Until Baikal had stormed into his orbit and forced him to feel things he hadn’t known were possible.
“You unlocked a new color,” Baikal reminded, smiling. “It’s the same color as my eyes.”
“I’d really hoped you hadn’t noticed that,” he groaned.
Baikal grinned and then grew serious. “If you want to quit, you quit. If it’s a matter of not knowing what you’ll do next, there’s no need to worry about that. I have more than enough money and influence to keep you content in the interim. You can take all the time that you need to figure out your next step, Rabbit, and when you do, I’ll help you in any way I can. But.”
“But?” He held his breath.
Money wouldn’t be an issue for a while, since he’d secretly opened up a bank account his mother wasn’t aware of at the beginning of college. He would eventually run out, however, and his mother would cut him off if he quit music, so there’d be no financial support for him to fall back on. A year ago when he’d considered taking control of his own life for the first, and last, time, that had been the major factor holding him back.
Void was one of the richest people on the entire planet though, and for some reason he still couldn’t quite understand, he’d taken an interest in Rabbit. A strong enough one that he was even suggesting things like marriage.
Still, nothing ever came without a price.
“I’m about to become the Dominus of the Vitality Brumal,” Baikal said. “That means my home is here, on this planet, and it always will be.”
“You want me to swear I won’t choose a career that would have me leaving,” he caught on. “Only, you do realize that if I stick with music, being a professional musician will entail traveling?” It’d sounded like Baikal was against him quitting before and now Rabbit was confused.
“At the start of this,” he explained, “I was the Brumal Prince and you were the prodigy. We had set goals. I wouldn’t have interfered with yours, not if it was a lifelong dream. If that’s not the case? If you don’t want that life? All I’m asking is you consider me in your plans. Find something to dohere, on planet. By my side.”
“Do you realize how unfair you sound?” Rabbit couldn’t help but point out. “You want me to consider you and your feelings? When have you ever done the same for me?”
“All the time,” Baikal asserted. “Always. If I hadn’t, I would have come for you that very night and woken you with my cock buried deep inside of you.”
He scowled. “Like a beast.”
“I’m not above acting like a monster, Rabbit,” he said. “I’ve done monstrous things in the past, and I’ll do worse things in the future. But isn’t that what you need? Isn’t that why you’re suddenly changing your tune, offering yourself up to me like some virgin sacrifice?”
He glared.
“Sorry, ex-virgin now,” Baikal corrected. “If December Trace is really as awful as you claim—and I believe you, little bunny, no need to scold me for suggesting otherwise—it’ll take much more than power and influence to unchain her shackles.”
“A monster won’t suffice,” Rabbit agreed. “I need a devil.” He inhaled. “I need you.”
“And I need you.” Baikal brushed his knuckles over the rise of Rabbit’s cheekbone. “You’ll obey.”
He swallowed the urge to argue and gave a single curt nod of his head instead.
“If you decide you want to continue being a professional musician, I’ll allow it. But,” his gaze hardened, “you can only take jobs when I’m available to travel with you.”
Rabbit frowned. “How often will that be?”
“In the beginning? Not often. After half a year or so, once I’ve settled into the position and established myself, it’ll be different. I have a strong satellite. They’re loyal and intelligent. I can trust them to keep things running while I’m away.”
“You’d really do that?” Rabbit had heard about Baikal’s father traveling off planet now and again for business, but it hadn’t seemed that frequently.
“If you’re mine?” Baikal nodded. “I can do that for you.”
“Thought I was already yours?” he almost didn’t recognize the flirty edge to his own voice, but Rabbit didn’t fight it.
Baikal grinned. “We’re in the middle of negotiations, little bunny. I’m trying to ease you into the idea. If you choose to quit and want to do something else, that’s fine too. What you do for the rest of your life is your decision. I leave that entirely to you. Who you spend the rest of your life with, however…Make no mistake, Rabbit, the only man who will ever be at your side from here until the day you breathe your last breath will be me. If you allow anyone else to so much as touch you—”
“You’re the only person I’ve ever actually wanted to touch me,” Rabbit admitted. “That should make you happy enough to quell whatever jealousy you’ve just been experiencing for the made up phantom future lover I won’t have any interest in anyway. Feeling this level of sexual attraction to someone was another first for me, and you took that as well.”
“And I’ll have them all from here on out. All your firsts,” Baikal stated, the possessiveness in his tone impossible to miss. Instead of stroking his ego with that reveal, it seemed like Rabbit had merely spurred his dominating side on. “You’ll marry me.”
“I—”
