He’d barely given Kaz a chance to explain. Hadn’t been in the mood to listen. After reading all of the things Kaz had written about Zane, Nate had felt too broken and pathetic to hang around; the only thought on his mind was escaping that hotel so he could come home and climb into the shower stall and wallow.
“He’s got abandonment issues.” And Nate had been so focused on leaving he hadn’t thought of how that might come off to Kaz. “Shit.”
“Who does?”
“That doesn’t make what he did to me right, though,” he added to himself, forgetting for a moment in his confusion not to say it out loud.
“What did he do to you?” Nuri asked.
“He—” Nate stopped himself, nibbling on his bottom lip. How did he put this in a way that wouldn’t have his brother on the first ship to Vitality? “He tried to initiate sex when I was upset with him.”
“Oh.” Nuri cleared his throat a second time. “Did he…force you?”
Nate didn’t know how to answer that.
“I won’t judge you,” Nuri reassured. “Was it not the first time he’s done something like that?”
Nate understood what he was trying to ask. He wanted to know if Nate had found himself in an abusive relationship one day and now was struggling to get out. It’d be so easy to throw Kaz under the bus and say yes, but the truth of the matter was…
“No,” he admitted, “but I liked it all the other times.” He blew out a breath. “This is so not a conversation I want to be having with my brother.”
“Would you prefer I call Neve and have her come console you?” Nuri drawled, that snooty, sarcastic tone he was known for at the office finally coming through.
“Screw you,” Nate chuckled.
“I like…things in the bedroom too, you know.”
Nate grimaced. “Please don’t give me any details.”
“Ditto. All I mean is, there’s nothing wrong with having kinks and abnormal sexual desires. As long as they’re legal.”
“Define legal?”
“Nate.”
“Kidding.” Mostly.
Nuri clicked his tongue in thought. “So, if I’m gathering this correctly, the two of you frequently engage in a…rougher style of sexual play—”
“Please don’t call it that.” It made him feel like a child, and this conversation got five billion times more awkward.
“—but this recent time, you weren’t in the mood, and he ignored you when you refused consent. Is that accurate?” Nuri continued as though he hadn’t heard.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “That’s basically it.” In a nutshell, anyway.
“And you were upset?”
“I broke up with him.”
Nuri considered this new information before asking, “Do you regret it?”
“That’s the problem,” he admitted. “I don’t know.”
“There’s nothing that says you have to figure it out right this second. It’s okay to be confused, Nate. Just come at the problem from a different angle and see if that helps.”
“This isn’t a math equation given to me by Mrs. Spring, brother.” However, the advice Nuri had given him in the eighth grade had been crucial to his finally grasping the formulas and passing. “Besides, shouldn’t you be telling me I did a good job dumping a guy who was about to take advantage of me?”
“That would certainly be the right thing to say, yes.”
