Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
“Nod if you understand that, Teddy,” he prompted, now speaking gently.
Tedrey nodded.
Faunus leaned back, took a sip of his wine and reached for an olive.
The spell he’d cast over Tedrey was broken, but Tedrey’s hand was shaking when he took his own sip of wine.
Faunus looked to Saturn. “When I recover, Teddy’s going to suckle me. Do you want my mouth around your cock, or yours around his?”
“Start with you, end with him,” Saturn answered.
“This works,” Faunus murmured then looked to Tedrey. “Now, Teddy, come closer, get rid of that gods-damned silk, rest your head on my chest, and tell us about the children in your class.”
At this order, the subject change and the swift shift in mood, Tedrey couldn’t help it.
He burst out laughing.
He had not done that since…
Maybe.
Ever.
He wasn’t sure if that was right.
What he was sure about…
It felt good.
Faunus rode beside him all the way back to Lorenz’s home.
He also rode with him to the back of the house.
And he dismounted when Tedrey did.
After they handed the reins to Tedrey’s horse to the stable boy and secured Faunus’s mount, Faunus walked Tedrey to the back door.
There, they stopped.
“We will go to an osteria tomorrow, not one in Heden. The one I like most in the city. The woman who cooks there, she is a goddess. And she will like you, but do not feel too proud. She is friendly. She likes everybody,” Faunus said.
Tedrey shook his head and crossed his arms on his chest, smiling up at him.
“Saturn will not be joining us,” he stated.
Tedrey stopped smiling and bit his lip.
Faunus lifted his large hand, slid it along Tedrey’s neck, and took hold of his hair at the back in a grip that Tedrey felt stir him, even if after their thorough play that evening, he did not think he had it in him to be stirred.
“I will warn you, Teddy,” he said after he dipped his face to Tedrey’s. “I am at the call of my captain. New Go’Doan have recently arrived in town and I’m one of a squad who is to watch them around the clock. If another cannot make their duty, I would be called to it. But if that should happen and we cannot go to that osteria tomorrow, we will the next eve. And I would like you to return to my home with me after.”
But Tedrey was no longer listening.
“New Go’Doan have arrived in town?” he asked.
“You are safe at the school, caro,” Faunus murmured. “Lorenz has seen to it.”
He was not.
Not anymore.
“What Go’Doan have arrived in town? Do you know names?”
Faunus was watching him closely.
“Yes,” he answered.
“G’Fenn?” Tedrey asked.
Faunus hesitated.
Tedrey wrapped his fingers around Faunus’s throat and demanded, “G’Fenn?”
“Why do you ask after this name?”
It was Fenn.
He was there because G’Seph failed, or he was there for Tedrey, or both.
But he was there.
Tedrey pulled away, turned and swiftly entered the house.
He felt Faunus on his heels.
They were in an informal chamber at the back, and Tedrey and Faunus were heard before they arrived.
He knew this when Nyx called out, “Did you have a good time with the men, tesoro?”
He made the doorway and saw them on the divan. Lorenz in dark yellow ante pants on his back, Nyx snuggled down his side, and it appeared they were reading from the same book propped on Lorenz’s flat stomach.
Both of their eyes came to him.
“Well, allo, Faunus,” Nyx greeted with a smile, pushing up to an arm.
But Lorenz’s gaze had come to Tedrey, it moved to Faunus, and then returned to Tedrey.
“What’s happened?” he asked.
“Is there a priest called G’Fenn at the temple?” Tedrey demanded tersely.
Lorenz looked to Faunus again and back to Tedrey.
But he said nothing.
“You don’t trust me,” Tedrey declared.
“Amico,” Lorenz murmured.
Tedrey lifted his chin and declared, “He is of The Rising. It is a secret faction of the Go’Doan that most priests don’t know about. But it is large. It is strong. Its followers are devout. And they plan to destabilize all realms, utilizing carefully positioned people who hold local power, or troops they have indoctrinated to their cause to take over and force everyone to adhere to their religion.”
Slowly, Lorenz curled up so he was sitting on the side of the divan with his feet to the ground and his wife pressed to his back.
“And I will go back to them,” Tedrey announced.
The air in the room went flat before it electrified.
“This is your lover,” Lorenz said low.
“It was. Now he is just a general in The Rising. An important one. And I have been gone for a long time. I do not know their plans after the attack on the palace was thwarted. But he will trust me. So I can find out. And when I do, I will tell you.”
Lorenz’s chin jerked back.
“That’s not going to bloody happen,” Faunus growled from beside him.