Chapter 25
As much as I attempted to gloss over the hard facts, I couldn’t deny the truth—I was wasted like possibly never before. The only consolation was that everyone else wasn’t faring any better, quite the contrary.
The only reason I wasn’t observing Ireas and Thain making out on the chaise across from me was because I was busy staring at Dion, who’d managed to procure a violin from gods-know-where, and had been glancing down at the instrument for at least a few minutes already.
His throat bobbed.
“What’s up, princeling?” My voice slurred like crazy. Luckily, Dion sounded just as drunk, plus no one paid us any attention.
“I…I haven’t played in three hundred forty-eight winters. I have no fucking clue if I still can.”
“Only one way to find out.”
“You know what? No. I’m inebriating—fuck, I mean indebting myself to you.”
Oh yes, Dion had been chosen monarch again, and playing an instrument had been my task for him.
I observed him setting the violin down and shaking his head, his jaw set tight. The cool indifference he donned like armor proved that he was locking himself off from everything and everyone, especially his own overwhelming emotions.
Just like that, the party was over.
In a way, it had been for quite a while, with Rewi having escorted Bryon out an hour ago, since he hadn’t dealt well with how Dion took every opportunity to touch me. Antas had excused himself shortly after, and Fig had vanished ten minutes prior.
Accounting for the fact that Thain was busy tugging off his tunic right this very moment, and Ireas was staring at him as if the redhead had hung the moon in the sky, that left only Dion and me. And the prince still glowered at the instrument, which must have somehow offended him.
My attention returned to the other two males. After he’d gotten rid of his top, Thain had repeated the action on Ireas, and both fae were bare-chested, lip-locked, and very sexy.
Although I was distracted by the erotic show right before my eyes—and I’d never even heard of two males being intimate with each other before I’d met my friends—I spent a minute admiring Ireas’ fae form.
Earlier, when he’d been monarch, and Rewi had tasked him to drop his Glamour and stand on display, I’d been very confused. If I hadn’t witnessed him change, I would have never believed that the male in front of me was the young medic.
Only after he’d explained that one facet of his magic was a unique talent to alter appearances, especially his own, did everything make sense.
To put reality in simple words—Ireas was gorgeous.
His brown hair, usually so messy, was cascading down his back in chocolate-colored curls—yes, not waves, but honest-to-the-gods curls—so shiny and full I couldn’t stop envying him.
But the marvel that was Ireas just started there. In his human Glamour, he barely appeared of age, but his true form definitely did. There was a certain feminine beauty in his features, his physique lean and lithe, with narrow hips and a slim waist—and, as I was learning now, a well-defined chest.
Instead of those chestnut-tinted eyes I was so used to, his irises were simply indescribable. “Opal,” Dion had huffed when I’d asked earlier, and I’d never heard of such a gemstone before.
Rewi’s description had been crude but weirdly fitting. “Looks like a rainbow threw up in your eyes,” she’d said, and yes, his soft gray orbs were speckled with flecks of every color of the spectrum, shifting and changing with the angle of the light.
I would have spent a long time observing the phenomenon if Dion hadn’t threatened to murder Ireas if I refused to stop staring at the medic. I’d glowered at the prince, and he’d slurred out his intention to gift me as many opals as I could imagine.
Jealous bastard.
Cocking my head, I inspected the many, many silver piercings decorating Ireas.
His left eyebrow was adorned with three spheres above and below the gracefully arched line.
A delicate stud sat right in the middle below his lower lip, and another one in his right nostril.
Simple balls were running up both ears, getting smaller the higher up the pieces were located.
When he’d been under Rewi’s scrutiny, he’d admitted to the other parts where his body was bejeweled.
For example, his tongue—as hard as imagining that was for me—or, as I could see in front of me at this very moment, studs in both of his nipples and one in his belly button.
The ones I couldn’t spot, and despite my curiosity flaring to life, never would see, had taken Ireas some time to explain before he’d only mumbled about several bars underneath his manhood.
The two of us had blushed heavily, and the others had teased him for being the only prude fae in both worlds.
Watching the two males making out felt less intrusive than peeping should, and I shamelessly kept my gaze on them—who could tell how long it would take until Dion yanked me away anyway?
My own core heated as Thain pushed Ireas deeper into the chaise—for the first time, I could hear the redhead growl—and my lips must have been slightly opened.
“Stop staring.”
“Why? If they don’t want me to watch, they should get a room of their own. Also, this answers the question once and for all if there’s something between those two.”
“On and off. As if someone like Thain could ever commit to anyone. Fucking Courtling.”
“What’s a Courtling?” He’d used that term before and always derogatorily, which I credited to his general hatred for the redhead.
“The Cuirt is a cult in Galanta consisting of a bunch of fae who take their contempt for commitment to a whole other level—stop staring, godsdammit.”
“But—”
“I swear, if you examine half-naked males with those heated eyes, you and I will have a serious problem.”
At this moment, Thain looked up and over to us, his swollen lips curling into a feline grin. At first, he held Dion’s gaze, who showed him his teeth in return, then he latched his eyes on mine, crooking his finger. Was he…inviting me to join them?
However, before my drunk mind could consider this weird offer, several things happened at once. For starters, Ireas grabbed Thain’s face with both hands and pulled the redhead back to himself—with an angry snarl. Huh.
Second, Dion seized me and spun me around so fast the alcohol sloshed in my stomach, and my vision dizzied. Before I had a chance to understand what was going on, he shredded his own tunic, and all of a sudden, I was very close to his very naked, very chiseled chest.
“You want to watch a topless male? Touch one? Well, darling, here’s one.”
“Over there are two, sweetheart.” I couldn’t stop being cheeky. As drunk as I was, I was enjoying poking the territorial fae prince a tad bit too much.
Only, I pushed him farther than intended, as he snarled even more viciously than Ireas earlier, and within the blink of an eye, I found myself airborne.
Dion had somehow lost his Glamour too, but before my mind could provide me with something appropriate to say, he’d thrown me over his shoulder and prowled to our bedroom with big steps.
The door closed behind us with a loud bang, and seconds later, I ended up on the soft bed, Dion covering me instantly. His weight pushed into me, and amethyst fire seared itself into my very soul.
Then his mouth landed on mine, and without giving me any opportunity to comprehend what was going on, his tongue met mine. There was so much hunger in his kiss, my vision doubled, and—
It was too much. Too much. I—
“Schnapps.” Panic accompanied the desperate attempt to make Dion stop just as his lips moved to my neck, and I snapped my eyes shut. My whole body tensed as my mind was under the assault of memories of a dirty stable and a horrible man, hungry and relentless.
Immediately, the weight on top of me vanished, and I took a shuddering breath, shivering, trembling. As I opened my eyes after a perceived eternity, Dion stood three feet away, staring at me, aghast. “Naya, oh gods, I’m so sorry.”
An apology. What? “You stopped.”
“Yes, of course. You used our word.”
Sitting up, I could see horror spreading in his eyes. He was mortified.
“I—didn’t think for a moment. This was a grave mistake.”
“But you stopped.” Finally pulling myself to my feet, I crossed the distance and gently embraced him. “Thank you for that.”
“None of this should have occurred. Acting wild like that? No. That’s why I shouldn’t drink fucking alcohol at all. Not only do I forfeit my magic but also all restraint.”
“Then I guess it’s good that alcohol is your Wielder-vice.”
Slowly, as if not to spook me, his arms closed around me. “Are you alright?”
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
“I deeply regret what just happened.”
“I don’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“In the last ten minutes, you’ve proven to me that even if you lose all control and if you’re drunk as a skunk, you’ll still listen to me.
Dion, you quit the second I asked you to.
And I can blame you for a lot, but not that you aren’t a mind reader.
” Tapping my finger against his wrinkled forehead, I smiled at him.
“The day I’ll disregard a female’s desire to stop during sex is the one I’ll willingly allow them to put me down. Such behavior is disgusting.”
I nestled closer into his chest. “Don’t worry, princeling. I feel safe with you.”
“Even after—”
“Especially after.”