“It’s my own fault really,” he mumbled to himself as he shifted over Nuri’s smaller form, altering the angle slightly so he could rub against a different spot. He shouldn’t have assumed Nuri would remain the same forever, shouldn’t have put off making a move out of fear or any other such nonsense.
What did he have to fear really? He was the Emperor.
“We’re going to fuck again,” he said then, the matter well and truly decided, “and then you’re going to sleep and heal. Tomorrow we’ll deal with the rest.”
Nuri sputtered, momentarily unable to find his voice before finally blurting, “Absolutely not.”
“Give me three good reasons,” Silver countered, continuing with those rolling motions, teasing them both into a heated frenzy. But that’s what he wanted. He needed Nuri so turned on and lost to lust that he forgot all those pesky reasons he believed he didn’t want this.
“I—” He swallowed, clearly trying to hold back a moan, “I don’t have to do that. No is a full sentence.”
“Reasoning rejected.”
“You can’t—”
“Who will side with you, Nuri?” Silver switched tactics. Was it low of him to play the ruler card? Sure. Did he care? Not really. As long as he got what he wanted in the end, there were worse things he was capable of doing. This he’d do without even batting an eyelash, even against Nuri.
Maybe especially against him, considering why they were here.
“You pushed me, Narek. You shouldn’t have done that.” He pressed the pad of his thumb between Nuri’s brow, smoothing the frown there. “Think things through. If you do go to the authorities, what will you say? Everyone already thinks we’re fucking anyway.”
“They do not!”
He shrugged. Whether he was aware of the rumors wasn’t important. “They’ll assume you’re merely another jilted lover trying to get revenge after being tossed aside. You’ll only end up ruining your own reputation, not mine.”
“The board won’t keep you on as CEO if there’s a major scandal,” Nuri shot back, but that only caused Silver to laugh.
“And you think you warrant a major scandal?” He clucked his tongue. “You find yourself highly important, don’t you. That’s surprising. I’m learning all sorts of things about you I didn’t know otherwise. It’s…enlightening.”
“If I’m not important,” Nuri practically growled, that temper of his sparking to life again, “why go through all of this trouble to keep me?”
“Because you’re mine?” he suggested without skipping a beat. “Because I’m curious what it’ll be like to come inside this lithe little body of yours—when you’re aware you’re not dreaming—and I’m unwilling to pass up the opportunity simply because you’re too bull-headed to admit you want to know what that’ll be like too?”
“I—”
“You,” he cut him off and finally lowered his mouth, just barely ghosting his lips over Nuri’s, “want to know what it’ll feel like to have me,” he repeated the kiss, this time lingering a second or two longer, “deep,” and again, the tip of his tongue pressing suggestively against the closed seam of his mouth before retreating, “within you.”
Silver moved to whisper his next comment against Nuri’s ear. “I saw the expression you made when you watched that video last week, Narek. I admit, I played it for that very reason. I wanted to see how you would react.”
“How…” It was obvious he was struggling with himself, but his Nuri was many things, and coward had never been one of them. “How did I react?”
Silver grinned, pleased the other man had fallen so easily into his trap, and then met his gaze once more. “Enviously.”
He hadn’t been certain until Nuri had come onto him, concerned he was imagining what he wanted to see. But there was a hope now that it’d been real, that Nuri wanted him physically, and if he could just play that angle, unravel him until he was reduced to putty in Silver’s hands…
“That’s not true.” Nuri shook his head, still in denial.
“Since you’ve seen the video, you should already know I like it when they fight. Is that how you want to play this?” Silver wouldn’t mind bending him in half the same way he’d done with Ackor.
It’d been Nuri he’d been thinking of that night anyway.
“I don’t want to play at all,” Nuri told him.
“That’s not—” A commotion out in the hallway caught Silver’s attention, but he barely had enough time to stop talking and tilt his head in the direction of the door before it burst open.
He’d been an idiot and hadn’t thought of locking it, overly certain Falc wouldn’t overstep and enter unannounced.
Sure enough, it wasn’t the butler who entered.
