Royally Screwed - Lynn Van Dorn Page 0,30

done anal before a few times, and it was pretty fucking hot, but his own arse getting interested was new and a bit troubling.

Not that he was going to say any of that to Yuri. God. No. An entire ocean of no.

Yuri hung his head then laid it down on the marble. “Guess you do.”

Angelo frowned down at him. “Guess I do what?” He’d lost complete sense of where they’d been in the conversation.

“Hate me,” Yuri said in a small voice.

“Jesus, Yuri, I don’t hate you. I never hated you. Why would you think that?”

Yuri lifted his head. His eyes leaked tears and his lower lip wobbled. “Because you’ve said so, dickhead. Like a lot. Our entire lives. You hate me, hate being stuck with me, hate everything about me.”

That made Angelo pause. Had he? Flipping through his memories, he saw that while what Yuri said was technically true, if exaggerated, it should’ve been obvious he’d never been serious.

“I’ve never hated you.”

Yuri rolled his eyes, then closed them with a wince. “Right.” He laid his head back down.

“I mean, you’ve annoyed the fuck out of me like it’s your life’s mission, and yeah, I have kinda resented being given no choice about my own future and who I’m allowed to love, but that’s not your fault.”

“You treated me like it was.” Yuri sniffled.

Angelo felt horrible. Instinctively, he reached his hand out and touched Yuri on the back of the neck. His hair was shorn to almost nothing there and it felt like velvet under his fingertips. Yuri twitched a bit at his touch but didn’t shake his hand off. “Well, I didn’t mean to. It was just…”

“Just what?” Yuri mumbled. He was starting to sound more sleepy than intoxicated.

“I don’t know. Habit? What we do? It’s what we’ve always done.”

“I like this better,” Yuri said with a yawn.

“What do you mean?” Angelo found himself wanting to bury his hand in Yuri’s gold-streaked hair to see if it was as soft as he remembered, but didn’t. He didn’t pull away his hand from Yuri’s neck, though.

“This. Talking and not shouting. Listening. You touching a tiny part of me and not freaking out. If it could always be like this, the future might almost be tolerable. Like, I can get off by myself if I have to. Because, yeah, obviously. But I can’t go the rest of my life with nothing. I just can’t. I’ll cheat, and I’ll get caught and it’ll be this huge thing and my parents will be pissed off and it’ll just be fucking awful but it’ll happen, Angel. I’m just not that strong.” He wiped his eyes, looking defeated and furious and utterly lost.

Angelo opened his mouth to say something comforting, although he wasn’t sure what, but then Yuri’s mobile buzzed. Laboriously, he lifted his head off his arms, fished the phone out of his pocket, and looked at it blearily. “It’s Philippe. He’s wondering if I’m incarcerated or if I’ve perished. So damn prissy.”

Angelo snorted. “You two are a good pair.”

“Ha, ha. Rub it in that I still have a glorified babysitter for a valet and you don’t.”

“You love his fussing. You know you do.” Angelo grinned at Yuri but a part of him still felt uneasy and unsettled.

“I admit nothing. There. I’ve told him that I’m staying with you overnight in London and there’s absolutely zero reason to notify my parents I’ve gone missing.”

Angelo’s mobile buzzed loudly, vibrating against the counter. He picked it up and saw a text from Philippe.

Philippe: Is Prince Yuri lying to me?

Angelo: Nah. He’s here with me. He got separated from Jacki and her gf then called me to come rescue him.

Angelo: I told him I’d put him up for the night and get him on a train back to Oxford tomorrow

Angelo: he’s fine, but he’s probably gonna be hung over. Sorry, in advance

Philippe: Thank you, your highness. I appreciate your candor. Good night.

“See what I mean?” Yuri rubbed his temples. “It’s not fair. You should get a babysitter, too.”

“It’s not like I don’t have a security detail. They have a flat on this floor and they follow me everywhere. Who the fuck did you think was driving the car I came and picked you up in?”

Yuri opened his eyes again. “Not Uber?”

“No, idiot. Not Uber or anything else. We’re in the same boat, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” Yuri said glumly. He stretched and yawned, his mouth gaping wide enough that Angelo thought he could see Yuri’s tonsils.

“Come on, princess.