"I'm afraid the more charming you are, the more flustered she'll be. Come, let's find these suppers waiting for us," Wendell said, taking my hand.
Thao's fingertips stroked absently over mine as we both lay awake. The only sounds breaking through the silence of the house were Wendell's deep breaths.
"Is he asleep?" Thao whispered in my ear. I nodded, the pair of us staring at the silvery outline of Wendell's profile, his lips parted and hair mussed over his forehead. "Are you as nervous as I am?"
I thought over his question. I wasn't very nervous about meeting Wendell's parents; I was…unexpectedly uncomfortable. I didn't really know how to be easy with Wendell's mother the way he was, and she certainly didn't know how to be easy with me.
"Not sure," I said, pushing back against Thao's chest with my shoulder.
"Wen wants to introduce me to them, to tell them about our tigers."
"You're afraid they'll disapprove?" I asked. Thao was silent in answer. "Is he?"
"No."
"Then trust him, he knows them best."
"Will you join us? If it goes poorly, you might distract from the tension."
I scoffed and smiled, rolling away from Wendell to face Thao. He was murky in the dark room, and I wiggled closer until our noses bumped. "I will not," I said softly, stroking my hands over his bare chest.
The Popes' beds hadn't been made for a princess and her Chosen, so my other men were sleeping in separate rooms. Thao had barely fit in with me and Wendell in Wen's former bed. I hadn't expected the distinctly wrong feeling of us all sleeping apart, but it was there, itching at me as if I wouldn't find comfortable sleep without all the excessive heat and chorus of snores I'd grown used to.
"If it were your family—"
"They didn't approve," Thao whispered. "The continuation of our line was paramount. There was no allowance for same-sex couplings. Not public ones at least."
"I suppose the same might've been true for me," I murmured, and Thao hummed, his lips grazing aimlessly against mine. "You know that even if Wendell's parents have reservations, it won't change anything, right?"
Thao was quiet for several moments before speaking. "It may not change his feelings for me, but I would hate for it to change his feelings for them."
Thinking of the way Miriam had embraced her son on our arrival, I both understood Thao's fears and doubted the need for them.
"I know why I am awake, but why are you?" Thao whispered.
"I'm afraid of everything that comes next when we return to the south. And it feels strange not to have the others in here and…"
Wendell sighed in his sleep, rolling over, and Thao and I both fell quiet.
"You sleep best when Cosmo or Aric holds you," Thao whispered, smiling as my eyes widened. "Don't worry, the rest of us aren't offended. Go on."
I kissed Thao briefly and then withheld my giggle as he rolled me out of the bed and lightly onto the floor. Wendell's room was wonderfully cluttered with books and maps and stray pieces of paper that I thought his mother must've been dusting all this time, and I shuffled carefully for the door, grabbing up my robe from a chair and peeking out in the hall.
Directly across from the bedroom door stood Cresswell, his eyes meeting mine immediately, head cocking. The lamps were turned low in the hall, and there was another guard, the young Stanley Piper, stationed at the top of the stairs.
"What are you doing up?" Cresswell asked, frowning as I shut the door behind me and crossed to his side.
"Do you really have to be on duty tonight?"
Cresswell's frown deepened, but I thought I caught a slight flush in his cheeks as I reached up and pressed a fingertip against the corner of his mouth, trying to push it up into a smile. His eyes flicked in Stanley Piper's direction, and when I followed his gaze I found the young guard now standing with his back to us.
"You know how much I appreciate your dedication to protecting me—"
"Bryony—"
"But I really think we need to negotiate on the terms. I'd rather you were guarding me closely while I was awake and able to enjoy your company," I said, smiling. "If you insist on guarding me in my sleep, it would be much more fun if you were in the bed too."
Cresswell's snarl was soft and velvety, and his lips were curled up of their own accord now. He checked on the other guard once more before I suddenly found myself caught in his arms and trapped against his chest. Cresswell ducked and his lips found mine before I'd gathered a breath, their press firm and trapping, holding me tight. He breathed into the kiss, content with the embrace, and my body melted into him, tension uncoiling and eyes growing heavy.
When he pulled away, I was too subdued to demand more, even with the Hunger simmering.
"I'm willing to consider your terms," Cresswell said, obvious pride in his faint smile and laughter glittering in those cool eyes of his. "But first you will have to sleep."
He lifted me off my toes, and I was only able to make one small huff of protest before he was kissing me again. Cresswell's lips were wonderfully soft and full, his kisses demanding and thorough. I was aware he was using them now not as a seduction but as a distraction, but I couldn't care enough to protest.
A door creaked and the light from the hall vanished, bedsheets rustling.
"I have no objection to this, but I'm not sure there's room on the bed."
Aric.
Cress pulled away from the kiss, and I blinked in the dark.
"Whussgoin' on?" Cosmo grumbled sleepily.
"Not quite sure," Aric answered.
And then Cresswell set me back down on my feet, the backs of my thighs bumping into the edge of a mattress. "Her Highness has come to sleep," Cress said, kissing my lips once more gently.
"Wait, I—"
"And so have I, but here on the floor."
I tried resisting Aric and Cosmo's arms as they bundled me up to tuck me between them, but Cresswell's kiss had acted as a kind of drug, and I was finally feeling the exhaustion of the day.
"Not on the floor," I managed.
"I'll be fine, Bryony," Cresswell said, his voice dropping to a growl. There was a rustle and a faint sparkle, and then Cresswell's shadow was enormous and clumsy, nudging the bed with a creak out of his way as the bear settled down to the floor by the bed.
"Well, I can honestly say this is a first for me," Aric grumbled as he and Cosmo wrestled the blankets up over me.
"Cress, are you really going to be comfortable like that?" I whispered.
"More comfortable than he'd be trying to fit in the bed with us," Cosmo said, cuddling me into his chest and wrapping his arms around me.
My only answer from Cresswell was a chuff of breath and a glittery blink of an eye before his head ducked down below the edge of the bed.
"Didn't expect a bear to smell so decent," Aric mumbled, joining Cosmo in tangling up with me. And damn him, but Thao was right. I fell asleep within a happy, peaceful minute, all worries of the south fading under the chorus of breaths that reminded me of the beat of waves on the shore.