Page 27 of How Not to Marry a Prince

"I would be honored," Amador said, twining his own arm through Sohan's, heart in his throat. His bodyguards joined Sohan's, folding in around them smoothly and effortlessly.

Wherever he'd expected to end up, it certainly wasn't in Sohan's private chambers, beautifully appointed in warm browns accented with golds and reds, the scent of leather and silk and amber filling the space. His heart was going to pop any moment.

Sohan poured them wine from a carafe on a table by the open balcony doors and offered him one. "Do you like the perfume, then?" he asked.

"It's lovely," Amador replied as he took the wine, cheeks flushing. Sparkles caught his eyes, and his heart gave another alarming jump as he realized Sohan was wearing his bracelet. He flushed anew as Sohan caught his gaze.

"Thank you," Sohan said. "I rarely receive a gift that isn't perfunctory. The last thank you I received was an ugly vase the servants buried in the hallway leading to the vault."

Amador laughed. "That bad?"

"It's orange and puce. I think they gave it to me just to see what I'd do. Every time I see it, I want to pitch it out a window. I keep hoping a servant will break it, accidentally or 'accidentally'. Alas, the vase stands strong so far." He lifted a hand to wave the words away. "I did not bring you here to discuss ugly vases, though." He took a sip of wine and then set the glass on the table.

Instead of one hand the way Amador had expected, Sohan offered both.

Heart drumming in his ears, drowning out the rest of the world, Amador abandoned his own wine and placed his hands in Sohan's. "You don't have to hold my hand every time you're going to say something important."

"Propriety forbids doing as I'd like," Sohan said, knocking the breath right out of him. "I don't think it's any great secret that you have been traveling the world in search of a spouse."

Amador was going to pass out. "To be perfectly honest, I was traveling the world to avoid my family and Ottokar. Marriage, a new home, would have been a marvelous bonus."

Sohan ran his thumbs over the tops of Amador's hands, the touch soft and warm, somehow reassuring, even as it sent delicate shivers down Amador's spine. "Well, I do not want to get ahead of myself, but you seem to be making a home for yourself here all on your own. Certainly my brother and his coterie will defend you to the death. After all the happiness you've brought, you are welcome here for as long as you desire to remain. That being said, I was hoping you might grant me leave to court you."

"You—" Amador's mouth opened. Closed. Everyone had said it. Everyone had teased him. "Why would you want to court me?"

"Why in the world would I not? You are beautiful inside and out. You are smart. You work hard. You're generous and kind. However, being courted by a king is quite a different thing than being courted by a fellow prince or princess. There is a great deal more ado, and danger, and responsibility should things progress to the usual end. I would understand if you did not want to take on that burden."

Amador's hands tightened on Sohan's, throat raw as he tried to speak, failing a few times before he finally managed, "I could never consider you, or anything about you, a burden. I would be honored, Your Majesty."

Letting go of one hand, Sohan took the other in both of his and kissed the back of it, lingering just a moment overlong. "Then call me Sohan, please."

"Sohan," Amador repeated softly, and when his hand was released, he succumbed to an overwhelming urge to rest it against the side of Sohan's face, enjoying the warmth and softness of his skin, the brush of his beard. "If I'd known all it took to gain a suitor was to crash into him and topple into a pond, I would have tried it sooner."

Sohan chuckled, and his arms came up slowly to twine around Amador. "I would greatly prefer you not almost-drown yourself to get attention. Or at all. You are, however, welcome to throw yourself into my arms at any time." He leaned down, close enough to nuzzle, to share breath. "I have liked the way you fit in them from the very start."

Gathering every shred of courage he possessed, Amador closed the remaining space between them, pressing his lips to Sohan's. That earned him a pleased noise that shivered right through him, and then he was hauled up, Sohan rising to his full height and taking Amador with him. One of his arms shifted so he could thread his hands through Amador's hair, adjusting him to just the right angle for devouring.

Amador had enjoyed several kisses in his life, a few of them remarkable, but not a one compared to being kissed breathless by Sohan, held close, possessively, as though he was being marked property of in a way that left him moaning, instead of cold with fear as Ottokar had always left him.

When they finally drew apart, Sohan rubbed his thumb over Amador's lips, which did not help Amador regain his thoughts. "The perfume suits you. I hoped it would. I chose the scent with utmost care. Enough I think my perfumier was about to lob something at my head."

Amador laughed. "You did not."

"Oh, I did."

"There was no reason to go to so much trouble," Amador said, still chuckling as Sohan kissed him again.

He reached up reflexively as they drew apart, wrapping his fingers around Sohan's wrist, and was immediately distracted by the feel of the bracelet. "So you like it?"

"Like it? I think— Oh, you mean the bracelet." Sohan grinned, sweet and wicked all at once, melting Amador's brain all over again. "Yes, though I admit I thought at first the color was merely a reference to the pond. It wasn't until one of my chamber servants commented on how perfectly it matched my eyes that I realized there was more to it."

Amador laughed. "Really?"

"Really," Sohan said, looking sheepish. "In my defense, my eyes are rather unremarkable. Everyone in the family but Nazaire has them."

"I disagree vehemently."

How that led to more kisses, Amador didn't quite know, but he certainly wasn't going to complain.

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