Chapter 8
Ihad known Solaris was going to be trouble.
After we got out of the water, dressed, and convinced the horses to leave, I’d gone and chosen to ride one of the horses. I should’ve done something to stop myself from overthinking, like riding in the carriage with the color squad. I could’ve had conversation instead of just my own thoughts.
Because I rode that damn horse for hours and couldn’t stop reliving every small gesture and breathless sound, looking for meaning. Had our relationship changed? Were we friends with benefits now? If I got horny tonight, could I go to him?
We weren’t in a relationship. I knew that much.
Obviously, we weren’t. Not just because we barely knew each other, but also because he was a prince of the realm, and I was…
a human? Did that matter? What I knew of princes in my own world said they married for alliances and heirs. What was expected of princes here?
We didn’t make any sense.
But I was already hoping we’d “have to” share a room tonight.
And then I got off the horse in town and my entire focus was on the fact that my hips might’ve dislocated and muscles atrophied. “Fucking hell!” I hollered as I clung to the saddle. “I can’t walk!”
All of them and some passersby laughed at me. “Just walk it off,” Nick the Prick said jovially.
Unhelpful assholes. Someone should’ve warned me.
Shuffling into the pub, I was pretty sure I’d just learned why John Wayne had walked the way he had. My knees didn’t want to bend and my hips were only moving so I didn’t fall on my face. I couldn’t hear my bones creaking, but it felt like they were.
I’d be in or on the carriage from then on, so help me.
We opted to eat down in the pub first, so the barman got us settled at a table.
I thought back to Lars. Once we got to the castle, I’d have to find a way to return the carriage and horses to him.
Maybe he’d stolen it all, or maybe it had been his, but either way, I should get them back to him with my thanks.
A waitress brought us strips of beef jerky, wedges of cheddar, thick wheat bread, and canned peaches. Canned as in mason jars of preserved fruit, which had me wondering again how the drought was impacting farming. They couldn’t import from another court, so how were they handling it?
“At first,” Red said, “we just had a longer growing season. Food was abundant, so our efforts went to preserving it.” He tapped the jar of peaches with his fork.
“But then the plants started failing,” Frank said. “The rains stopped and the heat didn’t, so it was as if the plants became exhausted.”
“We started digging wells and constructing greenhouses,” Purple added. “A few rerouted rivers to bring the water closer to their fields. Those didn’t last long.”
I kept flicking glances at Solaris while his friends talked. He looked like this was news to him, too. Disappointment stabbed into me. I was fine with experts doing their thing, but he should’ve been there to encourage them at the very least.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said tiredly. “I was focused on the curse and breaking it. Others led the efforts to maintain our food supplies.”
I nodded, giving him that. “Okay.”
Maybe it was a difference of leadership styles, but I’d have been poking my nose into everything so that I could know at least a little bit about all of it.
I’d have made sure someone was making note of all the details in case connections could be made.
I would’ve scheduled all the staff meetings and organized committees, too.
And never in my life had anyone ever said one of my meetings could’ve been an email.
But I wasn’t in charge here, and this wasn’t even my world.
No one would give a hoot about anything I had to say.
So the thing I would do was return their leader and encourage him to participate more.
Even if all he did was pat folks on the back and tell them they’d done a great job, it would mean more than flitting away in search of fun distractions.
“You’re still judging me,” Solaris said with a frown.
I nodded again, this time with a grin. “Yeah. Get used to it.”
He gave me the stink eye, but shoved more bread in his mouth and chewed aggressively instead of saying more.
And for some weird reason, feeling like I’d won that round had me getting hard for him. I wanted to haul him upstairs and do something wicked to his royal personage. Based on the way he started blushing, I had to assume something of my thoughts was showing on my face.
I redirected myself by pointing to Red and Purple. “What are your names?”
“Aloysius,” Red said.
Purple said, “Royce.”
“Al, Roy, Nick, and Frank. Got it.”
They shared a look, and now everyone was frowning at me.
No, I wasn’t going to rub some respect on their names. Respect was earned, and I was still pissed that they hadn’t stopped their idiot prince from running away from his duties.
“What’s with the monochrome outfits?” I asked them.
They all looked at Solaris.
He cleared his throat. “I, um, had some difficulties telling them apart when I was a child.”
Admittedly, they did look similarly, but weren’t in any way identical. Nick was blond for one thing.
More importantly, though, was… “You’ve known each other since childhood?”
“That’s when he made us,” Roy offered.
“Made you?” All I could think of to explain that was the mob. “Made you how?”
“Created us,” Al said way too casually.
Now I was the one frowning. “They’re your kids?” I said incredulously to Solaris.
He made a face like eww. “No, not like that. I was in need of friendship and so brought them into being. They were just…there.”
“I remember a bright ray of sunlight,” Nick said, “and then seeing all of you for the first time.”
I wasn’t sure what to think about that. Solaris could just poof people into existence. He’d wanted friends, so he made some. That… Yeah, that explained their dynamic a lot better. I could imagine none of them wanting to upset their creator. Because if he could bring them into this world…
“Nicholas, Francis, Aloysius, Royce… I get it now.” I gave them a nod and held up my beer. They clinked their steins with mine, smiles all around.
They were still a gang of idiots, but I understood them now.
We were sharing rooms, two by two in each one. And there were two beds in the room so it wasn’t like there was only one bed, oh no, whatever shall we do? No, it was very normal and grown up and nothing to see here.
Until Solaris, who was sharing with me, decided to bathe. There was a privacy screen. He didn’t go behind the screen. He didn’t even attempt to. He stripped down naked and washed himself like it was the most normal thing to do in front of me.
I had questions. I’d never just kind of fallen into being this casual with someone. Was it just cleaning up after being sweaty all day? Was he trying to turn me on? Was it a tease and not a promise, despite what we’d done earlier?
I was going to have to let him lead. It wasn’t like I didn’t get turned on or would say no if he offered—I’d say yes. But it felt really important not to assume. And I absolutely did not want to be the one to ask the status of our relationship out loud.
I was probably really overthinking this, too.
Still watched him, though. Of course, I did. He was a beautiful man, and now that I could see all of him, I looked. Did his wings seem bigger? Did he have more of those mini feathers winding their way all over him?
“I’m going to take a proper bath in a tub as soon as we get to the castle,” he said, “and I don’t want to hear about how out of touch I am.” He glared at me which, when combined with his erection, was not at all threatening and strangely arousing.
“I might make one little comment,” I said, holding up my hand, fingers a centimeter apart.
He shook his head and hung up with washcloth before going over to retrieve something from his coin purse. I stayed where I was on my bed, cock aching, and still not sure what to do about that.
But then Solaris came over and straddled my lap. He gave me a smile and leaned in to kiss me. Guess that answered my questions! I ran my hands up his thighs and kissed him back. He set something on the bed beside me before he started unbuttoning my shirt.
“Don’t you want me to bathe?” I asked him.
“No.”
Oh, alright then. The prince enjoyed some man stink, apparently. I didn’t reek but it was clear I’d been sweating for a while. But he hauled my arms up and over my head, had me grip the metal headboard, and grinned at me. I did not mind.
I didn’t mind a whole lot more when the thing he’d retrieved from his coin purse turned out to be a little jar of lube. I shivered as he coated my cock in slick before reaching behind himself. He moaned at his ministrations, and I nearly joined him just from watching him touch himself.
Hands still holding the headboard, I let him get into position and ease himself down.
“Oh, fuck,” I practically groaned because he was so tight.
Determined, too. He rode me slowly, bouncing up and down and making the most delicious whimpers as he took me deeper into him.
Head back, eyes closed, he dug his fingers into my chest, and worked until I was all the way inside him.
He leaned forward then, his head resting on my shoulder as he made a pitiful little noise.
I gently caressed down his back, guessing that he was either overstimulated and too close, or trying to adjust because it had been a long time since he’d last done this.
Poor baby. I just kept petting him and breathed through my own need to thrust.
Following a trail of little feathers with my fingertips, I whispered, “You okay? Tell me what you need.”
He nodded and practically cuddled up on my chest. “Been a long time. But you feel so good.”
Thought so. I rolled my hips just a bit and moved inside him hardly at all. It was enough to make him moan, though. So I held him there and bent my legs, thrusting shallowly, like a wicked tease.
After a while, he started moving with me, his cock rubbing on my abs.
He was shivering and whining, and then he blew my mind when he leaned back, braced his hands on my knees, and thrust his hips up and down like a piston.
His cock waved with his movements, and I couldn’t stop staring at it.
But then I had to grab it, tease the head, because I was about to come and I needed him right there with me.
“Waaahhh!” he hollered and shot all over me, his ass like a vise as he curled toward me.
I grabbed his hips and thrust upward as I came, too. He gave me all of his weight, and I crushed him closer to me. In between my grunts and moans, I was just aware enough to feel him heave a sigh and nuzzle into my neck.
Prince Solaris of the Summer Court was a cuddler. It was very clear that he had no plans to go anywhere else for the rest of the night.
We’d end up glued together, sweaty and gross, but I didn’t mind at all.