Prince Brendon Narrates Again

Prince Brendon Narrates Again

The taste of blood lingered in Brendon’s mouth. He sat in a chair, leg bouncing in agitation, as the Good Wizard hovered over Rick who sat on the couch, mouth wide open and tongue hanging out.

“May I remind you all that I am not a healer,” the wizard said sternly even as he patched Rick up. “I am a Great and Powerful Wizard of the Old Council. My magic is not meant to be used for such trivialities.”

“I’n thorry, Good Izzard.”

Rick’s mangled words made Brendon flinch. Hurting his future husband—if they could ever work their way toward that goal—was not a good way to begin their relationship. Well, kidnapping was arguably a worse way. Now that he thought about it, they were several bad steps into the venture already with little good to speak of.

“So, this is where you’ve been this whole time?” Kit asked, drawing Brendon’s attention to her. She was wandering around the room, occasionally poking at a lamp or a book or the wall.

“Yes.”

“Cozy,” she said with a nod of approval.

He glowered at her. “You remember I’ve been held hostage here for almost a week, right?”

Speaking of his confinement, he glanced at Rick quickly to see if he was paying attention to this exchange. Thankfully, the wizard’s ministrations proved a good distraction.

“Oh, look, you’ve got The Bride’s Revenge!” Kit exclaimed, pulling a book from the shelf. “Now you can finally read it!”

“I already have.”

She arched her brows in surprise. “Really? I’ve been asking you to read it for months and you always said it wasn’t your kind of book.”

“Yes, well, I had a lot of time on my hands.”

Kit sighed and ran her fingers longingly over the books, most of which she had probably already read. “So, you got to spend all week here, reading and lounging around?”

He gaped at her, baffled by the wistful tone. “Are you seriously jealous right now?”

“I’m just saying,” she muttered, “that it would have been nice if our roles were reversed.”

“You mean if you had done your job properly and were kidnapped in my stead?”

“Well, if Francesca had done the kidnapping …” she trailed off, a dreamy look in her eye as she caressed the books with a lover’s gentleness. “All alone, no one to interrupt us … Is there a bed? I wanna see it.” She started up the stairs without asking for permission. “Franny said Rick comes here all the time and sometimes spends the night. It’s probably comfortable, with fluffy pillows and silky sheets.”

Brendon trailed after her if only to keep their conversation out of Rick’s hearing. “Please stop daydreaming about fucking my fiancée upstairs. At least until—” Until Rick acknowledged the title instead. Before the stairs led him out of view, he glanced back at Rick one last time to confirm he still wasn’t listening to them. The wizard had moved onto his leg, and Rick lay back on the couch, one arm covering his eyes.

“Not just upstairs,” Kit replied cheerfully. “Bet the kitchen would be nice too.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Brendon said dryly, “since you interrupted us.”

She paused, the few stairs separating them adding inches onto her height and an extra disappointed angle to her frown. “You’ve been holed up here for a week and you’re telling me you haven’t—”

“No,” he interrupted through gritted teeth, “we haven’t.”

Her eyes widened in horror. “Don’t tell me that I interrupted the first kiss? You’re usually so much better at this.”

He scowled. “I am trying to be subtle.”

“You don’t really have time for subtlety.”

He was well aware of that, but every time he made a move, Rick looked like a rabbit cornered by a fox. He didn’t think Rick disliked him—the kiss had been as much Rick’s idea as Brendon’s—but something held him back.

“I wonder,” Kit began, biting her lip. She cut herself off and continued up the stairs.

“Will your wonderings help or just make things harder?”

She didn’t reply.

Sighing, Brendon asked, “What do you wonder?”

“Do you remember when I told you that Rick was bitten in the marketplace when he went off to speak to someone?”

It took Brendon a moment to follow her sentence and line of thought, but eventually he nodded. “Sure.”

“You see that person … well, I didn’t pry, but they seemed awfully close.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. Then, when Brendon didn’t reply, she held up her index finger in one hand, made a circle with her other hand, and started suggestively connecting them. “Close.”

“Yes, I understood you the first time,” Brendon snapped. He simply couldn’t believe that Rick was in a steady, committed relationship. After all, one of the first things he’d asked Brendon was about any sisters or cousins, so Rick could go forward with the wedding in Franny’s stead.

They finally reached the room and Brendon spotted the trunk of magical toys. Most of those required a partner …

Kit saw the box and went over to investigate. Brendon pushed past her and closed the lid firmly, sitting on it so she couldn’t snoop. She held up her hands in surrender and poked around the rest of the room instead. “Bet that’s a nice view in the daylight,” she said, nodding to the window.

Though she seemed willing to drop the conversation, the possibilities lingered with Brendon like a nasty itch he couldn’t scratch. “What’d the man look like? From the marketplace.”

“Blond, blue-eyed, yea high,” she said, holding her hand up to the middle of her chest. “Cute but in a somewhat disturbing way. He called Frederick ‘Ricky.’”

“Ricky?” Brendon exclaimed in disgust. Then had to repeat it because it was just that ridiculous. “Ricky?”

“I know, right? Sounds like a toothless milksop or a boy still in short pants—not what I would choose to call a lover, but they had that familiarity to them, you know? The ‘I’ve seen you naked’ kind.”

Brendon slumped against the wall and gazed up at the ceiling. “So, Rick might have a lover …” He trailed off because he didn’t know where the sentence was going.

“They may be exes,” Kit said.

Brendon pictured all of the times he’d teased Rick, touching him, pinning him against the bookcase … He thought everything would be so much better if he and Rick could find some way to connect. With Rick’s inclinations, sex seemed like a great place to start. Unless he was already in love with someone else …

“This whole thing is a fucking mess,” Brendon groaned, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands.

Kit nudged him to scoot over and sat down next to him on the sex toy trunk, wrapping her arm around him in quiet companionship. “Were you starting to like him?” she asked quietly. “Not the horny kind of like, the romantic kind.”

“Thank you so much for the clarification,” he muttered.

“I thought it might be needed.”

After a quiet moment he said, “Yeah, I think so.” For years, he’d resigned himself to a loveless marriage, possibly even devoid of friendship since Franny had repeatedly ignored him. Then Rick had come along, passionate and impulsive, inadvertently rescuing Brendon from that sorry fate. Except now he found himself back in the same position again. No matter which sibling he married, it would be a formality only, and he’d be the one left alone on the sidelines.

“Your Highness? Good knight?” called the Good Wizard from the bottom of the stairs. “Are we spending the night in this tower or shall we depart for the castle?”

The castle that Brendon hadn’t even seen yet. The middle of the night was honestly the best time to return so he and Kit could switch places without anyone noticing. Tomorrow would be a day of preparations and rehearsals, something Brendon should participate in no matter who he married. Leaving the tower also meant a return to all the formality and responsibilities of royalty. Though he’d been irritated with Kit earlier, he had to admit that this week had been refreshing. A little boring, but it’d been nice to have time to himself, to be just ‘Brendon’—or whatever stupid variation Rick accidentally called him.

When Brendon didn’t answer, Kit asked, “Did you fix the door?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll stay here tonight. Probably safer than traveling through the forest at this hour, even if it’s a quick trip.”

“A wise decision.”

Kit stood up and began removing her armor, silently declaring her intent to take the bedroom. “Are we sharing?” she asked, nodding to the comfy bed she’d been daydreaming about earlier.

“No, I’ll go sleep in a chair.” Before he left, he tapped on the hidden panel, and shoved the trunk back into its secret place. Looking sternly at Kit he said, “Don’t pry.” Conveniently forgetting that the trunk had only been out in the open because he’d been searching through Rick’s toys.

Kit pretended not to hear him. Or maybe she really didn’t over the clank of armor as she stripped.

Downstairs, Brendon found Rick already asleep on the couch. The Good Wizard busied himself in the kitchen, overflowing with energy despite the late hour. Maybe wizards didn’t need to sleep.

Brendon chose a chair near the couch and tried to make himself comfortable, putting his feet up on the coffee table to give himself more room. He turned his head so he could see Rick’s face, slack with sleep, his dark hair mussed and tangled. Brendon brushed a few strands out of Rick’s eyes.

As he pulled his hand away, one of Rick’s reached out and grabbed his, pulling it back and snuggling into it like a child would a stuffed toy. Brendon let him keep it.