Red Heir - Lisa Henry Page 0,38
a grin. “Think Calarian’s interested?”
The tension between them resolved, and Loth reached out and tugged Cue forward by the hips. He liked the way his hands settled there naturally. He liked the way Cue’s mouth quirked, and his gaze flicked to Loth’s, somehow shy and challenging at the same time. He especially liked the way that Cue didn’t protest when Loth kissed him. He liked the way Cue opened his mouth under the pressure of the kiss, and their tongues met. He liked the way the kiss left Cue smiling.
“Not Calarian. I don't need that kind of competition. Now come on,” Loth said. “Breakfast. You need some more meat on your bones.”
He took Cue’s hand and let him back to the inn.
Cue was on his third bowl of porridge by the time the party was more or less assembled in the taproom.
“Nicer without eels, isn’t it?” Loth teased.
“Much.” Cue shovelled another spoonful in his mouth. “You fucking deserved that though.”
Loth grinned. “Maybe.”
He liked this new Cue, and he suspected that this new Cue liked him too. They could still tease one another, but they were doing so now in the sense that they were on the same side. And not just as potential redheaded corpses in whatever scheme unknown rich men were hatching around them, but also because last night they’d shared a closeness. And it wasn’t just about sex. Loth was no stranger to sex, and certainly no stranger to one-night-stands. Frankly, anything longer than a half-night-stand made him jittery and anxious to flee. But not with Cue, for some reason.
And maybe Loth hadn’t quite figured out yet why Cue was different, but the realisation that he was hadn’t spooked him yet. Cue might be the inexperienced one when it came to sex, but Loth was certainly a virgin when it came to feelings.
Loth glanced around the room. Dave was squatting in front of the fireplace, watching as Pie dug through the embers. Pie’s wings were extended, and the glow from the embers shone through the thin membranes like sunlight through stained glass. Calarian was slouching against a wall, his eyes half-closed, probably daydreaming of impossibly athletic sex acts, and Ada was stomping out of the kitchens.
Ada stomped over to the table. “I’ve talked to the maid. She’s said if we stay on this road, we’ll be in Callier in four days.”
Cue scraped his spoon through his porridge and glanced at Loth.
“Ah,” Loth said. “Excellent news. And then I shall be handed over to this mysterious benefactor, yes? Who is no doubt planning on restoring me to the throne and not slitting my throat and tossing me in a shallow grave?”
“I see your point,” Ada said, because of course she did, “but you don’t know that.”
“I don’t,” Loth agreed. “But you don’t know otherwise.”
Ada hummed and tugged her beard thoughtfully. “Well, we were only hired to deliver you safely to the benefactor. What he does with you after that is really none of our business.”
“Comforting.”
“Practical,” Ada corrected him. She stomped away again.
“We are almost certainly going to die,” Cue murmured into his porridge.
“Almost certainly,” Loth agreed. “How would you feel about ditching these idiots and heading north?”
“Why north?”
Loth raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
Cue leaned back in his chair, his gaze falling on Ada, where she now stood in front of the fireplace and stared back. “Ada’s too smart to let us run off. She’d have Calarian and Dave after us in moments.”
“Not Scott?”
Cue shrugged. “Scott would go the wrong way.” He chewed his bottom lip for the moment. “These are good people, Loth. They don’t intend us any harm, but they’re also not taking Lord Doom into account. If he’s behind this, then we are in absolute danger. The man is a viper.”
“Is that personal experience talking?”
Cue jolted and then scowled. “Why would it be? Everyone knows it.”
“I don’t know it,” Loth said. “Or, at least, I don’t care. But I suppose we run in very different circles, don’t we?”
Cue pressed his mouth into a thin line. “Do people really not care?”
“Most people, sweetheart, don’t give a fuck about anything else as long as their bellies are full and their families are safe.” Loth sighed. “If half the noble houses slaughter themselves in a fight for the crown, all the average person wants is to be left out of it until the cards have fallen where they will. Politics looks very different from the bottom of the heap.”
Cue nodded slowly, his brows tugging together. He stared down at his