Page 74 of Axios

I smiled, thankful he wasn’t going to give details about his intimate night with my sister. If he had, I might’ve had to put blades in my ears to keep from hearing more.

“But did they shave her head?” Quill asked again. “I fancied her long, dark hair. Like a raven with its silky, black wings.”

“No, they did not shave it off,” Haden answered before he gave a jaw-cracking yawn. “I requested for them not to.” Then, he narrowed his eyes in confusion. “Wait, did Eryx say you bedded a woman? Is this true?”

Quill grinned and bit his bottom lip. “Perhaps.” Theon, who’d been standing at his side, glowered before walking away. He briefly looked at him before turning back to us. “I have never felt anything like it. Right as I entered her, it seemed as if the whole world stopped. My cock ached and my body shook. The warmth of her and the wetness between her legs… it was paradise. And then I pounded her so hard into the hay that I feared the stables would come crashing down around us.”

I laughed, knowing the feeling he described all too well—that moment of physical contact with another. Yet, I knew he hadn’t felt anything quite like how Eryx and I felt when we did it. Our love for each other enhanced the pleasure. Quill would probably never see the woman again, so there was no emotional connection.

When I saw Leanna later on that day, her smile was contagious.

“Oh, Axios,” she said, clapping a hand to her mouth before doing a sudden spin. “Do not ever utter a word to him about this, because he will let it go to his already arrogant head, but I am so taken with Haden. Never have I felt such joy before.”

“I am happy for you,” I told her, taking her smaller hands into mine.

“One day, you will have this too,” she said with a hopeful expression. “With Eryx.”

Warmth flooded my chest at the thought, but I knew better than to let the feeling grow any larger.

“Men do not marry each other in Sparta,” I countered, sadly shaking my head. “I will never be able to call him my husband, but I do not need the title for me to know it in my heart. He is mine, and I am his. Always.”

Her words repeated in my head as I journeyed back to the barracks, though. Eryx and I did not need our union to be validated by the state for us to know its sincerity, but it would be glorious to have him officially be mine.

I told him of my thoughts upon my return.

“You wish to be married?” he asked, placing his hand at the small of my back as we sat in the courtyard at dusk.

“I know it can never be,” I said, looking down at my hand resting on his thigh. When he was near, I always reached for him, needing the closeness. “Spartans do not marry for love. Only out of duty and for childbearing.”

He leaned over and placed his chin on the edge of my shoulder, staring up at me with big, green eyes. He looked so innocent and youthful.

“We could always have a wedding just between us,” he suggested, raising his brows. “A ceremony by our stream. And maybe Theon could marry us.”

I snorted and gently pushed him away. Yet, my heart ached with want and sang at his words.

“I love you, Ax,” he said, becoming serious. “I know we may not ever have the life you wish to have, but I hope having my word is enough. My heart and my body are yours until the end of our days. I swear it to you, by the gods.”

My eyes stung, and I quickly wiped at them, despising myself for always showing such weakness. But Eryx stilled my hands, and cupped my face, staring into my eyes with such love that I nearly forgot how to breathe.

He leaned forward and kissed away the tear that had escaped from the corner of my eye.

“And I swear to forever be by your side,” I spoke, focusing on him. “To love and defend you, and to spend the rest of my days pleasing you. This I swear, by the gods.”

We kissed then, letting our oath circle around us and settle in our hearts. His lips tasted of salt from my tears, but neither of us seemed to mind. All that mattered was each other.

Since we were not facing war any longer, I wondered where the years would take us—what we’d do. And for once, I did not dread the answer.

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Chapter Nineteen

382 BC

Four years. That’s all we’d been given before tensions rose once more. Four glorious years with Eryx where we had not troubled our minds with thoughts of war, but rather with how to better train our boys and when our next journey to our stream would be—where our days were spent on the field and our nights spent wrapped in each other’s embrace.

Alas, those days were at an end.

“What is the news, dearest brother?” Leanna asked as she held the squirming child in her arms. Realizing there was no winning with an energized two-year old boy, she placed him on the grass and allowed him to wander the small courtyard outside of her home. “Haden tells me you are to take your leave soon.”