<i>No singing.</i><br/><br/>"Maybe later," Ryland agreed. Kethaias' pose was boyish, which had more unthinking happiness in its attributes than Ryland was yet ready to assign to the emperor-king. The teasing even more so. Could he take it as an invitation, or not?<br/><br/>"Well, you've made assumptions before," he said. His tone was just as teasing. He relaxed into his own sprawl, curved just slightly toward Kethaias, the offer of a cat. He wasn't sure Kethaias knew what he was inviting, asking Ryland to keep chattering on. He had to know what he would eventually ask for if allowed free reign.<br/><br/><i>It would certainly be relaxing afterward, </i>Ryland thought, amused.<br/><br/>Probably not quiet.<br/><br/>"I don't think you'd find it difficult to put me overboard, mind," he said. "I just think you'd find that I wouldn't go over without you."<br/><br/>For a moment, there was only Ryland's amusement stretching out into the quiet. The water lapped gently, hollowly, at the side of the boat. The poleman made hardly a noise himself. Ryland reached out to take one of the small braids that had spilled from Kethaias' back to curl on the flat. He twisted it carefully in his fingers, his gaze flicking up from it to Kethaias' face with a slow smile. "This isn't the least pomp I've seen you in, is it?" he said.<br/><br/>The insinuation curled with intimacy, even if they would have been nothing but conjecture from anyone who overheard. Ryland was remembered Kethaias fresh from a bath, barely dressed by most standards, and the heat of his body sinking through the crisp outer shirt under Ryland's hand as they danced. In the ways that mattered to court, nothing had happened. But in Ryland's head, that day had split right before it had turned disastrous, and the remembered tension was exactly where he hoped they could pick up.<br/><br/>Or from the echo of heat Ryland could still feel trapped from being pinned on the couch. But he didn't think Kethaias was going to work himself up to that again.<br/><br/>"Would you still rather I went on?" It was, as ever, a simple offer. The implication that Ryland would not be upset about a<i>no</i>. He brought the braid to his lips. "You can always say when to stop."