But it was Brannal’s turn to shake his dead. “Don’t apologize. Please. We can call it a joint misunderstanding if you’re feeling extraordinarily generous, but I wasn’t the one locked in a dungeon cell. I should have been more conscious of how it would look to you.” His expression lightened. “I’m sure I could have gotten the Princess to cause a distraction, if only I’d thought of that.”
This made Perian laugh. “Yeah, that would have been aterribleidea, but it would absolutely have worked. HowareRenny and Kee? The Queen and Cormal would only tell me that it wasn’t fully effective. Iamsorry.”
Brannal pulled his hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to it.
“Don’t youdareapologize.” His voice was intense. “You practically killed yourself doing something that should have been impossible, and anyone who complained because you didn’t do even more is a self-centered, awful person.”
Perian blinked at him, because he’d never heard Brannal insult the Queen before. Brannal had already made clear that he supported Perian and that he was not all right with what the Queen and Cormal had done, but this was very firm evidence of that, and it made Perian smile.
He huffed a laugh. “Thank you. I, uh, do wish that I’d been able to do more, though.”
“We all wish that we could do more,” Brannal pointed out. “We’ve all wished it for years, and you’re the only person in the entire castle who actually could. The Princess is better than she’s ever been since the attack. The Prince does, of course, wish that he were,uh,solid.” He seemed to be struggling for words, and Perian couldn’t really blame him. This was a weird situation. “But he’s so grateful that he can be seen and heard by everyone now. And he’s no longer tied to the Princess. Although they were certainly still spending a lot of time together when last I saw them, they don’thaveto. The Prince’s rooms were prepared for him; he’s going to have privacy again and everything.”
“Mm, good,” Perian said, still wishing he could have done more, but truly glad about what hehadbeen able to accomplish. “I meant to mention to you—well, all right, I thought I wouldn’t ever get the chance to mention to you—that Kee’s gone from sixteen to twenty-two without the opportunity to, uh, have a lot ofalone time, and certainly not to have any, er, couple time. Or more! I don’t know what he likes. I might have mentioned our book to him, and while we all agreed there was no way I could sneak it to him when he was tied to Renny, now that that’s been solved, maybe you could loan it to him? I think he has some catching up to do.”
Brannal looked entirely surprised for a moment, and then he laughed and suggested, “Maybe we can get him his own.”
Perian thought the loan was a lot more practical, but maybe Brannal didn’t think it was appropriate to let a prince look at a book that they’d… kind of enjoyed themselves over.
“He’s still going to need someone to turn the pages,” Perian reminded him. “Maybe you could just page through without paying any attention and then stop when he said stop and give him a bit of alone time?”
Yeah, that sounded really awkward the more he thought about it.
“I’m sure we can come up with something,” Brannal agreed. He tugged Perian even closer, his arms tightening around him. “Thank you for letting me back into your bed. And heart.”
“My bed,” Perian corrected. “You never left my heart.”
Brannal kissed him for that, and then rearranged them so that Perian’s back was pressed up against Brannal’s front, pretty much as close as they could get if they weren’t having sex. Perian loved it.
Brannal told him, “You never left mine, either. I’ll work on being much better about expressing it, all right?”
“This is pretty good,” Perian said, surprising himself with a yawn.
Brannal grinned, and he sounded proud when he said, “I tired you out.”
Perian thought that perhaps the sleepless nights had more to do with it, but he didn’t want to bring the mood down by saying so. He’d certainly enjoyed the workout.
“So good,” he hummed again.
Brannal managed to pull him a little bit closer, plastering them together, and pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin behind his ear.
“So very good. I love you, Perian.”
“I love you, too.”
For the first time in more than three weeks, Perian slept properly.
Waking up wasthe best, because Perian was perfectly warm and cozy. At first, he couldn’t figure out why, and then he had a moment of heart-stopping terror that it had all been a dream, but when he opened his eyes, Brannal wasright there—and he was more than willing to show Perian that he was here, happy, and determined to make Perian feel good.
They got cleaned up in a very leisurely fashion, and by the time they finally made it downstairs, the staff had evidently come to their own conclusions about Perian’s mood and the sudden arrival of a handsome stranger. He and Brannal were positively lavished with the best food that Stallor could possibly cook with no warning, in a huge enough quantity that he seemed really to think that they had worked up an appetite.
They had, and Perian certainly had more of an appetite than he had in the last three weeks. Brannal always ate a lot, and he seemed to have no complaints about the food, consuming it rapidly and with every evidence of enjoyment.
(And he poured Perian’s tea. Perian told himself that he was definitelynotgetting teary-eyed over that.)
“Would you like a proper tour?” Perian asked.
“I found the tour of your bedroomveryproper,” Brannal said with a leer that made Perian laugh.
