Tiiran tried to peer around Orin to see any guards and Orin thumped him gently—but not too gently—into the wall again. “No. Head down, I said. You trust us with your body and your pleasure, but not this?”
“I whispered it,” Tiiran insisted. “Surely everyone in the palace knows what I said already, or will realize it soon. Anyway, the truth is only dangerous to the weak.”
“And the weak can still be dangerous,” Orin returned, and then confused Tiiran by pressing a slow kiss to his forehead, then lingering there to whisper, “Not everyone is as strong as you. I’m supposed to just leave you here andnothave worry eat me alive?”
A knot filled Tiiran’s chest. He tried to breathe in but the air stuck in his throat with a pained gasp.
“I’m sorry,” he hiccupped, not crying, although it felt as if he was. “I’m too much to be around, I know. It’s all right. You can leave and not worry about me. I’d understand. I would.” It wouldn’t even be new, except for the warmth he’d felt earlier between them, or the warmth in their—inhisbed. “Youshouldprobably go. I’m sorry.”
If his voice hadn’t grown so small, if it hadn’t cracked in the middle of his words, he might have offered a better apology. But he got no chance to try. Orin hauled Tiiran against him until Tiiran had to hold on or fall, and then kissed him, stealing Tiiran’s breath and his senses. When Tiiran thought Orin might spare him, Orin kissed him again, mean and hard and furious.
Tiiran’s mouth felt bruised by the time Orin dropped him to his feet. Then Orin’s hands were on his face once more and Orin followed the harsh kiss with another. Tiiran whined, burning with embarrassment and confusion to be taking hard kisses in a corridor for anyone to see and lifted like a poppet, his cock throbbing and his mouth raw.
Orin squeezed him, hands unrelenting on Tiiran’s backside before coming up to his shoulders to hold him still.
Tiiran fought to get his eyes open. “Punishment?” he asked, stinging and flushed, unsure if he liked it or not.
“Kitten.” Orin’s voice was hoarse. “Unless you come with me now, I can’t protect you. You’ll have to listen to Nikoly. He has chosen this danger, and you will not insult him by denying that, or implying that he should leave you. Not again.”
“Orin,” Nikoly protested softly, but Tiiran swallowed before turning to look at Nikoly, shining and anxious next to them.
“I’m sorry, Lyli.” Tiiran swallowed again, tongue out to test his bruised lips. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”
Nikoly slipped in closer to them, pressing a kiss to Tiiran’s cheek, then the side of his mouth. “I will prove myself to you in time. But first, I must keep you safe and well. And I will do so. With my life,” he added with a look up to Orin.
Orin took a hand from Tiiran to cup Nikoly’s chin, his thumb sweeping slowly over his jaw. “Good boy.”
Nikoly shivered and breathed harder, his lips slightly parted.
“I only need to meet someone,” Orin assured him, petting Nikoly until his shivers stopped. “I can return quickly, but more likely, I’ll wait and then follow you. He will fight you. He will argue. I… maybe I should take him with me. I don’t want him to wound you when his fear becomes temper, which it will.”
Tiiran opened his mouth but had no words. Nikoly was worried too, and Orin had calmed him as he had not calmed Tiiran. Orinshouldcalm Nikoly; Nikoly didn’t deserve Tiiran’s foolishness. But maybe they were calming each other, making silent promises Tiiran would never understand. Or perhaps it was only that Orin knew better than Tiiran how to reward someone like Nikoly.
Nikoly gazed up at Orin and wouldn’t look away. “That’s why he trusts you as he does. You aren’t onlyconcernedfor those you care about; youactto protect them. But that’s why you must go now, and why you know you can’t take Tiiran with you. He’s not a fighter, not as you are.” He wrapped a graceful, flowered hand around Orin’s wrist. “He won’t make it easy for me, but I have never liked easy.”
“He’s impossible,” Orin agreed. “But I have to trust you with the challenge, pup. You’ll be good for me. I know you will.”
“For you both,” Nikoly agreed, almost demurely. “As Tiiran said.”
“I am insignificant,” Tiiran cut in, unable to raise his voice. “Certainly not worth this fuss.”
He got the full of attention of both of them, a fierce, furious beast and a roused, eager hunting dog, and it stopped whatever else he might have said.
“The king who puts banners in the library to remind people he is king does not think the library insignificant,” Orin said.
As if he and Orin knew each other’s thoughts, Nikoly finished them. “Youarethe library, Tiiran.”
“What?” It was more of a creak than a word.
Orin left him to sputter.
“Did anyone in the library hear any of that little speech?” he asked Nikoly, before adding, quickly and quietly, “Now come closer, as though we are all lovers saying goodbye.”
Theywere, Tiiran would have said, only then to become aware of the rattle of armor as the palace guards must have moved, perhaps coming closer or perhaps moving on.
Nikoly burrowed against Orin’s side, and Tiiran could not stop staring at the sight of all his colors and beauty next to Orin’s sturdy, dark Outguard garb and sheer size.Both, he thought again, his heart kicking against his too-tight chest. Both of them together. That was the only thing keeping the tangle from stopping Tiiran’s heart entirely.
“Possibly,” Nikoly answered Orin very softly, unaware of Tiiran’s pain. “There was only a scholar and the assistants. They might pass on his words, as gossip likely and not maliciously, but they might. It could get out.”