In Which Jadin Ruins the Moment

June 1, 1172

There were several advantages to large parties, Jadin had learned over the years. When he had been a child, the adults had always managed to get so spectacularly drunk that he and his friends were free to run wild and wreak havoc to their little hearts' content--and then when he'd gotten a little older, he and his friends had always managed to get so spectacularly drunk that they could run wild and wreak havoc regardless of their parents' states.

And now that he was even older... well, the crowd did always manage to keep itself occupied. It was never difficult for a pair of lovers to slip away for an hour or so.

Lovers... were he and Xeta lovers? Not quite, he guessed--not physically. But then again, didn't the word have more to do with love than it did with sex? Surely he would have never called the chambermaids he met for quick afternoon romps such a thing. Didn't lovers... love?

He pressed the last of series of kisses to her lips and smiled down at her. "I love you."

For a second, she fell rigid. He could only stare in anxious, privately horrified silence--had he really just said that? And how was she going to take it? "Err..."

A tip of a finger against his lips rendered him speechless. Laughing, Xeta pulled herself upright, her fingers interlocking with his as she pulled his shocked form along. "You mean that?"

God, he'd never seen such dazzling eyes. He'd never been to sea, but he'd spent many a summer afternoon on the shores of the lake, watched the sun's stray sparks shimmer like diamonds on the water's surface, but nothing could compare to Xeta's blue eyes in the candlelight. He could have just as easily drowned in those eyes as he might have in the lake. "Of course I do."

That wide, pretty smile a little wider and a little prettier, she inclined her head and kissed him once more. "I love you too."

She didn't say anything after that--not that he thought she needed to. It was kind of nice, the quiet, just holding her, loving her. Tame, perhaps, but was that not to be expected of a duke's sister? She was a different breed entirely from some whore at one of the brothels. He never would have paid one of them just for cuddling, but snuggling up to his charming little sweetheart was a different thing entirely. Maybe this was what his sister Viridis called a 'moment'.

Yes, that was it--a moment.

Don't ruin the moment. It was a nagging little voice in the back of his head, one that sounded like a blend of his father's and his older sister's, with perhaps a hint of... Florian? What the hell was he doing in there? Not that it mattered; it was good advice, and he had to admit that ruining a moment was something he would do. Jadin had lived long enough to know all the best ways of ignoring one's conscience, but for once--just this once--he supposed it was worth the listen. Don't ruin the moment.

Don't ruin the moment.

Don't ruin the moment.

Don't ruin the--

"Do you want to have sex?"

Well, so much for not ruining the moment.

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