<i>It's all been taken care of.</i><br/><br/>Ryland cut mercilessly the spill of panic like cold water down his spine and rather than turn chilly, made himself warm. His hand dropped to Kethaias' hair, and he made a pleased noise at the feel of silken strands as he stroked his fingers through them, the contrast to the beginnings of stubble regrowing on Kethaias' cheek. He sipped his coffee in the other hand.<br/><br/>Either he was about to be making wedding plans or Kethaias had finally let him loose.<br/><br/>If the servants thought anything of the piquant, casual display of domesticity, they said nothing. They were too well-trained, though surely hands would be flying behind backs or closed doors. A varied display of cold savories made its way to the table, along with a carafe of fizzy cordial, and then the servants withdrew. Nothing was going to get congeal waiting on them to start eating. Ryland didn't move.<br/><br/>"Is it?" Ryland said, as though there hadn't been a long pause between that query and the sentence that had provoked it. He said it, too, as though he was distracted, like it didn't actually require further pressing for clarification.<br/><br/>His fingers were starting to make tangles where their stroking stopped, threaded into the strands as they were, and Ryland took a small amount of pleasure in that. "Your hair is so long. Your servants must spend hours attending it."<br/><br/>He stopped, set down his coffee cup, and cupped Kethaias' chin in a strong hand to turn his head so that he was looking up at Ryland.<br/><br/>"Would you like to make<i>yourself</i>useful? You could unpick my laces and make better purpose of your mouth than sulking." He smiled at the scowl he knew he was going to receive, and his hand slid up to cover Kethaias' mouth before he could speak. "We could have arrived here much sooner had you not proposed to me, and then, dare I say you would have enjoyed it more. But if you are going to keep a look of serious intent, I can't imagine a better application of a look than above me. And since I am a gentleman, having thrust myself upon you, I can only allow you to return the favor."<br/><br/>His smile widened, his hand moving back down so that his thumb could move across Kethaias' lower lip.<br/><br/>"I can no longer think I will make you smile, but I can offer the both of us some comfort after all." His other hand, warm from his cup still, smoothed down Kethaias' chest. "Unless you'd rather<i> I</i>fucked<i>you</i>out of your sulk and showed you how much fun we could be having, now that you've 'taken care of' things?"