#two.

Bubbles froth around your sides, and you sink further into the cloudy, pale blue waters. Vapour already has flyaway strands sticking to your temples in spite of your efforts to tame your hair around a comb, but who cares right now? You’re warm at last, and this heat is already doing wonders for your back pain. 

Tilting your head back to fall against the padded rest (intentional design, and incredibly luxurious), you allow yourself to recall the day’s events. Mostly cataloguing, a few narrow crates being lowered down into the archival spaces, seven boxes shipped out from the section you’ve been given to manage…it’s good to be back here, after so long. 

Fabric rustles along the heated slabs of the bathing chambers, and you glance towards the noise, a faint smile tugging at your mouth as you recognise the male entering. “Helion. Or should I call you High Lord? It’s good to see you again after all this time.” 

Helion’s eyes roll, “you’re a few centuries late with that one, but I’ll allow it.” Amber eyes peruse the surrounding bathing pools—all empty—before returning to yours with a seducing glint. 

You scoff, rolling your eyes and resting your head against the water-proofed cushion. “And here I’d thought you’d sought me out to personally welcome me back, since my return is so supposedly overdue.” 

Helion chuckles, a low, deep sound that reverberates through the chambers, thrumming between your thighs. “You haven’t changed a bit,” he muses, slow steps eating up the ground between you until he’s stood besides your chosen pool: a large circular tub raised from the tile floor. “Still working yourself into a grave?”

“Still sneaking from one bedroom to another?” 

“You weren’t told about the bi-monthly orgies?” Helion drawls, running his fingers over the damp strands of hair curling at your forehead. “I’m certain I sent out an invite.” 

“You’ve not changed a bit either,” you scoff, peeking your eyes open to glance at him. “How do you even have time for it all? You barely managed before.” 

“I’ve learned my people tend to be more willing to work hard if I keep them happy. It’s a small sacrifice to make.” 

“How noble of you. I’m sure it’s not at all mutually beneficial. Not at all.” 

“Speaking of ‘mutually beneficial’,” Helion murmurs, and that tone—you can’t help the mirth that tugs your lips into a smile. 

“So smooth, High Lord,” you tease, inclining into his touch as his palms slide outwards across the tops of your bare shoulders. “The rumours were true.” 

“I’ve always been smooth,” he counters, “but you’ve always declined.” 

“I’ve been working to keep your court in order, which I imagine you’re incredibly grateful for?” 

“You must recall it wasn’t my court at the time. You’ve been away for a long, long time, peaches.” 

“So you are here to welcome me back,” you tease, easing further into his touch as his lips graze your brow. “I had no idea you missed me so much.” 

Helion chuckles, his dominant hand slipping forward, edging along the seam where water meets skin. “I was wrong,” he whispers, “you have changed.” 

“That makes one of us…” 

“I hear you’re bathing to ease those aches of yours,” the High Lord murmurs, and you can already sense his direction. Smooth indeed. 

“Care to help me?” Before you know it the offer is out, and you’ve no regrets. 

“You aren’t going to make me work for it this time?” He asks, fingers teasing their way below the surface. That draws a laugh from you, surprising even to your own ears, “I never put you to work in the past, Helion. You chose to pursue me.” 

“And now you’re after me?” 

“You sound hopeful.” You lift a hand from the water, settling over his own, and tilt your head to face him more directly. “But you’re still the one who came to me. Now, you know of anything to help with these aches I’m experiencing?” 

“A few remedies come to mind.” 

“So coy, High Lord. Maybe I should be putting you to work.” 

Helion laughs, but there’s a strain in his voice. Tension in his amusement. “You’ve been cruel in the past, but never intentionally. Surely you won’t start now.” 

“Depends. We both know I’m cranky when I’m sore.” 

“You’re such a flirt,” he whispers, close enough to share breath, and his arm slides deeper into the water. “When did that happen?” 

“Maybe when I realised that grave I was digging was only big enough for one.” 

“That’s why you’ve come back?” He asks, breathless and disbelieving. “I was wrong. You are cruel.”

“Cruel is giving hope where there is none,” you return, legs parting as his palm coasts over your stomach. “Cruel is leading someone on.” 

“Am I being led on?” 

“Why would I start now?” You murmur.

The High Lord’s amusement puffs against your mouth. “I’ve deciphered ancient spells less cryptic than you.” 

“Maybe you need to work a different sort of magic here.” 

“May I?” He asks, amber eyes dark and dilated.

“You may.” 

Thick fingers slide between your thighs, sinking into tangling curls, equally eager and patient. He explores you slowly, tracing down from the tip of your clit to the dip of your entrance, pushing his way between your lips so he can split you apart as he trails back up. “You know, I hadn’t anticipated such an abrupt shift in interest.” 

“You had no ulterior motives behind your desire to welcome me back?” You ask lightly as his finger settles over your clit without him even having to look at you. The touches start slow at first, gentle and exploratory, only gradually increasing in pressure as he gains familiarity of you. 

“Why even ask,” Helion murmurs atop your mouth, and you shift to rest your head against his shoulder. “You know me too well.” 

“You’re sounding rather confident in yourself, High Lord.” 

“Not at all,” he laughs, “you’ve only ever declined my invitations, but I can’t help wanting to offer.” 

“Wanting to offer…what? Your skills in pleasure?” 

He begins circling your clit, more soothing than stimulating, and you can certainly understand why so many people seem to incline towards him. He’s always been intuitive in a way that you’re not, able to gauge emotion with few hints and nourish characters you’d assumed to be barren. Even without the skills following him into the bedroom, it’s obvious he was born to fill this role. 

“Anything to make you feel good,” Helion answers, amber eyes flicking over your features. He pauses, then, “for example…” Fingers shift between your legs, then something round and cylindrical is being gently pressed to the apex of your thighs. 

You almost stir enough to glance down before recalling the cloudy tint to the water. You look at him. “What is it?” 

There’s a moment. A fleeting flash of something behind his eyes that’s too quick to read. 

“It’s a vibrator,” he answers. Then, after a pause. “Have you used one before?” 

“No.” 

The High Lord blinks, then he’s tipping himself forward, just enough to push his face into the crook of your neck. His hair and breath tickle your throat, and your lips curve. Besides your ear, Helion groans, “just how long were you working away in that grave?” 

You laugh, “a few centuries too long, by the sound of it. Are you about to acquaint us?” 

“I’d be honoured to acquaint you, peaches.” 

“Ohh, cut it out will you? That nickname is-”

Something clicks to life, and vibrations simmer between your thighs. 

You breathe in a sharp inhale, jolting from the intensity of the stimulation but Helion adjusts without even having to raise his head. 

The pressure alleviates, gently prodding and pushing until he finds a spot to lightly press against—just above your clit. 

You tilt further into his hold, basking in the heat and power as his forearm wraps across the top of your chest, fingers curling around the opposite shoulder while he opens his mouth over your throat. Something between a sigh and a moan slips free in response.

“You were saying?” He murmurs, between kisses.

You shush him, and he laughs, before deepening the pressure.

Your thighs and stomach tense, gasping as your body coils tight beneath the vibrations. It’s so much.

Your legs are shaking.

“How are you liking your new acquaintance?” The High Lord asks, pressing a kiss just shy of your jaw. “Fun, hm?”

“Fun is…” you stammer, clutching at him for dear life. “A word.”

Fuck.

What did he say this was again?

“You’ve a whole world to catch up on,” Helion murmurs, his dark-as-molasses voice stirring the heat coalescing between your thighs. “I’d be more than happy to show it to you, if you’ll let me?”

Tonight??

Your attempted inhale pushes out as a moan, thighs parting further as your hips incline into the vibrations. Such precise, targeted vibrations. What kind of magic-?

The high spills over, relief coursing through your body as the orgasm rushes free. Curses fill your mind as the vibrations layer atop this freshened sensitivity, and your mouth is a helpless vessel for the swears that spill out in a flurry.

Helion doesn’t overstay his welcome, relieving you from the onslaught the precise moment before pleasure tips into discomfort, vanishing away the toy as if it had never been there in the first place, soothing you with slow, gentle touches with his fingers.

His lips trail over your jaw. “Satisfied, peaches?”

“Wicked male,” you whisper at him. “And you thought to call me cruel.”

“Cruel for subjecting you to pleasure, or cruel for giving it to you and then taking it away?”

“You think I can answer right now?” You mumble.

Amber eyes rove over your mouth, and you submit to the first whim your mind conjures—kiss him. He’s right there.

Helion groans against your mouth, lips warm and devouring as he satiates a fraction of his desire with what you’ll give him.

It was the right decision, to return home after all this time.

~~~~