Page 41 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)

Chapter Eighteen

H e practically purred when Brannal soaped up his hair, taking way longer than Perian was sure was necessary even if his hair was really dirty.

When Brannal instructed it, he scooted a bit further down in the bath and tilted his head back so he could see the other man, who scooped water up to rinse his hair—water from the bath, so it was still warm, but he did it with magic instead of his hand, so it was a steady flow that never got into Perian’s eyes.

“You are so handy to have around,” Perian told him, and Brannal leaned in and gave him a brief upside-down kiss.

Once his hair was clean, he leaned back against Brannal and let the other man scrub him all over, because every time Perian tried to move something, Brannal whispered, “Let me.” Perian let him, because he could feel the want in him, the need to move his hands over his whole body, to make sure he was all right.

Brannal had him lean forward so he could scrub at Perian’s back, too, and Perian made a soft noise of disagreement because it meant he was leaning away from the man’s very lovely erection. Brannal made a hushing noise.

“I’ll give you exactly what you want when we’re in bed,” he promised .

Perian supposed he could wait that long.

Brannal made brisker work of scrubbing himself clean, and while Perian would normally object and want to do it himself, he found that he was actually pretty tired. The sex that was to come was keeping him from passing out, but it was a nearer thing than he wanted to admit.

Hadn’t he been doing nothing but sleeping next to Molun? Why was he still so tired?

Perian could barely keep his eyes open, but he wanted Brannal enough to make the effort. Soon enough, Brannal was rising out of the tub, and he helped Perian and his sudden lack of coordination out as well, dried them both off, and then bundled Perian into bed.

“Do you want to sleep?” Brannal asked.

Perian pouted. “You said you’d give me what I wanted in bed.”

It might have been a little more convincing if he hadn’t yawned in the middle of it, but he meant it.

Brannal kissed the back of his neck, his jaw, the skin behind his ear.

“What is it you want?” Brannal’s voice was a warm whisper.

Perian rolled his hips, trying to get into contact with that hard erection that was still nudging against him.

“Want you to come,” Perian told him.

It was Brannal’s turn to roll his hips, and Perian gloried in it.

“All right, dear heart,” Brannal said. “I’ll come for you. It’s so easy to do, because you’re so sexy.”

Perian made an appreciative hum, feeling that thrum of desire spilling between them, growing as it always did.

“You make me so hard,” Brannal told him. “I just want to be inside you all the time.”

Perian smiled happily, eyes closed as he envisioned this. “We could make it work.”

“You make me want you all the time,” Brannal continued.

“Me, too,” Perian said. “I can’t really remember what it was like without you, but I didn’t like it. I want you all the time.”

“I wanted you the minute I saw you,” Brannal said, pressing kisses to his throat. “And it was dark, and you were in trouble.”

“You were the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” Perian groaned. “I wanted you so bad.”

“But you were injured, and I couldn’t take advantage.”

Brannal was thrusting harder now, his cock rubbing against Perian’s ass, grinding against it just the way Perian loved.

“Never take advantage,” Perian told him desperately. “You’re so good to me.”

Brannal pressed a kiss to his shoulder.

“You’re so good to me, too. You always make me come.”

His hips snapped forward, and Perian moaned in satisfaction as Brannal’s come painted his skin, as the swell of Brannal’s satisfaction washed over him like the best and warmest blanket, making him come too, though that was almost an afterthought.

“So good,” Perian mumbled.

An arm wrapped around him, and a kiss was pressed to his hair.

“Sleep.”

Yeah, that was a good idea.

Perian woke because his stomach was rumbling and the bed was empty. There were smells of food coming from the sitting room, so Perian crawled out of bed, pulled on sleep trousers, used the water closet, and then emerged to find that Brannal was just pouring tea and smiling up at him.

“I was going to bring this in to you. I thought you’d better eat something.”

Perian pressed a hand to his gurgling stomach, which was astonishingly loud. Normally, it was Brannal ’s stomach that made noises, not his.

“I guess it’s been a while since I ate,” Perian agreed, sitting down and promptly consuming everything that was on his plate and then second helpings—and then thirds.

Brannal ate a much more modest repast.

“Feel better?” he asked.

“Yes,” Perian said, trying to figure out exactly what he was feeling. “I guess I was feeling empty?”

Hungry. He’d been feeling hungry . Empty was a weird way to put it .

But Brannal just smiled at him and said, “It’s been a little while since I had you over the table, don’t you think?”

Perian’s thoughts of food were immediately abandoned. He grinned.

“It really has. That’s such a shame. We should fix that.”

Especially given that Perian had practically fallen asleep during sex yesterday. That was so rude. He was much more attentive now, and he made sure to be very vocally appreciative as Brannal brought him to blissful completion.

Then he looked out the window.

“Wait, what time is it?”

“About four o’clock in the afternoon,” Brannal told him.

Perian squinted, confused. “When did I go to sleep?”

“Around six o’clock this morning.”

Perian tried to make time make sense, and then gave up.

“Do you need to go do work? No, wait, are you back from work?”

“There’s nowhere I need to be right now,” Brannal told him simply.

“Can we go see how Molun is?”

“Of course.”

So they went across the hallway, knocked on the door, and actually waited for a response. Molun and Arvus might not mind being interrupted in the general way of things, but now Molun was injured and there could be doctors and stuff.

But a cheerful voice bid them enter, and Perian came in with Brannal behind him, finding Molun and Arvus in the bedroom.

Both of them smiled when they saw him. “You look so much better.”

“I think that’s supposed to be my line,” Perian said wryly.

And Molun did look better, especially if Perian compared him to how he’d looked when he’d first been injured, when there had been so much blood, or when Perian had been in the doctor’s workroom with him. But he still looked very tired, and a little pale, and like he was in pain.

Perian climbed into the bed without really thinking about it and crawled over to give him a gentle hug.

“How are you feeling?” Perian asked.

Molun pressed against him. “Pretty good, considering what happened. Still very grateful to be here. ”

Perian pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You’re not allowed to be anywhere else.”

Molun’s arms tightened around him for a moment, and then he let go, and Perian sat back so that he wasn’t draped all over the injured man.

“Look,” Perian said, “I know you’ve got a job to do, and I admire you tremendously for it, and I will be one of the ones cheering loudest when you’re all healed up and can get back to it, but you’re not allowed to get hurt like this again, all right? Not ever.”

Molun’s face softened, the pain lines seeming to lessen as he focused on Perian, and he nodded.

“Right. Absolutely. I definitely agree with that plan.”

Perian snuggled down next to him.

“Can I stay for a little while?” he asked, even as he realized that he should have asked that before he snuggled. “I know you probably want some alone time.”

“We don’t need alone time,” Arvus said.

“We can always have communal time instead,” Molun added with a big grin.

Brannal huffed a laugh, and Perian smiled, sure they were all going to be fine.

“Just tell me when you need a break,” he said.

“We don’t ever need a break,” Molun whispered.

Perian was already falling asleep again.

“Just for a couple hours, Perian, or you’re never going to sleep normally again,” he distantly heard Brannal say.

Perian hummed a noise of agreement.

He slept.

As Brannal had promised, he roused Perian after a couple of hours, and then he was distracted for a little while by a visit from Renny, a visit from Delana, and a visit from Nisal.

There were more tears, and Nisal and Perian hugged one another for a long time, both so relieved by the outcome of the attack.

They both thanked one another a lot, and then Molun thanked them both, and then Perian declared them the best team ever, because obviously no one could ever compete.

It was harder to stay away after that, but Brannal suggested Perian read to them, and that stretched his hours of consciousness a little further.

(Anyone reading to Perian didn’t work, because he just nodded off again.) It kept him up well enough that Brannal could then cart him back to their room at something approximating an actual bedtime.

Fucking him into the mattress definitely served as a good way to relax him and then get him to go to sleep there.

In the middle of the night, Perian woke up with the need to go see Molun, though, so he sneaked over there and crawled into their bed.

True to their word, they accepted him without question.

It almost felt the way it used to, although Molun was the one in the middle, and they had to be careful not to move his leg.

But it was almost as good as it had been when Brannal was away.

“You always feel good,” Molun told him, hand in his hair, and Perian smiled as he snuggled.

Brannal retrieved him in the morning, towing him back to the sitting room for breakfast.

“I just want to make sure he’s all right,” Perian said, not sure that he could actually explain it, because it was a little weird that he’d left his bed with Brannal, his most favorite place to be, to crawl into bed with the other two, wasn’t it?