by Ariana May
Having requested a moment of Sebastian’s time after the final talks, he settled onto a couch in Sebastian’s suite next to Sebastian and accepted the glass of wine the other man held out for him. “Thanks for meeting me. And for all you’ve done this week. The talks wouldn’t have gone so well without you. Even with how much you’ve clearly enthralled St. James with yourself and Rhododendron as a whole, you smoothed out a number of thorny points of protocol and trade allowances most favorably. You’re to be commended. I’m quite grateful of your skill and loyalty.”
“As you should be. Please tell me that you and that delicious Damien of yours are going to reward my efforts by taking me up on the offer of the foursome with our host?” Sebastian drawled.
“Well, that is an intriguing offer, as both you and King St. James are supremely handsome men. I’ll be sure to once again pass it on to Damien,” Jericho said as he sipped his wine. “So, you admit that part of your strategy is bedding the King of Moore?”
“Go ahead, I can have Jesse here by time you get back with your boy toy,” Sebastian suggested. “Of course I’m fucking him. You’ve seen the man, haven’t you? And it’s all in the service of my Prince of course.”
Jericho considered the man opposite him and the truth of the man’s words that he could find in Sebastian's eyes. Making his decision that he could trust the man’s word and determined to get to the bottom of a matter that had been troubling him, Jericho smiled at Sebastian, set his wine down, and rose from the couch to walk to the door. Drawing a small crystal from his belt, Jericho placed it on the lock and whispered to activate it, sealing the room and preventing any and all surveillance. Walking back to the couch, Jericho said, “I thank you for your service to Rhododendron, and to me, Sebastian. I find I need to draw upon it again. I need to talk to you alone and I’d prefer we weren’t interrupted or overheard.”
“A security ward of some sort? May I ask where you got it?” Sebastian asked, curiosity in his voice.
“Damien acquired it for me. I don’t trouble to discover his sources,” Jericho answered.
“I imagine he’s competent at such things,” Sebastian allowed. “Very well, since you’re clearly turning down a night of truly incredible sex and we’re likely done with official business, you may as well sit down and let me know what’s on your mind.”
“It’s about Emery,” Jericho began, voice flat. “You see, the Captain of the Royal Guard does a security check on all of my boys once they’re selected for my harem, just to make sure they’re trustworthy. She has good sources and is most thorough. I read her report on Emery before coming on this trade mission.”
“And did you find anything disturbing in the report?” Sebastian asked in a calm, cool tone. “I can’t imagine that you would. He’s a fine young man. You’re very lucky to have him.”
“Yes, I am,” Jericho agreed, his voice trembling a bit. “And no, I didn’t find anything unusual in the report. Well, other than his friendship with you of course. And that’s the problem.”
“His friendship with me?” Sebastian queried. “I thought that we’d settled that matter between us.”
“No, I have no objection to your friendship. You’ve been good to him,” Jericho acknowledged. “No, it’s that there was nothing unusual in the report or in the official records from which the report drew.”
“And you have a problem with that. Many people would have nothing interesting if a background report were done on them,” Sebastian asked, fishing to see just which of the many abnormal parts of Emery’s childhood Jericho was aware of.
“There’s something that should be there. I don’t know what, exactly,” Jericho’s voice broke as continued. “I.....I don’t know if it was rape or an attempt at that. But there was something there. I could see it in his eyes when he talked about how you helped discover that intimacy was okay. It could be it was never reported, but I don’t think so. He shared the story with Damien. And while Damien won’t tell me what Emery said, he would have if nothing had been done. If the responsible party hadn’t been dealt with. Emery was raised in your territory, Sebastian. If something was covered up, I’d wager you know about it. I...I need to know, Sebastian. I know I should wait...Let him tell me. But I need to know.”
"You are assuming quite a lot based off of a look that you think you saw in our mutual favorite boy's eyes. How do you know that you weren't seeing something that wasn't there or misinterpreting what you saw?" Sebastian asked with a raised eyebrow and a cautious tone.
"Once you've seen that look and known what it is, it's not something you could ever mistake," Jericho replied coolly.
"And you've seen it before," Sebastian asked, darkly curious, though he couldn’t deny Jericho’s words; the man was right about that look.
“I was thirteen. It was a stable boy. A friend,” Jericho began, his eyes clouded with the memory. “When we found him, a foreign nobleman’s daughter had him strapped down. She’d just finished removing his pants and was slapping him for not being hard. We...We put a stop to it. Cyan cleared the woman out and I took care of the boy, best I could. Cyan couldn’t get the King to do anything, so I took him into my service to keep him safe, and Cyan put the word out among the other servants. My friend, he’s good now....married and happy...but for a long time...well you never forget seeing that in someone’s eyes.”
“The nobleman’s daughter. You couldn’t do anything at all about her? Who was it?” Sebastian inquired, feeling a moment's rage on behalf of a child he’d never known.
“No. Cyan...he was going to figure something out, but she died. Blood loss from a freak accident of some sort,” Jericho answered. “Anyway, that’s beside the point. I know what I saw, Sebastian. You’ve a good poker face, but I can tell you know something. Tell me what you know.”
Sebastian considered his options and decided that giving the Prince a portion of the truth would be the best way to stop any further inquiries. He didn’t think the man would find anything about his Quartzine, but there was no point in taking risks. Not when the Prince was exceeding his expectations of the man’s deductive abilities. “There was an incident when Emery was younger involving one of your father’s soldiers. It didn’t get very far, but...hell, anything is far enough. The soldier died that night and I arranged for the appearance of an accident. It’s a closed matter that is best kept that way, my Prince. You’ll only hurt him by bringing it up or by digging too closely.”
Holding back tears, Jericho forced out, “It would seem that once again, I owe you more than can ever be paid.”
“Again, I did it for him. And if you want to repay me, take care of him and keep him happy.” Sebastian replied.
“You have my word on that,” Jericho said softly. “Thank you for telling me. I’ll take my leave. Good night, Sebastian and thank you.” Jericho hurried from the room, determined to bury himself in Damien’s arms.
The bedroom door slid open and a man entered the sitting room. Tall and handsome, the newcomer's looks were similar to those of the young prince who had just exited the room. As the man crossed the room and poured himself a glass of wine, Sebastian asked him, "The servant, my dear Cyan?"
"His valet. Not a point we can use, at least not if we want to give Emery a chance to stick around," Cyan responded.
"Yes. And Emery's earned that much. That much and more," Sebastian sighed. "What about the nobleman's daughter? Blood loss from an accident? Was it truly not your doing?"
"Blood loss from an unfortunate incident with a fork. Sadly not something I can take credit for," Cyan responded.
"A fork?" Sebastian asked, incredulous. "Are you serious?"
"Or so the reports say. Though, even young as he was, the boy was promised to another. Her grandfather is...." Cyan paused searching for the right word. "Eccentric."
“That’s one word for it,” Sebastian said with a dark chuckle.
“Yes. Now tell me Seb. Were you really trying to get my baby brother into bed with you and Jesse?”
&nbs
p; Sebastian laughed. “He’d never have gone for it and you know it. Though if he had, well, I’m sure Jesse wouldn’t mind getting the complete set of Amberton boys.”
“Hmm, we are supremely fine examples of male perfection. Well, more so myself, but still Seb, if you wanted to fuck me you could have said so instead of bringing Jesse and my little brother into it,” Cyan complained with a small frown.
“My, my, your mouth says it’s about you thinking I want to fuck you, but my ears hear that you don’t want to share your casual fuck toy with your brother?” Sebastian drawled. “Falling for him? Looking to push me out of Jesse’s bed and make your friends with benefits situation into something more permanent?”
“Why would I? Between you and me, we’ve fucked the King of Moore into submission. The current arrangement is proving most useful to our plans,” Cyan retorted. “And even if I did ever entertain such thoughts, the time for them would be after my asshole of a sire is dead and Jericho is safely on the throne. So don’t worry, you can continue sharing Jesse with my fine self. No, my brother’s falling in love, and I want nothing to mess that up.”
“Well, much as I hate to admit it,” Sebastian murmured, “neither would I.” Sebastian held up his glass to Cyan. “To your brother, his love, and the success of our plans.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Cyan clinked his glass to Sebastian’s and drank deeply.
***
The day’s meetings had gone well. The plans for the palace celebrations for the Festival of the Gods were set and preparations were underway. All that was left for Emery to do now was to brief Damien and help oversee the preparations. Similarly, most of the decisions for the Council of Lords had been made. Which left time to consider the real reason he was at the palace: To assassinate the King of Rhododendron and see his son ascend the throne.
Sitting in his room, Emery reviewed the information he had gathered from a variety of sources: Seb’s spies, Damien, his own observations of the palace rhythms and happenings, and information discretely pumped from the other harem boys, Quentin in particular. He had a solid view of the King’s schedule and habits as well as the general movements of the rest of the palace’s inhabitants. He had a fairly thorough picture of the palace’s security arrangements, including guard movements
Settling into a comfortable position, Emery meditated on his options. ‘It’s a shame that this isn’t an ordinary assignment. If it were a government official, an important merchant, or even a lord, I would be done by now. A quick strike and escape if discretion weren't a concern. A carefully arranged accident or virtually undetectable poison disguised as natural causes if discretion were required. Easy. I have more than enough information and access for that. I could finish the job and be gone in a heartbeat.’
Emery let out a resigned sigh. ‘But this isn’t an ordinary assignment. A discrete poisoning is out as the Royal Physician is skilled enough to detect any poison, as is Magus Smoke. And the Magus or the Dracon will see through any accident I might arrange. So discretion is out. That leaves an obvious kill that can’t be traced through me to Seb or Jericho. A direct attack in the open is out. I could pull off the kill, no question, but the risk of being discovered and having it all come down on Jericho is too great. That leaves striking when he’s alone or nearly alone.’
‘I’m going to have to find a way of getting into the King’s quarters at night. I need a way in. Best chance is the secret escape passages. I can’t use Cyan’s, so I have to find out where Jericho’s entrance to the passage is. Damien doesn’t know, so I have get Jericho to tell me.’ Guilt swamped Emery with his next thought. ‘I will have to play off his feelings for me and hope that’s enough to get him to tell me what I need to know. If it’s not, I may have to drug him and interrogate the information out of him. I don’t want to do that, but gods it’s better than risking the King going through with his plans to sire a replacement heir and have Jericho killed. I just hope he can forgive me.’
Shuddering, Emery forced himself to move on to other concerns. ‘If I perform the kill in the King’s quarters, then Ravenne is definitely the choice for scapegoat. She has access via the harem rooms and is the only one of them nasty enough that no one would think twice about it. Well, other than Flora, but that would make Breanna sad. Well, I guess Kai’s puppy is going to be avenged. I just have to see if there is anything I can do to create a plausible story around the kill.’
Emery made plans for further investigation of Ravenne and for checking out the more troublesome lords, just in case any of them could be tied to his scheme. Once finished, he turned his thoughts towards his plans for his own future. ‘I’ve been thinking of retiring Quartzine for some time and Seb has been agreeable to it. And...And I love it here. I’m in love with Jericho. I love his boys. They have already come to feel like family, especially Damien, Kai, and Quentin. Another reason for discretion, I suppose. I want to retire here and stay with my new family...I want to marry Jericho and...Getting ahead of yourself Morris. You don’t even know for sure that he’s in love too. Gods, I hope he is. I’d stay anyway, be just one of his boys because I don’t think I know how not to be his anymore, but gods I hope he feels about me the way I feel about him. I’ve missed him so much. I’ve done so much this week, had so much sex with the other boys, and yet nothing distracts from missing Jericho. Not completely.’
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Emery’s thoughts and plans for the future were interrupted by Quentin poking his head into Emery’s room. “Emery, Master is back. I saw him and Damien though the window.”
Emery shook himself from his musings and crossed the room to press a tender kiss Quentin’s lips. “Thank you Quentin. I wouldn’t want to miss their return.” Emery extended his arm to Quentin. “Shall we?”
Quentin chuckled and taking Emery’s arm answered, “We shall.” Together they walked out and found a comfortable seat in the common room on a couch with Daven where they could watch both the main harem entrance and the passage to Jericho’s chambers.
The three of them sat and chatted distractedly about Quentin’s most recent financial success while they waited for Damien and Jericho to make an appearance. Word of Jericho and Damien’s arrival had clearly spread, as the room soon filled with the entire harem. Before long, the main door opened and Jericho and Damien slipped in. The room erupted with shouts and calls of welcome and Jericho and Damien were quickly swarmed by boys determined to greet them with warm embraces and passionate kisses.
Having discussed their individual plans for the night earlier in the day, Emery and Daven sat back patiently. Emery noticed Quentin fidgeting next to him and chuckled. “Go on Quentin. Say hello to Master Jericho and Damien. You know you want to.”
“But what about you and Daven, sir?” Quentin asked. “I was waiting for you.”
Emery smiled warmly at Quentin and said, “That’s nice of you, Quentin. Thank you, but Daven and I have plans for those two tonight. So you had better take your turn, because once we have our hands on them, we’re not letting go.”
Quentin blushed at Emery’s insinuation and mumbled. “Okay. Will do.” Quentin hurried over to join the queue of boys welcoming Jericho and Damien.
As the queue of boys greeting him thinned, Jericho found himself with an armful of a far more snuggly Quentin than he had left behind a week ago. A Quentin who wasted no time in capturing his mouth in a gentle kiss of greeting. “Hello Master,” Quentin whispered to Jericho’s ear. “Missed you.”
Jericho returned Quentin’s kiss with one of his own, to which Quentin responded eagerly. “Did you have a good time while I was away?” Jericho asked, curious and pleased about the transformation that was evident in his youngest boy.
“Yes, Master. I had a very nice success with your investments and helped Emery with his party chores.” Quentin ducked his head shyly into Jericho’s neck and murmured, “I let Emery fuck me. And I had sex with Emery and Kai and then Kai and Nico. It was really good, Master. I really liked it.”
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sp; “I’m glad, Quentin. Perhaps you can join Emery and me for a night soon,” Jericho offered, holding the boy close, his hands on Quentin’s ass.
Quentin looked up into his Master’s eyes and smiled wide. “I’d like that Master. Now that I’m not hiding from myself anymore, I’m finding that I’d like that a lot. Thank you for helping me, Master.”
“You’re welcome, my dear Quentin. I’m so glad that things are better for you.” Jericho kissed Quentin once more, long and slow.
“Me too, Master,” Quentin whispered. “I should let you go. Daven and Emery have plans for you and Damien.”
“Not before you say hello to me, Quentin,” Damien said as he pulled Quentin around so that his back was pressed to Jericho. Damien pressed himself to Quentin’s front and captured the boy’s mouth in a slow, lingering kiss. “Hello Quentin. I take it you were a good boy for Emery?”
“Yes, Damien. I was good. I missed you,” Quentin said as he buried his head in Damien’s shoulder, blushing madly at being held by Damien and his Master.
“I missed you too. Let’s have lunch tomorrow.” Damien kissed Quentin’s forehead. “You can tell me all about your successes this week...in finance and in the bedroom.” Damien pulled away from the blushing boy and shifted to stand next to Jericho. He gave Quentin’s ass a quick pat and ordered, “Now scoot, off to dinner with you.” He smiled as Quentin obeyed, giggling.
