2 Chapter 2

The older man stumbled back and, for a second, Tovin thought this was it—he had won again. It was down to just him and Lohden then, and that was no contest…but Giles caught himself and parried Tovin’s next thrust with a deafening strike that numbed Tovin’s wrist when their swords clashed. “Giles,” he growled, pushing his friend away

“Gentlemen, please,” Amery called out. Tovin laughed at the frustration in the regent’s voice. “We have matters to discuss here—”

“We’re in the middle of something,” Tovin explained, as if Amery couldn’t seethat. “A few more minutes, Your Highness, and we’ll be right with you.”

He turned and winked at the regent, who stared at him as if stunned. In a harsh whisper, Amery spat, “How dareyou defy me.”

Then Giles’s sword crashed down on his again and Tovin cursed himself for letting that smooth hair and those smoldering eyes distract him from the fight. The regent fumbled for control of the moment. “I said—”

Through clenched teeth, Tovin replied, “We heard what you said.” He parried Giles’s next thrust more easily and slashed at the older man without mercy. “We’re ignoring you.”

“Tovin,” Berik warned, his low voice a growl beneath the clash of steel. “Ye gods, you two, don’t start again.”

Stepping between the sparring partners, Amery glared at Tovin. The intensity of his gaze set Tovin’s blood on fire, but he crushed the lust that rose within him. We’re not alone, he reminded himself, stepping around Amery to attack Giles. Tonight we can smother each other with sweetness but right now the others are here, they don’t know, they CAN’T…“Get out of my way,” he snarled, shoving Amery aside.

“Sir Tovin,” Amery started, tugging on his arm to distract him. “I am your regent. You obey me—”

Giles brought his sword down on Tovin’s arm, hard, the steel biting into the metal armor the knight wore to protect himself. With a grimace, he shrugged Amery off and turned to meet Giles’s challenge. “This has gone on long enough,” he muttered, raising his sword to strike his friend to the ground. “Won’t you fallalready?”

Giles flashed him an unctuous smile. “I’m tenacious.”

“Sir Tovin, listento me.” The regent caught Tovin’s arm again, stepping into the fray. “I command the both of you to stop this now!”

Suddenly Giles’s blade slipped beneath Tovin’s own, dangerously close to Amery. Too close. Reacting on instinct alone, Tovin shoved the regent out of reach. As he did so, Giles’s blade danced along his armor and slipped easily between the links in Tovin’s chain mail.

Bright pain blossomed beneath Tovin’s ribs, forcing him to hitch his breath as he spun away from his opponent. “Gah,” he gasped. For a heart-stopping moment he staggered on his feet, his knees buckling beneath him. He pressed a hand to his side, as if he could extinguish the fire flaring through him. I won’t fall. I can’t. I was supposed to win.“Giles…”

Then Amery’s arms were around him. Tovin let himself fall into his regent’s embrace. “Oh, hell,” Amery whispered, hands fluttering over Tovin’s own. “Let me see. Tove, let me see the wound. Please…”

Above them, Giles’s grin turned sick, as if he’d swallowed something unpleasant. “I’m sorry,” he was saying to anyone who’d listen, but Amery pushed him away when he tried to lean closer. “I didn’t mean—”

“I toldyou to stop it,” the regent admonished. “But, no, you won’t listen to me.I’m just the regent. It’s just mydamn kingdom.”

“Shut up,” Tovin breathed. In the safety of his lover’s arms, he felt the thrill of the battle drain away, leaving him shaky and unsteady. His side throbbed, but it wasn’t a stabbing pain—he didn’t think the blade had managed to pierce his skin. Taking a deep breath, he sat up and leaned his head against Amery’s shoulder. So warm, this body beside his. So strong, these arms that held him. When he glanced up to see the concern written out on Amery’s smooth face, he wanted nothing more than to kiss it away.

But they weren’t alone. Remembering the others, Tovin sat up on his own and slapped at Amery’s hands. “I’m fine,” he mumbled, trying to inspect the broken links in his mail, but with everyone crowding around him, he had no light. “I said, I am fine.It’s just a scratch. Giles isn’t that good with the blade and you guys know it, so get off me, all of you.”

“Tovin,” Berik started.

But Tovin pushed himself to his feet and wobbled for a second before breaking away from them all. “I’m fine,” he repeated.

And he was—there was no blood on his surcoat, so the sword hadn’t made it past the armor, right? He didn’t think so. Cautiously he stretched his arm and felt the muscle pull along his side. “I demand a rematch,” he declared. Frowning at his friends, he added, “That didn’t count.”

Giles’s face broke into a toothy grin. “Like hell it didn’t count. I won. You fell by my blade—”

“I was distracted,” Tovin told him, glaring at Amery, still on his knees. “The regent—”

Amery surged to his feet. “I forbid it,” he said hotly. “I did not send for my best knights just so you could maim and kill each other in my drawing room. No.”

Ignoring him, Tovin bent to retrieve his sword, but Amery placed one foot over the blade to force the knight to look up at him. “You can spar later. I have things to say that cannot wait.”

“We had to wait for you,” Tovin reminded him. With a twist of his wrist, he slipped the blade out from beneath Amery’s foot, knocking the regent back. “You can wait for us.”

“I won,” Giles said again. “So now I spar with Lohden.”

But Tovin shook his head. “I demanded a rematch. That means the last one didn’t count.”

“I want a rematch, too,” Berik stated. “That’s not fair—”

“Shut up,” Tovin and Giles chimed in unison.

When Tovin took a challenging stance in front of his old friend, Amery cleared his throat noisily. “A night in the stocks if you fight again,” he announced.

Giles wavered between raising his blade to meet Tovin and listening to the commands of his regent. At that hesitation, Amery pressed his advantage. Looking from face to face, he confronted all four of them. “Am I talking here? Is anyone listening?”

“I’m not fighting,” Lohden pointed out. He sank into one of the chairs at the conference table and sighed lustily. “Is this going to take all night? Because I have things to do.”

“Like what?” Berik wanted to know as he took a seat across from his friend. “Sleep? What an exciting night life you have.”

“Giles?” Tovin cajoled. He raised his sword in anticipation. “Are we fighting here or what?”

Giles glanced at Amery’s fiery gaze and shrugged. “I didn’t come all this way just to sleep in stocks.”

“He’s bluffing.” Tovin knew the regent too well; as long as Tovin was at the castle, he knew he wouldn’t be sleeping in the prison. The regent would never allow it. No matter how angry Amery grew with him, Tovin knew he’d sleep in the regent’s arms at night, but he couldn’t say that out loud. Instead, he deepened his voice and intoned, “I challenge you, Sir Giles. Do you deny or accept?”

“Tovin,” Giles warned with a jerk of his head in Amery’s direction. “Can’t this wait?”

Amery declared, “It willwait.” In three steps he was in Tovin’s face, bristling, and Tovin struggled to keep from smiling at the anger that clouded his lover’s features. Quietly, so the others wouldn’t overhear, the regent asked, “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” Tovin whispered. He glanced past Amery to frown at Giles, who had abandoned the sparring field to join their friends at the table. “We can discuss this later. They’re watching us.”

“Let them,” Amery muttered. “Am I not the regent here? Can I not inquire after the health of my best knight?”

Tovin felt a smile tug at his lips. “We were fighting for that title,” he admitted, sheathing his sword. “I have not yet won it.” He raised his voice to add, “If that coward Giles would be so kind as to return to the pitch, perhaps we can fight on.”

“No.” Avery turned to glare at his other knights, as if a look from him alone could prevent their match. “I forbid it.”

Absently, the regent reached out, his hand finding the chipped links in Tovin’s armor where Giles’s sword had cut. Even through the chain mail, Tovin felt his blood surge at the touch. He closed his eyes, imagining the two of them alone, the armor gone between them and those fingers trailing over ticklish flesh…

Then he remembered their friends, damn it, and Tovin swatted that hand away. “Amery,” he warned. Before the regent could reply, Tovin stormed past him to the conference table, a scowl twisting his face in anger. Throwing himself into an empty chair, he glared at Amery, a challenge shining in his eyes. “Well? What is it you needed to tell us that couldn’t possiblywait until our contest was over?”

* * * *

Not for the first time, Amery wished he could put an end to the charade between himself and Sir Tovin. When Giles’s sword had struck true, he could’ve sworn the blade cut deep into his own body, he felt it. Without caring what the others would think, he’d rushed to Tovin’s side, gathered him in his arms, held him as close as he could…

But his knight’s mind had been on the others. Tovin was always careful around their friends, around anyone. Why couldn’t Amery take the knight into his arms and not worry who said what? Was he not the regent? Wasn’t his word law?

Then why could he not love whom he wanted? Why could a simple knight like Berik flaunt his sexuality while the regent himself had to curb his desires? His father had tried time and again to explain to him why he must keep himself aloof from love, his heart unfettered to any one person. The people needed a regent they could rally behind, a warrior in whom they could trust. Lying with another man just to satisfy a sexual need was frowned upon amid the lower classes, and unheard of among the gentry. In his father’s eyes, why Amery would choose to rut with a man like some sort of barbaric animal when there were women enough willing to be queened for a night in the regent’s bed threatened the very fabric of his existence.

Amery could still recall with vivid detail the night his father had called for him. The young prince had just turned eighteen, a fact he’d celebrated days earlier by finally giving himself to Tovin. It had been special, loving, the culmination of years of unspoken desire, and since that moment, Amery couldn’t be bothered to think of anyone other than the fair knight, with his long curls, his dark eyes, his thick cock…

The stern mask on his father’s face curbed those thoughts. Amery knew this would not be a pleasant discussion. Without preamble, King Adin announced, “I forbid you to frolic with that knight.”

Surprised to find his father’s words mirroring his own sordid thoughts, Amery started, “I don’t—”

“Sir Tovin.” Each word was succinct, clipped, as if the king wanted nothing more than to cut them from his vocabulary completely. “You’ll not see him again.”

“He’s my friend.”

Twin spots of bright red rose to color the king’s cheeks. “I have heard otherwise. You’d do well to keep your hosen on and your breeches tied, boy, if you plan to assume the throne one day. I’ll not have a scandal in my castle, nor in the stables, either.”

Amery flushed with embarrassment. How much did his father know? That he’d been in the stables with Tovin, obviously. The day before, the two of them had snuck away from the others to lie together in the loft above the horses. The hay provided a soft bed beneath Amery’s back, and he’d gripped one of the worn ceiling beams, biting the wood like a cribbing horse to stifle his cries of pleasure when Tovin finally entered him. Closing his eyes, Amery remembered the touch of strong hands on his hips, the feel of Tovin’s thickness filling his ass, the heated rhythm they found and the heady kisses that followed their simultaneous orgasm.

Cutting easily into that memory, the king prodded, “Son? Do you understand me?”

Amery had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from railing in anger against his father’s stubborn, ignorant words. His hands clenched into fists behind his back as he struggled to keep his voice neutral. “Yes, Your Majesty. I understand completely. I shall no longer be a friend to Sir Tovin.”

Silently, he added, I shall become so much more, old man, and neither you nor the people of Pharr shall stop me.