This time their journey through the palace was without fanfare, the servants’ halls quiet but for faint echoes that followed them through twists and turns. Jaime smiled when he realized Maxim knew the colored arrow system better than he did, leading them without hesitation through the underpinnings of the palace, away from the ballroom.
Jaime knew they were near the kitchens when he heard the jumbled, discordant chiming of the bells, the ones that carried orders from residential suites in the palace. It was subdued, and Jaime figured it was due to the late hour and the likelihood that most of the nobles were at the ball on the other side of the palace complex. It was still a sweet, and somehow homey, sound and settled his faint nerves.
Maxim paused at the servant entrance to the kitchen, leaning over to sneak a glance. Maxim held up a hand, bidding him silently to wait, and slipped in the kitchen without a sound. Jaime put a hand over his mouth to stifle his giggles as his prince deftly stole a wine flask, two earthenware mugs, and filled a brown linen sack with sweetmeats and pastries. Maxim slipped out before anyone noticed, the kitchen staff at a minimum and the few staff Jaime could see too occupied to notice a prince pilfering from their stores.
Maxim slipped out, bounty over his shoulder, and took Jaime’s hand again, heading without pause for the servants’ halls, taking a path Jaime recognized from the fateful day he met Maxim face to face while delivering him breakfast. “I was so nervous that morning,” Jaime whispered when they reached the lift, and Maxim’s hand hovered over the levers. He gave Jaime an inquiring glance, and Jaime explained. “The morning I brought you breakfast, and I saw you for the first time. I was terribly nervous. Scared, even.”
“What about now?” Maxim asked, looking down at him. Jaime shrugged with one shoulder and smiled.
“I’m so tired of being nervous,” Jaime replied. “I didn’t used to be.” He ran a finger over the scars on his wrist, Maxim’s eyes tracking the movement. “Once upon a time, I blushed a lot, but I was never afraid. I can live with the blushing, but I refuse to live with the fear. I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”
“You’re far braver than you think,” Maxim told him, making him smile wider. Maxim gestured to the lift levers. “Gold lever or the one for the healers’ level?”
Gold lever to take him to the royal residency floor. The one with the small green healers’ emblem would take them to Jaime’s room. Jaime reached out, and without hesitation, pulled the golden lever. The lift groaned, and Maxim opened the doors, gesturing for Jaime to step inside.
His stomach still quivered when Maxim shut the doors and the lift began to climb, but he breathed through the fear, letting it go as best he could. He refused to let fear stop him from getting what he wanted, what he needed. Maxim watched him, taking in every small movement, every emotion that flickered over his face, and he warmed, knowing that Maxim truly cared and was concerned for him. Maxim would honor his word and stop the second Jaime asked him to. He’d never felt this degree of trust for anyone before. Never felt this safe, and so free at the same time. Free to be who he was before his life fell into nightmare and pain. Free to become who he was meant to be, and he wished with all his heart that Maxim would be there to see him through.
The lift stopped, its passage largely unnoticed by them both. Maxim opened the doors, and a few short turns later, they left the servants’ halls and entered the main hall outside Maxim’s room. Jaime followed Maxim inside, and his prince shut the door firmly, and with a flick of his wrist, turned the key in the lock, securing the suite. He left the key in the lock, making sure Jaime saw him do so. Every little thing Maxim did to show him he was safe made his heart jump, a smile tease at his lips.
The suite was dark, moonlight pouring through the windows. Maxim was naught but a shadow in the night, and as was quickly becoming his habit, Jaime followed him without hesitation. Maxim’s bedchamber was dark as well, a shaft of moonlight pouring across the floor, stopping just shy of the foot of the massive bed. Maxim tossed the pilfered goods onto a small table, and he hesitated. Jaime walked to the bed, and looked between it and his prince. Maxim waited, unmoving, Jaime’s eyes adjusting to the darkness enough to discern the other man’s patient gaze.
Jaime unbuckled his belt, the metal and leather swinging as he dropped it into the shadows off to the side. He sat on the bed, and toed off his boots one by one, pushing them under the edge of the bed so no one tripped over them. He lifted himself backwards onto the bed, climbing to the center of it. He sat, breathed in and out, settling his stray nerves, and then beckoned to Maxim.
“Maxim,” he whispered. The shadow that was his prince came nearer. He could see enough to watch as Maxim copied his movements, tossing aside his belt, removing his boots.
The bed dipped, Maxim’s greater weight coming closer. Jaime exhaled, rough and eager, and his hands found muscular shoulders. Lips touched his in the dark, questing, seeking entrance, and Jaime opened to Maxim. A happy sigh, a pleased hum, from either of them he could not tell, eyes drifting shut. In the dark, it did not matter if he could see or not. He could feel. He could taste, hear, scent.
Feel.
There was so much to feel. His fingers wandered, lifting aside tunic and undershirt, the garments tossed into the night. Maxim’s body was as perfect to touch as he was to behold, scars and dips and ridges. Hot skin, racing heart, Jaime could feel it all. He pulled back long enough to tug off his own tunic and undershirt, bare to the waist. He loosened his breeches, and then returned to exploring every inch of Maxim he could reach. Maxim gasped out a laugh when his thin fingers poked along his ribs, and Jaime smiled. Ticklish spots to exploit later, in quiet moments, but Jaime was focused on more delightful places.
Maxim chuckled, the deep rumble teasing Jaime’s senses, and the prince let himself be guided to his back, Jaime hovering over him. Jaime leaned down, kissing and tasting hot skin, tasting faintly of sweat, pine, and the warmth Jaime’s mind associated with Maxim alone. He paused on his journey south along Maxim’s sternum. “May I?” he asked in a whisper, lips brushing over skin that reacted with fine goosebumps.
“Yes,” Maxim roughed out, lifting his hips, hands digging into the bedlinens. “Please.”
Jaime smiled, and pressed a kiss to Maxim’s belly, muscles jumping under his touch. He ran his hands up Maxim’s thighs, enjoying the way the muscles moved and tensed beneath the fabric of his breeches. He grabbed the waistband and tugged down, giggling breathlessly when Maxim cursed, lifting his hips to help. The top hem slid over a sizeable bulge before coming free from around Maxim’s hips. Jaime tugged and struggled until the breeches were gone, tossed into the dark. He breathed heavily, suddenly aware that Maxim lay before him on the bed, shadows caressing hot, bare skin and surging muscle.
“Come here,” Maxim begged, and he was helpless to resist. He pushed up on the bed, Maxim’s arms catching him, rolling them both until they were lying on their sides. Chest to chest, fronts melding, and Jaime gasped, hips surging forward, when he felt the potent proof of Maxim’s arousal throbbing against his lower stomach. He whimpered and lifted his head for a kiss, Maxim finding his mouth with unerring accuracy in the shadows. They broke apart for air, both panting.
“Jaime…” Maxim whispered, nuzzling behind his ear, making Jaime tip his head back, gasping.
“Hhhmmm…”
“What do you want?”
The question made him blink up into the absolute darkness under the bed canopy, his vision having adjusted enough he could see more than vague shapes. The hard length pressed to his belly reminded him of the pictures from the academy, and Jaime’s own cock was just as enthused about the events transpiring. He said the first thing he could. “Everything?”
Maxim laughed, shoulders shaking, his prince muffling his face in the pillows before groaning. Jaime bit his lip, shrugging. He poked Maxim in the shoulder, prompting his prince to look at him. “What do you want?”
“You happy and in my arms.”
Jaime smiled wide. “Then how about we just aim for making each other happy, and worry about the details as we go?”
Jaime leaned in for another kiss, Maxim took his mouth in a deep, thorough mating of tongues. He was rolled to his back, and Maxim carefully rose above him, slipping hands under the hem of his breeches, easily disposing of them with a few tugs. Jaime thrilled at the sensation of hot skin to skin, and he opened his legs without a thought. Gasping with joyful surprise when Maxim took the invitation and settled between his thighs, aligning their cocks. Apparently neither of them decided to wear undergarments beneath their breeches, and Jaime burned hotter at the thought.
Hard flesh and soft skin slid and throbbed as Maxim rocked over him, pressing Jaime down into the bedding. He curled his arms around Maxim’s neck, lifting his legs, wrapping them around a leanly muscled waist, and he clung. Maxim groaned, and one of his hands swept through Jaime’s hair, tipping his head back, exposing the line of his neck to hot, open-mouthed kisses. The other hand wandered down Jaime’s chest, pausing to tweak a nipple, making him gasp, before traveling onwards.
“Please,” Jaime gasped out, rocking his hips up. He all but flew off the bed when a big hand wrapped around his cock, stroking firmly from root to tip. Jaime cried out, a sharp keen, as Maxim did it twice more, rocking over him, sucking a burning mark up on the side of his neck.
Jaime had never experienced an orgasm with another person, so when he had his first one by another man’s hand, it snuck up on him, blasting his mind and making his entire body shake. He came in thick spurts between their bodies, Maxim growling with a primal satisfaction as Jaime shuddered beneath him. Jaime melted as his release spiraled through his muscles, his limbs falling open on the bed, his breath raspy, heart racing.
Soft kisses along his jaw brought him back, and he blinked up at Maxim. The hard, hot, and insistent proof that Maxim hadn’t joined him in release throbbed along Jaime’s hip, and he pushed up, rubbing his body on Maxim’s cock, making him hiss out between his teeth.
“Jaime,” Maxim growled, and Jaime could feel the coiled tension in his prince. Jaime lifted his hands, and ran them down Maxim’s sides to his hips, which he grabbed, and pulled more securely between his spread legs.
“I want it, I want you,” Jaime whispered over Maxim’s lips. He dared, with the post-coitus confidence he wouldn’t have otherwise, to reach down and grab the big cock his prince wielded. Maxim gasped, hips involuntarily bucking, moving its thick length in Jaime’s hand. “Please, Maxim. Become a part of me.”
Chest heaving with a deep breath, Maxim reached over Jaime, fumbling in the dark. He heard a drawer opening, then Maxim was back. Maxim knelt up between Jaime’s legs, who sighed, reluctant to release his prize, but Maxim pulled back enough Jaime had to. He grabbed his knees and pulled them out and back, leaving himself completely open to Maxim’s heated gaze. Maxim hissed out a sharp breath, then warm, calloused fingers trailed down the back of his thighs, so light, gentle. Appreciative. Fingertips flirted over his buttocks, then down, to a place no one had ever touched but Jaime, and never in the way Maxim was about to.
“Breathe, and stay as relaxed as you can,” Maxim whispered, and Jaime realized he had held his breath, tense with anticipation. “I won’t hurt you, I swear.”
“I trust you,” Jaime said. The moonlight had shifted enough since they entered the room that it burnished the end of the bed, shedding more light and allowing Jaime to see Maxim kneeling above him. Every long and agile limb was haloed in a silvery nimbus, Maxim’s brown locks turned to metallic white, a crown of moonlight for his prince. Jaime fell a little bit farther, heart aching, and then Maxim’s fingers were breaching him, one long thick digit coated in a fragrant oil. Jaime tossed his head back, gasping.
“That’s it, my love,” Maxim praised when Jaime made his muscles relax as much as he could, pushing back, opening himself. Another finger entered him, teasing and then hitting a place Jaime knew existed but never imagined could make him feel so much. Book knowledge was nothing compared to the literal hands on knowledge Maxim was giving him. Jaime keened out, needing more, and Maxim gave it to him.
Two thick fingers slid deep with surety and flirted with that bundle of nerves inside. “Maxim!” Jaime cried out, his own fingers digging in to his knees, shaking. He was bruising himself and he didn’t care. “Please!”
“Not yet, Jaime,” Maxim smiled down at him, the moonlight inching its way up the bed. His smile was something otherworldly, and Jaime groaned at the wicked edge to those lush lips. Fingers slid out, then came back, covered in more oil, Maxim prepping him thoroughly.
His mind exploded when those fingers returned to their target, and he squirmed. “Maxim! Now!”
Maxim chuckled then grabbed one of Jaime’s hands. Oil poured into his palm while fingers still played in his body. Maxim came down over him, and guided Jaime’s hand back to his cock, helping him spread the oil over his long length. Maxim groaned, dipping his head and kissing Jaime, an open-mouthed melding of tongue and lips. Cock coated, Jaime shifted on the bed, guiding Maxim to his body. The cock in his slick grip throbbed, and Jaime marveled he could feel the beat of Maxim’s heart, the flexing of muscles.
Arms came around him, and Jaime took a breath and guided the wide head to the entrance of his body. Maxim kissed him, so passionately that any nerves Jaime had were swept away, and he lifted his hips to meet Maxim’s thrust.
He gasped, the sound swallowed by Maxim’s mouth, and Jaime pulled his hand away to wrap both arms around Maxim’s neck. It stung and burned, but not enough to make him want to stop. He had no doubt he would ache in the morning, but arousal and adrenaline overrode caution and encouraged him to lift into Maxim’s cautious penetration. “Easy,” Maxim breathed out before taking his mouth again, tongue invading, to match the rigid, hot length pushing inexorably deeper.
It burned, and Jaime whined, but he wanted it. Needed more. He wrapped legs around his lover’s lean waist, and then pushed up, taking Maxim to the hilt, making Maxim groan and shudder. It hurt enough that tears pricked the corners of his eyes, but the kisses took on a frenzied edge, and Jaime found himself in a new style of dance.
Maxim held him close, kissing him as if he needed kisses more than air, and Jaime lost all thought, accepting the rising swell of passion across his body.
His control snapped. His gift swept out across Maxim, and Jaime was helpless to stop it. He could feel the unimaginable lust and arousal that Maxim held in check, refusing to hurt him, keeping his thrusts measured and controlled. Behind every touch, every kiss, every gasp when the angle was just right, Jaime could feel this powerful, aching swell of emotion.
Love.
Maxim loved him with his whole body, his heart guiding every touch. Jaime cried out, shattered, and wished he could share how he felt. That Maxim could feel what Jaime did—the tender control, the sweet ache inside, the rising tension, and the emotion that crashed through him with unimaginable strength.
He loved Maxim. He’d loved Maxim from the earliest moment, but the love he felt now was more, an impossible leap to a depthless well of love. Lust, affection, and a myriad of other sensations and emotions he could not name.
Maxim gasped, pulling back from their kisses, and Jaime stared up into his eyes.
Maxim could feel him. The truth was there in the shocked and amazed depths of his honey brown eyes. Maxim felt every sweep of his cock, the tight ache, the burst of nerve-tingling pleasure when his cock made perfect contact deep inside.
Maxim felt Jaime as he could feel Maxim. His gift spun unchecked, a wild thing between them, sharing their love and the sweaty, tension-ridden ache that chased them higher. Maxim’s thrusts lost that edge of control, and Jaime accepted them, rising to meet them.
Higher and tighter, breath short, lungs aching, muscles burning, Jaime and Maxim chased their release, and when it hit, they went over the edge together. Eyes locked, emotions as entangled as their bodies, pleasure crashed and spun between them. Jaime and Maxim cried out as one, breathed as one, the gift at last earning its name. It was a gift to feel all of this, to feel each other without fears or doubts. Nothing between them at all, but sweat and spend and release.
Love pillowed them both, cradling them as they came back down. The moon peeked into the room, the bed awash in light, sparkling on beads of sweat while quivering muscles struggling to function.
Somehow, Maxim found the strength to gently disengage, and Jaime hissed at the ache, but he was fine. Maxim pulled a blanket over them, and Jaime didn’t mind the mess. He would rather be locked in his lover’s arms at this very moment, the moon their only witness.
“I love you,” Jaime said, quiet, afraid to break the spell that seemed to hold the world at a precipice.
Maxim pressed a kiss to his forehead, then the tip of his nose, then his lips. He whispered, lips moving over Jaime’s, “I love you, too.” He gathered Jaime close; their legs entwined, arms cradling each other, and Jaime’s head tucked under Maxim’s chin.
Sleep encroached, gently. He was on the edge of it when a sound echoed across the palace. From every corner, every turret and tower, and then an answer from within the city, a dance of highs and lows.
Bells. A cascade of song, bells across the whole of Taliesin lifting their voices to the sky, a soft melody of reverence and magic.
“Merry Solstice,” Maxim murmured in his ear, kissing the lobe. Jaime smiled, letting the music of the solstice and the perfection of Maxim’s arms lull him to sleep.