Page 66 of Axios

Eryx released the hold on my chin and looked at me with a serious expression. “And I swear I will forever choose you. When the day comes and we are asked to settle down with wives, I will refuse them. Sparta can have my life, but she cannot take my heart.”

What I needed to tell him could not be said with words.

I grabbed his biceps and flipped him to his side before moving him the rest of the way on his back and climbing on top of him.

He stared up at me with a knowing gaze and did not question my actions. There would be no battle for dominance that night. He willingly surrendered.

Straddling his hips, I slipped my fingers under the material of his bottoms and slid them off him before doing the same to mine. I started rolling my body on his. Teasing him. He smirked but did not give in to temptation, allowing me to have complete control. After I worked myself in preparation for him, I gripped his thick length.

The quick rising and falling of his chest told me of his excitement, as did the stiffening part of him in my hand.

When I joined our bodies, neither of us could contain our moans. He held my waist and moved with me, gasps escaping his parted lips.

As I rode him, staring down into his heavy-lidded eyes, I felt a breaking in my chest. I’d come so close to losing him. My thoughts caused me to falter in my movements, but I did not stop. If anything, it made me move harder, taking more of him inside of me.

Eryx smoothed his palm along the bottom of my stomach before moving it up my ribcage and to my chest. He sat up and wrapped his arms around me before placing scattered kisses along my collarbone. As I descended on him, he thrust upward and went deeper, hitting areas inside my body that had me panting.

When his lips found my nipple and suckled it into his warm mouth, sparks shot through me and I shuddered around him. My release hit fast, and my pleasure left me in waves. He rode them with me as his own orgasm took over, and he clawed my back.

No other time had ever been so powerful—so earth-shattering—and I knew it had gone far beyond the physical. More than just two men sating their sexual appetites. We laid claim to each other in ways no one else ever could.

Afterward, we returned to the barracks and found our beds. But it wasn’t long before Eryx pulled me back into his arms and buried his face into the back of my hair, kissing my nape.

I leaned back against him and placed my arm over his, pushing myself as close to him as possible.

Then we slept.

***

Since Eryx and Haden had been busy instructing the groups of youths, I’d spent a lot of spare time with Quill and Theon. Although I wished it could’ve been like it used to be, with the five of us instead of three, I enjoyed their company.

“I understand why you kiss Eryx as much as you do,” Theon said as we walked from the field, shields and spears in hand. “If I squint, he almost looks like a girl. Well, apart from his height and bulging muscles.”

“Ah, but it’s not only his muscles that bulge, is it, Axios?” Quill nudged me and waggled his eyebrows. “I do wonder how you do it, though. Are his lips not hard and rigid like the rest of him? Surely kissing a girl would be more pleasant.”

I rolled my eyes and continued walking.

We were blessed with a breeze that day, one that softly blew and kept the air from becoming stagnant and miserable. Instead of being exhausted from having spent the day training in the hot sun, I felt great.

“Have you two even kissed anyone before?” I asked, looking at the pair of them.

Theon was between Quill and I, and they exchanged a look between them before moving their gazes to me.

“No,” they simultaneously spoke.

With their similar small build, dark hair, and brown eyes, they could’ve passed as brothers. They had their own connection, much like the one I had with Eryx, except theirs was not of a sexual nature. A shared look was all they needed for them to understand the other. They were never apart, always by each other’s side and sharing into the other’s mischievous schemes and nonsense.

“Then you have no idea what a girl’s lips feel like and cannot give opinion on the matter.”

“Neither do you,” Quill countered before busting out into a laugh. “You’ve not ever kissed a girl. Only Eryx.”

“Who I still believelookslike a girl sometimes with that pretty face of his,” Theon added.

I sighed, trying to keep my own laugh at bay. They knew how to lighten any mood.

“His are the only lips Ineedto kiss to know I want no one else,” I said, once I was composed. No point in telling them about the instance with the king. Some things were better left unsaid.

When they swooned in exaggeration, clearly mocking me, I bumped Theon with my shield and sent him tripping into Quill. As they hit the dirt, rolling around in a tangle of arms and legs and trying to stand, I finally allowed myself to laugh.