An odd look passed over Rin’s face, but he smoothed it out and it was gone in a flash.
“Does sex on this planet constitute as a claim?” Sila asked, his voice deadpan.
But when Kelevra looked at him, he was certain he could tell the other guy was messing with him. Or, maybe not him at all…
“No, it does not,” Rin told his brother, lobbing yet another warning glare his way, almost as though he were afraid Sila had been serious.
Did he not like the idea of belonging to Kelevra that much?
They would have to remedy that.
Immediately.
Kelevra reached for Rin’s arm, latching onto his wrist, but before he could pull him away, Sila moved, grabbing onto the sleeve of his suit jacket. Instincts told him to punch the guy, but the fact he looked identical to Rin had Kel hesitating.
Sila said something in another language then, something that must not be in the Interstellar Conferences database because Kelevra’s translating device that was embedded behind his ear didn’t pick up on it.
“No,” Rin responded, choosing to stick to their language. He eased Sila’s hand off of Kel’s arm but didn’t pull his wrist away. “No, I’ll handle it.”
“Are you sure?” Sila asked, though he stepped back, leaning against the beam once more. It was clear he was teasing when he added, “Shouldn’t I play the part of big brother?”
“You should jump off this pathway, stick your face in the water, and not come back up,” Rin told him tightly, then seeming to catch himself, sighed. “I’m fine. I can handle this.”
Kelevra laughed, liking the way it felt when that furiously intense mismatched gaze met his once more. “For your sake, I hope you’re right, Flower.”
Because this interaction had just taught him something very important, settling that burning question he’d had earlier about what he planned on doing and why.
Just the notion that someone out here could even think they had the right to touch or talk to or flirt with Rin Varun pissed Kelevra off so much that he thought he’d reach for Baikal’s blaster and start shooting.
Kelevra Diar, the man who’d never been interested in even sleeping with the same person twice, was smitten.
Rin Varun washis.
Whether his flower agreed or not.
Chapter 7:
Don’t panic.
He was a Varun, and Varun’s didn’t show weakness. Although, it helped that they also happened to be Tiberan and Tiberan’s were trained on how to bury their emotions.
Training that had never fully taken with Rin.
Fuck.
He ran a hand through his hair as he led the Imperial Prince away from the East Quad and his brother. The two of them being in the same location was dangerous for everyone involved, so as much as Rin hated the idea of being alone with Kelevra again he needed to take the hit to keep them protected.
His and his brother’s overall safety came before everything else. That was the agreement. The rule they’d lived by practically their entire lives. It was the reason his brother was currently busy dealing with a situation of his own—to ensure their security.
It was the whole damn reason they’d traveled all the way to this galaxy, and so far it’d been one mess after the other. Rin was tempted to speed up their plans, not sure waiting another three years until graduation was even doable at the rate they were going.
Mindlessly, he headed toward the library on the west side, a building that was close with a lot of side pathways that would keep him and the Imperial off of the more popularly used sidewalks during this time of day. They’d already drawn far too much notice in the quad, and as much as he wanted to go straight to the parking lot and demand Kelevra get in his fancy car and leave, he knew better.
The Imperial Prince wouldn’t go until he’d had his say, so Rin would listen, and with any luck, they could come to an agreement afterward where the both of them went their separate ways.
The back entrance to the library required a code, and Rin typed it in quickly, feeling the buzzing sensation of Kelevra’s intense gaze on the back of his neck like a livewire was poking him.
Tiberan’s felt things ten times more strongly than most other species, but they’d developed strategies to combat this, mental wards taught and set in place when they were children that would help them filter through from one intense feeling to the next in a matter of seconds. They burned brightly but quickly, allowing them to remain stoic and present a strong sense of composure to the rest of the universe that had earned them a reputation for making good advisors and diplomats.
