Page 74 of Let Slip the Dogs of War

Lark jerks his head up, staring wide-eyed at my face. Is he surprised by the desire or the fact that I’ve voiced it? Doesn’t matter. He pushes up into a sitting position—I mourn the loss of having him pressed up against me—and wraps his fingers around his cock.

I stare up at him as he starts to move. He rides my cock, hips moving in sync with my own jerky movements, and his entire body moves too, one shimmering wave of soft skin and dark, hungry eyes. I squeeze my own shut and groan.

“I need you to—I want you to—”

“Come, Dante,” Lark says. The words are quiet and firm, and I have no hope of disobeying, no matter how much I want to see Lark come first. I thrust up into him with a ragged groan.

“Lark!”

Lark strokes himself faster. I come hard, driving into him over and over, and he growls and curls over me, staring at my face. I blink up at him blearily. My body thrums with pleasure, exhaustion, and relaxation chasing on its heels, but I know what I want to see before I succumb to any of that.

“Show me,” I beg, and Lark’s moan sounds like it’s dragged out of him. He tips his head back when he comes, eyes fluttering shut, and I shiver when he comes on my stomach and chest, not caring at all about how messy it is. How messy we both are; he squeezes around my softening cock and cum dribbles from his hole.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

Lark lets out a contented sigh and drapes himself over me. He doesn’t even flinch when his chest presses against mine, though he must be able to feel the wetness on my skin. “I could have never imagined anything better,” he says.

“I never have,” I say, and in the next second, my face floods with heat. “I-I mean…”

Lark chuckles and kisses my cheek. “I thought about you, too,” he says, and the words are not quite bittersweet. “All sorts of ways.”

He lies on top of me for a while, wriggling into a more comfortable position once my cock slips out of him, until his head is resting on my shoulder and one of his hands is still stroking over my chest. He thumbs a nipple and I suck in a breath.

“You should rest,” Lark says, as though he agrees with something I haven’t said. “We need to get you all clear of the castle by daybreak. I do not believe the court will respond well to my soulbond leaving, all things considered.”

I sigh. I don’t want to sneak out of here. There’s no arguing about it, though; no point in talking about it, really. I said I’d get Ophelia home, and that’s what I’m going to do. The rest I can sort out later.

It might even be easier once I’m back home. Sam will help. Everyone knows he and Kieran are soft touches, really, at least when it comes to us. And they have their mates, so I know they’ll help with mine.

And if not… I can do it alone. Ophelia will help me. Felix, too. If they don’t want a mage here, then I doubt they’ll take any more kindly to a necromancer, which is exactly the kind of environment in which Felix does his best work.

Lark kisses just under my jaw. “You’re thinking hard.”

“If I wanted—If you wanted…” I frown, trying to find the words. “If I could come back and visit you, would you want me to?”

Lark is quiet. He doesn’t rise up to look at me, and I don’t dare twist around to look at him. What if he doesn’t want it? What if this is all—the soulbonds must be strong, and he’s going through a lot, and I already said this was a bad idea—

“Yes,” he says firmly. “Even though that is a terrible idea, you understand. I would do my best to keep you safe here, but there would be fae who would quickly come to know who you are to me. And I could never—We could strengthen our bond, but I have no idea how that might affect the crowns.”

My heart flutters. “You’re going to do good work here, aren’t you?”

Lark does move at that, pushing up so he can look me in the face. He frowns. “I will try,” he says slowly. “I must confess that I never cared before. When I was a prince. It doesn’t mean much here; for a while, I wished to join the Unseelie court, but my parents, then—Well, they thought it a terrible idea.”

“And then?”

“I already knew my soulbond would be in your realm. I think that is the only reason my parents had Iagan at all. So few fae have more than one child and three is basically unheard of. We live too long for that. But he… He found his soulbond before I did. After Ronan, and when Ronan found his, he was already a vampire.”

“Tamesis,” I say.

“Yes.”

And Tamesis was already obsessed with Vasile, his turn and former vampire crai, so I can’t imagine he cared about Ronan at all, soulbond or not.

“I started travelling to the human realm more often after that. The veil was not strengthened until a couple of centuries ago, so it was much easier back then, but even now… Ronan, Iagan, and I were powerful. And more importantly, none of us have ever much cared for rules.” Lark flashes me an almost sheepish smile. “I would leave any chance I got. I did not find you until you were twenty or so. It was harder to pinpoint where the bond was leading before then.”

“Ronan had already…”

“Yes. I was relieved to find you. My father was dying. My mother was pressuring me to prepare myself to wear a crown. My fate. Suddenly my fate, though it had never been that way before. I was the most level-headed, she said. The fairest. Ronan was gone and Iagan too tightly controlled. She said the court agreed that I should rule.”