STORY EXCERPT

It was a fiercely hot summer day and instead of beginning the battle at Prime, like a normal fight, they’d been lined up in battle array for hours while Lord Bolton argued with his noble friends. Meanwhile the serfs and peasants shuffled their feet and moved this way and that instead of remaining in formation, and Lord Howard started screaming and waving his arms like a child deprived of his toy sword. Lord Howard’s friends tried to quiet him down but that only made him even angrier until he was ranting and railing so loudly it was a wonder they couldn’t decipher the words all the way over on the far side of the battlefield.

By the time battle was joined Hartley’s body was slicked with sweat, the weight of his metal great helm made his neck and head ache, and he was very thirsty. But he was a swordsman and ignored all that to engage his opponent in fair combat.

The man was a little taller than him, his war horse very well trained. Hartley wasn’t rich enough to have such a well-trained beast, but his horse knew the rudimentary rules of battle and let him concentrate on the thrust and parry of the engagement.

It didn’t take him more than ten minutes to notice that the loud shouts and crash of metal against metal had already diminished. His opponent stopped attacking and only defended himself. Hartley took a moment to turn his head and saw serfs and peasants fleeing the field.

What the fuck? They weren’t trained fighters, but they owed allegiance and service to their lord. They had no right to leave until the battle was over.

He fought on resolutely, until he realized his opponent was deliberately making him turn and then he saw why. Lord Howard was lying on the ground, dead or dying, and two other men were lying beside him.

Without a word he and his opponent stopped fighting and climbed off their horses.

All around them the other swordsmen were doing the same thing. Already the last of the serfs was fast disappearing over the hill behind them.

He pulled his great helm off and finally could look around freely. Lord Bolton and Lord Howard were both dead. Two other noblemen were injured, and the battle had stopped. There was no sense in continuing to fight when the protagonists were dead.

But what did this mean to him? Who would pay him his silver?

Hartley turned to look at his former opponent. The man, taller than him and stronger looking as he’d guessed, held out his hand. “Randall.”

“Hartley.”

Since then they’d been friends and companions, working side by side as swordsmen under Bancroft and Winston to claim this castle and make it safe to live in. He enjoyed cooking and so did Randall, so they spent time together in the kitchens until some women arrived to take care of the food preparation.

These were young women who’d been enslaved by the masterless men who’d captured the castle. Several women became pregnant to their captors and their village didn’t want them back, so Bancroft had offered them safe housing here at the castle, provided they worked.

Now that someone else was available to prepare the meals, he and Randall would be helping in the fields, planting winter food crops. He was less familiar with planting, sowing, and weeding, but knew what vegetables looked like in the soil and had picked them many times, so expected he’d adjust to his task. Or maybe he’d remain on guard duty and care for their horses. That was a better fit for the skills he had.

Hartley wanted to be with Randall. His former opponent was the closest thing to a friend he’d ever really had, and he didn’t want to lose that connection.

He rolled over onto his back and stared at Randall. The big man was lying naked beside him on the large comfortable bed. This was the first time ever that Hartley had spent an entire night in a bed. Various lovers had taken him into their bed, but he’d always been expected to leave after the fucking was done. Of course, most of the fucking he’d done hadn’t even happened in a bed, but against a wall in a darkened stable or shed, or on the ground under their cloaks, or perhaps on a blanket under a tree.

Hartley shook his head. Those men weren’t lovers. Randall was his first and only true lover. The bodily contact he’d considered love in the past merely scratched an itch. His feelings for Randall were completely different. He thought it was love. Or maybe that it would continue to deepen and truly become love. Whether his feelings now were love or not, they were already a lot more than scratching an itch, and a lot deeper than anything he’d ever felt in the past. They were truly different.

Randall mattered to him. Not as a meal ticket or as a protector. He’d had them in the past. Now he could support and protect himself as a trained swordsman. No, Randall mattered to him as a person. They were equals, swordsmen working for a mutual gain to make this castle safe so they could all live here. But this meant more than that. He didn’t want Randall to like him for self-preservation. He wanted Randall to return the emotions he felt.

The problem was Hartley didn’t know what love was. No one had ever loved him before. They’d liked his body and enjoyed fucking him. More recently, they’d appreciated his skills with a sword and hired him to fight for them. But love? No, that was new. Completely new and totally unexpected.

Was what he felt for Randall genuine love? Did Randall return his love? Or was it all just his own need making him see things that didn’t really exist?

ADULT EXCERPT

“Where did you grow up? Which town?” He wanted to ask why Hartley’s family didn’t have any land, but that question might be too harsh to ask just yet.

“York.” Hartley’s voice was clipped and Randall guessed he didn’t want to talk about the town. Or maybe about his childhood. So he rolled over and pulled Hartley’s naked body closer to him.

“I’ve been to York. It has sturdy walls.” He let his mouth drift closer to Hartley’s. When Hartley didn’t withdraw from him at all he slid down the man’s body and licked a line down the center of his chest, stopping to bite lightly on both nipples as he licked lower and lower. By the time he reached Hartley’s navel, the man’s cock was pressing into his skin, hard and ready for action. But Randall wasn’t going to be rushed. They weren’t on duty and they were alone in bed. These circumstances were too good to waste.

He gave sharp little nips with his teeth all around Hartley’s bellybutton and then continued licking his way on down, down until he reached Hartley’s ready cock.

Randall continued to lick. This time it was long lines along the pulsing blue vein up the side of Hartley’s cock. Then he sucked each of the man’s heavy balls into his mouth, nibbling on the rougher skin. Only then, when he could hear Hartley’s harsh, panting breaths, did he suck his lover’s cock into his mouth.

Hartley was always quickly aroused, and this morning was no different. Randall knew Hartley had taken lovers before him, and that didn’t bother him. Swordsmen lived a lonely and itinerant life. They had to take their pleasure where they could get it. But right now he wanted Hartley to want him and only him in his ass. So he concentrated on licking and sucking until Hartley’s hips were thrashing with his need as he tried to encourage Randall to swallow his cock.

Randall sucked harder, giving Hartley what he wanted, and Hartley groaned as his cock spurted its hot cum into Randall’s mouth.

He spat the seed into his hand and spread it all around Hartley’s rosette, then began massaging it into the tight muscle ring and inside the opening. More cum jetted from Hartley’s cock as Randall pumped it and milked him, spreading this essence as well all around Hartley’s back door.

Hartley was still thrusting up with his hips, making soft murmurs of excitement as Randall quickly opened his ass.

“Let me,” groaned Hartley.

Randall slid to his knees and Hartley leaned up, sucking Randall’s cock into his mouth now, wetting it thoroughly and giving a long hard suck on the head as well.

Randall pushed Hartley back down and he rolled onto his front. Randall kneeled behind him and pressed his damp and needy cockhead at Hartley’s back door. He wiggled and rocked his way inside, and then he was past the entry and drove deep. Hartley was so hot and tight Randall could easily have exploded instantly, but he gritted his teeth and waited until Hartley was ready for him. Then he began a slow in and out, thrust and retreat, thrust and retreat, advance and withdraw, advance and withdraw.

Soon the sturdy wooden bed was rocking in time to their movements. It was something they weren’t used to. Up until now mostly they’d fucked on the ground outside where there was no chance of breaking anything.

He wanted to say something clever about checking the quality of the construction of the bed, but he couldn’t think of anything except how hot and tight Hartley’s ass was, and how much he wanted to come deep inside his lover. However, he wanted Hartley to come again as well. He knew it was possible. Hartley had come more than once in a session on other occasions. Suddenly it was vitally important to Randall that Hartley come with him this time. That he want this completion as much as Randall did.

Randall rested his body over Hartley’s and reached around to fist Hartley’s cock. He took it in his hand and tugged on it in time to the pounding of his own dick inside Hartley’s ass. Hartley’s cock was hard again already, so Randall pumped harder and tugged more on it, twisting his hand on every second or third stroke to add to the fucking. He pressed his lips to Hartley’s shoulder, kissing the sweaty shoulder blade, and licking along a scar there.

Hartley groaned and pushed back on Randall’s strokes, driving Randall’s cock deeper into his ass until Randall’s balls were grinding against Hartley’s flesh.

Now it was Randall who groaned. “Ah fuck. It’ll be all over in a heartbeat if you do too much of that.”

“Make it two heartbeats.” Hartley’s words were little more than grunts. But that was good. It told Randall exactly how aroused he was and how needy he felt. His lover was about to come again, which was just what he’d planned for. Randall pulled right out of Hartley’s ass, paused, and then gripped his hips tightly and slammed back in with all his strength. The bed creaked, Hartley groaned, and their cocks exploded together, his seed pouring into Hartley’s ass, and Hartley’s seed jetting out against his belly.

Randall collapsed over Hartley’s back as they sank back down onto the blanket. Then he pulled his cock out of Hartley’s ass and turned him over so he could hold him in his arms.

This was what he wanted. Hartley in his arms from now on. Every day and every night.