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By the time he reached the caverns, the sandstorm was blowing hard enough to obscure some of the rocky formations rising above the tunnels, their shapes a warning to all wise travelers to keep their distance.
The bandits, clearly, had chosen to ignore that warning in the interests of profit, but they would have known the risk they were taking. They would have known to be quiet.
Raider ducked into the first entrance he reached, throwing back his kaffiyeh and shaking sand from his hair. The relief of escaping the storm, however, was immediately drowned out by the dread of being in this place. Mostly because of what this place was, but also because Raider hated confined spaces.
His heartrate spiked. His breath shortened. He closed his eyes for a second. He would just have to deal with it. He had to find Seth.
Pushing the fear to the edge of his awareness, Raider put his focus on navigating as he crept along the rocky, down-sloping passageway. Narrow and rough, this particular channel could only have been made by the desert’s occasional, sheering rainfall. The light faded with every step, but Raider’s arcane eye guided him along the rough descent until the channel opened onto a vast cavern.
There, he found a dead man. The fact that it wasn’t Seth was almost enough to make Raider thank the gods.
Though the dead bandit gave him hope that Seth was alive, it chilled him too. They had fought here. A man had died here. That would not have been silent.
Raider scanned the many tunnels branching from the cavern. All were dark and silent—except one. Only Raider’s arcane eye could have picked out the barely discernable lightness that indicated a distant lamp. Fucking useful eye.
Raider entered the tunnel, this one huge and smooth-sided. As he rounded a few bends, the glow of an arcane lamp intensified until it bloomed bright to show Raider the most welcome sight in the world.
Seth. Alive.
Saddlebags at his feet, Seth was examining the wall of the tunnel. The arcane lamp glowing at his utility belt revealed blood that had seeped from a few cuts on his bare arms, and he undoubtedly had a collection of scrapes and bruises, but he didn’t look badly hurt.
He was, however, a filthy mess: his black clothing dusted pale, dirt smudging his cheek, and sand sparkling in the light beard that the desert had forced on him. Something about that, seeing his usually tidy Curator so roughed up, so rugged and powerful, sent a hot pulse through Raider’s body.
It didn’t matter that it wasn’t the time and wasn’t the place. Raider couldn’t help it. A sound that was half relief, half desire escaped him.
Seth spun his way, whipping his knife from its thigh sheath. His expression went from combative readiness to surprised relief in a heartbeat. He slid the knife back into its sheath.
“You found me,” Seth marveled as Raider drew near, his voice gravelly in the way it got when his hunger was stirred. “How the hell did you manage that?”
Raider should have shushed him, should have hustled him away immediately. But seeing Seth alive after being so afraid for him, hearing that delicious, gravelly tone, drove sense and reason clean out of Raider’s head.
Raider dropped his gear and stepped in to kiss him. Seth grabbed Raider’s hips, hauling him close. Raider’s body primed itself with instant, unthinking need. Seth shuddered and moaned, his cock thickening against Raider’s as he swept his tongue possessively into Raider’s mouth.
Raider grabbed Seth’s ass, wanting to feel those muscles flexing as Seth ground against him. Images flashed through his mind: Seth, naked and hard, pinning him against the tunnel wall. Seth spearing into him, filling him with that huge cock, joining their bodies in perfect synchronicity as he began to thrust.
A buzz of danger intruded on that image, an awareness of the tunnel’s dark turnings—and what might come slithering around them. The thought snapped Raider out of it. The tunnel was no place for them to fuck. It was no place for them to be at all.
With a hiss of frustration, Raider broke the kiss, but he couldn’t immediately tear himself away from Seth. He rested his forehead against Seth’s left shoulder for a moment, trying to calm his body, trying to refocus.
Seth, damn him, laid a hand on the back of Raider’s head. Seth’s tenderness always did something to Raider that he couldn’t come to terms with. Seth could be so deliciously rough and dominating, so aggressive and unpredictable. Raider loved that, craved it constantly. But then Seth would do this kind of thing, and something in Raider unraveled.
But Raider couldn’t afford to linger against Seth, couldn’t let himself feel safe just because he was in Seth’s arms. So he yanked back, shoving roughly away.
Scowling at the abrupt separation, Seth demanded loudly, “What the hell—”
Raider clamped a hand over Seth’s mouth. The move was automatic and so, it seemed, was Seth’s reaction. He grabbed Raider and spun.
Switching their positions, he slammed Raider’s back into the wall of the tunnel. The impact bounced Raider’s hand away from Seth’s mouth, freeing Seth to close his teeth on Raider’s throat with a growl.
Seth gripped Raider’s cock through his pants, holding him still by it. Raider’s eyes rolled back in his head. Why the hell did that turn him on so much?
Seth’s other hand seized Raider’s hair at the scalp. “You think you get to play like that?”
“Seth, we can’t—” Raider cut off, clamping his mouth shut against the loud moan that tried to escape him as Seth’s fingers curled deliciously against his balls. He somehow managed to gasp out, “Seth—stop.”
Frustration boiled in Seth’s eyes, but he released Raider’s cock and his hair. Instead of backing away, however, he planted his hands against the tunnel wall on either side of Raider, caging him in. His nostrils flared as he took measured breaths, clearly fighting to get his aggression under control.
Raider fisted his hands at his sides, engaged in a similar battle. Raider won his before Seth did—because he knew why it mattered.
