Artifice - Man x Man - Book Six

Chapter 10 (M)

It felt as though it had been a lifetime since I had felt so completely consumed by him. At the beginning of our relationship, lust had been the centerpiece, and our appetites for each other were difficult to satisfy. As our relationship changed, so did our priorities and passion-filled moments became more something of convenience rather than necessity.

It was difficult to make time when you teetered on the edge of losing everything, surrounded by political figures and forcefully married to a woman, marvelous as she may be. Coming here, to this time, brought about a change in us both. A relaxation neither of us had felt in our knowledge of each other. 

 In the short month since we arrived, the time had slowed down. Between his sickness and the quarantine, we had nothing better to do than get to know each other and decompress. Neither of us was at risk of collapse from the exhaustion that came with running a kingdom or guarding lives. There were no drills, no meetings save for the occasional passive briefing, we were surrounded by people instead of politicians.

 I found that I was finally beginning to come down from the adrenaline rush of living in our rather dangerous time period. 

Relaxed, able to feel and able to want without the weight of several dozen other things on his shoulders. I had grown so used to being exhausted, used to being at the edge of my tolerance, that the thought of having energy to burn never occurred to me. 

"Again?" I muse, arching my back at the intensity as he fills me once more. 

"I haven't been out running around." He reminds me, resting his hands on my thighs. 

I'll have to look into getting him some exercise, lest he loses that incredible physique and I'm pummeled into the ground by his need to expel energy. In my nearly drunken state of euphoria, my mind briefly drifts to wondering if this was what caused his roaming. A lack of purpose, a need for an outlet, would he grow bored of me as he did the rest of them? 

I steal a glance at him in the dim light, pulling myself up to hook my hand around his neck and bring him to me, I kiss him as if to reassure myself that it's just drunken musings. I cling to him and kiss him so desperately that it makes him pause and I wrap my legs around his hips as he sits up to hold me. 

"Are you alright?" Verando asks against my lips. 

I want to tell him everything, that I'm torturing myself over wanting children and I'm so afraid that he's going to stray but I fear I sound like a broken record. 

This last time I chose him when I was forced to climb out of the depths of despair after my long months of torture. I pull back to cup his face with my hand, brushing the scar on his lower lip with my thumb. "I just really missed you today. Withdrawals I guess, it's been a month."  

That experienced suspicion eyes me and I press my hands to his chest to push him back onto his back. "Who would have guessed we would have to travel four hundred years into the future to spend time together?" 

Verando moans a response as I lower myself back onto him, moving slowly, savoring it. I trace my fingers over the scars on his pectoral muscle, shutting my eyes as my body begins to climb once more. Basking in the sounds he makes, the way he writhes beneath me as I move, I rest my hands on his chest as my body gives in and I finish. 

I'm an oversensitive mess as he follows close behind, I collapse onto his chest to listen to his pounding heart as he pants. 

"I love you." I feel neither of us says it enough. 

It's something that's assumed, something both of us are too awkward and elusive to confess in everyday conversation.

"With all that I am," Verando concludes the statement, kissing the top of my head. "Tonic won't be sniffing around you much now."