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That landed harder than any easy win. Ryneth still looked furious, still sounded like he wanted to fight him, but he’d given him the truth anyway. Given him the part that mattered.

Daven’s grip tightened at Ryneth’s waist. “Good,” he said softly. “Then we understand each other.”

He didn’t thrust. He didn’t need to. He just stayed there and licked a stripe up Ryneth’s earlobe. “Tomorrow I’ll make my statement. Will you let me, baby?”

When Ryneth didn’t push him away, didn’t tell him to leave him alone, Daven felt the shift.

This was the Ryneth Daven knew best, all sharp mouth and stubborn fire. Daven suckled on Ryneth’s lobe and nipped at the tender skin before licking his way down to his throat. Light, this man made his teeth ache, made his entire body thrum with need.

But tonight, he would control himself. Because Ryneth was worth the war it would take to keep him.

And tonight, with Helion’s lights burning through the glass around them, Ryneth had cracked for him. Had given him enough to act.

For Daven, that was enough. Tomorrow, he’d make sure no one on Helion could mistake what Ryneth was to him.

18

RYNETH

Ryneth woke to sunlight cutting straight into his eyes. He winced, stretched his limbs, then winced even more.

Good Light, his entire body throbbed. His muscles were stiff, his skin tingled with the thrum running through him, and his ass ached with something he refused to name.

Something his body recognized before his mind did.

Ryneth shifted his hips and heat flared low inside him, as if Daven had only just withdrawn and the absence had not yet reached his nerves.

He swallowed. Asshole.

“Daven?”

Nothing.

Why do you get inside me like that?

He groaned but couldn’t stop his mind from tumbling.

Why does it still feel like you’re here?

The question came before he could stop it.

The sheets were cool except for the space beside him, and he lay still, palm pressed there, feeling the heat slowly leave his skin.

Pressing his nose into the fabric, he inhaled sandalwood and rain. It clung to the pillow and to his own skin, and the scent alone made the static in his blood smooth out and relax.

For a moment he didn’t open his eyes fully. Instead, he just listened to the low hum threading through the walls and tried to guess what it powered. Back home he had known every sound and what it meant.

The penthouse was empty.

Why did you leave me?

The words echoed in his head, humiliating in the silence. They sounded pathetic. He was pathetic.

Heat crept into his cheeks, shame rising even though no one had heard him.

He had meant it when he said that Düren was his home. That Mara and Tavi and the other boys were his family, the only family he’d ever known.

Building something that lasted.