“I never used you,” Bay disagreed, pursing his lips. “At least, not any more than you used me. It felt good having an outlet, didn’t it? Having someone willing to share the shadows with you? You could cut me, beat me, fuck me without lube, anything you wanted without fear of repercussions.”
“What exactly do you call this?”
“This?” Bay held his gaze. “This is a confession.”
Sila had to have misheard. “What?”
“I told you once already. Try not to forget it this time,” Bay said before taking a deep breath. “I love you.”
Chapter 32:
“You,” Sila finally knew what dumbfounded felt like, “are certifiably insane.”
“So you’ve told me,” Bay nodded. “You like that though.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
“You sound incredibly sure of yourself, Professor.”
“I wasn’t before,” he admitted. “But after what we went through here?”
“You mean all the stuff I have no recollection of what-so-ever?” Sila snorted. “Nothing I said to you while poisoned counts.”
“That’s why I have this.” He held his hands out to the screen.
He was definitely angry now, because he felt played and he wasn’t used to that, but…The confusion was also still there, right alongside something Sila was pretty sure he shouldn’t be experiencing at the moment.
Something he refused to acknowledge was hope andpride.
Because then they’dbothbe insane.
“Footage of me committing murder,” Sila drawled.
“Proof that you won’t find me on that bridge ever again,” Bay corrected. “That I won’t ever try to leave you.”
He still wasn’t getting it.
“You have all those compromising videos of me,” Bay said. “I just borrowed a page from your playbook.”
“As in, we both destroy the videos and—”
“I don’t want you to destroy them,” he stated. “Keep them. I know you like watching them when you’re alone. You probably planned on us watching them together in this room, didn’t you?”
Sila had. The fact that Bay was able to guess that…
Interesting.
And kind of hot.
“You mixed the photos of me and my brother on purpose?” He should have paid more attention to that detail, but he’d been too pissed off and bewildered before. “How?”
“How could I tell you apart?” Bay asked. “It was so obvious after that day the two of you got involved with the Devils in the East Quad. There was a moment, though brief, where the Imperial Prince had you pinned by the throat and your mask dropped ever so slightly. The second your brother showed up it snapped back into place, but he wasn’t as quick fixing his own.”
“He’s hot headed,” Sila agreed.
“The opposite of you.”
