Page 51 of The House of the Red Balconies

He looked into Zo’s face, seeking encouragement. Zo’s eyes were heavy-lidded, his head thrown back on the pillow, lips a little parted. For a wild moment Hylas felt as if he should look away, as if he should not see his prince like this, so abandoned to pleasure.

He stroked slower, and Zo spread his thighs and moved his hips, pushing into Hylas’s hand. He began to wriggle more urgently, and Hylas knew it meant he needed to speed up. He managed to hook his loincloth with his thumb and jerk the fabric out of the way—his other arm was trapped under Zo—and they were touching, heat to heat, and he caressed them both together. He could do this easily; he had big hands.

He had strong thighs, too, to hold him up as his moved over Zo, rocking against him, rubbing their bodies together while his hand moved between them, slick with their first emissions. Zo’s hands slid down Hylas’s back and over his rear, fingers spread. It was bliss; it was more than he deserved. But if Zo felt anything like this building ecstasy—he couldn’t stop, it was right, it was perfect, because Zo deserved everything. Hylas bit his lip to try to silence his own noises, but they came out of him like sobs, and that felt good too.

Then Zo’s body stiffened, and before Hylas could gasp out a panicked “What’s wrong?” he heard Zo’s cry of satisfaction and felt Zo’s seed spill over his hand, and realized what had happened. On a wave of overwhelming relief and gratitude he reached his own climax and clasped Zo to himself so that they both came together, legs tangled, arms wrapped around each other, faces buried in one another’s necks.

CHAPTER 16

They lay in the sunlight, which slanted in the open door at just the right angle to warm the bed. Zo gathered his robe loosely around himself and looked at Hylas lying naked beside him. Hylas’s pale eyes were on him, questioning.

“Was it … satisfying?” Hylas asked anxiously. “Your Grace?”

Zo laughed. “Very satisfying. You must have been able to tell.”

“Well … yes.”

He’d only exaggerated his pleasure a very little, out of a combination of habit and affection. It really had been lovely.

“You know what you’re doing. I thought you said you didn’t.”

“Ah, well, I … ”

Zo patted Hylas’s bare stomach casually and felt Hylas stiffen with surprise. “I know how you learned to do that,” he said, not wanting to make Hylas explain that the only cock he’d ever handled was his own. There was probably some taboo in the stupid place he was from. “I’m teasing you.”

Hylas relaxed, turning to nestle closer against Zo’s side.

“Zoharaza,” he said slowly.

“Yes?”

“Oh. I was just trying to say it. Did I get it right, then?”

“Almost. The second ’z’ should have more of a ‘zzz’ to it.”

“Ah. I’ll remember.”

“You don’t have to. ‘Zo’ is fine.”

“Mm. I do think I should be able to pronounce your full name properly. It’s basic, you know?”

“Prince Zoharaza, Son of Chahaz Son of Temar, Kings of Satasparsa and the Eastern Peaks. That’s the Zashian style, but we’re from the Parkan really, and there was a different style at home, which … I don’t remember, actually. It’s been so long since I was there.”

“Loukianos said you were a hostage at the King of Sasia’s court. But that didn’t mean a prisoner in a cell, did it?”

“No … I lived as a member of the king’s household, with his wives and children. But I was ten years old when I arrived. I was never going to forget that I didn’t really belong there—and no one else was going to forget, either. And of course none of us had freedom to come and go completely at will—or to leave the palace, obviously.”

“So a little bit like here.”

Zo laughed. “A little bit. The palace I lived in was bigger than the town of Tykanos—including the fort—with more people in it. And it’s not even the biggest of the king of Zash’s palaces. And we could go into the gardens, which were probably the size of this island, and the hunting park … not alone, you couldn’t really do anything alone, no one could, but … it wasn’t like being a prisoner in a cell.”

“But you still ran away.”

Zo looked at him. “I never said that.”

“No, you never said it. I’m sure everyone else thinks you were supposed to be on the ship that was wrecked off the coast of Tykanos. You were the only survivor, or something—perhaps you had amnesia for a while … ”

“Amnesia! Why didn’t I think of that?”