CHAPTER NINE
Bellamy
“Well.” Bellamy is unable to look away from the room’s single bed. “This will be cozy.”
Rakos flicks on the bedside lantern and moves to the window with his usual confident ease. Of course, he probably barely noticed the sleeping arrangements. “Beats sleeping in the woods. Look, there’s a view. Beautiful alley we’ve got down here.”
Bellamy unslings Bastard’s pouch and sets it on the ramshackle table. The blinkmink appears on the bed and wiggles across the bedspread to crawl under the pillows. Giving in to his aches, Bellamy slumps on a wooden chair. His limbs are still stiff, like they’re not quite his own. Even taking his boots off seems a tremendous effort right now.
At least he’ll fall asleep easily tonight, and sharing a bed with Rakos shouldn’t be intimidating. They’ve already slept cuddled up in a hollow tree together, after all. This will be roomy in comparison.
This is normal. He and Rakos are normal traveling companions, just like in Bellamy’s adventure novels. Nothing sexual about it.
Flushing, Bellamy remembers certain stand-out scenes from said novels.
Correction. This isnothinglike a novel. Just two men. One of them a barely experienced prince with an overactive imagination. One a gorgeous farmer with astounding field-tilling shoulders and an inhibition-melting smile.
Bellamy’s inappropriate thoughts need to remain safely in his own head. As relieved as he is by Rakos’s return, Bellamy still barely knows the man. What if Bellamy misjudges a pass and offends Rakos, who abandons him again? What if Rakos discovers his true identity and sells him to House Dire?
What if Rakosdoesn’trealize who Bellamy is, and Bellamy entraps an innocent tax-evading farmer in an international royal scandal?
As Bellamy’s fantasies give way to worry, Rakos sweeps past him.
“Where are you going?” Bellamy hates how nervous he sounds.
“Calling for a bath,” Rakos says, and vanishes out the door.
All Bellamy’s worry vanishes with him, replaced by a series of lurid images. Water sliding down Rakos’s bare neck. Water sliding down Rakos’s bare arms. Rakos’s back. Rakos’s ass.
Bellamy stares after him, then buries his face in his hands.
Half an hour later, Rakos waves the inn workers out of the room. “Can you believe the innkeeper tried to charge me for this?” Rakos says as he closes the door. “I told him seven silvers better include a fucking bath. And a king’s breakfast tomorrow. You go first. I’ll need to rinse my hair out, and this fucking dye will get everywhere.”
Bellamy rubs his eyes. He isn’t used to Rakos’s dark brown hair. It’s far too subtle. It looks fine, but it doesn’t suit Rakos.
“Sorry about letting the innkeeper charge so much.”
Rakos sits on the edge of the bed, halfway through unlacing his boots. “No worries.” He waves towards the tub. “They left tunics, too. Keep your valuables separate, and they’ll do laundry if we leave our clothes out.”
Bellamy’s eyes follow the gesture. The huge barrel of a tub sits near the door, with a smaller bucket and towels and tunics sitting next to it. All very normal—except there’s no privacy screen.
“Turn around,” Bellamy says.
Rakos’s brow furrows before his gaze drops down Bellamy’s body. Like he hasn’t seen it before. There’s a flicker of uncertainty before he tramps with half-laced boots towards the table. “Your modesty’s safe with me, minstrel.”
Pity, Bellamy thinks.
“Thanks,” he says out loud.
He can’t help glancing at Rakos as his coat and tunic fall to the ground. Not a movement from the farmer, who leans with one elbow on the table, facing the window.
Shirtless, Bellamy touches the pendant around his neck.
When he was seven, he crafted matching necklaces for himself and his brothers. Hideous baked clay beads on leather cords. The beads were supposed to represent Sandry trees, but Bellamy gave up after one misshapen attempt and ended up with malformed leaf pendants.
He discarded his own clay necklace very quickly, and only realized by chance when he was eleven that Julien still had his. When Julien refused to relinquish the embarrassing art project for proper disposal, Bellamy turned to Audric for help.
Only to find Audric had also kept his hideous necklace.
