I took a deep breath and nodded as I set down my fork. “Okay, so, I think maybe you need to practice.”
“Practice?”
“Pretend I’m Mannix. Tell me what you want.”
His blue gaze flicked all over me, and I could see that he was struggling. “But you’re not…scary.”
Ugh! He was breaking my heart.
I reached over and held his hand. “I want you to succeed. I want my friends to be happy. But if you’re not ready, or this is too much, we can just ease into it all. Literally just practice the words. It’s not like you’ll have to say them tomorrow, okay?”
He squeezed my hand and sat up a little straighter. “Okay. Practice.” He nodded and looked me square in the eyes. “Mannix, I want… I want to reverse the proclamation requiring council member spouses to reside on their estates.”
For just a second, I toyed with the idea of pushing back, of being Mannix, but maybe that would be better saved for later in the process.
“That was great!” I said with a big smile.
Hydris smiled back, but when I held my hand up, he just blinked at me.
“Smack your hand against mine.”
He did, clearly not understanding why.
“That’s a high five. You just celebrated like a human.” I chuckled at the fact that that was my contribution to the fae world.
He snickered and rolled his eyes. But then he wiggled in his seat, narrowed his eyes, and said, “Mannix, you’re also going to be an advisor again, not the leader.”
“You tell him!”
“I’m the prince. Not you.”
“That’s right!”
“I want to lead my people from now on.”
“Yes, you do!”
Hydris held up his hand, and I smacked it.
“Ow!” he said and shook out his hand. “I just meant to pause our practice because I’m hungry.”
I laughed. “Oops…”
Hopefully, when the time came for Hydris to confront Mannix, I could be there with him. To hype him up, to be his bodyguard, to threaten them all if they didn’t listen to him. He could be strong and confident—I recognized how he’d already changed since I first met him—but he needed more time to believe that of himself.
We finished our meals, and I was just realizing that I, the help, must get the leftovers from the royal meals because everything I’d had was something I’d had before. Just as good, just as filling, and not at all different for the lower class. I looked up to tell Hydris this, but he was gone.
“Hydris?”
I gasped right after I said that because a set of hands pushed my knees apart under the table. Chuckling, I leaned over to peek at him. He was on his knees with a bowl of what looked like whipped cream.
“Are you ready for dessert?” I asked on a laugh.
He only giggled as he literally spooned the whipped cream onto my inner thighs and all over my groin. I kept gasping at the chilly sensation in between the way he was practically sculpting with the cream on me. And the more he played, the more I gave him to work with.
“You might want to consider eating your dessert soon,” I warned him, my cock throbbing.
Hydris smiled like a little imp down there just before he shoved my knees wide open and dove in. He didn’t go right for his prize, no, he went for my thigh first. Licking and slurping, he worked his way up one leg and then down the other, completely ignoring the way the cool whipped cream was melting down my hot dick.
