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The smell of salt was in the air and Alec could feel the floor pitching and rolling beneath him. They were back in their cabin aboard the Darter, a small lantern burning in the corner.
Alec looked over to the bed to see a stream of dark hair across the pillow and a feminine shape under the blankets. '“My virtuous serving boy,” the figure purred, rolling over to face him. “Would you let your mistress stay alone in such a cold bed?”
Alec moved closer to the bed as Lady Gwethelyn's grey eyes locked with his own, his body humming with desire. She extended a hand to grasp his own and pulled him into bed with her, and he tumbled into the sheets.
--
“Interesting dream, talí?” Seregil asked with an amused twist of his mouth as Alec woke panting.
“It was you,” he said somewhat sheepishly.
“Well,” Seregil said, moving over until he was draped across him, “no shame in that.”
Alec blushed and Seregil arched an eyebrow, always bemused by his lover's modesty. “Or is there something else?”
“We were aboard the Darter.”
Seregil laughed. “Do you miss my feminine wiles, then?”
“No,” Alec said quickly, thoughts flitting back to Seregil's reaction to the prophecy at Sarikali. “You know I've never wished you any different.”
Seregil just grinned. “I'm sure it was a very confusing time for you.”
Alec debated throwing a pillow at him until Seregil kissed him and thoughts of vengeance were pushed aside.
He left the next day after breakfast, saying only that he was going to visit some old friends and that Alec needn't worry. Alec attempted to make three new lockpicks, breaking one and mangling the two others beyond utility, opened five books and closed three after less than a page, and spent much of the remaining time doing his best to wear a trench in the new carpet of their rooms. They had been back from their mission to Aurënen for just over a season, barely moved into their rooms above the new Stag and Otter, and Seregil had already started to get restless. Not worrying wasn't the easiest of tasks.
More than worry, he missed Seregil. Their bed felt drafty and overly large when he didn't come back that night or the next; the rooms were too quiet and Seregil's absence felt like a constant itch dancing over his skin. When he finally returned, Alec had to resist the urge to launch himself across the room and fling himself on him.
“We are going to a party,” Seregil declared, dropping a bundle on the floor as his eyes glittered beneath a somewhat appalling amount of dust.
“I hope not right now,” Alec said. “You're filthy.”
Seregil smirked. "Clearly I have been a positive influence on you in at least some ways, then."
Alec tilted his head as if in thought. "No," he said pensively, moving closer to Seregil and sliding one arm around him. "I'm fairly certain you've been nothing but a terrible influence."
Seregil stepped closer, one hand coming up to curl around the back of his neck. "Despoiling your Dalnan virtue," he said, voice lowering.
"Terribly despoiled."
Seregil leaned in and kissed him and Alec felt himself going weak all over. He whimpered softly as Seregil drew back, which quickly turned into a cough as some of the dust from Seregil's hair fell into his face.
“Bath now,” he said, feeling thwarted. Seregil gave him an exaggerated pout as he went to draw his bath.
"We are actually going to a party," he said from the comfort of the tub as Alec watched, leaning back in a nearby chair. "I think you will find it quite engaging. They're a bit lower on the ladder than our usual companions, and I have a surprise for you.”
Alec eyed him warily.
“I may have built up a reputation for a former acquaintance in my earlier days,” Seregil said, sliding out of the bath. Alec was only half concentrating on what he was saying, mesmerized by the small rivulets of water trailing down Seregil's sharp hipbones. “Whose connections need some refreshing.”
Seregil slinked toward the chair, sliding on to straddle Alec's lap. “In the meantime, I think we have some other things that need refreshing.”
Afterward Seregil pulled Alec gently to the bed, and Alec fell into the first peaceful sleep he'd had in days.
He awoke to the late afternoon sun's last few rays filtering through the window and a note on the desk, and sighed. He would have to talk to Seregil about this note-leaving habit. This one said only that Seregil had some small business to take care of and Alec was to meet him at the party at a house with a wave-patterned gate, a few avenues over from Wheel Street where some of the more prosperous merchants resided.
He aimlessly took care of some minor tidying around their rooms before he had to prepare to leave, thoughts turning as usual back to Seregil. The note had begun simply addressed “Talí –” and Alec smiled to himself as he recalled the first time Seregil had called him that, even before they had become talímenios.
“What does talí mean? Is it Aurenfaie?”
“Talí?” A ghost of the old grin tugged at one corner of Seregil’s mouth. “Yes, it’s an Aurënfaie term of endearment, rather old-fashioned, like beloved. Where’d you pick that up?”
“I thought—” Alec regarded him quizzically, then shook his head. “I don’t know, at one of the salons, probably. Sleep well, Seregil.”
Talí. Alec had turned the word over in his head. A term of endearment? Surely it couldn't have been of much consequence if Seregil hadn't even realized what he'd said. But something about the ease with which it had slipped into his speech and the warm look in Seregil's eyes had made his heart beat a rapid tattoo in his chest.
Seregil was all quicksilver, clever hands and sideways glances, and Alec had wanted in a way he didn't fully understand, full of strange visceral longing.
–-
He arrived at the party as it was just beginning to swell with a steady flow of guests, quickly glancing around the room for Seregil but not seeing him among the brightly colored crowd.
A circulating servant presented him him a glass of wine that he took gratefully, always more comfortable with something to do with his hands despite all of Seregil's training. A trader they had minor dealings with came over and greeted him warmly, making small talk about shipping routes that navigated around the worst of the Plenimaran blockades.
Alec nodded in the right places until a flicker of motion in the corner of his eye distracted him and he excused himself to refill his wine. He was trying to figure out why he recognized the slender brunette in the corner until she turned and he found himself looking into a pair of familiar grey eyes.
Alec felt his mouth go dry and the breath catch in his throat. Seregil had been pretty enough as Lady Gwethelyn, but whoever this was meant to be had further enhanced his natural beauty, his bright eyes and androgynous features giving him an exotic air. He couldn't wear the popular Southern style of the day, the plunging neckline would have revealed too much, but the simpler Northern style suited him. Silky indigo fabric twirled snugly around his hips as he moved, flattering his slender frame and bringing out the blue flecks in his eyes as his dark hair tumbled loosely in waves about his shoulders.
Alec made a quick signal to him for a private conversation and slipped into a back corner of the garden, half-hidden behind a large tree. Seregil appeared moments later, smelling faintly of some sort of heady spice.
"Already?" he asked teasingly. "You're going to cast all sorts of aspersions on Lady Katria's virtue."
"Is this because of my dream about the Darter?" Alec asked.
"I trust that you don't wish I were a woman, talí," Seregil said, his face momentarily sincere before he added, with a wicked grin, "this is just fun." He gave Alec a quick kiss before turning to leave, resuming his loop through the guests.
--
Lady Katria flirted shamelessly with him for the rest of the evening, making eyes at him and brushing against him every time they passed. Alec overheard at least one woman whispering about whether Lord Seregil was hoping to make a match for his ward and wondering if the evening was a test to see if she would be able to accompany them in society, as though they hadn't just been gossiping about the scandal of Lord Seregil bedding that same ward last week.
For his part, Alec was beginning to worry that his flushed face would never be able to return to normal.
"There you are," Seregil purred, brushing ever so slightly against his back. "Are you neglecting me?"
He was almost pouting. Alec wanted to pin him up against the garden wall and bite away the insolent twist of Seregil's mouth. If only they weren't surrounded by so many irritatingly present people.
"Apparently we are quite the match," he said, briefly pushing away thoughts of his hands under Seregil's skirts. "Though Lady Arellia is planning a formal introduction to her son for you if I don't stake my claim."
"Well then, I suppose I should go introduce myself," he said, turning in the direction of Arellia's conversation with what was an unnecessarily suggestive twirl.
Alec sighed mentally as one of the rising poets of the month attempted to corner him into a discussion of old Mycenean odes. "I was never really much for poetry, I'm afraid," he said with a self-deprecating shrug. "Much better with a horse than with a pen."
"She's very pretty," the boy commented, noticing Alec's gaze drifting slowly back over to where Seregil was standing and the coquettish glance that Seregil threw him over his shoulder. “She's your Lord Seregil's friend, isn't she?”
"Just a visitor," Alec mumbled, suddenly anxious to leave the conversation. "Pardon me."
He made another round of the gathering, briefly losing track of Seregil as he refilled his wine. His head was starting to spin as the conversations around him turned to a pleasant background buzz. A hand placed on the small of his back pulled him out of his daze.
"Distracted?" Seregil asked, with an innocent arch of his eyebrows, tracing small patterns along Alec's spine.
Alec allowed himself to reach up and push a stray strand of Seregil's hair behind his ear, turning it into a caress as he ran his hand down Seregil's neck with a gentle scrape of fingernails, and noted with satisfaction his lover's slight hitch of breath.
"Fortunately for both of us, I believe I've learned everything I can at this particular gathering," Seregil said, looking up from under his eyelashes.
--
They barely made it into the stairwell to their rooms before Seregil pinned Alec to the wall, one hand holding his wrist down as he entangled the other in his hair.
"You are a terrible tease, talí," Seregil said roughly, female cadence gone from his voice. "Looking at me like that all night."
Alec could feel Seregil's lean body pressed against his through the fabric of the thin gown and bunched his free hand in the cloth at Seregil's hips, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them.
Seregil moaned softly as he yanked Alec in, pulling slightly on Alec's hair as he kissed him hard and demanding, and Alec finally gave in to the curiosity he had been entertaining all evening and tugged Seregil's skirts up over his hips, sliding his hand along one muscled thigh. "I was wondering what you had under here," he murmured, feeling Seregil's arousal through the soft stays he wore.
Seregil pulled back, his eyes dark. "Upstairs," he said.
They stumbled into the bedroom, Alec tossing aside his jacket and shirt as he pressed Seregil up against a bedpost, molding his body against his back. He kissed his way down Seregil's neck as Seregil groaned, grinding back against him. He pulled back slightly to investigate the intricate lacings up the back of the dress, running a finger down the line of knots.
He began unlacing them at the top, his usually deft fingers stumbling slightly from alcohol and arousal as he revealed more of the pale skin underneath.
"Thought I'd taught you better than that," Seregil said breathlessly, pushing his hips back into Alec's. Alec raised one eyebrow and reached down to pull his poniard out of his boot, and cut through the rest of the laces in one quick motion.
Seregil gave a low chuckle that turned into a moan as Alec dropped to his knees and maneuvered him around to face him. Alec slid his dagger down the front of the skirt, splitting it in half and allowing him the full access he'd been thinking about for hours. Seregil's erection was straining against the tight linen and he gasped as Alec mouthed it through the fabric, tangling his hands in Alec's hair. He was resting most of his weight on the post at his back, knees buckling as Alec pulled the garments down and took him in his mouth.
Alec loved being able to do this, reveling in the feeling of Seregil hot and hard against him and the soft pull on his hair, but Seregil tugged him upward. He stood briefly before Seregil pushed him backwards onto the bed, landing with a soft thud across the mattress as Seregil fell on him, kissing him fiercely, and Alec arched up against him like finely strung bow.
Alec pulled the shredded remains of Seregil's dress over his head as Seregil reached for his trousers. They tangled around his ankles and he kicked them free, sighing as they finally made full skin contact. Seregil took his erection in hand as he reached for the jar that they kept on the bedside table with the other, his skilled grasp making short work of any of Alec's remaining resolve. "Please, Seregil."
Seregil paused, gazing at him through a helpless tangle of desire and Alec felt a frisson of electricity at watching his normally composed lover undone. "You never have to beg me for anything, talí, but I do love it when you do."
He slid one slicked finger into Alec, followed shortly by a second as Alec practically writhed on the bed until Seregil crawled up his body. He held Alec's wrists down above his head with one hand, using the other to guide himself between his legs, sliding into him with one smooth, practiced movement as Alec cried out. His world narrowed to nothing but the feeling of Seregil on top of and inside him as he slowly moved, but it still wasn't enough.
"Harder," he moaned as Seregil's hair fell in a curtain around his face as he kissed him again, their tongues tangling together almost violently. Seregil's rhythm sped up as he thrust harder and Alec threw one arm around his back, digging in his fingernails and throwing his head back as Seregil's hand closed around his cock. He cried out his release as Seregil twisted his fingers and bit at the juncture of his neck and shoulder, driving Seregil even farther into him as his back arched and his leg tangled around Seregil's hips, and Seregil's movements stuttered as a low moan marked his own climax.
He withdrew gently, pushing a strand of Alec's tousled hair back off his face before rolling on to his back. Alec lay his head on his shoulder, drawing lazy spirals across his chest and listening to the slow calming of Seregil's breath.
"It seems there are all sorts of aspersions to cast on both of our virtues," he said, wrapping an arm around Alec.
Alec snorted as he nestled closer into his side.
"I think virtue is the least of our concerns."