Acting on instinct, Nuri shook his head.
Silver searched his expression for something, but it was impossible to tell whether or not he found what he was looking for. “Are you fully awake, Narek?”
He huffed, realizing what the Emperor was getting at. “I’m aware I’m not dreaming, sir. So if you would back off, I would appreciate it. This is an invasion of personal space.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” The fact that some twisted part of him was enjoying it on some level wasn’t the point. Nuri needed the Emperor to get off before his mind could wander further. He’d finally gathered enough strength to quit. The last thing he needed was his dirty thoughts to drag him back into complacency.
“I’m only giving you what you want,” Silver said, and if Nuri wasn’t mistaken, his head lowered an inch closer to his.
“What?”
“I’ve never taken care of you?” He clucked his tongue. “That sounded like a challenge, Narek.”
“It wasn’t.” It’d been an insult, one of the very few Nuri had dared lob the other man’s way. Maybe that was why Silver was struggling with recognizing it for what it was. “And it’s too late.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
Silver’s fingers took Nuri by the chin and tipped his head bringing their lips dangerously close to one another. He didn’t close that short distance, however, instead trailing the tips of his fingers slowly down the length of Nuri’s neck, then across his chest.
As his hand skated over the thin material of the pajama shirt Nuri was in, Nuri felt himself shiver. He should attempt to shove Silver away, or at the very least, push his arm and stop this, but his thoughts fractured and he couldn’t seem to get a strong enough grasp on anything. Couldn’t seem to put any of those concepts into actual motion anddosomething to stop whatever this was.
And then Silver’s hand was suddenly between his legs, cupping him in his palm and everything inside of Nuri seemed to come alive and explode all at the same time.
His hips lifted into that touch even as he clawed at the sheets and tried to crawl backward and away. He grabbed onto Silver’s wrists—one hand still on his shoulder, the other—
Nuri gasped when Silver pressed the heel of his hand against the root of his dick through his pants.
“Doesn’t seem too late to me,” Silver said, and before Nuri could reply, he lightly squeezed. “You’ve been aroused to some degree since the second I threw you over my shoulder, did you know that?”
No. No, he hadn’t. Nuri turned his head away, but when that received another squeeze, this time a little harder, he quickly turned back.
“I didn’t even need to have to expose you to my Swift form. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure you felt sexual desire until this afternoon,” Silver continued once he had his full attention again. “You were always so stiff—and I don’t mean in this fun way.”
Embarrassment cut through the mixture of confusion and bewilderment he was currently feeling and Nuri ground his teeth. He didn’t want to talk about that afternoon. “I’m no virgin.”
Silver stilled.
They’d never discussed their sex lives with one another. The only reason Nuri was so aware of Silver’s was because he’d been forced to vacate their shared room in high school and college whenever the other man had brought someone there, and then later as his secretary, it’d been his job to clean up after the messy one-night stands. Since the Emperor had always been so caught up in his own life, it was no wonder he’d never paid enough attention to note when Nuri had involved himself with others. Though, it helped that those times had been few and far between.
“Who?” It was a single word, but the hostility in it was clear.
“You wouldn’t remember them even if I told you,” Nuri said.
“Tell me who.”
“Why are you so upset?” At least this conversation was leading away from his hard-on. With any luck, Nuri would be able to kill it and they could both pretend like this odd encounter never happened. “It’s not like it affected you or my job at all. If it had, you would have known about it sooner.”
“Nuri.”
“I don’t have to tell you about things like that,” he stated, holding his ground in what was probably the worst time in his entire life to finally discover his backbone. Even knowing that didn’t stop him. “This is sexual harassment in the workplace—”
“We aren’t at work,” Silver disagreed, “we’re home. In my bed.”
“Fine.” He didn’t need or want that particular reminder and struggled to hold onto his exasperation. “This is sexual harassment in general then.”
