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Lyr’s heart is beating hard. He turns to Damon. “These are your private chambers?”

“Yes.”

“I cannot be in here alone with you, surely?”

“It does not matter now. I need to speak with you. It will not be for long. And things are changing.” Damon is smiling. He steps closer. He takes Lyr’s hand. “First, my sweet slave, I must apologise to you for last night, that was reckless and it will not happen again in Sanglora. I will treasure it forever. But it was foolish.”

All Lyr truly hears is Damon telling him last night cannot happen again. Could Mina be right after all, about noblemen lying with slaves and servants and then tossing them aside? Has he really got Damon so wrong? “Damon?” Lyr’s throat prickles. How can Damon be happy about this? “I can’t,” he says, a desperate whisper. “Damon, please, I can’t go back to how we were after what we shared last night. I cannot live in this house not touching you. Not now I have experienced it.”

Damon shakes his head, still smiling. “Shush, no. I simply mean we must be patient, but it will not be for long, Lyr. Do not fear. I feel the same. I cannot go back to how we were either. It is clear to me now I cannot resist you my whole life. But I will not need to. I have been to the Rose Palace. I got what I wanted. I will be made Warden of Vashti in less than forty days at my Gala. And when we are in Vashti, I have permission to keep you as my favoured.”

Lyr shakes his head. He knows the word Damon has just said in Artemian, but it makes no sense. “Damon, please. I don’t know what that means. What is favoured?”

“Favoured? A favoured is a personal servant. Inez has a favoured amongst her handmaidens, many men have a favoured manservant, some have a page as their favoured. It means that you will attend me in my private chambers, deal with personal matters, speak for me if I am indisposed, travel with me, stand behind my chair at feasts and refill my cup. A favoured used to be a concubine. Now that is rarely the case, but for us, that is what you will be.”

“And you have got permission from Selim for your favoured to be me? A male pleasure slave from Jur-Mattan.”

“It was part of my bargain for the information you gave me about Jareleezi. When I am Warden of Vashti, you will be my favoured. I will keep you in my chambers. I will have you serve me in my bed. I can do this when we are far away in Vashti.”

Lyr shakes his head. “I will never understand Azuria,” Lyr says, remembering Opeth and her talk of the complex web of laws that govern the empire and how, if the Rose Court wants it, anything can be permitted, by twisting those laws the way they want them. “It was not safe for you to lie with me on the Azuria Ascendant where the laws of Zai do not apply, but it will be safe in Vashti where they do?”

“The Azuria Ascendant was Atticul’s ship. It was safer than Attar, but not safe enough. In Vashti, it will all be different. We will be far from Attar, far from the Rose Court, far from the gaze of anyone who will want to shame me.”

“You will be able to have me sleep in your bedchamber?”

“Yes. We have the permission of the Rose Court.”

Lyr shivers at the thought. To share a bed with Damon. To feel his arms around him through the night. “But until then, we must go back to me being a scullion and you being the master of this house?”

Damon nods. “For this short time. A single moon’s turn.”

Lyr steps forward, closing the distance between their bodies so they are pressed chest to chest. This is a dangerous move, something Lyr is sure Damon would never have permitted if they hadn’t made love the night before. In a low, soft voice, Lyr says, “When we are in Vashti, living in the palace of Felgrace will I still be your slave?”

“My slave?” Damon shakes his head, “In what way?”

“I am talking of how we will be together. Will I still be a slave and you be Master? My Master, who orders me to serve him in his bed?” His voice is breathy. “It gives me pleasure to call you Master. To be your slave.”

Damon bites his lip, clearly just as aroused. “If that is what you wish, then yes, you will be my slave and I will be your Master.”

“It’s what I wish,” Lyr says. He can feel his cock growing hard at the thought. He angles his body so it presses into Damon's thigh. “See?”

Damon barely suppresses a gasp of pure desire. “Lyr. Please, do not tempt me so.”

“I can’t help it. Master, please.” Lyr tilts his face up, offers it to Damon. Damon’s eyes flicker towards the doorway and then back down, back to Lyr’s face, before he bends and touches his lips to Lyr’s.

The kiss is chaste, but the promise in it lights Lyr’s soul.

Damon pulls back quickly, colour in his cheeks.

Lyr puts a hand on Damon’s face, stroking there.

Damon covers Lyr’s hand with his own. His hand is big, Lyr can’t help thinking of Damon’s fingers inside him, stretching him. He wants Damon to put his entire fist into him and break him to pieces. “I had to wait half a moon for you before and it nearly drove me mad,” Lyr says. “How will I ever wait an entire turn of the moon for you to make love to me?”

“You will. You will because this time you will know that at the end of the wait, is all the pleasure we desire. Everything in the world. In Felgrace, the great palace of Vashti, I will commit every sin of the body with you, slave,” he whispers. “Every crime against Zai the priests have ever dreamt of and more. I will make you spend with my tongue in your hole. I will command you as your Master. I will feed you foribunda and hear you beg for me inside you.” He sounds so aroused at the thought of being free to commit such sin.

“Yes, Master,” Lyr breathes. “You can do anything you want, command me and I will obey.”

“Sins of the body are the basest sins, like the sins of animals.” Damon’s voice cracks with arousal over the word ‘animals’.