Page 97 of Axios

“Ery,” I moaned, digging my hands more into his hair. “I need you closer. Inside me.”

He obeyed without hesitation and stopped sucking me. Still holding his cock with one hand, he teased my entrance with his tip before sheathing it inside, going slow at first to minimize the ache. Once it was passed the area that fought against him, he slammed into me. Hard.

I groaned and gripped his broad shoulders.

The tide brought the water in around us as he moved inside me, and I had never felt anything more incredible in my entire life.

As he pumped into me with deep thrusts, he grabbed the side of my neck and stared into my eyes. So much affection shone in his gaze, affection he had such trouble articulating.

However, he did not need to say anything for me to know the whisperings of his heart.

Moments later, he hit a spot inside me, one that had me shuddering and coming apart without warning. Indescribable pleasure took me captive and I muttered unintelligible words as I shook beneath him. My seed shot from me and coated both of our stomachs right before I felt his rhythm falter.

“I love you,” he whimpered as his body quaked.

Then, his lips parted and his eyes closed as he moaned, his warmth starting to fill me.

I wrapped my legs around his upper thighs and gripped his back, raising my hips from the sand to meet his erratic thrusts.

He groaned and drove himself harder, and I milked him until he had no more to give. After his release, he collapsed and nuzzled his face into the crease of my neck, placing scattered kisses there before calming.

“I love you as well,” I said, softly running my fingertips up and down his spine. Our bodies were slick with both the sea and sweat, and my muscles felt heavy and useless. I was sure I would stumble if I tried to stand. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”

“Me too,” Eryx whispered instead of dismissing the idea as he always did.

I held him closer, feeling the beating of his heart against mine, and looked up at the starry sky. They shone with such magnificence, as if they were made of thousands of crystals reflecting the moon’s light and trapped in a large net in the heavens.

“What are you thinking of?” Eryx asked, shifting his weight off me to lie at my side.

“The stars.”

He smiled and brushed his thumb across my jaw before gazing up at them as well. “So infatuated you are with them. Tell me… what do you see?”

I examined the clusters of sparkling light, some stars brighter than others and in random formations in the large expanse of the sky. No, not all appeared random. Some took on forms and silhouettes of men and creatures.

In theagogewhen we’d been ordered to sleep outside, I had lain awake many a night and stared at them. Some of the forms I’d seen were never seen again, but others reappeared every night, only in different places in the sky depending on the season.

“I see a man holding a sword,” I answered, pointing to the group of stars. “There. Do you see him?”

Eryx followed my hand and was quiet for several heartbeats as he regarded the cluster. “Yes, I do. What do you believe he did to earn his place in the sky?”

I deliberated his question, one I had asked myself countless times.

“Perhaps he sacrificed himself,” I answered, staring at the man in the sky in wonder. “For his home… or for the one he loved.”

“I would give my life for yours,” Eryx spoke, putting one arm behind his head. The moon illuminated his skin in pale light, casting shadows on his muscled abdomen as a thin cloud moved in front of it before drifting away. He tilted his head and smirked. “You want to take a swim?”

“Bet I can beat you,” I challenged with a grin.

His reciprocating smirk told me I didn’t have a chance, and he was right. He was up and in the water before I’d even sat up and forced my muscles to work.

After we washed ourselves in the sea, we returned to our quarters. The men were already back in the room, some asleep in their bunks while others sat up and talked quietly to each other.

Theon and Quill sat against the wall, their faces close together as Quill whispered.

I smiled at the pair of them.

Ever since the night I had heard them arguing in the courtyard, they had made amends and behaved so much like the impish youths they used to be. Yet, they were secretive. Not that it was my place to know, but I was still uncertain if Quill had succumbed to Theon’s affection for him.