“To you, Narek.”
He blinked, certain he’d misheard him over the music, but when Silver remained silent, he realized he hadn’t.
The similarities also became blatantly obvious.
Their faces were all different, but their builds resembled Nuri’s from afar.
“I want to know how it works,” he said, voice barely a whisper. “How you do it.”
“You want me to pick you up like you’re another one of my one-night stands?” Silver finally caught on, his surprise palpable. “Why?”
“That doesn’t matter,” he lied again. “Are you playing with me or not, majesty? There are plenty of other people here that would willingly climb into bed with me.”
Heat flashed in his silver eyes, darkening the gray. “How far do you want to take this?”
“All the way,” Nuri said. “Tonight, we’re strangers meeting for the first time. We can skip the boring small talk—the pretend doesn’t have to be that developed—so let’s just say you’ve already chatted me up and I’ve been receptive. How long do you usually stay down here after that before taking them upstairs?” He slipped the keycard out of his pocket and slid it across the table. “I already took the liberty of booking your usual room.”
Silver stared at the card like he couldn’t comprehend what it was. “You want me…to take you upstairs and fuck you like some slut I picked up from the streets?”
He clicked his tongue. “Is that how you view those guys you just pointed out?”
“They’re nothing to me,” he confirmed. “A means to an end.”
“Well, tonight I’m the means to your end.” Nuri tapped the top of the card. “Pick it up. It wouldn’t make sense for me to have the key to the V.I.P suite. Wouldn’t feelauthentic.”
“You really want to do this?”
“I do.” Nuri stood, bringing his body dangerously close to Silver’s. “But let me be clear, this is a game, and we’re meant to play strangers, but when you’re fucking me in that room upstairs, on the bed you’ve taken numerous other people on, I won’t settle for you envisioning someone else in your head. When you’re with me, you’re with me, majesty. If you treat me the way you treated Ackor Hue—”
“That won’t be a problem,” Silver replied quickly.
“All right. What usually happens next?”
Silver tentatively reached out, settling a hand on Nuri’s nape, then he urged Nuri forward until their faces were a breath apart. Before continuing, he paused and stared at him for a second, almost as if giving him the opportunity to pull away, and when it became apparent Nuri wasn’t going to, finally closed the distance between them with his mouth.
The kiss sent shock waves straight down to Nuri’s toes, the act slow yet all-consuming. It was as if Silver was taking his time with him, sampling the softness of his lips and the taste of his tongue as he slowly sucked it into his mouth. His free hand grasped Nuri’s jaw, tipping his head to the side for a different angle.
All those other times had been fire and frenzy. Silver had fucked him to make a point, and while Nuri had secretly—and not so secretly—enjoyed it, he’d known exactly what it was and what point Silver had been trying to make.
But now…
He placed a hand on the Emperor’s chest and lightly pushed him away, a bit surprised when Silver allowed him to do so. “Do you kiss everyone you’ve just met this way?”
“What way?” Silver asked, voice low and breathy. He traced Nuri’s jaw to his ear and then pinched at his lobe, not enough to hurt but enough to have more of those electrical sparks skittering down Nuri’s spine.
Nuri searched his brain for the right word, struggling with all the sensations going off inside him at the same time. Eventually, he settled on one he thought worked. “Tenderly.”
Silver gave him a satisfied half smile. “No one has ever accused me of that before. You should know me well enough to know I’m only ever tender toward you.”
“Don’t do that.” He leaned away, brushing Silver’s hands off of him. “We’re strangers, remember?”
For a long stretch of time, Silver simply stared back at him, his expression unreadable in the wake of Nuri’s comment. Finally, after what felt like a million years, he plucked the keycard off the table. “Come.”
Nuri followed after him as the Emperor led them around the room to a hallway. The hall brought them to a set of elevators, and they stepped into the first one that arrived.
Silver scanned the card and pressed the button for the V.I.P floor. They were both quiet on the ride up.
Chapter 33:
