I stood up and banked the fire to allow it to finish burning down safely. After dropping a kiss on my sister’s cheek and tilting my head at Jon, I left the room in search of the man in question. I could feel myself mentally shoving away the serious shit in favor of losing myself in the physical connection with Felix.
If only for a few more days, I could pretend that the shy, beautiful man from small-town Texas was mine, and we were just a couple of regular guys enjoying each other’s company far away from the madding crowd.
The next three days passed in a kind of deliberate nonchalance. It was as if Felix and I had some unspoken agreement not to bring up any serious topics such as a certain royal situation or the impending date of his departure. We spent daytime hours exploring Gadleigh Castle, goofing off in the glassmaking studio, or just talking by the fire in the treasury room. Sometimes my sister joined us, but often it was just the two of us. At night, we spent hours exploring each other’s bodies, talking and laughing, or just curled around each other in sated sleep. It was like having a boyfriend but in the present tense only. There was no past, there could be no future, and the present was simply easy and fun.
As long as we stayed in the present.
By the time the end of his visit approached, it was impossible not to think about our impending separation and my upcoming ascension to the throne. There was no telling how Felix was feeling about it all, but I, for one, had begun to feel slightly panicky.
We were asleep in my bed in the castle early on the morning of Felix’s last day at Gadleigh when I heard my sister scream from her room down the hall. At first I thought it was part of a dream, but Felix shot up in bed, displacing my arm from around him and almost elbowing me in the face.
“What is it?” I mumbled. “Bad dream?”
“Shit. It’s Hen. Something’s wrong.” He scrambled from the bed and grabbed clothes from the floor. I took a microsecond to appreciate the rounded bounce of his pale ass as he stepped quickly into the plaid flannel pajama pants. His words finally sunk in when I heard a muffled thump from the direction of my sister’s room.
“Hen? Fuck.” I moved quickly then, grabbing for my own sleep pants before reaching for a fleece pullover. Felix had thrown on a hoodie over his bare chest and shoved his feet into thick socks before flying out of the bedroom.
I was only a few beats behind him when he reached her bedroom door and flung it open. Felix screeched to a halt, causing me to run into him at full speed. After grabbing him with my arms to keep us from tumbling to the floor, I noticed what had caused him to stop in his tracks.
Chapter 22
Felix
As soon as I stepped through the doorway to the bedroom, I saw Jon’s naked ass kneeling on the bed next to Hen. His arms were up in a calm-down gesture, and he was clearly pleading with Hen to stop screeching.
Which wasn’t working.
Hen was in full-on hysterics. Her face was blotchy red, and tears wet her cheeks. She clutched her phone with a death grip and waved it around like it was the weapon in a jittery bank robber’s shaky grasp.
“How did this happen?” Her screech pierced the cold air of the castle room as Lio barreled into me from behind.
I sucked in a breath as Lio crashed into me, and I tried to keep from landing face-first on the decadent rose-and-cream carpet beneath my feet. As soon as Lio steadied us with a grunt, I felt his arms tighten around me as he took in the scene: his bodyguard naked in bed with his sister.
“What the fuck?” His shout would have decimated the hearing in my right ear if he hadn’t put his hand over it a second before bellowing the words. I felt the warm hand cup my ear gently as his other arm continued to hold me against the front of his body.
Jon bolted under the covers before turning to face us. “Oh god, Lio. This isn’t what it looks like.” Considering the words were spoken while actually naked in bed with his sister, I couldn’t help but snort.
Even the corner of Hen’s mouth twitched in amusement before she muttered, “Yes it is.”
I heard another snort from over my shoulder and turned to see Arthur standing in the hallway wearing formal pajamas and a bathrobe. Besides the nightclothes, he was immaculate as usual.
Jon turned to stare at Hen with a desperate expression on his face. “Are you kidding? Do you have any idea what he’s going to do to me?”