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“Nattie, look at me,” he demanded.
Startled eyes met his, then Nathaniel drew a hard
breath. “My lord?”
“We’re both tired and in need of dinner. Will you
gather wood for a fire while I fetch my saddlebags?
We can talk while we eat.”
Nathaniel looked baffled. He opened his mouth
as if to speak, then surprised Taden by flushing dark
red. Not from anger, Taden noted. Something else…
Before he could puzzle it out, Nathaniel gave him
a quick bow. “As you wish, lord.”
Taden watched him walk off in dismay, the cool
tone in the man’s voice chilling his heart. Did Nattie
think he wished to control him? Corin had told him to
take care of his cousin, but Taden didn’t know if he
could, not when Nathaniel’s reactions were
unpredictable and volatile. What would happen if he
made Nathaniel truly angry with him?
He thrust off the thought and went to the stallion,
who raised his head as Taden approached. Taden
whispered endearments in his ear as he pulled off the
saddle, telling him all the thoughts in his heart he was
afraid to speak to Nathaniel. He hesitated as he
rubbed the animal down and pressed his face to the
warm hide. “What if I say the wrong thing and drive
him away? If he sails tomorrow without me I fear I’ll
never see him again.”
The stallion threw up its head and nickered. An
answering call came from a nearby glen and Taden
spotted Nathaniel’s horse staked at a gurgling spring.
Taden quickly led his own animal there, then grabbed
up the saddlebag and joined Nathaniel where he’d
started a fire in a ring of stones. Taden’s heart lurched
at the lonely figure he made as he fed sticks to the
hungry flames.
Nathaniel looked up as he approached, and
Taden winced at the sorrow in his face. He hurried to
his side and knelt to pull his lover to his chest.
“Darling, what is it?” he asked, stroking Nathaniel’s
silken hair, which delighted him so.
Nathaniel gripped his arms, then eased his hold
and settled back, his desperate gaze on Taden’s face.
“I need to let you go,” he said on a note of despair. “I
love you, but I can’t keep you. It’s dangerous, for you
and me.”
Taden ignored the panic clutching his stomach.
“Nonsense. If you send me away, I’ll simply follow
you. Better to have me where you can watch my
movements.” He leaned closer, his mouth almost
touching Nathaniel’s. “And we can do this,” he
murmured, and ran his tongue over Nathaniel’s pale
lips and dipped into the sweet center. Nathaniel
kissed him back and slipped a hand behind Taden’s
head to hold him in place as he deepened the contact.
After several pleasurable moments, Taden eased
his lips away. “Maybe we should have something to
eat.”
“Later,” Nathaniel mumbled and captured
Taden’s protest with a searing kiss that left him
breathless. He eased Nathaniel onto the ground and
covered the tantalizing body with his own, throwing
off his questions for later.
Chapter Seven
Taden awoke and pulled the warm body lying
against him closer to his chest. He’d been afraid he’d
wake to find Nathaniel gone. They’d made love
languidly and tenderly the night before, stopping
only when hunger drove them to plunder the
saddlebags. They’d eaten bread and cheese and dried
meats, then built up the fire and wrapped in blankets
and kissed long into the night.
Nathaniel stretched and Taden nuzzled his neck,
breathing the warm air under the blankets spiced
with sweat and sex and Nathaniel’s heated skin. His
heart swelled with love, and he wished they could lie
there forever.
Fingers slid up his back and tangled in his hair,
and he met Nathaniel’s laughing eyes. “We should be
on our way. It’s a day’s ride to reach my ship,”
Nathaniel told him, but made no move to untangle
their limbs.
“You’re probably right,” Taden said, and pressed
a kiss on the dark bruise on Nathaniel’s neck. “Will
you bring the horses in while I gather our things?”
“Of course, my lord.”
Taden gave him a quick look, but Nathaniel
gazed at him with fondness. There was no sign of the
mockery he’d feared. He felt the warmth in his face
and struggled to sit up, but Nathaniel pushed against
him, guiding him back until he sat against a tree with
Nathaniel between his splayed legs. Nathaniel’s eyes
sparkled with mischief as his tongue flicked out and
licked a sensitive bud on Taden’s chest.
“We don’t have time…” he started to say, and
groaned as teeth nipped the hardening nipple.
“I only need a moment,” Nathaniel assured him,
and Taden hardened instantly at the amusement and
lust lacing his voice. Taden leaned his head back
against the tree, his body quivering as Nathaniel’s
wet, skillful tongue licked down his body towards his
quick erection. He jumped when his hot, moist mouth
swallowed him. Then he ceased to think at all,
surrendering to pleasures he’d only dreamed of as
Nattie worked him with lips and tongue and hands.
He cried out in protest when Nathaniel pulled
away, leaving him stranded on the edge of
completion. He opened his dazed eyes and gasped at
the beauty of the face inches from his own.
Nathaniel’s green eyes blazed with desire. Nathaniel
kissed him and then bit Taden’s bottom lip, and
Taden groaned at the stab of pleasure that went with
the pain. His lover sucked on his lips, then kissed
him. The taste of his own blood made Taden wild.
“Nattie,” he pleaded, needing to come. Nathaniel
straddled him and lowered onto his rigid pole. They
stilled, Taden’s mind reeling as Nathaniel’s hot body
cradled him. Then Nathaniel began to move and he
caught Taden’s cries of pleasure in his mouth in a
kiss.
Taden sat up from the tree and almost came as he
slid deeper into Nathaniel. His approving groan was
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