CHAPTER FIFTEEN #2
Back in the bedroom, he focused on getting dry, unwilling to let his thoughts wander.
He’d left his pants in the bathroom, hanging up on a towel rail to dry, so he simply slipped into bed naked, pulling the sheets up to his waist. But as exhausted as he was, there was no thought of falling asleep before Kentario was back by his side.
The man was currently Ryu’s one and only lifeline…
and he took the time to wonder how Kentario felt about that.
What was it like, dedicating your entire life to someone?
Did Kentario resent him? Had he had dreams of his own, like Cael’s desire to study marine science, that had been squashed in the name of honour and duty?
Ryu’s own life was to be spent in service to his country, of course, but there wasn’t any one, specific person who could make his life particularly difficult.
If he was at odds with one noble family, there were others who would support him.
Some sectors of the public always liked to disagree with the monarchy, but other factions took a more reasonable approach, weighing up the pros and cons of each decision, rather than painting them all with the same brush.
But if he did something that Kentario seriously objected to, the man had nowhere else to go, no legal support, no other role he could fulfil and maintain his honour and dignity.
It was a shitty position to be in, and Ryu resolved to start asking some serious questions about disassembling the ancient tradition that tied the Amagarda family inextricably to his own, as soon as this current fire storm was over and things could get back to normal.
“Fucking hell…” he muttered, as he once again realised that ‘normal’ no longer existed. If his parents were actually dead, and if this wasn’t a revolution that would destabilise the entire country, then that meant…
That meant he was the new king. Goddess above, he was only seventeen. His eighteenth birthday wasn’t for another two days. How the hell was he supposed to deal with any of this?
“Try not to think about it.” Ryu leapt halfway off the bed, not having realised Kentario had returned.
He was clean and dry, a towel wrapped around his waist, though his gun belt was still in his hand.
He set it carefully on the floor by the bed, then gingerly pilfered a pillow to set beside it.
There were four of them on the wide bed, and Ryu certainly wasn’t going to lack comfort with one fewer.
“Don’t sleep on the floor,” Ryu said, once he realised what Kentario intended.
“Look, the bed’s plenty big enough for two.
” He shuffled over, making the point by patting the wide empty space beside him.
It was only belatedly that he remembered he was naked, and so was Kentario, and climbing naked into bed with the crown prince was also not on the list of acceptable behaviours for a noble bodyguard.
Kentario, apparently, hadn’t failed to notice the details of the situation.
He made a choked sort of noise, his face flushing a shade or two redder.
“Um, I… Ryu, we’re…” He sighed, then muttered a curse.
He sat down tentatively on the edge of the bed, making sure his towel stayed in place.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.
You’re safe here. And I’ve slept on far worse things than a carpeted floor. ”
Kentario’s huge panther tattoo was snarling at him from beneath his arm.
He’d seen the thing plenty of times, Kentario regularly removing his shirt during training sessions.
But in the dim light of the bedside lamp, the creature looked almost alive, its eyes seeming to follow Ryu as he moved.
Something Kentario had said earlier in the night came back to him.
You are my world, spoken in a brief moment of fear and vulnerability.
He remembered the look of loss and longing when Maro had ordered him to leave Ryu, back at the school.
They’d joked about marrying each other over dinner – Goddess above, had that really only been some five or six hours ago?
And back at the palace, his parents had never allowed Kentario into his bedroom. Had they somehow suspected that…?
Ryu’s body moved without him actually telling it to. One moment, he was curled up in a nest of pillows and blankets, and the next, he was landing squarely in Kentario’s lap, arms flung around his shoulders, face nestled in against his neck, their naked torsos pressed firmly against each other.
Hesitantly, Kentario’s arms came up to cradle him, more tenderly than Ryu would have believed was possible. A deep, smoky scent filled his nose, with an undertone of sandalwood, though Ryu was almost convinced he was imagining the seductive scent.
“Ryu, we shouldn’t… I can’t…” Kentario let out a harsh sigh, and it was only then that Ryu became aware of the detail he’d somehow failed to notice before.
Beneath his thigh, with only a sheet and a fluffy layer of towel between them, Kentario’s cock was rock hard.