Chapter 9
Given my disastrous riding experience the day before, I climbed into the carriage as soon as Francis and Nick brought it around to the pub.
It occurred to me then that I had no idea where it or all the horses went every night.
I guessed that the boys were handling that every time?
Good thing since I didn’t have the knowledge or the money to do whatever happened.
And that got me thinking about my future again as we trundled down the road on the last leg of our journey. We’d reach the castle this afternoon, and…then what?
I could certainly shove Solaris at the nearest person who looked capable of magic and tell them to keep him around and working on the curse. And then what?
I had no purpose. Clearly had no skills. I could keep on in my capacity as princely jailer to make sure he did what needed done—despite not actually knowing what that was—but then… I wasn’t going ask the question again. It still hung there in the back of my mind, though.
Solaris chuckled on the bench opposite me, and I looked to find him staring at me with a wicked grin. He couldn’t read my mind, right? Because I’d take offense if he was laughing after listening to me go on and on—
“Can you hear them?” he asked.
“Hear who?”
He pointed behind himself to the front of the carriage. I listened and— Oh, somebody was moaning out there. Like sex moaning. Was one of them getting medieval road head? I snorted a laugh.
Curiously, I asked, “Are the four of them actual couples or…”
Solaris nodded. “From the time we were teens.”
“And do you ever…join them?”
He made a disgusted face. “They’re more like my brothers than my brothers are.”
“Ah.” I knew he hadn’t been a virgin, but if he wasn’t hooking up with the people he trusted most… “So who does a prince of the realm get with?”
He frowned at me. “You.”
“Yeah, but just because I was there and—”
“No!”
That felt like a compliment. And it was a relief, too. “Okay.”
He leaned back and crossed his arms. “You’re unlike anyone I’ve ever known.”
I hadn’t been fishing, but… “Thanks. You, too. I’m glad kidnapping you didn’t turn you off.”
Solaris huffed a laugh and shook his head like maybe he thought I was incorrigible.
Suddenly, from outside, came a bellowing moan. I think whichever guy that was might’ve startled the horses, too, because the carriage jerked. One of our drivers was quite satisfied now.
Across from me, Solaris was grinning as he reached down and adjusted himself. I did the same, not immune to him or the sounds of another guy enjoying himself out there. In fact, I started unbuttoning my pants, intending to play along and give the prince a show.
I was surprised when Solaris flew across the space separating us and got down on his knees between mine.
He swatted my hands out of the way and took over freeing my cock from my pants with an urgency that flattered the hell out of me.
And when he had me out, he hummed as he swallowed me down his throat.
I moaned as he sucked with skill and enthusiasm. And fuck, he was beautiful while doing this, too. I cupped his cheek and just held on as he bobbed on me.
But then it felt like something moved against my palm.
I moved my hand and saw that the minuscule feathers were now on his face, just on the edge of his hairline.
They still looked like a tattoo of iridescent blue and green, thin here, thicker there, little tendrils curling outward.
One line of them traced up the side of his ear.
Those pointed ears of his… I stroked up the outside edge of one with a finger and watched him shiver. Sensitive? I lightly pinched both and rubbed up and down, tracing the points. He pulled off my cock with yelp, only to then blink up at me and blush bright red.
I grinned. “Too much?”
He gulped and nodded. “You’ll make me come.”
“Oh?” That sounded fun. “Good to know.”
He rolled his eyes and sighed like someone who regretted admitting they were ticklish.
“You gonna…” I asked, pointing at my shiny dick.
He clicked his tongue at me as if I’d insulted him.
“Hey.” I cupped his jaw to stall him. “Save yours for me.”
He smirked at me, lifted my cock out of the way, and sucked my whole left nut into his mouth.
I thrust my hips instinctively and groaned as my eyes fluttered closed.
He wasn’t playing now. I lost touch with reality for a while as he sucked and licked, fondled and stroked.
It had been such a long time since someone put this much effort toward getting me off.
“Sol… Sol—” I tried warning him, pushing him back, but he grabbed my hands, held them down on the bench seat, and sucked the fucking life out of me. I didn’t usually make a lot of noise, but I legit yelled my head off as he drank it all down.
I don’t know how long it took me to blink my eyes open again and look at him, but he was still there and gently tucking me back into my pants. When he finished buttoning all those buttons, he went back over and sat on his bench. Swear to god, he looked entirely satisfied.
And the feathers were heading down his neck now.
Was that happening because of— No, that was way too arrogant, even for me.
I couldn’t possibly be the reason he was changing like that.
It would be great if I was having an influence on him that might help with breaking the curse. But changing his appearance?
“Whenever you’re ready,” he said and rubbed at his very obvious erection heading down his pant leg.
I chuckled at him. Challenge accepted. I knee-walked the two steps over to him and shoved his legs wide apart. For three and a half years, I unbuttoned his pants—they seriously needed zippers around here—and then his long slender cock was all mine.
As I slowly licked up the underside from base to tip, I wondered if there would soon be little bitty feathers down here. Nah, probably not. Be interesting if he changed colors, though. Like an actual blue dick and blue balls? Ha!
“For fuck’s sake, why are you laughing?”
“I’m having a good time.”
I swallowed him as far as I could to shut him up. No joke, he had to be eight or nine inches. It was a glorious struggle to have.
He was also loud as hell. Nobody was going to have to guess what was happening in here. They’d know.
I wanted that. They should know. They should hear him losing his mind as I bobbed on his cock and massaged his prostate from the outside. I wanted them to know it was me making him feel that good.
But I shouldn’t want that. He wasn’t mine to claim. I wasn’t even sure he’d be okay with me feeling that possessive of him.
I still made him come like a volcano erupting, though. That was mine. I did that.
While he slumped there, panting and eyes barely open, I put his cock away and re-buttoned his pants. Getting up off my knees reminded me that I wasn’t as young as I thought anymore, so I took a moment to loom over him while everything realigned.
Solaris made a little noise and reached for me, but then looked away and took his hand back. I could read him instantly. He wanted, but he wasn’t sure I did.
I sat on the bench, pulled him across my lap so that he was sitting beside me but leaning on my chest, and held him there. He’d looked a little startled by all the manhandling, but then he sighed and closed his eyes.
It was damn near stifling in here, I was sweating everywhere he touched me, and I was facing the wrong way. But I stayed right where I was and held him while he slept.
Motion sickness in a carriage was totally possible and the only reason I woke Solaris up. With my head out the window to feel the breeze coming at me in the right direction, I realized we were about to ride up to a castle.
“We’re here,” I said as something not related to a queasy stomach pulsed through me. It was probably anxiety—I had no idea what was about to happen.
Solaris, who’d been leaning close to rub my back, sighed and said, “Finally. I’m taking a bath first thing. Do not complain about my water usage.”
I barked a laugh and looked around as the carriage crossed a bridge over a muddy moat.
The cream-colored stones of the castle itself looked like limestone with massive wooden beams forming the gate doors.
We passed under a wicked metal portcullis and into a town.
That was when I realized this was the kind of castle that was built for defense, not the fancy kind to show off wealth.
Up ahead at the end of the road was another towering wall with a gate that I bet was around the actual keep where Solaris lived. At this gate, soldiers made us stop. I ducked back inside, and a moment later someone opened the carriage door.
Two guards in green and gold uniforms that reminded me of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican flinched when they saw Solaris. “Apologies, Your Highness. Welcome home,” one said before he shut the door again.
“Why did he apologize?” I asked Solaris.
He shrugged. “He probably didn’t believe whoever said I was in here.”
“Why?”
“I normally fly everywhere.”
And he hadn’t flown anywhere this time for a few reasons: a broken wing, captivity, and then…because he didn’t want to? It gave me more hope that he really was all-in on doing something—anything—about breaking the curse.
The carriage got moving again but only briefly as we came right up to the entrance into the keep. Solaris got out, and I followed him. A guard sprinted by us and up a wide set of stairs into the front doors of the keep.
Solaris sighed. “Telling everyone I’m here, no doubt.”
“Is your staff going to line up or something?” I had no idea what the arrival of their prince might have people doing, I’d watched Downton Abbey.
He didn’t answer me because he was now talking to the boys. “Go on home,” he said, “and thank you for traveling with me.”
By the way they glanced at each other with slack mouths and wide eyes, I had to wonder if that wasn’t normal for Solaris. Dismissing them, or thanking them? I got the feeling it might be the latter.
They boys trotted off back through the gate, and I guessed they had homes in the town out there.
All of the horses and the carriage were being taken away as a bunch of people in fancy clothes that sparkled in the sunlight came out from the keep to line the steps.
They jockeyed with each other like they were trying to stand on their personal step. Courtiers? Advisors?
I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go as I stood there with my backpack and sword, but Solaris started going up the stairs.
He went right by every single person without even glancing at them, and each of them looked to be standing at attention.
But then when he got to the top of the stairs, he stopped and turned.
And held a hand out to me. “Wallace? Come on.”
Now every single eye was aimed at me. I straightened and walked up the stairs with my gaze on Solaris. I even took his hand and let him lead me inside his castle because he smiled.