When they finally pulled apart, Ksar’s gaze was a little unfocused, soft around the edges but endlessly hungry. “Are we done cuddling?”
Seyn gave a sly grin. “Why, is there something else that you want?”
“I have a few ideas,” Ksar said, his hand slipping between their bodies to cup Seyn’s hard cock.
Much later, as they lay tangled in the sheets and in each other, naked, tired, and sexually sated—for now—Seyn murmured into Ksar’s bare chest, “I’m staying the night.”
“I wasn’t planning to throw you out,” Ksar said, his voice already heavy with sleep, his arms tightening around him.
Seyn grinned into Ksar’s chest. Embarrassed by his own sappiness, he said, “It’s not that I’m feeling needy or something like that.” Though, if he were being entirely honest with himself, he did feel needy. Just a tad. It had just been too long, and he didn’t really feel like being away from Ksar even for a few hours. “I don’t particularly want to go home and face my mothers. And Jamil.” Seyn groaned, imagining his brother’s reaction. “Ugh. This is going to be horrible, isn’t it? I can only imagine what people are saying right now. Everyone will stare and say all kinds of nasty stuff about us, and it’ll be a total shit show—”
“So…nothing you aren’t used to,” Ksar said, very dryly.
Seyn lifted his head and grinned, meeting Ksar’s eyes. “But this time there won’t be a certain top-lofty ass to drive crazy with my improper behavior, so that takes half the fun out of it.”
“I always knew that everything you did was for my attention,” Ksar murmured with an infuriating smirk.
Seyn gave him a telepathic smack. “Arrogance isn’t attractive, you ass.”
“Liar,” Ksar said. “We’ve already established that you like it.”
Seyn looked at him—at his sex-tousled hair, sleepy eyes and the arrogant set of his jaw—and thought,
I love you so much.
Although sudden, the thought didn’t surprise him all that much.
Deep down, he knew it had always been Ksar, one way or another. Ksar was the person he’d always been the most passionate about, be it hatred or love. Even if he’d fallen in love with someone else, he would have never felt as strongly for them. Seyn was glad he hadn’t fallen in love with someone else. He’d hate to love someone but not have them as the person that mattered the most.
“What?” Ksar said, probably reading something on his face.
Seyn looked at him for a long moment, hesitating. A small part of him, the one that didn’t want to get hurt, didn’t want to make himself vulnerable. But he knew that honesty would be the best course of action if he wanted their relationship to work. Ksar’s issues with love were deeper than his. A person who’d never been loved would never recognize love and vocalize it.
So Seyn looked Ksar in the eye and said quietly, “I love you.”
Ksar’s mouth twitched, as if he wasn’t sure what to say or how to react to that. But he didn’t need to say anything for Seyn to feel the almost violent rush of foreign happiness and elation mixed with bewilderment and possessiveness.
At last, Ksar said hoarsely, “Let’s sleep. It’s getting late, and it’ll be a long day tomorrow.” His arms felt like iron bands around Seyn, holding him so tightly it almost hurt.
Seyn didn’t mind.
He felt an odd sort of peace, as if finally admitting his feelings made the war of emotions inside him end. He didn’t even mind that Ksar didn’t say the words back. He didn’t expect him to, not at this point, not before he was ready to say them.
But someday, he would be.
And Seyn would be there.
Epilogue
Four years later
The baby was sleeping.
Seyn smiled, laying a hand against the artificial womb’s outer wall and projecting comfort and love. There was no scientific proof that unborn babies could sense emotions coming from the outside world, but that didn’t faze him. It wasn’t hardship.
The door behind him opened, and instantly, a wonderful sense of wholeness filled Seyn’s being. Seyn smiled a little. Although he and Ksar didn’t share the traditional bond most Calluvians did, they had something much better: a telepathic bond that had developed naturally over time as the consequence of indulging in too many telepathic merges.
“Councilor Xuvok has been looking for the King-Consort all day, but I see he’s shirking his duties,” Ksar said wryly.
Seyn pulled a face. “I hate dealing with that stubborn old mule.” He shot Ksar a haughty look. “And what do you mean, shirking my duties? I’ll have you know I was consulting with my son. I am his Regent, after all.”
Ksar walked over and sat down next to him. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
Seyn looped his arms around Ksar’s neck and grinned at him. “I’ll take that as a compliment, Your Majesty.” The form of address still felt a little strange on his tongue, even though it had already been a year since Queen Tamirs had abdicated.