Chapter 378: Familiar Temptations

Chapter 378: Chapter 378: Familiar Temptations

The stairwell narrowed until Liam’s shoulder brushed stone on one side and Arik’s chest on the other. His back met the wall before he had fully registered being moved, cool marble pressing through his coat while Arik crowded into the limited space in front of him.

Arik’s mouth found his throat.

Liam’s head tipped back against the stone on instinct, a breath leaving him that he did not bother trying to recover. Arik’s teeth grazed the tendon beneath his jaw, and Liam’s hands came up to grip the loosened collar of his coat, knuckles whitening against black wool.

"Here?" The word came out lower than he intended.

"No." Arik’s voice vibrated against his skin. "But I needed to."

His thigh pressed between Liam’s legs, and Liam’s body answered before his thoughts caught up. The sudden friction drew a sound from him that echoed once down the narrow stairwell before Arik swallowed it with another kiss.

Liam tightened his grip on his coat.

The palace around them had become dangerously quiet.

Somewhere several floors below, a door opened and closed, followed by distant footsteps that never came near the stairwell. The Shadows accompanying them had remained outside the family passage, either because Arik had dismissed them or because generations of palace security had developed enough survival instinct to know when not to follow.

Liam broke the kiss first.

His lips still brushed Arik’s when he whispered, "You said there was a bakery."

"There is."

"You are doing an extremely poor job of reaching it."

Arik kissed the corner of his mouth.

"I became distracted."

"I noticed."

Smoky caramel thickened around them, warm enough to make Liam’s own pheromones answer, saint’s breath blooming through the narrow space until the old stone seemed to trap both scents around them.

Arik inhaled.

His golden eyes darkened.

Liam recognized the expression and immediately smiled.

"That was your fault."

"I know."

"You look pleased."

"I am."

Arik bent toward his neck again.

Liam caught his jaw before he could reach it.

"No marks."

Arik stopped immediately.

Then frowned.

"None?"

"We are having breakfast with your family tomorrow."

"That is many hours away."

"Gabriel will see."

"My mother knows we are married."

"Your mother does not need physical evidence."

Arik looked genuinely dissatisfied by that limitation.

Liam laughed softly and ran his thumb along the sharp line of his cheekbone.

"There. That expression."

"What expression?"

"The one where the Emperor of Nuria is personally offended because his husband has introduced reasonable boundaries."

"You said I was allowed to be possessive."

"I did."

"You encouraged it."

"I continue to encourage it."

"Then—"

"Possessive does not mean decorating my throat before breakfast with your parents."

Arik considered the argument.

Liam watched him lose it.

"Fine."

"That sounded painful."

"It was."

Liam smiled and pulled him closer by the collar for another kiss.

This one remained slower.

Less desperate.

Arik’s hands settled at Liam’s waist beneath his open coat, thumbs moving absently against the fabric there while Liam let himself enjoy the strange intimacy of kissing his husband in a hidden stairwell that Arik had apparently used as a teenager to smuggle himself toward pastries.

The thought made him laugh against Arik’s mouth.

Arik drew back.

"What?"

Liam shook his head.

"Nothing."

"You laughed at me."

"I remembered what this staircase was for."

Arik’s expression flattened.

Liam’s smile widened.

"You used to sneak down here for dessert."

"Yes."

"And now you are pressing your husband against the wall in the same place."

"That seems like personal development."

Liam laughed.

Arik smiled at the sound, then rested his forehead against Liam’s.

For a moment, neither moved.

The heat between them remained, but something quieter had settled beneath it.

Liam traced the embroidery along Arik’s collar.

"I like this."

"The stairwell?"

"You."

Arik’s brows rose slightly.

Liam continued before he could turn it into a joke.

"Here."

Understanding softened his face.

Liam looked past him toward the narrow stairs descending into the warm light below.

"I only knew you in Wrohan for six months before everything changed. Then there was the Gate, Nuria, and Goliath, all of it." His fingers moved higher, brushing loose black hair away from Arik’s forehead. "Sometimes it feels like I met you halfway through your life."

"You did."

"That is not reassuring."

"It is accurate."

Liam pinched him lightly.

Arik caught his hand and kissed the center of his palm.

"You know the important parts."

"I am learning the embarrassing parts."

"Those are less important."

"They are becoming my favorites."

Arik groaned.

Liam smiled.

He had spent the evening discovering a version of his husband that had existed before crowns became complicated, before Nuria remembered him, before Liam had known there was anything beyond the arrogant Agaronian prince who had appeared in Wrohan and refused to leave him alone.

Arik stealing pastries.

Arik hiding from tutors.

Arik and Mezos finding routes through palace corridors because seventeen-year-old princes apparently considered locked doors suggestions.

Small things.

Ordinary things.

Liam wanted all of them.

Arik watched his expression.

"You are thinking too loudly."

"I want to know everything."

The teasing disappeared.

"Everything?"

"Everything you want to tell me."

Arik’s hand moved from his waist to the back of his neck.

"That could take a while."

"We are mated forever, apparently."

"Apparently?"

Liam immediately recognized his mistake.

Arik’s arms tightened.

"Oh, no."

"Apparently?"

"You know what I meant."

"I do not."

"Yes, you do."

"I believe my mate is questioning the permanence of our bond."

Liam stared at him.

"You are impossible."

"And abandoned."

"You are holding me against a wall."

"Temporary reassurance."

Liam rolled his eyes, caught Arik’s face between both hands, and kissed him.

"There."

Arik remained unimpressed.

Liam kissed him again.

"Better?"

"Marginally."

A third kiss.

Arik finally smiled.

"You are manipulating me."

"Yes."

"I approve."

Liam laughed and rested his head against his shoulder.

Arik held him there, one broad hand moving slowly over his back.

The possessiveness did not frighten Liam anymore.

Perhaps because he knew what existed beneath it.

Arik had spent months learning when to hold tighter and when to open his hands. He had never turned the bond into a cage, even when every instinct in him clearly wanted Liam somewhere within arm’s reach.

Liam appreciated that restraint.

He also enjoyed occasionally giving Arik permission not to use quite so much of it.

"You know," Liam murmured, "we could return to the suite."

Arik went very still.

Liam lifted his head.

The look on his husband’s face made him grin.

"But the bakery?"

Liam pretended to consider.

Arik stared at him in disbelief.

"You cannot say that and then choose pastries."

"I have never tried the pastries."

"You have had me before."

Liam’s eyebrows rose.

Arik immediately realized what he had said.

Liam began laughing.

"That was terrible."

"It sounded different in my head."

"It was worse aloud."

Arik covered his eyes with one hand.

Liam leaned against the wall, laughing harder.

"I cannot believe you attempted to compete with baked goods."

"I am leaving."

Arik stepped back.

Liam immediately caught his coat.

"No."

"You have wounded me."

"You survived Felix."

"This is more humiliating."

Liam pulled him back.

Arik allowed himself to be pulled with suspicious ease.

"The bakery first," Liam decided.

Arik frowned.

"And then?"

Liam leaned close enough that their noses nearly touched.

"Then you can take your husband back to the suite."

Arik’s expression changed instantly.

Liam smiled.

"Without marks."

"We will renegotiate."

"We will not."

"One."

"No."

"Somewhere mother cannot see."

Liam stared at him.

Arik’s mouth curved.

"You said forever."

"That does not mean you get unlimited negotiating rights."

"It should."

Liam took his hand and started down the stairs.

Arik followed, still smiling.

The bakery could not have been more than a few corridors away, but Liam suspected reaching it would take considerably longer than Arik originally intended.

He found that he did not particularly mind.