Page 30 of Pining for the Prince
Gwil spluttered. “I… well…”
Hyax had thought it rather sweet that Gwil was so attached to his cat. It helped that the moggy was fond of Hyax too. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
He conjured a portal, stepped through and was in Gwil’s bedroom at his old flat. For a moment he just stood there, acutely aware that he didn’t come in here often, and not without Gwil. Last time was when Gwil had been flayed by a portal and he’d mooched about a bit while he’d slept. Gwil had an eclectic mix of things gathered over the two hundred-odd years he’d been alive and undead but now wasn’t the time to snoop. He collected a fresh set of clothes, and hunted around to find whatever it was Gwil slept in and couldn’t remember if he wore anything. The thought of Gwil naked made him swallow thickly so he needed to stop his thoughts from heading somewhere inappropriate.
From the kitchen, he collected a couple of packs of blood, cat food and a bottle of shiraz he found on the counter. He wrinkled his nose at the litter tray, he would need to do more than one trip.
Two trips later, Midnight was sniffing around her new home and Gwil was still in the shower, although he probably needed it considering he’d been wading in the filth of London. Hyax configured two discarded takeaway coffee mugs into glasses and poured the wine.
Gwil emerged in the fresh clothes Hyax had left in his room, his hair still damp. “Hyax, that shower is fucking amazing.”
“You’re welcome.”
Gwil landed next to him on the sofa, grinning. “The whole place looks great. But then I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Gwil grabbed his wine. “You’ve spent hours doing up this place, run around after my stuff and cat, and you look like you’ve stepped straight out of a fashion mag. There’s no justice in the world.”
Gwil had strange ways of paying a compliment. “Are you saying I’m pretty?”
“Yes, I’ve a pretty fae prince as my fake fiancé.” He took a long drink of his wine. “So… on the subject of that. Are you sure you’ve thought this through properly? What happens when people start to hear about us?”
Hyax wondered how much overthinking Gwil had done while in the shower. “I’m waiting for the bouquets of congratulatory roses to arrive any minute. Or Gucci might call and offer to provide suits for the wedding—their paranormal matrimony range is very popular. They really should learn to keep it away from the human catwalk shows.”
“Be serious, Hyax!”
Gwil sounded exasperated, and he knew he’d sprung this on him from nowhere. Hyax doubted he’d have been as good-natured if their positions had been reversed and a little bit of unruffling of feathers would be required.
“I’m sure many of my associates will think I’ve gone mad or somehow you’ve been able to put me under your thrall. Others might say I’m doing it to act out against my parents but a lot of people have more to worry about than who I’m fucking.”
Gwil didn’t seem convinced. “You aren’t worried about it?”
“Why should I be? If someone says something to my face I’ll tell them how great a guy you are, which is true. I’m not ashamed of fake-dating you.” Hyax bit his lip. Maybe he’d got this all wrong, and it was Gwil who had the problem. “You’re just as likely to get questioned. Are you embarrassed by me being thought of as your boyfriend?”
Gwil snorted. “Oh yeah, terrible slur that a fae prince would choose me. You’ve got to admit it sounds ridiculous. I don’t think anyone is going to believe you’d have picked me over your other options.”
“My parents accepted it, so other people will.” He might have stretched some of Gwil’s vampire credentials a little to make him sound more suitable but that was neither here nor there. “We’d be an unconventional couple, I don’t recall there being a royal fae and a vampire before in my tribe. Not even in their harems.”
“Harems?”
“Yes. My mother has three concubines, used to be four when Chase was there.” He thought he did well not sneering at the traitor’s name. “It’s tradition.”
“So what you find the love of your life, marry then get a load of add-ons?” Gwil said, despite having lived through many changes to the human world, he still had a rather skewed Victorian moral compass at times.
“Most royal marriages are not for love, they’re arranged. Surely it is best to be honest about taking lovers than hiding them.”
“Then won’t people think that I’m just the sad sack you’re gonna marry and then you’d be off building a collection of who you’d actually want?”
Was Gwil jealous, or did he not like having his manhood challenged?
“We’re not an arranged marriage. As far as my parents are concerned, we’re deeply in love, so the harem thing needn’t come up. There’s lots of fae marriage traditions, but not all of them are used.”
“Such as? Oh, fuck, what have you signed me up for?”
“To be honest I haven’t given it much thought. I needed to stop them from making me pick someone.” Which was true at the time, but there were also sorts of odd things that came tomind now. “The first real expectation is that they want to meet you, but that’s nothing to do with traditions and more them just being parents. Anyway, we’d be visiting to investigate the stone, so hardly unexpected.”
Gwil scowled. “You’re deflecting. Everyone has to do the meet the parents thing, I almost choked on a cheese scone when I met Matilda’s. What else?”
