“Could I have?” Void did the same and then started to drive them out of the lot.
“Yes!”
“Would you have let me?”
Rabbit clenched his jaw.
“That’s what I thought.” Baikal winked at him and pulled them out onto the street, heading toward Rabbit’s house.
“What was with that whole spiel about not wanting to control me?”
“I don’t,” he said. “And I wouldn’t have to if you’d just embrace me.”
“Pretty sure the word you’re looking for is actually obey.”
“Pretty sure I’ve made that clear enough times I shouldn’t have to repeat myself,” Baikal stated dryly. “But you so love pushing me, don’t you, little rabbit? Are you hoping for a bigger payoff later, perhaps? Asking for punishment before we’ve even made it into the driveway?”
Rabbit bristled. “Absolutely not.”
“I brought you lunch,” Baikal said, “waited for you, am bringing you home…of course I’m expecting something in return.”
He was still recovering from last night. Sure, thanks to the sun cream there was almost no discomfort now, but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to another round!
…Right?
Rabbit squirmed in his leather seat. Sex had never been an interest of his before, since he’d been too occupied with his lessons, and later, getting over his stage fright enough he could keep it hidden from his mother and her spy, Professor Ludo. It’d been scary and the pain when Void had first entered him had beena lot, and yet…
Baikal placed a hand on Rabbit’s thigh and he jumped. “Relax, little bunny, I promise to go easy on you this time. Plus, I packed the sun cream.”
He wanted to point out that there’d be no need for the cream if Void did, in fact, intend to “go easy”, but then they arrived at his house and his nerves kicked into overdrive as the censor had the metal gate swinging open for them.
The hovercar traveled down the long path and circled to the parking area slightly to the back. Baikal shut it off and then pocketed the key. He tossed Rabbit the folded umbrella and then reached into the back to grab his items himself, carrying them out of the car without a second glance.
Rabbit exited the vehicle and struggled with the umbrella for a second, finally getting it to open with a huff. Then he ran over and up the steps leading to the side entrance, which was supposed to have a bio-scanner on it. He wasn’t too surprised to find that Baikal had bypassed that already and was in the process of walking through the narrow hall that opened into the living area.
“How did you do it the first time?” Rabbit asked, catching up with him. They were in the living room, the white and powder blue details adding a calm, relaxed feeling to the space that Rabbit had never actually experienced. The tension whenever his mom was around was impossible to miss, even with snow-white couches and fuzzy blue throw pillows. “When you broke in that night?”
“I hacked in using the imprint scan I did of you with the Insight glasses. You haven’t bothered checking the side of your security system, have you?”
Rabbit frowned and then went back the way they’d come, moving up to the control panel on the inside next to the door. Void Electronic Prime was written in big bold lettering on the side of the white plastic.
He swore and heard Baikal laugh from the other room.
Void wasn’t in the living room when he returned, and Rabbit leaned in toward the kitchen and listened but couldn’t make any noises out. The layout of the main floor had the living area in the center, the kitchen to the far right, and the foyer and stairs to the far left.
Something made a snapping sound and he glanced up, finding Baikal leaning over the banister that wrapped around the entire second level.
“Coming, little bunny?” Baikal smirked and then without waiting for a response, pushed off the railing and disappeared through the doorway leading into Rabbit’s room.
He went after him without thinking, not liking the idea of the Brumal Prince alone in his personal space. But by the time he made it up the stairs, down the hall, and entered himself, he was slightly out of breath and had to pause to breathe.
Which is when he noticed all the subtle changes that hadn’t been there when he’d left for school a couple of days ago.
The door to his walk-in closet was wide open—he always left it shut—and there was a holo-tablet on the right end table next to the bed that didn’t belong to him. An unzipped duffle was at the foot of the bed, but aside from a single t-shirt, it was empty. Probably because the other items had already been removed and rehomed.
Here. In Rabbit’s room.
“What the hell.” He picked up the glass orb he’d seen at Baikal’s last night, setting back down to glare accusatorily at Void when he stepped from the attached bathroom. “What did you do?”
