Cross Purposes (Chronicles of Ylandre, Book 5) (32 page)

As soon as Keosqe left, he turned to Tristen and repeated, “
Dyhar
? My lord? Wherefore such formality with your lover, Tris-
min
?”

Before an obviously abashed Tristen could reply, Eiren clasped Riodan’s arm and faintly shook his head. Riodan looked from the physician to the youth, noting the sadness in the former’s eyes and the bleak despair in the latter’s.

* * * *

Riodan could not get it out of his mind even when he returned home to find Dylen entertaining Rohyr and Lassen in the parlor. Only then did he recall that they’d ask the couple to join them for dinner. The smaller of the Leyhars’ Rikara townhouses was their residence while they awaited the completion of their conjugal quarters at the Citadel. Two adjoining suites were in the final stages of refurbishment—the larger one a sumptuous apartment fit for the Ardan’s only brother and his spouse and the smaller suite a spacious nursery for future royal nephews.

They merrily welcomed him home and Lassen at once asked after his health.

“Eiren says I’m as good as new save for the signs of obvious usage,” Riodan quipped. “I’m truly fortunate Amir’s healers were on hand that evening.”

Dylen smiled and pulled him down to sit beside him on the couch. He kept his hold on Riodan’s hand, lifting it to brush a kiss against the knuckles.

“Thank Veres for every fortuitous event that spared you,” he murmured. A moment later, he peered at Riodan and remarked, “However, methinks more happened during your visit to Eiren than a mere examination. Out with it,
ariad
. Something is troubling you.”

“You know me so well,” Riodan playfully grumbled. “But you’re right, I am bothered.” He paused then said, “It has to do with Tristen Marante.”

“Keosqe’s lover?” Lassen asked in surprise.

“Are they still?” Riodan countered. “I heard they’d had a falling-out, but since Tristen is returned to Keosqe’s home, I’d assumed they reconciled.” He sighed. “I assumed wrong judging from how they behaved toward each other at Eiren’s office.”

He recounted what he’d witnessed and when he finished he glanced at Rohyr and said, “I’m by no means as gifted as you or Dy, but I sensed a barrier between them. I think Keosqe has closed himself to Tristen. I don’t mean the way you sometimes close off doors into your minds for purposes of security. Rather, it was as if he’d erected a wall to keep Tristen at a distance. And the lad is obviously affected by that. He seems so eager to please, to do what Keosqe wants. But if he can’t get close enough so he can anticipate his wishes…” Riodan shook his head. “They might as well live in different homes.”

After a brief silence, Rohyr said, “Keosqe hasn’t confided much in anyone as far as I know. Eiren perhaps knows something of it given that Tristen is apprenticed with him. But he won’t divulge anything told him in confidence so all we know is mostly supposition. But you’re right that they haven’t reconciled. That much I’ve garnered from Keosqe’s manner when we meet and what little he’s let slip out.”

He paused, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Keosqe isn’t one to trust easily. He’s almost as bad as I at letting people in. But when he does, he does so wholeheartedly. Which as you can imagine makes him very vulnerable. If Tristen’s transgression was a matter of breaking that trust—and I suspect it was—then it will be thrice as hard to get Keosqe to believe in him once more.”

“Hence, his holding Tristen at bay,” Lassen softly said. “’Twas terribly hurtful, whatever it was Tristen did, to affect Keosqe so. Such a wound takes time to heal. Longer than any physical injury, I think.”

“It does indeed,” Dylen agreed, his eyes dark with pained remembrance. He wrapped a protective arm around Riodan.

Riodan sighed and leaned into his embrace. “But lack of trust can inflict a more grievous wound and one that takes even longer to heal. If it ever does.”

Becoming aware of the pall his pensiveness had brought upon them, Riodan applied himself to lightening the mood. Thankfully, he succeeded and by the time Rohyr and Lassen left a few hours later, laughter and smiles were the rule once more. But he could not keep up his jovial façade in front of Dylen. Not when his mate, as Riodan himself had stated, knew him so well.

No sooner did Riodan close the parlor door behind him after seeing the royal couple out than Dylen had him flat on his back on the couch. He was half-shorn of his clothes before he could complete a sentence.

“Wait, Dy! Someone might—” Riodan stopped when he heard the door bolt slide into place by itself.

Dylen continued to strip him. “You were saying?” he murmured huskily, caressing bared skin in just the way it took to silence Riodan or weaken his attempts at protest.

A long, far from quiet while later, Riodan lay limp and trying to catch his breath. He moaned as Dylen slowly withdrew from him, mourning as always the moment their bodies parted after loving, scorching union.

“I love you, Rio,” Dylen whispered. “Put away your fears about us. We’re bound in this world and beyond.”

Riodan caught his breath as Dylen caressed his left ear and the diamond and snow sapphire bedecked gold earring that adorned it—the symbol of their eternal union.

“You knew,” he murmured.

“That their circumstances reminded you of ours? It was quite obvious. I’m sure Rohyr and Lassen knew as well.”

“Hmm, some diplomat I am.” Riodan smiled wanly. “But that isn’t the only reason.”

Dylen nodded. “I didn’t think so. Why
do
you worry so about them?” he asked, running his knuckles gently down Riodan’s cheeks.

Riodan closed his eyes, finding much comfort in his lover’s ministrations. “I just don’t want Tristen to know what I knew. He’s so young and … I nearly broke when I thought you wanted naught to do with me any longer. What if he turns into what I might have become save for your love, for your forgiveness?”

He felt the touch of Dylen’s lips to his, fleeting and feather-light. “You give me too much credit. You were always strong even in the face of the worst of adversities.” The kisses turned deeper, hotter, more invasive. “Knowing you, tomorrow will see you doing what you can to help young Tristen,” Dylen said, his lips barely touching Riodan’s. “But tonight is
mine
. Empty your mind of all else but me,
ariad
.”

Riodan gasped as he was breached once more and abruptly enough to make Dylen’s point. He opened his eyes to behold Dylen gazing at him with blatant possessiveness. Before he could say a word, Dylen folded his arms under him and hoisted him onto his lap. Riodan groaned as he slid down the full length of his mate’s shaft. With a smirk, Dylen latched on to a nipple, sucking hard on the tiny nub even as he continued to thrust up until Riodan was clutching frantically at him and sobbed pleas escaped his lips.

For the next several minutes, naught was heard but their mingled gasps and moans and occasional cries as their bodies met again and again in utmost intimacy. Riodan shuddered when Dylen pulled him down into a searing kiss while he reached between them to grip Riodan’s shaft and run his enclosing fist up and down its length.

If it was Dylen’s intention to drive all thought of anything but their coupling from Riodan’s mind, he succeeded quite spectacularly. Thrust after hard thrust coupled with plundering kisses and relentless strokes left Riodan speechless. When rapture invaded him at last, he surrendered to it, taking boundless joy in being thoroughly owned and loved so well.

* * * *

Keosqe looked up in surprise when Riodan Leyhar entered his office the following afternoon. Riodan seldom visited Internal Affairs, his profession more aligned with Foreign Affairs and Intelligence. Nonetheless, he warmly greeted the ambassador and motioned for him to take a seat while he finished writing a letter.

“Ah, perhaps I should come another time,” Riodan said.

“Nay, I’m about done,” Keosqe assured him, further proving this by pouring a small bowlful of fine sand onto the parchment. Once the excess ink was absorbed, he tipped the sand back into the bowl, folded the letter and slipped it into an envelope. After dripping enough wax onto the flap of the envelope to seal it, he pressed his signet ring into the soft mass and then set the envelope aside for the wax to harden.

“So, to what do I owe this visit, Ambassador?” he asked with a grin.

Before Riodan could respond, the door opened again and Tristen peeked in. He paused uncertainly when he espied Riodan, but proceeded inside when Keosqe gestured to him to enter.

“Good afternoon, Master Leyhar,” Tristen said with a smile.

“Good afternoon, Tris-
min
. Did you just come from the hospital?”

“The Public Hospital, yes.” Tristen worriedly glanced at Keosqe. “I’m not interrupting a meeting, am I?”

“Nay, Rio was ahead of you by only a few minutes,” Keosqe replied. “Why are you here? I thought you were going straight home after your shift.”

Tristen visibly flinched. “I don’t mean to be a bother. I only came to ask if you’ll be late again.”

“Not too late. I just have to finish a few reports.”

“Very well. Um, shall I wait to have dinner with you, my lord?”

Keosqe sensed rather than saw Riodan’s wince at Tristen’s use of formal address. He glanced at his friend and saw the latter was frowning in disapproval.

“Yes, do,” Keosqe replied, wondering what Riodan would make of the awkward turn his relationship with Tristen had taken.

After Tristen left, he turned his attention to Riodan. The ambassador wasted no time revealing the reason for his surprise visit.

“Why does Tristen address you thusly?” he bluntly asked, none of his famed diplomatic skills in evidence.

Unwilling to talk about his problem, Keosqe attempted to sidestep the question. “It’s his choice, not mine. Therefore I’m not the best person to ask.”

“Bollocks, Kes! Tristen is in no position to dictate the terms or tone of your relationship and he’s always been aware of that. If he’s reverted to formality around you, it can only be because the privilege of familiarity toward you has been revoked.”

“That’s absurd.”

“Nay, it isn’t. What has gone so wrong between you two? What in Aisen did he do that is so heinous you closed yourself off to him?”

“It’s none of your business!”

“Or is it you who’s gone and wronged him?”

“What! Are you daft?”

“Is that it? You’ve tired of the lad and so now you’re trying to drive him away?”

“That is the most ridiculous—”

“Or perhaps you met someone else and wish to take him as your leman in Tristen’s place.”

The jab stung fiercely. Keosqe rounded on Riodan, his eyes flashing angrily. “I haven’t strayed even once since we started our affair. And as far as I’m concerned, I never will.”

Riodan stared at him. “
That
is the reason for your rift. He cheated on you.”

Keosqe’s anger waned as swiftly as it had flared. With some chagrin, he realized he’d allowed Riodan to goad him into revealing the truth. But he could not summon enough umbrage to quarrel with his friend. And he could not help defending Tristen.

“He claims he didn’t. He admitted he almost did, but he didn’t go through with it.” Some of Keosqe’s ire returned and he acidly added, “But he piled falsehood upon falsehood in his effort to keep what he was about a secret from me.”

“You want to believe him, but you find it difficult in light of his duplicity?”

“Nay, I…” Keosqe looked away. “When he told me, he was so distraught, so desperate that…”

“That you do believe him.”

Keosqe exhaled. “Yes.”

“Then it isn’t the past that concerns you.” Riodan regarded him sympathetically. ”You fear he might act on it in the future having already made an attempt.” When Keosqe did not reply, Riodan shook his head. “I highly doubt he will.”

“Oh wouldn’t he?” Keosqe retorted. “He deceived me. Day after day, for several months running.”

“No quarrel there,” Riodan agreed. “But Tristen deeply regrets what he did, doesn’t he? He hasn’t stopped feeling guilty about hurting you.”

Keosqe sighed. “He hasn’t,” he reluctantly admitted.

“He hasn’t even reached his majority. He was bound to make mistakes. It’s part of growing up. But at least he’s mature enough to learn from this. I don’t think you’ll ever need to teach him a lesson twice. You have to try and trust him again. If you don’t, your relationship won’t make it. He won’t make it. He’s already changing himself just to please you.”

That gave Keosqe pause. “What are you talking about?” he asked at length.

“Have you looked at him recently?” Riodan pointed out. “I mean closely observed him. He’s so docile when he’s around you. He appears to wait on your every word. He isn’t at all like the Tristen I recall when he first came to live with you. Deity’s blood, he’s so scared to make a mistake; so obviously terrified you’ll send him away again. Is that what you want? For him to forget who he is and change into what he thinks you want him to be?”

Keosqe scowled. “Of course I don’t want that. But why does this affect you so? You barely know Tristen and only largely because of me.”

“I know what he’s going through,” Riodan said. “I can see he’s trying so hard not to offend you again in any way and hoping so desperately you’ll eventually forgive him enough to deem him worthy of you.”

“How can you know that?” Keosqe stared at him. “Deity’s blood, did you and Dylen—?”

He stopped, uncertain whether Riodan cared to talk about his unexpected and much speculated about betrothal and eventual marriage to Dylen.

“You want to know if this has to do with my relationship with him.”

Keosqe shrugged. “It’s rather hard to ignore the way you act around each other. You were previously acquainted but you’d had a falling-out—that much we all could tell. And he was so cool toward you to the point of rudeness at times, but surprisingly you accepted his behavior. Yet now you’re not merely reconciled, but soul-mated. Surely you realize how much of a surprise that was to us.”

Riodan smiled faintly. “Dylen was my first lover.”

Keosqe slowly nodded. “I did suspect you’d had an intimate relationship.”