Page 122 of Axios

When boys were awoken sexually, they used each other to discover what all their bodies could do—how wonderful and indescribable joining them could be. Most eventually outgrew the desire, but some had not, and even those with wives still sometimes sought out other men.

So if Demetrius and Cassius were sexually involved, it would not surprise me.

We went to the dining hall and sat with our syssition. Even though we were old enough to live on our own, we continued to dine with our men.

Ian had been wounded at Tegyra—an arrow through his arm—and he sat beside Melias, who had an arm placed at the small of his back, as if protecting him even when there was no present danger.

Through the years, I had come to know them better, but there was still so much I had yet to discover. They mostly kept to themselves, other than the times they joined us at fire pits and shared tales about their lives. I considered them my friends, but we had never become close like I was with Haden, Theon, and Quill.

Maybe there were only a set amount of close companions a person could have in their lifetime. Other people may come and go, but only those rare few truly stayed by your side, through the good and the bad. Life and death.

I looked at the two empty seats at the table. Ones that used to be occupied by two mischievous men who never failed to make me smile, even when I did not wish to. My heart jolted in my chest, and I tore my gaze away.

Eryx stared at the seats too, an emotionless expression on his face. Beneath the table, he placed his hand on my leg, and perhaps I was mistaken, but it seemed as if he needed the contact to ground himself, just like I needed him to do the same.

As the men conversed around us, we kept our silence.

Every so often, I glanced at the vacant seats. They were only seats, but they felt like so much more. Painful reminders of what we had lost.

Once we returned to our house, the silence continued, and we did not instantly fall into each other’s embrace and surrender to passion as we often did.

He pulled me into his arms and just held me, brushing his fingers through my hair and occasionally pressing kisses to my temple. Whatever he had on his mind had placed him in an affectionate, but somewhat distant, mood.

We did not speak, but neither of us slept either.

“Ery?” My voice sounded hoarse as I had not used it in a while. I cleared my throat before adding, “What are you thinking?”

The moving of his fingers in my hair stilled. One moment passed. Then two. The only sound was the beating of his heart beneath my ear.

“Do you remember the morning after we had made love for the first time?” he softly asked. “You asked me to run away with you. To leave duty behind and create a life together away from Sparta. Away from the bloodshed. I told you no.” He shifted his gaze to me, staring regretfully into my eyes. “Why didn’t I listen to you?”

Out of all the things I had thought to be troubling him, that had not been one of them.

Upon hearing his question, a new life flashed before my eyes, one where we had snuck away in the night and walked for miles and miles, traveling as far away as possible.

Perhaps we would have found a tropical city like Aphytis where we would have built a home by the sea. He could have become a fisherman or a merchant, and I could have discovered a new trade or even joined him in his. And together, we would’ve lived the kind of life most people only dreamed of living.

But that was an unfeasible fantasy. Regretting the past would not alter the present. No matter how much we wished to go back to our younger selves and take a different path, it could never come to pass.

“Because we were needed here,” I answered, gliding the back of my hand across his cheek. “This is our home.”

“No,” he said, taking my hand from his cheek and interweaving our fingers. “Sparta is not my home. You are.”

Speechless, I responded in the only way I knew how, by pulling his face to mine and seizing his lips in a heated kiss.

There were too many emotions going through me right then to form a comprehensive answer. Longing for the life I had dreamed. Sadness and regret that we had not chosen that life. But I also felt happiness—an unadulterated joy that against all odds, Eryx and I had still found love and made a life together.

I smoothed my hand down his stomach, loving the feel of his soft skin and the strength beneath. His abdominal muscles contracted and then relaxed under the light trailing of my fingertips.

And then I traveled lower.

He moaned as I gently stroked his throbbing manhood.

Hearing his exclaims of pleasure encouraged me as it always did. Still with my hand caressing him, I moved down his body until my head was near his groin.

He sucked in a sharp breath as I positioned my lips around his cock and slowly stretched my mouth around him, sinking lower down his length until he hit the back of my throat.

My eyes watered at the thickness of him, but I continued. I’d do anything to keep him moaning and tugging on my hair. He was too beautiful when he surrendered to his desires and allowed them to take over his entire being.