Soren’s hips banged against the edge of the table, the motion rattling the priestly tools used for prayer resting neatly on the altar. Vanya stepped between his legs like he had the right to be there, body solid and familiar, bracketing him in. Soren hauled him down into another kiss, mapping the shape of Vanya’s mouth while hands undid his belt and trousers in quick succession, shoving them down. He’d left his weapons in the palace, having not worn them to put Raiah to bed and not detouring to retrieve them before searching out Vanya.
Vanya grabbed him by the hips and yanked him around, kicking his feet out as wide as they would go with his trousers tangled around his thighs. Soren’s hands slapped against the table for balance, the altar cloth sliding out from beneath his hands. He went to his elbows, groaning at the way Vanya just manhandled him about. He tried to straighten up, and a hand settled between his shoulder blades, pressing him flat against the table.
Vanya leaned over him, his clothed cock grinding against Soren’s bare ass, mouth pressed to the back of Soren’s neck. “Such faith you have in me.”
Soren clenched his hands around the velvet cloth, the fabric slipping a bit as Vanya rocked against him. “You think so?”
Vanya bit down on the knob of his spine, and Soren arched against the sting of teeth. “Yes, because it’s the same faith I have in you.”
He shivered at that, a truth he couldn’t acknowledge in words, but that didn’t matter in moments like this. Not when Vanya’s touch was like a brand, his words stronger than any chain that could keep Soren by his side.
He watched as Vanya reached for the vial of holy oil he knew was used in the anointment of prayers. He shivered when Vanya pressed a finger into him, the oil cool until it warmed. Soren tried to get his elbows back underneath him, but Vanya pinned him to the altar with one hand, leaning his weight on him.
“Stay,” Vanya ordered, making his point felt by adding a second finger.
The stretch burned, but Soren didn’t care, wanting it even knowing he shouldn’t. He closed his eyes, rubbing his cheek against the cloth as Vanya worked him open with skilled fingers that made him wish he could get his hand on his own cock. When he withdrew his fingers, Soren whined, unable to swallow the sound.
Vanya flexed his fingers against Soren’s back before leaning over him, cock sliding against the crease of his ass. “I’d worship you like this if you’d let me.”
“Vanya,” Soren got out in a strangled voice as Vanya pulled back far enough that his cock slid down, the head catching on his rim. When he pushed inside, slow and methodical, never stopping, Soren could only try to breathe through the crushing weight of Vanya’s attention. When he finally bottomed out, it took a moment for Soren to remember how his lungs worked.
“I’d pray with you like this every day,” Vanya said, and Soren could feel the way his cock throbbed before he pulled out. “You have to know that.”
When he thrust back in, it was with enough force that the edge of the table slammed sharply against Soren’s hips. He scrabbled at the cloth, panting open-mouthed into velvet as Vanya fucked him at a pace that reminded him of the way a choir might chant a hymn rather than sing it—steady and enduring, right up until the pitch changed. Vanya lifted himself off Soren but never removed his hand. It steadied him as Vanya increased the speed of his thrusts, and all Soren could do was press his forehead to the velvet cloth andtakeit.
Vanya came with a groan minutes later, shoving Soren harder against the table, grinding in for the last few thrusts until he was spent. Soren swallowed around a dry throat, his own neglected cock rubbing against the velvet cloth hanging over the side. Then Vanya hooked his fingers over the back collar of his vest, pulling Soren up off the altar, still buried deep inside him.
Soren rocked backward, head falling against Vanya’s shoulder as a warm hand wrapped around his cock and stroked him until he came, spilling over the altar and ruining the velvet cloth. He blinked up at the star temple’s ceiling, breathing raggedly. Vanya turned his head to brush his lips over Soren’s cheek, holding him up, holding on.
“I want you to be my road,” Vanya said low and ragged, the words a prayer there at the altar of the star gods.
It wasn’t one Soren had the right to answer.
Ten
SOREN
“I think you should join me in the Senate today,” Vanya said over breakfast in the courtyard.
Soren very nearly choked on the bite of spiced egg in his mouth. He chewed furiously and swallowed it. “What?”
“Many, if not all, of the Houses will be there to oversee a vote on the expansion of certain governorship powers. If the Senate passes it, I’ll see about signing off on it. The vote is why no Conclave gatherings are happening today.”
“Is that wise, considering Joelle’s position?”
Vanya smiled thinly and leaned back in his chair. “The bill doesn’t concern borders, merely the regulation over when avezirmay call upon the Imperial throne to expand a city or town’s outer walls.”
“They don’t control it?”
“All cities and towns belong to Solaria and, therefore, the Imperial throne. If a population trend allows for city growth and the water table can support it, then we allow it. But building a new outer wall and the housing to fill that new space takes years, even with automatons to aid in the construction. This bill will streamline the bureaucracy of it all.”
“You’re inclined to grant it?”
Vanya nodded. “I would have even if the Conclave hadn’t been formed. I’ve targeted my own fair share of Houses in the past but not this way. I have tried to be less of a destabilizing force after my mother’s rule, especially considering I lost House support after her passing.”
“She didn’t rule fairly?”
“She lost a city under her watch, and we have been paying for that ever since.”
