The Prince and His Slave (boyxboy)

Chapter Twenty-One

Camille

Days of riding horses was tiring.

It must have been harder to be the horses and I felt for the poor creatures, even though they all seemed happy and well rested. So did Kell. The running didn't seem to take a lot out of him. He would occasionally take a break and fall behind us, but he would always catch back up and run along side Esther once again.

But I was tired and not in the best of moods. I was not like these large, strong men that had ridden horses for their entire lives. I had only ridden a couple times with Dorian and even then, it hadn't been for very long.

At the end of the day, I was sore and my hair was a tangled mess. I spent too long brushing it out again only in time to go to bed and then wake up and do it all again.

I kept my pessimistic attitude to myself because I knew that Dorian had other things to worry about.

He was concerned about traveling to nobleman's houses and hopefully gaining more people for the army that we had to build. Or he had to build. I wasn't doing much to help except keeping Dorian company at night after he had discussed plans with the guards that were traveling with us.

Klaus was always by Dorian's side and I didn't get much of a chance to speak to my king until it was about time for us to go to sleep in the evening.

I knew I had some chances to say things when we were on Esther together, riding for many hours throughout the day. But when I did have the opportunity, nothing came to mind.

Dorian was stressed and worried...and I didn't know how to comfort him because it seemed that all of my attempts failed.

We hadn't made love since we left the castle, but we were sleeping in a large tent not too far off from the group of tents that the guards and other people traveling with us were in.

Dorian held me at night and kissed me, but I wanted to be closer to him.

I wasn't completely lonely though, because I always had Kit.

In fact, he was sitting with me now as Dorian discussed things with the men over dinner.

Kit and I sat on a log some ways away, alone. Well, apart from Kell. He was taking a nap on my legs, but he perked up every time I fed him a piece of meat.

"What is wrong, Cam?" Kit asked out of the blue.

I looked over at him, a troubled expression plastered on my face. I then shook my head. "It's nothing to worry about," I assured him.

"Come on, Camille. I'm your friend right?" He asked with a wry smile.

"My best friend," I corrected him.

He turned red at that and ran a hand over the back of his neck in a shy gesture.

"Well...I think that means you can tell me anything, right?" He asked, a flush to his cheeks.

I nodded, looking down at the metal bowl in front of me. I picked up a piece of meat and nibbled on it.

I looked over at Dorian who seemed to be deep in conversation with Klaus.

"I miss him," I said finally, truthfully.

Kit's eyebrows drew together. "You spend practically all day with him," he told me.

I sighed and set the bowl of food aside, running my fingers through Kell's thick fur.

"He's distant. He's busy. He has no time for me," I explained. We had been traveling for two weeks and Dorian said we were approaching the first nobleman's home that we were visiting. But this was just the first part of our journey. We had so much father to go and I had only begun to realize what we had gotten ourselves into. "I feel so selfish, but I want to be in our warm bed as we cuddle in the morning before having breakfast. He has not touched me since we had begun traveling and I just don't feel right."