The Heirs

CHAPTER 19 - REGRETS

Elbows rested atop the table, Xanthos watched her with icy blue eyes that betrayed his amusement; but as usual, he had his lips covered with his thumb and index finger. Cyane was slowly beginning to become familiar with that gesture for she realized that it was something he did whenever he wanted to hide his grin.

The defensive look from earlier had vanished from his gaze and it immensely pleased her to see him almost smiling, for it completely transformed his serious demeanour.

"I don't want this. Ever" she spelt frowning at the rum bottle and flicked it towards him.

"White rum is best suited for cocktails" he murmured getting up and taking the rum bottle with him.

He was in the kitchen for a while, but when he came back, he had a glass of coke with him.

"Thank-you" Cyane said when he handed it to her. Ice-cubes were floating on the top and she caught the scent of lime along with the coke, but she drank it anyway.

It was only after she took a sip, did she realize that what she drank just then wasn't a simple diet coke drink.

"What is this?" she asked looking at Xanthos.

"Cuba Libre. It's a cocktail" he said. A cocktail of white rum and coke and lime and it tasted divine.

She took another sip and then grinned, "It's good. It's very, very good."

Scoffing, Xanthos walked into the room, while she enjoyed her first-ever alcoholic drink. She liked it so much that she was almost giddy with joy.

Maybe pure alcohol was bad, but the cocktails were delicious.

___

Later that night, as Cyane lay beside a shirtless Xanthos, she found that sleep was evading her. All she could think about was what Xanthos told her earlier, about that prison and the rogue Edmond.

She supposed that paedophile was long dead, killed by the king. However, she knew better than to ask for confirmation.

She turned sideward, to face Xanthos and noticed that he wasn't sleeping either. He was watching something on his phone, but since she was looking at the rear camera, she couldn't see what was on his screen.

He was shirtless again and her eyes moved towards the biceps.

"Your eyes are glowing" he muttered, without taking his eyes off his phone screen and she blinked repeatedly before clearing her throat and looking at him.

She wanted to ask something. So, she better focus on those arctic blue eyes instead of his fabulous body. Theos! She cannot be lusting after him like a teenager. He was bad! But he also had such a painful childhood...

His eyebrows shot up questioningly, "Did you meet all your friends in the prison?"

Xanthos nodded and Cyane felt a wave of sympathy coursing through her for his friends. All of them! They looked so strong and dangerous, but they were also young pups once and they had been brutally abused, with no one to protect them.

"How many boys were there in the prison along with you?"

"I never counted," he said sincerely and she nodded.

"Did they all go through the same thing?" The moment she asked that question, she felt stupid because of course, they did!

"Ash and Grayson faced the worst amongst us," he said quietly and inhaling sharply, she looked at him with wide eyes and he stared right back.

Grayson? He was such a good guy and Xanthos did tell her that Edmond had preferred the good ones.

"Ash? Acheron?" she queried and Xanthos nodded. "He was your friend?" Another nod was her reply and when he didn't continue, she decided to close the topic for the day.