Moon Flower

“Will you…” Galen felt shy all of a sudden, had trouble meeting Azriel’s gaze.

“Yes, I will. Whatever you ask,” Azriel said, staring down at him.

“I want to feel your prick inside me.”

Azriel hummed, nudging his nose along his jawline. “I’m desperate to feel that too.”

He left the bed only long enough to retrieve the oil, but Galen immediately missed the weight of him, didn’t know how he’d ever survived without his warmth.

Then Azriel was back, and using the oil to slick his cock before kneeling near his legs and meeting his eyes. “Let me soften you, make you ready for me.” He lifted Galen’s knees to his shoulders and exposed his hole, and Galen moaned, mixed with dual feelings of longing and vulnerability all at once.

He could feel his seed leaking and slicking his abdomen as Azriel adjusted his face nearer to his hole. Galen almost pulled away, afraid it was too much, too intimate, but at the first lash of Azriel’s tongue, he was floating again, soaring high. He’d never felt anything so incredible, and shameless noises spilled from his lips, encouraging Azriel to give him more. More of his tongue and lips and fingers. Just more.

“Shh, I’ll take care of you,” Azriel said in a maddeningly patient tone. Then he proceeded to take his time, kissing and licking, inserting his tongue and fingers inside Galen as if it were his sacred mission to drive him stark raving mad.

“Please,” Galen pleaded quietly until Azriel at last relented, lifting himself above Galen and aligning his slickened cock to his hole.

When Azriel was buried deep inside him, the intense, gnawing feeling finally felt quenched, appeased. Settled, if only momentarily. And when Azriel looked down at him with those green and blue eyes, watching him closely with each stab of his length, Galen never wanted the moment to end. The only thing that made it better was when Azriel bent his head, their mouths and tongues meeting in a sensual kiss that curled Galen’s toes.

Galen reached between them for his cock, stroking in time to Azriel’s thrusts, the friction of their flesh slapping together making him soar higher. The image of Azriel’s face and chest prettily flushed, the flower in his ear signifying his devotion, sent Galen to the heavens, where he saw an affluence of stars.

Several moments later, he felt Azriel shudder and spill inside his body, and when he collapsed on top of him, Galen didn’t think he could ever let him go.

Azriel buried his face in his neck as he whispered his name, and when Galen felt wetness against his throat, he gathered Azriel’s face in his hands to look at him. There were tears in his eyes, and he kissed them away, letting his own spool down his cheeks.

They slept on and off the next couple of hours, always waking in each other’s arms, with a meeting of their mouths until they drifted into slumber again.

“What do you suppose will become of us?” Galen asked one of the times they’d roused. It was his deepest fear that they would be separated again for one reason or another—none that he wanted to give any deeper thought to, but the conversation was important.

“I’m not certain,” Azriel replied. “There will be much to do if…when the sickness arrives, and I want to assist as much as possible.”

“Yes, of course,” Galen said. “Helping others is what you were born to do.”

Azriel kissed him gently, teasing his mouth open with his tongue for a deep and penetrating kiss. “And then maybe we can go…or at least plan…” he said as he drew a breath.

“But where?” Galen asked. “Neither of us has any place to call home.”

Azriel lifted Galen’s hand and placed his fingers against his chest. He could feel the steady thrumming of his pulse. “Maybe our homes are right here, in the space where our breaths mingle and our hearts beat in unison.”

Galen sighed dreamily. “Now who’s the romantic?”

Chapter 26

“A decree has been handed down for our province,” Oscar said excitedly as he rushed into the sitting room, where they had all spread out to enjoy the tea and cakes Miss Celestine had served. She’d just finished telling them something similar, but they didn’t want to steal Oscar’s thunder—he thrived on gossip, after all. “Those who need to leave or enter Lunar’s Reach to travel home can only do so for the following two days, and the railway service will be suspended until it is deemed safe again.”

“Does that mean that violet fever is spreading in Lunar’s Reach?”

“It’s likely,” Madam Langley said. “And if not, this will help keep it contained. I imagine we will begin hearing very soon. As you know, customers are already lining up to take precautionary measures.”

It was also the reason Madam Langley had sent out word to their gentlemen callers that their doors would remain closed for the foreseeable future. Upstairs, at least. In the apothecary there was plenty of work to be done, and they’d all been helping tirelessly in whatever capacity was needed. Galen liked working with the herbs, but he also enjoyed setting off on errands to Enchantment with the twins to obtain supplies. Both shops were very busy with panicked customers—no doubt the rumors told second and thirdhand spreading faster than the illness.