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“If you knew half of the stuff I’ve fantasized about you before, you’d blush. In that Day Room or whatever it’s called when we first saw each other at the Palace, I already figured you had scars. I still thought about bending you over the table and fucking you. Of course, I was rather distracted by the fact that I was in trouble for a crime I didn’t commit.”
Aurelius tilted his head slightly. “That would have given the courtiers something to gossip about.”
Jari held back a snort. “I meant without everyone else around. I just don’t think this is a great time when you haven’t even had time to process anything, and you need to be on a ship in the ocean.”
And if he was getting worse, they needed to keep going and see if destroying the items worked. Crushing one with his boot had done nothing, and doubt kept cropping up in Jari’s brain although he refused to let his mind linger on it. If he did, he might as well toss out all hope.
If there wasn’t a way to stop this, Jari would still be there for Aurelius.
“You’re not a conquest or something to use,” finished Jari. “I don’t know what else I can do to prove that. If I only wanted sex, I’d be gone now, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’re too good for me.”
“You’re too good for me because I could have killed you that day, and you still can stand to be around me.”
***
Aurelius didn’t mention kids again when they made camp near Plotheen, but Jari knew the thought hadn’t gone away. The Prince simply wasn’t talking about it.
He wished Mammon was a physical being that he could choke to death for putting such things in the Prince’s mind. He’d been clear about not wanting kids before, and Mammon would try to override every single thing he wanted or didn’t want.
He told Este that he had to get something, and it’d be easier if she took them past the guard perimeter they had set up every night for safety. If he was sneaking off, that might look suspicious even though the guards had no reason to keep him from going anywhere.
The problem was what to do with Aurelius. Jari didn’t like bringing him around the items, and he hadn’t forgotten the Prince’s command to do what was needed if he refused to give them up. He didn’t have them now, and he wouldn’t be digging up the items, but Jari wasn’t comfortable about bringing him around them.
Aurelius likely didn’t want to spend so much time alone in a camp with men either when he wasn’t in a good state of mind. Beyond Mammon, his time of being kidnapped and seeing Corvo again had left a few more furrows in his brain.
Damn it.
He got a soldier to fetch him a small sack of salt, and the man asked what it was for. Jari fibbed and said Aurelius had a certain skin condition that needed it. His physician back home had said so.
Aurelius wasn’t so irritated when Jari had to leave him for a few minutes, and he entered their small tent to find him sitting on his bedroll.
“So, I have to go and get the things. Este’s going to come along for part of the way so people don’t question where I went. If I’m with her, it’s fine.”
“Okay. I’m ready.”
“You could stay here.”
“I don’t want to be left here.”
“Maybe it would be better-”
“I just said I don’t want to be left here.”
Jari would be gone for a good forty minutes or so considering the distance and time spent digging. “I know, but these men aren’t going to hurt you. It’ll take me about forty minutes to get there, and another forty-”
“You’re not leaving me alone for that long.” Aurelius’s voice cracked slightly.
“Okay, fine. I’m not forcing you to remain.” Perhaps Jari being around also made it easier for Aurelius to fight that voice. The salt did most of the work, but why bother if everyone around him didn’t care? Who knew what he might start thinking while alone? Over an hour wasn’t forever, but it probably seemed like it when he trusted no one else in the camp.
They rode out. Este had asked what was so important for them to get, but Jari had said it was probably better if she didn’t know. Thankfully, she didn’t argue. When they got to a certain point, he said she could wait, and he went on with Aurelius.
The residents would have returned to their village since the war was over. Jari noticed a few, faint lights in the distance, but the graveyard was far enough away to be safe. The tiny house was still abandoned, and Jari unhooked his lantern from his saddle.
“Wait here by the fence, okay?”
“Why?”
