Of course.

Of course this was how their first completed intimacy would end. Damen wondered why he had ever expected anything different.

This was simply how Laurent operated. Lure Damen into a lull of affection, arousal, and openness, get what he wanted from him, then twist the knife in to his exposed heart.

Damen laid his tired limbs across a dry patch of bed. Two days of this and he was exhausted. What would two years do to him? Two decades?

One or both of us will be dead, he thought with a grim smile. We can't survive this, day in and day out.

And when his body slave slipped in to ready him as usual, he did not have the wherewithal to send her away. He allowed himself no liberties, simply allowed her to clean him in the simple lavatory afforded by his suite. He thought longingly of the baths, of scraping and steaming away the bruises of this day and night. He stopped her before she could pass the sponge between his legs.

"I will do that myself."

Laurent's words came back to him. He had to keep himself from trembling. "Go."

She fled.

[Time to skip to awkward festivities?]