Abyss - Book Five (Man x Man)

Chapter 7 (M)

I crane my head back, resting my neck on the rim of the stone tub, supported by one of the large fluffy towels. I keep the temperature as hot as I can stand it, trying to melt away the stress of Loan enforcing his rules on me once again. 

"What am I going to do about him?" I want to unseat him but I feel as though we are safer with him close to us. "If I kick him out, he could go and start his own rebellion, and right now we need all the support we could get. If I die, god forbid, someone needs to rule this place and I don't have an heir." 

Before he can speak, I quickly add, "and I'm not interested in having one." I can feel the smirk as he takes my foot in his hands, sitting on the opposite end of the tub. My feet are in his lap and he kneads my foot between his skilled thumbs. It's absolutely heavenly given my ridiculous shoes and the amount of time I spend stationary listening to the babble of how and why I'm the king. 

"Don't fire him. He's your Caspian. Just set ground rules and stick to them, mean it. You will be the king in only a few days, Loan knows that and is acting out because he's afraid. I went through the same thing with Caspian."

I can tell that he's sweating and hot from the temperature of the water by the way his hair is matted down to his forehead, the gray darkened to an almost black color with a few stray strands. I steal a peek, admiring the beaded sweat on his chest. I'm between his legs, with his size he's always taken up most of the length of this tub though truthfully we never got in it together very often. 

"What if he doesn't stop?" I ask after a moment, influencing the surface of the water with slow paces of my fingertips. He brings my foot up to rest it on his shoulder and starts work on the other one, I stretch and groan at the mixture of pampering and warmth. "What if he just keeps doing this? I know he planted that man, I know that Chancellor Aschim is one of his appointed officials and I know for a fact Loan wanted that man to kill me."

 Verando exhales, tracing his fingers over the tendons in my foot. He glances up at me as if he's wondering if I actually want his opinion. 

"Randy you are the only one who actually knows anything about this, that I have access to, and has been successful." 

He thinks it over, kissing the ankle of my shouldered foot. "Caspian never did stop. When I killed my father, he was angry that he had not done it. When I formed the army, he was angry that he was not Alpha. When I met you, he was angry that I had not chosen him. Caspian was born to lead a different path but he was so busy trying to steal mine that he had lost his way. 

I had always hoped he would find it but greed and revenge are hard things to combat. Stealing someone else's accomplishments can seem like an easier feat than making your own. It's up to you to decide what to do with him, I never could beat Caspian as he was stronger than me. Especially once my shoulder was damaged, there was no hope, you saw that I did not win in our fight and you had to heal me and it was ultimately, you, who stopped Caspian's rise to power. 

Hate fuels violence. I would suggest you make your peace or find a way to snuff out that fuel before there is violence, because, there will be violence." He sounds so sure, I suppose it's a common thing for those in charge to deal with those who want what you have. 

I don't understand it, I don't know why anyone would choose this willingly. I would not have picked this path, I would rather lead a simple life with a simple job, coming home to my husband who I'm almost positive is alive. The constant fear of death and assassinations is an unwelcome reminder of how unsafe we are. 

"I wish I could turn it over to him."

He smirks. "That means you're right for the job. Anyone in power shouldn't want to be." He watches the water, absently trailing his fingers up and down my leg. I purse my lips and watch his face, we really hadn't talked about the night where he wanted to end his life as he had not wanted to talk about it but the more I thought about it, the more I could see his darkness and read into the subtle, and not so subtle, cues of a man that had been on the edge almost the entire time I've known him.