Sarah Honey

Mother was his everything, his other half, and he owned Vasily's heart.

And now ? He was offering Vasily everything he never thought he'd have.

A happily ever after, with his very own prince among men.

We have a saying in the Koroslovan army. What happens away, happens away.

How could Mother even think he might mean something to Vasily—Prince Vasily, he silently corrected—when he was nothing but a stablemaster ?

My name is Prince Vasily Anatoly Alexei Pasha Petrov, and I am the fourth son of King Alexei and Queen Irina of Koroslova.

He reminded himself that he was a prince, and if there was one thing he'd been trained to do, it was to stand straight, speak clearly, and say what he wanted without hesitation.

So he did.

"Mother Jones," he said, ignoring the slight tremor in his voice, "I should very much like to kiss you."

It's not weak to have compassion. Just look at Mattias, the ex-chancellor. Prince Consort of Evergreen now, and before that he helped His Majesty run Lilleforth for years. He's smart as a whip, but that didn't stop him having a soft spot for helping people out of a difficult situation.

Vasily stepped over the threshold, looking around the room with ill-disguised curiosity. "Oh, it's bigger than mine."

"That's not the first time I've heard that."

It might be nice, Mother reflected, to have a friendly face to greet him when he came home in the evening.

Even if that face did belong to a cat.

Mother wasn't a conventionally handsome man, not like the king with his strong jawline and piercing eyes, or Felix with his wavy hair and soft mouth, but he was tall and sinewy, with the muscles one would expect to gain from years of handling thousand-pound horses, and he had soft brown eyes, chestnut hair, and a slightly crooked smile that he had been told was charming more than once.

This wasn't just a fling anymore, not for him. Felix wasn't stupid, and he knew that he and Leo could never amount to anything, but he needed to say it, just once.

He needed to tell Leo that he loved him.

"Gods, son, are you all right ?" Janus hurried over and held out his arms, and the sight of his father there waiting to catch him, just like he had been Felix's entire life, was enough for Felix to let go of the last shred of stubbornness that had been keeping him upright. He slid from the saddle and into his father's hold, let out a mumbled "Ow," as the pain in his side flared, and promptly passed out.

The next thing Felix knew, he was flying backward through the air. The ground was hard beneath him when he landed on his back, rattling every bone in his body and knocking the wind out of him.

Pain flared through him and jarred up his spine where he'd hit the dirt, and for a few seconds he was paralyzed, unable to even draw a breath, before a strange croaking sound came out of his mouth, and he gasped in precious air.

Shadow's hooves were far too close for his liking, so he rolled over to lessen his chances of being trampled, which proved to be a mistake. His vision greyed out for a moment as a wave of pain flared from his side and he struggled not to be sick. He closed his eyes and breathed in and out, slow and steady, trying to ignore the way every breath brought a fresh stab of hurt.

Someone was touching him, cradling his head and calling his name with increasing panic. "Felix ? Felix ? Flick ? Oh gods, are you all right ?"

The groom's breathing hitched and his eyes widened before he leaned in and kissed Leopold without warning Leopold, heady with excitement and ever-growing arousal, kissed him right back. He found himself swept up in the way the young man's mouth moved against his expertly, their tongues brushing, and the warmth of the lad's hand where it came to rest on the nape of his neck and settled there. They kissed until Leopold was breathless, and when the groom pulled back, he was grinning, eyes bright and lips ruby red and plump.

Leopold wanted nothing more than to ruin him.

"That doesn't mean anything, though."

"Not on its own, no. But very occasionally I've admitted young men to the castle for private meetings with His Majesty, and I do not believe that there is any business so urgent that it needs to be discussed in the king's bedchamber at midnight."

"There might be other reasons. Maybe it's espionage and he's meeting his spies." Felix wasn't sure why he found it so hard to believe that the king held the same inclinations as him, but even considering it made his heart flutter in his chest.

"Yes," his father said drily. "Jim, the baker's lad, is highly trained in espionage. That must be it."

This week, he'd barely seen Felix. With preparations in full swing for the impending visit, the castle was a hive of frantic activity, and Leo hadn't had so much as half an hour to himself, let alone the time or energy to summon Felix to his rooms.

And Leo knew it was temporary, and he knew it was important to make sure this visit went off without a hitch, and that the trade agreements would benefit the entire kingdom, and that putting his own wants to one side was all part of being the king.

He knew that.

He just hadn't expected to miss his pretty groom quite so much.

Felix stepped to one side so he was out of Leopold's reach and tilted his head, his eyes flicking up and down as if seeing him for the first time before settling on the expensive leather riding boots that Leopold was wearing. "Those aren't the boots of a scoundrel or a thief. They're top quality."

"Yes, they are."

"And your trousers are far too fine for a commoner." Felix's eyes widened, and Leo could see the moment the truth dawned on him. "You're—you're not stealing this horse, are you ?"

"No, I'm not," Leopold agreed with a sigh.

Felix made a high-pitched noise in his throat and continued to back away, a tremor in his voice as he pointed at Blackbird "This is—is this your horse ? Are you—are you him ?"

"Let me guess. You're the groom, and you're loyal to your king?" he said, secretly pleased at finding someone who was a devoted subject.

"What? Hells no. I don't give a damn about the king. But I've been warned that there's a stick jammed fair up the royal arse when it comes to his horse, and I'd like to keep my job past the first week. So if you could find a different horse to steal, or better still take none at all, I'd appreciate it."

"Is it true what they say about the king?"

"Well, it depends." Mother said with a wry smile. "Are you talking about the rumour that His Majesty is smarter than he lets on and has a plan for every circumstance, or the one where he's nothing but a pretty man with an empty head and the chancellor's the one who runs the kingdom? Maybe you mean the tale that he'll bed anyone with a pulse-or perhaps that he's never been kissed?"

"I'm grateful for your protection, Captain. If you wouldn't mind escorting me to the infirmary, I'd like to thank your son personally."

"I'm not sure he's well enough for a vigorous... thanking," Janus said, almost completely straight-faced.

(...)

"I'll make sure my thanks are suitably restrained."

"Don't leave. Please."

Felix forced himself not to turn around. "I'll be careful," he said, deliberately misunderstanding. "I won't take Shadow past a walk." He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his boots on, keeping his head down.

"Will you come to me tonight?" Leo's voice was barely a whisper. "Just to talk?"

Felix wasn't sure what there was left to talk about. Still, he found himself saying, "Of course."

Even now, as much as his heart ached, he found he couldn't say no to the man he was almost certainly in love with.