“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he clipped out, only to have Rabbit snort.
“You weren’t there. I was hurt and you weren’t there. If Rin and Kelevra—”
“Don’t,” he growled. “Don’t bring the Imperial into this.”
“He helped save me.”
“And then he handed you off to me the second I arrived without batting an eye. He’s no knight in shining armor, Rabbit.”
He tilted his head, the reaction a bit over the top even by Baikal’s standards. Unless… “Are you…Are seriously jealous? Over the fact Kelevra kept me from being kidnapped instead of you? That’s such bullshit and you know it. What, would you have rather I be taken just so you could ride in on your midnight horse—or whatever the fuck the devil rides—to get credit for saving the day?”
Baikal glowered. “I was there. I arrived a minute too late, but I was there.”
Rabbit let out a shaky breath because this was pointless. “I wasn’t mad that you weren’t. I’m mad that this happened at all. I’m mad that it could have been prevented if only you’d—”
“Leave you alone?” He quirked a dark brow. “Not going to happen, little bunny. Not on your life or mine. Get used to it.”
Now that his mother was aware they were…whatever they were, there was no way she was going to sit still and allow it to continue. She might not risk standing toe to toe against the Brumal, but she’d find a way to get what she wanted, she always did. He’d been able to keep Sila a secret because the music professor had never seen them together, and they never hung out anywhere but at lunch or around the East Quad. But Void had willingly handed over information about the two of them, which meant it was entirely out of Rabbit’s hands.
If he tried to lie, she wouldn’t believe him, would most likely send Professor Ludo to dig deeper and maybe even follow him around campus, then he would discover Sila and Rabbit would end up losing him, too.
“You like what I do to you,” Baikal said then, clearly not liking that Rabbit had gone silent on him. “You like being around me.”
Did he? There was some truth to that, he supposed, but that didn’t mean Rabbit could give in to those messed up feelings, ones he didn’t even understand. There was no reason for him to feel safe in Void’s company or anticipate his next touch, and yet Rabbit constantly found himself daydreaming about the other man when he was alone. This week had marked the longest they’d gone without seeing one another since the start of this, and he’d been a distracted wreck.
That was why someone had managed to get the jump on him in the parking lot.
Because of Void and the way he made him feel. The way he twisted him into so many knots, Rabbit could no longer discern up from down or right from wrong.
“It doesn’t matter what I like.” Rabbit sighed.
“It matters to me,” Baikal corrected.
Rabbit grunted. “Don’t lie to fit your narrative. We both know you’ve never given a damn about what I want or like or anything of the sort.”
He was quiet for a long moment before, “Do you truly believe that?”
“Should we list all the ways you’ve messed with me since that day in the cafeteria?” Rabbit suggested, only partially sarcastic. When Baikal didn’t react, he held up a hand and began ticking off fingers. “You drove off my date, you manipulated me into meeting you instead of her, blackmailed me with a video of my mother, forced yourself on me—”
“Careful,” Baikal drawled, “if we’re talking about changing facts to fit our narrative, I’m sure the excitement entering your voice contradicts the point you’re attempting to make here.”
“I’m not.” Still, he paused and took a moment to assess himself just in case.
His heart was thumping, but not nearly as bad as it’d been when he’d woken up, and sure he was starting to feel some heat pooling in that lower region, but nothing overly extreme. Yet.
“You’re getting turned on just thinking about all those things I did to you,” Baikal corrected.
“I don’twantto be,” he snapped. “That’sthe point!”
“You’re treading a thin line, Rabbit.”
“What? So I’m just not supposed to have feelings?”
“Of course you are.”
“Because one of us has to?” He partially regretted it the second he said it, but he kept his stubborn composure anyway, glaring across the bed at Baikal as if daring him to continue down this road.
Honestly, he was aware that the Brumal Prince had feelings. It was that most of them were selfish and self-serving.
