Adrian's Bodyguard [Vampires of Vadin 1] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Shelby Rhodes

  He had to be at least six foot five. His thick muscles were currently outlined by his tight black shirt, and the damn leather pants he was wearing hugged the man’s ass perfectly. Adrian was dying to bite into the tight globes—his mouth watered at the very thought.

  Xavier looked a bit different from most Arcadians. His ears were long on top and pointed, like an Arcadian; however, instead of the almost translucent skin that the Arcadians were known for, Xavier’s skin appeared to be sun-kissed. It was as if the man had spent days away under the sun. Highly unusual, even with Arcadians of mixed blood, as their translucent skin tended to be a dominant trait—however, it must have been natural, as Arcadians couldn’t tan.

  The man had aristocratic features, with high cheekbones and plush lips. His glowing eyes were a true sky blue. To top it off, he had beautiful white hair, short on the sides but left longer on top, allowing the pieces to curl slightly.

  It was the perfect length to grab on to during a blow job. Which was not something he would ever get to experience—not that the man seemed even the slightest bit interested, he thought grudgingly. Adrian supposed it didn’t really matter if the man was interested or not, as it would be highly inappropriate for him to try to sleep with his bodyguard. He shuddered at the thought—he could just imagine the lectures Baylin would give him.

  Sighing, Adrian forced himself to turn away from his bodyguard. He was bored. His mind tended to wander when bored. Often memories of dark times came to the forefront, memories he did not wish to revisit. Adrian had done so much in his life, and there was so much he wished to forget. It was why, when he could, he kept his throne room open to the public all day—the noise and activity kept him distracted.

  Baylin, however, had put a stop to that after the second attack. Now he only had court for a few hours a day, and council meetings once a week—it left him with hours of nothing to do. Well, he could read a book or watch a movie, but nothing new really interested him, and he had read and watched most of the older ones.

  Adrian was struggling to snap out of the depressing mood that plagued him lately. He should be happy his kingdom was doing well and that there were no major problems to fix, really he should, he told himself.

  However, for the first time, he found himself wishing there were more problems just so he had something to focus on. The thought was not a happy one, and often made him feel worse—a good person would never wish problems on others just to cure their boredom.

  Crossing his arms, he sat back in his chair and glared at the throne-room doors in front of him.

  Great, now he looked as though he was pouting, which he was, but his stupid bodyguard didn’t need to know that. Sighing again, he shifted sideways in his throne. Facing away from Xavier, he laid his head on one plush arm of the chair and threw his feet over the other.

  * * * *

  The man was pouting. Xavier had known King Adrian would not be happy being dragged out of the garden—however, it was worth the man’s irritation, as there were just too many blind spots.

  He found Adrian a bit difficult to deal with. In all honesty, Xavier was having a hard time believing that this was the man who had helped his kings take over Arcadia.

  The man confused the hell out of him. Xavier was struggling to pin down who Adrian really was. When with his subjects, he was the definition of dignified: serious, kind, and even humorous when needed. Even with Baylin and his husband, King Adrian seemed to at least be able to maintain some level of maturity.

  However, the minute he was alone, the man either reverted to acting like a whiny brat or stared blankly at whatever was in front of him. Correction, he only did so when he was with him. It seemed Xavier was the only one who had to put up with the man’s mood swings.

  The man’s personal priorities were also rather odd. Adrian had thrown a huge fit when he found out he had to move out of his bedroom to accommodate Xavier. Apparently, he had just recently moved back into his usual sleeping quarters. From what Xavier had heard, the first move was due to the damage caused by the first attack.

  Xavier honestly would have preferred to have not forced the king to move—even he would have been irritated to have to change rooms again so soon. However, there was nothing they could do about it. There had simply been no place for Xavier to stay or keep watch. So, for safety reasons, move they did. The room he selected was quite a bit bigger than Adrian’s previous one—not only did it have an extra bathroom, but also a separate sitting area that had enough room for a bed.

  Despite explaining the reasons behind the move, he and Baylin had still ended up arguing with the man for hours. Adrian was more worried about the fact that he had to suffer another change in his life than about his personal safety. Xavier found that notion completely insane. No, not insane, just odd—the man was odd and completely irrational and infuriating at times.

  However, the current situation was partly his fault—not the odd part, but the king’s mood when only he was around. Xavier was never one for words, and instead preferred to speak only when he had something worthy to say. In fact, he preferred to not talk at all—he never saw the need for endless chatter. Adrian, however, loved to talk and would do so all day if allowed.

  So, of course, King Adrian had tried to talk to him—but upon seeing how adorable the man looked when flustered, he couldn’t help but tease. So he remained silent, and grunted a bit. It was entirely unlike him, and Xavier wasn’t sure what had possessed him to do so. He honestly shouldn’t have—it had been completely inappropriate. And he knew now that it had been a major mistake on his part, as Adrian’s mood had only worsened since.

  Xavier had been so tempted to take the brat over his knee and give him a few swats on his tight little ass. It would have been an unwise thing for him to do—he didn’t trust himself to stop if he touched him that way.

  King Adrian was a gorgeous man. His long, flowing black hair looked as soft as silk and stopped just above his ass. He was slimly built, with lean muscles—muscles he had seen glimpses of many times over the last five days. Adrian had the habit of wearing long, flowing full-sleeved shirts that laced at the top—part of the man’s chest was revealed at all times. And most of the time, the blasted laces were never tied tight enough. Those brief glimpses of the man’s small pink nipples haunted his dreams.

  Baylin, a close friend of the kings—and very much a mother hen—often fixed the king’s laces while giving the man a lecture on decency. Xavier couldn’t decide if he hated Baylin for stealing those little glimpses from him, or loved him for taking away the temptation.

  The man’s pants were another matter. The things looked painted on and lovingly hugged the man’s heart-shaped behind. Adrian’s whole outfit constantly taunted him, showing him glimpses of what he wanted but couldn’t have. For instance, the man’s top usually hid the majority of his ass, leaving only the luscious bottom curve visible.

  Then there were his feet. Xavier had never thought he would find someone’s feet attractive, but somehow Adrian’s were. When he’d first arrived, Xavier had been surprised how clean the halls of the castle were, especially considering the foot traffic. He soon found out that the halls were cleaned daily because the king had a habit of walking around barefoot. Apparently, the only time he wore shoes was when he held court or left the castle. The first day being an exception, as in his rush the man hadn’t taken the time to put his shoes on.

  So many fantasies about the man had run through his head the last few days. He felt as if he were going through puberty again—Xavier found it almost impossible to not get hard around the man.

  Yes, there was no denying that he wanted Adrian—he was also not blind to the heated looks the king had tossed his way. Despite that, it was something he could ignore, as he refused to risk the man’s safety. Getting involved with him sexually was not an option.

  A distracted bodyguard was never a good thing. More often than not the client ended up dead because of it. It was not something he could risk—Adrian dying would devastat
e his kings and likely lead to the Kingdom of Vadin’s downfall.

  He did, however, need to fix this. The question was how. The ice powers he inherited from his Ice Demon mother were useless in this situation, and he didn’t think his ability to create tiny spiderlike creatures would be useful either.

  If only he knew what the man was thinking…unfortunately, mind reading was not a talent he had been born with—of course, Adrian would probably be unreadable due to his age. No, powers would not help him here. He would have to try to fix this through talking, he thought with a shudder.

  After clearing his throat, he asked, “Any other plans for today?”

  Adrian jumped at his words. “What? Are you talking to me?” Adrian asked snidely.

  “I apologize for my silence. I needed time to learn my surroundings to keep you safe. I did not intend to upset you.” Not exactly a lie, as he had taken note of his new surroundings. It just wasn’t the reason he had been quiet. Though, he really hadn’t intended to upset him this much.

  Dropping his feet off the arm of his chair, Adrian sat up and looked at him in disbelief. That disbelief turned into disgust. The message was clear; Adrian thought Xavier was full of shit.

  He doubted Adrian could tell for sure. He was quite confident in his ability to suppress all bodily signs of lying—Xavier had learned to suppress a lot over the years. Either way, the look aimed at him was the opposite of friendly.

  “We will be spending quite a bit of time with each other until the person trying to kill you is found. I think it would be best, for all involved, for us to start over and forgive past actions.”

  Adrian eyed him warily. “I don’t believe you…but fine.” He took a deep breath. “Let’s start over on better footing. How about this? We can start by using each other’s first name.”

  “My station would demand me to do otherwise. It would be highly inappropriate for me to be so informal.”

  “I am used to those close to me having some level of informality, excluding the times when I am meeting with my subjects, of course. However, I consider many of those close to me family. There are, of course, a few individuals who refuse to drop the ‘Your Highness’ and ‘King Adrian,’ but they are strung a bit tight,” Adrian stated nonchalantly. “How about this, let’s compromise. In private you use my first name, but in public you are free to use ‘King’ or ‘Your Highness’ to your heart’s content.”

  “Fine,” Xavier agreed. He couldn’t help but grin at the king’s words—a rather devilish idea popped into his head. He could almost picture how adorably frustrated King Adrian would look if he were to, say, use a combination of the words after everything he said. Which was something he shouldn’t and wouldn’t do, he told himself. Irritating Adrian was absolutely the last thing he should do and would probably make everything worse.

  * * * *

  Adrian didn’t trust the grin he saw on Xavier’s face, but decided to just ignore it.

  “To answer your earlier question, while there is nothing else today, tomorrow I do have a council meeting after court. All the council members will be present along with Dante Kozen, who is the head of the Kozen Zaytari group. He is there to report on a string of unusual cases occurring in and around his territory. As for the council members, you should know who they are, as Baylin gave you files on each.”

  “Yes, I looked through all the files earlier. However…what was provided seems quite sparse, and there was also nothing on your Zaytari groups or their territories.”

  Adrian sighed. He didn’t like where the conversation was heading. “They’re a nonissue. I’m going to be honest with you, Xavier. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have given you any information on my council either. But it was decided that you should at least know who they are, only because you’ll be seeing them more than once. As for Dante, I only informed you of his presence as a courtesy.”

  Xavier looked taken aback by his words, and in disbelief asked, “Are you not the least bit worried that someone in the council has betrayed you?”

  “No.”

  “And what about your Zaytari groups? The groups who, as of yet, have made no progress on figuring out who is trying to kill you? Those groups? It has been two months. Is it not time to wonder about the possibility that the investigation is going nowhere because the ones doing it are involved?”

  Adrian hissed, flashing his fangs; the accusations filled him with rage. “No! Both the council and the men running my Zaytari groups have spilled blood and tears, risking their own lives to protect me. It is an insult to their sacrifices and honor to even suggest that they would betray me. You do not need to know their secrets, as their secrets are mine to keep, as well. You will also never mention this again. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, then this conversation is over. Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Adrian walked toward the doors of the throne room, Xavier following silently behind him.

  Chapter Four

  Adrian knew the bastard was doing it on purpose. Every sly grin made him want to strangle the man. These past two hours at court had been hell. Oh, how he regretted wishing the man would talk. If only he had known—hindsight was a bitch.

  He swore if he got one more “Yes, Your Highness” or “No, Your Highness” or a “Your Highness” anything from the man, he may just kill him in one of the many horribly violent ways he had thought up in the last two hours.

  And he had sure had plenty of time to think. As they were no longer allowing those in who just wanted a friendly chat, all he had to take up his time were people with problems. And, apparently, no one had any problems today. Okay, that wasn’t exactly true, as they did; it was just that none of them were something he could fix.

  Major disputes and serious problem were what he was supposed to deal with—things like major property disputes, flooding, starvation, people dying in the streets, and so forth. For the first time, he realized just how much the people who usually came by just to talk diminished the impact of the mind-numbingly idiotic complaints he got.

  More than half the time, the problems brought before him were not something in his job description to fix. They were ones that should have been taken to their local Zaytari. And to his frustration, many of them were also exceedingly petty.

  Not to mention, if he even tried to fix some of the nonsense problems that were brought before him, it would just make everything worse. The number of complaints he would get would most likely increase tenfold from the people unsatisfied with his decisions. Half the time, he would probably outright dismiss them, as many of them were too idiotic or too insignificant to bother with—which, again, was why they should be handled by the Zaytari.

  Actually, no, some were not even worth the Zaytari’s time—it would be a waste of resources to even bother. Honestly! People needed to suck it up and stop whining about absolutely nothing.

  Currently, he was listening to a “problem” that fell into that category. The man in front of him was complaining about leaves from his neighbor’s trees falling into his yard. Leaves! Adrian was having a hard time even comprehending what he was hearing—he just couldn’t believe the ridiculousness of it all.

  There were people out in the world struggling to survive, starving even, and this man was complaining about leaves. He was complaining about the size of his neighbor’s trees and the wind that blew them into his yard—he thought that his neighbor was lazy, useless, and inconsiderate. He was just going on and on. And making matters worse, Xavier was there purposely making random comments just to spur the man on.

  He held up his hand to stop the man’s rant, and asked with irritation, “And what, exactly, do you expect me to do about it?”

  “M-make him cut them down,” the man stuttered hesitantly. It appeared that now that the man was no longer immersed in his ranting, he had finally noticed how irritated Adrian was.

  Adrian’s eyebrow rose at the response, and he scoffed. “And why sh
ould I do that?”

  “B-because the—” the man began, but Adrian stopped him.

  “Because the wind had the audacity to blow leaves into your yard? Should your neighbor be punished for a force of nature he can’t control?”

  The only reply Adrian received was stammering nonsense. “Let me ask you this. Are the leaves in any way interrupting your life? Have you lost your job? Your house? Are you starving? No? Then you have wasted thirty minutes of my time on something as insignificant as leaves. If leaves are the only problem you have in your life, then you should consider yourself lucky! This matter is over! And don’t even think about going to the local Zaytari about this. They have more important things to worry about than your damn leaves! Now get out!” he bellowed. His voice echoed in the room, causing all who were present to turn and gawk.

  Taking a deep breath, he tried to slow his heartbeat and breathing as the man fled the room.

  He announced, “Court is over for today. I will meet with the rest of you tomorrow.” The room cleared quickly, leaving only Xavier and him behind. Adrian’s anger was still very close to the surface despite his efforts to calm down.

  He glared at Xavier. “Say one word, and danger be damned, I will throw your ass out, too.”

  Xavier burst out laughing. “While I agree that the man was being ridiculous, you probably could have been a bit more tactful, don’t you think?”

  “It’s not funny!” Adrian snapped, his face flushing slightly. He struggled to hold on to his anger as Xavier laughed harder.

  His laughter was incredibly infectious—the bastard. When Xavier let out a rather unflattering snort and started choking, he couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up.

  When he got over his coughing fit, Xavier blurted, “Did you see how pale he got when you started yelling? He looked like he was minutes from fainting.”