Moving with deliberate slowness, Cormal lifted his hands out to the side and then placed them behind his head, clasping them together. Hecouldstill summon fire, but this position drastically reduced the chance of him reacting without thinking if he lost his temper. Still moving slowly, he sank down onto his knees.
“What are you doing?”
Cormal twisted slightly at the concern in Kinan’s voice.
“Prince Kinan?”
Cormal twisted back, to see that Brannal looked… confused, especially when Kinan immediately put himself between Cormal and Brannal.
“Kinan, could you—” Cormal started.
“This is literally why I’m here,” Kinan hissed. “Do you really think I’m going to stand aside while you’re kneeling in the grass looking like you’rewaitingto be killed! I thought you were going to talk to him!”
He sounded incensed.
Oh.Cormal hadn’t realized his actions could be interpreted like that.
“I’m certainly hoping that Brannal and Perian will talk to me, Kinan, but they’re definitely not going to do that if they think I’m going to attack them. This was the best way I could think of to show that I’m not going to do that.” He tried to peer around Kinan, but he moved every time Cormal did.
Cormal suggested, “I mean, if you’ve got a bathtub or a body of water, you could put me in there.”
“No!” Kinan snapped.
“Up to my neck,” Cormal clarified. “Kinan—”
Kinan whirled back to him, eyes huge, and tension in every line of his body. “Stop talking! You’re doing this all wrong!”
Cormal was pretty sure this washisapology, and therefore he couldn’t be doing it wrong, but Kinan was practically vibrating with tension.
“We came to talk to you,” Kinan told Brannal. “Just talk. I promise. Could you—could you maybe not attack Cormal while we talk?” His voice was shaking. “I can’t do anything to stop you, and that’s killing me.”
Chapter Twenty
Trill
It shouldn’t really have come as a surprise and yet somehow did when the first thing Molun did once Cormal had left for his surprise inspection was to lure Arvus and Trill to the man’s office to have sex.
“Baby, didn’t you tell Cormal that you didn’t need an office?” Arvus asked.
Molun scoffed. “Of course I don’t need an office. Why would I need an office?”
Arvus and Trill exchanged glances.
“To have sex in?” Trill suggested.
Molun grinned. “We already have our rooms for that. Why would I want another room where I’m locked up away from other people?”
Arvus made a circling gesture with his finger. “What do you call this?”
Expression turning mischievous, Molun said, “Misusing Cormal’s office, obviously.”
Arvus looked like he was trying not to laugh. Trill couldn’t help but grin at the look on Molun’s face.
It seemed like Arvus couldn’t resist it, either, because in short order, Trill was bent over the desk, and Molun pushed into him while Arvus fucked Molun.
Trillreallydidn’t mean to knock all those papers off the desk, but it seemed he got a little exuberant in his pleasure.
Afterwards, Molun tried to convince them that it would serve Cormal right to come back to an office left in this disarray.
