Well, looked like I won the silent treatment. I tried not to smile.
“Because your inaction against the curse means I’m stuck here.”
He put his nose in the air. “Just because I’m not currently doing anything doesn’t mean others aren’t.”
“Oh, yeah? While you’re out here racing, who’s doing what to break the curse?”
I knew the answer before I asked the question, and his expression said it all. He had no idea and how dare I even ask. A human questioning his authority to do nothing while his people suffered? The nerve.
“Remember when you told me there was a rumor?—”
“Don’t.”
“—about Daddy wanting his boys to grow up?”
He lunged at me, but I was bigger, so when I pushed up out of my seat and grabbed his shirtfront, I took him right back onto his side of the carriage and held him there.
“I don’t think it’s a rumor,” I said right up in his face. “And I’m pretty sure you don’t think so either.”
Solaris was breathing hard, eyes scanning mine, and then he did something I hadn’t even considered. He glanced at my mouth and then licked his lips. Was he… Did he want…Excuse me?
He grunted as I pushed away from him. Sitting back down on the hilt of the sword surprised me, so I stabbed it into the floor for two reasons. First, as a reminder for him not to come at me. Second, to help make sure I didn’t accidentally cut my own leg. Because I was pretty sure I wasn’t the person in this carriage who knew how to wield a sword properly.
And then I had to go and contemplate what I maybe just might’ve learned about Solaris. Were we both into men? I was gay, and now I was wondering if he was something not straight. I knew that look. I’d given it and gotten it. Nine times out of ten, that look resulted in a kiss.
I had been thinking I’d change clothes here in the carriage so that, at our first stop, I could get out looking like one of the guys. It wasn’t like I could have Solaris step out while I changed, so I’d need to?—
Oh. Shit. Wait a damn minute. I rifled through the stuff Lars left me because there had better be a goddamn key or I wouldn’t be changing any—Okay. Phew! Found the key. To make it look like I totally wasn’t panicking, I went ahead and unlocked my ankle cuff.
He could close his eyes if this is too intimate.
“What are you doing?” he asked with a touch of what might be alarm.
I glanced up at him. “I’m going to change into the clothes Lars got me.”
“Oh.” He relaxed back in his seat.
“Why? What did you think I was going to do?”
“Nothing.” He went back to staring out the window.
Uh-huh. Did he think I was going to free him? It had only been a few hours.
I took my t-shirt off and felt eyes on me, but I ignored him. The shirt Lars got me was actually a little big, which was a good sign. It was a simple, rough cotton of some kind in a boring beige color. Definitely wasn’t going to have me standing out.
The pants… Well, those were interesting. They came to my knee, had a bib front panel with buttons on three sides, and the roughness of the material made me think they were going to be itchy. But they’d be less conspicuous than my jeans, so I’d give them a try.
Dropping my jeans got a tiny gasp out of him that I completely ignored. Of course, I’d ignore that. He was my prisoner. Only if we were roleplaying some kind of game would that power dynamic be okay. That he looked was a compliment. That we had something in common wasn’t bad. But while I spent half my life buttoning my new pants—there were a lot of buttons—I didn’t even peek at him.
Okay, I did peek. He was slightly flushed, gaze flicking all over me, and he even licked his lips three times. I wasn’t immune to any of that from a good-looking man. His attitude needed work, but he wasn’t hard to look at.
In another time and place, maybe we could’ve had some fun.
“You still look human,” he said with his nose in the air.
“You still look like a fairy.”
Such a grouchy face. Had he thought I’d just take his snotty comments?I match energy, buddy boy.
