…Right?
This wouldn’t do. He needed to come up with a plan of action, a way of getting himself out of this mess. Starting with returning to his own room. Staying here wouldn’t do him any good, and besides, there was little doubt in his mind Silver would kick him out the moment he was back from wherever he was anyway. The least Nuri could do was save himself further humiliation.
His room was located down the hall and was half the size of the massive one he was currently in. Though it’d remained mostly untouched since he’d moved out and into his apartment. Nuri never enjoyed those times when he was forced to stay in that old room, even surrounded by familiar things.
He’d been allowed to decorate his personal space however he liked, and had even been given a hefty sum of money to do so by Sij. Silver had taken Nuri out shopping and the two had made a day of it. It was one of the rare fond recollections he had where nothing had gone wrong and Nuri had been able to pretend things were different between them. It’d almost been like a date even, and at the end of the day, he’d been so caught up in the thrall of it all that most of the items had been selected by Silver instead of him.
Nuri hadn’t minded then. But ever since they’d graduated the room had changed meaning for him, soured some over time. That almost perfect day he used to look back on with fondness had turned into a sick joke, a mockery of all the things a naïve teenage him had longed for but would never actually have.
Would last night eventually tarnish in the same way? Losing its luster the longer time passed, until the almost exhilarated feeling he had now over having finally experienced it was nothing more than resentment and woe for something he could never have again?
Last night was a fluke, he was sure of it, Silver’s angry and possibly desperate attempt to back Nuri into a corner afterhe’d tried to resign. How he’d known Nuri would be susceptible to that type of advance was beyond him, and frankly, he didn’t want to puzzle over it for too long for fear it’d only heighten his embarrassment.
When Silver called him his, he meant it the way one did their car or their favorite blanket. Sure, it was nice that there was an edge of serious possessiveness there, of perhaps even fondness, but it didn’t change the facts.
Nuri was a person, not an object.
What he wanted from a future partner was to be treated as such, and that was something he’d known for a very long time now, Silver Rein was simply not capable of. That was one of the major reasons Nuri had put those naïve thoughts away after high school graduation. It’d been a long time since he’d felt those old feelings rise up, and he didn’t like that they were doing so now.
It was one thing to be sexually attracted to the Emperor. Everyone was, so Nuri couldn’t be faulted for that. But to actuallylikethe guy? To truly fall for him?
Only an idiot would do that, and Nuri had always been top of his class.
“What are you thinking about so hard by yourself?” Silver’s deep voice penetrated Nuri’s thoughts, startling him. The Emperor stood just within the doorway, the door already closed at his back, hands tucked into the front pockets of the navy blue dress pants he wore.
The suit was well made, tight in all the right places to help accentuate the breadth of his shoulders and the length of his legs. He’d loosened the black checkered tie around his neck carelessly, and undone two of the top buttons on the pearlescent white dress shirt, giving him an almost disheveled look that typically would have had Nuri’s heartrate skyrocketing.
But Nuri was still too exhausted and overwhelmed by yesterday’s events, and he almost laughed at himself for it.Maybe getting into an accident was the best thing that could have happened to him, if it was what had led to this and was allowing him to finally break the cycle of secretly pining after his boss.
“Narek,” Silver prompted a bit impatiently, signaling to Nuri that he’d been silent too long.
He cleared his throat. There were so many things he wanted to say, and none of them felt appropriate to mention, so he ended up with the one topic that seemed the least taboo. “Is Nate up?”
“He’s already had breakfast,” Silver informed him. “He’s collecting his meager things and preparing to leave for the airport. I’ve ordered Falc to accompany him.”
“I’d like to go with him.”
“Not after last night.”
“I—”
“Don’t pretend you aren’t sore, pet.”
Nuri paused, suspicion rising, and though he was embarrassed, he couldn’t stop himself from voicing his new doubts. “You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Fucked you over and over enough times to ensure you’d find it difficult to walk today?” Silver easily picked up on what he was asking. “Yes. I’ll be impressed if you can make it down the hall to the study, let alone through a large airport.”
“That wasn’t necessary.”
“You enjoyed it too.”
“You promised you wouldn’t do things like this.” So much for that. Nuri should have known better than to believe him even for a second.
Silver cocked his head. “I promised to refrain from controlling you everywhere but in the bedroom. I kept that promise.”
“Bullshit. Screwing me hard enough to keep me from doing daily tasksoutside of the bedroomis still controlling meoutside of the bedroom.”
“You’re angry,” Silver sighed. “It’s fine. I knew you would be.”
