“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Theo ran his hands up his friend’s chest. “I missed you.”
“I’ve been gone less than forty-eight hours.”
“What’s your point?” Theo took his mouth and wrapped a hand around Galen’s cock through his shorts, giving Galen a rough stroke. Being with Meg had been great, but this was something else altogether. He and Galen moved together as easily as breathing. They’d been fucking since before they could legally drive. Theo turned them around and shoved Galen against the bathroom counter hard enough to make the drawers rattle. “I’m sorry.”
Galen watched him go to his knees through dark eyes. “No, you’re not.”
“No, I’m not,” Theo agreed as he yanked Galen’s shorts off. He looked up his friend’s body and, fuck, he was something else. Powerful and brutal and sexier than he had any right to be.
He was also wrong about this.
They were good together. They were fucking great together.
But they’d be better with Meg.
He had no desire to make his pitch at the moment. They had time, and the desire dancing between them like a live wire was too strong to hold off. Theo had never been much good at reining himself in. Not when what he wanted was so damn close.
He sucked Galen down hard, using just a hint of teeth that drove his friend wild. Theo loved this moment right before Galen lost control, loved sucking him off, loved the feeling of submission and power, all wrapped up in a tangled bow.
Galen cursed. He gripped Theo’s hair and started moving, fucking his mouth with quick, rough thrusts. Words spilled from his lips just like they always did when he let himself off his leash. “You think you can suck me into submission, into forgetting who was riding your cock all night long? How many times did she make you come, Theo? How many ways did you fuck her?” He picked up his pace, hammering the back of Theo’s throat. “You selfish bastard, you hadbettersuck my cock like you mean it.And when you’re through, I’m taking your ass right there in the sheets where you can still smell your fucking.”
Galen used his grip on Theo’s hair to yank him off his cock. “On second thought, I’m not interested in waiting. The bed, Theo. Now.”
Dorian Mikos studiedthe information laid out on his desk. Many years ago, he’d thought that the best way forward was to rule Thalania, and he’d paid the price for his mistake through years of exile. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. The Mikos family would never sit on the throne, but if he played his cards right, they would be the power behind it.
He gathered the photos and papers and left his office. Though Phillip Fitzcharles played a careful game with the public to keep them from turning on him, he’d allowed himself free rein in this part of the palace. Gone were the understated decorations, replaced by the paintings he favored, a mishmash with no regard for theme or period.
Dorian very carefully didn’t let his disgust show on his face. Phillip was a tool, and tools had their uses. The man controlled the future king of Thalania, and as a result, he had to be handled carefully. Dorian wouldnotsee exile again. Not while he breathed.
He knocked on the door to Phillip’s office and let himself in. “We have a problem.”
Phillip didn’t look up from his desk. “There’s always a problem.”
Dorian came to stand before the desk and strove for patience. These petty power games were beyond both of them, but Phillip still insisted on the formalities. He studied the other man asPhillip finished up. The Fitzcharles family’s line ran unbroken back to the origin of Thalania, and despite plenty of intermixing with various bloodlines, it ran true. They were all dark haired, tall, and attractive. The attraction just varied from person to person. Phillip looked like a whittled down version of his late brother—too thin, too pinched, too dull. He knew it, and the comparison never failed to provoke a response.
That wasn’t what Dorian was here for today, though.
Finally, Phillip pushed his paperwork aside and focused his watery blue eyes on Dorian. “Yes?”
Dorian pulled the top photo out of the file and held it up. “There’s a girl.”
The interest died in Phillip’s eyes. “I don’t care about a girl. They’re both men in their prime. Of course there are women.”
The fool. He should know by now that Dorian wouldn’t bring him information that wasn’t confirmed several times over and important. Dorian bit back his impatience and pulled the next photo. “You misunderstand me, Phillip. She’s not just a girl one of them fucked. Theybothdid.”
Phillip froze. “Let me see that.” He grabbed the picture out of Dorian’s hand. The picture was slightly fuzzy since it had been pulled from a security camera, but there was no mistaking Galen and Theo, or that they were both entangled with the woman sitting between them. The next photo showed them leaving together, and the final one was them getting into a cab together.
“I also have footage from the elevator confirming she went into their apartment and didn’t come out until morning.” The state she’d been in confirmed everything he needed to know.
Galen would do anything for Theodore Fitzcharles III. That fool had turned his boy into a slavering guard dog who jumped when he said jump. His son, a fuckingMikos, catering to every whim. And his boy didn’t even have the ambition to use it to his advantage.
Phillip flipped through the file, his thin lips moving as he read. Finally he closed it and set it down. “This could mean nothing.”
Again, he smothered his irritation, giving Phillip a practiced smile. “Or it could mean everything. The girl is a weak link, and with the right leverage, we can use her to guide them onto the path we want them to take.” No one thought for a moment that Theodore would take his exile laying down. Dorian certainly hadn’t. He knew for a fact that Phillip intended to have him quietly killed once Edward was on the throne.
They may not have that kind of time.
Beyond that, if there was a way to salvage Galen’s status and bring him back into the fold, Dorian would ensure it happened. The boy had had his fun. It was time for him to stop fucking around and start dancing to the tune that made sense.
