Admittedly, he hadn’t anticipated Nuri’s explosive reaction to canceling his trip. He’d expected anger, sure, a bit of hostility, but that was about it. It was hardly the first time he’d made a unilateral decision for the other man, and typically Nuri got over his annoyance fairly quickly.
The two of them had been permanent fixtures in each other’s lives for so long, Silver had wrongly assumed he knew everything there was to know about Nuri Narek. He should have realized that everyone had their limits.
If he’d allowed him to travel off planet however, there was little doubt in his mind that pesky sister of Nuri’s would have done everything in her power to convince her brother not to return and that…Silver couldn’t allow that. Just the thought of days apart from Narek made his skin crawl, but if he’d received a call stating he no longer planned on returning at all?
“It was this, or I go after your siblings directly,” Silver whispered, “and I know you’d never forgive me for something like that.”
Neve and Nate were all Nuri had, and he’d do anything to keep them safe. Silver had contemplated threatening themin order to keep Nuri from leaving, but the risk of Nuri hating him—for real—far outweighed the benefit of forcing him to stick around. So Silver had done the only other thing he could think of.
He’d canceled his tickets and added Nuri’s name to the No Fly list. Clearly, that had still been a step too far.
Silver cocked his head, waiting to see if a flash of guilt would enter him, but it never came. He’d been in a panic when he’d gotten the call about the accident, the trip from the office to the hospital a blur, and logically, a part of him understood that if he hadn’t pulled that trick on Nuri, then Nuri never would have been on the road at that time in the first place. But that didn’t mean he felt guilty about it.
For one, it’s not like he’d told Nuri to get behind the wheel while in such an emotional state. That’d been his stubborn secretary’s choice. Silver also hadn’t been the asshole who’d gotten wasted at the bar down the street.
So, no, he didn’t feel guilty, but he could see that someone else in his position most likely would.
Could see that Nuri may expect him to.
“Since when did you become so much damn work?” he grumbled, though he had the answer to that already. Ever since he’d discovered Nuri’s plan to resign over a year ago, Silver had needed to calculate to keep the other man in line. His father’s passing had bought him some time, but apparently not enough.
Nuri’s hand shifted over the blankets, his fingers twitching slightly before he pursed his lips and winced. A moment later, his eyes slowly blinked open, squeezing shut against the bright lights in the room before he peeled them open once more and swiveled his head on the pillow. The second he caught sight of Silver, he frowned.
“What’s going on?” his voice came out crackly, and his confusion only deepened when Silver poured him a glass ofwater from the pitcher on the end table. Still, he dutifully opened his mouth when Silver brought the tip of the straw to his cracked lips.
“Slow down,” Silver ordered when half the glass was drained with a few drags.
Nuri released the straw and licked his lips, flinching when his tongue touched a crack.
Silver placed the glass back on the table and then reached for the small tube of Sun cream nearby. Lowering so he was perched on the edge of the mattress, he quickly applied a small amount to his finger and then gently brushed it over Nuri’s damaged bottom lip.
Nuri sucked in a sharp breath, eyes staring up at Silver as though seeing him for the first time. “What are you doing?”
“Tending to you,” he practically growled, grabbing onto his chin roughly and moving him back into place when Nuri tried to tip his head away. “I’m furious at the moment. Don’t test me.”
Nuri paused, his glazed-over expression seemingly homing in on Silver, as if in his stupor he was only really just now realizing he was actually there. “Is this…a dream?”
Or maybe not.
Yi had prescribed a ton of drugs initially and it was obvious Nuri was half out of his mind and delirious at the moment.
“No, you—” Silver didn’t get the chance to finish that sentence. One second, he was leaning over Nuri and the next the smaller man was latching onto his wrist with a strength he shouldn’t have been able to muster considering all the drugs swirling through his system, and yanking him down.
Silver barely caught himself at the last second, but not before their mouths met. The contact was minimal, barely abrush of skin against skin, and yet Nuri let out this reedy moan that Silver felt vibrate through his entire being.
“What are you doing, Narek?” he was amazed when his voice came out solid as steel—sort of like his cock now was—searching Nuri’s gaze for any signs he was aware of what was going on. Silver’s upper body was flush against his, his arms at either side of Nuri’s on the pillow, their mouths a mere breath away and…
Even knowing it would be wrong of him, Silver found himself weighing his options. He’d considered taking advantage of his capricious secretary before but had always held himself back. The risk typically far outweighed the reward, and the idea of losing Nuri over something as simple as him not being able to keep his hands to himself had never been appealing.
But Nuri had just come on to him, and surely that made a difference, as minor of one as that may be.
Unless…
“If this were a dream,” Silver asked, “who do you think I am?”
The spot between Nuri’s brow furrowed and for a moment Silver wondered if he was about to snap out of it, but then he spoke and made it clear that wasn’t the case. “I know who you are.”
“Do you?”
