“Insight 2.0.” Baikal Void frequently wore a pair of the glasses and his family’s company manufactured and sold them throughout the galaxy.
“Good idea,” Aneski shook his head, “but you can’t use those to illegally hack into any system. They’re programmed to sync only with approved devices from those devices’ owners. There’s no way Haroon will let me near enough his tablet to hit the accept button.”
“He won’t have to. I know someone who can reprogram a pair so it has the master key.”
“The ones the Devils of Vitality notoriously use to breech everyone’s privacy and get whatever they want?”
“Yeah,” Sila said, “that one.”
“Who the hell do you know who can get you something like that?”
The corner of Sila’s mouth tipped up. “Kelevra Diar.”
“And why would the Imperial Prince do something like that for you? If the Emperor or the Heir Imperial found out, he’d be in big trouble.”
Kelevra’s sisters would give him a slap on the wrist at most, but Sila didn’t bother arguing about that.
“Haven’t you heard? He’s involved with my brother.” Sila was pretty sure everyone knew. It was practically all anyone in the capital was discussing nowadays.
“I don’t know, man…That’s a big ask.”
“Which is why you’re leaving it to me to ask it.” Done with this conversation, Sila walked over to the bench and grabbed his towel, lightly drying off while checking his multi-slate. There weren’t any missed communications.
Bay hadn’t come to school today, but Sila’s class wasn’t held until tomorrow, so it wasn’t like he could automatically assume he was avoiding him personally.
Was it good or bad that he’d called out sick? It was so hard to tell with the professor. Sila had already figured Bay would get off on pain and mild humiliation—nothing too serious in that last regard, since he wasn’t a fan of exhibitionism—and their time together in the forest had cleared any lingering doubts he may have had. But that didn’t mean Bay would give in just because Sila had made him come. Twice.
A person like his kitten, someone willing to live in a crappy house and work a job they hated, wouldn’t give into temptation easily. Racing and his trips to the Seaside were already the two things Bay allowed himself to indulge in. There was a good chance in the twenty-four hours they’d been apart, he’d started pushing Sila into that same category.
Sila wouldn’t let him change his mind. He’d chosen option two, which meant he was his to do with as he pleased, and Sila would use him for as long as he wanted to. Until that odd feeling at the center of his chest stopped occurring every time the professor’s name was so much as mentioned.
“Wait for my call,” Sila absently said to Aneski on his way past him toward the locker room. He’d change first and then he’d find out why Bay had skipped school. If it was because he’d come to his senses and wanted his freedom, Sila’s mood was going to darken.
And then no one would be happy.
Chapter 14:
“Let me know if you need anything,” Nate said as he stepped out onto Bay’s crumbling front porch. The metal railing that led down the three steps to the busted sidewalk was askew and had been for ages, so he avoided touching it. “I’ll see you later.”
Bay waved his friend off, watching until Nate had gotten onto his bike and started away before he began to close the door. He’d taken the day off, but there were several quizzes from last week that were sitting in his inbox waiting to be graded.
Though he didn’t enjoy what he did, having his emotions locked up meant he hadn’t really minded all the time spent on grading and class prep either. But now he felt annoyance at having to bother with it when all he really wanted to do was curl up on the couch and research the many things that could potentially be wrong with him.
Because clearly something was, since all he’d been able to think about during Nate’s visit was how he could best lure Sila—
The door was yanked out of his hold by a strong enough force that Bay stumbled forward and almost fell out onto the porch. A solid body shoved him back before he could and he knocked into the small table he’d set up by the entranceway instead, hissing when the hard end of it dug into his side.
His curse died on his tongue when he lifted his head and processed that Sila was entering his home, his larger-than-life presence filling not only the doorway, but somehow sweeping through the entire house in less time than it took for Bay to blink.
All at once, the younger man was everywhere and everything, as though there was nothing left on the entire planet Bay could possibly focus on.
“Sila,” the name came off his lips as a mere whisper, but if the intruder heard it, he gave no sign.
The younger man slammed the door at his back and flicked the lock before moving forward in a blur of motion. He had Bay spun around and bent over the table, his front flattened against the smooth wooden surface in seconds, pinned by the scruff of his neck.
Bay struggled as soon as he felt a hand slip beneath the waistband of the shorts he was wearing, but he was no match for Sila.
He tore the pants down so they dropped at Bay’s ankles and then a single finger sought out his entrance, breaching his hole with no more warning than that. Sila didn’t push it in far, only past the tight ring of muscle, then he made a pleased sound and released Bay as quickly as he’d snatched him up.
