Page 21

EIGHT

Kensley drifted on an ocean of joy, surrounded by currents of pleasure, and the warmth of smiling skies, and he’d never been more content.

More sated and safe and, most importantly, loved.

Love he’d fallen asleep clutching tightly to, and love he still felt all around him as he slowly woke to a wonderfully-familiar physical sensation: Bishop’s cock inside his ass.

Awareness told him so many things at once: he lay on his left side with Bishop plastered against him from behind, his half-erect cock spearing Kensley’s hole without thrusting, as if Bishop had entered him in the night and then fallen asleep there.

Kensley smiled against his pillow, loving that they’d found each other so instinctively.

Their bodies joining, desperate for the same intense connection they’d shared in the hot tub.

Kensley had no words for that experience.

For losing his conscious mind for a while, rapt in the knowledge that he’d found something very precious, as if Bishop had been the missing half of his soul, and they’d finally mended back together.

His still knees ached, his back was a little tight, and both sides of his neck burned from Bishop’s hard, biting kisses, but it was all worth it.

Had Kensley found his charus? Was that what last night had been? Had he instinctively known all those years ago?

He might not believe in Heavenly Father, but he believed in soulmates, in the existence of a true charum pairing.

And now that he’d had sex with the man who was the other half of himself, the person created to satisfy Kensley’s inner omega, he couldn’t imagine living another moment without Bishop.

The rational side of his brain wanted him to be angry at Bishop for penetrating Kensley in his sleep, for not asking as kindly as he’d asked so many other times.

The part of his soul who recognized Bishop told his brain to fuck off and enjoy it.

Enjoy knowing that, even in sleep, they’d come together as one complete person.

Kensley pressed backward, just to feel Bishop’s dick slide deeper into his passage and his pubes graze his ass cheeks.

Bishop’s arms tightened around his waist, and Kensley wasn’t prepared for being rolled onto his stomach and smooshed into the mattress.

Bishop didn’t start fucking him, though.

He kissed the back of Kensley’s neck, then nibbled at his spine like he was a delicate snack.

It tickled enough for Kensley to start laughing.

“This is a spectacular way to wake up,” Bishop said with a deep roll of his hips.

“Oh yeah.” With Kensley’s left arm trapped awkwardly beneath him, he could barely reach around with his right to squeeze Bishop’s ass. “Need you to do something, baby, it’s hard to breathe like this.”

“Sorry about that.” He sounded more smug than sorry. The bed dipped as Bishop put more weight on his forearms, lifting his chest enough for Kensley to wiggle his arm free and breathe easier. Bishop also bowed his back, which pushed his dick impossibly deeper inside Kensley.

Kensley revisited that amazing fantasy of Bishop’s cockhead breaching his womb, and he moaned. “You’re evil.”

“You love it.”

“I do.”

“Good.” Bishop kissed his jaw. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I didn’t mean to penetrate you without asking.”

“I’m perfectly okay. We’re…” He couldn’t make himself say the word. “Together. Unless I’m actively sick or injured, you’ll always have my permission.”

“Thank you. I’d rather be conscious and ask, but thank you.”

Kensley melted under the warmth of those perfect words and the respect behind them.

Someone like Bishop could easily take what he wanted, especially from those smaller and weaker, but he didn’t.

He asked. He demurred. He cared , and that was everything.

“Then how about you get us off, stud? I’m starving. ”

“I’d better fill you up then, omega.” Bishop hauled Kensley up onto his hands and knees, and began to fuck him.

The familiar slip and slam drove Kensley forward, and he braced against the ornate headboard while his lover drove into him.

Drove him higher with each thrust, until Kensley was soaring toward a quick release.

His come splattered the bed beneath him, and Kensley collapsed, his shaking arms unable to keep him upright.

Bishop pulled out, and then rolled Kensley onto his back.

Anticipating what his charus wanted, Kensley opened his mouth.

Bishop knelt over his head, but instead of pushing or choking, he gently eased his cock between Kensley’s lips, giving him time to adjust. To relax his throat and take what was offered as deeply as possible.

Kensley’s eyes watered from the stretch, but he didn’t loosen his grip on Bishop’s thighs.

He kept his lover there until Bishop threw back his head and came.

Kensley did his best to swallow what Bishop gave him, savoring the salty tang he caught on his tongue, but most went straight down his throat.

Filling him up just as Bishop had promised.

When Bishop stopped coming, he slipped down and rolled them so Kensley was on top, their spent dicks rubbing together while they gently kissed.

Bishop wiggled a finger between Kensley’s cheeks but didn’t probe or press, just rested there.

Kensley enjoyed the dominant position for a while, perfectly content until his stomach released an audible growl.

Bishop laughed. “Guess I didn’t fill you up enough.”

“It was plenty, but I think I need some carbs.” Kensley kissed Bishop’s lips, nose and chin. “Maybe after a shower. I’m sticky all over.”

“Then let’s see about cleaning those nooks and crannies.”

“Please.”

After a lot of time and touching in the shower, Kensley and Bishop eventually stumbled into the kitchen and prepared a simple breakfast. They only wore board shorts, and Kensley felt no shame in being nearly naked while scrambling eggs and searing sausages.

He’d cooked breakfast hundreds of times at the abbey while fully dressed in robes and shoes, but this was a thousand times better.

Freer. Kensley was cooking food he loved, for a man he loved, in clothing that made him comfortable.

Once they’d tucked into the food and cleaned up their mess, Bishop led him outside to the wide patio that faced the ocean.

Salty sea air stung Kensley’s nose and eyes.

He inhaled deeply, barely able to see the vast ocean a few hundred feet ahead, past a line of palm trees, shrubs and small, native plants.

“I’m going to check in with Walsh,” Bishop said. “If he gives a clear report, I’d like to go down to the beach for a while. Swim a little and enjoy the view.”

“I’d love that. I’ve never swam in the ocean before.”

“Can you swim?”

“A little. I swam in a public pool a few times when I was a kid.” Kensley was a touch nervous, because a giant ocean with waves and currents was a lot scarier than the shallow end of an indoor pool. “The ocean is so big. Is it okay to be scared of it?”

“Of course. How about we do small steps? Instead of the ocean, how about the lagoon? There’s no current and the water is very gentle.”

“Okay.”

“Great. Give me five minutes?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

After Bishop went inside, Kensley rested his hands on the waist-high stone wall surrounding the patio and stared out at the slip of blue ahead of him.

It would be so easy to take a boat and disappear into the sea, to go where no one could track them, settle someplace like castaways on a deserted island.

But that wasn’t realistic, and the ocean was dangerous, if you didn’t know how to travel on it.

Kensley had no clue how, but part of him would rather risk the ocean’s danger than whatever King’s enemies might do if they caught him.

Shivering despite the warm sun, Kensley wrapped his arms around his middle and tilted his face to the sky.

He sensed more than heard Bishop’s approach, and when he blinked his eyes open, he laughed at the sight of Bishop loaded down with equipment: at least two towels, an umbrella in a bag, and two sand chairs, plus a small cooler slung over one shoulder.

“Can I carry something?” Kensley asked.

Bishop handed him the cooler but kept everything else.

He winked then led Kensley across the patio to a gate, which opened onto a sandy path that wound into the underbrush.

Instead of heading for the beach ahead, they went to the right (Kensley had no idea the actual compass direction), through a thick overhead covering of palm fronds and other brush.

The path widened onto a sandy beach that stretched left and right in a semi-circle around a calm body of blue-green water.

Farthest from them was the actual ocean, which entered the lagoon on a froth of gentle waves, which were barely ripples by the time they reached shore.

The lagoon was probably a hundred yards at its widest, most of the beach shadowed by the trees surrounding its perimeter.

Kensley stared in awe of this beautiful, secluded slice of nature. The air seemed cooler here, the scents of salt and flowers stronger, everything somehow…magical.

“If heaven is a real place,” Kensley said, “this is it.”

Metal clanked as Bishop put his burdens down, and then warm arms wrapped around Kensley’s waist from behind. Bishop rested his chin on Kensley’s shoulder, and Kensley felt the broad smile on Bishop’s face. “I’ve been here a few times, but never in my life has it felt so much like paradise.”

“Can we stay here forever?”

“How about we stay in the moment? No later, no tomorrow, just now.”

“I love the sound of that.”