Something awoke inside of Kaz.
Something foreign and jagged.
Something potentially more dangerous than anything he’d ever experienced before.
Chapter 18:
Kaz set dinner on the table just as the sound of the shower turning off came from down the hall. He grinned at himself, thinking about what he’d done earlier before leaving, then circled around the small living area as he waited.
He’d already snooped through the kitchen while he’d plated the takeout he’d ordered. Originally, he’d figured he’d cook them something, but the fridge had been barren. His little green notebook already had a reminder in it to schedule a grocery delivery for tomorrow. Considering the pretty racer had only just lost his job at Quartet Air, and how driven he was to take care of those around him, Kaz had expected him to be better at looking after himself. The empty fridge and the overdue bill he found on the small table by the front door proved otherwise.
For a split second, he felt a bit bad that he’d ousted Nate from Quartet Air, but he got over it quickly. It wasn’t like that’d been his intention, after all. Nate had been the one to make that foolish decision. Kaz would have kept him on and merely made his life harder to manage until the older guy had agreed to date him.
He paused in front of a framed photo of the Narek siblings and poked a finger against Nate’s smiling face in the middle. “Why do you always have to overcomplicate everything?”
It should have been fairly easy to win him over, either through money or his good looks, but no, Nate had made things difficult for them both. On the outside, he looked neat and tidy—aka, simple and easy—but it was a farce. He put up a front just like everyone else, hiding his true nature away.
And if what he’d confessed in the car was real, his true nature liked being tied up and taken advantage of. For all his protests about not wanting to be treated like an object, Nate sure enjoyed it when Kaz had him bound and trapped and at his mercy.
He listened to Nate puttering away in his room, figuring he was most likely realizing what Kaz had done, and swept his gaze around him. The small house was modest, with signs of life in bursts of mismatched colored throw pillows on the faded couch, and a gaming system set on the floor. Even though it was filled, every item seemed to have a place.
Bedroom aside, Nate kept his house tidy just like he did his outward appearance.
Still, Kaz could see through it the same way he was starting to really see through the pretty racer.
“He’s lonely,” he mumbled to himself, picking up a red egg-shaped stone and tossing it absently back and forth between his hands. Lived in, but untouched. That was the actual vibe when one peered a little closer. How often did Nate flit through these rooms, barely seeing any of it as he moved from one to the other?
Kazimir had his multi-slate lifted and his fingers flying over the keypad before he knew it, shooting off a message to the assistant he’d placed in charge of Quartet Air—since he had no actual interest in running the place.
Kaz: Look into past employee records for Nate Narek. I want to know how many hours he averaged a week since he started working there.
Hyn:Right away, sir.
“Put that down,” Nate’s irritated voice cut through Kaz’s thoughts, and he turned to find the older man entering from the hallway, drying the back of his damp head with a white towel.
Wearing clothes.
Kazimir scowled. “Where did you find those?”
This morning, he’d been sure to remove every single item of clothing he could. That’d been his intended punishment, forcing Nuri to parade around naked for him.
“You mean how did you miss them when you were raiding my closet?” Nate made a beeline for the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. “Tell me you’re an only child without telling me you’re an only child.”
He still didn’t get it and waited for Nate to take a drink.
“I have a younger sister, remember?” he clarified once it became clear Kaz wouldn’t speak until he did. “She used to steal my clothes all the time. Something about them being bigger and comfier.”
Kazimir swept his gaze down the loosely fitting white t-shirt and the gray sweatpants that hung low on Nate’s hips. He wasn’t wearing socks and his bare feet padding against the tiled floor of the kitchen was the most domestic thing he’d ever seen in his life.
It felt odd suddenly, that he was here. That he was part of this moment.
Clearly Nate didn’t have the same problem. “Hey.” He snapped his fingers. “Seriously. Put that down. My—”
“Brother bought it for you,” Kaz sneered. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Nuri had purchased every damn thing in this place, he was willing to bet. “It’s a wonder you let me touch anything at all.”
“I didn’t let you do anything if you recall.” Nate seemed to notice the set table for the first time. “What’s that?”
“Food,” he ambled back over and pulled out one of the chairs, motioning down at it with his chin, “I know it’s probably been a while since you’ve last seen some. You need to stock your fridge, Narek. I won’t have you starving to death on me.”
