Chapter Nineteen

The palette of sunset reflects off the lake. Pinks, oranges, and yellows, swirling together over the surface of the large water body.

The twinkling lights are strung up on the trees, giving us that enchanting feel. The whimsical aura of summer solstice.

It’s beautiful.

The festival occurs all over the Expanse, but the real party is happening here, outside the Den. Tables set up for guests to sit and dine, a buffet out back where Ryle and Abdiel are providing food for everyone.

I’m trying to be coy, but I’ve been watching that area closer than anywhere else.

Abdiel is in his zone tonight. He made some delicious food, roasted corn with vegetables and chicken wings. He also made dessert. Peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. I’m amazed at his skills, and also not. I volunteered him for a reason.

The party has been ruminating for a few hours, and everyone is having a great time. I suppose I am, too. But I’m anxious.

My awareness is heightened. All evening, despite how busy we’ve been, I’ve known Abdiel is leaving. He’s going tomorrow, making his journey up the mountain to get his closure. And so it’s been difficult for me to enjoy the festivities, knowing my prince is willfully leaving me in a few short hours.

You may think I’m being dramatic. That’s okay. It’s a fair assessment. To a layman, Abdiel is going on a glorified hike, and it’s no cause for concern.

But I know better. I don’t want him to go.

If there’s any potential of harm, I should be protecting him from it. The fact that he’s disobeying me makes me itch. I need him safe, and unfortunately, I can’t guarantee it when he goes trudging up the mountain by himself.

Not to mention that we basically just started whatever this thing is between us. I’m not ready to lose him for days. Not yet.

Dessert is finally about done being served, and I’m watching Abdiel clean up, pretending to listen as Lauris and Gem commend and complain about various things that either went well or could have gone better tonight. Regardless of their thoughts, I think everything was perfect.

Music is playing, echoing from the booth we have set up on my back deck, easy melodies crooning while people talk and laugh and eat, the merriment palpable.

Yet the only thing I can do is watch my Domestic.

I’ve been greeting people all night, laughing with them, smiling and playing with the kids. It’s quite the political event, if I do say so myself, and now all I want in the world is to see my prince. I want someone here I can curl into, if even metaphorically; someone who will hold me tight and make me feel like less of a King and more of a goddamn man.

Drake hasn’t shown up yet. I don’t know that I expected him to, but I really wish I would’ve had at least one person to keep me company while Abdiel was working. I need it, and I never realized how much until it was within reach, though just out of my grasp.

“Beautiful night,” someone speaks at my side, and I tilt my gaze to find Gina, pouring herself a drink right next to me.

I came over here to get away from all the noise. Thoughts can be overwhelming in a setting like this, especially when eighty percent of them are wondering about my marriages, and when I’ll finally decide to give them an heir to The Principality.

My smile is modest. “It is.”

Gina finishes pouring and aims her cup toward mine, where we clink in a soft toast, taking our respective sips.

“He did great tonight, didn’t he?” She asks, and I notice right away that she’s referring to Abdiel, though I’m not sure why she would assume I’d known that without her explaining herself. But following her gaze, I see Abdiel helping Ryle bring pots and pans inside, a smile ever-present on his soft lips.

He’s just the most joyous person, and it makes me happy, to know someone like him.

“He did,” I answer, purposely keeping the longing out of my voice.

Gina shifts toward me, and I peer in her direction. “His parents would be proud.”

Mention of Lars and Jenny seizes up my insides, especially knowing where Abdiel is going tomorrow morning, and why. I give her a sympathetic smile and nod as she takes a long sip of her drink, watching Abdiel all the while, before wandering off, leaving me cold and unsure.

When Abdiel goes back inside, I decide to sneak off, hoping to speak with him. He’ll be gone for a few days on his journey, and I’m really yearning to get some quality alone time with him before he leaves.

We spent last night in the lounge again, and it was marvelous. We still didn’t have sex, though he’s been pleading for it, testing every bit of willpower I have in my body. I still insist that it will be special. Not that I’m not dying for it myself, but I want him to lose his virginity when I know he’s absolutely ready, and unfortunately, I still haven’t felt it in his mind one hundred percent.

So instead, we’ve just been kissing and touching and sucking like there’s no tomorrow. And even then, it’s beyond satisfying. My prince is a perfect treasure. I never want to let him go, hence why I’m sort of stalking him tonight.

Lingering in the corridor, I watch Abdiel in the kitchen, instructing his helpers. For as passive a person he typically seems, he’s very good at taking charge when he needs to. Tonight really showcased how wonderful he’d be at operating some type of business. I know he loves to serve, but there needs to be more to him than that.

I want to help him soar.

It looks like Abdiel is almost done, and I’m getting ready to tug him away with me so I can kiss him dizzy when I feel cold fingers brush my arm.

Hey.

Turning my face, I’m met with snake eyes, and I get that usual mixture of relief and dread, such a normal part of interactions with Drake at this point, I wouldn’t even know what to do if I didn’t feel these things so close to one another.

What took you so long? I blink at him, and he looks away for a moment.

“I wasn’t going to come at all…” he mumbles. I have to fight not to roll my eyes.

Glancing back to Abdiel, I ask for him with my mind. His face tilts, and he peeks my way, giving me a subtle smile.

I’ll be right there, my King.

“Let’s go,” I rumble to Drake, wandering up the hall.

I know he’s not following me at first. I can hear him contemplating his next move, or what he’s even doing here. But eventually, he gives in, and his footsteps join mine.

Going into the lounge is the safest bet, to ensure privacy in whatever it is the three of us may do together. But it’s such a beautiful night…

And it’s the solstice. Mother needs us outside, with Her.

And so I go through the back door, and I can hear Drake’s confused thoughts, yet he doesn’t argue. He just continues following me, his own inner comforts growing easier once we’re outside, in the woods.

This place has been our home for twenty-five years. The forest is a part of us and we’re a part of it. Walking in the dark, lighting from the party grows farther as we trace the lake with our footsteps, the nostalgia gracing me. It always does when I’m out here, because it’s so pungent; the memories of how we started. Where this all came from… two lost boys finding themselves in the secluded woods.

To think of what it’s turned into can be staggering at times. But I sit with the trepidation, the uncertainty and the wondering. I have no choice.

We’re here, and this is part of the plan, whether we like it or not.

Drake falls into step beside me, knowing where I’m headed. We walk in silence for a few more minutes, voices growing distant, thoughts rippling across the calm water of the lake. The moon is high, vibrant in its auburn hue, providing us the perfect illumination.

Reaching my destination, I plop down on the old log bench, made by Drake and me, back before The Principality, before anyone joined us or followed us. Before expectations and responsibilities.

It’s moss covered now, vines crawling, decorated in scattered clovers and baby’s breath. This is a spot I come to get away. It’s quiet, serene, and far enough from the Den and housing that I know I won’t see anyone else. The festival happening across the water is visible, the twinkly lights reflecting like fireflies suspended in time.

Drake takes a seat next to me, and I let out a breath slowly. Resting my head on his shoulder, I feel him stiffen for a moment. But then he relaxes into me, slinking his arm around my waist.

“Will Abdiel be able to find you out here?” He murmurs, his fingers grazing up and down my arm, giving me chills despite the warmth in the air.

“He’ll follow our thoughts,” I speak quietly. “He’s good like that.”

I feel Drake nod subtly. He is good. He’s so damn good, Darian.

I flinch at the tone in his thoughts. Is that supposed to be a warning? Because I know, Drake. I know it’s dangerous… All of this is.

Then why aren’t you trying harder to stop it?

Lifting my head, I glare at him. “Why is it always my responsibility?”

“Because you’re the King,” he grumbles, and something in his voice catches in my ear. Something like… resentment. It brings on a Deja vu unlike any I’ve felt in a while.

I’m quiet for weighted seconds, letting the feelings settle over me, like a cloud of dust.

“I can’t disrupt fate,” I finally mutter.

He lifts a shoulder in a mild shrug, finishing my thought. “Nothing happens by accident.”

We sit side by side for more moments of quiet, gazing at the lights on the lake. Drake’s fingers creep over mine, and I hate how much it feels like home. I hate how good he feels when he’s just going to rip it away for the umpteenth time.

“I used to kiss you out here.” His breath brushes my cheek, and I shift. “A lot.”

His lips graze my jaw, and I whimper, leaning into his touch. “I used to let you.”

“You did more than let me.” He nips my earlobe. “You kissed me back.”

Pivoting my face so that our lips are hovering, I push myself into him. I would never have been able to resist you. Ever.

Drake’s breaths pick up as pushes me back, one hand on my chest and the other on my waist while he straddles me, making us horizontal. His eyes skate over my face as if he’s looking for an excuse to stop. A reason why we can’t do this, so he can fight it.

It’s always a fight with him.

“I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you, always, and it’s devastating,” I tell him the truth, my cock stiffening up like crazy just from being near him like this. Being back where I belong, at his mercy, listening to the war he wages with himself.

“Shut up, Darian,” he hisses, his mouth coming down on mine fiercely.

He kisses my lips raw, both of us gasping for air in between the desperate sucking and biting. My fingers tug at his shirt until he grabs my wrists and pins them over my head.

Why do you do this to me? His thoughts are as aggressive as his mouth while he shoves his hips forward, grinding the pole of his erection into my own. Why do you torture me like this?

You’re just mad because you can’t make yourself stop wanting me… My mind hums at him. Wanting us.

“Fuck you,” he snarls his weak threat breathlessly as he releases one of my wrists to go for the zipper on my pants, pulling it down quick.

He yanks down my pants and boxers rough and fast, undoing his own next to reveal his long cock. I’m salivating from the sight of his pale skin bathed in the moon”s glow. He’s almost ivory, carved like a wicked sculpture. His dick is sticking out straight toward me, the blushed pink tip swollen, just begging to be licked.

“So do it, then,” he rumbles, then wraps his fist around my erection, full and thick, throbbing at the somehow soft roughness of his touch.

With my eyes on his, I part my lips, enough to let him know I would love to have his beautiful cock in my mouth right now. The eyes of a serpent sparkle down at me while he tugs his lip between his teeth, sliding his hands up my torso, and taking my shirt with them.

“I want you completely naked,” he growls, ripping my pants down my legs the rest of the way. “I want you lying out here at my mercy, like back then.”

A moan slips from my lips at the fact that I’m ass naked out here, only a few yards from the festival being celebrated by our family. My nipples harden from the sting of breeze on my burning flesh, already glowing with a sheen of sweat. My cock is stretched, and my balls are heavy, aching with need.

Drake doesn’t bother taking off his own clothes. I think that’s the point; he wants me exposed, while keeping himself in control. He stands up before straddling my chest where I lie on the log bench, aiming his cock right by my face.

I waste no time licking a line up his erection, swirling my tongue around the tip to lap up a bead of precum. His eyelids droop, and he groans, a sight and sound that has me gripping my own cock behind him. But he swats my hand away and does it himself, stroking me slowly while I take him in my mouth.

I’m sucking his cock hard, hungry as hell for him and that perfect dick, when I make out a distinct sound. Humming.

It’s Abdiel.

I can hear him coming to us, growing closer and closer to where we’re hidden away at the far side of the lake, me naked and in a very compromising position. And it makes me a thousand times harder knowing he’s about to walk up any minute.

Drake fists his hand in my hair, pushing himself deeper into my throat until I grunt, my heartbeat in my ears almost drowning out the sounds of Abdiel humming. But I still hear him, and he’s about to stumble upon us, while I’m throating Drake’s cock.

“You can’t fucking wait for him to see this, can you?” Drake hisses, flicking his hips to fuck my mouth. “You love being used even more than he does.”

We love being used by you, my thoughts whisper to him, and he curls his fingers around my balls behind him, squeezing until I whine, choking and gagging on his dick.

“I told you to stop that shit.” His jaw ticks visibly at me in his fury. But I know him. I know him well enough to know he likes when I say these things to him.

Nothing can ever come of it, and I know that. I guess maybe talking like this is my way of torturing him like he tortures me. We’re both masochistic fucks, apparently.

Abdiel’s footsteps approach, and I can tell when he reaches us because his humming comes to an abrupt halt, and his thoughts actually gasp.

“Oh my God…” he whispers.

My eyes fling to him, while Drake is still spearing my throat with his dick and jerking me rough at the same time.

“Hi there, little mouse.” Drake’s voice calls to Abdiel, who is frozen in place, eyes wider than I’ve ever seen them before. “Do you like what you see?”

“Fuck yes,” he purrs, immediately adjusting himself in his pants while his eyes slide all over me, naked and lying here like a sex toy. A wayward, filthy king.

“You want to come play?” Drake asks, his fingers slinking between my ass cheeks until I quiver.

“Please. Dear God.”

Abdiel stomps up to us, his fingers visibly twitching from wanting to touch more than he can even comprehend. Drake pulls his dick out of my mouth and moves back down between my thighs.

“Take your cock out,” Drake commands Abdiel, and he does. Post haste.

“Look at you, my beautiful prince.” I’m breathy and flushed beyond belief as I gaze up at Abdiel, his long, perfectly shaped cock bobbing right above my face.

“Look at you, my delicious King.” He runs his fingers through my hair.

“I see something delicious I’d like to taste…” I lick my lower lip, and he hums, tracing my jaw and my lips with greedy fingertips.

I’m so busy focusing on how good Abdiel looks with his dick out, I don’t even notice what Drake is doing until he runs wet fingers between the crack of my ass. I shiver and pucker at his touch, tightening up like an instinct, though he doesn’t stop. He presses his index up to my asshole and shoves it inside, just an inch, until I gasp out loud.

Of course, it burns as usual, but I relax right away and accept the intrusion I love so much. He forces his finger deeper, priming me just enough until he feels I’m ready, which I am. I’m always ready for his cock in me.

“Abdiel.” Drake’s deep voice vibrates into me, and we both look up at him. “Shall we use our King?”

Abdiel, being the sweet one of the three of us, glances at me first, his eyes asking for verification that this is what I want. Which it is. One hundred percent. So I give him a little nod, pulling my bottom lip between my teeth.

I want it so bad, my prince. I need this before you leave me in a few hours.

Slight guilt flashes over Abdiel’s face, but then he looks back to Drake and nods. “Yes. Let’s use his body to get off and make him come like the wicked King he is.”

Drake shudders visibly. “That sounds like the best use for this forest I’ve ever heard.”

He takes his cock in his hand and rubs some lubrication onto it before pushing my hips forward, bending my knees so that I’m spread open for him. Then he presses the head up to me, swirling it around in the wetness, teasing my rim until I’m practically foaming at the mouth.

Nudging into me, his dick shifts and then breaks through the entrance until I groan in ecstasy at that first feeling of his fat head forcing inside my tight hole.

He stills for a moment, driving me insane with need, waiting until he can feel me wound up and trembling before he surges in farther, deeper, his cock ripping me apart in the best possible way.

“Fuuuuck yesss…” My eyes roll back when he brushes my prostate.

I can’t believe I’m being fucked out in the middle of the woods, with people so close. We’ve never done it out in the open before, not since before it all started, when it was just us.

“I think he likes it.” Drake slides his hands up my hips. “Your turn, little mouse. Give him your big cock to suck as deep as I fuck him.”

“You wanna swallow my dick down, baby?” Abdiel asks, not waiting for an answer before he’s pressing the crown of his erection up to my lips.

Moaning around him, I take him into my mouth, struggling to concentrate on sucking, all the while with Drake’s dick pushing deeper and deeper into my ass. It’s life affirming, being here with the both of them. I’m loving it so hard, I might come any minute.

Drake refuses to touch my erection, but it’s bobbing around with his steady thrusts, his hips bucking into me while he ruts into me balls deep. I have tears seeping from my eyes at Abdiel’s cock gliding into my throat, his balls on my face while he fucks my mouth, matching Drake’s pace, his tempo.

Drake holds my hips, fingers digging in, while Abdiel clasps my jaw, caressing me as he breathes my name on every exhale.

Darian… Darian… God, Darian, you suck me so good, baby.

Drake’s hands move up to my chest, pinching my nipples until precum drips from my cock, his powerful hands gripping my pecs while he fucks and fucks and fucks me so good, I’m going cross-eyed.

I groan on Abdiel’s cock, telling them with my scrambled brain that I’m about to come. I can’t hold on… I’m gonna fucking explode.

“Take our dicks, baby,” Drake growls, lashing my prostate over and fucking over. “Is this your little secret, your highness? You come out into the woods and get fucked in the ass, tree bark scratching up your back while you suck your servant off? You love all this dick in you, don’t you, Darian?”

Yes… yes yes yes…

“Fuck, I’m gonna come down your throat, my King,” Abdiel whines, his hands covering Drake’s on my chest.

“I’m gonna come deep in his ass,” Drake rasps with black hair hanging in his face. I can’t stop watching the two of them. How utterly sexy they are…

And I have both of them right now, inside me. Drake is right with his dirty talk. This is my little secret, and it will be my undoing.

I’m fucking coming…

My dick erupts first, the orgasm swirling me up into a tornado of pleasure. Then Abdiel breaks, pulses of warm liquid squirting down my throat as I drink up every drop. Drake busts last, falling over me to bite my neck and collarbone while he stuffs himself so deep inside me, I think his dick is going to meet Abdiel’s. He comes hard, filling my ass, while both of them purr and whine and gasp.

Abdiel pulls out of my mouth, leaning down to kiss his cum from my mouth. Then Drake pulls out of my ass, leaning down to lick up the remnants of my cum all over my abs. And they both kiss me, then they kiss each other, all of our breaths echoing the magnitude of our releases, binding us in something deeply profound, sensual and wonderful.

I just wish it were as simple as keeping them forever. But I know it’s not.

Because once our dizzying highs wear off, we’re reminded of our reality.

Drake helps me up and Abdiel cleans me off. I’m dazed as they take care of me; they tend to me in silence, like a ritual.

My eyes aim toward the peak of the mountain, and I wonder how much of this is just vanity.

Just something to fill my cup until its inevitable end.