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Killing nobles feels fairer than killing commoners. They can afford better protection for Whisper to bypass.
Julien picked the colors seven years ago, based on what he thought looked cool and dangerous. Nobody should let sixteen-year-old boys pick anything.
Audric hasn’t changed in the year since Julien saw him last. They have the same brown hair, and they’re both a bit over six feet tall—while Julien’s thrilled to be half an inch taller, it’s not enough for anyone else to notice. Nobody ever mistakes the two of them, though. Audric’s stern expression and icy calm are all his.
I assured her I would love to hear more, and then unfortunately got distracted making out with her brother.”
“Cosette Pellerin has very attractive brothers. And cousins. And that one uncle.” “You didn’t.”
his initial impression is of a slight figure, half a foot shorter than Julien. Messy yellow-gold waves of hair brush the folded collar of his shirt. Leather bracers on his wrists, but no visible weapons. Simple clothes. Julien only has a moment to admire the way his trousers cling to his ass before the man hears his approach and turns around.
The young man’s appearance would catch Julien’s attention in any situation. His heart-shaped face flourishes between the realms of handsome and pretty. Julien wants to touch his delicately pointed chin and turn his face this way and that, to see how the sunlight illuminates each new angle of him. But it’s his eyes that stop Julien in his tracks. A deep blue-purple, like twilight or bruises, untouched by sunlight. Eyes like that only come from the heart of Draskora, where the scalestone veins converge and magic seeps into the very earth and water.
There’s no overt sign in Will’s expression, no circles under his eyes. But Julien has the distinct impression that Will is exhausted. Like he’s stretched too thin. Like he hasn’t slept in days.
“Don’t worry. I’m a responsible royal scion. I’ll keep my dick in ungrateful, backstabbing courtiers where it belongs.” “It belongs in a cage,”
Maybe that’s what he finds so interesting about Will. Will isn’t trying to impress him at all.
I’m definitely not going to fuck him, Julien tells himself. At least, not before the background check comes back.
“He moved too quickly,” Julien says. “I know. Don’t worry. I’m still not fucking him.” “That’s still not as reassuring as you think it is.”
“I barely got scratched,” Whisper protests. Julien gently takes Whisper’s arm again. “If you got a papercut, it would be too much for me.”
The space between them is meaningless when Julien’s presence suffuses every particle of air, fogging the glass around Whisper’s heart.
Which means this is a dream again. A shadow-sweet nightmare. Julien’s not really leaning towards him, and Whisper’s not really seizing Julien’s collar in a desperate yearning for comfort. Surrendering himself to Julien’s kiss.
He breathes, “Then be selfish, Your Highness,” and drags Julien into a kiss.
Desperation ignites Julien’s veins. Sweet soap and water haven’t washed away the scent of blood. The taste of it on Will’s lips. Julien moves carefully at first, afraid of hurting Will. Bruises, scrapes, lingering weakness from the blood magic—everything Will dismisses as not hurt badly.
“Is it weird that watching you interrogate him was unbearably hot?”
“If your father has concerns about my lovers, he can ask me directly. And if he’s jealous, unfortunately he’s a little older than my usual type.”
Will’s ears flame a deeper red as Julien pulls him into the room. Julien spins them around as the door slams closed, their bodies hitting the wood in an echoing thud. Cradling Will in his arms, Julien seizes his lips in a ravenous kiss.
Will discards his trousers and small clothes without embarrassment, and turns to Julien nude except the leather around his wrist. His pink cock already rises from its nest of dark gold curls.
“I took this scar for you,” Whisper says. “That’s not a bad thing. I’ll never regret it.”
Julien’s breath breaks against his fingertips, and Whisper isn’t sure which of them surges first into the kiss. He has to close his eyes as Julien kisses his cheek, his temples, his eyelids, and with every tender touch, the cold eases from his heart.
“Lord Emile Pellerin overdosed on nightrose. I didn’t even know you could overdose on nightrose, but there he was with a four-day erection. It was honestly impressive.”
Easy as always. He’s done this five times before. Except for his other jobs, it was his skin on the line, not Hemlock’s. And he hadn’t fallen in love with his targets.
When they meet in a kiss, it’s with ruinous ease. Will opens to Julien’s lips, and Julien forgets everything else in the world. The sweetness sharpens into an edge of teeth. Will grasps at Julien’s hair with infectious desperation, pumping heat through Julien’s blood. The air hums between them. Julien has never played hard to get, but he’s still stunned by how easy he is for Will.
If Whisper was the sort of person who would choose Julien over his little sister, Julien never would have fallen for him.
“I could have died because I fell in love with him. Instead, I’m alive because he fell in love with me.”
“What token of mine were you planning on taking?” Julien asks. Another wave of guilt crashes cold through Whisper’s lungs. “Nothing.” Each word hurts. “Nothing was good enough, and I couldn’t forget you anyway.”
Julien leans in, his lips barely an inch from Whisper’s fabric-covered cock. Looking up through his eyelashes, he exhales. The hot breath seeps through Whisper’s cock and into his veins. He tenses with the effort of not rutting against Julien’s face—and Julien pouts. “I can’t hear you, kitten.”
Julien grins up at him. His lips are smeared with Whisper’s precome, his eyes hazel-gold. “I love you too.”
“I told him I don’t do seductions. He assured me it wasn’t, which is why I posed as a guard rather than a courtesan. I didn’t expect you to seduce me instead.”
“I leave you in Greenhaven for four months, and you’re fucking a Fellrian assassin?” Julien bursts into laughter. “Give me some credit! It only took me two months to fuck the assassin.”
