Chapter 32
The bar at Club Spade was packed, and more than once, Nuri had to turn someone away when they tried to sit down next to him. He’d gotten a table off the side, in a spot clear enough to spot from the entrance, and that seemed to be backfiring by drawing a ton of unwanted attention.
He’d arrived early, unable to sit in the manor waiting, and was dressed in one of the expensive silk suits Silver had purchased for him for some off-world event he could no longer recall the details of.
It was a dark shade of blue, so dark it was almost black, and he’d left the jacket hanging in the closet, not wanting to overdo it.
There was dress code at the club, and on top of that, Nuri wanted to play the part he’d assigned himself. No one trying to lure a bedpartner would come dressed in any way other than to impress.
A single woman stood on a circular stage in the center of the room, an instrument tucked between her shoulder and chin.
In appearance, it closely resembled a violin, though there were six strings, four in silver with one in gold on either side.
The sound emanating off it switched from light and airy notes to deep and low, picking up with every passing moment.
Sound was only part of the pleasure one got from that type of instrument, though, and Nuri found himself awestruck, with his lips slightly parted as he watched swirls of color flick and twirl straight from the instrument.
The colors were bright, almost neon, practically glowing in the otherwise dim lighting of the place.
They popped like fireworks and flowed like glow sticks dancing through the air, a mixture of vibrant yellows and cool blues.
Now and again, the woman would hit a specific note and a burst of violet would join in, but it didn’t happen often.
It was string music, the notes slow and sad, the complete opposite of what Nuri expected from a sex club.
It called to the melancholy in him. The loneliness.
Perhaps it’d been designed that way to work in the club’s favor.
To urge people to turn to one another and seek solace in a strangers embrace.
“That’s December,” Silver’s voice was low when he appeared from the crowd, as if summoned by Nuri’s thoughts.
“I know who she is.” He didn’t offer the Emperor a seat, sipping from the glass of bourbon he’d ordered simply to keep his hands busy. “She’s one of the most famous musicians in the galaxy.”
December Trace was one of a mere thousand known players of the bieska, an instrument that required more than just practice to learn. Because of their rarity, bieska players were well sought after and could rake in a large sum of coin for a single three-minute-long performance.
“Imagine how much more popular she’d be if she could master more than three colors.” Silver stood close to Nuri’s side so he could be heard over the music, but he was careful not to touch him, and when a waiter came over to ask if he wanted anything, he shook his head.
“Her son is said to be a prodigy,” Nuri recalled. “He’s already mastered the three primary and secondary colors.”
Silver cocked his head, eyes narrowing slightly.
Nuri pretended not to notice, still carefully keeping his eyes on the stage and not directly at the Emperor.
“You sound too interested, Narek. I wasn’t aware you even liked bieska music.”
“There isn’t a person alive in the universe that isn’t affected by bieska music,” he replied.
“And this son of hers? You seem to know an awful lot about him.”
“Everyone knows about his accomplishments. December talks about it in interviews all the time. He also happens to attend Vail University.”
“Where your siblings went.”
He hummed in the affirmative. “Neve has gone to a couple of his recitals. She even sent me a video clip once. It was beautiful.”
“It,” Silver’s voice tightened, “or he?”
Was it wrong of Nuri to be purposefully making him jealous like this?
“He’s a college student,” he reminded, but Silver didn’t seem convinced.
“You aren’t much older, Narek.” The Emperor hit his limit. “What are we doing here? You said you wanted me to pick up? Why? Do you want me to drive you to the shuttleport and watch you board a ship to Vitality? Need to rub it in one more time to soothe the anger?”
“And if I do?” Nuri set his glass down with a click and finally swiveled in his chair to face him. He was sure to keep his expression stoney, not wanting to give anything away.
“I wouldn’t blame you,” Silver said. “I’ll take you. Do you want to finish your drink first, or shall we go?”
“We aren’t going.” He picked his glass back up and downed the contents though. “That’s not what I meant when I told you I wanted you to pick me up at the bar.”
Silver frowned. “You’re going to have to elaborate I’m afraid.”
“Are you?” It was obvious what Nuri really meant, and Silver didn’t even try to pretend otherwise.
“Yes.”
“Of losing me?”
“Narek.”
“It sucks being the only one who doesn’t understand what’s really going on, doesn’t it?” He was being petty, but Nuri had earned a bit of pettiness.
The Emperor gazed at him quietly for a moment, then confessed, “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“After tonight, you might not.” A lie. Tonight wasn’t about breaking them, it was about fixing them.
It was about teaching Silver the only way Silver could be taught.
He needed to go through the same hopelessness, the same dread, that Nuri had felt. He had to know what it was like to have choice stripped away from him. To be uncertain of the outcome. Through no fault of his own, Silver wasn’t capable of experiencing remorse or guilt.
But he could feel regret.
He could learn certain behaviors led to outcomes he didn’t like.
This was the job Nuri had been tasked to do when Sij Rein had selected him.
All these years, they’d thought Silver was the one in charge, but they’d been wrong. Nuri had the real power here. He’d been training him how to regulate his emotions. How to function in society.
His one mistake had been allowing his own feelings to cloud his judgment. He’d been blinded to how the Emperor perceived him, or how that perception would affect them in the long run.
Nuri had been too scared to even consider a more permanent place at Silver’s side, first because Sij Rein, then because his siblings.
But he could see it all clearly now that the fog had lifted.
Fearing other people’s approval had been an excuse.
Something he could hide behind so he never had to acknowledge the truth to himself.
How had Silver felt that day, when he’d confessed his love and Nuri had all but spat in his face?
“I’m curious about something,” Nuri was ready to move this along, before he gave in and tossed caution to the wind. This was too delicate for that, however. Neither of them could risk mistakes. Everything was on the line. “How do you choose?”
Silver was struggling to understand, but Nuri was careful not to give anything away. “Honestly?”
“I’ll warn you now,” his gaze hardened, “if I so much as suspect you’re being dishonest with me, at any point, I will leave and you really will never see me again. Understood?”
“There,” Silver pointed across the room toward a man standing by the other, smaller bar, “and over there,” then to another man in the opposite corner of the room. “I would go for one of them.”
They were both of similar stature, shorter than the Emperor with slightly smaller frames.
“You have a type.” Nuri couldn’t help but compare them to Ackor Hue.
Silver hummed. “I pick whoever looks the closest.”
“Closest to what?”
“To you, Narek.”
He blinked, certain he’d misheard him over the music, but when Silver remained silent, he realized he hadn’t.
The similarities also became blatantly obvious.
Their faces were all different, but their builds resembled Nuri’s from afar.
“I want to know how it works,” he said, voice barely a whisper. “How you do it.”
“You want me to pick you up like you’re another one of my one-night stands?” Silver finally caught on, his surprise palpable. “Why?”
“That doesn’t matter,” he lied again. “Are you playing with me or not, majesty? There are plenty of other people here that would willingly climb into bed with me.”
Heat flashed in his silver eyes, darkening the gray. “How far do you want to take this?”
“All the way,” Nuri said. “Tonight, we’re strangers meeting for the first time.
We can skip the boring small talk—the pretend doesn’t have to be that developed—so let’s just say you’ve already chatted me up and I’ve been receptive.
How long do you usually stay down here after that before taking them upstairs?
” He slipped the keycard out of his pocket and slid it across the table.
“I already took the liberty of booking your usual room.”
Silver stared at the card like he couldn’t comprehend what it was. “You want me…to take you upstairs and fuck you like some slut I picked up from the streets?”
He clicked his tongue. “Is that how you view those guys you just pointed out?”
“They’re nothing to me,” he confirmed. “A means to an end.”
“Well, tonight I’m the means to your end.” Nuri tapped the top of the card. “Pick it up. It wouldn’t make sense for me to have the key to the V.I.P suite. Wouldn’t feel authentic.”
“You really want to do this?”
“I do.” Nuri stood, bringing his body dangerously close to Silver’s.
“But let me be clear, this is a game, and we’re meant to play strangers, but when you’re fucking me in that room upstairs, on the bed you’ve taken numerous other people on, I won’t settle for you envisioning someone else in your head.
When you’re with me, you’re with me, majesty.
If you treat me the way you treated Ackor Hue—”
“That won’t be a problem,” Silver replied quickly.
“All right. What usually happens next?”
Silver tentatively reached out, settling a hand on Nuri’s nape, then he urged Nuri forward until their faces were a breath apart.
Before continuing, he paused and stared at him for a second, almost as if giving him the opportunity to pull away, and when it became apparent Nuri wasn’t going to, finally closed the distance between them with his mouth.
The kiss sent shock waves straight down to Nuri’s toes, the act slow yet all-consuming.
It was as if Silver was taking his time with him, sampling the softness of his lips and the taste of his tongue as he slowly sucked it into his mouth.
His free hand grasped Nuri’s jaw, tipping his head to the side for a different angle.
All those other times had been fire and frenzy. Silver had fucked him to make a point, and while Nuri had secretly—and not so secretly—enjoyed it, he’d known exactly what it was and what point Silver had been trying to make.
But now…
He placed a hand on the Emperor’s chest and lightly pushed him away, a bit surprised when Silver allowed him to do so. “Do you kiss everyone you’ve just met this way?”
“What way?” Silver asked, voice low and breathy. He traced Nuri’s jaw to his ear and then pinched at his lobe, not enough to hurt but enough to have more of those electrical sparks skittering down Nuri’s spine.
Nuri searched his brain for the right word, struggling with all the sensations going off inside him at the same time. Eventually, he settled on one he thought worked. “Tenderly.”
Silver gave him a satisfied half smile. “No one has ever accused me of that before. You should know me well enough to know I’m only ever tender toward you.”
“Don’t do that.” He leaned away, brushing Silver’s hands off of him. “We’re strangers, remember?”
For a long stretch of time, Silver simply stared back at him, his expression unreadable in the wake of Nuri’s comment. Finally, after what felt like a million years, he plucked the keycard off the table. “Come.”
Nuri followed after him as the Emperor led them around the room to a hallway. The hall brought them to a set of elevators, and they stepped into the first one that arrived.
Silver scanned the card and pressed the button for the V.I.P floor. They were both quiet on the ride up.