Page 50 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong (Lost Arts #2)

“I would rather that too,” Brannal agreed, face relaxing a little.

“If you’re sure you’re happy with it, I would prefer shows when I’m away rather than anything else.

You looked cozy and appealing in the bed when I found you, I mean that.

I’d much rather imagine that than you alone, but I think I would be happier with you not having sex without me. ”

“Then we won’t have sex,” Perian agreed simply.

Brannal still looked like he thought it should be more complicated than that, or like he thought this wasn’t something he should ask for.

Perian’s lips quirked up. “Do you not remember me panicking when I thought about you having sex with someone else? Am I the only one allowed to be insecure or realize belatedly that something makes me really uncomfortable?”

And Brannal sighed and shook his head. “No, of course not.” He huffed a breath.

“Well, not consciously. I think I might have bought more into the idea of Summus needing to be indestructible and… and untouchable than I realized. It’s absurd, really.

” He smiled at Perian. “I’m not doing it nearly as gracefully as I would have liked, so I apologize for that, but you’ve turned my life upside down in the best possible way. Thank you.”

Perian smiled at him. “You’re very welcome. You’ve done the same for me.”

“I thought we might take a walk around town after, er, lunch,” Brannal said, apparently realizing they’d been lounging for quite a while. “Unless you would prefer to just go back to bed.”

Perian was tempted, but they could have sex in bed wherever they were. Brannal had gone to the trouble of bringing them here, and they should probably see something other than just the parlor and their room, shouldn’t they?

“Let’s go walk,” Perian agreed. “It’ll be good to stretch our legs.”

Brannal’s eyes flashed. “And then I’ll stretch other parts of you, I promise.”

Perian’s blood heated just thinking about it, and he came close to scrapping the entire idea and deciding they should go back to bed after all. But no, he wanted to see the town .

Once they’d finished their meal, they got fully dressed and then headed outside. They swung by the stables because Perian wanted to check on the horses. They were totally fine, not seeming to miss him and Brannal, and clearly well cared for.

They continued on. It was so nice to be able to spend this time together.

Brannal was still alert, because there could be a demon attack anywhere, but this wasn’t his city, and it wasn’t nearly as big or as populous.

It wasn’t his castle, where the effect was even more obvious. His duty had softened slightly.

They popped into most of the shops, just to take a look.

Perian found a beautiful blanket done in different shades of blues and greens that he bought for Renny, and the owner assured him it could be delivered to the inn.

He couldn’t regret any moment he was spending with Brannal, but he still missed Renny.

They had picnicked every lunch for weeks now, and it wasn’t something he wanted to give up.

But he didn’t have to borrow trouble. Hopefully, there would be picnics for weeks to come. Missing a few days didn’t put that in jeopardy.

He and Brannal walked arm in arm, laughed and chatted, and sometimes strode along in companionable silence. They grabbed a snack at the bakery, not that they really needed it after that meal, but everything looked so tempting.

They walked the whole of the main street, finally emerging a little bit out of town and then striking off the road to enjoy the nature around them.

Everything sounded alive in a way that wasn’t quite the same in the city.

The quadrangle could be an amazing approximation, but it wasn’t actually nature untamed.

Here, it was quite easy to slip into the forest and actually wind up completely out of sight of the town and any people.

And much to Perian’s surprise, Brannal hadn’t been at all reticent about taking Perian up against the side of a tree.

He made a bit of a mess of Brannal’s leather armor when he came, but they managed to mostly clean up with the help of a wet handkerchief.

Perian wondered how soon they could do it again.

The walk back through town was equally pleasant, nodding at people as they passed, who gave very respectful nods in return.

Even if they didn’t know who Brannal was specifically, the garb and the attitude made it clear he was a Mage Warrior, and people generally respected those who protected them from demons.

Back in the inn, Brannal promptly tumbled them back into bed.

“I seem to remember something about needing to get very dirty before we could have a bath.”

It wasn’t until they were both thoroughly debauched that Perian went to ask for the bath since he was fine to wander about half clothed to do it. The innkeeper also handed him a letter that she said had just been delivered by a rider who had not stayed. It was addressed to Summus .

Perian brought it back to Brannal and handed it over.

“Is something wrong?” Perian wanted to know.

Breaking the seal and pulling the letter out of its envelope, Brannal scanned it quickly and then relaxed, shaking his head.

“No, everything’s fine. Cormal is just reporting on everything that’s happened at the castle while we’ve been gone.”

Perian eyed him. “You’re sure nothing’s wrong?”

Brannal held out the letter. “No, see for yourself.”

It turned out Brannal was right. Cormal had summarized the daily activities and reports he’d received.

Honestly, the most interesting occurrence was Cormal’s off-hand remark that Renny was not going riding today, since he managed to passively aggressively imply that it was somehow Perian’s fault—though Perian wasn’t quite sure if he was to blame for not being there when she wanted to go out, or somehow goading her when he was there, so now she was doing what she really wanted?

Perian squinted at the letter. “Why wouldn’t she go riding? It’s not like I always go with her. And I’m not making her do it!”

Brannal plucked the letter out of Perian’s fingers. “No one is suggesting such a thing.”

Perian was pretty sure Cormal had been at least hinting at it. He frowned harder at the letter.

“So you think she’s all right?”

“Of course,” Brannal said, looking at Perian with concern. “Cormal would have said if anything serious had happened. I’m sure there’s nothing the matter, Perian.”

He nodded, torn between worrying that something was the matter… and suspecting that Cormal had written the letter simply to interrupt their time together.

“But what was the point of telling us that everything is fine?” he demanded. “Did he really just want to remind you of your duties?”

Brannal was always Summus, so didn’t he deserve a holiday now and again?

“ Or ,” Brannal suggested, “he knows you like to hear about the Princess, and he wanted to make sure I didn’t worry about anything. ”

A bit petulantly, Perian said, “I thought I was doing an excellent job of making you forget everything else.”

Brannal laughed and pulled him into his arms. “You are definitely excellent at that.”

Perian leaned into him and sighed. He was usually better at looking at the positive side of things. Attributing suspicious motives to everything Cormal was doing certainly wasn’t going to help their relationship going forward.

And really, if Perian wanted Cormal to write nicer things in his letters, he should probably actively work on their relationship, shouldn’t he?

He’d thought the method of them just ignoring one another was the way to go, but he could see now that it had flaws.

But he wouldn’t worry about that right this minute. He and Brannal were on holiday.

“I’m glad everything’s all right,” he said, trying to rally. He pulled back to meet Brannal’s eyes and winked. “Good to know the castle didn’t fall down just because you aren’t there.”

Brannal huffed an amused breath. “Yes, fortunately, the structural integrity of the castle is not one of my responsibilities. Now, how about you open this.”

Brannal produced another gift.

“But you already gave me one!” Perian exclaimed.

“That was yesterday’s. This is today’s.”

Perian took it, the shape and weight of it suggesting it was a book, though it was both longer and wider than a standard-sized tome.

“You know you don’t have to get me anything, right?”

“I want to,” Brannal said, expression so earnest that Perian couldn’t even imagine denying him. So he flashed the man a grin.

“You’re spoiling me.”

“I want to do that, too,” Brannal said happily. “And I think you’ll like this.”

It wasn’t until he’d unwrapped it and opened the book that he realized what that extra gleam in Brannal’s eyes had been for.

“They put this in books ?” he asked incredulously.

Brannal grinned at him. “They certainly do, if you know where to find them.”

It was a book all about sex between men, and it was lavishly illustrated.

Perian had seen the occasional painting or drawing in a house of pleasure, but nothing like the entirety of this book, which was graphic but somehow still sort of tasteful?

It seemed like it was meant to educate, not just titillate .

Perian was already hard, and he squirmed a little.

Brannal said, “I thought we might like to look at it together, pick out something we’d like to do.”

Perian grinned at him. “That sounds like the best idea.”

So while the bath was prepared for them, he and Brannal looked through the book together, stopping on most of the drawings, giggling a little more than was probably sensible, and occasionally debating whether something was actually possible or not.

They decided they were going to have to try most of the positions out themselves, just to see.

“We could always work through them one by one,” Brannal said.

Perian eyed the big book and grinned at the man. “I like the way you think.”

Brannal said, “But since it’s your gift, how about you pick the one for us to start with?”

Perian stared at the book, flipping idly between a few of the pages. “There are so many to choose from.”

Brannal kissed the side of his head. “And we’ll have more opportunities to enjoy all the rest of them later. You don’t have to pick the very best. I expect it would take us rather a lot of experimentation before we can declare if there is an actual winner in there.”

Perian eyed the book and then Brannal, his face creasing into a grin. “Oh, are we going to rank them?”

Brannal eyed him back. “Well, we have to now! What are our criteria?”

They settled on a ten-point scale and rankings on level of pleasure, desire to repeat, and level of ease or ability to achieve.

Brannal wanted them to each rank and then compare answers, but Perian insisted they needed to come to their answers together.

“I don’t care if it was a 25 out of 10 in pleasure for me if you didn’t like it,” he asserted. “Together, or it’s not worth doing.”

Brannal’s eyes softened, and he kissed Perian gently on the lips. “Together.”

The bath was ready by then, so they put their position decision on hold to enjoy the hot water.

Brannal scrubbed Perian’s back clean first, and then they cleaned off their bodies and faces before settling back against one another. Perian squirmed happily back against the other man’s cock.

“Nothing’s better than this,” he said.

“Nothing?” Brannal asked with amusement .

Perian shook his head. “I mean, I guess a lot of things are equally good because I enjoy so many things with you, but this is totally awesome. You are the comfiest ever, and your cock is one of my favorite things, especially when it’s pressed against my ass.

Or in my ass. Or my mouth. Or my hands. Or your hands.

Or rubbing against me. I’m not that picky. ”

Brannal laughed at the litany of choices. “Agreed.”

“Would you like my cock in your ass?” Perian asked curiously. “Because it’s not a configuration we’ve talked about.”

Brannal went still against him, but said easily enough, “But you’d like to fuck me?”

“Only if you’d like me to.”

Clearing his throat, Brannal admitted, “If I’m being perfectly honest, it’s not actually something I’ve done before.”

“We don’t have to,” Perian conceded immediately. “Not if you’re not comfortable with it.”

Rocking up against him, so Perian could feel how hard his cock still was, Brannal said, “Does this feel like I’m not comfortable with it?”

Perian huffed out a laugh. “Nice try, but physical reactions are not the same as emotional or mental ones.”

Brannal sighed, the breath brushing past Perian’s ear. His arms tightened around Perian. “That’s true. I’ve always just… topped. If I’m being brutally honest, I hadn’t had a lot of sex in years before you showed up.”

Since “I guessed as much” was unlikely to be seen as a flattering observation, Perian kept his mouth shut.

“People expect me to top, and I enjoy it. But none of those encounters were anything like this relationship, and it’s something I’d like to explore with you.”

Twisting so he could actually see Brannal’s face, he asked, “You’re sure? You’re not just saying that?”

“I’m not,” Brannal assured him. “Would you like to fuck me, Perian?”

And he could only grin. “Yes, please. But maybe not in the bath.”