Artificial Love (Thiam)

Chapter 16

Liam closed the door behind himself, standing for a moment in dazed silence. He was leaning against it, and Theo stood on the other side of the room. He was behind the large four poster bed he'd had as long as Liam had known him, and though he had been in this room throughout so many years of his life, it felt totally different now.

Theo wasn't one bit the mean-spirited, prideful child he had been. Not the sarcastic and argumentative teenager. He looked like a man now. Coat and scarf against the cold. Dark button down shirt. Dark jeans. His slightly longer hair falling down around his face in waves like he'd walked out of some pirate movie. Or like he was emulating Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic.

Liam just stared at him, unmoving and unspeaking.

He couldn't recall the moments he'd gone from hating Theo to wanting him. He couldn't recall when he'd looked at him and seen a sharp jaw, muscular body and a winning smile instead of an annoying boy with a cocky sneer.

Theo didn't meet his eyes. He didn't say a word as he pulled the scarf off over his head, then let the coat fall down his shoulders.

Liam almost felt like he shouldn't have been there, almost felt like he shouldn't be watching. And yet, even with Theo fully dressed, he found himself enraptured by the movements.

He felt like he was standing right on the edge of something. Right on the precipice. He made no move to strip off his own outer layers, still standing still and wondering if he should leave before he made a terrible mistake. Before he said or did something he couldn't take back.

He could still leave.

He could still stop himself doing this.

He could still walk back out and marry Hayden and be a proper Prince and King.

He didn't.

"You don't have to keep your coat on."

Theo's voice startled him, gravelly and familiar in the faded light of the only lamp in the room. It had to be the early hours of the morning, and Liam's alcohol levels suddenly felt insignificant by comparison to what they had barely a half hour before. He felt sober. Stone cold sober as he stared right into the eye of his own unwinnable choices.

"I know." Liam answered, and he hated how breathless he sounded.

Maybe he'd read this all wrong. Maybe Theo had really meant to sleep. Maybe Liam was misinterpreting everything. Maybe he should just strip to his underwear like he would've in his own room and go to sleep.

He didn't move.

Theo walked towards him, and Liam still didn't move. Why was he so afraid? Only a few hours ago he'd felt like he'd gotten his own back with Theo, like he was at least a little in control. Now, he felt like he could barely breathe.

Theo stopped when he was close enough to touch Liam, but there was still a conscious gap between them. Liam didn't mean for his eyes to run down Theo's body the way they did, he didn't mean for them to stall on Theo's lips. He meant to look away.

He didn't.

"Are you okay, Liam?" Theo's voice was uncharacteristically soft and gentle, and Liam wondered, not for the first time, what the fuck was going on here. Years of conflict, the angry looks, the bickering, the confusing and undiscussed kisses. He couldn't understand Theo, not for a moment.

All these years, and he still had no idea if the older Prince liked or hated him.

Liam managed a nod. For a moment, the tension felt so tangible, so heavy that Liam thought it might never end. He thought his heart might beat right out of his chest, that it might simply explode. Theo was so close Liam could count his lashes. Theo was so close Liam couldn't imagine what it was like to be his. Properly.