“Nothing at all?” Rin cut him off. “Can I go with that option?”
Kel’s hand trailed up the length of Rin’s chest, settling loosely around his throat in warning. “Keep pushing me, Flower. You’re forgetting you aren’t the only one with a temper here, and while I rather enjoy when you lose yours, you won’t like it if I do the same.”
“Because you’ll hurt me?” He had no clue what possessed him to ask that.
Kelevra ran his tongue over his neck and across the side of his jaw. “Because I’ll eat you alive.”
“That’s…” He didn’t know what to say back to that.
“Tell me about your home world,” Kelevra repeated, settling in the bed once more, though he kept his hand where it was, ready to squeeze at a moment’s notice. “Did you not like it there? Is that why you left?”
Rin swallowed, feeling the press of that large palm against him with the movement, and opted to just go with the flow. “It’s not that. Tibera is a beautiful planet, all sand beaches and blue ocean for miles and miles. Everyone there is born in pairs, and while they aren’t always identical, my brother and I weren’t considered novelties like we are here.”
“Why leave then? From the sounds of it, you’d have better luck blending in there.”
“My father.” A wash of unease swept through him, same as it always did, but with how spent his body was, it didn’t linger. That was a nice surprise. A happy accidental result of their time spent at Friction. “He decided to have children out of necessity. He needed one to take over the family-owned hospital, and one to inherit his position on the Royal Council. The original plan was to separate us, but we begged him to allow us to come here instead, to Vitality.”
“You wore him down.”
“We’re good at getting what we want when we put our minds together.” They’d gotten their teachers involved, their friends’ parents, talked about it loudly whenever they were forced to go to the summit building with their father, where they knew the Empress was. Once the seeds had been planted in everyone else’s minds, it’d been difficult for their father to argue.
“Is that why he was so cross on the call earlier?” Kelevra asked. “You marrying me means you’re no longer allowed to leave the planet. You won’t be returning home to take over his position like he’d always intended.”
“I’m honestly shocked he agreed to the betrothal at all,” Rin replied.
“My sister can be convincing as well.” He grinned against the crook of Rin’s neck. “There was never any doubt she would be able to secure our betrothal once I asked it of her.”
“And me?” Rin risked pulling away slightly, just enough so he could look over his shoulder. The lights were off, the only source coming through the large window, strings of light from the rooftop below providing enough he could just make out the bridge of Kel’s nose and the arch of his dark brow. “Did you even consider asking me my opinion on the matter?”
“No,” he surprised him by saying without skipping a beat. “You made your stance clear at the library. You didn’t want to be caught with me. It would have drawn attention if there was a scandal. Now there won’t be one. The attention is unavoidable, but at least now everyone will be talking about how you’re my fiancé and not just about us fucking in the library.”
Rin frowned. “Why would that matter to you?”
“It matters,” he said firmly. “I’m not sure why. But it does. I didn’t like thinking about it, in any case. However, the idea of everyone looking at you and knowing you’re claimed? That I liked.”
“I won’t marry you.” Marriage had never been in the cards for him, at least not while he was still on this planet or under his father’s thumb.
Although, with how his brother acted today, it was starting to seem like he’d been serious when he’d mentioned them staying on Vitality.
Damn it.
“As you’ve pointed out, Flower, I didn’t ask.” He kissed him beneath the jaw. “You will. When the time comes, you’ll stand up there with me and you’ll exchange the vows. You’ll wear my crest instead of the Academy’s. You’ll bear my name.”
“Children?” Rin really didn’t want to know. “We can’t have them. Couldn’t even if I was female. Tiberan’s can’t procreate with those native born to Vitality. We are incompatible.”
“I don’t need children,” Kelevra said. “Can you imagine me putting anything else above myself? Babies need attention and care, neither of which I’m willing to give to something that will only steal all of yours from me.”
“I’ll never care for you.”
“You will,” he disagreed. “I’m not patient, but I’m trying to be understanding here. This is sudden. I’ve reset the entire course of your life. You need time.”
“All the time in the world can’t make someone love you, Kelevra.” If it were that easy, their father would have loved them. Then maybe none of this would have happened in the first place.
Maybe Rin could have really been himself instead of the man behind the mask.
Maybe he would be able to breathe and let go, hand control over to someone else, even someone like the Imperial Prince.
“I always get what I want,” Kel told him, unbothered by Rin’s comments.
