Page 5 of Wear It Like a Crown

“For someone who’s so disdainful of the monarchy, you certainly know a lot about its conventions.”

Leo pursed his lips, everything about him spelling a challenge. “The more I know, the less of a fuck I give.”

“Leo,” Nate mumbled, the warning clear in his tone.

“Paying them off is the best option,” Joshua told both of them. It was. Itwas. And if he repeated it often enough, it would eventually start to feel like it. “It’s the best way to limit the damage to the Crown, and it’s not like I made the decision alone. George agrees, and he has plenty of experience with crisis communication.”

“Being gay isn’t a crisis.” Leo snorted with disdain, eyes sharp. “Also, you do realise that this is the digital age, correct? It’s not just a couple of negatives. Each copy of a file is as good as the original, so how will you know that the material really is gone? And won’t pop up anyway?”

That…

Well.Shit.

It was both obvious and so very, verytruethat Joshua’s stomach sagged to his knees. Before he could think of an adequate response, Nate spoke up for the first time since Joshua had barged in on them. “Leo is right, you know? You don’t know how many copies there are, how many pictures and videos, and where they’re stored. What if you pay, and then those people get greedy and want another million? Or something else?”

Joshua had no answer.

* * *

Leo couldn’t believe it. How had the thought of a blackmailer disregarding an agreement not occurred to Joshua? If it had been about buying time to put a plan into action, about controlling what would be released when—fine. But for fuck’s sake, did Joshua expect that it really would be that straightforward?Freedom—buy today!

It was never that easy.

Taking in the way Joshua bit down on his bottom lip, eyes a little distant with thought, Leo counted to five before he asked, “Did that honestly not cross your mind?”

Joshua’s gaze snagged to settle on Leo. His voice held a defensive note. “I was raised to believe that a person’s word actually means something.”

Well. Now that was just naive. It was also strangely sweet, and a littlesad. Leo wondered whether he might have said the same at age seventeen, before he’d crash-landed in reality.

“Look,” he said slowly. “Where I come from, the only currencies are money, sex and power. More often than not, they’re one and the same.” He raised his brows. “You can’t expect a blackmailer to operate by the ethical code preached in College Chapel, you know?”

At Joshua’s surprised glance, Leo realised that he might have betrayed a familiarity with Eton’s traditions that not everyone possessed. Fuck, he was usually better at guarding himself, but Joshua’s presence was disorienting, cut through walls Leo had diligently erected and exposed the shoddy foundation underneath. Joshua was a fragment of Leo’s past. He didn’t belong in this present.

“How—” Joshua began, and Leo cut him off.

“A gentleman’s agreement only works if both sides are behaving like gentlemen. Not applicable in this case.”

It was highly,highlyimpolite to interrupt a member of the Royal Family. There was a distinct possibility that in dark and long-gone times, people had been hanged for this kind of thing. Joshua merely blinked at him though, and yes, his eyes were still so very green, and his mouth was still a tad too wide for his face—the same mouth Leo had fantasised about with a hand stuffed down his pants, face turned into a pillow to muffle all sounds. Back then, sex had been a sticky-sweet promise.

“Because blackmailers aren’t gentlemen? Or because you consider me a coward?” Joshua was looking directly at Leo as though challenging him to say…something, Leo didn’t know. It was strange and unwelcome to have that kind of focus turned to him, like a spotlight that would catch each twitch of a muscle, each blemish on his facade. He opened his mouth without any clear idea of what he was going to say.

He was saved by Nate inserting himself into the conversation once more. Bless him.

“What about your friend?” Nate asked carefully, and he didn’t twist the word “friend” into a mockery of itself, the way Leo would have done. “What’d he say?”

When Joshua glanced away, the claustrophobic pressure around Leo’s chest eased just slightly. He watched Joshua direct a tiny smile at Nate before answering.

“Mo told me he’s fine with whatever. And he’s mostly already out as bi, so there’s that, and since he doesn’t come from a noble family, it’s not like… They’re not…” Joshua paused. For someone who had likely been trained in elocution from an early age, he had a surprising tendency to ramble and trip over his own words. “He’s a model. So he’s not too keen on having his private bits on the news, but it wouldn’t be quite as bad for him. His words, not mine.”

A model, huh? Now that it had been brought up, Leo supposed that the man straddling Joshua had seemed vaguely familiar, someone he might know from the pages of glossy fashion magazines. Not that Leo was into that kind of reading material, really. He only flicked throughGQwhen he was high-strung and overtired, and because James insisted on a subscription for their waiting room even though they only consulted by appointment and dealt in clients thoroughly unused to waiting.

Also, trust bloody Prince Joshua of Wales to hang out in the closet and still get to shag models. Just went to prove that clichés existed for a reason.

Leo was about to make a comment along those lines—screw appropriateness—when Joshua took a step back, shaking his head. “Anyway,” he said. “Could you point me to the gents?”

“You mean you need topiss?” Leo asked pointedly. “Or is that too plebeian for you?” It was barely out when Nate pinched him in the hip, hard. He may have deserved that.

Joshua drew himself up, clearly aware of his height advantage. “Yes. I need to piss. Because I’mhuman, surprisingly.”