Page 24 of Silver & Gold

Raider’s fingers settled on his bare hip. He didn’t tug. He didn’t ask Seth what he was doing, didn’t get angry. He didn’t even sit up. He just whispered, “Please, Seth. Don’t.”

Seth closed his eyes at those words. So quietly spoken. So fucking vulnerable.

There was no way he was going to argue. There was no way he was going to trample those words like Kahzir must have done so many times. Because even that first page confirmed what Seth had finally figured out last night: Kahzir had implanted the quicksilver against Raider’s will.

But that was just the barest fact. There was so much more to it. Pages and pages of detail. Of abuse. Torture.

But Seth didn’t have a right to it. He shouldn’t have delved into it without asking Raider. Even so, it was really damn hard for him to close that book.

Raider whispered, “Please put it out of sight.”

As Seth got up, Raider’s fingers fell away from his hip. Seth stowed the book in his pack then turned around to face Raider. Seth tried to brace himself, but when he saw Raider’s face, his heart shattered.

He saw every bit of the vulnerability he’d heard in Raider’s whisper. He saw pain and fear. Trauma.

Seth’s throat constricted. His eyes stung. He went to Raider and lay down beside him. He knew Raider wouldn’t talk to him, so he didn’t try. It wasn’t the right time to push for anything. Raider was exhausted, and so was Seth. So he pulled Raider into his arms and held him until the pain faded from his eyes and he fell asleep again.

It was only then that Seth felt he could talk to him. It was only then that he could ask the question he needed to ask. He would get no answer, but at least, asleep, Raider wouldn’t draw away.

So, it was only then as he stroked Raider’s hair away from his beautiful face, that Seth asked quietly, “Baby, what happened to you?”

CHAPTER 8

“WE’RE TOO CONSPICUOUS.”

At Seth’s words, Raider opened his eyes. He’d been letting the morning sunlight bleed through his closed eyelids while he leaned back against Seth, who was sitting on the temple step above him. Raider was between Seth’s legs with his hands on Seth’s knees. Seth’s hands were resting on Raider’s shoulders, and it was absolute fucking bliss. Or it had been.

“We’re fine,” Raider said. “If Malik and Rahim couldn’t find Julian in Aqarat, they won’t find us in Kastari, at least not for a few days. And Julian is savvier than you give him credit for. He’ll be back any minute with breakfast.”

“You and I stand out more than Julian. That’s why he’s getting breakfast, remember?”

“You stand out more.”

“You think you don’t?”

Raider shrugged. “I look like everyone else here.”

“No,” Seth countered in a low, rough voice. “You don’t.”

Raider felt a smile play around his lips. He was starting to enjoy this conversation. “I don’t?”

Seth’s hands slid from Raider’s shoulders to his chest, inside his kaftan. If Raider had been a cat, he would have purred.

Seth said, “Atri herself would take you as her consort.”

It was Atri’s temple rearing high at their backs, her golden doors open for worshippers seeking her favor in love or asking blessings of beauty. She was patroness of art and music and all the finest things in life. The deep, romantic notes of a stringed barboud rolled softly through the open doorway. If Raider could stir any religious devotion in himself, it would be for her. But …

“I’m afraid she would find me rather unenthusiastic. Although in some stories, she takes a dual form, which I’ll admit I find rather intrig—”

Raider cut off when Seth’s fingers gripped his hair. He grinned, pleased to have needled Seth and delighted to feel that possessive, dominant grip. The low-simmering arousal that he always felt around Seth heated his groin.

Seth bent to bring his lips close to Raider’s ear and growled softly, sending a shiver down Raider’s spine, “Two days without my cock in your ass, and your thoughts are wandering?”

Raider’s cock stirred, his body heating deliciously at memories of having Seth inside him. Seth fucked so damn hard, so perfectly. Raider had wanted it last night, but Seth had been right to wait. They had both been too exhausted. Raider had fallen asleep at a play. He’d never done that before.

But this morning, after Seth had helped him stretch his stiff shoulder and back, when Raider had wanted it again, Adavasti, in cat form, had slipped under their doorway curtain and sat staring at them unpleasantly until Seth had said, “I guess it’s breakfast time.”

So here they were on Atri’s steps, flanked by two winged lionesses that stood stony guard over the early morning supplicants visiting her domed temple. One, a tall woman with tightly braided dark hair, whose sleeveless blue gown revealed fabulously muscled arms banded with gold arm rings, gave them a knowing smile as she mounted the steps. She was bearing a plate of ripe figs to offer the goddess.