Free Sovereign's Gladiator by Jez Morrow Page B

Devon’s thigh. Xan’s tongue drew liquid fire in the crease where his leg joined his torso. He sucked on Devon’s balls.
    The last time they had been together, Devon had been wearing a cock ring. Xan marked its absence, running his tongue around the rim of Devon’s helmet where the ring used to be. He drew circles of melting fire around Devon’s cock. Desire expressed from its tip. Xan licked it.
    Broad strokes of Xan’s velvet tongue drove Devon to the farthest edge of endurance.
    And then Xan came up, leaving Devon’s sex begging for his touch.
    An array of ornamental phials of scented oils had been laid out on a night table for the Sovereign’s pleasure. Xan chose one that smelled like sandalwood. Xan touched the glass phial to the back of Devon’s hand, as if Devon would smooth the oil on Xan’s sex.
    Devon ought to be calling for guards. He turned his face aside and shut his eyes. A ridiculously feeble protest, but there it was.
    Xan poured the oil for himself. Xan’s oiled hands on Devon’s cock coaxed a grunt from him with a hot shiver like walking through fire. Devon’s body quivered with lust. His heartbeat was a solid blur. His breaths came hard, as if he were running for his life.
    Devon’s hands roamed Xan’s vast chest. Devon wasn’t sure how they got there. His hands just moved, feeling Xan. Devon’s fingers laced through Xan’s chest hair, feeling the hardness of muscles beneath his skin.
    Xan lifted Devon’s hips off the mattress. The satiny glide of Xan’s cock in the cleft between Devon’s buttocks made him catch his breath. Xan’s sex penetrated him with silken hardness, slow and deep. Xan pushed his sex inside him to the hilt. His balls pressed against Devon’s buttocks.
    Xan was out of bounds. Devon should resist. But he was way past that. There was no turning back. Xan was already there . Devon felt his soul falling. He let himself fall, his mouth open in silent cries.

    The assassins came in the night.
    Xan had left Devon spent, and Devon had fallen into a dreamless sleep. He woke to the clash of swords and fighting shouts. It didn’t feel like he’d been asleep long. The fire in the hearth was a ruddy glimmer under a coat of ash.
    Devon’s chamber door burst open. The men who rushed in were not Devon’s guardsmen. They wore the green garb of Kani’s elite guards. There were seven of them. The Sovereign’s first guardsman, Xan, was not among them.
    One guard dropped a peremptory genuflect, fist to his armored chest, his head briefly bowed, then he rose up swiftly to business. “ Ma dahn , we must get you away from here.”
    “Where are my men?” Devon said, while wondering what on earth he had drunk that he’d heard nothing before this moment. He didn’t feel at all groggy as he would if he’d been drugged. How could he have been sleeping through an attack on the citadel? He leapt out of bed, naked. He seized up his fine blue tunic from the floor and a pair of sturdy boots he’d left by the door. He gathered up all his rings scattered on the carpet and glanced around for a belt. The shadows cast by the low fire were dark upon darkness.
    “Your soldiers are fighting the savages, ma dahn . Come quickly,” one man said, not giving him time to dress. Another guard crossed the floor in long strides, heading straight for the secret door. He lifted its camouflaged crossbar, opened the door, and held his lantern into the blackness of the secret stairway.
    Devon stood still, hugging his boots, his tunic, his belt. “How did the savages get in ?”
    “They were let in.”
    A traitor within.
    The daring of the attackers was incredible. There was a force of two full Raenthe garrisons in the stockade below, and the wild men chose to break in now ? It was terrifying.
    Such people were not afraid to die.
    No wonder Kani’s defenses were so strong. They hadn’t helped. These people had to be mad.
    Devon shouted at the wall that separated him from Xan’s chamber. “Xan!”
    He