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“Why?” I asked. “Because I’ve lived in the cities, the Wolf River Kingdom, and now Good Port, too, and I learned how to add up numbers while letting a man twice my age stick his cock in me?”
“I had the finest education Good Port could provide,” Olympus argued, standing and stepping into me so that he could rest his hands on my hips. “I had every advantage a man could have—a business ready and waiting for him, a powerful family name, a father who became leader of Good Port—and I’m still scrambling not to look like a fool in front of Magnus, Jorgen and Hati, and even Sai and his councilors.”
“You said yourself that you haven’t done much traveling, and even when you did, it was all centered around commerce,” I argued. I knew Olympus was getting to a point, I just wasn’t sure I liked the point he was getting to.
“You’re the real delegate from Good Port at these meetings,” he said. “So far, you’ve said far more intelligent things than me and stood up for yourself and your friends in a grander gesture than I would even dream of making.”
I smirked and slid my arms around his sides. “Are you saying that I’m the master in this delegation and you’re the pup?”
Olympus laughed and relaxed a bit. “In your dreams,” he growled, reaching around to cup my ass with both hands. “If I wanted to, I could have you kneeling beside my chair or bending over the arm and holding your ass open for me to fuck in front of everyone in that council room.”
I laughed deep in my throat, lust buzzing through me. “I might,” I said, sliding my hands over his sides and up across his chest. I rested them on his shoulders and grew more serious. “I don’t like you second-guessing yourself, Oly. You’re every bit as strong as any of the men in that council room, or anyone in Good Port, for that matter. You can shape the frontier as much as anyone else.”
“With no authority invested in me?” Olympus asked with a doubtful look. “My father hasn’t given me leave to say or do anything, and even if he had, I would have to get approval from the council to make any sort of deal or alliance with Magnus or Jorgen.”
I shrugged. “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission. If you made a deal now, you could always justify it to Vikhrov and the council later.”
Olympus stared at me. “It doesn’t work that way,” he said after a long pause. “I’m just a representative from Good Port, here to make certain we’re not left out of things entirely. I can’t make decisions or policy.”
“Why not?” I shrugged. “You’re the son of the First Councilor. Your family has more money than any other primary family. Probably more than you or anyone else knows, now that we’ve stopped Gregorius. Who is going to tell you that you can’t do whatever you want?”
It seemed pretty obvious to me. Dukes in the cities made decisions on behalf of the Old Realm all the time, or at least they had. Jorgen was probably going to decide things that the Duke of Inverhaus would have to just go along with. And Magnus wasn’t waiting to get permission from the Central Justice Council, or any of the other Wolf River leaders, before hammering out whatever treaties would come out of the meetings.
For all his power and wealth—and considerable handsomeness and mind-bending abilities to fuck me into a puddle of submission—Olympus didn’t have the confidence that a leader needed. He needed to either grow a pair and reach for greatness or step back and let someone else do the job for him.
I was just about to needle him into being more decisive and controlling by suggesting that Patrius be sent as Vikhrov’s ambassador to the next meetings when movement outside the window caught my attention. I turned all the way to see what it was and spotted Magnus, Peter, and Neil walking in the garden with Hadrian and Sai.
I was immediately rippling with curiosity to know what they were talking about. I peeled away from Olympus and walked to the window, keeping to one side so that I could look out without being seen.
“Lefric, what are you doing?” Olympus asked, walking toward me with a wry grin, as if I were being ridiculous.
I gestured for him to come closer, but to stay out of sight. “I’m trying to figure out if Magnus is going to snap Hadrian’s neck now or if he’ll wait until Sai isn’t looking.”
Olympus laughed lightly and shook his head, but pressed up to the side of the window with me. “While I agree that Hadrian is probably a spy from the Old Realm, I seriously doubt Magnus is going to have the man killed.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” I whispered without looking back at him. “Magnus will put the safety and security of the Wolf River Kingdom first—well, after Peter and Neil—followed closely by the safety and security of everyone on the frontier. If Hadrian is a spy who might tell the Old Realm what we’re up to and give them any sort of advantage in swooping in and squashing everything we’re trying to build, then he will see one life as a small price to pay.”
“I don’t see how the Old Realm knowing that four new kingdoms on the frontier are holding meetings to decide on trade deals will help the new king reconquer any of the frontier,” Olympus said, leaning closer to me from behind.
“Any information the Old Realm learns about the new kingdoms could be used against us,” I whispered as if Magnus and the others were right on the other side of the window instead of at the far end of the garden. Magnus was smiling and fondling Peter and Neil—who had their cute, vacant looks on, which was definitely a signal of subterfuge—while Hadrian and Sai did most of the talking. “The best way to defeat an enemy is by keeping as much information from them as possible. If the Old Realm continues to see us as nothing but savages in the forest, they won’t send armies after us.”
Olympus huffed a laugh. “If it were me and I thought the people on the frontier were nothing but backward wolves, I would make a point of sending soldiers. I would think the frontier was an easy target that could be taken without a scratch.”
I twisted away from the window to stare at Olympus. Now he was thinking like a leader.
“Maybe that’s what we want, then,” I said. “Maybe we want the Old Realm to underestimate us and send an army. If they sent too few soldiers, between the four of our kingdoms, we could defeat them easily.” I blinked as ideas flew at me, and stood straighter. “Maybe we could deplete the Old Realm’s army to the point where they couldn’t ever attack us again. At least, not for generations. But by then, we’ll be as powerful as they are, maybe even more.”
Olympus grinned, desire lighting his eyes. “You’re quite fetching when you’re plotting a war,” he said, hooking a hand around my waist and tugging me against him.
He brought his mouth crashing down over mine, instantly scattering all my thoughts. Maybe Magnus had plans for another war or maybe not, but whatever the case, with Olympus’s tongue in my mouth, I didn’t care.
I hummed with excitement and leaned into him, kissing him back. It had been hours since he’d fucked me when we’d woken up that morning, and my ass was already missing him. Olympus was always more confident after fucking around with me. I could consider it a service to my kingdom to let him bend me over the back of the sofa, tug my trousers down around my ankles, and ream my ass until we made more of a mess in the library than the stuffy old room had probably seen in its entire existence.
But just as I moved my hand around to stroke his hardening cock through his trousers, there was a shout from the garden.
“How dare you?” Hadrian yelled. “I’ve never been so insulted in my life.”
I wrenched away from Olympus, more than a little loopy and pleasure-drunk already. I had just enough sense to grasp that Hadrian wouldn’t shout something like that unless something important were happening.
