UnFamiliar

Chapter 14

The rest of dinner went by rather smoothly. Conversation burbled around me and I ate the food Val placed on my plate. It was far spicier than I liked it, but I forced myself to take a couple bites of everything. The only thing really out of place in this impossible situation was the way the demon king didn't take his eyes off me once.

His gaze bored into me. It made me extra self-conscious when I started coughing because of the spiciness then took a big gulp of the red stuff in my cup. The liquid tasted sour and I involuntarily spat it back into my cup. 

I looked up from wiping my mouth, trying to pretend the whole ordeal didn't happen and caught Mr. demon king smirking.

At the end of the dinner Val said, "Well, we should really get back to the mortal world. It would be nice if next time you wanted to see us, you sent an invite rather than summon me here."

"You won't stay the night?" The demon king asked. Something about the question felt a little too innocent.

"Ambrose has witch things to attend to." Val was clearly lying.

"Surely, he can do them tomorrow. Doesn't he have time to spend with his partner's family?" the King insisted.

"What exactly would you like to do?" Val said through gritted teeth.

"I'd like to see you at breakfast, and surely you needn't trouble yourself with the return journey tonight?" The demon king eyed Val with a sort of eerie expression that led me to believe there was more to this than breakfast, though I had no idea what it could be.

Val lowered his eyes. "As you wish, father. May we be excused from the table?"

"Go, go. Enjoy your time together in the palace." The king waved us away.

Val grabbed my hand and led me from the room. I allowed him to pull me all the way to his room. At the closing of the door behind us, he pushed me back against it. He whispered, "Sorry," and then his lips were against mine.

I floundered. It was so unexpected. We weren't in front of a crowd. There was no reason for him to be kissing me other than...other than him wanting to, but then why did he apologize?

After a few seconds of me being mostly unresponsive, Val pulled back. His eyes darted to the wardrobe and I remembered what he said about the furniture being spies. He gave me a questioning nod, as he brought his hand up to my face. I nodded back, and this time when he kissed me, I kissed him back.

He pulled me with him over to the bed, where the curtains still hung down. The second we reached the bed, he fumbled behind himself, while kissing me. Once he found the opening in the curtains, he sat down pulling me on top of him. We kissed for a few more seconds, before he managed to arrange it so he could pull his legs up and shut the curtains behind us.

He pulled his face away, but his hands remained on my waist. I remained on his lap. I tried to catch my breath, but my stomach was doing this flippy thing that made it quite hard.

Val dropped his head and rested it on my shoulder. I was surprised that his horns didn't really inhibit this action. "I'm sorry Ambrose," he breathed.

My hands were on his shoulders, I'd put them there mindlessly when we were kissing and hadn't taken them away yet. I decided it'd be too awkward to drop them now. Also, Val's shoulders felt nice. They were definitely more muscular than my own. After frankly too long I said, "Would you mind telling me what exactly you're apologizing for?"

Val pulled back to look me in the eyes, and then seemed to realize what position we were still in. As if I couldn't have moved if I'd wanted to Val snatched his hands away from my waist, before practically pushing me off him. "I'm sorry. I should've—"

"Val," I said quietly, I was now sitting to the side of him, in criss-cross-applesauce.

He paused, to look at me.

"It's..." I took a deep and kind of shaky breath, "it's alright."

"It's not though. Do you even understand what I've done?"

The only light came from Val's glowing eyes, still I could somehow look at them, somehow see his expression in the soft red light. It's probably because he wasn't looking at me. His eyes were tilted downwards, his expression filled with this pinched aspect.

"Tell me," I whispered, "tell me what you mean."

His eye met mine, and I realized he had a single tear dripping down his face. My heart froze, I didn't know demons could cry. I scooped the tear onto my finger and stared at it as Val began to speak.

"I'm not—" he took a deep breath, "Ambrose, you do realize that until we figure out how to break this bond, you'll be stuck being known as the weak prince's boyfriend? My father isn't pleased. When I made the claim, I'd thought...well I thought one of my brothers' power would be enough to break our bond."

I was still looking at the tear when he grabbed my hands, pulling me out of whatever trance I'd been in. "Ambrose, are you listening to me?"

I blinked at him, his last words weren't a whisper. I wondered if I should say something loud that would make it seem like part of something intimate. Finally, I said in a quiet voice, "Is your concern for my reputation or because you think acting like we're dating is making me uncomfortable?"

Val pushed a hand through his hair. "Forget feelings, Ambrose. It's dangerous."

That caught my attention, though not in the way Val wanted it to. "Feelings? So you feel something for me?"

Val dropped his face into his hands. "Hell." he said, "hell, hell, hell. This isn't—we can't—soon enough we'll figure out how to break this spell and go our separate ways. Feelings don't matter."

I couldn't help but grin. So, he had 'feelings' for me. "What are these feelings that don't matter?"

Val groaned, and flopped back on the bed.

I scooted so my face was really close to his. "Do you get butterflies when you look at me? Oh, oh, do you like the way I—"

"This is serious, Ambrose."

I pulled away and looked down. My hands were going in knots. "I have something serious to ask as well."

"And what is that?"

"Would it be so bad if we never found a way to break the bond?" It'd been on my mind a lot recently, but now...now that I'd confirmed my suspicion that what I was beginning to feel for him wasn't one sided, I didn't want to break the thing holding us together. 

Silence descended upon us. I couldn't even really breath, and then my body forced me to in one large embarrassing gasp. Val still didn't answer. I poked him, thinking maybe he'd fallen asleep or fainted at the idea.

"...let's go to bed," he said. Then he got under the covers without even changing and turned his back on me.