"Umm..." Abir blushed. "I want to be clear about something. I'm not trying to make love to you, Alden." Abir's tone and face were serious, a rare thing for the prince. "I know you're going to leave, and it's forbidden for my people to have... you know...<em>relations</em>with someone who's not going to stay with them for life. So... I swear I'm not taking advantage of you."<br/><br/>The young prince shrugged. "In any event, though, if you don't want to stay with me, that's fine, of course." He tried to play it off as if he didn't care that Alden wanted to be elsewhere, but he knew that at the heart of that refusal was the fact that Alden didn't trust him. As much as he tried to hide it, that stung Abir to his core.