AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Seth and Raider followed their guides to a flight of steps then along a hallway to a tiled foyer, where a large potted jasmine flourished in the middle. They were led to neighboring doors and shared a brief look before stepping into their separate rooms.
Raider’s chamber featured a wide bed draped in fine white linens and a latticed door that must open onto a balcony. An arcane lamp of blown glass stood on a table beside the bed, and patterned rugs softened the mosaic-tiled floor. A side table held a pitcher, cups, and a platter of bread, olives, and cheese. A standing screen, draped with linen towels, sectioned off a bathing chamber with a small pool sunken into the floor.
The servant, a slim and attractive young man, went to the side table to pour what looked like wine into a blue glass cup. He brought it to Raider, who put down his gear to accept it.
“Thank you,” Raider said in Kastalan.
“You would like to bathe?”
“Yes, but I don’t need help. You can go about your other duties.”
The servant looked offended. “Would you prefer another?”
“I prefer to attend myself. Thank you, but you may go.” Raider had no interest in attention that someone was being required to give him.
When he was alone, Raider brought the wine to his lips. A paranoid part of him said he shouldn’t drink it, but unless he was going to refuse all food and drink while here, there was no point in abstaining now.
While Raider sipped the wine, which was rich and earthy and probably very expensive, he made a closer examination of the room with its beautiful tilework and fine furnishings. The bed boasted a wool-stuffed mattress and down pillows cased in yellow silk.
Raider loved fine things, and he wanted to love all this, but he couldn’t trust it.
The latticed door opened onto a stone balcony with an ornately carved railing, and another door. Seth’s door. For the first time since Lord Malik had approached him and Seth, Raider felt an easing of his tension.
He hadn’t been cut off from Seth. He could cross the balcony and open Seth’s door and see him—and that was very fucking important.
Partly because they were in a place Raider didn’t trust.
Mostly because … well, it just was.
He was sorely tempted by that door but ducked back into his own room instead. He wanted to clean up before Seth saw him again.
After returning his cup to the side table, Raider made quick work of escaping his tattered clothes and slipping into the bathing pool. The warm water could only mean the palace benefitted from arcane heating. Sometimes he hated anything arcane on principle, but he did have to admit that some inventions had their appeal. In fact, as he reclined in the soothing water, he was almost prepared to forgive Seth for his rash decision to come here.
But not really. This was a bad idea. Seth didn’t understand the people of the Gold. The tricks. The games. The cheapness of life.
It wasn’t safe.
But there wasn’t anything Raider could do about that at the moment. At least, he thought wryly, there was soap.
As he gave himself a thorough scrubbing from head to toe, he couldn’t help but think about the last time he’d gotten to indulge in a full bath. At the oasis. With Seth.
He closed his eyes, recalling the tension of that moment, the knowledge that Seth wanted him but still might refuse to touch him. Then Seth had crossed the pool to him and wrapped a hand around Raider’s cock. His own hand wrapped it now, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted Seth’s hand, Seth’s mouth, Seth’s body and his voice and all his intensity.
Raider let go of his cock to put his hands over his face. What the hell was happening to him? He’d never felt this before, this kind of … need.
And the really scary thing was that it wasn’t just the sex. Oh, Raider loved the sex, needed the sex—but he needed more. He needed Seth walking with him, talking with him, just fucking being with him.
It made no sense. Before Raider had met Seth he hadn’t needed those things, so there was no reason to need them now. Before Seth, Raider had flitted from place to place, person to person, enjoying each thing in its brief, beautiful moment. He’d been completely fulfilled by that.
Liar, said a voice inside him. You were not.
Raider told that voice to shut the hell up.
No longer enjoying the bath, he stepped out onto the tiled floor and snagged a linen towel from the folding screen.
A mirror hung on the wall of the bathing area, and a table held an assortment of grooming tools, oils, and a shaving basin. Raider regarded his reflection, considering the slightly scruffy beard that had grown in over the past few weeks. Usually, he only trimmed it down but …
He picked up the razor and went to work.
