“You weren’t supposed to find those,” Pavel’s voice pulled him out of his concentration and his head snapped up to find the other man standing in the doorway with a frown. Cautiously, he entered, gaze sweeping from the box in his hands to the rest of the stuff strewn about the desk. “Those either. There’s a reason your office is on the same floor as our bedroom and mine is all the way up here.”
His office? Was the room he’d found that drawing in the other day meant for him?
Wait. That wasn’t important right now.
“What are these?” Zane turned the box around as though Pavel didn’t know what was in it.
“Rings,” he said in a voice that made it clear he thought he was dumb for asking.
“Yes, but for what.”
“What do you think?”
Zane shook his head and stood. “Why do you have these, Pavel?”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, stopping on the other side of the desk. “I bought them for us, okay? Obviously it was meant to be a surprise once the time was right. Who would have guessed you’d break into my things on day three?”
Pavel caught sight of the photo where his cock was present and he stiffened. “How many of these did you look at?”
“That depends,” Zane countered, “how many are there?”
He closed his eyes and grimaced. “I can explain.”
“We can skip over the obvious ones,” he said. “The normal stalker photos.”
“Normal…” He looked like he wanted to laugh at that but smartly kept it in. “Right.”
“Tell me about these.” Zane set the box down, pretending not to notice when Pavel instantly took it, and picked up a few of the photos of him sleeping. “These. Explain these.”
“Sometimes I…” He cleared his throat. “I like to sneak into your room and watch you.”
“How often.”
“Not that often.”
“Pavel.”
“Every couple of months or so.”
“That’s…” he almost said psychotic, but that would be redundant at this point. Name-calling wasn’t important right now anyway. “How often do you come here?”
“To the mansion?” Pavel pursed his lips. “Not that frequently. These are all the older photos and drawings, I haven’t had a chance to add to them yet, though I did bring new material with me. I’ve been kind of busy with you these past few days.”
“So you haven’t been here in…?”
He thought it over. “Three weeks? I came once after losing the bet and added all of those fun additions downstairs. That was when I concocted my fantasy of all the things I’d do to you once I had you strung up in gold chains.”
Which meant…those rings had been here well before Aodhan had shot him and he’d learned Zane needed to marry someone to escape from Lyra.
“You,” he took in all of the stuff and let out a low whistle, “are certifiably insane. And you must really, really like me.”
“I’m in love with you,” Pavel stated plainly, as though that were obvious. When Zane merely gaped at him, he shrugged.
“You’re obsessed,” he corrected, only for the other man to snort.
“Why can’t I be both?”
“This is a lot.” Zane dropped back down into the chair.
