Chapter 216: Support Structure

For one stunned second, Liam simply stared at him.

Then the first laugh broke out of him.

Small at first, almost disbelieving. Then larger, sharper, pulled out of him by exhaustion, relief, horror, and the image of Andreas receiving the news that his assistant’s final visual option had been consumed by royal ether because it had failed to respect the legal sovereignty of Liam’s ribs.

Liam pressed one hand to his mouth.

It did not help.

Arik watched him with open satisfaction, which made him laugh even harder.

"Do not look pleased," Liam managed, and then immediately failed again, because Arik did look pleased. Beautifully, intolerably pleased, standing there in his dark red shirt and gold cufflinks with a neat circle of ash beside him like a man who had solved diplomacy through controlled combustion.

"I am not pleased," Arik said.

Liam pointed at him blindly because his eyes had started watering. "You are extremely pleased."

"I am satisfied."

"That is worse."

The words dissolved into another laugh, and this time Liam bent forward slightly, one hand going to his chest where Marin’s ward pulsed blue in an instant, offended warning.

"Stop that," Liam told the ward between breaths.

The ward pulsed again.

Arik’s expression shifted at once from amusement to concern, and that should not have been funny either, but apparently Liam’s mind had decided it had survived poisoning, revelations, partial reincarnation politics, bankrupt kingdoms, and now fashion arson and had earned the right to become useless.

He laughed harder.

Tears slipped down his face.

His knees went a little unreliable.

That was when Arik moved fast enough that Liam’s hand found him before he had to ask. Arik’s arm came around his waist, steady and warm, not pulling him in so much as offering a place to fall. Liam accepted it because the alternative was collapsing onto the approved engagement suit, which would have given Andreas a posthumous victory through wrinkles.

"Breathe," Arik said softly.

"I am breathing."

"You are laughing."

"I can multitask."

"Poorly."

Liam tried to glare at him through tears. It failed so completely that Arik’s mouth curved again.

The ward pulsed a third time.

A message flashed on the bedside comm.

Lord Canmore, I am not repeating myself before breakfast. — Marin

Liam looked at it.

Then at Arik.

Then, helplessly, he started laughing again.

Arik made a low sound that might have been a laugh or a surrender and drew him a little closer, enough that Liam could press his forehead briefly against Arik’s shoulder while he caught his breath. The dark red silk was cool under his skin at first, then warmed quickly from Arik’s body heat, from the rut still leashed under medicine and discipline and sheer, impossible will.

That awareness returned slowly.

Arik’s arm around his waist. Arik’s scent under the suppressants was gold-warm stone and dangerous but held back. Arik’s mouth when he kissed him. The way Arik had woken beneath him days before, fevered and hungry, and had still told him to move away first. The way every kiss since had carried the same contradiction: want made visible, control made gentler because of it.

Liam’s laughter quieted.

Arik’s hand stilled at Liam’s side, lower than the ribs, where it had chosen safety before desire. His breathing changed by a fraction, not enough for anyone else to catch, but Liam was pressed against him and had the unfortunate disadvantage of being mated to a man whose control was becoming a language of its own.

"Liam," Arik said.

There was warning in it.

Warning, because Arik knew himself, knew the rut had not vanished, and knew that one hand on Liam and one laugh turned quiet could become something much more dangerous if he let instinct mistake tenderness for permission.

Liam lifted his head.

Arik looked down at him, gold eyes darker than they had been a moment ago, his face still composed but not untouched. Never untouched, not with Liam close enough to feel the heat moving under his skin.

Liam thought, absurdly, that Arik’s kisses really were very nice.

That was not the word for them.

Nice was for tea, weather, and people one did not intend to ruin one’s political future for.

Arik’s kisses were not nice. They were dangerous in a good way.

Liam leaned up.

Arik did not meet him halfway at first.

He waited, every line of him held still while Liam made the choice completely. Only when Liam’s mouth touched his did Arik breathe out, and the sound went through Liam like heat through metal.

The kiss was soft for perhaps one second.

Then it deepened because Liam, apparently, had learned nothing from medical events, morning wards, or the fact that Arik was in a suppressed rut. His hand tightened in the front of Arik’s shirt, wrinkling the silk with vindictive satisfaction, and Arik’s arm closed more firmly around him.

Still careful.

Liam hated that too.

Loved it, perhaps.

No. Hated. He was not emotionally available for accurate labeling.

Arik’s mouth moved over his with devastating restraint, warm and slow and exact, giving him enough to feel wanted and not enough to be taken. The restraint made Liam lightheaded faster than force would have because it was not an absence of desire. It was desire made obedient.

For him.

Because of him.

Liam made a small sound against his mouth, irritated by the fact that his body had chosen honesty before he had approved the statement.

Arik broke the kiss at once.

His forehead rested against Liam’s, and for a moment neither of them spoke. The room smelled faintly of extinguished ether, expensive fabric ash, and Arik’s suppressed rut beneath dark silk.

Liam swallowed.

"That was your fault," he said.

Arik’s eyes remained closed. "The kiss?"

"The laughing."

"Ah."

"And the kiss."

Arik opened his eyes.

Warm. Dark. Amused in a way that should have been illegal during medical recovery.

"You leaned in," he said, voice dark and wrecked.

"You were support."

"I did not realize support now included kissing."

"It was an expanded function."

"I see."

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.