came closer.
“How… why… what the hell are you doing here?”
Angelo’s hand touched Yuri’s head. “I’m here for my prince.”
Yuri snorted. Fat lot of good being Angelo’s prince had ever done for him.
“What happened, Yuri? You need to tell me.”
“No, I don’t have to tell you a bloody thing. We aren’t married yet, we're not even officially engaged, so bugger off. While you’re at it, tell Jacki she can bugger off, too.”
“I’m not going anywhere, princess. Just try to shift me.” He knelt by the bed and lightly stroked Yuri’s hair. “And Jacki didn’t tell me anything. All she did was call me and ask where I bought the cream because she couldn’t find it.”
Yuri huffed in disbelief. “And why call you?”
“Because you told her I bought it at Boots, you idiot. This is all your fault. And I didn’t fucking buy it at Boots, either. This shit is made in small batches at a specialty shop in Paris.”
“You said you bought it at Boots.”
“I probably lied and you’re gullible as hell,” Angelo said simply. “Did Lord Dickface forget all about aftercare? Or fucking restraint?”
“Nah,” Yuri assured him in a tone that he wanted to sound light but didn’t quite hit the mark. “Francis is excellent with restraints.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Angelo’s voice was tight and full of tamped-down fury. He was angry, but Yuri didn’t know who it was directed toward. He wanted to curl into a tiny ball like the princess Angelo always called him and hide, but his body protested at that thought and he let out a tiny involuntary moan of dismay.
“Yuri?” His voice had gone back to whisper soft.
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I’m… sore, but it’s nothing that won’t go away, given time. I don’t need you.” Which was such a deep and terrible lie that Yuri thought lightning should have struck him dead on the spot.
Angelo gripped the sheet covering Yuri and before he could say more than, “Don’t—” it was pulled off his body and thrown down by his feet.
“Fuck,” Angelo said, his tone flat and distant. “I’m going to kill him.”
Even though Angelo couldn’t see it, Yuri rolled his eyes. “No, you’re not.”
“The fuck I’m not. Yuri, this is…”
“Nothing,” Yuri insisted.
“Assault,” Angelo countered.
Yuri barked out a laugh then regretted it as it moved muscles he’d rather had been still. “Then you’re far more guilty of assault than Francis. You’ve been doing this shit—with my permission—for years. This is the same.”
“Did you enjoy it?” Angelo asked. “Did you ask for it? Did you keep asking for it?”
That depended on one's point of view. Francis would vehemently argue that Yuri had asked for it every step of the way, but Yuri was sure he’d asked Francis to stop. It was hard to remember. He’d said a lot of things.
“Not in so many words,” he eventually said. “But you’ve been saying I’ve been asking for it for as long as I can remember, so I’m not sure why you’re not pleased when I finally got it. Unless you wanted it to be you. Are you cross another dog was pissing on your tree?”
“That’s not funny, Yuri.” Gentle fingers started to spread cool cream over his back, buttocks, and thighs. “What I did, what we did together, had nothing to do with this… this bullshit. I would never hurt you. Never. This is… so wrong. So wrong.”
Yuri wanted to protest that Angelo had hurt him, over and over and over, but it had never been with his hands. He was too tired to argue, however. “Whatever,” was the only protest he could come up with.
“What did he strike you with?” Angelo asked, his voice back to dry neutrality. “The bruises…” He stopped and cleared his throat. “They’re deep. And he’s broken the skin in a few places. This had to have taken a long time. I don’t know how you stayed quiet. Dammit, you shouldn’t have been quiet.”
He’d been gagged, willingly, of course, so he hadn’t been able to make more than muffled sounds as Francis beat him and beat him and beat him. It had seemed to go on forever, but his clock said it had been only around a half-hour. Francis was good at that—stretching time out into infinity.
“He used a cane, not that it matters. I told you I liked it rough. I asked for this. Leave it alone.”
“If he cared for you at all I wouldn’t need to be here.” Angelo was quiet for several moments but