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“So the country will be ruled by a bastard and a whore,” said Laurent. “How appropriate.”
“Think what that’d be like, getting a leg over the Prince.” I imagine it would be a lot like lying down with a poisonous snake, thought Damen, but he kept the thought to himself.
“I thought you wouldn’t soil yourself with a barbarian,” said Damen, careful to keep his voice neutral. He was aware of the beat of his heart. “I wouldn’t,” said Laurent. “But if I gave you to one of the guards, I might lower myself as far as watching.”
One of the servants stepped behind him and began to prepare the entrance to his body.
“I don’t roll in the sty with swine,” said Laurent, coolly. “I’m here to bathe. Have I said something astonishing? Come here.”
Their loyalty apparently did not prohibit the fantasy of fucking the Prince taking on mythic proportions.
Damen didn’t recognise what it was until a servant stepped forward and snapped the nipple clamps in place.
The boy’s pretty bow lips formed the shape of a kiss, and he spat, right into Damen’s face.
“Can you couple adequately, or do you just kill things?”
If there was anything explicit on view, it must be the absence of all desire to be where he was.
And what did it mean, to be a prince, if he did not strive to protect those weaker than himself?
“Are you misguided enough to try to bargain with me? What could you possibly offer that I would want?” “Obedience,” said Damen. He felt Laurent react to that idea. Subtly but unmistakably, the interest was there.
What makes you think I will tolerate any of this, even if I believed what you are saying to be true?” “Because you can end this conversation any time you like.”
Like a man who enjoys owning an animal who will rake others with its claws but eat peacefully from his own hand, he was giving his pet a great deal of license.
And then it was happening. As though on cue, the sound of a sword being unsheathed to his left. Later, he’d wonder what it was that caused him to react as he did. He had no love for Laurent.
Into the tense, wary moment, Laurent said, steadily: “You seem to vacillate between assistance and assault. Which is it?”
As the soldiers made the first movements towards leaving, Laurent said, “I assume I am to drag these three derelicts out myself?” The soldier in charge flushed. “We’ll remove them. Of course. Is there anything else you require from us?” “Haste,” said Laurent.
“You must be the fuck of a lifetime,” said Orlant, just before he shoved Damen into the audience chamber where Laurent stood alone, in front of the Regent and Council.
“Yes, apparently I have fucked my enemy, conspired against my future interests, and colluded in my own murder. I can’t wait to see what feats I will perform next.”
“My dear brute,” said Laurent, “I want you to rot here.”
Damen felt a certain amount of empathy with the man: Laurent could inspire homicidal tendencies simply by breathing.
