Hendrik might’ve been biased, but some things were just true, regardless of what he thought of them. Kass being beautiful was one.
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Hen lied.
Kass glanced behind them, then swatted Hen’s ass hard enough to sting through his tabard and leather pants.
“Stone and fire,” Hen said through his teeth, trying to look like the flush in his face was from anger. “Piret’s right, you’re going to get us into trouble.”
“Oh, come on. They wouldn’t give me a new guard now.” Kass laughed. “This is our time. Let’s enjoy it!”
That was Hen’s job, to make sure Kaspar stayed happy, healthy, and safe. To make sure he was a perfect specimen when the time came for his inheritance. To keep him from driving himself mad with loneliness, as so many Children of the Blood used to in the bad days. It was not Hen’s job to make himself happy, however. That was just an accident of fate, and it hadn’t been intentional, so what could he do?
“Piret’s a sour puss, anyhow,” Kass insisted. “She’s just mad Lyla doesn’t go in for girls.”
“I don’t know if Piret does either,” Hen mused.
“I don’t think Piret goes in for anything.” Kass chuckled.
Hendrik snorted. “Good for her.”
Kass licked his lips, leaving them glinting. “You know what I go in for?”
“I do,” Hendrik assured him.
“That uniform. I don’t know what it is; you wear it so much better than the other guards.”
“You would think
that,” Hen said, though he was flushing again. He picked up his
pace as they ducked into an alleyway rather than taking the main
thoroughfare back to the
Complex. Side streets were always preferable; fewer eyes and ears.
“Because of what’s underneath,” Kass said with mock thoughtfulness, nodding. “You might be a little bit right. But even before I knew—”
“When was that?” Hen rolled his eyes, trying not to smile and failing.
“You remember.” Kass grabbed his arm ducked into a doorway.
Hen followed but nodded over his shoulder. “We should—”
“You remember.” Kass went up on his toes and put his forehead to Hendrik’s. He lowered his voice, his breath hot on Hen’s lips. “How I looked at you, even before I knew you were looking back.”
A thrill shot through Hendrik’s middle. This was a lot, in public, even for Kass, but all the pomp and circumstance of the full moon ceremony brought out something perverse in him lately. “I know,” Hendrik whispered back, his voice rough. “I know. But we can’t—”
“Just kiss me. One time.” Kass’s smile was huge. “It makes me feel like I’m already a god.”
If he’d said it once, he’d said it a million times. So Hendrik said it again. “You are, Kass.”
Impatiently, Kass slid his hand into Hen’s short-cropped hair and pulled him in until their mouths connected. Hendrik’s knees gave out a little; he tucked the linen bundle under one arm and slid the other around Kass’s waist, pressing him against the door jamb. You’re getting sloppy. You can’t let him have things that are bad for him. That’s part of your job, too, his mind said, while his body and heart told him to drop to his knees and suck Kaspar off right there and then. He could feel his prick through his tunic and hose, not all the way hard, but it was a matter of time, the way Kass was angling against Hen’s thigh.
Hen bit at Kass’s bottom lip, sudden and sharp, and Kass yelped and laughed. He also rocked his hips against Hendrik, inviting more.
Hendrik shook his head. “Behave.” It hurt to stop but it was his job. Why was this so much harder now than it used to be? Why was Kass so much more convincing all of a sudden? Why did Hendrik just not care?
“Or else what?” Kass asked, his lips wet and parted. He lifted his chin defiantly.
“Or you’ll have to watch me fuck Jak…”
Kass gasped and grinned.
“…from across the room, with your hands tied behind your back,” Hendrik finished.
Kass’s face fell. “You wouldn’t!”
Hen nodded and stepped back, adjusting his own prick in his leather pants. If he did it just right, his belt would keep his secrets for him, at least. Damn, but they had a ways to go before they were back in their cell. “Try me.”
“That’s just mean,” Kass whined.
Times like these, Hendrik really wondered why guards and their charges weren’t supposed to fuck. It came in handy as a bargaining chip sometimes, especially when they were spoiled little princes like Kaspar.
And the fact that Hen would literally never try to tell Kass what to do in the bedroom, regardless of his behavior elsewhere, was what made it funny.
*
“What’s into you, lately?” Hendrik asked a half hour later.
Kass, sweaty and breathless, curled into his side and threw an arm over his naked middle. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re always a horny little—”
“Oh! And you’re not! You had my dick in your mouth before I even got the door shut behind us.”
