Chapter 12 #2
“My sex life isn’t something you need to concern yourself with,” he said. “And for the record, I literally never want to hear about yours.”
“But I am,” Nate insisted, “concerned. I don’t want to see you get hurt. If he’s just messing around with you—”
“We’re both using each other.” Technically, it wasn’t a lie. Since they’d agreed to play a game, each of them with their own desires on the line, they were sort of using one another.
“I know how you feel about him,” Nate lowered his voice a second time, at least having the good sense to do so. “How you’ve always felt about him. Why put yourself through this if you don’t believe it’s going to go anywhere real?”
“How I feel about him?” Nuri snorted. “I admit I’ve always been attracted to him, but—”
“You’re an idiot.” Nate slumped in his chair.
“I told you,” he said, patting his brother on the head the way he used to when he’d been little, “it’s nothing serious. We were curious so we tried it out, that’s all. You don’t have to worry.”
“Prove it,” Nate returned to his regular speaking voice, cluing Nuri to the fact he was willing to drop it and not continue to push the issue.
“Since I saw you and you seem fine, I made plans with a friend. It’s been so long since I was last on planet so there are some people I want to catch up with before I leave.
That’s all right, isn’t it? If you’d prefer me to stay with you, I can. ”
“No,” the tension eased from his shoulders knowing they were past the awkward portion of their conversation, “no of course not. Go. Have fun.”
“Aren’t you curious who I’m going to be seeing?”
Nuri pretended to consider it. “You were pretty popular if I recall. What’s wrong? Are you disappointed I’m not asking for their parents' contact information? Should I also pack you a bagged lunch and some snacks? A juice box, perhaps?”
“Shut up.” Nate bumped his shoulder against Nuri’s, hard enough to jostle him. “While it’s true you have a super cool, super popular brother, you actually know the person I’m going to meet up with.”
“Oh?” He’d met a handful of Nate’s high school friends before he’d left for university, but Nuri didn’t really remember any of them.
At the time, he’d been more focused on easing into his position as secretary and adjusting to the adult world to bother with details like that.
He’d done what he needed to in order to be sure whoever Nate was with, he was safe and making decent choices, and that was about it.
“Jeban M’dy.”
He didn’t really remember any of them.
Except for that one.
Nuri sent Nate a warning look which promptly went ignored.
“Come on, he says he’d love to see you,” Nate said.
“Pass.”
“In the spirit of appeasing curiosity, shouldn’t you give it a try?” he teased. “He’s single and relatively successful in his field. He’d make a stable partner. Jeban’s had a thing for you since we were kids.”
“Which is a sentence no one should ever say when taken into account when you were kids, I was already an adult.”
“You’re five years older, not fifty. He’s seen you on TV standing next to the Emperor a time or two over the years. Says you’re still hot.”
“Charming,” Nuri drawled, not in the least bit convinced.
“He’s hot,” Nate held up his wrist, tapping at his multi-slate to bring up an image of Jeban. “See? He’s totally your type.”
Admittedly, the young man in the photo had grown since the last time Nuri had seen him.
He’d filled out, his shoulders wider than before, and he had finally trimmed facial hair instead of the clean face he’d sported when he’d been seventeen.
The picture had been taken in an office setting and he was dressed in a crisp suit, a friendly smile on his handsome face.
“He’s not hard on the eyes,” Nuri found himself saying appreciatively, but admiring a photograph was as far as he was willing to take it. He shoved Nate’s wrist away and opened his mouth to say as much, only for Falc to suddenly make an appearance.
“Master Narek,” Falc stood in the doorway and bowed his head, “your presence is required in the kitchen.”
That was…odd, but all right.
Nuri stood and motioned at the table, staring down at Nate pointedly. “Finish eating. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Just think about it!” Nate called after him as he made his way to the kitchen entrance. “There’s a shirtless pic from the gym I can show you as well if you want more convincing!”
Nuri shook his head at his brother as he stepped beneath the archway, frowning when Falc immediately shut the door behind him, sealing the kitchen off from the dining room with the butler and his brother on the other side.
He was in the process of turning toward it to see what the deal was when another familiar voice caught his attention, forcing him to turn back.
“Come in, Narek.” Silver was standing across the room behind the long marble island counter. He was buttering a piece of toast, seemingly too caught up in the motions to bother sparing Nuri a glance.
He debated whether or not an excuse about his ankle would suffice to get the other man to allow him to return to the dining room where they could discuss whatever it was he wanted to there, but since he’d made it all the way down stairs on his own…It wouldn’t be believable enough and he knew it.
With a sigh, Nuri headed toward the island, still mostly dragging his injured foot, though the pain was already a lot more tolerable today than it’d been last night.
At this rate, he wondered if six days might even be too long of a timeframe.
With how advanced medicine was on Ignite, it wouldn’t be surprising, and once he factored in the fact that everyone was well aware of Silver’s temper, it was likely that the doctor had overestimated on purpose to avoid getting reprimanded later if Nuri took longer to heal.
Silver had finished buttering two pieces of toast by the time Nuri made it to the end of the island, though he still hadn’t looked up to check to see if it’d been hard for him to get there.
“What—” Nuri’s sentence ended with a gasp when suddenly Silver dropped the bread to the plate and latched onto his wrist.
Silver yanked him toward him, settling Nuri’s front against the counter, and dropped an arm at either side, caging him in. He pressed against Nuri’s back, the warm heat from his body instantly searing him through their clothing, and then nuzzled the side of Nuri’s neck.
“Sir?”
“You’re going to want to keep it down, Narek,” Silver said. “Unless you want your brother to overhear.”