Chapter 678: Their Turn

Chapter 678: Their Turn

Leon fell asleep before dinner.

He had meant to close his eyes while Loriel finished describing the medicine-court supplies. When he opened them again, the room had darkened, a folded blanket covered his legs, and someone had moved the cup away from his elbow.

Ira sat beside him with a book resting unopened on her knee.

"How long?" he asked.

"A while."

"You could have woken me."

"I know." She set the book aside. "Are you hungry?"

He considered the question and discovered that he was.

"Very."

"Good. They’re keeping food warm."

Ira stood, then waited without offering a hand. Leon appreciated that. He pushed the blanket aside and got up slowly, pleased to find that the room stayed where it belonged.

The sleep had helped. He still felt the day in his muscles, but the raw effort of remaining upright had eased.

Ira studied him for a moment.

"Better?"

"Better."

She took his hand on the way to the dining room anyway.

Dinner was simple enough that Leon could eat without asking what anything was supposed to do for his cultivation.

He finished the first bowl quickly. Seraphine passed him a second before he had to request it.

Vyra waited until he had eaten several more mouthfuls before placing the folded purchase record beside her plate.

"I checked the quantities. Everything is there."

"Thank you."

"The preparation stock should last through the next session if you keep to the settings you recorded."

"I’ll examine it after I’ve rested."

She accepted that and put the record away.

Loriel asked about the preserved plants beside the training yard. Seraphine described a change she wanted to make to tomorrow’s own practice. Ira complained that a building capable of producing such excellent opponents ought to have a course their registration allowed them to enter.

"There may be another way to arrange it later," Leon said.

"Later is acceptable." Ira reached for the serving dish. "I’d prefer it to never."

He found himself smiling into his bowl.

The conversation moved around him without requiring him to solve anything. Nobody asked for a full account of the fight, and he was grateful. He wanted to tell them about the moment the fifth node broke. He also wanted to finish his food and spend several hours without remembering what the counterattack had felt like.

When the meal ended, Loriel checked his condition once more.

"You’re settling," she said. "Keep doing what you’re doing."

"Eating?"

"Resting." A small smile appeared. "You may eat as well."

She left to attend to the plants she had postponed checking while they waited at the Hall. Vyra gathered the purchase slips and wished him a good night before going to put the records away.

Seraphine stayed at the table. Ira remained behind his chair, her hands resting lightly on his shoulders.

Leon glanced up at her.

"Have I missed something?"

"No," Ira said. "We were waiting for you to finish."

Seraphine moved her chair closer.

"You look more comfortable," she said.

"I am."

"Still planning to rest tomorrow?"

"Yes." Leon looked between them. "You both heard me promise Loriel."

"We did." Seraphine’s mouth curved as she reached for his hand. "We thought we could help you recover."

Ira’s fingers moved from his shoulder to the back of his neck. The touch, and the expression on Seraphine’s face, made the invitation perfectly clear.

Leon felt his own smile answer hers.

"That sounds very considerate."

"We’ve been considerate all afternoon," Ira said.

"Have you?"

"Yes. I haven’t asked you to explain how that much blood got on one robe."

His amusement softened. He turned enough to look at her properly.

"Ira."

She shook her head before he could apologize again.

"I know you’re here. I know you’ve healed." Her hand settled against his cheek. "I want some time with you where that’s what I get to think about."

Leon covered her hand with his.

"All right."

Seraphine watched them for a moment, then leaned forward and kissed him.

It was familiar enough to make him relax before she drew away. He caught her at the waist, keeping her close.

"I was proud of you," she said quietly. "When the result appeared."

"I’m glad."

"Then the door opened, and I forgot all about the result."

Leon brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face.

"I’ll tell you about it when you want to hear."

"Tomorrow." She touched her forehead to his briefly. "Tonight, I want you to stop thinking about the Hall."

"That part won’t be difficult."

Ira leaned down to kiss him from the other side, and he laughed softly when Seraphine refused to move very far out of her way.

He had no clever answer prepared and no desire to find one. They were close, they wanted him with them, and the evening ahead sounded much better than the one he would have spent alone reviewing his mistakes.

When Seraphine rose and held out her hand, Leon took it willingly.

"That," said Ira, from his other side, "was stage one."

Ira went ahead to close the bedroom door behind them.

They moved him to the bed with a careful, deliberate slowness that somehow made everything hotter.

Seraphine kept her hand on his chest the whole walk, not supporting him — he didn’t need supporting — but feeling the two rhythms beneath her palm the way she did when she needed reassurance. Ira walked ahead and turned down the bedding, then stood at the foot of the bed and began undressing without ceremony.

"Stage two," she said, pulling her inner robe over her head, "is that you sit still and let us do the work."

Leon started to argue on principle, and Seraphine pressed one finger to his lips.

"You’ve been doing too much all day. For once, let us take care of you." Her purple eyes were dark and warm. "That’s an order."

He sat on the edge of the bed and let them undress him.

They worked together with a coordination that had become second nature. Seraphine took his outer robe while Ira knelt to remove his shoes and socks. Then Ira’s hands found the ties of his inner garment and pulled them loose, and the fabric fell away. Both women paused at the sight of him.

His torso was whole. He had repaired the injuries himself before leaving the chamber, though the repeated effort still left him tired.

"Nine," Seraphine said again. Her fingers traced the line along his ribs. "There isn’t a mark."

"Life affinity."

"There isn’t a mark," she repeated, and bent to press her mouth to the same spot. "Good."

Ira was watching them with hungry appreciation while she slipped out of her own remaining clothes. "I’ve been thinking about this all afternoon. Standing outside that door with nothing to do except imagine what was happening to you. And then you walked out looking like you’d been wrung out and hung up to dry."

"And that was appealing?"

"It was infuriating." She stepped out of the last of her clothing and stood bare before him, red eyes bright. "I want to put something better on your face. That’s all."

Seraphine had finished undressing too. She moved around the bed with the same elegant economy she brought to everything, and then she was pressing Leon back against the pillows with gentle insistence.

"Lie down."

He lay down.

The two women arranged themselves on either side of him. This was not the frantic, greedy sex of a reunion after nine days of separation. This was something slower, more deliberate, as though they had planned to spend all night on him and saw no reason to hurry.

Seraphine kissed him first. Her mouth moved against his with careful heat, her tongue sliding, and while she kissed him her hand slid down his chest and lower, finding his cock and wrapping around it with a soft, sure grip. He was already half-hard, the anticipation of the last hour having done its work.

Ira pressed herself against his other side and put her mouth to his shoulder. She kissed down his arm, over his ribs, avoiding the places that still ached and working around them with skill. Her lips found the join of his hip, and then she was low enough to press a kiss to the base of his cock beside Seraphine’s stroking hand.

"Let me have a turn," she murmured.

Seraphine shifted her hand away, and Ira took over.

She lowered her head and licked a long stripe up the underside of his shaft. Then she took the head into her mouth and sucked gently, coaxing him fully hard, while Seraphine continued kissing him deeply. The combination made his hips shift against the bed.

"Easy," Seraphine said against his mouth. "You’re supposed to be resting. We’ll do the work."

"I’ve never been good at passive."

"Yes, you have been," Ira said, pulling off with a wet sound. "You just hate admitting it."

Then she took him deeper. Her throat opened around him, and the heat hit him like a wave. Leon’s eyes closed for a moment, his hands finding the sheets, and Seraphine’s fingers traced over his chest while Ira worked him with slow, thorough bobs of her head.

She was not pretending this was anything other than service. Every motion was aimed at his pleasure, her tongue pressed flat, her cheeks hollowed, her hands cupping and stroking what her mouth couldn’t reach. The wet suction was obscene and deliberate.

"Good," Leon managed. "That’s—"

"I know," Ira said, pulling back just long enough to grin. "I’m good at this."

"Modest, too."

Seraphine bent over him and sucked one of his nipples into her mouth, and Leon forgot what he had been going to say.