“Answer the question,” Nuri urged. “If you’re not sure—”
“Yes,” Silver blurted, and then backtracked, “I mean, no, I’ll never do it again.”
“You swear?”
“I swear.” He licked his lips, afraid to hope. “Nuri…what’s happening?”
“We’re discussing terms, majesty.”
“Terms…for what?”
“Our truce.”
“Truce?”
“Yes. Or, more accurately, it should be called our merger.”
“Our…?”
“If I’d known you’d be this adorable when flustered, I would have tried this sooner,” Nuri said, grinning when Silver’s eyes widened. “Here are my conditions, and make no mistake, if any of them aren’t met, I will leave after all. You’ll tell me how you feel, and you’ll tell me what you want. Plainly. In as many words as possible. In return, I’ll do the same. You’ll respect my right to autonomy. That means removing the spyware you have on my devices. If you want to know what I’ve spoken about with someone on the phone, you ask. I may or may not tell you. You have to be okay with that.”
Nuri took a breath, and when Silver didn’t interject, kept going. “In return, I agree to keep the tracking cuff on. You can check my whereabouts whenever you need to, but you aren’t allowed to interfere with what I’m doing. I’ll keep my position as Royal Secretary, and I willconsideraccepting the role of Royal Consorteventually. In the interim, you will refrain from engaging in flirtations or sexual relations with anyone else. If you need release, you come to me.”
“And if you need it?” Silver’s voice sounded far away.
“I’ll come to you,” he assured. “We’ll be dating, majesty. You’ll be my person,” he exhaled, “and I’ll be yours.”
“Nuri, this isn’t revenge, is it? Please, I beg you. Slit my throat instead. Please, I can’t bear—”
He pulled the knife away and tossed it across the room, sealing his mouth over the Emperor’s in a quick, claiming kiss.
“I’m not finished. I want guaranteed vacation time. The right to visit my siblings. And I want that chain removed from the bedroom.” It wasn’t that he was opposed to a little bondage play, but he needed to be taken seriously. “You can fuck me however you please, but I won’t have a reminder of the pain you caused to remain in our space. Can you agree to all of that?”
Silver took his time considering, unaware how Nuri’s heart sank with each passing second. But then he reached up and cupped the base of Nuri’s skull, easing him down until their foreheads met. “I can agree, if you can answer one question of mine.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you love me, Nuri Narek?”
He swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded, brushing their noses against one another in the process. “Yes. I do. I love you, Silver. Despite all the reasons I shouldn’t, I still do.”
His lips ghosted across Nuri’s. “I love you, too. Do you believe me?”
“I do,” he repeated. “Being willing to die for me is also sort of toxic though, and I think—” The air whooshed out of him when Silver suddenly rolled, pinning him beneath him once more.
Silver buried his face against the crook of Nuri’s neck and breathed him in. “I’ll prove myself, every day for the rest of our days. You’ll never have reason to doubt me again. I can make you as happy as you’ve always made me. Give me time and I’ll show you.”
“I’m not the only one you have to make up with,” Nuri drawled. “Falc has been beside himself all week, and Eli is about to have stroke. You could have taken work with you into seclusion, you know.”
He laughed, chest rumbling and sending vibrations straight into Nuri. The second he felt his dick harden between them, Silver pulled back enough he could stare down at him. “Again? For real?”
Nuri spread his thighs and angled his hips suggestively.
“If we keep this up, I’m going to have to carry you into the manor later,” Silver warned. “Falc and the others will see, and if you still look anything like how you look now, they’ll know why I’m doing it.”
“Can I make that one of my terms?” Nuri wrapped his arms around Silver’s neck.
“Do you mean it, Nuri?”
