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Tobi thinks. No one has ever asked him such a question before. In the end he says, “I like danger. I like to be scared.”
Harok laughs and says, “Beast Tamer.”
“Next time you are angry with me,” Tobi says with a sly sweet smile. “Punish me in bed.”
Harok shakes his big head, but all he says is, “Suskara.” He pulls Tobi close. His body is so warm. “Ga, garan, garasiana,” Harok says. Ambolk words Tobi learned moons ago. But they thrill him more now he knows their meaning. “You bring me pleasure.”
Tobi looks up at Harok and says, “Ga, garan, garasiana, Ereyek.”
“Suskara,” Harok says, his voice different. Slower and heavier. “This time we have had together has been sweet. But you know Urynwud needs me. I must return to duties.”
Tobi takes a breath. He had always known this strange sweet time with Harok would end. And Harok’s shoulder, though weakened, is all but healed. “I am sad,” Tobi says. “It has been pleasure in Ereyek bed.”
“What Suskara want?” Harok asks. The same question he’d asked Tobi after he burned his clothes.
Tobi only has to think for a moment before he says, “When I sit beside you at dinner, speak with me. Not council. Speak with me. Irgo all day. When sun sets, Irgorye.”
Harok puts a hand on Tobi’s face and strokes over it. “Sho, Suskara. Speak with you at dinner. Another thing you want?”
Tobi wonders if there could possibly be anything else. But when he thinks he realises he does want something. He wants…
“I’d like to go outside,” Tobi says. “Before this ends. Take me somewhere. I’d like to go out of Urynwud. Just you and me. I’d like to see the forest. With you.”
24
TOBI
The following morning, Tobi wakes to find Harok dressed and standing at the end of the bed.
Tobi looks up at him from their stained sheets. He is satiated, his body sore.
“Good morning, Irgorye,” Tobi coos, squirming a little as the soreness of his ass against the sheets reminds him of the pleasure of the night before.
Harok nods. In his dark, rumbling Ambolk, he says, “This day, Suskara, I ride to the Starlight Sea. You will come with me.”
Tobi is quite surprised. “Me? Out of Urynwud?” He did not think Harok would grant the request he made dazedly the night before. “Truly? What of the Exceli?”
“They will not trouble us. I know where they ride.” Harok strides over to the bed. “And I would spend this day with you, my Suskara.“ He lifts one of Tobi’s hands and kisses it. “You asked that I spend my days as Irgo and my nights as Irgorye, but today I wish to be Irgorye to my Suskara only. For all the day.”
Tobi dresses quickly in a fresh alit and his heavy cloak and Harok leads him down to the stables. Despite all the other ways they have grown closer and Harok has softened, his dictats about what Tobi ought to wear have not changed.
As they approach Embox’s stall, she whinnies, clearly excited to see Harok.
Tobi looks up at Harok, then waves to himself. “You expect me to ride in the alit?” he says, petulantly, “bare against your horse’s body?”
Harok leans forward with an eyebrow raised and touches Tobi’s thigh just below the hem. Tobi shivers, as he always does when Harok touches him. Harok makes a soft sound of desire. Their eyes lock for a moment.
With his other hand Harok pats Embox's neck. “She won’t mind, Suskara,” Harok says in low, husky Ambolk.
Tobi steps closer, “Riding with you, Irgorye, so bare, the rocking of your horse might make me spend.”
Tobi sees Harok’s eyes darken. He knows how aroused Harok is by Tobi spending. “Suskara must think pure thoughts,” he says with a smile.
Tobi smirks. “With you? I’m not sure I know how.”
“Then,” Harok says, pretending to consider things, “you could ride in a cart. But if we took a cart, I might have to rope you.” His tongue flickers over his lower lip. “To keep you safe in the forest.”
Tobi swallows. He is eager for Harok to rope him in bed, but he doesn’t think it would be much fun to travel through the forest roped in a cart behind Embox. Although he would like to be roped by Harok. He needs to make sure that happens soon. He says, “I will try, Irgorye. I will think pure thoughts.”
