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Category: Erotica/Gay-Lesbian Erotica/Reference
Description: Jenner Garu once dreamed of living an unremarkable life of domestic harmony. Instead, he made vows with the galaxy's most fropped rock star, Lysander Edvard, and traded more promises with the wild and deadly freeman, Grey. Together they must forge a family and future, or be destroyed by powers beyond their control. The succession to the throne of Eab Nanoorn has been vouchsafed to their care. Jenner is willing to risk his life for the hope of his sons. Can he put his lovers and friends on the line, or will he allow himself to be destroyed to protect their future?
eBook Publisher: Torquere Press/Top Shelf, 2011 www.torquerepress.com
eBookwise Release Date: July 2011

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [307 KB]
Words: 69691
Reading time: 199-278 min.

"What must I do?" Lysander whispered, then shook his head. He put all the power of his song into his entreaty, then called out from the heart. "How do I love him? He is everything fine and sweet! I am only... what I am. If this is mine to have, I must know, even if I cannot understand. I have vowed and I have loved, but I need more. I want more. I am not enough, alone. Grant me wisdom. Grant me wisdom. Grant me wisdom to know the secrets of my own heart."

He repeated his plea, his prayer, and climbed higher, resisting the urge to rest or tarry. Finally, the cool shade of branches was below his shoulders and he reached up higher again. Stems, branches and leaves filled his hand, but when he pulled, there was nothing to support his weight.

He cried out, felt his balance shift, then fell... but slowly. Branches and flowers exploded around him as he tumbled. He hit the ground on his back amid a rain of soft petals and leaves, already tearing at his blindfold. The pure sunlight blinded him for a long moment. He blinked hard, trying to focus on the prize he had carried down with him.

The first thing he beheld was ropes of waxy green ivy leaves. Just having that much reassurance was enough to make him weep. He dashed aside the tears of joy and examined the blooms. Blood red roses in buds as thick as his fist were inextricably twined with the woody vines of ivy.

He brought the wide bouquet to his lips and kissed the blooms and leaves equally. Then he gasped as the rose petals opened up under his loving caress, spreading wide, until he could barely see the green for the red. He could neither move nor breathe, overwhelmed by this expression of his own love. Only then did he notice the long, curved thorns that bristled on the rose vines.

Instead of merely protecting the roses, they lent defense for the slender tendrils of ivy as well. The ivy itself was the support necessary for the rose branches to keep reaching higher. Their symbiotic connection was immutable.

Had he tried to pick the ivy from the roses, both would have been destroyed in the process. Even as he turned the bouquet in his hands, the ivy leaves somehow managed to stay between his skin and those thorns. All he felt was waxy softness and silken petals.

"He protects me from myself, and I protect him from the world," Lysander murmured, not sure if he was quoting poetry or thinking for himself. "Oh Jenner. Why in the world did I ever imagine this wouldn't last for us? Where has my faith in you been, all this time? It can't be too late. It just can't be. I can't have failed you. Not yet."

He looked at his unmarked hands and feet, then at Daemon's tree, trying to confirm what he felt so strongly in his heart. He could only be amazed. Then a new, powerful warmth bloomed in him.

He was on his feet and running back to the gate before he quite realized he had moved from the place where he had fallen. Starting his skimmer, speeding back to Jenner's estate, the miles passed by without him noticing very much. His urgent flight only ended when he burst into Jenner's office and his beloved boy was safe in his embrace once more.

"What in the world has gotten into you?" Jenner laughed, trying to resist Lysander's radical hug.

Lysander crushed Jenner to his chest and held him even tighter. "You are mine. My beloved boy. Mine to love and protect, forever. For always."

"I know," Jenner chuckled.

"No, you don't. I haven't yet taught you properly what it is, to be protected by your lover. I haven't even proven myself as your Deamonett lover yet. Don't argue with me, you're only a boy and simply do not know any better," Lysander fiercely replied, thrusting the bouquet into Jenner's hands. "These are yours and you are mine."

He claimed Jenner's mouth in a deep, plundering kiss. Jenner gasped and struggled, making charmingly shy whimpering sounds. Lysander swallowed those sweet, helpless breaths, stooped down and lifted Jenner in his arms. Whatever was on Jenner's desk went sliding to the floor, replaced by Jenner's wiggling body.

"Little Gods, Lysander!" Jenner gasped, trying to rise. "I can't just screw around during office hours! I know everyone else does, but I'm not really allowed..."

"For your lover, you will." Lysander enforced his command with another crushing kiss. Jenner's whole body relaxed under him. Lysander growled, feeling his cock go hard and hot as a stone ember. He fisted his hands in Jenner's shirt and pitted his strength against linen, shredding the cloth that kept him from that precious skin.

Jenner lay stunned and gaping as Lysander tore his clothes away, sputtering with surprise but not daring to actually protest. Lysander leaned in again and seized a pink nipple in his teeth, nipping and sucking until Jenner groaned. His hands rushed over supple skin and rippling, lean muscle, turning his head to lap at Jenner's other nipple. Finally, finally, Jenner wrapped his arms around him, squeezing him back, urging him on.

Lysander sucked a brilliantly red mark on Jenner's chest, the outline of his mouth forming the shape of a single rose petal. He could taste the change in Jenner's skin, the faintly iron tang of a bruise blooming under his kiss. Again, a wholly primal rumble poured out of him, and he put his mark on Jenner's flesh again and again.

"I love you," Lysander insisted, as if Jenner had been arguing this whole time. He sank his teeth into Jenner's navel and pulled mindlessly at that soft circle.

"I know, I know," Jenner gasped, hands twisting into Lysander's hair.

That reflexive response told Lysander everything he needed to know about the secrets in Jenner's heart. His own beloved boy did not yet feel loved. He knew, he believed Lysander's words, but Jenner Garu had not yet felt the adoration he so richly deserved. ENDEXCERPT