My Fair Captain (10 page)

Watching the swirl of dancers, Nate determined that there were a few women in attendance, and a few of Regelence’s military officers—from both the Navy and Marines and even a handful of IN officers—but most of the assembly was comprised of older lords and their sons. He’d seen men dance together before but never in this type of setting. It would have been disgraceful for men to do something so intimate together on his home planet. He actually liked the idea—he enjoyed dancing and men, so why not mix the two together? Studying the couples gliding around the dance floor, it appeared that the older of the men always led, which was quite a relief because he had no idea how to follow and didn’t relish the

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My Fair Captain

thought of tripping over Aiden’s feet and ending up on his ass in the middle of a crowded ballroom.

Turning away from the dance floor, Nate studied the mural behind him. It was similar to some of the paintings he’d seen in Townsend castle. Greek warriors in the midst of battle. There was lots of blood and gore in front of beautiful scenery but that wasn’t what fascinated Nate.

The warriors were nude except for shields and helmets. Throughout history there were several bands of warriors who fought nude, but it was surprising to see them depicted where so many virginal young men were present. Although, it made sense in a way. On Englor, female nudes decorated the walls. They were the predominate subject matter in Englorian art. Regelence glorified male beauty and strength and it showed in their artwork. Nate glanced around the ballroom. The white marble columns around the wooden dance floor were carved into picturesque soldiers, all nude. Even the dome over the dancers depicted a war scene, with men surrounding the base and the sky appearing in the very top and center.

As he turned back toward the dance floor, Raleigh sidled up beside him, a smirk on his handsome face and a tumbler in his hand. “Go ahead and ask your questions. You won’t offend me.”

“Ask?” Nate watched the dancers whirl by.

“Yes. How our society works. It must be quite foreign to you.” Raleigh took a sip of his drink.

“It appears to be age. Am I right?”

“Partly. It is age, but also title.”

“I see.” No, he didn’t see at all. As far as the dancing went it appeared the older of the partners led, but how could they base things on age?

That was hardly fair. Come to think of it, it wasn’t right that on Englor, women couldn’t decide for themselves either. He’d never actually considered it when he was the one at the top of the food chain, figuratively speaking, but what if he’d been raised here?

Raleigh turned toward him. “Ask.”

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J.L. Langley

What the hell, he’d give the man what he wanted. “If a man marries an older lord he is always, what…property?”

Raleigh laughed. It took him several moments to compose himself.

When he was finally able to talk, it was with a huge smile. “No. It’s all based on age and rank. A man is not considered of legal age until he is twenty-five years of age. Until then he must defer to his parents, guardian or his consort.”

“So until the age of twenty-five they are essentially, what? Treated as children?”

“Not at all. They are educated. Some join Regelence’s armed forces or the IN. It’s much like the unmarried females on your planet, with the exception of the military of course. However, when a man reaches his majority, then he has rights, unlike the women on your planet. His consort’s land becomes half his. He, in essence, becomes his consort’s heir.” Raleigh took another swig of his beverage and set the glass on the tray of a passing waiter.

Interesting.
“What if both consorts have titles? It’s the higher title?

Your title is King-Consort?”

Raleigh nodded. “Yes and yes. Take my children for example. Rexley, when he takes a mate, will be Prince Rexley, and his spouse will be Prince-Consort. But the rest of the boys would take their spouse’s title.

As princes they are the higher title but they are empty titles—they don’t come with land or power, other than the heir apparent, Rexley. If say…Tarren were to take a marquis to partner, then his title would be Marquis-Consort and only then would he get a seat in the House of Lords. Essentially, every title has two seats in parliament, one for the lord and one for his consort. If a lord is unmarried he has only one vote until he takes a consort, or if he is underage, his guardian and his guardian’s consort control both votes. But only those lords whose titles include land.”

Raleigh shook his head, staring out over the room.

Nate followed his gaze to Tarren, who was trying to obtain a glass of brandy.

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My Fair Captain

Shoulders slumping, Tarren set the glass back on the waiter’s tray and turned toward the punch bowl.

Nate laughed. “Very impressive.”

“They keep me on my toes.” Raleigh chuckled. “Sorry, where was I?

Oh yes. I’m Steven’s heir and Rexley is my heir to the throne as the first born. Any lesser title is given to the second born.”

The whole thing was rather fascinating and much more fair than Nate had first thought. Much more civilized than his home planet, where the women had few rights. But… “Only those who have passed their majority can choose a spouse?”

“No. Anyone can choose, but unless they have a title, they must have means to support themselves. It actually works out very well.”

“Yeah, it sounds like a good concept, but being a naïve virgin doesn’t sound like much fun.”

Raleigh laughed.

“When Steven asked for your hand, he was not of age?”

“Steven didn’t ask for anything.” Raleigh snorted. “The conniving bastard compromised me, but that is a whole different story. But to answer your question, no, he was only seventeen.” Raleigh grinned, taking the heat from his words. He searched the crowd until his gaze rested on Steven dancing with their oldest son. “Let that be a lesson.

Don’t get caught with any unmarried gentlemen in private.” He patted Nate’s shoulder. “Have fun, enjoy yourself. Tomorrow we’ll start going through Jeffers’ data banks. I’m going to go give my two wallflower children the evil eye and make them go dance. You should do the same.”

With that Raleigh walked away.

Nate was pretty sure which two of the princes the king-consort was referring to. Nate had had no intention of dancing tonight himself, but after seeing one of the wallflowers toss his card over his shoulder, Nate couldn’t help himself. He was fairly certain the prince hadn’t overheard the conversation in the study today, because the butler would have notified them, but this gave him the perfect opportunity to make sure.

Not that it would be any hardship to dance with Aiden.

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J.L. Langley

Nate remembered those full lips parting in surprise when he’d scanned his thumb. It was obvious the young lord was used to getting his way and he’d intended on going the night without dancing. He knew the rules, but he seemed to have no qualms about breaking them. In that, he reminded Nate a little of himself. But Nate would be lying if he said that was his only interest in Aiden. The young man intrigued him, like no one had in a long time. Society seemed to hold no appeal for him.

When the gentleman kissed Aiden’s gloved hand, Aiden had appeared almost annoyed. It tempted Nate to see if he could seduce him.

Unfortunately, there were several factors interfering with that. First, Nate was here to do a job, not have fun. Second, Raleigh would likely kill him if he so much as laid a finger on the prince. And third, the prince was an innocent. He wouldn’t have the first clue how to handle what Nate expected of his bed partners. More to the point, the man would probably faint dead away if he found out.

The song came to an end and he tried to ignore the excitement of getting to hold Aiden near. He tried to persuade himself he only wanted to be able to question the young lord in relative privacy, but his cock wasn’t at all convinced.

Looking around the ballroom, he spotted Steven and Rexley on the dance floor. Payton hid behind a potted plant on the other side of the room, opposite the one Nate was hiding behind. Or at least he thought it was Payton, Nate couldn’t get a good glimpse of the face, but the dark green evening coat and the fact that Raleigh was headed directly for him spoke volumes. Tarren held court near the punch bowl and a large ice sculpture of the Greek God of war, laughing as a group of lords vied for his attention. Colton flirted shamelessly with a very dangerous-looking fellow dressed all in black, but Aiden was nowhere in sight.
Damn.

Nate scanned the crowd once more. He didn’t see Aiden anywhere.

The heavy black velvet curtain covering the open patio doors swung closed, drawing his attention. Could the prince be outside?

Setting his glass on the tray of a passing servant, Nate made his way across the ballroom, being careful to stay on the white and black checkered marble rather than the wood dance floor. He scowled at

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My Fair Captain

anyone who looked remotely interested in hailing him, so no one did.

Being big and intimidating was nice. And even if he didn’t look unapproachable enough, he had rank. Forgiveness went a long way when one was the heir to a dukedom or, in this case, the esteemed guest of the king. It took him several minutes to walk around the large room and through the crush of bodies, but he finally managed.

Upon moving the curtains aside he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

The terrace was illuminated with candles neatly placed in sconces along the wall. Several couples strolled along the balcony talking while others ambled around the formal garden below.

Aiden sat on a bench against the wall of the house with a pocket-sized computer in hand. At a brisk pace, he wrote on the small screen with a stylus.

What the fuck was he doing with a computer at a ball? Nate watched him for several seconds completely unnoticed, which wasn’t a huge feat.

Aiden seemed oblivious to his surroundings. Couples walked past him laughing and chatting. A man bumped into Aiden’s leg and stopped to apologize. Aiden never even looked up. Whatever he was doing on the computer held his undivided attention.

Creeping forward, Nate tried to catch a glimpse, hoping it would give him insight into the young man. Regrettably, the screen was at an angle and Nate couldn’t make out a thing. Probably a game—they were rare in this part of the galaxy, but not unheard of. “Did you forget our dance?”

Aiden jumped, clutching the screen to his chest. “Lord Deverell.”

Pulling the computer away from his torso a tiny bit, he peeked down at it, then darted a glance back at Nate while hiding the device against himself again. He blanched and pushed a button on the top, turning the thing off, before hastily tucking away the stylus and depositing it in his inside coat pocket. “It slipped my mind.”

Nate raised a brow. Had it? Aiden seemed earnest, but given the circumstances of their promised dance… What was he hiding? He hadn’t wanted Nate to see what he’d been doing on the computer. Nate held out his hand. “Would you like to go dance? We haven’t missed it.”

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J.L. Langley

“Listen, Lord Deverell, I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

“Yes?” Nate took a seat next to him. This should be interesting.

“About the tree incident.” He stared right into Nate’s eyes, meeting his gaze.

Ahh… “
Yes?”

“I was wondering if we could keep that between the two of us?” Aiden fixed him with a pointed glare, almost daring Nate to refuse him.

Nate suppressed a grin. The man had grit, he’d give him that. There was a lot of substance behind the handsome face. “Why?”

“Why?” Aiden parroted.

No way was Nate going to make this easy. “Yes. Why?” He took hold of Aiden’s chin, forcing him to keep his gaze. It was rather forward, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. He longed to touch the man, even if only through gloves. His errant cock seemed to like the idea of touching Aiden too. It began to fill with blood, hardening, just as it did every time he thought of the prince since laying eyes on him that afternoon. Not for the first time he cursed this society, his own honor and especially Aiden’s innocence.

Aiden’s gaze drifted down to Nate’s lips for several seconds before meeting his eyes once more. Blinking, he pulled back. “Well…because it’s not at all proper for me to be in a tree.”

Now
he thought of that? How convenient. What was he thinking before? Nate already figured out that Aiden had little care for what society thought. If he did he wouldn’t have tossed the dance card, nor would he be out here on his computer in the middle of a ball. The corner of Nate’s mouth twitched. “Then why were you?”

Aiden bit his bottom lip and wrung his hands together in his lap, making his shoulders flex.

Damn
, the man was something else.

“Because I was dra—because I needed some fresh air.” Aiden frowned and dipped his head once.

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My Fair Captain

He was lying, that much was obvious, but why? Whatever the reason, Nate had the absurd urge to pull the man forward and try to kiss the truth out of him. The sooner he got the prince back inside with a roomful of people, the better. “Aiden?”

“Yes?”

“Come on. You promised me a dance.” Nate grabbed hold of one firm arm and tugged Aiden off the bench and toward the ballroom. Holding him close was going to do nothing for his peace of mind—but at least being in front of a crowd should abolish his erection and the yearning to kiss the man.

They entered the ballroom as the orchestra started the waltz. He turned Aiden to face him and swept the prince into the dance.

Aiden felt good—right—in his arms. Aiden had to look up a little to meet Nate’s gaze. He was stiff at first, but it soon became apparent he was a very graceful dancer. It surprised Nate. As adverse as the prince seemed to be to dancing, Nate half expected him to be a bit awkward and on the clumsy side, but he wasn’t.

The man was an enigma. He didn’t like to dance, yet he did it beautifully. He was attracted to Nate, although he obviously didn’t want to be. Then there was the computer.