Prince captif, tome 1 : L'esclave

Laurent knew what was happening. Damen, who had seen the long, empty corridor, dark and quiet and absent of men, knew also. The guard at the door had entered behind them; there were three men, all armed.

"I don't think the Prince is in an amorous mood," said Damen, neutrally.

"I take a while to warm up," said Laurent.

And then it was happening. As though on cue, the sound of a sword being unsheathed to his left.

Later, he'd wonder what it was that caused him to react as he did. He had no love for Laurent. Given time to think, he would surely have said, in a hardened voice, that the internal politics of Vere weren't his business, and that whatever acts of violence Laurent brought down upon himself were thoroughly deserved.

Maybe it was bizarre empathy, because he'd lived through something like this, the betrayal of it. violence in a place he'd thought was safe. Maybe it was a way of reliving those moments, of repairing his failure, because he had not reacted as quickly as he should have, then.

It must have been that. It must have been the echo of that night, all the chaos and the emotion of it that he had locked up behind closed doors.

"Laurent. Why must you always defy me? I hate it when we are at odds, yet you force me to chastise you. You seem determined to wreck everything in your path. Blessed with gifts, you squander them. Given opportunities, you waste them. I hate to see you grown up like this," said the Regent, "when you were such a lovely boy."

Kallias didn't say anything, and the silence stretched out until Erasmus grew self conscious of the words he had spoken. And then Kallias spoke in a raw little voice.

"I wish you could be my first."

He felt the words in his body, little explosions. It was as if he lay uncovered on the pallet as he had done in his small room, offering up his longing. His own lips parted without sound.

Kallias said, "Would you... would you put your arms around my neck?"

His heart beat painfully. He nodded, then wanted to hide his head. He felt lightheaded with daring. He slid his arms around Kallias's neck. feeling the smooth skin of his neck. His eyes closed to just feel.

(...)

He put his forehead against Kallias's. "Erasmus," said Kallias, unsteadily.

"It's all right. It's all right as long as we don't-"

He felt Kallias's fingers on his hips. It was a delicate, helpless touch that preserved the space between their bodies. But it was as if he had completed a circle, Erasmus's arms around Kallias's neck, Kallias's fingers at his hips. The space between their bodies felt clouded and hot. He understood why those three places on his body were forbidden to him, because all of them began to ache.

He couldn't open his eyes, as he felt the embrace tighten, their cheeks pressing against one another, rubbing together, blindly, lost to the sensation, and just for a moment he felt-

"We can't!"

It was Kallias who pushed him away with a strangled cry. Kallias was panting, two feet away, his body curved around itself, as a breeze lifted the leaves of the tree, and they swayed back and forth, as the ocean swelled far below.

- Tu sembles osciller sans cesse entre le désir de m'aider et de m'attaquer. As-tu fait ton choix ?
- Je ne suis pas surpris que vous ayez motivé trois hommes à tenter de vous assassiner. Je suis simplement étonné qu'ils aient été les seuls, déclara Damen avec franchise.

Nous sommes au pays de la perfidie et du mensonge.

- Une personne de plus se dressera entre vous et votre oncle. N'est-ce pas ce que vous désirez ?
- Ma chère petite brute, répliqua Laurent. Ce que je désire c'est te laisser pourrir ici.

D'un autre côté, le chaste et inaccessible Laurent donnait en ce moment même un cours magistral de fellation.

Ton instinct de survie n'est pas très développé, n'est-ce pas, petit mignon? Tu as fait une erreur en allant pleurnicher dans le giron de mon oncle, dit Laurent.

Je suis un homme raffiné. Quand je viole quelqu'un, je vérifie d'abord que sa voix a mué.

“A golden prince was easy to love if you did not have to watch him picking wings off flies.”