Hallowed Bond (Chronicles of Ylandre Book 2) (9 page)

But not until you desire it yourself. Until then, I’ll happily yield. Indeed, if it is all I can ever do, if it is all you can abide, I’ll be content. More than anything, Dy, I just want to be one with you however we achieve it.”

Seeing the tension seep out of Dylen’s features, he smiled and, lying back, he pulled the latter atop him and between his upraised knees.

“Please,
ariad
, have me now. Love me.”

Dylen gazed at him, something like wonder in his eyes. And then that passed, and he bent to seal their mouths together in a kiss that quite took Riodan’s breath away.

“You should know,” he murmured. “This is a first for me as well.”

“How so?”

“I have lain with many but never in love. To you alone do I yield my heart, Rio.”

Riodan thought
his
heart would burst right out of his breast, so full did it feel after

Dylen’s quiet avowal. Moisture gathered in the corners of his eyes, and his throat tightened. Staving off a potentially mawkish display of emotion, he pulled Dylen into another molten kiss while curling one leg behind the latter’s thighs in wanton invitation.

He felt Dylen smile into their kiss.

Fingers traced their way down his throat to his chest and the taut wash of his belly, succeeded by lips that marked their passage southward with scarlet bruises. Riodan’s excitement mounted once more with every moist tug at his nipples and every lash and nibble of Dylen’s tongue and teeth across the expanse of his abdomen. He closed his eyes in anticipation when Dylen reached between his legs to cup the tender sac beneath his shaft. But, if he thought he would be treated to a repeat of Dylen’s previous pleasuring, he could not be more mistaken. He stiffened when Dylen’s fingers ventured behind his seed pouch to touch the small lipped opening it concealed.

The seed channel, more commonly called the sheath, was the most telling evidence of the Deira’s direct descent from their forebears, the ancient Naere who long ago fled their dying world and found a new home for their dual-gendered race on Aisen.

Riodan’s eyes flew open, and he looked down in some dismay.

“You don’t mean to—” he started to say.

Dylen met his anxious gaze. “Of course not. I’m well aware that the privilege is reserved for your lawful mate alone.” He shook his head when Riodan would have protested his statement. “Trust me, Rio. I want this to be a memory to savor, not regret.”

Riodan regarded him curiously then nodded. “I shall never regret this,” he declared.

“Have me as you wish.”

A smile was his answer, devastating in its sweetness. Riodan groaned and let his head fall back on the pillow. He wondered if his sanity would survive his first coupling with Dylen. Veres almighty, even the
hethar’s
smile was enough to send his senses swimming if one could call their frantic floundering thusly.

He caught his breath as Dylen drew his fingers along the delicate ridge of his sheath.

Every stroke of the sensitive flesh sparked a fresh frisson of pleasure. And set in motion the bodily change that turned a Deir, enabling him to take his partner inside him in reproductive union. Riodan’s seed pouch contracted and slightly receded upward to fully expose his sheath. Glistening with the slippery essence of Riodan’s arousal, it easily accepted the inward slide of Dylen’s finger. Riodan moaned.

“Did you feel the change?” Dylen murmured, gingerly thrusting his finger into the slick passage.

Riodan nodded, his eyes wide with awe. His whole body was thrumming. The need to be deeply penetrated had awakened and waxed steadily until it was all he could think of. All he desired.

“I want you,” he pleaded.

“Patience, my Rio,” Dylen said soothingly.

He withdrew his hand and reached for something on the bedside table. Riodan stared at the crystalline bottle of oil in Dylen’s grip. He’d wondered for a long time now when Dylen would finally use it on him.

Dylen removed the stopper of the bottle and drizzled a little of the oil on the fingers of his right hand. Replacing the container on the table, he rubbed the oil between his fingers. Meeting Riodan’s tense gaze, he caught and held it while he lowered his hand between the youth’s legs. He slid his fingers into the cleft between Riodan’s buttocks.

Before Riodan could react, he pushed a finger into him. Riodan gasped, his body jerking a little. He recalled at once the intrusive sensation from his encounter with Ithan.

His breathing quickened, and he struggled to slow it. This was Dylen, he reminded himself. And Dylen was readying him to receive his shaft, an act Riodan had yearned for longer than he cared to remember. The thought wrought him a measure of peace. With a tremulous smile, he parted his legs farther to make it easier for Dylen to breach him.

That earned him an approving grin. “Do you realize how utterly irresistible you look?” Dylen huskily said, inserting another finger. “You tempt me as I have never been tempted before.”

Riodan managed a small laugh. “Do I? Splendid. That will keep me uppermost in your mind then.”

“Lackwit,” Dylen fondly replied, turning the gibe into an endearment. “You’re always uppermost in my mind. Even when I’m with others.”

Surprised by the admission, Riodan opened his mouth to reply, but the caress of something inside him robbed him of speech. Staccato gasps escaped him instead as bursts of sensation accompanied every stroke of Dylen’s clever fingers.

“What-what are you doing to me?”

Dylen only chuckled and removed his fingers. Riodan watched with bated breath as he thoroughly anointed his shaft with oil, deliberately sliding his hand down the whole length of it. Riodan gulped at the sight.

He allowed Dylen to guide his legs high up around his waist. Dylen shifted forward to lean over him. Riodan let out a shuddery breath when he felt the prod of Dylen’s shaft against his backside.

“Are you sure you want this?” Dylen asked.

Riodan glanced down at the flesh that would fill him. Dylen was impressively endowed in girth as well as length. Riodan swallowed in some trepidation at the thought of taking that formidable shaft up his backside. But his fear was not enough to overcome the elation at finally being in union with the Deir he adored. He looked at Dylen with eyes brimming with trust and anticipation.

“Oh yes,” he whispered. “I’m very sure.”

Again there was the pressure of entry but a much greater one than before. Riodan gasped as Dylen’s shaft pushed into him in one fluid motion. He whimpered as he was slowly but steadily filled. His breath came in ragged fits while he struggled to adjust to the burning sensation. He stared up at Dylen, finding solace in the grey-green eyes that regarded him with love and desire. He managed a small brave smile.

“I don’t wonder that Ithan couldn’t restrain himself,” Dylen murmured. “You’re so beautiful it’s almost unfair.” He bent low to kiss the trembling youth, sliding his arms beneath him to hold him close.

The affectionate gesture soothed Riodan immeasurably, and he relaxed enough to allow Dylen to slide into him completely without further discomfort. Dylen shifted his hips as he delivered a thrust. Another slight movement and another thrust and suddenly Riodan felt pleasure explode in his belly, a sharp, indefinable pleasure that he had not thought possible. He moaned against Dylen’s lips, his body arching upward, seeking that wonderful sensation.

Dylen complied. He drove into Riodan repeatedly, always angling his thrusts to ensure Riodan’s enjoyment of the act.

“Do you understand now?” he softly said. “Turning heightens the pleasure. I wanted you to enjoy this to the hilt.”

“Always my needs first,” Riodan shakily replied. “What of yours, Dy? I want you to enjoy this, too.”

Dylen’s smile was more tender than Riodan had ever seen it. “Think you there can be anything more enjoyable for me than this? To wholly have you, Rio, and be the first accorded the privilege is an honor I never thought to know. And gaining your love is a joy beyond compare. There can be no greater bliss,
ariad
.”

He maintained his steady rhythm, subtly striking that point of pleasure within until Riodan thought he would go mad from the ecstasy. He tightened his legs almost frantically around Dylen’s waist, wordlessly begging him to bring his exquisite torment to a close. Dylen quickened and deepened his thrusts.

Stimulated almost beyond bearing, Riodan began to shake with the onset of another orgasm.

“Veres preserve me!” he moaned, his breathing harsh to his ears.

Dylen smirked. “Good?”

“Oh,
heyas
, yes!”

Dylen reached between them to grasp Riodan’s shaft. He briskly stroked it in tandem with his thrusts. It proved too much for Riodan.

His climax ripped through him, the double sensations of being filled and stroked amplifying it beyond what he’d previously known. And when Dylen stiffened then shuddered and gasped repeatedly at the moment of his own release, Riodan thought he had never seen anything as beautiful as the sight of his lover caught in the throes of rapture. Liquid warmth seeped deep into him, lengthening the ecstasy that continued to wrack his body.

Riodan was sobbing by the time the sensations ebbed. He had not known that release from intercourse was lengthier and far more intense than completion gained by other means. He placed a trembling hand on his heaving abdomen and was surprised by the absence of semen on his skin. His climax had been spectacular. Where was the evidence of it?

“A turned Deir doesn’t produce seed,” he heard Dylen explain, amusement limning his voice. “A rather efficient way to minimize the mess, don’t you think?”

Riodan had to chuckle at Dylen’s typical frankness. It was then he realized that Dylen was making no move to withdraw from him. The other Deir was still deeply imbedded inside him, and even more remarkable, his shaft had not subsided completely.

Indeed, it felt as if it were firming up once more!

Riodan opened his eyes to stare disbelievingly at his lover. Dylen’s smile was positively wicked.

“I’m going to show you what it means to be pounded into the mattress,” he informed Riodan. “I promise you won’t be able to walk straight for a few days.”

“Saints above,” Riodan whimpered, caught between apprehension and elation.

Chapter Eight

Crossroads

C.A. 2987

Spring in the north of Ylandre was heralded by scattered showers and moist cool breezes. Grey and gloom gave way to color and light as the myriad flora and foliage that adorned the capital made their first appearances, and the sun shed its winter veil and grew ever brighter and warmer as the season progressed. Rikara in this time of reawakening was beauteous to behold and a veritable feast for the senses, particularly when the city’s vibrancy and cultural variety emerged from hibernation.

But all these were lost on Riodan for reasons he was less than pleased to acknowledge.

The notion of celebrating one’s begetting day is highly over rated
, he crossly decided as he passed through the gates of the University grounds. Only children derived any pleasure from such celebrations. Then again, only children were supposed to. He was way past the age at which any sensible Deir would still care to remember the anniversary of his birth. So why did he feel neglected?

He shook his head and chided himself for being childish. Really, what had he been expecting? He tried to wipe the scowl from his face as he strode down the pedestrian path flanking the main avenue that serviced this sector of the north district.

“Why such a long face?”

Riodan came to a sudden halt to avoid colliding with Dylen as the latter stepped out from behind one of the old silver oaks that shaded the path. His eyes widened at his lover’s unexpected appearance.

“Dylen!” he exclaimed. “Have you been waiting long? What are you doing here?”

The
hethar
smiled. “Not so long. And I thought you would like to spend the rest of the day together. It is your begetting day.”

Riodan’s dark mood abruptly dissipated. Gazing happily at Dylen, he smiled with all the pleasure of a child who’d been granted his dearest wish.

“Ah, I would love to. But why so furtive?” Riodan noted how Dylen stayed in the shade to obscure his features. “Even now you hide your face. You’d think we were engaged in a clandestine affair.”

“We are.”

“Dy!”

“I don’t want to hide what we have, believe me,” Dylen assured him. “But for your future’s sake, it’s best to be prudent.”

“My future is with you,” Riodan stoutly said.

Dylen’s smile turned a shade pensive. “I wish the same, but life does not always cooperate with our plans. Now, hush, let’s not ruin your day with useless debate. Come, tell me what you’d like to do.”

Riodan opened his mouth to protest further, but Dylen brushed a placating kiss

against his lips, and he promptly forgot what he was about to say. He chuckled ruefully at the ease with which Dylen could distract him.

“Very well,” he conceded. “First, you can buy me a few meat tarts. I’m starving.

Then I should like to watch Ivara’s latest satire. Everyone says it’s very good. And then you can treat me to the riverboat dinner you keep telling me about. Let’s see if the food is as good as you claim it is!”

It was dark when they stepped ashore after a leisurely cruise down the Azira, the great river that bisected the city. By now, Riodan had completely revised his opinion of begetting day celebrations.

Dylen chuckled when Riodan told him of his earlier sentiments. “It all depends on the quality of the company you keep,” he teased.

“Does that mean I’ve had the benefit of the best of the best in company?” Riodan said with a grin.

“Your words, not mine.”

About to retort, Riodan noticed they were passing by an apothecary. He stopped and said, “Wait, I need to buy something.” He hastened to the shop.

Dylen had only waited a few minutes when Riodan returned with a slender package wrapped in brown paper. Dylen eyed the package curiously.

“I’d think you had bought yourself a bottle of wine if I didn’t know you’d gone to an apothecary,” he remarked.