Brannal laughed. “Good to know.”
Somehow, they made room for both Brannal and Molun. And the close quarters made it extra easy for Perian to caress Brannal’s leg from time to time.
The sound swirled up again, and Brannal began to servehimself.
“So is this a new thing that’s going to happen?” Molun asked. “Summus taking holidays?”
“From time to time,” Brannal agreed blandly, as though this wasn’t a radical change from the last six years.
Molun and Arvus had told Perian that Brannal had scarcely left the building, especially in the early days following the wraith attack that had killed so many people in the castle, including Cormal’s father, the former Summus, and Prince Kinan (or so everyone thought).
Mildly, Brannal observed, “I’m actually supposed to do so, you know; I just didn’t have a compelling reason to make it work before.”
Several people said, “Aww,” and more laughed. Perian felt his heart swell with affection for everyone here. Well, most of these people. And it was worth the frustrating ones to have the amazing ones.
It felt a bit like he was part of a big family this way. He’d never had a big family; it had been just him and his father until the man’s death. This was the complete opposite of that, and that meant that sometimes he was stuck with family members he didn’t care all that much for. But mostly, they all supported one another.
It was a lot of people, though, after three nights and days of having Brannal all to himself. He was very glad to be back with Renny, and he was maybe a bit anxious to ensure that he and Brannal could still manage everything here like they had at the inn. They’d agreed this was serious between them, but they hadn’t figured out what that meant exactly.
They’d survived Renny getting sick and the whole spat with Cormal, though, so it did seem as though reality was back. No one except Cormal seemed to be particularly upset with their absence, and most people in their vicinity seemed to have been very entertained by Perian’s stories.
Perian’s hands might have wandered a bit more as the meal progressed, until a slightly flushed Brannal demanded, “Finished?”
“I think that’s my line for you,” Perian teased. “You got here after me.”
“I’m done.”
There was still some food on his plate, but he’d made his way through most of it, and Perian had, admittedly, spent quite a while running his mouth.
“Does that mean we can go to bed?” he asked hopefully.
There was a general round of laughter.
Drawing himself up very much as though he had any dignity, Perian said, “I don’t know what you’re all assuming, but it was a long ride today, and then we jumped right back into the castle life. We’retired.”
Depending on how well those around them knew them, there were louder or softer exclamations of disbelief, probably not helped along by how big Perian’s smile was.
Brannal rose to his feet. “Come along. Apparently, we need to be in bed.”
“Oh, we so do,” Perian agreed.
He was already thrumming with excitement. It had been a long time since this morning, and he’d gotten used to sex all the time.
Molun looked entirely amused. “Maybe we can visit another day?”
“Another day,” Perian agreed. “When we aren’t in our bed. Sleeping.”
“Enjoy that,” Molun said with a big grin.
“Oh, we definitely will.”
Brannal looked very amused as he steered them out of the dining hall.
“I don’t have much of a filter,” Perian said, like this was news.
Laughing, Brannal said, “I am well aware of that, dear heart. I’m almost amazed that everyone wasn’t furnished with a step-by-step guide to our weekend.”
Perian pouted. “Hey, that’s private. I just want people to know that we enjoyed ourselves, not thedetails.”
