Page 114 of Tell No Tales
Ah, but when they did, gods, Klaus had never felt anything sweeter. He wanted to bottle that feeling with an enchantment and sell it on the streets. They wouldn't need a navy or wars, then. Everyone would be too preoccupied with their own pleasure to fight.
Vadim laughed. "Now you know why Coryn wanted to close all the pleasure houses."
"Why didn't she?" Klaus asked. Coryn had complete control over the empire's military, even with Hugo as the figurehead.
"Even her loyalists threatened mutiny." Vadim rolled them onto their sides and caressed Klaus's face. "I didn't understand at the time. Sex has never been anything more than a momentary release."
"And now?"
"I still don't understand what others find in the pleasure houses," he admitted, "but we have something more."
More was an understatement. Klaus would kill for more, die for more, destroy armies of undead for more. "We made love," Klaus restated. "That's not something most find in pleasure houses, but if they've had it before, they'll chase it the rest of their lives, wherever they can get it."
He'd been too young and naïve to understand how love worked when he'd taken his first job. He had been the object of others' desire, but he'd never been in love. Now, he would do anything to keep Vadim by his side, and anyone in their way would be sorry, even their emperor.
"You have nothing to worry about," Vadim said, reading his thoughts through their bond. "Hugo's harmless. Shy and naïve, that's all. In a few days, he'll love our little crew as much as we do, and he'll focus his desires elsewhere."
Klaus wanted to argue, but only time would tell. "We're a mess again," he said instead. "Think Hannah would—"
"There's a perfectly good wash basin on deck," Vadim countered. "We should use it."
"Fine," Klaus grumbled. He didn't mind being naked on deck, especially since everyone but Niall and the captain were below for the evening meal, but the sun was down, and a blustery wind carried them along without the aid of an air weaver.
Vadim shivered under the cold bucket wash, but he'd also brought two towels with him. They were large enough to wrap Klaus from shoulder to knee, and Vadim draped him in a warm robe so he could focus more on his hair. Thankfully, the captain's back was turned to them and Niall was waiting in their shared cabin, so no one chided them when they spent far longer than necessary helping each other dry off, and if they kissed a few times, only the stars paid any heed.
"They're on the move," Klaus said when he sensed Olivia, Tovey, and Stan on their way from the galley. Vadim raced him to the crate, where Mewskers sat at the door with his tail curled around his legs.
"Aww, poor little Mewskers." Vadim bent to scoop him into the folds of his robe. "Time to go to bed."
"Mew."
They made it inside the crate before Stan and Tovey reached them. Olivia had gone the opposite way, toward her cabin first. "Have a good night," Vadim said to them.
"Not as good as yours, I'm sure." Stan grinned.
"Don't egg them on," Tovey said. "The wind's not blowing hard enough to drown them out yet."
"We're expecting a squall before morning," Stan said. "Nothing like the last one Hannah called, but it might bring snow."
"More cold." Vadim huffed out a sigh.
"It is almost winter," Tovey said. "We'll be home before the worst of it."
Klaus worried Vadim and Tovey would stand in the doorway posturing the rest of the night, but Vadim finally shut the door. There was just enough light to guide Klaus to his pillow, which he picked up and placed beside Vadim's in the sail bed.
"You don't mind, do you?" he asked.
Vadim shook his head, and Klaus was overcome with emotion through their bond.
"Why does something so small make you happy?" Klaus asked.
"You make me happy. You trust me enough to keep you safe, even in a sail bed."
"Of course." Klaus still struggled with getting into the thing, but Vadim held it steady for him, and then Vadim lay down beside him.
"You didn't always trust me."
Klaus shook his head. "It wasn't that I didn't trust you. I still don't like these things. I move too much, and they twist around me." He grinned, and in the dim light, Vadim traced his lips. "I trust you to keep me from strangling myself with it."
