The privateer and his tracker

Chapter 11

Mal was having a problem with how Nikolai looked.

Not in the: 'he looks inappropriate, he should change' way, but more a: 'he looks inappropriate, it's giving me a boner' way. Because, well, Nikolai was very attractive as he was, but today the privateer had the genius idea of training right after, well, they were uhm doing it.

After lunch, they finally got some time alone and got up to some stuff. It wasn't a smart idea, now that Mal thought back, as the king requested the tracker's favourite meal and the activities afterwards almost made the said tracker throw up.

However, that wasn't the most pressing matter at the moment. By far more important was Nikolai. Well, he always was, but that's beside the point.

Because at the moment, the king looked amazing. Which he also always did, but okay.

The sweat on his skin, made it glow and his hair was all slick. With every surge, a small limp could still be seen in his movements and it made the tracker weirdly proud of himself. The glint in his eyes was mischievously attractive but as soft and warm as sunlight.

As it was the start of the summer it was quite hot and Nikolai was training without his shirt on, which was an even bigger turn-on. His, or rather Mal's, sweatpants clung to his lower hips loosely, showing off his hip bone.

And the lot of marks that the tracker couldn't help but put on him.

The king's thin waist was spinning around, bathing in sunlight and making every attempt of attack from Nikolai more attractive, turning Mal on more and more.

It was as clear as crystal that the privateer will win today's session and it came as no surprise to Mal, considering how his mind was elsewhere.

He couldn't help it when his memory took him back to a couple of hours ago, the images of the king pinned on his bed, just as he liked it, with the tracker's wrists tightly wrapped around his, keeping him in place.

Saints, it was over for Mal. He promptly dropped his sword, raising his hands.

"You win," he said, lifting his eyes at the king who was looking back with confusion written all over his face. It sometimes made Mal laugh at how oblivious the king was.

"What? Why?" The little shit knew what he liked in bed and was quite educated from all the novels he was reading, but still usually didn't get the memo.

He was the last one to get Zoya's dirty jokes, pulling his face together in confusion and loudly laughing when he finally understood it all. He was also the last one to understand why David once asked him to give him and Genya some time alone and was quite hurt until Mal told him it was nothing personal. There was also the time when he threw up because he thought he was talking to siblings until the said people kissed and the king was far too surprised because he couldn't see the tension between them.

Which all made the tracker quite proud of how Nikolai always sensed when his partner was turned on.

Well, not this time.

"It's just- I don't know - just how you look," Mal vaguely waved his hand in the privateer's direction, feeling the blush that was spreading around his face and looking down.

"W- what do you mean? What's wrong with the way I look?" The king asked after a slight pause and Mal wanted to kill himself. It wasn't his intention at all to make Nikolai think there was even a slight chance the tracker wouldn't like how he looks. As the said man curled a bit into himself, Mal felt like a real piece of shit, mentally slapping himself.

Quickly walking until he was standing so close to Nikolai that they shared the same air, he was already trying to explain: "No, no, no, no it's not that it's something wrong at all, quite the contrary."