At least before the thing at the art room, he’d hidden better, but ever since then, he hadn’t bothered. Almost like hewanted Zane to know he was there. Wanted him to feel his hot gaze on him at all times.
“Is he…stalking you?” Madden let out a low whistle. “Man, you guys have serious problems. Why can’t you just court each other like normal people?”
“I don’t think you have the right to say that.” Not when how Madden and Berga had gotten together was taken into account. “How do you know we’re courting?”
Madden snorted, the sound very un-royal-like. “If you wanted him to stop, you would have made him by now. Aren’t you worried he’ll figure it out soon?”
“Not at all.” The opposite, in fact. But what they had going worked for him for the time being. Zane was able to report back to Lyra that he was keeping an eye on Pavel, and he got to teach the other Retinue member a lesson after the hell he’d put him through in the woods and with that video.
The stint in the art room had also forced him to acknowledge an important truth. He wanted Pavel Hart, not slightly or maybe, but one hundred percent. Zane didn’t like the fact that other people got to view him, while he was forced to stay separated.
Yes, that was his doing, but still. It pissed him off.
How long had Pavel been nude modeling? How many people on campus had seen his cock, soft and hard and every stage in between?
Did he usually sport a boner for those sorts of things?
Was it even Zane that had caused the reaction that day?
No matter how badly he wanted to accept his attraction to the other man, Zane still needed to think logically. He knew nothing about him, for one, and more importantly, he knew nothing about what he was.
That made all the difference. Understanding those sorts of things would help him decide if he should pursue this once thetime limit was up or if he kept fighting. Because while attraction was all well and good, it didn’t mean the two of them were going to date or be anything more than fuck buddies.
He winced thinking about it, somehow guessing Pavel wouldn’t be as open to that casual sort of arrangement as Kazimir had been.
“Thank the Butcher for me when you see him,” he said absently.
Berga had provided dozens of files compiling all possible information on shapeshifters and interspecies matches possible between them. Zane had spent the better part of a week pouring over it, and while he had some theories, he still hadn’t pinpointed exactly what he believed Pavel to be.
Which was an issue.
The risk of accidentally nicking something vital while he was taking the man apart was too great.
And he did still want to take Pavel apart. Slowly. Delicately. With his blade and his tongue and—
“Sure,” Madden said as they turned the corner and their destination came into view. “Why’d you want to come here so badly anyway?”
“He owes me.”
“Who?” Madden caught sight of Kazimir as soon as they entered the Velvet Brew Café and pursed his lips. “Him?”
“No.” The two of them were even as far as Zane was concerned. If Pavel thought Zane was really going to let this go after one stupid game and a ruined shirt, he was an idiot. Though, admittedly, the other man was certainly holding out a lot longer than he’d anticipated.
So much for wanting to own him more than anything.
Soulmates?
His mood darkened exponentially, and when he sat down in the empty chair across from Kazimir, it was with more aggression than he’d intended.
“Okay,” Madden drawled, still standing, “Sure, Prince of Medicine, I’ll order for you.”
Kaz waited until Madden had walked over to the counter before asking, “Bad day?”
“Where’s Nate?” Zane shrugged when Kazimir’s eyes hardened. “It was only a question.”
“See,” he tapped the tabletop between them, “to anyone else, that would probably seem believable, but I’m not anyone else.”
“You make it sound like we used to whisper secrets to each other in the dark.”
