“Tiiran.”
“Anyone in the library would love to be where I am right now.” Tiiran continued to give Orin details he needed to hear. “But it’s me here. Me you chose.” His voice rose on a hint of a question there against his will but he pressed on when Orin waited for him to finish. “I don’t want you to think I’m asking for too much.” Orin made a sound Tiiran ignored. “But in my imaginings of what it might be like to be under you—” Orin made the sound again “—I was too excited to stop and consider kissing. I like the other things, of course.”
“Of course,” Orin agreed, possibly amused now.
Tiiran pet him rather than glare. “But I could have…wecould have kisses too?”
“We could.” Orin pressed Tiiran to the bed to take his mouth in a series of slow, deep kisses that continued until Tiiran tried to get his legs up and around Orin to enhance the heavy grind of their bodies. But Orin seemed to take that as a sign that he should stop to watch Tiiran wriggle and whine and struggle to focus.
“More of this?” he inquired, polite as a house servant with an important guest. “Or return to the previous game? I am content with either, kitten.”
Tiiran stared at him until his thoughts cleared somewhat. “You know perfectly well what I want.”
“Maybe I want you say it, little beast.”
Tiiran was not a little beast. But hefeltlike one, hungry and mean without kisses or firm hands on his bottom. The snarl was on his lips but he caught it and bit down to hold it in.
“May I please roll over again, Orin?” he asked with all of that in his tone anyway.
Orin didn’t budge, although he did rumble. “Why?”
Tiiran squeezed his eyes shut. “Because I liked it before.”
“You might like it this way too,” Orin pointed out, almost calm, but then Tiiran was on his knees again, his shocked breath turning into a shuddery moan against the bedding as Orin pushed his shoulders down and arranged his legs to better display him. “And you call Nikoly shameless.” Orin might have clucked his tongue to tease him but Tiiran could not have cared less. Orin got him so hot everywhere, even his thoughts were warm and bright.
“Yes, Orin,” Tiiran agreed, not much caring what he was agreeing to. “But….” A pinch stopped him, made him wheeze and then turn his face to a new spot on the bedding to try to cool it. “Thank you,” he mumbled. “‘S good. I’ll take all of it.”
“Kitten, you….” Whatever else Orin might have said was buried under a rumbly growl and then Orin storming away to find his pack and rummage around. Tiiran shivered until Orin’s hands were on him again. “All that I have, and you won’t need to tell him so when you see him. He’ll know.”
Tiiran started to ask how Nikoly would know, but then he heard Orin open a jar or vial of some kind, and forgot the question altogether.
When Tiiran limped into the library long past the time he would usually have arrived, most of the assistants were at the copying tables but Tiiran’s gaze went right to Nikoly at the desk. Nikoly swept a look over him, smiling in welcome then frowning in worry before the smile returned, slow and knowing. Tiiran would have blushed if he hadn’t already been red as a beet from the walk over.
Tiiran raised his head as he went directly to Nikoly at the desk, his face so hot his hair should have caught fire when he noticed the cushion Nikoly had put on the stool for him. Then he saw the small, neat pile of letters and requests, and the carefully arranged inkpot and writing utensils, and looked up to his waiting Lyli.
Nikoly dazzled in the morning sun, as usual, although he did look slightly tired, and his clothes were the ones he had worn the day before. He hadn’t shaved, something Tiiran sighed enviously over when he put a hand to Nikoly’s stubbled jaw. The gawking and single sly whistle from the copying tables were nothing until Tiiran had seen to his most important task.
“You did well,” he told Nikoly earnestly. “Thank you. I’d kiss you but they are going to tease us as it is.”
Nikoly’s eyes dipped closed, his pleasure obvious for the few moments he allowed himself before he cleared his throat and looked away. “That would stop you?”
None of the others could have heard him.
“You don’t like to be embarrassed, you said.” Tiiran should probably stop touching him in that case. “Know that I’ve seen all of them with love bites or moving gingerly after an encounter, and yet I gave them grace and left them alone. Also know that if anyone says anything that bothers you, I will savage them.”
Nikoly looked back, his lips twitching. “You won’t, because you love them. But,” his eyes briefly closed again, which wasn’t fair, especially when he gave Tiiran thatpleaselook a moment later, “my honeybee, know that if anyone bothers you, I will likewise deal with them. Now,” he carried on while Tiiran stared and tried to imagine Nikoly being rude to anyone, “would you like to sit or stand today? I thought the cushion might help but that was before your activities this morning.” He bent down, putting his lips near Tiiran’s ear. “You’re glowing.”
Tiiran sputtered, then coughed, then turned to look over the library. Po wasn’t even pretending she wasn’t watching him. When their eyes met, she waggled her eyebrows. Tiiran had no idea how she did that. He turned to the pile of letters for relief, although there weren’t as many as he would have expected, especially with him gone for half a day.
Nikoly said, “Amie has been sniffling since she got here so she might not stay the day.”
Tiiran nodded and reshuffled the pile accordingly, then, below the top of the desk although no one was nearby to see anyway, he reached for Nikoly’s hand. “Thank you.”
Nikoly made an inarticulate noise before his training took hold of him again and he nodded. His hand stayed in Tiiran’s until both of them had work to attend to.
Chapter Eighteen
By early afternoon, Po had managed to pull Tiiran aside, but instead of digging for information or teasing him, had said, “You should do something with your hair. You look one step out of bed. Ask Mattin to braid it.”
