Page 10 of A Heart Wrapped in Thorns

Laughing, clearly pleased for no good reason Aurélien could find, Keone headed out and returned just a few minutes later carrying a large bag and his saddles bags.He set them down on a stack of empty crates and started going through the large bag.

Before he could hand over the boxes and bags he took out, though, shouts and exclamations came from outside."Damn it," Aurélien muttered.Why couldn't they have left him alone for just another hour?Even half an hour.

"They won't bother us," Keone said."I did not travel alone this time, and my people will keep your mother and everyone else at bay.They can stand outside and gawk if they must, but that's it, until you choose to leave the tower and speak with them."

Aurélien stared at him, warm with affection and thorny with frustration."You left.I trusted you.I brought you up here and let you into my bed and youleft."

Bowing low, so elegant and beautiful it was unfair, Keone replied, "I was a fool.I didn't even want to leave.I was just panicked and stubborn about all the wrong things.I am sorry, from the very bottom of my heart."He looked up, not lifting from his bow."Is there anything I can do to earn your forgiveness, my love?"

"I really, truly, sincerely, and utterlyhate you," Aurélien said.

Keone smiled softly as he rose and held out his arms."Come here.Please?"

Aurélien went, wrapping his arms around Keone's waist as those strong, solid arms he'd missed so much held him tightly.The first human touch he'd felt in six long months, the only touch in the world that he had ever missed."You're a jerk," he said against Keone's chest.

"I know," Keone said, kissing the top of his head."Would you be willing to keep putting up with me anyway?Come home with me and be my prince consort?"

"I don't know anything about Anshara, not even the language.I don't know that I'm the best fit, especially as your sister…" He scowled as Keone put a finger to his lips.

"Yes or no?"

"Yes, of course, I was simply pointing out maybe you should reconsider."

Keone cupped his face and kissed him, soft and sweet and burning like fire."No.I walked away from you once, and the agony of it nearly destroyed me, and when that wasn't killing me, the shame of my behavior, of my terrible mistake, haunted me.I came prepared to do whatever was demanded of me to earn your forgiveness."

"As long as you've learned your lesson," Aurélien whispered, happily letting Keone kiss him again.

Sweeping him up, Keone carried him over to the bed and set him on the edge of it, then gathered up all the gifts from before and brought them over, sitting down next to him and dropping the pile in his lap.

Aurélien opened them slowly, admiring beautifully illustrated books, jewels more beautiful than anything even his mother owned, an entire box of thread in vivid colors he'd never have been able to make himself, clothes, and more."Thank you," he said when he finally finished."They're all so thoughtful.I've never had such gifts."He ran his thumb over the opal pendant that was his favorite, then looked up at the jewel embedded in Keone's forehead."Will I get a jewel like that, as your spouse?"

"Yes, it's necessary for connecting to the oceanic magic that protects Anshara.I will tell you everything on the voyage home, and by the time we arrive, you'll be able to speak the language well enough to please even my impossible father.I promise."

"I believe you.First, though, you'll have to face my mother."

Keone scoffed."Earning your forgiveness was the only challenge I feared failing.Your mother does not trouble me.If all else fails, I'll eat her."He winked.

Aurélien laughed."Oh, to see the look on her face as she thinks that is precisely what is about to happen.Do not change into a dragon, though, then we'll never be rid of her."

The encounter would be predictable and tedious.His mother would rant and rave when he said he was leaving, about how the magic was meant to serve the kingdom, which really meanther.Then she would learn Keone was from Anshara, which would put that hungry gleam in her eye, and she'd all but throw him on the ship herself with gifts aplenty to please her new allies that she'd be able to brag about for the rest of her life.

Or maybe Keone's companions had already told her where they were from, and she was already selecting and packing up the gifts and the carriage was ready and waiting to take him to the harbor.

However it happened, he didn't care.He was free.

Keone lifted his hand and kissed the palm.

Aurélien frowned."I still have my thorns.If you're here, and burned away the ones around the tower…" But they were lighter, as they'd been the morning he'd woken alone.

"Why should they disappear?The only thorns you wanted burned were the ones outside.They're part of you, my prince of thorns who reminds people that closeness of any sort must beearned."Keone kissed his palm again, then his wrist, then leaned in to kiss his throat."The flowers are new.Back home we call them Crown of Thorns."

"Flowers?"Aurélien pulled away, fumbled for the small mirror on his bedside crate, and stared in shock at the cluster of flowers on his throat, right where the vine ended, where he'd long ago thought it seemed like a flower should grow.They were dark pink with yellow centers, soft and pretty.Crown of Thorns.

Smiling, he set the mirror aside, along with all the gifts, then turned back to Keone, pulling him down onto the bed."Want to ignore the world for a few more hours?"

"Yes, I definitely want to do that," Keone said, a faint growl in his voice as he leaned in for the first of many kisses.

End