At that moment, Ghreid wondered if he should, too. If not for his brothers’ sensitive ears, his impending children.
“I’m already traumatized enough from Mother and Father.” Falustus muttered under his breath something about padded tapestries, and Ghreid took that as a signal to leave.
He needed a word with staff and Rydel post haste.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Varis
WhyGhreid had decided to take on a construction project in their nesting chamber when he was swollen, heavy, unable to eat, and barely able to fuck? He had no clue, but with all of the aforementioned, he’d become additionally burdened by masonry dust and incessant clacking. “Why the fuck is all this necessary?”
“It just is.” Ghreid crawled into their nest on hands and knees, scooting over to give his mate a soft kiss and a gentle stroke to his full belly.
Metallic chipping noises grated at his ears and made muscles in Varis’s belly jerk defensively as dust floated about, drifting precariously close to his precious silk cushions.
Gilded rods lay on worn horse blankets, ornate and paired with a pile of mountable brackets to hold them.
Varis grumbled and sat up a little more. “Please tell me you’re not going to put tapestries on the walls! They’ll molder and—”
“Yes and no. There’ll be carved wood behind it to give breathing room.” Ghreid took Varis’s hand and kissed it. “It’s necessary.”
A new set of footsteps raised Varis’s hackles as he glanced over, face twisting into a scowl until Falustus leaned against the doorway, two steaming mugs in his hands. “You two fuck so loudly that I’m getting an inferiority complex, love. He’s putting in something to baffle the sound.”
Varis’s cheeks burned in a quick flush that faded the moment Falustus approached their nest, mug in an outstretched hand as a peace offering. Something sweet, floral, and fruity threw an alluring trail through the air, backed with honey. “Graylan isn’t up yet, but this is said to be soothing for nesting males.”
“Thank the fates.” Varis reached out, hands cupped as the scalding mug warmed his fingers. He drank deeply as sweet nectar bathed his tongue, backed with floral and fruity notes that made him sigh with pleasure. “And all this,right this instant, because you are afraid someone will hear us fucking?”
“That ship has sailed, love. Everyone’s heard it.” Falustus blew on his tea, an entirely unnecessary gesture for a creature imbued with fire.
“These walls are plenty soundproof.” Varis blinked up at him in disgust.
“No, they’re not,” a quiet voice called out from down the hall, Slath’s.
“They most certainly are not,” another voice, Graylan’s, piped in.
“And I’m going topretendI didn’t hear them coming from the same bedroom.” Ghreid sighed heavily.
“Who’s going to stop me?” Once more, Slath’s muffled voice.
“Stuff it, the both of you! Slath is an adult. Graylan is a creepy old man,” Varis grumbled and leaned over, brushing masonry dust off the edge of a silk cushion.
“I’m not creepy!” Graylan’s voice echoed down the hall.
“Youarekind of creepy,” Slath’s voice mumbled after him, their quiet conversation petering off.
Varis caught Ghreid’s gaze. Ghreid gave him a raised-brow expression as if to say,See! I told you!
Varis huffed. “Fine. Soundproof away, my love.”
“Thank you!” Draenvir’s voice called from somewhere else in the estate.
Varis blinked slowly and shook his head. “I’m hungry and horny and I cannotimagineputting a single thing inside of me. I’m so full.”
“It’s not that bad, dear.” Falustus sipped on his tea and blanched when Varis lifted his tunic. A quick glance showed his brother-in-law that full dome of his belly, the shape of it lower in his hips and rather vulgar in shape, something odd bulging about it. “It won’t be that bad for long.”
“Sooner than later, one hopes.” Varis tugged his tunic back down and sighed. “Graylan and Asha both say they’ve not seen someone carry this way before, but everything feels fine.”
But as he said it, he hid a wince as a sharp pain radiated down his side, stabbing into his hip like splinters. “Mostly fine.”
