Nuri blew out a breath and rested his forehead against the edge of the shower stall doorway. They’d been about to do it again, hadn’t they? He’d been this close to getting to sleep with Silver a second time. He should feel disappointed in himself for giving in so easily, and yet…
He washed off the remaining suds from the body wash and then stepped out, drying off carefully as he struggled to stand on his injured ankle. Since he’d agreed to put off his resignation, there was a lot of work Nuri needed to catch up on, despite the fact he’d only missed a day. There was also the matter of figuring out a loophole and either getting out of this deal or finding a way to beat the Emperor at his own game. The latter didn’t seem very likely, not when Nuri’s dick threatened to harden at the mere thought of Silver touching him again.
Cursing himself internally, he wrapped the terracotta towel around his waist and half shuffled to the door, opening it only to jolt a little when he saw Falc was still on the other side.
“Forgive me, Master Narek,” Falc bowed his head, “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Not at all, Falc. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I’ve brought you a new multi-slate and your N.I.M. The Emperor wanted me to let you know he was able to recover all of the data for both, so there’s no need to reprogram anything.”
“Thank you.” Nuri moved toward the bed when Falc motioned that’s where he’d placed the items.
“Your brother is waiting for you in the dining room. You’ve been given leave to join him without the Emperor.”
“Thank you. I’ll be there shortly.” Nuri smiled and then nodded when Falc took his leave, then he perched on the bed and picked up the two velvet boxes that had been left for him. One was blank and in the shape of a square, the other had swirly golden font imprinted on the cover and was rectangular.
He frowned, recognizing the brand name, and opened that one first, blinking when he uncovered a golden multi-slate. The model was rare, one of only fifty made to celebrate the company’s twentieth year in business and was worth the price of a small building. Nuri knew because he’d been in charge of procuring one for Silver.
Matching multi-slates? What was that supposed to mean? Was it a bribe?
By now, the Emperor should know him well enough to understand bribes didn’t work on Nuri. But if it wasn’t meant as one…then what?
Realizing it was a waste of his energy to try and puzzle out Silver’s hidden meaning—if there even was one, and with the Emperor one could never be sure—he switched the power button on and then set the device aside, popping open the second box as he waited for the multi-slate to launch.
Nuri smiled fondly when he eyed the N.I.M. orb nestled securely in black velvet.
He ran the pad of his thumb lovingly across the smooth glass surface and rolled it in his palm, only setting it aside oncethe multi-slate pinged so that he could quickly turn the N.I.M. on and pair them.
Within seconds of typing in his password, a slew of missed messages, calls, and electronic communications came flooding in, the seemingly never-ending dings causing a spark of pain to flutter to life at his left temple. Though he’d left Marta in charge, it appeared as though many hadn’t gotten the message and had still tried to contact him first.
Or, perhaps Silver had reached out to everyone telling them Nuri’s vacation had been canceled and to disregard his previous instructions to get in touch with his replacement.
At the thought, he let out a frustrated growl, sending a glare toward the closed bedroom door. Which was when he noticed there was a set of clothes hanging there.
He hadn’t even considered what he’d be wearing after the shower. Walking around in his pajamas certainly wasn’t an option. Noting the plain black suit was one of his, no doubt collected from his room, Nuri decided to get dressed and head down to breakfast and deal with Nate before diving into the absurd pile of messages.
Chapter 12:
Nate’s plate was half empty when Nuri arrived. Before he could be concerned it was because his brother wasn’t eating due to worry, he noticed half the side dishes set out had been picked clean.
“It’s about time.” Nate slapped his fork down onto the table and stood, reaching for Nuri as he approached to take his usual seat. Someone had sat Nate down in the spot directly next to it on the left. “Are you all right? Really?”
“Yes.” Nuri eased his brother back down. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you, obviously. When the Emperor called to tell us you’d been in an accident Neve was already halfway to the airport before I could convince her to let me go alone.”
Nuri frowned. “Silver called you?”
“He explained that’s why you didn’t make it that day.” Nate inspected the bandage on Nuri’s ankle and grimaced. “It’s really not that bad, right? He said it wasn’t anything serious but that you’d been knocked out pretty good. And then last night—”
“You could have gotten yourself killed.” Now that he’d brought it up, Nuri’s anger over the whole ordeal returned full force. His coffee had already been poured and so far the two of them had been left alone, the door to the kitchen open but none of the servants in sight. No doubt word of what happened had already started to trickle throughout the mansion, but the last thing either of them needed was to add more fuel to that particular fire.
Especially after the Emperor had made him announce to Falc and the guards that the two of them had slept together.
“I thought—” Nate began, only to be cut off.
“It doesn’t matter what you believed was going on,” Nuri stated. “What matters is he’s the Emperor and you put us both at risk by acting impulsively. If he’d decided to throw you into prison there would be nothing I could do for you.”
