Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell book Two

"Untamed Men, hmm?" Javier read the Haldiim words carefully.

Kiram swiveled in his seat to meet Javier's teasing expression. "It wasn't really my sort of thing but it might suit you. You can borrow it if you like."

"I might take you up on it." Javier selected Yuan: Kingdom of Blood and Desire.

Kiram watched him leafing through the pages. The morning light lent a glow to his naked skin and accentuated the sharp planes of his lean muscles as he moved. The dark contrast of Javier's black body hair drew Kiram's eyes down from Javier's chest, past his hard stomach, to his groin. Kiram marveled at how pale Javier's skin was, even there. His own genitals were deep bronze. Then he realized he was ogling and lifted his eyes to find Javier grinning at him.

"Perhaps The Unshaven Men of Cadeleon should be among your books," Javier suggested. Kiram felt a flush rise across his cheeks. He considered surprising that smug grin off of Javier by tossing him back onto the bed, but he knew from the noise downstairs that it was already too late in the day.

"Not unless you're interested in the sequel: Interrupted By My Nosy Sister," Kiram replied. As if on cue Dauhd called from the floor below, announcing that breakfast would be in the sun- room.

Javier shrugged then found the trousers that he'd worn the night before and pulled them on. While he went to the water closet Kiram hurried downstairs and located more of Majdi's clothes as well as a basin of hot shaving water. When he returned to his room he found Javier once again flipping through the book.

"Clothes and hot water," Kiram announced.

Javier borrowed Kiram's razor and soap while teasing Kiram about owning either when he sported only wisps of fine blond hair for a beard.

"Lady Grunito could grow a fuller beard, I think," Javier observed.

"That might reflect more poorly on the lady than me," Kiram returned.

"True, and I can't say anything bad about her. She's always been good to me and I have to respect anyone who has the patience to raise Elezar." Javier rinsed the razor and then dressed.

As he did, Kiram found himself once again admiring the way the Haldiim trousers clung to Javier's legs and how the vest displayed his broad chest and strong arms. Kiram reached out to straighten the vest and let his hands linger on Javier's chest just slightly longer than necessary. Javier stepped closer.

"Eat now or starve!" Dauhd shouted from the other side of the door.

Kiram and Javier both started at the sudden intrusion, but then they rushed to breakfast. Life at the Sagrada Academy had cultivated in them an urgent drive to dine before a hall of ravenous youths devoured everything. They passed Dauhd on the stairs; Kiram shimmied ahead of her and Javier launched himself onto the handrail and slid down. Kiram sprinted down the stairs to keep up.

And suddenly it was a race, with both of them bumping and shoving through the arched doorways and laughing at each other. Kiram possessed two definite advantages: he knew the layout of his own house and he was a better sprinter. But Javier wasn't afraid to throw an elbow or trip up Kiram's footing. At last the two of them came tumbling into the sunroom, gasping and laughing.

Majdi and Kiram's father frowned at them from their seats at the low table. Javier immediately drew back from Kiram and straightened. Kiram remained splayed across the floor pillows. Morning light poured from the spring garden and threw pools of color across the room. A splash of gold glowed through Kiram's father's wild, white hair.

"Good morning, Lord Tornesal," Kiram's father greeted Javier.

"A very good morning to you as well, Master Kir-Zaki and Master Kir-Zaki." Javier inclined his head towards Kiram's father and then Majdi.

"We did away with formalities last night." Majdi flicked his hand as if waving an insect aside. "It's still just Majdi and my father is called Shukri. Mum's given name is Hikmat, but maybe you should stick to Mother Kir-Zaki with her."

"Of course," Javier replied. "Please feel free to call me Javier."

"Javier," Kiram's father said the name experimentally and with a strong accent. "Please join us to eating this meal." A smudge of machine oil darkened his father's forehead. Before Kiram could mention it, Dauhd entered the room and gave an exasperated sigh.

"Dad, you're supposed to wash up before a meal." Dauhd sat down next to him and wiped his forehead clean with a cloth napkin from the table.

"I did, my dear." Kiram's father held up his clean, callused hands. Dauhd shook her head. Majdi poured tea into several cups and passed them around the table.

"Sit here," Kiram gestured for Javier to take a seat on the pillow next to his own. Javier joined him, folding his legs as Kiram did, though it was clearly not natural to him.

The dishes on the table were simple and fragrant. Steaming rounds of adhil bread lay heaped on a tray. Lamb, yoghurt, almonds and several thick sauces filled silver bowls. Kiram watched Javier as he studied the silver dish brimming with fahl, a green-black fermented wheat paste. Kiram disliked fahl, but Majdi relished its bodily smell and creamy texture.

"You have to try it," Majdi told Javier.

"But you don't have to like it," Kiram put in.

"Definitely an acquired taste," Dauhd said. She snatched a round of adhil bread and splashed yoghurt and then rounds of cucumber on to it. Kiram's father topped his bread with a saffron sauce and lamb while Majdi smeared grotesque amounts of fahl over his. Kiram took two adhil rounds and handed one to Javier. Kiram flavored his with saffron sauce like his father and then piled on the strips of lamb meat. Javier followed his example.

"Aren't Mother and Siamak joining us?" Kiram asked the question in Cadeleonian so that Javier wouldn't be left out of the conversation.

"They ate hours ago," Majdi replied. "They both got up early to fight about those meringues again."

"Cadeleonian meringues?" Javier asked.

"Just the ones," Majdi replied around a mouthful of food.

"Siamak wants to sell them. Mum doesn't," Dauhd explained. "It's the same argument every wedding season." Dauhd smiled at Javier, and Kiram could see that her infatuation with him had not faded. "I suppose there are fights like that in your family as well?"

"No, not really," Javier replied.

Kiram could see both his sister readying another innocent question about Javier's family and Javier steeling himself against the inevitable necessity of telling her that they were all dead, a revelation that would no doubt make for awkward and pitying conversation during the rest of the meal.

"They're not candymakers," Kiram commented and Javier offered him a quick relieved smile. "So, what about the gymnasium? Mum wrote that it was being repaired?"

"Yes!" Kiram's father brightened as he recognized the Cadeleonian word. "All new plumbing and a boiler! Mother Kir-Nusrat wants a new clock, as well, something modern and dynamic, and I mentioned the steam work you've been doing and she seemed very interested. The hillock near the archery range struck me as the best position because of the new watei-"

"Father, in Cadeleonian!" Dauhd cut him off. "So that Lord Tornesal can understand."

"No, it's all right," Javier assured her in very carefully phrased Haldiim. "I think I understood most of it-at least as much as I ever understand when it comes to Kiram's mechanisms."

"You and the rest of us," Majdi said. "How are you liking the food?"

"It's good," Javier replied.

"Ready for a challenge, then?" Majdi nudged the dish of fahl towards Javier.

"Always," Javier replied.

Kiram shook his head and handed Javier another round of adhil bread. Majdi and Javier both slathered their bread with fahl. Majdi rolled his bread and took a large bite. Javier bit into his bread more tentatively. He chewed with a look of intense concentration and then swallowed.