The Love She Always Wanted
"Your chin is bruised," Varya said. "I couldn't see it in the lighting of the main hall. It's from the spar?"
Basileus nodded.
She leaned forward and their naked chests pressed against each other. With a featherlight touch, her lips touched the bruise under his chin, willing it to heal.
"Nothing unusual," Basileus said. "When I was in a lower rank there wasn't a time where I didn't have a bruise on me." He became thoughtful. "When I was a teenager, Kruos was expanding the empire faster than ever before. He needed footsoldiers."
Varya stared at him intently while he talked. She wondered what kind of things he had to see even when he was only a child. Things that were normal to him were probably traumatic to her.