A DRINK BEFORE BATTLE (MxM)

While Sevei continued working on Yeresym’s legs, he took this opportunity to study his elegant profile, illuminated in the bright sunlight, then allowed his gaze to wander down the pale, arched throat, across the broad shoulders, to the scars on his chest. One of those crossed a nipple, almost cleaving it in two, and Sevei had to fight the urge to lean forward and kiss it. As he stared, the movements of his hands slowed and softened, turning from firm massage to languid caress.

“That’s enough,” Yeresym said breathlessly.

Remembering himself, Sevei wrenched his gaze away from Yeresym’s chest and looked down. That was a mistake, as his sight fell upon a stiff rod of flesh, standing up out of the shallow water and turning a lovely shade of purple.

“Looks like some parts still work,” Sevei chuckled, trying to make light of the moment, but his voice came out much lower and heavier than intended.

“That’s just the fright you gave me,” Yeresym dissembled, trying to shift away. “It’s not...”

“I could take care of that, too.” Sevei’s hands began to slide slowly up Yeresym’s inner thighs.

Yeresym’s face flushed red, and he grasped both of Sevei’s wrists, pinning them down while his eyes darted around the shoreline.

“We’re out in the open!” he hissed.

Sevei took a look around himself, shaking his head. “We’re alone here,” he assured. “Yan and Meira won’t let anyone in to see us.”

“What if they do?”

“They won’t. Well, if Yan tries, Meira will finish breaking his nose for you.”

Yeresym’s alarm only rose further.

“I’m joking!” Sevei laughed. “Yeresym, relax. Everyone here respects you far too much to come peeping on your bath. And...” Sevei gave a squeeze to the legs under his pinned hands. “I won’t do anything you don’t want. I didn’t bring you here to take advantage.”

Yeresym relaxed his grip on Sevei’s wrists, but didn’t remove his hands. Sevei eased his hands away only to lay them over Yeresym’s, grasping his fingers lightly as he peered up at him. Despite his intention to lower the temperature between them, he could tell from the warmth rising in his own cheeks and the insistent upward tug of his lips that his face must betray the utter adoration he felt in his heart. Yeresym’s gaze shifted nervously.

“If you’re not taking advantage, then stop looking at me like that,” he groused.

“How can I?” Sevei said pragmatically. “You’re so damned beautiful.”

Yeresym huffed. “Your flattery is so damned unnecessary.”

“Does it count as flattery if it’s true?” Sevei leaned against Yeresym’s knees, his attention riveted on those green eyes as they dazzled in the bright sun. “Do you know that your eyes have flowers in them?” he asked.

Yeresym scowled as if baffled by an idiot.

“It’s easy enough to compare them to emeralds,” Sevei went on, ignoring the unspoken insult, “I’m sure you hear that all the time... but looking closely, there are golden rays in there, like the petals of sunflowers.”

Yeresym’s brow smoothed. He still looked baffled, but uncertainly now.

“Maybe I’m the only the only one who’s ever gotten close enough to see that?” Sevei guessed. “You have to know how stunning you are, though? You rich people have really good mirrors, right?”

Irritation and bewilderment warred on Yeresym’s face for a long moment. “You’re-” he said adamantly. Then his voice dropped as his eyes shifted away uneasily. “You’re... pretty good, too,” he mumbled.

Sevei beamed victoriously. “Pretty good?” he crowed.

Yeresym looked chagrined. “No, that sounded... I don’t mean...”

“I know what you meant,” Sevei reassured him. “I know it’s hard for you to say. ‘Pretty good’ should be high praise coming from you.”

“The first time I saw you, I couldn’t make myself stop staring,” Yeresym said in a rush, sounding almost angry about it. “It was quite... shameful.”

“Well, that was hardly the most shameful thing you did that night,” Sevei chuckled.

Yeresym’s gaze whipped to him. His jaw clenched furiously, the blood rose in his cheeks, and the dazzling green eyes darkened as their black centers blew open.

The member that had half-wilted while they argued flew up again between them, splashing the water like a jumping fish.

Sevei’s mouth opened in surprise, his brows lifting as he glanced down, then back up again. He gave a long, besotted sigh.

“What am I going to do with you?” he muttered affectionately, shaking his head. He raised Yeresym’s hand and planted a kiss into his palm, peering at him sideways.

Fingers curled hesitantly around his cheek. When he lifted his mouth away, they drifted down to his jaw and, still pinning him with that dark gaze, Yeresym traced along Sevei’s bottom lip with his thumb. Returning his gaze, Sevei couldn’t resist capturing that thumb between his lips, drawing the soft, wet interior of his mouth over the calloused skin.

Yeresym’s eyes flashed. Sevei lowered his lips to kiss the inside of his wrist, and felt those fingertips now trace along his ear, then venture into the hair at his temple, bringing goose-flesh shivering across his scalp and down the back of his neck. Sevei began a trail of hot, wet kisses down the muscular forearm, his head moving ever lower. Yeresym’s hand slid down his neck to his shoulder, his fingers pressing into his skin with ever-growing urgency. As Sevei neared his elbow, Yeresym’s breath quickened.

Sevei gave another upward glance. Yeresym’s expression had softened, his lips parted now and moistened, his eyes narrowed and filled with needful desire. Sevei turned his face, and planted his next kiss to the side of that capricious member.

Yeresym’s breath hitched. His fingers squeezed into Sevei’s shoulder.

Steadying the shaft lightly in his hand, Sevei extended his tongue and swept a strong lick from base to tip, then swirled his tongue over the ridges there.

Yeresym groaned loudly. Sevei looked up to see him anxiously looking around the clearing again. As much as he’d love to take his time with this, he knew Yeresym’s nerve wouldn’t hold out that long. Lowering his head again, Sevei gulped him down as far as he would fit, then immediately set up a quick and steady rhythm, diligently working his mouth over Yeresym’s burgeoning staff, sucking hard on the way up, pushing the strongest part of his tongue over the taut head on the way back down.

Yeresym curled down over Sevei, his arms draping over Sevei’s back as if to hide what was was happening in his lap. Sevei’s ears were filled with Yeresym’s labored breathing and tiny, strangled sounds, determined not to become any louder.

Sevei moved his hand lower. The most expedient thing would be to get a finger or two inside him, but that would mean scraping his hand on the rocks below, so Sevei made do with cupping the sac that swelled and tightened as he rolled it in his palm, occasionally reaching his fingertips to stroke behind it.

“Vei...” Yeresym whispered harshly, threading a hand into his hair and clutching tightly. “Oh.... gods....mmph-”

Yeresym leaned back suddenly, his hips twitching in attempted thrusts as he spent himself into Sevei’s eager mouth.

Sevei swallowed all that he could, then lavished his tongue over every inch of him to get the rest. He raised his head, gasping with his own desire, to take in Yeresym’s beautifully delirious face.

“No growl this time?” he said huskily. “If anyone heard you out here, they’d just think it was some kind of wild cat. And they’d be right... Kat.”

Still drunk on his climax, Yeresym leaned forward and put a hand on Sevei’s chest, sliding it downward. His panting breath washed over Sevei’s ear.

“Help me down,” he whispered. “I can’t reach you from here.”

Sevei pecked a kiss to the lips that Yeresym had so generously brought near, but lifted his hand away and gently pushed him back.

“I think you’ve had enough outdoor adventure for today,” he said, smiling warmly. “I’ll collect when you’re back to full health.”

Yeresym’s lips pursed with a hint of disappointment, but he dazedly nodded. “I’ll have to owe you, then,” he said.

“No, Yeresym, that was a joke,” Sevei replied firmly. “There will never be any owing. I only ever want you to do this because you want me.”

Yeresym looked confused for a moment, then his eyes sharpened, and he seemed to snap back to his senses.

“Do you, Yeresym?” Sevei asked, inwardly beating back a gnawing fear at the very thought of asking. “Do you want me?”

Yeresym’s looked at him with a pained expression, his lips silently searching for words. “I just... don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said, his gaze shifting away. He reached into the nearby basket for a cloth, bringing it over his lap and twisting it in his hands.

“That isn’t what I asked,” Sevei said, his heart twisting in his chest at Yeresym’s retreat.

“I think you want something from me that I’m not sure I can give you,” Yeresym said, his face full of guilt.

Sevei smiled. “How could I ask for more than having one of the most beautiful, most courageous, most selfless and good-hearted men I’ve ever known occasionally indulge me to care for him and maybe provide him a bit of diversion?”

Yeresym regarded him warily, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

“You can’t distract me forever,” he said.

Sevei raised an innocent eyebrow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“He’s coming,” Yeresym stated. “He’s already here. I will have to face him.”

“Not alone, you won’t,” Sevei said adamantly. “I’ve got some ideas about that, if you and your Alchemists will listen to an outsider.”

“Have you learned nothing?” Yeresym snapped. “We got lucky this time, but Vei, if anything really happened to you... I...” He broke off and looked away, shaking his head.

Sevei’s eyes widened in realization. “Is that why you push me away?” he asked quietly.

Yeresym didn’t answer. Sevei took both of his hands, holding them together.

“Well, we’re in a war, so that’s always a possibility,” he said grimly. “But I can tell you, from my point of view, if something did happen to me, I don’t think my soul could rest easy in the next world unless I knew I’d loved all my loved ones just as much as I could while I was still here.” He squeezed Yeresym’s hands hard, then brought them to his lips. “And you’re one of those now.”

Arresting any further argument from Yeresym, Sevei moved forward to help him up from the river rocks.

“Come on,” he said. “If you’re stressing about this, let’s go call a meeting. Let me tell you all my plan before you shoot it down.”