“—I willalwaysbe a Mage. They can’t ever take that away from me.”
Perian sighed gustily. “You aresohot.”
Brannal let out a sharp bark of laughter, and as abruptly as it had appeared, the maelstrom was gone.
“It’s been a little while since you got all hot and bothered because I was doing magic.”
Perian grinned at him. “Ooh, would you like me to show you just how excited I got?” He dropped to his knees. “Like this, perhaps?”
There was really no occasion they couldn’t turn into asexual one.
They obviously had to have sex in every room at least once. “Making sure the furniture was comfortable” offered an excellent excuse. Reliving the picnic that they’d had on their weekend away started their outdoor experiences.
They tried it on a ride, too—not on the horse or anything—but Prince Horsey had been extremely judgmental, and they’d laughed a lot and agreed that perhaps it was not a good idea. But just the heated looks and innuendo until they got back was fun in its own way.
Everything that sparked a memory from something they had done at the castle, every time Perian confessed to a “solo venture” in his youth, each heated looks, eating in an even vaguely provocative manner… They were definitely making up for lost time, and it was glorious.
Perian had informed Evalon and made sure that everyone knew that Brannal had officially moved in and should be treated as Perian’s partner with equal decision-making power.
“What if I spend all your money?” Brannal demanded.
“Then we’ll have to come up with something else to live off of,” Perian answered, amused.
Belatedly, he realized from Brannal’s expression that he was serious—oh, not about using all the money, but about what it represented.
Perian grabbed the man’s hands, squeezing them.
“Brannal, you’ve agreed to come live with me and made me the happiest person in the whole world. I don’t know if it’s too early, but I don’t think there’s any point in pretending that I’m not all in on this.” He swallowed, then kept talking, because it felt safe enough to say this now. Brannal had chosen him and left the rest of his life behind. “To be perfectly honest, I’ve been dreaming about permanence for a lot longer than I maybe should have. If it weren’t for the fact that I was living with you, I would have invited myself to stay forever.”
Brannal looked surprised. “Did I make you feel unwelcome? I apologize.”
“Not unwelcome,” Perian said, shaking his head. “But thesituationhad me feeling a little awkward. It wasn’t really my place to be the one proposing permanence, or at least that’s how it felt. So in case you were feeling anything like the same thing in reverse—and we did kind of fling the forever word around already—I just wanted to make explicitlyclear that I really, truly mean as much permanence as you could possibly want. I love you, and I want you to stay, and I want you to feel like this is your home. All right?”
Brannal tugged him into his arms and kissed him. Perian liked how passionate declarations always resulted in passionate kissing here.
When they finally drew back to breathe, Brannal said, “I love you, and I very much appreciate the consideration. I promise I won’t ever let you down again.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Perian assured him.
Brannal huffed, expression gentle. “Well, maybeIfeel like I still need to work on that. I think I could have done a better job sometimes.”
Perian inclined his head. “All right, I’ll give you that one. But I know I’m not perfect either. I don’t expect that we’ll never make mistakes, because we’re human and we’re still learning and growing. But in terms of grand and amazing gestures, you’ve made yours, and I want to make clear that I acknowledge it and accept it and am willing to run wildly away with it.”
Brannal was grinning, “Oh, is this us running wildly away with our gestures? I like that image.”
Perian looked at him. “Listen. I love my home, but I was lonely here. The Queen and Cormal let me come back here, but they turned it into a prison. I had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life with the walls closing in on me, metaphorical or otherwise. And then you showed up, and you offered me the whole entire world. You gave me everything I want. The least I can do is make sure you know how very welcome you are.”
Brannal kissed him again. “You did the same to me, you know. You made me realize what was missing, made me realize that Icoulddo my job and still care for someone else—until someone changed the job, and then you made me realize that there are some things that are so much more important than that. I’m so glad to be here with you. I love everything about you.”
There were very few occasions that didn’t seem to end at least in a make-out session of some sort. Even opening all the letters from his friends resulted in a make-out session.
He started writing back, bundling up his letters into small packets and addressing them to the doctor. He wanted them all to know how much he missed them, how grateful he was to hear from them, and how much he hoped they could come and visit at some point when it wassafe to do so.
Perian agreed with Brannal that it didn’t make sense to needlessly antagonize Cormal, even if the man seemed like he could use some good antagonizing. (He needed something that would change his mind, and Perian wasn’t sure there was anything that could do that. Brannal seemed to fully agree with him now, and while a part of him felt vindicated, most of him just felt sad. He wished that Cormal had been worthy of the friendship that Brannal had felt for him.)
They started up Perian’s training again. It wasn’t such a bad thing, really, because it not only gave Brannal something to do, itwasa useful skill—and since it involved the two of them touching, it almost invariably ended in sexy times, although Brannal tried to keep them focused (mostly) during the lesson itself.
Perian wondered, sometimes, if Brannal would eventually get bored. But he believed the man had committed to spending his time here, and so Perian encouraged him to figure out anything that he wanted to do. He even offered to plan any renovations or improvements to the house if there was anything that Brannal wanted that wasn’t already there.
