“Can you please stop saying stuff like that?”
“No.”
“So, what,” he huffed, “I’m supposed to just be grateful you didn’t force me to do more last night? Even if that means trapping me in your company longer? You do realize you’re disgusting, right?”
“Pretty sure I warned you,” Baikal said. “That’s going to cost you later.”
“I didn’t agree to be your slave,” Rabbit pointed out, even knowing it was a losing battle.
“You agreed to be whatever I wanted you to be,” he corrected. “Fortunately for you, I’m not in the market for a slave, or a maid, or a minion for that matter.”
“Then what—”
“I just want you, Rabbit.” Baikal held his gaze. “You’re not aware of this yet, but you’ve been mine for a while already now. Whether you accepted last night or not, I wasn’t leaving that room until I tasted you on my tongue.”
Rabbit felt frozen in place as Baikal leaned in closer, his mouth drawing ever near. His heart was racing and it wasn’t entirely pleasurable. In fact, it wasn’t fear or mortification that was driving him, but expectation.
They’d shared one wild, messy kiss last night, and even though at the time he’d felt overwhelmed by it all, now the thought of getting to experience that again had anticipation racing through him.
But just before Baikal was about to do it, a commotion caught his attention and he pulled away to see what was going on.
Rabbit tried to bank down the disappointment and glanced over as well, frowning when he saw Kelevra had arrived and was currently holding Sila up by the front of his gray button-up.
The Imperial Prince attended the Academy on the other side of town, and as far as Rabbit knew, never made an appearance on their campus. There was also no obvious reason he could think of for him to be threatening Sila.
Although, to Sila’s credit, he didn’t appear disgruntled by being accosted. Anyone else in his position would no doubt be groveling and begging to be released, but Sila merely stared back at Kelevra with an empty, chilling expression Rabbit had never seen on his face before.
Still, that was his one and only friend and he was in trouble.
“Don’t.” Baikal stopped him when he went to rise. “Don’t get involved. Stay away from Kelevra. He’s volatile.”
“Pot calling the kettle black.”
Baikal captured his gaze and the seriousness in his eyes had Rabbit stilling. “Trust me, little bunny, I may want to own you, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get off on killing you. I’ll push you past your comfort zone and make you do things you’ll wrongly think you won’t be into, but I’ll never threaten your life.”
“He wouldn’t...” Rabbit’s worry for his friend only grew and he was about to shove Baikal away and go help despite the warning when suddenly another person was running to stop Kelevra themselves.
“Who the hell is that?” Baikal asked as they watched an exact duplicate of Sila boldly grab onto Kelevra’s arm and yank him off.
He shoved him a few feet and put himself between the two, Sila’s cold look turning smug over his doppelganger's shoulder.
“That’s Rin,” Rabbit explained, and though he strained to listen, they were too far away to be able to hear any of the harshly spoken words being said between the three now. “He’s Sila’s younger brother. He attends the Academy.”
“It doesn’t appear as though Kelevra was aware of this,” Baikal drawled.
It didn’t really make sense for him not to have, since Rabbit couldn’t come up with any other reason for Kelevra Diar to have come here. He was drawing a ton of attention, practically everyone who’d been walking any of the paths within a fifty-foot radius now stopped to watch.
And then send glances in Baikal’s direction.
Even though the two were friends, it was rare to see them in the same place outside of a formal social gathering or a fancy place like Club Vigor. They may not be interacting with one another, but clearly having them within the same view was enough to pique people’s interest.
Not that Rabbit didn’t get it, he did. The duo were nicknamed the Devils of Vitality, and from appearances alone, they lived up to it.
Kelevra wasn’t wearing the uniform for the Academy but was instead dressed in a crimson suit. He had on a black corset vest, a tie made up of shards of what appeared to be ruby tucked into the front, winking in the midafternoon sunlight. His curly hair, which had appeared dark when Rabbit had seen him at the restaurant earlier in the week, was more chestnut in the light, with hints of honey highlights.
He looked exactly like what Rabbit pictured the devil would—if the devil was a billionaire who was in line to own an entire planet.
“I’m a Brumal Prince,” Baikal’s voice cut through Rabbit’s thoughts and he tore his gaze away. “What?” His jaw was tense and he lifted a brow. “You prefer Imperial?”
