There was a cadence to his thrusts now, both seeking his own pleasure whilst ensuring Leander got his own.
Leander was a husk of himself, barely registering anything beyond the deep propulsion of Jarryn inside him. If the prince was speaking, the words were no longer heard in his mind, and he didn’t care.
Reaching a momentum they both could enjoy, Jarryn settled into a rhythm while rubbing hands along Leander’s back and repeatedly pulling him back towards him as he edged closer and closer to climax.
When Jarryn came, in his final few thrusts, it was like an explosion. Leander trembled as his breathing also quickened, finding release at the exact same moment, just as Jarryn claimed Leo for his own.
Breathing heavily, Jarryn pumped the last of his seed inside Leander, his hands tightly gripping the demigod’s hips. When he removed them, he saw marks from his nails and smiled, fingers lightly tracing the imprints.
Afterwards, they lay entwined beneath the blankets, their breathing slowly returning to a gentler cadence. Jarryn brushed a strand of hair from Leander’s face, while Leander traced circles on Jarryn’s chest with gentle fingertips.
“I love you,” Leander murmured, the words carrying the weight of their shared experience.
Jarryn smiled lazily, and Leander had the distinct impression that the vague smile was a direct result of the frenzied orgasm he had just enjoyed. “And I love you, the stars as my witness...”
“Do you really see a future? For us?” Leander asked tentatively.
“For as long as we have each other.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Now that they had crossed the border into Eamore, tensions had mounted. More of Jarryn’s soldiers were awake and on guard through the night and those who were not on duty were struggling to sleep regardless.
Leander was no exception to this general sense of unease. He tossed and turned on his bedroll, alternating between pulling the blanket over himself and throwing it aside. Despite the day they had had, and his earlier claim that he was too tired to stay awake for the hunters to return with tonight’s kill, sleep was not easy to fall into, and any rest he got was fitful at best.
Now past the border, all he wanted was for Jarryn to scorch himself the same way he had marked Leander, thereby freeing him from their bond. He didn’t know what would be next—he wouldn’t be able to return to Vyrica, but what of Jarryn’s own safety?
He almost wished that the prince would ignore hisearlier claim of tiredness and join him, once again, but Jarryn was far too honourable for that.
Thoughts moved at speed through his mind, such that he could not quite latch onto them. He was frustrated, agitated even. He could not help but replay his earlier conversations with Jarryn, thinking up things he should have said instead. Everything he had ever said to the prince, now in his mind on repeat.
And then there was the question Jarryn had asked him again the other day. What Leander had responded with was the gods honest truth. He couldn’t regret it, because he would never regret this chance, this opportunity, to get to know Jarryn.
Did he regret utterly and irreversibly fucking up the crown prince’s life, though? Without a shadow of a doubt.
Thinking of giving up on this pointless effort to try to sleep, Leander rolled over. He could, for once, be the one to seek his unexpected lover’s company, rather than Jarryn always coming to him. Maybe Jarryn would like his proactivity. Maybe they could share a night much the same as the one they had shared a few days ago. Leander’s lips curled up into a smile at the memory of their time together.
Call him greedy but he wanted more.
Leander rolled onto his side and pushed himself up to sit. From there he made to crawl out of his tent.
The night had previously been silvery, bathed in moonlight from a cloudless sky. Now, there was an orange glow, and it wasn’t caused by the early light of morning.
Fire. Leander scrambled to stand up, and only then did he register the shouts of the soldiers as they screamed, “Fire!” to wake up the rest of the camp. He must have been so caught up in his daydreaming about Jarryn that he had not paid attention to the chaos around him.
An arrow flew, alight with flames and whistling as it drew near to its target. Leander’s tent. The demigod jumped back, a sharp exclamation of shock escaping his lips as he watched his tent catch and within seconds it was ablaze.
“Leander!”
Turning, Leander tore his gaze away from his tent to see Jarryn running towards him.
“What’s happening?” Leander called as he closed the distance to meet the other man.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. What’s going on?”
“What the fuck do you think is going on? They’ve found us!”
