“Is that what you want?” I asked instead of answering. We’d never talked about this, and if the idea ever surfaced in some hidden chamber of my heart, I’d been able to avoid seriously considering it. In part because we’d only had a formal relationship since January, but primarily due to the unusual fact that I already had a spouse.
Graham’s reply was indulgent, almost teasing. “Pretty sure I recently promised I would still be with you even if you didn’t speak to me for half a decade. That’s at least as binding as any marriage vow I’ve ever heard.”
He waited a few seconds, but when I hadn’t put together a response, he continued.
“Julian, I couldn’t possibly be more in love with you, or committed to you, or sure that I want to share the rest of my life with you. I think you know that Avery and I don’t ever intend to be apart. But if we repeat the thought experiment from a few weeks ago — if it were just you and me, and he wasn’t in the picture — I would absolutely be popping the question.”
Somehow, even though his regard for me wasn’t new information, it landed in a completely different way. The vision rose in my mind: this magnetically attractive, multi-talented, deeply caring man, with power and status and an inheritance waiting back in Portland, standing with me at the altar and vowing to be my husband. I’d been able to accept the love and loyalty aspects of our relationship. But until now, it hadn’t occurred to me that I was allowed to feel the pulse-pounding, butterfly-hatching thrill of romance, too.
I was feeling it now — that swirling biochemical reaction of wonder and terror, desire and attachment, so intense and inexplicable that people since the dawn of consciousness have likened it to magic. My free hand rose to the pendant I’d worn around my neck for the past four years. All the sacred promises represented by this necklace, Graham was ready to make to me. Not because of my role as Avery’s partner, but because of what he felt for me. And all at once it became crystal clear that I wanted to make them too.
I sat up, my whole body resounding with the wild drumming beneath my ribs, and stared in awe at this man I’d had no idea I needed in my life until he appeared there. I felt giddy as a schoolboy with a crush, and my cheeks were hot, but I didn’t care.
“Then ask me, Graham,” I breathed.
Joy broke over his features. “Will you stand, so I can do this properly?”
I wasn’t sure my legs were going to support me, but I rose and faced him, while he knelt in front of me like a knight before his king: right foot planted, left knee on the damp grass. I’d always thought the custom archaic and unnecessary, but when my beloved captain looked up at me from this posture of humble surrender, his noble bearing and bold confidence offered at my feet, it etched something into my chest that I never wanted to recover from. Passionate fervor to be united with him in every possible way incinerated me from the inside out.
“Julian Michalis Alessio Demos,” Graham’s melodic voice pronounced with reverence. “I love you more than my own life, and as long as I’m breathing, I plan on being with you. Will you make me the happiest man on the planet and marry me?”
“Yes,” I choked from my suddenly unreliable vocal cords. I reached for his hand and tugged him to standing. “Yes,” I whispered again before channeling the overpowering emotions into a fierce kiss.
He responded to my fervor with plenty of his own, pulling me tight and consuming my mouth. I was fully erect within moments, grinding against him and encountering a bulge at his crotch too.
It probably wasn’t the appropriate thing to do, but I peeled his tank top up his torso, and he lifted his arms so I could yank it the rest of the way off. When I reached for the top button on his fly, he quickly finished the job. I tore my clothes off too, and in no time we were down on the picnic blanket, Graham on his back with our naked cocks rutting together in his fist.
“Want you so bad,” I panted into his mouth. “Wish I could be inside you.”
“Lucky I came prepared then,” was the lust-roughened response. He indicated his pack at the base of the cliff shelf, so I dragged it over and rifled hurriedly through the contents until I found a small bottle and towel.
“God, you’re perfect, aren’t you,” I told him as I lathered up and climbed between his parted thighs.
“Not at all,” he replied, staring into my eyes. “But I’m yours.”
I worked my already-throbbing rod into his hole, and his moans were much more eager than pained. We didn’t do this very often — he had no particular need to receive intercourse — but when we did, our connection was electric. I fucked him for as long as I could stand, while he worked his own cock and urged me on with legs wrapped around my back. I released first, the feral impulse overtaking me suddenly and propelling me into the stratosphere. As soon as my climax resolved, I pulled out and sank my lips over Graham’s rigid organ, sucking him until he gave me his seed too. I drank it greedily, with a possessive urgency I’d never felt before.
It wasn’t enough — not nearly. I was going to need to ravish him over and over before I could remotely satisfy the craving his proposal had woken. But we had time. Every day of the rest of our lives.
We did a hasty cleanup using the towel and replaced our underwear for the sake of the blanket, then we lay together as the fading sunset revealed the early stars, pinpricks of light that had traveled unfathomable distances to appear above our atmosphere.
“You ever have sex up here before?” Graham asked when he was positioned against my bare chest, one languid arm draped around my waist.
“Not like that. I’ve teased Avery here once or twice. But to be fair, by now there aren’t many places around the fort where that isn’t the case. Not even counting everywhere he’s worn the plug.”
“The command center?”
“Yep.”
“The hall?”
“My hand on his cock all through dinner, with Rowan on the other side of the table, yes.”
Graham’s voice rose in pitch. “Did she know?”
“I made sure she did.” My lips curved up, remembering how deliciously torn Avery had been between arousal, embarrassment, and need.
“Shit,” my fiancé enthused. “You are one devious sex maven.”
I squeezed his shoulders companionably. “You’re quite talented yourself.” There was no sound for a moment except insects welcoming nightfall. “Have you talked to Avery about this already?”
“Marriage? Not in so many words; didn’t want to put the cart before the horse. I had no doubts about his objectives.”
I had to laugh a little. Avery might have married the captain last fall, if he’d asked. “Could you do it tonight? I don’t want to have to keep this from him.”
Graham’s arm wrapped more snugly around my rib cage. “Sure thing. But not just yet.”
We lay under the mild summer sky for a while longer, fragrant breezes caressing our skin where it wasn’t joined, our conversation roaming among bright memories from our shared past and dreams for the future we were creating.
“When did you know?” he asked at one point. “That this was serious, between us?”