A voice in his head remarkably like Ada’s pointed out that he was making a lot of assumptions about Terila. He just… couldn’t get that Tendrilling out of his mind, nor her behavior before and after it. He wassurethey wouldn’t be a good fit.
No matter what choices Ada had made, Tor wouldn’t allow himself to be bonded to someone he had no compatibility with.
He would go through with this plan, and no one would trap him into anything.
Tor hadneverleft Ada’s in a traveling carriage before, but to maintain the ruse, he’d duly declared that it seemed only appropriate to do so given his destination. Off he went, feeling like a fool, especially given that he had to stick his head out to wave at Par and Hena. His troop was riding around the carriage like he was someone who couldn’t defend himself, and he didn’t like anything about it.
He knew that he could still defend all of them if it came down to it, but he didn’t like how it looked or felt. What if someone got the jump on them because Tor was in here hidden away from everything?
Nawila was riding Monster, because everyone knew how the stallion would react to being led by someone. Tor stared longingly out at his horse and wished Varex wasn’t so stubborn.
He had a lot of time to think when he was shut up in a carriage all day, though thankfully Rin began to join him as Tor complained about being bored to tears. This way, they got everyone used to the idea that the two of them were traveling together andthey shouldn’t expect to see Tor much since he was determined to arrive to court Princess Terila in all pomp and circumstance—or something like that.
He knew that everyone was gossiping about what he was doing, but he just told Rin to keep an ear out. Tor didn’t want to know.
It wasn’t every day, after all, that the High King of the entire United Realms ordered someone not to drink or have orgies.
Tor liked to think word hadn’t spread, but he wasn’t fooling himself.
“You wouldn’t want to drink ale on these roads anyway,” Rin pointed out.
The roads weren’tterrible,but it was true that there were probably more bumps than was altogether conducive to drinking.
Tor was willing to swear that the jarring motion was much worse in the carriage than on horseback.
“And you’d feel bad if you gave me a black eye,” Rin continued. “It mars my good looks—which are soon to be your good looks.”
“That wasone time,” Tor pointed out.
Rin grinned at him, and Tor rolled his eyes. (There might have been a brawl in a bar, and Tor’s opponent had ducked at exactly the wrong moment.)
“That really only leaves you with one option, you know,” Rin drawled.
It took Tor a minute to track the conversation and realize what Rin was suggesting.
The man grinned at him. “Can you have an orgy if there’s only one other person involved?”
Slowly, a grin spread across Tor’s face. He was pretty sure that by the very definition, it couldn’t be done.
It turned out that itwaspossible to have sex in a carriage, but it was more awkward than Tor had expected. It required planning—Tor hadn’t actually packed oil on his person—and he wasn’t risking any evidence being left in the carriage that someone might claim meant an orgy had taken place.
They did have the benefit of being in out of the rain, but the downpour after the snow melt meant the roads really were in disrepair. All that swaying and jolting didn’t actually make for a smooth experience.
He and Rin finally fell off the seats and crashed to the bottom of the carriage, which wasn’t as comfortable but did mean there was really nowhere else to go.
(It was remarkably awkward when you couldn’t get your dick to go where you wanted it to go and tostaythere. Rin laughed a lot, though, and Tor was reminded of the benefits of having friends who were happy to sleep with you from time to time.)
Afterwards, Tor admitted with amusement, “This makes me feel way more inept than usual.”
Rin shrugged, the motion jostling Tor slightly where he sat recovering next to Rin in the bottom of the carriage. “Better to practice on me than anyone that you’re trying to charm.”
Tor had to concede the truth of that. “I’ll cross it off the list with Pelun, shall I?”
“I’m not complaining,” Rin told him. Only then he added, “That would be rude.”
Tor laughed. “Thanks for that.”
It did alleviate the boredom, but it was something that they agreed they weren’t going to need to do again anytime soon.
