by BJ Bentley
Darius rocked back on his heels as more whispers worked their way through the crowd. He was unaware of the announcement Phares had planned to make that day, and he had no idea why he was making such a claim. He dared not hope the king’s proclamation meant what he wanted it to mean.
“The reason,” Phares continued, ignoring the obvious confusion and curiosity brimming in the assembly, “Khalan will not have a queen is because you will be blessed with a second king.”
The blow to Darius’s chest knocked the breath from him. He felt panic set in as Phares further explained.
“Darius,” Phares called, hand extended in his direction. “Come here, my heart.”
His eyes skittered over the crowd, taking in the sea of mixed expressions. Shock, annoyance, happiness. But the only face that mattered was looking at him like he was precious. So, despite hating the attention and definitely wanting to have words with Phares about making such announcements, not only publicly, but without his knowledge, Darius stepped forward and took his king’s hand. “You might have mentioned your intentions before now, my king,” he muttered, barely managing to maintain the smile he’d plastered on his face.
“I thought my intentions had always been clear,” Phares returned. “You should have seen this coming,” he added, smirking.
Darius narrowed his eyes. To be fair, Phares had made his love evident. But Darius had no idea he’d even thought about making it official. Darius didn’t know the first thing about being a king. He couldn’t rule, but maybe he could help Phares in other ways. He could be his friend. His lover. His confidant. His partner. Yes, he could do this. There was nowhere he’d rather be than at Phares’s side.
Phares turned back to the crowd. “In three days’ time, this man and I will pledge ourselves to each other in front of the people of Khalan. You will honor him as you honor me. You will respect him. Or you shall fear me.” The threat was a primal growl, one that surely struck fear into the hearts of every man, woman, and child in the room, but had Darius’s cock standing at attention.
He wanted this over with, so he could take his love to bed.
When Phares had said he’d wanted everything with Darius, he’d never even considered that Phares would want to make him his partner in all things. But now that the opportunity was in front of him, he realized he wanted nothing more.
Not to rule. Not the kingdom. But to be Phares’s equal in all things. It said a lot about Phares and his feelings for Darius that he would even consider such a move let alone announce it to his people.
The crowd seemed to wake up. Cheers and applause pierced the air, and Darius thought that maybe he’d finally found a true home. At Phares’s side and with the people of the capital.
“Do you accept, my heart?”
Darius’s fingers tightened around the king’s. “I never had a choice, my king. I was always meant to be yours.”
Phares’s eyes flared and a coarse rumble rent itself from his chest just before he gave a solid tug and pulled Darius in for a long, wet kiss.
By the time they separated, Darius was dazed and aching with need. By the feel of Phares’s hard body against his, he was suffering from the same affliction. It was really too bad they had an audience.
As if reading his mind, Phares turned his head toward the crowd. “Out!”
The crowd, many of them still cheering, began to disperse. That was when Darius spotted a familiar face among them. “Brinna?” There, cramped between a faceless nobleman and the wall was his sister and his niece. Darius turned to Phares. “Are you responsible for this?”
Phares shrugged. “Your family is now my family.”
He was torn between wanting to show his lover his gratitude or greet his sister, who he missed terribly.
Phares made the decision for him. “Go to her. But come back to me.”
Darius gave him a swift peck on the cheek. “Always,” he promised. He bounded down the red-carpeted stairs to the main floor. What was left of the crowd parted for him, their deference making him slightly uneasy, but he had no time to contemplate how to get over that. He just wanted to get to Brinna.
“Sister,” he said, pulling her in for a tight hug with Calista sandwiched between them, giggling. “I am so happy you are here. Tell me it’s for good.”
Brinna laughed at his eagerness. “Yes, dear brother. Your niece and I are here to stay, at the king’s request.”
“Request?” he asked with an arched brow.
“Command,” she amended.
“That seems more like him,” he muttered good-naturedly.
“I cannot help it. It is just who I am,” Phares interjected, having followed Darius to greet his sister.
“My king,” Brinna said, head bowed.
“You shall call me brother,” Phares decreed. “And you,” he directed to Calista, “shall call me uncle.”
Brinna and Calista both looked between the two men with surprise.
“Truly?” Calista breathed.
“We could not—“ Brinna began.
“You can,” Phares said, sounding bored with being defied. “You will. I have commanded it.”
“Of course, my ki— brother.” Brinna grinned.
Phares dipped his chin. “Come. We will show you to your new chambers. I think you’ll both be very comfortable there.”
The four of them walked the corridor toward the king’s private quarters but took a right at the end of the hall into an otherwise unused portion of the palace.
“You do not know what this means to me,” Darius said softly.
“I have not had a family in a long time. But I imagine I will like this one.”
“You will love them.” It was impossible not to love Brinna and Calista. Before Phares, they were the brightest sunlight in his life.
“You are happy then?”
“How could you even doubt it? I am ecstatic.”
“Then so am I, my heart.”
Darius smiled. “I cannot wait to marry you.”
Phares returned his smile. “That is good. For neither can I.”
Walking side by side, hand in hand, they deposited the females in their new quarters. With nothing else in their way, they raced to their bedchamber, determined to spend the rest of the day in bed.
It didn’t take much effort.
The king always gets what he wants.
Epilogue
“Were you really going to sneak out of our bed without kissing me?”
Darius glanced over his shoulder at his husband. Still as handsome and virile as the day they met. And still possessing just as much stamina. With his sleepy eyes and slightly curving lips, he was too enticing to resist.
He leaned back, planting a quick kiss on his mouth. “It’s Calista’s birthday,” he said pointedly. Phares knew what a momentous occasion it was. Darius’s niece was turning sixteen today. She was practically an adult, a fact that nearly made her mother swoon and her step-father suffer heart palpitations several times over the past months.
“So it is.” Phares smiled. “And she is probably still abed. As we should be.”
Darius thinned his lips but granted Phares his point since the sun had not yet risen, and his niece was not fond of mornings. Birthday or not, they’d be lucky if they saw the young woman before the midday meal. “You are not wrong,” he sighed, flicking the covers back over his naked body and sliding back into his king’s personal space.
“I am never wrong,” Phares quipped, earning himself Darius’s weight.
Darius wedged his knee between Phares’s legs and stretched his arms over his head, so they were chest-to-chest. “Your ego is as massive as ever.”
“You love my ego.”
“You are not wrong.”
Phares grinned before planting a foot in the bed and rolling them so he had the advantage. “I love it when you see things my way.”
“You do not give me much of a choice, my king,” he retorted, addressing him with the title that had long ago become a term of endearm
ent.
Phares’s eyes lit with mischief. He opened his mouth to reply, but he was preempted by the giggles and squeals that preceded the two slight weights hitting the bed.
Groaning with frustration, Darius lamented his unsatisfied cock and the loss of Phares’s body. Sadly, though his niece was not an early riser, their two young daughters were.
“Hi, Papa! Hi, Dada!”
“Hi, Dada! Hi, Papa!”
“Hello, my perfect daughters.”
Darius adored the indulgent grin Phares granted their girls and decided he could forgive their poor timing.
Hedha and Derla were blood sisters who had been left alone in the world when both of their parents succumbed to illness and there were no known relatives to take them in. Rather than let them grow up on the streets, something Darius and Phares were both intimately familiar with, they’d taken them in, officially making them royalty a few weeks later.
Hedha, the older of the two at four years, crawled in between the two men, claiming her usual place in their big bed. Derla, aged three, giggled as she followed her sister like she always did.
Darius looked over the girls’ dark curls and met his husband’s gaze. “How did I get so lucky?” he murmured.
Phares gave him a soft smile. “I believe it began with a bath…” He trailed off with a wink.
Yes, the king winked.
Darius shook his head, his lips tipping up. “I love you, my king.”
“Not more than I love you, my heart.”
Darius thought that was a subject that could be infinitely debated.
Also by BJ Bentley
The Medicine Wheel series
Coming Home
Taking Shelter
Building Dreams
Chasing Forever (coming 2021)
Other books by BJ
May the Best Man Win
Tilt
Roll with You
Holiday Heart-On
Man Down
About the Author
BJ was born and raised in the wilds of northeastern Pennsylvania.
By wolves.
She's a devoted cat mom, coffee guzzler, and whiskey sipper.
An ambivert who loves people but doesn't necessarily want to be around them, BJ spends her days working in healthcare, reading, or enjoying the outdoors.