Chapter 215: Chapter 215: When?

“Where is mine?”

Rafael turned his head slowly.

Natalie, still tucked against his side, blinked.

Arik made a sound through the etherboard that suggested he had just been handed court-grade blackmail and the best afternoon of his week.

Rafael narrowed his eyes at his husband. “Excuse me?”

Gregoris did not move back. His gaze remained warm, fixed on Rafael and the sleeping child in his arms, and the look in his eyes had very little to do with innocent household fairness.

“Where,” he repeated, quieter now, “is mine?”

Rafael stared at him.

Then at Natalie, who had gone from curious to delighted with frightening speed.

Then at Arik, who looked one breath away from collapsing against the projection in joy.

Then back at Gregoris.

“You,” Rafael said with immense dignity, “are a disgrace to military professionalism.”

“No,” Gregoris said. “I’m asking a fair question.”

Natalie smiled. “I agree.”

“Of course you do.”

Arik leaned in. “I also agree.”

Rafael pointed at the etherboard. “No one asked you.”

Gregoris, traitorous beast, still looked only at Rafael.

And then, because fate had fully abandoned him, Natalie tilted her head and asked, with complete seriousness, “Do you want a kiss too, Father?”

The room went silent.

Gregoris blinked once.

Arik made a choking noise that was absolutely laughter.

Rafael closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, Natalie was still watching Gregoris with that calm, bright curiosity she always wore when she believed she was being helpful.

“Natalie,” Rafael said.

“What?” she asked. “He asked.”

Gregoris smiled.

Rafael looked at him and knew, with total certainty, that he was about to lose this exchange in the most humiliating way possible.

Then Gregoris said, with calm that should have been illegal, “Yes.”

Arik nearly folded in half over the projection.

Rafael stared at his husband. “I cannot believe I married into this.”

Gregoris raised a brow. “I pursued you.”

Rafael sighed, leaned in, and kissed Gregoris’s cheek before he could say anything more ridiculous.

The room went still.

Not because the gesture itself was scandalous. It wasn’t. Rafael and Gregoris were married and entirely devoted to one another, and their children had never been raised under the illusion that affection between their parents was shameful or scarce. But Rafael’s kiss had been fast, precise, and very obviously delivered for one reason only: to stop Gregoris from continuing to speak.

Which, naturally, made it worse.

Natalie’s eyes widened with delighted vindication.

Arik made a wounded sound through the ether projection, like a prince who had just watched a private victory handed to the opposing side and respected it too much not to suffer.

Gregoris did not move.

That, in itself, was suspicious.

Rafael drew back with as much dignity as a man could muster after kissing his husband into temporary silence in front of two children and a live ether link.

“There,” he said coolly. “That should keep you from rewriting history.”

Gregoris looked at him.

Then, with infuriating steadiness, “No.”

Rafael narrowed his eyes. “No?”

“No,” Gregoris repeated. “It confirms it.”

Natalie broke first and laughed into her hand.

Arik actually slapped the arm of his chair on the other side of the projection. “That was incredible.”

Rafael turned toward the board with immediate offense. “No one asked you.”

“No,” Arik said, grinning openly now, “but I support him.”

“Of course you do. You were clearly raised without enough adversity.”

—

Later.

Rafael had made it as far as the corridor outside their suite before Gregoris caught him with the serenity of a man who had waited long enough and intended to collect what he had been promised.

Rafael felt his back meet the wooden door with a soft thud. Gregoris’s hand was already between him and the carved panel, taking most of the impact. The kiss landed deep and claiming, the other hand at Rafael’s waist drawing him in until there was no space left worth naming between them.

Rafael made a low sound against his mouth that was far less reproachful than he would later claim.

When Gregoris finally gave him enough air to speak, Rafael breathed, “So much for patience.”

Gregoris’s mouth brushed the corner of his again. “I warned you.”

“That,” Rafael said, one hand catching at the front of Gregoris’s shirt, “was not a warning. That was extortion disguised as marital fairness.”

Gregoris kissed him again, slower this time, as if proving he could take his time now that he finally had him alone. His hand stayed broad and warm at Rafael’s back, the other sliding from waist to hip.

Rafael felt heat go through him in one sharp, familiar wave.

The whole day seemed to gather there at once – the children, the laughter, Gregoris asking where his kiss was in that low, impossible voice, the brief temple kiss in the family room, the look in his husband’s eyes every time Rafael softened without meaning to.

All of it turning now into this.

When Gregoris’s mouth left his long enough to trail to his jaw, Rafael tipped his head back against the door and let out a slow breath.

“You are,” he said, and had to stop because Gregoris had found the place under his ear and clearly had no intention of behaving like a civilized person, “an outrageous man.”

Gregoris’s answer came against his skin. “You like outrageous.”

Rafael opened his eyes and looked down at him with what should have been cutting offense and was, unfortunately, something much less effective. “I like you selectively.”

“Liar.”

Rafael felt his fingers tighten in Gregoris’s shirt.

“Then…” His breath caught when Gregoris’s mouth grazed that same ruinous place beneath his ear again, his whole body answering before dignity could interfere. “Let’s have another child.”

Gregoris went still.

His hand remained broad and certain at Rafael’s waist, the other still braced warm between Rafael’s back and the carved wood of the door. The entire corridor seemed to narrow into one suspended, impossible second.

Rafael knew that stillness.

Knew exactly what it meant when Gregoris – who never hesitated over action, only over things that mattered too much – fell quiet like that.

So, naturally, Rafael lifted his chin and made it worse.

“Well?” he asked softly, his pulse still far too quick. “You were the one collecting kisses like a man filing state claims.”

Gregoris lifted his head.

His silver eyes met Rafael’s.

For a moment, Gregoris only looked at him.

Then his hand moved from Rafael’s waist to his jaw, thumb settling against the line of his cheek with devastating care.

“You mean that,” he said.

It was not a question.

That annoyed Rafael on principle, because he had intended at least another ten seconds of elegant ambiguity before honesty took over the room.

“Obviously,” he said. “I would not propose reproductive expansion in the corridor for sport.”

Gregoris smiled softly.

Rafael felt his breath catch again.

“You’re doing that face,” he murmured.

“What face?”

“That one. The one that makes it difficult to maintain standards.”

Gregoris bent down and kissed him once, pressing their lips together like a promise that was about to break.

When he drew back, his voice was lower.

“When?”

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