“Well. I got that wrong, didn’t I?” Max said as there was some scrambling on the bed. The men had been on top of the covers, and now it looked like Torkel was trying to get Seb underneath them. “Really, really wrong.” He chuckled.

He started to leave, but Seb’s face popped up over Torkel’s shoulder. “Max?”

“Yes. My apologies.” Torkel looked over his shoulder and glowered at Max. “I’ll be—”

Seb patted Torkel’s bulging biceps and whispered, “It’s all right, love.”

It’s all right, love? Well.

Torkel moved off the bed, apparently unembarrassed about the fact that he was flashing Max his ass, pulled on a pair of pants, and turned and stood next to the bed with his tree-trunk arms folded over his chest. He looked like the bodyguard he was. If bodyguards went shoeless. And shirtless.

“I don’t want to hide anymore, Max,” Seb said quietly.

Something caught in Max’s chest. That sounded like a version of what Max had come here to tell Seb. Max wasn’t the only one who had had enough of the old ways. He cleared his throat. “I know. I’ll help you.”

“Will you?”

“Always.”

Seb glanced at Torkel, who was still standing there like a statue. “But maybe you could help me tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course. Well, I’m leaving early tomorrow morning, but I can—”

Seb shook his head and laughed. “I meant it more metaphorically. We can talk when you’re back. I’m taking a little trip myself.” He glanced at Torkel and tried and failed to stifle a smile. Sebastien had never had a poker face. That had been half his problem as a child. That had been what Max had always been trying to protect—Seb’s openhearted warmth.

Max generally did have a poker face, but he couldn’t stop the grin he felt emerging. “Are you, now? Where are you going?” Seb started to try to answer, but Max raised his voice and talked over him. “Are you sure it’s wise to travel alone? You are the son of a duke. Perhaps you’d better ask Marie if she can spare someone from her security team to accompany you.” He laughed. He was still Seb’s brother, after all.

A cushion from the bed came sailing at his head, because Seb was still his brother.

Suddenly Torkel was at his side, his hand on the doorknob. Max wasn’t sure how it was possible for such a large man to move so quickly and gracefully. “I think you’d better go now, Lord Laudon.”

“And I think you’d better start calling me—”

The door shut in his face.

“Max.”

He turned.