Page 20 of Impaled by His Omega Prince (Reluctant Fae Princes #2)
Askara
He’d bathed Lumic before, his unconscious body not the same as the body before him, at ease with his presence and full of tightly coiled energy, ready to spring upon him. Askara would be lying if he said he hadn’t fondly remembered their time together during his heat.
“I may not be this svelte for long, but I’m yours for the taking.” Lumic met Askara’s eyes with a sweep of those too-red lashes. He couldn’t look away from Lumic, focusing on his face. Sure, his body made Askara’s cock harder than flashpine, but the cocky omega made Askara’s heart flutter.
“I’ve never seen a pregnant omega before. Will you get big?” Askara reached down to touch Lumic’s belly, fingertips brushing down to his navel and the fine hair there. Beneath that, his cock hung, plump with interest, but not erect. The sight made Askara sad, but he didn’t let it show. Lumic had been emotionally twisted in so many different ways.
“Probably.” Lumic stared down between them and pushed Askara’s hand lower, letting the tips of his fingers brush through the thatch of hair there, just as red as the hair on his head. He bit his lip and leaned in and pushed up, letting the plushness of his mouth mesh with Askara’s.
There it was, the tongue again. Askara particularly liked that part, sharing their mouths and breath with one another in a primal way. He almost enjoyed it more than sex, though nothing beat the beatific look on Lumic’s face at the moment of his release. The thought of it made Askara’s cock stiffen, rudely prodding at Lumic as they pressed in against one another. “Bath. Now. You stink.”
Askara’s cheeks burned as he pulled back and cleared his throat. “I’ve not had much opportunity to cleanse myself. I apologize.”
Lumic took his wrist and tugged, drawing Askara into the inset bath. It was small compared to some of the bathing chambers he’d heard of in other castles. The bathing chambers in Liaberos were said to flow next to the springs of vitalis, and the ones written in the history books of Drashil were naturally carved into a preexisting underground hot spring, warmed by a nearby mountain from which fire flowed and provided for an unending forge for their blacksteel.
In Croatens? The tub was more of an inset pool, the tiles of which were hand-painted and spread across the floor in a beautiful mosaic. The thalmic energy buzzed about in the steamy air, a light bubbling in the corner of the pool indicating its flow. And despite the nature of what the pool was, it was clean. Askara hesitated at the pool’s edge. “Should we rinse before getting in?”
After all, it was a courtesy that one do so before entering the soaking pools of public bathhouses. Askara had been permitted to visit one once on an outing with Ruvaen.
“Thalmically cleaned, too. The water, that is. The pool sides itself are scrubbed weekly by attendants.” Lumic pulled and Askara followed, walking down the low steps before sinking up to his neck in warm, flowing water. He couldn’t hold back the sigh that wracked him.
“It’s good, right?” Lumic’s grin widened as a sneaking hand wrapped gently around his cock.
“And even better, now. You don’t have to touch me, Lumic. I’m happy to have you near me once more. The nights I slept by your side were the greatest I’ve slept in my life. I am cold without you.” Askara pulled Lumic’s hand from his cock and held it, lacing their fingers together. There, they kissed again, sinking into tender laps of their tongues.
“But you want me to touch you. You’re hard and trembling.” Lumic’s shaking voice held a note of weakness in it. Askara heard it once, where Lumic mewled in delirium before he fully woke, whimpering for his da for comfort. Askara never spoke a word of it to Lumic, as it seemed like something private, a thing that he’d not want shared. That, and Askara treasured the moment of vulnerability that showed the tough, well-fought, rugged exterior of his omega had something so fragile cradled within.
“A cockstand is merely a compliment. I can live without release, but I cannot live without you.” Askara’s lips danced over Lumic’s, their words halting with tiny kisses between. “You’re everything I’ve dreamed of.”
“Can’t have dreamed for much if I’m what you ended up with, sheltered little moonborne alpha.” Lumic’s dry laugh rumbled against Askara in the most wonderful of ways.
“I can dream as much as the goddesses give me the ability to. I’ve dreamed kingdoms in my mind and faraway lands in every book I’ve ever read. I’ve mastered the sword and used it for good and evil. You’re better than I could ever imagine.” Askara glanced around for soap and sponges and found them sitting aside the pool, reaching for them with delight. “Let me bathe you and myself. Let’s get good rest, and if the healer tells me what I want to know, I’ll do whatever you wish. I’ll stay on my knees, worshiping your cock and body until you run dry. And there are filthier kisses I can share with you.”
Lumic tensed in his arms and melted as Askara brushed a lathered sponge over his arm and back, focusing on a slow circle at the base of his spine. “And what would you know of filthy kisses on an omega? I thought you’d never had an omega before me. I’ve never had an alpha interested in kissing and licking me there.”
“Impropriety aside, the prisoners talk. Fiskin told me some things about omegas, too…” Askara winced at the name.
“Disgusting. Deviant. I doubt he gave you any good information.” Lumic’s nose wrinkled before he thought to ask as to Fiskin’s well-being.
“Well, Cilan was going to let him free—” Askara cleared his throat. “One of your men caught him milking his pleasure…”
“Oh no…” Lumic’s cheeks went delightfully pink. “They killed him while—”
“Didn’t even let him finish.” Askara blanched and shrugged. “Honestly, I thank my mothers he didn’t get let free. The man was destined for the burning afterlife.”
Lumic pursed his lips as if he were fighting a laugh, and if it weren’t for Askara having seen the aftermath, he’d have laughed, too. The grim reality of having seen what had happened ruined it.
Soap floated on a film at the surface of the water, and their kisses migrated from lips to shoulders as Lumic took the sponge and scrubbed back, cleansing Askara’s lightly haired chest and underarms, down his back to his ass. Askara wasn’t very confident that he’d like being touched there, or even fucked there, but Lumic didn’t comment or seem interested in it. It eased Askara’s nerves on the matter.
As their scrubbing hands wandered from place to place, Askara dunked down into the water and unleashed his horns, leaning his head back to enjoy the warmth on them. There, Lumic grabbed them and pulled back, kissing his forehead before washing his hair. Not since Askara was a child had anyone washed him. No fond memories came to him about bath times long past. Ruvaen and Miree had been perfectly kind to him, but the love and sweetness he’d seen with other parents had never been there. Nothing like the Mothers gave him.
Askara lost himself in the sensation and moaned, stifling the noise in his throat before it could reach fruition.
“Don’t hold back. I love your noises.” Lumic used his fingertips to scrub and rinse the soap away. Every rinse and scratch taking away another layer of the past he’d never visit again. The future to come where he’d have a mate, a child, and a family that cared.
“I love you.” Askara pulled Lumic to meet his face once more and placed the lightest of kisses. “My heart knows you are my true love. When the sun gives her blessing, I’ll worship one more. My Mother Moon, my matron sun, and the fiery form of my comet in the night, Lumic.”
“And I love you, too. Maybe it’s my nature as an omega, but I think I do.”
Askara laughed, the feeling of it in his chest magical. The laughter petered out into yet another kiss, more scrubbing and two very clean males robed themselves and started the long trek back to Lumic’s quarters.
In his bed, they disrobed, bodies entwining. A familiar scent of home drew Askara’s attention to his worn quilt that lay across Lumic’s bed. “My blanket…”
“I went back looking for you and took it. Sorry.” Lumic’s cheeks pinkened and Askara pulled the cover up over them both.
“Don’t apologize. I missed this dearly. With you and my blanket here, I’ll sleep the sleep of the dead.”
“As long as you don’t actually die.” Lumic nuzzled into his neck and chest, hot breath warming Askara to the bone. In only a few breaths, he settled to a steady rhythm of breathing.
From a sliver of light peeking through a gap in Lumic’s curtains, Askara watched his Mother Moon slip from view, whispering to him a sweet good night, son .