'I can't face this crowd,' she told him. 'I really need to go.'
'What's wrong?' he asked.
'Oh please, Dylan,' Mr. Anthony said. 'She'll be all yours after the party. Share a little.'
She let him go. He offered his hand, and they held hands like the last time. She was glad he led the way because her legs wouldn't have worked otherwise
'I want you all to welcome my son's crown jewel,' Mr. Anthony said. 'I say crown jewel because we all know that until now, his crown—though shining on its own—lacked color and decoration, so he tried so many jewels in the past. Jewels which, in his eyes, lost their luster too early. Fortunately, Sage has shone so brightly that only she could make it to the crown of our Prince, which is his beautiful heart. No wonder she's named after the emerald jewel. Three cheers for Esmeralda!'
The crowd gave three hip-hip-hurrahs
'I pray that this jewel of a woman—our jewel of a woman—stays atop her crown. May her shine never fade. May she compliment her crown so long as her prince wears it. Most of all, may no jewels outshine her. You're all beautiful out there, but please don't shine brighter than this lady. I want her in my life just as much as Dylan does. Like father, like son, I suppose.' he went on.
There were more cheers for Esmeralda.
'My colleague,' said a man who tapped on Mr. Anthony's shoulder. He was one of the men who sat with him at the edge of the house.
The noise was replaced by a loud collective gasp.
Mr. Anthony's smile faded. 'I must apologize, Pastor Kai—'
'Give me that.' Pastor Kai snatched the mike out of Mr. Anthony's frail hands. 'O Lord and Savior, bear me witness today…that I am one of the happiest here for my son in religion, Dylan Boris Anthony. I thank You for guiding him to his crown jewel, and I beg that You use Your might, which is above the might of all man and devils, to keep the crown and its jewel together so they shine like Your throne.'
'Amen!' cried the crowd.
'I cover their love the most sanctified and perfect blood of Jesus,' prayed Pastor Kai.
'Blood of Jesus!'
'I bless their union in the most revered name of Jesus Christ.'
'Amen!'
'In Jesus' name, we have prayed.'
Pastor Kai dropped the mike. 'Boo yah.'
The crowd muttered a hasty amen, then laughed at the older man's action. Pastor Kai and Mr. Anthony shook hands briefly but warmly, and the former went on his merry way.
There was another round of applause, but Dylan didn't let her stay to receive it.
'I told you you'd be great,' he said.
'You told me that I was what you were looking for because I was a romance rookie. Ring a bell?' she asked.
'Then let me tell you now: you must be a dead great girlfriend if Pastor Kai can forgive me for sleeping with his daughter,' Dylan said. 'I need to thank you. Is there anything you want?'
Her stomach grumbled, but only within her. She hadn't eaten since her broke breakfast of soya milk and wheat bread
'Some food, I guess. That spaghetti sounds nice,' she said.
'Anything else? Coffee, tea, or me?'
Sage frowned. 'You are the lewdest and lascivious dumball of a man I've ever—'
'Don't go upstairs so quickly,' said the deep, masculine voice of a person who stood behind her. 'Come now, Prince. Let's have fun with your new toy.'
'She's not the toy anyone else can play with,' Dylan said.
Sage glared at him.
'I mean—she's not a toy at all. She's my jewel, the love of my life,' he corrected.
'And that's why she's our princess.' The man came into view. Dylan was tall, alright. A head taller than five-foot-five, old Sage. But the man was a head and broad shoulders taller than even Dylan. 'And I'm her carriage.'
So it made sense that he could pick Sage up so easily.
Sage squirmed, but the giant didn't falter. He walked away with her, causing Dylan to follow.
'General, please,' Dylan begged, 'your thirst for revenge shouldn't overshadow that big, big heart of yours.'
'It's not just my thirst for revenge, my salty, salty Prince,' replied General the Giant of Kind-But-Pissed-Off Heart 'The other's thirst combined with mine is quite immense. I couldn't fight it.'
'But—but she's hungry,' Dylan tried again.
'Your milk should wait until after the initiation,' General said.
'I'm vegan,' she said automatically at the mention of dairy.
General chuckled. Dylan couldn't help but join in. The two men laughed until they got to a place where all except one of the four lesser giants stood with grins on their faces.
The one who didn't follow suit was none other than Angel.
'Knights,' General called. He dropped Sage on a one-seater. 'Our princess is here. Pledge allegiance or choke by the prince's sword.'
'It's not that bad,' Angel said. 'If I remember well, it was actually quite salty, but much better than sucking up to this woman.'
The other men made a haphazard line. The first man was a little like General's look-alike, just with blonde hair.
'I stand before you as Captain Liam, alias Major. I pledge my loyalty to the crown jewel for as long as you make your crown shine,' said Major. 'Do you have any questions?'
'Is it me, or are you all just hot nerds?' she asked.
'Yes, we are, princess. Yes, we are. And your boyfriend, being our king, is the biggest nerd of us all,' Major said.
'We're love nerds,' Dylan hastily added.
'You're still nerds,' Sage said with a smirk.
The other love nerds introduced themselves in the same fashion. That way, Sage found out that they were named Colonel alias General, Rex alias Ajax, Castor alias Paris, and Marc alias Angel. She also discovered that Dylan had dated Ajax, Marc, and Paris, Dylan had dated exactly ninety-two women, thirty men, seven transvestites, and two genderfluid persons, and that Dylan had imposed a disgusting law on the members of the group—or the Knights, as they collectively called themselves.
'When a knight gets a legit partner, he must present them to all other members of our group,' Major said, explaining the law. 'The new partner must either drink, blow, or lap dance on all the members excluding their partner, and only the members of the group can decide which one they should do.'
'It's usually not drinking,' General supplied, grinning evilly.
'Afterwards, the couple will play a one-sided truth or dare game. One-sided in the sense that Angel—our most devilish member—will be asking on our behalf, while the couple can't,' Major finished. 'At the end of it all, the knight with whom the partner is in a relationship with must carry his partner away and…'
The rest of the knights giggled like children.
'I retract my decree!' Dylan shouted.
'After you've made Ruby bounce on your balls? Yeah bloody right,' General said.
'He drank Ajax right in my face when we started dating. As for me, long story,' said Parish, a brunet. He wore square-rimmed glasses, a purple three-piece, and a blue tie. He was the shortest of the men, but still three inches taller than Sage.
'Long indeed,' Ajax said. He was a little taller than his boyfriend and wore the most casual clothes of them all: a blue hoodie and sweatpants. His uncombed blonde crewcut suggested that he had rolled out of bed and drove straight to the party.
'Well, I'm in,' Sage said before she could catch herself. 'He's done such bad things to you. I decree that he be punished.'
Her statement earned her whoops of praise from everyone except Angel and Dylan.
'Let's discuss, erm, the first step,' Dylan said, frowning for the first time since she'd met him. 'Don't miss me too much, babe.'
The knights huddled not too far away from her, so she could hear almost everything they were saying despite their low tones.
'If you make her blow any of you, I'll shoot your balls off,'
'I don't want that slag near my dick. I support Prince's decision,' said Angel. 'Oh, no lap dances either.'
'Thay leaves drinking her,' Major said. 'Paris, please give me your turn like last time. I'll do it on your behalf.'
'I'm gay but resentful,' Paris said. 'I'll drink her myself.'
'Darling,' Ajax whined.
'Relax. I'll do what we did last time—right after I punch our one-night stand over here for making me blow him right in front of you,' Paris said.
'This is beside the point, but didn't you three meet at an orgy?' General asked.
Sage didn't get what was so bad about blowing. Didn't it mean she could punch one of them in the face? And how does one drink another?
After two more minutes of love-nerd jargon, the crew returned to her, but Dylan dragged her away before she could get the drinking over with.
'You've never been kissed before, have you?' he asked.
'Nope,' she replied.
'Well, here's the thing; you'll have to kiss all of them, even Marc and Paris,' he said.
'Ick, but I don't think I have a choice,' she said, her eyes downcast.
Dylan frowned. 'You actually don't, but I can't let your first kiss be like that.'
'So, what, you're gonna do this for me?' she asked. 'Thanks.'
'Um,—I'm going to need you to close your eyes,' he said. 'Really tight, by the way.'
Sage thought he was being considerate and didn't want her to see what he was about to do to his guy friends, so she closed her eyes.
But instead of kissing his friends…
She gave him—and to a little bit, herself—a few seconds to enjoy the moment. It took a while for it to feel wrong and degenerate, then half of another for her to feel the fire. She felt his hand on her waist, so her eyes widened and she pulled away.
'How the hell dare you?' Sage barked at him.
'I had to, alright?' Dylan explained. 'We'll have to kiss more often, so I couldn't let a stranger be your first kiss.'
'You're—you kind of already were,' Sage said, short on insults to throw at him. 'You did—what you just did after I woke up from…and probably before then…'
'But this one is real. I didn't drug you or force you,' he insisted.
'I was fooled into it, so I'll forget about it,' she replied.
'Will you forget about everyone else too?'
'Duh?'
He smirked, but it wasn't quite devilspawny. 'Let's role, as you Americans say.'
'Roll or role as in acting role?' she asked.
He yanked her back into the scene of friends. As usual, everyone was happy except Angel.
'You shouldn't have done that, Prince. It's against the rules,' Angel said.
'The rules say princes first. I was a prince back there, wasn't I?' Dylan asked Sage.
'Sure,' Sage replied, her face still hot from what he did back there.
Major pranced to her an inch taller. 'Second-in-command ready for service—er, at your service.'
She kissed all of them, even Angel. They didn't kiss as Dylan did. Rather, they were hesitant, possibly even scared, so their kisses were dry and totally forgettable.
Angel was her last kiss even though, as she would find out later, he was highly ranked among the Knights. His kiss was also the worst of all. He bit on her lip, stepped on her toes, and that was it. He didn't kiss her, he tortured her.
'That was some passion, Angel. None of it good,' Ajax said.
Angel shrugged off the comment. He stared intensely into Sage's eyes. His eyes were so full of hatred that Sage nearly begged for mercy.
'Truth or dare?' He said dare like death.
Sage didn't want to die, so she answered, 'Truth.'
'Are you certain?' Angel asked. 'You know, Dylan will have to be dared if you choose truth. Aren't you scared I'll ask him to sleep with someone else—you know, someone more deserving than you?'
'You wouldn't dare,' Sage said flatly. 'You respect him too much to do that.'
Angel chuckled. 'Prince respects me, little miss. His saving grace is that I love him like a brother. I admit I've done stupid things for him and with him in the past, but he'll always end up under me. Isn't that the truth, Prince?'
'Completely,' Dylan affirmed.
'But for your arrogance, I'll comply with your wishes,' Angel said. 'Tell me—us—what happened between you two in Dylan's room today.'
The other knights roared oohs and ahhs.
'Angel—' Dylan tried.
'Remember when you did this to me, Prince?' Angel asked with a smirk that rivaled Dylan's devilspawn one and won. 'You ordered me one time—two years ago to be exact—to tell everyone what I had done with Mark in my room. I'm sorry, but it really is payback time.'
While the two sniping ex-lovebirds relived their old memories, Sage came up with a plan.
'Why do you wanna know?' she asked. 'The kiss wasn't enough for you?'
'Hot,' General and Major cooed.
'It was far too much, I'm afraid. I almost drowned in your wild lust,' Angel retorted. 'Now answer me.'
'We talked and slept, obviously. I still had my clothes on, as you might've seen,' she said smugly. 'Oh, should I go into detail? Dylan carried me into his room and dropped me on the bed. I told him that we'd just gotten here, so we couldn't do it right away. He begged me, of course, but I refused him because I'm no nympho. Then he told me all the bad things he would do to me when I was ready for him. And then we slept apart so I didn't tempt him.'
General clapped. Major joined in. Soon, all the others were clapping and cheering for her, even Dylan.
'Well well, what a boring way to spend an afternoon,' Angel remarked. 'Now it's your boyfriend's turn. Do you mind?'
Sage shook her head, feeling on a roll.
Dylan came closer. He stood next to Angel initially, then shifted to Sage's side.
'Dylan, your love has left you with dare,' Angel said. 'I dare you to kiss me on the lips.'
'Jesus,' Dylan swore.
'Are you crazy?' Sage asked.
'I'm only defying expectation,' Angel said. 'You said I couldn't even though I could, so I did. And now he will. He has no choice but to.'
Dylan didn't do so much as protest. He grabbed Angel's face and kissed him. In fact, kissing didn't feel like the right word; drinking did. Dylan drank Angel.
She held back a scream. She couldn't have cared less about what feeling prompted it, but it was there, stuck in her throat, burning her insides like the fire of passion probably burning in the loins of the men.
She couldn't hold it anymore. She ran as far as she could into the cold London night searching for where she could let it all out.
As soon as Sage left, Angel pushed Dylan away. Typical.
'No one say a word,' he warned, 'not one.'
'You fucked up,' General said. 'What kind of friends would we be if we didn't tell you?'
'Fucked up? He nearly fucked the living fuck out of Angel right here and now. He didn't just fuck up; he fucked up big time,' Major corrected.
'Fuck up one more time, Major, and I'll make sure you don't fuck again,' Marc threatened, looking him straight in the eyes.
Major's shoulders slacked. Even he couldn't stand straight against the fury that always seemed to be in Marc's gaze. Dylan often asked him why his eyes were like that. Marc always called it hereditary.
'We'll meet at the pub. Prince needs some fresh air,' Marc said.
'So you admit you stink?' Paris said offhandedly, then left along with the others.
Since Marc didn't speak to him immediately, he gave himself time to think.
His response…he should've been more persistent. It was part of his role as a boyfriend after all. Still, he broke character at the glaring chance to kiss Marc. He was sure he would've taken the glaring chance to kiss anyone at that moment, given the torture he'd gone through watching Sage kiss strange men. It stimulated him, but he couldn't release until Marc let him
Sage, on her own, was stimulating
It was nice knowing her. From the little she knew about her, she must've gone mad and run all the way to Orlando—her hometown—because of the sight he'd given her.
'I need a plane,' he said, sitting down. 'I need to find her, or Father's going to send Bobby after me.'
'You're more worried about having Bobby on your arse than not having her there?' Marc asked.
'I'm gathering my thoughts. I couldn't reach that one until you said it,' Dylan lied.
Marc loosened the knot that bunched Dylan's hair. 'You once said you think better on my lap.'
'Not once. Severally. I've come to find it true,' Dylan said.
'I wonder if it's still true now that she's come along,' Marc said.
'We could find out?' he offered.
Marc shifted to the edge of the sofa so Dylan could lay his head on his thighs. As soon as his head was down, Marc combed his hair with his hands.
'She used to be like this before me,' Dylan said, 'all prudish and reserved. She's still like this, and that's why I'm certain she's somehow gotten past the gates.'
'If she does love you, she won't give you a hard time,' Marc said. 'I hope she does. I hope your search has come to an end.'
'Then why did you do all that?' he asked. 'She must be thinking we're, you know, a thing.'
'Well, fucking a few times without commitment doesn't make us a thing. Tell her that if she asks. Tell her I said so.'
He let some silence pass before saying, 'We could've been something. I offered my heart to you, but…I have to congratulate you, Angel. It takes a strong person to break a prince's heart.'
'It takes a stronger man to get over a heartbreak.' Marc patted Dylan's shoulder. 'It was good at the end, wasn't it? You've got her. You achieved your goal without me.'
'But you don't like her. I'd hate to see you two fight for real.'
'I hate august visitors, especially those who threaten to take your attention from me. If I could learn a little about her and why you brought her of all people, that would help.'
Come to think of it, Dylan didn't know much about Sage. He believed what he'd been told: her birthday, her ambition, her favorite colour, and her fear of men and romance. They could've had a long, boring talk about their interests and other information while everyone thought they'd be fucking if he hadn't fucked up big time.
'I'm still learning,' he said. 'I could tell you her favourite colour and position, but I don't know her completely, and we've been dating for four months.'
'I get the feeling you mean screwing for four months,' Marc corrected.
'Okay. I mean we've been mostly screwing for four months. But I've known her for about, what, seven? Since Christmas last year. How would I ever forget how frozen I was by restraint the very first time we met?'
'She scared a whole you?'
'Bloody terrified me, out of my wits. It was a Sunday, you see, but I skipped church and went to meet a friend. She'd told me about her a few times, but not much for me to have a good picture of her until she was right in front of me. When I saw her, I thought God had sent her to punish me for neglecting my duty to Him, because even then, I knew she was terrified of men.'
'Terrified of men?'
'She still won't tell me why, but yes. I couldn't speak or move closer, not wanting to scare her off. Well, that's how we met. Embarrassing, innit?'
'The best lovers have the most unlikely beginnings. Did you think you would end up with her at the end on that day? I guess not.'
They remained silent, but Dylan was no longer thinking of Sage. He smiled to himself at the feeling of Marc's slender fingers running through his hair.
He would've slept in peace had he not been taekwondo-kicked in the head by a familiar black loafer.
'Get the hell up,' said an unmistakable, dreaded voice he hoped he wouldn't hear until Sage was supposed to leave. Maybe longer. 'We've located your newest courtesan.'