“I see,” Nikoly remarked when it was clear that was all Tiiran could manage. “Or Orin? Ah. So youdoneed him to spank reason into you.”
“Stop saying that,” Tiiran croaked.
“Or what?” Nikoly challenged. “I am yours to punish, Tiiran, but only if you allow that I am yours at all.” He frowned briefly, then gave one sharp nod. “Bless the fae, but they did not do right by you, did they?”
“Finally, someone else gets it,” Tiiran grumbled, because he had said as much for years.
“Until now,” Nikoly added, ending Tiiran’s moment of gratitude. “They brought us to you.Oh,” he said again, “it’s intimidating, knowing they have something in mind for you, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Tiiran informed him—and them—loftily.
Nikoly stopped worrying over the useless fucking fae and focused all of his suddenly radiant attention on Tiiran.
“Tiiran,” the way he said Tiiran’s name made Tiiran shiver, “you’re afraid. If you need Orin to make you realize it, that’s fine. Don’t worry about it for now. Only know that I don’t want to leave you tonight, and if I had my way, I would be with you all night, even if just to sleep and ensure that you actually use your blankets.” He paused, then visibly increased his glow, intentionally dazzling Tiiran with his happiness. “Will you miss me?”
“Yes!” Tiiran would squirm all through the night with how loud and eager his answer was. But it made Nikoly happy and that was all Tiiran seemed to currently care about.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Nikoly wondered next.
Tiiran nodded. His hand fell down to Nikoly’s chest, his robe fine and nearly as soft as Mattin’s. “I can still kiss you when I see you? I mean, not in front of everyone but….”
Nikoly’s grin curled his toes. He bent down in invitation and Tiiran reached up to pull him in the rest of the way, only to stop when Nikoly paused. “So many will watch me tonight,” Nikoly whispered, taunting against Tiiran’s mouth. “Will you kiss me to bruise me? Leave my lips tender as if I’ve pleasured you and you were rough with me? So they will see and know Tiiran waits for me? So thatIwill know? Please?”
“The fuck,” Tiiran breathed it, dizzy and suddenly hard as Nikoly must have known he would be. “Is that what you want?” No, Tiiran shouldn’t ask that now lest he spill and embarrass himself further. He struggled to be furious. “I’ve been trying not to be terrible,” he complained instead, keeping Nikoly close, twisting his hands into Nikoly’s robe. “To be gentle and good!”
Nikoly made a noise of surprise and then hummed again. “I told you I liked storms,” he reminded Tiiran, then kissed Tiiran so lightly it was almost a dare for Tiiran to push up and kiss him back harder. “Do you not want to be gentle with me?”
“Sometimes.” It was not nearly enough to explain Tiiran’s urge to see tears in Nikoly’s eyes but maybe his rasping voice explained it for him. “Sometimes I do.” Softly kissing Nikoly was wonderful. Tiiran enjoyed it very much. But…. “Sometimes I want to make you cry. Orseeyou cry, although I am not sure if it’s from wanting or from hurting. Your markings….” Tiiran wanted to claw over them. “I imagine you bleeding from them and crying, or trying not to cry, and you’re soprettythat way.”
Nikoly whined, the dissatisfied sound Tiiran already disliked to hear, pulled Tiiran’s hand back to his throat and held it there. “Then do not be gentle,” he panted. “Think of others desiring me and do as you will to me.”
Tiiran rose up onto his toes and kissed him with a snarling hunger that would done a bear proud.
Chapter Fourteen
Tiiran didn’t hum on his way back to the library from the kitchens, but he must have been making some sort of noise, since more than one guard turned to watch him as he passed. Music was mostly noise as far as Tiiran was concerned, his attention wandering during longer ballads. Nikoly was the one to hum, usually with pleasure, and if Tiiran concentrated, it was as if he could feel Nikoly’s pleasure against his lips.
If Tiirandidhum a little as he walked, it was only because he felt almost as he did after a visit from Orin. Which was a thought to dampen his mood, because he still didn’t know if Orin was angry with him. Tiiran had volunteered to return the assistants’ collection of dishes and trays because he had thought Orin might like to learn that Tiiran had left the library in the middle of the day, and to hear that the sun was shining and many of the flowers at the edges of the gardens were starting to bloom in earnest.
And maybe he had also volunteered because some overly friendly sworn guard had been sent to the Great Library on an errand and had been all over Nikoly, and Tiiran’s guts had twisted and his face had stung with heat. He’d probably been very obvious, although it was difficult to feel ashamed when Nikoly had turned in the middle of the pest’s flirting to look for Tiiran and then smiled to find him.
Nikoly’s lips were no longer kiss-swollen today, not noticeably so, but Tiiran doubted it would have put off the sworn guard any if they had been. Marching over to Nikoly and kissing him in front of the guard might have, but Tiiran couldn’t quite bring himself to do that. And, whatever Nikoly teased in the dark, Tiiran doubted he’d like Tiiran telling him what to do in front of everyone.
He might have wanted Tiiran to lay into the guard, now that Tiiran thought about it, but that didn’t seem like something reasonable people should do, even as part of a game. The guard was not in the game too, after all. Nor would he ever be, the impertinent jackanapes.
But Nikoly might have wantedsomething, Tiiran reflected, growing slightly nervous. That he was nervous at all seemed to support Nikoly’s assertion that Tiiran was afraid more than jealous, but Tiiran wasn’t thinking about that now. It was mostly guessing and Tiiran didn’t like guessing.
Anyway, Nikoly had said what he wanted.
Tiiran stopped dead in the middle of an open-air corridor to clench and unclench his fists.
“Oh dear, kitten. What has upset you now?”
Tiiran turned at the familiar voice and was in motion before that nickname being spoken in public had time to make him blush. He threw himself against Orin hard enough to make Orin take a surprised step back.
“Orin.” Tiiran sounded like Nikoly now, helplessly repeating a name. “Orin.”
A large hand settled between his shoulder blades. “An unexpected welcome,” Orin commented in a quiet rumble. He shifted, moving his travel pack, then splayed his other hand over the side of Tiiran’s neck, fingers under his jaw to tip Tiiran’s face up toward him.
