.
“Wyn!” Tobias cried out.
Wyn turned his head to Tobias’ ear. “I have only just begun, love.”
Going back to where he’d been, he kissed his way down to Tobias’ shoulder. Wyn bit that flesh, leaving a round mark, and Tobias writhed beneath him.
“Damn, Wyn…” he swore, his voice a low moan as Wyn nuzzled his armpit then scraped his teeth up to Tobias’ nipple. Wyn laved the erect bud, loving the feel of the rigid flesh against his tongue. But he didn’t linger. His lips drifted over Tobias’ abdomen. Tobias was leanly muscled, but he had delightful ripples of muscles over his stomach, and Wyn explored each ridge before he moved to the jut of muscle and hipbone that tempted Wyn whenever Tobias took off his shirt. Tobias thrust his hips, begging for more. Wyn held him down as he journeyed to Tobias’ center. He kissed a path down the narrow trail of hair leading to his lover’s cock, but bypassed that staff and left open-mouthed kisses over Tobias’ groin on his way to his slightly spread legs.
Wyn shoved them apart, leaving a line of light bites to his squire’s knee. Turning Tobias’ leg slightly, Wyn sucked on the back of his knee with long draws into his mouth.
“You’re gonna make me come without ever touching my cock,” Tobias complained, and Wyn chuckled at the deep rumble in his lover’s voice.
“Perhaps that is my goal.”
Tobias groaned in response and Wyn kissed along the long line of Tobias’ calf. He bit Tobias’ ankle then licked to his toes. He teased the big toe then shifted to the other foot. Ever so slowly he repeated the path along Tobias’ body, this time moving upward and having far greater difficulty ignoring Tobias’ cock. A large drop of pre-cum glistened at the tip and he wanted it in his mouth, but he wanted to worship Tobias more.
He traced the shell of Tobias’ left ear with the tip of his tongue. “Do you want me to fuck you, fine squire?” he whispered.
“Do I want to breathe?”
Wyn laughed, low in his throat, and the sound came out as a growl. His arousal throbbed so hard with the need to be inside his lover. Still he prolonged the torture.
“I am going to make you come before I fuck you.”
“Like I could get much closer!”
“Mmmm…” Wyn replied. He slid down to his lover, grinning at the damp trail Tobias’ cock left along his chest. Yes, his squire was fair excited.
Without preamble, he took Tobias deep into his mouth, drawing a bellow from his man. Relentlessly he sucked as he drew his lips up and down that long cock, savoring each inch and willing Tobias to lose himself. His tongue pressed into the spot just below the head that had always driven his lover wild.
Tobias bucked, his cock pushing to the back of Wyn’s mouth. The hot splash of his cum pulled a moan from deep in Wyn’s chest. While Tobias twisted under him, he continued his rhythm, sucking and licking, milking every last drop of that sweet cum from him. When Tobias relaxed, sinking limply into the mattress, Wyn crawled back up the bed. He straddled Tobias on all fours.
“You can let go now.”
Tobias immediately wrapped his arms around Wyn and yanked his mouth down. He kissed Wyn hungrily. He thrust his tongue into Wyn’s mouth, consuming, thanking, begging.
“Don’t make me wait,” he said as he re-angled his kiss.
Wyn blindly reached for a condom and the lubricant while wildly taking his squire’s mouth. He sat back on his haunches, taking Tobias with him as they continued devouring each other. Reaching between them, he sheathed himself then slathered on the lube.
He slowly pulled his mouth away, diving in for several quick pecks on his way.
“On your knees,” he ordered.
Tobias grinned. “’Bout time.”
“About time?” Wyn repeated. He pushed Tobias’ shoulders to the bed then yanked his hips higher. A firm smack resounded between them as he spanked Tobias’ ass…just as his mouthy squire liked it. Tobias moaned and pressed toward him.
“Just take me. Don’t wait.”
“I’m not hurting you like that.”
Conscious that they were both on the edge and they needed to hurry before they both lost control and Tobias got hurt, Wyn loosened Tobias while he kissed the pink mark left by his hand. Tobias ground into him. He fucked Wyn’s fingers like a randy buck in need of any pleasure he could get. Wyn smiled. He liked Tobias wild, out of his mind with need.
Fitting his cock where his fingers had been, he pushed forward. They both groaned as Wyn breached the tight muscles of Tobias’ anus. Wyn rubbed Tobias’ lower back then flattened his hand there as he pushed further.
“Ah, God, Wyn…” Tobias muttered. “More. Oh…more.”
“All of me.” Wyn paused, balls-deep, savoring Tobias’ fiery heat, savoring the complete feeling. No matter what Tobias did to anger him, this would remain. This perfect union.
As he started smooth surges, in and out, they both cried out. His release built. His hips moved faster, intent on giving Tobias as much pleasure as he could before he came. As he reached the pinnacle, Tobias shuddered, coming again. Wyn’s orgasm washed over him. Such intense pleasure. Such fulfillment.
He bent over Tobias, kissing his back until they both calmed. Slowly he pulled free. His legs seemed to wobble on the way to the bathroom. He returned with a cloth and cleansed Tobias.
Tobias snuggled into Wyn’s arms. “I’m afraid to go back to sleep. I’m afraid of what vision will come now.”
Wyn’s arms tightened. “You are safe with me. Whatever you see is in the past. It cannot touch you.” He kissed Tobias’ temple. “We are safe together.”
* * * * *
“See, you have a decent sword.” Wyn pulled the weapon from the wall and handed it to Toby. He hefted it in his hand, expertly testing the weight. Wyn nodded. “Once a man is a warrior, he is always a warrior.”
“It’s old,” Toby tried, ignoring Wyn’s statement and eyeing the blade. He’d bought it at an auction. An incredible find.
“So are we—about eight hundred years by my estimation.”
Tobias sighed his defeat. “Just don’t cut me when we do this. I like my body parts as they are.”
“Don’t be such a woman. As soon as we get to the field and you have the steel in your hands, it will all come back to you.”
They were both dressed in athletic pants. Toby was more distracted by that than his worry about being gutted on the sparring lawn. The way the material outlined Wyn’s package, the way the cotton of the knight’s T-shirt delineated Wyn’s muscled torso… The clothes were perfect for sparring, but excellent for throwing off Wyn’s opponent too.
“Fine. We’ll go, but I’m not making any promises. I don’t remember anything about sword fighting and even if I did, it’s been fourteen years.”
Stepping around the weapon in Toby’s hand, Wyn came chest-to-chest with him. His hand slid into Toby’s unruly hair a moment before he dropped a lingering kiss on his lips. “Then I’ll retrain you. Prepare for pain, squire.”
/> Toby groaned and stepped away.
“I’m a teacher not a soldier,” he muttered as he wrapped the sword in a beach towel to transport it.
“Training is far better exercise than walking on those machines as we did yesterday.”
“More dangerous too.” He picked up a cooler he’d packed with Gatorade and food.
“I do not recall you whining so much in the past.”
“I’m not whining, I just don’t want to die today.”
“I’ll not hurt you. Besides…you gave your oath yesterday.”
Toby frowned. So he had. He headed for the door, knowing Wyn followed close behind him with his own weapon.
It was a short trip to the park Toby had chosen for the fight. It wasn’t busy this time of the year—the ground was still too damp and the weather too dicey for most people. It would suit Toby and Wyn’s needs.
He led Wyn toward a wide grassy section of the park. He dropped the small cooler on a tree stump then unwrapped the sword and tossed the towel on top of the cooler. Unsure what to do next, he turned toward Wyn.
His eyes went wide. Wyn already had his weapon unsheathed. A fierce look on his face, the knight immediately went on the offense. Panic shot through Toby then adrenaline. Then, suddenly, his body was moving as if it contained some sort of longdormant muscular memory. It wasn’t possible for him to be on the same level as Wyn— he hadn’t trained in nearly a decade and a half—but he held his own against the seasoned warrior, even driving him backward a few times.
Smiling, with gritted teeth, he let instinct lead him in taking advantage of Wyn’s weaknesses. He thrust and dodged with a skill that surprised him, the ring of steel singing through him like a barely remembered lullaby. It filled him with warm reminiscence and the comfort of home and made him wonder why he’d taken so long to come back to this.
He realized that Wyn was probably holding back slightly, but he didn’t care. Eventually they’d once more be on even ground. If he remembered correctly, he’d bested Wyn on a few occasions, then Wyn had bested him in bed as recompense. Wyn wasn’t much for losing and he’d felt the need to be overly dominant on bed those nights.
