Apprentice's Luck by K.L. Noone

Author:K.L. Noone [Noone, K.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-15T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Talis woke to a soft kiss against his cheek, in pre-dawn dimness; the early Church bells must have just gone, though he hadn’t heard them. He grumbled in wordless protest as Jer moved; Jer laughed gently, tucked the blankets back around him. “You don’t have to be up yet.”

“But. You are.”

“I’ve got some work to do.”

“Work?” The sun wasn’t even making an effort yet. The bed was warm, and Jer was warm. Talis rolled over toward his guardsman. “Now?”

“You’re not a morning person,” Jer said. “It’s all right. You can have a few more minutes.”

“I’m a morning person if I’ve got you in bed and naked,” Talis tried.

“If we’ve got time. Go back to sleep, I’ll wake you in an hour or so.”

“What’re you doing?”

“Finishing next week’s duty schedule for the scouts, since I didn’t do that last night. Some morning exercises. Simple. I don’t have time to go for a run or anything.”

“I do like your muscles…”

“You can rest. You’ll be working later.” Jer’s face, even in silvery morning mist-light, remained tense about that fact. “Stay warm.”

Talis yawned, wordless, and let Jer nestle him into a nest of blankets and pillows. He did not entirely fall asleep, only drowsing, watching. The early morning, cool and delicate as window-panes. Candlelit glimpses: Jer pulling on a loose shirt and trousers, motion unthinkingly lovely, casually strong. Jer taking the wobbly chair at the small desk, checking a calendar, writing out some notes. The candlelight and the dawn flowed along his arm, under a rolled-up shirtsleeve, over tanned skin and tiny golden hairs.

Talis tucked a hand under his cheek. Watched Jer read over the schedule and nod, satisfied; watched Jer lean back in defiance of chair-wobbliness—the chair tipped onto two legs, and steadied—and stretch, arms over his head. Then all the muscles got up in a liquid ripple of power and practiced precision, a lean sunlit sword blade with loose hair. His feet were bare against the naked smooth wood of the floor.

Talis did not know the names of any of the exercises, stretches, routines. He could tell that they required balance, poise, control, discipline. Jer moved like a dancer, into a pose and the holding of it and then slowly into another, water and wind and the slow grace of molten glass.

Jer did not look at him, having settled into the morning’s routine, wholly absorbed. Talis could have watched him forever, if the morning could have lasted forever. Choreography like calligraphy, flowing from one line to the next. The small airy space. Those neat bare feet, quietly intimate. Talis himself curled up and cozy and lazily sleepily warm with desire and satisfaction: he was in this man’s bed, and Jer was his, and they were here together.

The sun came up gradually, flirting with tiger’s-eye clouds and fuchsia veils. The rain had gone, though the suggestion of it hung draped around city spires and river curves like a loosely worn lace shawl.

Jer held the last pose for a second, a portrait of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.