He wanted to rip out the hair in his fingers, but holding his emotions in check, he was about to jerk his head away when Alastair's eyes opened abruptly, giving him a jump scare. Seeing that Alastair was still out of it, Ellis calmed his heart with a pat on his chest.
"You're still here."
Spoken in an unusually warm tone, it was hard to believe that Alastair was the one who had said those words. A wrinkle formed between Alastair's eyebrows as he stared at Ellis's face. Thinking Alastair was feeling the pain from having his hair pulled, Ellis loosened his grip despite not wanting to.
"Name."
"I want to speak of your name."
Taking his words as gibberish spoken in a drunken state, Ellis sighed and let go of his hair. Alastair immediately seized the hand; even though he seemed out of it, his senses were surprisingly excellent, which worried Ellis. Bringing the hand closer to his lips, Alastair muttered as if he was starting to get angry again.
"The gloves…"
Snatching his hand back, Ellis turned to scurry out of this restroom. Alastair might be acting like he was under the influence right now, but Ellis knew if he wanted to and if he had a sudden urge to take Ellis again, Alastair wouldn't hesitate to get back on his feet and make him go through the agonizing penetration again.
Not entertaining Alastair, Ellis, fully dressed, walked with a hand on his back as he searched for his lost earring. He had worn only a single fucking earring, and even that got dropped somewhere in the room during their extreme movements. He didn't—no, he couldn't—leave any evidence of him being here. If Alastair later decided to find out who was the person his men had mistakenly let into the restricted restroom, then he would really be at his wits' end.
If he pretended nothing happened, then nothing happened tonight. This aching body would be better tomorrow (probably), and the mark…
"Ugh… this will definitely take a long time to heal… it will heal, right?…"
Ellis mumbled inaudibly to himself. At that moment, he heard a click from the door. Perhaps, hearing that the noises had died down now, the doors had been unlocked. Did that mean all those royal guards were listening to his cries this whole time?
"I definitely can't ever let anyone find out it was me…"
"You have a weird habit of speaking nonsense even when no one is listening?"
Alastair questioned from the distant sofa in the corner of his eye. Ellis faced the man and gave him a middle finger. He was trying really his best to not smash that emptied glass bottle on the table into the face of this spawn of a devil and get executed tonight. He really was… but every time Alastair started speaking, his eyes longingly gazed at the empty wine bottle and the unopened ones beside it.
He had looked everywhere for the damn earring, just where the fuck did it go?!
Ellis, having searched the whole room once, rested for a bit, taking the support of the other twin white sofa away from Alastair as he oversaw the floor of the room for the earring. His lower back was killing him; he kept rubbing it unconsciously, uselessly.
"Do you want this?"
In the middle of massaging his lower back like an aged individual, Ellis once again heard Alastair's voice from his side.
"I swear if you speak again—"
He turned to him, ready to burst an unopened wine bottle onto his face, but as soon as he saw the earring he had been searching endlessly for dangling from Alastair's fingers and an irritating smile on that devilish face, he was stunned frozen. Observing his reaction, Alastair confirmed his suspicions before Ellis could even deny it and hid the earring back into his fist.
"Your Highness…"
Changing his attitude, Ellis skipped closer to Alastair like a man ready to scam with a benevolent smile.
"Your Highness?"
Alastair tilted his head, almost falling, then shot back, becoming serious in the blink of an eye. Ellis changed his approach accordingly.
"Alastair…"
He coquettishly called out, biting his tongue. He had already lost all his dignity under this man tonight; he could drop lower if he had to never ever associate with this maniac of a prince nor give Alastair a chance to associate himself with him. Alastair showed the earring to him again, flinging it under his eyes.
"You want it this bad? This cheap piece of metal… I'll give you a gold one later."
Even the premonition of that happening scared Ellis. Shivering from the thought of him becoming a slave for Alastair's momentary desires gave him such a scare, he wanted to be executed right now instead. Not satisfied with his unresponsiveness, Alastair disguised the earring with his hand again. Ellis also didn't want to do anything more than standing this close to Alastair and coaxing him with sweet words, so it took a long time to convince himself to lower his back and go for the hand that held the earring.
"I don't want to."
Alastair spoke into his ear as Ellis tried to open the fist containing his earring.
"Alastair, can I please have it? It's my favorite one…"
Ellis was almost in Alastair's lap now as he softened his eyes and tone further. Alastair stared into his eyes for a long time; Ellis thought he almost had him when...
"Give me a kiss, and you can have it."
Again with the kiss… Just how obsessed is he with kisses?!
Ellis reluctantly hardened his resolve. Mila had specifically mentioned that Ellis was the one to give the order for these earrings; if Alastair tracked him down with this earring, it would be over for him. He wouldn't be able to run anywhere then. With his mind made up, Ellis quietly sat on Alastair's lap, straddling his thighs with difficulty, and locked eyes with Alastair, who gave him a half-smile as if he had won a war after years of hardship.