Page 48 of Pining for the Prince
Seemed pretty cut and dry, and a positive to come out of the shitty evening. But there was something he couldn’t shake. “Any chance he’s involved in the stone business?”
“Why would you ask that?”
He’d always had a gut instinct for things like this, even as a human, and now he was a vampire, they’d been magnified and had been too important not to ignore. “There’s something about him turning up, and playing nice out of the blue. Your families called a truce a while back, so if he was interested in rekindling what you had before since he’s on the approved list now, why didn’t he try it straight away if he meant it.”
“You’ve a point. I think you’re right to follow up that line of inquiry. But at least his actions have proved to me we had no future, whether that’s what he thinks is another matter.” He saw Hyax turn his head to stare at him in the dark, and he wasn’t sure if he remembered how good Gwil’s night vision was. His expression had softened, was almost wistful. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve a lot better options than Metra.”
He knew he shouldn’t take that to mean him, but he wanted it to. To save himself from doing something mind-numbingly stupid he turned over. He needed to sleep, dream of anything other than beautiful fae and try not to let himself fall deeper in love with his best friend.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Gwil wasn’t someone who felt extremes of temperature, but as he woke he had a layer of warmth pressed down his back that he wasn’t used to and an arm around his waist. His mind slid into the right gear to realise Hyax had curled around him in his sleep. It was nice, a bit too nice for someone meant to be just a friend, but he didn’t want him to let go. They’d never shared a bed before, and he’d not taken Hyax to be the clingy type.
He should move before Hyax woke up and they had another embarrassing conversation to deal with. Last night had been bad enough and his Victorian upbringing, although tempered by experiencing the 1960s first-hand, was not cut out to have an early morning heart-to-heart.
Trying not to disturb Hyax too much, he tried to lift his arm, but instead of freedom he got held tighter and treated to a low growl. Not a noise he associated with the fae. He peered down to see that the arm was actually a large paw. Turning around, he saw it was not Hyax but some sort of shaggy hairy thing. He screamed.
He jumped out of bed. Hyax sat bolt upright, his blond hair fluffed up, a bit like a dandelion clock. “What’s going on?”
“There’s something in the bed!”
A large lump was underneath the bedclothes, and Hyax pulled them back to reveal a furry creature somewhere between a bear and a cat, it was the length of a man and with long fur but, as he stared, it began to shrink in size. “Bloody hell, Gwil. It’s just Meddi.”
Meddi was now only the size of a large cat, and it crawled into Hyax’s lap. He began to stroke it.
“What the fuck is it? And why was it wrapped around me?”
Hyax scratched Meddi’s ear and it wriggled so it lay on its back with four paws in the air. “He’s my pet talkist, sort of like a fae cat. He must have got in during the night and come for a cuddle.”
“It had me in a death clutch.”
“Nonsense. Shows he likes you, he must have thought you were cold and needed warming up. Which makes sense I suppose because you don’t exactly run to normal body temp.”
Meddi chirruped.
“How did he get in? The door was closed.”
Hyax frowned. “I don’t know. He’s a clever fellow but he can’t open doors. Someone must’ve let him in. Maybe he was making a fuss and one of the maids did it.”
“Your servants would do that? Sounds a bit like overstepping the mark.”
“You’re right. I don’t think it was a maid.” Hyax tutted. “I bet my mother let him in—her and her sodding tests.”
“Why would she do that?” Was nothing simple with the fae? Last night Hyax was being paraded around in front of men deemed acceptable to court him, and now this.
Hyax looked sheepish. “Talkists are a bit like a witch’s familiar. If he had taken against you, she would have known we weren’t friends as Meddi wouldn’t have tolerated you. You have Midnight, and she is friendly to me.”
He suspected Hyax wasn’t being entirely truthful. “Midnight tolerates you by sitting on your lap and expecting to be fed, not crawling into bed and trying to hug you to death.”
“Well, Midnight is a cat, Meddi isn’t. You shouldn’t judge everything by your human world’s standards.” He shooed Meddi away. “We should get ready. We’re seeing the coronet after breakfast and the security council leader, Lindle, is supposed to come along to answer our questions.”
“At least we’ll be able to get back to business. How do you want me to react in front of everyone? Do they expect you to have changed your mind after last night?”
“Seeing how I left things, they should not expect me to be any less devoted to my chosen partner. I’m going to treat you like my betrothed, and I expect you to do the same. But keep your hands off my wings or I might not be able to contain myself.”
He stared at the shimmering wings, he itched to stroke them, to get the response he’d wanted from Hyax for years, but it wouldn’t be right. Instead he pulled out a set of fresh clothes from his bag. “Message received—no touchy the flappies. I’ll get dressed.”
He changed in the bathroom after a quick wash and brushing his teeth. His fangs were sensitive this morning, perhaps it was the rat’s blood, or general unease from being here in this ridiculous situation. When he returned he was relieved to find Hyax had also changed and after he’d applied four different face creams and spent half an hour in the bathroom they were ready to go down for breakfast.
