Kentario, apparently, hadn’t failed to notice the details of the situation. He made a choked sort of noise, his face flushing a shade or two redder. “Um, I… Ryu, we’re…” He sighed, then muttered a curse. He sat down tentatively on the edge of the bed, making sure his towel stayed in place. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You’re safe here. And I’ve slept on far worse things than a carpeted floor.”
Kentario’s huge panther tattoo was snarling at him from beneath his arm. He’d seen the thing plenty of times, Kentario regularly removing his shirt during training sessions. But in the dim light of the bedside lamp, thecreature looked almost alive, its eyes seeming to follow Ryu as he moved. Something Kentario had said earlier in the night came back to him.You are my world, spoken in a brief moment of fear and vulnerability. He remembered the look of loss and longing when Maro had ordered him to leave Ryu, back at the school. They’d joked about marrying each other over dinner – Goddess above, had that really only been some five or six hours ago? And back at the palace, his parents had never allowed Kentario into his bedroom. Had they somehow suspected that…?
Ryu’s body moved without him actually telling it to. One moment, he was curled up in a nest of pillows and blankets, and the next, he was landing squarely in Kentario’s lap, arms flung around his shoulders, face nestled in against his neck, their naked torsos pressed firmly against each other.
Hesitantly, Kentario’s arms came up to cradle him, more tenderly than Ryu would have believed was possible. A deep, smoky scent filled his nose, with an undertone of sandalwood, though Ryu was almost convinced he was imagining the seductive scent.
“Ryu, we shouldn’t… I can’t…” Kentario let out a harsh sigh, and it was only then that Ryu became aware of the detail he’d somehow failed to notice before.
Beneath his thigh, with only a sheet and a fluffy layer of towel between them, Kentario’s cock was rock hard.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ryu tensed as he felt the impressive length harden further beneath his leg. It was clear that Kentario realised the exact moment he noticed what was going on downstairs. The man pulled back abruptly, his face turning beet red. “Shit, I… Sorry. I didn’t mean…”
Ryu couldn’t think of a single thing to say, a dismal failure after a lifetime of tutoring in diplomatic conversation and politically-correct small talk. But the stark vulnerability on Kentario’s face mirrored his own sudden longings, things buried too deeply for far too long suddenly surging to the surface.
Just like that jump from the roof, Ryu knew that if he gave himself even a moment to think twice, he’d back out and lose his courage, so instead, he did the only sensible thing he could think to do.
He leaned forward, one arm sliding around the back of Kentario’s neck, and kissed him.
Hard muscles beneath his hands simplymelted. Warm lips became pliant, and he felt Kentario’s hands tighten their grip on his arms. There were plenty of complications still standing between them, but that was enough for now. He hadn’t been wrong. Kentario felt at leastsomethingfor him in return.
Ryu pulled away, breathing fast, not quite able to look Kentario in the eye. Instead, he buried his face in his neck, inhaling the musky scent he found there. Okay, so he’d shown him how he felt, quite unequivocally. Now what?
“Ryu, I…” Kentario pressed him back a fraction, tilting his chin up to look at him. “Why…?”
Ryu floundered for the words to explain what was going on in his head. “You’ve always been there for me. For as long as I can remember. And you listen to me, in a way that no one else does. And you tell the truth, evenwhen you know I won’t like it.” He shrugged helplessly. “So I… I love you.” It was spoken softly, anxiously, as he feared that Kentario was simply going to tell him that this could never be.
“What about your soulmate?” Kentario hadn’t tried to move away. If anything, he’d shifted closer, hands sliding around Ryu’s back and stroking tender lines down his spine.
“To hell with my soulmate,” Ryu snapped, suddenly angry – not with Kentario, but with the rest of the world. “To hell withroyal protocolsandrulesandtraditionand the whole damn lot! Someone tried to kill me tonight. So I amdonewith following the rules.”
Kentario’s hands were shaking. “I’ve dreamed of you saying that to me for so damn long…” One hand slipped down, fiddling with the edge of the sheet. If he tugged it down just an inch or two more… “That’s why I’ve spent the last few years hoping no one popped out of the woodwork declaring they’re my soulmate. I don’t want anyone else.”
Ryu felt a rush of elation… followed rapidly by another wave of apprehension as reality once more tugged as his consciousness. “We’re going to get in so much trouble for this.”
“Don’t care,” Kentario breathed, nuzzling Ryu’s neck. His lips nibbled at his scent gland, sending tiny shocks of pleasure to his groin. “I’d give my life for you. What more do they want?”
“But you’re an alpha,” Ryu pointed out. “And so am I.” Even with all the recent social advances – omega rights, and beta fertility treatments, and the Goddess pairing up more and more unusual couples – this one thing remained a taboo. Alphas did not marry other alphas. Aside from anything else, the physical aspects of the relationship could create problems, with neither one of the couple wanting to take the submissive route in bed, but as well as that, an alpha’s natural aggression tended to see other alphas as rivals, rather than potential mates. What the hell was wrong with him, Ryu wondered, that it could feel so natural to fall in love with a powerful alpha?
“And you’re my bodyguard,” Ryu went on, trying to distract himself from his own uncomfortable thoughts. “And you’re an Amagarda, for the Goddess’s sake. My parents will have a fit when they find out…” The words petered out, and he shrank in on himself, reality once again knocking the wind out of him. His parents, in all likelihood, were dead, and they’d never get the chance to find out about this. “I don’t think this was what they had in mind when they tried to get me to choose my own partner,” he said, a hint of desperation in his voice.
“Shh,” Kentario said, pulling his head in against his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to work this out.”
“I can’t do this alone. If my parents are dead, then I’m theking. I need you with me, but the media would start a riot if I married someone who wasn’t my soulmate.”
That got Kentario’s attention, and he pulled back sharply. Ryu cursed his own foolish mouth. The media were certainly not known for being sympathetic, and the public attention on their relationship could make things extremely difficult. Maybe he should just stop pointing out all the downsides to this…
But Kentario’s shock wasn’t due to any sudden doubts about their situation. “Marriage?” A wry smile settled on his face, even as sorrow and fear fought for their place alongside the expression. “Did you just propose to me?”
Fuck it, Ryu thought, feeling ecstatic and reckless at the same time. “Yes,” he declared. “Marry me. Soulmate or not, you’re the only one I love.”
“You mean it?” Instead of joy, there was consternation on Kentario’s face, his brow creasing in concern.
“Yes. I do.”
“Then yes, I’ll marry you.”
