It was somewhat ticklish and Nix pulled away before he could stop himself, hissing when he was yanked back into place by that same harsh grip on his hair. At least the hand in his lap was still, no longer trying to get into his pants.
And now he was grateful for things like not being sexually assaulted in public.
What the hell was wrong with him?
What the hell was wrong with this school? He’d known about the power imbalance, of course, but this…The Demons were just allowed to do whatever they pleased, even if it meant forcing one of their fellow classmates?
“You’re clever, Nixie,” West said, as though having read his mind. “You should have picked up on the fact that if I chose to bend you over this table right now and fuck you through your protests, no one would come to your rescue. In fact, if I allowed it, I bet half of them would pull out their multi-slates and start filming even.”
Nix’s chest constricted. Tulniri might be a planet open to sex, but that didn’t mean something like that wouldn’t haunt him throughout the rest of his adult life. Getting any sort of respectable job would be seven times harder. His dream of working for a major game development company? He could kiss that goodbye as easily as Yejun had kissed him the other night.
As easily as West was laving at him with his tongue.
The real problem here was that it seemed like West was the type who really would be into that sort of thing. This wasn’t just a threat—the growing bulge in the Demon’s pants was proof of that. He was turned on by the thought of publicly overpowering him.
If a blow job wasn’t enough, he was going to have to debase himself further.
“I’ll cry for you,” Nix offered quietly. He had no real concept of what that even meant or how he’d go about it, but since West had seemed eager for his tears…Maybe that could work.
Amazingly enough, it seemed to catch the Demon’s attention the way he’d hoped. West’s hand loosened some, allowing Nix’s tender scalp a small reprieve as he considered the new proposal.
“My time and place?” West asked, as though this really were some deal.
“Not in public.”
For a moment, Nix feared West would push that issue, sinking into his chair when he was suddenly released.
West swiveled to face forward once more. “Well played, Nixie. There’s hope for you yet.”
He didn’t know what that meant.
But he sure as shit wasn’t willing to push his luck and ask for an explanation.
Nix didn’t want them to, but his thoughts turned to Branwen. There weren’t any indicators that she’d had any type of interaction with the Demons during her years in attendance here, but considering the way the rest of the student body treated them like gods, that wasn’t as comforting as it’d once been.
What if this King she had been involved with was close to them? What if she’d done something to upset that person and they’d gotten the Demons involved anyway? With his mere presence alone, West controlled the room—even the professor pretended not to have noticed the scene they’d just put on.
This wouldn’t do. Nix needed to speed the process up. He’d been too afraid of misstepping, hadn’t even risked bringing his cousin’s name up to Grady, but that had to change. If he was able to find at least one of Branwen’s old friends, maybe they’d be able to point him in the right direction.
The rest of class went without a hitch. West surprised him by keeping his word. He left Nix alone and played on his multi-slate quietly for the next half hour, not even glancing in his direction once.
It should have made it easier for him to concentrate, but Nix found himself hyperaware of the man at his side, unable to focus. Every time West shifted he tensed, but the Demon never even brushed up against him. His first week at Foxglove and Nix was discovering things about himself that he maybe could have lived without knowing. Least of which, that apparently he had fucked up preferences when it came to the bedroom.
He still drew a line at public humiliation, and no part of him wanted to be fucked in front of a live audience but…His reaction whenever one of the guys used that threat against him wasn’t…normal. His heart rate kicked up into overdrive, and he panicked, sure, but there were other sensations as well.
Nix didn’t want them to follow through, but something about their controlling nature seemed to call to him and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Bad, mostly. Guilty, definitely. He hadn’t come all this way to be used by three dicks—both literally and figuratively.
West was hotheaded and aggressive, not Branwen’s type even a little, so Nix highly doubted he was the King he was looking for. Still, he needed to confirm as much. He’d talk to Grady and see if his roommate recognized her name, if he got a lead from it, great. Either way, his first matter of business had to be clearing the Demons off his suspect list, that way he could turn his attention elsewhere.
He recalled his talk with Yejun the other day, tuning out the professor entirely now to the point he no longer bothered to fake taking notes. Out of the three of them, West was technically the one Nix should be trying to get closer to. He needed an invite into the man’s bedroom and a way to sneak onto his computer to search through the King accounts. That definitely wouldn’t happen if he pushed him away.
But Nix couldn’t exactly stop resisting either, not only because it would be highly suspicious for him to suddenly have a change of heart, but also because he really just wasn’t sure he had it in him. Was he turned on whenever one of them cornered him? Yes. Did that mean he wanted to be coerced into giving sexual favors and having intercourse whenever they wanted it? No.
Well…not really.
Mostly.
What was happening to him? Since when had he been the type of pathetic loser that caved for decent cock? His sex life prior to arriving had been lackluster at best, but also not something he’d actively ever thought about. He’d never found himself studying in the middle of the night, wishing he was screwing instead.
