Mattin was nowhere to be found, which meant he was in a cubby reading or fast asleep. Tiiran likely could have found him, but didn’t feel like attempting all the stairs when every step already reminded him of spankings and Orin’s cock. Instead, he stood at the desk, making notes on passages in three different books someone wanted pages copied from, while Nikoly, just returned from his room to shave and finally change his clothes, combed his hair for him and arranged it in two puffy pigtails that rested on Tiiran’s shoulders.
Then, with both of them now more presentable, Nikoly had taken Tiiran’s current work from his hands and walked off, leaving Tiiran with the choice to yell at him or follow.
It was a matter of balance, he supposed. Nikoly served him, as it pleased him to do, and Tiiran did as Nikoly wanted. That didn’t quite feel logical, but neither did it feel bad, so Tiiran decided to humor the pup, as Orin would say, and was not terribly surprised when Nikoly led him to the abandoned office with the window seat. What did surprise him was the cushion on the chair at the desk already waiting for him.
He gave Nikoly a suspicious look which Nikoly ignored as he set down Tiiran’s work and arranged it just so, adding an inkpot from a drawer in the desk as if he had also put that there in anticipation of Tiiran’s needs.
Tiiran gave him another look that was also ignored, at least until he was seated and Nikoly likewise sat, but in the window seat and with no work in front of him. His feet were on the floor, since he wasn’t short like Tiiran, his hands were at his sides, his back was straight.
“Are you certain you’re not one of the trained people of the Rossick that you spoke of?” Tiiran wanted to slouch just looking at him. “The nobles and their sworn guards don’t sit nearly as straight as you—especially when you’re waiting on something.” Tiiran paused at Nikoly’s quick blink. “I didn’t mean that as insult,” he added so Nikoly wouldn’t be hurt. “It’s only that I’d like you to be comfortable.”
Nikoly stuttered over his answer, briefly glancing away. “I was wild, as I told you. I’m wild still. You might worry over my training, but please don’t. It was originally a way to help me get into less trouble, but I grew to like it. You’re frowning,” he observed. “Anyone might be educated and trained as I was. It has nothing to do with what else I do.” Nikoly flicked a look to the floor, then back up to Tiiran. “What I should say is that I was not trained by my teachers to do what I do with you outside of the library. Ichoseto apply to my lessons there to better contain my wildness. I take great pleasure in it, in fact. Please stop frowning, although your concern touches me.”
“Wild?” Tiiran didn’t understand enough of the other subject to ask about it yet. “Like I was… or am still, as Orin would no doubt imply with a look.”
“I was reckless,” Nikoly confessed as if ashamed of it, but then smiled faintly. “My nature is… to not be patient. So I was taught to appreciate patience.”
That went against everything Tiiran had seen about him, but then, Nikoly had spent years mastering patience so maybe it was truenow. “You did say like to challenge yourself.” He’d meant picking up new skills, but patience was a skill too. Tiiran tried to imagine what it would take to wait a little more each day, or to resist greater and greater temptations. He tossed his head and pulled in a breath. He was possibly starting to understand why Nikoly was the way that he was. “Do you wantmeto challenge you?” That was what confused him. “Or reward you for your patience?”
Nikoly raised his head and to give Tiiran a glittering look of pleasure through half-closed eyes. “Only if you wish to.”
Tiiran ignored his body’s response to that look. Spanked and tupped, and now it seemed pleasure was all he could think about. He was going to have to relearn patience the way Nikoly had. “You could just say yes or no,” he pointed out, perhaps sharply.
If anything, Nikoly’s gaze brightened. “If you challenged me, I would try to make you proud.”
The air rushed out of Tiiran.
“That’s not something to joke about,” he insisted. “Yet you’re smiling again.”
Nikoly wasn’t, but his lips were twitching as if he wanted to. “I suppose it isn’t,” he allowed, forcing his smile away when Tiiran glared, “but most haven’t viewed it that way, so hearing you immediately declare that surprised me.”
Tiiran’s glare became a scowl. “‘Most’ meaning your other lovers.”
“Meaning mypastlovers,” Nikoly corrected smoothly.
“You and Orin.” Tiiran nearly hissed to himself. At least the thought of Orin was useful. “Orin told me to take the matter seriously and so I will.” He looked Nikoly right in his beautiful eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you again. It was accidental the first time… well, except for when I called you pup. I intended that to sting because I thought you and Orin had done something.”
Nikoly inclined his head, some of his amusement returning. “You said you’d thought about it.”
“I’m not jealous!” Tiiran was a step away from huffing and puffing like an angry spouse. “I mean, Iwas, but not as you both keep implying. I was angry then because I wanted his attention as well as yours in a silly way. That’s all!” He didn’t mean his thoughts about Nikoly’s other lovers since those people all clearly belonged in a midden heap. Tiiran quieted. “I was worried that you would look only at him the way you look at me, because Orin is striking and wonderful as I’m not. And I hadn’t really allowed myself to believe that you did—do—look at me differently than you do the others until that moment. But youshouldlook at Orin that way. It makes sense. And you still look at me, so it’s all right.”
Nikoly opened his mouth, then stopped and closed it again. Orin had done that too.
“You’re doubting me.” Tiiran huffed and puffed as he’d expected and only allowed himself a moment of embarrassment over it. “Orin won’t see butyoushould. I never thought I’d be Orin’s only duckling, but I let myself think stupid things—we don’t need to go into them. But I’d been imagining Orin tupping me, and suddenly it was very easy to imagine Orin tupping you, and I was too surprised by that. I reacted badly.”
“And now hehastupped you,” Nikoly remarked. His smile had gone. Tiiran wasn’t sure when it had disappeared.
“Areyoujealous?” Maybe Orin hadn’t been wrong about the burn Nikoly might feel. “About what Orin and I did this morning?”
He got an eye roll. But then Nikoly held himself still. His expression wasn’t angry, and if it was sad, it wasn’t wholly sad. Tiiran finally decided it was sweet and sad together, like when Nikoly had mentioned missing his family and his home.
“No,” Nikoly answered at last. “I worry over my place with you when you speak adoringly of Orin. But then you speaking adoringly of me. And Orin approves of me staying with you. So no, I’m not jealous, and I like to see you happy. But now that I’ve seen you with Orin… I wouldn’t mind seeing more.” Nikoly managed to be delicate and tactful while speaking of fucking. “Or experiencing it, if you ever decide to try having me.”
Envy, Tiiran recognized. That was Nikoly’s expression. Then longing and lust.
Tiiran could imagine putting his cock in Nikoly, much, much easier than he had before, now. But he didn’t think he could ever do it well or as forcefully as Orin, not with all the coaching in the world.
“Do you want to ask me about what Orin and I did?” Tiiran’s voice had gone husky but he ignored it. “Po does. The others usually share some details after trysts they enjoyed.”
