“Does the princess know you’re bedding her lady-in-waiting?” his brother asked slyly.
Maxim halted, turning to face Nando, a snarl on his lips. “You’ll not speak of Lady Tansy with such disrespect.”
“Apologies.” Nando flashed him a crooked grin that reminded Maxim his brother had been drinking heavily whilst cavorting with hisgoddesses. “The disrespect was aimed at you, not at the lady.”
He ground his molars. “She will have a place of honor in my court.”
“As she tends to your wife like a servant.”
It wasn’t a concern he hadn’t already thought of himself. He hated the notion of Tansy being relegated to the periphery of his life when he wanted nothing more than for her to be at his side. But the observation was even more unwanted when Nando issued it in his superior tone.
He stopped marching. “It is none of your affair.”
Nando paused as well, spinning to face him, wearing a familiar, mulish expression. “And yet it is your affair if I’m conducting myself discreetly with my English goddesses?”
Maxim suppressed a groan of irritation. “Prostitutes.”
“Goddesses.”
They glared at each other, at an impasse.
“I am your king,” he reminded Nando firmly. “Everything you do is my affair. Particularly when you are endangering yourself for the sake of your prick.”
It was crude, but Maxim was feeling harsh. Sharp as a blade.
Nando crossed his arms over his chest. “I fail to see the difference between us. Indeed, if anything, your conduct is worse than mine. You are about to marry your queen, and yet you’ve been secretly bedding her lady-in-waiting, with every intention of keeping her as your mistress.”
“My woman,” he bit out.
“Mistress,” his brother hissed insolently. “Whilst I’m the prince with nothing to do. You won’t trust me with any information, save your fits, and I only know about them because you had one before me and couldn’t hide it. Meanwhile, Felix knows all, and I’m left in the dark. What am I to do but keep myself out of trouble as you commanded me?”
“Hiding yourself away without telling me where you’ve gone and fucking five harlots at one time isn’t keeping yourself out of trouble,” he roared.
Although, the moment his burst of anger left him, he couldn’t deny that his brother’s words affected him. He didn’t entrust Nando with much, aside from helping to calm him if he was near when one of his spells began. Could it be possible that his scapegrace brother wanted more responsibility? If so, lying abed in a whorehouse all day was certainly not the way to persuade Maxim he ought to share some of his burdens with him.
“I only have one cock. How do you think I was fucking five of them at once?” Nando asked, grinning.
Maxim heaved a sigh, unclenching and clenching his fists at his sides. “I don’t want to think about what you do with your prick or how you manage it. I’ve seen more than I ever wished to see today. All I’m saying is that I need you close. I need you safe. I need you to not be challenged to a duel at dawn or at themercy of some assassin’s blade.” Another sigh, and then some of the harshness inside him faded. “I need you, brother. You’re the only family I have left.”
“You need me?” Nando raised a brow, his expression turning suspicious, as if he didn’t believe him.
Was he such a damned ogre, then?
Maxim nodded, the motion jerky, emotion roiling inside him. Emotion he didn’t want. “I do.”
Nando’s look turned sly. “I can help to guard Lady Tansy if you like.”
“No, you damned well can’t,” he growled.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his brother not to force his attentions upon her; he knew that Nando was a rakehell, but he was also a man of principle. Seduction was a sport to him. But neither did he relish the prospect of his Tansy being flirted with by his beautiful younger brother. Maxim was all too aware of his battle-scarred visage, the twin patches of silver at his temples, his unruly, almost barbaric size. To say nothing of his age, forty compared to Nando’s youthful thirty, a man far more of an age with Tansy than he was himself.
Nando tucked his chin and raised a brow, pressing a hand to his heart like a lovestruck courtier. “Could it be that the mighty king considers his wayward younger brother competition?”
“No.”
Yes. And may God rot his cock, to borrow Tansy’s stinging curse.
“Hmm,” Nando said, sounding unconvinced.
